When I woke up Monday morning my eye was bothering me, I flushed it out with some water, looked in and couldn't see anything, figured I must have scratched it a little it will get better in a day or so. On Wednesday it was worse more than better, so I finally listened to Katie's repeated instructions since Monday and went to see the eye doctor.

He told me I had a piece of metal embedded in my eye and it had started to rust. It was in far enough that he couldn't remove it with what looked like a small metal toothpick, he had to use a drill...

When he was done he promised me that it would get worse before it got better and I would hate him later that evening. He was right on both accounts. I have a new winner for the most painful thing I've experienced. His prescription for pain relief included several different types of eye drops, extra strength tylenol, and a bottle of wine or the equivalent amount of my preferred alcohol. I wasn't initially planning on following the alcohol part, but, by 7:30 that evening I was ready for it. :) After the first dose of alcohol was taking effect and I was feeling a little better Katie took me over to Goodberry's and bought me a concrete. :)

My best guess is that the metal was from when I was cutting the white metal shelving with a jig saw to fit in my laundry room on Sunday. Since I didn't notice anything Sunday night I'm guessing it caught in an eyebrow or something and fell into my eye while I was sleeping.

I wasn't allowed to use computer or read at all on Wednesday, Thursday was "extremely limited if any" and limited using my best judgment Friday. I can feel a little bit of discomfort after about 15 mins now so I'll be smart and not doing much if anything today as well.

( pictures )

mood: uncomfortable

On Saturday I got to go skiing! I put in a full day on the slopes and had a great time. The conditions were generally packed and groomed powder. It wasn't much different than east coast skiing except there weren't any random ice patches. The exception to that was Dipper Bowl. Yesterday was the first day it was open and it had several feet of loose powder. It was exceptionally challenging because in addition to it being the first time I've skied on powder it was also through the trees. I fell twice at the very top of it the first time I did it trying to figure out how to turn in the powder and once the second time when I didn't turn quite right and my ski got stuck in the powder. It was a lot of fun.

It was hard to tell what trails I was on because many of the signs just told you what lift you would end up at when you took them not what trail you were going down.. A lot of trails were still closed making things even more difficult to navigate. This is my best guess of the trails I hit yesterday.

• Patsy's
  
• Mombo to I think Waterfall
  
• Ridge Run
  
• Skyline Trail
  
• Big Dipper to Jacks
  
• Orion
  
• Dipper Bowl
  
• Aries to Cosmic Wave
  
• Comet
  
• 49er
  
• California Trail
  

( Some photos taken while skiing )

location: Tahoe tags: vacation

After all the effort to get my skis, I got to Heavenly about thirty minutes after they opened, only to learn that due to the high winds they only had two slopes open... I couldn't justify the full lift ticket price for two comparatively short greens, so I spent the day driving about with jdorff, jenndorff, and the tater. Saw some beautiful scenery, wandered through some shops, and failed at applying chains to the car but learned we didn't really need them since the rental has 4wd. I can now say I've walked on lake Tahoe.

location: Tahoe tags: vacation

Airline finally called me back around 12:00 PST to tell me they found my skis and they would either get them out to me that night or early this morning... at 5:30 PST they called to tell me they were almost here and delivered skis at 5:50 PST.

Now I am bizarrely awake, especially considering I was up for 23 hours yesterday and only got about 5 hours of sleep. I am getting used to adding or subtracting three to the time though :)

location: Tahoe mood: awake tags: vacation

Short version: We got to Tahoe, eventually got warm, and the airline lost my skis.

( Long version with photos! )

location: Tahoe mood: tired tags: vacation

I got my free cookie in the mail today. It wasn't the best cookie ever, but it was pretty good.

Does anyone know of a reason why I can't make a post public when I create it? It is always grayed out. If I want to make a post public I have to create it as friends only then edit it to change the permission?

location: Home mood: mellow music: The washing machine.

As most of you know I started taking a class in medieval sword fighting about a year ago. I am now to the point where I am ready to start playing with steel. That requires me to have a "knightly virtue", colors, and a device to emblazon my shield/surcoat/etc with. All of these have now been approved by my instructor so painting and sewing can begin. My virtue is persistence, it just sounds better than stubborn. ;) For colors I have Sanguine and Argent which I'm translating to burgundy and silver.

When I got to heraldic symbolism for persistence I learned that my traditional choices are caribou, shark, and vulture. Vulture was right out, and caribou with my colors looked like I was aiming for Christmas and missed... I also had the thought of a squirrel, not it's traditional usage but what is more persistent than a squirrel trying to get into a bird feeder? I tried quite a few squirrels and couldn't get one I was happy with. So my symbol is a shark. :)

( large image of shield )

tags: emma

Since I have gotten my new phone I have noticed that periodically it will change all the indicators at the top (signal strength, battery, etc) red. When it does this if I try to make a call it tells me I can only place emergency calls. Sometimes it goes back to normal on its own, other times I have to power cycle it to make calls again. Has anyone else seen this and/or know why it is happening?

