January 1

The year starts out with me bedridden. Ineffective flu shot doesn't fend off a nasty case of the flu. After a too rich Italian dinner at Mama Corolla's in Indianapolis, there is a night of what seemed to be really bad heartburn, and then a morning of misery. Quick summary:

Friday a.m. Flu misery. Weak, sore throat, woozy.
Friday p.m. Feeling better! That wasn't so bad.
Saturday. Hell hits. Vomiting, worse sore throat, headache, eyes ache, weak.
Sunday. More hell. Diarrhea, total misery, hard to sleep, bathroom trips are excruciating, painful cough bringing up reddish brown. Ugh. ER trip. Intestinal virus and a endo bronchial lung infection. Start antibiotics and Zofran. Ibuprofin as well.
Monday. Debilitating diarrhea, coughing up masses of goop. Complete misery until about 7 p.m. start to feel better.

Stuart, Gail, and Joanna have been amazing at taking care of me, checking up, changing sheets, bringing food and drink etc.

In other news, mom is adjusting to Stonehenge. We took her to a movie - Lady Bird - and to the Apple Store to get her trained on her iPad. She has successfully watch a couple episodes of The Crown but we had a classic phone call when she couldn't stop it.

Helen texted that she has a customer offering to sell a used Lexus for $4,500. She want's "Seth" to have it. We're likely going to go for it.

January 2

Here's the "symptom of the day" summary:

I got the flu
Throw up day. Now I really got the flu.
Diarrhea day. Bonus: Cough up lung day. ER trip.
You're feeling better but...It's sneeze and cough day!

Haven't stepped foot outside in five days. Who'd want to with minus zero temps, highs of 6 or 10.

First day out of bed. Worked, able to get around the whole house. Had some sadness, really miss dad.

Mom now getting sick, sounds bad.

Game day decision on flying home tomorrow.

Finished Grant by Ron Chernow!

January 3

Decided to fly. Still feeling poorly, but also stir crazy. hadn't been outside the big house since Thursday night.

The day was...very sad. I felt depression and sadness wandering the big empty house and especially seeing pictures of dad. I was trembly and weak, breathing sighs all day that were a mixture of gloom and slight nausea.

Stuart took me to the airport in a blizzard, heavy traffic on the interstate. I was queasy on the entire flight, tho lucky to be both in an exit row and to have an empty seat next to me.

Owen picked me up at the airport.

I didn't go sleep until around 2 a.m. and only slept fitfully.

January 4

Fitful, deep sleep last night, maybe 4 hours. Still feeling punky in the a.m., no coffee, stayed home from work

Just crackers and peanut butter for lunch, Zofran in the a.m. and the last antibiotic. Still coughing but by dinner able to eat and function (and cough).

Owen made kinoia and kale salad, and pesto pasta. Both boys home for dinner, Melinda and I watched Longmire episode 9 after dinnter

Sutton had an interview, city case management. Said it went well. The one he really wants is tomorrow at Children's Hospital, psych ward

January 5

Last day of sick recovery at home. Drove Melinda to work, came home and worked.

Interview loop with Nitya, done by Ronette, Penny, Trish, Shelly, and Brett. All Hires, I'll meet her Monday.

Sutton had his Children's Hospital interview, then he and I went to lunch at Hilltop.

Glasses and Quimper that I had shipped from Indianapolis arrived.

Melinda and I had dinner at Betty.

Flu bad in Indy. Mom sounds terrible, Gail has pain in legs and can't walk

January 6 (Saturday)

Morning routine not there yet. Coffee store run, but I still wasn't ready for coffee. Had cranberry coffee cake.

Melinda and I each went to respective workplaces. I needed to write Connect and couldn't get it from home. and generally needed to start some catchup.

Daphne and Axel invited us to Pam's Kitchen Caribbean place with steel drum concert. Good food - jerk pork ribs - along with ginger beer, since i'm ending up doing the Dryuary thing. Daphne also doing that.

Concert was by a UW ethnomusicologist and the joint was full of his students, also celebrating a birthday.

Pam does all the cooking and all the order taking. Her son Anton does the bar. A bunch of volunteers help do water and table set up. Interesting deal all up.

Reading Ta-Nehisi Coate's "We were eight years in power - An American Tragedy."

January 7 (Sunday)

Still have that cough. Trying the Vick Vapor Rub on my feet, wearing socks. Maybe kinda sorta working.

Ladro run this morning for my first coffee since being sick. Then a Safeway shop.

