Chad From Oregon

Crisis Averted

2007-09-29T02:12:00.001-07:00

First off, let me say that this post is getting posted in multiple places. It needs to be said.

Lately, I have been having a small crisis of faith. It was pretty much only known between me and my Mother. It wasn’t as though I didn’t believe in God. There is nothing on this planet (or even in the universe) that could make me not believe in God. Believing is not the issue. It never was nor will it ever be.

Faith, however, was.

Sorry, but after two knee surgeries and it still hurts, along with the never ending head pain, life was starting to suck. If you count that in with the fact that I can never seem to get ahead financially, life was really a-suckin.

My Mother called me the other day, and asked if I still believed in God. At the time, I said that I wasn’t sure. I should have said Yes, but that I wasn’t sure why. She kinda freaked out and kept sending me emails for the next few days. I basically ignored her. I really didn’t know how to politely say “Please just butt out and let me figure this out on my own.”

But, the past couple days have been a blessing in themselves. I’m not gonna explain them. I just finally realized …… something. And it really opened my eyes. I’m not going to change the life I have been living, becouse, sorry, but it’s my life, and for the most part I enjoy it. Other parts of it I need. Some of it people may not like, but hey, as long as it doesn’t affect them, I guess they shouldn’t worry about it.

And the final blow? You’d never guess that all it took was a couple movies, a birthday party and a game of Uno.

What can I say, When shit hits it hits hard.

New Favorite Song.

2007-05-07T01:54:00.001-07:00

Customized

2007-04-29T21:15:00.000-07:00

The Truck's upgrades are nearly complete.

The Tonneau cover is on.

The Kenwood Radio is installed.

The Truck is washed and waxed.

The Sirius Satellite radio is hooked up, but not yet activated.

The Vent Visors are waiting to be installed.

As soon as the "bonus" from work comes in, the GPS is getting installed.

Oh, and I even hooked up the auxilary inputs on the radio and ran the line to the console. Now I can play music from anything, even the laptop. It rules.

super short weekend.

2007-04-21T15:17:00.000-07:00

This weekend was my short weekend. It was made even shorter by a nice meeting we had at work on Thursday. The first half sucked, as it was all speeches and presentations about the company (stuff that was not relevant to why we were there) that should have been saved for there quarterly presentations. The second half was great, as we (the techs) got to put our ideas out there and let the engineers know that there ideas kind of suck. Seriously, while they are really really booksmart, common sense is not always in their vocabulary.

And then, the weather did not exactly pan out as we had hoped. So, we opted out of going snowboarding (weve finally decided to hang it up for the season) and I went over to Timmy's and built some shelves in his garage.

And the acupuncture? Nothing yet. I'm gonna give it two more sessions, and then I'll move on to something else. Probably massage therapy. That's one thing I didn't really try the last time around (the doctor sent me to what was supposed to be massage therapy, but it really just turned into more physical therapy).

Yeah, Definately Going This Weekend

2007-04-17T21:00:00.000-07:00

Yep, Snowboarding on Friday sounds good.

Oh, and the head pain is coming back. I'm going in for Acupuncture Wednesday afternoon.

Almost

2007-04-14T11:52:00.000-07:00

The weather looked really promising for one last trip up to the mountain to go snowboarding this week. Unfortunately, two roadblocks hit.

For one, I had to go to work the day we were planning on going. Thursday morning I had to go in and meet up with my Engineering Tech and two other guys from different shifts that work on the same machines that I do and go through our toolbox, cleaning it out, deciding what tools we needed and what we didn't, as well, as what needed to be added in the future. It seemed to go well, as long as we get the new tools that we asked for.

Second, even if I hadn't needed to go to work, the weather Thursday morning turned bad. Not only did Timmy have his snow tires off, but neither one of us had chains except for Timmy's 4mpg Tank. Also, it wasn't so much snowing up on the mountain as it was blowing. 30 MPH winds. Yeah, I'll pass.

So, this weekend has pretty much been filled with lots of Tiger Woods Golf on the Wii.

Bullet Points

2007-04-08T23:18:00.000-07:00

* MSU Won the Mens National Hockey Championship the other day. It was an awesome ending, as they were down 0-1 going into the third period. They tied it with ten minutes left, and then scored again to take the lead with just 18.2 seconds left. They also got an empty netter with 1.2 seconds left to win it 3-1.

* I got Tiger Woods Golf for the Wii. It is H A R D. I thought I had the hang of it early on, but lately every swing I take I give a bad slice.

* It's going to snow up on the mountain every day this week and never get over freezing. I want go so badly, but not only do I have some dumb thing to do at work Thursday morning, and even if I could get out of it, We'd have to take my truck and put chains on once we got to the base of the mountain.

* I finally got everything set up just the way I like it in Linux. It rocks.

* The Series Planet Earth on The Discovery Channel is absolutely amazing. And in HD, it is even more beautiful.

Problem Avoided

2007-04-02T16:05:00.000-07:00

I went down to the leasing office today to complain about their insane price markup for the month to month, and they gave me a four month lease for just $30 more than what I was gonna have to pay if I renewed my lease for a full year. That'll work.

Great.

2007-04-01T21:48:00.000-07:00

My apartment office sent me a letter reminding me that my lease is up at the end of april. So, I can either renew for a full year and pay $60 more per month, or I can go month to month and pay $230 more per month. Wow. Thanks for showing me how much you want me to stay after the two years I've lived here.

Great. Theres no freaking way I'm staying here for another year, but crap, I wont be able to move until July, possibly even august depending on how much I need for a deposit and such.

Missed the 2fer

2007-03-24T13:28:00.000-07:00

Alright, I only got to go snowboarding once this week. Timmy bailed on me Wednesday morning after work, so I got to sleep instead. It worked out ok. I got to lay around all day and do nothing....other than work on my computer.

Now, I did go snowboarding yesterday. And I rocked. I only really wiped out once, though I did have a couple more small spills later in the day. The biggest problem was that the snow sucked. It was not that fun. Even going straight down the hill, which is supposed to just rocket you into a blaze of speen, I could feel the snow just pulling back on the board, and I couldn't get any speed at all. I tried carving a bit, but sometimes the snow just didn't want to do anything for me, and thats when I got some smaller spills. But, it was a great day nonetheless.

This week it's a 2fer

2007-03-20T23:08:00.000-07:00

So, Timmy and I are going snowboarding Wednesday morning as soon as we get out of work. We'll be going again on Friday. Hey, just trying to get every penny out of that season pass I bought.

I'm a little irritated today, as just after my hard drive crashed a few weeks ago, I managed to screw it up again. I installed linux on it, and after fighting to get the screen resolution set to widescreen, I screwed up a major file and now it wont boot. This sucks.

A Weekend Fulfilled

2007-03-18T16:45:00.000-07:00

The weekend pretty much exactly as planned.

Wednesday after I got up up I went to the Pistons vs Blazers games. The Pistons won 87-75. It was a great game.

