The Dobrindt Family

Being sick today

I just emerged from what could be the worst stomach sickness I have ever had. I remember once when I was a kid I was really sick for about two days and had to basically sit in the bathroom because, well, you can guess. I remember eating at Roy Rogers or something and then getting very sick, maybe not from the food since my family ate it too as I recall, but very sick. I remember once not making it to the bathroom in time and felt bad for my mother because she felt bad I didn't have a bucket in my bedroom, which was my fault since I told her I could make it to the bathroom in time. But as a kid, you deal with stomach sicknesses and bounce back pretty quick.

Starting at about 6 this morning, after a sleepless night, I was more sick then I could ever remember. No reason to get into details, but it was probably food poisoning and made me pray for a quick, painless death. My stomach is killing me, my head is killing me and I am weak since I have not had anything to eat in almost 24 hours. For those who know my eating habits and what I look like, not eating is a monumental feat.

Now I am eating ice and gingerly trying to come back into the fold.

Just thought I?d share.

<u>Update:</u> It came back. About 10 last night it came back in full force. There I was, lying in the floor of the bathroom, face pressed against the cold tile, panting, dripping in sweat. And I knew I had the entire night ahead of me. Ugh

Below is the transcript from Howard Dean?s response to getting spanked in the Iowa caucus

Well, you guys, you have already got the picture here. I, I was about to say you know I, I?m sure there are some disappointed people here.

<i>(crowd groans)</i>

You know what, you know something, you know something, if you had told us one year ago that we were going to come in third in Iowa, we would have given anything for that. And you know something. You know something.

<i>(Dean starts to speak more quickly)</i>

Not only are we going to New Hampshire, Tom Harkin, we?re going to South Carolina, and OKLAHAMO, and ARIZONA!

<i>(crown cheers and claps wildly)</i>

AND NORTH DAKOTA! AND NEW MEXICO! AND WE?RE GOING TO CALIFORNIA,!AND TEXAS AND NEW YORK!

<i>(dean shouts and face turns red)</i>

Not going to Florida because I hate the heat and old people.

BUT WE?RE GOING TO SOUTH DAKOTA! AND OREGON! AND WASHINGTON, AND MICHIGAN. And THEN WE?RE GOING TO WASHINGTON DC TO TAKE BACK THE WHITE HOUSE FROM THAT S**T KICKING COWBOY

YYAAAAAAaaahhhhh. haha.

<i>(dean pauses a moment. Crowd grows crazy)</i>

SHOW ME YOUR HANDS MOTHER -expletive deleted-.

COME ON. MAKE SOME NOOOOIIIIIIISSSSSSEEEEE.

<i>(crowd goes wild with applause and cheers)</i>

WE WILL NOT GIVE UP. We will not give up in New Hampshire. WE WILL NOT GIVE UP IN SOUTH CAROLINA, WE WILL NOT GIVE UP IN ARIZONA.

I?LL GIVE UP IN ALASKA BECAUSE FAIRY, I MEAN KERRY, CAN HAVE THAT ICE BOX.

BUT NOT IN NEW MEXICO, OKLAHOMA, NORTH DAKOTA, DELAWARE, PENNSYLVANIA, OHIO, MICHIGAN!!!

<i>(dean pauses, crowd continues to cheer)</i>

WHEN I SAY ?WHO?S HOUSE????..YOU SAY ?HOWARD?S HOUSE?.

NOW WHO?S HOUSE?

<i>(crowd yells ?howard?s house)</i>

I SAID ?WHO?S HOUSE??

<i>(crowd yells louder ?howard?s house?)</i>

THAT?S RIGHT MOTHER - expletive deleted -, THAT?S G**D***ED RIGHT!!

We will not quit now or ever. We want our country back for ORDINARY AMERICANS.

<i>(dean points to the back of the crowd)</i>

Ordinary Americans like that fat man back there. And that ugly woman in the American flag sweater.

<i>(crowd cheers and applauds)</i>

I, and we?re going to win in MASHASHUSETTS. AND NORTH CAROLINA, AND MISSOURI

DO YOU HEAR ME TALKING PEOPLE!! MIZ-EFFING-URI.

AND ARKANSAS, AND CONNECTICUT, AND NEW YORK, AND OHIO. MIGHT NOT WIN IN ALABAMA BUT WHAT DO THEY KNOW, THOSE DUMB REDNECKS.

