The Internet

I'm watching South Park right now and as usual it is awesome. The whole episode is centered around the loss of the internet, it's done in the style of the Grapes of Wrath. Comedy Central tends to replay the latest episode a lot in the few days following it's first showing, I highly recommend catching it if you can. I love how they take things to their absurd conclusions. It all comes down to the router needing to be rebooted.

I even have Stan and Kyle saying "Oh my God, you killed Kenny! You bastard!" as my cell phone ring tone. It makes me laugh.



South Park and The World of Warcraft



This is a spoof of the mac/pc commercials done in South Park style.

Death & Taxes

A question just popped into my head: Do you have to pay taxes for the year in which you have died? Not you personally, but rather, your estate? I wasn't the excecutor for the mother's estate, I suppose I could ask my brother. After all, there were earnings prior to her passing. If you file a tax return for the decedent do you (the estate) get all the taxes you've paid back?

I received an annuity payment from the mother's retirement fund and hoped/planned that her house would sell before now, so I did the foolish thing and didn't have any taxes withheld. D'oh! I'm generally the one who files their taxes within days of receiving my W-2. Ever notice how you file early when you expect a return and late when you owe? Monday night I went online to file for an extension. Imagine my surprise when I learned they want to know what your taxes are in order to file for the extension! Well, if I knew that I'd just file, now wouldn't I ?!? Piffle, I might as well just do the whole thing now.

I had gotten my hands on the tax papers shortly before looking for the extension info so I was already a step ahead of the game. There are plenty of online services for those of us with relatively uncomplicated lives (fiscally uncomplicated, that is!). I happened to choose the H&R Block link for no particular reason. It held my hand and stepped me through the process quite nicely. At the end I learned that I had too much income to get the preparation for free. Well, $15 isn't so very much, fine, let's get on with it. My bottom line: I owe a few thousand bucks! Bummer! The online thing can get you set up with a nice payment plan with that automatic sucking sound that comes from your bank account. I think the government is more amenable to payments than an outright refusal to pay, so I opted for this route. The online thingy is all set up with the necessary forms for all this and then they electronically submit the whole she-bang for you. I got an email this afternoon stating that my tax return had been accepted.

Not so bad for having cut it so close to the wire for the first time in my life. Now if we can only sell the house, I can pay those pesky taxes off in full.

And now for something completely different:



I was avoiding work for a while today and came across this video and thought it was hilarious and felt compelled to share it with you all. It's entitled 'An Engineer's Guide to Cats'. You may want to avoid taking a drink of your beverage while viewing and I know of one person who laughed so hard it induced an asthma attack, just so you know it's just that funny.

Casual Sunday

I really like Sundays. I typically don't have any plans, I've raced on Saturday or at least gone paddling, and generally stayed up far later than I intended to. Sunday mornings allow me the leisure of sleeping late and having a cuddle with the boyz before I get up. This morning I rolled out around 10 am, let the boys out and back in for breakfast, followed by a nice cuppa coffee for myself.

Friday I had received a very large box of things I'd shipped out from Colorado, among other things there were three sets of sheets for my king sized bed. The mother had quite a fondness for clean sheets, she would have changed them daily if she had the same fondness for doing laundry. As it was she settled for changing them twice a week. So, along with the bed I have gotten two sets of flannel sheets and seven sets of percale sheets! Friday was spent laundering sheets, but not folding them, and other laundry as well. There was quite a mountain waiting for folding. After watching the movie Alex & Emma I figured it was time to attack the pile. It was a cute movie.

The grey drizzly weather is ideal for having a relaxing low stress day at home. Even the dogs are spending the day napping. Hope your day is pleasant and relaxed.

What a Glorious Day

What perfect weather for the last winter series race. I got down early to help set things up and bring the food and coffee. We had a lot of helping hands so I could duck away a little early to rig my boat and make sure I had everything together and situated for the race. I even asked the mother of a club member to take some snaps with my camera. We had our pre-race meeting and then I made my way down to the water for a little bit of warm up. On my way over to the start line I got lots of complements on my new boat. Most of these folks didn't race the Sound Rowers race a couple of weeks ago so they hadn't seen it yet. Ross, from Open Ocean Outriggers, said I looked very comfortable on it. I was feeling pretty comfortable on it as well.

