Seven Memes A-Blogging

Mommy Needs Coffee sent me a meme last night, I really think I may need
some caffeine tomorrow after this one. LOL

This meme had me saying youyou (j/k), but I was glad to finally receive one.
This is my first... lol.

Seven Things I Want To Do Before I Die

1) Watch my children grow up
2) Dance with my daughter at her wedding
3) Take my wife to Dubrovnik, Croatia for a honeymoon we never had
4) Make lists of things I need to do to avoid being sidetracked (I feel like the ball in BreakOut without a list)
5) Be the best Father and Husband I can
6) Surf Banzai Pipeline or Jaws in December-January
7) Pass down something meaningful to my children that only I can


Seven Things I Cannot Do

1) Woodworking... I feel sorry for the birds that are living in that birdhouse I made for my mom 15 years ago
2) Turn down a friend who needs help, no matter how swamped I am (It is not as good as it sounds, causes a lot of stress but it is worth it in the end)
3) Stay focused on one thing when I know there are several other things related to it to do. (Which is why I need the list from above)
4) Resist my wife when she wants something (Not what you are thinking... sheesh lol)
5) Go more than 2 days without being on a PC. (I tried it once, I was dreaming about coding and scripting... not good)
6) Yardwork. (I can, it's just the fact that I want to knitpick everything and by the time I am done over-analyzing it, it's getting dark and ... oh well)
7) Drive late, late at night with other people in the car. (Mostly cause I can't sing, and that's how I stay awake, so I would either not be driving too long or not at all. LOL)

Seven Things I Admire In My Spouse/Best Friend

1) Unwavering Confidence in my abilities
2) Her ability to overlook my flaws and things I do that bug her
3) That she loves me as much as I love her, and that it is still growing
4) The way her eyes light up when she laughs at me being a nut case
5) That she kept me sane when I was on those deployments
6) That she can finish most of my sentences for me
7) The way she is with our children

Seven Things I Say Most Often

1) Dude (insert a ? or ! or . after this... sometime italics are needed for proper clarification, 'cause it is a voice thing)
2) That's tight. (It means really cool, or something to that effect)
3) Sweet (same as Dude, only used less often)
4) She-yaah Right ! (This is either used alone or in conjunction with, Are you Mental ?)
5) Why you gotta waste my flava ? (Used on the poor shmuck who stole the punch line from a joke I was telling)
6) I was told that I could listen to the radio at a reasonable volume... (At work when we have a speaker volume battle- its Milton from Office Space.)
7) Arrrr. (It's an inside joke at work. Involves Pirates...)

Seven Books or Series Authors I Love

1) Max Lucado
2) Tom Clancy
3) Jack Handy (I mean, read these and tell me that is not funny...)
4) Dean Koontz
5) Jack London
6) Dai Vernon
7) Larry Jennings

Seven Movies I Would Watch Over and Over Again

1) Gross Point Blank (I hate sounding like a chick, but I really felt the groove between Minnie Driver and John Cusack, and I loved the sharp smart humor. It's almost like Seinfeld in places.)
2) Ten Things I Hate About You (This adaptation of The Taming of The Shrew is really good)
3) Indiana Jones (Any of them, really. Dad and I both love them all)
4) Fight Club (This still blows my mind, another one of those deeper than it appears on the outside)
5) Office Space (I used to have a desk by the window and I could see the squirrels and they were merry...)
6) Star Wars (Original Trilogy, has been my my favorite since I was 3 1/2)
7) The Matrix Trilogy - ("It's deeper than it appears on the outside. Look carefully for symbolic references, and find out how far the rabbit hole really does go.“)

Seven Songs I Can't Get Enough Of
(itunes has samples...)

1) I Can Only Imagine - MercyMe

2) Bittersweet Symphony - The Verve

3) I Wanna Be Sedated - The Ramones

4) Amber - 311

5) For You To Notice - Dashboard Confessional

6) Miser Lou - Dick Dale

7) Banana Pancakes - Jack Johnson

Singing

I am bound and determined to hold my daughter, no matter how much it hurts me when I get home. I have to sing to her and dance with her. I have alot of catching up to do, both as a dad and as a husband. My ribs may be singing pain, but my heart is singing
JOY !!! Only 2 days left till it happens.

>> How to have a heart attack. Well, not.

Yesterday started semi normal for me. I woke up, fumbled for the alarm and took a shower. I was a little sore on the left side of my chest, but I thought I had just slept funny. It hurt a little more intensely an hour later, and I began trying to figure out if I had fallen out of bed the night before. My chest felt like I had sore, bruised ribs at this point. I kind of shrugged it off and decided to go to church.

