Amy was ready to return to work yesterday morning. I woke briefly as she rose from the bed and walked to the bathroom. As I was drifting back into dreamland, her voice punctuated my haze, "Can you come look at my eye?" I sat up, rubbed the sleep from my eyes, and stumbled after her. When I opened the door, the light was bright and it took a few minutes before I was able to open my eyes without pain. Once I did, I got a gander at her eye. It was red, swollen, and covered with the slimy kludge that screams Pink Eye!
So after being down for four days with the flu, she starts to feel better and the virus escapes into her eye. At least that was the doctor's prognosis. I imagine her body has been playing host to a lot of malignant foreign organisms of the infectious kind and their froth finally bubbled over onto the table. Or so to speak. She spent yesterday at home, sapping more of her sick time for the year. She did go back to work today but the damage is done in terms of benefits lost.
If you ring the doorbell, I will probably answer it while wearing couch cushions and a colander as a makeshift suit of armor. Perhaps I will also carry a plunger as an extra measure of defense against the unseen soup of nasties. Please understand that I am not insane. Most definitely not. Oh no.
Friday, February 24, 2006
Monday, February 20, 2006
All Seven And We'll Watch Them Fall
Today is our seventh wedding anniversary. Amy and I have been officially married longer than we dated, which is probably quite a feat. To celebrate, we left work on Friday and travelled to East Troy, Wisconsin to get away from our normal surroundings for a couple of days. We had reserved a room in a small bed and breakfast and were to be the only guests for the entire weekend. Needless to say, one of us spent most of the weekend in bed.
Now, before that makes you blush or utter "Eewww," I'll tell you that Amy ended up getting the flu on Friday night. When we arrived, she told me how she hadn't been feeling well that day, but that she was trying her best to keep the virus at bay with Coldeez and orange juice for the weekend. It didn't work. We went to sleep early that night and she tossed and turned as her sore thoat kept her awake.
So, after a relatively uncomfortable night, we made the decision to cut the weekend short. We checked out early, apologized to the proprietors, and drove home rather disappointed. Amy spent most of what remained of the weekend in bed whle I did the laundry, made a quick grocery shopping trip, tried my best to spoil her, and played video games. Oh well. We'll probably pick another weekend to go in lieu of this past one, but I sure wish we'd been able to enjoy this one instead.
Regardless, thanks for sharing the past 13 years of my life with me, Amy, especially the last seven we've spent as a married couple. You've been very supportive of me though everything, especially the first few rough years when I never knew what would happen next. I love you.
Now, before that makes you blush or utter "Eewww," I'll tell you that Amy ended up getting the flu on Friday night. When we arrived, she told me how she hadn't been feeling well that day, but that she was trying her best to keep the virus at bay with Coldeez and orange juice for the weekend. It didn't work. We went to sleep early that night and she tossed and turned as her sore thoat kept her awake.
So, after a relatively uncomfortable night, we made the decision to cut the weekend short. We checked out early, apologized to the proprietors, and drove home rather disappointed. Amy spent most of what remained of the weekend in bed whle I did the laundry, made a quick grocery shopping trip, tried my best to spoil her, and played video games. Oh well. We'll probably pick another weekend to go in lieu of this past one, but I sure wish we'd been able to enjoy this one instead.
Regardless, thanks for sharing the past 13 years of my life with me, Amy, especially the last seven we've spent as a married couple. You've been very supportive of me though everything, especially the first few rough years when I never knew what would happen next. I love you.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
The Adventures of Chuck and Sid
My wisdom teeth are gone now. It's hard for me to believe that I was sedated while a man literally cut the flesh of my mouth in order to extract some husks of bone from my jaw. But it's true. My teeth are really gone. Is there such a thing as postpartum depression for teeth?
So, the first thing I remember is waking up with a nurse helping me out of a chair and walking me to a recovery room where Amy was sitting. I don't remember much about what was said in there, but the surgeon and one of the nurses came in to give some instructions about what to do when I got home. While the nurse was there, I think I mumbled something about playing Resident Evil 4 which induced one of those awkward silences like you might hear at a party when someone mentions the deforestation of Brazil.
