So Much To Say, So Little Energy

As I sit here, tired enough to fall asleep as soon as a lay down, I need to blog as this has been an eventful week, both bad and good.

It started on Sunday when it was very good to see Traci, Courtney and Skyler return home safely from camping with her parents. I was sore from cleaning and doing a lot of stuff around the house (inside and out). They got home about 7:00 in the evening so it was later than expected, but they were home safe and that's really what matters.

Monday night was not fun (less fun for Traci) as Skyler was suffering from Croup. If you click on the link you can get the general information. It's a really horrible sounding cough and breathing. You can't miss it if your kids ever get it. Courtney had it before so we knew what it was when Skyler got it. After some time in the closed-up bathroom with a hot shower running (so she could breath in the steam to help her breath better), she fell asleep about 10:00. She started coughing again a while later and Traci took her outside for fresh air, which was recommended by the on-call doctor if the steam didn't work/last. She fell asleep while Traci was holding her outside. So she laid her down and opened a window in her room for the fresh to keep coming in. This helped and I don't think she woke up again until the morning.

Then came yesterday! About 12:50 in the afternoon I get a call from Orchard Dale where my mom works and it's the kind of call you don't want to get. They tell me that my mom got injured at work, an ambulance is on it's way to take her to the hospital and they think she dislocated her hip. I got the call from her school because they couldn't get a hold of my dad, who it turns out had just gotten on the phone with my grandma at the time. Needless to say I got an adrenaline rush and couldn't concentrate. After getting a hold of my dad right after that call, and after the school got a hold of him too, I headed to the hospital. I arrived there about 2:15 or so and she is still in a lot of pain as she hadn't been seen yet. She was finally seen and they were able to give her some Morphine. Within a half hour or so another dose of Morphine was administered as the first shot hadn't done much. At that point they took her down to x-ray and quickly confirmed that her hip was indeed out of place. They brought her back up and she was still in a lot of pain, granted they had to position her leg for the x-ray. Since the two doses of Morphine had almost no effect still they brought in the good drug: Dilaudid. This knocked her pretty good as she started almost falling asleep a few minutes later and it was only 1/4 the dose of one of the Morphine shots. Anyway, they wound up doing a closed reduction, which just means they put the hip back in the socket without needing surgery. They put her completely out for this. And while she was out, the doctor moved her leg around after he put it back in to see what would force it to pop back out again. So he explained to us the movements he did and at what angles the hip would pop out again. Pretty creepy, but he warned us he would do this before he took her in.

A little background to help clarify the significance of the dislocation. In June 1990, my mom had her right hip replaced and it was expected to last 10 years. Well, it made it 18 years. During a routine physical/hip check up this summer, they discovered the lining in the socket was starting to wear thin, which meant it could crack if something wasn't done relatively soon, and she might not know when it cracked. So they decided they should go in and replace the part that was wearing thin. Therefore, they really only replaced 1/2 the hip this last time, which was just August 19 (10 weeks ago). While she was putting books back on the shelf in her library, the hip went out and she went down. Nobody else was in the library with her so she wound up laying on the floor for about 20 minutes before a first grade class with their teacher came in, unable to get across the room to where her work and cell phone both were, due to the pain. The teacher had the kids wait outside while she called the office and 911.

Long story long, she was able to return home last night. I got to drive her home since my car was the easiest and safest one available for her to get in and out of (due to angle restrictions on the hip). We got her home just after 11:00 last night. By the time I got home it was about 11:15 and after catching up with Traci since I hadn't seen her all day, I finally made it to bed about 12:30. Needing to get up at 4:30 as normal for work this morning, that makes 4 hours of sleep, or what I refer to as a nap. (I know that's a long nap, but it's no where near a full night of sleep.) She was resting at home today and Traci took the girls to see her. Courtney was very worried about her last night. She asked if she was going to die so we had to explain that she just had a boo boo and would be fine. Poor girl.

While I was at the hospital, Traci gave me some much needed good news. Courtney has another audition this Saturday! This will be her first audition for print (i.e. magazine ad). Her previous two auditions were for commercials (i.e. tv). We both think it would be easier for her to start off in print and then go into commercial, but we're not the agent, and if she lands a commercial, great! Needless we're excited for the continued opportunities her agent keeps finding.

