Some Hard Lessons

Two lessons I learned in Judo last night: When your back is finally feeling good, don't try to struggle your way out of kesa gatame, and it is distinctly unpleasent to have your right (migi) gonad trod upon. Neither lesson will have resulted in permanent damage.

On a less unpleasant note, Nugget doesn't have Chicken Pox, his rash is some other unidentified but non-contagious virus according to his pediatrician.  And looks like the antibiotics didn't clear up his ear infection... or he has a new one. Either way - new meds for the tiny guy.

Enrolled Minion in swim lessons that start at the beginning of July. I feel guilty he hasn't been around water more.  At his age he aught to be comfortable swimming.  His Karate classes are going great, he pays decent attention when there are no other students there!  He's been getting private lessons pretty often right now because Blue Valley Rec is in-between sessions, and a lot of Mr. Stillwell's students come in through them.  All the better for Minion.

The A from my Comp II class is on my transcript now.  Brings me up over a 3.0
GPA again.  I have Economics over the summer semester, and I think I may re-take Algebra in the fall to mend my grade in it.  I was a smart-ass when I originally took it and tried to game the system. It sort of worked.  I showed up twice and got a high enough grade to count towards my degrees... but it won't transfer, and disallows me to take further mathematics courses if I wanted to. Getting a D is just not good enough.  There are a few other courses that I had failed in my youth that re-taking would improve my GPA even more, but they are less important for further schooling, if I choose to go that route.

I did apply to graduate following the summer semester.  Once Economics is complete, I will have met the requirements for an A.A. in Liberal Arts, and A.G.S. in General Studies, and an A.S. in General Sciences.

A pox on my family

Day care told us that our 7 month old had regrettably been exposed to chicken pox at their facility last week.  begining today we've noticed a fever and the first signs of a rash, to go along with our unusually cranky baby. This could be a long week. My wife can not miss work Wednesday.  If I have to call in to stay home with the boy, I'll miss out on my holiday pay for Memorial Day. Uhg.

What goes up...

So, yesterday was my first time on a ladder where I did not technically exceed the manufacturers safety weight limit... it was a combination of an industrial ladder with a 350lb limit and my weight loss which has me down to 277 this morning...  Oh but don't worry... I couldn't JUST go up a ladder that was finally theoretically safe... I chose a well broken one to use. Then today at home, I abused my 200lb weight limit step stool to work on the ceiling in the 3 year old's room, just to make up for NEARLY being safe the day before.

Time Machine

I found out today that my company is replacing the 10 year old print-making equipment we use in our photolab with a refurbished machine from another manufacturer that runs 6% faster, and easier to fill with chemicals when it runs out, but is harder to do maintenance on, runs with only 2 paper rolls loaded at a time instead of 4, and cannot print the 12x24 and 12x36 print sizes we offer now.  We have some people who make a lot of those, who will be disappointed.  I uses those sizes for some of my shots too...  I print my lightning shot as a 12x36 most of the time.

When we upgraded to our current equipment in 2005, the lab was supposed to experience just 2 days of downtime, but it took the techs 5 to get us up and running. This will be a downgrade (in my opinion) and I am not excited about this change.  The vague e-mail said only that this would be happening before the Christmas season.  I was originally trained on the same brand (older models) of equipment that we will be getting...  Time to knock a decade of dust and rust off that old skillset and get mentally flexible enough re-learn. *Groan*

Well, didn't see THAT coming.

Something unexpected happened yesterday at work; they named me the Employee of the Month for April.  My department saw it's busiest month ever outside of a Christmas season, and we did it understaffed due to an employee quitting without notice, but still, I wasn't expecting that. As a matter of fact, my supervisor and I had been conspiring to recognize the employee who did the most to bail us out of out bind, and who we consequently hired out of his current department and into ours.  When I asked her if he had gotten it, she was grinning like the Cheshire Cat. "Congratulations," she said, "I nominated YOU instead, and you were voted in!" Apparently I beat out 5 other nominees, and 4 managers had planned to nominate me.

So a selfie for the EoM board it is.

Today had some moments in it. The little karateka did alright in class today, but was still distracted like a 3 year old. Afterwards I took a detour on the way home and checked out 2 options for tots swim lessons, because he aught to know the basic water safety stuff, and have a calm happy relationship with water... right now I'm pretty sure if he fell in, he would panic.  Not good, and it's something that as a former WSI I feel pretty guilty about. Still shopping after looking at those.

