February 2008 Archive

February 27, 2008
That's why they call me Mr. Fahrenheit...
We had our first adventure into home ownership when I got home last night. I walked into the house to a brisk 58F. I couldn't get the furnace to kick on yesterday morning, but I thought maybe the thermostat was just in sleep mode or something.

I called Kev's dad, and he said it might be the pilot light, so I called a friend of ours to come over and check it out. Unfortunately, he discovered the furnace has electric ignition and, therefore, has no pilot light. So it looked like the ignition was out. The furnace room was filled with gas, so we cracked a window to air it out, and by that time, Kev was home.

We discussed suffering it out until today to try to avoid the emergency fee, but it was 16F last night, with high winds, it's damp outside from all the snow, and the temp in the house was dropping rapidly. I was wearing 2 layers on the bottom, 3 on the top, and was nestled into a huge blanket with a huge electric space heater pointed right at me, blasting me with delicious inferno. And my hands and nose were still ice.

We were concerned about the pipes freezing, even if we trickled water through the faucets until we got someone out. It was going to be so cold that I just didn't want to take the chance of our pipes bursting and having to deal with the house flooding on top of the furnace not working.

Posted by Karabou at 9:27 PM EST
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February 25, 2008
Porkchop Express
Oh the drama.
Friday, the stabbing pain came back, after I slept without my ankle wraps on for the first time since this started. I called the Dr., and he told me to keep the boot on until the pain stopped for a full 24 hours, then try again but more slowly.
I was just sitting at home with it off. I wasn't doing jumping jacks or even walking much. But oh well. I've had weird pain for the last few days, so I decided to just go in and talk to him today. He said as long as the pain I'm feeling is NOT the stabbing pain, to keep going...but slowly. And he wants me to start transitioning with an ankle brace to eliminate side-to-side movement. Oh, and I now have "cast disease," where my foot and ankle have swollen up from being immobilized for so long. /sigh
Have to admit, the brace feels really good. The support is comforting, like an ankle cocoon. mmmm
Saturday night, we watched Shoot 'Em Up. If you like purposely ludicrous action movies where hot Clive Owen kills people with carrots, this one's for you. It's a good rent. Watch it.

Posted by Karabou at 5:39 PM EST
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February 20, 2008
Las Palabras de Amor
Taking the boot off sucks. My calf muscles cramp in a non-stop charley-horse. And if one more person tells me to eat a fucking banana, they're going to have one shoved up their ass. It's not cramping because I'm low in Potassium; it's cramping because it hasn't been used for a month.

The tendons have all shrunk, and they burn and hurt. I can't tell if the pain is returning because of all the other pain I have right now. I'm trying to be cautiously optimistic. Que sera, sera. Only time will tell at this point.

My 89-year-old grandparents get around better than I do without the boot. I wear tennis shoes for some extra traction and support. But I can barely walk.

Someone cleared our sidewalk yesterday while we were at work. I was giddy. I think it might have been a guy that lives a couple houses down. Maybe he saw me wearing the boot and took pity on me. Heh

We took our friend that partially re-did our bathroom out for dinner last night to Mama DiSalvo's. Yum. I got the Eggplant Rollotini Al Forno. It was sooooooooooo good.

Posted by Karabou at 9:32 PM EST
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February 19, 2008
Woot woot!I get to start taking the boot off!

He's reserving the last cortisone shot in case the pain returns. Then it will be our the last-ditch effort to avoid surgery. But over the next two weeks, he wants me to transition to not wearing the boot. GRADUALLY.

So over the next few days, I'll be taking it off in the mornings at work and then wearing it the rest of the day. Over the next three days, I'll leave it off till evening. Then I'll try going without it all together. He said he wants me totally out of it before next Tuesday the 4th to give it a test run.

The only way we're going to know if this has actually worked is to test it out. He said that I'm lucky because peroneal tendons don't always have such an easy fix. But I may not be out of the woods yet; I'm trying not to get my hopes up. It's just wait and see for now.

Obviously, still no exercise for the legs. But it's a start. And I'm hopeful.
And for you Nickelhack lovers...
http://www.thewebshite.net/nickelback.htm
Posted by Karabou at 10:59 PM EST
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February 18, 2008
You want crazy?
I'll give you crazy.

Read this:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0205083spears1.html

No matter how tired or fed up you are with all the media coverage of Britney, you will be shocked, SHOCKED, when you read the court affidavit filed by her mother.
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Why I don't like Hillary...
AP Top News at 12:19 p.m. EST
Feb 3, 2008
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday she might be willing to garnish the wages of workers who refuse to buy health insurance to achieve coverage for all Americans. The New York senator has criticized presidential rival Barack Obama for pushing a health plan that would not require universal coverage. Clinton has not always specified the enforcement measures she would embrace, but when pressed on ABC's "This Week," she said: "I think there are a number of mechanisms" that are possible, including "going after people's wages, automatic enrollment." Posted by Karabou at 10:14 PM EST
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February 17, 2008
Things
I colored my hair a deep reddish burgundy Saturday with Amy's help. At first I was distraught at the color, but then I realized it was just the garish bathroom lighting making it look little-old-lady-red. Every where else, it looked great.

Saw Jumper today. What a pile of crap. It had some neat concepts, but overall, it was just nonsensical. Typical for a February release. Rent it if you really HAVE to see it.

I'm still full of meat from Friday and feeling like I have an entire cow in my gut. I need salad, stat.

I had to take Amanda to the ER last tonight. She fell and caught herself on the stove...right on a hot burner. Her hand was blistered from the top of her palm all the way to her fingertips. So we went and sat in the ungodly busy waiting room until they put her on a bed in the hallway. They were full to capacity and then some. They gave her some vicodin, which worked a miracle for her pain level, bandaged her up, and gave her a tetanus shot. She's going to be in some serious pain for a few days.