I didn't feel any worse than I did at home when services started, but about 45 minutes into the service, I was feeling much worse. My ribs had gone from feeling bruised to cracked. The pain was also bad enough that I couldn't breathe properly. I thought, this is not a side stitch, as the pain begain to radiate to my shoulder. When the sermon was over I tried to stand and sing with everyone else, and only made it about 3 lines into the song before I felt extremely dizzy. I had to sit, but I could still not breathe and I felt really nauseous. My friend asked me if I was excited about going home on Friday to bring my wife, two boys and new daughter back to our home in Louisiana, and I whispered "Yes." She looked at me and asked if I was ok, and I said I didn't know. I told her how bad my chest was hurting, and she went to find some help. There happened to be a visitor sitting on our back row, and she also happened to be and RN.

She had me lay back and took my blood pressure. My pain was intense at this point. My ribs felt like they were being crushed whether I was breathing or not. My BP was 140 over 108, after taking it a few times. That freaked me out a little bit, since I am in shape and know that is too high for a 28 year old guy thats 5 ft 10 and 160 lbs.
The RN (I am protecting her privacy, I will call her 'M') asked me about family history and I told her baout my mom, and how she has been on heart meds since she was 18 for heart problems (irregular heartbeat among others)

They decided to call EMS to be safe, as my pains were not getting better. 'M' found some asprin and had me take it. Everything after this point is a blur, kind of fuzzy. I remember the EMTs talking to me and asking me my age and stuff, and they did several EKG readings. They didn't like them and decided to take me via ambulance to the nearest hospital.

I finally agreed to let them call my wife, I just didn't want her or my parents scared. What do you do when something like this happens? I prayed, and I know that everyone around me was praying. I wasn't scared of dying, but I was worried about what would happen to my family. All I could think of was making it, and staying calm.
(Or as calm as one can be in the midst of severe chest pain and an ambulance ride @ 28 years old)

Another EKG was done in the ambulance, and I heard the EMT say, I still don't like this. At the ER in the hospital, another EKG was performed, and a cardiologist looked at it. I was given the news that it wasn't my heart, it was something else.

I don't know how to pronounce the name, but all I knew was it hurt and it came on fast. Costochondritis, or an inflammation of the cartilage joining the ribs and the sternum/breast bone. They told me it wasn't serious, but it was very painful.

I had heart problems in the Navy, and I was starting to wonder if they had missed something. I kept asking are you sure it is not my heart, since my mother has had heart problems since she was 18. I don't like taking the first diagnosis with a knife and fork. It's my life and health, and I want to be sure that they are sure.

I was given 2 doses of Toridol by IV, which took around 30 minutes to work. I was feeling a little better, but I still couldn't breathe right and was very sore.
I was taken back for a chest X Ray, which was "normal" according to the doc.
I immediately called my wife and let her know it was not heart related and I was doing better.

I was released and was given a ride over to the preacher's house, since my house was about a 30 minute drive from the hospital. I rested for a few hours and talked. I drove home and discovered that I waited to long to fill my prescriptions. The pharmacies close at 6pm on Sundays. I was given a script for Ketoprofin and Darvoset.

They told me it would be a couple of weeks before I was feeling better, and that I should not go to work on Monday. Turns out they are so right about that. I am really hurting, after venturing out to Walgreens and leaving my script there. I am walking around like a 90 year old man. At least I am alive, and it wasn't heart related.

I was thinking about Joe (Attaboy)yesterday at the preacher's house, and I don't know how I would have handled a real heart attack. I kept saying "Not me, Not me" in my head while lying on that bench at church when I was in pain. It just goes to show you, you don't know when, and you can't choose when. GOD still has plans for me, and if anything, this has made me closer to HIM for it.

Network Love

Jenn over at "Mommy Needs Coffee" cracked me up with her post . It inspired me to make her a new "Network" Icon for her desktop. LOL. Computer romance... too funny. Jenn, if you want it, I put it here:

Icon Link

iPOD owners beware...

Backtrack Link to Original Story

One fellow has been the victim of a "Podjacking". I know, I know. It sounds like a cheap Sci-Fi Channel spin-off series, but this is serious and could get worse.
If you have an iPOD and you "Podcast", you should definitely look into this.

On a funnier side note, I wonder if what took place on my return flight from KC to Houston a few weeks ago counts as one. There was a passenger who decided that the Flight Attendants were amateurs, and wanted to replace the boring drone of "This is how to buckle your seat belt" and "This is how we spell EXIT on an airplane" spiel with his iPod output. We got to hear some Bob Marley during preflight and Jack Johnson during take off. It was hilarious. I am guessing that his FM transmitter was able to "overpower" the intercom on the plane. I can't wait to hear the next show. LOL.

Cooking with kids...

