Mason’s doing 110% better. He’s still getting his nebulizer treatments, but it’s no big deal, we do them at home, and he’s so used to them now that he usually either watches TV or just falls asleep. They only take five minutes to do. Right now we’re still doing them four times a day, then it goes to three, then two, and then we’re done.

Went to the flea market last weekend and picked up a bunch of DVDs, mostly of movies I’ve been wanting to see but haven’t got around to renting yet. Curse of the Jade Scorpion, the Mothman Prophecies, A.I. (Artificial Intelligence), Blair Witch 2, and a couple of others found their way into the pile. Hey, at $8 per DVD, I’m a sucker.

Unfortunately due to Mason’s flu/pneumonia encounter, our trip to Chicago is being cancelled this weekend, which is a big bummer. It seems like I’m always looking forward to the next three day weekend, and now here’s one and I have nothing planned. The high temperatures for Friday thru Monday are 56, 47, 45, and 47, with 100% chance of rain for Friday. That pretty much rules out any motorcycle-based entertainment this weekend.

I’ll bet it’s cold in Chicago anyway (grumble).

We got home late Tuesday night from the hospital. Wednesday went pretty smooth, but Thursday came and Mason started feeling worse again. He quit drinking fluids and started “quivering”. We called the Doctor and she said she was quote “very concerned” about his state. Fortunately, he broke through it and seems to be on the upswing now.

Not a lot of plans for the weekend, Mason won’t feel like doing much so Susan and I will be around the house taking turns watching him (to give each other some breaks). I watched Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (great) and Austin Power’s Goldmember (dumb) this week. Due to bad timing on my part, I just sent all my Netflix rentals back, leaving me with nothing to watch over the weekend. Hopefully, cable will fill that particular void in my life this weekend — plus, this Sunday night is the NBA All Star Game.

We’re home! (More on that at the bottom.)

The Respitory Specialist Mason was seeing is the same one that I have an appointment with in a couple of weeks, so on top of no sleep and a sick kid, the doctor’s office did us a favor by moving my appointment to this afternoon, so I could just walk over have a meeting with the doctor about my allergies.

I guess in theory it made sense, but none of us have had any sleep, we’re all cranky, and it probably could and should have waited until another day. Regardless, I went over for the meeting. After having me fill out an 8 page questionaire and answering a million questions about my sinus drainage (what color is the drainage? How much comes out?), they did an Allergy test. For those that have never had one, it’s a blast! You should just volunteer for one for kicks next time you’re in. The first thing they do is get this contraption that sticks your skin 8 times. Each one has just a trace of everything you might be allergic to. The high tech idea here is that whatever you’re allergic to will swell up. Genius! So, after 43 pinpricks to the back, the entire test comes up negative. So, they go to the “more sensitive” test — 14 shots to the arm. 8 to one, 6 to the other, pumping more allergy causing chemicals under the skin. Nothing. So, after 43 pricks to the back and 14 shots to the arm, they tell me I’m not allergic to anything. So, on top of being sleepless, hungry, and irritable, tack on 57 more holes in my body than I had this morning. From the same people who invented the lobotomy …

Mason, on the other hand, is feeling quite well. His oxygen level was at 99, which was the final thing they were testing. We’re dreading the home breathing treatments we’ll be required to give him, but any treatment at home is better than any treatment at the hospital.

Well, we’ve been in the hospital for a month now … ok, it’s just been 24 hours actually, but it seems like it’s been forever. Sleeping in a chair last night was a bitch, let me tell you. Well, actually, I *can’t* tell you, because after two hours of it I snuck out to the car and went home to catch a few Zzz’s.

One of the funniest things has been the hospital’s food selection for Mason. The only two choices are, “baby food” or “regular food”. Well, Mason doesn’t eat baby food any longer, so we told them “regular food.” For Mason’s first meal at the hospital, they brought him steak, a baked potato, brocoli and cheese, a roll, and some pudding. Oh, and a side salad, complete with cucumber and tomato chunks. Well, Mason liked the roll and pudding. We found the hospital’s secret stash later and stole some cans of fruit cocktail and peaches which he actually ate. Steak? For a one year old? When one of the nurses asked if he liked his steak, I told her, “well, he hasn’t mastered a STEAK KNIFE yet …” Dumbasses.

