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| Friday, April 3rd, 2009 | | 1:14 pm |
bwahahahaha
While searching for film titles to check out from the University on my lunch break I came across this one: Cannibal women in the avocado jungle of death [videorecording] / Guacamole Films presents ; a Gary W. Goldstein production ; a J.D. Athens film ; producer, Gary W. Goldstein ; written and directed by J.D. Athens. Summary A feminist anthropologist leads a treacherous journey through the hostile avacado belt. Accompanied by a wisecracking guide and her ditzy student Bunny, the expedition hopes to make contact with the cannibal tribe known as the Piranha Women and discover the secret of the cannibal dip which men have come to fear. | | Monday, January 19th, 2009 | | 3:03 pm |
| | Sunday, January 18th, 2009 | | 11:03 pm |
Bugs and I would get along a lot better if I wasn't a tasty snack to them...time to go take benadryl to counteract the 20-some-odd itchy welts on my arms & legs... | | Sunday, January 11th, 2009 | | 4:31 pm |
| | Monday, December 22nd, 2008 | | 9:16 pm |
| | 7:21 pm |
I want this in an adult size! | | 5:35 am |
Snow day! Unfortunately this was posted on the UW web site last night *after* I'd already gone to bed, or I'd still be asleep instead of checking the current state of our snowpocalypse .... at least I can just go back to my warm bed and snooze some more before going to play in the snow :) | | Friday, September 5th, 2008 | | 5:49 pm |
Ouch!!!!!
I was going through a folder of old papers, some of which were stapled together...I wasn't paying a lot of attention, as I was thinking about the project I was working on & had to get completed before noon today (only found out about it in the morning when I got into work)... You know how sometimes old staples get sort of unbent, but not quite all of the way, which keeps all of the papers together still... Finger, meet staple... The natural reaction is to immediately pull the paper with the staple away & out from your finger...this causes a bit of a problem with the staple is hooked up under your skin and pulling the paper only serves to cause more pain...which means focusing on actually un-hooking said staple from under your skin, while still having the reaction of wanting to immediately pull the paper with the staple away & out from your finger... | | Monday, August 25th, 2008 | | 7:52 pm |
Score one for the good guys
No wonder the dog was freaking out...and that explains the loud noise I heard while in the kitchen... The good thing is that the huge branch from our front yard tree missed most of our house and missed our neighbor's house (yes, it is/was that big)....and it's only resting on a relatively small branch (in case it can't take the weight it shouldn't do too much damage either)....I don't think I could have dealt with it crashing into the house right now... 'Course I'm not sure where the contact information is for the tree arborist...I've already looked in the office....time to try other places... | | Friday, August 22nd, 2008 | | 2:04 pm |
| | Sunday, August 10th, 2008 | | 7:34 pm |
Go me :)
I've been accepted to the UW Extension's Training Specialist Certificate Program, which I'm really excited about. It's a year long program that meets Autumn, Winter & Spring quarters with 2 courses each quarter. We meet on Saturdays from 9-12 and 1-4 (I see going to the Malay Satay Hut in my future!) The only unfortunate thing is that the classes are in Bellevue and the commute by bus sucks - I'd have to leave a little after 7 am to get there on time, which is even a little earlier than I currently have to leave for work during the week. Hopefully there will be other students from this part of town that I'll be able to carpool with :) | | Thursday, July 10th, 2008 | | 7:44 pm |
More heart health
I didn't start feeling more myself until last Saturday (I stayed home from work the entire week), and then I was still feeling pretty winded when doing any kind of exertion. The irritating thing is that I really started to feel ok Tuesday & Wednesday of this week, and have been back at work all week. I even went to the 3rd session in a weekly swing class that Brian & I signed up for last night. All of which means I've probably pushed myself too much this week because I had another small attack at work this morning - it was nowhere near as bad as what happened last week, no dizziness involved, no multiple occurrences, just a slight tingling in my fingertips, and not really that long of a fast heartbeat. So I had Brian pick me up from work figuring the best idea would be for me to come on home to rest. The medication seems to be doing it's thing because the highest it was today was when I first got home and at that it was only 114/65 and the most recent average (since it's one of these things that can do that from the last 3 readings) was 94/66. The machine did record 2 instances of an irregular heart beat, but the instruction manual only lists a problem if you have 5 or more instances in a row. I did feel all afternoon and still do keep feeling like I'm about ready to have another attack, but at the most my heart just seems to beat odd a couple of times and then it's fine. Unfortunately I tried to get my Echocardiogram re-scheduled for today (it was supposed to be yesterday, but the technician called in sick, bastard, and they rescheduled for Monday), but couldn't because they said they were booked solid. So, I'm taking it easy and keep monitoring my heart