My dad is a genius

So I've given my mom a shout-out, and I realized it's high time I do the same for my dad, or "pappy" as he prefers to be called. He pretends that "pappy" really annoys him, but we know he loves it, despite his protests. There are two very important things about my dad. First, he knows everything. And this isn't just the realization of adulthood. Even as a teenager, at a time when peers thought their parents were clueless, my parents knew everything. And second, he likes to talk about gross things, particularly medical.

On Saturday, 4 days after starting antibiotics, I was still in ridiculous pain from my sinus infection. I hate to keep harping on it, but seriously, I've never had a sinus infection like that. I've almost never had pain like that--and while I hate to compare things to childbirth, it sort of felt like a 9.5 pound baby was lodged in my sinuses. I'd be fine in the morning, but by the time Mabes was in her crib (playing, not napping, of course!), I'd be curled up on the couch holding a heating pad to my face trying to alleviate the pain. By Saturday, I was still miserable, but thinking I'd be feeling better, we had invited 2 other families over for dinner and the BYU basketball game.

Since my dad has dealt with sinus issues for the last couple of decades, I decided to call him, whine to him, tell him about the gross details of the sinus infection, and see if he had any ideas. He listened, shared some gross stories of his own, and then suggested I try using "Alkalol" instead of saline solution to cleanse the sinuses. After some frantic calls to pharmacies here (who didn't carry it--jerks), Dave realized that he still had a small bottle of the stuff that my mom gave him for his last flight to Amsterdam--apparently it's also great for dry sinuses from long flights.

Immediately, the annoying pain of dry sinuses was gone. Within minutes, it was like I could feel it breaking up the pressure in my sinuses. I'll spare the gross details, as not everyone is like my dad and wants to hear that, but I cannot sing the praises of Alkalol enough. I had been sick all week, and with 2.5 hours before our friends were coming over, I finally had the energy to clean, start getting dinner ready, and even decided that with the torrential rain and thunderstorms outside, I should make cookies too. I commented to Dave that I felt a million times better, and he just laughed and said, "um, yeah, I can tell." (As a sidenote, yes, we still had pretty much all the cookies in the freezer from the week before, as I had been too sick to eat them. But it was raining. A lot. With thunder and lightning, so I think that pretty much requires fresh cookies.)

As I was cooking, one of the families that was supposed to come over called and said that their newborn was having sleep issues and they may come over later but to go ahead and eat. Totally fine, I understand sleep issues. Other friends came over, and we were chatting as I finished the food. I was getting the tri-tip out of the oven (broiled it this time, and it turned out fantastic!) 5 minutes before the game started, there was a huge clap of thunder, and then everything got quiet. The power went out. DOH! There was enough light that we got candles out, and then ate by the sliding door, but by the end of the meal, it was pretty dark even with the few candles I had managed to scrounge up. Dave checked his blackberry for game updates, and we determined that we weren't missing much. We had fun talking in the dark, and ate a ton, since we didn't know when the power would come back on and didn't want all that meat to go to waste.

The power came back on at 10:30, and as we went to bed, Dave was lamenting how our Saturday didn't go as planned. But the tri-tip and cookies were both among my best (if I may boast), and my face didn't feel like it was going to explode, so all in all, I felt like it was a great day.

So thanks, Pappy. Just one of the countless ways you've offered great advice. I still find myself thinking, "man, I feel SOOOOO much better!" And really, if anyone has sinus issues and the neti pot/saline rinses just aren't cutting it, look into Alkalol. It's amazing stuff.