There is no longer any question of the origin of this vile illness that has me sounding like a 75-year-old chain smoker in the final stages of life, which moved into our household more than a week ago and refuses to leave. Today�s preschool drop-off, our first day back since spring break last week, had the children sprinting merrily across the room and the moms all looking shaky and wan and coughing discreetly behind closed hands. One of AJ�s teachers has pneumonia, as did two of the children, both better and back in school today. But most of the kids never got sick. Us parents, however, were unilaterally felled. Should the Centers for Disease Control ever be lacking for projects, a preschool would be a fantastic place to start. Germs travel fast in the land of hasty hand washings and inexperienced immune systems. Fortunately, though, my voice has returned somewhat and I may actually be able to make a couple of postponed phone calls today. For the last two days that has not been possible.

There was no joy in Mudville yesterday, as the Sox blew their lead over the Royals. There was much gloominess around the house yesterday evening, particularly since the Cubs won. To a loyal Sox fan, the only thing worse than a Sox loss is a Cubs win. The double whammy on opening day does not bode well for the season ahead.

AJ, who imitates his dad�s every rant and yell during games, consoled himself by playing with his walkie-talkies, a birthday present his aunt. These appliances look very cool, but are about as useless as can be. Despite their high-tech shiny blue shells and their numerous exciting buttons, the walkie-talkies require you to actually be within spitting distance in order to work, thus defeating their purpose. AJ, however, loves them and has long conversations into them. In an effort to make them work, I�ve trained AJ to ask into the walkie-talkie, �Can you hear me now?� in a perfect imitation of the guy in those annoying Verizon ads. AJ now thinks I invented the commercial. Add that to my other attributes of healing the sick and making the blind see, I am Mommy the Omnipotent! Now if only I could make this damn cold go away.

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