Thursday I went over to Russ's house to get my alarm installed. It took 10 hours and wasn't even able to get my radio installed thanks to GM and their retarted new systems that'll cost me another $130 just to adapt a wiring harness. That, or I could do it the old skool way and cut and splice the wires, but man, I hate doing that. I havent done that in years. But, I do have power locks with an alarm, remote start and keyless entry. It also has a pager system that tells me if the alarm is going off. It's pretty sweet.

Friday I got up and went snowboarding with Timmy. I'm getting pretty good now, as I only fell a few times. I sat down alot, but that was just to either avoid crashing, or becouse I didn't feel like running into other people who werent smart enough to stop and get out of other peoples way. They just stood right in the middle of the path. Morons.

After the snowboarding trip, I headed over to Outback Steakhouse to join my coworkers for dinner. It's always nice when your employer pays for a nice juicy steak. Not too mention picking on your boss and getting away with it, that rocks. I convinced everyone it was her birthday, and so not only did she get her complimentary Birthday Ice Cream, but we all got up and sang Happy Birthday. Wow was she embarrassed. It rocked.

Saturday involved taking the dogs down to the park, me getting sunburnt while there, and then finally getting rid of the unbelievable sized mountain of boxes that have accoumulated on my patio over the last year and a half. Yep, a nice fulfilling weekend.

No Rest For The Weary

2007-03-13T15:26:00.000-07:00

It looks like I've already got most of this weekend filled up.

Before I get into that, let me go into my injury. Yes, my arm still hurts. It's slowly getting better. Timmy thinks it's just a pulled tricep, which sounds about right. No matter, it aint gonna slow me down.

Now, onto the weekend. Wednesday I have the Pistons Vs Blazers basketball game. I can't wait to watch the Pistons beat the crap out of this worthless hippie team (plus their owned by Paul Allen, cofounder of Microsoft, which makes me hate them even more). I've thought about heading up to the mountain before that to go snowboarding after I get out of work Wednesday morning, but that probably wont happen.

Thursday I get my car alarm installed. Finally. This baby has everything. Electronic locks with keyless entry, remote start, and it even has a pager system that tells my remote when the alarm is going off. Yep, this'll be one sweet setup. Once this gets down, I'll be installing my radio, and possibly even some speakers just for the fun of it.

Friday, were heading back up the mountain for another day of snowboarding. Hurt shoulder and all. The only bad part about it is that it's been above freezing (during the day) for all this week. They still got about 10 feet of snow, but it'll be kinda slushy. And possibly even icy. Too bad I didn't take this up back at the beginning of winter. It've been alot more fun.

And for Saturday, I got nothing. Probably just gonna lay around all day and recuperate from the snowboarding expedition.

hahahahahaha....WIPEOUT!

2007-03-09T08:32:00.000-08:00

Yes, Think of the Beach Boys when you read the title.

Now that you've got that in your head, I'll give you the bad news. I went snowboarding again yesterday, and the second time I started heading down from one of the larger runs (near the top of the resort), and ate it bigtime coming around a curve. I got on my toe-edge (which I still suck at), picked up ALOT of speed, and couldn't turn around to get on my heels. I tried leaning down as far as possible to slow down, but eventually the edge of the board caught some ice and flipped me backwards, nailing my head and left shoulder into the ice. My head is okay (minus a good scrape on the nose) but my shoulder is in some pain.

I'm probably gonna wait this one out, especially since I wont be able to get into see a doctor until at least Monday, unless I feel like going to Urgent Care or the ER, but I dont really wanna pay the new extreme copays ($50 for the ER? I dont think so!)

Oh, and I'm sore all over.

The Chad Goes Snowboarding!

2007-03-03T08:38:00.000-08:00

This was my first time ever, and it was freakin' Sweet! Yeah, I fell alot. Yeah, I'm extremely sore. The good news is that my bad knee is the only thing that isnt in pain.

It's The Little Things

2007-02-24T14:10:00.000-08:00

I decided to make the swtich from NetFlix to Blockbuster Total Access. So now instead of just 3 movies whenever NetFlix decides not to throttle me, I get 3 movies in the mail plus I go to the store and return them, pick up some more movies there, and they'll still send me more movies in the mail. Sweet. oooh, and I get a coupon every month for a free game rental. Nice.

I watched a very unique movie last night called Idiocracy. It's a Mike Judge movie that got no love from Fox as usual. It had a tiny budget and went straight to dvd. It's about an average guy who gets volunteered for an army hibernation experiment. It was supposed to last one year, but was forgotten about and ended up lasting 500 years. The guy wakes up to find the world has been seriously dumbed down to complete retards, thus making him the smartest guy on the planet. The world has been taken over by advertising, and only the stuff that is considered cool and easy is what takes place. It was interesting to say the least.

So after my last camping trip last year, I attempted to wash my sleeping bag. I just bought it at the beginning of the summer, but it was just a cheap general bag. Well, anyway, the washing machine ripped the crap out of it. It was still usable, but was still a piece of crap. Well, last week I made a nice smiling order with Cabelas, getting myself a brand new uber-sleeping bag, a camping pillow and a self inflating sleeping pad. They came in yesterday, and the new sleeping bag rocks. It's even easy to put back in the storage bag, which of course is almost never true with generic sleeping bags. Now all thats gotta happen is for summer to hurry up and get here.

New Tat!

2007-02-17T10:07:00.000-08:00

I made Chili!

2007-02-08T08:57:00.000-08:00

One of my coworkers had a breakfast get-together Wednesday morning after work. And I made Chili for the event.

And it was good. Possibly the best batch ever. Totally.

I miss coffee....

2007-02-01T07:48:00.000-08:00

I ran out of real coffee some time last week, and I've been far too busy to go to the store and get some more beans.

If I made any coffee this past week, it was from a can. And it was horrible.

I need real coffee.

You know, in times like this, I wish Starbucks had a delivery service.

Just think, a triple shot Grande Latte delivered to your door.

Hey, a guy can dream, cant he?

Update: I finally got some coffee beans today (I figured it'd be a good idea to swing over and get some since I was already there to get a new controller for the Wii)

I'm not in a great mood

2007-01-27T00:16:00.000-08:00

I really don't want to talk about it.

Lets just say this:

It involves a girl.

It sort-of involves her ex.

I'm crazy about her.

Everybody knows this but her. (well...I think she might be catching on)

She's now with somebody else.

That's all I'm gonna say.

Snow Falls

2007-01-16T16:55:00.000-08:00

Wooohoo!!! It snowed today. A good 3 inches. Possibly 4. All the schools were closed. Several people had called in for the day shift before I left.

I decided to go up to the store before I headed home to see if there was a small chance I could get an extra Wii Remote. That was a painstaking mistake. I had to follow a bunch of people going 5mph. Some moron was even riding his motorcycle, keeping both feet on the ground just creeping along.

I think I irritated a few people when they finally got out of my way and I sped right past them. I realize that the people who grew up here (plus all the Californians and Hawaiians) have no clue how to drive in the snow, but honestly, they should just get out my way.

I dont think I'm invincible just becouse I have 4wd, I just know what I'm doing. I know how fast is too fast, when to brake (and how to brake), and most importantly, I know how to perform the perfect fishtails.

