Day 3: IKEA, Kristen’s Baby Party

Busy day. We went to Baltimore, met up with friends from Hawai’i, who now also live stateside, and make my first trip to the wonderland that is IKEA. Those guys are SMART. They make it really easy to spend lots of money. Babysitters, in-store cafeteria, pencils and pads of paper… It’s amazing. I found myself getting seriously sucked into the gotta-have-it American materialist mentality.

We’re going back tomorrow to maybe get some furniture. =)

Then, we went to a party Kristen’s parents threw for her and her hubby and their new baby. They’re in from TX, and all of the family friends and old friends were invited. (Kris and I were friends in high school and after.) I got to do a little catching up with her and her brother (my only “little brother”), and with an old friend from high school (Sara!), as well as with other friends of mine (actually, my friends’ parents, whom I now consider friends). A good time until I started dying from cat exposure.

So, home we went. And I coughed up a lung.

That night, Grandpa (who had been refusing to go to the hospital) expressed a need to see a doctor. So Mom and Dad took him. He was admitted with low blood pressure and renal failure. They hooked him up to lots of antibiotics for a respiratory infection, and he started getting better right away.

Day 4: Melissa’s Birthday Party

I coughed all night. David even considered moving out to the couch, it was so bad.

Grandpa’s situation improved.

David and Leah made Melissa’s cake, and we had the afore-blogged party.

Day 5: We didn’t go to the beach.

Between me being sick and my Grandpa spending a couple of days in the ICU (thanks, all you well-wishers), we decided not to go to the beach.

So, we stayed home and played games instead.

Day 6: I have bronchitis.

Seriously, that was the big news of the day. I stayed home coughing and coughing, then went to an urgent care clinic and got my Dx. Then I went to a drugstore and got my drugs.

They moved Grandpa to a regular hospital room from the ICU.

embedded by Embedded Video

Download Video

happy birthday melissa!

(Sorry Mac folks, it’s a wmv.� Because I don’t have a Mac.� And because I had 10 minutes.)

Here’s Melissa, enjoying her birthday soda:

Here’s the cake, up close and personal:

… and here’s a bracelet they gave out.� What does it say, Shmel?

Left just after work on Thursday.� Had a meeting with a… difficult… colleague, then a “touch base” (bizspeak drives me crazy) meeting with my managers.� Then, off to Pennsylvania.

Day 1: Driving.

We drove for 8� hours.� There’s a whole lotta nothing between Indy and Blue Ridge Summit, where my folks live.

Day 2: Hershey Park.

Dave’s first time at Hershey – Leah and I took him.� It’s been 8(?) years since I’ve been to HP, so there was a lot of new for me, too.� Turns out Dave’s not a fan of the “scream coasters” – kind of a bummer for him.� We avoided riding them during the day to save him the waiting in line, but Leah and I wanted rode a few late, just before the park closed.� Thankfully, the longest line we waited in was only half an hour long, and Dave rode a tame coaster twice while he waited.� =)� My favorite: the StormRunner.� That’s a fun coaster.

Here’s us on the Chocolate World ride (which, since the last time I rode it, has gone from educational and borderline boring to being on multimedia steroids):