The day dawned bright and clear with the promise of being great. We took out two boats of 5 people this morning. I went in the boat with Chantelle, Lianne, Meilee, and Kristen steering. The other boat was Nancy, Rives, Neil, Lise, and young Kyle steering. My boat went up to the water slides outside someone's house, a seven mile round trip. We paddled hard and it was all good. Llelo was off leash before we went out and managed to find something to roll in, only one green patch. I got him rinsed off and into the car before he could commit any further atrocities.
Post paddling I needed to get home quickly. My agenda was full, going to Olympia to visit Uncle Leonard to go through old family photos. He is my grandmother's brother, 11 years younger than Gram and 11 years older than my mother. He lived with my mother's family while he went to the University of Minnesota after he'd gotten out of the Navy after WWII. He is quite the joker, ready with the teasing and silliness. My mother had red hair, copper colored, when she was a little girl. He'd call her bawly but she heard it as baldy, which made her cry so then he'd call her bawly ... When making plans to go down today he said they would expect me for lunch, so don't eat anything. I said that I'll have paddled and will be hungry. He said I could have *a* raisin, but don't fill up on it! Leonard is the only one who can accurately identify many of the folks in the older photos as he knew the people, the photos are from Gram's childhood as well as the mother's childhood. After visiting with Leonard I planned to go see a former co-worker, Craig, and his family for a bit, so big plans.
I'd finished washing my hair and had just picked up the bar of mango soap I'd bought at Folklife, it smelled so yummy. When my left foot slipped out from under me, I did a half pirouette, grabbed the shower curtain, yelled OH SHIT!, went down hard on the edge of the tub, and bounced back up again. It all seemed to happen in slow motion, doesn't it always, and I remember it all vividly. I stood there shaking for a moment wondering if I was really all in one piece with no broken bits. My shower curtain rod ROCKS! That thing is totally robust, it never moved, never came down or moved at all. The curtain hooks came open but that was it! If the rod had come down I'm certain I'd have been hurt much worse.
I then proceeded to wash all the workout sweatiness off, stepping very carefully and slowly. Nothing hurt yet, yet. As soon as I was rinsed and dried off enough to handle the phone I called my chiropractor's office, thank goodness they have Saturday hours! I was in for my adjustment less than 45 minutes after I fell. And over the course of those 45 minutes I was feeling increasingly worse, my body had taken a rough hit. During the adjustment I made the decision to stay home and bond with my ice packs. I was really bummed, not only was I hurt, but I'd been looking forward to this visit for a few weeks now. We have rescheduled for two weeks from today since I'll be paddling in Da Grind next Saturday. Hopefully, my back will be feeling better in time.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Clean & Smells Good Too!
I'm not sure if I've mentioned Llelo's predilection for rolling in goose poop before. If not, well, now you know. I like to let the boys run around and sniff and pee while I'm getting the boat ready to paddle. There is quite a lot of water fowl (foul?) activity down at SSP and Llelo will, if given half a chance, both sample and roll in goose poop. The green staining and joyful expressions are a dead give away! Gus is the total opposite, when he sees any sort of feces he recoils a bit and I believe you can even see his nose wrinkle in disgust. I prefer that to Llelo's reaction.
Last Tuesday was a gangbuster day for him at the beach. He was racing around visiting everyone, playing with the other dogs, racing back to say hi to me and Gus ... During one of his visits I noticed no fewer than three green patches on his fur and a look of sheer bliss on his face. Both boys were in need of baths, Llelo's fun just meant they would get them tonight.
When we were nearly ready to launch the boat I caught Llelo and rinsed most of the poop off in the lake, he looked so sad, I was ruining all his fine work! It wasn't one of his best works, the car didn't reek when I got in. There have been times when the car smells nasty after I'm done paddling. Had a good paddle and nice long baths at home. They both smell so nice and their fur is so soft afterwards. Thursday evening I kept Llelo on leash down at SSP, it really put a damper on his fun.
Last Tuesday was a gangbuster day for him at the beach. He was racing around visiting everyone, playing with the other dogs, racing back to say hi to me and Gus ... During one of his visits I noticed no fewer than three green patches on his fur and a look of sheer bliss on his face. Both boys were in need of baths, Llelo's fun just meant they would get them tonight.
When we were nearly ready to launch the boat I caught Llelo and rinsed most of the poop off in the lake, he looked so sad, I was ruining all his fine work! It wasn't one of his best works, the car didn't reek when I got in. There have been times when the car smells nasty after I'm done paddling. Had a good paddle and nice long baths at home. They both smell so nice and their fur is so soft afterwards. Thursday evening I kept Llelo on leash down at SSP, it really put a damper on his fun.