So, since the snow is still here tonight, I plan on going up to the grocery store parking lot later on my brake to do some donuts and play around for awhile.

The only thing that sucks is that I just know there will be a lot of people calling in and not coming to work tonight.

Way too close to call...

2007-01-05T14:04:00.000-08:00

So I almost died the other day. New Years day, I got up early (1pm) to head over to a friends house to watch the Rose Bowl. As I was going down the road, I came up on a large intersection, of which I had the green light. The second I entered the crossroads, some guy in the oncoming lane decided he wanted to make a left turn. Well, a quick small swerve and lots of luck, and the outcome was a narrow miss. VERY VERY NARROW. Like and inch maybe. Yep.

I had some fillings put in this morning. That was fun, let me tell ya. And to top it all off, they put on a nice layer of that flouride crap (becouse the retarded city I live in doesnt put it in the water). So, now I'm sitting at home with a numb left side of the face and a terrible terrible taste in my mouth.

Back in the Green

2006-12-30T13:11:00.000-08:00

Well, after a grueling couple of weeks putting in a ton of OT and the Holiday pay, as well as a third paycheck in December, a small bonus and some extra cash from elsewhere (you know who you are, THANK YOU!), I am officially back in the green. It's kind of funny how I can go from flat broke to totally ahead of my bills in just a couple of weeks. Everything just seemed to fall into place between the week before and the week after Christmas, and to celebrate, I took a little bit and went in with a friend to get myself a post-christmas gift.

The Chad got a Wii! And I didn't even have to get up early and stand in any lines (Thats why I have a great friend like Timmy to do it for me! :) )

This is the single funnest thing I have ever played. Now I just cant wait for the replacement wriststraps to show up so I can stop being so paranoid of the wiimote possibly flying into my bigscreen.

Now, I just need some more games and extra wiimotes, becouse as Timmy, Des and I found out this weekend, sharing one wiimote just sucks.

The funny part about this is that I barely need to go work out anymore (not that I ever really did) becouse the Boxing and Tennis games are a total workout of their own. I worked up quite a sweat last night, and I am SOOOOO SOOOORE today.

The Day After

2006-12-26T16:40:00.000-08:00

Well, after my super-short 6 day Christmas weekend, I find myself killing time before I head of to work for a nice 8 day stretch. yay. Anyway, so my weekend consisted of lots of bowling, running errands, and making deserts and snacks for Christmas. On the 25th, I headed over to Timmy & Des's place for dinner and then we played board games for the rest of the day. I did awesome at Sequence and Jenga, but playing Risk, which I played for the first time yesterday, I did not fair so well. Well, I came in 2nd out of 3, but thats just becouse Timmy and Des got into a little lovers quarrel and sort of ignored me until one of them totally dominated the other.

As far as gifts go, lets see. I got a new Jacket from my Brother, as well as a new Detroit Tigers Mug & Shot Glas, as well as a Tigers Wall Mount Bottle Opener. From Timmy & Des I got a French Press Coffee Maker (and some treats and toys for the dogs). And from the Parents, a little Michigan Wolverines shirt for the rat dog, and of course, the greatest thing ever, my Detroit Tigers Ivan Rodriguez #7 Baseball Jersey. It Rocks.

Blacked Out

2006-12-18T08:08:00.000-08:00

Alright, here we go. There was a nice wind storm here last week, which knocked out power to a good portion of Portland. I missed out on all the fun times of trying to stay warm and wondering if my milk is gonna go bad, as my power stayed on. Then came Saturday night, as I was at work. Just as I got into the clean room and got the daily passdown from the leaving day-shift, machines just started going haywire for no reason. And then the lights dimmed. Where I work, when you can actually see the lights dim....you're screwed. And you know it. Immidiately everything started beeping and alarming and whatever else those things were able to do...for a few seconds. And then....silence. And darkness. And the four of us standing there watching this excitement split for the exit, and just in time too. As soon as I got my bunnysuit off, the evacuation alarm went off. So, I went to my locker, got my coat and mp3 player and cell phone and proceeded outside, where others were not as fortunate (or warm for that matter). But after a bout 5 minutes, we got to back inside.

A little over six hours later the power came back on, and the rest is far too boring to talk about (unless you like hearing about endless, meticulous cleaning). And then we happily handed the whole mess off to the oncoming day shift, who happily handed off a slightly messy situation back to us last night, only for us to hand it back off to them this morning in a nearly finished, yet still screwed up, dibacle. And me? Well, since I spent the last 11 out of 12 hours STANDING in the clean room, my feet hurt as bad as the Detroit Lions 2-10 season record. Im going to bed.

I got skillz.....again.

2006-12-12T21:57:00.000-08:00

I've been working on day shift this week. I found that not only were the people there tolerable (as I once thought the opposite), I also found that I enjoyed working during the day. However, I did find three things about day shift that I did not enjoy. One, was waking up at 5:30 in the morning. That sucked. The other part that sucked was the parking. I could normally park right near the front doors on nights, but on days, I'd be lucky to find a spot in the first lot. And it was still a long freaking walk. Also, last but not least, while I didn't suffer the pain since it was only temporary, moving to day shift would be a serious drop in pay, and theres no way on earth I could afford missing that size chunk-o-change. On the bright side, I did about a years worth of training in three days. To be fair, it was all stuff that I already knew and was once certified to do, but after all my time on medical leave, those high level certifications were taken away. So, all I had to do was perform all these tasks along side my day-shift counterpart to prove that I still knew what I was doing.

Today, however, was not a very fun day. I spent 98% of my day in the clean room. For me and my comrades, that is a very, very long time. Not only did I have to finish up my re-training, but I also had to go and fix another machine that I am uber-trained to work on. It was a long day, but The Chad prevailed.

Happy Birthday

2006-12-06T05:20:00.000-08:00

A big Happy Birthday for my older brother, Travis.

We got the shaft!

2006-12-03T22:43:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I havent been around a lot lately, but I've been a bit busy. Since I got back to work I haven't had a lot of free time. The little bit of time I had this past weekend I used to help Timmy put up his Christmas Lights. And Saturday, I woke up a little early, but everything, EVERYTHING hurt. I was totally sore everywhere, and just felt like crap. So, I laid on the couch and drank coffee all day till I had to get up and go to work.

Now, on to the real news of the Day. The Michigan Wolverines got screwed out of the Title shot thanks to the BCS. Their only loss of the season was to Ohio State. Their last game of the season. And, after USC lost the other day, that #2 spot should have gone back to The Wolverines. But, of course, as with every single year since the start of the BCS, it made a screwy decision, and they screwed us over and gave it to Florida. So, The Wolverines will face USC in the Rose Bowl.

Back to work

2006-11-28T08:34:00.000-08:00

I went back to work last night. Aint nothing like kicking off the return to work than going on a 12 hour night shift after getting up at 11am for the dr's appt to get released for work. Fun Times. And of course, everything broke last night. Luckily, somehow I never got decertified, and I didn't miss a beat. I was right back into fixing everything. I'll still be going to day shift next week for a couple weeks to get my higher level re-training. Thats fine, as now at least I have a close friend on day shift that I can hang with. And she has her own cube, so no annoying bystanders irritating me.