Watched football - Wildcard weekend, Jags over Bills and Saints over Falcons. Basement biking for exercise. Reading. Setting up Pimsleur French for Melinda on her OneDrive.

E-mail from Pascal that they're considering coming to visit this year but may be hard, as their daughter is finishing dissertation and getting assigned a new job.

Steak and salad for dinner. Both boys there, and we had a talk about House Rules. We're assigning Mon-Thu cooking to them, other chores, asking for keeping things in order and being good housemates.

January 8 (Monday)

When I got up, Melinda and Owen were at Ladro already. What? Melinda came to get me, dropped me a Ladro, I caught an early Connector (7:10) without time for coffee.

At work, Ronette clued me in on our group moving to report to Jon Friedman in design. Our choice, since we lost Hayete as a boss. To be announced tomorrow.

Spoke with Nitya, who we're likely to hire to work for me; I had been sick and missed her interview loop on Friday. Seems fine. Tomorrow we have Zach coming from Las Colinas for a loop, then we can make an offer for the position.

Motorcycled home. My right wrist painful after the ride home. Bummer.

Owen on KP, made salmon, rosemary roasted potatoes, salad. Sutton did dishes. This is non empty nest treatment we can get used to.

National title football game, Bama vs Georgia. Georgia leading in the 4th quarter.

January 9 (Tuesday)

Alabama won. Came back from a big deficit, won in overtime, Saban will be hailed as a genius for pulling his starting quarterback and riding a true Freshman to the title. BLEACH!!

Drove Melinda's a$$ to work. Our re-org got announced. Interviewed Zach from Las Colinas; Kelsey and I liked him, Ronette vetoed. Ah well.

Owen made a nice pasta and broccoli for dinner. Sutton not here cuz getting honored at his house.

Finished Ta-Nahisi Coates' "We Were Eight Years in Power." Depressing, enlightening. I would welcome a reckoning on slavery reparations.

January 10 (Wednesday)

Met Jeannie, the woman whose hair Helen cuts and who is selling the 16 year old Lexus. Will likely follow up on Sunday.

Motorcycled to and from work. 40s, a little rain.

Took my bike to get the front light fixed, and also thought it was an issue with tire pressure monitor, but they said the tire actually was low. Looked at demo model S1000 RR, would be $9300 to trade in and get that. Hmm.

Sutton made meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

Asked Stuart about shipping our old dining room table, whether it would stand up to it, how much it would cost.

Reading Edward O. Wilson "The Origins of Creativity." Seems kinda random.

Talked to Zach and told him he didn't get the job, following up on whether we can do a Marco Polo type of thing. Rolling out offer to Nitya, no word yet on acceptance.

January 11 (Thursday)

Drove Melinda to work.

A couple phone calls about customers with Jay. Tesla and Deloitte. Both interesting.

Met with Hannah St. Lifer, MACH person wanting to learn about our team. Design and research background, and seems like someone we might want to consider. Her program ends in June.

Left early to get a massage. Nikki was good, will likely use her again. Told me to stretch out legs, tightness there may be causing back issues.

Just Melinda and me for dinner. Leftover meat loaf and mashed potatoes, and Sutton left us a salad. He's at the house where a resident is having a goodbye dinner.

Two Longmires.

Cat not locked in the basement. He's outside, one of the boys will let him in.

January 12 (Friday)

Morning appointment with Dr. Han, setting up for colonoscopy.

Nitya has accepted offer, will find out soon about start date, after background check.

Great meeting with John Skovron, and good brainstorm with Lori on research.

Left work early to meet Melinda at home (she worked at home) and go to Wyeth. It was really good, his life story interesting: learning from and tension with his dad, grief when his dad was killed by a train, Siri the teenager that he did nude stuff of, Christina Olson and all the Maine folks, the secret life with Helga while he kept up other output for his wife, who was his genius marketer.

Dinner at Heartwood Provisions. Food fine but paid a lot. Melinda pissed by combo of $18 glass of wine measured precisely to an ungenerous pour. Had my first liquor of 2018.

Longmire to finish the evening.

January 13 (Saturday)

Coffee at Ladro, then 9:30 meet up with Melissa and Gordon at Bay Café. Wow, issues with their son Greg are horrible. Melissa tells the stories of him saying he was raped by his dad, her fear of anything he might do, his "girlfriend" that sounds like a stalking situation. Whew. Their son Alex is super smart math whiz applying to graduate schools. Both boys graduate this year, a week apart.

Shopping after. The yoga for the first time in a long time (first 30 minutes), some football watching. Then Sutton and I went to Becky and Rich's. Denise (no Diana) and their friends Street (?) and Sarah, baby Scotch. Rowan super cute, dances, can identify a bunch of animals from picture book. Loves Glen Miller.

