The Anatomy of Post Tech Bubble Stock Options

Live and learn people. My experience with stock options and employee stock purchase programs within tech companies has not been good. Let me recount to you the tale of my most recent experience. I won't mention the companies name as web crawlers will bring it to their attention that I wrote about them but those of you who know me know which company I'm speaking of.

Over the years of working for said company I had been granted countless stock options, 10's of 1000's actually. Throughout the course of said employment those stock options took on many strange forms with a 6 to 1 trade in, a revaluation program and several others - all which I can assure you were of no benefit to the actual employee. As a few examples I had about 10,000 options which were about to vest @ $1.00 per share and they were re-valued down to 1,500 valued at $3.50 per share. I know I'm not a math genius but it's pretty easy to see that I was screwed. The vesting date was also changed - extended outward. The reasoning is that the company was going to go public soon and in order to keep the company value the number of outstanding shares had to be decreased. (4 years later the company still had not gone public) Shortly thereafter I was granted another large set of options @ $3.50 per share with a new four year vesting program. Bend over baby.....they are driving.

In order to raise money for G-D knows what as I cannot remember they announced an employee stock purchase program. These were for "common" stocks at you could purchase through payroll contributions @ $2.58 per share. For those of you not comfortable with stock terms, common stock is the lowliest; aka for the little guys, not the C level execs, or the board of director level people.

Shortly before the company went public in 2010 they sent a letter to all common stock shareholders that they were doing a reverse stock split of 1 to 18. Yes, I said reverse....and 1 to 18, not 18 to 1. I had 656 shares from the employee purchase, thank goodness I didn't buy anymore, and I magically ended up with 44 shares. The company went public at an IPO price of $14 per share. The stock fell in the first second to $12.75 - an indicator that it IPO'd at too high of a price. That was in April 2010 - today the stock is worth $5.01. A sad showing.

The reason for this blog post? My broker decided to sell my whopping 44 shares on May 31st at $5.01. I suppose he figured it was a losing proposition. To tell you the truth - in May of 2010 when I walked in the SMB offices with my actual stock certificates I was proud to deposit them. I was still hopeful that it was a great company with a great product and management would pull their heads out of their ass and make some money. That's embarrassing to write frankly.... So for that $1,693.00 I paid for 656 shares I ended up with 44 shares sold at a value of $195.95. The only up side of this is that I can take a loss on my 2011 taxes....and thank goodness I never actually purchased any of the stock options!

Ear Stretching

What is with those ridiculous looking ear plug things that make the lobes of your ears get bigger? The technique is called "stretching" or "gauging". I think it's ridiculous in the modern Western world. How in the world is this guy going to get a job?

Ear stretching has been practiced by people all over the world from ancient times. Bone , Horn , Wood and Stone were generally carved for ear stretching, but other organic materials that had the right shape naturally, from shells to teeth and claws, were also used.

Mummified bodies with stretched earlobes have been discovered, including the oldest mummified body discovered to date, that of

Ötzi the Iceman, (3300BC) which was found in an Italian glacier. This mummy had a stretch of somewhere between 7 - 11mm (1 to 000 gauge) in diameter. He also had tattoos. Notice the picture to the right - see how practical this is. The guy has a cup wherever he goes....very convenient. Does this mean that because people did it 1000's of years ago that we still need to do it? Uh, no....

In case you were curious as to how it's done = Stretching is usually done in small increments to minimize the potential for damaging the healed fistula or creating scar tissue. Normally you start with your typical 20 AWG piercing and go up (which is gauge or AWG sizes is actually reverse), so 18AWG is the next size up. If you stretch like this apparently you can go back when you realize how stupid you look and you can't get a job. The elasticity of your skin will allow it to spring back, not in a day though. It is also said that the 0 AWG (0.4 inches) is the point of no return. So if you get your hole big enough for a 0 gauge ring then you're stuck with that forever. Nice.

Our Birdie.....Picasso

Here's a picture of Picasso just hanging out with Dena in the front yard on the gate. He's pretty proud of himself as you can see. Typical male.... He is a white fronted Amazon (also known as spectacled amazon for obvious reasons) - the smallest of the Amazon parrots.

Century Plant Update

It's starting to bloom up top now. As you can see it's quite tall. Taller than our cactus that is beside it to be sure. Remember, Just click on the image to make it bigger. This picture was taken in the early morning as you can see by the light - about 6:30am

Century Plant Update

So much for my promise of photographing it every day.....but I suppose this is a little more dramatic. We went out last night and we both swore when we came home a few hours later that it had grown 6" since. In the wee hours it also rained so G-D only knows what it's going to do now. As you can see it is quite a bit taller in the 7 days since the last shot. I tried to take the picture from the exact same spot.

The Century Plant is at it Again!

Our black tipped agave is at it again. Another one of the plants is flowering. This is quite an amazing process as it grows by leaps every day. I usually measure it in feet, not inches. So I'm going to catalog this one as well and take a picture of it every day or two from the exact same spot and see how big it gets. I think I tried this last time but had to move back after it got too high. We shall see.

Ballona Wetlands and Earth Day 2011

I've never particpated in Earth Day before but this year I came up with a challenge idea for our wellness program at work that was to do clean up at the Ballona Wetlands. For those of you who don't know the Ballona Wetlands are the last 100 acres of wetlands in the greater Los Angeles area. They are located here. Click on any picture to make it larger.

They are currently in a legal battle to save it from the Playa Vista 2 development project which includes a shopping center and 2,600 homes. More concrete, less greenspace, more traffic, just what Los Angeles needs.

We started with a brief talk on conservation, recycling, history of the wetlands and the importance of it continuing to exist. It was quite interesting and we were reminded of the Katrina disaster and how preserving the wetlands in Louisiana could have saved them. Wetlands absorbs incoming sea water from tides and out going flood waters. They act like a sponge and clean the water passing through them. Wetlands are also an important bird and animal habitat.

After our chat we continued to our work site, for us this involved removing Acacia trees, an invasive non-native plant species from Africa. Very hard work pushing a wheelbarrow through sand and lopping off and hand sawing branches. But well worth it.

A few Grand Canyon Pictures

The elk were so close I had to use a wide angle lens and they just walked down the path like we weren't there, so we moved or else. These are all mom's pictures. Yes, we are literally sitting on the edge. It took a lot to get mom out there. It was a big rock...lots of room. Click each picture to make them bigger.

Road Trip Day 3 - Eastern side of the park

Today we drove east on desert view road with our first stop at the Watchtower - a 70' tower built out of stone under the watchful eye of Mary Colter. The tower is pretty cool and mimics towers found throughout the southwest thought to be used for defense and food storage. This one was just a convenient stop for Grand Canyon visitors in 1932. After our climb to the top (7,522 feet above sea level) and some serious gift shop shopping we drove back west.

As we made our way the 25 miles back to the village center we stopped along the way visiting an Indian museum, some ruins, and numerous viewpoints. You certainly would never get tired of looking at the Grand Canyon in my opinion whatever the view.

