Blue Monday

It's grey and rainy here in SW Florida today. "Ain't no sunshine" as Bill Withers sang, and it's kind of depressing. At least I don't live in Oswego, New York.

In health news, I seem to have developed pneumonia. I had it a year ago, and the same symptoms are back. It's a mild case, but I'm still coughing a lot; my voice is hoarse; my head is splitting -- maybe sinuses. I've got black (Coach®) bags under my eyes from sleeping poorly. Oh, and my period came back after being on hiatus for 2 months. Crap! I sincerely hoped I was done with all that mess. I would have a hysterectomy tomorrow if DH would agree: I am so sick of the monthly mood swings, weight gains, and gastric distress. OTOH, he warns me I could feel depressed for many months afterwards. Well, hell, isn't that what Zoloft is for???

In family news, my father had surgery last week to reverse his colostomy. He did well enough in the hospital to go home three days later. Unfortunately, he gained 16 pounds while in the hospital. He thought it was from not moving his bowels, but it is more likely congestive heart failure. When I last heard from him, he was deciding between calling his cardiologist and going to the emergency room. What fun.

In other family news, my in-laws were here for the weekend. We had a good time with them. They didn't once ask about my dad, although I volunteered information a couple of times. They lauded the praises of their children and how close WineGuy used to be with his siblings, who apparently call each other all the time. I grew tired of hearing how great WineGuy used to be (implying that his losing contact was b/c of me) and finally said "I guess it's my fault." I left it at that. I should mention that my in-laws and my parents absolutely, positively hate each other. There was little fondness when they first met; the relationship went up in flames over our wedding and shower planning. It used to be a tremendous source of stress for us; now we endeavor to keep them apart. It means that I end up spending every holiday with WineGuy's family. We haven't shared a holiday with my family in years, and it depresses me. Especially at Passover, when we sing lots of songs: my family and I used to sing and harmonize and enjoy the traditional melodies. Now, I have to listen to a bunch of tone-deaf people drone on in the "key of me". It is positively painful. [end whining]

Wild Thing caught a cold and is home from school today. We used our time to prepare the boys' Valentines' treats. I dare say that our Valentines will once again blow everyone else's away. For Wizard and Wild Thing, I ordered small batches of custom-printed M&Ms in Valentine colors. Then we bought many bags of Valentines M&Ms at Target. We found miniature Chinese take-out boxes at the craft store – red for Wizard's class and purples for WT's class. WT and I filled 3/4 of each box with the Valentines M&Ms and topped each box with the custom-printed M&Ms. We sealed each box with a sticker I made that said "Valentine's Day 2006, From [Wizard or Wild Thing]" and had the Chinese character for friend. That's right, I wrote 2006 and missed it. WT noticed the error immediately! When I went to re-print the stickers, my printer ran out of ink; we're off to Sam's Club in a minute to buy more.

For Moose, I custom-designed his own wrappers for Hershey® bars. I used a template I found last year in Family Fun magazine and customized it for Moose. He's so excited to share them with his friends.

My Valentines are better than yours ... neener, neener, neener. [smirk]