We stopped at BK for lunch.  I got a Jr. Whopper for me and an order of chicken fries for the boy. I stole one of his fries, ate most of my sandwich... for the last 2 bites worth, I ditched the rest of the bun and just ate the innards.  I should have done that from the get-go... I over ate. Oui! So Full!  No good.  Can't keep it all in...  That happens sometimes now when I eat too quickly, or just plain don't stop when I really should (but there's only one bite left!)  So I pull over in a parking lot, near a dumpster...  I position myself between some landscaping and the wall of the dumpster enclosure, so no passerbys are likely to witness the disgustingness, and everything will land on grass where Mother Nature will take care of it over time, and with it being right next to the dumpster, it's unlikely the smell will be the strongest odor in the area... I figured it was as fortunate a spot for an unfortunate occurrence as I was likely to get.  Of course all of this parking and noticing and thinking happened in the span of a few brief seconds before lunch, which was my first meal today, came back up.  Just after it did I see a sudden movement from a space about a foot to the left of where it had landed. A previously unnoticed Blue Jay cocked his head at me and gave me an angry glare.

I apologized to him for puking in his home and possibly hitting him with some splatter... He squawked angerily and hopped deeper into the brush.

Once I finally got home, we reviewed some of the karate stuff with the boy, fed the baby, let the kids watch some TV and Play with some toys for a bit before nap time.  Then I worked on wrapping up the last of my papers for my Comp II course.  I have an unfortunate history of signing up for Comp II and then not going to many of the classes, not doing the papers and the like...  I have 4 Fs on my college transcript with Comp II next to them...  Not this time though.  I attended ever single session - including the one the day after I was stabbed 5 times and had an internal organ carved out of me.  Every paper has been written, revised, revised and revised and it is likely the two I turned in tonight are DONE.  If so I have an A in the class and it's over.  I'll find out when I show up Thursday.  If they need further revision, I have 3 hours Thursday to accomplish that. Regardless, I have defeated the dreaded COMP II beast, and can move on.

After I trekked up to the college to turn in the papers, I went off to Judo, where Mr Kinser finally remembered to bring in the list of belt requirements for me to take home and study. Class went well, we covered most of the techniques for the 2nd (of 5) test for the 2nd belt.  While we were in class Mr. Paul Hearter, one of Mr. Kinser's black belts, showed up to chat with Mr. Stilwell, so I hung out after class to listen in to their chatter.  I love hearing the Bushidokan old guard talk.

One thing I've noticed

I've had some soreness in my muscles that I believe to be unrelated to any of my increased activity. I ponder whether this is related to a loss of my intermuscular adipose tissue, or maybe muscle loss from reduced load weight and sudden shift in nutrition...  regardless, there has been some body aches.

On the flip side though, I can make a tight fist with my right hand again.  For a while, I couldn't.  I had a strong grip- I could have squeezed the heck out of a roll of silver dollars... but a roll of dimes would have been too small for me to squeeze...  now I have my fist back.

My weigh-in this morning was at 280.6 down from a peak of 397.2 on January 26. 116.6 lbs in 110 days. So, about 1.06 pounds a day since I began the pre-surgery, 2-week, all-liquid diet to soften my liver... extrapolating out... with a goal weight of about 200 pounds, I aught to be about 76 days out, at this rate. That puts me hitting goal on August first!

Realistically, that will not at all be the case, I was losing many pounds a day at the very first, and the rate has been tapering. Right now I'm losing about 3 lbs a week, which is more like hitting goal on the 21st of November.  If you figure my rate will probably continue to taper, I think maybe aiming for the Starting 2016 at goal weight might sound reasonable.

I think I crapped my brains out.

Hmm, does that mean I have sh*t for brains? ... Probably.

Honestly, the mental mistakes began yesterday night as I was getting ready for bed.  I knew it was Thursday night, but for some reason I had Wednesday's schedule in my head, and I set my alarm with plenty of time to get the boys to daycare and make it to work by 9:30.

When my alarm went off I heard my wife getting the 3 year old ready to leave... "Oh yeah, it's Friday-- she takes the bigger buddy boy in on her way into work today." *SNOOZE* but before too much longer my gut grumbled greasily and I knew I had to get up.

What I didn't know yet was that I was going to make an attempt to propel myself into orbit with a hydrolic jet.  I felt awful. Among other things, I was feeling guilty for soiling the toilet.  When Mom had come over yesterday to help with the kids, she had scrubbed it clean... and this was... unclean.  The type of unclean where I needed Clorox wipes to clean the underside of the toilet seat.

I had weighed myself before I sat down. Once I was finally done and cleaned up, I got back on the scale. I had lost 1.6 lbs. And then, I wasn't done anymore. Round two struck. while that worked it's way through my system, I posted to FB and called in to work - there was no way I was going to make it by 9:30 in this condition. In between my 3rd and 4th bouts I tracked down some Imodium.

I found some irony in calling in today.  I had seriously considered playing hookey on Wed to get a research paper written for school, but I just couldn't do it.  Work needs me, and I am a responsible adult, and a reliable person, and all that jazz. I have a duty. Today doodie was more important than duty.  I didn't call in on Wed, but spent all day Thurs before class grinding on it, and got it to an acceptable enough place that after only a few in-class revisions the instructor dubbed it an A worthy paper... Now I call in on my NEXT shift instead, when I'm not under the gun.

