Going to be Sore Tomorrow

So after that great fun Friday night, a few of us do it again Saturday night, then Sunday afternoon three of us decided to go for a bike ride. I'll let you guess who is who. After the bike ride from Venice up to the Santa Monica Pier and back, we ended up in skyloft above their home drinking espresso and warm lemon/ginger concoction. After an impromptu yoga lesson where they were either flattering me or just amazed at my rookie flexability, I started to get a cramp in my right calf. I had to beg off before dinner and head to a birthday party at my mom's for my closest cousin. Come Monday morning, I am going to be one sore puppy.

Dog Days of February

On the first of the month, My Aunt Yanni passed away. Not being able to say her name, my brothers and I at an early age started calling her Aunt Yanni. I turned on my phone after improv class that afternoon to see two voice mails and two text messages from my sister. After reading and listening to them, she called again. When I answered, she put my mom on the phone who gave me the news. I drove right over there. After cleaning up the place and sorting through her paperwork, the question of her dog arose. Neither mom nor my sister have a hard for him. I have a small one, and could watch him until it's time to take him to a 'no-kill' shelter. Monday I left him in the yard with food, water, and apparently a new hole he dug under the back gate. He came home about two in the morning, or that's when I heard his bark to let him back in. Tuesday, after putting a brick under the back gate, he dug under the front gate, played in the gated front yard, then down the other side of the house to the other back gate and dug out again. He did not return that night. I went walking the neighborhood as before, no sight nor sound of him. Wednesday night after work, periodaclly opened the front door, and the garage door in the alley out back calling his name. Finally about 1:30 AM Thursday morning, I open the front door and yell his name. He slow comes around the from the side of the house to the front door. Tail not wagging, head down, eyes up. Bathed, fed, and watered him before he fell asleep on a pillow on the kitchen floor. After work Thursday, took him to a pet clinic where the nice doctor x-rayed, ultrasound'd, and blood tested the dog. Finding bite marks, he got shaved, cleaned, and a head cone. I got anti-biotics and doggie downers to give him twice a day for ten days. I did not plan to have him for ten days. If things went on schedule, I would have had him at the shelter yesterday. Two co-workers had family members who thought they might want to adopt this nine year old mix breed. One has now said no. The other is still pending. Not sure what the next move will be during the dog days of February.

Vertigo

Is it bad when you wake up two days in a row with vertigo?

Radio Health

Was driving around at lunch time listening to the radio when the commentator mentioned that we all have access to health care, it's health insurance that the people need. Changes the spin a bit, does it not?
I felt a headache a few days ago, and a fever the night after that. So I knew it was some type of infection, just did not know what kind. Then my left cheek started to swell, 'great' I thought, a problem tooth. Made an appointment with a dentist and told them where it hurt. They saw the irritation and prescribed antibiotics, but did not find a bad tooth. I then let them x-ray the whole mouth and prepare for my cleaning in a couple of weeks. The Dentist calls my house that night and tells me that it's a good thing they x-rayed the works, cause the found the problem root under an artificial crown on the lower left jaw that could cause the pain on the upper left jaw. Lovely so today I call the endodontist to schedule a root-canal pre-op through a cap. That appointment is next Tuesday, and this weekend I am flying to Texas. The last time I was in Texas I had a tooth issue, too. Should I stop planning trips to Texas? Nope, too many friends and family there.
I've been on-call for jury duty all week, but have not been selected. I call in every night and punch in my juror number and pin number but am told by a recording to call again the next night. They better not call me in on Friday, for I have a first class ticket out of here until Monday night. Hopefully the antibiotics will knock the swelling down by then.
Have a happy President's Day weekend...

Fourteen Months and Counting

It's been fourteen months since I decided to have my eyes done and exchange my youthful nearsightedness from a path to bifocals to a path without prescription glasses. I now need some 1.5x cheaters for fine print, or when my eyes are tired, or in a low light room, but other than that, I have enjoyed life more in the last year through these eyes than I ever did fumbling with glasses. Rolling over in the middle of the night only to discover in the morning that you broke the arms off the frames was a late night reading or TV habit that plagued me for years. That is not an issue anymore. I can read at night with a bright light, or a low light and the 1.5x cheaters. TV provides it's own light. If they start to feel a little dry, just watch an episode of Extreme Make Over Home Edition and I'll tear right up. Driving with real sunglasses is a joy compared to flips, or clip on shades to struggle with. To me, it was worth every penny.