I went to a hockey game the other night. A special hockey game called The Teddy Bear Toss. I'll post about it with pictures in a couple days.

Some Good Thanksgiving News

2006-11-22T18:48:00.000-08:00

Alright, after I waking up this morning with some excruciating pain from the former wisdom teeth, I headed over to the dentist to get the stitches that were supposed to have dissolved taken out. After getting that taken care of and getting some additional meds for the pain, I headed over to my doctors office to set up an appt to get a release to go back to work, as I havent had any head pain since the wisdom teeth got taken out. So, looks like I'll be going back to work on Monday.

As for Thanksgiving, I'll be going over to my buddies house to hang out with some friends and to watch the Lions lose as they usually do.

Say It Out Loud

2006-11-18T21:08:00.001-08:00

I'm starting some occasional podcasts, which I will be calling "The ChadCasts".

A day of news

2006-11-15T22:01:00.000-08:00

So I had an interesting day yesterday. Right from the start, I get a call at 9am from the temp lady, giving me 3 absolutely wonderful pieces of information.

#1 - No more available temp jobs

#2 - I have to go back on medical leave

#3 - I've gone past the 12 week job protection timeframe. Awesome.

Next, the Pain Clinic calls to set up my first appt for next Friday. Looks like I might be gettin' some Botox. Sweet.

Well, after I get those two awesome phone calls, I go back to bed 'till noon. It seemed like the right thing to do.

After I got back up and got some coffee and screwed around on the computer for a couple hours, I headed over to Ryan's place to drop off some videos for him. While I was there, I got to see his newborn daughter. She's so cute. Anyways, after awhile of hanging out and complaining about movies, his older daughter comes home and said Hi to me in the most unexpected way. "Hi The Chad". I stood there just stunned for a sec before returning the hello, and then looked at Ryan with a "what the?" look on my face. Not that I was complaining, but I'm just not all that used to kids calling me that. But, I guess since that's all Ryan calls me anymore, I shouldn't be surprised it rubbed off on her.

Oh yeah, I get my wisdom teeth out Today. Lets hope this fixes it.

I'm on a Holiday

2006-11-13T20:58:00.000-08:00

Ok, so here's a little update on the situation. My temp job is all over. My normal boss doesn't have any work for me, but she is going to try and get ahold of the temp-lady to find me something else to do. I have a doctors appt tomorrow, but it's really only to get my work restrictions updated. I don't actually have any hopes that he could think of something new to try. I'll definately be asking, but I'm not expecting much. As for work this week, I'm using my floating holidays that I haven't really had much of a chance to use this year. So, not only is work covered for this week, but I'll be making a little extra with the holiday pay.

I'll be having my wisdom teeth taken out on Thursday. Fun Times.

Alright, lets move on. In a different move to make some extra money, I've decided to try and get rid of some of the stuff I never use anymore. I put up my xbox, ps2, and all the games on sale at craigslist, as well as all my car audio stuff. My deck, amp, satellite radio, and speakers. So, if they get sold, that'll pull in some extra much needed cash. I might even be able to afford some christmas gifts. The xbox and ps2 I wont mind much losing since I never play them anymore. As for the car audio, that just sucks; but, I don't really use it now since I bought my truck. I was waiting until I could afford an alarm until I put the radio and sirius in it, but thats not gonna happen anytime soon.

And last but not least, Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers won the AL Rookie of the Year in a landslide victory, getting all but 2 of the 28 First Place votes.

Remember Three Dog Night? Try Three Dog Weekend!

2006-11-11T23:50:00.000-08:00

A couple of my best friends had to go out of town this weekend to do "couples" stuff (awww....how cute...), and asked me to watch thier dog while they were gone. They have a short haired Chihuahua, which looks pretty much like the Taco Bell Dog. Its Name: Peanut Butter. Don't ask. Anyway, my two dogs were extremely jealous. Couldn't stand the thought of another dog slummin' on their turf. And to show their displeasement, the rat dog even crapped on the carpet while staring me in the face. He immediately regretted that decision. But, after that, everything went pretty smooth. Here's a picture, of the Three Dog Weekend:

And next, we have the informal "King of the Castle" chihuahua greeting. Fun Times. Fun Times.

But hey, The Michigan Wolverines won again, making them 11-0, with only one more game for the regular season. Against the Ohio State Buckeyes, also 11-0. Unfortanately, I don't think the Wolverines will win. Either way, I still think no matter who wins, they'll still be playing each other for a rematch just a few weeks later for the National Championship.

In other good news, I got my Wisdom Tooth extraction moved up to this Thursday. Let's hope this is it.

Ch-ch-ch-Changes

2006-11-11T11:00:00.000-08:00

Just a minor change. Due to recent spamming both here and at a friends site, I ahve switched my comments over to Haloscan. For anybody who is not familiar with this, it's just a different comment form in a small popup window. That is all. No more anonymous comments, no more retarted word verification. It's all good.

One of my new personal favorites

2006-11-10T09:35:00.000-08:00

This song sent chills down my spine the first time I heard it.

Trent Tomlinson - One Wing in the Fire\

Just freaking Awesome

2006-11-08T11:51:00.000-08:00

The MRI came back. Nothing. Nada. I guess you could count that as a good thing. I dont. I wanna know why I've had tremendous head pain for the last 3 months. And, as always, the neurologist is gonna rush me back in to see him....in a month. I'm going to see my family doctor on Tuesday. Maybe he might magically think of something.

That MRI was not very fun

2006-11-04T13:04:00.000-08:00

So I had my MRI last night. Good times. Let me give you a rundown of the night.

7:30pm - Check in, start filling out paperwork.

7:40 - Finish paperwork. Sit there

7:50 - still sitting there. No one around

8pm - Guy finally comes and gets me. Lady asks if I've ever done any metal work in my life. I say Yes. Then she asks if I've ever gotten any metal in my eye. I say probably. She gets a dirty look, starts an attitude, asks me yes or no. I say I cant remember, as it was a long time ago, and that this isn't my first mri. She gets an even worse attitude, going off about how the MRI isn't a toy...blah blah blah. I finally just say yes. Now I have to get an xray to make sure there are no metal pieces in my eyes.

8:15 - Xray tech finally shows up.

8:16 - I realize xray tech is an idiot.

8:30 - xray tech thinks he's finally ready.

8:40 - xray tech finally realizes he was wrong, gets doc to help.

8:50 - radiologist shows moron how to do it right.

9pm - Back to waiting room

9:15 - Finally get taken into MRI room. Get told it will take 40 minutes. Awesome.

9:16 - Get music option with headphones. Pick country. Get entire Trace Adkins 2nd cd. Absolutely horrible.

9:40 - Music changes to Tim McGraws third album. The crappy, sissy album.

9:45 - Get pulled out for contrast IV. Now I'm freezing thanks too that stuff.

