It’s 9:56 on a Monday morning and I’m at work, typing on my blog. It seems like it’s been a strange day already, and feels like it’s liable to get stranger.

I spent the night fitfully tossing and turning on the couch, the TV mumbling merrily to itself about Einstein in the corner, poor kitty Fruitloop trying desperately to find a comfortable spot on my belly. The whole night was spent in a half-awake, half-asleep la-la land of odd dreams and uncomfortable rumblings in me tummy due to an overexertion at suppertime (potatoes and ham – five servings of each, according to the packages). I fell asleep on the couch during Cincinnati’s 3-point loss to some other team and didn’t want to wake Dagmar by relocating to the comfy-indeed bed. So I tossed and turned and dozed and woke and read and watched TV and dozed and hiccupped all night, lost in a melange of bizarre mental twistings – I was convinced half the night I’d been in a plane crash in Canada and was walking through snow and ice. (Turns out “Survivorman” was on TV, surviving in Canada and I’d kicked the blanket off my feet.)

This morning my beloved Viennese bride took one look at me and said, “You didn’t sleep vell, did you? Und you had too much to eat, didn’t you? Look at this, you’ve surrounded yourself mit popcorn, pretzels, peanut butter, chocolate candies… No vunder you didn’t sleep well. And look here – you forgot to take your sleepy pill, too. Silly man.”

“I don’t feel good,” I moaned, holding my bloated tummy. “I feel ookie. And I have a headache.” I wandered the general direction of the bathroom. “I just don’t feel good. And I have a headache, too.”

“You vant me to tell you it’s okay for you to stay home, don’t you?” asked Mrs. Perceptive. “Vell, no. You ate too much und you slept in front of the TV und had bad dreams. You go to verk – it’ll do you good.”

Drat.

To be honest, though, I did feel MUCH better once I’d run my carcass through the shower a few times. Off to work I go, heigh ho, heigh ho! As I pulled into the parking lot, still trying to shake off a few of the odder dreams of the night, the first thing I noticed was the new graffiti on the front of the building. That always puts the bosses in a good mood!

I punched in, managing to spell my name right on my time card this time, and trudged to my appointed corner of the basement. It was immediately apparent that I was the only one in the Art Department to bother to come in to work today. Everyone else was gone. Not a soul. I checked the calendar. By that action I learned that today is Columbus Day here in Iowa (and it’s Brett Favre day in Wisconsin today, by the way), but that didn’t particularly explain why my department was absent. (You must realize that there are really only two people in the Art Department – me and Drew.) Eventually, the boss mentioned that Drew’s boy is ill today, so Drew stayed home to take care of the kidlet. So I’m here all by myself today, listening to MP3’s and typing in my blog. So far (and it’s now 11:24 a.m.) I’ve printed five things, changed one number, and designed a flyer for my boss who wants to sell his car. (It’s a 1993 Corsica. $2,395. E-mail me if you want more details…) So work’s going well.

My Vunderful Vife and I had a pretty cool weekend, all things considered. It started out with a short road trip Friday night when we hooked up with some friends from the left coast in Omaha for blues, booze and barbecues at McKenna’s. Great friends, great food, great music! Judging by the pictures I took, most of which were of various half-full bottles of booze, I must have had a good time… We always like McKenna’s – the food and atmosphere is consistently good, and I’ve never heard a bad band there, ever.

Saturday morning came too early – our dumbo cat woke me up at 7:30. I ended up napping on the couch for a few more hours before heading to the Clam’s gig that day – a benefit for S.T.A.R.S. – a Sioux City group that puts handicapped kids on horses. Setup took a few hours longer than anticipated, but the gig went well nonetheless. The crowd was small, but the charity made money and that’s the important part! (Funny side note: We played in a horse barn, which meant there were horses and horse-type animals lurking about in various sized flocks throughout the area. About halfway through the night, half the band was gathered outside the barn, chatting. At one point, someone asked where so-and-so was. A disembodied voice floated through the quiet countryside, “I’m petting the donkeys.” For some reason that makes me laugh.)

Sunday was a complete loss as far as productivity goes. Dagmar took an allergy pill and snoozed most of the day away whilst I lay on the couch watching the Packers win over the Saints 52 to 3 (go Pack go!) and eating all sorts of nasty snacks. I had ambitions, but none of them came to fruition… (It’s hard to do things and be productive when everyone else in the house is snoozing. It tends to put one into a snoozing mood as well.)

Well, looks like my time is up. The front office just brought down what looks like three or four days’ worth of work. They have a bad habit of saving the work up for some reason and dropping it all on my lap at once. Often by the time I get my hands on a job, it’s already past it’s deadline. Sigh.