Sick as a dog

This dog.

Poor Lily's been having coughing fits. Poor Jon's been decked by a nasty cold. About 24 hours until trip to Iceland and I've got most of the NyQuil symptoms. This is going to be a great flight.

But some folks on a street corner happened to be giving out samples of Emergen-C today. I took some -- though I think I would have been more comfortable had I had to pay for it. What's up with that? Free street food/products -- suspicious.

Anyway, grabbed lunch with a friend of mine whose close friend is from Iceland. She got me a list of recos. At the top of the list? Get a hot dog. OK, a specific hot dog from some famous place. Actually, I don't think it has to be a specific hot dog. Unsure how I would specify one hot dog over another. Anyway, a hot dog from a specific place.

A hot dog.

I could have gone to Pink's. Instead I fly to Iceland. I'm a smarty every day.

(I don't even eat hot dogs, generally. Specifically, on the other hand ...)

Anyway, hitting the Emergen-C and Dayquil, limiting myself to two Cokes today (so far -- hey, that's a friggin' accomplishment for me), drinking tons of water, inhaling Coldeeze and Hall's, had chicken noodle soup for lunch (with green tea to drink) and matzoh ball soup for dinner -- though pops wasn't able to procure as much as we wanted. Apparently two of the cooks at the local diner decided to unionize and suddenly walked out tonight, causing huge wait times for soup, pancakes, sandwiches and gefilte fish. One should never wait for geflite fish. One should never attempt to procure gefilte fish. But I do sort of want more soup. Damn striking cooks. That ain't kosher.

Speaking of, another recommended cold remedy is to gargle vodka. So I am/did/have. It's kosher vodka. If you are going to hit the bottle, might as well have the thumbs-up from the big guy. Mr. Potato Head.

Think he drinks vodka? Would that be cannibalism?

I'm on too much cold medicine. Making even less sense than usual. Man, I feel like hell. Whine, whine, whine, vodka, vodka, vodka.

(Hello Jon, your wodka is ready. Come get it now. We are closed.)

Anyway, the trip:

•Five days in Iceland
•A day or two in Helsinki
•Five days or so in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania
•A bunch of days in Berlin
•A couple of side trips -- Prague, an AFB, some sort of waffle establishment
•Puerto Vallarta. Really.

I'm packed remarkable light for this trip, though the lovely Northeast weather hasn't prepared me for a few weeks at 40 degrees as I had originally hoped. That's OK -- my fever will keep me warm.

Me: "Do you want something from Iceland?"
Niece Katie (8 yrs old): "You are moving to Iceland?!"
Me: "No, I'm just visiting. Do you want me to bring you something?"
Katie: "I don't know."
Me: "Do you want some ice?"
Katie: "What?"
Me: "Do you want some land?"
Niece Abby (3.5 yrs old): "Uncle J, I want some land."
Me: "OK, Abby -- I'll see what I can do."