Late last night, they said Mason’s oxygen levels were “getting low”, so they hooked him up to the ol’ oxygen tube. I was laughing the entire time. So far, he’s disabled the electronic bed, reprogrammed half the machines in the room, and taken off every sensor they’ve stuck to him. So when the nurse told me that Mason would “forget about the tube stuck up his nose,” I just laughed. I asked another nurse, “have you all ever done this before?” Mason’s breathing treatments consist of him having to inhale his medicine for five minutes, so it is administered to him via a gas mask breaking apparatus. The nurse got onto me yesterday and said, “he’s not getting enough medicine because he’s fighting so much,” to which I responded, “I’ll have a talk with the ol’ one year old later and try and explain to him that you’re not trying to KILL him.” When I asked if they had ever done this before, I was only half being sarcastic.

Mason might get to go home tonight but I’ve found hospitals are a lot like hotels, if you’re there after 3pm they figure you’ve already paid up for the night so you “might as well stay.” Oh boy, more salisbury steak and brocoli with cheese, yum yum! Hopefully we’re looking at going home Wednesday morning. Mason’s sounding much better. He’s still got a little raspiness when they listen with a stethiscope, but for the most part he’s acting and feeling just fine.

Oh, and he had the oxygen tube out in twelve seconds.

Ok, so it turns out, Mason *was* really sick. At 3:00pm today, the doctor checked Mason into Mercy Hospital for pneumonia and the flu. Whee! He has to be here 24 hours, so during his nap, Susan ran home and grabbed the essentials … a change of clothes, a couple of Dr. Peppers, two Teletubbies tapes, and a laptop. Mason’s doing fine, the breathing treatments are breaking up all the junk in his lungs and he’s feeling better already.

If you need to reach Susan or myself, try Mercy Hospital, room 565, or either of our cell phones.

Well I was going to post a big Monday morning update about all the fun stuff I did this weekend, but Mason just left the doctor’s office and they told us he has pneumonia. So … tales of fun will have to wait. We’re waiting for a call back to see if he has to go to the hospital or not.

Got to Dad’s house around 8:30am, just in time to head out to a video game auction. These auctions used to come through Oklahoma all the time, but stopped for some reason. They’re back now though, and they take credit cards.

The auction was held in the Cleveland County Fairgrounds, in Norman, OK. Dad and I got there around 9:15, with the auction scheduled to begin at 10. Now, some of you may remember that I had 6 or 7 arcade machines before I moved to Spokane, but I was moving 1,800 miles away into an apartment, which forced me to sell them all.

There was a significant lack of newer games at this auction, which is just fine by me. The age I’m looking for is 1984-1994. Games before 1984 (Pac-Man, Centipede, Donkey Kong, etc) are considered “classics” and go for ridiculous amounts of money, as do the newer games. However, during those years where video games were a dime a dozen, games made during those years can be picked up very reasonably.

I really had my eye on that Mortal Kombat II with the 25″ monitor, but in closer inspection the monitor was pretty faded and the cabinet was huge. Dad had his eye on some slot machines but the prices skyrocketed in a hurry. As expected, a Robotron went for $450 and a Ms. Pac-Man went for $500. All the pinball games went between $400-$600. A non-working Joust went for almost $400, which is insane. Anyway, fortunately nobody was really interested in Bucky O’Hare ($75), Shinobi ($150), and an electronic dart board game ($100), which is how they found their way into my house. (Note: I just did the math, and I only bought 2% of the games there. That’s not so wrong, is it?)

I love my wife very, very much.

That’s right. In all his green and wrinkled glory. Available in both traditional, and Christmas outfits. Not sure where the twin’s final resting place will be, but Susan has assured me it will not be the kitchen table.

Doesn’t Mason look thrilled with his new playmate?

Not much going on around here. Spent the three day weekend on call, so we didn’t go anywhere. Next three day weekend (President’s Day), we’re planning a road trip to Chicago. This Saturday is a big video game auction in Norman, so you know I’ll be there bright and early! If you want to know what Mason’s been doing, just click on this link to find out. If the video doesn’t stream, just click on the link and do a “save file as”. You will need Windows Media Player to view the file.

It seems like there was a good reason to not give Mason a bowl of spaghetti and let him at it. Oh yeah, now I remember …

This day became known as “the spaghetti incident.”