Angie is throwing up and we visit a hospital!

So Angie woke up feeling sick yesterday. Around 1 pm she began throwing up and did that several times an hour until 8 pm when I threw her in the car and we went to my new favorite hospital, Gilbert Hospital.

Before I go on, I know what you are all thinking: "What? Chris, the FedEx BCS National Championship football game was going on and you stopped watching to take care of Angie? You are a Saint!"

I appreciate your kind thoughts, I really do, but nothing is too good for my Angie! Plus she was puking a lot! I knew our good old friend, Dehydration, would be coming for a visit soon.

The people at Gilbert Hospital could not have been nicer! They gave me a nice chair, they put the football game on a nice small flatscreen in the room for us to watch and they have a soda fountain right there in the ER! Free Diet Cokes all night long! And as an added bonus, they took really good care of Angie.

We were there for a total of 5 1/2 hours with all kinds of tests, IVs, doctors, nurses, etc. The long and short of it is that she was really dehydrated, had a nasty virus and has to stay in bed on various drugs for a couple of days.

The only sketchy part of the whole evening was near the middle of our stay in the hospital when she was dehydrated and starting to go in and out of being lucid. I knew she was totally out of it when she turned to me at halftime of the game and said "If I die, you can remarry."

This was not what I was expecting to hear from my poor sick wife. She wasn't THAT sick, but she felt like dying. I copy the exchange below. Now all you women with perfect husbands can cast the first stone. If not, don't pretend your husband isn't the same!

Angie: If I die, you can remarry.

Chris: Don't worry, I wouldn't remarry.

Angie: Seriously, it's ok and I know you--you can't be alone.

Chris: I didn't say I would be alone, I just said I wouldn't get remarried.

Suddenly it was like a flash of white hot energy went through her entire body. She had a heaven-sent source of adrenaline! It was a hospital miracle! She was going to live!

When the doctors pulled her off me she was still screaming "I am beating you on behalf of all women" over and over. Luckily the drugs kicked in soon after and she was able to rest.

If she asks me about it today I will tell her she was dreaming and that the entire night was a blur of pain, drugs and football.

Village Inn ripped me off!! (but it might be my fault)

OK, so Angie and I went out shopping last night and stopped by Village Inn to pick up some pie to eat at home. We have never really gotten pie from Village Inn but the Cheesecake Factory was 15 minutes further away.

It went wrong from the very start.

There was a nice young woman behind the counter. Here is the exchange; you tell me where it went off the tracks:

Village Inn Girl: "Can I help you?"

Chris: "She would like a slice of Cherry pie and I would like a slice of Chocolate Peanut Butter."

Village Inn Girl: "That will be $6.50."**
**take note that my slice of pie cost $3.80

I swiped my debit card and the machine instantly asked me if I wanted to tip 15% or 20%. We have now been in the building 3 minutes. I saw Village Inn Girl move out of my line of vision as she headed to the back to get our pie, so I turned my head slightly to Angie behind me and out of the corner of my mouth uttered:

Chris: "Tip? 15% tip? 20% tip? How about zero?"

It is at this moment I realizeed much to my horror that my superhero-like spidey-senses have detected Village Inn Girl right behind me. She whispered in my ear:

Village Inn Girl: "If you want zero just hit zero. That's fine."

I was mortified; Angie was mortified but it was too late. Village Inn Girl gave us our pie and I slinked out.

When we got to the car I opened the pie container to make sure she hadn't spit in my food. What I found was almost as bad: I had received the smallest piece of pie I have ever seen at a restaurant. And I had paid $3.80! Here is a dramatic recreation using Village Inn's website (click to enlarge):


In the interest of social studies, I went to my friend Kimball's house and "talked him" (ie, had to pay him in pie) into going to Village Inn to order pie as well. This time he was ready to tip big. He ordered, he got a bigger slice.

Angie and I want to make the world a better place. Friends and followers of this blog know that we both want to teach others our valuable life lessons.

Here is what Chris learned: Drive the extra 15 minutes to the Cheesecake Factory if you can. It is so loud there that they won't hear you announcing you won't be tipping.

Here is what Angie learned: stop going out in public with her husband.

