I saw this on other blogs, and it looked like fun! So, I’ll play along. Ten (or more) things I’ve done that others I know probably haven’t.
1. -------------- (Co-op work).
2. Drove alone from Cape Canaveral to Ann Arbor in 22 hours without any breaks.
3. Been an extra in a movie (Blow Out).
4. Sat next to a sex symbol on a flight for four hours and didn't even know it.
5. Watched the live Voyager 2 satellite feed (via NASA) from Neptune as soon as it reached the Earth.
6. Been called by Generals.
7. Wrestled in pudding.
8. Street performed and made money.
9. Passed a Second City audition.
10. Stayed up for 36+ hours straight playing Star Fleet Battles.
11. Been on board the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise's Bridge.
12. Defeated the last opponent one-on-one at a Pennsic Bridge Battle to win that battle for the Midrealm.
13. Took my last undergrad exam wearing just a bathrobe,
14. Taught 150 pre-teen girls how to medieval dance, and they had fun!
15. Married the most incredible woman in the world.
I’m exhausted. Up until 3 AM Sunday night, and 2 AM Saturday.
I dream about babies crying.
And so, I don’t have much to blog this week, though I’m working on things.
Elaine has it worse.
Pythagoras is such a good kitty.
When I take him to the vet, he is so good. He meows, but doesn’t put up a huge fight. And when he is with the vet, he is incredibly good. He doesn’t hiss or fight. He will growl a bit, but that is the extent of it.
Pythag will also stay very still when being examined. It is quite amazing that he will sit there and take it. You can tell that he isn’t happy at all, but he also knows that if he doesn’t fight it, it will be over soon and things will be well.
The eye vet that we went to was a forty-five minute drive, which is the longest he’s really ever been in a car. He’s usually pretty good, but on the way back from the last visit, he figured out how to open the latch and he tried very hard to get out! That is a good definition of fun: pushing a cat back inside a carrier while going 70 miles per hour down the highway during snow.
This is cool! Pythagoras just jumped on my lap, and while I’m writing this he is curled up on my lap, purring up a storm. If I scratch his head, he scrunches his face and it looks like nothing is wrong as both eyes are closed.
He seems to be doing really well, though. Jumping everywhere and zooming around he house. He still wakes me up at 3 AM looking for some kitty snuggles.
He’s such a good boy.
I have a song going through my head. I can’t get rid of it, and it isn’t even a song I like. It is the Tony Orlando and Dawn song entitled “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Around the Old Oak Tree.”
Blech.
On and on it goes, and so now I’m sharing it with you, dear reader, because shared pain is pain lessened.
Or so the theory goes.
This week has been odd. Elaine and I have both been sick. Not heavily, but enough to be annoying. Add to that a lack of sleep and computer problems at work, and mainly it has put me in a funk. As a friend of mine reminds me, it isn’t the big things that irritate a person, it is the little things.
The cold is going away. Now if could just get this horrid song out of my head.
This morning was the first day I was home since traveling, and we had a bunch of snow while I was gone. Obviously, it was never shoveled, so there was about an inch still stuck on the ground. I decided to go out and try to shovel it.
Shoveling new snow isn’t so bad, but shoveling snow that has been walked and driven on is very difficult. It is mostly ice, and you end up just scraping off the top layer and making it worse. However, I was hoping that my efforts would mean that with the sun out and temp reaching 38 degrees Fahrenheit, it might melt.
So I did a little experiment. I shoveled the walkways, but left the driveway untouched. That’s how I learned that I had almost wasted the morning. When I got back from my Improv class, the sun had melted everything from the walkways, and … also from the driveway. There was no need for me to do any sort of shoveling at all.
I did say it was almost a waste of time. I’m still glad I did it, because Marcus Man was out there helping me shovel, and we had a fun time together!
Elaine and I got to go out on a date tonight! We went to see Million Dollar Baby . Saying this movie is about boxing is saying that “The Shawshank Redemption” is about prison life. I really don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll just say this: it was amazing, it really moved us, and we highly recommend it.
For those of you who think that peace is possible in the Middle East, I recommend that you read this essay. I have my doubts that peace is possible when children I fed such horrible ideas without any pause. My friend Jennie told me about this stuff when she visited Israel. It makes me ill. If you teach your kids to hate, how can expect any sort of peace process to work?
