It was really cute today when the Princess came by, unexpected, and brought us some really fresh French crullers.  I'm not especially fond of them since it's a lot like eating air but....when I had one, I realized it's been a long time since I had a really fresh donut of any kind.  She said they had just been made and, trust me, you could tell.  Thanks again, Princess.

The good news is that the Princess is employed once again so it means I get my Chewlee!  Best of all, I will have her for the greater part of two days, Saturday and Sunday.  Isn't that cool?  I'm really excited and it gives me that much more incentive to get well.  Tra la!

However, the bad news is that I am still sick.  Not quite as bad as yesterday because the eustachian tube in my ear opened up late last night and took away all the pain I was suffering.  However, the nasty cold is still with me.  It's a chest cold and you know how those are.  I'm taking my cough and cold medicine and it does help even though it's not a prescription.  I can stay awake longer and longer so I think I should be better in a few days. 

I'm feeling more like doing things so I guess that should be a good sign.  I made out the bills for the month today and they are ready to go out in the mail tomorrow.  I hate the fact that the Beast often grabs the bills and he puts them in a spot where I don't know they are.  It's only when he remembers that he gives them to me.  Usually it's because I mention that I haven't seen a bill from this place or that when he remembers.  I really need to get well enough to be the one that gets the mail every day at least around the time the bills usually get here.  I don't know what is on that man's mind at times.

He makes me nuts with his short term memory problems because he will say one thing to me and then later we end up in an argument because he says he told me to do something completely different.  That's when I am sooooooo tempted to just pick up a skillet and bash him in the head.  What's funny is, years ago when I was a newlywed, one of the Beast's aunts gave me a cast iron skillet.  Her advice to me was to keep it close because, when the Beast had done something I considered bad, I should beat him with it when he is sleeping.  I kid you not!  Of course, she had a weird husband and I imagine, due to his size, it was probably the safest way for her to let him know she was pissed.    Lord, I miss her.

Last night I had a dream that I was strangling the Beast because he kept making me sick.  I halfway expected to wake up and find my hands wrapped around his neck.    The whole time I was dreaming, I KNEW I was dreaming.  Weird! 

I need to send a thank you to both the Princess and my niece, Tara.  The Princess ran to the store for us on Saturday and Tara went to the store for us on Sunday.  I was feeling better Saturday night and thought I would be in good shape on Sunday but....guess what?  I woke up with something  I haven't had for about 48 years.  An earache.  A real beaut of one that scared the bejesus out of me because I used to get some really bad ones and often.  So bad that my eardrums had to be replaced with vein grafts by the time I was 13.  My ear drums were so scarred from bursting and draining that I had gone deaf.  It happened slowly and was discovered by my mother by accident.  The details aren't really necessary but the surgery was innovative at the time.  I lost a part of the major vein in my left arm to make me some new eardrums and I have been grateful ever since.  Although I never got 100% of my hearing back, it was good enough.

When we realized that both of us were sick this morning, we called Tara and asked her to get us some orange juice, some fruit and my Theraflu severe cough and cold medicine.  It helps me and is the daytime formula so it doesn't put me to sleep.  She and the Princess were both wonderful about doing us the favors and I wanted them to know we appreciate it.  I hate to ask for help but, when you feel so crappy, it's great that they are there to help out.

I couldn't stand a breeze or cold so I shut the door in my computer room and cranked up the heat.  While I was waiting for it to warm up, I had my head laid in my folded robe.  It's soft and warm and did the trick.  I couldn't stand how I could *hear* my blood pumping until the room warmed up.  Don't ask me why that happens but I think I had a much higher blood pressure because I was stressed.  It took most of the day before the pain went away and now I just have a *clogged* ear.  It's really gonna hurt when the tube opens up and the equilibrium is restored. 

I hope you got to check out all the commercials on the Super Bowl today.  Some of them were really cute.  Others were just *there*.  Unimpressive.  I loved the dog sitter one by Bud Light.  That was just too funny!  Also the Bridgestone tire commercial with the beaver.  Oh, and the Coke one with the border guards. 

Well, the Beast finally did it.  Whatever he's got, he gave to me.  Not quite as bad but still......  I could strangle him for that.   I feel really bad.  At least I seem to have stopped vomiting.....for now.  And, for once, I am upright.  I had to let the Princess know that I didn't think it a good idea for me to babysit Chewlee tonight but she already had figured that out.  I guess the Beast called her and asked her to pick up a couple things for us since I was too sick to go to the store.