Passed

Haven't written for a few days, not because of a lack of topics, but because I'm sick and tired. At least I was yesterday. Bed rest and fluids helped, and even kept a bowl of chicken soup down last night, so I'm back at work today, then off for three days. I have a reservation for Las Vegas this weekend, but I think I'm going to cancel it. The national rodeo finals and the poker blogger events are happening there, and though I've been in 'lost wages' at the same time as them the last three years, the trains did not meet. This year I'm gonna chill and not spread what virus may be lurking near me, around the town. So again, I do not meet fellow poker bloggers nor rodeo participants on purpose. I may have met them at the poker table and not even known it. No worries, there will be other events. I do have a free pass to a movie tonight, a few dozen passes. SalsaTV sent me a couple hundred to pass out for tonight's showing of the Golden Compass. Spent Tuesday night handing out the passes to employees at the mall the movie is showing in looking for a business to host the passes. Not one agreed, traffic to them would be insignificant or not the type of customer they would want. Whatever, the employees still wanted the passes, even if their managers did not. Gave a dozen or so out at work, and nearly a couple dozen at a poker tournament last Monday night. Still have a few left, want to go with?

The Replicator is Near

I was sitting in the dentist office yesterday afternoon, to have some work finished up, when I pick up last June's Popular Science and start reading about Fabricating Items at Home OMG, need a replacement Lego piece? Want to create that perfect chocolate confection? Just 3-D print it! Okay, so the flashlight took about eight hours to print, still hobbyist and inventors alike will love to have one of these twenty four hundred dollar kit printers in their home shop. The days of the Star Trek Replicator are getting closer, and yes I asked if I could take the magazine home. Twenty years from now, you may just shop for patterns online, download them into your 3-D printer and produce the item in your own home.

Swell gone

Well, the swelling was from the last of the antibiotic. Seems when it attacked the virus it released toxins and puffy checks were then in vogue. Took my x-ray and referral paperwork to the endodontist who scheduled me for September tenth. Great, three more weeks with a chipped tooth. Must be careful not to infect it again. I love these little floss rakes. Don't have to waste so much floss wrapped around fingers anymore. Enough of all that, have a nice lunch at a local diner and head back to work. Tons of e-mail awaits. What did these folk do when I was gone? Last regular season Dodger Day game at home is on Wednesday the twenty ninth. You won't find me at work that day. Celebrity poker tournament in town today, think I'll swing by there after work tonight and see who wins. May play a cash game or two, too.

Tooth better?

Early Friday morning, about eleven days ago, I started to get a pain in my upper left jaw. The night before, Rich had burnt the lamb chops on the grill under the beach house, but still served them up as the only meat of the evening. I soaked two of them in applesauce thinking it would help. It didn't and I even chipped a tooth on one of them. Our host had already gone home the night before on a family emergency, more like lots of little things piled up on the spouse and he had to go. I had the keys to the place, [to lock up on Saturday with] but knew I had to see a dentist come dawn on Friday. I asked Tom for a referral, He gave me a card for a dentist in Bay City and I was off as Rich and Bob were waking up and getting ready to pack to go home. Tom and Glen would stay all day Friday. I cross the drawbridge after a barge goes by on the inter coastal waterway and head up the state highway to Bay City. Get out my special Oklahoma cell phone and cheaters and dial the number on the card only to find out that they can not take a new patient today and give me a referral. I call the Bay City Dental office they referred me to, but they had a dentist call in sick and were rescheduling patients. Argh! [throb] I pull up to the original one I was going to and asked them to call around for me. They found a guy a few blocks away that could take me. I cruise over to K street with a twenty mile per hour speed limit, and pull in just fine, only car out front. Announce my presence and they give me a form and take my insurance card. When the dentist arrives, the first thing he does is ask "who has that mini cooper out there? I want to talk to them!" So I rise, and walk outside with him, and press the remote to open the top and let him get in. He impressed with the dash and the room and asks all sorts of questions. I answer as best as I can and finally close it up and we walk back inside. The staff can not believe how good my insurance is, and ask me if I pay extra for it. I do. They x-ray and prod me and perscribe me an anti-biotic to take to clear the infection and to make sure and see a dentist when I get home for that root canal that has to happen. Great, that is what I am going to do today, off to the local dentist in five minutes. The anti-biotic seems to have worked as the pain went away quickly, but it is starting to swell today, so I better go now and get it checked. Cya.