and the adventure continues

sorry, no pics. the weather has been really crappy, and the light just sucks for taking pics, so no new yarn. it's spun up and skeined, but no pics. sigh.

the adventure? mark is attempting to quit smoking again. he tried cold turkey last year, and was doing very well (he went from smoking 1 3/4 packs a day to about 8 cigarettes a day) until his foot went whacko on him, and he had to stay home for a month. considering the only company he had was liam (sean went whacko about this same time), and for half that time, he wasn't allowed to move his happy ass from the couch unless it was bathroom, bed, or doctor, he just about lost it, and was up to 2 packs a day again.

he went to the doctor last saturday to have a mole checked on, and came home with smoking-cessation literature, and a sample pack of commits. those are lozenges (kinda like nicorette gum, only cough drop style instead). the problem with those is no drinking or eating for 15 minutes before you take one, or during the dissolve time, which is about 25-30 minutes. mark is a thirsty soul. to not drink anything for that long (particularly first thing in the morning with his coffee (let's just deal with one addiction at a time, eh?)) would have made it 10 times tougher than it needed to be. so we contacted the doctor and asked about the patch. apparently you no longer need a scrip for them, so i took the $10 coupon they had included in his papers and went to walgreens.

now i know why that coupon was $10! with tax, patches for 7 days was $34 before the coupon. can we say ouch? granted, it's still cheaper than the $40 a week he was spending on cigarettes, but still. i will be hunting around for some cheaper prices, that's for damn sure.

However, he came home for lunch and said he actually felt pretty good. he was one of those people who would light up as soon as he got up in the morning, and even got up in the middle of the night on occasion to have one. we actually put the patch on last night before he went to bed, with the thought that maybe he wouldn't crave one too badly when he got up this morning. he said the rush after we put the patch on (i put it on his shoulder for him, i will help him as much as i can to quit (it's affecting my business! i already had one person say they couldn't buy some of my yarn because of the smoke (granted the cats were in there, too, but i think the kicker was the smoke))) was just like it was the first time he lit up oh so many years ago (he started at 16). h owever, this morning, he didn't cough as much, he wasn't as stuffed up (hey, there's an unexpected benefit! maybe i won't have to buy so many kleenex!), and he felt rested, even though he didn't go to sleep til almost 10 last night, and still got up at his usual 345-400 (yes, that's AM. he has to be at work at 6, and he hates being rushed, lol). so hopefully, this will work!

the reason he was up so late last night? we get take out rather frequently, as mark doesn't like to go out, and decided we wanted to try someplace new. mark and i had had old chicago years ago, before the boys came home, and mark wasn't impressed at that time. he was willing to give it another shot, though, so we picked out what we wanted, and i called in the order. i was surprised at the low total, but thought it was ok. i knew i should have had her read the order back to me. the closest old chicago is 20 minutes away (peony park area for those who know omaha at all), so it's a 40 minute round trip. in the rain. and the cold (did i mention the weather's been crappy lately?). so i get down there, and with the wind being from the east, and where they had to-go people park, i got a faceful of rain when i gave the girl my credit card. she brought the food out, i signed the dotted line, and took off for home. i get home, and start pulling food out, and realize that they missed one item, which, unfortunately, was liam's calzone. sigh.

so i called old chicago, very upset. i asked to speak to the manager, and told him that i wasn't very happy, because i had driven all the way down there for this food, and really didn't feel like driving down there again, for their error. he offered me a gift certificate, and i told him that we order out frequently, and had wanted to give old chicago a shot, but with this kind of service, we might never order from them again, and in the meantime, my 14 year old is out dinner. i knew liam wouldn't want my calzone (although he is the amazing eating machine!) because it was spinach, artichoke, and sun-dried tomato (on second thought. . . .). The manager offered to deliver the calzone. i think my jaw hit the floor, just before i asked mark what he thought. mark said let him. so i gave him relatively explicit instructions (it's a bit weird trying to find mark's house from the west. the east is a piece of cake, though. (ask miss lime how hard it is, lol)), and waited. when i had called, it was 730. at 810, he knocked on the door. in addition to the calzone, he gave us a big cookie (the boys died over that one) and an additional $20 in gift certificates. he apologized profusely, and said he would understand if we never ordered from that old chicago again, but if we wanted to use another one, here's some GC's to try to make up for it. all in all, i think we got everything damned near free with all the extra goodies. and no extra charge for liam's calzone. we've decided that we are going to go ahead and give them one more shot, but i'm definitely going through the food before i leave, next time.

and on that note, i must flee. we're having hte folks over for enchiladas, and i gotta pick up a few extras before i head to school.

oy!