rate and pulse. Not only does this suck in and of itself, but I'm supposed to fly to Eugene tomorrow afternoon for the weekend for the Oregon Country Faire (I had an unused travel voucher from last summer when Brian & I were supposed to go on vacation but then couldn't because of some various issues, which I hadn't used up yet and was expiring soon so I thought it would be fun to fly to Eugene instead of taking the train)...this mini-vacation was going to be pretty relaxing since I was planning on going at my own speed...but, there's a small nagging part of me that wonders how much of a good idea it is to be heading off on my own right now...everything I've been reading the past week hadn't made me worry about it, but that was also before this morning...I've decided not to worry about it and just see how I feel tomorrow... | | Monday, July 7th, 2008 | | 12:17 pm |
Heart health
Paroxysmal Supraventricular Tachycardia, which is a fancy way of saying the sudden onset of a fast heart beat, is apparently what I have. I have an ultrasound scheduled for this week, just to be on the safe side, and then my cardiologist will follow up next week. If nothing else shows up, my options will be to either take medicine to keep my blood pressure & heart rate down for the rest of my life or have an operation. If I go the route of medication, they're going to have to either adjust the dosage or put me on something else because it's keeping my blood pressure pretty low; it could also be that my body's just still trying to get back to normal from what happened last week. Apparently the operation, catheter ablation, is usually an outpatient procedure: thin, flexible wires are inserted into a blood vessel in the thigh, groin, neck, or elbow and threaded up through the blood vessel and into the heart under X-ray guidance. The wires allow the doctor to record the electrical activity of your heart and determine what kind of heart rhythm problem you have. Through these wires, electrical energy (radio waves) can be sent to a specific area of your heart. This will destroy (ablate) the tiny part of your heart that is causing its rhythm problem. A local anesthetic is used at the site where the catheter is inserted. The person usually stays awake during the procedure but may be sedated. I don't know if I would be able to be aware of what was going on or if I'd want to be sedated. Last week was pretty scary. I've had my heart race before, ever since I was a teenager, but each time it only lasted a few minutes total and would only happen a few times a year. Last Tuesday I had six or eight episodes within the span of an hour. It didn't matter what I was doing, I even had them while just sitting typing at my desk. I called the consulting nurse with GHC and by the end of the conversation, even though I had tried to convince her I could just walk down to the UWMC hospital, since it's right next to where I work, she told me to call 911 (I didn't have an argument for her of what would happen if I passed out on the way there) So, I called and then a few minutes later the circus began. In the end I think there were 2 police officers, 2 EMT's, and possibly 2 other emergency people; it's possible there were only the first 4, it just seemed like a lot of commotion. They immediately got me on oxygen, took my pulse, and then put a ton of patches on my chest, and one on my leg, so they could hook me up to do an EKG. They didn't like what they got and had me lay down on their stretcher. One of the EMT's attached a pulse monitor to my finger and then got an IV hooked up to me. The other one was on the phone with the doctor to report their readings. They then gave me some kind of fast-acting IV solution, which made me feel like I was going to pass out, but did bring my heart rate and blood pressure down. After that they loaded me up in the ambulance and headed towards Virginia Mason. On the way there I had another episode, which seemed to worry the EMT who was riding in the back with me. He got a hold of the doctor again, prepped another IV solution, and was hooking me up as the ambulance pulled into the hospital. Once they got me into the ER, there was another flurry of motion while a doctor, intern, a bunch of nurses, and some support staff came into the room, asking me questions, hooking me up to their machines, and doing more tests. At some point before the EMT left I had another episode and they had to give me another IV treatment. By this point I really had to go, but had to wait for the nurse to finish taking a blood sample. Unfortunately they would not let me get up to go to the bathroom, as they were worried about me passing out. So I got to experience using a bedpan while lying in bed, not once, but twice (they had to give me one more IV treatment while I was there and then later oral medication) - I convinced them later that I was really ok enough to walk down the hallway to the restroom. The unnerving thing about being in the ER was that I could hear the warning beeps when my heart would start to race (which didn't help things)...also, having the intern and the nurses look worriedly at the machines while they were beeping didn't help much either...Another observation: the patches the EMT's put on my chest left hickey-like marks, especially on my right collarbone, the brief time they were on me. It surprised one of the nurses who did an EKG on me while in the ER. I ended up being in the ER from about 9:30 am until 2 pm. They talked about the possibility of