Big Weekend!

DERICKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, Joe managed to pull one over on us. Derick had come back for Chris & Colleen's wedding last weekend, and was sticking around until tomorrow. So Joe set it up for Derick to come game with us on Saturday as a surprise. Derick moved to California in January needing a change. It was a big step for him and is clearly proving to have been the right one. He's the great tough-guy with an absolute heart of gold. I miss him. It was great to see him. I need to email him more often! We took a group "we miss you" photo a couple of weekends back that I've been meaning to get everyone to sign to email him. We even had a bottle of his Sunkist standing in as him in the photo. Maybe I'll post it here.

So, for the rest of the weekend, it went something like this:

Thursday night we saw Brad Sherwood and Colin Mochrie perform. If you've ever seen the TV show "Whose line is it anyways?", they're two of the regulars. It was at the North Fork Theater in Westbury, which is a surprisingly TINY theatre in the round. We had an absolute blast. My cheeks were still hurting through most of Friday at work. If they're coming to a theatre near you, I highly recommend it. It didn't hurt that we had great seats either! I'll go through my photos at some point soon and post any that turned out well. Yep, I've got my camera back, all fixed and (seemingly) working well.

Friday – didn't do anything special. Felt like I was coming down with an ear infection all day and pretty much just lazed on the couch for the evening. I have a feeling I'm forgetting something, so if I remember it, I'll add it.

Saturday – Got up out of bed to a phone call from my Dr's about my blood work. Something's definitely up with my WBC's. Would I please come in sometime this week so we can repeat the test. Decide since I've got the nurse on the phone to ask if there's any chance I can get in this morning as I'm coming down with an ear infection. She checks. Answer: "Get here ASAP and we'll fit you in somewhere. Be prepared for a wait though". I'm perfectly okay with this, and thrilled to not have to wait until Tuesday to see her (she closes Mondays since she's open Saturdays). Hurriedly get dressed, skip the shower, brush my teeth and hair and run out the door, apologizing to Brian that now he'll have to do my share of the cleaning for the "new gamer" coming later. I figure if I make a good first impression, they're more likely to forgive and forget when we don't get the cleaning done. I get to the Dr.'s and there's not a soul in the waiting room. Pretty much right in, see the Dr. and then out. Confirms ear infection, gives me antibiotics just in case given the WBC issues. (She generally is against the overprescription of antibiotics, and that's something I really appreciate. I'm really limited to what ones I can take due to allergies and don't want to risk developing some type of resistant bug. That'd be all I need!) As I'm leaving the waiting room is completely full. Not an empty seat, and several people standing. I'm very glad I didn't take my time in heading over there…
Gaming with Derick (and Helen, Andy, Jen, Joe, Jay, Jess, John, Brian, Rob and probably a few more people I've forgotten and left out). Had fun playing at an APL 10 mod that wasn't insanely hard. Will have to find Steve Hess at a con sometime and thank him. And then kill him for all the bad puns in it… But I wouldn't expect anything less from him.

Sunday – Mother's Day – Our local Lego store is closing and everything was 50% off, so we *had* to go and check it out. Did fairly well and only spent $60. And a lot of that was stocking up on gifts for the nieces for upcoming occasions. The store was just starting to get slammed as we left. We called our moms. I deliberately wanted to wait to call mom at lunch time since I knew from Bonnie and John they were going to do the family brunch thing. Called Brian's mom, but got the machine. Tried Elizabeth's place, same thing. I had won tickets to the Long Island Ducks game (baseball) from work for the day, so off we went. We were enjoying the game, but it was cold (50F/10C) to be sitting outside, even dressed in layers. When it started to sprinkle, we decided that going home and being warm and dry was probably the better decision. Walked in the door and check for messages in case Brian's mom had called back. Nope. We hadn't even been in long enough for Brian to get his shoes off when the phone rings. He just looks at me. "The surveillance is starting again I see". Had a nice chat with Janet, and even let Brian talk to her too! Didn't do much for the rest of the day but try to get warm and try to survive being sick.

This bug is really knocking me for a loop. Ear/sinus infection, and moving on to my chest today. I didn't get much sleep last night, and spent most of it propped up in my stitching chair trying not to hock up a lung. I'm surviving work today well-medicated, but wouldn't trust myself to be doing anything involving thought processes. I even (rightly) decided there was no way I should be driving like this, so Brian's on chauffeur duty again. He's being really good to me right now, and I appreciate it. That's all, no stitching to report as, as Brian put it "If I offered you a penny for your thoughts, would I get two cents back?"