Last time I was late getting the 6mo old to daycare, they were concerned, so once I felt it was safe to venture more than a minute from the bathroom, I packed up the baby, gave him the last his anti-ear-infection meds and a bottle, and headed to daycare.

As I was pulling into the parking lot I thought about how I always check in on the 3 yr old when I drop the baby off, and see how he's acting at lunch time...  but it's pretty darned early for lunch, isn't it?  This is when I first realize that this is FRIDAY and that means I should be on FRIDAY'S schedule... I wouldn't typically drop Nugget off for another hour and a half, because I'm not scheduled to work until 12:05.  This is when I decided I must have flushed my brain today.

I went and got a McIcedTea, and wondered about town for about an hour. By then the boy was starting to get restless, but I didn't figure dropping him off 20 minutes early today would hurt anything... Besides... I needed to find another bathroom... I wasn't certain there were more problems, but I didn't want to risk a fart at this point.

I abuse 1/2 price books for their facilities- things aren't right, but they are better than before. I shop around their photo section, martial arts section, amime, software, etc. and pick up a $5 book on a famous oddball photographer.

I head home and see a garage sale on my street, so I stop and look.  There's a steel dump truck toy that my older boy would adore, but there is no one manning the sale.  I knock on the door, and offer $2. Offer accepted, I take the prize home and leave in where the boy will notice it first thing when he comes in the door.

But walking home from the sale I noticed something I felt was photogenic, and I hadn't shot much recently... since the light was good and I didn't have much on my slate just now, I grabbed my camera and headed back to take a few shots. The shots of the neighbor's discarded furniture didn't come out quite like I had seen it in my mind's eye... but the crack in the weatherworn, wet sidewalk with the helicopter seeds pretty much did. In the full resolution image, there's a ton of little details.

I worked on polishing up one of my other English papers so I can turn in a revised draft for an improved score next week, and while I was chipping away at that, The Wife came home with the boys. Soon after, we headed out to Mama China for dinner.  My wife and I have been trying to arrange a Chinese buffet night for some time now, but things keep falling through.  The big boy is old enough now that we have to pay for him, but that's fine... he likes the fruit, chicken, noodles, and sweets. He eats well when we go to "the cookie restaurant."  My wife also gets the buffet, but since I have such a limited capacity, I order a dish off the menu and will have leftovers for a week.  The 6 mo old "eats" free, so Michele lets him play with a few rice noodles, a smashed pea,  a grape cut into eighths, a section of mandarin orange cut up... and I joke "What, no pudding?"

The boy plays with the foods and considerably more of his tiny helping ends up on the floor than in his belly. When wifey goes up for seconds, she also comes back with tiny dollops of the 2 pudding flavors on their cold service bar.  She breaks out the baby spoon and readies a itty-bit of the chocolate pudding, and puts it in the child's mouth. He looks unhappy, drawing  an "Awwww" from his folks. Then there's a little cough and my wife says, "buddy, it's just pudding, I don't think there's anything there to choke on." And that was my 6 mo old's cue to spew like a fountain.

It came in three rapid volleys, and thankfully didn't draw much attention from the waitstaff or other guests. We cleaned him up, changed his clothes, wiped things down as well as we could with a pile of napkins and a few diaper wipes, and took the boys home.

On the way home my darling wife pointed out this was sort of a belated mother's day dinner, since that's about when our first Chinese Buffet plans starting getting derailed...  And that makes 2 mother's day dinners in a row that ended when one of our children puked on her. Last year, the one that was outside her belly at the time got sick at the steakhouse we were at with my parents on Mother's day. I told her next year we should get a baby sitter.

Disposal delima.

My 3 yr old was devastated. He came to me a sobbing, half naked, wreck. I had sent him into the bathroom to go potty before bed, and what ever had traumatized him occurred after he had taken his diaper off.  It took a few moments to coax words out between his wails, but eventually he let me know he needed his blankie back out of the trash.

I assured him everything would be okay warned him that his blankie may need a bath after it comes out of the trash, to prepare him for going to bed without his blankie tonight, then I went to go help my son retrieve his most sacred possession.

I figured he had foolishly fetched it from his room on the way to the bathroom, and had dropped it into the diaper-filled trashcan by accident... but once I laid eyes on the situation I realized my son's folly.  Buried under a layer of soiled diapers was a wash-worn, threadbare swath of white cloth that was not, in fact, his blankie.  It was, instead, a discarded pair of underwear that I had judged too loose to continue wearing because of my 110 pounds of weight loss in the last 3 months.  It probably should have died long ago on account of condition, but regardless it was tossed this morning. I showed him that his blankie was safe on his bed, and not in the trash. He went potty, put a nighttime diaper on, and climbed happily into bed to snuggle his blankie.

In an entirely unrelated note, there was a free health screening at work today.  I ranked in the lowest risk class for heart disease, with a less than 1% chance of suffering its effects within the next 10 years.