Elf Sternberg

Omaha and I have been feeling very burned out the past couple of days. It's partly the sickness that's been going around; I have the chest cold today, can feel it deep within, rumbling and grumbling.

Valentine's day is also the day Omaha and I successfully conceived Kouryou-chan, so we went out to her favorite restaurant, where she gleefully informed the waitress this was her "conception day!" The waitress, unfamiliar with this idea, decided it was her birthday and arranged a birthday celebration with balloons and a sing-along and the awkward question, "How old are you today?"

Well, traditionally, she's some nine and a quarter or so. Her precise gene sequence is ten years old today, but her gene sequence isn't really "her," in that sense. Still, we got through it all with good spirits and some desperate handwaving.

I also ran down to See's candy to pick up the two pound box I'd ordered on Thursday. It was a good thing I had ordered it ahead of time; when I got there a long banner informed me that "we are out of:" and on that list were two of Omaha's favorites. I'm such a regular that they don't need to see my ID anymore, and kinda know what to start when I ask for a box.

We tried to revive our flagging spirits last night. fallenpegasus kindly agreed to watch over the girls for an hour or two while Omaha and I went down to the hot tub place in Federal Way. We bought the Valentine's Day special, which got us two personal bottles of "sparkling apple cider," a rose and some cheap candy, as well as an uninterrupted hour of time together, naked and without the kids. We brought our lives and our exhaustion with us, and spent most of it more commiserating over the difficulties of raising two kids and less being romantic. It was not that kind of day.

I have spent most of the past two days off-line, not posting or reading, just trying to avoid it all and the headaches I've been having recently. I'm sorry if I've missed anything. Sometimes I just need a vacation from it all.