keeping me overnight, since nothing they had tried seemed to keep me from having episodes. At one point they figured the oral medication had had time to kick in and started monitoring me; they wanted me to have an hour where I didn't have any problems. One of the nurses who was checking on me wheeled the house phone closer to me so I could call Brian & got me my purse so I could read my book (I figured that might take my mind off things) After about 30 min everything seemed to be going ok, but then I had another episode. The intern & nurse came back into the room and were debating on whether to give me another IV injection, got it all prepped, but by then my heart rate and pulse had started to lower again, so they decided to wait. After an hour of relative good readings they decided to send me on my way with a prescription for 2 medications. Brian picked me up and we headed over to the GHC pharmacy, but there was some confusion about the dosage for one of the medications (turns out the 40 mg they listed for the 100 mg strength pill meant that I just needed to cut the pill in half) so I went home & had Brian pick up my medicine (and a handy-dandy pill cutter) later. I spent the rest of the day/evening laying around in bed mostly sleeping or staring out the window. I read a little too. I seemed to almost have an episode a few times, but didn't, which was good. Walking to the bathroom or up and down stairs was really tiring though. I had a follow-up visit with a cardiologist the next morning, and the nurse who took my pulse did it 5 times because it was so low (80/52) - twice with the pressure cuff in the exam room (once with my sleeve rolled all the way up), once by hand, once with an electronic machine, and then once more by hand. The doctor decided to take me off of one of the medications (funny thing it was the one that had the confusion about the dosage; I'm still taking the horse-pill sized ones unfortunately. At least they are bright purple)...It wasn't until this past Saturday that I started feeling more like myself, but I still seem to get worn out easily and feel short of breath sometimes still. I did have a couple of brief pains in my chest earlier this morning, right at my sternum, but it wasn't very intense, didn't last very long, and I didn't seem to have anything else going wrong. It's possible I'm just slumping too much, as my back's been acting up today and I tend to slouch more while sitting when it's acting up. | | Friday, June 20th, 2008 | | 10:13 am |
I was doing some searching for laptop cases for some recent equipment purchases in our office and found one called: The Dreadful Embarrassment by a company called Crumpler. This made me laugh out loud. | | Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 | | 4:02 pm |
Adventures galore
Last night was an adventure....but i did end up getting roti at the malay satay hut on the eastside There was an informational session for this certificate program as a Training Specialist the UW Extension college has in Bellevue...well, it was listed in Bellevue, but it was actually closer to Redmond, as it was in Overlake, which makes a difference when you are talking to bus drivers when you miss your connection bus... I left work 10 min early to catch the bus that Google transit suggested and did catch it...the transfer was the problem - it had me get out at the 2nd transfer station... it turns out the first one was a major one, but the 2nd one was really small and just at the top of hill so the bus drivers don't always see people waiting...of course all of the buses before mine would pull into the bus lane by the stop and just keep going if no one waved them down. I made the mistake of checking my email - in the blink of an eye when i looked down for one second, the bus i needed to take zoomed by (it hadn't even pulled into the bus lane) So, I'm trying to figure out how to now get there, since the next 250 bus won't pick up in time for me to get to the meeting on time...ask a couple of the next bus drivers if they would put me anywhere I needed to go (problem was I kept saying that I needed to go to Bellevue, which equated to the main downtown area where the Bellevue Transit station is in all of their minds, which is in a different direction than the UW Extension office). Ended up getting on one that took me to another transfer station and from there caught another bus to the Bellevue transfer station. I did a search on the Metro trip planner from my handy-dandy, but slow and I really really wish Google transit & Metro trip planner worked better, iphone and found a bus that would get me to the UW Extension office, but it was going to put me there at 6:45 (the session was from 6-7)...found something else that would get me somewhat close and then walked the rest of the way, and ended up only being 15 min late. So, that was only part of the adventure... After the session, I figured out with metro trip planner the "fastest" way to get home (at least according to them; I've often found they will give out round-about ways of getting places or simply not give you the closest or easiest routes) and started walking towards where the bus was, but got a bit turned around & wasn't going to make that bus, so I asked the "all-knowing" metro web site what bus I should instead take...started heading in that direction and a few things started looking familiar (i.e. Rich's, which is near the Malay place - I was on the backside though, so I couldn't see the Malay place)...of course