Finally, as I mentioned, I get up early for work as I try to get there around 6:30 in the morning. Being on the 7th floor (of a 20-story building) looking southeast, I have gotten to enjoy the sunset for the past several weeks. Today, with all the clouds, it was just too beautiful to not take a picture so I took the picture you see below with my cell phone. It's not great resolution and you can see the reflections in the window, but it's still beautiful. It makes me appreciate the beauty of God that is around us that we may not always appreciate. Lately I've been sure to take a minute every morning to enjoy the view of the sunrise since my cubicle is against a window. I hope you enjoy it.

Ok, now I'm going to relax and spend some time with Traci. (No work tomorrow...woohoo!!) We'll see how long I last considering I've had a 4 hours of sleep in the past 42 hours. zzzzzzzzzzz...

And Under Cushion Number 2...

I think I have been able to accomplish everything I wanted to do today before the World Series, which is currently in a rain delay as I write this. So let me run down the busy and tiring day that has been my Saturday without the family.

Rolled out of bed around 8:15 this morning after heading to bed around 1:30. I had my breakfast and then got right to work on the sprinklers. As I may have mentioned in previous blogs, the sprinklers have become a hobby of sorts for me. I actually enjoy fixing them, although I don't like it when they break. When I went to Home Depot yesterday, I got three sprinklers: one to fix the broken one and two to replace existing sprinklers that don't cover as much of the yard as they should (these two were installed by the city after they had to move our sprinklers and their piping to build a storm drain) and a cap to cap off another sprinkler (also installed by the city) that wouldn't be needed once I replaced the other two. I wound up having to go back to Home Depot to get a couple of small parts to make the sprinkler higher above ground since the joint (or whatever it's called) is right next to the planter and the sprinkler was too wide to screw on there. The best part about the trip back was that the two parts I got cost less than $1 total! Buying something you need at Home Depot to get your Home Depot fix and spending almost no money...every guy's (ok, this guy's) dream! Anyway, once I adjusted the spray pattern to cover the parts of the lawn it needs to, it was on to the three along the curb and storm drain.

No major problems here. I dug up the first one and capped it. I dug up the second one, replaced it and made the pattern didn't have it watering the street. Then I went the third one and started digging it up. No problems with it: dug it up, screwed on the new sprinkler and made sure the pattern was fine after some minor adjustments. Something freaky happened though while I was digging this one. I felt something tickling the back of my leg. I look back and it's a brown widow! They have a very similar body shape to the black widow, but instead of being black, they have a white lightning bolt-like pattern on it, still with the red/orange hourglass under it and still poisonous. (We've had tons of those around our house this summer. I've only seen one or two black widows.) Of course I freak a little bit, shake my leg, it falls off and I show her why it's cool that I'm bigger than her! (That's man talk for "I smashed it.") Then back to work with no further issues. All in all it took about an hour or a little more to do the sprinklers.

After that, came my big project for the day--cleaning the couch, and under it! This took me about 4 hours in all! I wanted to do as thorough a job as I could since we don't vacuum it too often (although we, correction I) should since Traci is allergic to dust mites. It all began by taking the cushions off and tossing them across the room so I could them move the pieces of the sectional and see we have been missing.

Holy crap, was there a ton of stuff under there! It's too bad the kids weren't here or we could have had Christmas early with all the small toys I found. I found a number of pieces that belong to Mr. Potato Head, a number of fruit snacks, McDonald's french fries, goldfish crackers, hair bands, head bands, crayons and even one of Traci's sandals that was almost against the back wall. (For sanity's sake I will assume that it got pushed back there and didn't walk all by itself!) In the couch, I hit the jackpot as I found 22, count them, 22 crayons! Once I had decided what was worth keeping such as the sandal and most hair things, what needed to be thrown away, and what bordered on toxic, I took the vacuum and sucked the rest up. Then it was on to the cushions and I took them on one by one. Now the couch is more fluffy and cleaner. Traci should be happy when she comes home tomorrow. If I didn't do this today, I would have needed to do it before next Saturday when we have our annual Sunday School Halloween party over here.