On a brighter note, lets talk about the extinction of the human race by robots. The new Battlestar Galactica is fantastic! Elaine and I watch it every Saturday (on tape, as Elaine is usually trying to get some sleep while I look after Cassandra), and are very much enjoying it. I’m looking forward to wear this show is going.
Even better, the producer, Ron Moore, has his own blog where he talks about the show and answers a bunch of questions from fans. Ron Moore also was the main drive behind all the early good stuff from “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” and I hope this series has a long and happy life.
Speaking of Fridays, that night is now my favorite night on television. At 8 PM is Joan of Arcadia, Enterprise (which is finally getting really good, so of course it is being cancelled) and Stargate SG-1.
At 9 PM is Stargate Atlantis.
At 10 PM is Battlestar Galactica and Monk.
And, to really made my VCR explode, starting next week, at 11 PM on HBO, Bill Maher’s Real Time airs new episodes. Yay!!
Nice. In one night I watch over seven hours of television. Hmmm, maybe it is good that Enterprise is going off the air.
I wasn’t going to use this entry to summarize this past year, but a friend of mine mentioned everything that has happened, and, well, I found that very sweet. So I’m reproducing part of it here.
In this past year there have been some interesting changes and events. I have an adorable baby girl who is, thank heaven, healthy. My son continues to grow and learn and I am amazed at how much I love him and my entire family.
My hobby focus has definitely shifted away from the SCA and towards improvisation. I passed the audition into the advanced Second City Class.
I’ve had some good work success and we have the opportunity to really grow.
My cat lost his eye, but not his heart.
Some friends have drifted, but others have come closer, and some past difficulties have been reconciled.
I think I’ve had a really good year!
So, for my birthday today, we had a business meeting down here with another company that I think went quite well, and enough said about that. It was a long and late day, but I got a quick and nice meal at Uno’s (salmon and some veggies) and then Jack took me to an Improv show down here called SAK.
I was very impressed. I recognized half the games, but the others I’ve not done, and some other variations were really good. For example, they interviewed an expert, but another player performed the expert’s arms and hands, and they did that very well. They also did a scene backwards, and then forwards, and that was quite clever and very hard. The show also made it a competition between two groups of three (with a very cute MC), and certain people got to be judges and hold up points. I was one of them, but at the end everyone could call out points. It was a hoot.
I was very evil though. The last skit was a game I recognized called Theater Styles, where they would perform a scene and then ask the audience for different styles to perform it. The third (out of three) type they asked for was a musical style, and I yelled out “Shatneresque.” Ah, they hated me, but did a wonderful job.
Tomorrow I go home. YAY!!
I’m in Florida on business for the next few days. In one way it stinks because Thursday is my birthday, and I won’t be home for that. Yet in another way it is good because the weather here is much nicer (72 degrees and sunny).
It is bad because I’m away from my family. It is good because I get a break from baby feeding duties and can get a good night’s sleep. And that is bad that I not only can’t help, but that I am getting such a break.
All things considered, I’m much rather be home. Being with Elaine, Marcus, Cassandra, and Pythagoras are worth giving up a few hours of sleep for.
Not that I won’t take advantage of it while I’m here.
Today has been an odd day. With bad moments and good moments, but mainly just odd.
It had snowed pretty hard the night before (after 3 AM), so the roads were crummy. I left early to be safe, and I’m glad I did. I averaged only 40 mph, and there were time when taking curves that I though, “Oh, great, I’m going to slam into the concrete barriers.”
Wakes one up quicker that a hot cup of coffee spilled on your crotch.
I made it about an hour before the flight, so I stopped for a quick breakfast in the terminal. I’m very glad I did, because we were stuck on the runway for about two hours. Apparently, they needed to de-ice the plane. Normally this takes a half hour, but this time it took a lot longer.
I somehow, fortunately, got bumped to first class, so I had a comfortable seat, and I did fall asleep for a bit. I’m surprised I still have silver elite status, since I didn’t have enough miles and that should have expired earlier this month.
Not that I’m complaining.
When we landed, much later than we should, I rushed out of the plane, rushed through the terminal, rushed to the taxi station, leaped into a cab, and made it to the meeting on time.
Then I woke up just as we landed and realized I was already late for the meeting. I managed to get behind every slow person in the airport, the line for the taxis was huge (fifty people, all of who, like me, were going by ourselves and not in groups), and the driver didn’t know how to get to my destination.
I’m good with maps though, so I directly him.
