Okay. This has to stop. I'm still hacking and hiccuping. It's now officialy not funny. I had Tuesday and Wednsday out of work and faithful (stupid?) employee that I am, I ventured back to work. I don't think that was a good idea. Thursday night we went to the Timberland outlet and I got some goodies with Christmas money given to me by my mom-in-law. Of course the Lovely One says I may not enjoy said goodies until Christmas.
Herself felt I may be getting worse so she said I might want to go to our local hospital e.r. I was reluctant as I am a Yankee. And Yankees don't need no stinking emergency rooms. We'd rather be stubborn and tough it out. I have felt though, I was all toughed out and I agreed.
I must say the staff at Centra State hospital in Freehold is pretty darn good. I was taken right in and the nurse who took all my info was very kind and answered all Herself's questions in a manner which made you believe she cared about us. (Unlike a hospital in Rhode Island I won't mention.)
I was taken in and given a little gown (opening in the back) and was seen by a cranky little Ukranian or Bulgarian or whatever she was. She started off kindly enough as I explained my malady to her and she had me do the deep-breathing thing and told me she would have bloodwork done and a chest xray. She was slightly less patient and I made her night when she asked me to do the following. Stick out my tongue and say 'ahh'. Well I did and as soon as I did she proceeded to jam a tongue depressor into my throat. This made me do two things. A: recoil in horror because I was being gagged and B: pull my tongue back. This happened about four times and I must say she was quite annoyed. I guess it's like rubbing your tummy and patting your head. Sue me. Now I'm genreally a very nice guy. But when I get sick I tend to get..well...cranky. She said in her accented English "I trying to help you you not cooperating."
And I believe my reply was something along the lines of not trying to choke me..I don't remember. To make the whole situation worse, Herself was standing there covering her mouth, suppressing her laughter. When we finally got the whole tongue-out-ahhhh-thing done and the crazy Ukranian left, we both had a good laugh. Herself more than me saying 'that was like watching a Monty Python skit'. Which was a high compliment.
My next visitor was nurse2. She plopped a speciman cup in front of me and demanded a sample.
I told her there was nothing in the tank and she said 'well we need it if you want to get out of here soon.' Wow! I now have to pee!
Nurse3 arrived soon after and was by far the best of the bunch. She was friendly, smiley and really seemed to have her shit together. She got my goldstar award. She said I would be going for my xray soon.
Return of nurse 2 who stuck me twice and took several vials of blood and put an IV port in me. "Just in case." And by the way, once I loosened up and started kidding around, she saw I was a good sport, she spent a good deal of her time busting my ass.
So I had my xray and the tech was cool. He noticed my bars and said" got some hardware, there huh bud?" Yeah a little...
So to end this ramble, I have an upper respiratory infection. On top of pneumonia? Well, hard to say says Dr Cranky-Pants. Just stay on your anti-biotics.
So finally, after two hours, the good one comes back and reads me all the info I need and tells me on more than one occasion if I continue to feel like poop, she wanted me to come back immediately. I'll do just that......not.

Today I did some more shopping for the Lovely One. I got a few little things and there is one or more things I want to pick up but that will have to be done next weekend.

The Devils played a great game last night and were fantastic in the shootout (well, Marty was fantastic) but lost when Colorados 8th shooter scored. Next time boys.

Tomorrow will be low-key. On tv tomorrow FoxSports will show drats. Yes darts. I wish it were on more often like in Europe but America hasn't embraced it yet. Exciting stuff. I should practice more. Many years ago I was pretty good but alas, darts like anything else, if you don't use it, you lose it.