I did take a lunch break in the middle by using a coupon I found to relive my Whittier College days by going to Rick's Drive In & Out in Uptown Whittier. It was a buy one get one free coupon so I got two burgers for $3. And these burgers are way better than most fast food places. The only exception might be In-N-Out, but it's very close.

After the couch, I needed to clean up since you just feel nasty after doing all that cleaning. So I showered and then it was off to the store. This felt like an accomplishment, not because I went, but because of how much I spent. I actually kept it under $200! (It was just over $160). Looking at the bottom of the receipt, it showed savings of $45! I don't care if they actually mark stuff up to discount it to the real price to say you saved money. It's good for the psyche! And by the way, we have been shopping at Ralph's now for a number of months since they announced the new lower pricing in their stores earlier this year. Before, we shopped at Vons and our grocery bills were getting close to $300 per major trip on a fairly regular basis, and that's with Vons Club savings. Kudos to Ralph's!

Now all the groceries are put away and I'm waiting to see if they will play game 3 tonight as it is still raining pretty hard in Philadelphia, where it is now 9:30. If it comes on, cool, if not...Wii!

The Fun Continues

As my "bachelor" week continues, I find myself getting more done and finding more to do. Here is a quick checklist of stuff I was able to do today after work:

• Mow and edge the lawn (in only an hour and a half)
• Create a spreadsheet of our monthly budget (not pretty)
• Sort through the mound of mail that had accumulated on the couch (still have to go through the unopened mail...leaving a mound of magazines and catalogs for Traci to go through when she's back Sunday...don't want her to feel left out)
• Create grocery list (it's scary how empty our fridge is right now)
• Called Verizon regarding FiOS (it will be available to us Nov 23)
• Gassed up the car (and lawn mower...was excited that gas is "only $3.099/gal, which means with my $.10/gal discount (I love my employer--thank you, Chevron!), we're only paying $2.999/gal!!!!)
• Made a Home Depot run (in order to fix sprinklers, you need to have some extras)
• Payed the gas bill online (only $21 this month)
• Made and ate a "gourmet" dinner of microwave taquitos (yummy!)
• Consumed a Ben & Jerry's Phish Food (and got another one for tomorrow night!)

So then, what is on tap for tomorrow, you may ask? Nothing but more fun:

• Sprinkler repair (noticed that one was broken before I mowed the lawn)
• Store (to take care of insanely empty fridge and pantry)
• Discover and clean the third world country of dust and toys under and in our couch (you don't want to know)
• Vacuum and clean/pick up toys still laying around (I kind of started this last night but need to do more)
• World Series game 3 (will develop Homer Simpson butt groove in the process)

The menu for tomorrow:

• Breakfast: my always traditional Instant Breakfast
• Lunch: BBQ Hamburgers
• Dinner: Hot dogs
• Topped off by: the other Ben & Jerry's Phish Food sitting in the freezer

Nothing beats a quality bachelor meal plan, huh? Hey, how come there's no Wii on that to do list?

In the weekly e-mail I get from our church about the happenings, I was excited to see an unexpected announcement that The Robbie Seay Band will be doing a concert at our church on November 12! I tried to get tickets tonight, but apparently they are not on sale yet. I guess I'll have to pay attention in church this week.

I've stayed up too late the past couple of nights, especially Wednesday night. However, tonight, I'm not so worried since I don't need to set an alarm tomorrow. Although I'll be busy tomorrow, it will all be okay as long as I finish everything planned by about 5:30 when Game 3 of the World Series starts.

Saw something interesting in the LA Times yesterday. In the weather section, they always list the hottest and coldest places in the 48 contiguous states. It showed that Whittier was tied for the hottest place (with Miramar down in San Diego county) in the US on Wednesday at 101 degrees! I was proud. Then while watching the news today, they were showing that there is a chance of rain next Friday. Not cool...that's Halloween!

Had a chance to watch Saturday Night Live last Saturday as I was very interested to see how Sarah Palin did when appearing on the show. Let me just say, the Weekend Update portion was classic. If you haven't had a chance to see the Sarah Palin rap, performed by a very pregnant Amy Poehler, it is great. Check it out here.

Well, Jay Leno just started so I guess if I'm going to play any Wii tonight, I better get to it before I fall asleep.

