Stuff of the Day

Update of the Day: Maybe just a tiny little trace hint of ketones in my urine this morning.  

So, I finally get semi-industrious last night, and try to go install the water filter I bought like 2-3 weeks ago.  The primary thing for which I borrowed James’ cordless drill/driver.  I clear out all the cleaning supplies, trash bags, etc., out from under the sink, and worm and maneuver myself up under and into there to get at the hoses running from the cold water valve to the faucet.  After all this contorting and work, I discover . . . the hose is larger than the one that came with the filter.  Like, 1.5x the size.  Thus, to my dismay, the filter I bought . . . yeah, totally won’t work with the plumbing for my kitchen sink in my apartment.  

Now, the reason I bought the under-sink in-line filter, was because the sink itself is really shallow, and the faucet head arcs out in a very low arc, giving maybe 7 inches, if that, of clearance between the bottom of the faucet and the sink.  I’d originally planned on just an on-faucet filter, but if I go with one of those, I’ll lose around an inch to an inch and a half of clearance, on something that’s already a small space.  I suppose I could replace the entire faucet assembly, but that’d be a lot more work than I’m comfortable with right now, would run a much higher risk of being noticed by the complex . . . and I think I’d still have to come up with some sort of adapter or something to go from the weird size of tubing from the valves to the faucet.  Oh, and it’d cost a lot more money.

So, I don’t know, maybe I’ll have to go with a filter pitcher or jug or something.  Not really happy either way.  If Midland water wasn’t so terrible, I wouldn’t care so much.

Called Dr. Doctor’s office this morning, to try to get her to pick up the ball she – or someone – dropped and get my damn prescription sorted out with the insurance company and pharmacy so I can start the treatment I apparently need.  Haven’t heard back yet.  I’m going to give them another 10 minutes or so, and call them again if I haven’t heard anything.  And then every 2 hours until 1, at which time I’ll start calling every hour if they haven’t taken care of it.  Ridiculous crap.

So, finally, Dr. Doctor said to come in and see her, briefly, she wouldn’t charge me.  I went in for an 11:10 a.m. visit.  Waited about 5 minutes, then got in to see her, spent slightly more than 5 minutes on the phone (she kept saying if it took more than 5 minutes she was going to charge me for a visit, and said she was watching the clock).  She griped at me for being impatient with her staff, then apologized to me.  Supposedly the pre-approval is taken care of, and I should be able to get the actual script filled now. 

Link of the Day: Geocities to (finally) close. – Amusingly topical, as I decries Myspace as Geocities 2.0 on Twitter today, and apparently that’s the funniest thing since suicidal clowns.

Spam of the Day: “Prepare for every possibility” – Uhm . . . how, precisely?

Funny of the Day: “We’re fucking marketable

Pic of the Day: I didn’t realize cameras were required for that, Pentax.  I’ve been doing it wrong?

Quote of the Day: “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is a little voice at the end of the day that says… I’ll try again tomorrow.” – Anonymous

Stuff of the Day: Eggsplosion Edition

Update of the Day: So, after going months at this job with almost no issues with being here on time, I’ve had a rougher time of it lately.  I resolved to fix that after being 40 minutes late one day (when I lost my phone, which was shut off, jammed between my bed and the wall), and I’ve been experimenting with some different alarm schedules.  Yesterday didn’t go so well.  This morning was going better, I was probably going to be at work right on target (3ish or so minutes “early”), though I could still have gotten up and moving 5 or 10 minutes quicker.  Then, as I was scrambling eggs in the microwave for breakfast – something I’ve done lots of times before with no issues – there was this loud popping sound emanating from said device.  It startled me, of course scared Baby into bolting into another room and into hiding (just as I’d given her a little bitty bit of half and half), and as I yanked open the microwave, I discovered what had happened: an eggsplosion.  The roughly 3/4 done scrambled eggs had popped somehow, and small little bits of soft eggy fragments were all over the inside of the microwave.  Not wanting to leave this as it was (and wanting to finish cooking the portion of eggs that remained in the container, so I could actually eat them), I spent probably 10 minutes cleaning up the inside of the damn microwave (which was nigh spotless before) so I wouldn’t have little stone-hard bits of crisped egg baking onto the interior.  So, I went from on-target, to walking in 4 minutes late . . . to an admonishment about slipping on that lately and instruction to fix it waiting for me.

