My Dentist

Here is another picture of my dentist posing with Evander Holyfield.

Dentist Story

We just got back from our six month dental check-up. They were short a hygenist today, so they had a new dentist do my cleaning instead. Very attractive. After we left, I had the strange feeling that I knew her from somewhere. All of sudden it hit me: she was a contestant on ABC's Are You Hot? She is very nice and easy going. The picture is not very good. It makes her face look funny. She said I had very nice teeth, healthy gums, and very little plaque build-up. Yeah Brad! I found the following article on the web site of the Suburban Chicago News newspaper site.

Talent Shows: Get Real: Reality TV Is An Affront
Posted on Monday, February 17 @ 09:46:59 PST

If you've ever met Chiann Gibson or had your teeth cleaned by this dentist, you already know she's one hot lady.

That's why it should come as no big surprise the 34-year-old Aurora woman ended up on the newest TV reality show, Are You Hot? The Search for America's Sexiest People.

Chiann auditioned for the show more on a whim than anything. The former Miss Washington USA and Miss Tropicana beauty pageant winner figured it would be a fun diversion from drilling teeth all day.
"I just thought it would be an adventure, another challenge in life," she said.

Chiann, who speaks four languages and is also an accomplished violinist, easily captured one of the two coveted spots from the thousands who applied in the Chicago region alone. But when she joined a couple dozen other contestants in Los Angeles a few weeks ago to tape Are You Hot? she was hit with an unfortunate dose of reality.

"The show was not even close to what they presented to us earlier. I specifically asked them if this was going to be degrading, and they said absolutely not," said Chiann on Friday.

Chiann says she and another contestant, a lawyer from Minnesota, tried to get out of the gig once they saw it was nothing more than a venue designed to make people cower, quiver and cry. After complaining to producers, she said they were told to stick it out for at least the two-hour premiere.

Chiann was one of the fortunate ones spared the scathing comments by the panel of judges, the only negative comment that was thrown her way came from Duke, who suggested she might look better with more brown in her hair.

But other contestants were "degraded and humiliated for the pure fun of it." It all seemed so scripted, said Chiann. They deliberately bring on fat people, then tell them they are too fat. They choose someone with less than perfect teeth, then tell them their teeth are terrible. One young woman "was absolutely crushed" when told she looked like Marilyn Manson in drag.

Chiann didn't make the cut. And that's just fine with her.

"I've got a husband and a profession at home," she said. "But for a lot of these people, especially the young ones, they are looking at this as their big break." Instead, the show breaks their spirits and preys upon their vulnerabilities. "It's all about ratings," said Chiann's husband, Jim.

I talked to a long-lost college friend Tim yesterday. Tim, and his wife Jennifer, have had a son, and built a house since I talked to him a couple of years ago. It's amazing how much things can change. It was nice talking to him again. We were on the phone for about 20 minutes.

After a two hour antihistamine-induced nap, I am awake again, but still have no mental capacity to write a paper. I guess I will wait to do it tomorrow night.

Thyroid Cancer Status

It dawned on me that, because we have not really mentioned it for several weeks now, people might be afraid to ask how Sheri is recovering from her thyroid cancer surgery; like it is a sensitive topic, or things are not going well.

Well, the reason we have not mentioned anything about it is because it is a non-issue. There have been zero complications. The scar has been healing exceptionally well. There are no side effects not having a thyroid, or from the actually surgery. She just takes a little pill every morning and then goes about life as before.

She goes back to the surgeon in May for a follow-up to make sure he removed all of the thyroid tissue. If it has all been removed I think she is pretty much done with follow-up visits to the surgeon. If tests indicate there is a little bit of thyroid tissue left, all they do is give her a little bit of radioactive iodine via an IV drip. It accumulates in the left-over thyroid tissue, kills it, and is then eliminated from her system. That's it. No more surgery or nothing.

The antihistamine that Sheri brought me has worked great, but it has also made me very spacey and tired right now. Not a good combination with which to write a paper. I need to go lay down and close my eyes.