Monday, May 26, 2008
a mitzvah
My mother's mission style couch has finally found a loving home. It's a very nice couch but the wooden arms are not good for leaning up against while writing my blog, watching movies, or drinking a steaming mug of coffee brewed from beans my very own brother roasted
for me. I'd passed it on to a friend who used it for a bit but decided she no longer wanted it. Kyle and Matt, my neighbors, have little in the way of furniture so I offered it to them. They were delighted even though there are a few nibbled bits. Ember, my mother's akita, tended to nibble couch cushion corners whenever she'd been scolded for some reason.I saw yesterday's date today, we were both at the same place by happenstance. He spoke to the dogs quite a while before speaking to me, confirming my suspicion that he likes them more than me. No problem, I like them better than I like him, too! :-)
Sunday, May 25, 2008
on a scale from zero to lame ...
This Memorial Day weekend has been very busy. I was very tired from all the excitement and activity from the race, it was a struggle to get up this morning. I had plans for a second date with a fellow, we'd gone to dinner and a movie last weekend. I invited him over for breakfast before we headed down to Folklife. He brought along some nice leftovers from a BBQ he'd been to Saturday night (grilled chicken, grilled asparagus, and pesto ziti) to bring as a picnic lunch. I rather enjoy eating trashy festival food, I only do it once a year, at most, oh well. After breakfast and dumping the dishes into the sink we left for the Northgate park and ride to catch the festival shuttle down to city center. Along the way date got rather motion sick on the bus and he's quite the sailor fellow, seems rather incongruous to me. Once we made it downtown he had to sit a while to regain his bearings.
We went to hear some Hawai'ian slack key guitar playing followed by some celtic music on a different stage. The whole time date seemed rather disinterested and was yawning quite a lot. I didn't pay it much mind, but it did seem a little odd. We wandered around to some other stages, one was a lawn stage and I couldn't sit on the grass. I am terribly allergic to grass, if it touches bare skin I will get huge welts and the scent of grass makes it very hard to breathe. So, date went and stretched out on the grass while I sat on the pavement adjacent to the building. It was a blusgrassy type band, pretty good. I got a phone call from my neighbors Kyle and Matt, they were at Folklife now and wondering where I was so we could meet. They found me and date, under the pretext of moving nearer to be more sociable, moved nearer, but remained on the grass and never got up to come meet my neighbors. Before he sat on the grass I told him I couldn't sit there that my allergies were too intense. As an aside I was once allergy tested for grasses, skin tested with 4 different concentrations and 3 other potential allergens alongside. My reaction to grass was so intense the area swelled up to 4" by 8", completely overwhelming the adjacent tests. They stopped everything and immediately fed me some antihistamines and kept me there for observation for an hour or so, that's how terribly allergic to grass I am. I don't sit in grass, ever.
Finally got date off the grass, I wanted to look through the craft booths. I was hoping to find a new leather wallet like the one I got at Taste of Seattle a few years back. No such luck. We went to hear a fiddler play for a while. I was a bit chilly sitting in the shade, the only place date would sit, so watching the fiddler I sat in the sun while he sat on a boulder in the shade. Then went to hear some celtic
beer drinking songs, but they'd already finished. At this point I was rather tired, my feet were aching, and, frankly, I was ready to be away from date. On our way to catch the shuttle we saw a group called Coney Island Cartel, they were loads of fun. I bought their 5 song CD and snapped a few pics along with some video. I was hoping to post the video but, while short, it's 52 MB and I don't think I can upload such a large file. And the photos, while decent, don't show all 5 band members. Take my word there was a stylin' dude playing the washboard and other percussive instruments, including but not limited to a slide whistle and a pop gun! They were a rolicking good time!
We hopped the shuttle back to Northgate, he sat in the front most seat and faced forward, I napped, having the ability to nap most anywhere and I never get motion sick either. We then went back to my place so he could pick up his large heavy cooler and leave my smaller lighter cooler. He went and stretched out on the couch with Llelo on his lap while I cleaned up the kitchen from breakfast. Most times I think he likes my dogs better than he likes me, go figure. I finished in the kitchen and made my way to the chair in the living room as there was no space left on the couch and observed date alternating between dozing and snuggling Llelo. Finally I said, "Gee, I have a number things I need to get done like update my blog ..." Playing that in my head almost as I was saying it I could see how lame that sounded. But it was all I could come up with and I was sticking with it. Is there any easy way to say, "gee, it's been a long day and I'm tired of you and want you to leave now"? Is there? Throughout the day it just seemed like conversation faltered frequently, he wanted shade while I wanted sun, I was actively interested in the music and it felt like we (meaning me and the festival in general) were keeping him up. Sigh, the search continues ...