Still no ketones in my urine this morning.  Irritating.

Went back to see Dr. Doctor this afternoon.  Waited for an hour and ten bloody minutes, and finally poked my head out of the room’s door to ask them if they’d forgotten about me, when finally she came in to see me and talk to me.  One of my hormone levels came back low on my bloodwork.  So that gets to get treated.  I was offered two options – come in every 3 weeks for a shot, which would result in big spikes and then falling levels of said hormone, or a gel that’s rubbed into the skin (and I guess permeates it and get into the bloodstream, like patches?) applied daily.  Opting for the latter, which the doctor thinks is the better option of the two (though more expensive) I’m going to get that filled tonight and get to start this treatment tomorrow morning.  Yet another thing I need to budget time in the morning for.

Oh yes, and she set me appointments for seeing both an Opthamologist and a Dermatologist.  I “possibly” have Rosacea, and I “possibly” have schleritis, but she’s worried about the way the redness on my skin is and how only the outer portion of my left eye seems inflamed, and listed an autoimmune condition in the tissue on my face as a possibility.  Probably not, but maybe.  Now, being someone who has watched every single episode of House broadcast, a little part of my mind started to freak out at the word “autoimmune.”   Lovely.  All of these office visits, and probable prescriptions to go along with, will of course cost me more chunks of money. 

Link of the Day: Worst. Ninja. Ever.

Spam of the Day: “Forearm Forklift – Your Solution to Heavy Lifting”

Funny of the Day: Bringing the “A” Game

Pic of the Day: Finger Arm Lickin’ Good?

Quote of the Day: “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger

Stuff of the Day

Update of the Day: So, not so productive last night.  Dammit.  Chatted online with a woman I’ve yet to meet, where I’ve got this niggling feeling without any solid evidence whatsoever that there’s just something amiss/she’s hiding something significant.  Watched The Wrestler.  Decent movie, I’m annoyed by the ending.

I’m also getting really irritated with my damn body.  Still this morning, and again today at lunch, no signs that I’m in Ketosis yet.  The last possibly carb-tastic thing I had was a single sausage biscuit Friday morning.  With the amount of other little frustrations I have piling on right now, this is really aggravating.

Was just seriously dragging ass this morning.  Tried a slightly different alarm schedule, then still didn’t roll out of bed until 7:34 a.m.  I was tired, lethargic, and just felt like hell all of this morning, and am only starting to feel “better” (but still not up to par) here after lunch.

Link of the Day: Remakes of Classic Adventure Games

Spam of the Day: “Free MRI review”

Funny of the Day: Some kinda masturbatory-isolationibitionist fuckin’ nerve complex.

Pic of the Day: This, just because of my love for Utena

Quote of the Day: “So, it occurred to me – the first part of ‘psychology’ is ‘psycho.'” – Me

Stuff of the Day

Update of the Day: So, I’m feeling MUCH better today.  Caffeine, breakfast, lunch, all those things rather tend to help not being cranky, tired, unfocused.  Imagine that.  I ended up going to bed stupid early last night because by about 8, I had a horrid, raging headache, so the thought of trying to do anything productive, or even just zone out and XP in WoW was about as unappealing as a rancid sore on a 3-day old carcass of an armadillo fart.

Last night I grilled steak and portabellini mushrooms (officially started back on the low-carb diet after a week break yesterday, figured with the fasting and all it was as good a time as any).  I had them again for lunch today, with provolone cheese melted over.  I added some celery for green fibery goodness.  I meant to take a picture of it to post here at lunch, but I was hungry and started tearing into it before I remembered to go get my camera.  Woops.

Link of the Day: This brings a new meaning to “sleepwear”

Spam of the Day: “Travel the world doing what you love. Be a Massage Therapits” – Therapits?

Funny of the Day: Now that’s Ownage.

Pic of the Day: Google is hiring, apparently.

