Notival

Im sorry for stealing some random pornstar's hair. I promise I did not mean to. Though, it is possible that it actually came from Hardcastle & Mccormick instead.

I dont want 80s pornstar hair, but that seems to be the natural state of my mane if I do not take steps each morning to prevent it.

I left work at noon yesterday. Went up to the laser clinic where my eyes were doped and poked. Everything went pretty much according to plan. And I now have an appointment for 9 am on Friday to have my eyes laze-errd.

Nothing much more to it. They took pictures and topology. I asked them to send me copies of all the pictures. Hopefully they'll do that. It wasnt a request they get much. If ever. The main doctor seemed to think that the intern could do it, but he did not have any idea of how himself. I think I could figure it out in about five minutes. We'll see.

Yesterday evening, we (the weefay, the squid, and squid-friend) went to the Body Worlds exhibit. The overall exhibit was smaller than I was expecting. It was interesting, as cadavers tend to be. Though, I had to wonder if the poses they were in were indicative of their real life activities. Some of them were, Im sure. But the twirling dancers, I have my doubts.

The title is untrue. But I went Tuesday and Wednesday without drinking any soda. Not on purpose or by design, but it just happened that I was drinking water. It would have been a caffeine free couple of days, except that I drink tea when I am home. I dont really like water, but drink 2-3 pints a day at work. At home, I usually drink 1-2 quarts of tea in the evening. Today I got a soda. I felt the need for sugar, more than anything. It's just good sometimes.

By this time tomorrow, I should be able to see mostly clearly without the aid of glasses or contacts. It is that thought that is consuming most of my head right now. I'll report on it in a few days. It will probably be a few hours before I can comfortably stare at a computer screen. The doctor's instructions are to keep the eyes closed if possible for a couple hours. But not really take a nap, since you have to put in eyedrops every hour. So, that should be fun.

The Squid is going back to OK today. I think she's had a good week. Im sure she likes her new camera, it's better than mine and Ninsi's. Going to have to get us a new one soon. Need a nice one before we go to Alaska anyway.

Im slowly being consumed by the desire for a new car...

Im home now. Post Lasik surgery. Right now, I can see better, but I cant actually keep my eyes open very long. I also cant keep them closed. They are so sensitive to the light, that I have to close them. But when I close them, they sting like Ive been up way too long and need to sleep. Sleep, btw, is right out.

Anyway, this will pass. Hopefully in the next couple hours. It is mostly annoying because my eyes are watering constantly. Im also crying all over the place. And it feels like I have something in my left eye, like an eyelash. Which may be the case, but I cant rub it to actually do anything about it. So that is an added irriitation at the moment.

Hopefully this post makes sense because I am typing it with my eyes closed at the moment because the screen is too bright too look at with my eyes open. Even wearing the sunglasses.

It is disconcerting if you ever go to the doctor and say "Hey, this thing is wrong with me," and the doctor says things like "Interesting," and at one point "Heh, that's cool," and finally, "Well, I dont really know what's wrong." That was my yesterday afternoon.

What's wrong, you ask?
My right arm is too big. It is swollen. It is noticably bigger than the left from the shoulder down. And it is slightly off-color. It has been this way since about Saturday. There's no pain, and Ive not had any trauma to the arm. So, yesterday, I went to see the doctor and he did his poking and prodding and listening and simple tests and question asking, and ultimately said he didnt know what was going on. He also thought it was cool that the ganglian cyst in my wrist occassionally causes my wrist to pop as it rolls over the bones.

Today, Im getting a sonagram done on my arm. There is a extremely low chance that I have a clot somewhere in my shoulder. The sonagram should show it. If not, then Im back to square one. A swollen arm, and no clue as to why.

Oh, he also recommended I take some aspirin, "just in case."

So, Im in the hospital now. Fortunately, it has a wireless connection for the laptop that Ninsi brought me this afternoon. I've been here since about noon.

I got checked in and went to get the ultrasound done. It took the tech about 5 minutes to find a clot in my shoulder. The bloodflow to my arm is fairly restricted. The tech called the radiologist, who called my doctor, who told them to go ahead and admit me to the ER. That all went fairly quickly. Once I hit the ER, everything slowed crawl.