What's weird is I felt great yesterday.  I felt like I had licked the cold and it was almost gone.  I made us breakfast, which the Beast tried to eat but didn't manage much.  He did, finally, get some Cream of Wheat down before he ended up back in bed.  Today he took a shower and shaved off all that awful hair on his face.    I guess it hit him where he lived when I told him it made him look 100 years old.  Men and their egos. 

I slept most of the day until I started needing the bathroom.  Once that was done, I was flat on my back again.  I really do think I am not going to be down with this for long, however, since I know I feel better now than the Beast does after all the days he's been sick.  I am going to make this short tonight.  As you can imagine, nothing much can happen when you are sleeping.  The day has come and gone without much notice from me.  I did, however, have to delete a lot of email from weather dot com that was alerting me to a cold front coming in.  Sheesh.  Then.....then...listen to this......another email tells me that we are going to have a high of 52 or so on Sunday.  MAKE UP YOUR MIND!!!!

So, that's what we are in for.  I hope you get some good weather heading your way.  Bratfink said they are buried in snow from their storm last night and today.  Love you all.  Have a great day and try to have a little fun. 

Our Brat Sister, Cee, went in for her throat surgery this morning.  It is 4pm CDST and she is on EDST so it is 5pm there but there is still no answer.  I will continue to call until I raise Baby Brat or Frankenstein and get a report on her condition.  After calling several times, I finally tracked down Baby Brat on Pogo and yelled at her to answer the damn phone.  She doesn't normally answer it at Cee's house and because the caller ID doesn't seem to be working, she wouldn't pick it up for someone unknown to her.  She thought the voice mail would catch it but I found that it wasn't working either.  Sheesh.  Anyway, Brat Sister Cee is doing fine (as we always say when someone survives...LOL)  She can't talk for 24 hours and has to eat soft foods.  Baby Brat said she had just made some soup for Cee and Cee smelled it and had just come out of her room.  It will be two weeks before she gets the results of the tests on the tumor that was removed from her vocal chords.  It will seem like a lifetime to us all, I'm sure.

I relayed the news to Cee that her daughter, Tara, had stopped by and I found out the boys have been down with some kind of stomach flu.  It only lasted two days, thankfully, but they got it AFTER one of them had already had it.  It was like dominoes.    She also had a scare with Chance's two year physical exam.  His test for lead was extremely high and she had to take him to the hospital for more testing.  Those tests use blood drawn from his vein so it had to be done by a certified phlebotomist.  She had gotten the test results today and it turned out it was normal, much to her relief.  They told her they probably had just gotten false results from a faulty test ...whatever.  But the anxiety was crushing because there's no lead anything in her home.

Our streets seem to have cleared up with the slightly warmer temperatures we had today.  It's amazing how that can work.  I'm wondering if the temperatures will get cold enough tonight to make the wet roads icy, however.  We shall see.

Baron has been driving me nuts.  He's still attached to the Beast by an umbilical cord, so-to-speak.  The only time I usually see him is when he is hungry or wants to go outside.  I'm actually amazed he hasn't gone nuts with the inactivity but he adores the Beast and knows he's sick, apparently.  When the two of them got up this afternoon around 2, I fed Baron a can of his dog food and he also ate some dry food.  A couple hours later, he was in my room whining and making little barks.  I thought he wanted out but he ran over to his dish.  I decided I was going to lREALLY feed him so I nuked some of the veggies we buy for him, then I put them in his big food dish, added a can of Turkducken (expensive) dog food and some of the chicken we cook up for him.  I mixed it up good (it actually smelled good ) and put it down.  I put down fresh water for him and stook back.  Sure enough, the dog not only rushed over but he ate every scrap of it!    After that, he was ready to go outside.  He spent quite a bit of time outside so I guess he had some serious business out there since he had balked going out in the slush and cold earlier.

Then it was rawhide bone time.  I have no idea what he was thinking but he sure was making a lot of noise here and there.  I thought he was looking for a place to plop down and chew on it but apparently not.  He finally came in here, went over to the spread I have folded in the basket and pushed it under one of the folds.  He was looking for a place to hide it!    That's a first for him.  Usually, he only does that with pigs ears that we give him on occasion.  He goes nuts then, however.  You would not believe some of the places he will try to hide one. 

