Category: Uncategorized Page 87 of 157

getting caught up

A couple weeks ago, I did my Swim for Diabetes. This was a week after I’d done three miles in the pool and I wanted to try it again. The pool was nearly empty, not many people were participating that day. I did my three miles without any trouble. In fact, I think I could have gone farther. My count matched up with the the official’s length count – which was a relief – and I got a pin for my efforts. I’m in the process of gathering the donations now.

Last weekend, I visited my family – and my brother-in-law’s family – for my niece’s dedication at church. We played some games and had a nice time. The drive was rough again – can’t seem to get used to that – but it was worth the effort. My sister and brother-in-law are doing such an amazing job with my niece – it’s really awesome to see them in action.
My room-mate’s sister is coming in for a visit. She’ll be staying a few days and may help him do some gardening if the weather clears. I suspect we’ll go out to eat a few times in any case.
In video game news… I beat Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time. Good game – and the Chimp-o-matic weapon is a lot of fun. (turns your enemies into chimps)
It’s pretty quiet here in the office today. One of my colleagues is on his honeymoon and two others are at a conference. Our student assistant is gone for the summer and it’s just me and one other colleague today. Speaking of which, I need to check to see if he got my email.

A new personal best in the pool

Last Saturday, I decided to do a “dry run” for my Swim for Diabetes swim. My goal was 2.5 miles – further than I’ve gone before. I was feeling pretty good and was able to push myself – and got through three miles. That’s 108 laps in 2 hours and 5 minutes.

I was very tired afterwards and almost took a nap that afternoon – but I’m no good at naps and it wouldn’t have worked anyway.
So, I should have no trouble doing 2.5 miles this Saturday for the official swim – but I’d still like to bump it up to 3 if I can. One thing’s for sure though, I need to eat a bigger bowl of cheerios – the ones I had last Saturday gave out at 1.75 miles.
In other news… I got a text message this morning from a co-worker as I was driving into work. It simply said “hurry up!”
I got into work, parked in my regular spot and went on into the building. My co-worker wasn’t there yet – so, I texted him back with “I’m here at work, where are you?”
He showed up a couple minutes later – astonished to see me. Apparently, he had texted me from his car – he had seen me pull onto the highway and blown right past me. And then driven much faster coming into work. Somehow, I had managed to get onto campus, parked, and into the building before he did the same. We don’t park in the same area and I suspect the longer walk he has to the building is the factor – though I told him I’m the master of space and time and he that he shouldn’t be surprised.

Taxes, testing, temperature, and time

I did my taxes recently – yeah, I waited till nearly the last minute. My room-mate finished his up the day they were due, so at least I wasn’t that late. I did my taxes online – completely this time instead of having to do my city ones manually. The forms were pretty easy, I’m getting some money back, and they didn’t take too long. The city insisted that I send in my W-2’s as well as doing the online form, but at least that was all they wanted off line.

I went to a Ear, Nose, and Throat surgeon recently to figure out what to do with my snoring. He had a med student with him as well and they commented on how normal my ears were. Whatever that means. The doctor also opened up my nose with some kind of instrument and they both commented on how messed up my nose was. On a scale of 1-10, my septum deviation is a 9. Like, it’s almost one nostril. The doctor recommended surgery – big surprise – and was really pushing to get me to sign up for an time for the operation. When pushed too hard in any direction, I did what I always do – step back to consider. I held off making an appointment to think things over. Despite the somewhat casual attitude the doctor had, it’s still a pretty big deal for me.
And with thought, well, I guess I’ll go ahead and do it. I need to coordinate that with my work schedule, my co-workers schedules, my room-mate’s schedule, and my swim for diabetes. And make dang sure that my insurance will cover it.
In other news… I’ve been conducting some usability testing on one of our websites. In the past, I’ve been the tech guy, but this time around I’m pretty much running the show. We did testing 2 days last week and it was interesting – but very tiring. I’ve been fighting a cold for a while now and that didn’t really help. I’ve been trying to keep up with my swimming as well and I guess I’m putting more strain on my body than usual.
My room-mate has been fighting a bad cold as well. Like, bordering on bronchitis. He’s missed a few days of work as a result.
I took myself for a walk yesterday, got a little stir-crazy in the apartment. My feet were tired afterwards and I was cold – but it was still good to get out for a bit.
So, mostly video games and music this weekend. And laundry.

Running hot and cold

I got some bad news yesterday – my great aunt passed away. She’d been fighting an illness for a while now and while I wasn’t all that close to her, it was still sad to hear. Seems like its been a rough time for our family recently – my aunt and now my great aunt passing away, another aunt fighting a brain tumor, my grandmother still in a nursing home and not getting better.