Night closed out with 2 Longmires.

January 14 (Sunday)

Two Ladro runs today. One with Melinda, who then went to work, then walked up with Sutton. Had a short cappuccino with Sutton, which was good.

More NFL playoffs. Jags beat Steelers, Vikings best Saints. Both seemed to be blowouts that became good games, Vikings winning on miracle last second play.

Went to see the Lexus we're going to buy from Jeannie and Lyle. Nice. Lyle has to replace the starter plus a taillight or two. Sutton will call them in a couple days.

30 minutes on the bike, target heart rate of 98.

Indian type of food for dinner, chickpea concoction with chicken. Yum.

Night closed with 2 Longmires.

January 15 (Monday)

MLK day. Holiday.

Physical @ 9:30, so coffee time at Ladro was purely social. Physical fine. BP 120ish over 80. Heart rate 50 (!). EKG normal. Back to check on things with Dr. Gamrath next week.

Went to work for a while. As normal, got some done but not nearly enough.

Home for 30 minutes of yoga.

Interviewed Dartmouth candidate @ 4:00 @ Ladro. Peter. Delightful kid. The guy at the next table butted in with his 2 cents multiple times, which was actually fun.

Owen made spaghetti and salad for dinner.

Only 1 Longmire.

January 16 (Tuesday)

Back to work. Drove Melinda's a$$ to work (as we say).

Fairly productive day at work. Ronette approval for $67K for research, Lori and I met with Klaus, met with Steve Mintz on DSST doings, and great chat with Christian the designer.

Picked up colonoscopy stuff from the pharmacy.

Call from Aunt Sandy. Pleasant conversation.

Leftover Indian food, and Sutton made broccoli. I'm back on Dryuary, have only lapsed 3 days so far.

Biked for 30 minutes, so that makes 4 days in a row of exercise. Goal for tomorrow would be yoga, we'll see about that.

1 Longmire.

January 17 (Wednesday)

Drove Melinda's a$$ to work. Crappy drive home, an hour to get to Capital Hill Housing.

Early meeting with Jen McNett @ T-Mobile, learning about her new coaching biz.

Busy day, lotsa meetings. A couple on M365 Analytics project.

Owen made T-bone steak and mashed potatoes. Mmmm.

1 Longmire.

January 18 (Thursday)

Drove Melinda's a$$ to work. But I was coming home late, so she got a ride home from Owen.

Team offsite, I went early to help Ronette set up. Building 4 Garage. Reframing problems. Good day. Robin Counts came at the end to say goodbye, as she is not coming back.

Got a massage at the PRO Club from Nikki. Good job working on my lower back issue.

Interviewed Christianna at Panera in Factoria. She is kinda delightful. Math geek. Likely not all that excited by Dartmouth.

Pesto pasta, salad.

1 Longmire.

January 19 (Friday)

7 a.m. with Nestle. Barely made it, one minute late, driving like crazy after taking Melinda's a$$ to work. (didn't carpool lane cheat, tho)

Connect with Ronette. Lots of positives, need louder voice. I KNOW!

Monthly Telemetry Review that Naomi runs, went well.

Ended the day talking to Soung about wrapping up with Dani. Sad, but needs to be done.

Leftovers for dinner.

1 Longmire.

January 20 (Saturday)

Melinda went to work (audit season).

Sutton and I walked to get his car. Long conversations with Lyle and Jeannie. $4300. still have to get brakes fixed. I called insurance and made appointment with Lexus of Seattle for Thursday. Drove to see Helen, she gave Sutton a hug (and advice). Then sutton drove to First Hill, and then I picked up Melinda in the car.

Yogo, 30 min.

Starting to read "Why Liberalism Failed." Seems kinda BS.

Dinner at Betty with Sutton.

2 Longmires. But it's jumped the shark with intricate plot stuff.

January 21 (Sunday)

Football. Patriots beat Jags, ugh. Eagles beat Vikings. So Superbowl next.

40 minutes on bike. 195.0 (!)

"Why Liberalism Failed" still seems kinda BS.

Melinda made meatballs, squash, salad. Dinner just with Sutton, Owen seeing Sam.

1 Longmire.

January 22 (Monday)

Dream last night of pickup basketball, long practice shots, hopping trains. All same dream.

Drove Melinda's a$$.

Dealt with letting Dani go from Extension Staff. Went better than I thought it would.

Confirmed Nitya's start date. Feb 5.

