Thursday, March 31, 2005

With apologies to Billy Crudup

Bed in a semi-private room $1,794.00
Pharmacy $139.25
IV Solutions $88.29
IV Therapy $262.00
Medical/Surgical Supplies $832.00
Sterile Supplies $967.00
Laboratory $32.00
Lab/Chemistry $960.00
Lab/Hematology $185.00
Lab/Pathology & Histology $83.00
CT Scan $3,991.00
OR Services $4,608.00
Anesthesia $576.00
Emergency Room $1,205.00
Drugs Require Detail Code (??) $588.14
Recovery Room $680.00

TOTAL charges $16,990.86

Seeing those magical words, Insurance billed; THIS IS NOT A BILL . . . priceless

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Daycare trouble

Our daycare is under investigation. For the complete story, see this link.

First of all, this teacher, whoever it is, is not teaching either of our kids. Ruth is in the room below where the incident happened and Ariel is in the 4-year-old room.

(It should be noted that the parents outside of those directly involved have not been told anything specific about the occurrence, just that an investigation is underway. Tegan and I have been searching the news since we first were informed last Friday. This web story is the first concrete details that we have.)

Both Tegan and I are disturbed by this, but not instantly agitated. I guess right now we are letting the investigation take place and are waiting to see what occurs. We have never had complaints about our children's treatment at this center. We enrolled our kids there this past summer, so it has been around nine months.

We have always noted a difference in the atmosphere at this center as opposed to the one we used since Ariel was born back in 2000. Our current center is more "business-like" whereas our old one felt more "family-0riented." We had a more personal connection to the teachers at the old center, but I have always attributed this to the fact that our kids literally grew up there and we grew up as parents there as well.

So, what do we do now? I don't WANT to move our kids to another center . . . but we will if we don't feel that our kids are safe there. I don't feel that way right now, but I will be more watchful and wait for the investigation to conclude. According to our old center director-friend the daycare corporation has a very good investigative procedure and, depending on the outcome of the investigation, the teacher in question and director herself will be removed.

I certainly can't speak for other parents, but will it be enough to satisfy us? We'll see.

Monday, March 28, 2005

Indigestion, trilogies, and some other stuff I forgot

[NOTE to self: when you have a good idea for a post, drop everything--except any children you happen to be carrying--and go write it. If you get an idea in the shower, wrap a towel around yourself and run; if it is at some inopportune time, then re-evaluate your priorities!]

Yeah, this post idea was crystal clear and full-formed a few days ago. Flush with hubris, I didn't bother to do it then. Instead, here I am now, lamely trying to recreate the glory just because I got nothin' better to do right now.

Update on the convalescence: staples removed today. It hurt a bit, thanks for asking. Imagine if you were two sheets of paper, held together with 15 of those small staples that come from very small thumb-sized staplers that we all had in college on our dorm room desk. And then imagine that each of those staples is pulled from those pieces of paper. It would feel discomforting. Sure, it didn't last long but it is still gonna hurt, okay?

But, at least I am now metal free and no longer part human, part machine. I hope that I can continue to wear clothing without irritating chafing for many more years to come.

The most difficult of the convalescence to this point has been my stomach. It is getting better, I think, but I am still very cautious about what I eat. I hope that it goes away soon because I STILL haven't had a cheeseburger or a doughnut in quite some time. And sometimes, as many of you know, the best part of the day is lunchtime--partly for the company, but also for the food. And without the food, then its just company.

But, I plan to go back to work on Tuesday. I hope it goes well. I have had my time off and my recovery has gone well, considering.
*****
So, if I am going back to work then what does that mean?

The next planned event, of course. So many choices, right? March Madness is winding down and the inevitability of the winner and the great many losers is becoming painfully clear. But never fear, there are many other things to celebrate.

1) Lulu's promotion is certainly noteworthy! While I never doubted her getting the job, we'll all be sad to see her leave the light canyon. But much like the Yankees, I hope we can replace one All-Star with another. Let's hope for the best--and its not like Lulu's going anywhere, right? I mean, not too far at least.

2) The Roadhouse viewing at Shirtless's place. Rumored to be in the works. That would be fun, certainly. But what kind of food do you bring to a Swayze party? Lots of cheese, I'm thinking.

