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So I am just getting over a medium strenght cold. It didn't totally knock me off my feet, but it did make me feel pretty horrible for a few days. It started Sunday morning when I woke up with a sore throat. That's how it always starts with me. First the throat. Then it moves up into my sinuses and sloshes around in there for a few days. Then it comes full force out my nose for a couple more days. If I'm lucky, it stops there. If not, then it moves back down into my chest ansd I get a nice hacking phlegmy cough. I think I'm lucky this time. I'm almost over it - my nose is starting to dry up. But I haven't really been able to do anything. I haven't done any exercise. I haven't done any laundry. I haven't washed any dishes. I haven't surfed any net. Of course, it did not help that Claudine was on call Monday (delivering five babies that night) and had late office hours Tuesday and tonight. So from the time I picked up the kids from daycare each day, I sat in front of the T.V. waiting for the boys respective bedtimes. When Jake would finally drift off at around 9:15 P.M., I would pop two Sudafed (actually there generic equivelant), collapse into bed, and sleep until Bobby started crying in the morning - usually at around 5:00 A.M.
And my days at work were no picnic either. The cold coupled with the fact that Windows NT was still being a pain in my ass made the last days pretty crappy. I had to finally reinstall NT, but my stupid backup domain controller had a corrupted user database. So some of the people trying to log in on Monday were unsuccessful. It was one of those "run-around" mornings where everyone is calling you at once, asking when they will be able to get back on the network. It sucked. I think everything is back to normal now. Of course, this Friday I'm going to make a whole new batch of problems by trying to go ahead with the conversion to Windows 2000 server. I'm sure there will be more swearing.
My sore throat did nothing to stop the main event of the day on sunday. Jake's 5th birthday party was a huge success. The only thing that was a little weird was seeing a huge materialistic streak appear in Jake. After he opened his last gift, he actually used the phrase "are there any more presents?" Then when Connor, his best friend from daycare, arrived late (they said they would be late) he ran around the house telling everyone "Connor's here, Connor's here, Connor's here... to give me my present!" He truly was happy to see Connor, but it was weird for him to throw in the bit about the present. I wondered if anyone at the party was jumping to the conclusion that we spoil him. We don't really, but I think I would have jumped to that conclusion, if I heard stuff like that as a guest. But he was more than polite the rest of the time.
An interesting realization occured to me during the party. I am finally achieving a sense of "neighborhood" that I never really had before. My parents are not very social people. Growing up, I don't remember any parties at our house. My parents rarely went out with other couples. They would go out a great deal by themselves - dinner once a week and little trips every six months or so. Even the neighborhood we lived in was filled with younger couples than them. We were the older kids on the block - which was great for earning babysitting money - but not very good in terms of "getting to know" the people next door. Then I got married (the first time) and lived in a beach town full of older townies and young snooty rich kids. After that marriage, I lived by myself in an apartment building that had a number of foriegn, non-english speaking families in it. After Claudine and I got married and moved into our rented house in Madison, she was so busy that we never got a chance to see anybody in the town. Finally, Claudine and I were lucky when we moved in to this house. There is a couple next door to us that are about the same age as us and have a 5 year old boy and a 3 year old girl. We are always watching each other's kids. jake will disappear for hours at a time in their house. I know he's safe and the couple next door know that their kids are safe when they come over here. And while Connor's parents don't life in our neighborhood, we sat and talked with them for a while after everyone else had left. This Sunday Jake is going to spend the afternoon at Connor's house. We are starting to put down roots, I guess.
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