Failed Health Rolls

Many of my friends who read this may or may not know that my mom has a blog.

And last Thursday, mom was admitted to the hospital due to heart and blood pressure problems.

I just to go visit her today because Jennifer and I were sick last week and didn't really recover until Saturday night/Sunday morning.  I figured one of the last things I should do is go see mom in the hospital while I have a fever and a cough.  Really, the only time you should go to the hospital with a fever and a cough is because you have a fever and a cough.

We weren't that bad, just bad enough we felt we shouldn't subject others to our condition.

I saw her today though since I work about 10 minutes from the hospital, and she looks pretty good and is in good spirits.  Her only complaint (other than the whole heart thing and missing out on volunteering) is that the heart monitor will not allow her to shower, so her hair is a little flat after five days.

She's still not going to get to go home today, but hopefully she will soon.

I Was Doing So Well

Yesterday I went in to work. I warned visitors off with a Biohazard sign on my door.

Really.

And then I came home and was feeling pretty good; looking forward to feeling better.

Last night it took a while to get to sleep. I felt like I'd had caffeine, and was awake until after 1:30.

This morning I woke up and it feels like there's a spike in my left temple. And when I cough it gets worse.

So I'm at home so that I don't have to deal with bright light.

Down with the Sickness

Last Saturday was our monthly roleplaying game. One of our members came to the game and was just getting over being sick. As of today (as far as I know) I am the third of the remaining five to have gotten sick after the game.

Mr. Wilson's new epithet shall be Plague-Bearer.

So Thursday I had that one-sided sore throat where you ca pinpoint the exact location of your tonsil.

Thursday and Friday I was experiencing big bouts of sneezing. And I mean big bouts for me. Sneezes coming in groups of four or more.

Then Saturday I felt really bad. Nose plugged. Sinus headache that sort of thing. Pretty much the same today, but no relief on the headache. At least yesterday there were points where it didn't feel like I had earplugs jammed deep in my ear canal.

If the sinus pressure is no better tomorrow, then I'm staying home.

On a happy note for me, the Steelers and the Packers won. It's a sad note for Jennifer who was rooting for the Jets and da Bears.

And More Blargle

I had a horrible voice this morning and annoying congestion, so I stayed home.

Hopefully, I'll be back to work tomorrow.

Blargle Flargle

Thursday I woke up with a puffy feeling in my throat. The rest of the day was okay, but I wasn't feeling 100%.

Friday was all right, but that night was a bit off from the congestion.

Saturday we went to a party, and while I kept the drinking to a couple imperial black and tans, the party was loud, and my voice started breaking about halfway through.

Today I stayed down with just reading and television. And lots of fluids: water and TJ's lemonade.

I just hope that I don't sound like I'm still going through puberty tomorrow at work.

Happy New Year

...and I'm late for the first post of 2010.

But, I was down most of the day trying to get over this lingering cough.

I've read a bit, watched a movie (Gross Pointe Blank), and the latest Mythbusters.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Las Vegas - Days Four (more), Five, Six, and Seven

The past few days have been a lot of a up with a little down.

Christmas Eve, Jennifer and I wandered more of the strip. We went to Paris, and the Bellagio and watched the dancing water fountains outside of the Bellagio. Inside the Bellagio, we saw their conservatory that had snowmen and polar bears made out of carnations, and a Santa sleigh with the reindeer made out of unshelled pecans.

Christmas day, we mostly stayed in. We watched "Surrogates", made our phone calls, and then had afternoon meal at the Verandah in the Four Seasons. It was a wonderful meal, and then we went back to the room, changed and wandered some more. From Mandalay Bay, you can walk through a mall to the Luxor, and then through a series of walkways to the Excalibur. So we never had to go outside.

The day after Christmas we went to see Penn & Teller at the Rio. That was a very fun show, and Jennifer was even able to get herself to stand with Penn after the show for a picture. She was in heels and he was still taller than her. He's 6'7".

Yesterday, we stayed in because we weren't feeling well. Coughing and congestion. Probably the only thing saving us is that the air is so dry it's like natural antihistamine.

We're feeling better today, and will be seeing Frank Caliendo's show tonight at the Monte Carlo.

In Sickness and In Health...

This time it was my turn to care for Jennifer. Neither of us have been really sick in a while, and she finally drew the short straw.

Friday she came home with a very sore ear. We think it got plugged while the barometer dropped, and so she wasn't able to get it equalized. Our temporary fix was a hydrogen peroxide cleaning followed by rubbing alcohol. We did that about 5 times before she got some relief. Then we went to Target and got some drugs for her.

We both slept a lot this weekend, but I mostly remained near her in case she needed anything. I made a lot of tea, and some simple meals that would go down a semi-sore throat easily.

The good part is that one week from today we'll be on our way to Las Vegas for Christmas.

And then there's me...

I am tired.

Three days of getting up at 5:00 (two hours earlier than usual).

A week of driving/riding more than an hour each way.

Traffic.

This cold thing. I did cancel the role-playing game for today. My congestion is mostly gone, but I've got this cough that tends to hit with one big punch. It gives me one big cough that turns into a lung emptying wheeze. Then I get a headache.