My nose has stopped dripping continuously, and I am not coughing every three minutes, but I still feel crappy. I have to blow my nose about every five minutes now, which is an improvement. I don't like tilting my head forward because it feels like my sinus cavities start to fill up or empty or do something that doesn't feel good. The unfortunate part is that I still have to finish my paper today. That forces me to have my head tilted down. Yuck. I guess I will just try to storm through it as fast as possible.

I did the difficult part yesterday which was decide what I am going to write about and how I will structure the paper. I don't plan on citing referenced so it should be a fairly fast write.

Sheri just left to pick up a carpet cleaner, lunch, and some sinus medication for me.

It is a beautiful day here in Chicago.

I hope to be able to cut the grass later this evening.

This summer I want to charter a boat on Lake Erie to go perch fishing with the family. These are a couple of charter boat links that Dad found.

Shore-Nuf


Speerfish Charters


Afterwards I would like to take our catch back home and fire up Tim's turkey fryer and have a shore lunch with hushpuppies, coleslaw, and corn on the cob.

The daily bag limit for yellow perch in Ohio is 30 per person.

I have the NASCAR race on in the office while I work on my paper. I turned to watch for a minute and there is a female reporter down in the paddocks interviewing a team, and she has a huge headset on that is heavily cushioned to keep the load noise out. That is not the funny part. The headset has an almost two foot flexible rubber antenna that is bobbing around. As she is talking to these guys, the antenna is bouncing around with every slight move of her head. Whenever she glances down, the antenna almost hits whomever is standing in front of her in the head.

It reminded me of the Saturday Night Live skit about ten years ago when Al Franken was a reporter with a satellite dish on his head, and said he was a "One Man Mobile Uplink".

Mini HTML Lesson

If you want to put a picture on your web page, just copy the web location of the picture (including the http:// part of the address) and then paste it between the double quotes in the code below:

<img src=" ">

img stands for image, and src stands for source.

So if you put this code on your web page (or e-mail):

<img src="http://images.slashdot.org/topics/topichumor.gif">

It will put this image of a foot from the the slashdot.org web site on your web page. How easy is that?

Saturday Afternoon

We finished up or delicious Easter HoneyBaked ham last night, so you know what that means: bean soup today! I normally use navy beans, but I had a bag of Hurst's HamBeens' 15 bean soup on hand, so I am using that instead. The beans it has are:

1. Northern
2. Pinto
3. Large lima
4. Blackeye
5. Garbanzo
6. Baby lima
7. Green split pea
8. Kidney
9. Cranberry bean
10. Small white
11. Pink bean
12. Small red
13. Yellow split pea
14. Lentil
15. Navy
16. White kidney
17. Black bean
18. Pearl barley

That is 18 though. I guess the barley is not a bean, but what other two would not be considered a bean? Lentils and garbanzo? Or maybe it is like the Big 10 with 11 football teams. It got famous as 15 bean soup, and 18 bean soup just doesn’t sound as catchy.

I boiled the beans for a couple of minutes, and now they are sitting for an hour. I added some dry ingredients while they were simmering: garlic powder, onion flakes, ground celery seed, four bay leaves, cinnamon, and mustard powder. Don't add salt until the beans are finished cooking because it will make the beans tough. The amount of dry ingredients I added also was not enough for the whole batch, just a little bit for background flavor. If you put too much in now, the beans absorb too much flavor and it tastes bad, plus as water boils off it will leave the tastes more concentrated.

Sheri went into the city to have lunch with her friend that crocheted Goliath a blanket, Sheri a doily, and a scarf for me. I stayed home to work on my paper that is due Tuesday. I think I am going to analyze a company's strategy that went wrong.

Sheri went to bed early last night, but I stayed up until after midnight balancing our check book. For some reason an entry was deleted when I converted from the previous version of Quicken. It balances to the penny again.

I also want to get the grass cut today, and maybe go buy a new gas grill. Our old one was a pretty big one. I had to replace the burner a couple of years back, and they didn't have any extra large burners to fit out grill, so know it grills very unevenly. Also, the spacers that steady the handle to the lid are wood, and they have cracked and fallen off, so the handle is "jiggly". The hardware that holds the propane tank has also worn out, so the tank is kind of half sitting on the ground. I found a nice CharBroil at Meijer on special for $130. It also doesn't use the lava rocks. There is a metal fin over the burner that somehow directs the flame so that the whole grill surface gets evenly heated.

