Live With The Nerds
Don't Be One
July 2001
Friday was only mildly busy, went to my ortho, where we discussed my "new" dentist's
desire to move my front teeth (he claimed they were "end to end") and possibly
fill the gaps by building out the fillings. My ortho thought that maybe we should
adjust my front teeth a bit out so that they don't actually touch underneth, so to
that end they took a model so that they could make me a set of Invisi-lines (those
new fangled clear teeth adjusters -- kinda like a cross between braces and a mouth
guard. In any case now I'll have to go back to seattle relatively soon to get
it fitted -- probably sept for my sister's bday.
Lunch friday was at Ivar's with Linda (my ex-co-worker) it was good to catch up
especially since her new company was just bought. After I got a haircut
I spent the rest of the day walking
around the Bellevue Art Museum Fair (formerly the Bellevue Arts & Crafts Fair)
Ran into my sister, Betty and Miyo there and that was kinda fun catching up with
Betty and Miyo after Debbie took off to play golf. Ended up only buying a little
trinket after 4 hrs of shopping.
Dinner that night was our usual bday celebration dinner at El Gaucho's for Kat,
hadn't talked to her in quite a while, so we spent most of the night catching up,
the steak, as always was excellent and neither of us finished it. This time instead
of a flaming dessert we opted for the Bailey's Chocolate Cake, very yummy, even
if it wasn't quite what we expected (kinda crunchy actually). After dinner it
was off to Azteca to catch up with Daryl (who'd just flown in) Chuck (who's
wedding I was going to have to skip) Tj (dating yet another out of state guy ;)
and Noelle (always a pleasure, even if she kept petting my short 'do)
Saturday was driving, driving, and more driving, to Portland, funeral and lunch
(at least I wasn't bothered much by Uncle GB) then back to Seattle, started at 9am
got back around 8pm. After that it was appetizers and drinks with Patty and Meryl,
then Planet of the Apes, topped off by a late dinner at Sea Garden (2am !!!) boy,
I'll bet they think twice before hanging out with me in the evening time again ;)
Sunday I had family lunch, then Daryl and I, unsuccesfully, tried to score M's tix
but the scalpers were asking way too much, so we ended up watching a few innings
at a local bar (Sluggers) before trying to check out some volleyball. Unfortunately
there was no one we knew at the tourny or at greenlake. After that Daryl took off
to the "clan bbq" while I went to yet another family dinner (prime rib this time, yum)
by the time I joined the clan bbq, it was 8ish and everyone still hadn't eaten --
so we snacked (again!!) and then checked out the new tv and sound system (pretty
spiffy) All in all, one of the busiest weekends in a while.
When I went to get Fila out of hock today, he was very stressed, diarehhea and
everything, although it sounds like he was on pretty good behavior during his stay.
When I got home from work he seemed pretty attentive, but still not quite "perky"
hopefully he'll settle down after being home a while.
The Obon had lots of really
good food, especially the corn on the cob. Karen Soo was volunteering so we hung out
during her break. Ron S (my realtor) showed up too so we were all catching up on
the skiing plans for the upcoming years. Surprisingly they only dance on 1 evening
and even then only for an hour or two, the rest of the time its like a mini fair.
Small world news was that I ran into Kent Kato, who I grew up with in Seattle, he was
in town visiting his wife's family. Later after I left I guess Karen managed to win
a TV playing bingo.
I think it was a bit chilly out saturday night cuz I was kind of under the weather on
sunday, skipped going back to the obon with Cheryl & Kent, was going to play
volleyball instead but took a nap, then finally put all of the switch cover plates
back on in the upstairs rooms, by the time I was done it was too late for
volleyball, so I took another nap.
Monday had a slightly sore throat, but it seemed to clear up when I went to
yoga, so later that night (11:30pm) I went to watch Kiz play on her indoor soccer
team, the arena is only about 5 minutes from my place -- that was pretty fun, the
arena seems to be using that new turf, the same one that they put in Husky stadium
for the Seahawks and will be going into the new football stadium too.
Kit has been in more frequent contact lately, nice, but she seems busy chasing
some other guy and doing a bunch of home remodel work. I'm going to
have to try and get together with her again some time soon.
