Another sickly day. I’m at the tail end of my morning Advil and I’m suffering mightily now. Dinosaur is next to me in his bouncy making small noises. He’s had good sleep today as we spent most of the day out and about. He’s still at the age where if you put him in the car seat and bring the car seat where ever you go, he will sleep straight through the adventure.

Our first adventure was to a department store. Our primary goal was to eat lunch, which we accomplished nicely. We always forget to go this place, and it’s always a pleasure since the food is good and it’s rare crowded (something I care a lot about being anti-social and everything).

I’m spacing out as I type this. I’m hoping to hit upon deep philosophical recesses, but the best I can do is slump my shoulders, lean on the elbow rest, and keep pushing buttons.

Part two of our adventure was to shop. I had a gift card from my mom I hoped to spend on new sweaters or more shoes. While they were having a big sale on all their winter clothing, I didn’t have the desire to shop after our big lunch. I made the mistake of not caffeinating myself. I usually shop better after being properly medicated. I did manage to watch Michigan lose in their college bowl. I don’t really care about sports and care even less about college sports, but as my lunch chair had a direct view of a HD television playing the game, and I am powerless to resist watching television when it’s on, I ended up routing for Michigan (since I have a good friend who went to college there), and remembered why I hate watching sports: the disappointment of your team losing is in no way alleviated by the few times they win. Sports are weighed against winners (except for the Jordan-era Chicago Bulls, of which I was a huge, non-Illinoisan fan) as there are a lot teams that want to be winners, and most of them (and their fans) will be disappointed most of the time.

After giving up on the men’s floor, we went to the woman’s shoe floor to search for new boots for Doolies. After trying on a few and the sizes or styles not working out for her, and with Tiger becoming restless and Dinosaur starting on his dinosaur cries, we had to admit that the quest was finished with no experience points awarded. We loaded the monsters back into the car with our heads held low.

We did use our new double stroller today. We should have used it the last time we went out (as car seats with a baby is not light—especially not with my puny arm and shoulder muscles. Why work out when I’ve already suckered the Doolies into marrying me?). Before we left I connected everything up, which took longer than I expected, but once I figured it out, made a lot of sense. The stroller is one of those front-to-front models, where the children sit one in front of the other so you’re not maneuvering a double-wide contraption. As long as I remember that the front is much further away than I’m used to, everything went well.

We spent the rest of the day in the house with Tiger and Dinosaur trading off naps before we headed out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. According to my IR camera, Tiger is still awake. She’s lying sideways in her crib on her stomach, kicking her legs up and down, with her head popping up now and again. She’s doing well with the “no sad.” She did cry when I left her as it hurt too much to continue reading books to her. Doolies took over and read a few more books before tucking her in.

I’m not very good at this suffering. I do have skills in the complaining side—although that is not in evidence today. I guess I would be a bad Buddhist. Or is it the other way around? My comparative religion knowledge is quite limited.

Dinosaur is staring at me. It looks like he may be heading to sleep in a bit. I still have the difficult decision around what medicine to try tonight. Last night Doolies convinced me to take Nyquil. I found an opened bottle and drank 30ML. I’m guessing that it was expired because I spent the rest of the night tossing and turning in various uncomfortable positions while listening to Dinosaur scream. I’m guessing that he didn’t scream the entire night, but in my sickened state it felt that way. I woke to a throbbing throat and didn’t manage to do anything until I downed the Advil on the way down the stairs after waking Tiger. Doolies thankfully took over breakfast duties, for which I am grateful.

Doolies took Dinosaur away as he was complaining. She also brought me a steaming mug of Emergen-C. That helped this morning and I have hopes for a similar outcome this evening.

Although you may not be able to tell by the wall of letters above, my attention wasn’t here for much of the words. I had to close a bunch of windows on my computer that were pulling me away. I then returned to the above paragraphs to provide more flesh to my diary entry.