We went to hear some Hawai'ian slack key guitar playing followed by some celtic music on a different stage. The whole time date seemed rather disinterested and was yawning quite a lot. I didn't pay it much mind, but it did seem a little odd. We wandered around to some other stages, one was a lawn stage and I couldn't sit on the grass. I am terribly allergic to grass, if it touches bare skin I will get huge welts and the scent of grass makes it very hard to breathe. So, date went and stretched out on the grass while I sat on the pavement adjacent to the building. It was a blusgrassy type band, pretty good. I got a phone call from my neighbors Kyle and Matt, they were at Folklife now and wondering where I was so we could meet. They found me and date, under the pretext of moving nearer to be more sociable, moved nearer, but remained on the grass and never got up to come meet my neighbors. Before he sat on the grass I told him I couldn't sit there that my allergies were too intense. As an aside I was once allergy tested for grasses, skin tested with 4 different concentrations and 3 other potential allergens alongside. My reaction to grass was so intense the area swelled up to 4" by 8", completely overwhelming the adjacent tests. They stopped everything and immediately fed me some antihistamines and kept me there for observation for an hour or so, that's how terribly allergic to grass I am. I don't sit in grass, ever.
Finally got date off the grass, I wanted to look through the craft booths. I was hoping to find a new leather wallet like the one I got at Taste of Seattle a few years back. No such luck. We went to hear a fiddler play for a while. I was a bit chilly sitting in the shade, the only place date would sit, so watching the fiddler I sat in the sun while he sat on a boulder in the shade. Then went to hear some celtic
beer drinking songs, but they'd already finished. At this point I was rather tired, my feet were aching, and, frankly, I was ready to be away from date. On our way to catch the shuttle we saw a group called Coney Island Cartel, they were loads of fun. I bought their 5 song CD and snapped a few pics along with some video. I was hoping to post the video but, while short, it's 52 MB and I don't think I can upload such a large file. And the photos, while decent, don't show all 5 band members. Take my word there was a stylin' dude playing the washboard and other percussive instruments, including but not limited to a slide whistle and a pop gun! They were a rolicking good time!We hopped the shuttle back to Northgate, he sat in the front most seat and faced forward, I napped, having the ability to nap most anywhere and I never get motion sick either. We then went back to my place so he could pick up his large heavy cooler and leave my smaller lighter cooler. He went and stretched out on the couch with Llelo on his lap while I cleaned up the kitchen from breakfast. Most times I think he likes my dogs better than he likes me, go figure. I finished in the kitchen and made my way to the chair in the living room as there was no space left on the couch and observed date alternating between dozing and snuggling Llelo. Finally I said, "Gee, I have a number things I need to get done like update my blog ..." Playing that in my head almost as I was saying it I could see how lame that sounded. But it was all I could come up with and I was sticking with it. Is there any easy way to say, "gee, it's been a long day and I'm tired of you and want you to leave now"? Is there? Throughout the day it just seemed like conversation faltered frequently, he wanted shade while I wanted sun, I was actively interested in the music and it felt like we (meaning me and the festival in general) were keeping him up. Sigh, the search continues ...
Jericho 2008
Thankfully the beginning of the day was not a precursor of the activities to come. I'd planned to be up at 3:50 am, potty and feed the boys, shower, make coffee and have a light breakfast before leaving at 4:30 am to pick up Lise and meet our carpool at 5:00 am. Well, Lise called me at 5:00 and woke me up!!! Oh Shit! Hopped out of bed, dressed and was dragging the dogs out to potty as I was calling Troy, the carpool driver. My saving grace was the idjit who left his car and boat blocking the trailer egress down at SSP. I was out of the house, dogs feed and pottied, in 15 minutes! Got Lise and made it to SSP another 20 minutes after that. And the guys had just cleared the path for the trailer. We had 5 people in a Ford F150 crew cab. Troy and Patrick in the front seat, Lise, me, and Frank in the backseat. I took the hump seat as penance for my tardiness. We were on our way.We stopped in Bellingham around 7:00 for gas, coffee, and pit stop and connected with Tom and Lianne, their son Kyle and dog Gibson. Then we caravaned to the border, a quick hello to the border guard and off to Vancouver.