Fila appears to be a bit better now, the blood tests indicated that he has
an elevated creatine level (liver/kidney?) so we upped his insulin dose
to see if we could get him back under control. He's definitely perkier and
eating more, and really peeing less. The vet'll do another check while Fila's
there during my trip.
Oh and Kiz sent me a cool movie that I just had to put on my dating page, its
called Ah, L'Amour
and I think it matches most dating scenerios, especially with Kiz ;) Unfortunately
it takes Windows Media Player to view it, but it's pretty funny if you have the time.
Today I had lunch with Kiz, it was pretty fun catching up, then I was off to
play a bit of outdoor volleyball, stiff and sore, but managed to get a few
pretty good swings in. Was unwinding at home when Karen called to say that
she and Bo were going to see Jurassic Park III, so off we went pretty entertaining,
lots of roaring, and that spinosaurus was cool, but I really liked seeing the
flying pteradactlys.
Car is still in the shop waiting for a new window motor, and they still haven't found
the cause of the gas tank filling problem. So they gave me a rental for a day, now
I'm putting around in a white Dodge Neon til they fix everything.
The master bedroom doesn't quite smell like smoke now, more like fog residue
so I'm airing it out some more, but I think it'll be fine by the weekend so that
I can actually start moving in.
It also looks like I won't be working in Manufacturing next week, I guess we
had so many people volunteer from engineering (literally more than work all
the shifts on the floor) that they only picked a few (13 or so out of 70+) to
work next week, too bad that would've been fun.
Turns out that I may be more nicked up than I thought, when I was at yoga
there was clearly some knee pain and a bit of swelling, so I wore a brace
while I sub'd. That was ok, survived pretty well, but I think I found the reason
why I sucked soo bad saturday -- my left elbow still has some soreness/fluid -
I can't quite snap it cleanly so I'm kind of short arming my sets with the
left arm and pushing out a bit more with the right, in any case I've lost a good
deal of distance and speed (not that my hands were all that fast to begin with ;)
The only positive thing is that it appears to be less sore than it was a few weeks
ago, but now I'll make sure I ice it more and pay a bit more attention to its mobility.
I can't wait for my car to get in the shop, now I think something is floating around
in the gas tank blocking the intake, I tried to fill up again and this time only
got 3 gallons in before it backed up, hopefully it isn't something they "left" in there
when they replaced the sensor last time.
In any case tomorrow will be a busy day, sometime during the day its supposed to be
training day for my stint in the factory next week to help with the quarter end rush.
Then I have 2 overlapping meetings and am supposed to give blood -- hopefully I wont
be too exhausted to play bball that night.
Saturday we hustled up to Vallejo for the tourny, it was a dual, coed and rev-coed
where I got to set in the reverse for Sam since he hates rev-coed. Unfortunately
I wasn't even close to being on top of my game, we were short a woman all day long
and had to borrow, then my sets were sailing all over the place causing multitudes
of timing problems. Turns out we only one 1 rev-coed game all day. Good thing
that Sam and Mike were awesome in the coed side (undefeated) so we made it out of
pool, only to run into a team that wanted to play us reverse -- it was close,
for a while we were even up by 3 or 4 points, but we ended up losing 25-23.
That night we went out to eat at Coriya (10th and Clement) for all you can
eat cook your own -- kinda like shabu-shabu and korean bbq put together, that
was actually pretty fun, food was decent and the price was right ($12.99/person)
ended up getting home at around 2am.
Sunday was volunteer day at the Children's Symphony at Stanford, always fun, we
(NetApp) got to work the donor's reception again. There was this older lady
and a chinese couple that parked themselves next to my service table, very
friendly and chatty. Talking to them I found out that the older lady was
Mrs Hewlett (wife of the founder of Hewlett Packard) and the husband of the
chinese couple had been employee #180 or so -- pretty friendly and spry for
a guy in his 80's.
Fila appears to be getting back to normal, much chippier, even getting
needier too for petting. His pee volume seems to be down, and the tissue sample
from his thickened bladder seems to only have been associated with that stone
that was rolling around in there (and the straining during peeing) Hopefully
I'll be able to start backing off his insulin pretty soon.
