A Busy Week

This past week has been full of business, most of it good.

Ken is mostly over a horrible flu that had him out of commission for at least a week.  At one stage, in a fevered delirium, (while I was at work), he shaved off all his hair because "I was too hot".  In the state he was in he couldn't do a very good job of it, so the poor guy ended up  looking kind of like this skinny pig (including the squinting).

It was pretty sad.  Then of course not fifteen minutes later he hit the shivering stage of the fever, so he had to put on my bright turquoise knitted toque to cover up his scruffy, mostly-bald noggin.  He looks nice in that shade of blue.

Fortunately we discovered some unexpired Tylenol in his medicine cabinet, and once that was in his system he felt a lot better.

He got over the worst of the flu just in time to attend his father's memorial service.  There will not be a funeral as Ken's dad donated his body to research.  The memorial was very sweet.  Ken's dad was, among other things, a fairly well-recognized Canadian visual artist.  He worked in watercolour, oils, ink, and pencil.  He painted the most luminous landscapes.  His friends, also artists, read poems they'd written for him and one woman composed a beautiful song in his honour and sang it while accompanying herself on acoustic guitar.  Ken seemed to get a lot of good energy from seeing all his family's closest friends and sharing stories about his dad.

It was a weekend for family.  I went out with my mother for a stroll and a cup of tea on Saturday.  I showed her the Nexus S smartphone I bought on Friday evening, and she was suitably impressed.  (I'm a little disappointed because this phone doesn't get network service in my office, but then again I do have an office phone on my desk, two e-mail addresses, and instant messaging at my disposal.  For the great deal I got I'll probably stick with this phone and the carrier at least until my monthly arrangement pays off the handset.)

I also had a dinner with the other side of my family: dad, step-mom, sister, grandmother, and some first cousins once removed (I had to look up "wiki cousins" to make sure I got that right).  That was bonus, because three of the six of us are gluten free, so we had an entirely gluten-free meal, including incredible chocolate cupcakes home-baked by my sister, with choco icing, a slice of strawberry, and coconut sprinkled on top.

Work has been going well too.  I feel that I've been going from strength to strength lately.

Everything was going along tickity-boo until I got tripped up by some digestive upheavals last night.  I'll spare you the details, but picture the worst stomach flu you've ever had and you're probably close.  I'm not sure exactly what caused it.  I ate dinner at home, and within 2 hours I was a very unhappy camper.  Let's just say that I am feeling much better today.  My tum is so sore and inflamed that I haven't been able to eat much, just a little bit of brown rice, but I'll get there.  Maybe one more day to get my eating back online and I can go back to work, I hope.

So, maybe this will be the last crisis for a while?  I really feel like it would be fair to have some smooth sailing for a change.  Thank God, Ken has been saying that his heart arrhythmia seems to be getting better on its own, so maybe he won't have to carry on with trying out scary medications or pursuing surgical options.  I think it was the stress of his dad's suffering that was breaking his heart.  Now that his dad is resting in peace, God willing, his heart can heal.