Well, I had a good time at home over the Thanksgiving holiday. I got to spend alot of time with my family. One of the things I got to do while home was to help out the other Kindergarten "moms" with the annual feast. It turns out that I am the only dad who showed. I got alot of stares. LOL. Since my family is the only Katrina evacuee family living in the eastern KC area attending that school, I always try not to mention it. I hate drawing that attention to us. I am so gald my son's teacher and the staff keep the reality of our "situation" under wraps. I like to cook, so I was ready to get started. We had about 5 moms show up to prepare a "feast" for 75. (65 five year olds, and about 10 to 15 adults) I was assuming that we would be using the kitchen facilities. Nah, we got to pretend we were college freshmen. They had a teacher's lounge, and 3 microwaves. Menu items included, Macaroni and cheese, Instant Mashed Potatoes (powder... is this really potato?) One of the moms was really adament about taking charge and watching the rest of us "do stuff". She caused a couple of the other moms who had shown up to leave. I volunteered to do the instant powdered 'taters, thinking, "The teacher's lounge is down the hall and away from her." Luckily, one of the other moms had broght in a 5 qt crockpot, and the lounge was sporting a 1982 era microwave. I had a brainstorm, and decided to make the potato-based nightmare in the dinosaur of postmodern technology. The 5qt crock barely fit in the jurassic period microwave... ('micro' wave? can't be about the size of the oven). I proceeded to cook them for 3 minute intervals, and fluffed them with a fork in between heatings, adding tiny amounts of water and butter. After 4 cycles, they were done. They looked pretty decent for powdered potatoes, and the kids really liked them. I am thinking how odd I must have looked making them. Me, the only dad, among a group of moms, and 'cooking'. I love cooking, my Mom and Grandma's have kind of rubbed that off onto me. I just hope I didn't ruin any of the other dad's evening at home later that night when their wives told them about the dad who played mom and cooks. The best part of that whole day was sitting with my 5 year old son, and watching him eat his little feast with his best friend from his class. Dear readers, sorry this is not as funny as Boudicca's version of "Cooking with Kids". LOL, that is a very funny read. Check it out.Boudicca's Voice: I Almost Failed First Grade Today

New Pics of my daughter are up

I finally got around to putting up some recent pics from my trip home. I am only including pics of my baby girl alone, to provide some privacy for the family. I will have other pics available by offerning access to friends and family via a flickr account setting. If you havent seen them, you will be in love with them. She is such an adorable little girl. Just had her ears pierced too. I will be flying back to see them on 23 December. It's a late night flight, and it's worth it. I'll actually be home for Christmas, as opposed to here, alone. And this time, home is my childhood home, and not where the Navy has placed us. My wife and children will be driving back with me on the 27th to return to our home in Louisiana.

Click Here

A Good Night's Sleep

***I finally made it home before the sun went down for the first time this week.***

Update as promised, even if it is a few days late.

Sleep deprivation is a horrible thing. Especially when one has to repeatedly get up at 3:30 am to be somewhere by 6:00 am. Under normal circumstances, this would be do-a-ble by getting up at 4:45 am. Katrina changed alot of things, including traffic patterns. My job this week has taken me to Gulfport, M, which was a 50 minute commute BK (Before Katrina). The commute time has increased exponentially, by increasing the number of cars and decreasing the amount of entrances/exits from the city of Gulfport. Then, working 6 am to 5 pm, driving 2 hours back to Slidell. After 4 days, I am really wiped. Hence, no update the other night.

I am not complaining, mind you. I am just wore out, stating a fact. I have very little to complain about. My family is safe, I am safe. We have a (minor-damaged) house, and a car. Not to mention the fact that Trinity (my wife) and I have a new daughter, and my sons have gained a sister.

I was so excited last week for Thanksgiving! I was actually able to be home (KC Missouri) and see my wife and three children. It was definitely worth the price of the over paid airline ticket. Being a Geographical Bachelor for nearly 8 weeks is not any more fun than it was in May. Still no complaints though. There is much to celebrate, since we will be together as a whole family again by the 23rd of December. We are driving the minivan back from KC on the 27th, and stopping somewhere overnight so we can wake up refreshed (yeah right lol) and drive the rest on the 28th. My daughter has grown so much since I have seen and held her last. She is too long for the 0-3 month clothes, but too skinny for 3-6 month clothes. She is a tall 2 month old. I am going to try and get some pictures loaded to my FLICKR account by Saturday.

My boys seemed to have changed alot too. It's scary how you notice the little changes in their growth when you can't see them every day. I wonder if it's like watching a pot of water boil, since it never seems to do anything until you leave the room.

I actaully get to work from 7 am to 4 pm tomorrow, with a 20 minute commute. I am sleeping "in". LOL. Now I can finally have a good night's sleep. Well, as good as I can without my wonderful wife beside me. You military spouses know what I am saying.