3) Upcoming movies. Always a popular choice with me. But what is upcoming? Well, there is the 800 pound gorilla that no one wants to talk about--Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.
*****
I admit it, I have a weakness for trilogies. How else to explain the fact that I foisted the two bad Matrix movies on my disappointed co-workers? Was I a dupe of marketing, hype, expectation, bad philosophy? Yes, to all.

As a young lad, I like everyone else, loved the original Star Wars trilogy. I was also hopeful for the release of Episode 1 The Phantom Menace, back in 1999, was it? Sure, it wasn't as good as I hoped, and sure, my car was stolen during the night as I slept. But is that an omen? I don't know.

Even so, I saw Episode 2: Attack of the Clones. I was prepared for it to disappoint, and it did in a lot of ways. But even in those two movies, there were good moments. I am not defending George Lucas, but he can put some spectacular visuals on the screen (and I am NOT talking about Princess Amidala here).

So, was about Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith?

Well, I don't know. Every since they announced that these three movies would be made, THIS one was the one I looked forward to. The rise of Darth Vader; the fight with Kenobi; the surrender to the Dark Side. It might make for some compelling storytelling--if you had good actors, good writing, a good director--which probably are lacking, I'm afraid.

But it might LOOK cool. Is that enough?

The reason I even bring this up is because of Star Wars: Clone Wars, the short animated films that fill in the story between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. These films have shown a lot of the excitement, action, lack of crappy dialogue, and character development, and adult action (very little to no stupid kid-stuff) that made Eps. 1 & 2 so disappointing.

I saw several of them over the weekend on Cartoon Network. It sort of whetted the appetite a bit. But I am still cautious.

I hope Revenge of the Sith doesn't suck. Will I be surprised if it does? Not really. Will I take the chance and go see it?

The jury is still out on that one--but if my stomach won't let me eat Goobers, then probably not.

Thursday, March 24, 2005

Recovery isn't much fun

I know that this isn't news to anyone. Recuperating from surgery is boring, tedious, painful, depressing.

The wound itself is progressing well, I guess. There is bruising but the pain gets less each day. My mobility is improving, but I still lie down each afternoon for a while--otherwise I start getting bad back-aches in the evening.

The worst thing, by far, is the very limited amount of food that I can stomach. The doctors said that I should keep it bland, focusing on clear liquids and broths for several days. It is not at all fun thinking about beef/chicken broth for lunch. I have been eating a lot of toast, because that doesn't seem to affect me badly. But that gets old. I ate an apple with my toast yesterday morning and that seemed all right. But in the hopes that my stomach was improving, I ate a small ham sandwich with a bit of cheese for lunch.

Bad idea.

All night long I had bad indigestion, lots of discomfort, and a steady fear of throwing up like I did on Monday morning.

Luckily I woke up feeling much improved today, but I wonder when my stomach will be able to handle more complex foods. It is discouraging, let me tell you.

On the plus side, FX has just finished showing my favorite collection of Buffy episodes ever, the arc leading up to the end of season 4 (the Mayor's ascension, Faith goes off the deep end, the seniors graduate, Angel leaves Sunnydale for his own show). So that has occupied some of my time.

But, there isn't much more to do other than some laundry, finish the taxes, try to catch up on blogging.

I know that all of you sitting at work would probably love to have this kind of time . . . so, I'll leave it at that.

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Mulan's Favorite Sunday Story

A few Sunday's ago Ariel and I sat down and she started drawing pictures for a book that she wanted to make. She drew all of the figures, colored them, and then told me what the picture represented. I wrote down what she said, almost 100 percent word-for-word, only occasionally trying to get a more complete thought or sentence out of her for clarity's sake.

We did about half of the book that day and then stopped for a few weeks. When we got back to it, she added a few more pictures and I helped a bit more with the coloring this time (at her request). What follows is a story that Ariel created, called "Mulan's Favorite Sunday Story." It is, as those of you familiar with the Disney version might recognize, based upon the characters and situations in that animated movie.

(I will try not to write on top of what is already written on the page, only commenting when necessary.. I think the scanned pictures show the book's text fairly well.)

