By 1 pm, we knew pretty much what was wrong, but we didnt know the treatment, or the time, or if I was going to be admitted overnight, or for how many days, nothing. The thing that seemed to be the most baffling was that I was I was in no pain. They kept asking why I was in if there was no pain. The difference in the size of my arms was pretty obvious though.

So, Ninsi showed up a little after 1 with an overnight bag and the laptop. She sat with me while I paced around the little ER room I was in for the next four hours. Every now and again a nurse would come in and check on me, but all they really did was succeed in agitating me more because they really couldn't tell me anything. I think I probably annoyed them as well with my questions. The talked about the doctor that was handling my case, and said the attending doctor and a surgeon would come talk to me. I wasn't sure about the surgeon because the option of getting cut hadnt really been mentioned yet. A physician's assistant came by twice to talk to me, He was largely useless.

He was very unsure of himself, so did not instill within me a great deal of confidence, which only made me more nervous. At one point the nurse said the doctor was consulting with another doctor which made me thing it was even more serious. And I was also waiting on the admitting doctor to figure out what they were going to do with me. They eventually decided I was going to be admitted, and they found me a room.

But I had YET TO SEE AN ACTUAL DOCTOR. Up to this point I had been seen by half a dozen nurses, one physicians assistant, and an impossible to understand X-Ray tech. He came in, said who he was and what he did, and indicated I was to follow. I had no idea what he had said until I realized I was going into the x-ray room. His accent was just too thick.

The first nurse to take my blood missed the vein. She had the needle in my arm, and was moving it around trying to get into the vein, which kept rolling. That is the first time in my life that anyone has ever missed a vein. Those of you who know me, know that my veins are fairly prominent on my arms. All told today, I was stuck 3 times in my left arm. One nurse was going to stick me in the right arm until I told her that that was the one with a problem and we'd best stay away from it.

Finally, at about 4:45, the actuall admitting doctor came by. Soft spoken, but he seemed to know what he was talking about. He at least made me feel a whole lot better about the whole thing. Was able to answer my questions and even drew me a couple diagrams to illustrate.

To sum up: I have a clot, I need drug therapy to get rid of it. They have a pill that I will take for about six months to basically thin my blood. This will prevent the clog from growing and my body will basically reabsorb it. However, the pill takes about a week to reach a good level of blood thinningness (tm) so I have to take a quick acting shot twice a day in the meattime. This will be a self-administered shot that I have to take in the stomach. Because that is where I have enough fat to accept it. I suppose my buttocks would work as well, but Im not about to stick a hypodermic in my own ass.

About 6 o'clock, they finally got me up to a room so they can observe me overnight. The nurse then went through a crapload of questions. She seemed to not believe that I am not on any medications at all. Not even 'herbal' medicines or vitamins. She also asked if I had all my teeth, whcih was slightly less off than the one that appeared to be asking if I was allergic to dentures. Though it was really just her timing and inflections.

Anyway, Im otherwise not restricted. No dietary restrictions, nothing. I have no family, or personal, history of anything like this. So more than likely, it was caused by trauma. Unfortunately I can not think of anything that I have done to my arm that would have caused it. Maybe playing with the dog a little to rough. They actually said that it was more common for baseball players to get a clot like this. In the shoulder anyway. Because of the repetitive throwing motion. That's not my case either. So the actual cause is a mystery. We'll closely monitor for the next several months after the treatment to see if anymore develop. If that is the case, it may become a lifelong pill-a-day thing. I dread that thought.

With luck, I'll be home tomorrow. Maybe Friday. Should still be good for poker Saturday.

I was discharged from the hospital about 11 am yesterday. That gave me time to eat, go home, shower and change, and then make it to work by about 1. At no point have I felt bad, at all, so although sitting at home for the afternoon was an option, there was really no sense in it, since all it would really do is waste some of my precious PTO. In my opinion, paid time off is too valuable to be used when you arent enjoying it. So I came on in to work.

