Random Thinking

Friday afternoon. I’ve been home from the hospital since Wednesday and I’m feeling pretty good. I spoke to my doctor today and he didn’t see any reason why I shouldn’t go back to work on Monday so that is my plan. I’ll rest up over the weekend and then back to the regular grind Monday morning.

I saw a commercial today while sitting at home doing nothing for Become an M&M. So I went to the website that was advertised in the commercial and it turned out to be some completely different site full of ads. The reason was because I spelled out the word “and” between the MM. The Mars people were so stupid that they didn’t spend the extra 10 bucks and buy the MandM version of the domain. You would think that a big corporation would be smart enough to buy all the commonly misspelled versions of their site especially since buying a domain is so cheap.

It’s 7:30 and I’m in recovery. The ablation was not pleasant but it was successful. It hurt like hell during the procedure and even now it feels like someone is sitting on my chest. The doctor said they couldn’t induce the arythmia but they are confident they got the right spot. Michel - I’m in Monti 418 by the window.

This is an actual label used on products manufactured by the Tom Bihn Company of Washington state. They manufacture backpacks, laptop bags, and briefcases. Notice the last few lines of the French version of the instructions. They translate to: “We are sorry that our President is an idiot. We did not vote for him.”

Hat tip to Susan at In Over My Head

Technorati Tags: George W. Bush, France

I passed out at work yesterday. This is the first time in two years. Fortunately I have the implanted heart monitor this time so they should be able to tell what is going on. The nurse practicioner at the hospital last night printed out what the monitor recorded (a sample above). Originally they thought my heart rate was dropping but the monitor showed that my heart was racing - sometimes over 200 beats per minute. When I see the electrophysiologist today, he should be able to tell me what they plan to do next.

Update: I saw the electrophysiologist and the monitor worked. The problem is that I have AV nodal reentrant tachycardia which normally doesn’t cause passing out but because I also have Vasovagal syncope the two work in combination to trick my heart into thinking that my blood pressure is too high triggering the sudden drop in pressure. So Tuesday I will go in and have the ablation which is when they burn off the cells inside the heart that are causing the problem. They do this by running a wire through my leg and up into my heart and then heating the tip. The success rate for my type of arrhythmia (SVT) is very high. So keep your fingers crossed for me!

We had another ice storm. You might not be able to tell from the pictures but it is like an ice rink out there. My neighbor couldn’t even get up his stoop. Every time he tried to step up he just slid right back down. I couldn’t get either the front or back doors open. I got the front door open by pouring boiling water on the sill until enough ice had melted. I couldn’t get the back door open even with that trick and I couldn’t get in the back yard from the front yard because the gate was frozen shut. I had to take the window out the screen door and break up the ice with a shovel. It seems to be melting a bit as water is dripping everywhere around the house.

This is Lily. She is a purebred Boston Terrier. We got her from Boston Terrier Rescue. She was an abused dog kept by a breeder in a little cage. We got her a couple of years ago and she is the perfect dog for us. She never bites or scratches and is incredibly friendly (although a little nervous around men). She loves to lick. She sleeps until around noon every day. She sits at the door waiting for Beth and Mikey to come home from school. She likes to bark at anything the goes by the house including a piece of paper. She sounds vicious until you get in the house. Then she she tries to lick you to death!

This is Kokie. The name Kokie is short for Kocka which is Czech for “cat” but is also a slang term for a pretty woman. Beth picked out Kokie from our local animal shelter about three years ago. She hates Tuttle (see below) and she is always beating Tuttle up. She is the only cat that likes the basement (probably because of the privacy) but also likes to sleep on top of the TV. Find a warm spot and Kokie is probably right there!

This is Inkie. We got Inkie from Mikey’s occupational therapist. She got a litter of kittens from a stray cat that lived in her backyard. She kept one of the kittens and we took Inkie. Inkie sleeps most of the time but he is a real people cat. He loves to have his belly rubbed and his paws massaged. If he is sleeping on the breakfront and you pass by, he will reach out and smack you as his way of asking for a pet or two. 99% of the time you will find him either sleeping in our bed or on Beth’s bed. Inkie is also madly in love with the dog. The dog cleans Inkie so Inkie almost always smells like a dog. Phew!

And finally, this is Tuttle. Tuttle is still a kitten and is very playful which is why she gets into fights with Kokie all the time. Tuttle always has scratches on her nose from Kokie. We got Tuttle from our vet. Someone had dumped a litter of newborn kittens at his front door. He took care of them until they were old enough to be adopted and we took one. Tuttle is also very friendly and loves to be held and petted. She eats anything and seems to think that everything in the house is hers. Turn your back for a minute and she will take your food right off the plate! She also likes to feed the dog. She scoops food up off the table with her paw and drops it on the floor for the dog. She once tossed a Hershey Kiss to one of the nurses that come to take care of Michel’s pop!