You can always tell when I have a paper to write because my posts get longer!

I am in the middle of my twice-a-year allergy attack. My nose is runny. I am sneezing. Without constantly drinking tea I would cough all day. Yuck. If I take an antihistamine I would feel better, but it would knock me out and I wouldn't be able to write my paper.

We have 661 minutes (or 11 hours) of long distance on our latest phone bill. Gotta love unlimited long distance.

Back to back to back to back meetings today. Bleh!

I am also still awake because I can't stop coughing. I had a cup of mint tea, and it helped, but I will be coughing again soon. SARS?

Home Networking Perks

When we just had one computer, every time I paid bills or made any changes in Quicken, I would back-up the Quicken files to two floppy disks. It took about three or four minutes, and the computer was unusable while it was writing to the disks.

Tonight I set it up so that the Quicken files on the new computer get backed-up to the old computer. It takes about three seconds! And I don't have to worry about the floppies getting crunched, lost, etc.

I have stayed home sick the last couple of days and mostly slept. I plan on going to work tomorrow, but I am wide awake because of all the sleeping I've done, and it is after 12:30 AM. Tomorrow should therefore be pretty rough, especially the morning.

We are going here for dinner tonight. They have the freshest water rat in Chicago!

The Dixie Chicks Nude on the Cover of Entertainment Weekly

Goliath has not eaten anything all day, so we just force-fed him a little bit more than a ½ can of moist dog food. He ate about 3 or 4 baby carrots on his own after that.

This is fascinating. Enter your ZIP code and it will tell you how marketers classify the neighborhood where you live.

So we went to Meijer at 1:00 AM this morning. We get back at around 3:00 AM. We are a little bit hungry so we break into our delicious Easter HoneyBaked ham and each make ourselves a nice little sandwich. We then proceed to both play on the computers until about 4:00 AM. At that point Sheri goes to bed. I am still wide awake and continue on until 6:00 AM.

I got out of bed about an hour ago around 11:00 AM. Don't feel too bad. I am starting my chores for today.

We bought a new mailbox that I have to install.

I have some rain repellant that I have been meaning to put on the back window our sedan. The van has a wiper on the back, and I miss it when I drive the other car. I thought the rain repellant would help keep the window clear.

The cable for our cable TV snakes up the back of the house and enters in the attic. It is supposed to be tucked into the corner of the house and unnoticeable, but some wind most of got hold of it and there is all kinds of slack, and it is well away from the house. I want to get up in the attic and pull any slack into the house, and then staple it securely to a rafter so it won't pull out again.

I have a couple of bills to pay, and a stack of bank statements to reconcile. I don't know if I will get to those or not.

We still have Road to Perdition to watch too.

I think the grass has already started to green up from the fertilizer I put down followed by all the rain we got.

I don't know what this means, or if I should be worried, but I was looking forward to there being a NASCAR race on TV today. There isn't.

It is 1:00 AM and we are both wide awake, and probably would just toss and turn if we tried to fall asleep, so we are going to go to Meijer and get our grocery shopping done. I also need to buy a new mailbox. Some teenagers dented ours a couple of weeks ago with a baseball bat. TTFN! (Ta Ta For Now)

Dog food

We were getting ready to settle down and watch the movie, and Goliath still had not eaten anything. He turns his nose up to everything; Scooby snacks, bread, etc. I thought I would try cooking an egg for him. I added a little garlic powder and salt. I let it cool down enough to it wouldn't burn him if he decided to gulp it down. I smelled it but turned his head. I took a little bit in my hand and rubbed it on his nose, with that rationale that he would like his nose and the good taste would stimulate his appetite. It worked for a couple of very small bites, and then he turned his head.

I decided to force feed him. I pried open his mouth, put about a table spoon sized amount in the back of his mouth, and then gently held his muzzle closed. He tried his best to spit it out, but eventually swallowed. Sheri got down on the floor to help me. I would open his mouth and she would toss in the egg. We were able to get more down at a time with both of us working. (After the fact, I found a webpage on how to force feed a dog.)