Quote of the Day: “What’s gayer than gay?” – James Cross

Stuff of the Day

Update of the Day: So, I certainly learned one thing . . . when I leave for the day and shut down my browser and WordPress grumps at me about leaving the page – do a manual “Save Draft” before I allow it to close, otherwise work WILL be lost.  I got some good news on one of the two fronts I was looking for it on last night.  The next couple of weeks won’t be as lean wallet-wise as I was fearing they might be.  Met with my dad, talked about work stuff, ate fried chicken, totally blew my diet.  I’m giving some serious thought (since it’ll take me 2 days or so to get back into ketosis) to either just enjoying the weekend and indulging, or switching to Weight Watchers for a couple of months to give that a try.  Not sure how I want to go there.  Would really like to talk to a specific someone about that, but that’s the other front, haven’t heard anything in two days.  🙁 

Link of the Day: The 50 Best Selling Console Games of this Decade (So Far)

Spam of the Day: “Satanist housewife cooked cats!” 

Funny of the DayWe’re going to have to confiscate that.

Pic of the DayI like the attitude.

Quote of the Day: “I guess she’s a gay dude.” – Name withheld by request.

Low-carb Lunch: Grilled Steak, Portabellini Mushroom, and Jarlsberg

Went home for lunch today, and cooked.  That’s a . and not a ! because it’s not remarkable in and of itself, I pretty much had to, I don’t have anything left here in the office fridge except some cheese and bacon and a couple of cups of sugar-free Jello.  Still, it was nice, it felt good, and it was scrumptious.

Grilled (electric George Foreman style) Petite Sirloin steak from Albertsons, a nice Portabellini mushroom, and topped it off with thin slices of Jarlsberg (swiss) cheese.  Had a good hearty lunch, and have plenty of steak left over for stuff the next day or two. My cat, of course, approved of the steak.  I think it needs better spicing, but my spice selection is still tiny, it’ll come in time.

I really need a decent Wok.

Eventful, Good Times of Late

Didn’t make any posts this weekend – not even Daily Stuff.  This has been, overall, a busy, eventful, unexpected, and altogether excellent weekend.

Last week, I pretty much decided that with my upcoming paycheck on the 6th, along with my income tax return, with what I had in checking/savings, it was finally time (Again – the near $1200 of car repairs delayed me by a bit more than a month on my plans) to move on the whole Apartment/Getting-my-own-place-again goal.  Having already done a lot of the initial work of investigating, evaluating, eliminating apartment complexes here in Midland in January, this time it was a briefer process, starting with a short list of candidates.  Four complexes that were any real serious consideration, and another I called just to check on it as an option, and because it’s literally throwing distance from our office.  They were the most expensive, so that was pretty much an easy elimination.  

Of the other 4, I went and looked at all of them – 1 of the 4 I’d seen a 1BR Townhome before, which I liked a lot.  Really liked.  I just know Baby, my cat, would love the stairs there, and I liked the layout, but it was a little bit beyond what I would be comfortable with based on my projective budgeting.  Rent in Midland is stupidly costly right now – prices are still high from rapid rising over a few years of oilfield prosperity.  The oilfield prosperity is starting to show some real, true (worrisome to oilfield/oil company employees) signs of decline, but any drop in the inflated rent prices will take several more months, if not a year, before they start to happen.  In Huntsville, I had a 2BR, 1.5Bath 1100 square foot townhome for less than I’m (going to be) paying for a 710 square foot 1BR/1BA flat here in Midland.

So, anyway, after checking out all of the other 3 options, with some drama and surprises involved there, I decided on going for what’s supposedly the nicest/best rated of the complexes, Windscape.  Current schedule is to move in on the 13th.  Friday the 13th . . . I can’t help but feel that with everything that happened last week and weekend, it’s something that’s meant to be, and any luck I experience on that day will be Good.  It’s just going to be a tight week for me financially until my payday+ this Friday.

Friday night was looking to be pretty uneventful – I tried to get hold of a couple of people to see about doing something interesting:  seeing a movie with a friend, or going out for whatever workable (she’d mentioned wanting to go to a karaoke bar) with another, female, friend – but it seemed that stuff just wasn’t going to be happening that night.  So, without someone to make going out (and thus spending money) a worthwhile excuse, stay home and . . . apparently watch Seabiscuit with my dad.  During which I find out about some bad medical news about a friend of mine.  Not horrible stuff, but still unfortunate and unpleasant, kind of a bummer, which had (and still has) me worried for her.

Then at 10:15 that night, I get a text from Ms. Fire, commanding me to head down to the hotel lounge she’s in and ask her to dance.  I hop up, change shirts, brush my teeth, and head off to the lounge.  She seemed surprised I “actually came.”  To my surprise (though only a little bit) it was Tejano Night at this club.  I haven’t danced in like 9 years, and I haven’t danced to something other than techno/trance in a good dozen.  I wasn’t very good, but it didn’t seem to matter – the intent and effort, and quite possibly the fact she was a bit inebriated, seemed to matter more.

