Bon Echo Weather Watch

So far, they're only calling for rain on Tuesday. *crosses fingers*

Quick Question

Does it feel like Friday to you? It keeps feeling like Friday to me.

Damn, I can't wait for my vacation to start.

The Defect Personality Test

Your Score: Haughty Intellectual

You are 85% Rational, 14% Extroverted, 42% Brutal, and 71% Arrogant.

You are the Haughty Intellectual. You are a very rational person, emphasizing logic over emotion, and you are also rather arrogant and self-aggrandizing. You probably think of yourself as an intellectual, and you would like everyone to know it. Not only that, but you also tend to look down on others, thinking yourself better than them. You could possibly have an unhealthy obsession with yourself as well, thus causing everyone to hate you for being such an elitist twat. On top of all that, you are also introverted and gentle. This means that you are just a quiet thinker who wants fame and recognition, in all likelihood. Like so many countless pseudo-intellectuals swarming around vacuous internet forums to discuss worthless political issues, your kind is a scourge upon humanity, blathering and blathering on and on about all kinds of boring crap. If your personality could be sculpted, the resulting piece would be Rodin's "The Thinker"--although I am absolutely positive that you are not nearly as muscular or naked as that statue. Rather lacking in emotion, introspective, gentle, and arrogant, you are most certainly a Haughty Intellectual! And, most likely, you will never achieve the recognition or fame you so desire! But no worries!

To put it less negatively:

1. You are more RATIONAL than intuitive.

2. You are more INTROVERTED than extroverted.

3. You are more GENTLE than brutal.

4. You are more ARROGANT than humble.

Compatibility:

Your exact opposite is the Schoolyard Bully. (Bullies like to beat up nerds, after all.)

Other personalities you would probably get along with are the Braggart, the Hand-Raiser, and the Robot.

(Note: this test is not meant to be a serious evaluation of of my personality. I'm much more arrogant than 71%!!! ;) )

She's Wearing Me Down!

The experiment of having one child at a time from the group of three Kids has proven enlightening.

Holden was the first week and I thought he would be the challenging one but he turned out to be rather easy. He liked video games; given enough attention he could be counted on to go entertain himself for a little bit of time periodically; he behaved well; he was talkative and asked lots of questions; he liked going to the park and being amused by the monkey bars. Generally speaking he simply liked being around us and was easy to entertain.

Ophelia is up this week. I thought she would be easy but I was mistaken. Her behaviour is exemplary, no question about that. But she seems to miss her sister more than Holden missed either of his siblings. She's a little harder to get talking about stuff, and entertaining herself has proven non-existent until Kim introduced her to the Nintendo DS which hardly counts. Basically I had never realized quite how social she was because before when we had all the kids she and Mikaela could go and play for hours without needing our supervision, whereas Holden would be left out of those playtimes a bit more and get into trouble trying to get attention from either us or the girls.

So one I found easier than expected, the other harder. Makes me wonder what Mikaela, the middle child, has in store for us. It has been my impression that she would be easy because out of the three she has seemed to be able to entertain herself with toys far more than the other two (much like myself as a child) and she is not hard to please. But now I'm less certain in my assessment and must prepare for anything.

On a related note, next week we are gone camping and the week after I am on vacation at home so posting will be dead from this friday until mid August.

And I Thought I Was Addicted To Video Games

I'm not saying I should be playing more, but if any thinks my addiction to computer games is severe, check this out:

Nev. couple blame Internet for neglect

RENO, Nev. - A couple who authorities say were so obsessed with the Internet and video games that they left their babies starving and suffering other health problems have pleaded guilty to child neglect.

The children of Michael and Iana Straw, a boy age 22 months and a girl age 11 months, were severely malnourished and near death last month when doctors saw them after social workers took them to a hospital, authorities said.

[...]

Viloria said the Reno couple were too distracted by online video games, mainly the fantasy role-playing "Dungeons & Dragons" series, to give their children proper care.

"They had food; they just chose not to give it to their kids because they were too busy playing video games," Viloria told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Police said hospital staff had to shave the head of the girl because her hair was matted with cat urine. The 10-pound girl also had a mouth infection, dry skin and severe dehydration.

Her brother had to be treated for starvation and a genital infection. His lack of muscle development caused him difficulty in walking, investigators said.

The good news is that article notes: "Both children are doing well and gaining weight in foster care".

Yes, I KNOW!

You know what really drives me crazy?

