In which I am so sick, but I still have to do things.

I finally have the bad cold that everyone else has had, and I'm not happy about this. I went to work last night and felt terrible for the first couple of hours because I just couldn't breathe, but then Rachel had the bright idea for me to call Kim to bring me a decongestant pill from home, so I called Kim and she came to my rescue. It was 1:30 a.m. when I called her, but hey, she was up!

With the decongestant and much ibuprophen, I got through the night and was so happy to come home this morning and get into my bed! I didn't sleep well, but I slept, and now I'm up, sitting in my chair in the living room, thinking of going back to bed.

How the trip planning is going:

Kim got her passport in just 10 days (yay!), and now she needs to go to the Taiwanese consulate in Chicago to get her visa. She called this morning to make an appointment, and we are scheduled to go on Friday. That might change to Wednesday, we'll have to see how next week goes.

We have an appointment at the health department on Tuesday for a consultation with a Travel Expert, and to get the shots she'll need. It sounds like she will only need Hepetitis A, and possibly Typhoid. Ugh.

So things are moving along.

Why I am sick of Pokeballs:

Yesterday I went to the Post Office with RA to mail packages to our grandchildren. I had a couple of books for Soren and Carl, and a very cute plush Pokeball that Kim bought for Soren at an Anime conference she went to in St. Louis a few months ago. After I mailed the package, actually, even as I was putting the Pokeball into the envelope, I started thinking that there is only one Pokeball and two boys, and that is not a good equation.

When I got home I called Scott to consult with him, and he agreed that Carl is certainly going to want a Pokeball if Soren has one, because Carl is not a baby now, he is big! Big like Soren! Doing whatever Soren does!

So I did a quick search on the internet and found an identical plush Pokeball on Etsy, and ordered it to be sent to their house, and then I called Scott back and told him that whichever package arrives first, he will have to hold it until the other one gets there, so that there will be two Pokeballs! Scott assured me that he can do this, but I think I had better tell Carolyn too, because you know husbands forget to tell you things you need to know.

Why Henhouse is a funny word:

On Wednesday night I worked the 3-11 shift at work because my schedule is very different and mixed up for two weeks, and I am tired of telling the story of why, so just accept that it is and move on.

When I got home shortly after 11, Kyle and Kim were sitting in the living room, surrounded by Arbys bags, playing a video game that takes place in a futuristic Old West. They were talkiing in terrible Western accents, and I asked them to please stop because they were so terrible as to be painful and I was getting this cold, so I was not a well woman, and their accents were killing me!

I called Rachel, who was still up because we are all Night People, and midnight is not too late to go to the store. I needed to get some Echinaecia because I was getting a cold and Kathy at work had recommended it. (Note: I am still sick, so it was not a miracle cure!)

While I waited for Rachel to pick me up, I called Diana to whine about my cold, and also about the terrible accents I was hearing. She said she would be so happy if anyone at her house was playing a video game to entertain her, and if she was here, she would be begging them to talk Western for her!

When I got back home with my Echinaecia, I told Kim and Kyle that Diana said if she were here she would beg them to talk Western for her, and Kyle said, "She wouldn't have to beg!" and then they both went on babbling in their twangy accents about gunfights and henhouses.

So that is what's going on here. I am going back to bed to rest, and hope this cold goes away.

In which a baby gets so mad!

So here's the thing - everyone around me has been sick - Rich has had, and is almost over, bronchitis, Ash has been sick and now his went into an ear infection, Rachel has been bravely resisting a cold because she has had to keep working, so she has sternly kept hers under control, but still, she has had one, and now Maddy is getting sick. Kim is the only member of my immediate family who has not been sick for the last three weeks, and that is only because she hasn't been here until just a week ago.

Through all of this, I have stayed healthy! I have not been around all these sick people very much, I have avoided contact with them and washed my hands diligently, but now, tonight, I am feeling the first little hint that I might, possibly, maybe, be getting a cold! Oh noes!!