(This picture represents the Emperor of China.)


(This final page is the one where Ariel wanted to write the words herself. It says: "Mulan's horse follows her everywhere and is her best friend.")

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

FINALLY! Something interesting to write about, part 3

This is part three. Please go back and read part one and part two before proceeding to achieve full congnitive understanding.

Ah sweet recovery! Nothing but ice cream, unlimited television, lots of sleeping, and all in pajamas or even less! Sure, its not all that glamorous. I haven't had ice cream in about two weeks and shudder to think what would happen if I tried. I have spent a lot of time in significantly less than pajamas and I have been watching more than my share of television plus sleeping a lot as well. But, there have been problems.

Of course, spending your time in a hospital is not fun. Constant interruptions during the day and in the night to draw blood, take blood pressure, what-have-you. The IV tube in your arm is always getting in the way. And then, there is the PainBall.

What's that, you ask? Well, I didn't know. When I awoke in my recovery room I had two little tubes protruding from my abdomen, leading into a little black fanny-pack thing. According to Tegan, who was told by the surgeon, this thing constantly leaks numbing medication into the wound for several days. It must be cutting edge technology because for the first day every nurse and orderly that woke me up exclaimed in confusion whenever they saw it. It didn't instill lots of confidence in my mind.

Plus, whenever I had to get up--I was told to walk three times a day at least--I had to keep up with this thing as well as the IV stand. It was challenging and annoying.

Tegan spent two nights in the hospital with me (Tuesday and Wednesday). Big, huge thanks go to Marsha who came over to the house Tuesday night in the swirl of decisions and confusions to watch our girls. She kept up with our two girls plus her two boys and (I doubt it) got some sleep. Tegan stayed with me and woke up early to get the girls ready for school the next morning on Wednesday. My parents dropped everything and drove up from Georgia, arriving on Wednesday, to help Tegan with the girls as well.

I stayed in bed a lot, didn't eat any food of any sort until Thursday afternoon. I was restricted to clear foods, gelatin, broth, all kinds of yummy stuff. I am still sticking to that mostly, because my body just isn't ready to handle more than that yet (as I discovered to my dismay this past Sunday night and yesterday morning).

Some things that had to be reevaluated due to my sudden surgery and general disappearance:

1. My NCAA tournament office pool was quickly reevaluated and some people were left out because we had to go to paper brackets at the last minute. But, many people did participate and Flip is doing a great job of keeping up with things in my absence.

2. I had to forgo the company bowling outing that was scheduled for last Friday. I hear from Shirtless that it went very well and he is the proud owner of the most awesome bowling trophy ever! Way to go S!

3. The upcoming trip to San Francisco to celebrate our 10th anniversary will have to be postponed. I will be (according to the doctors) fully recovered, but I don't know how ready I will be to walk a lot in SF, eat seafood, or generally enjoy the trip like the two of us should. So, we are canceling reservations, trying to get money back with our sob-story, and trying to decide when we can find another time this year to reschedule. A major disappointment, but this is one experience that we won't let slip through our fingers.

My faithful office friends came to visit me while in the hospital. I got to celebrate the release of our project files with the ritual gong-banging. If I had been feeling stronger I might have take out my frustrations on the accursed gong, but it was good to know that the project is wrapping up well. Other friends brought me a wonderful assortment of unexpected gifts that really cheered me up on my next-to-last day in the hospital--a LotR Frodo action figure, a DVD of Roadhouse, and a nice Spiderman poster autographed by Tobey himself. I am surprised that I didn't swoon from weakness.

So, what's next? The doctor told me not to not to lift anything heavy for a week and I should also stay away from work for about a week as well. I got out of the hospital last Friday and have been doing pretty well. I can move around fairly well and haven't taken any pain reliever stronger than ibuprofen so far. But I did try to eat regular foods a bit too fast and paid for it on Sunday/Monday. I had even planned on returning to work for a few hours yesterday before my stomach and everything told me to take it a bit easier.

So, right now I am trying to finish our tax report for 2004. After that there is laundry and other stuff to do. I have a bit of pain when I bend and twist, and my scar is certainly beautiful to admire. I return to the doctor on Monday to have the staples removed and I don't want to think about that very much.

