History You Can Sleep On

I almost didn't make it. I was already in bed and had fallen asleep when I woke up for unrelated reasons and realized that I hadn't posted for November 13 yet. So I took care of it, and here we are!

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PrettyGirl got a present from my friend stationed in Iraq today. It was a pillow embroidered with a picture of Spiderman (he's a fellow comic book aficionado, only even more so than me) and "Operation Iraqi Freedom" on the top and PG's name at the bottom. He had given me the heads-up that something was coming, and he also recommended that I get it drycleaned when I got it, since apparently things aren't entirely sanitary over there right now. I'm not sure if 50/50 cotton/poly pillows can be dry cleaned, or if it's even that necessary, but I'll look into it.

This reminds me that I never told the story about something else he sent me a month or two ago. Back in the late 80's, he and I played the Marvel Comics roleplaying game - like Dungeons and Dragons, only with superheroes. He had the basic manuals, and I had the Ultimate Powers manual, which expanded the hero creation options. I lent him that manual at some point, and then he lent it to someone else, who lent it to yet another person. It may have even gone further along the borrowin' chain. At any rate, he lost tabs on who had the book, and I never got it back.

It was disappointing, and when I kidded him about losing it, I was probably only 70 or 80 percent kidding. I eventually got over it and stopped kidding him about it because I could tell he felt really bad about it.

And so, almost two decades later, I got a package from some unknown person in New Jersey. It turns out that my buddy found not just the Ultimate Powers book, but also the original players manual and gamemaster manual on eBay, and he bought all three of them for me! From a computer in Iraq!

So I've promised him that I'll get a Marvel Superheroes game ready for us to play when he gets back from his tour of duty.

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PG had her follow-up appointment for the bronchiolitis today. The doctor (or perhaps nurse practitioner - we're not sure) has deemed her A-OK!

We also asked about PG's recent tendency to wake up in the middle of the night and insist on being nursed. When she was sick, waking up a few times was to be expected since she was coughing so violently, but now that she's better, she should be back to her usual 10 hours of sleep, right? The doc/nurse told us that she was used to waking up in the middle of the night, since her illness put her in that habit. She told us if we wanted to get a full night's sleep anytime soon, we should not give in to PG's demands. After a few nights, she should figure out that she's on her own when it comes to getting herself back to sleep, and she'll leave us alone. We shall see how that goes!