It’s a nice day

This being sick thing is getting old, quickly.

I woke up this morning with a horrific pain in my throat.  It hurt just to breathe through my mouth, which was absolutely necessary because my nose was stuffed up.  Breathing through my mouth set off a round of hacking, which served only to further irritate my already-tender throat.

Plus I could hardly talk.

Kurt called the clinic for me first thing, but being a military clinic, they were closed.  Bahhhh.  And you know, if I want to go to the doctor, you know it’s serious!

Fortunately, I thought to take some Motrin this morning, which killed the ache in my throat.  But then my nose got all stuffy.  Apparently I was destined to suffer today.

Now I’ve got Motrin in my system, and I found some nasal spray in my medicine cabinet to kick the stuffiness in my nose.  My sore throat has returned to some degree, but that may be because the nasal spray irritated it a bit.  I don’t know.

Maybe I’m just falling apart.

Did I mention my voice sounds like absolute crap?  My friends called me a few times this weekend, and one of them didn’t even believe it was me who answered.  She thought she’d called the wrong number!  Trust me, it’s bad.

So how was your weekend?  Our weekend started once Kurt got home on Thursday afternoon.  His command decided to give everyone special liberty on Friday, and today is a federal holiday.  Friday night was Grace’s party, and then on Saturday my friend Angela came down to visit!!

Angela and I went to college together and met in our freshman year.  That means we have known each other lo these eleven years.  Eleven years!!  That is almost as bad as Kurt and me.  I have known him almost half my life.  Can you even imagine??

We had such a great time together, but then we always do!  Angela has a very quick wit, and our time together is spent laughing and giggling together.  She is certainly the cure for any kind of blues because there is no way you can not crack up in her presence.

We wandered around Newport on Saturday afternoon, and then that evening I introduced her to my friends here.  We had dinner at one of the fine eating establishments in historic Newport and spent the rest of the evening enjoying adult beverages.  Neither one of us drank that much, but we certainly enjoyed watching our friends imbibe.  It was then that I was introduced to the drink known as the Irish Car Bomb.

Friends, I am not much of a drinker.  Well.  Lately I am, but that’s beside the point.  I am not much of a bar person, let’s say that instead.  I do not know many drinks.  Most of the time I stick to margaritas (on the rocks, plenty of salt), although now I am branching out into the realm of whiskey sours.

I have to say, the Irish Car Bomb grosses me out.  Take a pint of Guinness.  Take a shot of Bailey’s Irish Cream.  Drop said shot into the Guinness (some folks insist on dropping the entire shot in the beer, glass and all, though my friends simply poured the Bailey’s into the the Guinness to prevent chipping their teeth), and guzzle before the Bailey’s begins to curdle.

You know, any drink that you have to down before it begins to curdle sounds like a Bad Idea in my book.  I didn’t even want to try it.

Unfortunately, Angela had to make an early escape on Sunday morning, as she had other plans she had to keep.  She left Kurt and me to our own devices, and we started planning our anniversary.

Yes, that’s right, folks — our wedding anniversary was yesterday!  Seven whole years, and we haven’t murdered each other yet.  It’s hard to believe it’s been seven years already, and now we have two kids.  Where does the time go?

Kurt asked me a while ago what I wanted for our anniversary, and I told him that I wanted what I want every year — for him to make me dinner.  It’s not that he doesn’t know how to cook because he’d cook every other night if I let him.  He’s just so good at making “fancy” food that it’s a real treat for him to cook for a special occasion.

Our anniversary was no exception.  He found a delicious recipe for cumin grilled scallops, though he elected to swap the scallops out for salmon.  He served it over a salad of chickpeas that was dressed with red peppers and a lovely tahini vinaigrette.  And if that weren’t enough, he also made a roasted corn chowder and served it in a bread bowl.  It was DIVINE!

(Photo HERE, if you are interested.)

And now in honor of Columbus Day, I shall leave you with this because it is freakin’ hilarious!  Enjoy!