Braveheart

I have my own Scottish Highlander. You know how I love Scotland. My brave highlander actually walked the streets of Mesa on Halloween night. I am sure he was there to protect me and the boys. What a brave soul he is.

NBA is FANtastic!

So last week a former (law) partner of mine gave me 4 center court tickets to a Phoenix Suns game. Of course since there are 5 of us in the family we had a major decision to make. Should I leave a boy home? Should I stay home and Angie go? Should we give away the tickets since we can't all go?

We decided to settle it the old fashioned way: Angie and I arm-wrestled for the right to take the boys to the game.

Here is the first picture of the night that the winner took. Can you guess who took it?

What can I say? I love dancing. Just kidding. Long story short, Angie let me go even though I lost the arm wrestle. Plus she had book club that night. Now in most marriages it would be no sacrifice for a wife to skip sports and go do girl-talk with appetizers. In our marriage however, Angie is a HUGE sports fan and although I love sports, I am also happy to spend an evening yacking it up and eating finger foods.

Thanks for sacrificing Angie. The boys and I had a great time.

The tickets included passes to all the clubs at the Arena and the area underneath the stadium between the floor and the locker room. At half-time and after the game we gave the players high fives as they ran into the locker room.

After the game we talked Amare Stoudemire into stopping and signing autographs for the boys. They were so excited!


All in all it was quite a lot of fun and hopefully the boys remember the good time we all had with Amare, Shaq, Nash. And the Suns dancers. OK, I don't want them (or Angie) to remember that part.

-Chris

Camping = Fun!!

So Chandler and I went on our first 11 year old Scout campout this past weekend. Fate, sickness and vacation schedules had conspired to keep us from going on earlier scout campouts.

Needless to say, Chandler was so excited to play with friends in dirt and lake water. How could I deny him?

We went to a place north of here called Apache Lake:


It was a bit of a drive to get to the lake but on the way we stopped when the scout leader spotted a rattlesnake laying on the road. Like any good scout leader, this one got out and bothered the otherwise comfortable snake until he started to rattle. The leader wanted the boys to hear what a rattlesnake sounds like when it is ticked off and rattling so that the boys could be warned and on the lookout. This makes perfect sense to me as a carrier of male chromosomes. Angie, of course, was horrified at this retelling. Her reaction went something like this:

Me: "Wasn't that a good idea?"

Angie: "What? Are you fully retarded or just slow?"

Me: "I'm all man, baby!"

Angie: "I will take that as fully retarded."

If that wasn't cool enough, later on the drive we saw a tarantula. A huge tarantula in fact. So huge that we had to pick it up and let it walk on us. First the boys petted it (yes it was that big) but then they got brave and let it walk on them.
You can all imagine what Angie's reaction was when I told her about this part. It won't surprise you that she has asked my employer if there is a special "short bus" that can take me to work since she doesn't think I should be allowed to drive.

Once we got to the lake Chandler was good about helping me get the tent up, dinner, etc. Luckily the 11 years old scouts are still 11 and were oblivious of the girls in bikinis in the next campsite over. Just to be safe I decided to keep an eye on them and make sure they didn't wander into our campsite and frighten the young boys. You're welcome, Angie. Chandler was safe!

Of course Chandler wanted to get up at 6 am and fish which was fun except for the really smelly bait. We didn't catch any fish but we saw a couple steal the bait.

All in all it was a fun campout and we can't wait to do it again. In case you were wondering-don't worry, the bikini-clad temptresses were not out early Saturday morning. I checked several times just to be safe.

-Chris

Anarchy in the UK

So poor Angie had to deal with us driving all day last Sunday back from vacation in California just in time for me to get on an afternoon flight to London. I was gone an entire week for business. It was tough leaving Angie and the boys right after vacation (not that it's easy to leave any time!).