The car is scheduled to go in for new tires (Michelin MXX3's on sale for $169)
and oil change on thursday, they were pretty nice, they even loaned me another
spare just in case I had problems driving till they could get everything replaced.
Today I managed to catch a movie with the very busy Kiz. We went to Kiss of the Dragon
(Jet Li !!) since she had to work out for her tourny, we took separate cars, good
thing too, cuz when I came out my rear tire was flat -- now I know that all of
the tire change parts (including the locking hubs) work just fine -- too bad though
I'll have to spring for at least 2 (if not 4) new tires.
The bedroom now smells like chemicals and is being aired out in the evenings
since they're painting the building during the day -- there was even some residual
oily stuff on the floors, but it appears to be drying out just fine.
The racing and the shopping were excellent as always, I spied quite a few
bikes like the one I want (Suzuki SV650S) as well as some trick parts
and upgrades that I'll try and buy as soon as I get the bike. Even had a good
time trying helmets on for show.
We also scored passes to the Ducati reception at our hotel, speaking of which,
we continued to eat well, both at the Sardine Factory as well as the Duck Club that
was on the premises. There were lots, and lots of bikes there but it was strangely
calm Sat night on Cannery Row, except for the one nude rider.
In the small world catagory, I ran into Angel in the paddock area, she was with her
new beau, who happened to know Carey, Jo and Ivan -- later Bong showed up but
I don't think he ever ran into her (since they went to HS together)
After I got home, I went to get Fila out of hock, but they had managed
to take x-rays of him and noticed what appeared to be a stone in his urinary
tract. That would explain the leaking, and the stress would probably contribute
to the uncontrollable diabetes. Today they put him under, then flushed the stone
back into his bladder by using a catheter. Tomorrow they'll cut him open to
remove the stone, then after a bit of recovery I'll get to bring him home.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed, cuz the last time he had such surgery (late 80s), he
almost didn't recover -- it took almost a week before they let him come home
hopefully it won't take as long this time.
The odor folks will be back tomorrow, since I (and Carey & Jo) could still
smell smoke and deodorent in the room. Turns out they used a 'cinnemon' scented
fog with out telling me, so this time they'll use a 'no smell' version and do
a full fogging. Hopefully I'll be moving upstairs sometime soon.
I even managed to get in 2 days of vball, first I sub'd for Sam's team, then for
Bubba's -- lots of running, but strangely my wind is doing ok, I think it
may be the cpap giving me more rest. We'll see after bball tomorrow, and then
the tourny (with sam) on Sat. So far the ankle was sore walking at Laguna, but
it held up pretty well for both days of vball.
Slept most of the rest of the day, then figured I better clean a bit so that
Carey & Jo don't think I'm a total pig, although they have seen my other
place, so they know better ;). I even managed to get a good portion of the
trim painting done, so now I should be able to install the new vents pretty soon.
The master now smells like the thermal fog chemicals, with a touch of smoke thrown in,
I'll probably have them come back and do it again next week -- but I'll wait to see if
it settles down any.
Next its off to Laguna Seca for the races, already put my kitty in jail so now off
to do just a bit of (work) email then pack. First travel with the cpap too, so we'll
have to see how it handles it -- oh and I've been busy downloading lots of little
goodies onto my handspring (don't know how I managed with just 2Mb before ;) one
of them is a bp recorder, so maybe I'll start taking it more regularly now -- although
I have noticed that between the cpap and the Lotrel, it's way, way down. In fact
it was 130/72 yesterday after painting, maybe I won't need the drugs anymore, but
it could be just that I didn't have to go into work.
Managed to get another couple of hours of work in before I headed off to the
store to pick up some cooking supplies. Cheryl gave me a recipe for Kazu-fish
and some extra kazu, so I'm now trying it with the salmon I had in the freezer,
should be interesting when I finally cook it (tomorrow ??).
Managed not to hurt myself sub'ing at vball again, but my left elbow is still kinda
wierd, this morning must've slept funny cuz my whole arm was numb, and later in the
day it felt as if I had been doing lifts with just my left arm -- maybe it was
the yoga along with the bump/bruise on the elbow that I got a week ago.