Giving myself the shot is no big deal. Pinch, poke, plunge. Done. Dispose of properly. About eight more times and that'll be that.

One thing I did notice in the hospital is that nurses are a lot more strict and pessimistic than the doctors. The doctor told me I'd probably be home by early afternoon Thursday (which I was) but the nurses talked to me like I would be there a few days. When I told the first one (Azmina, who didnt believe that I take no medications, aspirins, or even herbal supplements) that I was leaving Thursday, she said that DVT patients always stay several nights. She was a little judgemental. And when I asked the morning nurse to let me do the shot myself, she told me that they would show me how that evening, so I could do it the next day. I was long gone before that.

I suspect the nurses would also tell me to not drink at all. Good thing I didnt ask them.

I go in Monday to my doctor for some quick bloodwork. To see how well my clotting agents are being suppressed. I'll just get the occassional blood test so as to make sure the dosage of my prescription doesnt need to change.

Hopefully, by Monday, my arm will be more normal sized. It's still a bit swollen. Though, it may remain a little larger as long as the clot persists, which will be for a couple months anyway.

Went to the doctor today for a quick checkup. It was really so they could draw some blood to get tested to see how well the Coumadin was taking effect. I gave them the $20 co-pay, and they proceeded to draw out SEVEN vials of blood. I think I deserved a cooked after that, but I got butkiss. My doctor decided to go ahead and run a bunch of tests that I didnt expect them to run until after I was off the Coumadin. They'll call me tomorrow with the results, so I'll know what my INR level is. Then probably get more blood taken next week. You'd think they wouldnt want to take so much blood from someone that may need as much as possible in the case of a cut. And probably another ultrasound in 4-6 weeks to see the status of the clot itself.

Otherwise, everything is gravy.

My blood is still fairly thick. Five days into the Coumadin and my INR is still only 1.3. The doctors want it closer to 2. So my dosage is being increased for a week, and I'll get more blood drawn out next Tuesday or so. There may be something in my diet that interferes with the Coumadin. Or it could just be too low a dosage for me currently. It's a trial and error dosage drug, so this isnt really unexpected.

They did say I no longer need to shoot up with the Lovenox, though. Which is good, since Im now out of that drug, and didnt exactly relish the idea of buying more. Apart from the having to give myself a shot, it's a fairly expensive drug that insurance companies dont like to pay for when it is being administered at home. At about $70-80 per shot, I did not want to have to fight to make them pay for it.

New phones are in, may change my number.

Weekend was good. Got wet.

Doc only took one vial of blood today.

Muddy track does not make for easy betting.

Lawn is getting out of hand.

The drugs for the clot don't seem to be working. My clotting factor is going the opposite direction. A week ago it was 1.3. It is supposed to be up near a 2.0. The doctor isnt going to believe me that I am not changing my diet. My dosage has been increased again.

I may have to engage in a personal therapy of a drink or two per day. That should help the thinning.

When nothing takes long, you can do a lot at lunch. Amongst other things, I went to Best Buy at lunch today. Was thinking I might buy "Bubba Ho-tep." Some of you may recall it as being among the best movies to appear this decade.

I did not see it on the aisles, so I asked the guy if they had it. He said 'yup' and immediately led me to where he thought it was. His hand reached for, and nearly picked up, Ben Hur before he realized the error.

There's a B. There's an H. Outside of that, you really can't draw any similarities between those two movies. Okay, I've give you the 'U', but that's about it. Not even close. As luck would have it, they aren't currently stocking Bubba Ho-tep in the stores because it is being re-released in August. So unless they have an old copy, they are waiting for the new edition. Maybe I'll wait for that as well. Not on purpose, mind you. Odds are, I will forget to buy it in the next week, and it will be August before I remember again.

On the blood clot front, I started my new self-prescribed therapy last night. It involved a splash of Martini&Rossi, and a little more Goose. I feel better already.

The doctor's office called me today. They finally got in the results from all the blood they took last week. The results were 'indefinite.'

So, now Im going to be referred to a hemotologist.

Sometimes, we do dumb things.