Posted by Karabou at 11:41 PM EST
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February 15, 2008
ZOMG
We decided to have a laid back day and just do a late lunch and relax.

We went to Cena by the Dayton Mall. OMG. OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD

It was the single best, most exciting dining experience of my entire life. We're not foodies. We don't dig on off beat fare or trumped up dishes. 10 kinds of meat coming by your table. We made it through 7. And we had some of the "feast bar," which had tabouli, and pesto tomato couscous, chinchilla chicken (or whatever it was really called), 3 kinds of soup, traditional salad, and tons more.

I was conservative and just took a small bit of numerous things off the feast bar to taste. I wanted to save room for the meat. Plus we had garlic mashed potatoes, cheese buns, and some amazing dipping sauces.

Lunch price was $20/person for unlimited feast bar and meat parade. I think dinner is like $30. OMG it was so good. /drool

Posted by Karabou at 3:58 PM EST
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February 14, 2008Update
Kev and I are taking tomorrow off for our anniversary. I think we're going to grab some lunch and see a movie. :)

And I got my WoW toons restored. Well, all except my lvl 1 bank mule, which is annoying, but I suppose I'll live. I can't believe how fast they did it after hearing horror stories from other people about how it took weeks. I had them all back Tuesday night. It took 3 hours of sorting. ugh.

Posted by Karabou at 12:01 PM EST

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February 10, 2008The world is full of people who deserve to die a slow, horrific death of incurable stomach cancer.
Tried to log into my WoW account this morning only to find that it had been hacked and my password changed. The bastard took all my items, sold them for gold, mailed the gold off to some other toon, deleted all but one of my characters, and transferred my lock to another server. And he destroyed a lot of my stuff just for good measure: soulbound bags, quest items, and things he couldn't sell.
I got my password changed and got into my account, so I'm guessing it's safe now. I ran two virus checks with Norton and AVG, and I ran Spybot. All of them came up totally clean. The only thing I can think of is that he snagged my password from the WoW forums, since you have to use your account info to log in. Something funny happened when I logged in there yesterday, and I think it might be how it happened.
I hate people. I really do. The world needs a good cleansing.

Posted by Karabou at 3:19 PM EST

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February 5, 2008Hyperphonic blonde all-girl rock band
/sigh

Two more weeks in the boot. And to top it off, he tells me to limit my movement and rest it. But he still won't recommend I get crutches.

I'm not supposed to walk around on it, but I'm not supposed to use crutches? Screw that. My boss is bringing a pair in for me to borrow tomorrow. I'm sick of not being able to go anywhere or do anything because I can't walk. I don't have to use them all the time, but it'd be nice to be able to use them if I want to go out to lunch on a Saturday or when I do trailer checks at the theater.

Bunch of crap.

He gave me another cortisone injection this morning in a different spot, the spot I'd have thought he'd have given it to me in the first place. But I suppose I'm not the doctor. We can't do another one there for 2 weeks, and the next one will be the last one he can do.

If there's no relief after this, it'll be surgery. Quite frankly, I'd rather he just cut it open and take care of it now. I'm going to be in FL the first week of April, and I'd like to be recovered by then, at least to the point where I can walk. /grumble.
We went to LaRosa's for lunch today. I'm tired of sitting at my desk, and we haven't been there in quite a while. I know they almost always screw something up and they take forever, but I had a hankering for a calzone. Today was no different, however.

They burned my calzone to a crisp. She offered to let me pick at it while they made a new one, and they didn't charge me for it. The middle was edible, but the ends were briquettes. And then they screwed up the replacement one. lol The manager put onions on it instead of spinach, so they had to make me a third one. So in addition to the free lunch, I also got a $5 gift card for my next visit. Heh

Wooty!
--------------------------

My ankle has been FIRED UP since that injection this morning. It got so bad I called the doctor's office back and asked if this was normal. My foot had swelled to the point that the boot was getting really tight on my foot, which was kind of scary, and it was hurting like hell. They told me to ice and elevate it immediately; I was having a "cortisone flare up" whatever the hell THAT is. So I had to leave work at 3:45, race home, and prop it up.
If I don't have significant relief after this shot, I'm going to ASK for the surgery. This is stupid. I feel like I can't live my life. I can't do the things I enjoy. Going to the mall to buy 1 thing is a huge chore and leaves me exhausted and in pain for hours.
I don't want to live like this. I'd rather just have the damn thing sliced open, fixed, sewed up, and let me get on with the physical rehab. I have lost so much muscle from my calf in just two weeks that I cried when I saw it tonight. It's disgusting. I've got this stick leg now. And I have two more weeks of the boot to look forward to. What's it going to be like then?
On the upside, my stomach seems to be better after just two days of those pills. It still hurt to eat, but the pain subsided quickly, and I've felt fine all night. So maybe it is just acid reflux. If so, I'll definitely be trying the orange extract pills my friend Lorie and my sister use to control theirs. Might as well try a non-drug solution and see if it works.

Posted by Karabou at 10:08 PM EST
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February 4, 2008So long, and thanks for all the fish.
A three-hour midnight ER visit and 6 hours later, I either have a hiatal hernia, acid reflux, or my gall bladder decided to riot.

Everyone who told me my 30s were going to be the best years of my life is getting a punch in the nads.

I'm falling the fuck apart. What's it going to be like in my 40s? I don't even want to think about it.

I did watch Juno last night, and it was great. Jason Bateman is so hot. I feel like I'm 12 all over again..

Posted by Karabou at 10:15 PM EST
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