Right now I am trying to focus on eating the right kinds of bland foods and looking forward to my first cheeseburger and doughnut.

I hope everyone out there is doing well.

Monday, March 21, 2005

FINALLY! Something interesting to write about, part 2

This is part 2 of a multi-part (?) story. You really should read part 1 before proceeding--unless you are into non-linear Joyceian stuff.

So, when we left off . . . I was in severe abdominal pain for about two-plus days. Tegan and I went to the ER to see what was what. There, after a CAT scan, it was discovered that I had some mysterious abdominal blockage in my small intestine. Surgery was the best course of action to remedy the situation.

After determining not to consider the worst possibilities, we got ready. Naturally, during all of this we were without a cell phone. Our one phone that we share started dropping calls and not sending calls during T's recent trip to Texas, so we had called Cingular and asked for a replacement to our 6-month-old phone. It had not yet arrived in the mail.

Luckily, a member of our church heard the news and came to visit. You see, we are hosting a Lenten bible study at the house and were calling the members to tell them that that night's (Tuesday) meeting would not occur. Fred arrived and was kind enough to lend us his wife's cell phone for as long as we needed it. Tegan started making phone calls to others, informing them of the situation. I started getting ready for the early afternoon procedure.

I wasn't worried, really. I think T was much more concerned that me. I have had several surgeries over the years and have many, many scars to show for it. (Maybe that is why I like Road House so much, hmm? I mean, aside from the awesomely bad mullet and the philosophical judo larynx maneuver.) But, I was confident and ready for whatever came. I hope Tegan wasn't too worried.

After waiting for the OR to free up and for the doctors to scrub up, review the situation, and do whatever they had to do, I was getting ready to be wheeled from the ER trauma room I had been in for the last four hours and head upstairs.

But first, disrobing. Good bye shirt, pants, socks, shoes, and underwear. I won't see you again for about three days!

Now a bit chilly, I am ready to head upstairs. Fred said a quick prayer, did a brief anointing with oil (he is a trained deacon), and T and I headed up to the pre-op room for more waiting. There, they graciously gave me some warm blankets and started hooking me up to IVs, giving me fluids, starting the numbing medicine. I briefly talked to the anesthetist, said goodbye to T and feel asleep somewhere down the hallway to the OR.

When I woke up, I was in post-op, feeling groggy. I have no idea how long it took or how long before I woke up. The doctor who did the surgery told T that everything went fine and provided her with this handy visual guide to explain what went on:

What you see here is a highly technical drawing of my abdomen. The snaky coily thing is my small intestine. The shell-like item lying atop the intestine is a layer of fat called the "omenum." Apparently, some of this fatty omenum got coiled around and behind the small intestine, applying pressure on the tube and pinching it off. How? I don't have any idea? But the surgeons relieved the pinch and the intestine sprung back into place like it should. Now my bowels were free to operate as intended.

The other weird thing they noticed was that, probably due to the complications of the bowel obstruction, my appendix (that very small little oval that is circled by the dotted line, was also beginning to be inflamed. So they removed it as well before it caused trouble.

So, that was the surgery story. Next up . . . RECOVERY!! (Full of strain, pain, some much-needed laughs, and other changes. Stay tuned for more!)

Saturday, March 19, 2005

FINALLY! Something exciting to write about.

I have been in the hospital for the past week.
(I bet that was something you don't normally expect to read on this site.)

It all started last Sunday. In the mysterious dark of the early morning hours I awoke with a sharp, painful feeling in my abdomen. I tried to ignore it and went back to sleep. When I fully awoke a few hours later, the pain remanded. It felt sort of like food poisoning pain that Tegan and I had experienced a few months ago after some ill-fated Bob Evans salads. So, I thought back and remembered some breakfast sausage that I reheated on Saturday morning and surmised that it was bad. I told T. that I was feeling some pain and she told me to stay in bed. We ended up staying home from church that day and Tegan kept the kids away from me, thinking (whatever it was) that it might be contagious and we didn't want the kids to get it.