We arrived at Jericho beach around 9, unloaded the boats and set to rigging them. Jericho is on English Bay which opens into Howe Sound and the water has the potential for big waves, certainly bigger than we see in Lake Washington, so we needed to put on the spray skirts. They are similar to kayak spray skirts only bigger and a real pain to put on. And I needed to locate our steersperson. Kristen was unavailable for so she lined up Miranda McNamara from Jericho as her replacement.The boats were ready and everyone was there so we got the boat down to the water. Our crew was Lianne in stroke (her first race ever), Rives, Nancy, Melissa, Lise, and Miranda steering. We headed out for a little warm-up and then set up for the start. And we're off! We started towards False Creek, around an inflatable bouy and then back towards Howe Sound. It was a very exciting turn, there were many boats clustering together for the turn and Miranda took a very aggressive line. At the turn there were two boats slightly ahead of us bumping each other a bit, our bow was just a little between them. We nudged the tail of the boat closest to the bouy and they spun out away from the bouy and in the process hit the boat they were next to and both boats went off totally away from the bouy and we were left with a nice clean
turn! Wow, talk about an adrenaline push right at the start. You could hear those crews yelling at one another for a long time afterwards. Then it was a long push to the red bell can bouy, it felt like forever until we finally got there. We had clear water and as we were coming around Miranda cut us a bit close and then called Lianne and Rives to draw, that helps bring the nose of the boat around more quickly. We the wind was a bit stronger than she realized and we were closer to the bouy than expected and then there was that sickening, stomach clentching sound as the ama scraped/crunched along the bouy. Well, nothing we can do about it now, we have to get back in, time to dig deep and get us home.We paddled hard until we heard the finish horn, done! It was a long, hard race, but we finished. We were 11th across the line and the 3rd master women's crew. Back on the beach we were able to take a look at the ama, it was split at the seam, about 5 inches long, and you can see a bit of the foam inside, there was also a bit of cracking on the top, too. It will take a bit of repair to make it watertight again, but the damage is all above the water line. In all we got off easy, one of the boats from Mt Home, a club down from Portland, had their ama damaged so badly at the start of the men's race they were taking on water during their race. Our men's A team (Doug, Clem, Than, Ed, Ryan, and Tom) were 4th across the line and took 3rd in open men's, our men's B team (Frank, Ernie, Patrick, Ken, Todd, and Troy) were the last men's crew to finish and were 10th in open men's. It was a good day racing in all.
Jericho has a yummy BBQ after the race. After the prizes were passed out we gathered our carpool and hit the road again. It took a while to get back to SSP and drop of the trailer and put the gear back into the container. I was off to drop Lise home a bit past 8 pm and home around 8:30 pm or so. A very long day, a very good day. Way to go SSPO!
Jericho highlights
Had a great time up at Jericho Saturday. It was a very long day and I was soo tired when I got home last night. I'll just give you the highlights right now because I'm off to Folklife in a bit, a second date even!
Master women 1:29:38 3rd place master women, 11th across the line (first was at 1:16:27)
Open men A 1:07:43 3rd open men, 4th across the line (first at 1:04:46)
Open men B 1:21:15 10th open men
It was a day filled with adventure and I will fill you in on all the details either tonight or in the morning.
Master women 1:29:38 3rd place master women, 11th across the line (first was at 1:16:27)
Open men A 1:07:43 3rd open men, 4th across the line (first at 1:04:46)
Open men B 1:21:15 10th open men
It was a day filled with adventure and I will fill you in on all the details either tonight or in the morning.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
More Foot Torture
I went to see Dr Irving, the pain specialist, on Monday and this time he injected both feet. I had a second shot in my right foot in early April and that seemed to help even more than the first one. Carmen, my massage therapist, commented on how much more freely the tissues were moving in my right foot and how much more bound up things were in the left foot. I was feeling much more pain in my left foot while she was working on it. So, this time Dr Irving did both feet. He tickled the tendon on my right foot again, owwie, owwie, owwie! When he'd finished it felt like I had giant water blisters on both heels.
I hobbled out to the bus to go back to work. I felt like a weeble only one that actually could fall down. After I'd been at my desk for an hour or so the lidocaine wore off and ohmygod did it hurt. I took two Alleve and that didn't seem to touch it at all. Another 45 minutes later I took a percocet and that hardly took the edge off!
I finished the bit of work I had and decided my suffering would be better suited for home use. Toddling down from my office to the bus tunnel entrance (literally across the street) made me wonder if I could seriously make it all the way home. I felt very old and frail, grabbing all the had rails getting on and off the bus. Got home around 4:30 and thankfully a kind neighbor (Kyle you rock!) was able to potty walk the boyz.