<i>(crowd continues to cheer wildly)</i>

I?M A CRAZY MAN AND NOTHIN? GUNNA STOP THIS TRAIN. NOTHIN!!

<i>(dean let?s the crowd quiet down)</i>

Let me, let me, let me, wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute, way way, I, I there are some, there are some polite things we have to do here. And the first is to thank some people.

And I want to thank Jeani Murray and her extraordinary Iowa people. She has worked so hard.

Come on up here, Jeani. Come on up. Come on up. Jeani Murray. Come on. Come on sweet girl.

Who?s your daddy Jeani? That?s right. Dean?s your daddy. Daddy Dean. Now give me some sugar. Right here.

<i>(Ms. Murray kisses dean on the cheek)</i>

Now who else out there wants some DEAN?

HUH??? WHO???

<i>(crowd yells and cheers)</i>

HOW ELSE WANTS DEAN?

YOU WANT DEAN?

<i>(dean points at a section of the crowd)</i>

YOU WANT DEAN?

<i>(dean points at another section)</i>

DAMN RIGHT YOU WANT DEAN. DAMN RIGHT MOTHA MO-FOS. EVERYONE WANT DEAN.

<i>(dean takes a few steps back and runs forward, leaping headfirst into the crowd, microphone still in hand)</i>

YEEAAAAHHHHHH.

<i>(crowd places dean back on stage)</i>

I?M DRUNK AND PISSED OFF I LOST IN HAWKEYE. I OUT OF HERE.

PEACE OUT.

<i>(dean walks off the stage backwards attempting to moon walk)</i>

Weekend with Emily - running diary

Weekend with Emily

Patti is going away this weekend with some girlfriends to New York City. For the first time ever, I am left alone with Emily, our 20 month old daughter, for more than a day. In fact, I have never been alone with her for more than 12 hours. I?ve watched her all day, watched her in the evening where I fed her, bathed and put her to bed, and do normal stuff, but just never had her for three consecutive days without Patti. It?s not that I mind, it just never happened. So this weekend, from Friday at 9AM until Sunday after she goes to bed, I will have her. This is going to be my running log of how it?s going and how it went.

<u>10:10 AM Friday:</u> Patti left about 55 minutes ago. No problem so far. Dropped Emily off at a neighbor?s house about 10 minutes ago to take a work call. Will pick her up at 11. So far so good.

<u>10:24 AM Friday:</u> Still ok. Of course she is not here, but no calls from friend who is watching her until 11.

<u>12:20 Noon Fri:</u> She WILL NOT take a nap. I put her down, walk out of the room and here ?thump thump thump thump? and she comes booking out of the room. And I KNOW she is tired. But she just wants to play and run around like a banshee.

<u>1:35 PM Fri:</u> Gave up trying on the nap thing. Had lunch, tried the nap thing, gave up, and just decided to let her do her thing. She is watching a movie in our bedroom and I am hoping, nay, praying, she falls asleep. Otherwise its going to be a long afternoon. We?ll find something to do.

<u>2:30 PM Fri:</u> Just watched Barney for the past hour. I would put a dart in my head if I had to watch that show all day long. But it?s good for kids because 1) they sing slowly, 2) they say nice things like ?I love you?, ?thank you? and ?you won?t get beat up in public school if you are on this show? and 3) the main ?adult? character is made up and in a big colorful get-up so nothing strange like four grown men playing with kids (i.e. The Wiggles). Only 4 and a half more hours until it's her bedtime.

<u>7:30 PM Fri:</u> The little monster is finally asleep. And what the h**l does Patti do with her all day. I had a tea party with invisible water, scattered plastic animals all over the house, made an army of odd shaped people who all had to fit in a 2 foot tall home, and watched almost all of our Disney videos. If the weather was nice, I would have spent the day outside but since it is zero degrees, not joking, without the wind chill, I thought it wise to stay indoors. So we went from first floor to second floor to relieve the boredom. But we had a nice dinner, pain-free bath, and some down time that consisted of her taking cardboard wrapping paper rolls and banging them on my head while laughing right before she conked out. But she is down, it?s 7:40, and I have the night to find some serious drugs to get me through the weekend.

<u>7:50 AM Sat:</u> Kind of a rough night. Up a few times, the longest being from 2 to 4. The good thing is that when she is up, she sleeps late. She would usually be up by now but is still sleeping, giving me time to write this silly note.