As I mentioned last week, I had to send back my Philips Norelco beard trimmer because the dog ate it, and they said they would just replace the whole thing. I had to send in the trimmer, and the charger cord, and any other bits that went with it. So, I sent all that in last week, and am hoping to receive something from them about mid-month.

This morning, right before I got into the shower, I was debating whether or not to shave. I haven't shaved much the past three weeks. Im not trying to grow a beard, but wasn't wanting to be clean shaven either. But, lacking the trimmer, my options are beard, or clean shave every couple days. Anyway, this morning, as I was brushing my teeth, I looked at my shaver, which is also a Philips Norelco (the Spectra 8894) product, and noticed the cord was missing. Half a beat later, I realized what a dumbass Id been last week. I had sent in the charging cord for my shaver, instead of the trimmer.

I called them on my way into work this morning and explained my error. They couldn't simply send back my cord because that package goes to a different warehouse and will just be recycled. But the lady said she could just send me out a new charger! I'm really loving the customer service of Philips Norelco now. In two weeks, they've saved me from myself, and from my dog. In the meantime, my shaver is fully charged, and the charge usually will last me over a month of shaving, so I'll be fine until the cord arrives.

In other news: I have an appointment with a hemotologist/oncologist next Wednesday. He should be able to determine if anything is actually wrong with me, and if so, how bad it is.

Was in the office last night until just after 10 pm. Had to stay the extra five hours to implement some changes. They didnt all work. It was pretty much as expected. I also had a morning training class. Which wasn't completely worthless. It was just an overall very long day.

When I told the nurse yesterday about my plan to not come in and get blood drawn, she wasn't real receptive to the idea. I basically told her that the hours they kept did not work very well for me. Not opening until half an hour after I get to work, closing half an hour before I leave work, and then closing for the hour that Im at lunch. But she did find another place that I could go which was much closer to work, and open all day. So that is where I went for lunch. It was much easier. No muss, no fuss, no wait. I'll get the INR results tomorrow.

Probably go to the gym tonight. Time to get back into that rhythm.

Got my INR back today. Im at 1.3, so it has gone up, slightly. But not enough. Im starting to figure out why...

Ninsi wanted some blackberries when we were at the Farmer's Market last weekend. So we got some, and she gave some to me. She also cooked me dinner Monday night, and used a lot of soy sauce. And last night, she made me a salad with baby spinich.

Today, since my INR was not as high as hoped, I did some intergooglin' and found a site that listed Vitamin K amounts for various foods.

For a person taking Coumadin who is trying to increase his INR, you know what I can't eat?
Blackberries,
Soybeans,
Salads with Spinich.

Fortunately for me, I didnt eat the salad. I talked to the nurse for a bit and she was going back and forth to the doctor. Apparently they just assumed people dont eat as much fruit as I do. My diet is too healthy for this drug. It's a good thing I didnt get asparagus with my fish two days ago. That's even worse than blackberries.

The sum of my conversation with the nurse? Eat slightly less healthy - doctor's orders.
Now, who doesnt want to be me? ;)

Saw the specialist today. The good news is that I dont have cancer. And that's pretty much the only news I care about. He did say that they sometimes younger people (35 is younger in this case) are more resistant to the Coumadin. So, he was in the process of doubling my dosage when they tested my INR. Ninsi and I were in the exam room still but could here his slightly stunned expression of 'Oh!' when the nurse told him my INR was now 1.9. It has spiked quite a bit in the last week. So, we're not doubling. Just increasing slightly.

He was not real sure that diet actually had any effect on the INR. Im still unsure of that myself also. I'll be getting my blood tested weekly for at least the next month, but wont have to go see the doctor again for at least a month.

The only downer was that my bloodwork does appear to show that I have a genetic predisposition to clotting. Once Im off this round of Coumadin (6 months) and my blood is normal, they will do a full round of blood tests again and we'll know for sure. If those tests still show the 'slight abnormality' then the doctor will recommend that I stay on blood thinners for the rest of my life. That is doable. It's just a pill once a day. However, I would be more inclined to say "Lets wait for the next clot to see if Im really that suceptible to clotting. Then I'll pop pills forever."

