Still Sick

Yup, I am still sick. I still have a hacking cough that could put a chain smoker to shame, headaches, stomachaches and nasty boogers coming out of my nose. I still have the full blown cold, or at least I will find out tomorrow morning if it is just a cold. I finally caved in this morning and made a doctor appointment because I can’t take this awful feeling anymore. It’s been seven days and I still feel absolutely awful and am only improving at a snail’s pace. I made the appointment to ensure it’s nothing further than a cold, nothing bronchial. Of course everyone at work is calling me swine as I hack away in my office. I am positive I don’t have the swine flu, but everyone thinks they are a comedian by calling me swine, like I haven’t heard it yet in the past seven days.

I was thinking today how it was different when I was sick a decade ago compared to now. A decade ago getting sick was a minor bump in the road and approaching thirty getting sick is more like hitting a nail in the road where I am immediately deflated. When I would get sick ten years ago it was a minor inconvenience as I worked like it was no big deal, hung out with friends and of course always made it to the next biggest party. Now, I can barely get to work, let alone make it through the day. I can’t hang out with friends because nobody wants to hang out with the swine girl and of course a party sounds like the last thing I want to do when I feel this awful. When did everything change? I don’t recall an exact time where I went from a bump in the road to a blowout from hitting a nail. Maybe it’s what happens when you are turning thirty. Maybe my body is weak and brittle and just can’t hack it anymore? Maybe, I am just smarter in my old age? Who knows, but whatever it is I know I don’t have the swine flu, but I will make sure it’s nothing worse than a cold tomorrow when I see the doctor. I am just hoping to walk out with a souvenir called cough syrup with codeine to help me sleep through the night.

I'm Siiiiiiiick

So, I am sick. Yup, I started to feel awful on Thursday and then it hit me like a ton of bricks on Friday morning when I woke up. I only went into work to get a few things done that I absolutely had to and then I came home and slept all day in hopes of getting rid of this very quickly. The last time I was sick was back in January so I went about four months without getting sick. That doesn’t seem long, but for me that is a long time. I was hoping to go longer, but I do realize that this probably stems from my boozing at the Culinary Fest last weekend. My immune system wasn’t 100% so I probably shouldn’t have gone all out nuts at the Fest. I figure oh well, since I did have a great time. This is not just a cold though I got the full works. I have a fever, head cold, chest, upset stomach and everything in between hurts. Since I am so sick I stayed in last night to watch Marley & Me while Andy went out with his dad and Ryan. I figured I wouldn’t cry since I already read the book and got all my crying out then, but I was wrong. Once Marley was starting to pass away the water works just kept coming and wouldn’t stop. I do not cry in movies, so I would have to say this was the first movie that ever made me ball like a baby. It is super sad. If you are ever in the mood to cry and watch a sad movie this is it. I must say though that the book was much better than the movie. It’s usually like that though, where the book is much better. Movies just can’t capture a whole book and they miss a lot. I felt like the movie missed a lot of Marley’s antics. Don’t get me wrong the movie had Marley’s antics, but the book was filled with many more. Madison was watching the movie with me. It was pretty funny every time Marley was on TV Madison would just stare and then walk around to the other side of the wall to see if the dog was there. Then Madison would walk back and look confused, but would continue to watch the movie with me. Izzy was more into her bone than the movie. Izzy could have cared less about the movie. I am just hoping to feel better very soon as I am becoming absolutely bored. I have nothing to do, no more new movies to watch and nothing on TV.

