We've been having grand adventures as well as misery.

A week ago Thursday I went to see The Grand Duke with some friends. It was a grand time. The only thing I didn't enjoy was not leaving enough time between dinner and the show. The first act, though enjoyable, did not get my full attention. After potty break intermission, I enjoyed myself immensely. It was so damn funny.

The boys had their first overnight at a friends' house Sunday while moriven and I went to Mayhem Festival* with Cathyn and Steingrim. This was awesome.** Hearing that Ursus Major had sweat through his clothes in the night was less than awesome. He had no further symptoms, so we proceeded with our week.

My brother-in-law's family was in town, so we finally nailed them down for a time to visit on Monday via text while we were at the concert. It was a nice mellow afternoon. Shortly after the family left, probably around 5:30, both of our boys put themselves to bed. Ursus Minor woke up every 45 minutes or so sobbing and would only be soothed by me. Poor cub. I failed to call folks to say I wasn't going to make it to sewing as expected, though, because I suck sometimes. I had the thought, but it slipped away before it became action.

Tuesday, the boys were just fine. Of course. I was feeling a touch off, but with moriven home for the week I got to sleep in a bit. We had a great dinner with my inlaws at my FiL's house. It was a great mellow evening. The kids had a great time with their cousins.

Wednesday, moriven took my truck in to have my tranny backflushed. I understand the mechanic did it twice. Heh. I just had to say that. The truck is running much smoother now.

Thursday we spent the afternoon in rachaelfleury's pool. (There was other stuff going on, too, I hear. :-) )  It was seriously awesome. The boys had never been swimming in a pool before and they LOVED it. I think I was in the pool for four hours with them, aside from a snack break. Ursus Major paddled all over the pool in his floaty. It was amazing. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed swimming, too. I was a grand time.

Friday, we took the boys for an overnight at my FiL's house. I was feeling a bit of congestion, so I didn't get as much done as I had hoped through the afternoon. We got the call at ~8:30  that Ursus Major had a 101+ fever and wanted to come home. We asked them to keep the boys up and dutifully made the drive back to Berkeley. When we got there, we found that Ursus Minor had put himself to bed. (Wow! He doesn't do that at home.) We took him home anyway so we wouldn't have to make another trip back again today.

This morning, Ursus Major is just fine. No fever, no pain. What is going on with him? I, on the other hand, have sinus pressure so bad it's making my teeth hurt. But just on the right side. I was really hoping to get lots done this weekend, but am just not feeling well enough to get to it. It's so frustrating.



* When I got my credit card bill I had a huge charge for Rockstar Energy Drink and I was pissed because I thought someone had stolen my CC info. (and bought $$$ of Rockstar? WTF?) Then I remembered that they were the concert sponsor. Word to the wise, ticket sellers: the credit statement should say concert tickets.
** Man, there were a lot of smokers in the arena, though. They looked shocked when I told them to put it out. Do they think nonsmokers  suddenly become smokers in the presence of nasty dank?

Last night, moriven hummed a couple of lines of Immigrant Song (guess what's stuck in his head), and that was all it took to mesh with - no, not replace - Christmas in Killarney in my head. Now I have BOTH stuck in my head. You'd be surprised how well it works.

"We come from the land of ice and snow
To Christms in Killarney,
With all o' the folks from home..."


The headache is better, but not gone. Thanks for the kind wishes.
&*^%^ being affected by extreme changes in barometric pressure.

( Not my brightest moment... )

I did read Emma Bull's Territory this week: Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, and a little magic. It was really well done. She does an excellent job of letting the reader feel the main character's disbelief of magic and his slow process of coming to grips with it.

I've also been reading a lot of Dashiel Hammett (Thin Man, Maltese Falcon - yes, these were books before they were movies). Mostly his Continental Op books. Hammett is the granddaddy of the hardboiled detective novel and he is good.

I've been checking my health recently. I saw Paul on Tuesday for an Egoscue evaluation and I had both a dentist and optometrist appointment today.

The Good News:
No cavities!
My contact lens prescription has improved!
There are exercises to help me!

The Bad News:
The dentist has no idea why I woke up in excruciating dental pain on Monday night.
The optometrist was right - I shouldn't try to read with my eyes dialated. The double dose of dialator juice in the right eye is exciting.
Paul says my pain/posture is just like his when he was younger. It's a good thing I'm starting excercises now, 'cuz look where that got him.

Over the weekend, I picked up this scratchy throat which I attributed to going from the smoke from the SantaCruz fire to an only nominally smoke-free hotel room. However, I had a decent fever yesterday, so I'm thinking that it is not just a smoke reaction.

Blast

I was really looking forward to going up to B&Y's tonight.

Polyps

At least I have been able to work from home. Telecommuting is the best computer innovation ever. morivenhas liked getting to drive to work, too. 

I think BART is really missing the ball right now. They had a really bad (and mostly unpublicized) fire in their contol tower on the Fremont line, which means that they've doubled the commute time right when people are feeling the pinch of gas prices. They are really losing a lot of customers right when folks are most likely to want to give them a try. That is, as they say, bad for business.

Also bad for business is the train operators' lack of customer service skills. To wit, if they are at a transfer station - Bayfair, for instance, it behooves them to stay at the platform so that customers from the other train can make the transfer to their train. Pulling away whilst people are crossing between trains is a crappy thing to do.

And, after all that, it is still cheaper for moriven to drive to work in the truck than it is to take BART.

Life has been going in all directions lately.

Sunday I had a lovely lunch with my friend Melissa. Curried chicken salad - yum. Then we picked new paint colors for her living room and bedroom. She and her hubby are willing to be bold, which is neat. She gave me a couple of new books which I am quite excited about - especially the one about the rise of universities.

Then I came home and barbecued meat for the Raven Company practice. Mmm... meat. Sophie the Neighbor Cat thorougly approved of barbecuing. As a bonus, there was enough left over food for sewing night Monday.

Monday night at sewing, I delivered seven of the nine napkins I was given last week to ppfuffor the PPF. In return, she gave me more blanks to hem. My wrist was bothering me Sunday night, but that may just be because I hand-hemmed seven napkins in two days. Or, because they don't believe in ergonomics at work. Or, becuase I have an old Aikido injury there and it's flaring up.

Also at sewing night, I also coached Martin in fixing his surcote, cut out the pieces for a new persian coat, and helped Marguerite pattern her new burgundian for the PPF. It was a good night. Oh, evil_macaroni, those cupcakes are crack.

Today has been defined by a very persistent headache, which is probably brought on by whatever has been causing twinges in my neck this past week and too much tiredness. (What's with the neck pain? and the other aches and pains? Where did that come from?) The dentist tried to put in my new onlay, but didn't like the fit again. She yelled at the lab about it, while simultaneously giving me excellent customer service (fancy that - a medical professional who realizes that patients are customers). 

I should be working on the Tempus Nebulorum tonight, but I'm going to bed early instead. That's a day of grace for those of you who haven't gotten me your stuff (polite cough).

 There are those of you who can crash on the couch for 10-15 minutes and wake up refreshed. 

Then, there are folks like me, who can be guaranteed 4 hours minimm of sleep if I nap. It's so inconvenient and probably unhealthy. When I'm really tired I usually find myself fighting to stay awake until bed time, since there is no getting a short rest. 

Falling asleep with contacts causes some major suckage down the line.