I have a really bad cold. It struck Saturday after my exam. There's so much preparation that goes into an exam that I run myself ragged. I felt the cold coming on, and instead of resting a lot and fighting it off, I stayed up late studying for many nights in a row. Finally, my system succumbed to the virus. Yesterday I sounded even more like Krusty the Klown than usual and today my voice is totally gone.

Yesterday May went to a birthday party at Chucky Cheese. While Jill and May were at the party, Ben and I went to the airport to get my dad, who flew East for the holiday. When we picked up Jill and May at the Chucky Cheese, I asked may how she liked it. She said, "I LOVED it!" I asked her, "What did you love about Chucky Cheese?" and she replied, "It was really meaningful." Undaunted, I forged ahead. "What was meaningful about it, May?"

"The lights and everything."

Jill described it best when she said the robot rat was low tech in the seventies. Chucky Cheese, for those who have not experienced it or went there too long ago for the underwhelming experience to be present in active memory, is a robot rat that shakes its head a little while some music plays. Then a costumed rat-man comes out and dances with some of the staff. Also, there were rides and games that May was too small and poorly coordinated to play. She rode a few rides meant for kids that are much younger and tried to climb into the skeeball game. She traded her tickets (that Jill won for her at the Chucky Cheese games) for a tootsie roll.

My dad is here visiting and the kids are loving it. Ben got really wild with him last night after we got back from picking up Jill and May. He screeched and leaped down on top of him from the back of the couch. He smacked grandpa and cackled. Then he hit him across the face and knocked his glasses off and across the room. I quickly got grandpa's glasses and put them on top of the TV where no one would step on them.

Today, May had a birthday party, but I will write about that in a separate blog entry.