I spent the first couple of days just outside of London. I realized as soon as I landed that I had accidentally left my jacket in hot Phoenix and it was rainy every day in London. A cab driver and I shopped a thrift shop and I found a nice wind breaker for 5 pounds (about 10 bucks). It had a little school insignia on the jacket but I didn't worry about it until I got back to the office and looked up the name of the school and realized it was a school for teenage boys with emotional and behavioral problems! How fitting, some of you are thinking! I just hope that people who saw me walking around with it thought that I was a teacher and not a student :)

I did get into London for some meetings but I also had a nice dinner with my friend Adam who lives in London. He and I started at the same law firm in New York many years ago. Later when Angie and I were in Frankfurt, Adam's future wife, Karen, was dating him in London on the weekends and working in Frankfurt during the week, where we met her also. Anyway Adam and Karen now have a cute house in London and a cuter new baby and it was wonderful to catch up. It was also fun to walk the London streets again and see the tourist sites: parliament, Westminster, Big Ben, etc. Mostly I missed touring with Angie!

Later in the week I went North for several days. I did get to play hooky on a Friday afternoon and trained to York, a beautiful old city. Here is the York minster, the largest Gothic cathedral in Europe outside of Italy:

Here is a medieval street in York called the "Shambles". Notice the rain and the crooked buildings down the street:

On the train I met a man from Zimbabwe, where the inflation is so bad because they just keep printing money. You have to spend money as soon as you get it because prices double every day. He gave me a 50 billion dollar note, currently worth about 50 pence (or $1):

On Saturday I went to a football/soccer game in Newcastle. The Newcastle fans were in a near riot with protests and chanting because the coach had just quit and fans blame the owner so it was a lot of fun and quite a scene! Here I am with my new football friends (notice the Newcastle team Jersey and school jacket):


The home team lost 2-1, but I did get to see Michael Owen play. He is a fantastic player for both Newcastle and the English National team. He is also very popular with the girls. Angie is a fan of his soccer skills!


I am so excited to be back home and have the best wife for putting up with trips like this. Traveling just isn't as fun without her and I can't to get back to England with her!!

The Greatest Day

Warning-this is a sappy post. 15 years ago Chris and I were married. I am so blessed to be able to have him in my life. If you can think of all the good attributes a person has-Chris has them all. He cooks, cleans bathrooms, does laundry, makes me laugh, lets me read all I want and works very hard to provide for us. He is the most unselfish man I know. I am so grateful for what he does for me and my boys. He is amazing!!! So thank you for a great 15 years. I wouldn't have changed anything (well except for our only 2 mistakes- our dog and our house guest). I have loved our life together. You are the best!!!

Happy Birthday to Me

My sweet husband gave me a great birthday present. He gave me (us) ballroom dancing lessons. It has always been a dream of mine to take lessons together-but Chris has never wanted to. This year he decided to give me the dream and signed us up for lessons starting on Wednesday. I am so excite-he not so much. I think it was the best present. I know he is not very excited about it but he will endure for me. So thank you Chris for the best birthday present ever!!! I will of course report on how our lessons progress.:)

Life Without a Cell Phone

So Chris started his new job on Monday (he is the General Council for a large company in Tempe). On Monday morning his old cell phone was turned off and his new blackberry is still on order. That means that he has gone 2 days without a cell phone. Now I know that I talk to my husband a little more than most wives (about 10 times a day) but it helps us stay in touch with each others day. Anyway, this has been a new experience. We only talked like 2 times on both days. I don't think Chris knows what to do without the cell phone and blackberry. He said he felt weird driving without a cell phone. I think it is now like a radio or seat belt. No driving allowed without it. We were laughing about this and remembering back to our college days and when we bought our first cell phone. Now they are an important part of our lives. If I forget mine-I always go back home to pick it up. Heaven forbid I should go a couple hours without contact. Anyway-last night we resurrected an old phone for Chris to take with him. He won't have a blackberry but at least he will be able to talk on the phone. All things are right in the world again.

The End of an Era

Today was Chris' last day as a lawyer at a law firm. I can't believe it's over. This will be the first weekend in about 9 years that a Blackberry will not be glued to his side. He will be able to sit through a baseball game without having to send an email. He will be able to make it all 3 hours of church without having to be on a conference call. He will be home at 5:30 every night (maybe). I will have to start cooking dinner. I will have to clean the house earlier in the day. I will not be able to sit on the couch all night reading. He will be able to help the boys with homework. We will get to spend time together. Besides the cooking dinner part I am really excited to see what a 9-5 job is like. I am really happy that he will be able to work a little less. He works so hard it makes me feel like a slacker. I am proud of him and all that he has accomplished in the 14 1/2 yrs we have been married. He is a great guy!!!