Windy City

I'm back in Chicago to meet with my primary client. Got in a little early and wasn't able to meet with one colleague as hoped, so I had a chance to walk up and down the Magnificent Mile a bit. Sales tax is very high here, so yes Tom, it was only window shopping! Had a full afternoon (into the evening) of excellent meetings, then back to the hotel to change.

Tom was busy on Chowhoud lining up a good restaurant for dinner, and he didn't fail to deliver: Bistro 110. I got back to the hotel in time to realize that shows keep their EDT time slot and that Lost was already an hour in. I was a little confused, but watched the final hour -- awesome! No spoilers here...

Unfortunately, I think I'm getting sick all over again. Grrrr....as soon as I walked back to the hotel, I started sneezing and the head congestion came back with a vengeance. You've got to be kidding me! I just hope I get out of here tomorrow so I can recoup a little before my cousin's wedding on Saturday -- there's a line of severe weather heading toward Chicago, and it looks ugly. Wish me luck!

Tenants and Benefits

Our house situation appears to be near resolution! After six months of being on the market with precious little interest (a glut of houses at our price point in Plymouth), friends of ours introduced us to a couple who are living in a winter rental in town and need new digs. We met with them yesterday morning and found them to be really personable and trustworthy. Tom has done a 180 and agreed to pull the house off the market if they would agree to a one-year lease. We still need to finalize the details, but if all goes well, they should move in mid-June!

Yippee! Selling the house in this market would have been financially foolish, and Tom is very relieved to be renting to a somewhat known-entity. Our stress level is beginning to diminish...only to be slightly offset by a minor flood from our second floor bathroom earlier in the morning through the light over our kitchen sink on the first floor. Help -- anyone know a plumber?

Last night we were at the BBC for a benefit for one of our favorite bartenders, Kenny, who is battling lymphoma. The folks at the BBC pulled out all the stops for his family and did a wonderful job raising more than $15K at last count. A pair of Tom's Patriots tickets sold for $500 in a live auction! Technically Kenny's disease should be curable through chemo and a bone marrow transplant, but three rounds of chemo to date haven't decreased the cancer. Ironically, he has been denied disability because of the cure rate, putting him in an awful Catch-22 of health care. Yet another reason why a new administration is needed in the White House to put things to right.

Tom of course dropped $$$ on raffle tickets and walked away with all sorts of goodies -- at one point, the crowd began to turn on him for winning so often, so he quickly passed off the remaining tickets to a friend and let her take the rest of the winnings!

All that travel finally caught up with me....

My latest travel took me to Atlanta for a day this week, and by the time I got back last night, I had a raging sinus infection. My doctor took one look at me this morning and promptly pulled out her prescription pad for some antibiotics. Ugh....can't breathe......hack, hack.....achoo! So much for thinking it was just allergies!

We're off in the morning to Plymouth to do some outdoor work at the house and hang out with friends....hopefully I'll be somewhat less germy by then!

Vacation: Day 5

Sigh.....do we really have to go home? We spend a lazy morning hanging out, then finally bolt at checkout time. We originally planned to stop for lunch on the way up to Ft Lauderdale, but Tom's worried we'll have problems returning the car, given all the swapping and what not. To our (pleasant!) surprise, not only is a piece of cake to return the car, but Hertz has given us four days free. In the end, we pay $100 for a Mustang rental and $0 for gas. Probably the only inexpensive part of our trip!

Now we need a vacation to recover from our vacation.... Hubie and Tom are already scheming to return to Florida in November with a few other couples to do some more fishing and go to the Patriots-Dolphins game!

Vacation: Day 4

We're all hungover, so the Mother's Day brunch originally planned was nixed in favor of Burger King. Let's just say that we think we have discovered that one thing that Tom will never be able to eat again post-gallbladder removal: greasy fast food. Ugh -- pass the Tums...

Had a great dinner, however, at a local Brazilian BBQ restaurant. Incredible salad bar, endless slabs of meat brought to the table. Not for the faint of heart! I finally got my key lime pie for dessert!

Vacation: Day 3

Today was the Big Fishing Day -- we spent the day out in the ocean fishing for Dolphin. No, not
Flipper, but rather Mahi Mahi.

