From the gut

Happy new year, Rod! Sorry to hear about the food poisoning.

Plop plop, fizz fizz....Hope yer better, Rod.

I generously allowed the offspring to stay up and watch Peter Pan, where they fell asleep around 11, in front of the television that Sears finally decided to change out for the broken one [after three months of waiting on back-ordered parts and repair calls vaguely scheduled "between 1 an 5 next Tuesday. Or Friday. Well, we'll call when were almost there anyway. So wait by the phone or we'll cancel if you don't answer."] My inner ambulance chaser watched the stunt jump on ESPN and then I fell asleep playing Chessmaster with repeats of Battlefield on the Military Channel. My wife worked a 12 in the ICU and came home at 8 this morning with a flu-like bug that called for a glass of OJ with a Theraflu chaser and then to bed. Such is New Year's in our neck of the woods.

We bought a bottle of cheap sparkling wine (Cook's California Champagne--I have some family out there but no idea if they're related) (not knowing any better) and I put it in the freezer--I thought it was big enough to need the colder temperature to get down to a drinkable temperature.

Oops.

Turns out it didn't need that much time, and there were ice crystals in it by the time we got it out. I forgot my physics, so when I undid the stopper (Yeah, another bad sign, it wasn't a cork, but a plastic stopper) the drop in pressure immediately caused a lot of the water to freeze out and it turned the bottle into a slow, but beautiful fountain. That part was worth the price I paid for it)

After it finished spurting (really, no more than an inch above the bottle), I poured some into glasses and shared a one-sip toast with my wife. There's a reason ice beer didn't catch on.

So sorry to hear about your time of tribulation, Rod. My brother in law had food poisoning this year. He got it at the company Christmas party. It does put a damper on the sense of celebration. May you feel better soon!

What Sue W. said + Bless your baby heart!