We hurried up, ate lunch and ran off to our 2:00 pm ranger nature hike. We walked with the ranger for about 3/4 of a mile and then went off for another mile or two with the canyon in view all the time. What a way to hike.

Dinner? Off to the El Tovar lodge for a swanky meal. Mom and were fortunate enough by luck I suppose to get a table overlooking the rim. WOW!




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The canyon

View from the restaurant

Note the canyon in the background

Road Trip Day 2 - continued

After checking in to our room we had 15 minutes of downtime before it was off to catch the shuttle bus for Hopi Point. This is the most popular place to view the sunset. I figured, why not go to the most popular spot even though I hate crowds. on the way west we were compelled to jump off before our stop to view a herd of elk. They were just off the road, about nine of them, all females. As we moved toward this viewpoint we discovered two right in the trees beside us, so close that I had to use a wide angle to get one in. Beautiful animals.

Back on the shuttle and on to Hopi point. Mom and I supped on a rock 2' from the rim with the expanse of the canyon and the cathedrals of the mountains as a view. After supper we staked out our camera spots and waited for an hour and a half. Those of you that know me know that I am not a patient person but with scenery like this the time flew.

We were not disappointed, ten minutes before sunset the colors changed all through the canyon to pinks, oranges and shadows. It was awesome and frankly words cannot describe it. Shortly it became too dark to shoot the canyon without a tripod so we turned to the actual sunset. With the poofy clouds in front of the sun and the rays shining through it was magnificent.

Sunset over we took our frozen bodies (it was sooooo cold!) and headed into the village for a ranger talk on ravens. There are a lot of ravens here and the ranger told stories of how intelligent they are and how well they adapt, unlike the condor which is having trouble adapting and will probably always need protection.

Another incredible day!


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Location:Sunset

Road Trip - Day 2 - THE Grand Canyon

Mom and I left Kingman this morning and drove a short three hours to the south rim grand canyon national park. We promptly got a little lost in the park and ended up at Mather Point at the rim. WOW! It makes the west canyon look puny. The vastness of it is mind boggling. We still haven't seen the Colorado river from here yet because we haven't gone to the right view point.

We are currently in the Yavapai cafeteria waiting for our room to be ready. 20 minutes. We have an ambitious evening planned with grabbing a to go sandwich and taking a shuttle then hiking to the furthest vista point for the sunset. We're both a little tired already of the hoards of asian tourists, so a little solitude would be welcome.

Someone told me last week that one day in the park is plenty. I cannot fathom that. There is so much to do and so many things to see. I suppose if you are of the mind that if you've seen one canyon you've seen it all....I am not. More later.

Location:South rim

Day 1 on our road trip

Today was an amazing day. Starting early we drove across the great state of California through the high desert and the lava fields crossing into Arizona. Then we headed north to the western rim of the grand canyon. The skywalk is not an easy place to get to - one lane highways and then 21 miles of dirt, washboard roads. As we hit the dirt the landscape really changed with forests of Joshua trees and free range cattle accompanying us through the dust.

As we turned each corner huge mesas and large snow covered mountains greeted us. Finally that final turn and mom and I both gasped. There it was - words cannot describe the vastness of the expanse of canyons before us. We were still too far away to see the edge and bottom but our excitement was palpable.

After the formalities we boarded our bus for the skywalk. There are no rails or ropes at the edge so you can get as close as you dare. Mom kept freaking out that I was too close. We took lots of pictures and oohed and awed at the vastness and the 4000' sheer drop. I could sit on the edge and gaze forever.

Our time came for the skywalk - we donned our protective booties and ventured out onto the glass. We loved it. We just couldn't look down and walk at the same time, it made both of us queezy but we could stand still and look down. At one point we walked from the end back out as the cliff dropped away and you feel a whoosh as your subconscious freaks out that you are falling. What a great time.

Then it was off to Eagle point for a little hike, some rock climbing and more pictures. What a day!


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Location:Western Arizona

Day 8

I open the door and there you are, gazing back at me with the same longing I have. Slowly I wrap my hand around you and feel your icy cold body. It shocks me but invigorates me just the same. I nestle my thumb under your tab and firmly yet gently pop your top. The snap, rip, pop is such a distinct sound I smile. Then I feel it, those little bubbles tickling my wrist. As I lift you to my mouth I feel such a rush of anticipation. You hit my tongue and I close my eyes in Ecstasy.
I gulp you in, your bubbles almost burning my mouth. Ahhhh, sweet heaven.

I quit caffeinated soda pop on Monday March 7th - today is day 8

Pacioretty and Chara - March 8th, 2011 Hit

It's not often that I write to an organization and complain about something someone said, did or what have you. It has to be pretty heinous for it raise that kind of ire in me especially in today's violence numbed society but this one really pissed me off. So much so that I wrote Sportsnet about it. On March 8th in Montreal there was a violent hit on one of the players (Pacioretty) by a Boston defenseman (Chara). Chara basically rammed Pacioretty into the glass partition otherwise known as the turnbuckle. His neck is broken.

I am appalled at Spector's comments regarding the March 8th hit on the Hab's player, see below. I bet Mark believes that a woman asks to be raped too. This is just the kind of Neanderthal behavior that turns women off to Sportsnet.

Below is the excerpt from Spector's commentary:

Mark Spector of Sportsnet wrote about the hazards of that part of the rink … but felt it was Pacioretty that shared the personal responsibility for being there:

In Pacioretty's case, the smaller Canadiens forward had a running grudge going with Chara. He knew it was there, after opening the feud with an ill-advised shove after his overtime winner by Montreal on Jan. 8. Pacioretty never backed down from Chara, yapping and sparring with the giant Bruins d-man over the course of the next two games.

Now Pacioretty is coming down the wing. The score is 4-0 Montreal, with seconds left in Period 2. He knows Chara wants to crank him. He can see the partition coming.

Pacioretty had every reason to believe he was entering a very dangerous spot, yet he went in there like a defenceman turning his back to the ice, counting on the rulebook to protect him.

Give me a fucking break. You cannot tell me that this 22 year old young gun of Montreal's thought that by squeezing by Chara on the boards when the puck was no where near him that he was taking his livelihood and possibly his life in his own hands. He'll be lucky if he ever gets on skates again. Spector, you are the biggest arse in Canada, bar none.

Where I originally read Spector's comments --> here

If you feel that you are offended, here is Sportnet's phone # --> 888-451-6363

Here is where you can email them --> here

Here's Chara's apology....if you can call it that.

10 Reasons for Not Being in Information Technology

Some of this was shamelessly stolen from a TechRepublic Blog with my own twist but it is nonetheless poignant.


1: Stress

It is very stressful job. No one calls you to tell you everything is wonderful, they only call you when something doesn't work and usually it's an emergency (perceived or real). The farther up the food chain in IT you go the more critical and huge the emergency is. Also adding to the stress is solving your friends/relatives/neighbors computer issues. If you recommend, fix, or even touch any of their computer/audio/video items then you are forever 100% responsible for them.


