9:30am: Where is everybody?
There seems to be no one here. Of course, I am as guilty as anyone. I need to post more.

I am in Colorado at the moment, visiting family.

I finally saw the new Star Trek.

All of the animals are fine. Clyde is now 16 and has hyperthyroidism...he is otherwise healthy.


Not too much else is going on at the moment...:D

7:48pm: It seems that I have the hearing of a teenager....

Created by Train Horns

WTF??!!! I am 38...I am not supposed to be able to hear this and yet I can. It is a very annoying high pitched buzzing sound....BAH!!

7:17pm: Back to San Antonio!
Well, I am off to San Antonio again....this time for a conference.....why oh why do they keep sending me to Texas....*sigh*

7:16pm: As vacations go...
this one can.....and far away please!

So, I get to Colorado Springs on Dec. 31st...so far so good....Jan 1st went well. I got some stuff done, had some fun etc.

Then I wake up in the middle of the night (about 2 AM) with intense nausea. I spent the next 16 hours pucking my guts out....every 15 to 30 minutes. I couldn't even keep down WATER for Pete's sake. The next day and a half was spent with chills, muscle aches, a horrible headache, weakness and intermittent nausea (fortunately the pucking part is, more or less, done since my stomach muscles are unbelievably sore right now). I felt somewhat better today. I managed to eat for the first time in two days....not much admittedly, but some.

Now I mostly feel fatigued and, while I am no longer nauseous, I am not all that hungry. My stomach still feels chancy. I go home tomorrow morning. So much for my vacation.

8:04pm: Well, I am here...
I am in San Antonio now...been so since the 8th. I am way too busy and I am coming down with a cold...:(

10:22pm: Random Update!
Not too much is going on. I am getting ready to go to San Antonio. I leave very shortly...:D

My job is keeping me busy...

And I miss my pets.....

Also, I strained my knee...not while I was running three miles or doing some other type of exersise or sport or anything...nope....I was walking through the house. That's right....WALKING THROUGH THE HOUSE....SLOWLY.....gahhhhhhh!!!!

8:31pm: And people wonder why we have an epidemic of obesity in the U.S.!
On one of my many forums, I ran across a post from a pissed parent...pissed because a bunch other people in his neighborhood actually think that he is being mean to his two teenaged boys. Both boys evidently enjoy sports (track, wrestling, cross country and football mostly). In order to help them perform better when they went back to school the boys wanted their dad to set a a summer workout contact/schedule for them. As an incentive for following the contract the father agreed that he would take them to an amusment park at the end of the summer provided they applied themselves.

The contact was mutually agreed upon by all involved parties.

According to the contact the boys will:

1) Run at least one (1) mile each morning
2) Sprint at least 10 times for a distance for at least 40 meters timed
3) Complete Two or Three agility/explosiveness drills three days a week.
4) Three days a week the boys will complete the following items:
a) Lift weights
5) One day a week they will complete the following items:
a) Call a friend to go swimming
b) Ride a bike
c) Throw a ball
6) Seven days a week they will complete the following items:
a) Have fun
b) Eat healthy foods
c) Clean their rooms and complete such chores as assigned by their parents.

Personally, I can't see anything abusive or mean in this contract. Both boys, evidently enjoy sports and physical activities. They simply don't want to get lazy over the summer.

I strongly suspect that the parents who feel that the contract is unfair and too hard are the type of parents that are perfectly happy to let their fat lazy kids play computer games all day and then actually wonder why junior is hypertensive at fifteen.

2:35pm: Bad novels!
Okay...it's true that all fiction genre's have their fair share of garbage. You have to look at five to ten books in order to find one that is readable. The truth is that most authors probably shouldn't...be authors that is....

But it is also true that some genre's are so much worse about this than others....Romance novels come to mind....Paranormal Romance is a particularly bad offender. Don't get me wrong, like most genre's, it boasts a few good books and authors, but most of them are terrible....I managed to find a comic that illustrates how I feel most of the books in that genre. :D

http://headtripcomics.comicgenesis.com/index.html

12:52am: How does one get into a violent argument over economics?
Well....my mother had her birthday on May 1st. I would give you her age, but I am very much afraid she would kill me....after a long speech starting with the phrase: "I brought you into this world and I can take you out".....definitely not worth the risk.

