I'm sort of doing an experiment today by not taking any Motrin. I want to see what condition the fever is in when it's not controlled by drugs. I also seem to get the hot flashes soon after I take the Motrin, so I wondered if it might not actually be causing them. So far, what the experiment has told me is that my swollen ankles hurt like a mofo and I look like an old lady trying to go down steps. The erythema nodosum, which a friend tells me apparently is dermatology speak for "red bumps," covers a fist-sized swath on the outside of each ankle, and has caused swelling. There's also big patches on the tops of my feet. And then there's the ones that go up my legs. Red Bumps is just a little too vague. It should be Red Bumps, Some with Green Centers, that Feel Like You've Been Punched Over and Over Again By Someone Using the Frog Knuckle Technique. Anyway, without pain killer, they're a little more noticeable. I may drop my experiment this afternoon.

By the way, today is my one-month anniversary of having this fever. My doctor's nurse, who I communicate with regularly, praised me for not panicking yet. My first thought was, "Should I be panicking? Maybe I need to get on that." Then I decided getting all hysterical wouldn't really help anyway.

Our dinner with the Grand Czarina and Consort on Saturday night was wonderful. The GC is a vegetarian, so Deb cooked linguini with red peppers, mushrooms, black olives and asparagus, and it was great. Okay, I didn't eat the red peppers, but it was still marvelous and I didn't miss having meat at all.

I hadn't even seen the Czarina in years and she looked wonderful. She has been at her current job, working to get benefits for homeless people, longer than she's ever been at any of her other jobs, and so she had some good stories of what some of her clients get like when they're off their meds. Like the guy who thinks he's the king of Italy. And there's Kenny, who they busted their asses to get teeth for, and then one day he showed up without them. They asked where his teeth were, and he said he had to "put them down" because they made all the ladies come after him and want a piece of him. And then there was the guy who tried to steal a heart monitor from the hospital. The GC asked him if he had become a doctor since the last time she saw him, and if not, why did he need a heart monitor. He said his boyfriend with heart problems wouldn't go to the hospital for check-ups, so he wanted it to hook up to his boyfriend so he'd know when he needed to make him go to the hospital. He unplugged the monitor (I hope it wasn't attached to anyone) and started rolling it toward the exit, but he didn't make it to the door.

The Grand Czarina is also still referring to her former girlfriend, who used to be a close friend of mine at my last job, as May She Rot in Hell. MSRiH left the Grand Czarina for another woman with three pre-pubescent boys. A woman she'd met on the Internet. If you knew May She Rot in Hell, you would understand what a shock this was to everyone. She liked kids less than I do, if you can imagine. I haven't heard from her in years. I think the woman probably has her completely pussy-whipped somewhere. At least that's how it looked the last time I saw them together. The Internet woman was treating May She Rot in Hell like one of her wayward children in need of constant scolding. Weird how these things turn out. I never thought the current Consort would last as long as she has, but she's going strong. Being faithful and having the ability to fix stuff really works in her favor. She's also a UPS driver, and there's just a certain sexy allure to butch dyke UPS drivers.

I must be feeling better to some degree because I was just lusting after a perfect stranger down in the food court. She reminded me in looks of Laura Dern, who I've always thought was a really good and very attractive actress with the possible exception of how skinny she is sometimes. I think she may be one of those rare actresses who's naturally exceptionally thin. But this woman looked to be maybe in her mid-40s, and she had just enough meat and muscle on her bones not to look skinny. And she carried herself with strength. She walked with purpose. As I followed her I thought, "if she gets on my elevator, I'm going to get up the nerve to tell her how hot I think she is." She didn't.

Current temperature, 101.1�. I'm like an early summer Arizona weather report.

Sara and I had TV/DVD watching dates on Monday and Tuesday instead of making out because of my slight relapse. I enjoyed it nevertheless. Monday was a Buffy ep we hadn't watched yet, and last night was "Original Sin" with Antonio Banderas and Angelina Jolie. The Buffy ep was one of the more interesting ones I've seen this season (the one where Chloe hangs herself and Buffy jumps into the time portal), and "Original Sin" was enjoyable trash. No surprises, but lots of hot naked sex scenes. The bad guy, Billy, was too skeezy to enjoy though.

Our friend Frankey was possibly going to give Deb a ride in her biplane to day, but it's very overcast, and the plane doesn't have the instrumentation to fly blind, so that's a no-go. Frankey called us last week to let us know that she'd gotten a really swell government job that had to do with putting the correct pilot instructions along with the maps that pilots have to use and update all the time. That's so cool. Frankey is the kid we've known since she was 14 and just about to come out. She's 22 now and owns her own plane. Let me just say again, that is SO cool. She's worked as a flight instructor for a few years now, and I know she'll be happy to give that up. I hope we get to see her while she's in town. She may be stuck here as long as the weather is so bleah. She's flying her plane from Florida to St. Louis, where her new job is.

Moving on - 12:11 p.m. , 2007-08-14

Where the hell have I been? - 12:10 p.m. , 2007-02-19

Holy shit! - 2:24 p.m. , 2006-01-11

Stuffing recipe - 6:17 p.m. , 2005-12-13

Good Life Update - 10:22 a.m. , 2005-11-11