2: Hours

If you want a Monday through Friday, 9-to-5 job, look elsewhere — IT is a job you carry around with you 24/7. Again, the farther up the food chain you go the more this becomes a reality. One doesn't do major upgrades during the day, forget that, they are only done at night when no one else needs the network. And the people who aren’t your clients or users (friends and family, for example) will want to take advantage of your knowledge and keep their computers running smoothly for free, when you get home at night. Also, you must keep abreast of all the latest technology so you can keep your job and your friends happy - read and study at night, in your spare time.

3: Getting paid

If you are an independent contractor, one of the most stressful issues you face is getting paid. I can’t tell you how many consultants I know who have had to make threats or use an attorney to get paid. And when you’re freelancing, if they don’t pay you, you don’t eat. If you're not independant you always feel you're underpaid because of item 2.


4: People
(in general)This one I hate to mention. That is not to say that people, in general, are bad. It’s just that when you have your IT hat on, people seem to look at you in a different light. You are both savior and sinner in one stressed-out package.

5: The chain of command
Let’s face it. Not many higher-ups understand your job. They think you should be able to get everything done on a shoestring budget, with no help, and you should treat end users as if they were better humans than yourself. And to make matters worse, the higher-ups want you to magically make those PCs last for more than a decade. This misunderstanding of both duty and technology does one thing: It makes your job impossible. Not all companies are created equal of course, my current one actually is not like this at all. The one before that was the epitome of it.

6: Technology
Have you ever had those days when it seems like the the technology GODs hate you? I have those days more often than not. There are the occasional days when you are the winner but especially in the Windows and Microsoft world the losers far outweigh the the winning days. There are days when even an entire bottle of wine cannot erase the pain of having a piece of silicon, sodder and plastic beat you.

7: Competition
One thing you can count on — there will always be someone better than you, especially in the IT industry and especially if you are one of the few women. The longer you remain in IT the more it becomes apparent that it's a young person's game. Being mentally and physically agile to work long hours, keep sharp, take classes on weekends, read technical manuals, keep abreast of everything new, renew your certifications is exhausting. Not that us older people can't hang as frankly, experience accounts for a lot, but we tend to have a different take on life, like family, downtime, relaxing..... You know, having a life. Another thing is the constant oneupmanship. IT people, especially men, just need to be right. After awhile I just get tired of putting them in their place and showing them they aren't - I am..... Yes - competition, it is as fierce in IT as it is in basketball and the egos are about as big.

8: The cloud
Every time I get an email about some cloud seminar or read an article about how putting software, hardware, data and everything else into the cloud is the way to go and the demise of the American IT worker I just want to scream. Part of me is wondering what I'm missing and what I don't know, part of me is wondering if I should be in the cloud and if the cloud is safe and the other part of me is laughing as it's all in the bloody cloud already. I'd like to pound the marketing idiot who dreamed up the catch phrase "the cloud". From techrepublic, "Clients and end users want the cloud to be some magical experience that will make all their work easier, better, and faster. If only they knew the truth."

9: Lack of standards
There are none, let's face it. We have the IETF, the IEEE, the RFC's, the OSI model, the ISO standards and on and on it goes. But still - their are mountains of proprietary hardware/software vendors that want to keep their product closed up and non-compliant, otherwise, how would they differentiate themselves and make money? This means that I need to know way too much information.....and run in to compatibility issues at every turn.

10: Respect
The general public has a bad taste in its mouth for IT professionals. Why? Many reasons, consumers have been burned by the Geek Squad, home users cannot figure out why they have to pay for Microsoft Office every couple years, call centers in India, you name it, IT companies who don't deliver on promises or companies that think they were promised one thing and got something different.... Oh sure, when you walk in the door you are their best friend but the moment their issues is resolved and they get the bill they wonder why it costs so much. Jeesh, I don't know - it if was easy then why didn't you do it? And why is it my fault that you should buy a new computer every couple years? And why is it my fault that your five year old computer is running slow?

Farmville on the Bleeding Edge?

Have you ever played Farmville on Facebook? Or Frontierville? Or Mafia Wars? These type of games require the game hoster to capture and relate everyone's actions in the game to each others.

This produces a database approaching a petabyte in size. How much is a petabyte? One petabyte is equal to 13.3 years of Hi Def video or 20 million 4 drawer file cabinets filled with single spaced pieces of paper. One petabyte = 1000 terabytes. Basically, more than you can imagine.

Some background on Zynga, the creator of Farmville, Mafia Wars and a few other very successful facebook games. Zynga hosts 250 million active visitors a month to it's games. How in the world does Zynga make money you ask? Well, let's take Farmville for example. There are about 31 million players a day on Farmville. Zynga sells in game coins - these coins allow players to differentiate their farms from the masses with special items, flamingo-shaped topiaries are especially popular. These coins are sold either direcly online through the game (just give me your visa card or Paypal account), or via game cards (available all over including even grocery stores). 7-11 even had a promotion for awhile on their slurpee cups. Redeem the sticker on the cup for special items. You can imagine how much revenue Zynga made just from the royalties on the cup!

I know - you're asking yourself, seriously, do people really pay for in game virtual items? Yes, they do. This has been going on for years now. I remember paying about $20 on ebay for a set of very cool virtual armor for a good friends birthday for her to use in the online role playing game, Asheron's Call. Back to Farmville - let's say that Zynga manages to get a penny a day from those 31 million people. 3.65 x 31 million people = $113 million a year. That's a lot of revenue. Multiply that by the number of games they have and they are making some cash.

These games are using some very state of the art technology for managing all that data. Farmville uses a new data management system based on open source called CouchOne. Stupid name..... So yes, Zynga and other game makers have overhead. Servers, datacenter costs, maintenance, large Internet pipe charges, and a team of designers to keep their cash cows (pun intended) interested in the game by constantly updating the game with new challenges, items, and what have you.

Solar Update

It's weird I know, but I like going into my backyard and watching my electric meter run backwards. I get such satisfaction out of it. We have yet to figure out if our electric bill has gone down because the DWP (Los Angeles Department of Water and Power) didn't officially put the meter on the grid until early January and they bill in 2 month increments so my satisfaction could be misplaced. You'll note that I was feeding electricity back in to DWP's grid and they were getting it for free.... Here is a picture of our energy production for the month of February. Keep in mind, February is a short month and it rained quite a bit during that time. Interesting to note that even while cloudy we are generating electricity.

Anatomy of Today's Job Market

Dena started work this past Tuesday for the first time in 18 months. Thankfully, due to the Obama and democratic moves to extend COBRA supplemental coverage (health care for the unemployed) and extend unemployment benefits for 99 weeks we managed to survive this relatively unscathed. Don't get me wrong. It wasn't without hardship, adjustments and anxiety but we didn't lose our house, or our car and the only thing we gained was a stronger relationship.