Everybody got lined up for the start of the race, the horn went of and so did we. I tried to paddle hard for that first bit as Doug had taught me a while back, but it just didn't feel right. I settled into my pace and tried to keep up with the back of the pack but realized I was feeling very tight in the chest, my breathing wasn't coming as easily as it should have. About 1.5 miles in I was really wondering whether I should just turn back, call it a day. Then I saw a boat huli (flip over), I wasn't too far away so I pushed myself to get up to him, he looked like he was having a little trouble getting back on board, the water is still pretty cold. As I got there I saw he'd let go of his paddle, I scooped it up and held his ama (the outrigger) while he climbed on, waited for him to adjust his seat and then passed him his paddle. The chase boat had arrived shortly after I did and since we seemed to have things under control they stayed off a little ways. Then we were off again, I got moving a little quicker than he did but he soon overtook me. That breathing thing was becoming rather problematic, fortunately I'd packed my inhaler in my hydration pack before I left. It occurred to me this was precisely the situation for which it was intended so I stopped and took a couple pulls.

I kept going nice and steady and shortly my breathing came a little easier. By this time I had fallen so far behind I started to think of the race as just a regular cruising paddle on a bright sunny day. I made it to the turn around and headed back. I was keeping a pace slightly over 5 miles per hour, which, since I wasn't working too hard, seemed pretty respectable. I saw Alice was still heading towards the turn point which made me feel pretty good, it meant I'd meet all three of my minimum goals, don't huli, finish, and don't finish last! I think the goals should be slightly modified for Alice, she paddles in the 70+ category so instead of not finishing last we can call it finishing strong, because she always does. I want to grow up to be just like her, paddling for many, many years to come. I finished in 1 hour 21 minutes, not my best time ever but not so bad considering I stopped to help someone and couldn't really breath. Also, I had wanted to go easy to preserve my back, it would be a real drag to tweak that again.

We waited for the season results to be tallied and for the cumulative season I came in third overall in the master women category, the master category is 35 and over. It was a pretty good day over all. I then went home to let the dog boyz out and decided it would be perfect a day to take them out for a swim. Back down to SSP and they did some swimmin' and fetchin'. I think a good time was had by all.

Note: The photo of me with Mt Rainier in the background and of Alice looking strong were taken by club member Ryan Parfait, who rode along in the chase boat.

muscle memory is a good thing

I went paddling tonight for the first time since I tweaked my back at the Lake Sammamish race on March 22. And looking at the calendar I have only paddled three times since March 15, between my back and slicing my hand open, dreaming about paddling is as close as I've gotten. My back seems to be doing much better and my hand is completely healed.

We had a good crew tonight, Lianne, Nancy, me, Kyle, Matt, and Neil steering. This was Kyle's second time paddling and Matt's first time, combined with my lack of paddling the last few weeks, I was hoping for a gentle workout. We headed out past the dog park and then south towards the 520 Bridge. It was a good workout, not too hard, and at our turn around point we saw a boat from Seattle Outrigger Canoe Club so we paused to say our hellos and talk about upcoming races.

Enough chatting, time to get head back to SSP. Neil did an excellent job giving tips to Matt and Kyle and guiding our workout. He was able to get us to step up our efforts in a positive manner that encouraged us (me anyway) to work harder. I was a little worried that I'd be so out of shape and have forgotten quite how to paddle. It seems muscle memory is stronger than my memory and it's, as they say, like riding a bike.

It was great to be back on the water after such a long time away, especially since the last winter series race is this Saturday. I plan to race, but I think I would best off cruising the race and trying to keep my back fit and healthy. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to be a slacker, I just don't want a repeat of what happened on Lake Sammamish.

perhaps breathing isn't highly overrated

Do you recall a time not so very long ago when I said breathing was overrated and had had an allergic reaction to my allergy shots? That event started the ball rolling to try to determine the cause of the cough keeping me awake at night. Last Wednesday, a week ago, I went in for a test to determine whether or not I have asthma. It was loads of fun.

I got to do the spirometry or spiro test many, many times; that's the test to determine the volume of air your lungs are able to move during inhale and exhale. It involves taking a very deep breath in and then exhaling until you cough and/or fall over, then you exhale a little more just to make sure they got it all, at least that's what happens every time I do it. I generally have really good lung function. Between each spiro I had a nebulizer treatment of something designed to effect my breathing and lung capacity if I did indeed have asthma. By the third treatment my volume had dropped by 20%, indicating that I do, in fact, have asthma. I didn't have to do any more of the negative nebulizer treatments, the doctor had all the information he needed.

