If you can hear a piano fall, you can hear me coming down the hall...

I cannot remember ever being this sick. Not as an adult anyway. Sure, I've been sick before. When I was pregnant, I took the word sick and redefined it; Hell, I wrote an encyclopedia article about it. But this cold has completely done me in. It started Tuesday with just a little tickle in my throat and a tiny cough. That was at 4 PM. By 10 PM, I'm coughing so loud and so hard that they cats won't come anywhere near me and Marco just paced around and cried.

Since then it's been a non-stop coughing fest. My back and my ribs are killing me. My throat is painfully raw. Last night, I finally lost my voice. I don't even have a good example of what I sound like. Ummm, how about a goose stuck between two mattresses? That's got to be pretty close.

But now the coughing has very much subsided; it's still there but it has returned to the clearing-the-throat version, not the bringing-up-a-lung version. Back-to-back doses of NyQuil and sleeping until 11 AM can do wonders it seems. I'm still sore all over, but I think I've found my way through the dark forest of illness. This was all so bad that it was making me wish that I was at school with the zombies! Now that's sick!

But now for the other bit of news. I'm afraid your party shoes are going to have to wait a little longer. The Man and I were discussing his graduation party situation and started making out an invitation list. It got very unwieldy, very fast. There is no possible way that all those people could fit in our house, not even if half of them didn't come! So our option were 1) Rent a hall or 2) Wait until summer. Option 1 doesn't really work because people who have just graduated with their masters don't actually have a lot of extra cash lying around, so no. That leaves us with Option 2, putting you all on ice until our yard is party-ready and having a graduation party five (or six) months after said graduation. The upside is that at that time of year there will be "Happy Graduation" cards in the drugstore. They don't put those out for the poor lonely January graduates. How sad!

This is a Public Service Announcement

Oh! I thought finding the "Free To Be You and Me" clips were exciting! The other morning the Man and I were discussing those little public service announcements that they played between the Saturday morning cartoons. There were several and they all involved a little yellow guy who danced around and told you to eat more cheese and make juice pops and brush your teeth. There was one line we both remembered for sure: The little yellow guy has a slice of cheese and as he rolls it by he says, "Look! A wagon wheel!".

No kidding, later the same day the Man goes to YouTube, types in "look a wagon wheel" and here's what you get! Do you remember these PSAs?

A short week in review

I'm still not in the mood to talk about the basement and I don't think I ever will be. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here's three thousands words (all bad ones at that), for you to marvel over.

I will say that I love my new washer and dryer. We bought them on Saturday and they were delivered Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m. How unbelievable is that! Also today was garbage day and every single bit of the towering refuse mountain was taken away through a combination of the garbage pickers and the real garbage men. Got to love that!

On a completely different note though, I also have to give props to Sweet P. for saving her own behind last night on Project Runway with her outstanding ready-to-wear dress. I'm SO ready to wear it!

Finally, the man has a fan. One of his pieces was recently published in The Sun. A reader of The Sun and a fellow blogger fell in love with it and wanted to put it on her blog. Her story about getting in touch with the man for permission is - for lack of a better word- adorable. She describes herself as giddy. That works too. Check out her story-- http://dailypiglet.wordpress.com/2008/01/14/i-am-steve-martin-in-the-movie-the-jerk/

Babies Everywhere

I don't want to talk about three feet of water in my basement Tuesday night. Nope, nope, nope. That's what the man came home to, poor guy. And no, I don't want to talk about how today the man and I are going shopping for the new washer and dryer because of said water. Not a nice topic. And I really don't want to talk about the mountain of wet, ruined, stinky stuff sitting in my side yard waiting for garbage day. No way.

Instead,today is for all my friends out there who are going forth and multiplying. All this baby news and talk brought me around to remembering these two babies from my past. I know I'm not the only person out there who got seriously geeked up when it was "Free To Be You and Me" day at school. They would roll out the big clicky projector and jam us all in one room. It was one of the best days of the school year! And even though we only watched it once a year, we could talk and sing right along with it. Anyway, this is for all my knocked up sisters Desiree, Weaver, Cathy Lynn, Stacy and for the brand new mommies Jen and Nanci.

Day 7, 8, 9... Whatever!

I think I did pretty well, but I'm just not a post everyday kind of chick. I just don't have that much to say that would even be remotely interesting for anyone else to read. Do you want to hear about cleaning out the refrigerator or what movie we watched last night. I don't think so. Also, it was starting to feel like a job. I blog here because I enjoy it and posting everyday was taking all the fun away. Not that I have anything against you blogging everyday folk. More power to you. But I'm not thinking you'll ever find me participating in NaBloPoMo.

But none of this is important because today is GRADUATION DAY for the man!

Except there's no caps and gowns as his ceremony today. And most definitely not that many people. A few of the graduates wanted to go with the caps and gowns, but when you have a graduating class of 23, those few got shouted down pretty fast. I'm not sure what time the ceremony is (2 PM?), but just think about the man today and send him happy thoughts.

This is Vermont College, almost the whole thing. I guess there are a few other buildings, but this is the big one where most everything happens. Now you have to imagine it encased in ice and heaped with snow around it. That's what it actually looks like.

But even this being Graduation Day isn't as important as the fact that the man is driving home tomorrow. And that's all that matters. This has been a long residency for all of us. I'm so happy it's almost at an end.

So send the man your congratulations today at jenericdsp@aol.com He would love to hear from you!

Day Six

Dear Man,

This is the girl. Today we went to get my pointe shoes. I had to try on a lot of pairs of shoes. But these ones were my favorites and they fit the best. They are more pink than most shoes because they're older. They are very narrow so they had been sitting in the store a long time.




We went out shopping today and had lunch at Bennigan's. I had the potato soup, which was very good. I'm not sure if I like it more than Applebee's soup.


When we got home we cut up all the Christmas cards to make into our thank you cards. We didn't have enough cards with good pictures so Grammy gave us hers.


I'm very proud of you because you did good on your lecture today. I can't until you come home. :-)

Day Five

Dear Man,

Happy New Year!!! Since we stayed up extra late last night, we ended up sleeping in extra long today. (But we didn't stay up as late as you!!!) We had a big brunch after we finally got moving. Then the girl did some nice hard work on her school project; grudgingly, but she did it.


This evening we went to Grandma's for our annual New Year's Day dinner of kielbasa and sauerkraut. Then we helped take down her tree and all the Christmas decorations. Lots of boxes to lug out and fill and then return, but we got it done in no time at all. When all was finally packed away we had apple pie and watched "Order of the Phoenix" together. The roads were very icy and scary on the way to Grandma's, but clear and easy for the drive home.


Tomorrow morning you finally get to give your lecture that you've been preparing for so long. I know you'll do great. So does Yausen and Pooh Bear! Break a leg, Man!



P.S. Tonight we got the story of Yausen's name. On the day that I got him (and Mom says that she HAD to buy him because he was they cutest doll she had ever seen), my parents were discussing a friend of theirs who was going to Boston. Right after that, I told them that my new puppet's name was Yausen. She's always assumed that I was trying to say "Boston", but it came out as Yausen. But she can't remember how old I was when all this happened. So now we have a story to go with his strange name!