Tags: cats, dogs, pets

Did you watch any of the Valerie Plame testimony today? After watching today here are my comments:

1) I thought the whole thing with beautiful spies was just a James Bond fiction.

2) If this had happened to me I would be pissed. Ms. Plame was a very successful covert operative and had advanced to a GS-14 within the CIA. Because she was outed she lost her job.

3) Dick Cheney cares nothing about the US. Plame was outed because her husband, Joe Wilson, published an article in the NY Times saying that the Bush administration claim that Iraq was trying to buy material for a nuclear bomb from Niger was false. Cheney wanted to discredit Wilson so he did some research. During that research he discovered that Wilson’s wife was a CIA spy and shared this information with several people including “Scooter” Libby and Karl Rove. Libby then told a number of reporters about Plame (including Judith Miller at the NY Times) but they didn’t report it. It wasn’t until Richard Armitrage told Robert Novak that it was published.

4) This didn’t just cost Plame her job but exposed citizens of foreign countries who were helping the CIA to exposure and death. From the NY Times: She said the security breach might have endangered agency officials but also “jeopardized and even destroyed entire networks of foreign agents, who in turn risk their own lives and those of their families to provide the United States with needed intelligence. Lives are literally at stake.”

5) The Bush administration including the Justice Department has declined to investigate the leak. This is part of the reason that “Scooter” (what adult calls themselves “Scooter”?) was tried for lying about the leak and not the leak itself.

6) There is a lot more to this story yet to come. And there is going to be a book and a movie!

Technorati Tags: Valerie Plame, Stupid Conservatives, Dick Cheney, Joe Wilson

I stopped by Amazon today to check an order and noticed that I had a bunch of plogs posted to my account. A plog, apparently, is a personalized web log designed just for me. I checked the first couple of pages (there were more than 100 unread entries) and found one that was interesting. The post was from a guy named Tom (not me) who works for the Amazon Book Store. Tom’s entry was about a list of rights for readers that had appeared in French in a book titled, Comme un roman, by Daniel Pennac. The list has to do with a reader faced with that list of must read books. My comments are in italics after each right.

1. The right not to read - Just because Harry Potter is the most popular book in the universe does not mean that everyone must read it. Choose books that interest you and not books that you have to read because they are popular.
2. The right to skip pages - If a book is boring then feel free to skip ahead. There is no reason to feel guilty just because you don’t read every word the author wrote.
3. The right to not finish - If a book is really boring, then feel free to stop reading. There are plenty of other books that you could be reading so wasting your time on a book just because you started it is no reason to feel the least bit guilty.
4. The right to reread - If you liked a book then there is no reason not to reread it if you want. Just as with #3, it’s your time and if the book was good the first time and you want to read it again then go ahead!
5. The right to read anything - Whatever genre interests you then go ahead and enjoy.
6. The right to escapism - One of the reasons that people read is to escape the pressures of their lives. There is nothing wrong with reading escapist books.
7. The right to read anywhere - Obviously, this should be within reason. Reading at your best friend’s wedding or your mother’s funeral mass is probably not a good idea, nut go ahead and read in the tub (try that you eBook fans) or while sitting on the toilet.
8. The right to browse - My local Border’s has benches all around and have no problem with grabbing a few books or magazines and sitting in their little coffee shop and browsing through them. If your bookstore gives you trouble about sitting in the aisles with a bunch of books then it is time to find another bookstore.
9. The right to read out loud - This one I don’t quite get. But then I never feel compelled to read out load unless I am reading to my son. I can’t imagine wanting to read out loud and I can’t imagine that I would like it if someone near me read out loud. So this one I would not agree with.
10. The right not to defend your tastes - Just because you are 30 and like YA fiction or you like romance novels or some other “lesser” genre does not mean that you should be made to feel guilty about what you read. I recently read on the Deblog that some book snob considers Harry Potter readers to be “illiterate”. This is nonsense. Read what you like and enjoy!

Technorati Tags: books, reading

I like pizza but I don’t think I would be willing to spend $1,000 on one. Nino’s Bellisima Pizza restaurant in New York is offering the most expensive pizza in the world. The pizza has creme fraiche, chives, either four or six different kinds of caviar (different articles disagree about this), four ounces of thinly sliced lobster tail, salmon roe and Japanese wasabi horseradish. Pizza at $125 a slice better be good and according to one of the people who have bought one, it is delicious. But $1,000 for pizza? If you are in Manhattan and want one, make sure you give the pizzeria 24-hours notice so they can get fresh caviar for you.

Technorati Tags: pizza, conspicuous consumption