All posts by Duf

Boy is it nice to be able to just go home after work. Last night Alison was taking the dog to adult dog training classes so it meant we drove separately. I was home by 5:30, got to quickly mow the grass around the immediate perimeter of the house, do a little work on the Vette, eat dinner, play some xbox and still found time to watch American Idol. You see most days I watch the dog after work for an hour so Alison gets a chance to go to the gym. So most nights we don’t roll in the door until close to 7. It’s amazing how much of a difference that extra hour and a half makes. It was nice to have some extra time during the week.

My brother arrives today. They don’t get in until late afternoon. It is a shame, the way it is going to break out we probably won’t see that much of them. The 3 days we have off for the weekend, they are staying in Sarasota with my sister-in-laws parents. I don’t quite understand why they didn’t schedule to see them during weekdays since they are retired and are available all week long. They are going to be staying at my mom’s place. It sort of bums me out that my brother has never been down to visit in the nearly 4 years we have been in Naples and now that he is, we will more than likely see very little of him. I could analyze this further but it is pointless to do so.

I noticed something the other day regarding people with the newer cellphones that do neato things like play mp3 songs when an incoming call goes in. It’s funny to me, they go through all the trouble to set the phone up to use the silly mp3’s but then when the phone rings, they almost seem embarrassed by the song and hurriedly rush to stop it from making noise as soon as possible. Maybe I just perceive it that way. Give me an old fashioned “ring, ring”, I have no desire to hear the macarena everytime someone is trying to reach me.

The blisters on my feet are slowly draining so I can walk without limping for the first time since Sunday. I ordered my sand socks on Monday.

Pic links
Volleyball only pic page
All the pics from the weekend

The trip to the other coast went well, we hit some traffic, not much and got there in around 2 hours and 15 minutes. We were staying at a Days Inn that was right on the beach. I read ahead of time some less than stellar reviews regarding this hotel on the web so I knew it wasn’t going to be 5 stars. It was funny seeing Nicki’s reaction, she was checking everything out and seemed to be having fun. The room was ok. It was basically clean. The only bad parts were the bathroom was rather gross and the TV was shitty. Oh and the AC unit rattled and carried on like it was ready to blow up. We didn’t get settled in until after 7 and we still hadn’t eaten. Not knowing the area and since we had the dog with, we decided to just have pizza delivered.

Walking Nicki around the area for bathroom runs was a challenge. There were the smells from many dogs everywhere. It turned out her bathroom of choice was out on the beach. It actually was better that way, easier to clean up. As I walked her I was surprised to look over the fence and see the tournament was set up right next door! I knew we were close, didn’t know we were that close. I didn’t get to sleep until around 11.

I didn’t sleep great but not bad considering the AC noise and sleeping in a foreign bed. I ran out and got pop tarts and milk for a makeshift breakfast. It was beautiful day. We had to come up with some sort of plan on how to have Ali be able to watch the tournament and Nicki at the same time. The beach where the tournament was did not allow dogs, the beach in front of the hotel did. So what we did was initially set up an umbrella and blanket for Alison and Nicki in an area where they could see the tournament from the dog beach. When I actually played Alison would take Nicki to the room to hang out for a bit. This logistically was a bit of a pain and would only work up until 1pm when we had to check out.

The tournament was going pretty well for us. We played more good than bad and were progressing through the games. The sand started to get incredibly hot. By mid-day you had to sprint across the sand to avoid severe burns on your soles. The thermometer hit 95 degrees. The heat was taking it’s toll. I was really feeling it.

1pm came so we had to come up with phase 2 of the dog plan. We decided to try to smuggle her onto the tournament beach. We set up a pop up canopy that sat low to the ground and blocked the view from 3 sides. We figured, worst case, if someone said something we could move them to the dog beach. It worked out ok. Nicki kept quiet and just hung out.

We finished 3-1 on our net which meant we got into the playoffs. I didn’t play as well as I wanted to but we still won games, a good thing. The sand, besides being hot was also deep which threw off my timing as I tried to move and jump. I lost my temper a few times getting furious at myself for screwing up what should be some easy plays. Even so we were in the 8 team playoff. We were seeded 6th. We won our first playoff game in relatively easy form. We consistently served the weaker hitter. That meant we were in the semi-finals. That game was a long back and forth battle. Both players jump served consistently and did a good job of it. We wound up losing 25-23. Bummer. Oh well at least now I can rest. My partner tells me to get ready for the 3-4 playoff. What? I forgot that they playoff to determine 3rd and 4th place. Argh. So after a bit of a rest we took on 2 young guys. During this match one of the blisters on my feet opened up, making it very painful to move around. Even so we played consistently enough to wear them down and won the game, securing third place. Yippee.

