Let’s just say that things aren’t going exactly as I had hoped…
Yesterday’s Daily Challenge
Brush your tongue when you brush your teeth today.
Teeth and gums aren’t the only places in your mouth that collect food particles over the course of the day! Nope, your tongue is also a willing host of icky debris. Brushing your tongue helps to banish bacteria, and this can prevent decay in nearby teeth. A tidy tongue also helps put the brakes on bad breath.
Done.
Everybody’s I’m Working For On The Weekend
To make up for my absence from work on Thursday and Friday I put in full days at the office on Saturday and Sunday. My project is not going great though if I can only manage to focus and put in the many hours it’ll take to get it done I will get the project done on schedule.
Forgetting that I was going to remain alcohol-free this weekend I had a Sweetwater 420 on Sunday at Chuy’s Mexican Restaurant. Oops.
I Did Have Fun At The Party On Saturday Night
On Saturday night I headed over to ITP-Reader Barb’s for her tenth wedding anniversary party. Given my condition I arrived with two bottles of Seagram’s ginger ale and a bag of pork rinds (the tenth anniversary is the pork rind anniversary, correct?). Though I was in some pain it was good to see some people I’ve not seen that often in recent times. My discomfort got the better of me around 9:00pm and I took off and headed back ITP before the gates were closed for the night.
My Easter Treat
Easter has not been a “big” holiday in my adult life. Save for the couple of years people have had me over for an Easter dinner I haven’t done much. Yesterday I tried to beat the Easter church crowd to The Original Pancake House for my breakfast.
As an aside, did you know that The Original Pancake House in Brookhaven (or perhaps Ashford) has closed? Yep, it stood where that massive apartment complex / Publix retail shopping district now stand on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard. I found out the hard way a couple of weekends ago when I tried to go have pancakes at that The Original Pancake House…
Back to yesterday. My arrival was seemingly early enough but many others had the same notion. Because I wanted to read on my iPad while I ate I declined sitting at the counter and was ushered to perhaps the worst table in the establishment — in the wayback by the bathrooms — because it was the only non-counter seating available. I treated myself to three delicious pumpkin pancakes (Easter, smeaster, it might as well be Fall year-round for me) and some coffee.
ITP Flickr Pic
Nothing, with nothing planned nor little time on the horizon.
I Just Wanted To Put My Back Problems Behind Me
It seemed a bit drastic to give up an entire day of my life and a yet-to-be-determined amount of money to rid my back of sebaceous cysts. With their removal I assumed that I’d move one step back to feeling “normal” and could resume doing things I’ve dearly missed, like getting massages.
Big thanks go out to ITP-Reader Betsy again for removing the humongous bandage from my back on Friday; I could have never removed that bandage by myself. Upon peeling away the bandage I got my first look at the nasty stitching which has sealed up the regions which were cut. At that time all looked okay, though the ridges created by the stitching seemed rather large to me. My post-op notes stated that the dressing could be removed on Friday and that it was okay for me to shower that day as well. I hadn’t noticed that in my prescription bag was a severely-used tube of antibiotic ointment — for which it appears I was charged full price, but given the impossibility of me reaching the stitched areas to apply/remove ointment and bandages I’ve taken to showering daily, patting the area dry, wearing clean t-shirts each day and keeping an eye on the affected regions.
I know that it’s only been four days since the operation but things don’t seem to be progressing in the proper direction. Keep in mind that I am not a doctor nor do I have any previous surgical experience on which to lean so my preliminary assessment may be alarmist, or more likely half-glass-full due to what previous experiences life has provided me. However, one of the stitched areas seems to be growing in size, looking a lot like the situation that I went into the hospital to remove. I can’t help but feel that I’ve taken another swing and miss at happiness and I’m not sure that I can take going through the operation process again any time soon.
I’ve scheduled a follow-up appointment with the surgeon on Thursday morning. If things appear to continue to get worse instead of better I might attempt to see him again sooner.
RealiTV Update: The Amazing Race — Into Africa
While I am watching The Amazing Race I have to admit that recently I’ve only been watching in passing. Blame it on my workload and my constant thinking / coding for my project, I’m not spending a whole lot of time doing much else.
I don’t understand why the two “agents,” who are pretending to be school teachers, just didn’t confess that the border patrol dudes were right when they were confronted about their occupation. Seriously, at this point in the race what you do for a living doesn’t matter, unless perhaps you are a multi-millionaire and are worried that teams will work harder to eliminate you because you don’t “need the money.” These two, perhaps the blonde more than the brunette are starting to grate on my nerves more and more each week.
I also don’t understand why Green Glitter Girl can’t shut the fuck up as well as stop crying. Holy shit, grow up!
Last night’s “Courtship” Detour may be one of the weakest detour challenges in TAR history. Jumping in place for one minute? I don’t care if you are 8,000 feet above sea-level, jumping in place for one minute is not that hard, and only takes one minute to complete.
SPOILER ALERT
It couldn’t have been any more obvious that this leg of TAR was going to be a non-elimination leg. Making all teams erect their own sleeping quarters for the night and then eliminating one of them would have been outright cruel. So, I guess I’ll get to have another week of “we’re not cops, we’re school teachers” in my future.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – very sad and in physical pain to boot
Current Music – listening to last week’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me!”