Population: Me

Here I am blogging, because it is just me in the house from now until Sunday afternoon. Traci and the girls rode up north with her parents for her cousin's wedding tomorrow (yes, Thursday) night. I'm saving my last two vacation days for around Christmas and New Year. If there is one good thing about being alone, it's that I get to watch the first three games of the World Series without distractions. However, I do miss them, of course. I miss the bedtime prayers and kisses. It will be weird sleeping alone. I've done that on business trips, but I'm somewhere else, not here.

I have lots of plans for myself while I'm home alone. Not a lot of fun stuff like Wii or hanging out with friends, though. Just stuff around the house that needs to get done. For example, I wrote the bills, balanced the checkbook and took out the trash tonight! How cool is that?!?!?!?! I also have plans for yard work this weekend and looking at our monthly budget. You know, the fun stuff in life. I will be having dinner with my parents tomorrow night for game 2 so that will be a nice little break.

I have to admit, Game 1 tonight was pretty good. I initially wanted the Rays to win the World Series since this is their first time in it, but with all the talk of American League domination in recent history, I find myself pulling for the Phillies. I guess the bottom line is it doesn't matter to me who wins. It should be a good series and I will be happy if it is.

I guess since I should have undisturbed sleep tonight, I should go start that now.

Hello again

It seems like it's been a while since I've blogged. It's been a week. I guess that's what happens when I don't have something pushing inside my head to get out. SO this will be one of those general update kind of blogs.

We got a call today from Courtney's agent and she has an audition with Hasbro on Monday afternoon. It would be cool if she got it, but I'm not holding my breath. She has to beat out a ton of kids I'm sure. I know she can do it, but I'm not the one making the casting decisions.

Ever since my dad had a heart attack 5 years ago, combined with the fact that I've been on cholesterol medication for a while now, I've been more concerned about my future and if/when I'll have one. So in an effort to avoid one all together, I'm starting a cardiovascular health program through work. It's free and can only help me, so why not. I want to be around as long as possible for my family so this is the least I can do. I'll have twice a month calls with a "mentor" who will provide me with advice and check my progress on the goals I will set as well as general encouragement and tips on how to get where I want to go. The program lasts for 9 months so it's not what I consider a short-term program. Another bonus is that for completing the initial assessment, I get a $100 credit in February on my health benefit deductions. If I meet a certain milestone about halfway through the program, I'll get another $100 credit next September. That's a ways off, but it's an extra $100 to bring home.

My Dodgers finally got eliminated from the playoffs this week. It was sad, but it is the best season they've had since they won the World Series in 1988. Now come the offseason decisions of the front office staff. There are a number of free agents that could decide to sign elsewhere. A few of them could easily (and should!) retire. It will be interesting to see what the team looks like when Spring Training rolls around in February. Speaking of Spring Training, it will be nice to have the Dodgers new Spring Training facility much closer than it has ever been. It has been in Vero Beach, FL for the past 60, but is moving to Glendale, AZ this next spring. While it would be nice to go check it out some March weekend, I don't see that happening with our current financial situation.

I finally played Guitar Hero again today for the first time in a couple months. I still can't beat Lou, which is really discouraging me from playing. Plus I love playing the sports on there, especially baseball now that I keep learning how to do more thing in it.

I guess I should go and enjoy the quiet time while the girls are asleep, especially since I will be taking them to DCA tonight while Traci is doing a PartyLite party.

A Glimpse of the Future?

So we're outside earlier this week after I got home from work and the girls are playing around and Traci and I are watching and playing with them. Traci decided to record Skyler running around the yard, dribbling the soccer ball like it was nothing. I thought it would be fun to post. I hope you enjoy the video.

Also, I'm not too excited about the Dodgers losing the first two games of the NLCS against the Phillies, but at least we're coming home. I really don't think we are going to get swept. If we can win game 3 tomorrow, I like our chances in the series.

Boston Wrap Up...and a Playoff Update!

I thought it would be appropriate to post this view of Boston as we got prepared to take off from Boston as this will be my last blog about my trip. It is a view of the Boston skyline from my seat in the plane at 7:00 in the morning.