Then off to a different room. A new nebulizer chemical, this one to reverse the effects of the last. In addition to restoring my ability to breath normally it had the unpleasant side effect of making me jittery. Followed by yet another spiro test and some hurry up and wait for the doctor to come in. He's worth the wait; he listens really well and is very compassionate. His attention to details generally causes him to fall behind schedule and subsequently they book him with fewer patients throughout the day. He's put me on a low dose steriod inhaler as a long(er) term treatment and albuterol for when things become exiting and I need help breathing now.

I think it's too soon to tell if there is any improvement, but I am hopeful. You can believe I'll keep you posted.

The Mother, the yartzeit

Not sure how to include everything that's been happening keeping me from posting. It's been a busy week. It was all leading up to my trip to Colorado this past weekend. Finishing all the work I'd had stacked up involved working far past my bedtime too many nights last week. My flight to Colorado was Friday at 7:20 am, who booked this flight and what were they on when they did it?!? I had to be to the bus stop at 4:45 am to catch the Metro bus into downtown Seattle where I transferred to another bus to SEA-TAC airport, got there around 6 am. All for $1.50, which was a heck of a lot better than the $40 or so it would cost for the shuttle service and I figure I'd have left at about the same time.

I got the suitcase checked in, didn't have much in it, a few clothes and empty bags for bringing things back from Colorado. Once through security I made my way over to the Ivar's for a breakfast sandwich (the one with the smoked salmon is awesome) and then to Dilettante Chocolates for a mocha (did you know they offer sweet or dark chocolate for your mocha?!?) before heading down to my gate. I had only 20 minutes or so before they began boarding. I pretty much fell asleep immediately until after we touched ground in Denver, coming in and out of awareness only occasionally during the flight. Landed in Denver around 11 am. Rachel, my sister-in-law, picked me up and we went into Denver to buy kosher wine for Passover and then to the East Side Kosher Deli for some kosher for Passover foods. I may not have mentioned this before, but my family is Jewish. With our shopping completed, Rachel and I headed back to Boulder.

Sunday was the mother's yartzeit, the anniversary (as measured by the Hebrew calendar) of her passing. Among other things it involves the recitation of the mourner's kaddish with a minyan (a group of 10 or more Jewish men) and my brother is now allowed to visit the mother's grave site whenever he chooses. It is challenging to get a minyan together in Boulder so we went in to Denver where one would be gathering. Then back to Boulder to visit, first, my grandmother's grave site, she passed away May 2, 2004, right around the time the mother had decided to move to Boulder. The mother thought long and hard and finally decided she wanted gram's ashes interred in Boulder. The mother is buried in the Jewish section of the same cemetery. This was my first visit to her grave site since her marker has been put in place. It looks really good. My brother remarked how peaceful it felt there now. He'd been there three months after her passing for the burial of a friend who had passed unexpectedly, and felt it was very unsettled at that time. It was a lovely day, but the wind was biting. To get warmed up we went to the Celestial Seasonings tea room for a hot cuppa tea, only a five minute drive away.

Later in the afternoon my brother and I went through all the family photos to choose a few to scan before I left Boulder, the rest could wait until after I'd come home. Revisiting all those memories was both fun and draining. And there were stacks of photos of people we didn't know, some of which may be identified by my grandmother's brother, Leonard, who lives in Olympia, others we'll likely never know who they are. I had to smile when I saw this photo of my brother with his batman belt and airplane. And he had the nerve to ask who was in this photo!?! In order to post the batman belt photo I had to agree to post the photo of the 'unknown person' with the tennis racquet. Done.

In all it was a really good trip. It had the potential to be really unpleasant, there were many emotional land mines strewn liberally about and my brother and I managed to avoid them. There was some sadness, we would both have preferred to have visited gram's grave with the mother, instead of visiting both graves, but there were good memories shared and laughter recalling some goofy things.

We called her 'the mother', kinda cute how she got the nickname, actually. I think I was 15 or 16 and it was Mother's Day. Gram, the mother, the bro, his wife, and I went out to brunch, the waitress came around to take drink orders and asked "Who's the mother here?" It stuck, even her AIM login was ThemotherC. And it seemed the most appropriate thing to include on her marker. I think she'd like it that way.