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Thu, 20 Nov 2008 @ 07:44 || Happy Birthday || HomeShane turns 18 today. Happy Birthday Shane!
link to story || 0 comments || Add a comment Sun, 16 Nov 2008 @ 11:09 || Keene NH || PoliticsI grew up near Keene. It was the closest larger city to our North. Doubt many people would consider it a large city, but from where I grew up we did.I became aware of this story from the Colorado Libertarian site that I have linked to on the left hand site of the blog, scroll down you'll find it. Man sentenced to 93 days in jail for illegal couch. On one hand he could have just paid the fine, and charged his tenants, it isn't even his couch. On the other had, he should have been able to argue his case about unfair code enforcement without being thrown in jail. In the first place, they could have given him a warning to remove the couch instead of starting with the fine. He also seems to have pissed off the judge prior to the case, which led to the 3 counts of contempt of court. I would expect a good lawyer should have been able to avoid the contempt of courts, as well as talked away the fine for the couch. I support his fight against oppressive government, I hate code enforcement too. However, I can't help feel he could have avoided the jail time had he been less of a dick. In the video it looks like he didn't provoke anyone, however, listening to his radio show it's possible some people in authority may have it out for him. Abuse of power anyone?
link to story || 0 comments || Add a comment Sat, 15 Nov 2008 @ 09:27 || Errands || HomeRunning around doing errands today. Stopped off at my office to get my laptop that I left upgrading to Fedora 9. It was waiting at a prompt.. so much for letting it run overnight.While we wait for my laptop, I have Shane looking at a troublesome Windows 2003 Server that we were fighting with yesterday. It might have a bad motherboard. Good way for him to learn. After I finish up here, it's off to the bookstore, then to Home Depot. Hoping to finish that plumbing project in my basement I kinda started a few months back. link to story || 1 comment || Add a comment Fri, 14 Nov 2008 @ 07:35 || snow || HomeWoke up to snow on the grass. That storm that was hiding over the mountains desended on us overnight. The grass is a mix of white and green. The roads are wet but not icy. It was 60 degrees yesterday and should be in the 60s tomorrow, today they said it won't get above the 30s.Should be a fun drive up to Boulder today. link to story || 1 comment || Add a comment Thu, 13 Nov 2008 @ 22:07 || Wind || HomeWas really windy today. While driving into Boulder you could see the storm clouds stacked up on the mountains like a giant glacier about to crash down on the city.Looks like the high country got clobbered with snow today, but it's was in the 60s down in the foothills. link to story || 2 comments || Add a comment Tue, 11 Nov 2008 @ 09:25 || Logan || TravelAt the Logan airport a little early, and turns out my plan is delayed. I have a few extra hours to spend in the great Boston airport.Met with a friend of mine last night who has lost around 60lbs in only a few months. He did it following the Atkins plan. I'll have to look in and see if I can do the same, need to ask the doctor if it's safe. Overall the trip out here was productive. I'm not sure I enjoyed the visiting the family part of the trip as much as I anticipated. It's only once a year... link to story || 0 comments || Add a comment Wed, 05 Nov 2008 @ 20:52 || Boston || TravelGot into Boston for a two day conference this afternoon. Flew out here with my two business partners and one of our employees. Should be an interesting two days.I wasted some of my miles on upgrading my ticket to first class. Other than having the stewardest top off my glass of water a few times and the seats being larger, I didn't notice much of a difference. I'm only on the waiting list for first class on the way home, not sure I care if I make it or not. I have a bunch on miles on United, which I almost never fly, so I figured why not use it to upgrade. While it was probably more comfortable, I'm not convinced it was a big enough difference to warnet the miles. However, I don't know what I'd do with the miles, they're pretty much worthless to me. After the conference, I'm staying the weekend to visit my brother up in Gloucester. Elyse is staying to visit with relatives in Connecticut. We fly back on the same flight on Sunday. link to story || 0 comments || Add a comment Sat, 01 Nov 2008 @ 12:58 || Bext Web Site Ever || FunnyIs it Christmas?Shane showed me this last night, pretty funny. link to story || 0 comments || Add a comment Sat, 01 Nov 2008 @ 11:34 || Movies || HomeWe watch a lot of movies. I see that slowing down as Shane starts college next year. I'll have to find another hobby for afterwork. Over the years, I played video games (huge waste of time), poured myself into work, (not really healthy) and watched a ton of Movies with the kids.We currently have standard movies for the following holidays. These are movies I watch religiously each year, ones where Sukki rolls her eyes and says "Not again".
