He was so happy when he met Steph and got to have livetime the scintillating Buffista conversation I get all the time.

Steph L.: bearing the burden of being the Representative Buffista(TM).

(I'm chuffed that Liese called our conversation "scintillating," and I'm metaphorically scuffing my toe in the dirt in a self-effacing manner, even though I'm actually pleased. I'm sure you can all picture it.)

ION, I'm awake right now because think I've slept maybe 2 hours all night, on and off, because of this sore throat/cold/tonsillitis/whatever the hell it is. I started with the sore throat on Monday, and it's gotten progressively worse, so I went to the doctor yesterday afternoon. A rapid strep test was negative, so the diagnosis was a vague tonsillitis/pharyngitis.

It's that kind of sore throat that hurts in a low-level way all the time, except for when I swallow, when it escalates to feeling like I have broken glass in my throat. Yippee. Cepacol, despite its claims, is not doing a very good job of numbing my throat, although it does make my tongue numb, which is a kind of nifty feeling, but doesn't help the broken-glass throat. Gargling with warm salt water helped for a couple of days, but has been ineffective for the past 24 hours or so. My treatment of choice has come down to cursing half-heartedly. It doesn't do anything for the sore throat, but it pleases me.

So, I'm thinking that 2 hours of sleep means no work for Teppy today. Nuh uh.

At 3:30 am, the trashman went through and pulled all the trashcans on our street out tot he curb. (They are stored in thr ground outsides the houses here.) Just now, 5:30 am, the trash truck itself came by, complete with honking horn and yelling trashmen.

Who picks up trash at 5:30am?

Who picks up trash at 5:30am?

Crazy people?

Steph, I hope the vague but annoying throat thing goes away. We're fighting a full-frontal assult from the snot monster here.

My teen relations with my parents were fraught, to say the least. I had developed some bi-polar issues and had a horrific asshole boyfriend. I'm surprised to this day that I survived and that my parents don't hate me for the way I acted or treated them.

DH doesn't like online interactions. He prefers F2F stuff and though he doesn't quite get the depth of my online friendships, he respects them and gives me plenty of space and time for that. I try to relay funny or interesting stuff to him. Sometimes he gets it, sometimes not.

Ugh, Steph. That really sucks if it's not strep -- at least you can treat strep with drugs! I seem to have a moderately annoying cold, which I'm just hoping doesn't get bad when I go away for the weekend!

Steph, if it's getting worse instead of better, it's time to alert the doctor, and if he doesn't try something else (I'm thinking heavy-duty antibiotics and a prescription gargle) it's time to say 'screw him' and see an ER doctor. Sore throats like this are infections and that can actually be very dangerous for the rest of your body!

Note: I am not a doctor and only watch them on TV.

I seem to be getting into the hang of this 'unemployed' thing and slept through until past 7 this morning. The cats were distressed, silly little buggers. Just because they don't have opposable thumbs and can't dish out the cat food on their own....

Steph, Chloraseptic spray has worked pretty well for me as a numbing agent when I had bad sore throats. It was about all that kept me a functional human being before the Augmentin kicked in when I had tonsilitis.

In other sad news, Bob Clark died in a car crash -- best known as the director of A Christmas Story which would be a shining jewel in any career.

In other sad news, Bob Clark died in a car crash -- best known as the director of A Christmas Story which would be a shining jewel in any career.

And the perfect act of atonement for having directed PORKIES.

Man had an eclectic career: The original BLACK CHRISTMAS, a horror film about Ed Gein called DERANGED, a really good Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper movie MURDER BY DECREE (with Christopher Plummer and James Mason as Holmes and Watson), the PORKIES movies and A CHRISTMAS STORY (and that's not even a complete list).

Hey, what's it like for people with significant others who are also buffistas?

It can be very odd. And it's worse when you are in the process of breaking up; as many of you have intuited, Lori and I are in the middle of separating. In addition to all of the other insanity in our lives right now, we are also contending with that. Which makes posting here odd for both of us.

ETA: Steph, may you feel better right quick.

Well, we love you both, want you both to be happy, and will stay out of it.