How did she get this new job? Dena applied for jobs every day. She would sit on the computer and search, sometimes even applying for jobs that pop up Friday nights and Saturday mornings. Not sure who posts jobs then but ? At one point she even applied for a Starbucks store manager. She was over qualified and probably too old, but of course, they cannot say that.

Finally in January of 2011 something happened. Not sure if the economy is really starting to turn the corner or if all the planets started to align but really good, interesting jobs in her field started to pop up on a daily basis. She applied and actually got calls back. In the previous 17 months she had a total of 3 interviews. In the first two weeks of January she had had ten. At the beginning of February she was past the first interview stage of three good looking jobs. For those of you who haven't had to hunt lately, the first stage is a phone interview. I suppose you could say the first stage is actually getting an email or phone call acknowledging that you exist, but I digress.

She then proceeded over the next three weeks to move through interviews two, three and four. These were all face to face. Only the final contestant went to interview four. The first two ended at interview three and haven't been heard from since. Both of those interviews had great vibes and no reason not to get an offer or some kind of courtesy call. I think it's unprofessional but it's not uncommon.

On January 22nd she started with contestant number three. We couldn't be happier.

The Beauty of Living in Los Angeles

5am - KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK POUND POUND POUND
more knocking, more pounding on our front door.
We run to the front door, Dena is looking out the curtain screaming, what is it? What is it?
She thought our house was on fire, again.
Our neighbor Joe is standing outside saying that someone has broken into my truck. He's spotted the guy and spews out a license plate number. I dash into the kitchen for a piece of paper while Joe continues to spew the license plate #
5:10 am - call 911, give dispatcher plate #
5:11 am - dispatcher calls back, that plate # is a neighbor
5:12 am - another moment of panic.....
5:20 am - one cop car arrives As I proceed to be interviewed, a report taken, Joe is interviewed, another report taken
5:35 am - 3 more cop cars arrive
5:45 am - 6 cops walk across the street and bang on another neighbors door. The owner of the reported plate. Sleepy, frightened neighbor walks out of house to 4 cop cars with flashing lights.
Here's the full story - Joe hears breaking glass. Peers out his window and sees a 6' black guy grabbing stuff out of my truck and then using a flashlight to look into other vehicles on the street. Joe comes out of house and yells. Guy drives away in silver Honda Accord with the lights off.
Why did the cops bang on the other neighbor's door? It turns out that the bad guy switched plates from his stolen Honda to this neighbors Honda.He actually had the time to take the plates off the stolen car, unscrew the neighbors plates, screw on the stolen plates and then rob me.
Then the pounding started....and you're up to date. The guy got my tool bag, about $2,000 worth of tools.

6:30 am - Another neighbor comes out of her house to drive her kid to school and is met by a cop car in her driveway.
6:35 am - finally the cops drive away, after I've given my solar panel spiel, lent them a screwdriver and got my report #.

Unbelievable.

Duct Tape Man

At least I think it's a guy....not too sure. This guy was walking back and forth down the street while I was pumping gas. As you can see he's taped all of his pant rips with duct tape and he's made himself shoe soles out of duct tape as well. It is a phenomenally versatile tape isn't it. He made a dragging kind of sound not unlike a zombie. I've been watching a lot of undead shows lately. Of course, this is quite sad, I'm sure the guy is not quite all there but it was quite a sight none the less.

Our First Sushi Class

Castle

Do you watch that ABC show Castle? I really like it as it's witty and there is good chemistry between Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Beckett (Stana Katic). Kind of funny that both these actors are Canadians....We are taking over North America, one TV show at a time. They do a tremendous amount of filming on our little dead end section of Hope Street in downtown Los Angeles. So much so that there are probably fewer days of no filming than there are the opposite. Sometimes it's very irritating and sometimes it's fascinating. This was one of those fascinating days. Here are pictures of Beckett consulting with the director on a scene and of Castle shooting the breeze with some crew as obviously he is not in the scene.

Remember to click on any picture to enlarge it.

A Wasted Conversation

I was at a banquet last night regarding some new treatments for alzheimer's. I thought you would find this conversation interesting. It was between a couple seated beside me that I did not know.

Wife: Where do you work?
Me: I work for a construction company
wife: How's business?
Me: Not very good in the private sector as you can imagine, but the federal government and schools have lots of money
Wife: schools?
Me: yes, there is a big push to upgrade, renovate and rebuild aging schools @ LAUSD and colleges
Wife: Oh the poor children they always get short changed, the money should be spent teaching them.
Me: Why do you say that? They are replacing these portable classrooms that have been there from the 1940's and 50's, they need asbestos remediation and are actually sinking into the ground.
Wife: oh yes, I was a teacher and taught for years in a portable.
Husband: I almost bought her a portable air conditioner for her classroom.
Wife: It was so hot in there for months on end, in the low 100's. The kids were just limp. I'd take them outside under a tree to teach.
Me: I would imagine that it would be difficult to learn if you were just trying to stop yourself from passing out from heat.

At this point we were thankfully interrupted. A good thing as since we just went in a big circle I would have had to whack her on the side of the head. Did I convince her that her initial opinion was wrong or was I just wasting my breath?

Southwest Airlines

In the beginning of Southwest's early expansion days in the 1990's and early 2000's I heard of this upstart airline with odd and what I felt were Neanderthal practices. I was a seasoned business traveller and never would I submit to the cattle call that was Southwest. I loved my assigned seating, my always reserved aisle seat, my first class upgrades, my frequent flier mile Hawaii trips and my beautiful Gold airline status card. I was a veteran and only families, cheapie corporate travellers and Vegas gamblers flew Southwest.

Fast forward to the last 5 years or so and my eyes have been opened. I now prefer Southwest on short hops. I'm not sure I would fly them across country as they often stop once or twice but I now always look. I love it when they sing or joke when we land and the flight attendants always make things a little better. I can handle the cattle call seating as now you get a number, line up in numerical order and there is no front stage like rush through the gate. You can have 10 bags of peanuts if you want and the flight attendants aren't surly like several other airlines that will remain nameless.

I suppose this last Southwest event has just solidified their corporate philosophy and how it works. I'm sure you've all heard of this as it's now a viral blog. The story is where a man was trying to get from one place to another to see his grandson before he was pulled off of life support. He was delayed by baggage, the TSA and every other manner of airport stresses that we all incur every time. Somehow, Southwest became aware of his plight, whether it was from the sobbing phone agent he booked through or from his previous flight or some other means, his connecting flight was held at the gate by the pilot and probably the gate agent as well for 12 minutes while he ran the gauntlet of airport security. I can tell you right now, no other airline in the US would have the forethought, balls and communication it must have required between their staff for that kind of information to move from one plane, to somewhere else to ticket agent to gate to pilot to affect this miracle.

The full story is here

The Dentist.....

I am thrilled to report that I'm done at the dentist! Am I done because my "treatment plan" is fully done? No way, I'm done because I cannot take anymore! This last tooth was the last straw. Just after Christmas I went in to get one last tooth finalized to take advantage of insurance - tooth #30 - back right molar.

