Whoah!

I just got out of a three hour meeting. That's a three hour *phone* meeting. And you know what? It was the slickest thing ever. There were 4 people in the meeting which was run as a class for the first two hours. We all call a 1-800 number and connect to the audio portion in a regular-old conference call. Then, we all connect to a web site (gotomeeting.com) with the link we were sent in an email yesterday.

And presto, we can all see the presenter's desktop, where he pops around to different slides and waves at stuff with the cursor while talking about it. One of the guys is somewhere down South, the rest of us are in Vermont, all connected to each other through this super nifty technology. I mean, c'mon - a cross-country meeting of minds, and no one had to catch my COLD.

I was better, then over Thanksgiving I caught Aisha's cold. Triple damn!!!
Thanksgiving was very nice except it seemed really short. We only saw the parents thursday and a little on friday morning. We only saw Steve & John & Lori and the kids for about 4 hours on friday until they all went to the tree lighting ceremony in Burlington, which Jim & I were not really up for. Nancy and Aisha stayed until Saturday morning which was nice to see them for a little while. We played Rat-a-tat cat which Natalie picked up also and likes very much. It's for ages 6 and up so anyone should be able to play.

The turkey was very tasty. We missed Kagan.

Sunday Romni swung by and admired our attempts at bathroom remodeling. We were distressed to discover that the existing fan vented - wait for it - directly into the attic *insulation*. Not even all the way up into the attic. The awesome new fan Jim installed is whisper quiet and moves so much air it's pretty cold coming out of the shower... if you don't turn on the included hot air blower. Pretty sweet.

Monday (yesterday) We saw Morgan, who drove all the way up from Rutland to hang out with us and enjoyed the Mussamam beef curry I made (with ingredients from importfoods.com) so much that she ate more of it instead of dessert, and called me today for the recipe. Apparently it was very very tasty, but alas I could not really taste it. I will have to make it again when I have kicked this cold too. Which is a puny cold, nothing like that last one, I don't even have a fever HA!
We played some rat-a-tat cat with Morgan and watched a movie that had a pretty good twist ending that she slept through. And didn't believe us that there was a twist ending.

Anyway back to getting some work done. Check out this site I've been updating lately (I also designed the entire thing a couple years ago) - it's mostly current and coming right up too. This is a fun festival to go to. VIF

PS I love Kagans new blog - but he posts so often it begs the question, to whom was he making all these commentaries before? :)

OK So I've been Sick...

Yeah so I was sick practically forever. It started right after our *super* awesome Halloween party, the one where the power was out. We didn't tell anyone the power was out in case they wouldn't have come then (well, except Morgan because she had to sleep over and it wouldn't be fair to at least not warn her.)

I had been cleaning all week so that I wouldn't have to clean all day Saturday and be exhausted for the party. Jim stretched out on the couch after breakfast, looked around and declared "Well, I can't vacuum without power, and it's too dark to sweep." He looked all pleased with himself while I swear I went supersonic.

So we cleaned in the stormy half-light of a Vermont wintery afternoon, lit a ton of little LED candles in party favor plastic pumpkins that threw no light at all, and real candles that did. Then we went over to William's farmhouse (leaving Susan and Keving holding down the fort) to cook beef stew and cornbread for our impending guests. We showered at Williams (thank *goodness*), came home and Jim filled 5 gallon buckets for toilet flushing purposes. Guests were met at the door by Susan hollering "If it's yellow let it mellow!!!", and "Oh yeah, welcome..." And we really had a wonderful party. There was no music or much light, but lots of libations and conversation.

And, not that Sunday but the following monday, all that wine and getting dressed in the cold caught up with me and I fell ill. I didn't go to Sarah's for Halloween to give out candy, instead I watched one of the vampire movies we had rented to have as background ambiance at the party. I felt miserable monday, worse tuesday, OK enough to visit Papa on his birthday wednesday, and just downhill from there.
Finally, a week later (last monday) I went to the doctor.

This pleasant looking kid with Drew Carey glasses walks into the little hospital cell.

Me "_You_ are the doctor? You don't look a day over 28 to me."

Dr "Yes I'm the doctor. I am far, far older than 28.
I am 30. So no one can call me the young guy around the place anymore."

Me "Only I'm 31 and when someone younger than me has a doctorate, it makes me feel like maybe I was slacking off."

Dr "Maybe you're a slacker. Did you ever think of that?"

Me: "Hey I have my degrees, they're just in Computer Science so I don't have to deal with people."

Dr: "That's good thinking. People Suck."

... we talk about my symptoms for a bit.

Dr: "Do you smoke?"

Me: "Hells no! It makes you smell bad, and it's bad for your health, and worst of all, it's expensive!"

Dr: "So far you're giving me all the right answers. Would you mind going out in the waiting room and yelling out those things?"

Me: "Well, if those people haven't already heard all that they just aren't listening."

Dr: "Yes, well sometimes a voice of authority, such as coming from the elder in the room..."

Me (Smacks Dr in elbow) "Hey!"

... we have a lively conversation about more stuff all about me

Dr: "You have a cold."

Me: "Well I told the girl at the desk when I called that I have a cold and asked if they had a cure for it yet, and she told me I should come in!"

Dr: "Yes, they're trained by the people who count the beans to do that. You're going to have this cold for 1 to 3 weeks..."

Me: (wailing) "3 weeks!!!"

Dr: "What are you doing for it now?"

Me: "I'm sleeping as much as I can, taking lots of vitamins, plus elderberries in honey and grapefruit seed extract."

Dr: "That's all good, keep doing that. Herbal remedies probably help and they can't hurt."

Me: "Can I do anything else?"

Dr: "Yes, do you know about those neti pots for rinsing out your sinuses? Go get one of those or make one out of a detergent squirt bottle... those pop tops fit perfectly in a nostril. Then you lean over the sink and squirt saline into your nose... of course it makes a terrible mess and it's more for my amusement than anything else..."


And that's how I came to smack the Doctor.
Just a little.
But he really really deserved it.
:)