My brother and half-sister are speaking again....yayyyyy!!!! She is still being an idiot, but they are speaking....As it turns out this is a good thing given a recent incident.

It seems that my brother and his best friend, Charlie, are no longer speaking. I found this out when I asked my brother if he wanted to go to a Rockies game on the 16th and let him know that he could invite Charlie. To my surprise, my brother said that Charlie was NOT welcome. Evidently this is what happened. Charlie and my brother went to a bar/restaurant after a game (probably the Rockies)in order to have a few drinks and get some food. They had used Charlie's car to go to the game and bar instead of each driving their own car in order to save gas (my brother gave him gas money).

At any rate, they went in and had an argument over, of all things, economics. At some point during this argument Charlie lost his temper and threw a salt shaker at my brother, but missed and hit the back of another customer's chair instead. When it became apparent that Charlie was not going to apologize to this customer, my brother went over there to apologize on Charlie's behalf. At this time Charlie left the bar without paying his part of the bill and stranded my brother there (recall that my brother came in Charlie's car). So here is my brother stranded at midnight in a bar without a car, with both his and Charlie's bills and, no doubt, trying to placate and angry man who had just had a salt shaker thrown at him.

Since he had no money for a cab, my brother had to call our half-sister...at midnight....on a (for her) work night in order to get home. To make matters worse, she got a speeding ticket on the way. So my brother is no longer speaking to Charlie. I am not sure that I blame him! I would have been furious if someone stranded me in a bar over a trivial argument about economics.

12:13am: A momentary Flicker...
This morning and for several previous mornings, I have been awakened by a strange sound that is somewhat reminiscent of a pile-driver. It turns out that the culprit was a Red-shafted Northern Flicker (a type of woodpecker for those who are curious). I managed to catch a momentary flicker of the, well, Flicker by sneaking outside and catching it, uhhh, red-winged.

It wouldn't have been so bad if the critter had merely been trying to destroy the walls of the house by pocking holes in it. Oh no, this ambitious avian had to try and poke holes in the metal chimney attached to the wood-burning stove(these are used much like fireplaces here in Colorado). In any case, by pecking vigorously at the metal chimney, this young Flicker managed to amplify the noise it could make by a factor of at least ten and has caused me to cry fowl. :P

Here is the culprit now!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flicker_(bird)

4:25pm: Damn Gym.
Agggg....I did not want to go work out today. I woke up with a splitting headache and feeling tired, but I forced myself over to the gym anyway. Even coffee didn't wake me up much today....bah....Anyway, I went ahead a worked out anyway. I even increased the amount of weight that I use for various body conditioning machines and increased the amount of time I that I use on the Ski eliptical (my favorite machine) and bike (not my favorite machine....I am skinny and this damn thing STILL makes my @$$ hurt). So, anyway, my headache is gone and I am now awake. Damn exercise made me feel better and just when I was in the mood to bitch, whine and moan about working out too.

4:53pm: Another Vet visit.
Well, Clyde is mad at me. I had the bad grace to take him to the vet for shots. fortuntely for the vet, it was Clyde and not Persephone that he was seeing today. The Parsnip (Persephone)turns into a kitty cuisanart at the vet.

Clyde was his easy-going self. I swear that cat never get s rattled by anything. He is the mellowest kitty I have ever had. He completely charmed the vet and vet tech as usual. They keep threatening to cat-nap him.

I suppose it no real surprise. Clyde has been with people since he six weeks old. He is very well socialized. He has only had two events in his life that were even remotely traumatic. There was a sprinkler incident when he was very young ans still an indoor/outdoor kitty (now he is strictly indoors....given that he is 15 years old this is for the best). Timed sprinkler systems are the bane of kitties everywhere evidently. He was quite atartled when they went on while he was walking across the lawn. :P The other event ended with him being treed by a dog which was a big surprise to him since he grew up with dogs and had no idea that some of them were not cat safe.