There are times I know that I shouldn't have gone to social drinking and an occasional one or two at night on a particularly good (or bad) day.  I kind of leave that open for how I am feeling but, for the most part, I really don't indulge much these days.  Today, that changed and I realize that I have to make an alcohol run tomorrow because I am really, really low on both of my favorite things.  Actually, I am out of one....the TGI Friday's premade Mudslide and I will be finishing up my vodka tonight.  Yeah, you heard that right.  I'm indulging and enjoying it.  Why?  Well, it's kind of a long story but....basically, it's the Beast's fault, bless his tiny, little heart.  (Forgive me but I AM Irish....LOL).

First of all, let me say....the *Great White Hunter* isn't.  Did you really think he might actually get off his lazy ass and go hunting?  The only way that will ever happen is on a warm (around 75 degrees) day, sunny and when there has been no rain for a couple weeks.  Today it was 45 degrees, overcast and we are expecting rain at any moment.  Plus, we had rain and all the trails are muddy where he would have to traverse.  Not that I care (or expected it), I just could have done without hearing his excuses.  He just doesn't have the heart of a hunter or weather would make no difference.  Bratfink's granddaughter, all of about 12 years old, tromped through knee deep snow in freezing weather to get her first deer.  It will NEVER happen with the Beast.  Now he can say that deer season is over....darn!

Today the rest of the stuff for the popcorn machine came (coconut oil which is no longer used at shows and the buttery topping they DO use at shows).  I didn't know this until I went out in the kitchen to refill my coffee.  He had them sitting on the counter like trophies.  The machine, the oil, the topping and the special salt.  He couldn't wait to use it and try it out.

When he brought some in to me, the popcorn was dripping with the buttery topping and heavy with salt.  I could actually *rinse* the salt off of it in the topping on the bottom of the bowl.  It was gross.   He kept bouncing in and out of the room, happy as a lark and wanted me to say how GREAT it was.  I just stuffed some in my face and grinned at him.  I wasn't going to say *yay* or *nay*.  But I really was disappointed in his first effort....and I know this is just his first.  He will work on improving it until he is totally satisfied that he has made popcorn in just the way he remembers it.

Me?  All I could think about was the fact that this is a man who will NEVER be happy with life as it IS.  He also is so totally self-centered that he never considers the fact that I might actually object to something he plans on spending money on.  It's never, ever been a subject of discussion as far as he's concerned.  If he wants it, he's entitled.  End of story. 

I tried to throw out his new Cabella's catalog (although it's awesome since it's actually hard bound) because I said to him that he had ENOUGH.  But, no, he had a hissy fit and grabbed it from me and went and put it in his drawer.  He came out later to try to convince me he was going to throw it away and had one in his hand.  When I grabbed the front and checked, it was LAST YEAR'S edition.  I just gave him *the look* and said, *I was born at night, dear, but not LAST night.*

That's when I came into my room and pulled out the vodka.  I'm going to be stuck in this house with him, bored, for a couple days because we have some nasty weather heading our way.  It should be hitting us around the time this blog appears online.  We will even have to worry about the possibilities of tornadoes.  He stocked up on his milk and a few other of *his* necessities.  I had mentioned a couple things he should pick up but he *forgot*...of course...he hadn't thought of them so they don't count.  So, I will brave the weather tomorrow and go get them because we WILL need creamer for our coffee (he wasn't thinking well on that forgotten item) and the dog is almost out of chicken.  He got some egg rolls we found frozen that aren't bad but forgot about the sweet sour sauce for them AND the hot Chinese mustard.  I'll get them because then I won't have to listen to his complaints.  Better prepared than sorry.  It will also afford me a chance to get to the liquor store.  **Grin**

Well, love you all.  Hope your next few days aren't bad ones but, if they are, I will be saying a prayer for you.  Bratfink is braced for an ice storm in her area and I am hoping it isn't a bad one.  Buttmunch went through a bad one in Louisville...was it only last winter?...and that was AWFUL.  They were, at least, able to get heaters and some other things to help out for the week or so they went without electricity.  But Bratfink doesn't have those kind of contacts or resources.