The best thing to remove grease/Vaseline from armor and swords is the cleaner designed for bicycle chains.

location: Home mood: curious music: Modern Marvels tags: emma

Finally have my costume done. And with a full 15 minutes to spare before I need to leave for the party. :)

Went to see They Might Be Giants at the Carolina Theater last night. It was a great show. The opening band was much more enjoyable than ukulele man at the first one I went to. The seats in the first balcony provided a good view of the show. They played 5 or 6 songs from The Else, about 4 from Flood, and an assortment of others. My favorite was the second encore, Fingertips! They haven't posted the playlist or recording of the concert on their web site yet... :( Hopefully this time it will get there. 1st concert I went to was one of the ones that didn't make it to their website for download. *crosses fingers*

Today I went to Celtic Halloween with EMAA. It is my first event with them. I had a good time squiring and heralding in spite of the fact that one of my jobs was pushing pamphlets. :) People are more willing to take them if they are already there watching a fight. :)

Now it is time for me to head off to The Asian Invasion Hall Party Halloween party. :)

location: Home

I get to go play my first game of "Business Golf" with a customer tomorrow. Should be interesting since my clubs haven't been out of the garage in about 3 years....

location: Work mood: amused

From suhl:
1. Go to http://www.careercruising.com/.
2. Put in Username: nycareers, Password: landmark.
3. Take their "Career Matchmaker" questions.
4. Post the results:

Most entertaining result from my list: 28. Fashion Designer

1. Sign Maker
2. Plumber
3. Furniture Finisher
4. Web Developer
5. Picture Framer
( Rest of the Results )

tags: meme

Well I survived my first DragonCon more or less intact. I felt crappy a good chunk of the time there for some reason. Was more tired than normal and having problems eating. Similar symptoms today as well. It isn't a constant thing though. There were also periods of time where I felt completely normal... In spite of that I had a great time. Surprisingly I never made it to the gaming room.

I dressed up as Marvin one day. That was a lot of fun. I need to come up with more cool costumes for next year. Ideally ones that are relatively cool and don't obstruct vision...

( What I actually did )

location: Home mood: blah

Just got back from vet getting Chester's staples removed. He is doing better than they expected and has been given a clean bill of health. No more cone, no more baby gate on the stairs, etc. Which means I finally get to move back up to my bed instead of sleeping on a futon downstairs. :)

mood: cheerful

Today has been a pretty good day for me. For the first time since his surgery Chester actually played with one of his toys for a while. He seems to be pretty close to his energy/activity level pre-surgery. Once he gets his stitches and staples out hopefully I can go back to using the upstairs of my house for more than a shower.

In another high note for the day a friend of mine since 7th grade asked me to be the best man at his wedding next year. I have never been best man for someone before and am looking forward to it.

location: Home mood: pleased music: Loud AC Unit

Weird Al is coming to Raleigh Aug 5 at Progress Energy Memorial Auditorium.

Anyone interested in going?

location: Home music: 96 Rock

Vet called this morning. Chester is on the road to recovery but a little slower than hoped for; but, at a reasonable rate given his age. He is eating all of his food; but, he takes all day to do it instead of in one sitting. He can move around reasonably well. Main symptoms remaining so far are that he needs to go out to pee more often than normal, he is mostly uninterested in his toys, and is sleeping more than usual.

The growth on his spleen came back as a benign tumor. That came with the grain of salt that oncologists say that there is no such thing as a benign growth on the spleen... The vet's interpretation of that based on her experience is a 90% chance that we have seen the last of growths in Chester.

location: Home mood: okay tags: pets

Tonight has gone fairly well. Chester has walked the span of the living-room completely under his own power 3 separate times as far as I can tell. To do more than that requires assistance. Since Chester can't go upstairs and I'm a worry wart I moved the futon downstairs and attempted to sleep there. The cats only woke me up a few times and Chester woke me up a few times. Most recently he woke me up at about 4:45 to go outside. I'm guessing he is feeling at least some better as he really wanted to do his normal tour of the entire back yard. Which was very slow and frustrating for both us as he fell/laid down a lot and required a few lengthy rests before he would try to get back up again. So that took a little over an hour.

I have a cd with all the x-rays I was going to upload last night but I ended up being dumb and working instead. So I'm going to take advantage of that and go back to bed for a while now then upload them when I am up for the entire day.

location: Home mood: and optimistic music: Whiney Cats

To get 24 hour care involves taking Chester from primary vet to Emergency vet and back again. Normal vet is open 7:00am - 6:00pm and the Emergency vet is open from 6:00pm to 7:30am. So I've already been to 2 vets this morning and get to go to the Dentist next. Weeee.

As we were moving him yesterday the walking was too much for him and he collapsed for a bit. He recovered pretty quickly; but, it was traumatic for me...

Chester's heart seems to be settling down. He had some arrhythmia after the surgery and throughout the night; but, it has been decreasing and his blood pressure didn't drop because of it. At the moment my main concern is that he really did not want to use his hind legs this morning. He was going stronger on them yesterday before he collapsed. Now I get to wait and see what they have to say at the end of the day...

location: Home mood: worried tags: pets

For those that don't know already... Last night when I got home from European Medival Arts class Chester was being very lethargic. It took me a good bit of effort to get him up to go potty before bed and when we got upstairs he wouldn't eat his food.. After a long night (for me at least, he did a lot of sleeping) he still wouldn't eat and didn't get up to go outside again until 10:00. So I called the vet and took him in. He was running a fever by 3 degrees when I got him there. After a bunch of poking/prodding/xrays they discovered he had a large growth/tumor on his spleen. Since if it ruptured he would bleed to death before we knew what happened (and he had been jostled more than normal to get x-rays and I had to pick him up to get him in car..) they took him to surgery at 11:40ish. They just called me a few minutes ago with the results. He is waking up now and most everything went as expected. They removed his spleen and 2 growths/tumors one 4cm and one 15cm weighing a total of 6.5lbs! When they removed the tube from his throat it had a little bit of blood on it that they were not expecting. They are monitoring that now but not overly concerned about it. He will be in doggy ICU for the next 24hrs to make sure his heart/blood pressure are ok from the sedation.

location: Home mood: relieved tags: pets