2:00am: Another kitty video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rb8aOzy9t4

1:09pm: Adrian is gone.
I just found out that one of my friend's cats died. The friend that I visited in Kentucky has a few kitties. One of them, Adrian, was recently diagnosed with renal failure after losing an alrming amount of weight in a very short time. Since she still seemed comfortable and was still eating, my friend decided to give her fluids at home and keep her around. She lasted about a month, but was happy right up until the end. In her case, she was fine one minute and gone in the next.

Too many of my friend's and family's cats have been dying recently. The fact that all of them are older cats doesn't make me any happier about it. :(

12:19am: I have always suspected this!

5:02pm: Online games, lab mixes and elitist fellowships!
I made a mistake! I tried a free trial for Eve Trinity. It turns out the game is fun and I may have to buy a subscription.....Gahhhhhh!!!!

Most of my animals are fine. One of my fish died and I replaced it with an albino cory. Cute little guy...and he will get rid of any algae that pops up. My brother is sucker. He is currently fostering a golden lab mix and trying to find a home for him. :p

The fellowship that I applied for earlier turned me down. As it turns out, this is not a big deal since I already have a job and would have turned it down anyway.

Truth to tell, I didn't expect to get offered the fellowship. Most of the previous recipients got their degrees from Ivy League and near Ivy League schools. Also, almost all of these recipients got their degrees from schools on the East Coast. There were only a few recipients from other schools and from the west coast. I strongly suspected an elitist and east coast bias even before I applied.

In any case, I already have a job! :D

I finished the paperwork for the loan repayment. Now I get to wait until it is approved. Hopefully, it will be.

1:27am: For those of you who have kitties....

6:53pm: Internet access at home in highly under-rated!
I have internet access at home again......YAYYYYY!!!!!! :D

I was astonished at how much I had come to rely on my internet access. Does this meant I am an internet addict? :o

The fact that it took my internet company a WEEK to get the new modem and power cable out does not please me however....

4:50pm: Death and the Modem!
Gahhhhh....I am currently on a computer in the library due to the fact that my modem died.

The company who handles my internet is sent me a new one (It arrived a day later than they said it would), but they forgot to send a new power cable and the one I have will not work.

I should recieve the new power cable either tomorrow or the day after, but until then, I am stuck on this SLOW library computer na limited to 55 minutes a day. :x

Hopefully, I will be online at home shortly.

11:11pm: Happy Birthday Lost Sorcerer....
Have a Great Birthday LS.....:D

1:52am: This is wrong on soooooo many levels......

7:58pm: Morgan is responding well!
Morgan is responding to the steroids so she may be here for a few more months. My brother has decided to spoil her rotten for the time that she has left. :D

12:33pm: Not too much going on right now!
Well, I am going to get a measly $330 back from my taxes this year. Still, it is better than owing taxes. I was hoping for more though.

All of the animals are doing fine except for the previousely mentioned Burgundy Skeleton Tarantula. Persephone the cat is getting positively mellow in her old age. She will allow you to play with her feet now. :p

I went to the Garden of the Gods yesterday on the spur of the moment. I arrived too late to see much, but it was a pleasant two hours. I will have to go back. :D

http://www.gardenofgods.com/home/index.cfm?flash=1

11:30pm: My Burgundy Skeleton Tarantula died!
There were no signs that I can see that she had parasites, her water was clean, her humidity was good, the temperature was right, there were no strange smells in her enclosure and she was a sub-adult...not even fully grown....there was, in fact, no reason that I can see that she would be sick much less dying, yet she did!

It is very frustrating.

I have eight other tarantulas and, fortunately, they all seem to be fine, but I would really feel better if I knew what was wrong with the Burgundy.

12:34pm: Figures!

Link: The Which Ancient Language Are You Test written by imipak on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test View My Profile(imipak)