Another Trip to the Dentist

This involved prepping for the crown. I had my root canal already and it was traumatic but as good as it could be I suppose. I took over a month to heal from that. Did you know that there is a ligament surrounding each tooth and these can get very sore from all that dental work. This was apparently what was causing me pain. See picture for some of the things done in a root canal. I felt you really needed to see that....just to share my pain with you. Yes, there is blood if you're a bleeder. I am.

Today was the prepping for the crown over that particular tooth. Since it was so decayed, had an old filling, etc, they tear apart most of the tooth to get in there with that lovely file/drill thing so there's not much left of the tooth when they are done. This means they have to crown it. A crown is a new porcelain or gold tooth that sits on top of your old tooth. Your old tooth is prepped to receive the crown. It's crowned like in checkers and fits like a puzzle piece or glove. I've happily provided you a picture of that too. Now this trauma and drama in this picture didn't happen to me where they ripped apart part of the gum, instead they put some sort of strings between the tooth and the gum, then pushed it in there to make a space so they could drill and cement. It was lovely but I suppose, all in all better than this picture.

If you'll excuse me, I have to go have 4 advil and chase it down with a pint of vodka.

Rebuilding Together

Webcor and Rebuilding Together work every year on a big project to renovate a facility in need. This year was Angel's Camp in San Pedro. Here's some shots of us helping out today.

Kitchen Lessons Learned - Granite vs Marble

We had a beautiful piece of countertop picked out.

We had a color scheme and a plan. We had wrapped our mind around the kitchen cabinets, stain and flooring all in a certain style based on this "granite". We went over to Arizona Tile and received quite an education from Tiffanie. She was wonderful. It turns out that this is NOT granite but marble. You can put marble as your kitchen countertop but it is not recommended as it is softer than granite and quite porous. She saw we were in love and was kind enough to give us a sample and some porous sealer with instructions to test it out. I sealed it twice as instructed and waited 72 hours. Then we did the lemon juice and red wine test. These are not kind to porous stone apparently. I put on both for 20 minutes, sponged and rubbed off. Both left very visible dark marks. Hmmmmmm lesson learned. I then said, well, we don't really cook that way, we're pretty neat, let's try for 3 minutes. Same result.

We retired to the living room with visions of our kitchen falling down all around us. We would have to rethink the entire color scheme. A couple hours later Dena wandered into the kitchen again and happened to glance at the marble. The wine glass ring and lemon juice mark were gone. What the?! I have no idea why but they were gone. We've decided against this stone anyway and will stick with granite. We've decided to go a little more generic and thus resaleable in case someday we move. Regardless, Arizona tile will be where we buy the granite because they were so helpful. And SMG Stone will be our fabricators because I have heard over and over how good they are.

Is It Really All About Me?

My neighbour bought his friends' kid (who is over at his house all the time) a new truck to run up and down the driveway beside our living room and bedroom windows. The old truck was a 12 pack sized dump truck that made a lovely clicking noise when he pushed it up and down the driveway thousand's of times, sometimes until 10 o'clock at night. What parent keeps their 4 year old up until 10 and 11 o'clock on a regular basis?

The new truck is one of those big, electric ride 'em type jeeps. It makes an absolutely horrible noise on the driveway not unlike a jet plane taking off. Sometimes I wonder if he buys this stuff for the kid just to drive us insane. How in the world does he stand the noise? Well, they play loud rock music in the garage with the door open that we can hear thumpa, thumpa, thumpa.

Is it wrong to approach life with the attitude of you just can't wait until it's all over?

A Day With My Mom

Get up early, get over to the Garden Store and buy over $100 worth of soil, flowers and veggies. Come home, plant for 2 or 3 hours. Quickly make some sandwiches for lunch, jump in the car and eat them on the way to the Psychic. Have a couple card/tarot readings then drive over to Costco, pick up all our pictures, drive over to a different garden store. Ooooh and aaaahhh over the gorgeous flowers (this store is much higher end than the first), buy more pots to plant and separate more plants. Drive home. Are you tired yet?