The reward for our effort was a monogrammed BudLight towel. We also grabbed 2 Bud Lights. They were handing out free beer all day, however that is the last thing you should be drinking when you are dying in the heat. The tournament was well run and the layout was impressive as hell. It looked like an AVP tournament. I saw a couple of guys that Rich and I played 2 years ago. We had a bad experience with them as they were bad sports that argued a crucial call in our playoff game. Ironically, they did the same thing in 2 of the playoff games they were in. I didn’t get to play them this time, but I would love to get a second crack at them to get some revenge. I don’t know if they even remembered me, probably not.

There was only one nickname generated during the day. Coming up with them was Rich’s specialty so I miss that aspect of playing. After play was over, Ali and I both used the hotels shower and pool facilities to clean up somewhat, even though we were checked out. Sneaky. We did not get home until after 9pm, a very long day. The “bring the dog” experiment turned out well. It was a great little trip. It made us feel better about the idea of taking her along to the timeshare as well.

On Sunday I woke up with surprisingly few aches and pains except for 2 throbbing feet. Unfortunately I had a shitload of things that that had been neglected that I wanted to get taken care of. We busted our ass for most of the day even though neither of us really felt up to it. My bro and sis-in-law are coming down this week so I needed to get the house in at least half decent shape. It would be nice to have a short Monday blog entry once in awhile.

The Green Machine was one of my favorite toys as a kid. Somehow it seemed faster than a big wheel even though I don’t think it had a mechanical or aerodynamic advantage that would actually make this true. It’s biggest feature was the rear wheel steering via levers as opposed to a conventional steering wheel. At first this method of control was rather awkward. However after some time behind the levers it became second nature. This method of steering also made incredible power slides incredibly easy. Loved that thing.

Well when I went to Sports Authority over lunch looking for sand socks what do I see by the door but a GREEN MACHINE! This is a Green Machine for the 21st century. It looks very similar but they made some minor styling changes and I noticed the steering levers are a more durable metal variety instead of the plastic type I cut my teeth on. It still looked cool. 80 bucks! Whew that is some serious scratch for the young driving enthusiast. I am happy to see the Green Machine return to make a new generation of kids smile.

I’ve noticed that having the Vette in the garage is almost akin to a security blanket for me. Yea it sounds silly. But when I am taking out the trash and come back up the driveway and see the Vette sitting there looking ominous yet content to be in my garage it gives me a sense of calm. It’s hard to explain why having a certain automobile would generate that type of feeling, yet it does. It may just be that I always thought about having a Vette, I always imagined it was something that was unlikely to happen, yet there it sits. Never mind it is 16 years old, has a laundry list of problems and cost less than 5k. It still makes me feel better. Of course there are many other things that make me content and happy, this just happens to be one of them.

The gnome has been either very bored or just agitated from being ruled by Amish that think they are smarter than him. He has been trying to get under my skin behind the scenes. However I realize his situation for what it is. I have sympathy for his plight, it isn’t easy being so small so I choose to let him vent without contributing to his sorrow.

The car is packed. We are leaving right from work to go to Singer Island on the east coast. Nicki will be along for the ride. It will be a new experience bringing a pet on a trip. Well, one time before we took our parrotlet to the beach with us. However a 60 pound dog is another situation. Singer Island is supposed to be a beautiful place, I am looking forward to seeing it. Hopefully the volleyball tournament will produce better results. Last time I was in the beginning stages of my prolonged illness, this time I feel fine. It is supposed to be hellish hot. For some reason the sand on the east coast gets hotter than over here. Almost everyone uses sand socks. I have no such thing. I may try to find them before we leave but more than likely I will just wind up with singed soles.

I haven’t looked at my web stats recently. It is surprising how many hits a dinky little web home as mine can get. In March there were over a HALF MILLION hits on my domain. Here is the recent history.