There are a lot of Thanksgiving day movies, but none really qualify as a standard. Planes, Trains and Automobiles may be the best one, but I'd like to do a little better. Not sure what a good Easter Movie would be. Maybe, Monty Python's Life of Brian. We already have a Monty Python, so would like find something else here as well. Apocalypse Now might due for the 4th of July. Memorial Day is probably going to be National Lampoon's Vacation. Labor day is another tough one.. link to story || 2 comments || Add a comment Fri, 31 Oct 2008 @ 14:14 || Halloween || NationalHappy Halloween! Will be watching our usual movie, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" during the trick or treating hours. Kids are too big for trick or treating so they get to take turns handing out the candy, assuming they don't eat it all first.link to story || 0 comments || Add a comment Tue, 28 Oct 2008 @ 21:06 || 2.49 || HomeHad to fill up the truck before work today. Was glad to see the price below $2.50.link to story || 2 comments || Add a comment Wed, 22 Oct 2008 @ 16:18 || Voted today || PoliticsAfter Mindy's dentist appointment this morning we swung by the library for some early voting. Turns out the early voting didn't open till 10am... not very early at all imo. Had to wait 30 minutes for the library to open.I ended up filling out a provisional ballot, due to the mail in ballot already being sent to me. Elyse was right, but I was still able to vote, just not on the computers, which isn't that bad. I wasn't the only one, an older couple a few people ahead of me and a number of folks after me all had the same issue. The line was slow, but short. At any one time they may have been a dozen people in line. They had one person that seemed to know what he was doing and six old people who were mainly confused. The one person was running most of the show, I was amazed at how he was able to herd the old folks without being demeaning (Like I am). They seemed to listen to him and for the most part things moved right along. The sticker nazi was annoying, made me feel like I was caught in a Seinfeld episode. I didn't really think I needed a "I voted" sticker, so I walked out without one, he chased after us, I ignored him till he followed us into the parking lot, yelling "Don't forget your sticker!". He seemed upset I didn't want one. Not sure why they waste a voleenter like that, if they had him working a terminal checking IDs or walking the harddrives to the voting booths the line would go much faster. Maybe he was too old and incapable of anything else. Seemed more alive than the others. link to story || 0 comments || Add a comment Wed, 22 Oct 2008 @ 08:49 || Apnea || HomeQuote from CCENTThe term apnea describes a complete stop or pause in breathing, while hypopnea describes a slowdown in breathing. Apnea can be further defined as central or peripheral. In central apnea, the nervous system fails to adequately control breathing, thus leading to irregular sleep patterns and decreased oxygen levels. In contrast, peripheral apnea is due to the tissues (tongue, tonsils, and palate) blocking the airway leading to decreased oxygen levels. This blockage, or obstruction, is the cause of obstructive sleep apnea. The character and severity of your obstructive sleep apnea can be determined via a sleep study. The sleep study yields information regarding sleep cycles, oxygen levels, and the number and length of the apneic and hypopneic episodes. This information is used to determine the Respiratory Distress Index, or RDI, and the degree of oxygen desaturation. * The Respiratory Distress Index is defined as the number of breathing pauses (apneas) and the number of breathing slowdowns (hypopneas) per hour. Normal RDI is less than 10 events per hour. An RDI of 16 or greater is considered diagnostic for OSA. * The oxygen desaturation is the degree in which blood oxygen levels drop due to decreased breathing. Maximal oxygen saturation is 100%, with normal patients maintaining saturations greater than 90% while asleep. In contrast, patients with OSA experience significant oxygen desaturations, with levels falling well below 90%. Obstructive sleep apnea is thus defined as peripheral obstruction leading to decreased oxygen levels, and is defined by abnormalities in the RDI and percentage of oxygen saturation.