The problem was the pain. I don't know if the dentist just couldn't get the area numb or if the root/nerve is super sensitive or if it's a paper thickness away from seeing my tongue. Regardless, every step of the way was a new experience in pain. Today was the last piece which is supposed to be easy, they test fit it, apply cement, then stick it in there. When she started the cement application I almost hit her. The cement was cold! Thank goodness I stopped myself - there I was, fist raised just above my chest, my eyes wide with terror and her eyes wide with surprise. As you can imagine the rest of the cement application came with her assistant guarding my left side and me gripping the armrests in a white knuckled death hold.

The picture to the right is the prep work (and is really my tooth, they were nice enough to email me the pic) - the metal filling is removed and is waiting for it's new inlay. It's like a puzzle piece and fits in nicely. I think it is much better than a crown because more of the tooth structure is left. I could never have lived through a crown prep. I barely made it through the inlay prep.

Perhaps we humans were not meant to outlive our teeth? Our perhaps we should just stop eating sugar.

2011 Begins

As I drove to work my first day back of 2011 (Monday) this thought hit me like a ton of bricks. If I could survive the last 30 days then I can do anything. I felt strong, uplifted and positive. Perhaps this is a new leaf for me in 2011. Perhaps.

The first week of 2011 has brought me around to a different way of thinking. I feel like there is so much I want to do in my life and that I have the strength to do it. I've started researching college courses on some new technologies that I want/need to learn and I've also signed up to be a LifeWorks mentor at the Gay/Lesbian center. It is time to start living my life the way I want to live it. So get out of my way because here I come!

Repeat after me:
I am strong
I am invincible
I am woman! oh, wait, that's a song...

2010 Is Over...

**** Beware ****
**** This is not a fun blog ****


As 2010 nears to a close one cannot help but reflect on the year and take its measure. I for one will be glad to see this year end. I honestly feel that it has been one of the toughest years in recent memory. With Dena being out of work for the entire year and the construction business in the dumps uncertainty was behind every door and around every corner.

This was my most expensive medical year in dollars, time, productivity and mental toughness. Between my foot ailments, tension headaches, migraines and getting cold after cold after cold, I just never seemed to be myself. I struggled with the impotency of all that illness and spent a lot of time convincing myself to just keep marching step after step. It's the stress that's been weighing me down all year and slowly eating away at my health.

On top of all of that half of November and all of December was consumed with the logistics and stress of getting Dena's parents moved down from Cambria to Los Angeles. This prevented us from going home to Edmonton for Christmas and this hit me harder than I could have imagined. I struggled with it almost every day in December. Apparently I've become a big softy and family gal in my middle age.... As with all things, it eventually has worked itself out, almost, but not without some much loss of sleep and a trip to the emergency room to boot.

With that said I just kept keeping on with the hope that there would be a light at the end of the tunnel but the tunnel just kept getting longer. As I've said before, we humans have the unique ability to hope and hope has been what's keeping me alive. As the year drew to a close something happened just before Christmas. And this is going to sound corny but it's true. I got a feeling that good things were going to happen to me in 2011 and funny thing, my mom said the same thing to me. Low and behold something good happened the next day. I'm actually looking forward to 2011!

Finished Solar Panels on Roof

I hadn't gotten around to posting these but so many people are asking, here they are.

Happy Birthday to Me

Thanks to my wonderful family who all chipped in for a BIG Apple gift card for my birthday that allowed me to get my iPad today. In the true spirit of "if it's easy, it's not worth having" the iPad purchased turned into a one hour ordeal. There gift card system was down and popped up just as I was making my purchase and the salesman swiped the gift card and a visa gift card I had but couldn't swipe my Visa for the rest, so he cancelled the transaction but before he could do that the gift card system went down again. So now I had two gift cards with nothing on them. I kept my cool but inside I was freaking out. They were very nice at the El Paseo Valley Apple store and after it was all said and done they gave me a free iPad case (a $40 value).

Thanks to my exceptional girlfriend who continues to make every single one of my birthday's special and a special hug and kiss to my desert friends who are the best hosts on this planet.

Christmas Memories

I remember when I was a kid I would prepare diligently for Christmas. I suppose that should have been indicative of how I am as an adult.... I would take the big Sears Christmas Wish Book catalog and pour over the toy section for days marking the five things I wanted the most. I think I figured five was a reasonable number given things being out of stock and all that. Did you know that you can still get a Sears Wish Book in the mail? I had no idea until I started writing this blog. I just assumed it went the way of everything else - online. See the link above to order yours!

Always in the top five were a couple of large Lego sets. I was a Lego fiend. I distinctly remember circling the big castle. I dreamed of opening it on Christmas day and taking my time to build the castle and then play with it. Back in the day the little Lego menu were like gold. Very hard to come by and rarely in the smaller sets. I believe the castle came with 8 figures and a horse too! Alas, Santa never brought the castle but I built cities with the Lego I had, I had police cars, ambulance, and even a garbage truck with a pick up schedule. Yes, I was so organized (or I suppose you could call me anal) that my Lego trash truck had a schedule.

This Christmas it was my extreme pleasure to buy Sienna and Grace their first Lego sets. This is the set I bought each of the girls. We didn't have pink bricks in my day. My only regret is that this was all we could afford and the biggest killer of all is that I will not be there to see the look on their faces when they open them.

What A Day

Actually what a week. What a month. Oh my!

Tuesday I awoke with a crick in my neck. Apparently this is a common malady caused by sleeping on your stomach with your head turned. It was quite painful but I worked through it and made my way to the chiropractor on Wednesday. By Friday between the stress of the week and the dentist I was feeling pretty miserable. Saturday early morn @ about 2 am I awoke in such excruciating pain I cannot even describe it to you. It took about 20 minutes to get out of bed amid much yelping and some crying.

At about 3am I decided that enough was enough and took myself to the emergency room. I went to Olympia emergency just up the street. I was worried that being Friday night and all that the wait would be atrocious but it was only about 20 minutes. Interestingly enough my blood pressure and pulse were quite elevated. This is what pain does to you. I was diagnosed with a severe locked neck joint aka vertebrae and I received a lidocaine shot in my neck and after a few minutes I asked for another near the top of my shoulder blades.

These shots serve to numb the area so that the muscles will relax. You cannot heal if you are in pain which is why pain medication is given after surgery and for many ailments (and of course suffering and comfort). Pain causes muscle contractions and spasms which prevent the joint from loosening in my case. After about 5 minutes my pain level of an 8 dropped to a 4. I was so relieved. Now I just need to get myself to a bed and take the muscle relaxers he gave me to ensure that this joint loosens up. Wish me well....

Brief Post

Just wanted to drop a line on the blog. I've been absent for awhile....it seems I have a lot to say but it's only in my mind or in the shower or in the car. I've investigated mobile blogging but since I have enough trouble texting and driving, emailing and driving, and dialing and driving on my touch screen phone I thought that mobile blogging would probably really be pushing it.

