Thursday, September 14, 2006

late afternoon

If He’s Dead To Me…And He Could Be

I can happily watch Centre (whoa, that Canadian spelling was like so accidental) Ice again.  If not, and it’s possible, I’m still boycotting.  Geez, all I wanted was a team to root for - maybe the Coyotes.  I like Jeremy Roenick, most of the time.

Damn, I have a headache.  Today, I picked up my THIRD prescription of antibiotics.  THIRD!  Gah, please let my sinuses live again.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

late evening

Get Your Pre-Order Fingers Ready

Paula Poundstone has a new book coming out on November 7th - There is Nothing in this Book That I Meant to Say.  From the reviews, it sounds entertaining.  We saw her perform at Sunset Station right after she got her kids back (after the, um, drinking stuff) - if she can make that funny, she can make anything funny.  Also, on the same day, er, night, she’ll have a BRAVO special debuting at 10pm.  So, watch it.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

late evening

My First Day of Physical Therapy

Yes, I know you’re thinking to yourself, “But Flippy, your microdiskectomy surgery was April 26, shouldn’t you have done this long ago?” Yes, you’re correct, I should have.  Okay, not that long ago because it took me until July to get a referral to PT.  Then, life stress and this horrible sinus infection made me sick and cranky.  I finally decided to just go!  I can’t get rid of the sinus infection, but I can do something to help my back.

The building that the physical therapy office is in, is brand new.  The atmosphere is really quiet and peaceful.  The first thing they did, after making me fill out pages of paperwork (oh, the paperwork I’ve filled out in the past year...), was do a quick test of my reflexes, stretch out my legs to see if I had pain, test my leg strength, etc.  Then, the best part - laying on a really warm heating pad in a darkened room for fifteen minutes.  It was nice.  After that, my therapist, Dave, had me do leg/back stretches, then started me walking on a treadmill at a 3% incline at 1mph (I’d moved it up to a big 1.5mph before I was done) for ten minutes.  It wasn’t hard, but I quickly realized how horribly out of shape I am.  I also realized that there are worse things than to walk slowly on a treadmill and watch roadrunners outside the window.  After the treadmill, I was put on an arm cycling machine (like a bike, but for your arms) to help strengthen my upper back.  Man, my arms are weak.  After the arm cycling, I was on a rowing machine to strengthen more of my lower back.

We figured that was about all I could handle for my first visit.  I’m a bit surprised that I’m not sore, but maybe it hasn’t set in yet.  Also, we have a treadmill at home, so I asked Dave if I should start using it at home too.  He said yes, and said that I should break it up into two sessions at home, then follow up with the leg/back stretches.  I’m looking forward to being in decent shape again, and getting rid of the leg pain when I walk.  While I’m much improved from the surgery, I still have leg pain off and on.  It’s worse in the morning and late at night, but my surgeon assured me that that’s completely normal.  My next PT appointment is on Thursday, but I promise not to make you read all the details of that visit, unless something super exciting happens, like three roadrunners cross the street, instead of only the two I saw today.

Monday, September 11, 2006

evening

Help Us Help Matt Help The Natl MS Society

Our former next-door neighbor who, with his wife, abandoned us to move all the way across town, which may as well be in another country, needs your help.  Matt is riding 150 miles, October 7-8, from Orange County to San Diego to raise money for The National Multiple Sclerosis Society.  Check out his picture, he’s cute and he’s riding to raise money.  Plus, he was a great neighbor and we miss him.  So, for us, help him raise money.  Don’t make me break out the pictures of his cute beagles, or the hot shirtless pictures.  Okay, I don’t really have any shirtless pictures, but help out anyway, okay?  I can assure you that if you’ve tried to raise money on your blog, we’ve probably donated something over the past couple of years.  Now, I’m asking for Matt.  See, all selfless and stuff.

Matt’s Donation Page - It can be $5 or $10.  The deadline is October 1st.  (The Pulte Special Ops thing seems so very X-Files) Don’t let the other people on his team, who are too chicken to put their pictures up, raise more money than he does. 

Okay, I’m breaking out one cute pups picture - this is their Bosley and our Cricket (and Matt’s feet), resting after a lovely romp.

early evening

Do You Think We Can Sue?

For intentional infliction of severe emotional distress, caused by Land o’ Lakes Whipped Butter.  It was positively obscene.  The cinnamon toast, however, was very delicious.