Honestly, the pain hasn't been as bad as I expected it to be. I was imagining a scenario in which I was bed-ridden for days, a cloth wrapped around my head while the moans and wails of 1000 bastard children formed a fleshy beast of caccophany... no wait, that was Freddy Krueger's birth. Seriously, I thought it would be more painful that it was. The worst part about the whole procedure was only that I spent my first 24 hours after the surgery ingesting my own blood, which produced a kind of burning nausea that I hope I don't feel again for quite some time.
And I did get to play video games. I finished F.E.A.R. and made some huge strides in Resident Evil 4. I even took the opportunity to download and sample Fate, a very colorful Diablo clone. If it weren't for the fact that I'm already playing about four games at once, I'd drop the $20 for Fate in a heartbeat. It's a fantastic little game that is easy on the eyes and the wallet. It makes no pretenses about what it is or is not. I would say if you're really in the mood for Diablo but don't want all the over-the-top uber-serious rigamarole about angels and demons and the end of the world then this could be the game for you. It also has 3D-modelled characters and environments with lots of fun lighting effects which is a vast visual improvement over the 800x600 resolution pixellated sprites you'll see in Diablo 2.
Perhaps my interest in Fate wasn't so much in the game itself, but rather a personal investment. Instead of participating in my usual practice of creating some third-person avatar, I put myself in the game. My character is essentially me, named Chuck, but unlike me, Game Chuck can do things like cast spells and fight large globs of jelly in dungeons. The other great thing about Fate is that your main character can take along an animal companion, either a cat or a dog, to fight at his or her side. The dog was an obvious choice perhaps due to a stereotypical human reliance on dogs for protection, but I was delighted when I saw the cat: a ball of purring, orange fur that runs along beside me, helping me thwart evil at every turn. Of course I chose the cat, and yes, his name is Sid. So, Chuck traverses the dungeon searching for fame and coin while his fierce but friendly kitty companion named Sid runs purring along beside him. Putting myself and my cat in the game as characters gives it a childhood fantasy quality that I find quite charming. It gives me a warm fuzzy.
So, the first thing I remember is waking up with a nurse helping me out of a chair and walking me to a recovery room where Amy was sitting. I don't remember much about what was said in there, but the surgeon and one of the nurses came in to give some instructions about what to do when I got home. While the nurse was there, I think I mumbled something about playing Resident Evil 4 which induced one of those awkward silences like you might hear at a party when someone mentions the deforestation of Brazil.
Honestly, the pain hasn't been as bad as I expected it to be. I was imagining a scenario in which I was bed-ridden for days, a cloth wrapped around my head while the moans and wails of 1000 bastard children formed a fleshy beast of caccophany... no wait, that was Freddy Krueger's birth. Seriously, I thought it would be more painful that it was. The worst part about the whole procedure was only that I spent my first 24 hours after the surgery ingesting my own blood, which produced a kind of burning nausea that I hope I don't feel again for quite some time.
And I did get to play video games. I finished F.E.A.R. and made some huge strides in Resident Evil 4. I even took the opportunity to download and sample Fate, a very colorful Diablo clone. If it weren't for the fact that I'm already playing about four games at once, I'd drop the $20 for Fate in a heartbeat. It's a fantastic little game that is easy on the eyes and the wallet. It makes no pretenses about what it is or is not. I would say if you're really in the mood for Diablo but don't want all the over-the-top uber-serious rigamarole about angels and demons and the end of the world then this could be the game for you. It also has 3D-modelled characters and environments with lots of fun lighting effects which is a vast visual improvement over the 800x600 resolution pixellated sprites you'll see in Diablo 2.
Perhaps my interest in Fate wasn't so much in the game itself, but rather a personal investment. Instead of participating in my usual practice of creating some third-person avatar, I put myself in the game. My character is essentially me, named Chuck, but unlike me, Game Chuck can do things like cast spells and fight large globs of jelly in dungeons. The other great thing about Fate is that your main character can take along an animal companion, either a cat or a dog, to fight at his or her side. The dog was an obvious choice perhaps due to a stereotypical human reliance on dogs for protection, but I was delighted when I saw the cat: a ball of purring, orange fur that runs along beside me, helping me thwart evil at every turn. Of course I chose the cat, and yes, his name is Sid. So, Chuck traverses the dungeon searching for fame and coin while his fierce but friendly kitty companion named Sid runs purring along beside him. Putting myself and my cat in the game as characters gives it a childhood fantasy quality that I find quite charming. It gives me a warm fuzzy.
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