Quickly garden a little more, exchange gifts, change, jump in car and drive to The Grove. Have a wonderful supper, do some shopping and go see a movie. Walk around the Grove some more and drive home. I passed out into bed at 11:30 pm completely unable to keep my eyes open.

This was my mom's birthday day. There wasn't even time for cake. She is truly an amazing person with triple my energy. I'm not sure where she's getting it from.

Pictures of The Vacation

Big Sur - California's Coastline

Canada Goose Vacations at Monterey Bay, CA

Million Dollar Day

Today Dena, my Mom, my Aunt Elaine and I left Cambria, California and drove north up Highway 1. This coast road is considered by many to be the most spectacular coastline in the world and it did not disappoint. First stop was the Elephant Seals near San Simeon. We marveled at their size and smell and took lots of pictures.

We drove by the Piedras Blanca Lighthouse and continued north stopping a various overlooks to revel in the breathtaking views up and down the coast. Crashing waves, steep cliffs, large rock outcroppings and a full palette of spring wild flowers greeted us at every turn. We stopped for a quick waterfall hike and some more pictures. Mom fed the blue jays and I was surrounded by 5 little gophers eating Elaine's rye crackers right out of my hands.

We stopped at Nepenthe for a well deserved lunch break and admired more of the view and soaked up some sun. We then oohed and ahhed further north past Big Sur itself and then up to Point Lobos State park. This is where we saw Harbor Seals, an otter and whale spouts. Like I said, a million dollar day. We are now in Monterey Bay and will stay the night here.

The Dentist Part 2

In the past, one of my attempts at getting my teeth fixed was getting referred to a dentist that a friend of mine goes to. My interest in her was that she used laughing gas, aka nitrous oxide. Not all dentists do. My thoughts were that more anesthetizing must be better, right? Not only some shots in the mouth to numb me up but some laughing gas to make me forget that horrible drilling noise.


I sat down in the chair, feeling rather positive about my decisions and put on my headphones and turned up my ipod. She put a little nose piece in my nose and I breathed deeply. This sort of worked for a little awhile but then I got a little anxious and asked her to turn it up. Then I asked her to turn it up again. I started to feel claustrophobic, then lightheaded, then nauseous, then a little violent and just before I passed out I ripped the mask off my nose. That was it for the laughing gas. I survived the filling but I'm pretty sure she cracked that tooth. I can't seem to win.

Later in the week I was talking to my Mom and relating this story. She told me of her experience with a rural Canadian dentist and nitrous oxide. She beat him up she got so violent on it. Apparently it's hereditary, some people just can't deal with laughing gas.

Another Saga Begins - The Dentist

I guess I'm like my Mother. I believe most women say that after they hit a certain age. It's not a bad thing to be sure, but there are some traits that she has that I definitely have. One of them is fear of dentists and subsequently, not so good teeth. Today, after several failed attempts, I have started on the road to dental resolution. I suppose you just have to put one foot in front of the other, or tooth, and keep chewing along until it's all done.

How did this fear of dentists start I wonder? When I was young I remember going to the dentist and I had something like 10 cavities. I think I was around 6 or so. I vividly recall sitting in the dental chair crying very loudly and my mom having to leave me there and run home to get more money. I don't know if I had permanent teeth or baby teeth. What dentist fills cavities in baby teeth? What dentist makes the Mom leave their kid screaming in the chair? Sadistic bastard. I'm sure no one likes going to the dentist but for me it's definitely a fear laden experience. I lay in that chair and my back is rigid and my neck is so tight you could play a tune on my tendons.

So I tried a new dentist that was recommended by a friend. She told me that this dentist had a very Zen attitude. Zen is good. Zen is calm. I like Zen. The dentist can be found here. My first appointment wasn't bad at all except the inevitable news that more work was needed. The most interesting part of the appointment was the new technology. She put a small pen camera in my mouth and took live pictures of the teeth and then they only x-rayed what was needed instead of shoving tons of those hard plastic painful film pieces into your mouth. And yes, I did have a heated, lavender scented neck pillow to soothe me.

