What Could Be Better?

I made breakfast for dinner tonight.  It's been so long since I've done it that I forgot how quick, easy and tasty it could be, not to mention satisfying and home-like (if that makes sense).  I was even inspired to write a haiku:


What Could Be Better?

Scrambled eggs, toast, milk,
cereal, veggie sausage/
bacon.  Delicious.

The Waiting Game

Update:  MRI came back clean, so that's a relief.  Doctor wants to give it 30 days to see if it clears up on its own, so now we play the waiting game...

Shout Out To Mom

Thank you Mom for driving me today.  I really appreciated your help.
Love you.

Vertigo Makes The World Go 'Round

This kind:

Not this kind:

I've never seen this movie, but I really want to

Imagine you're sitting on your couch, watching TV, when you become suddenly and immediately drunk - full on smashed, so much so that the room is spinning, without having had a drop to drink.

That's what happened to me three weeks ago on a Saturday morning, and has been happening ever since, to various degrees.  Most often it feels like a continuous one-beer tipsy, but at it's worse it feels like a stop-the-world-I-wanna-get-off binge drinking episode.  Spells come and go, sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for a few hours, and they don't seem to be brought on by certain movements or head positions.

I've been to four different doctors and been on two different prescriptions (Meclizine and Promethazine, neither of which I think do much other than make me feel druggy).  Other than a spot diagnosis from the doc-in-the box of mild dehydration and some fluid in the ear, nothing appears to be out of the ordinary, and the fluid was just a little congestion that cleared up with Sudafed.

My multiple blood tests have all come back fine, and there are no signs of an infection.  My hearing also checked out to be normal, and nothing appears to be visibly wrong with my ears.  Searching for this symptom on the web shows it can be related to a hundred different illnesses, or it could be tiny loose "rocks" in the inner ear, or it could be unexplainable and go away on it's own after several weeks, or stick around for months or years.

I had an MRI done today and am waiting to hear the results, although I don't imagine that they'll be very revealing.  I could almost have fun with the sensations it if I a) knew it wasn't serious, and b) didn't have a life to lead.

Has anyone else had this kind of experience?

Let Them Eat Cake

I have a birthday coming up soon, so my thoughts naturally turn to cake.  This is because:

1. I am a pig.
2. I like cake.

Pretty cut and dry, I think.

I'm not usually too specific about what kind of birthday cake I want.  I seem to remember that when I was asked once by my mother years ago, I told her I wanted one with lots of flowers and roses on it because they took a lot of icing to make.  Pretty smart right?  Who cares what kind of impression it makes - give the boy the Mother's Day special, or the Happy Retirement Bernice sheet cake so he can trip out on an overdose of shortening and sugar and shit colors for a week.

Thankfully, and to her credit, Mom never did buy me a girly cake.  But I do remember plenty of cakes with lots of icing.  Homemade strawberry was always the best, but plain store-bought white sheet cake is also fine with me.

This year, however...

This year, only one cake will do.  I will forego all gifts and pitch in my own money to make it happen:

A (very little) Humor For Rachael Who Maybe Could Use It Right Now

My younger cousin was admitted to the hospital yesterday for heart problems - they're going to keep her there for a couple of days for testing and monitoring.  I hope everything turns out ok, because I don't think the latest scientific advances in robotic hearts have been headed in the right direction.

Photo courtesy of deviatART

Love you Rachael - hope you feel better.

There Are Two Kinds Of People...

There are two kinds of people...

Photo Courtesy of Anonymous on Failblog

Which one are you?

I'm up early this morning and am still groggy and tired, so this really cracked me up, but even if I weren't I'd still find this funny as hell.  Humor is subjective though, so you may or may not, depending on your perspective.

Robot & Frank

Just finished watching Robot & Frank from my Netflix queue.  To be honest, I wasn't too excited to watch it, as I thought it would be way too schmaltzy.

It was actually really good.  Frank Langella was terrific and the rest of the cast included Susan Sarandon, Liv Tyler and James Marsden.  I highly recommend it.

Paging Dr. Bactine

I can't remember the last time I skinned my knee.

No, wait, I remember - it was 30 minutes ago:

Wow - I'm pretty hairy.  Thank goodness it's blond.

Took a hard fall off the bike.  Guess it's time for the training wheels to go back on.

Milestones

Mileage/music math:  (2000 Miles by The Pretenders + 500 Miles by The Proclaimers)x2 = 5000 miles by Veloster 

Thank You

Just Curious

Just curious if there's anyone besides bots, friends and family that are looking at/reading this blog.  Please feel free to leave a comment or email to say hi if so and if you like what you see so far - this is my first somewhat consistent blog, and while I write mainly just for myself, I'm open to suggestions, opinions, etc.

At least I am right now at this moment in time.  I reserve the right to change my mind later.  Thanks.

Tuesday

A lot of drama today, which I won't go into here, but nothing that some spaghetti, asiago parmesan garlic bread (and an entire bottle of wine) won't help. Mostly the entire bottle of wine. Yes, I'm sure that's it. Wine can heal all wounds for a time. My God, the trailer for R. I. P. D. looks hilarious right now - not just like the MIB rip-off it usually looks like. Go wine! Yay!

Broiled steaks tonight - a couple of 12oz strips, seasoned with salt, worcestershire pepper, and garlic.  Fresh-shucked corn on the cob and baked potatoes with butter and sour cream for the sides, and a loaf of onion rye bread.  Pretty good if I say so myself.

When I stopped at the store on the way home from work I saw the new Redd's Apple Ale, which I had wanted to try since I had the more-than-unbelievably-excellent Apple Cider Ale at Firehouse Brewing Company in Rapid City, SD.  See the previous post here.