Early this morning (12:30am) sam called, seems there was a get together at
karen & mel's -- quite the drunken party -- lots of laughing for sure.
Some highlights -- Sam in a dress, Karen doing the "happy dance" when Phil
said he'd show up, Mikey farting everywhere, Bo was still out from 2 drinks,
and Tyler was sucking on just about anything that people would put near his
mouth (must've been the polka-dots on his face ;). And to think that those
and more, were only from a two hour visit -- they were at it from 8pm, and still
going when I left at 2:30am.
Last night I was really bored so I went to the late show of A. I., it was pretty
good, but long, that Osment is a pretty amazing actor.
Today it was up early to wait for the cleaners, and then off to lunch with Kit,
fun as always, but since I still had time to kill, I went to work for a couple
of hours. I may try and trim paint to install the new duct covers, either that or
finally hang the curtains I bought a few weeks ago. But I'm betting that a nap
will win before I head out to yoga tonight.
Well that was one of the busiest weekends in a long time, seems like I spent
all of my time sitting in a car. In any case, I managed to take care of more than
a few of my Seattle cravings. Ivars, Sea Garden, Patty, a bit of volleyball, and
an excellent Chateaubriand at El Gaucho's.
The weekend started great, caught a friday movie with Kiz (The Score, and no, I didn't ;)
Saturday morning I found out that my great grand aunt Leah had passed away, she was
almost 94 (4 days shy of her bday) but had been suffering from lung cancer, so now
instead of going to Chuck & Marisa's wedding I'll be driving down to Portland
for the funeral next weekend. Otherwise the rest of the day was work a bit around the
house putting the new duct vents in (white
to match the ceiling colors), then off to the Mt View Bon Odori.
Gave blood then played bball yesterday, went easy though so as to
not pass out -- strange though was still pretty strong at the end of the night
I think the cpap machine gets credit for that. Now it seems that I'm strong enough
to play till all of the joints hurt, where before I used to get winded and then
the pain would start.
Well it was interesting today, had lunch with Kit, was supposed to dinner
and movie with Karen but was called to sub on Bubba's team so I opted
for exercise to see if my body would recover.
Long weekend, little sleep, started poorly, especially when I couldn't get
ahold of Karen for travel arrangements for the tourny. Turns out she was going
to bag on us, but paged me at 1:30am (yes, still up doing laundry) to say she
would show.
Played bball last night, ankle held up pretty good, only got sore near the
end, but nothing too bad. Today I got to pick fila up from the vet, he's moving
pretty slowly, but appears to be in a better mood. Now here's hoping that his
diabetes will regress under normal treatment.
What a weekend, the VIP tickets we bought were awesome -- full access, even to
the hot pit area of Laguna Seca. We were feet from the riders and the bikes.
We also had reserved
suites above turn 3, with 2 tv's per 24 people, out of the sun, nice and breezy
then add the food (and private bathrooms) fully catered, all drinks (including
beer, wine and hard licquor) were free. They served us breakfast and lunch both
days, and gave us free posters and ear plugs too.
Just enough time for a short update before I finish packing for my trip ...
yesterday was pretty laid back, I was really surprised that Karen managed
to get up (at 9am !!) for breakfast and Sam, Brown and Phil were still there
when I went to pick her up, but they had to jet to prep for their (respective)
parties.
Frustrating day, the thermal fogging guys were an hour late, and then
they didn't have enough fog (forgot to fill up the container) so they
only did a light fogging, if that wasn't enough they'll come back and do
it again, probably won't know for a couple of days, but the earliest I could
have them back anyway would be next week since I'm off to the races with
Carey & Jo.
So the smoke cleaners have started, instead of doing the thermal fogging first
they're doing the 24hr ozone treatment, they left the ducts open to hopefully
catch everything, but since I removed the vent covers (to install new ones)
the ozone smell is leaking through the house, hopefully it doesn't affect Fila
too much, right now he's sleeping away -- it may be giving me a slight headache,
will have to see how well I sleep tonight.
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