he's down with the sickness

Poor JR. Since I got home from work on Wednesday, he's been terribly ill. His throat got really sore again, he was coughing, and his back was aching.

And then his back REALLY started hurting. He tossed and turned all night that night, moaning with every movement. And his fever started going up. And up. Despite periodic dosing with Tylenol, it topped out that night at 101.7. It's been swinging up and down ever since.

He felt a little better part of yesterday, so being the clean freak he is, instead of resting up and getting better, he did a ton of laundry, washing all the sheets and blankets, even ones he's only looked at while passing by. I'm sure that level of activity really helped. It helped the damn virus come on full strength all over again.

Last night he was all twitchy, shaking the bed constantly, and he insisted on going out to sleep on the couch so he didn't keep me awake. I protested, but he was right - I did finally get to sleep. He finally came back to bed this morning, and I'm lying here while he tosses and turns and mumbles and moans next to me. At least his fever is finally dropping. Just a little over an hour ago it was still at 100, but it's dropped to 99.6 on the most recent reading.

So remember the scary JR from a couple of posts ago? He's baaaaaaaaack.

we gotta pay the rent

Silly mid-day chat between me and my man. Background: Winston is our not-the-sharpest-tool-in-the-shed 11 year old dog, and Mercury is our wily, calculating 2 year old cat.

Winston		Mercury

me: ok
          let's not forget the rent
John: wont
me: i wish we could just call and get winston to take care of it
          ;D
John: lol
          thats rediculous
me: yeah - mercury would be better...
          but i don't trust him with the $$$
John: i dont trust him with the ladies
          but i trust him with the moola

our drive to TX: an excerpt

I thought I'd give you a little glimpse into the first leg of our drive to Texas, from SF to Phoenix:

meow. meow. meow. meeeow. meooow. meow. meow. meowwwwww. meow. meow. meow. meow. meow. meow. meeeow. meooow. meow. meow. meowwwwww. meow. meow. meow. meow. meow. meow. meeeow. meooow. meow. meow. meowwwwww. meow. meow. meow. meow. meooooooooow. meow. meow. meeeow. meooow. meow. meow. meowwwwww. meow. meow. meow. meow. meow. meow. meow. meow. meow. meooooooooow. meow. meow. meow. meow. meow. meow. meow. meow. meow.

and also, a dialogue:

mercury: meow.
me: be quiet.
mercury: meow.
me: be quiet.
mercury: meow.
me: be quiet.
mercury: meow.
me: be quiet.
mercury: meow.
me: OH MY GOD!!!
mercury: meow.
me: be QUIET.
mercury: meow.
me: be QUIET.
mercury: meow.
me: BE QUIET.
mercury: meow.
me: BE QUIET.
mercury: meow.
me: stop it.
mercury: meow.
me: stop it.
mercury: meow.
me: STOP IT.
mercury: meow.
me: STOP IT.
mercury: meow.
me: NO.
mercury: meow.
me: NO.
mercury: meow.
me: NO.
mercury: meow.
me: NO.
mercury: meow.
me: NO.
mercury: meow.
me: keep it up, merc. i can do this all night motherfu...
jr: for the love of christ! put your headphones on! i can't take it from both of you!
winston: (open eyes. blink.) yawn! (close eyes. fall back asleep.)

Finally, I wrapped Mercury in a soft, furry blanket and smothered cuddled him until he was quiet. Sweet relief.


Addendum (1/2/08):

I forgot to tell you about the look in his eyes as he looked up at me with just his ears, eyes, and mouth sticking out of the blanket. It was just... murderous ... no, murderous is the right word. It's amazing how a simple look can say so much:

"I will never forget this. Be ever vigilant, stifler of my cries. If you so much as nod off tonight I will kill you in your sleep. If I could free a paw I would do it right now. Breathe, Mercury. This too shall pass, and vengeance will be mine."

It was either that, or

"Thanks. Man, was I cold! ... Still murdering you in your sleep, though."

happy birthday, jr!!!

Well, we did it! We successfully pulled off a surprise party for JR tonight! Despite a close call when Shannon hadn't gotten my e-mail yet and kept saying, "Absolutely! We'll go celebrate your birthday with you on Friday night!", and Aaron kept saying, "But that's date night. We can't go.", and the back and forth of "We can do date night any night!" and "We'll see...", he was still surprised. He had no idea.

