Sniff.Hack.Blow.Repeat.Part2

Yup, you've got it. It's me, the sickling. I just can't beat THE CRAP. I don't think I ever totally recovered from my strep throat/flu cocktail I had two weeks ago. Throw the thermometer roller coaster and good ole holiday stress onto it and I'm back in PJs. Last weekend was just so packed with the race, parade, marathon holiday shopping, tour of homes, holiday party at a friends house, etc etc that I think I just wore myself back down. Tuesday as soon as I got to work - which has been blazing hot all week b/c I think they just didn't turn the AC back on even though it got up to 76 degrees on Tuesday - I started sneezing and hacking and it's been downhill since. I literally think work made me sick! I have sensitive allergies and I think the air change made me and a lot of others at work sick.

It really sucked because we had a small dinner party Tuesday night and I was in that first stage of allergies where my head is fuzzy and my nose is draining. Doesn't everyone want to eat the food someone like that has just made??? Regardless the party went really well and I think fun was had by all. We've decided we want to learn more about other cultures so we had a small Hanukkah themed dinner party. We made a menu of latkes, applesauce, fritters, cheesecake, steak, Hanukkah shaped cookies and matzo balls. I had ordered a little menorah, dreidels and a few other things online and we read the story of Hanukkah to learn more about it. None of us really knew much about Hanukkah before hand so we all really learned a lot and had a blast sampling some new foods. Except matzo balls, I've got to admit that just wasn't my thing.

Now my allergies have moved to the phase where it's mostly in my throat and chest leading to a lot of coughing. At work I went through a whole bag of cough drops between yesterday and today. All this crap has made working out a disaster this week. On Monday I had a good run, skipped working out Tues and Wed due to the dinner party and then a Christmas lunch for my dpt on Wed, and then yesterday I just did the elliptical and today I walked uphill on the treadmill. After both easy workouts I felt worse than before, so it might not have been the brightest idea. Today Brent had threatened to confiscate my gym bag but I made it out of the house without him doing so, even thought it probably would have been best if he did. I would love to just be able to breathe again....

Tonight we went to an art show being held at a super crowded bar. I had wanted to go because this is a super trendy spot that lots of famous people - like JT - seem to hang out at. It was just miserable. So crowded and you just couldn't move or even see the art for all the people. Not that a thing had sold because it was being held at a super crowded bar full of young pretty people that spend their money on martinis and not art. So we were glad that we had decided not to put one of Brent's pieces in the show. Afterwards we walked over to try out the Mellow Mushroom. I really wasn't impressed. The pizza was pretty greasy and limp and our waitress couldn't have been less interested in us. Granted, we were the oldest people there (it's right by Vandy) but you'd think she'd realize we have a lot more money to leave her a tip. Anyway, we've always wanted to try it and so now we have. It wasn't terrible, it just wasn't worth a return trip.

Tomorrow we've got some holiday baking to do, wrapping, prob a little shopping, and I have to get cracking on my Christmas cards. We've yet to send the first one out and that's just terrible! I've got the stamps now, my holiday letter is now printed and I had started addressing a few so the groundwork is there. And tomorrow night is my department's holiday dinner. Hopefully in there I can find some time to rest and get over this stupid allergy thing.

And finally, here are some pics from the parade/race:

"The Package" went flying past me about a half mile into the race. This guy was booking it - in a box.








Once again, the Grinch beat me.....









I'm in the gray shirt and blue pants, next to the red shirt guy.









Here's Snowbird - our local weather "mascot".








This is Gnash - our NHL Team Mascot.









Here are some Andy Griffith dress-up characters. I yelled something at one of them and he said something about Judy-Judy-Judy to me. I have no clue what that means...








And of course Santa was the big finale.








I'll prob dump all of them into my flickr account tomorrow, gotta make use of my unlimited storage space! Happy weekend everyone!