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Well it's been a rough few days. On Friday the weather was so great. It was warm and sunny - full of the promise of Spring. Gary and I had been talking about getting some new outside furniture and a new grill for a while. Friday seemed like a perfect day to finally do it as Gary was coming home early from work. I spent the morning finding the perfect umbrella and then fitting it up with a set of twinkle lights. Then when Gary came home we made our way to Target for the furniture we wanted and then to Walmart for the grill. We got a screaming deal on a grill that was last years model. It has a side burner, this thing that sears meat and storage underneath. The racks that you cook on are removable and porcelain so easy to clean and very durable. The guy at Walmart said it would take about an hour to assemble. Perfect. Just in time for dinner!

As is often the case things didn't go so smoothly once we got home. There was a defective piece so Gary had to take it back and get another. In the end I had to cook the kid's hotdogs inside and they had to make do with that as it was getting late. We finally had everything set up by about 8pm. Just in time to sit there for a few minutes and admire the umbrella lights for a while.

Saturday we had high hopes for grilling steak and so on. Not only was it cold but it was raining as well. I had to bring the umbrella inside the garage. The kids were disappointed to say the least.

Saturday night I was starting to feel rough. Sore throat and yucky symptoms similar to what the kids had over Easter.

Sunday morning, it took ALL my willpower to drag my butt out of bed. My throat felt like someone was sticking a knife into it. But the kids were popping and Sunday is church so that's what we did. Grilling was on the menu for the afternoon but it was still too cold to sit outside. Gary grilled the food and then we had to eat it inside. The kids were unimpressed and I was ready to lay on the sofa under an afghan.

Monday morning looked like this.......

What the heck?? And to top it off my voice had disappeared. When I could get anything out I sounded like I had a serious disease. I didn't even get a late start out of the weather so instead of climbing back under the warm covers to nurse my sore throat I had to get up and make what seemed like a 1000 sandwiches and toasted bagels and then drive Leia to school. Fortunately the boys used their whisper voices since I was whispering, so it was a fairly quiet day all in all. Of course I had to deal with media presenting the swine flu as an imminent pandemic that's going to wipe us out. I am so sick of hearing about how the EU is discouraging travel to the US, and sick of seeing people in airports wearing medical masks. My family are supposed to be here in four weeks and it doesn't help their state of mind. I tend to think that as much will come of this as the bird flu which was basically nothing. It's a conspiracy to get rid of all the vaccine they never actually had to use last time.

So last night Gary started to have severe pain in his ear. He has been experiencing deafness in that ear for a while and went to the doctor a while back. He was prescribed steroids and antibiotics and told that they didn't really know what was wrong. Well the medications hadn't worked and it was getting worse culminating in pressure so bad he couldn't lay down let alone sleep. He eventually decided to go to the Emergency Room. $100 to get some numbing medication for the ear followed by no less than 4 prescriptions that will be at least $10 each. It turns out that he has a very bad infection that had caused fluid build up or something. The last antibiotics weren't strong enough. I think there may be more going on. He's going to go to an audiologist since the deafness, ringing in the ear and dizziness seem a bit more serious than just an ear infection.

I was still feeling bad this morning and I asked Gary if he could stay home. But no. Even a nighttime trip to the Emergency Room wasn't good enough reason to miss some teleconference he has going on and neither are my throat ailments which are still going strong. But it's sure to be nice and sunshiney to cheer me up right? Here is the sight which greeted me when I opened up the front door this morning.....

Gee - is Spring ever going to get to Colorado? Fog is meant to be confined to damp climates. I'm not being unreasonable. It's May in a few days. After a wonderful sunny winter I was lulled into a false sense of security. I suppose it serves me right that we are having a seriously awful Spring so far. I've done enough bragging about how it's always sunny here. All I can say is that it has no more than 4 weeks to sort itself out since I've as good as promised my family the best weather EVER!

So here's to another day of sounding like a frog and laying on the sofa. I can see Gary's ear numbing drops on the counter so maybe he'll be popping home in the middle of the day. That would be nice!