In short, Im fine. And a bleeder!

Some of you know my friend Mo. She works here. This morning, when she came in, she saw this in her cube - Bo knows. I found it inordinately funny. Bo is pretty buff there. It is pretty old school to make the 'Bo Knows' reference. The real kicker is, she doesn't know who did it, but I do...

Went to the gym last night and ran a 5k in 26.5 minutes. I didnt mean to run at 7 mph the entire time, but I did. The last half mile almost put me down. I think I should start swimming some. Work new muscles.

Had a doctors appointment this morning. All is well. Mostly.
The nurse always takes your vitals before you see the doc. Blood pressure, temperature, pulse rate, etc. She took my temp this morning, and I knew something was wrong from the way she was looking at her digital readout. It took her a really long time to say "96.4 That's really low. Too low." So we did it again. It came out to 97.8. Still low, but better. I told her that maybe she needed a new thermometer. Otherwise, all is well.

Last night, Ninsi and I sat down in the living room to eat dinner. The TV had been recording something on SciFi, and so it was still on that channel when we flipped back to live tv. They were doing their Tuesday night wrestling thing. And as we watched for thirty seconds, the announcer said several inane things. He mentioned the martial arts training of one of the combatants, and then called him a 'mafrican' and a 'looner.' He then went on to say that he "beat to his own drum lord."

It was completely crazy. The SciFi wrestling may suck as a show to watch, but there's much humor to be gained from just listening to it.

I had my bloodwork done last week for the first time in about three weeks. I have been taking the Cumadin for almost a solid three months now. It is sporadic at best. I just talked to the assistant for my Dr, and my INR is a 1.0 as of last Wednesday. I would have better luck just taking aspirin.

I want a new drug. One that works.

So, I have this blood clot thing. Everyone is well aware of that. It was discovered back in May, the week before Labor Day. Since then, I have been taking medication to thin my blood so that it will stop growing, and can be absorbed properly. However, the process by which the dosage is calculated is fairly unscientific. Basically, you take the meds for a week, then get your blood checked. If it is too high, you lower the dose. And vice versa.

My general practicioner referred me to a specialist a long time ago. I figured that he would be better able to calculate the right dose for me, but it has been mostly more of the same. We raised it up to 12.5 mg and that was too high. So we lowered it down to 10, and that was too low. So he raised it back up to 12.5, and something weird happened and it was too low, so he jacked it up to 15. When it was at 15, my blood became dangerously thin. My PT/INR was higher than when he warned me to watch for blood in my urine.

So, I was instructed to lower it back down to 12.5. However, having been the one taking the meds for three months now, I knew that 12.5 was too much, most of the time. Somewhere out there, was a magic number that was less than 12.5, but great than 10.0. Whatever could it be? Because the doc sure as hell couldn't come up with anything not a multiple of 2.5. So I pretty much have been ignoring his advice and just went with 11. You read that right, Im taking 11 mgs of the stuff.

Got my results back today. My INR? Exactly where they want it. 2.4. The doctors can go fuck themselves.

So for those of you that know Khuul, he had a fist sized tumor removed from his colon yesterday. They also took out his spleen for good measure, while they were in there. Coming soon: chemotherapy. For someone my age, too many of my friends have had cancer. I think one is two many, but the number is now more than one, and we're mid thirties. We're about twenty solid years ahead of the curve. Go us. Bleh.

In other news, Ninsi is going to a country bar tonight with her trainees from work. I suspect she would enjoy it more if they were trannies. I'll abstain from the country bar. Instead, I'll lay around the house. Maybe fix a martini and paint the bedroom. No, the other bedroom.

Odds of a third dog being introduced to the household this weekend? Approaching unity.
Odds of that dog weighing a tenth of what either are current dogs weight? Let's just hope they dont think the new dog is lunch.

Went to the doctor this morning. Everything is still pretty much status quo. My blood levels are where they should be. They have been where we want them since I stopped listening to him.