the bus came while I was trying to find the web site for the malay place, so I took it in case I was wrong about where I was (which has certainly happened before)... I found out i wasn't, so got off the bus 10 min later and found a bus back to where I'd been since I was starting to get hungry and I had a suspicion that it was going to take me a while to get back home... this bus got me close, but i had to walk for a bit to get to the restaurant... I decide to get roti and then 2 entree's to go (figuring they would be my lunch this week and figuring I didn't want to get trapped on the evil Eastside too long).. after eating the roti I discovered that I forgot to get my debit card when we stopped by the bank on Saturday...and they don't take discover card, which was the only plastic I had on me, and I never carry checks....I only had $20 on me so I had to cancel one of the entree's...which was of course embarrassing & I apologized a bunch ...Since there were 3 women in the restaurant who talked to me separately about it, this caused confusion and while I paid for one entree, one of them cancelled both of the orders...One of the women finally noticed I'd been sitting around for a while and conferred with the other 2, with agitated voices and glances in my direction, and one of them went back to the kitchen, my guess is to reorder my food...the woman who had noticed my walked by a couple of minutes later informing me that my order was almost ready as if it had just been taking a while to make (it was amusing that they didn't admit to making a mistake) While I had been waiting for my food I was a bit stressed out because my internet connection dropped me a couple of times while i was in the restaurant trying to figure out what bus to take home, and since my battery was on red I really was hoping it wouldn't die before I got back to Seattle where I know my way around...After getting my food finally I headed to the bus stop...of course got confused by the metro directions, but after talking to a couple out taking a walk, got the correct bus...turned out that it was one of the slowest possible ways (took me all the way back to the Bellevue transfer station and then a bus from there to downtown) Once downtown, I had another adventure... Got downtown, saw a 43 (there were a few busses backed up in front of it) and ran to the bus stop to catch it...didn't realize that the buses were stopped at the bus stop because one of the bus drivers had been apparently assaulted by a passenger or something...got on the 43, but he wasn't able to pull out into traffic for some reason...he and another guy, who it turned out also worked for metro but just happened to be on the bus, then pushed the bus enough that it rolled back - the driver was outside the bus when it was rolling, which was a little disconcerting, as he didn't warn anyone on the bus it was going to happen - one woman ran to the front of the bus as if she were going to hit the brakes, but then he jumped back on the bus... And for the final adventure... After I got home and found the number to call to cancel my debit card and get a new one, I discovered that if you call the 800 customer service number and add a 1 before it, it takes you to a message to call another number for some kind of party or sex phone line...I called it a couple of times to make sure I just hadn't been misconnected...Calling their 800 number without the 1 in front does work much better... | | Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 | | 7:13 pm |
| | Thursday, April 17th, 2008 | | 10:53 am |
Pop!
Goes my hip/leg joint just now...hopefully this is a good thing.... | | Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 | | 1:51 pm |
Thoughts on acupuncture
I had a visit yesterday for acupuncture to see if this will resolve my current hip/back problem, which was the first time I've tried it. After the doctor put some kind of ointment on my back, the back of my legs and arms, my neck and the top of my head, I heard a click. She then said "that wasn't so bad, was it?" as I realized she had popped a needle in the top of my head. It was probably good that she didn't give me any warning as I probably would have been more tense while waiting for it. That being said, I did feel some of them going in and felt some of them throughout the procedure - although sometimes it was just because some of my muscles decided to start moving around (I'm curious as to whether that's supposed to happen; I just assumed yes at the time) I definitely felt her pulling them out (not painful really, but more of a pinching sensation) and most of the spots bled more and longer than she was expecting; I'm also curious as to how long I'll see the marks - actually I should say how long they will be visible as I can personally only see the ones on my arms (need to work on having eyes in the back of my head.) After the procedure I did feel a bit out of sorts and slightly dizzy. My back seemed a bit better, but my hip was still hurting. My hip did pop a couple of times in the afternoon yesterday, and then just a few minutes ago, which seems to help. I've got another appointment for next Tuesday, so hopefully will have some more relief from that. One thing that I should have done differently - not drink chai in the morning before-hand because I might have been able to get in a nap while lying on my stomach with needles sticking out of my backside :) | | Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 | | 1:30 pm |
sick again...
