Anyone Know Where I Can Get an Autoclave for a 1,500 sq. ft. House?

It has been a difficult week somewhere.

Wintertime birthday parties for small children are perfect exchange mechanisms for all kinds of virii and bacteria. I should have known that taking our kids to two such engagements in a weekend would all but guarantee a household pandemic. That was a week and a half ago.

The featured affliction induced runny noses and fever in the kids, first in our older daughter early last week, then with the younger daughter a few days later.

It started to take root in my wife late last week, causing me to postpone a much awaited interview trip out to Really Big Software Company in the Pacific Northwest. Fortunately, they were graceful enough to allow me to reschedule. The advice columns on dice.com mention it, but certainly playing the role of disease vector is belongs in that perennial list of big interviewing mistakes.

The plague has visited itself upon me this week, and I'm preserving my humanity with a steady regimen of zinc lozenges and a fizzy cold relief medicine that just hasn't been the same since the FDA banned phenylpropanolamine.

I survived the third and final phone interview with Really Big Online Book Seller in the Pacific Northwest on Tuesday. I should be hearing back from them within the next week whether I make it to the next round. That could be a request for a work sample or possibly an invitation to the headquarters.

The Silicon Valley Online Auction Payment company wants me to come out for an interview, too. I'm half tempted to e-mail Sober Husband and see if he wants to sneak off with me for some sort of carnivorous culinary delight. And, you're reading this, Drunken Housewife, you'll be proud to learn that I've been coding in both Java and C++ as part of my job these days.

The national job search is certainly pushing a two-choice dilemma to the fore. This past Saturday, my wife reiterated that she does not want to move and wants me to get a job that allows me to shuttle home for the weekend instead.

She said that she fears she will hate me if she has to give up her support network and move far away, and she also fears I will hate her if I am forced to reject the offer because she won't move. She described it as a "Catch 22" situation. Had she read the excerpts of Passionate Marriage that I gave to her three months ago, she would know that this is a normal process in marriage. I am standing my ground as an act of differentiation.

For those of you who think you've had a lousy week, consider my wife's best friend, who just got back from a week-and-a-half trip to the Phillipines. She started to fall ill just before her return to the States. Today she was admitted to the hospital for what they believe to be typhoid fever. When you undergo something like that, I suspect that environmental regulations don't seem so bad after all.