The Stomach Virus

Oh my. This tummy virus has hit and affected us all. It started with Jack late last week, we thought it was food poisoning, no big deal. He up chucked and got it out of his system, right?

Wrong. Next thing I know, I got a call at work that Emma had the "fast poop", as cousin Joshua puts it.

A few hours later, I'm feeling a little queasy and shortly after putting the kids down, I threw up. It was a relief actually. Emma threw up that night as well. I didn't get any sleep at all that night because I had achy joints and the queasiness that eventually led me to my second bout of talking to Ralph through the big porcelain telephone. Of course, Ralph decided to call at 2am - isn't that just like him?

The next day I felt so weak I could barely make it downstairs but we are on our way back. We have moved into stage two, the other end. I'll leave the details to your mind, but let's just say it is working itself out.

Oh, in the middle of this, the dog and the cat both have decided to take our cue and vomit as well. Bobbie in the kitchen yesterday evening and the cat the night before on the couch. That means that statistically, I should not be dealing with any more vomit for a long time.

My own streak was at 12 years, so this shouldn't visit me for another 12 years if the past is any precursor.

Just glad nobody has had to go to the hospital for dehydration, the little one worried me the most but she has the best attitude. Thank goodness for small miracles.

The Millennium Falcon

It made the kessel run in less than 12 parsecs...

Before and After

So the cousins were in town this long weekend and hung out with Jack and his sister. I took the opportunity to pile them on the couch to get a good shot of them - it lasted all of 15 seconds.

The before and after shots are below.

Loving Her Chair

Emma loves her chair and likes to eat pancakes while sitting in it.

Candy Nostalgia

I saw a canister of Lifesavers for sale at the Sev and bought it. It had several rolls in it, two of them Butter Rum, which I loved as a kid. My mom would buy them and give me one as a treat. One of my first memories was getting one of these and her driving the old "Blue Betsy" VW in Georgia.

Anyone else have any memories of candy you grew up with?

The 1st Pickle

So we went out to eat for some dinner tonight, nothing fancy, the Corner Bakery in Fair Oaks Mall. Kate got a salad and Jack and myself had sandwiches. The sandwiches had pickles and Kate decided to let Emma try one for the first time. This age is filled with first times and we are really expanding her food choices almost daily. She is a big bread fanatic; pancakes, sandwich bread, donuts, crackers, you name it.

Well, getting back to the pickle, I whipped out my camera phone and caught it. To my surprise, we got the look that we thought we would get, but we also got her as she really muscled through it and kept eating it because she liked it. This same thing happened a few weeks before with cantaloupe, not surprising because it was sweet I guess.

Anyway, it was surprising that she likes that sour taste enough to continue. Interesting to watch her discover this new experience. I love watching her.

Let It Snow

So we got some snow the other day and it left a nice covering on the branches of the leafless trees all around us.

This was the kind of snow that didn't cause too much chaos but is real nice to look at afterward. If course, being snow, it melted pretty fast and didn't stick around very long. By noon it had melted off those branches.

Pink Eye and the $405,000 gallon of Gold

I got a call at lunchtime today from Jacks school saying that he had pink eye. So I went and picked him up and got a sick visit to the Doctor scheduled. We get an appointment for 2:40.

So having two hours to kill, I took Jack into work with me for an hour so I could try and finish a project I have been working on for a few weeks and got it to a place where it could be given to someone else to look over.

During this time, it started to snow, so every half-wit driver in the DC area loses about 28 IQ points on average.

The Doctor says that it is Conjunctivitis (pink eye) and writes a prescription.

Rush back to the grocery store to get the prescription filled, all the while trying to avoid all the idiot drivers along the way.

The pharmacist can't get the prescription to ring up. The new insurance card from Aetna (not glad I met you) is not working.the card has the primary policy holder name on it, and the names of the three dependents; Me, Jack and Emma. But the insurance doesn't recognize that we exist somehow. So it won't fulfill the prescription. I just tell the guy after ten minutes of this that I'll just pay for it and be on my way, it's $107.

$107.

"OK, that shut me up", I say, "please continue with the card". He keeps trying but it's futile, Aetnas system refuses to recognize that the three dependents on the card they issued to those three dependents are not covered.

I end up paying for the eye drops and will sort this out later and hopefully get them to reimburse me for the $107.

The drops seem to be working ( they better be!) but I figured that if you had a gallon of this stuff it would be worth $405,000.

I'm in the wrong business. I should be either in Insurance where people pay you and you refuse to act as if they exist or in medicine where a drop of some magical liquid is selling for $400,000 a gallon.

Giving It Up

Aaawwwwyeah, I'm talking about blood. Giving blood is one of those things I decided I should do more of in the new year. So when the opportunity presented itself, I decided to make a donation today at work.

It didn't hurt at all. The tape they use to keep the needle in place hurt more when they took it off. Rachel was great and a shout-out to Inova Blood Donor Services for coming to the Government Center and making it so easy to give.

Plenty of studies show that it's healthy to replenish your blood by giving. Your body produces more and it's fresh, it's like changing the oil in your car, which reminds me, I need to get the oil changed in my car.

Cooold Here

It got windy and froze over the day before. Of course that didn't stop me from going out and stopping off at the "Sev", otherwise known as the "Seven Eleven" or as my friends south of the border call it, "Siete Once".

Had to bundle the kids up.