My head has been swimming with a cold all weekend. It�s been rainy and windy and chilly and generally fall-like, so it seems like a good weekend to spend blowing my nose and consuming vast quantities of tea.

I did manage to pull myself together enough to get out of the house a bit. On the last-minute promise of a couple of free tickets to the Northwestern-New Hampshire football game, we spent a good part of the day in Evanston. We stopped first at the lighthouse, hoping to climb to the top, but instead we were met with a slew of small red signs. We walked around the building and at each door, AJ read the sign: �Keep Out. No Trespassing. Do Not Enter.� When we hit a gate that said, �BEWARE OF DOG,� we gave up on the unfriendly building and slipped down the sandy track through the dunes to the beach. It was windy and the waves were pounding the sandy shore in a fair imitation of ocean surf. AJ ran up and down the beach dancing. We took off our shoes and socks and put our toes in the chilly waves. He chased seagulls. He dug gullies and built sandcastles and counted our footprints on the shore. A small boy running and dancing on a windy beach is a beautiful thing to see.

After we removed the sand from our various orifices, with some difficulty, we drove toward the stadium where we met up with my brothers-in-law for hotdogs and root beer. AJ played innumerable games on the lawn outside the stadium and covered his ears as the marching band played Haydn a little out of tune. I think it was their volume, not pitch, that encouraged his reaction, but with AJ, I can�t be sure.

While the boys went to the game, I bowed out, opting instead to prowl around the nearby streets. I could hear the announcements of the game echoing off the surfaces of streets and buildings as I walked. Every now and then, I�d hear the crowd cheer or moan. There was something celebratory about it, although I was just as happy to be admiring the gardens and houses I passed. I sat in a park for a while watching kids play and then headed back. I sat on a rock outside the stadium waiting for my husband and AJ. I watched a man swing a three-year-old girl dressed as a cheerleader up onto his shoulders. A boy about AJ�s age dressed in a read sweatshirt and shorts walked past me wearing a fire hat and holding a small toy fire extinguisher. On his feet he wore boots with shark faces on them and he pretended to bite things in his way with each step: �Chomp! Chomp! Chomp!�

AJ soon ran out grinning, although he was distressed that the home team was losing. We spent the rest of the day at my mother-in-law�s where she and my husband drove each other crazy and AJ was alternately surly and charming.

Today was spent shopping for a new desk for AJ and lying in bed with tea watching old movies. There are some advantages to being sick.

The disadvantage is insomnia. I don�t know whether it was the fact that I couldn�t breathe through my nose or that I�d just watched Magnolia, but I was awake most of last night. I turned on Magnolia about an hour into it, not planning to watch. I hate missing the beginning of movies and I�ve long meant to watch this one, although I never seem to get around to it. I was riveted. It is very unusual for me to be so drawn in by a movie in medias res. I�m going to have to rent it and watch it from the beginning. A most unusual and compelling film. The added bonus of a soundtrack by Aimee Mann doesn�t hurt either.

I�ll be spending the rest of my evening trying to get as many of my sound files uploaded to my course website as possible. While I�m doing that, I�m also going to be fanatically checking the results page for the Half Ironman RS ran/swam/biked today. I�m dying from the suspense!

2 people said it like they meant it