In brighter news… I got to see my niece (and her mom and dad) this past weekend. We all had a nice visit and she was a sweetie – at least during the day. At night, well, I had earplugs in. 🙂
I’ve been fighting a cold the past few days and it, along with a late night and too much exciting TV, meant I didn’t get to sleep until around 1 AM last night.
On the flip side, it’s been hot here in the computer center. Right now, my little temperature gauge on my desk is reading 79.5 F. We were in the mid-80’s yesterday afternoon and some buildings on campus reported temps in the 90’s. Our heating and cooling is determined not by outdoor temperature – but by time of year. And it’s not yet time to switch over to cooling. I’m actually okay with temps in the 80’s, but only when I’m on a beach with a cool drink in my hand and a gentle ocean breeze. In an office staring at a computer screen, it’s really not pleasant. I’m still better off than the students though – imagine trying to sit through a lecture with those temperatures.
At least it’s a swimming day – I’ll get cooled off in the pool. Should make the afternoon a little more enjoyable.

Things are out of sync, it seems

The latest update on my aunt is that she’s in good spirits and recovering from her brain surgery. The doctors got 85% of the tumor, but the remaining 15% is “the bad kind” of cancer. Left untreated, she may have less than two years. She’s got another appointment with a doctor once she’s healed up a bit more from the surgery to see what treatment options she has. The surgeon estimates that if she hadn’t had the seizures when she did, she might not have lasted 2 months. So, I guess the seizures were a good thing, but I don’t think that really balances out with the negative of what they revealed.

I’ve got my own health issues plaguing me – though nothing as severe as what my aunt has going on. My recent trip to the doctor – and the subsequent bloodwork – has revealed that I have “moderately high cholesterol”. They didn’t give me the exact numbers over the phone, but told me to watch what I eat and get another test done in 6 months.
Which sucks. I mean, I already try to eat fairly well, but apparently there’s been too much fast-food in my diet. I sense a lot of whole grain and salads in my future.
I’ve also got an appointment to see a doctor about my snoring, which continues to be epic. The doctor I’ll be seeing in a couple of weeks is a surgeon – and that bothers me a bunch. I mean, aren’t there more placebos and hack remedies to try first? I haven’t committed to anything yet and I guess if I’ve got some kind of apnea the longer I wait the worse it could be for me, but it still worries me.
Work has been crazy busy – and we ran into a difficult situation recently. I think I’ve mentioned before that I’ve helped with usability testing on websites, well, we’re getting ready to do another round of testing and I contacted the software providers about getting an upgrade on the testing application. They responded back and told me that it had already been done – by another on-campus department. When the project was first kicked off, my group supplied the software and the computer and another department supplied the location. And now we’ve got a third department that took over the facility and didn’t bother to check with anyone on the software or – more importantly – the scheduling. Which has suddenly become more complicated.
To top it off, it looks like I’ll be leading the sessions as well as doing tech support on the project. I sort of knew this was coming and it will be a good opportunity that I’m pretty sure I could do in my sleep (provided the snoring doesn’t bother anyone), but there’s still a degree of stress with that. We’re getting it all worked out and in the long run it’s actually better for my group – but still…
Yeah, yeah- I know. “Pity, party of one”
I’ve got a good job, a car, and an apartment. Enough money in the bank. I’m in relatively good shape and I get along with people – and I sleep really throughly. I should be happy, but a little misery seems to creep in.
In other news… I’ve resumed digitizing my music collection. I feel a bit like a robot loading the CD’s into my computer and then removing then once the music has been added to my external hard-drive. But, I’m also rewatching seasons 1-3 of the Venture Bros. so the time goes by quickly.
I watched Lost last night – a good episode, but I think the “flash-sideways” into an alternate timeline is getting less interesting in the face of the “main” timeline. I also watched V – which is not bad but the pace seems a little slow.
I’m going to hit the pool again today. Planning on using my flippers again and seeing if I can do a mile with them on.
Well, time to wrap up a few projects before I go for my swim/lunch. Got a pile of meetings this afternoon.

After all that, I’m skipping my swim today

This morning, I took an early lunch to go to the doctor’s office to get some blood drawn. I would have done this on Wednesday when I had my regular appointment, but I didn’t know I shouldn’t have eaten anything. So, hungry, I get to the doctor’s office and start to sign in. Oh, no, I’m at the wrong window. So, I go to the right window and they tell me to sign in and also sign in at a yet another window. I get in line there, sign in, and get out some paper – assuming a long wait.