As you can tell from all the blogs I've posted about my trip, it was a great one. The one thing I haven't hit on so far is the interesting people we met. There are two specifically that come to mind. The first one, Eric and I met upon check in at Anthony's Townhouse. We don't know his name, but we know he is part of the family that runs (and probably owns) the place we stayed. We called Little Tony since we didn't know his name, but he left an impression. Since we hadn't been anywhere yet and didn't know our way around, her offered us a map of the city and some "tips" for getting where we wanted to go. He then proceeded to essentially re-draw the map on the current map. He had no problem talking, in detail, about where to go and how to get there. He was nice, but very talkative. Oh, and he wore the same outfit every time we saw him throughout the weekend. You can draw your own conclusions there.

The second interesting fellow we (all three of us) met on our first night there, I believe. (If not, it was the second night.) We were walking around, trying to get somewhere and we hear guy loudly (like borderline yelling) the lines "Do a little dance! Make a little love! Get down tonight!" Somehow, he and the three of us wound up walking nearby. He then proceeds to start talking to us and telling us that he had just gotten of work (oh, it must have been Friday, the first night!) and that he was headed to the liquor store. Seriously, it seemed like he had already been to a few! Anyway, he did provide some entertainment. As a young (20's) couple holding hands walks by us, he goes into his song..."Do a little dance! Make a little love! Get down tonight!" He even does a little dance while walking and singing and pointing at the couple. It was pretty funny. I kind of felt bad for the couple, but then again, they weren't the ones walking with this guy! A few blocks up we head to the left down the street and he continued on his merry way straight ahead. The street we headed down wasn't on our original path, but it became an escape route. After we had walked for a few more minutes, we heard the guy yell-singing "Do a little dance! Make a little love! Get down tonight!" Needless to say, that song has been horribly sketched into my mind, and not in a positive way.

So that was our trip. Friday thru Monday of Labor Day weekend 2008. It truly was a blast, especially hanging out with some good long-time friends. I would love to do it again, but down the road sometime as it was a little costly. All worth it though.

And now onto the playoffs. I have been so excited watching my Dodgers, I'm not sure how to handle it. I'm not used to them winning in the playoffs considering they won the World Series in 1988, didn't win another playoff game until 2004 and now have beat the Cubs two straight games in the playoffs this year. One more win and it's onto the NLCS (National League Championship Series), probably against the Phillies who are up 2-0 in their series. That should be an interesting series if it happens as the Dodgers beat the Phillies all 4 times they played in Dodger Stadium and the Phillies beat the Dodgers all 4 times they played in Philadelphia.

I am kind of hoping for a Freeway Series in the World Series, but the Angels aren't doing their part. They lost their first game to the Red Sox (ha ha!) on Wednesday and they play Game 2 tonight. We'll see what happens.

I am excited to see the Tampa Bay Rays doing well in their first-ever playoffs. They beat the White Sox in Game 1 yesterday. I expect the Rays to win that series and play the Angels in the ALCS (American League Championship Series), but we'll see if the Angels can learn to beat the Red Sox. The Angels have been swept by the Red Sox the last two times they faced each other in the playoffs. While a Freeway Series would be cool to watch, I won't object if the Red Sox knock them out again. After all, Manny Ramirez facing the team that didn't want him two months ago would make for a great World Series. (And it would feature two ballparks I've been to!)

What a Great Day!

Ok, so this isn't a blog about my Boston trip, but Boston will be mentioned since they beat the Angels today! I'm loving life there! And what is this? The Dodgers won a playoff game? How sweet is that! The last playoff game we had won before this was against the Cardinals in 2004 and before that was Game 5 of the 1998 World Series when we won the whole thing! And another good part about our win today? It was in Chicago, not even at our place! I'm so excited, I don't know what to do with myself. Granted it is a best-of-5 series, but we're 1/3 of the way there already. I would love to see the Dodgers move on. Many people are saying the Cubs are the best in the National League, which makes sense because they had the best record in National League and 2nd best in all of baseball. So if the Dodger can get past them, look out! Here's hoping we can take game 2 tomorrow in Chicago also, because if we do, I have very little doubt that we will be moving on to face the winner of the Phillies-Brewers series. (I'm picking the Phillies to win that one, especially after they won game 1 today.)

So in summary, I have bragging rights (at least for today) over Shauna (and her dad) for beating their Cubs today, and I also have bragging rights over the in-laws, whose Angels are now down 0-1 in their series against the Red Sox! What a great day, indeed!