Tag: family

The Weary’s Quick Rest

St. Patty’s was a hit both at work and at home.  A great turn out at the office with everything from cookies to green deviled eggs.  9 people showed up at my doors for the Guinness Stew and a little bit of drinking.  The old gang hung out well with my new friends from Tweet Up, Annette @dananner and Wyatt @phraktyl.

A lesson we learned?  Don’t ever give Phraklet, Phraktyl’s son, a Mountain Dew. Ever. Again.  LOL.

I didn’t drink all that much at St. Patty’s.  Just an Irish Car Bomb I did with Annette and Wyatt and a couple more sips of Limoncello with Lee.  Everyone respectfully headed out at 10 p.m. sharp and since we were cleaning up as we go, we went to bed soon after that.

So, when I rolled out of bed at 5 a.m. the next day, it wasn’t that painful.  However, the Car Bomb and Limoncello still lingered in my system when I got to the meeting.  At 10 a.m., the hangover hit and I was dying for something nice and greasy for lunch.

I found that in the fresh cut fries at Rowdy Red in Downtown LA.  The black & blue burger was pale compared to that.  And it was that the lovely greasiness held me over for the next couple of hours before heading home.

As it turned out, the OC Register tweet led me to an article about President Obama’s arrival in Long Beach and how it might affect traffic that afternoon.  So I left work at 2 p.m. as to avoid any kind of traffic mayhem down there at 3 p.m.

By the time I settled in at home and got to open the windows, it was a few minutes before 3.  I spotted an airliner flying over Seal Beach.  How odd, I thought, I’ve never seen a jet going…WAIT A SECOND!

I ran and grab Brandon’s camera with super zoom lense.  It was really hard to focus past the screen, but I did caught a full glimpse of the Air Force One coming in to land.

Wow.  WOW!

Once AF1 was out of sight, I turned on the TV to confirm that it was what I just saw.  A few minutes later,  footage of the plane “parking” on TV.  Then the President stepping off…and whisked away into…Marine One.

Marine One?!?  Not a motorcade?!?

LOL.  I’m sure my boss is happy about that news.

Finally, I got to my nap.  A couple of hours I woke up to greet Brandon and headed out to yoga.

Good gosh. It’s been a crazy couple of days.

P.S. I’m going to start tagging the blog now.  Just FYI.

Phototastic Friday: Licensed to kill

Ramboakz

This is my [air] rifle. There are many like it but this one is mine. My [air] rifle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my [air] rifle is useless. Without my [air] rifle I am useless [in case of the apocalypse or war against zombies]. I must fire my [air] rifle true. I must shoot straighter than my enemy, who is trying to kill me.  I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will. Before God I swear this creed: my [air] rifle and myself are defenders of my country [well, my family, really].  We are the masters of our enemy [aka zombies].  We are the saviors of my life. So be it, until there is no enemy, but peace.

 

We had Thai food. And we went shooting. I also shot a 9mm and a 380.  9 mm. = fun!  380, tiny and I thought I’d like it better but it’s so hard to shoot!  I shot the ceiling a couple of times I think.

Oh, Brandon said I should go ahead and add the info about the rifle here too. So here goes.

RWS Model 34 Panther Pro Compact
Weight: 8.00 lbs. Barrel Length: 15.75″.  Overall Length: 42.13″. Capacity: 1 round(s).  Cocking Effort: 33 lbs. [I sooooo need to work out to be able to load this thing on my own.]  Barrel: Rifled. Trigger adj.: Two-stage adjustable. Apprx. Trigger Pull: 3.30 lbs. Buttplate: Soft rubber recoil pad. Action: Break barrel. Powerplant: Spring-piston. 5mm. 1000Fps

Mouthful

After 16 years of going home to my family dentist every year, someone else got to look at these pearly…well…ivories.  (Whitening these puppies? Not a chance!  Not my natural coloring.)

After 16 years of being in the U.S., my teeth finally have been touched by American dentists.

That’s right. Dentists. Plural.  Three of them. All in one day too.

Originally, I was supposed to go to the orthodontist consultation appointment then go to work. But then I had this mild sore throat and been tired all over since yesterday, so I decided to just stay home after the appointment.  As it turned out, the gods of Dentistry aligned the stars and I had everything done in one day.

And I’m still tired with a mild sore throat. *sigh*

It started with a simple orthodontic consultation at 8 a.m.

Yes, kids. I’m working on #8 on my 10 goals for 2009.  I’m looking into braces.

No Invisalign for me. My vanity doesn’t stand a chance against a $3000-$5000 price tag.  Besides, my orthodontist said braces will get the job done a LOT faster.  However, I *am* vain enough to pay a little extra for the “translucent” ones instead of the traditional metal.

Now, I have to get my teeth checked and cleaned before they can continue.  Since I have no dentist to speak of, the ortho office called up one of the offices their network in Lakewood which happened to have an opening at 9:30, half an hour from then.

Alrighty then.