Yes, I am sick again, which is extremely not fair since the last bout lasted a month. Another sucky thing is that I was feeling fine until I got a massage last week at a place near my house (so I wouldn't have to bother with busing anywhere) because I had pulled out my back again. The morning after I was a little congested, but didn't think anything of it. The next couple of days I thought I just had allergies and didn't realize that I had been keeping a fever at bay due to the pain pills I had been taking for my back. Once I woke up on Friday with a chest cough I realized that it hadn't just been the pain pills and muscle relaxants making me feel loopy. So, I started taking the left-over medication from the last time I was sick, which helped a bit. Monday night after I ate dinner, I decided to read in bed with covers piled on and the dog warming my feet at the end of the bed. The next thing I know it's 10 pm, but then unfortunately spend a lot of time coughing up a lung before being able to go back to sleep. Yesterday I called to cancel another upcoming massage for my back, and get lots of herbal suggestions (Oil of Oregano, Grapefruit Seed Extract, and Garlic supplements) of how to cure my cold/sinus problems. So, I stopped at Rainbow to pick it all up and then took the maximum dosage for each thing once I got back home. That was a bit of a mistake because each of these items were extremely nasty tasting and my stomach was not happy. I felt like a kid again forcing myself to drink the Emergen-C that was mixed up with the oregano and GSE, making faces, and shuddering after each big gulp. I did start to feel better soon afterwards though, so there was at least that. I then ordered spicy food from In the Bowl, read until it was delivered, ate, then got back into bed, read for a little while, and then fell asleep for a few hours. Woke up coughing again, but couldn't imagine taking any of the herbal stuff again, so took the 2nd to last dosage of the codine cough syrup and managed to fall asleep pretty soon after that. I am feeling a lot better today, but still coughing. So, I decided to try putting the GSE and oil of oregano in a mango smoothie to disguise the taste. It was still extremely gross. I had to wait until lunch to take the garlic. Good thing I don't have any meetings today and I guess I do have an added benefit of being able to repel vampires. | | Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 | | 7:39 pm |
denied!
i put in an order last night with amazon fresh because i needed buns for sandwiches and was feeling too lazy to go to the store...plus, i wanted french bread so that i could make vegan garlic bread to go with the cajun i'd made sunday...so, i figured out all of the things we were out of that i wanted, which came pretty close to their minimum for having an attended scheduled delivery at a more convenient time than the doorstop delivery which has a larger timeframe (6pm-9 pm)...so, i added a few more items to try this out... after getting done with submitting the order, i start cleaning up from dinner, which included emptying the dishwasher...unfortunately i didn't realize that someone had put the large food processor blade in the accessories box the new food processor came with... the first of the slicing disks fit fine in the box; the second however was at a the same height as the blade, which was at the same height as my finger tip...it's a serrated blade too...it didn't hurt at first, until it started bleeding a lot...i then proceeded to spend the next half hour in the bathroom putting pressure on the cut with a gauze pad and holding my hand above my head, because i did not want to go to an emergency room - it was late, it would take forever there, and i just wanted to go to bed soon...i rationalized that if i could get it to stop bleeding everything would be fine (at least that was the case when i cut my pinky finger while washing out a glass that broke the summer before i went to college)...at one point it stopped, but then started back up when i tried to put a bandaide on it, so i spent some more time with my hand above my head...once it stopped again, i had a plan - 2 bandaides, the second much larger than the first (one of the big square ones the size of the back of my hand) so that if anything soaked through, my thought was that it at least wouldn't get on my pillow...so, i go to bed and put the pillow *behind* my head so i can prop up my hand... in the morning i didn't want to deal with taking off the bandage, because my finger was throbbing and i didn't want it to start bleeding again, so i decide to skip taking a shower, figuring i can change it mid-day...mid-day comes and i change it and it only bleeds a little, but most importantly my finger is not puffy or a different color than the other ones...but it's still throbbing a lot...so, i decide to call the 24 nurse help line...after asking a bunch of questions her response was that it would have been better to call us soon after it had happened, that they only have 12 hrs after a cut to stitch it, but that i had done everything else correct and should keep an eye on it... which, brings me back to why it was going to be so great that i was having a grocery delivery from amazon - i wouldn't have to do a lot of prep work for my dinner...unfortunately, they forgot the bag with the 2 specific items that prompted me to order from them - the buns and the french bread...which i didn't realize until they had driven away...which made me grumpy, since my finger is still throbbing... on the bright side, their customer service is excellent...the charges were taken off for those 2 items and they will deliver them for free tomorrow morning...so now i have to go figure out what's for dinner, or whether to order delivery, since i won't be able to have a sandwich tonight or garlic bread with left-over cajun... *edit* not 5 minutes after i finished making a sandwich with the last piece of flatbread (which, btw, is pretty messy to eat as far as sandwiches go), the delivery driver knocks on our door because she had realized after her last delivery that she hadn't given me my last bag. not only was she was very apologetic, but the fact that she made a 2nd trip to my house to get me my groceries made me really appreciate their customer service attitude. so i put up my dinner where the dog can't reach it to go call their customer service back so that the can cancel the delivery in the morning. morning comes, and i discover that they still delivered the items, so now i have 2 loaves of french bread and 2 packages of buns! when i get to work i discover that the contact number i'd listed for this account was my *work* number, as i had a call from the driver letting me know she'd discovered the mistake and would be back at my house in 15 min, and a second call from customer service letting me know they'd tried to cancel the free replacement order, but that it was too late and to enjoy the bread! |
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