The next problem was that the building where the meeting was had changed, and no one told me. The cab had to drop me off a ways away because of the security, so I ended up walking out of my way and then back again to my starting point.
The meeting was packed. It was an industry brief for a proposal we may want to write. Judging by the number of people there, I expect a lot of competition. Since I was late, I had no choice but to jump in there and focus. So, I found, I believe, the right people to talk to, found out which company was really in charge of the program, and made my pitch and have an action item to follow up with that contact. I can also get the part of the presentation I missed from the Internet.
When the meeting ended, I realized that I had no way to get to my hotel. I asked around (allowing me to meet more people), and hooked up with a consultant who offered me a lift. He obviously wants my company as a client, but he wasn’t pushy, and he told me everything about this program and information that I missed.
He dropped me off at the hotel, and my room wasn’t ready. At that point I really didn’t care, so I went to get some orange juice (none left), I mean, coffee, and relax until it was ready. This is when I discovered that they had complimentary copies of Newsweek!
This is a big deal. You see, I always get my Newsweek in the Tuesday mail, unless I’m traveling on Wednesday, and then it is late. As it was this week. But the hotel has it, as well as USA Today!
Even better, they have, get this, free high speed internet access in every room and in the lobby.
I’m kinda shocked.
I caught up on some work, prepping for my meetings that I’ll have tomorrow and Friday, and then walked to Tony Roma’s a few blocks away. I had a steak, rib, and shrimp combo.
Now I’m in my room, out of my suit and in far more comfortable clothes. Unlike most hotels, this one has over 70 stations, include Sci Fi and Comedy Central! It is odd, though, that I can watch the same things here that I can at home. There really are no local variations to programming anymore, especially with all those new cable channels around (well, new relatively speaking, I guess – ugh, I’m old).
I’ll catch up on my work email and then have some alone time, watch some television, then try to catch up on my sleep.
I’d rather be home.
I saw this in another blog and decided to steal it. I like it, so:
1. Reply to this entry if you'd like some ego boosting, or at least something nice publicly said about you.
2. Watch my journal over the next few days for a post just about you, only you, and why I think whatever I do about you.
3. Post these instructions in your journal and pass it on.
It may be that no one responds, and that is fine too.
I have lots I can talk about in my journal. But you know, what I really want to do is show off pictures of my family. I know my relatives will be thrilled that I'm finally posting more pics. For the rest of you, well, hope you will indulge me.
I like this a lot. Note Pythagoras over on the left, with both of his eyes. This is from January 29th. The whole family together!
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Closeup of Elaine and Cassandra.
Elaine, Cassandra, and Marcus.
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Chuck, Cassandra, and Pythagoras!
Same group, different positions.
I want to title this one "Girls in Pink." This is Kristin from work, here holding Cassandra when we had some people over. This was on February 3rd.
Pythagoras is back home and he is fine. The doctors said they could repair the eye, but because of the eye herpes it would just rupture again and again. The Doc’s recommendation was to remove the eye. Animals can handle that quite well, and it will reduce his stress, pain, and problems in the long term.
So, Elaine and I gave the go ahead. He planned on calling our family veterinarian right after talking to me, and I asked him to see what she said, and go ahead with the surgery unless she said, “For the love of god don’t do it!”
Obviously, the both agreed.
He’s home, and on his own he was able to jump up on the counter on his own and go down stairs to use the box. He seems very happy to be back. We’ll see how snuggly he is. He’s got some meds to take, some for pain, some antibiotics, and, for the rest of his life, some human medicine to handle the herpes so it doesn’t spread to anywhere else. Fortunately, that stuff can be sprinkled on his wet food. I hope he doesn’t turn up his nose at that.
We are so glad he’s home and alive. It is getting annoying that every time we have a child something goes wrong with one of the cats. *grumble*
I had to bring Pythagoras to the emergency room today.
Last night there was a lot of fluid coming out of his bad eye. Not gushing, but as if he was crying a lot. He seemed fine otherwise, but although didn’t join us in bed.
There wasn’t improvement today, so I made an appointment right away and took him to the vet. It seems that part of his eye may have ruptured, so it was off to an eye specialist over in Southfield.
He’s there now, overnight, and they’ll do surgery tomorrow. I don’t know exactly what is wrong with him, and they’ll tell me more tomorrow. He could loose his eye, but aside from the risk all surgeries have, he should be fine no matter what.
I hope.
Poor little guy.