Surprisingly, my name is called after only a short wait and I go into a small room where the very friendly nurse tells me she doesn’t like to keep people waiting. In moments she had drawn the blood and sent me on my way – telling me to go right on past the other windows. No need to check out – or pay, apparently – since this would normally have been done as part of my appointment.
I head over to McDonalds to get some lunch and then back to work. Given the time of day, I had to park far from my office and walk back. I stepped on a patch of black ice…
… and down I went. I hit the ground like Whitney Houston hitting a crack pipe. (Okay, so that’s a little mean, but come on, the woman had it all and destroyed her voice and career with drugs).
I landed on the meaty part of my butt, rolled onto my back, then hit my head on the ground.
Chicken nuggets flew everywhere.
(wait, that made it sound like chicken nuggets flew out of my head like some kind of poultry pinata. I meant that I lost control of my bag of McDonald’s and the chicken nuggets went all over the place when I hit my head on pavement.)
I started to get up, then just lay there for a moment hoping to get some sympathy from a random passerby. When I realized that wasn’t going to happen, I got up and gathered the remains of my lunch and my dignity. Lunch went in the trash and I went back to the office.
After checking in, I headed back out to try and find my sunglasses and get some lunch. Sunglasses found at the scene of the crime and I got some lunch at a restaurant on campus.
I’m back in the office, a little worse for wear. Headache, tired, and grumpy. I’d really just like to go home and play video games. Or nap, but I’d be too worried about having a concussion and dying in my sleep or something to enjoy it.
2 hours left to go in the day – better get back to it.

The second most boring traffic accident I have ever seen

It was my turn to drive to Chipotle yesterday and on the way back we were stopped at a red light. I was sensibly paying attention to the car in front of me and the light – and therefore missed much of the traffic accident that occured just to the right of us. A women – with a small dog in her lap – ran a red light and hit a van that was entering the intersection on a yellow/red. One of the passengers in my car is a volunteer paramedic and asked me to pull into a nearby parking lot. We parked and he and my other passenger got out to go help – and make a report of what they’d seen if needed. I only saw the tail end of the accident and since I don’t have any training in that area – and there were more qualified people there – I stayed back with my car and out of the way.

No one was hurt – though I imagine the dog was a little shaken up when the airbag deployed – and there wasn’t much for anyone to do. The police had been called, but were slow in responding, so a business card was left with contact information. I also made a note of the license plate numbers in my phone. And then we went back to work.
The most boring traffic accident I’ve seen occurred when I lived in Miami. Same situation as this one for the most part but at even lower speed.

Do you feel a draft, or is it just me?

I left work a little early yesterday to take myself to the doctor. The goal was a general checkup and some discussion about my snoring problem – which is apparently loud enough to wake the dead. And you know how I feel about zombies.

I got there early – anticipating traffic and paperwork, neither of which manifested – and was taken into the exam room early. The nurse took my blood pressure and temperature and set out a hospital gown, saying that the doctor would see me, then have me change into the gown for the rest of the exam.
I waited patiently, then talked to the doctor for a bit when he came in. We talked a little about health history, then he told me to change into the gown and he’d be back.
Now, I’m not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, but something about that gown – open in the back, too short, etc. – tends to swiftly drain the dignity out of a person. I honestly think I would have felt better just being naked.
The doctor checked my lungs, poked me in the stomach and the glands in my neck, and then did the ‘turn your head and cough’ routine. I also found out that I needed a tetanus shot – I guess we’re due for one every 10 years and I’d never had one. The doctor gave me a clean bill of health and told me the office would be calling me to set up an appointment with an ENT doctor for the snoring. I got dressed again and the nurse came in to give me the shot. I stopped her before she proceeded and asked about side effects – a concern since I’d never had one. Soreness in the arm for a few days was the answer and I let her go ahead. I’m supposed to go back in to get some blood drawn sometime this week.
So, overall, a good visit.
I swam a mile yesterday at lunchtime with the pools lanes set the “long way”. I’m used to more, shorter laps and was pretty worn out when I was done. Still trying to get ready for the swim for diabetes.
Played more InFamous last night – went up against these gigantic golem creatures. Turns out the best tactic is throw lighting balls at them and keep moving. And hope for the best.
“Lost” was interesting this week, though my room-mate took what I saw as a deliberate misdirection with the show and decided it validated his theories. I tried to convince him otherwise, but gave up quickly.
I’ve been reading a pretty good book called “Innocent Mage” by Karen Miller. It’s been a fun read, but it took a very abrupt twist in the final section and left with an insane cliff-hanging. I’ve already bought the sequel so I can jump right back in there, but it was a little jarring.
I got another update from mom about my aunt. She’s supposed to meet with the doctors again today with more information on what they found with the surgery and what additional treatment options are available. We’re all keeping her in our thoughts.
And speaking of thoughts – I got a second email from mom shortly after my last blog post. I talked to my sister that evening and got the full scoop. I’m paraphrasing and summing up:
Apparently mom talked to my sister and asked if it was a good idea to remind me to pray for my aunt. My sister, of course, said no – reasoning, I’m guessing, that I’m an adult. Mom reminded me anyway in an email – prompting me to post an entry in my blog. My sister reads my blog (“Hi!”) and she told mom about it. Mom read the post and responded back to me with another email. Which I didn’t respond to. The content had me pretty riled up for a while and I actually wrote a couple of responses before deleting them – reasoning that if an interpretation of an email started this whole thing, then another email is unlikely to make things more clear.
I sort of expected a phone call about that – but it looks like mom is dropping it and I’m eager to do so as well. Not that I won’t stand my ground if confronted, but I’m all about not making things worse if it can be avoided.
Ah, the Internet. What would we do without it?
Today is Chipotle day – so, without a doubt, my afternoon will be good. For now, though, back to work.