<u>11:45 AM Sat:</u> The kids show Caillou has to be the very worst kids show on television ever. This wining, bratty complaining kid is the centerpiece of the stupid show. ?I don?t wanna eat?, ?I don?t wanna draw?, ?I want a chocolate bar?, ?I?m hungry?. That is basically all he says. And he does it in a nasally tone that makes the hair on my deck stand up. If I were one of the writers of that show, I would change the parents from being weak, cave-in wimps to stern, disciplinarians. I would definitely take it to the other extreme. The first thing they would say when Caillou complained would be ?You?re in MY world now, brat?.

As for Emily, things are fine. I braved the 1 degree temperature and took her with me to run errands. Nothing special. Coffee, library, supermarket. It was fine.

<u>7:00 PM Sat:</u> Not a bad afternoon. Again, no nap, but not too bad since she hung out in her room really quietly for an hour. I tried to put her down but I guess she just needed some down time. Other than that, the afternoon was just hanging out and playing. So far, our friend Diedre has called to offer help and see how I was doing, my friend Chuck called to see if I wanted to go to the mall with him and his girl and my friend Mark called to see if I wanted to come over with Emily to play with his boy while we watched football. Everyone knows I am alone this weekend and is offering help. Not sure what that says about my reputation as a care giver, but nice still the same. Now it?s off to dinner and football at the Dobrindt Tap and Grill.

<u>8:15 AM Sun:</u> Great night. Really great night. She slept from 7 last night until 8 this morning. She NEVER does that. Oh, glorious sleep, uninterrupted sleep, nights rest.

<u>12:30 AM Sun:</u> Just got back from a baby shower. Will not do that again. Nothing against baby showers, but they are not for me. I brought Emily and I think it was no kids allowed so that makes it even worse. But I was only there for one hour and Emily was kind of ok. Anyway, back to the baby shower. Not going to do it again.

<u>8:15PM Sun:</u> The weekend is over. Patti got back about 4 this afternoon and everything is fine. Actually, I had a good time. Once I figured out what to do for those long stretches of time in the morning and afternoon, since it was too cold to do anything outside, I was fine. Now it?s back to normal.

The Library

I will be the first one to admit that my grad school experience was awful. I worked full time at a day job, worked at the university before class to help pay for tuition, worked at a restaurant on weekends and went to night school full time, usually going to the computer lab at 11PM to try to do some work. For two years including summers. While starting a relationship with my current wife to boot. But I got it done and am glad for it.

The funny thing is I have not been in a library since I left school in 1998. I always thought of a library as a place to do painstaking research and cram for tests and wanted to have nothing to do with it since school ended. But last Saturday I went into the Milton Public Library for the first time. My first time entering a library since my almost 20 years of schooling ended.

And guess what. They have books. Lots of them. For casual readers to borrow. For free. And free DVD rentals. It was nice. I read a lot and usually just buy the books and put them in one of our many book shelves when I am done. Or, like my current series of books, I borrow from friends or family with a 50/50 chance of remembering to return them. But I discovered that the library will lend you a book to read ? for three weeks with easy enough renewal if no one else is waiting for it ? for no money at all. I do have a problem with their numbering and bookshelving system though. I still don?t understand why they use some convoluted system of numbering to find books. If I go into Borders and Barnes and Noble, I can find a book right away. They are in sections by category, ordered by the author?s last name. If I only know the title, I can usually find a kiosk to look up the author. But not at the library. I had to look up the book (I knew the authors and title) to find some really long number/letter thing like P143.34.AT.4420-NBU.41-FIC, then I had to write it down and wonder around looking for the section until I just gave up and asked a librarian. It could be much easier. And I know town libraries are publicly funded through taxes and donations and cake sales and money is tight, but mine could use some couches or chairs and a little nicer interior. If I wanted to sit and read a paper from Germany or browse some magazine I don?t get, or look at a home improvement book because I don?t want to take it out because I might forget to return it since I will not actually do the project I am interested in until the summer which is of course months away, I have to do on tiny rock hard wood chair in a musty and dimly lit room. Dim lights? It?s a place to read books for Pete?s sake. Put in some big windows and install 100watt bulbs so I don?t go blind trying to read some 1950?s Time Life book on installing a stair runner. Ugh.

Anyway, the library was great.