I am not going to get sick! I am going to drink a dose of EmergenC every hour tonight and I'm going to take ibuprophen, and I'm going to ignore any incoming symptoms and I will be just fine!

Rich, Kim and I went to dinner at the Chinese buffet tonight so Kim could practice her Chinese language skills in conversation with the waitresses. Rachel met us there, with Maddy, who was a bit flushed and had a little temperature and a hint of a runny nose.

Dinner went well, with Maddy getting a little cranky toward the end, but she really held up pretty well, and would have been better if she had had a little baby Tylenol to take. I need to start carrying that in my purse!

Kim talked to the waitresses, and showed them a letter that a friend had written to her in Chinese characters, and the waitresses were pretty impressed that an American wrote that letter! Kim has been translating the letter into English, and now she is going to write back, so she can practice her Chinese writing. So that was fun. We told Kim we would keep going back to the restaurant often so she can practice talking until she leaves for Taiwan.

After dinner we all went back to our house so that Maddy could get some Tylenol and play outside. We took her for a walk - she rode in the stroller and Kim walked Sonny on his leash. We walked our usual two-mile walk, and then we turned to walk into the cemetary so that Maddy could get out of the stroller and run around among the tombstones.

Which was a good idea, because there is open space to run around in, and the cemetary is enclosed by fencing to keep the baby contained, but there was a yappy little dog on the lawn across the street, barking it's foolish little head off and Maddy would not stop trying to go over and get a closer look at the friggin' dog!

We could not distract her at all, no matter how shiny or interesting a tombstone we showed her, as soon as Yappy Von Fleabag started barking again, Maddy wanted to go over and cross the street to get to his miserable yapping self. Finally we put a furious baby back in the stroller and wheeled her tantrumy butt back to our house, where she walked around the yard and picked up sticks to give us until her fingers were so cold (and we were tired of our yard), that we had to take her back inside.

In which Kim is planning a trip.

So Kim called me at work at 1:30 on Thursday morning, and said she had gotten an email from the owner of the preschool in Taiwan where she had applied to work next January. They had a teacher cancel suddenly, and they wondered if Kim could come in July, instead?

Kim was very excited and wrote back immediately to let them know she could do it! Now we have to get all of her paperwork and shots and whatnot done, so she can leave at the end of June to be there ready to start teaching July 4.

She exchanged several emails with the owner of the preschool over the next couple of hours - it was daytime in Taiwan - and I started googling for information on the fastest way to get a passport. She'll need a visa, too. And some shots. We've got a few things to do!

When we got up Thursday afternoon, we ran right out and got the passport application taken care of. So that's done.

Kim is excited about going to Taiwan and improving her Chinese. We just got her home from school, so we're a little sad to have her leave again so soon, but also, I am hoping she'll get everything she brought home from college put away before she goes! She's taken some of it up to her room, but there are still boxes in the living room and in the kitchen.

In other news, I am finally finished with Chemistry. Woot!

In which my phone is a problem.

Rich went down to E-ville on Thursday - just a quick run down and back to get a load of Kim's belongings to bring home. She wanted to stay until Saturday to say goodbye to all of her friends, so she ended up being the last one out of the apartment, and brought home her own stuff, plus whatever the other girls left behind that was worth taking.

So Kim is home, and her stuff is slowly being carried out of the main floor of the house, and stashed in her room, or in the basement. She is washing her clothes, and getting a lot of sleep, and by next week she'll be ready to start looking for a job.

My phone has been acting up again, and the last time the 'fix' was to update the operating system, but the problems are back now, except they are worse. I took it back to the store again and this time I am getting a replacement phone. It should be delivered tomorrow!

I can hardly wait to get the new phone, since one of the problems (but not the worst one) is that the bottom line of keys, including the space bar, will not work. It's not impossible to type messages that can be read without a space bar, but when you don't have spaces AND you can't type an N, M, or C, it is almost impossible.