Record heat. I have to be thankful for the townhouse we're in. We get only evening sun, and it rarely gets over 80 inside during the day, and it recovers quickly once the air conditioning is on when we get home. Timer thermostats are great.

Monday I begin the semi-annual budgeting and forecasting for our primary client. The fun part of this one is that we used to estimate a budget for only the coming year. Now, we have to budget the entire life-cycle of each site.

The other project managers have had the last week to get started, and will have this week and the next to get finished. I have this week...

Let's see... 10 sites over 5 days... two sites a day... I can do this.

There was blood

So I'm sitting at my computer last night, and I have to sneeze. I do and then follow that with a good nose blowing. And then my left nostril just started running... with blood. The inside of my nose has been so fragile and dry with this sickness, it almost overshadows the sore throat. And the only thing I could remember from my first-aid class (only a month and a half ago) was to lean forward and pinch the bridge of my nose. Maybe there's no more to it than that, but that was all I could remember. Through the evening I had three more relapses, one of which I ended up with blood on my pants.

I ended up getting ahead of it and plugging it up safely, but I was nervous before going to bed. I kept expecting to wake up in the night with a big blood stain flowing over the pillow and onto the bed.

So today I am taking it easy... again. I'm tired of being inside. I don't mind being inside normally, but when you have to stay in it's annoying to say the least. So I'm reading.

I just finished Terry Pratchett's The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents which is really fun, and I caught more bad Pratchett in-jokes this time around. So I'm on to the fifth and sixth Kim Harrison book. When I'm done I'll go back to Pratchett and read the three Tiffany Aching books.

And speaking of Terry Pratchett, we watched the English television adaptation of Hogfather this week. That was really amazing. The only two big name stars were the ones who played Lord Downey and Archancellor Ridcully. I'm excited about The Colour of Magic which is actually TCoM and The Light Fantastic. It has Tim Curry and Jeremy Irons in it as well as a huge host of other big names. In fact, just go to IMDB and check out The Colour of Magic.

I am in awe.

And it had better come to the US soon.

Down with the Sickness

So after being down on Sunday with a fever circling 100 F, I thought I'd see how I was doing on Monday before going to work. Aside from the horrible sore throat, I felt listless, so I thought I'd stay home and monitor my temp. Usually it was all right, but occasionally I'd feel it spike. I only hit 100 again once, with aspirin and lots of water and orange juice I got it back down to 99.

I did get some reading done while I was in bed. I finished A Fistful of Charms, and two weeks worth of comics (5 weeks until Final Crisis). I also watched three episodes of "Superman and the Legion of Super Heroes" which I continue to enjoy. Even if each episode makes me think that I've missed some in between, and would leave me lost if I didn't have everything Legion back to 1965.

And so this morning I was at 98.4, and still feel kind of weak. No gym for me for a few more days, that's for sure. And I've tried everything on this sore throat: water, orange juice, Pepsi, tea, Tabasco sauce (not straight). Water's even starting to taste funny. I hate it when it does that.

One big happy thought are my Bose in-ear headphones we bought Saturday. They kind of fit in my ears like a hearing aid with soft silicone covers, and have a really rich tone to them. They even came with a cool zip-up leather case that is the perfect size for the iPod classic and the headphones. I look forward to trying them out in the gym, and seeing how much ambient music/sound/noise they filter out.

And today I continued my re-read of Terry Pratchett books with The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. It's a great take on the Pied Piper of Hamlin.

We've got it better than him...

Well, it's been a busy weekend, and it's only just now Sunday morning.

Friday I had dinner with my parents and some friends of theirs before they went to see "Brighton Beach Memoirs" at the Willows Theater in Concord. I'll be calling hem for a review this afternoon when I call for Easter.

Then I went home and watched Set 2 of "Cowboy Bebop".

Saturday I woke up feeling crappy with a sore throat. Jennifer and I went down to Fremont, and had breakfast at La Piñata #5. We wandered around for a bit, went to to Livermore for my weekly fix of comics, and then we went to Costco for Jennifer's GPS unit.

I had promised her a GPS for Christmas, and she said we would wait for a good one to go on sale in the new year. Costco had the Magellan 4250 for $250. The Davnille store was sold out, and we got a rain check. We thought we would run to the Concord store, and they didn't have an offer up for a rain check. Now smart Jennifer had a print out of the sale offer from the internet. So I thought we could go to Fry's Electronics and see if they could match the offer. And while they salesman we talked to said they couldn't (they had it for $500) he raved about the unit itself. He used to have one and loved it, but it had been stolen while he was in Las Vegas. He thanked us for showing him the add, and it sounded like he was considering joining Costco to get the unit as a replacement.

So slightly downhearted, we went home to rest before our show for the evening: MooNiE and Broon at the Dean Lesher Theatre in Walnut Creek. We love them at the Renaissance Faire in Casa de Fruita, and while their show is different in a theatre (no fire eating or fire juggling) they are always funny. However at intermission we realized we had not eaten since we were in Fremont. So after the show we drove almost home and had French dips with mashed potatoes/baked potato at Carrow's. That put us home around midnight.

I took a Nyquil to sleep, and apparently drove Jennifer out of the room with my snoring.

This morning my throat is not much better.