It seems that my life is so busy lately. Sunday I had a few free hours and I was able to spend it in my garden doing fall cleanup. Pulling tomato plants, heading the herbs and a myriad of other cleanup duties. I completely filled the green bin with clippings. It felt so good to work in the yard. The one plant I didn't have the heart to pull up was a hearty broccoli I started late in the season, I started a whole 6 pack but this is the only one that flourished. It actually has a broccoli head on it now, albeit small. It's kind of exciting to this Canadian transplant to be growing such things. I marvel at the length of the growing season here in Los Angeles.

While gardening is very relaxing to me, as I was weeding I discovered all my tuna can tins. These were placed strategically throughout the garden filled with beer to catch those rotten slugs that were eating all my veggie leaves. Then there were the horn worms on the tomatoes and the aphids on the roses....jeesh, maybe gardening wasn't that relaxing. It seems that wherever I turn there are problems to solve even in my garden.

I suppose this 'eve I'm feeling a tad morose.....I have to catch a flight up to our corporate office early in the morning. While glad I'm going up to the mother ship, ever since my 13 year stint of travelling for business it just no longer interests me and often brings about a deep funk the night before. Alas dear readers, perhaps tomorrow will be a better day.

Expectations

Life is full of lessons, some big, some small. This past long weekend we managed to scoot away for a couple days for ourselves and on the agenda was a trip to the Rancho Sisquoc Winery. I have wanted to go here for years as I am in love with their Chardonnay ($15.99 @ Whole Foods and $20 @ the winery). My first introduction to Rancho Sisquoc was actually their Pinot Noir of some year that eludes me now.

After investigating it turns out that Rancho Sisquoc is quite a bit east of the 101 in an area called the Foxen Valley Wine Trail. We left the 101 in the rain and meandered down the small one lane roads past fields of broccoli and cauliflower until it gave way to vineyards. Miles and miles of vineyards. The first winery we stumbled upon was the Cambria Winery. Cambria winery is quite a distance from Cambria the town but the two have much in common. Friendly people, good music and good wine. It turns out they had a fellow (Ray, local boy) their playing acoustic guitar who was great, it was a real party atmosphere with huge 3 oz pours. I highly recommend stopping here if you get a chance as the staff is very friendly, knowledgeable and with a nice depth in their tasting menu. We walked away with some of their Chardonnay (always a favorite of mine) and an incredible bottle of their Clone 23 Pinot Noir.

As we continued down the trail my excitement grew - at last, Rancho Sisquoc. The place was crowded with people 3 rows deep at the tasting area. $8 for tasting with no free tasting if you buy anything. I was highly disappointed in the entire experience. The staff was cranky and just poured with wine with no explanation or help. You picked 11 from their tasting menu and you could do it however you wanted. I suppose choice is not a bad thing but a little kindness goes a long way. Of the 11 wines I only liked two, one was my stand by - the Chardonnay and the other was a Meritage. Frankly, I probably only really bought the Meritage because I wanted to love it..... Did I set myself up for disappointment by expecting too much? Isn't that what "looking forward" to something is all about?

We shrugged off this disappointment and followed our new friends (Francis and Rick) to their favorite winery - Foxen Vineyards. Foxen vineyards blew me away. Perhaps a pleasant surprise is better than having your expectations met? Their wine is not cheap, frankly none of the vineyards we visited were even close to reasonable in price - but generally speaking Foxen was great. We walked away with a four pack and that's only because we were being frugal. Don't miss this area for tasting next time you're in Santa Barbara or Santa Maria - you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Solar Installation - Day One

Today was Day 1 of our solar installation. Yes, we're going green. Sungevity is our solar provider and they've contracted the install out to a local electrical company. The fellows from the installation company are awesome. Friendly bunch of guys and they don't have any problem with Dena popping up on the roof every hour or so to take pictures and check on them and of course, the quality of the installation. Perhaps Dena can get a new career out of this as a solar project manager or something.... The guys were telling Dena that homeowners normally never pop up on the roof to check the work out which amazes me because it's your roof, your property and you should know everything that is going on and being installed in/on your house.

So far I am happy except for one thing, the inverter and the cut off switch and all the boxes on the back of my house stick out like a sore thumb. I'm not sure why they couldn't put them all on one side but I guess it's too late to bitch about now. There are 3 boxes and a conduit running under our windows connecting them all. An eyesore to be sure. We'll have to get some little trees or something in pots to hide it. Interesting that you would think the solar panels would be the eye sore but they are almost completely hidden and part of me was all proud driving up to my house with just a little corner of a solar panel peeking out from my pitched roof.

The Conversations At Scrapbooking

At a scrapbooking weekend normally the conversations center around family, the latest scrapbooking tools, where in your home is your scrapbooking room and which store has the latest embellishments. My how times have changed.

During the first day while walking around saying hello to fellow scrapbookers and catching up, the conversations all took a surprising turn. Instead of "how are your kids?" the question is "how long have you been unemployed?" Are you on your first Federal extension yet? At one point a woman jumped up and yelled, "I just got a job!" Everyone in the room applauded. She'd been unemployed for two years. People are exchanging tips on where to find part time work and how this is great for your unemployment benefits as it actually extends them. We clarified that part time work is very different from full time (short contract) contract work. If you get one of those jobs, forget it, your unemployment is gone forever.

I started to ask some of them if they'd ever thought they'd be experts on unemployment insurance and the unanimous response was that they never thought they'd ever have to collect it let alone be an expert at the mind boggling maze that it is.

Of course, as is becoming readily apparent in the American Society in general, there has become a great divide in the scrapbooking room between the rich and the middle class. The middle class has less and the rich scrapbookers couldn't care less. It's a brave new world we live in.

Social Media Revolution - Facts

Social Media isn't a fad, it's a fundamental shift in the way we communicate.

• 96% of all Gen Y have a social networking page.
• social media has overtaken porn as the number one Internet activity.
• one out of 8 recently married couples met on social networking sites.
• It took 13 years for TV to hit 50 million households, 4 years for the Internet and only 9 months for Facebook to hit 100 million users and 12 months for 200 million users.
• If Facebook were a country it would be the 3rd largest in the world.
• 80% of companies are using LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees.
• The fastest growing segment on facebook is the 55-65 year old female
• 80% of twitter usage is on mobile devices, people update anytime, anywhere, imagine what that means for bad customer experiences
• in 2009 Boston College stopped issues email addresses to new students, Gen Y feels email is passe
• YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world.
• Studies show that wikipedia is more accurate than the encyclopedia Britannica.
• 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations.
• Only 33% of 18 - 34 year olds have ever viewed a show on a DVR - they hulu it

Thanks to the youtube video on social revolution for reminding me of the fundamental shift in communication that we are currently living in. If you're looking for a job and you're not on LinkedIn then shame on you. Do you know what wikipedia is? Do you Yelp? Even my hairdresser asked me to review him on Yelp the other day. Where are you in the social revolution? Have you been trying to play catch up, are you right in the thick of it all or have you been left in the dust?