When someone at work sends me an email and then calls me on the phone about the very same thing immediately after. I feel like saying "Hey moron! Email is fine, thanks! *mumble* Tool."

I can understand if its an hour later and its an important item, but five seconds after sending the email? Nothing pisses me off faster.

Sigh. One of those days.

Go Fly A Kite!

Last night after I got home it was apparent the Boy needed to burn off some energy. So like every other night this week I took him out for activity. I decided first to walk up to Giant Tiger and look for a cheap kite as I thought that could be a cheap and fun activity to do with all the kids and to tell the truth, I was kind of wanting to do it myself.

When I was a teenager I had a plain yellow kite that I would fly in the baseball diamond beside my house. One windy day I had it so high it was causing vertigo to look up at it. Ah, childhood memories.

Well we found a nice cheap and large kite and took it to the park to get up in the light wind we had last night. Holden thought it was cool for a little while but eventually lost interest and asked to go play on the monkey bars. After all, its not like a kite swoops and swirls and shoots other kites down.

Playing with the kite got me thinking about remote control model airplanes and helicopters. If they weren't so darn expensive, it might be a fun hobby to try.

Still Hurting

Note: I wrote this yesterday but an internet outage prevented me from posting it.

Whenever I have a truly strenuous Jiu-jitsu class I typically have the sorest body parts two days later instead of the next day. It’s a common thing from what I understand.

Well, today I’m really feeling the effects of the attack from Sunday night (oh and it was confirmed I have gallstones via ultrasound yesterday). It feels like someone hit me in the solar plexus with a baseball hit with a bat. Sore.

In my head I imagine my bile duct looking worse for wear after passing a particularly large stone, stretched and bruised. Or maybe its my muscles strained from trying to move the damn thing through an opening half the size. Whatever it is, it sucks.

I’ll probably get surgery to get the gall bladder removed. Its gotten to the point where I can’t predict what will set it off. One weekend I eat an amount of food and no problems. Another weekend I eat a similar amount of food and I’m writhing in pain. Its getting to the point where I’m afraid to eat anything almost. So I think this fall I’ll go under the knife and have that useless organ removed.

Go ahead, ask me about my night

I've talked in the past about my chest pains and lately I've begun to suspect Gallstones since it follows the typical symptoms: sudden pain in the evening/night that lasts from 30 minutes to a few hours, can be accompanied by nausea and vomiting.

"Pain" is too inadequate a word for what I felt last night.

We were on the way home from Tammy's birthday party when the first pangs started. "Oh boy, here we go again," I thought to myself. Sure enough the pain built from 9pm until 10 when it really started to hurt.

Let me describe how it feels. Imagine someone put a belt of metal around your chest right at the bottom of your sternum and tightened it so it is harder to breathe and you can feel your heart working harder. The pain starts in the middle of the chest and followed the band of metal around to the back and sides. In addition, the pain in the middle of the chest, right under the sternum, is like someone reached in with a clamp the size of a fist and is squeezing your insides, constantly, relentlessly, with no remorse. That's the worst part, nothing you do alleviates the pain.

I take two extra strength Tylenol but that doesn't even scratch the pain and usually that dose is enough to knock me out. Since the pain comes in the late evening I'm always tired and desperately in need of sleep but the pain allows no thought of rest. Sitting down or lying down makes me want to writhe in pain so I pace, eagerly awaiting for the release.

Last night was especially bad. The pain was extra fierce and I experienced nausea and vomiting for the first time with one of these attacks. By eleven the pain had been going for two hours with no sign of relenting so I decided to go to the hospital. The Carelton Place hospital came through for me quickly, agreeing with me that it was probably gallstones and giving me some intravenous Gravol for the vomiting and then two doses of morphine for the pain.

That's the first time I've had morphine and let me tell you, two thumbs up. It started working in seconds and I was finally able to sleep and by the time I woke up at 5 in the morning there was no sign of the pain at all.

I'm getting an ultrasound this afternoon to help diagnosis the problem and in my mind confirm the presence of gallstones. That means booking an appointment with my family doctor and the possibility of surgery to remove the gall bladder.

Sigh. Welcome to getting old.

Dog Days of Summer

Where did the expression "dogs days of summer" come from anyways?

For me, this is the worst part of the year. Oppressive heat, humidity, and vacation still weeks away. Work tends to be entering the "silly season" when co-workers are thinking about vacation, or on vacation, or catching up after vacation instead of actually working on projects you need them to. All in all, I'm glad when its over.

Fortunately this year the oppressive heat waves have been less frequent than usual and sleeping has not been too hard.