Since that first experience I've been back for preparation for a root canal and a crown. I'm sure step 2 of many, many steps. The experience was preceded by some drugs on my part, very necessary, Bose noise cancelling headphones, my ipod, a lavender scented neck pillow and a very kind, patient dentist. I'm none the worse for wear. I now have an appointment with the endodontist for the root canal. I'm hoping he's a nice, gentle and cute as my Dr. Shafi.

Racing in Las Vegas

The First Purchase

I guess in for a penny, in for a pound. We made our first kitchen purchase yesterday. A new wine refrigerator, built in. We had planned on a 16" wine fridge in the kitchen, stainless steel but the price for any builtin wine fridge is outrageous. On a whim we wandered on over to Home Expo which is going out of business to check out the sales. When we arrived all floor model appliances were 40% off. This little wine fridge from Marvel popped out at us and said "buy me please". I checked it out thoroughly and it looked to be in good shape. The only problem was that it was not stainless steel and was missing the handles. Odd I thought. But upon further investigation it is a cabinet style, where your cabinet maker puts a door frame on it in the style and wood of your choice. I think it will work and we save $ 1,000. That makes me happy. Hopefully it works.

Oh, and as a point of reference in case you ever need to know. If you ship/transport any refrigeration unit on it's side you must leave it upright for 48 hours prior to plugging it in to power. This is so the freon will settle. This is apparently vital. Good to know.

And it begins

We've jumped full force into the kitchen remodel process. We've begun to narrow down the appliances we need/want, we are close to pulling the trigger on the cabinets and the kitchen design in general. Then our contractor came over and gave us a ball park to complete the job. Dena said I looked like a deer caught in someone's headlights. I'm sure I did.

Now it begins in earnest. Do we really need the top of the line fridge? How can we cut corners here and there and everywhere? Price shopping on the internet. Reading product reviews. It's all very exhausting. Some people say "it's the journey...", enjoy the ride. I'm not sure I'm going to enjoy the ride but I'm sure I'll enjoy it once we are there. Can I just click my heels 3 times and have it be the end of 2009? Perhaps the economy would be better, my kitchen would be done and all of life would be wine and roses? Right?

David Copperfield

My sister, Ian, Dena and I spent the weekend in Lost Wages. I was excited because we got tickets to David Copperfield, 2nd row booth. When we sat down I thought I was in a movie we were so close. Being in a booth so close to the stage reminded me of those mafia movies where the "don's" sat. Side note: Don = a title in Spain (Don/Dona) and Italy (Don/Donna) descending from Latin "dominus," master, lord.

As excited as I was to see the master of magic I walked away a little disappointed. He seemed bored throughout most of the performance, just going through the motions. He also seemed quite cynical, almost defending himself to the new talent in town, the Criss Angel's of the world. Even his pre-show curtain candy seemed defensive. It was a listing of all his accomplishments, touting them to the world, as if he felt threatened we would forget. Perhaps David, it is time to hang up the wand and top hat. Just like Dan Marino and Brett Favre, sometimes it's best to retire on a high note before you're old, washed up and cynical.

As for the rest of the weekend, it was a blast. I did a ride-a-long at the Las Vegas Speedway in a Nascar where we did the 1.5 mile oval at 165 mph. Fast, unbelievably fast! I played craps for the first time in years. Most of it came back to me after about 30 minutes without the help of the sarcastic stick man. I'm proud to say I came out of Vegas $55 ahead....

30th Reunion

Reader Beware - The occasional graphic comment.

I put that in there because my Mom reads my blog....
Not that my Mom is a prude or anything but it's important to cover your butt. She's still my Mom.

Tonight I attended Dena's 30th Fairfax High School reunion. She asked me to go. I swore after the 20th I'd never go again. Dena gets what she wants so I went for moral support and frankly, so she could show me off. What can I say....

Wow, how boring can you get. I mean, how could you not be bored. Here are 200 people that you don't know and have absolutely nothing in common with. Dena barely has anything in common with them. I was never one to be bored for long as I was an only child for 10 years and learned how to entertain myself. The picture pretty much shows you what I did for three hours. I pretended to be the reunion official photographer, I flipped these three cards back in forth in my name card badge all night long. It was hilarious. By the way, a photographer can walk up to any group of people, flip any kind of stupid badge at them and people will pose and tell you their life's story.

