"The time has come," the Walrus said,

"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

The Walrus and The Carpenter, Lewis Carroll

Well, the time has come to blog again and this blog is about mono. Yes, that's right, give me your best "kissing disease" jokes now. Let it be stated for the record that, as far as we know, Mike is mono-free. I, on the other hand, am mono-licious. I've been super thankful that I seem to be able to mostly function in daily life, just at a decreased level, versus having that variety I've heard all about since accumulating this disease where you can't get out of bed and crawl everywhere.

But don't get me wrong: this is not something you want to try out for kicks. In the past 2 weeks I've had 2 blood tests, 2 throat swabs, been on antibiotics for an ear infection, my liver and spleen are enlarged and I was on high-dose prednisone for that, tomorrow I go for an ultrasound of my liver and spleen and they've already written me up a requisition to get more bloodwork done next Friday. Have I ever mentioned that I can't stand doctors and anything involving needles usually reduces me to tears?

So as it stands now, my abdomin is swollen and super tender again due to my enlarged liver and spleen. When I went in to get the latest bloodwork back today I waited an hour-and-a-half to hear some nut-job say, "Wow, your liver's a mess", me: "Yeah, thanks.", Dr. Nut-Job: "Yeah, it's in pretty rough shape." I phoned Heather and told her this and she had a good laugh because she says it makes me sound like I'm an alcoholic.

And there lies the tale of my mono experience thus far. I'm so very thankful that it's not worse and I hope this ends soon, but in the meantime, Mike and I are getting a lot of DVD's watching in. If anyone can perform miracles of a healing fashion in the form of snapping their fingers or twitching their nose, please contact me immediately.

Blood, Snow Patrol, and Batman

Well folks, I'm sick. It's not just the regular strep throat sick I was hoping for--this one's going to need more time than that. The throat swab came back negative. Got some blood work done and that solved the mystery but I'll keep you all in the dark a little longer. I will tell you that I have a bad ear infection. Round 2 of antibiotics was started yesterday as it was not responding to the first kind. So as a result, I have no idea how often I'll be blogging. I hope to thrill you with witty antidotes and insightful bits but there's no promises.

Recently, Mike and I took in a concert and our friend Michelle came with some of her friends. The band: Snow Patrol. The concert: awesome. Even the opening band was good. They were called Augustana. Mike and I opted to find some seats while the rest of them stood on the floor. We sat near a spot where a large rubber mat was duct-taped down to the cement floor to cover a bunch of cables and that provided our pre-show entertainment when Mike realized that people were tripping over it.

From then on we watched people and said things like "I really hope the blond one trips!" or "I really want the emo one to trip!" And sometimes they did and that was awesome. Whenever anyone would trip we would explode into laughter. It was so awsome. The best was an emo kid with tight-to-the-ankle black pants, tight black jacket with his hands in his pockets, black emo hair, and a Batman belt-buckle* who tripped in such a way that had us laughing hard and long. And during the concert we saw a girl in heels and a dress bail at the bottom of the stairs and get helped up by a security gaurd (she was ok). We laughed.

Till next time, keep fit and have fun.



*Batman himself is not emo, he is way to hardcore to be emo. At the same time, he also cannot control the sales of his merchandise due to the fact that he is fighting crime with his friends or in his Batcave solving mysterious happenings or speeding somewhere in his hot Batmobile.

Sweet like candy to my soul

How did The Dave Matthews Band at The Gorge on Labour Day weekend rock my face off? Let me count the ways. This could take awhile...

1. We (Mike, Heather, and Michelle-the partially dread-ed) drove down to Everett on Friday night and camped at Lakeside RV Park. We pulled in around 10ish and the office was closed so we just set up camp and dropped money through the office slot in the morning as we also left before they were open. The bathroom doors all had those 1-2-3-4-5 code boxes on them and we had the wrong code so we all peed in the bushes. At one point Heather thought there was someone coming and somehow she managed to do up her pants and I didn't so I was running for all I was worth while holding my pants together and up. This situation was rectified in the morning when I waited outside the bathroom for about 10 minutes until some man with a cigar walked by and I asked him the code. I wanted a shower that bad. It was fantastic.

The only non-rock-my-face-off-moment was when Mike and I went to find out directions to the camp site at some gas station and when we came out I discovered that Heather farted on my pillow. I aired it out the window. It sucked. A lot.

2. We drove down to Seattle the next morning and hit Pike Place Market. Michelle and Heather stayed there while Mike and I walked over to EMP (the Experience Music Project). We saw lots of great things and the walk was very nice. We met back up with the girls at Pike Place and then we visited the very first Starbucks ever so I could buy a Pike Place Market-a.k.a. coffee mecca-Starbucks City Mug. We had lunch at the Pike Place Pub and shared a pitcher of Kilt Lifter beer. Good food, good brew, good people.

3. After we stopped off in Ellensburg to get guacamole supplies we drove on down to Vantage, a 'don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it' type town. We set up camp and then headed to The Gorge for Dave. Mike didn't buy a ticket before and scalpers were, well, scalpers and wanted way too much so Mike made friends with a drunk guy named Pat while we were inside, preparing to have our faces rocked off.

4. Once inside we took up post on a rock ledge and yelled at people walking on the sidewalk below. We heard some great things, including: "I once ate a Bible while water-skiing" and some random guy who asked if we had pot for sale sang us a song and it went "Girls! From Canada! Look at these chicks! They're from Canada!" That was fantastic. Well, fast forward to Dave. It happened. He did it. He played 'Crash' for his second song and that's when I turned to Jell-o. It was unbelievable. The whole show was unbelievable. It was the best show I have ever seen in my life. He played a 3-hour set, including the encore. I'm still in shock. And when we got out of the show, my amazing man was waiting there for us to drive us back to the campsite.

5. That night Heather and Michelle made it back to the tent for 4:22am. The next morning they were not happy campers when we woke them up at 7:45am in order to get Heather back to Abbotsford to sing.

6. As we drove home, after McDonald's and Starbucks, I made guacamole in the front seat of Mike's car. We put it in the cooler and enjoyed it a little later. Some have said that it sounds gross (hey, I washed the veggies and my hands before). Let me inform you that it is amazing.

7. After we dropped off Heather and Michelle we headed right out to Cultus Lake to stay in a cabin with Michelle-she just plain rocks-and her family that we love so dearly. It was great to take a shower and relax a little and eat real food again. The dinner was so yummy! The next morning we got up and played some mini-golf at Giggle Ridge with their family, possibly the most fantastic mini-golf course in the land. It makes Wonderland look like mini-golf barfed all over it. It's that good.

If you've made it to the end of this, you're my new hero. Hey, its been awhile since I last posted (a real post) but I made it worth it:) I'm already plotting the Dave adventure for next year...all in favor, 'Stand Up'.

Things I do might be magic...

I'm working on the Penske File at this time and, as such, will be blogging about the goodness that is Dave Matthews later this week. Thank you for your understanding and patience.

Sincerly,

Velvet Queen

*The Penske File and Velvet Queen and "things I do might be magic" references refer to how much I enjoy the way I'm linked on a couple of friends blogs. For the record, I have no idea who Penske is nor why I would be working on their file, I have a feeling velvet is only ok to joke about and not actually wear in public, and I know that there is no way that any part of what I do is magic. The Dave post, and subsequent posts, are coming soon. Thanks for waiting all you lovelies!