I promptly mixed myself a dark and stormy, took another percocet and settled in on the couch for the evening, waiting for the potent mixture of chemicals to work it's magic. Well, it didn't, so I made another dark and stormy and tried to care a little less that it still hurt a heckavalot.
I saw Carmen tonight (Wednesday) for our regular torture session. She treated me gently given my advanced suffering Monday. She worked on the knots in my calves and then my feet some. She said the left foot is already moving better! I am so looking forward to the day I can walk easily and essentially pain free, it's gotta happen, one of these days, one of these days ...
I hobbled out to the bus to go back to work. I felt like a weeble only one that actually could fall down. After I'd been at my desk for an hour or so the lidocaine wore off and ohmygod did it hurt. I took two Alleve and that didn't seem to touch it at all. Another 45 minutes later I took a percocet and that hardly took the edge off!
I finished the bit of work I had and decided my suffering would be better suited for home use. Toddling down from my office to the bus tunnel entrance (literally across the street) made me wonder if I could seriously make it all the way home. I felt very old and frail, grabbing all the had rails getting on and off the bus. Got home around 4:30 and thankfully a kind neighbor (Kyle you rock!) was able to potty walk the boyz.
I promptly mixed myself a dark and stormy, took another percocet and settled in on the couch for the evening, waiting for the potent mixture of chemicals to work it's magic. Well, it didn't, so I made another dark and stormy and tried to care a little less that it still hurt a heckavalot.
I saw Carmen tonight (Wednesday) for our regular torture session. She treated me gently given my advanced suffering Monday. She worked on the knots in my calves and then my feet some. She said the left foot is already moving better! I am so looking forward to the day I can walk easily and essentially pain free, it's gotta happen, one of these days, one of these days ...
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
A Gorgeous Weekend & The Little Red-Haired Girl
First off, sorry my posting frequency has dropped off so dramatically. I've been really busy or tired or just plain uninspired or all of the above. Paddling two evenings a week and foot massage one evening a week really seems to eat into my blogging hours.
The weather last weekend was quite spectacular, if rather unseasonably warm. We paddled down to the 520 bridge, an 8 mile round trip. Then I took the boyz swimmin' at SSP, always a good time, dontcha know. Followed by errand running all over north Seattle.
Had a date Saturday night, too. Thought it went reasonably well. A movie at the Crest ($3 second run movies) followed by dinner at Bengal Tiger (mmm, Indian food) and then tea at my place. Before you get worried that I'm taking some strange potentially dangerous guy home let me say this: yes, it was a first date, but not a craigslist guy. He was a guy I've known for a few months and we have enough mutual friends that if he'd tried anything untoward there would have been hell to pay. Anyway, he seems nice and we have plans to go to NW Folklife on this coming Sunday.
Last Sunday I had brunch with friends and then off to another friend's to play with the little red-haired girl. Her mom's been feeling sickly and her dad just had a minor surgery that will keep him from lifting anything over 25 lbs for over a month. They needed a healthy adult to occupy the wee lass. Shortly after I arrived Mark, the wee lass, and I headed over to a playmate's home so the girls could play in the sprinklers. On the way over M said she didn't want to get wet. No problem, don't have to you if you don't want to. Of course once her friend went into the water M wanted to play, too. I got her changed into her swimmin' togs and water shoes, then took pics and splashed them eliciting giggles and peels of laughter. It was particularly cute to see their tiny bums sticking out as they leaned over precariously to drink from the sprinkler.
In all it was a pretty good weekend. Some painfully cute photos will be posted once Mark sends them to me.
The weather last weekend was quite spectacular, if rather unseasonably warm. We paddled down to the 520 bridge, an 8 mile round trip. Then I took the boyz swimmin' at SSP, always a good time, dontcha know. Followed by errand running all over north Seattle.
Had a date Saturday night, too. Thought it went reasonably well. A movie at the Crest ($3 second run movies) followed by dinner at Bengal Tiger (mmm, Indian food) and then tea at my place. Before you get worried that I'm taking some strange potentially dangerous guy home let me say this: yes, it was a first date, but not a craigslist guy. He was a guy I've known for a few months and we have enough mutual friends that if he'd tried anything untoward there would have been hell to pay. Anyway, he seems nice and we have plans to go to NW Folklife on this coming Sunday.