Next week starts an experimental idea of mine. We are going to have one of the Kids up for a week at a time starting with Holden. At first Kim thought it was a great idea but know she's not so sure. She's the one that has to watch them during the day while I escape to work. Better make sure I'm not home late!

Universal Health Care

This post at Stupid Evil Bastard made me appreciate my country very much today.

Since I was first laid off from Ford in February of 2005, with the exception of my brief return to Ford last year before a second lay off after just two and a half months, I’ve been without health care for me and my family. In two years we’ve been to the doctor’s a total of three times paying for the office visits out of pocket and one trip to the dentist we managed to squeeze in during my brief stint last year. We’ve been pretty lucky so far, but it’s starting to catch up with us. I lost one of my fillings last year and haven’t been able to afford getting it replaced. That’s come back to haunt me as I’ve been suffering from minor tooth and ear aches on that side of my head so I’m going to have to address it, out of pocket, sometime this week. My left hip is giving me problems which I mentioned in passing during one of the office visits with our doctor last year and the doctor said that if I had insurance she’d have some tests done, but I can’t afford that at the moment so I just keep trudging on hoping that my hip doesn’t have a major problem. Additionally, Anne’s been having some gastrointestinal problems and Courtney injured her foot in dance class at school that still seems to be bothering her.

I’m not trying to drum up sympathy here, just pointing out that back when we had health care we’d have addressed these issues as soon as we noticed them and could get back to being productive members of society in short order. Now it’s a daily question of: Has the problem gotten so bad that we have to find a way to pay for, at a minimum, an office visit. With my tooth I’ll probably end up having to have the dentist just yank the damned thing out as it tends to be cheaper than anything else they can do, my sister has had to do that in the past as has my wife. I suppose given my redneck heritage it’s somewhat appropriate, but that doesn’t make me feel any better about it.

Compared to a lot of people in the same boat as us, our problems are somewhat minor. It was just one month prior to my first lay off that I wrote this entry about my cousin who died from friggin’ pneumonia because she didn’t have health care and couldn’t afford an office visit to find out that she was that seriously sick. Every time one of us gets the sniffles I can’t help but wonder in the back of my head is it just a cold or something more serious?

I said it then and I’ll say it again now: In the richest country on the planet it’s simply ridiculous that we can’t find a way to have a national health care system.

Amen.

Puzzle Questing

For Kim's birthday in late June I bought her a new game for the Nintendo DS called Puzzle Quest. (Side note: buying the DS for Kim's birthday last year was best idea ever. She loves it and still uses it frequently.) Well this new game is quite a fun little package and Kim and I both took to it right away.

Kim has had more time to play lately and she is all the way up to level 25 which considering she started less than two weeks ago is pretty impressive. She blew past me even though I started days before her. Its got to the point where I'm playing and she will ask me what quest I'm doing. I tell her and she responds "only there?!" with mild disappointment. "Wait until you get to such and such a challenge, that's a really hard one," she adds sagely, insinuating that the current opponent I have died too four times already is merely an underling and that I'm somehow incompetent in dying to it. Of maybe that's just me.

Anyhoo, in order to try and catch up I was playing right before bed while she was brushing her teeth. Perhaps that was a bad idea because I ended up dreaming about the game and I was getting some awesome four and five of a kind combos that I never get when I need them while awake. I was so happy that I was kicking the game's ass until I woke up and realized it was a dream.

Damn.

Weekend Wrapup

Canada Day long weekend, ah the true start of summer. Except it was pretty cool a lot of the time and not very summery at all.

On Saturday I visited Andrew and played some board games with him and then spent the evening chillaxing with Kim (chillaxing = chilling and relaxing at the same time). On Sunday we made the trip to Greenbush to hang out with some family and visit.

While there I found out from my cousin Erin that she had read my blog and thought it was very funny. I only hope the parts she thought were funny were the parts where I was trying to be funny. If not, I must have hidden talents and should probably seek professional help.

On Monday I decided to be kind of productive by putting some stuff away in the crawlspace that was taking up room in the laundry room, and then I got ambitious and decided to defrost the freezer. You see, the freezer slowly built up layers of ice from condensing water vapour over the years until one day recently the door couldn't close and we didn't realize it until the next day. So for who knows how many hours the warm moist air was getting in, condensing, and letting cold dry air escape. This caused the ice to really get thick so action was required. It took all day and careful hammering to speed it along, but last night it was ice free and plugged in again.

All in all a good weekend.