The "Hell No" Party

I just have to throw some more comments out there about the Republicans last two years strategically speaking, how it's hurting this country and it's people, and driving the United States further into economic oblivion globally. We don't have the time to sit around and watch Washington get nothing done for another two years. China is done nipping at our heels, now they are pulling limbs off. India is done being our call center dumping grounds and is now becoming a major force in the global economy. Their economic engines are stoked and running at high rpm's while the US is an engine overhaul.

Here are my excerpts:

The Huffington Post:
Republicans in the Senate, with dimmer prospects of gaining control, are plotting a much simpler course. Their platform, to the degree they have one, is to offer themselves as an even bigger roadblock to the Democrats than they are now.

Another from Huffington:
Democrats, including Reid, have said several times in recent weeks that jeopardizing the recovery seems to be exactly what the GOP is trying to do. "It wouldn't do their electoral prospects any harm for there to be more economic misery in America before the election, let's put it that way," said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).

newser.com
John Boehner and Eric Cantor asked. “The purpose of the minority, is to become the majority.” Boenher and Cantor laid out a bold plan, the New York Times reports. Boehner told his troops to be not just the party of no, but the party of “Hell, no.”

Frankly it's all just depressing....
Here's more depressing articles
GOP vote count and commentary
Some video excerpts:

Now You're Mad?

After 8 Years Of The Bush/Cheney Disaster, Now You Get Mad?

• You didn't get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President.


• You didn't get mad when Cheney allowed energy company officials to dictate energy policy and push us to invade Iraq.


• You didn't get mad when a covert CIA operative got outed.You didn't get mad when the Patriot Act got passed.


• You didn't get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us.


• You didn't get mad when we spent over $800 billion (and counting) on said illegal war.


• You didn't get mad when Bush borrowed more money from foreign sources than the previous 42 Presidents combined.


• You didn't get mad when over $10 billion in cash just disappeared in Iraq.You didn't get mad when you found out we were torturing people.


• You didn't get mad when Bush embraced trade and outsourcing policies that shipped 6 million American jobs out of the country.


• You didn't get mad when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans.


• You didn't get mad when we didn't catch Bin Laden.


• You didn't get mad when Bush rang up $10 trillion in combined budget and current account deficits.


• You didn't get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed.


• You didn't get mad when we let a major U.S. city, New Orleans, drown.


• You didn't get mad when we gave people who had more money than they could spend, the filthy rich, over a trillion dollars in tax breaks.


• You didn't get mad with the worst 8 years of job creations in several decades.


• You didn't get mad when over 200,000 US Citizens lost their lives because they had no health insurance.


• You didn't get mad when lack of oversight and regulations from the Bush Administration caused US Citizens to lose 12 trillion dollars in investments, retirement, and home values.


• You finally got mad when a Black man was elected President, and decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick.

Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, job losses by the millions, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, and the worst economic disaster since 1929 are all okay with you, but helping fellow Americans who are sick...Oh, Heck No!!

And let me add - You're thrilled that the Republicans just spent the last two years with a political strategy that is basically, just say NO. They have spent two years building and maintaining roadblocks in congress and the senate when what this country really needs is representatives spending time fighting for the people and way less time worrying about getting a republican back in the white house.

*** shamelessly stolen from this article in the comments section ******

I'm Tired.....

***** Warning ****
This is a depressing blog entry.

I'm tired of having nothing to celebrate. I want to have some awesome events to celebrate, an event that warrants a bottle of champagne. Like Dena getting a job or me getting a raise or my company winning a bunch of bids. It's hard to keep a positive attitude and just keep plugging along when you're not winning but just keeping your head above water. I don't want to think when I hand out Halloween candy how much it's costing me. I don't want to see adults lining up with their kids mooching candy off of me. I don't want to covet an iPad from afar anymore, I want my own. I'm tired of watching benefits slip away that you know you'll never recover. I'm tired of wondering who will be laid off next.

Who is fighting for the American middle class? I can tell you right now before you vote tomorrow, no one. Not the Democrats (they have been castrated), not the Republicans (all they can do is trash people's ideas, they have none of their own) and it certainly isn't going to be the Tea Party. Will it take a revolution of some sort or will we just quietly slip into oblivion wondering who was supposed to save us?

I remember the good old days less than three years ago when the United States was foot loose and fancy free. Without a care in the world we lived in our consumer based capitalistic society and just waited for our next raise, the next new gadget and our higher 401k statements. I loved those days. When can we have them back? I want them back now. I'm tired of waiting.

Who wants to start a revolution? Is John Stewart on to something?

The Family @ Disneyland

Trip Highlights Thus Far

Captain Dave's Dolphin Safari

This is a little video that Grace and I made of the Brockie, Dawn & Dena adventure on the high seas. Keep the sound up for a few seconds and then you can turn it down to cut out the wind noise. We went down to Dana Point and took a 3 hour tour with Captain Dave's Dolphin Safari.

No whales were seen but that was AOK because we saw the white faced pod of about 200 long nose common dolphins. They stayed with the boat for quite some time even following if we turned away or sped up. They didn't seem to want to leave us. About five of them had babies that looked like little footballs with awkward jumps and landings. A priceless trip to be sure. I don't think Grace left the front of the boat for the entire trip.

City of Los Angeles Budget Cuts

Why in the world can they afford to sweep the streets every single week but not cut the grass on our large boulevards? Perhaps because street sweeping generates revenue from parking tickets and mowing the grass doesn't? I took this picture about 4 weeks ago. The grass still hasn't been cut. It's about 2 feet higher now. It makes our city look trashy and impoverished. It's depressing. You can read about it here. Fort Worth, TX is apparently having the same issues of tall grass along streets due to budget cuts.

In doing my research it turns out that the actual problem is that they accidently laid off all the street maintenance median people. What a bunch of incompetent morons.

Facebook Tagging & Other Features

Wanted to key you in to a feature that has been out for awhile but some of you may not be aware of on Facebook. We're all familiar with tagging people in our pictures but you have been able to tag people on your status posts for about a year now. The way you do this is to type your status - "out scrapbooking with @ir ....." after typing the @ symbol and a couple letter a drop down box appears with matching names. You choose the person you are tagging in your status and it's done. Why is this important? Well, frankly it's not important at all but it does alert your friend that you've posted something with/about them. This also works for any entity on facebook, like starbucks or minabea. Here is a detailed description of the feature with screen shots.

Today Facebook launched a revamped old feature that I'm really digging which is groups. I've always felt that Groups in Facebook was useless essentially but now they have made it easy for you to build a space for important groups of people in your life—your family, your soccer team, your book club. All you have to do to get started is to create a group, add friends and start sharing.

When a group member posts to the group, everyone in the group will receive a notification about that post. Now I won't have to guess anymore about whether my parents saw the pictures I posted of their grandkids; when I post in my family group, I'll know that they've been notified about it and that only they will see it. Since information posted in my new groups is only visible to group members by default, I can feel confident about who sees what I post. Other features in the new revamped groups is group chat and group email.