So, I stayed on the bed all day, trying to ignore the pain that kind of came and went. Tegan kept up with the kids downstairs while I watched conference tournament basketball games and an endless supply of bad sci-fi movies on cable (2010, Mission to Mars). The best part of the day was when Ruth wanted to come upstairs and eat her snack on the bed with me (apparently she missed me). She ate cheese and crackers; I sipped bullion broth and nibbled on some crackers; we watched Florida demolish Kentucky in the SEC tournament final for about ten minutes.

That night I wasn't feeling any better and had only briefly thrown up one time, so I should have guessed that it wasn't food poisoning, but I didn't. I woke up on Monday and didn't feel any better. I told Tegan that I had better stay home from work and see if I could get over this. She got the kids ready for school and I stayed up in bed, dozing, trying to find comfortable positions, ignoring the fairly constant abdominal pains, watching ESPN, Angel and Buffy reruns, sleeping some more, trying to read, eating absolutely nothing. (It never dawned on me that I was not using the bathroom very much. . . .)

Tegan decided that what I had wasn't some kind of 24-48 hour stomach virus, since I wasn't throwing up and wasn't showing any improvements either. So that afternoon we went to the local urgent care and after an hour of waiting I told the doctor (Dr. Vaughn--even though he looked more like Weiss than Sydney's lovah) my story. He took some x-rays and . . .
(I should stop and say that here comes all the graphic, embarrassing, biological stuff that you only talk about when sick and putting yourself in the care of others--if you are offended by these things then stop reading now, but I warn you . . . you'll miss a good story.)
the doctor said that I looked to be pretty constipated. I then realized that, yeah, I hadn't had any bowel movements in several days but I chalked that up to eating nothing since Saturday. I wondered if the large portion of spaghetti that I had eaten on Saturday night was the culprit behind all of my problems. So, the doctor prescribed a laxative pill to take before I went to bed and suggested I try an enema as well. Which . . . I did.

By Tuesday morning, no improvements. The pain was still there and maybe getting a bit worse. I called in sick to work again and this time Tegan stayed home with me. The Weiss-like Dr. Vaughn warned me that their facilities didn't have all the medical equipment and if things didn't get better to go the a family doctor or to the hospital for more advanced checks. Tegan took me to the hospital that morning and after a brief wait in the ER lobby, we were assigned a trauma room and they got all my vitals, started asking questions, and began thinking.

They decided to take a CAT scan of my abs. That, unfortunately meant I had to drink 2 Big Gulp-sized cups of something that they called "contrast." It tasted a bit like fruit punch with a mediciny aftertaste. I threw up 1/2 of the first Big Gulp and struggled through the next cup after about another 45 minutes of small sips. Then we waited for the CAT scan machine to free up. I was scanned, and the verdict was NOT constipation (I was very happy that I wouldn't have to have THAT be my big sickness.) Instead, it appeared that I had some obstruction in my small intestine that was preventing everything from operating and causing the pain. They didn't know WHAT the obstruction was, but the best chance to fix everything was to operate . . .

(more to come later . . .)

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

visuals

It is nice to be seeing my project come to an end.

I have been thinking about it for many months now and while I can't honestly say that it has consumed most of my time, it has been a constant presence in a great deal of recent months. As deadlines approached, I did more work at home than I wish to do.

But I think it has paid off and that the end result is worthy of a feeling of satisfaction. It's not perfect, but not much in my business is and I am not willing to obsess enough to try and make it more perfect.

So, that leaves me here at the end of a day with some free time on my hands. So, I want to fiddle with some pictures that I recently took and post them.


I have always liked photography. I don't claim to be particularly skilled at it, but it is something that I aspire to improve upon. My dad is, in my opinion, a good amateur photographer. He has certainly taken many pictures over the years. I have many memories of our annual slide shows, where we sat down as a family and reviewed the trays of slides from when my parents were newlyweds in Kentucky, my dad with his Army Reserve haircut and my mom in her college-aged years. Then my brother MSquared as a young boy and other photos from those early married years.