Last Sunday I had brunch with friends and then off to another friend's to play with the little red-haired girl. Her mom's been feeling sickly and her dad just had a minor surgery that will keep him from lifting anything over 25 lbs for over a month. They needed a healthy adult to occupy the wee lass. Shortly after I arrived Mark, the wee lass, and I headed over to a playmate's home so the girls could play in the sprinklers. On the way over M said she didn't want to get wet. No problem, don't have to you if you don't want to. Of course once her friend went into the water M wanted to play, too. I got her changed into her swimmin' togs and water shoes, then took pics and splashed them eliciting giggles and peels of laughter. It was particularly cute to see their tiny bums sticking out as they leaned over precariously to drink from the sprinkler.
In all it was a pretty good weekend. Some painfully cute photos will be posted once Mark sends them to me.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
multi-tasking
Hard to believe I started this posting a week ago (Wed 5/14/08). Sorry, been busy with lots of stuff. So, here it is...
I'm back at the allergists office. It's pretty cool, they have wi-fi so I brought my 'puter along. So this entry is coming 'real' time! Wahoo! (edit: it seems the wi-fi signal doesn't make it back into the exam room, this would have been posted much sooner otherwise).
It seems all the different inhaled meds that are super awesome for controlling asthma long term seem to actually make my breathing worse! Go figure. The doc wanted to try a new oral med which seems to have a side effect of possible liver damage. Uh, no thanks, especially since I have this nifty little thing called a focal nodular hyperplasia, it's basically a non-cancerous liver mass. I spent a bunch of time and anguish learning that they are typically found when looking at/for something else, oh hey, you got this thang in yer tummy, btw. One doc wanted to remove it, I went with option B, leaving it in place and keep an eye on it. Anything changes, it gets bigger, starts hurting, and we'll revisit it. Anyway, I'm feeling disinclined to take any meds that may adversely effect the liver especially when I don't take anything at all I'm feeling pretty ok. I still have to suck on the albuterol before and after I exercise, but that's just an as needed med. The meeting with the doc is to discuss this and see where we go from here. I'll let you know how it goes.
And now for something completely different:
Here's a link to something I saw on the J-walk blog the other day. It's a list of 20 Word Geography Facts That May Surprise You. I thought it was kind of interesting. And on today's J-Walk Blog I learned that yesterday (May 13) was the 50 year anniversary of the invention of VELCRO! How cool is that! I love velcro, the name comes from the combination of the words velour and crochet. Pretty cool.
ok, the doc really wants me to be on a long term anti-inflammitory. He gave me another new inhaler and another drug in pill form. I'm trying the inhaler first. So far, it's been a week now, things are working pretty ok. I'm cautiously optimistic.
I'm back at the allergists office. It's pretty cool, they have wi-fi so I brought my 'puter along. So this entry is coming 'real' time! Wahoo! (edit: it seems the wi-fi signal doesn't make it back into the exam room, this would have been posted much sooner otherwise).
It seems all the different inhaled meds that are super awesome for controlling asthma long term seem to actually make my breathing worse! Go figure. The doc wanted to try a new oral med which seems to have a side effect of possible liver damage. Uh, no thanks, especially since I have this nifty little thing called a focal nodular hyperplasia, it's basically a non-cancerous liver mass. I spent a bunch of time and anguish learning that they are typically found when looking at/for something else, oh hey, you got this thang in yer tummy, btw. One doc wanted to remove it, I went with option B, leaving it in place and keep an eye on it. Anything changes, it gets bigger, starts hurting, and we'll revisit it. Anyway, I'm feeling disinclined to take any meds that may adversely effect the liver especially when I don't take anything at all I'm feeling pretty ok. I still have to suck on the albuterol before and after I exercise, but that's just an as needed med. The meeting with the doc is to discuss this and see where we go from here. I'll let you know how it goes.
And now for something completely different:
Here's a link to something I saw on the J-walk blog the other day. It's a list of 20 Word Geography Facts That May Surprise You. I thought it was kind of interesting. And on today's J-Walk Blog I learned that yesterday (May 13) was the 50 year anniversary of the invention of VELCRO! How cool is that! I love velcro, the name comes from the combination of the words velour and crochet. Pretty cool.
ok, the doc really wants me to be on a long term anti-inflammitory. He gave me another new inhaler and another drug in pill form. I'm trying the inhaler first. So far, it's been a week now, things are working pretty ok. I'm cautiously optimistic.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Another Mother's Day
Another Mother's Day has come and gone, my second without the mother. I'd spent Friday and Saturday feeling poorly, so opted to begin my day slowly, seems to be my regular routine on Sunday anyway. I had been wanting to cut some fabric to sew a new t-shirt. I finally cleared all the old family photos off the sewing machine where they'd been since my return from Colorado. I flipped through a few of the mother and then set them aside so I could locate the pattern and the proper piece of fabric. Something nice, but not so nice that if the project failed utterly I wouldn't be bummed at ruining a piece of fabric I really liked. I choose a piece she had marked for a nightgown.