Between mouthfuls he would look at the plate of egg like he wanted it, but wouldn't go for it. If he doesn't want something or dreads it, he will look away and not make "eye contact" with it. He didn't do that with the egg, so it was like he wanted us to force feed him. He also didn't make any effort to just get up and walk away. Very weird.

After he finished his egg I got out the baby carrots. He loves carrots. He was hesitant at first, but after sniffing at them for just a minute or so, he started eating them! I think he ate about 10 of them before he got tired of them. That was a step in the right direction. Finally I though I would try some peanut butter. I put about two tablespoons on a plate and then scraped up grape sized globs with my index finger and stuck it in his mouth. He liked it. When it was all gone he licked the plate clean. I tried offering him a Scooby Snack. He turned his head on that. I offered him half of a Milk Bone and he did eat that. He didn't take the second half.

We will try another egg tomorrow morning. And of course some carrots and peanut butter.

The vet mentioned that they had some dog food for cancer dogs. I looked it up on the web and the research says that cancer tumors get their energy from carbohydrates. So the cancer dog food is high in protein and very high in fat so that you feed the dog and starve the tumors. I think we will try and get to the vet's after work on Monday and pick up a few cans to see if he will eat it.

We didn't watch the movie again tonight because we got sidetracked feeding Goliath.

We got back a little bit ago from Geneva, IL. We got to Gander Mountain and the parking lot and the parking lot entrance was PACKED. We still had not had lunch, so we decided to find a place to eat and then come back to see how the crowd was.

We ended up eating at a Chipotle's. I got a chicken burrito, no rice, but both black and pinto beans. Sheri got a steak burrito, no beans, but rice. We also split an order of chips and guacamole, and an iced tea.

After a nice leisurely lunch we decided to head back to Gander Mountain and see how the crowd was. Almost nonexistent! We got a spot only about 10 cars from the front door. It must have just been weird timing.

Inside had a comfortable crowd too. It wasn’t empty, but we weren't bumping into people at every turn.

My impressions of Gander Mountain: Cabela's has a very impressive "wow" factor; a two story mountain covered with stuffed wild game; a huge fresh water walk-through aquarium stocked with bass, blue gill, and other game fish; a restaurant, etc. Gander Mountain doesn't have those kind of attractions, but I do think it has just as much, if not maybe even a little bit more, of actual merchandise. The fishing section was huge. There is a live bait shop at the front of the store that opens at 5:00 AM before the rest of store. The have very large gun section with shotguns, rifles, and pistols. A good sized clothing section. Overall, lots of good stuff.

We bought three cotton chamois shirts for $12 each! It was 7 ounce fabric; a nice heavy cloth. Sheri got a 4XLT olive colored one to wear around the house as almost a bathrobe. I got two 2XLT shirts; one in burgundy, and one in the traditional yellowish leather chamois color. Now I have to wait until next fall to wear them though.

I also bought this lure, these Hook•A•Loop things to hook the hook at the end of my line to when I am not fishing, and a package of buffalo jerky. I just got into the buffalo jerky, and it is delicious. Very tender, a nice mild meat flavor, and the right amount of seasoning. Per one ounce serving there is no saturated fat, and only 0.5 grams of total fat. I think the United States would be much better of off if it switched from beef to buffalo. Buffalo is much lower in fat, and higher in protein. Also, you don't have to feed buffalo a lot of expensive grain. They a perfectly happy, and develop normally just grazing on grass and hay.

I wanted to buy a Gander Mountain ball cap or tea shirt, but didn't find anything I liked. Most of their tee shirts were trying too hard to be cute. For example there was a really neat tee shirt that had detailed drawings of about a dozen different reels. The artwork was really nice and detailed, and if they stopped there I would have bought it. But at the bottom they added the words "Get Reel!". That was the deal breaker.