It has been about five months now since the whole blood clot thing began. The doctor said that I should stay on the meds until the end of November, and then stop it for at least two weeks. At the end of the two weeks, my blood will be normal, and we will run the full gamut of blood tests again to see if there are any abnormalities.

So, after that, I can either stop the meds completely, or stay on them chronically. I am expecting the doc to recommend that I stay on them. We'll see how that plays out come December. I will probably also get a second opinion at that point as well.

I have managed to make it to the gym every day so far this week. And I think Ninsi and I are going again this evening. Mostly, I've ridden a bike. Monday I ran 5k and did weights. Which is probably what I will do again tonight. But Tuesday, my knee was bugging me, so I spent the last two nights just riding. If the knee keeps bothering me after a run, I may have to think about investing in a knee brace.

Aging sucks.

In other news, the wife and I are looking into a new bedroom set. We have furniture now, but none matches. So we want a completely matched set. Another friend of ours is wanting to sell his set, so we could buy it, and we may, but we want to look and see what we can find for new, first. Beds are not cheap. And she wants a King size, so we will have to buy new mattresses as well, and those will run us a few hundred dollars more. BTW, can someone explain to me the difference between a King size bed, and a California King?

I can envision the scenario where we buy three pieces of a bedroom set, and come back later in a couple months to buy two or three more pieces. Hopefully they wont discontinue the set after we buy the first part.

I stopped taking the blood thinning drug back in November. Not because the clot was gone or anything, but rather so that my blood would have a chance to return to its normal state so that the doctor could run a bunch of tests on it. I was originally supposed to go in sometime in December so that they could get the blood and run the tests. But due to potential insurance fiascoes, I pushed it out to this month.

Finally, I went in on the fourth and they took a bunch of my blood and sent it off for testing. I was expecting the results to come back as they had before, which was 'weakly positive' for the Lupus Coagulation Factor. That being the case would have required me to take the blood thinner daily for the rest of my life. But when the dr called today with my results, he said that everything came back negative.

I got the impression that he was mostly confused by that. He had already consulted with my general practitioner, and they had concluded that maybe my blood clot was just a freak thing after all. Which was my contention all along. If it happens again, I will have to have the drug for the rest of my life, but in the meantime, he said I was pretty much good to go. That maybe I should take a baby aspirin daily just as a minor preventative.

That, I can do. Or a martini.

Ninsi and I have pretty much stopped going to the gym for the time being. We're working out more at home instead. I haven't canceled our memberships yet, but if we continue to work out enough at the house, I will. We're mostly walking. And using the dumbbells while we walk. Im actually a little sore today. It's taken a few days to get to this point though. I think it was the wearing of the chainmail to add some extra weight that did it.

Mardi Gras is next week. We're not going to New Orleans. I dont know that we will really be doing anything in celebration. This weekend is the Super Bowl, so I'll probably watch that. And Im sure most of the clubs and bars down town will be doing things in recognition of the game and the party. Ninsi and I will most likely lay low on Saturday though since we're going to the Floggy Molly show on Sunday right after the game. I expect that to be a good time.

In other news: stupid economy.

It was cold this weekend. But not too cold. And the snow did not close down everything on Friday like some had prognosticated. I stayed home anyway. Mainly because I wanted to, and I have the hours. The weekend was largely uneventful.

Ate out Friday, piddled around Saturday, and Sunday I rented a Rug Doctor to do some cleaning on the carpets. The dogs do make a mess of them. And we wanted things to be a little cleaner since the Squid would be in town next week, as well as half a dozen members of Tracy's family.

The Rug Doctor did not exactly work wonders, but it did clean. We also moved the TV out of the bedroom. Ive been wanting to do that for a while. The room is much nicer looking now, what with the clean carpet and the ugly-ass old dresser moved out. And we have more room. That room is temporary, as we plan to get new bedroom furniture eventually, but it is nice in the meantime. And I think I like not having the TV in there.

We moved the TV to the spare bedroom. Of course, the satellite is not hooked up in there, and when I called Dish today to ask about having it connected, they told him it would cost $99 to have the technician come out and do the wiring. That's a bunch of bull. Im not going to pay them $99 just to connect a wire outside, which is about all they would have to do. I'll manage it myself, somehow. Or drop Dish and get DirectTV and they'll do the full hookup as part of an install special.