Then came my other brother Muleskinner. By this time Mom and Dad had moved to Georgia. It was all basic family photos: in the back yard, beside the car, in the house doing stuff. All very normal and ordinary, but those photos took on a deeper and richer history over time and with each viewing. My family has a tendency to (in my opinion) invest a feeling of tradition in many of the things we do. There is a sense of ritual, but not meaningless ritual. Instead it is something that helps connect us together as a unit--even though we are all growing older and in some ways become less and less alike.



My sister MA came next. Interspersed with pictures of her as a baby were pictures of MSquared as a young boy and toddler Muleskinner. There were also pictures of other relatives and cousins visiting the house and holiday visits back to Kentucky. Pictures of the family dog and pictures of Georgia in the spring, azaleas and dogwoods blooming, late Sixties Easter clothing (pastels and striped pants).



Then came pictures of little me--never as many in proportion to the rest as I would often complain. But, oh well. There were the posed school pictures, all t-shirts and buck teeth. There were more pictures of everyone else, all a bit older and looking more and more like "themselves" as time goes on. The personalities became more real. Also Mom and Dad getting older, more adult and parental, more as I have always seen them in my minds eye. Pictures of them in Hawaiian leis during a business trip. Pictures of the childhood home that I remember, not the one that was lived in before MA and I came along, but the REAL house.



It seems like we watched these same slides every year. I don't' think I ever thought of it in the stereotypical way that sitcoms portray slide shows. I found it fun to put up the projector, turn off the lights, and hear the tray clack along its circular track. The projector always emitted that sound of the small fan blowing to cool off the bulb, blowing out hot air if you were sitting beside it or trying to coax the slide tray to move properly to the next picture. Inevitably there were slides sideways or upside down. Those were always fun.


Most of the slides were taken before I was born, so I always got a glimpse of family life before me or pictures of places Mom and Dad went without us--exotic business trips and other things like that. I don't take as many pictures as I think my dad did or others do. Sometimes I think about how these years will be remembered by my children. In this digital photo world, will there be a reliable record of their childhood? I hope so. I hope they can look back on some things and feel a sense of connectedness, a sense of family.

Slate x 2

Two items from Slate.com this morning:

1. An additional viewpoint on the myth of perfect motherhood. Lulu did such a good job of responding to my last post on this topic that no one else felt the need to share. Maybe you have something to venture now?

2. This article tricked me with its title Your i-Pod is worth $1 billion. Now, I don't have an i-Pod, but I was intrigued. Was it Steve Job's personal machine with platinum gears? How? But it turns out to be much less intriguing. Undaunted, I link to it anyway . . . because I made a decision to do so, and I shall not go back on that decision!!

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

PiMPin' ain't easy

Those of you who work with me at the Hill (which constitutes 98% of my readership I am afraid) know all about the new computerized evaluation system that has been implemented in recent weeks.

In the past I kept track of my work activities in a Word document that I saved on my work station hard drive. Every new project that I began, every make-work job that they threw at me, I kept track of with a snazzy bulleted list.

When the snow began to melt and the birds started chirping, we knew that winter was on its way out and that our annual evaluations were soon to come.

So, my manager would email each of us and remind us to dust off our lists, write up our self evaluations of the previous year, and send it to him. Then the two of us would sit down, discuss, and we would move on with our lives.

Sounds simple enough, right?

Well, now that system is too easy. Each employee must log onto the Performance Management Process system (affectionately know by me as the PiMP) and use various screens to create and track my Key Job Responsibilities, assign measurable metrics to evaluate my success at achieving these goals, and do other stuff that only students working on a Master of Business Administration degree would bother caring about.

So, why do I tell you this?

Well, for the past week I have been successfully putting off that most important of initial steps--creating my PiMP plan. So, I turn to you, my loyal readers for assistance.

Can you help me decide what my PiMP goals and competencies should be? How can I implement these goals with a PiMP development plan?

(And, NO, step 1 will not be: Go buy Huggy Bear outfit.)

Friday, March 04, 2005

Sum-m Sum-m tizzle only Shirtless can truly understand, but it's funny

You have gots ta chizzay this site out--Gizoogle
Follow tha link n use it ta translate otha web pages into language tizzy only Snoop D-to-tha-izzogg could understand.
Who knew thizzay Bizzurb was so hip?
(And jizzle in case you don't really believe tizzle I am that hizzle I translated this before I posted it.)

