4 Happy Family The personal blog of Kevin R. Hoffmann

Holidays

Wishing all the best.

It was fun this year; Maya really got into it and got her dollhouse, racetrack and purple princess dress so she is satisfied. We are just taking it easy and enjoying the time we get to spend as a family.

Thanks everyone for the cards and well wishes and looking forward to a great New Year.

Yes, it is a repeat from the card; just did not feel like finding the cable to put a new one out there and you can finally check out the new glasses.

What a weekend

And still recovering.

Had the big work holiday party on Friday. Good times for the most part, interesting but OK. I was just finishing dinner only on the 2nd of my three drink tickets when I checked my phone and saw that I missed repetitive calls from home. I walked to the window to get cell reception and hear the wife on the other end crying and saying "Come home".

I called her back and caught her in the middle of retches. The message was the same and I grabbed my stuff and ran out. I was in a race to get to the train in time. When I got outside all of the traffic was stopped. Nothing was moving and not a cab in sight. I waited for a couple of minutes and decided to go by foot. As I was walking down Congress I could see police cars everywhere and traffic stopped all over the place. Out of no where came a string og 4-5 big, black SUVs and a couple of police cars. Obama's motorcade.

His transition office is about two blocks from where I work so there is security everywhere, I had never seen him driving by. At leasr one of the SUVs had the back door open and a guy holding some weapon of some type. Pretty imposing. All the people on the street were cheering as he went by; just wonder what Bush's reception would be.

Made it to the train and made it home to find C in bed ravished with fever and lookling like hell. She had been throwing up for about 5 hours and looked wrecked. I took care of her the best I could, givi g crackers and Sprite and so forth, but she was a mess. The whole reason I had to come home was she was afraid that Maya was going to get what she had and start yakking her brains out. Maya has never thrown up before and in her state she could not have helped her out.

She was feeling better the next day, but I was feeling fatigued and Maya was tired as well. We made it through the day helping each other out and put the kid down for bed. About an hour later she woke up crying. We checked on her and she had broken out with hives. This has happened before, but this time they were all over her face which obviously worried us due to windpipe constriction.

We weren't sure what to do; we had been burned before going to the ER to the tune of $500 unreimbursable. Luckily, we have a nurseline in our health plan and they told us to take her in to the ER. At this point Maya seemed fine, but we did not want to screw around. The kid was totally fine when we were there, her hives had disappeared and she was being as sweet as can be.

The Dr. checked her out and told us to get her to an allergist to see what could be causing the hives, which we are doing. He also prescribed an EpiPen in case of an emergency. Because of this, C can't watch pulp fiction any more.

Everything was cool the next day and we went about our business; making sure that Maya was feeling better. About 8PM it hit me. My stomach started churning and and I became lethargic (more than a usual Sunday) and feverish. By 10PM I was in the fetal position on the bathroom floor wishing death upon myself.

I forced myself upstairs and curled up into bed. About 10 minutes later I ran into the bathroom let it all go. This was one of those involuntary neck-clenching, double ender, full technicolor yawn vomit sessions. Miserable, miserable, miserable. And it was only one of four sessions up until about 5AM. I can't remember the last time I was this sick. 

Whenever I am sick, I can't help but think of things to make me get the badness out. Sometimes I can't help it but I kept picturing a diorama of Dr Frankenstein's laboratory, the gross factor came in that it was completely made out of meat. The characters were sausages, the floor was prosuitto carpeting and all lab items were some part entrails or internals. Eke.

Of course Courtney felt bad about the whole thing. Most of Monday was spent recovering and sleeping. Today was the first time I was actually able to eat anything solid and I am finally feeling on the mend.

We were supposed to build gingerbread houses, but maybe I will go to the deli and explore this Dr. Meatenstein house of horror instead.  

Random Lunch Links

• You gotta love Illinois politics. So much corruption. Just wondering if it is going to reach the Big O.
• If the Shawshank redemption was an 80s movie.

Still getting used to wearing the glasses. It still feels weird and uncomfortable. Holiday cards tonight; so happy for Walgreens impersonal easy to create cards. Having a party next week so trying to fix some things around the house so as not to take away from the Xmas break.

Ice Cream Truck

…are better than two…at least at distances over 15 feet

Whenever we go for a long distance drive we always play this game to see how far away we can see things in the distance. I am usually pretty good at this because I can make out words by seeing a couple of letters. I have always had mad Wheel of Fortune skillz.

This past trip into StL I realized that it was getting harder and harder for me to see things clearly afar. So after a lot of hemming and hawing and making up reasons why I can't go, I finally went in and got my eyes checked this morning. We took a family trip to the mall to the local chain vision provider. I filled out the preliminary paperwork and waited for the eye doctor (opthamologist?) to arrive. Courtney and Maya perused the frames.

I never really had problems with my eyes except a light astigmatism that seemingly corrected itself through puberty so I was hoping that things were still OK. Did the depth perception test, the periphery test and even had that damn blast of air. Everything was OK.

The Dr. took me in and sat me in the chair and I explained to her that I am usually pretty good at making out words through my superior sense of logic. So we had a chat and she asked me to read some thing lines of letters.

Me: "E - T - A - O - C"
Dr: "Other eye"
Me: "E - T - A - O - C"
Dr: "Good. Now try this line"
Me: "G - F - R - L - P"
Dr: "Try that last one again"
Me: "P"
Dr: "Sorry that is the numeral 2"
Me: "Dammit."

So much for logic. She shifted some lenses and I was surprised to see how clearly the letters came in. My reading vision is excellent, but I can't seem to see things far away too well. She told me that I only really needed them for driving or walking down the street, but for the most part I will not need them day-to-day but I should wear them every day for a while to make sure things are OK.

I brought Courtney with me because I can barely dress myself much less pick out new glasses. We tried on pair after pair. I used to put up a fight, but I realized it is much easier to just grit it out until she is done. So a couple of hundred dollars later we left.

This whole experience is making me feel pretty old. Vision is going, I am tired all of the time, next thing you know I will be wearing plastic underwear soon. Courtney is out with her mom holiday shopping and she is going to pick them up for me. Feeling mega dorky. I will try and upload a picture if I think of it.

On an unrelated note I need to log the story of C taking her mom to the grocery store for the first time after her mom's hip replacement surgery. Should drag this out into its own post for comedic effect, but who knows when I will be back in this thing.

Her mom is getting around now, but she is slow, needs her walker and is obviously afraid of slipping in the snow and slush. When they got to the grocery store all of the wheelchairs were in use so C left her at the front door, walked across the front of the store past the registers and got the motorized cart. The grocery store during the day is full of seniors and other fiber-deficient people so there is a run on wheelchairs. Unfortunately, there isn't anyway to push the cart across the store so she had to climb in.

Once she sat in it all of the loving, AARP card-carrying geriatrics shot her looks that would boil their Grape Nuts. She was well aware of this and put in reverse to back it out and take it over to her Mom in front of all the aged folks. You know how fast these things go so the scorn could be felt burning hotly. It must have been her head hung in shame or something else, but she did not see the holiday display which she clipped with the front of the cart and knocked completely to the floor.

Of course, she kept on going (before going back) and happened to get to her Mom at the same time one of her girlfriend's was coming into the store to witness the carnage.

I am seriously thinking of trying to get the security tapes so I can upload them to YouTube. Yes, ladies and gentleman, this is my wife. Have a good Sunday