After Gander Mountain we went to a Trader Joe's that was across the street. We don't understand why people get so excited about Trader Joe's. The selection is not all that exotic, or fresh, and the prices are nothing super-low. I think Anderson's back in Ohio, Carfagna's in Columbus, or Whole Food's is much much better. I was excited to go this time because the article I read about mold cured San Francisco salami said Trader Joe's carried it. The only thing I found was some pre-sliced packages from CANADA. Oh well. I did find a really nice lavender shampoo with really strong tea tree oil type smell.

When we got home I got to work on replacing the screen on the sliding door. We have a big folding table made out of an almost full piece of plywood that previous owners left behind. I set that up in the middle of the garage. Perfect! I peeled out the old spline from the spline groove, and then unrolled the new screen fabric over the frame. I had Sheri hold the fabric to keep it from moving as I used the roller to tuck the fabric into the groove. At this point I was a little worried because there were some waves still in the fabric, but when I started to force the rubber spline into the groove, it tugged more of the fabric along with it and took up most of the slack. It is not as professional looking as the hardware store does it, but you probably wouldn't notice it unless I pointed it out to you. The roll of screen fabric cost about $6.00. The 25" of spline was almost $3.00, and the rolling tool was about $3.00. I think the hardware store charges between $30 and $40 for a screen door. Yeah Brad!

We rented Road to Perdition last night but didn't watch it, so that is what we will watch tonight. It stars Tom Hanks as a hit man. His son doesn't know what he does for a living, and then by accident catches him offing someone. The story starts from there.

I didn't know what the word perdition meant. It means "eternal damnation" or "hell". The title makes more sense now.

While we are watching the movie I am going to restring one of my reels and play with my new fishing stuff, and nibble on some buffalo jerky.

Goliath hasn't really eaten anything in about the last 48 hours except for stuff we nag him to eat. Sheri got him to eat a couple of pieces of bread. He wouldn't eat a pretzel. He ate half of a dog biscuit but wouldn't touch the other half. He won't even look at the canned dog food now. I think I have seen him a little wobbly on his back legs, like he has low blood sugar, but I could just be imagining it. We try to get him to eat some more things tonight. He loves carrots. I will try those dipped in a little peanut butter for more nutrition.

Last fall it got cold and the grass stopped growing before I good run the last of the gas out of the lawnmower. So I decided to try adding some STA-BIL to the gas already in the gas tank. I also drained out the old oil last fall, but did not add new oil back in. Fast forward to today. I added fresh oil and started to pull the start cord. When I store the lawnmower with no gas and oil, it usually starts up on about the fifth pull. Today it took maybe 10 or 15 pulls before it started. There was a small poof of white smoke and then it started running as smooth as could be. I would say I was happy with the performance of STA-BIL, but only use it if time doesn't permit you to store a small engine the right way.

I forgot that I put a sharp blade on right at the end of last season. I still have to drop the dull blade I took off at Ace Hardware to have it sharpened. I like to buy an extra blade and rotate the two so that I always have a sharp blade on hand. It only takes a few minutes to change blades, and a spare blade only costs like $10 - $15. It makes a big difference on your lawn too. If you look, you can drive down a neighborhood and see who uses a sharp blade and who uses a dull blade.

After I finished cutting the grass I put down some crab grass preventer and feed.

We are supposed to get some rain in about an hour. I can see a big front on the radar south-west of us.

Remember the Levi's commercial about a year or so ago with the Latino guy walking down the street with a real rubbery leg looking walk with some cool music playing? We have been trying to find out for a long time what band the music is from. Well Sheri finally found who the music was from and ordered the CD, and it just showed up today. The band is Control Machete, and the song used on the commercial was Si Señor. Amazon.com didn't have it. She found it at the VH-1 site. It is all in Spanish, but the whole album has nice hip-hop/rap/gangsta beat too it.

I am going to clean up, and then I think we are going to Geneva to Gander Mountain and a shopping strip that Sheri has been to before with Greta. We will probably get some lunch while we are out.