The plan was for just JR and I to go to dinner at Kookez and then to go see a movie, just the two of us. Unbeknownst to him, Deano and Shyer had made a cake, and Aaron and Shannon were waiting for us at a special table at Kookez, with balloons and everything, even a mug full of sugar-free candy. We had a nice long dinner with all our bestest friends, drinking wine and beer, and JR and I took a night off from our diet.

Deano and Shy put 31 candles on the beautiful cake Shy had made, and brought it out in a fiery blaze. :) The cake was delicious! After we had our cake, we all counted through the candles and recounted our entire lives up to this point. JR started it off, and he noted the last 2 candles as the best years, starting when he met the best girl. I'm totally keeping those 2 candles.

I love you, JR. Happy Birthday. Best years of my life too. And only more to come.

overheard: me by me

My office chair is currently serving as my in-house wheelchair. I don't know why I didn't do this sooner! I IM'd JR about my brilliance:

me: i have my own wheelchair now - much safer.
        and i collected a bag of things i might need.
JR: lol
        wheelchair?
        green
me: and filled a BUILTNY 6pack thingy with water and coke
JR: good idea
me: no - the office chair
JR: heh
me: i'm all about the scooch.
JR: yea
        brb
        eat lunch?
me: AND!
        you got me a big pot pie
        i almost started crying
me: i'm getting my scooch on. :)

I'll summarize the important stuff for you:

me: i'm all about the scooch.
JR: blah blah blah (something unrelated to the scooch.)
me: i'm getting my scooch on.

Apparently, on pain medicine, I'm a hoot! (to myself.)

i am at SXSWinteractive!!

I arrived in Austin this afternoon, checked into the hotel, and headed over to registration at SXSW. It's only 3 blocks away. Registration took so long that I missed my first panel. :( I made "How to Rawk SXSW" and I'm glad I did. It was funny, and had a bunch of great tips.

Now I'm waiting for JR to arrive from his flight. I made the mistake of saying hi to a kid that sat down next to me, and now he won't shut up; he's full of punk teen attitude and boastful stories. Argh. I think I'll wait for JR back at the hotel. And then it is time to get our drink on! (Oh, and neither of us have eaten all day, so food would be good first.)

PS - I brought my camera and my brand new flash, so I should have plenty of photos to post.

joe and jr at lime

joe and jr at lime, originally uploaded by ashleyv.

Last weekend our friend Joe came to SF for Adaptive Path's MX conference. While he was here, we got to take him out on the town. We had dinner at Fresca (ask him about "horrifying fish platter"), drinks at lime, and the next night, dinner at Empress of China, on the top floor of a building in Chinatown, with a great view of the city and the bay. It was great to see him, and it made us miss our friends and family in San Antone. If only Julee could've come with him. We miss her too!

i love my geek

i love my geek, originally uploaded by ashleyv.

he sent my valentine's day roses with the card in binary. how cool is that?!? unfortunately, he typed it into a computer, assuming it would be printed out. instead, it was handwritten by some poor schmuck. even more unfortunately, the poor schmuck wrote it down wrong from the second number. but i figured it out.

feltron's personal annual report

This is amazing. Whether you like the layout/colors/font/kerning/graphics or not, there's some pretty funny stuff in there. Notably missing: Number of times got laid...

Feltron 2006 Annual Report

Makes me want to obsessively keep track of everything and create my own annual report. But here's what mine would mostly be:

• Hours/miles commuted
• Netflix movies watched vs. Netflix movies guiltily returned unwatched
  
• Outrageous number of Schmitt-Sohne Reisling bottles consumed
• Ungodly amount spent on dining out vx. Ungodly amount spent on takeout/ordering in
• Insane amount spent on rent (I don't even want to think about it.)
• Live music seen; number of artists, different venues attended, etc.
• Pie chart of total number of photos taken in relation to how many are actually uploaded to flickr.
• Number of times JR has asked that we go to Hahn's Hibachi to eat the Meat Mountain (X), and the number of times I've said no (Y). Here's a hint: X=Y.

Hmmm... maybe that would be interesting stuff to track.