10pm - Done. Finally. Get a dirtly look from attitude lady on my way out. I give her a nice big grin. The look got worse. My smile got bigger. That was just what I needed to put me in a decent mood.

10:30 - get home, watch X-Men 3, then go to bed

Yeah Buddy!

2006-11-01T18:43:00.000-08:00

Woohoo! I get an MRI! Finally. And they still screwed it up...at least a little. I had planned on getting the MRI done at the Medical Imaging place about a mile from my place. But, instead, they scheduled it at Friday at 8pm, at the hospital on the other side of town. I hate that place. Not only is it a pain to drive to, but parking, finding where to go, etc....It's all a pain. But, at least I'll finally get the MRI, and really, all I want is an answer to what is wrong with me. The headache was possibly the worst ever today. Unlike previously where it was just always there and always hurt, today it would just STRIKE in an instant, and then immidiately dissapear. And this strike hurt. ALOT. And I mean ALOT. And it happened about every minutes or so. And I really couldnt take any meds for it unless I wanted to either go home, or sit and stare at the screen and drool with a smile on my face (well, not really, but you get the point).

My 5 year Anniversary gift from work came in today. My brand new fishing pole. The pole is kinda chincy, but the reel is actually pretty nice. Maybe I'll take the reel and put it on my graphite pole, and put the crappy reel I already had with the new chincy pole. Hmmmmm....what a masterful plan!

Another coworker from my team left. His last day was last night, and we all got together at the pool hall this morning for a going away party. And I, as always whooped everybody in pool. Even the guy I used to never be able to beat, I blew him away, and he was S H O C K E D. I hadn't played him in a couple of years, and I have stepped my game up to another level since then. I am pretty much our teams reigning pool champion. I rule.

Might we be getting somewhere?

2006-10-31T09:48:00.000-08:00

Alright, so here's whats up. After my wonderful insurance denied the MRI, the Neurologist had to send in a written appeal for it. They recieved a letter yesterday stating that my insurance could not identify me as a member. Nice. So they called them up, and found my info immediately. Nobody knows what went wrong, other than my suspicion that the people who work for my insurance are moronic buttmunches. So, either today or yesterday the neurologist is supposed to call and have this appeal expidited. This crap is getting old.

My temp position at work is running out either today or tomorrow. The hard part is not knowing what is next, as I didn't find this out until Friday. I emailed the lady in charge of finding me stuff to do, but it turns out she only works Tuesday-Thursday, so I just got a hold of her this morning. The one smart move I made was going to see one of my original bosses over at my normal campus, and asked him if there was anything I could do for him or any of the other engineers in my group for the next month. He seemed more than happy to help, so hopefully by the end of this week I'll at least be back in my old building working with people I know, doing stuff that should require some thought, and not just sitting typing in names all day.

I really need to get back to my normal job. Not only is Ryan leaving in a couple months, but I just found out this morning that another guy on my team is leaving after tonight for a new job. This sucks, as there will be no backfilling for his spot. My team really needs me, and I'm about to pull out what little hair I have left if this headache doesn't go away and let me get back to work.

Still Alive

2006-10-29T18:36:00.000-08:00

Yep, I'm still here. I still have no news about the neverending headache. Anyways, I got up yesterday to watch the Wolverines win another game, making them 8-0. Then, after a long day of working in photoshop, Ryan and I went out to play pool. And I was awesome as usual, winning 11 games to 4.

It really sucks that he'll be leaving next year. He's been a great friend for the last year and a half, but at the end of december he'll be transferring to the fab next door to mine, and then moving to Arizona in July. But, he needs to do it.

Sunday was my lazy day. I pretty much sat around and watched the first season of Lost, which is an awesome show.

What Hurts Worse? The Headache or The Tigers Losing?

2006-10-27T21:37:00.000-07:00

Really, this sucks. I think I actually lost hope after game 4. My spirits were lifted after Sean Caseys two run homer, but then Verlander, who had already pitched horrible most of the game, committed the Tigers 8th error of the Series. All hope was lost after that. I knew it was over.

There's not much I can say at this point. All I will say is Congrats to the Cardinals, and I'm happy that the Tigers made it as far as they did.

I think that guy who said the Tigers would win it in 3 games should be kicking himself right now.

The one good thing about game 3

2006-10-25T08:52:00.000-07:00

Remember in my last post, how I wanted to get rid of that moron (Eric Byrnes) with ~~girly~~ curly hair in the pregame show? Well, he wasn't there last night. He's only there when the game is in Detroit. It was so nice not to have to listen to that idiots babble. The extended talk about the Kenny Rogers issue was getting a little old, especially after even Bud Selig said it was handled correctly and that it is a closed issue.

As for the rest of the game, well, the Cardinals won 5-0, putting them up 2-1. Thats all I'm gonna say.

Now, off the topic. Do you watch Heroes on NBC? That show is freaking awesome. I finally watched Mondays episode last night off the DVR. It's nice to see a great show like that actually stay put....oh, wait, only Fox cancels the totally awesome shows (Wonderfalls, Firefly, etc...). But the shear mystery surrounding this show, and the way every ending is such an unbelievable cliffhanger, that is what brings me back begging "Please sir, may I have some more?"

Todd Jones makes the headache worse

2006-10-23T09:35:00.000-07:00

Seriously, that guy kills me. The Tigers take a three run lead into the bottom of ninth, after Kenny Rogers pitches his 27th straight scoreless inning, and he not only makes an error, but lets a runner score, and then loads the bases. How many times is Leyland gonna let him do this? You remember how the same thing happened in the ALCS against Oakland? The Bases loaded in the ninth with Frank Thomas stepping up to the plate?

Also, the media needs to learn to let stuff go. Everybody is making a stink about whatever was on Kenny Roges hand in the first inning. It was gone after that, and he still kicked their butts. It obviously didn't effect his pitching, and Tony La Russa said he doesn't care, so let it go!

One last thing. We need some new people doing the Pre/Post game show. That idiot that sits in the middle, I cant stand him. He just needs to A) Comb his hair, B) Shut-Up!, and C) Go away and not talk about baseball anymore. Ever. Anywhere. You annoy me and I can't stand listening to your retarted babble with your stupid curly-cue hair. You are about as intelligent as all four idiots on "The View" put together, and that ain't saying much.

Facelift

2006-10-20T17:08:00.000-07:00

I couldn't stand that crappy template I had, so I finally sat down and found a template I liked, with a header image I could customize.

You like the cartoon The Chad? So do I. And for those of you who don't know, yes, I do actually have that tattoo on my arm.

So it looks like the St Louis Cardinals are gonna take on the Tigers in the World Series. I was kind of hoping for the Mets, but the Cards work I guess.

It looks like the cause to the Never-Ending Super-Headache may be an impacted wisdom tooth. And thanks to my uber-dental plan, it'll be about 5 more weeks before I can get it out. 5 more weeks of this day-shift, type all day, headache, pound-face-into-monitor crap. How do people live on day shift? I cant stand it. I find the drivers in this state bad enough just on night shift, and now I have to put up with them during the day? This sucks.

Well, I'm outta here. Time to go watch guys beat the crap out of each other (aka: Our local Hockey team).