The Great American Picnic

Our second round of guests is coming to an end as Mike and his girlfriend, AJ, left today and Ross heads back to Chicago tomorrow. It was a crazy four days of fun and many laughs. Yesterday we spent the day at the Scottsdale Culinary Festival. This is the other big event here that we religiously attend. It kind of reminds me of the Taste of Madison, but ten times better. It’s also called the Great American Picnic as there are plenty of food vendors up where you can walk around and taste all different kinds of restaurants in the area. There is also a beer garden, wine area and then a vodka tent. Yup, a vodka tent sponsored by Absolut. In Wisconsin there are plenty of beer tents at every festival, but I have never seen a liquor tent until we started attending this event four years ago. I never cared for beer tents, but once I learned about the vodka tent I was super excited because my favorite drink is vodka tonics. We usually get there around 1pm so we can get plenty of food in our bellies before we head to the Vodka tent. Last night we arrived in the vodka tent around 5pm and we were the last ones standing in the tent at 10pm when it was closed down. Of course we were all proud of that one. We also met up with our good friends the Campbell’s and it wouldn’t be a Culinary Fest without them. We were missing our other friends the Rietz’s, but they apparently had a good excuse for not attending. They recently had their baby less than a month ago and I guess Kim didn’t want to pump in a port-o-pottie. HE HE! We are responsible adults as we did take a cab all the way home. After five hours in a vodka tent a cab was our only option anyway. It was a great time and now the countdown begins for next year’s Culinary Fest and I am sure Ross and Mike will be back next year.

Great Week Of April 15th

I woke up on Sunday knowing that it was going to be a great week because it is the week of April 15th. It’s the week that only involves a three day work-week, new windows, good friends, less blue hairs and Culinary Fest. At my work the 16th of April is considered a holiday because I do work at an accounting firm and the 15th of April is such a big deal because of tax day. Normally my firm has a big party on the 15th and gives us the 16th off, but this year we are forgoing the party for the 17th off along with the 16th and that equals a four day weekend. That alone is a big plus for the week. On the 16th we are installing new windows in our house and I am super excited about that. Yes, I am a nerd and I don’t care because new windows are going to be fabulous in our house and it will help with our electric bill. Also on the 17th arrives our second set of guests for this month, Ross and Mike. Those two are always a good time and I am guaranteed a great weekend with them staying at our house. So, besides all the cleaning (which isn’t so much fun) they will definitely add to the four day weekend and the excitement of the new windows. Another bonus for the week of April 15th is that it marks the week where the blue hairs leave the state which means less slow and confused drivers on the freeway during my commute. I have already noticed a difference, on my drive home tonight, of the amount of cars on the road and it’s only Tuesday. This is great because it will cut my commute down by at least 10 – 15 minutes, but I will really notice the difference once ASU is out for the summer, and that should be in about three weeks. The last exciting event for the week is Culinary Fest and it’s the reason for Ross and Mike’s arrival. It is a good time, good people watching and a great time to get crazy. There are many stories that I could tell from the last three Fest’s, that we have attended, but I will not share them on a family friendly blog. I am just looking forward to another year of good times to add to the vault. That is my exciting week of April 15th.

Happy Easter

I hope everyone had a good Easter. I have not been much of a religious person and therefore am not that into Easter. It seemed as I lost interest in the holiday once I got to the age where hunting for colored hard boiled eggs was not much fun. I think the holiday is great for kids, but I am not that into it anymore so today didn’t phase me too much. Andy and I spent the morning washing and cleaning our vehicles and then I spent the afternoon by the pool reading a new book, Escape. It’s about a woman who escaped Polygamy and I will fill you in after I finish reading it. After an afternoon of Laura and I lounging by the pool Andy and I made a ham, potatoes and a vegetable because of the holiday. It was such a great meal. We topped the meal off with the leftover ice cream cake from Andy’s birthday. Andy’s mom left this evening to head back to Wisconsin as her spring break came to an end. It was tough for her to leave this beautiful weather, but she managed. One guest down for the month and we are ready to clean the house and prepare for round two.