Illustrated Oscar Party

So, last Sunday night I went over to Spec's place and we had ourselves an Oscar party.

The idea was to pick a character from a movie that was released in 2004 and dress up in a manner similar (hopefully) to that character. It's a whole kind of theme, you see?

So, I did, and we did, and there are pictures to prove it--such as:


As you can see here, there are a great number of us in Spec's apartment. (That's him with the hat in the top left, impersonating Howard Hughes from The Aviator. Beside him is Cordelia, dressed up as someone that I don't know because I didn't see the movie, because I'm not very cultured. Beside her is Jack Thunder, dressed as Joel from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Moving down to the seated partygoers is me (newly shaved for the occasion) in my role as Peter Parker from Spiderman 2. (You can't tell it but I have on a black t-shirt under my regular shirt and it had a Spiderman logo. Lulu is next to me, dressed as Eternal Sunshine's Clementine. Then there is Cameron as Bridget Jones, Terrie and her husband as Virginia Madsen and Thomas Hayden Church's Sideways characters, and Dr. Actually as Michael Moore.


This picture is noteworthy because it actually captured Jack T. smiling about something that was on television. I don't know how rare that actually is, but it seems like is should be fairly rare, so I thought I would include it. Also you get a good view of the wonderful spread of chocolate fondue that Spec laid out before us. (Come to think of it, that might be the real reason that Jack was smiling here.


Here you see me again, flanked by the lovely Raisinette, who was impersonating a college survey taker from Kinsey and the equally lovely E. who was dressed as Julia Roberts in Closer. I, as you can tell, am succeeding to look more like some old man that Spiderman's alter ego, but oh well.


Here is a better picture of Cordelia and Jack. I especially wanted you to get a good look at the authentic, period clothing of Cordelia's outfit. It is real folks, and looked very nice. A commendable effort.


We all had a great time. Thanks Spec for putting on a good event and thanks to Tegan for allowing me to go while she stayed home with the kids that night.

Thursday, March 03, 2005

Some flotsam, a bit of jetsom

1) Have you heard about the Hobbit? No, sorry, it's not really related to the Lord of the Rings but only serves to show how pervasive popular culture can be. Even scientists are trying to get down with the hip vernacular. I suppose they are desperate to show kids that they are cool, too?
"Come on kids. We're not all nerds in lab coats. We know where it's at. Don't you watch CSI? Laboratory work is the bomb!"

2) Speaking of hip . . . I have always thought that money was cool . . . or could at least allow you to purchase the accoutrements of coolness. (Shut up.)
But anyway, the newest news on money is that the U.S. government simply can't stop messing with it. I mean, look at these changes.

But, I try not to judge too much. Still, why won't they change the dollar? Doesn't GW deserve that much from a grateful nation?
3) And . . . finally, I noticed on VH-1 last night that the ladies on The Fug Blog have been picked as commentators on one of those "awesomely bad" shows. This one was about horrible celebrity outfits, so it was appropriate.
But I got a little jealous. I guess, in order to make a name for yourself in the blog-o-verse, you have to be connected to the Damn Hell Ass Kings somehow.
Maybe if I link to them a lot they'll notice me.

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Wow!!! I can't believe this turn of events

I haven't read much about this, but I simply HAD to link this on my blog immediately.

I often make references to that great Patrick Swayze movie, Road House.

Why? Well, I don't know really. Its not the kind of movie people typically reference, so that appeals to me. It makes me think of my brother MuleSkinner, who introduced me to it . . . though I don't think he believes it is fine cinema or anything.

And besides, how many cheesy 80s movie involve bare-chested Swayze, a mullet, and someone having their larynx ripped out? (Well, many feature the first two, but no one but RH features the last.)

So, feast your eyes on THIS!

(Why do I feel completely vindicated?)

Promised links

For those of you who were as disappointed as I was by my Oscar-related blog--here are two links that might help you. [NOTE: I have read the Fametracker item but have not checked the TeeVee post for any potentially insulting content. Proceed at your own risk.

Fametracker's Galaxy of Fame, Oscar edition

TeeVee live Oscar blog