Later

Detroit Tigers: American League Champions, World Series Bound!

2006-10-14T19:42:00.000-07:00

That's Right! The Tigers swept the Oakland Athletics! In Motown, the temps in the 40's, and the game was tied 3-3 in the bottom of the Ninth. Placido Polanco on Second, Craig Monroe on First. Magglio Ordonez steps up to the plate. First Pitch, Strike. Second Pitch, Swing, and it's LOOOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGG GOOOOONNNNEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!

And with that, Mags helps send the Detroit Tigers to their first World Series since 1984. I could not be more happy right now. Mike Illitch (Owner: Little Ceasars Pizza, Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Tigers) finally gets to see his boys bring it home. Dave Dombrowski, General Manager, after a few years as the worst team in baseball, brings in the right people to do the job. And Jim Leyland, Manager. A World Series Winning Manager. He sets the stage. He brought the attitude this team needed. A winning attitude. And my last mention, Placido Polanco, the ALCS MVP. After he got hurt in late August, the Tigers started to suck and it cost them their Division, but they managed to stay in as the Wild Card. And then, Polanco came back, and they KICKED BUTT! They have won 8 straigt playoff games. The only game they have lost was game 1 in the ALDS against the Yankees. I am totally stoked for the World Series.

Some new bullet points

2006-10-06T11:24:00.000-07:00

*The Neurologist is gonna have me get an MRI. Finally.
*He also gave me new high powered pain pills.
*He also gave me a small form of anti-depressents, as I've pretty much lost any optimism for this problem to go away.
*The dentist found an impacted wisdom tooth on the same side as the head pain. It's scheduled to get surgically removed in November.
*I will finally be able to get my teeth fixed with some orthodontal work.
*My new temp job sucks. Alot. I hate it. Alot.

The Shocker

2006-09-21T18:18:00.000-07:00

Went to a chirpractor yesterday. While he did managed to make my legs the same length again, thats about it. Still have a headache. And I'm $70 shorter for doing so. It doesn't look like they're gonna let me back to work, even for a desk job. Wonderful news.

I went to physical therapy today, reported all the "progess", so she said she'd like to try something new. An electrical nerve stimulation device (AKA: Electro Shocker). Eh, feels interesting, but so far not a big help.

I'm so glad I get to pay for all this crap that so far hasn't done squat.

Prescription Blues

2006-09-09T12:38:00.000-07:00

I had some more Prescription fun yesterday. If you recall how much a pain it was to get my new meds filled in the first place, you're gonna love the refill story. So shortly after I got up yesterday, I went and met up with some friends down to the dog park. After hanging out there awhile, we left with plans to go out to eat a little later. Upon returning home, the headache was kicking in, so I went to go take my migraine meds, finding I was down to my last one. So I called the pharmacy to set up the refill, upon finding that my insurance was once again denying it, saying that it was too soon and there is some crazy limit as to how much of this drug they can dispense - 12 pills every 23 days. WHAT?!? Um, I sometimes need to take up to 3 a day! So I call my insurance. They say have my doctors office call them. Call the doctors office, give them the scoop on the whole issue. Ten minutes later, they call back and say that it's all taken care of, but it could take up to two hours for the problem to be fixed. Ok, I can live with that. My friends show up and we go out to eat (and that will be it's own story after I finish this one).

Once I get dropped off after dinner, I call the pharmacy to see where I'm at. It still wont go through. Now I'm a little irritated. I call my insurance again. Ten minutes of going round and round with whoever I was talking too, I start getting really, really mad, becouse she wont say anything other than "you are only allowed this many pills every this many blah blah blah..." and at that point I start yelling. I don't care if she can't do anything about it, I've already asked for someone who can, and she still wont say or do anything else. Finally, I hear someone talking to her, and I go on hold. She comes back on and says that it has been sorted out, but the pharmacy needs to call them to do something different. Call the pharmacy, tell them to call the Insurance. Ten minutes later, they call back and tell I can come pick up my meds. GEESH! What a pain this is turning out to be. All I wanted was something to make my head stop hurting, and they make it hurt even worse.

Moving on. So T & D and I went to dinner at this new place called Buffalo Wild Wings. As I walked in, my jaw hit the freaking floor. 31 Regular TVs, 4 big Flat Panel TVs, and 8 Giant Projection screens. ALL WITH SPORTS. Lets not forget the small lcd TVs over top of the urinals in the bathroom (but none in the stalls. Yes, I checked). Yep, if you ever need to find me and can't, this is where I'll be.

An Interesting Day, With Interesting News

2006-09-06T13:12:00.000-07:00

Alright, I finally found out yesterday that my Medical Leave claim was approved. Up to yesterday (at the time). So, while it sucked that they only approved me up till yesterday, at least I get paid. They called and told me this at 8am yesterday (remember, I work nights. I don't like to get up before noon). So, back to bed I went. When I got up and got around, I headed over for my massage therapy session. And boy was that crap ever painful. She made me do stretches that made me want to cry, hit all the normal pressure points, as well as the areas that are currently causing intense pain. Then came the ultrasound treatment. Yeah, that was fun. The good thing that came out of that is that the Therapist thinks she found what the problem is. A nerve behind the ear. This came after I mentioned that when the headache throbs, I get a metal taste in the back of my mouth, nearest the pain. That, and whenever she touched that spot it just got worse. And the ultrasound, yeah, fun times. She had to stop after about a minute becouse the throbbing was so bad. But, after all that, we talked a bit. She's gonna talk to my Doc (who works in the same office) and give the Nerve news, as well as seeing about getting diff meds that might actually help and not just let me zone out and not care.

After that, I headed off to my Eye appt. The technician there that set me up for the doc was pretty cute, too bad she had a HUGE rock on her finger. The eye doc and I talked about the migraine for a bit, and she agreed it really had nothing to do with my eyes. So, we did the exam, and my eyes havent changed. Same prescription as two years ago. Then came the time she needed to look in the back of the eye. You know, the part where they have to dialate them and then I'm stuck wearing sunglasses for the next 8 hours? So we chatted about that, and how glasses only make the pain worse (from where the frame sits behind the ear). Luckily, they have a new machine that can take a picture of the inside of your eye without dialating them. Problem: This new machine is not covered by insurance yet. Another $30. Normally, this would be no problem, but I'm on supremely limited funds right now. But, the Doc understood and gave it to me for free. I like her. And those pictures were freaking cool! They seriously get the inside of the entire eye, and then the Doc explains just what is what and if anything is wrong. She also had a bunch of pics of what bad things would look like. But, I'm all good in the eyes.

Then, I get another call today around 10am. Still want to sleep, but I answer. It's my Medical Leave place, wanting to give me a survey as they see I'm scheduled to return to work. What? Um, No I'm not. I explain the situation, and they give me another week, but say that after I see the neurologist, I need to have the docs fill out more crap stating that I still cant go back to work and that my Leave needs to be extended. The only good part of this call is when she tried to transfer me to the survey people, she cut me off instead. So I went back to bed. Only to find that the RatDog had thrown up right where I had been sleeping. Great start to another wonderful day.