One lady is a intimate lingerie designer for the bondage and dominatrix market. A niche market I'd say. She was a dominatrix for three years prior to moving into this natural transition but decided that humiliating and hurting people wasn't her gig. Currently, her line is focusing on color. You see, the whole S&M world is fixated on black, black suede, black leather, black latex, etc. She's expanding into color and is currently designing a lovely turquoise garter with little skulls that hang down on tassels from the front and knock against the pussy. A teaser she says. I would imagine that's true......

Habit Forming

Being frugal is habit forming. Since the stock market hit the big slide around September 2008 we've been cutting back little by little. Some people more than others but I can only speak for ourselves. We don't eat out as much, we haven't seen a movie in awhile, we haven't really bought much of anything from a consumer perspective, we've just cut back. This allows us to save some money and pay some bills off.

I received a couple gift cards for my birthday. $ 50 each at 2 different stores. I've been in each store twice now and I cannot spend them. The $ 50 isn't enough to get what I want and what I want I'm not sure I really need. I'd have to put some of my own cash into buying it and I don't really need it so I'm having a lot of trouble committing. Isn't that odd?

I think once you get in a habit of considering your purchases a little closer and holding your money closer to your vest it gets a little more difficult to part with it. I wonder if that's why people who are really cheap get that way? They've developed a habit that becomes harder and harder to break, so much so that you can't stand being with them because they won't spend a nickel. I can't imagine ever getting that way, but you never know.....

I just couldn't help myself....

Some Assembly Required

I've been wanting a weight bench to work out with my trainer on. I wanted one that had legs as well as an incline. I was out shopping on Craigs List and thought I would get one cheaper. No way. Everyone is pretty proud of their used weight benches. So I found one in at Big 5 Sporting Goods, on sale fro $89.99 to $ 59.99. What a deal!!! It was everything I wanted. I brought it home and opened the box. Holy crap! 2 hours later, a socket set and 3 wrenches, it's almost done!

Almost a Year

I don't make many mistakes. I pride myself on being organized, thoughtful and persistent. In 2008 I made some great moves in my life and some big mistakes. Dena likes to tell me to stop being the "shoulda, woulda, coulda" girl. I try not to but it's hard. I won't go into any of the mistakes except one....

That one mistake I made was when I changed jobs (a brilliant move by the way) I didn't take any time off to regroup mentally and to change my physical situation at home. Let me explain; I have a home office. It's rather large. Dena has a tiny space in the corner and the rest is mine. It was that way because I spent 12 years working out of it. It's full of stuff. Manuals, books, files and the entire life that was Mitel before I switched jobs.

To give myself a break regarding this misstep, I wasn't mentally ready to clean up my old Mitel life or rather to let it go. I also wasn't mentally prepared for the new job and the drastic change that it would mean. Going from working out of the house for 12 years to reporting to an office everyday is a pretty big change. Don't get me wrong, I'm thriving on the change and am happier for it but it is a big change.

So, while in hindsight I wish I had taken a week or two to discard the old Mitel life there is no way at that time I was ready to it. Now, almost a year after leaving Mitel, I am ready. Now the problem is finding the time to clean up the office at home. I suppose that it will have to be done, little by little, similar to how personal realization and insight strikes me. Little by little I figure myself out.

Another thought is "does having a clean office, files, bookcases or whatever make you a happy person?" Does a clean garage bring happiness and emotional well being? Does discarding the old and minimizing bring calm? I think that answer depends on the person. Some people think that yes, this one thing will make it all better for me but it never does. Some people need everything in it's place to feel comfortable and some do not. Frankly, happiness is all a mind set. If we could just quiet our minds and live in the moment all the ancillary "noise" caused by our excess stuff wouldn't matter. Of course, if we could have quieted our mind to begin with we probably wouldn't have excess stuff. Something to think about.