I’ll not go into further details on the rest of that night . . . but it was wonderful, and surprising.  

Saturday, despite lack of sleep, I got out to see that movie (The Street Fighter Chun-Li one) with my friend Ivy.  It wasn’t bad.  It wasn’t great either, but it was entertaining (even though I think Kristen Kreuk is just wrong for the role).  It had some very nice cinematography of Bangkok in it too.  

Sunday, I had a date to try to see Les Miserables at  MCT.  I type “try” because when I attempted to buy tickets Monday of last week, they were nearly entirely sold out – they only had 3 seats left, none of them anywhere near each other.  The nice old lady at the box office suggested I show up an hour before the show to try to get no-show seat tickets.  After discussing this concept with J, my supposed date, she said we should go ahead and try for it, and plans were made for her to meet me at the theater, see Les Mis, and then who knows?

I dress up as I thought reasonably appropriate for going to the Theater (to discover there later that several folks just went in whatever – but I still felt good about my clothing choice, I think dressing decently for the Theater is still respectful), and show up there a couple of minutes before 1:00.  I’m 4th on the list for no-show seats, with the box office manager informing me that she has no doubt I’ll get tickets.  I wait, seeing tons of people stream in, mingling, talking to friends . . . and then run into a good friend of my Mammaw.  People take their normal, had their tickets in advance, seats, being ushered and hurried into the theater by staff, and at 2:00, the box office manager starts calling out names for the no-show seat tickets.  J still hasn’t shown up (I’d been looking for her, for the entire hour).  I let the box office manager know my date didn’t show, someone else should get the other ticket, and she snatches back the pair she handed me, hunts around frantically, and then gives me a single ticket.  It was a decent seat.

Les Mis was excellent.  One of the best Community Theater productions I’ve ever seen (and most of my comparisons are from MCT shows, so that’s good comparisons, as MCT has been one of the best Community Theaters in the nation for a long time).  Not only was David Odom, who was a friend of mine in High School, on the debate team with me, in the play (as I knew beforehand and expected), but Robert Reed, another High School friend was in the cast as well.  I graduated with both of those guys.   There were other people who I knew from when I was involved in the theater back in the 90s.  I’m considering volunteering for a few shows, maybe auditioning for a part or two.  If not, I’ll at least get a membership, and make MCT a regular part of my entertainment options.

I’ve been trying to get in touch with J the last two 2 days, with no luck thus far.  I don’t know what the deal is, what happened – if there’s a good reason she wasn’t there, a bad reason, if I was just stood up, or what.  If I was stood up, oh well, her loss.  My weekend overall was so good, it doesn’t really upset me.

The Kind of Low-carb Encouragement That WORKS

So, I took a late lunch, to run to our local HEB store, to look for a few things, in general, and specifically stuff I couldn’t find at Albertsons yesterday. Found the Queso Blanco (frying cheese), found the Carb-smart Breyer’s Ice Cream, and when I stopped to look at the sweeteners section out of curiosity, found a down-right hottie.

 Albertsons had one kind of Stevia-based sweetener. HEB had about 6, plus some other stuff other than the huge Splenda display and some Nutrasweet and Sweet’n’Low and your standard Sugars. I was looking at a couple to compare them, and this woman walked up and started looking at a couple of the different varieties of Stevia-based sweeteners.  She was, at a guess, 5’5″ish, brunette, late 20s to early 30s, very nicely sized and shaped (not too damn thin, but certainly what I would call “slender”), with probably 34D or so breasts.  Believe it or not, I didn’t look at them too much.  Oh yes, very pale blue, sort of icy, eyes.  

After half a minute or so, I asked her if she’d tried any of these before.  She hadn’t, we talked for a while about the different kinds, she asked me if I’d tried them, mentioned a couple kinds she’d used that she got from the “Health Food Store,” talked about how in (cold/cool) tea one of the ones she used sort of stayed clumpy and didn’t dissolve very well, etc.