Worst Day Ever

2006-08-30T17:15:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I had an absolutely horrible day yesterday. Today didn't start out so well either. As a night shifter, I don't exactly care to get up much before noon. I stay up usually until at least 2am (when I'm not working, like now). The phone started ringing around 8am from my doctors office, who I had called Monday afternoon to get some crap sorted out. The lady I talked to got everything wrong. So, after a lovely conversation while half asleep, I thought I finally had it all sorted out, yet to make sure I had to call my Medical Leave provider. And of course, nothing had been done. I call the doctors office back. Finally get the point across that they didn't do what I need of them. Then, around 9am, I'm done. I go back to sleep. 9:30am, the phone rings again. It's the Phys Therapy office ready to set up my appts. After that, I finally get a couple more hours of sleep.

After getting up a little after Noon, get some coffee in me and read my daily reads, I head over to the pharmacy to pick up a couple prescriptions...or so I thought. One of them I needed on Friday, but since I had already gotten something in the same medicine category earlier in the week, my insurance denied it. Finally, Tuesday, the dr's office got it taken care of. They had that ready to go after several minutes and a bunch of other crap. And the other Rx I thought was there, wasn't....as it was a controlled substance it wasn't able to be called in. At this point, I go from being in an ok mood, even after all the phone calls in the morning and waiting on a scrip I should have gotten 4 days earlier, to mildly irritated as I can't get the rest of my meds. It also wasn't helping that since I needed to drive, I hadn't taken any pain meds all day, so my head was freaking pounding.

I drive over to the Doctors office, and the lady I was talking to earlier got the Rx for me. While I was there I went ahead and made sure that they had sent in my Medical Leave paperwork. They didn't have it, and nobody knew anything about it. Great. So, I get on the phone with the Provider, still no Pain Killers in me. Finally, it all gets sorted out. I drive back up to the Pharmacy, hand the Rx to the lady, and get told it'll be about 20 minutes. Still just mildly irritated. I go out and grab some lunch, run home and take the dogs out, and run back up to the pharmacy. And there is where I go from just mildy irritated to more than totally irritated. The Doctor never signed the prescription, and once again, since it was a controlled substance, there was no give.

I run out to the truck, start flying back to the doctors office, only to get behind some moronic Oregon driver who wants to go 10 miles per hour under the freaking speed limit. I am now Irate. Ready to hurt someone. Finally get to the office, show the unsigned scrip. About 10 minutes later, they finally come out with a signed scrip (which of course looked like a squiggly line) along with a copy of the leave form they had finally faxed back to the Leave Provider. Back to the pharmacy, but slower than I thought. Once again, somehow, I manage to get behind another slow idiot who wants to do not only 10MPH under, but also hit the freaking breaks at every curve, oncoming car, traffic light (green or not) and road sign. And I am absolutely losing it at this point. Bear in mind, I still havent had any pain meds yet, and now not only is my head pounding, but the rest of the pain has kicked in (entire right side of body now hurts).

Upon returning to the pharmacy and getting the new Rx approved, I get told it will be another 20 minutes. After the insane look I give, I get told that they'll try to put a rush on it, as the lady there is the same one I've delt with all day. And, of course, in the spirit of this awesome, awesome day, I finally get my meds....30 minutes later. Then I get home, take the meds, and veg out on the couch for the rest of the day.

And today, the phone once again rang at 8am. But, for a good thing. The therapy office called and said that they had an opening at 10am. So, I get another hour of sleep and head over there. No coffee, no meds. But, the therapist was cool, had a great sense of humor, and was definately interested in helping find not only the cause but also the fix. So, after all that, I decided to take the rest of today and do nothing. So, I threw in the Lord Of the Rings Extended DVD, took some meds, and laid on the couch doing absolutely nothing (until now of course).

My Head Hurts

2006-08-19T13:34:00.000-07:00

So here's the story. Last week I started getting intense pain behind my right ear. Glasses (any glasses. My prescripstions, my safety glasses, my sunglasses) seemed to aggrivate the crap out of it and make it worse, and once I took them off, the pain doubled on top of that. I was in pain. I went to Urgent care on Sunday, but the doc couldn't tell me what was wrong, so he gave me happy pills instead. While this did cover up the pain, it also made me useless at work. The next day I went and saw a regual doctor. Nothing. A CTscan. Nothing. Finally, an Ear, Nose, and throat doctor. He believes it's an A-typical migraine (???) caused by stress or something. He thinks the pain is coming from tension in a muscle that runs up the back of the neck and connects to the skull right behind my right ear. And his solution? Motrin. Lots and lots (well, a reasonable amount) of Motrin, for at least a week. And if that doesn't fix it, I get to go see a Nuerologist. Fun Times.

I got dragged to go see Snakes on A Plane last night. Wow was that ever retarted. I never wanted to see it in the first place, but I had to get out of the apartment, and some friends wanted to see it. I was laughing through most of it, but the rest of the time I was just rolling my eyes at the absurdity of it all. So, if you're in the mood for a retarted grotesque movie involving snakes, go see it. Just remember that this movie is not meant to be serious in anyway, and you have to remember that when you watch it. The writers knew it was dumb, and they took that idea to the extreme. Extreme with gore, too.

Back in the playlist

2006-08-11T13:41:00.000-07:00

I started listening to the Dixie Chicks again. First time in nearly 3 years. Well, sort of. At first I totally boycotted them. In the last couple years I'd let them play if they came on the radio, but I never chose to listen to them any other time. But, their new album is out, and I like the message. You're not happy, I'm not happy, but it's time to move on. I can do that. Besides, not only is their new current single, Not Ready To Make Nice a great song telling it like it is, but it's also kind of catchy.

I made chili today. I had to actually get up before noon today for this task. How do people get up in the AM? I just dont get it. But, I'm off to a BBQ now.

Playing Dressup

2006-08-06T13:33:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I went to a friends wedding yesterday. I had to get dressed up. I loathe the thought of getting dressed up. Especially the idea of a tie. But, it was a good service. Hung out with friends, had some laughs. It was all good. I'm just really happy the outdoor service was in the shade, cause it was HOT.

No such thing as global warming

2006-07-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

Hmph! It was 104 freaking degrees here yesterday. I was told it hit 108 on Friday, but I wouldn't know, I was camping near a snow covered mountain, so it was only 80 there. Plus, I was swimming.

So, yeah. It was another great camping trip. With the exception of me not catching anything.....again. Good thing we have no plans to go back to this lake. I am now 0-5 for fishing on this craptastic lake.

Oh yeah, there are no fans available for purchase anywhere in Hillsboro. I dissapointingly and sweatingly found this out yesterday. Good thing I have friends who recently moved into a house with A/C. They now have plenty of fans to spare.

It's that time again

2006-07-20T07:06:00.000-07:00

I'm going camping again today. It's about time.

Fezgig is staying at Ryans place. He (his girlfriend really) has 3 cats. That should be interesting.

I'm Back

2006-07-15T14:57:00.000-07:00

So I needed a little hiatus. Lets Review the past couple months.