So I headed over there.  The dentist poked around in there and reported to me that I had periodontitis and I will need to treat and stablize that before they can okay me for the braces.

Then the periodontist came in to explain everything to me.  She’s from Vietnam and she said that although dentistry is good in Southeast Asia, they concentrate on the teeth and NOT the gum.  That’s true.  And that Asians tend to have shorter roots so we really can’t afford to suffer periodontitis.

Now, I need a deep cleaning session…which she happened to have an opening at 1 p.m., 2 hours from then.

Alright then.

I ran off to have lunch with Aurora and ran back for the treatment.  She numbed my mouth and went to town with the deep cleaning.  I had that done just in November when I was home, but wasn’t quite as deep because they didn’t use anaesthetic.  This one was REALLY down in there.  However, she numbed me well enough and by golly I don’t know how she did what she did but I actually was falling asleep at some point.

I was told that flossing is no longer an optional step in my daily routine: it is a prescribed medication.  A month from now, if everything looks good, then I get the approval for braces.

My periodontist also said that getting braces will actually be good for my dental health.  Crooked teeth have more places for things to go hide.  With my conditions, it’s better to have less nooks and crannies.

Braces are no longer a vanity treatment: it is THE treatment.

At 2:30 p.m. I left the dentist office talking funny.  Should’ve recorded it.  My tongue was numb. So was a part of my nose.

Now that the anaesthetic wore off, my gum and teeth are sore.  I had to cancel my dinner with the girls and bought a tub of frozen yogurt instead.

Think of this as a preview of what to come once the braces are in.

So, in a couple of months, I’ll have braces to go with my glasses.

I will be a junior high nightmare.

At 32.

(Thank GOD I’m already married.)

Maybe I can squeeze in a LASIK procedure before then…

Watch this

Just got back from seeing Watchmen with Brandon and Lee.  Lee, who is a big fan of the graphic novel, gave it a 4 out of 5.  She said if we liked this, we definitely have to get the book, which we intend to do just that.

Wow. What a revelation!  It was stylized just enough. Violent in all the necessary places.  I might need to talk to somebody about my mental state because Rorschach is definitely my hero now.

Trailers were also massively awesome.  Possibly the best line up of trailers: Wolverine, Star Trek, Terminator, and, for some of us, Angels & Demons.  We’ll forget that they tarnished this almost-perfect line-up with that number movie with Nick Cage and yet another mall cop comedy. Whatever.

Oh, and I will also need some therapy having that much blue, um, well, er, “twig” swung around in my face.  Is it weird for me to wonder where Dr. Manhattan might have put his, um, well, er, “berries?”  Was he cold walking around naked all the time that causes some, um, well, er, shrinkage?

/wipes mental image of 50 feet of blue…GAHHHH!!!

For those who have seen the movie/read the novel, I have a couple of treats for you, courtesy of my beloved LA Time’s Hero Complex Blog.  Those who haven’t seen the movie/read the novel, it’ll still be funny.  But come back to watch all of these AFTER the movie/novel, and it’ll be a LOT funnier.

First, as Hero Complex names it, Attack of the Show Takes On Lower Manhattan.

Sorry to put that giant blue, um, well, er, pole, back in your mind.  You can clear that out with this kids-friendly Saturday Morning Watchmen.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDDHHrt6l4w&eurl=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2009/03/watchmen-saturd.html&feature=player_embedded]

Speaking of kids-friendly, what kind of a fucked up mother would step up to buy tickets to the Watchmen with a 5-year-old and a toddler in a stroller?

Seriously, lady.  It’s rated R.  Clearly, you have no idea.  But guess who will be kicking herself later when her 5-year-old asked what the Night Owl and the Silk Spectre were doing and you will be waken up on the middle of the night by your two children screaming when Rorschach’s actions revisit them in their dreams.  Good job scarring your children for life , dumb ass.

Port of Love

Long Beach Tweet Up group led by @DaNanner (aka Annette), with the help of @LBMatt outdid ourselves today with the photo walkabout at the Port of Long Beach.  Well, Matt got us interested with the Port’s photo contest.  And then as the Tweet Up started to take shape, he got his boss involved.

And here we were this morning at the Port Authority building, getting access to the rooftop and driven down winding and confusing roads around the port in the POLB vans to take great photos.

Of course, the AWESOME group of people we hung out with for two hours made everything worthwhile.  @killregrets, @phraktyl and phraklet, @agentjon, @niecee, and a couple of Matt’s friends.

I’m sure other people probably took better pictures than us, but I got a few good ones.

And here’s one from Brandon’s camera.  One guess as to who started this…

POLB - Brandon

After all of that, Annette joined Brandon and I and Olaina and Justin for lunch at Thai Nakorn. We laughed our heads off and ate ourselves silly.

The reason of my vegging out for the rest of the afternoon until I was able to crawl to the computer to geek out just a couple of hours ago.

Tomorrow? Watchmen with Lee.

This weekend is just too much fun already!