I took heart in seeing this hottie there, talking naturally with her, and seeing her, in the shape she was in, going for the same sort of diet plan.  That’s the kind of thing that grabs one’s attention, and encourages you (well, me at least) to stay with this, to stay strong, and think that given a couple of months, you’ll be in the shape that looks like it belongs with such a sexy woman.

I regret being distracted and not taking note of whether or not she had a ring on, and of not being smart/brave enough to say something like, “hey, why don’t you call me sometime and let me know how whichever one you decide to try is?”  Also, probably would have been a smart thing to ask which “Health Food Store” she was tired of running to, “all the time.”  Hard to try to facilitate another run-in with this hottie if I don’t have any other idea of where to try to find her, other than “randomly in the weekday afternoons at HEB.”

Random and Various Updates: Windy Dusty Edition

So, yeah, life and stuff.  Things have been going ‘OK’ for me.  Not great.  But, overall, not crappy.  This post may be a little disjointed, I’m pretty much more or less randomly spewing thought onto the keyboard.

Work is going well.  I like this job. It’s kept me really pretty busy the last couple of weeks solid.  I’ve not really had that much time to take for myself (also known as: goofing off), and when I have had some time for that, I’ve mostly spent it trying to amuse, inform, or educate myself online (Reddit is my friend here.  I barely even LOOK at Digg anymore).  Thus, I’ve not dedicated much time lately to trying to sit down and write anything.  Hell, I wanted to just sit down and fire off a quick post this morning to vent and feel better about almost getting killed (as well as having my time wasted) this morning on the way to work.  Then I did something silly and tried to “upgrade” WordPress, and it trashed things, and wasted half an hour of my time, and about 2o minutes of James’ time, fixing it.  Hell, I should really honestly know better, backups before upgrades are, ya know, a good idea for a reason.

I’m making an actual, conscious effort to try to use tags on this post.  That’s probably why there are so many.  I’ve been really bad, sucking, really, about using tags.  It’s a Web 2.0 thing that I’ve just so very rarely found useful; in counterpoint, though, the few places I’ve found them useful they were VERY useful.

I started on a low-carb diet yesterday.  Not quite exactly Atkins, though very heavily influenced by Atkins.  It got hard for a bit last night, but I got past it.  I expect to have a few more days where I’ll have periods of intense carb-craving.  I’m determined to stay strong and will my way through it.  There’s a lot of things I want to do, and pretty much everything in my life I think will be easier if I can get down closer to my ideal weight.  The whole feeling better about my body and self-image thing will certainly be nice (and should give me more confidence, of course), but having less weight on my body to lug around will make things like trying to do pull-ups on the Iron Gym I bought and haven’t gotten anywhere near my $30 worth out of yet.  Less weight to power around trying to walk/run/jog should make it easier for me to do those things too.  I’ve basically just bitten the bullet on the expense thing . . . it’s going to cost more, period, but my health and attitude are worth more to me than maybe another two week delay before I move into my own apartment.

Moving into a place of my own again is certainly something I very much want to do.  Just the feelings of independence, of not having my cat relegated to a small travel trailer, where she only gets attention from me one visit a day, where she can run and play and be happier (of course, needing to pay freaking $450 or so for pet fees/deposit is ludicrous), where I don’t have to drive anywhere near as far everyday, where I could, if I so desired/needed, bring a woman home . . . all good and needed things.  But I’m trying to be smarter about things, listen to my dad, save up extra money, Just In Case, before I jump into a lease and a large chunk of monthly expenses that will leave me with very little discretionary income.  Being able to game again on my own schedule, with regularity, have a constant cable modem connection, etc., all very appealing.  But, my dad and I are getting along ‘OK’ right now, though I still handle a lot of things as if walking on eggshells so as not to piss him off and upset that.  

I’ve really gotten into Twitter lately.  Been trying a couple of different clients for it, TweetDeck and blu, and neither does quite just what I want, but if I they could be combined, with another little feature or two added, they’d rock as the ultimate Windows Twitter client.  Corey suggested I write it myself.  Hah!  That’s not quite what I’m going to tackle as my first project getting back into programming.  I like TweetDeck more, but it crashes all the damn time.  blu is stable, but lacking.  I’ll be adding some kind of WordPress Twitter plugin to the site here when I find one I like well enough.

Well, that’s probably enough time wasted for now.  I need to get back to work, wrestling with Advanced Installer’s inadequate documentation and the limitations of .msi files until I can get them to submit to my will.