My sister is feeling better and Megan sounds like she’s out and about after her surgery. So onto the silliness.

My sister reminded me a couple of days ago to steal the kinderegg from my dad and to send her a picture of the toy inside.

I’ve misplaced my digital camera, so I got this picture by sticking the toy on my scanner. The scanner is too big to lose, thank goodness.

The toy is some sort of reflector/girl that fits on a string. Her left arm has a hole in it, and you’re supposed to stick a string through it. Why? I don’t know.

My sister is probably still feeling puny, so she’s not posting. It’s not my fault!

For my birthday, she got me a RadioShark and I just got 15 bars of a chocolate I like from Japan. I haven’t had it regularly since I left Japan in 1991.

I know someone had to be in on this. Thanks to everyone involved!

I haven’t been posting because I’ve feel, well, dizzy since Friday afternoon. I tried a bunch of things to try to fix things, drinking hot water, eating a sugary gelato (Mio Gelato!), and lying down. I hate the thought of having the same problem that my father always complains of. He says he’s sick so often (several times a day) that if he really does get sick we won’t know.

I finally figured out at a strip club that looking to the left, turning to the left, or moving my head to the left made me dizzy. Holding my nose and blowing alleviated the symptoms. I figured it was a sinus problem and it finally seemed to go away today. I wish I could say that going to the strip club was fun in some way, but it was just disconcerting and $5 for a small Coke. I spent most of the time trying to figure out what I had to do to make myself feel dizzy. I was ignoring a naked woman. I must have been sick.

Major Cytogenetic Response.

Out of 20 possible metaphases, they can only find 3. If I remember correctly, I had all the metaphases in December. My doctor thinks that I’ll keep improving and that 3 should go away as well.

My friend Megan went in for an MRI and they think she’s healing well. She’s still pretty worried, but I think she’s feeling a little better.

Also, Qwest had overcharged me $136 on my phone bill and they reversed it without any question.

Tax day wasn’t so bad for me. I hope it was good for everyone else, too.

Funny, huh? I went out with someone with a birthday close to mine. Dunno what that means, really.

And once again I had to work late. Another minor software release, proving that we fix things for the customer. This was a management-created problem. Can’t go much into it, but CEOs are always the biggest problem for sysadmins.

Anyway, so I’m sure I had something really eloquent to say, but I’m reduced to just blithering again since y brain is devoted to staying late at work and, well, just staying late seems to suck the, well, thinkiness out of my head.

AHA! I just found where all the moths were coming from. I hope my buddy John isn’t reading this — he gave me a nice wool sweater that is supposed to be machine washable. But that avoids all the horrid dry cleaning chemicals that KILL MOTHS DEAD. Aw freaking hell. I’m going to check for holes in the morning when I’m rested and feeling good about things.

My buddy Chris is closing down the company he was working for. The product was better than the competition, but they kinda got screwed. Can’t go into details, but there are a bunch of servers for sale. The server room Chris was putting together for years has to be dismantled in weeks.

It’s been almost a week since my friend Megan had her surgery and now she’s a bit worried about how her recovery. Here’s hoping she’s getting better!

This morning started with a system at work going down. I wasn’t so panicked, since I’m not a sysadmin any more, but I was asked to help fix things. I’ve had lots of experience breaking things and some experience fixing the things I broke. That knowledge came in handy today.

Later, we had a minor software release. The real release was last week, and we were finished by 8:30PM. Today, my birthday, I was there until 9:00PM. Hooray!

So there it is. My exciting 40’s begin!

Actually, I should admit that we went to the Portland City Grill for lunch and the fries were heavenly. We had fresh baked cookies for dessert. When I got back to the office, we had chocolate cake from Pearl Bakery, and I was too full to enjoy it!

My last day of being 30-something and I spent it reading books. But I like reading books. I wasn’t about to do much. My back is feeling much better but it’s still a bit sore and I don’t even feel like driving. So, it was either walking around my neighborhood in the heat, or reading a book. I did return a couple of books to the library, but that’s about it.

Heh. Heat. 80°F and I think it’s the end of the world. That’s an Oregonian for you.

I don’t have much to say other than I sat on my can all day, reading mystery novels by Ian Rankin. I did take a nap at one point, only to be woken by a very childish argument between my parents. It’s too silly to repeat, but it has to do with my 87YO (soon to be 88YO) father hoarding his dirty underwear and my mom yelling at him that she just finished the laundry. And then he said he’d wash them himself. Of course, she pointed out that he’d never done laundry in his life and I was laughing at all of the silliness.

Anyway, I did nothing on this beautiful spring day. I can blame my sore back, but really I felt lazy. Why not?

The important part of a bone marrow biopsy is getting the lab results, but one of the scariest parts is the actual procedure. I mean, they’re drilling into your pelvis to get some goo. I’ve heard from several friends about how horrid the procedure is. While I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone as a fun way to spend an hour, I would say that the procedure isn’t as painful as I’ve heard. The worst part was the Xylocaine anesthetic. It burns! And then aspirating the sample stimulates all sorts of nerve endings in the bone marrow. For me that felt like a Charley Horse in my ass.

But it isn’t that bad, and it hurt less this time than it did last time. I wonder if it isn’t just because my doctor is especially good at the procedure. I mean, I even heard him say, “Damn,” under his breath a couple of times and it didn’t hurt any worse.

My blood pressure was up to 140/90 at the start of my appointment (I’m guessing that’s because I was more nervous than usual since I knew I was getting this bone marrow biopsy) and I’m now at home wondering if my back hurt this bad last time. But it isn’t that bad.

Now to wait for the results!

Add it to the list. The rocket scientists at frigging Fox it’s-an-insipid-reality-show-so-we’re-canceling-it Network canceled Wonderfalls. Just like Keen Eddie, Firefly, John Doe, Angel, Fastlane, and probably several others I can’t remember off the top of my head.

Oh, well.

Tomorrow I get my bone marrow biopsy and I’m going to be fine! So there.

Had to work late today, so there isn’t much exciting to talk about. My sister is getting me a Griffin RadioShark for my birthday. It’s like a TiVo for the radio. Unfortunately it isn’t out yet.

I’m trying to decide what to get myself for my birthday since I’m turning 40. One possibility was a new ham radio but the one I’d want is close to $1500 after I get all the accessories. Plus, I’m not on all that much any more. Other than that, I can’t think of anything.