Whenever I see someone driving a brand new Hummer with a nice shiny paint job that will never see a mud bog, a grade steeper than 15º, or any thing more off-road than a highway shoulder, I think what a moron. A girl in my last MBA class bought one, and then sold it within three weeks. She lives in the city, so finding a parking spot was impossible. She had a reserved parking space in the garage at her high rise apartment, and both people with spots next to her kept leaving nasty notes on her windshield, and the gas mileage was just amazing. It had a 32 gallon gas tank, so it would cost her almost $60 to fill it up, and then would have to fill it up again just 250 miles later! Our van can go around 800 miles on 32 gallons of gas. If you had a ranch out in the badlands and were 100 miles from the nearest grocery store, a Hummer is the ideal car for you, but in the middle of Chicagoland? Give me a break. Some people have more money than good sense.

On a related note, next year's Toyota Prius will be larger and get better mileage than the current model. The current model is classified as a compact, and the 2004 model will be in the midsize category. It will get 55 m.p.g., up from the current 48 m.p.g. It will be able to accelerate to 60 m.p.g. in 10.5 seconds, which is the same as traditional 4-cylinder Toyota Camry. (The Camry gets 27 m.p.g.)

It actually feels a little humid here today. The dew point here right now is 58º. (Remember, it is generally considered that any dew point over 65º is uncomfortable.)

I just heard on the radio this morning that Gander Mountain has just opened their biggest store ever just 23 miles north-west of us in Geneva! I think I know where I am going today after I get my chores done. I think I will by my 2003 Illinois fishing license while I am there.

I saw a guy fishing in a nearby stream yesterday as I was driving to Home Depot.

It is 10:00 AM now, and we are supposed to get rain at 1:00 PM. I am going to try and get the grass cut before then. But first I have to get the gas can filled up, make sure there is fresh oil in the lawn mower, and I think I have a sharpened blade ready to put on.

Yesterday I got a haircut; finished using the Rug Doctor and returned it; got supplies to replace the screen on the sliding door (screen fabric, 25' of spline, and the roller tool you need to install it).

Once the rain starts I think I will try replacing the screen door screen. I went on-line to look for hints and tips. The one I found that I think I will try is to place a 1" block under each end of the frame before you start working. This creates a slight bow in the frame. When you are done and straighten the frame out, it will pull the screen taught and remove any wrinkles.

We have a Honey Baked ham to eat over the Easter weekend thanks to the "ham subscription" from Mom, Dad, Tim, and Lisa. Thanks again!!

Nick Nolte just keeps looking worse year after year.

I submitted my federal taxes electronically on Sunday, April 13, and I have already received notification that our refund will be directly deposited into our checking account by Friday, April 25! Less than two weeks. And we didn't have to send in any paperwork; all electronic.

It is normally a $15 charge to file electronically, but there is a mail-in rebate coupon for the full $15.

I walked about 11,300 steps yesterday. I didn't take the L to class. I walked both ways since it was so nice.

I feel like I just want to stay home anymore and putter around the house and do fun things. I guess that means I need a vacation, or at least several days off in a row to decompress.

Cell phone test

This is another cell phone test post.

It is 6:40 PM and the outside temerature is still 64º! What a nice change.

Taxes

Taxes are pretty much done! I filed our federal taxes electronically so I have to log back in to their website in 24 to 48 hours and confirm that it was excepted and to get our DSN number. Then I think I get instructions on where to send our W-2's.

I have our state return in an envelope ready to mail.

Just hung up from talking with Mom on the phone for half an hour.

This is one of my favorite bits of dialogue from a movie. It is Steve Martin in The Jerk talking to Bernadette Peter's character as she sleeps.

I know we've only known each other for four weeks and three days, but to me it seems like nine weeks and five days. The first day seemed like a week. And the second day seemed like five days. And the third day seemed like a week again. And the fourth day seemed like eight days. But the fifth day, you went to see your mother and that seemed just like a day. But then you came back and later on the sixth day in the evening when we saw each other-- that started seeming like two days. So in the evening it seemed like two days spilling over into the next day and that started seeming like four days. So at the end of the sixth on into the seventh day that seemed like a total of five days. And the sixth day seemed like a week and a half. I have it written down but I can show it to you tomorrow if you wanna see it.

Matt's Cookies are the best commercially made cookies you can buy. We stumbled on them during our first week living in Chicago. We went to the market to get some food for the apartment, and grabbed a bag there. I couldn't believe how good they were.