1. I bought a new truck. A 2002 Chevy S10 4WD.
2. I go camping quite often. Going again next week.
3. I have a laptop that I can barely use now as the dogs chewed up the power cord.
4. Work is stil work.
5. eh, well, thats it.

And oh yeah, the drivers here are still HORRIBLE!

I had to go back to the dealership the other day to take in my emissions papers and get my plates, and what was on their showroom floor?

A brand new Ford GT. Wow. What a beautiful car. The idiot that sold me my truck is still trying to make small talk while they are processing my emissions test, and I'm pretty much ignoring him while I'm staring and drooling at this car. Not a bad deal for $250K, huh?

Back to work

2006-05-05T12:50:00.000-07:00

My first week back to work went pretty good....almost. I havent felt the original pain in my knee yet, so thats good. It was a little sore from actually doing something for once, and the missing hamstring ligaments are definately a trying matter. However, something bad did happen. I guess I am now allergic to latex. My hands had a bad , spotty rash, and just plain hurt. The cotton glove liners felt like sandpaper.

Oh yeah, other good news. The Red Wings lost. Awesome. At least I still have the Pistons. And possibly even the Tigers. They seem to be doing well...so far.

Back to the real world

2006-04-22T20:24:00.000-07:00

Finally going back to work. Wow. I think I've forgotten what a normal life with a job is like. And responsibility. For the past three months the most responsibility I've had is paying bills and making sure I get the dogs outside on time. But, unfortunately, the only way to tell if I'm ready for those long twelve hour night shifts, standing and walking all night with a bad knee, is to actually go ahead and do it. But, at least I'll be able to rebuild the bankroll.

Ok Tigers, pick what you're planning on doing, cause this win streak-lose streak-win streak is getting old. I so wish I would have looked ahead of time, becouse they are up in Seattle this whole weekend, and I didn't realize it until Wednesday, way too late to get anybody to go with me, and of course, they will be back in Seattle again, on the worst possible weekend. The 4th of July weekend. Man that sucks. And alot of my friends are gonna be gone, too. And what went on in that game Saturday? Two guys getting thrown out at home, one of which should've been safe? What ever happened to running over the catcher? I realize its a bit dirty, and its only the beginning of the season, but come on; Ichiro's way too good to just waltz on up to home plate without a challenge. RUN HIM OVER! But, at least they won.

The Red Wings kicked off the playoffs with a gut wrencher. I was quite stressed. Really, how much more stressful can it get than not tying it up until the last 5 minutes of the game, then having that goal reviewed, and then taking it into double overtime? You guys are killing me! And I had to go to a bbq, so as soon as the first OT ended, I ran the dogs outside, then got in the car and raced (yes, I really, really raced) over to my friends house, ran inside and ordered the channel switched over to the game. I joined in after missing the first 18 seconds of the second OT (NO THANKS TO THAT SLOW FREAKIN' MINIVAN!!!). But, my boys came through with the second miracle goal of the night (seriously, if you didn't see both the tying and winning goals, they were spectacular), both of them compliments of Kirk Maltby.

The Pistons start tomorrow afternoon, and the Wings play as well - AT 10 IN THE FRICKIN' MORNING OUT HERE!. Yeah, im enthused. I just love getting up in the morning. NOT!

Update: The Red Wings lost. AARRHHHGGG!!

Bad timing

2006-04-18T11:54:00.000-07:00

Well, with the past 3 months off of work, I've watched lot of movies, and lots and lots of sports. Hockey, basketball, and even baseball (watched more baseball in the last 4 weeks than I have in the past 4 years). Now, with the baseball season upon me, I really don't care a whole lot. The Tigers got my hopes up only to smash them down. But, here is the bad timing. The Hockey and Basketball seasons are over tomorrow. Luckily, I have teams at the top of the Leagues. The Red Wings and the Pistons. And Playoffs begin Friday. My next doctors appointment is Friday, which will ultimately decide if I go back to work or not. And more than likely, I will; not that thats a bad thing, becouse I really need to get back to work. But man, I wanna watch the friekin' playoffs!

And here are my predictions. The Pistons, well, they are gonna win it all. No doubt (with the small exception of yesterdays game against the Bucks). The Red Wings, well, even though they are my favorite team and they rock, I have to say I think they will go out in the second round. I just dont know if their goaltending will be enough. And if Datsyuk, Schnieder, and Yzerman dont get back in the lineup, then were gonna have some serious problems, even with the mad tear they've been on lately, not going without a point for the last twenty games, and not being shut-out for the entire season. Its the presidents trophy curse.

whatever

2006-04-10T13:15:00.000-07:00

Thanks alot, Tigers. You get my hopes up by winning 5 in a row. And then, lose the next 2, including your Home Opener. And I have watched more baseball in the past week (thanks to the MLB Extra Innings free preview) than I have in the last 3 years.

I've been thinking alot lately about some movie I was forced to watch a long, long time ago in middle school english class, and I couldn't for the life of me think of what it was (or why I was thinking about it). All I could remember about it was an escaped convict got a kid to get him some food and tools for his chains, or "his friend would cut out his heart and his liver", along with a crazy lady, a snobby girl, and a benefactor. So I started watching a movie I got from netflix last night, and within the first 2 minutes, I was instantly reminded (although it was nothing even remotely close to being the same) of the movie was thinking of. So, after I did some major research on IMDB, as it turns out, Great Expectations with Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke, is a modern day remake of a Charles Dickens novel, which, to my surprise, has been filmed many, many times, and was done by the BBC, the exact same movie I was thinking of.

Back on the web

2006-04-06T21:33:00.000-07:00

Well, after a much needed hiatus, The Chad is back. So, as far as an update goes, lets see: I am still in recovery and out of work after knee surgery. My new puppy, fezgig (named after the awesome dag like creature in the greatest movie ever, The Dark Crystal) is doing pretty good, I just cant wait until he gets away from the early puppy stage so he can actually learn the potty training thing. He and Kaeo are doing ok together. They seem to play rough, though sometimes I'm not sure if they're playing or just irritating each other.

I think it kind of sucks that both the Basketball season and the Hockey season are almost up. But, baseball seems to have struck a new cord with me and possibly rejuvinated my interest with the sport. It might help that the Tigers are 3-0 so far this season with 15 HOME RUNS! How sweet is that?!?! I watched them today flipping back and forth between that and the Pistons layin' the smackdown on the Heat, and wow, that Tigers game was an all out shooting gallery. I mean come on, seven homers? SWEEEEET! But, with the two other sports ending, at least my teams are going out on top. The Red Wings (which I've missed about 10 games all year) going for the Presidents cup, the Pistons just dominating the league, it's been some nice time off watching them whoop everybody.

I just got The Chronicles of Narnia on DVD, and I so love that movie. I also bought King Kong. Man, was that a total frieking waste. I sat sooooo BORED through that entire piece of crap. The only good parts of that entire movie were the dino scenes and the Empire State Building scene. Other than that, total crap. TOTAL AND COMPLETE CRAP.

Yeah, that should do it for a first post.