Thursday, July 27, 2006

late evening

Is 41 and 11/12 Too Old For A Fauxhawk?

Too bad.  Today, when we went for haircuts, I was bored with my hair.  This was the result.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

evening

My 3 Month Surgery Anniversary

We spent it at the Las Vegas 51s (Dodgers AAA team) vs Omaha Royals (Royals AAA team) game tonight.  My back did well.  My legs didn’t hurt much.  My butt hurt, but that’s only because it was three hours of sitting on hard plastic.  It was also like 100 degrees and humid the whole game.  We were somewhat near the misters, but not quite close enough.  We’d only get a bit of a mist every couple innings.  It was nice though.  The best thing about the night, other than my bladder acting completely normally (a nice giftie for the 3 month anniversary), was my Grape Shave Ice.  It was awesome.  Did I tell you how hot it was?  Grossly hot for a 7p game.

A few of pictures from the game.

I got my shoes delivered last week.  I didn’t want to write about them until I was sure I knew what to write.  At first, they made me feel weirdly wobbly, but that’s because the heel is lowered, so it took a bit of getting used to.  Then, after wearing them for a few minutes, my insteps started to hurt and hurt for a little while after I took off the shoes.  I wore them again for a trip to get groceries and that time they hurt a little less.  After I took them off though, my calves were achey.  This is normal, I think, for someone who has been as sedentary as I’ve been since October.  I think this means the shoes are giving my legs a little workout.  Plus, today, my back didn’t hurt once while we were out.

Here’s a review of the shoes from the Los Angeles Times: Aug 1, 2005
By ROY M. WALLACK



These shoes are made for walking

On the streets and treadmills, brisk fitness walking is gaining in popularity, appealing to fitness novices and experienced athletes alike with its cardiovascular challenge, all-body twisting movements and a low impact that’s easy on your joints. Shoe makers have responded with walkers that provide stability, comfort and a number of innovations.
That ‘70s shoe

Earth Energetic: The ‘70s icon with a negative heel slope returns.

Likes: With its thick front sole and lower heel (the reverse of other shoes), this 15-ounce shoe effectively makes you walk at a 3.7% incline on flat ground. The company says the unique design provides a more strenuous workout that burns more calories. (I found this effect to be pronounced during hill climbing.) The lowered heel also puts you in a more erect position; the company claims the design will benefit your posture and might help ease back pain. Extra-wide toe box adds comfort.

For the post-surgical update, I can honestly say that I’m slowly getting better and better.  I still have bad back days, but not like before.  I still have bad bladder days, but they’re more infrequent and they usually show up for several days at a time and can disappear for a week or so.  That’s a lot better than having it every day.  Of course, it would be nice if I knew which days were going to be which before I make plans.  Oh well, baby steps.

I think I forgot to post about my surgeon’s bill.  It the last of the many many bills I received and I was terrified to have Leigh-Ann open it.  After all, at that time, my pain management doctor was billing me $15,000 for mere injections.  What would the actual surgeon cost?  It could only be something that would make me cry, right?  But, it wasn’t like that.  I almosted wanted to cry in relief.  This is the bill:

I love Dr. Thalgott.  Not only did he help me, he didn’t empty my bank account.  Also, my PA, Ray, who assisted on the surgery...I loved him too.  So nice, so helpful.  Really, an office with a pretty terrific staff.  Sure, they’re usually like an hour behind, but otherwise the experience there is professional and friendly.

lunch time

Harold Reynolds, Fired By ESPN = HAPPY HAPPY Flippy

As some of you may know from my Little League World Series posts last August, you’ll know that I despise Harold Reynolds.  He mispronounces the kids names all the time, repeats himself constantly when comparing the kids to big leaguers, and is just all-around annoying.  Well, illiterate Harold apparently is also gropey Harold, with a history of inappropriate behavior with women at work.  He was fired on Monday by ESPN.  This means that no matter how much he tries to weasel his way back, at the very least I will have a much better Little League World Series.  It’s too bad it starts during my two weeks of school, but hey, this school doesn’t have any tests.

Whoops, looked up my old LLWS entries and I didn’t mention my hatred of Harold Reynolds in public.  Let’s just agree that it existed and that I’m totally thrilled he won’t be at the LLWS this year.  There’s very little worse than hearing an idiot constantly mispronounce even the simplest of last names.  Apparently no one ever thought to write them out phonetically for poor Harold.

lunch time

The BlogHer Drinking Game

This here is the official site (I can call it that because, well, no one else is) of the I’m Not @ BlogHer drinkers.  I think I’ll be a wuss and have pina coladas, but feel free to drink whatever is in your liquor cabinet or fridge.  We’ll start Friday night and finish up on Sunday afternoon.  You may feel free to take a drink every time you read these words:  awkward, anxiety, popular, hugs, clique (from the anti-blogher peeps), cry, happy, naked (I’m gay, I can hope), funny hat (yes, Danah Boyd is a lovely person, but it was a funny hat), beer, drink, pool, The Worm, etc.

Since thunderstorms are forecast for the weekend, Leigh-Ann and I won’t be able to go out anywhere, so I’ll sit at my desk looking for blogher pictures at Flickr and new posts from bloghers who have travelled with their laptops.  It’s the least I can do.  It’s probably the most I can do too.

I hope all of the BlogHer bloghers have fun and don’t spend any of their time worrying about what the (whiny baby ass) bloggers who aren’t going say.  I think getting bloggers together is cool.

(I should do something about my addiction to parentheses, huh?)

Monday, July 24, 2006

evening

Vox Blog

Nancy gave me an invite to the hipcoolexclusive (it’s still in beta, so invitation only) Vox.com blogging site.  I thought I’d just mess around and explore, but maybe not really use it.  However, I quite like it.  It has some interesting features and nice templates.  I’m going to use it for their Questions of the Day and for some entries that I don’t want crawled by search engines.  I know I could do that here too, but I want most of these entries crawled.

You can find my Vox blog at flippy.vox.com