They will ship you a bag of their cookies for $1.50 plus postage if you can not find them locally! Amazing.

The Chicago Tribune Selected Matt's Cookies as the first place winner in a blind taste-test of commercially baked Chocolate Chip Cookies. Members of the panel gave Matt's a high score because Matt's Cookies had "Lots of Real Chocolate" and a "Soft Texture" that some equated with being "Most Like Homemade". Food Guide columnist Carol Rasmussen writes "Matt's is among the inexpensive brands on the market, yet it uses real chocolate instead of the ersatz version that many other brands in this price category favor"

Instead of a birthday cake this year, I just wanted a bag of Matt's Oatmeal Raison cookies. I think they only make three kinds: peanut butter, oatmeal raison, an chocolate chip. You most likely have every ingredient that is listed on the package. There are no long chemical names or preservatives.

Clock

This is the cool clock that Sheri got me for my birthday.

Dustbuster

This what my new DustBuster looks like. It is very powerfull. Much more so than earlier versions.

Pedometer

This is what my new pedometer looks like.

Does anyone read the rotating cartoons at the top of this page I have from The New Yorker magazine?

Lunch Time

I walked about 3,500 steps, which is about 1.6 miles, at lunch. I stopped at the Haifa Café and had a falafel sandwich and an eggplant sandwich.

I think that Mexican food has dropped out of my favorite position. I think it is now Middle Eastern food followed by Indian food.

I had my most steps in a day yesterday since I got my pedometer; about 9,200. The goal is to get over 10,000 steps each day. The latest research indicates that 10,000 steps a day is equivalent to the goal of 30 minutes of daily physical activity—the level recommended by the Surgeon General. I did feel better last night and slept better too.

After I ate a quick lunch at Harold's Chicken Hut, and then I just started to wander around the loop. I ended up at City Hall, and sat on a bench in front of the Picasso sculpture for a while and just watched people and traffic. I stopped in a few stores on the way. I think I will go on another walk-about around the loop again today at lunch. I think I will make Michigan Avenue today's destination. That should get me over 10,000 steps. It is almost 10:30 AM and I am right at 2,000 steps so far today.

The first three days of this week were crazy. Very busy. It is very quiet and calm at work today. Nice. I have one month-end task to do, and then I think I will catch up on submitting paper work for my expense account, tuition reimbursement, etc.

This weekend I only have two have-to-do's: taxes, and install the new Quicken software and get the bill payment account switched over to the new provider. Checkfree will not be supporting that directly anymore, and we have until Wednesday to get the accounts switched. I might also think about renting a carpet cleaner and just hitting some of the spots that Chemo-Dog soiled. I would like to do all of the carpet area, but I think that would get in the way of doing taxes. The units are under $20 to rent, and we still have the economy size jug of detergent from the last time we rented one, so it is something we can do as often as we like. We will rent it again in a month or two and do all of the carpets.

I walked about 7,000 steps yesterday, as measured by my brand new birthday pedometer.

I was extremely busy at work yesterday, and will be today as well, because of March month end processing. I was exhausted after getting home from class late last night.

This about all the time I have to write. Bye.

New Yahoo Search

This is Yahoo's response to Google.
http://search.yahoo.com

Birthday

I have class tomorrow night on my birthday, so I am going to open up my presents tonight and have Sheri cook my birthday dinner of spinach pies with feta cheese. I won't be able to play too much tonight, though, because I still have some homework to finish up for class tomorrow night.

This is for Tim.

All four of us are hanging out in the office! (Brad, Sheri, Sunny, and Goliath) Sheri is on the bed watching a movie, and Sunny and I are on the computers.

I just finished making tabouli, hummus, and guacamole. It was the first time I made guacamole and it turned out really good. Better than Chipotle's. The avocados were perfectly ripe. Very soft. Being that ripe added a lot of extra flavor. I didn't realize how easy it is to peel an avocado. I sliced around the fruit vertically and pried the two halves apart. I then used a teaspoon to scoop out the flesh. It almost just plopped out. I used a pastry blender (pictured) to mash the avocado up. That is a great tool for this kind of stuff.