Sad to say Redd's is not very good.  Even as a light ale it's got a very weak, watery flavor with a bit of a sour bile after-kick to the apple taste.  Not something I would purchase again.  For a full (and I think, fair) writeup, follow this link to the Chicago Reader blog and a review by Philip Montoro.

South Dakota Trip 2013 - Day 7

Breakfast at the hotel this morning at 8am.  Cheese omelette, biscuit, sausage patty, banana, raisin bran, 2% milk, orange juice, coffee.

Today it's a straight shot down I-135 which becomes I-35.  Not much to tell.  We listened to Tina Fey narrate her book Bossypants.  We stopped for gas in Guthrie, OK and ate lunch there at long John silvers at 12:30pm.  I had a 2-piece fish basket, with a piece of chicken with hushpuppies, onion rings and root beer.  So gross.

At 2:45pm we stopped at a rest stop and as I pre-flushed the urinal it splashed out onto my leg.  So gross.

We made it through the Moore, OK area with little delay, much like when we came through the first time.  What I really noticed from there to the end of the journey was how much traffic had increased.  Driving in South Dakota, Nebraska or Kansas is a dream compared to the number of cars that are on the road down south.  Combined with the temperature there compared to the heat here, that's 2 marks in favor of moving north.

We got home just after 5pm.  Unlike our normal post-trip routine, I went ahead and emptied the luggage, started the laundry, and put everything away.  I wanted to be able to relax and enjoy the next day before having to go back to work on Monday.  I don't really remember, but I think we went to Panera Bread for dinner.  If we did, I got my usual 1/2 ham and swiss on rye (no tomato or mayo), with a cup of chicken noodle soup and a black cherry smoothie.

It was a fantastic trip, and I'd recommend it to anyone.  We will probably go back in the future, to spend more time at Custer State Park and take a side trip to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.  Thanks for following along on this adventure.

South Dakota Trip 2013 - Day 7

Goodbye South Dakota - time to depart.

6:30am. Georgy Girl by The Seekers is blaring through the speakers in the city square as we walk past with our luggage to the parking garage.  The fountains are going and there is no one around.

Our hotel reservation for tonight is in Salina, KS.  We decide to go a different route than the drive up and strike out south down highway 79 to 385, then to 26, then I-80,

South Dakota Trip 2013 - Day 6

Breakfast at Tally's again.  Thought about splurging and getting a country fried steak breakfast (something I have never done), but then thought better of it and had a 2 egg breakfast with scrambled eggs, toast, sausage, hash browns.

South Dakota Trip 2013 - Day 5

Up at 6am this morning (thought it was 7am).  Slept much better with the windows closed and the air on.  Laid in bed until 9:45am updating my journal.  Ate the orange-cranberry muffin I brought back from Perkins the night before.  Tried the in-room coffee maker, but the coffee was swill so I poured it out.

Today's destination:

Saturday Morning at the Keyboard

Blockhead

South Dakota Trip 2013 - Day 4

What a night.  So far in Rapid City it's been cool enough to sleep with the windows open, but last night...

Woke up at 12:45am.  Woke up again at 1:45am when the garbage truck was rolling through the alley and lifting every single goddamned waste container and dumping them into the back of the truck.  The truck engine, the beep beep beep of the truck backing up, the grinding noise of the lifting arms, and the loud bang! of the lid of each container lid slamming as it was emptied, then the other bang! as the truck slammed the container back onto the pavement woke me up fully.  By that time it was muggy in the room and the city noises continued.  I was wide awake then, so it didn't matter if the window was open or closed.  I was up until 3:30am, then I was able to go back to sleep.

Around 7:30-8:00am we got up and went down to the lobby where a Seattle's Best Coffee is attached to the hotel.  I had never had their coffee before.  As guests of the hotel we have a daily buy one get one free discount.  I ordered a large decaf vanilla latte, and Todd ordered an iced tea.  We both got cinnamon rolls.  Everything tasted ok, but I still prefer Starbucks.

We went back to the room to get cleaned up, then got on the road.  Today's destination: Mount Rushmore.

Just around the bend

Entry Plaza

Now With 100% More Photos

Just finished adding photos to yesterday's post.  Take a short trip back in time and check them out.

South Dakota Trip 2013 - Day 3

Some rain overnight.  Small hail in the early morning hours.  Up early, but didn't get going until around 10:00am (nice).  Thunderstorms by that time.  Walked across the street to Tally's Silver Spoon for breakfast.

Rainy morning.  Statue.

Hotel Alex Johnson as seen from Tally's

After waiting about 20 min, 2 places at the bar opened up.  I had decaf coffee and beignet breakfast sliders, which were bacon, egg and cheddar on three sliced beignets, served on top of a little maple cream.  They were so good; cooked perfectly, the beignets were crisp and hot, not greasy or oily.  By the time we finished the rain had stopped, so we headed out toward Wind Cave National Park.

South Dakota Trip 2013 - Day 2

Hotel room feels damp.  Tossed and turned a little because of it.  Up at 5:45am, back to sleep then up at 6:15am.  Watched a couple of episodes of Arrested Development on Netflix on the iPad, then got going.

Them!

Thought it was just due to the rain, but they're all over both bathrooms and in the kitchen now.  Have people coming to spray tomorrow.

Love this movie though, have ever since I was a kid - Them!

South Dakota Trip 2013 - Day 1

On the road at 9:20am, later than I thought, but no prob.  Panera Bread for breakfast.  Had a spinach-bacon quiche and water, and got a blueberry bagel to go.  I drove the first shift.