So this past weekend, we took a trip down to see Chris's brother Dan, his wife Catherine, and their three kids Jillian, Ryan, and Lauren, specifically for the occasion of Jillian's first communion on Saturday. I got the kids out of school at noon, and off we went. We took the "extended scenic route," by which I tried to avoid not just the turnpike, but also the DC beltway, because we were headed right into the heart of that beast at rush hour on a Friday. Ended up going through Winchester, sort of, and still got in around 6:30, even though we had to stop to find a car wash where I could hose down and cool off my brakes, because apparently they are a little grabby. (Long story short, new car is going to beat new dog, hands down.)
Catherine made a cake, and we had a little b-day celebration for Cara. Mostly, she got some cool new duds, which is good because she makes a lot of costume changes and her father isn't really up on fashion. But also, Chris's mom made her a very nice photo album - a year-by-year montage of Chris's life, with captions for the photos and room for many more pages. Cara thought it was nice, and looked through it with me, but I don't think she's going to really realize what a great gift it is for a few years yet. For those of you keeping score, photo-wise: The guy she's known for over 20 years, married, and is the father of two wonderful grandchildren: 11 pictures. The guy she dated for just over a year, and left in order to date the aforementioned: 4 pictures. Maybe there weren't a lot of other pictures that year?
Anywho, after that, went out for a beer with our old friend, Paul, then came back to discover that Cara's allergies were bothering her - runny nose, which eventually became a sore throat. She insisted that the air in Dan's basement (where we were sleeping) was trying to kill her, though I'm pretty sure it wasn't.
The next day, we went to their neighbor's house for a combined communion party. The two communicants were Jillian and her friend Gillian. Attending the party was (among many, many others) Johnny, his cousin, Ryan, and Ryan's cousin, John Ryan. You can't make this stuff up, no one would believe it.
Home on Sunday. Uneventful -- the brakes barely even overheated, hardly worth hosin' down. But then the fun started: Sunday night, Cara developed a fever. Just by coincidence, Johnny had a recheck appointment for his last ear infection, so I told Cara she'd come along and get a strep test. Well, she hated that idea, insisting that she doesn't like the way they do the test at the doctor's office, and instead she wanted to go to the Minute Clinic (the name of which has never been disambiguated to my satisfaction.) So, Monday morning, we head to the clinic (which was sort of on the way, anyway.) But when the swabs come out, she announces that she doesn't want the test there, either. [coax cajole struggle struggle]...and, we're done. Strep it is! Don Pardo, tell our contestants what they've won! Why, they've won a ten day course of amoxicillin, Wink!
Johnny's ears: fine, so he goes to school, Cara stays home. For dinner that night, I tried for a normal meal: BBQ chicken, et al. Johnny really like the sauce: too much, turned out later. At bedtime, he told me he felt like throwing up, I told him it was probably just an upset stomach, gave him some water and put him on the couch. Should have got him a bucket, turned out. Live an learn, right? Or, maybe, re-learn -- seems like this might have happened before. But after that, he's fine, Cara's fine (and no fever since Sunday), so off to school they go. Of course, the nurse calls around 1 to tell me Cara's fever is back. Another day with dad tomorrow. Yippee!!!
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