I traced the pattern onto pattern tissue paper and pinned it to the project fabric. So far, so good. Last time I tried to start a similar project I burst into tears and was unable to continue. That was around Christmas time. Time for a little background: My mother loved fabric and all things relating to sewing. Fabric was her vice, if it could be called a vice. She belonged to a number of fabric co-ops where roll ends would be purchased at fa
ntastically low prices and those savings would be passed on to the co-op members. She regaled in telling me about the $30/yd wools that she bought for less than $5/yd! And she bought vast quantities! I'm sure she had countless projects in mind for herself, my brother, and me, and then there were the pieces she bought because they were lovely and the price was great with no idea what so ever what it would be used for. When I helped her move from California to Colorado there were no less than 30 plastic totes filled with fabric. After she passed I looked through all the carefully prewashed and folded fabric (she would prewash each piece as soon as it arrived, fold it and place it on the shelves) recognizing some pieces that were purchased with me in mind. Some of which gave me pause, what *was* she thinking?!? Five yards of pink denim and five yards of pink and white striped denim? Now I like pink, don't get me wrong, but what did she have in mind for 10 yards of pink denim?
And now back to our story ... I got the fabric cut, selected the nearest approximation regarding thread color because I didn't have a proper match, and read the instructions through two or three times. It was time to begin assembly. Sewed the shoulder seams, no problem. Attach the sleeves, no problem. Sew up the sides/armpits, hmm, not sure this was in the correct order, but no visible problems. The collar looks challenging, I think I'll hem the sleeves and bottom, no problem. Now, all that's left is the collar. Harumph. I re-read the instructions, wondered how it could possibly work. I finally pinned it into place and stitched it on. I ended up hand stitching the collar at the base of the v-neck.
It fits better than I expected, I was quite pleased. I had cut the sleeves a couple inches longer than the pattern called for, that worked well. The shirt length and fit around were good. Next time I'll have a couple new tricks for the collar and I plan to make the sleeves a bit larger around; these were not too tight, but I'd still like them to be a little bit larger. I can't think of a better way to spend Mother's Day than doing a sewing project in homage to the mother.
I traced the pattern onto pattern tissue paper and pinned it to the project fabric. So far, so good. Last time I tried to start a similar project I burst into tears and was unable to continue. That was around Christmas time. Time for a little background: My mother loved fabric and all things relating to sewing. Fabric was her vice, if it could be called a vice. She belonged to a number of fabric co-ops where roll ends would be purchased at fa
ntastically low prices and those savings would be passed on to the co-op members. She regaled in telling me about the $30/yd wools that she bought for less than $5/yd! And she bought vast quantities! I'm sure she had countless projects in mind for herself, my brother, and me, and then there were the pieces she bought because they were lovely and the price was great with no idea what so ever what it would be used for. When I helped her move from California to Colorado there were no less than 30 plastic totes filled with fabric. After she passed I looked through all the carefully prewashed and folded fabric (she would prewash each piece as soon as it arrived, fold it and place it on the shelves) recognizing some pieces that were purchased with me in mind. Some of which gave me pause, what *was* she thinking?!? Five yards of pink denim and five yards of pink and white striped denim? Now I like pink, don't get me wrong, but what did she have in mind for 10 yards of pink denim?And now back to our story ... I got the fabric cut, selected the nearest approximation regarding thread color because I didn't have a proper match, and read the instructions through two or three times. It was time to begin assembly. Sewed the shoulder seams, no problem. Attach the sleeves, no problem. Sew up the sides/armpits, hmm, not sure this was in the correct order, but no visible problems. The collar looks challenging, I think I'll hem the sleeves and bottom, no problem. Now, all that's left is the collar. Harumph. I re-read the instructions, wondered how it could possibly work. I finally pinned it into place and stitched it on. I ended up hand stitching the collar at the base of the v-neck.
It fits better than I expected, I was quite pleased. I had cut the sleeves a couple inches longer than the pattern called for, that worked well. The shirt length and fit around were good. Next time I'll have a couple new tricks for the collar and I plan to make the sleeves a bit larger around; these were not too tight, but I'd still like them to be a little bit larger. I can't think of a better way to spend Mother's Day than doing a sewing project in homage to the mother.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Some cool links and things
Had a pretty laid back day Sunday. The usual sleep in and snuggly with the dog boyz. And then of course, the Sunday Seattle Times Pacific NW magazine had an article on outrigger! By the way the little dash surfer is attached to my dashboard! It's a nice article and a number of my club members are either quoted or photographed. I was at the Vancouver race, that was the OC1 race where I had cramped up so badly.