So I guess high numbers == bad. link to story || 0 comments || Add a comment Mon, 20 Oct 2008 @ 19:05 || Sleep Study Results || HomeGot the results in the mail today. I need to look up a lot of stuff, I'm guessing on what a lot of it means and not sure if having high numbers is good or low numbers.
Without the CPAP mask
With CPAP mask So.. if I'm reading this right, wearing the CPAP mask at night I increase my Sp02 avg by 1.1%, not sure if thats worth the cost or the annoyance. The REM sleep is concerning, but not sure if this test is conclusive that I don't get REM sleep w/o a mask. I need to look up the apneas, I still don't understand them. link to story || 1 comment || Add a comment Mon, 20 Oct 2008 @ 15:53 || $5 Obama || PoliticsI was looking to get into a yard sign war with my neighbors. Till I found out Obama is charging $5 a piece for them.link to story || 2 comments || Add a comment Sat, 18 Oct 2008 @ 09:47 || Just what the Doctor ordered? Or worse Anniversary ever? || HomeLast night was our 19th wedding anniversary. As we have the last few years, we went up to Blackhawk, a local casino town.I'm not a big fan of the casinos, but Sukki can't get enough of them. I try to limit how often she goes and how much money she takes, but it's a lost cause, she finds ways of getting money then dashes off to give it to the casinos. While we were at our 3rd casino. I was walking around looking for Sukki, we rarely play next to each other, when I got a call from her, "Come get me, I'm in the security office". Great.. so I go ask where the security office is, and I get this 20 questions routine, I interrupted, told them "you got my wife, and I suppose I need to retrieve her." She told me she'd escort me right there. Once in the security office, I found Sukki was sitting in the corner next to a table, they had photocopied and super enlarged her drivers license to the size of a full sheet of paper and had multiple copies of it on the table she was sitting at, kinda surreal. They were 3 casino security guys and one local plain clothes cop standing around in the office. This fat security guy, the only one sitting down, explained to me what had happened, apparently Sukki had sat down at a machine that already had $15 bucks in it. She put $20 in and played till it was out. Just as she was leaving some woman got all upset claiming she had $20 in that machine and called security. They checked the computer logs and cameras and saw that it was a honest mistake, that the machine did have $15 in credits, not $20, and had been vacant for up to 10 minutes before Sukki sat down. Sukki should have noticed there was already money in it, but she didn't. The cameras showed the other woman was no where near that machine when Sukki sat down or the 20 minutes that she was playing it. Other than the cop yelling at Sukki, not because she played the credits, but because he was doing the "She doesn't speak English so I must yell" routine. It went down pretty well, I paid the casino the $15 bucks and we were allowed to leave. I stayed behind after Sukki left to give the cop a piece of my mind as I hate it when people raise their voices to Sukki because she's Korean. She hesitates to speak and they assume she doesn't know English and that means we must yell, because we all know that helps. He apologized and they all started blurting out excuses, on how they didn't know if she knew English as she was too quiet. I had to run to catch up to Sukki. She was almost out of the casino by the time I caught up to her. They had been a little meaner than I think they needed to, she felt they had been very rude when they pulled her from the floor and she was mad and embarrassed. She declared we are never going back to that casino. I pointed out that all the casinos talk to each other, cause I like to be helpful... She was quiet till we were almost home. Then she said she needs to find another hobby. We haven't spoken since, but maybe her slot machine addiction is cured? link to story || 3 comments || Add a comment Tue, 14 Oct 2008 @ 14:28 || Early Voting || PoliticsI sealed my mail in ballot, then was wondering what this left over piece was. Turns out it was the privacy sleeve. The envelope is such that you can't open it w/o invalidating it. Reading the Privacy sleeve it states that it must be inside the envelope or my vote won't be counted. Looks like I will be voting in person like I wanted to. I double checked the rules theres nothing saying I can't go to the polls, only that I can't vote twice. I perfer doing it in person anyway.link to story || 0 comments || Add a comment Wed, 08 Oct 2008 @ 14:39 || Mail in ballot || PoliticsGot my ballot in the mail the other day. I opened it, kinda read it, then tossed it on the kitchen table. I noticed, it wasn't pre-paid return postage, and it has an ugly warning that "will not deliver if full postage is not met" or something like that. I'm pretty sure that it will only require 1 stamp, but it is a hefty envelope and the ballot is on thicker paper. That would be quite a controversy if thousands of mail in ballots went undelivered due to a few cents in postage.I'm not sure if I'll do early voting or use the mail in ballot. The polls open up in my county on the 20th, I think. Last time there was no lines. I feel a little better actually going to the polling place. link to story || 1 comment || Add a comment Fri, 03 Oct 2008 @ 17:37 || Amendments Update || Politicsinitiatives off Colorado ballot Amendment 53, 55, 56 and 57 are all off the ballot. So all the ones I was voting against are no longer possibilities.