DDRing is not a game for old men. Like me.

I may have mentioned Friday that I wasn't feeling real swell. When I finally made it home after work, I took my temperature and it was a pleasant 100.6. That went a long way towards explaining how I felt. I was not able to actually take a nap though. Just couldnt get to sleep. Which is not odd. Naps don't go well with me. So, mostly, I did nothing Friday. Laid around, and went to bed about midnight. Ninsi gave me a muscle relaxer and I finally slept. Got a solid six hours before waking up. I dozed a little after that. But I haven't had six uninterrupted hours of sleep in weeks, so that was nice. I also felt more or less normal by Saturday morning. Good enough to mow the yard, anyway.

Ninsi and I drove down to the lake for a while, just to check it out. We may try to go out there sometime this Summer. Either for a picnic or just to hang out. Overall, a nice, but not exciting day. We had dinner with Zero Saturday night, and when we got home, the dogs did not greet us at the door. That always raises an instant red flag. If they arent at the door, something is going on, generally, or they have escaped the back yard.

I have put a whole lot of effort into making the backyard fairly escape proof, but that doesnt mean they couldnt manage it if they tried. And someone had mowed the empty lot next to us that afternoon, so the dogs had been riled up by that as well. Anyway, it turns out the dogs were in the backyard. Barley was staring at Luna, and Luna was standing guard over her latest kill. Apparently, when they were mowing the empty lot, they stirred up some rabbits. And at least one managed to get into our back yard. It was probably a lot easier to get in that it would be to get back out. There wasn't any fur left on the rabbit's head, and not much left on it's belly. It was pretty nasty looking, so I tossed it over the fence. Otherwise the dogs would have fought over it all night.

I've lost count of the woodland creatures Luna has now killed.

Played some racquetball last night with Zero. We played last Tuesday as well. It was the first time we had played since last May when I was found to have the blood clot. Racquetball was something that the doctor explicitly forbade me from doing while I was on the blood thinners. But it is good excercise, so we are playing again. After last week, I was a little sore, but not hurt. Last night though, I hit the wall hard once, and now my shoulder is actually bruised. I think I hit a seam in the wall, because there are distinct lines in my shoulder.

After we had played four matches, we were about to play one more and a couple guys asked if we wanted to play doubles. So we did. We arent very good, and they were much better than us. And one of them hit me right in the back with the ball. It hit it hard too. This morning, I have an oval shaped bruise on my left shoulderblade about the size of a flattened ball. It stung like a bitch last night. Now it is just sore from the bruising.

In random news, when I left work yesterday, I was still on the fifth floor of the parking garage, where I always park, when I saw a rabbit just hanging out. A young rabbit. I stopped the car and thought about catching him. But it didnt really want to be caught. That, and i wasnt exactly sure what I was going to do if I did catch it. I was more curious about what it was doing up where it was. It is a solid half-mile of concrete ramp to get to the fifth floor. Not something i would have expected a rabbit to do.

Maybe a hawk picked it up and dropped it there on accident.
Maybe a hawk picked it up again later, cuz I didnt see it today.

Got a call from the Squid Mama over the weekend. Apparently, Friday night, while doing a back hand-spring, the Squid broke her hand. They had got a temporary cast put on Saturday and were waiting to see a specialist this week.

The initial doctor said it was a broken finger, and probably pulled ligaments. Which would require surgery, and possible spell and end to the cheerleading career. They were supposed to go Monday, but I guess could not get an appointment. So, on Tuesday, they went to see the specialist. It was confirmed as a break to the middle finger, but no other damage. The Squid is now in a brace and will be a cheerleader again as soon as it is healed.

She is still going to cheer camp next month and most of the Summer. Then volleyball after that. She should be coming down here for a short visit towards the end of June.

I was hoping to get a copy of the X-Ray and post it, but I haven't been able to yet. I'll be sure to put it up once I get a copy, if I can finagle one.