Sunny doesn't think she has ever had guacamole. She really likes it. The tabouli turned out good, and I think the hummus turned out good, but you can't tell with hummus until a few hours after you make it. It really changes taste (for the better) when you let it stand.

Sheri picked up Roger Dodger for our movie tonight.

We went to Granny's for breakfast this morning. I had a Denver omelet. Sheri had her normal vegetable skillet and has them add bacon. Sunny had the Hungry Man skillet. She couldn't finish it.

After breakfast they dropped me off at home and went shopping. The plan was I was going to do taxes and my homework. I had a headache and felt too sleepy to work, so I took a nap. I woke up, watched the end of the NASCAR race, and then went to work in the kitchen.

Cooking

Tonight I started the process to make hummus and tabouli for Sunny's visit this weekend. I mixed together bulgur wheat, oregano, mint, onion flakes, garlic powder and a wee bit of fresh ground black pepper, and then poured three cups of boiling water over it and let it sit. I will add olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and fresh parsley tomorrow.

I sorted and rinsed chick peas and started them soaking overnight for the hummus. Tomorrow morning before I go to work I will drain them and put them in the fridge. Upon my return in the evening I will simmer them for a couple of hours, and then they will be ready for mashing and making hummus.

Tomorrow night I will also slice and grill the eggplant for baba ganoush.

We have all of the ingredients for guacamole, but I won't make that until Saturday because it turns color quickly once the avocado touches the air.

We bought a couple bags of pita bread to eat it all with. We need to buy tortilla chips for the guacamole.

I just got an e-mail that my Baghdad map shipped this evening. I should get both of them within a day or two. Yeah!

Totally unexpected but thoroughly appreciated!

A package was waiting for us on the front porch from a friend of Sheri's that is a professional weaver. As a get-well gift for Sheri she crocheted a beautiful spider-weave lace doily that is about 2' in diameter. As a get well gift for Goliath she crocheted a beautiful blanket/rug that was about 3' x 3'. And so that I wouldn't feel left out she crocheted a beautiful scarf for me. She hand-dyes all of her own natural yarns.

Sheri has already taken pictures of them and will post them in her blog.

Carpal Tunnel

I bought this wrist stabilizer on my lunch break today. WebMD.com said to wear one of these when you sleep. Put ice on the wrist OFTEN. (Not heat like I did this morning.) They said ice it as often as every 30 minutes. Take NSAID's. (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug) I took Advil. Do full range motion stretches.

They said that the sooner you do this, the better off you will be. The longer you wait to start treatment after realizing you have a carpal tunnel injury, the more damage is done to the nerves. They said that cortisone shots are to be used only if the above treatment does not provide relief. They said there are serious side effects from the cortisone.

The ice seems to have really helped.

Wrist pain

My right wrist hurts this morning. It feels like what I would think carpal tunnel syndrome would feel like. If I am not using my muscles on the hand it doesn't hurt, but when I was holding the newspaper on the train in a certain position it hurt. It doesn't hurt too bad when I use the mouse or type. I think I will take some aspirin and put some heat on it as a preventative to keep any swelling down in case it is the start of carpal tunnel syndrome.

Lisa was reading a book by author Michael Connelly. His picture was on the back cover. Shawn saw it and pointed and said "Uncle Brad". This is his picture. Separated at birth?

I wonder if there is anything that capers don't make taste better?

Yeah!

I just found out I have Friday, April 18 off for Good Friday.

Free money at Amazon.com

On Amazon.com they have Amazon.com trivia questions. For each one you get right they and 5¢ to your account. They only show you three of four per day. They are really obvious questions and answers too. Things like:

Q "How many books does Amazon have for sale?"

A
• 10
• Over 1,000,000

I have earned 60¢ so far.

Maps

The Iraq road map I ordered from Amazon finally shipped yesterday. The Baghdad road map is still on back order.

Daylight Savings Time

This Sunday you have to move your clocks ahead one hour and lose and hour of sleep.

Peter Coad

This is Peter Coad. He has written 8 books on Java programming and is senior vice president at Borland software. My company has paid him to speak about object oriented programming today. I am heading to the presentation now.