The last item that I wanted to talk about was another revamped feature released on September 30th, 2010 in Photos. Facebook is now allowing higher resolution (photo quality) pictures, easier picture viewing (it was quite a pain before), easier tagging (multiple photos if you're uploading like a wedding or something with all the same people) and a simpler uploading plug in.

Movie Shots in Downtwon Los Angeles

One of the benefits (well that's debateable) of working in downtown Los Angeles is seeing movies, commercials and TV shows being shot. I've seen them do a helicopter scene for the TV Show 24, they've spent 3 weeks building out the 6th floor of my building for some movie that Brad Pitt and Ben Affleck are in and now they are decorating 6th street @ Olive with snow and christmas lights. Here are a couple of recent pictures.

Solar Update

I thought I'd let you all in on our solar situation. Sungevity has sent out a technician to prefield the installation. They've drawn up the plans for our installation and submitted them to the city of Los Angeles and Department of Water & Power. Now we wait.....we are waiting for approval and permits. It's nice that Sungevity takes care of all this so that we don't have to. All I have to worry about is how the sun is not making me any money yet.

And I know this is stupid but they sent us a present. They sent us a solar charging iGo for our electronic accessories. It's pretty cool and I love presents. If you don't know iGo is the charging device widely available at Radio Shack that allows you to just buy ends to charge different things, like an ipod end, a blackberry end, a micro USB end, and the list goes on....

Troubleshooting my Body

The shotgun approach I am taking with my body to rescue it from all I've done to it in the last couple years is almost overwhelming me. Is it possible I've stressed myself out even further with this self care thing? Perhaps.

What I've done is started seeing a Podiatrist for the plantar fasciitis who subsequently prescribed physical therapy. That's twice a week. I'm seeing a nutritionist to get me on track in the food and diet department. I'm working out twice a week and doing some of the wellness challenges we have at work including 50 situps every day. And I'm seeing a psychologist to help me deal with the stress and mental strain. Between all of these things I'm busy 5 nights a week. Frankly, it's ridiculous. When is a person supposed to relax? I fall into bed every night sometimes as early as 9:30, then wake up in the morning and do it all over again.

I'm totally pissed off at the podiatrist now. They made my orthodics wrong, which required two more visits to fix. I'm reviewing the EOB (explanation of benefits) provided by my insurance company and I am appalled at the over charging that they are doing to me and the insurance people. $50 for this, $50 for that, if the doctor touches my feet it's another $50, if I walk down the hallway with him watching it's another $75 per foot for "gait training". What a load of crap that is. One visit was $617. I mean seriously!?

What I do feel is helping the most is the physical therapy. With the stretches, pool therapy and other treatment they give me the pain is definitely getting better. Everyone says that plantar fasciitis takes a very long time to heal (or heel hahaha) and I can see why. I'm trying to be patient but that is not one of my strongest virtues. I'm also trying to be vigilant and keep up with my stretches and ice but it's exhausting.

Thank goodness I have good health insurance. What do people do without health insurance? I suppose they would have to be good to themselves and stay healthy or go bankrupt.

Long Absence

Let me apologize to all my faithful readers for my long absence. I've been very busy with work, sleeping and trying to practice "self care". I've worked pretty much every weekend for most of the summer and I have to say, burn out is imminent. Thank goodness a vacation is near. It is amazing how important it is to have something big like that to look forward to. I cannot wait.


You might have wondered what this "self care" thing is all about. Perhaps its all come about because I'm working so much, very stressed out about money or a combination of all that has happened in life over the past year or so. I feel that my body has reached its limit and has been whining for years about my lack of attention to it. Over the past 18 months that whining has gotten increasingly louder and moved into a scream over the past few months. That's a scream for attention. Well, it has worked. The back pain, the plantar fasciitis and pain associated with that, the eye strain headaches, the migraines, it just cannot go on.


I troubleshoot things for a living. Yes, those things are electronic, both hardware and software in nature, but let's face it, troubleshooting is a skill that can be applied to every problem in life. There are two approaches to troubleshooting; one being a methodical and linear step by step approach, eliminating each piece as you go until the problem is isolated; the second is the "shotgun" approach. This is the method I am taking to troubleshoot my body.

Tomorrow I'll discuss the details I've been taking.

Watermelon Tap - Yummy

As is our tradition we have a little BBQ in the backyard. This year we decided to "tap" a keg - aka tap a watermelon. My sister and her husband gave me the idea as they did it camping this year. Hollow out the watermelon, strain the meat - we cheated and used our juicer. Took no time at all. Mix liberally with your poison of choice - in our case Vodka, then stick a hose bib (aka spigot) into it and voila - a keg of watermelon. Dena decided to add a creative touch and carve a face into it.

We were wondering what to do with the left over meat after you strain or juice the meat. It's basically waterless meat. We decided to freeze it and make watermelon ice cubes.....

Cheers everyone and Happy Labor Day!

More Routine - Except Really Old....

Back a very long time ago - Junior High I think we called it in Thunder Bay I went to a school that was just for Grade 7 & 8. This was a big deal for me because I moved out of "grade" school to the big times. We were required to purchase a lock for our locker. I'd never had a locker and we didn't really have much money so it seemed a big deal to get the money for the lock. The lock I received was a Dudley lock. These are Made in Canada.

I use this lock still today and even though I'll go years without using it the combination never leaves me. 54 - 34 - 6 Amazing what sticks in your head for over 30 years isn't it? I dug it out of the garage this morning, dialed in my combo and viola - open sesame. A little stiff but still completely functioning.

In my research to link to Dudley I was pleasantly surprised to see them still around (I mean it was 30 years ago) and they are going strong. We didn't have a bunch of cool colors to choose from! My how things have changed.

Routine....

There is something to be said for routine. I admit it, I'm very attached to my morning routine. I realize that I need to break out of it because some parts of it are not healthy, aka the diet red bull and zone bar for breakfast..... But on the bright side, I'm starting to implement a new part to my routine - making my lunch. We'll see how that goes.

Part of my morning routine just appeared one morning about a year ago. That was the addition of Leonardo the Standard Parking night shift guy. I get to work just before 7 am and each day there is Leonardo to greet me with a big smile and a buenos dios seniorita. He tries (and doesn't always succeed) to teach me a couple Spanish words but always with a smile. I used to bring him the paper every morning way back when we actually received one.

Back in July I was surprised one morning to see that he was gone. There was another fellow there and I didn't even receive a look let alone a smile. I was sad. A couple days later I finally asked the surly fellow where Leonardo was. He was on vacation. I was happy that he was coming back. Two weeks later he is back and all is right with my routine again. He brings a smile to my face and will often wash away any crankiness that LA morning traffic may have brought on.

When I came back from my vacation he welcomed me and said he missed me. We chatted as there was no one behind me on the ramp and it turns out that we both had taken our vacations in Edmonton. What a small world we live in. Try to remember today that random acts of kindness to strangers can develop into an important part of their day. A smile can change the world for someone. Smile.....come on, you know you want to.