Here is a video of my boat (same color even) being demonstrated in Hawai'i.
And a link to Mindy's outrigger video blog. Mindy lives in southern California and shoots lots of wonderful outrigger videos. And from her blog I found this link to Outrigger Chicks, I think this is another blog by Mindy.
Here is a video of my boat (same color even) being demonstrated in Hawai'i.
And a link to Mindy's outrigger video blog. Mindy lives in southern California and shoots lots of wonderful outrigger videos. And from her blog I found this link to Outrigger Chicks, I think this is another blog by Mindy.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
damp but good & flowers
We had seven show up this morning for practice. Makes it a little difficult in an OC6! We tried to go out with Kristen steering from sitting on the tail of the boat but it was too cold for her to continue that for very long. We went back to the beach and I got out and rigged my OC1 to go out solo. They headed out for Denny Park, directly across the lake from SSP. I busted my butt to catch them over there. They had stopped for some drills allowing me to catch up. Then they headed north a ways and I realized it was going to be too hard on my back 
to try and keep up with them so I decided to head back in to the beach.I'd brought my camera out again in the housing and had passed it off to Kristen to take a few snaps. She seemed to have a little difficulty with figuring out how to point and shoot as evidenced by the second photo shown here, there was a whole series like this one! Kinda funny actually.
A bit later in the day Diane, Dave, his girls, and I headed up to Skagit to the tulip festival. They'd
extended it by a week because the cool weather had delayed the blooms opening. It was pretty grey and rainy, ranging from barely spitting to actively raining lightly. Thankfully it wasn't pouring. The soil there is mostly clay and when you add a bit of water to clay it gets really slippery. People really showed kindness by offering hands to help others through the worst of the slippery parts. Tulip Town has really great
fields of flowers. I'm glad I made it up this year, I love looking at the tulips. And I have a history of photos of tulips. When I was in high school I snapped a few photos of some slightly past their prime tulips that my mother had planted in a half oak barrel. One turned out particularly well. I don't have it digitally, but I recently got a scanner so I'll try to get that scanned in sometime soon.Thursday, May 1, 2008
to infinity and beyond! ok, maybe just the 520 bridge
What a glorious evening. Such a dramatic difference from Tuesday night. Tuesday we were Nancy, me, Matt, Lianne, and her 11 year old son, Kyle, was steering us. He is a great young steersman, when he gets a bit older and bigger he will be a force to reckon with! The wind was coming hard out of the north. We paddled into it for half an hour or so and then headed back. There were white caps by the time we were back on the shore and it was rather hard getting the boat out of the water, the wind and waves were pushing it so hard. Ended up getting quite we and the wind was very cold.Tonight was a bright sunny afternoon. The water was glassy flat. We ended up with Minnie, Nancy, me, Meilee, and Lianne steered us. We headed out towards the
dog park and then south towards the 520 bridge. We did a pyramid on the way out, increasing periods of intensity interspersed with 1 minute periods of active rest (paddling at a moderate pace). It was a little strange there was a motor boat that was following us, at least it felt like that. I think they were just heading over through the cut, but I think they were enjoying watching us paddle, too.We turned around just before we got to the bridge. We took a moment to sip some water and I took a few snaps with my digital camera. I just got an underwater housing for it and wanted to test it out. All
the photos posted here were taken with it today. At one point I stopped paddling to take a couple of snaps. Got a great complement from Meilee after I did that. She said you can really tell when I've stopped paddling, feels like we've practically started going backwards! I guess I *do* make a difference Never give up, never surrender!
Galaxy Quest is an awesome movie. It's a spoof of a Star Trek type tv show staring Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, and Alan Rickman. It is a very funny flick. A friend lost her job Tuesday and was feeling rather sad. We started talking about things that could make her feel a little better. She thought having a few drinks was a good idea. She and her bf came over and I made us each a dark and stormy. Mmm, tasty! I found ginger beer at Trader Joe's and I use Gosling's Black Seal Rum. I also buy limes by the bag, juice them and freeze the juice in an ice cube tray. Mix the rum and ginger beer over ice with a lime wedge (or lime cube). They say the dark and stormy is described as the national drink of Bermuda, whoever they are... I think the combo of the drinks and the movie helped my friend feel a little better.If you haven't seen Galaxy Quest yet, I recommend giving it a view. It's perfect for that evening you want to watch something that is just goofy and ok with itself being goofy. Kinda like me! I own it so if you ever want to come over and give it a watch just lemme know.
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