Website Of The Day – Over the past few years people have been trying hard to get out of the City of Atlanta by creating their own cities (see also Dunwoody, Sandy Springs). The folks over at Ashford Neighbors aren’t so keen about starting a City of Ashford (or being lumped in with Brookhaven either).
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – don’t care
Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~7.5 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0.0 miles
Pushups – 0
Situps – 0
Stairs – 0 flights
Days Of Bed-Making – 0
Vegetarian Days – 3
Carnivorous Days – 5
Pancakes Eaten – 3
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0
Books I’ve Read/Heard In 2012
- Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me — Mindy Kahling
- Flotsametrics and the Floating World: How One Man’s Obsession with Runaway Sneakers and Rubber Ducks Revolutionized Ocean Science — Curtis Ebbesmeyer
April Goals
– Lose at least three pounds (net weight loss)
– Completely recover from my sebaceous cyst surgery
– Exercise for thirty minutes no fewer than twenty days
– Not to get sick for the entire month (may be a moot point as of today)
– Eat vegetarian no fewer than ten days
– Not get fired from my job, nor quit my job
– Follow up with doctors, lawyer, women in whom I have interest
– Go out on a least one date with a woman in whom I have interest
– Watch all of the classes in the 2011 Winter semester of Stanford’s CS193P (iOS Development) course
2012 Goals [will be a little less fluid than last year]
– Get my weight under 200 pounds, or at least whittle myself back down to where wearing a 36″ pant size is comfortable
– Completely read ten books, audio books permissible
– Run Sharpened Stone as a real business
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
– Ride in no fewer than five 50 mile or 50K bike rides
– Run in no fewer than one one 10K
– Submit at least one application under the name “Sharpened Stone” to Apple’s iOS store
– Restore the ITP Estate to a condition where it can be put up for sale at any time
– Buy a new iPhone (iPhone 5?), a new iPad (iPad 3?), and MacBook Air [look, not all goals have to be altruistic]
The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient and profitable programmer in Objective-C
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
– Eat smaller portions
– Start, and continue, to make my own bread using my bread machine as well as using the technique outlined in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking
– Read and discard magazines during the month in which they arrive (even digitally)
– See more live concerts than I did in 2011
– Eat more pancakes
– Drive/Fly somewhere for a real vacation
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
It willl all be OK. You have had trauma to the spots on your back and they are subject to swell and look nasty for a while as they heal. Do not freak out. Trust me, I pretend to be a doctor on the internet…
Lovely to see folks at the Garage/Deck/Helipad Majal Saturday. I thought you went missing a bit early, but it could have been me.
Sunday, we hosted the Burns clan, where I was savagedly attacked by a large dinner roll thrown by Debbie’s mom. Her intended target was Farley, but he was oblivious. Of all the people I expected to cause problems, my mother-in-law was not high on the list. Clearly, time for a new list.
-FP
I was glad to see everyone Saturday night, though I think I need to have smaller parties, I feel like I didn’t get to actually talk to most of the people there.
The one funny (or not really funny) thing to happen Saturday night was someone cut a piece out of the wedding cake, BEFORE it was assembled. I heard Mary wasn’t too thrilled by that. I noticed it, but didn’t really think about it until later. Someone is off my party list, once I figure out who did it.
Amazing Race – I thought the same thing about it being a non-elimination round. Yes- Rachel from Big Brother REALLY needs to go, she is about as annoying of a contestant as I’ve ever seen.
Thanks, I’m sure that I’m just being an obsessive worry wart, or cyst as the case may be.
In addition to the pain and the lack of alcohol, everyone seemed to be settling down and sitting by the fire. Sitting was not high on my list given my current state and I figured few would miss me if the opportunity to slink away arose.
Barb, ’twas not me who cut the cake. I may not understand wedding tradition but I certainly understand that one does not cut cake if its not one’s party.
That just strikes me as odd- unless the cake was sitting in some way as to not indicate it was part of a “set”.
And as soon as I figure out a good spot for it, a similar fire ring will be installed at JEFDSDR, making it a 4 season destination!!
I agree with Steve, you just had your body cut open and stuff removed. You don’t recover from that over night.
Good to see you on Saturday!
Steve – all 3 matching Publix boxes were sitting together on that card table……. you’d have to be pretty stupid to not “get” it.
That fire pit we got (at Sam’s) works quite well, and is very portable. We didn’te ven feel bad leaving it slightly burning when we went to bed, usually I’d be worried about that sort of thing. It even has attachments to cook on it, if you really wanted to.
It was pretty obvious with all three layers sitting beside each other that it was a set. Doh!
My Mom tagging Steve with a roll and sending his drink flying may be the funniest thing ever. His WTF look and then Mom plucking the roll off of his chest, I shoulda had my camera. Twenty other people that she could have hit and it had to be Steve…
Where did y’all get the fire ring? It’s the perfect size and height.
Paulie, is there anyone at the office that could smear some antibiotic cream on your incisions? I’m sure they are fine, but it never hurts.
I woke up this morning to a bird flying around the ceiling with our cat in hot pursuit. It was quite the chase with the cat ricocheting off Farley, me and whatever else was in his way. The bird took some blows from the ceiling fan and that gave Tate the edge. It was not a happy ending for the bird.
I was thinking about that space near the chiminea we don’t use, and maybe putting down some brick pavers into the “garden area” so there would be more sitting area.