Jerk Chicken? No, I had the fish.

Went out to Wasabi Steakhouse for dinner on Saturday evening. It was… not a terribly great experience.

Despite being 10 minutes early for the reservation, we had to wait nearly a 1/2 hour for a table. A party of 8 was seated right next to us and proceeded to ruin the evening.
They were very loud. One of the men in particular shared these comments:
1. He’s a “very important” doctor.
2. The most interesting lecture he ever attended in med school was a radiologist that shared x-rays of things found in people’s rectums
3. He’s celebrating his anniversary to his second wife and made some unpleasant comments about his first wife.
4. He plays a lot of golf and enjoys mocking those that are not as good as he is.
As the evening wore on, all the people at that table got louder, ruder, and less pleasant. After one particularly damming comment, I mentally came up with 5-6 ways to end his life, and then did my best to tune him out.
In the presence of very polite and mostly Asian wait-staff, I began to see this group as ‘ugly americans’. How must we look to people from different cultures when this guy is representing us? Loud, rude, arrogant, ill-mannered.
On the plus side of the evening:
1. The server was very friendly.
2. The soup was excellent.
3. The table on the other side was quiet and polite – I made paper dragons for them.
4. The fish was okay.
5. The ice cream dessert was very good.
6. The sushi was good, though the portions were small.
I also tried out my new lightsaber chopsticks – they were too slippery to work well. But they did look cool.
The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet. I played a lot of inFamous – and kicked a lot of ass. Good game, very much like a comic book you get to play. I’m playing the character as a hero – which is pretty cool.
I also did a lot a reading and spent some time outside enjoying the day.
I got some news about my aunt as well – she came through her surgery okay and the doctors are trying to determine the type of cancer to see how to proceed. So, good news there, but still pretty scary.
Just now got another update on my aunt from my mom. Pretty much more of the same – though mom threw in some strangely aggressive comments on about how I need to pray more.
I was a little restless over the weekend and don’t feel like I got much accomplished, but time to put that aside and get back to work.

Until you swim a mile in my flippers…

Well, I did do a mile in the pool yesterday – but I skipped the flippers. I’d been scaling back the laps in favor of working on speed, but I kicked it up a notch yesterday and did a full mile. Gotta get ready for the Swim for Diabetes coming up.

My aunt’s brain surgery is coming up tomorrow. It’s ironic when I think of the number of times I’ve described something simple as “It’s not brain surgery” – well, this is.
I’m worried about her and her family and I’ll be thinking about her tomorrow. Well, I’m thinking a lot about her anyway, but especially tomorrow.
Chipotle was good today, maybe not quite as awesome as usual, but the company was good. One of our co-workers joined us – he’s a volunteer EMT and had some interesting stories to tell. They might have troubled a lesser crowd, but my room-mate is a funeral director and I’ve heard far, far worse.
I’ve been playing a pretty cool game called inFamous. Pretty slick graphics and a good story. I keep getting my ass kicked, but I’m still having fun.
I’m running some errands this afternoon and may be stopping by my FRM’s mom’s apartment to help her hook up her new phone. I suspect it will be a simple job.
Well, time to get out of here. I’m hoping to enjoy a bit more of the sunshine today.

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