Really cool fish! In the water, they are blue, but once you hook them and they start to fight, they turn green. Not the smartest fish, either -- all you need is for one to fall for the hook, then they all follow like lambs to a slaughter. Of the three schools we fished, we caught all but one fish.

Tom caught a barracuda, which was brought up but then cut loose -- apparently they're not tasty. It was a slow fishing day -- catching the 18 we did was impressive.

At the end of the day, the guys from the boat filleted the fish, and we brought it to a local restaurant where you can have your catch grilled. Awesome -- the Cape needs to do something like this!

Vacation: Day 2

We got up this morning to find that our Mustang had a flat tire. Kid you not -- only we could drive from airport to hotel and get a flat! I spent the morning on the phone with Hertz -- they sent AAA only to discover no spare. When everything was said and done, a guy running a Hertz office in the Keys got the manager of a Miami office to send a replacement Mustang down on a flatbed to swap for ours. In his words: take your phone, go to the pool and relax, and we'll call you in three hours when we get there and just swap the keys. Jeffrey and Jackie -- you're wonderful!

So we hit the pool for the morning, then worked our way over to the tiki bar, then met the Hertz guy. Swapped the keys, back to the bar for lunch.

In the evening, Tom and Hubie headed out to do some tarpon fishing. Tom caught one, but unfortunately the rest of the crew didn't know how to work the video on our digital camera, so all we have is this action shot of him reeling it in.

Vacation: Day 1

We met up with Tom's friend, Hubie, and his family at Logan and flew into Ft Lauderdale. When we booked the trip, Tom took all my Hertz points and upgraded us to a Mustang Shelby convertible. Sweet! It was a pain, however, getting it out -- apparently for this level of rental, you have to go over it with a fine tooth comb with the location manager and make sure everything is perfect. And then, they gave it to us with a half tank of gas. No matter -- instead of waiting yet another hour to get that rectified, they agreed to let us return it half-filled.

Got down to Key West and immediately hit the pool and tiki bar. Didn't take long to get our inaugural sunburns, even in the late afternoon!

Vacation at last!

We're off today for five days in the sun at Islamorada in the Florida Keys. Tom's energy level is up, so we're hoping that he can enjoy some R&R, as well as some fishing, under relatively normal circumstances.

Staple removal

We saw the surgeon this afternoon for a follow-up appointment, and he seems quite pleased with Tom's progress. He removed his staples (and even had me take a stab at one -- poor Tom was less than pleased with my handiwork). The pathology report came back -- all that fuss and just one gallstone. Some people go their entire lives with dozens, if not hundreds, of gallstones, and never have a single problem. Go figure. The surgeon seems convinced that he will not have to change his diet, although we have read online that most people seem to find that one or two things that they cannot eat. If that's the worst of it, so be it!

Catching up....report on my patient

Mea culpa. I'm only now catching up on emails, phone calls and regular mail (starting with the bills!). Tom came home Wednesday and stayed home for the remainder of the week. Per doctor's orders, he was up and walking every day, and Sunday we even went out for an hour to do some last minute clothes shopping for our trip to Florida later this week (quickest way to lose weight: take out an organ).

He went to work today, but was dragging by mid-day, so I picked him up around 3pm. He's been in bed sleeping practically ever since. He'll head back to work tomorrow, but we're leaving early for a follow-up appointment with the surgeon to assess his healing progress and take out the staples. He's feeling much better, although sore, tired and a queasy stomach. Hopefully he won't have any long-term side-effects.

It's somewhat of a mystery how this happened, but the surgeon made it clear that he has been sick for some time. A friend who is a nurse says she sees gallbladder infections frequently in men who have gone through a rapid weight loss (Tom started back at the gym early this year and is running 3+ miles at a clip now).

For those of you keeping count, here's a recap of the past two weeks: fly to Chicago, fly home, run the Boston Marathon, fly to Chicago, detour to St Louis, fly to Boston, spend 12 hours in the ER, remove one gallbladder. Now do you see why I named my blog "never a dull moment"?

Hmmm...maybe now I can finally write that post-marathon report!