Sutton came for lunch. Had chicken teriyaki.

Tough conversation with Owen. Unclear where we are, if he can get things turned around.

Owen made tacos for dinner.

1 Longmire.

January 23 (Tuesday)

In dream, man took away dog's ability to craft things of wood.

Drove Melinda's a$$.

Bought Dani a scone, she's taking things well.

Good discussion with Terry Farell. Customer call for the M365 Analytics, went well.

Saw Gamrath. Said my wrist was hurting due to bone out of place. He fixed that, and gave a shot to try to keep it in place.

Sutton made Korean beef and rice, plus salad. All good.

Owen not around. Texted him we need to see plan, info on classes.

2 Longmires.

January 24 (Wednesday)

Drove Sutton's Lexus to work, early cuz had 7 a.m. ProPlus call with Europe, about Philips.

OXO All Hands, all demos.

Lori and I met Karissa Larson, finding out about admin portal.

Took Lexus in to Lexus of Seattle in Lynnwood, to get the master cylinder replaced, have them look it over. Took forever cuz my e-mail of the insurance wasn't going thru. Then rush hour back to QA.

Then...drinking a gallon and spending time on toilet, prepping for colonoscopy.

No Longmire.

January 25 (Thursday)

Colonoscopy day. Was up until about 2 a.m. Melinda drove me, checked in about 7:20 a.m. Colin the nurse took me back, painful IV in the side of the right wrist. 3 polops, look benign, confirmation next week.

Pretty much slept all day.

Sutton made a good spicy soup, served with yogurt and lemon.

Lexus will be >$1,000, got the fancy loaner in the meantime.

1 Longmire.

January 26 (Friday)

Drove my fancy Lexus SUV loaner to work, catching up with Melinda's a$$ at Ladro, as she had snuck out as I came downstairs.

Low number of meetings at work. One with Trish and drama on a couple fronts. Excel work that we don't think we should be doing, and a project where Kelsey wants Ben and I ended up assigning both Ben and Samira.

Great discussion with John Skovron.

Left early, did yoga.

Very bad news from/about Owen. Screwed up again, dropped classes. I said he needed to get work and get out. Melinda just mad.

Cosi Fan Tutti by Mozart. Really great, but we were both tired and left at intermission. Whole cast fabulous, great physical comedy and jokes inserted in the surtitles. E.g., guys disguised as hipsters, did they come from Ballard Market or Uncle Ike's.

No Longmire.

January 27 (Saturday)

Rushed coffee with Melinda, cuz had to get to my 9 a.m. massage appointment with Nikki. 90 minutes, really helped the issue in my lower right back.

Then drove the fancy Lexus loaner to Lynnwood to get Sutton's car. $1300, should be good for a year.

40 minutes on the stationary bike, heart rate @ 99.

Melinda worked until mid afternoon, and then we decided to do the shopping. Safeway, cleaners, pet store, Trader Joe's.

Karaoke with the boys, then burritos.

1 Longmire.

January 28 (Sunday)

Started the day with Daphne and Axel at Ladro. Axel texted for a 9 a.m. meet up, prior to Daphne's 9:30 yoga. Sutton came by, but just for coffee as he was on his way to meditation.

Mostly lazy Sunday. NY Times reading, yoga, some work, reading, bath. Bought a replacement PC on Amazon, per a Consumer Reports recommendation. Also (secretly) got a TYT tshirt for Melinda. Trying to get through "Why Liberalism Failed."

I'm trying to get the boys to start giving a daily write up. Talked to Sutton about keeping busy, helping out.

Melinda made butter chicken and rice and roasted cauliflower. Yumm.

Grammy's, watched a couple hours of it. Great show.

No Longmire.

January 29 (Monday)

Drove Melinda's a$$.

Watched READY keynotes. Ron Markezich, Jeff Teper, Rob Lefferts, Roanne Soanes.

Lunch with Amy Sousa, hope we have her join our team.

Dinner by Sutton. Spicy bean soup. Joke was "where's the bread?" Also gave him a hard time about buying sausage from Safeway vs from B&E Meats.

Heated discussion about using the proper pronoun for gender changers.

Watched the end of the Grammy's. Enjoyed it even tho they're getting trashed in the press.

No Longmire.

January 30 (Tuesday)

Drove Melinda's a$$

Started online mini focus groups with Lori for M365 Analytics project

Did M365 Analytics weekly call, with Zach.

Did a ProPlus call with Jay.

1:1 with Samira, talked about how things work in Office.

Went to READY social hour at Tap House Grill.

No Longmire.