Hack, Snort, Cough, Snnaaarrk.

Argh. This week has been a bit of a trial. Monkey's been sick with an ear infection, so he stayed home much of the week. Actually, we didn't know it was an ear infection until the doctor looked at his ear and said "WHOA! Does that hurt?" Monkey replied that it didn't, but he couldn't hear out of it too well. "Wow. Your son must have a high pain tolerance." He must have gotten that from his gorgeous Momma...I'm a big baby when I get sick.

So I've been sick all week. The sheer amount of mucus that has made its way through my system has been staggering. I mean, I don't think that elephants can produce this much snot. Geez! I've been basically miserable for most of the week, but I'm finally nearing the end of it. I hope. So I've lost another week of training for the Half-Marathon, and I'm about to go up to Indiana to visit my folks for several days. I wonder if they'll let me sneak off to the YMCA to hit the treadmill here and there?

We're all looking forward to the trip. My darling wife is just about to drop from the 12 hour workdays she's been putting in, and I'm pretty sure that she's ready to nap in Mom's basement for hours on end. I've been missing my family lately, so I'm really looking forward to seeing them all. Mom, Dad, and Pee Wee, my brother. Granted, I'm the only one allowed to call him that since he's 25 and at least as tall as me, but that's what I've called him his whole life. He still calls me Brother, and I have to admit that I really like that. Pee Wee's really come into his own lately...two cute kids, about to break into the home-building business, and he's got more college degrees than I, by far. Proud of that one, I am.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing everyone up there, aunts, uncles, cousins (there must be a million of 'em), everyone. The plane rides I'm not too thrilled about. We generally take one big flight most of the way and then transfer to a puddle-jumper to get to the South Bend airport...I swear, one time we walked out to the runway to board and a mechanic was cussing at one of the propellers on our plane. That's right, propellers. I thought the pilot was going to stick his head out of the cockpit wearing one of those leather helmets with earflaps on it like Snoopy used to wear. It was not a large plane. By the way, did you know that those little barf bags will hold a fist-sized apple and a whole can of ginger ale? They will. Yessiree, they sure will.

So classes will be run by SiHing Shaun Lawler while I'm away. I understand that he's quite excited to run class...that probably means trouble for the rest of the students, but they could use a change of pace now and then. I hope nobody pukes on our mat.