In last weeks letter Marsha mentioned that I've been sick. Yes, I got a cold late the week before. Saturday and Sunday I was a total slug. Laying on the couch, watching TV. Sometimes not having enough energy to change the channel and getting stuck with the SpongeBob Squarepants Movie. It was not fun. The only high point was my rule for treating a cold. I firmly believe the old adage Feed a Cold, Feed a Fever, (I can never remember which one to starve). Whenever I get sick I just try to eat anything I can get my hands on. Seriously I'm the only person I know that gains weight when I get sick. By Sunday the cats were keeping their distance and eyeing the human vacuum with suspicion.

Monday I tried to go to work. If I was still at the U of MN I wouldn't have even tried, but I work at home. My commute is literally to turn off the TV and sit down at the desk. I figured why not give it a shot. I struggled through the day until 1:00 and then sat down on the couch to have lunch. The next thing I knew it was 4:00 and I had slept the afternoon away. At least I got half a day in.

The rest of the week I slowly got better. Late in the week the cold had settled in my chest and every half an hour I'd have a coughing fit that caused me to bark like a rabid seal. Or maybe it was more like a dog, because it felt like I was coughing up tennis balls. Either way, I decided to spend a couple of nights on the couch so Marsha could sleep. The cats that usually like to hang around me had by this point had given up completely and were nowhere to be found. Finally, this weekend I am feeling much better. Not 100% but at least functional.

The worst part of all this is that it was just a cold. Though I thought of it as Slug Flu, Seal Flu, or Dog Flu it was just a cold. After I had mostly recovered I started wishing it had been Swine Flu. At least then I could have had some bragging rights But no, it was just a cold, a really nasty cold.

Oh well.

In other news, here is a story for our friend Suzie. She'll know why.
A couple weeks ago I was cleaning the bathroom. Geiger came in to see what I was doing but quickly lost interest in Lysol fumes. The next thing I knew he had jumped up on the vanity. Normally I'd chase him off but I figured  what the heck, I was about to clean the vanity anyway. He hopped up there and started nosing in the sink. What is it about cats, they will drink out of the bowl we refresh every day but they'd rather drink from the shower or sink or flowerpots, or puddles on the garage floor. It's weird. So anyway Geiger was nosing around the sink looking for water, however it was dry. The next think I realized, he had stuck his head completely into the cup on the counter. I was not terribly pleased by this. FirstI  was worried that he might get stuck, but no it didn't. He clearly knew it would fit. This was my second, and much more disturbing thought. This wasn't the first time he'd drunk out of my cup.

EEwwwwww.

So adding a shelf to the bathroom for my cup became my top priority project.