Happy Birthday Andy

Today Andy turned a whopping 28 years old and that is still a year and a half younger than me. I sang “Today it’s your birthday” to him this morning while the dogs stared at me like I was a nut job. Then I posted birthday wishes on Facebook. After work I stopped by Cold Stone to pick him up, not one but two birthday cakes. My baby deserves the best. Ok, I actually only planned to get one, but I couldn’t decide between the chocolate chip cookie dough and the oreo cookie ice cream cake, so I bought both. Plus I know how much Andy loves these things, so I knew two cakes would last longer than one day. I surprised him with both cakes and he was pretty happy. His mom is still in town so that is nice that he had his mom here to celebrate his “old” age. Andy opened his presents from me and then we went out for dinner. He had a good birthday and I am glad to have been able to share another birthday with him.

Andy's Xmas Is Over

Andy’s Christmas has ended tonight with UNC and Michigan State battling it out for the national championship and UNC took the win. So, of course you know how we spent our night…watching the game. I was doing pretty well this year in all three of my pools; however, once Louisville and Pittsburgh tanked in I just completely fell out of winning any cash prize. That of course is when I started to lose interest. Since there was no cash prize the only thing left valuable was beating Andy in the pools and once I checked where we both stood I realized I had surpassed him and he had no chance to catch up to me. I again lost interest as now there was nothing interesting left about watching the basketball games. I was in three pools: SVA, Campbell’s and my work. Andy had a bracket in the Campbell’s and SVA pool, and I smoked him in both pools. In the SVA pool I ended up with 20th place (out of 160), Campbell’s pool I was somewhere between 20th and 30th place and I was in the same boat for my work pool. So even though I did not come out with any grand prize in any of the pools, I realized the best prize was smokin’ Andy’s (Mr. Basketball) butt. Christmas has come to an end…until next year Andy!

Took A Chunk Out Of My Finger

I almost lost my finger today…ok that might be a little dramatic, but I did take a big chunk out of my pinky finger. Today we were having the Seifert’s over for dinner and we were grilling beer butt chicken, fresh vegetables and garlic bread. Andy had the beer butt chicken on the grill for an hour so it was time to get the veggies ready and I decided to use one of those veggie slicers instead of a knife. The only thing wrong about that, was not using the plastic thingy that you put your vegetable in to ensure no accidents. I was going to town with the zucchini and next thing Andy and his mom heard screaming and a few choice words. My pinky finger went right down the plastic slide and into the metal slicer. I put my hand over the sink and that is when the blood just started coming along with more F-bombs because it frickin’ hurt. I wrapped up my finger and had to wait a couple hours before it even stopped bleeding while Laura finished the vegetables and then the bread as I was now useless in the kitchen. Once Karen arrived at the house she had to check out my finger and give me advice on what to do as she is a nurse. I unwrapped my finger for Karen and Andy’s mom to look at and that is when I noticed that my pinky finger was deformed because there was a huge chunk missing. As I waited for the bleeding to stop I sat in pain and now it’s very difficult to type with my pinky finger out of commission. I see this incident as a sign to stay out of the kitchen. Let me tell you if you ever use one of those slicers be sure to use the plastic protector on your vegetable and not just your hand because my finger is still throbbing in pain.

Month Long Hotel Operation

Today is the first day of our month long hotel operation. We have guests coming from Wisconsin for the next four weeks so it’s going to be crazy here. It will be full of fun, entertaining and a whole lot of cleaning. Tonight Andy’s mom gets to town...actually she will be here in about ten minutes. I spent the day cleaning the house in preparation of our first April guest while Andy golfed all day. Yeah, that sounded bad because Andy actually assisted in the cleaning process. He just did his work on Friday night and the hour before his mom arrived. His mom will be here for nine days and then two days after she leaves we have the crazies (Mike and Ross) coming to town, and then we will finish off the month long hotel operation with Andy’s dad and brother here. Some people cringe when they think of having house guests and when I tell people about all of our guests I always get a weird look followed with “sucks to be you.” It doesn’t though because I really like having visitors and guests stay with us. We both really miss our families and friends back in Wisconsin and if they can make it out to visit us it’s a treat. So, keep on coming.