link to story || 4 comments || Add a comment Wed, 01 Oct 2008 @ 22:41 || Sleep Study, epilogue || Homeshort version: It wasn't that bad.It was awkward, but not so bad. I arrived just about 8. It was near the Boulder Hospital, an area of town I've never been in, kinda run down in my opinion. The sleep study was in an older office building. Made me feel like I was going to sleep over at my office. I was met by a younger nurse, who showed me to a room and asked me to get ready as I would at home. The room was much nicer than most hotel rooms I stay at. When I was ready she came in and hooked me up to about three dozen wires. I had 6 or so glued on my scalp, around my eyes, nose and mouth, a number on my chest and back, and some on my legs. Then I had a tube taped under my nose, which was the most uncomfortable, it was attached to a plastic strip that probed into both my upper lip and the bottom of my nose. While she was turning me into a cyborg, she was very chatty, I told her the story of what led me to the study. She surprised me by not recommending the UPPP surgery, which she pronounced as "You Triple Pee", which of course got me laughing. She told me pretty much what I have been reading online, that less than 40% are successful, and a lot of them still need to wear a mask at night. Which I didn't know was an option. I was getting seen to improve my breathing during activities, not when I'm sleeping, which was why I've been so annoyed at doing the sleep study. She highly recommended I get another opinion from a non ENT doctor. So I'll be looking to see what type of doctor I really should be listening to. Once all the wires were in I couldn't move much without one wire or another pulling on something. I got into bed, and she hooked the wires up to what looked like a heath kit. Then I watched TV till I started drifting off. The room was wired, both for sound and video, so all I needed to do was say "I'm falling asleep" and she could turn the TV and lights off from her station. I slept fairly well for about an hour, when she woke me up via the speaker system to try sleeping on my back. I never sleep on my back, so it was tough, it took me about an hour to drift off. Around 2:30am I woke up. Since I had wires around my eyes, and she had inferred lights in the room, she could tell I had woken up and she came in and put a CPAP mask on me. Which, while not uncomfortable, was alien to me. She again told me to sleep on my back, and left me to go back to sleep. It didn't take me long to get used to the mask, I started to like it. I don't think I slept too long in it. I was still on my back and must have woken up a few times. At one point the mask started making farting noises. The seal had broken near the side of my nose. The noise woke me up. I toyed with the thing to make it quiet, but couldn't figure out the straps in the dark and didn't dare move around too much due to all the wires on me. She had shown me how to remove it if it bothered me so I did. She must have been watching, as she told me over the speakers she'd be in, in a sec to close out my study as they had enough info recorded. When I took off the mask, I wanted to put it right back on.It was so much easier breathing with it on. Even though I didn't get more than 4-5 hours sleep, I felt more awake than I have in years. While checking out, she explained to me that she was adjusting the air pressure to the mask as I was sleeping, and she had just increased it the finial time when I started to fidget with it. I told her about the noise that woke me up, and she thought it was the increased pressure that broke the seal. She said she thought my ideal pressure was a few settings lower, but they test the entire range. They had a shower, so I got ready for work and was at my clients site at 5:30. Made for a quick day, I got home around 1:00 as another unrelated heath issue, that I need to call my doctor for in the morning, made work almost unbearable. I get the sleep study report in about 2 weeks, or at least my ENT doctor does. I'll find out what the report says then. link to story || 1 comment || Add a comment |
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