I just got back from Northern Minnesota, where I've been helping my parents build a house for their retirement this summer. I've got at least 40 hours of tiling work into the place. They've got two big bathrooms and two entryways with tile on them. The real appeal of going up north is for my dog, however. She's a springer spaniel so she loves a jaunt in the woods looking and sniffing for birds and rodents in the bushes. It has gotten to the point where when I get up on Saturday mornings she sits in the kitchen looking at me and then looking at the top of the refrigerator where I keep her travel bag. It's as though she thinks she can convince me to just get in the car and take her up north!

I've been trying to get a sinus problem diagnosed for the past couple of years. I've figured out from researching on the internet and talking to people that it is sinusitis, a bacterial infection in the sinuses. The doctors at the clinic believed it was allergies and gave me Claritin and Allegra D, both of which did nothing for my symptoms and the latter of which knocked me out so much I could barely get out of bed in the morning. I finally got a referral to an allergy clinic and they've asked a lot of questions and done some tests on me. I fully expect them to tell me I have sinusitis when I return for the diagnosis next week.

Every time I go to a doctor appointment I am reminded of a trip to France I took back in 1998. One of the doors at a Metro station was malfunctioning and it swung back and hit me in the forehead after someone ahead of me had pushed it open to go through. I had a big bloody gash and I stood there applying pressure for five minutes trying to figure out what to do next. After the blood stopped running down my arm and dripping on the ground, I made my way back to the hotel and asked the concierge where to go. He pointed out an emergency room down the road, so I walked there. A nurse had me fill out a form and told me that since I was a tourist the national health care program wouldn't cover the cost. She then told me to go into a waiting room to wait for another nurse. I entered the room and the nurse was waiting for me. She took me into a room with various medical equipment and a doctor came in and put in some stitches. They were both very friendly, and they were curious about the battle between Pepsi and Coke. After the stitches, the doctor gave me a prescription for a tetanus shot and told me to walk across the street to buy it from the pharmacy there. I did so, returned so he could administer it, and left. It turned out to be a great experience because I got to see a part of France that most tourists do not. The bill was $60 for the stitches and another $3 for the shot. My rating for France's health care system: A+.