Month Daily Avg Monthly Totals
Hits Files Pages Visits Sites KBytes Visits Pages Files Hits

May 2004 7848 4103 921 268 5301 1687520 5641 19360 86181 164808
Apr 2004 10476 4385 1130 364 7339 2334034 10921 33927 131566 314307
Mar 2004 17896 7177 1651 451 8387 2497427 14011 51197 222492 554779
Feb 2004 6496 3422 839 296 5269 1144892 8591 24353 99265 188384
Jan 2004 4997 3158 1020 392 7604 1244609 12154 31634 97915 154922
Dec 2003 4403 3450 1689 1081 28500 1363464 33535 52363 106961 136499
Nov 2003 4924 3478 1611 1025 26459 1501398 30775 48333 104350 147733
Oct 2003 3276 2823 1350 945 26787 1056458 29324 41877 87543 101583
Sep 2003 3710 2978 1416 863 22292 1132820 25905 42499 89350 111310
Aug 2003 3862 2717 811 224 5191 1403559 6944 25165 84244 119730
Jul 2003 3871 3022 827 221 4535 1424724 6879 25659 93688 120002
Jun 2003 3728 2757 716 248 5214 1052874 7458 21493 82736 111862

Totals 17843779 192138 417860 1286291 2225919

I have had some issues with my braces where the teeth haven’t moved as they should have. So as a result I had to step back a bit in my progression to ensure the teeth were where they should be. I only dropped back one and at my last checkup they seemed to be moving along ok again. However Alison has been having a hell of a time. She had the same set on for 7 weeks! She went back today and they moved her back to a prior set. It is really frustrating. The ortho basically seems to be simply trying to treat it by repeating the same mistake over again. I suspect that early on in the treatment plan they were not paying close enough attention to how the trays were fitting and now as a result she is having issues. So now if this doesn’t correct itself they may have to recast her mouth and order some new trays or even have to throw a metal bracket on it to move it. All I know is we are not paying one more dime. It sucks though because the original 18 month treatment plan is going to be stretching into the 2 year range at this rate.

I got a replacement credit card the other day. It had one of those stickers on it that said you had to call an 800 number on it from your home phone number to activate it. So I do as instructed, punch in the card number and then the recording says it is processing, but while it is processing, here are some great offers we want you to listen to. I was part way through the THIRD offer when I hit the pound key hoping it would get me out. Luckily it worked. I think it is ridiculous that they try to sell you shit when all you are doing is trying to activate the card.

If you want all the exciting details on how you too can handle excessive back hair yourself all the info you need is here. 🙂

After about a week and a half of prep I took the first of the 2 tests I need to upgrade my MCSE to the 2003 designation. I passed. I didn’t pass with flying colors but it was good enough. I have gone over about 450 practice questions for this so I was ready to get the damn test out of the way. Studying for these tests is extremely boring for me but a necessary evil in the IT field.

The signs leading up to the test were bad. I was almost late after getting stuck in bad traffic due to a rollover accident. Then when I got there, the girl behind the desk was filling in for someone and did not know how to administer the test. As a result I didn’t start until a half hour late. The test itself wasn’t so bad as I had seen the majority of the questions on the practice exams I took. However I have to believe that a lot of the answers given on the practice exams had to be incorrect else my score would have been higher.

No big deal though, 1 down 1 to go. I will probably give my brain a week or so to relax and then cram for the second exam.

Did you boycott buying gas today? I got several emails regarding not buying gas today as a protest against the oil companies raping us at the pump. I highly doubt that enough people got word to make a difference but it would be cool if it actually hurt those bastards a bit. Over $2.20 a gallon down here for premium and climbing.

Someone I know actually bought this thing off ebay! You would immediately assume it was the furry gnome since he has such back hair problems, but you would be wrong! I mean ok, I guess the concept is legit, if you have a hairy ass back, you can’t reach it all conventionally so this may come in handy. But 20 BUCKS?????????!!!!!!!!!!! All it is, is a piece of molded plastic that probably cost a dime to make. The revelation that this individual bought this changed my viewpoint about him forever. Oh I forgot to mention 7 BUCKS shipping! So close to 30 bucks was dropped on this. Unbelievable. This could be equated to the government paying 300 dollars for a screw driver, it is a rip off of the same magnitude.

This upcoming weekend I am playing in another volleyball tournament. This time it is at Singer Island on the east coast. This trip will be a a first for a couple reasons. I never played at this location before so that is new. But we are also going to be taking Nicki with. Evidently the beach where the tournament is being played is pet friendly. I found a hotel that accepts pets as well. It should be interesting. She is fine in the car and basically sleeps most of the time. Hopefully it doesn’t turn out to be a disaster. Of course Alison is thrilled about the idea of bringing her “baby” along.

Today will be spent basically studying all day. Tomorrow I am taking the first of 2 tests required to upgrade my MCSE to the Windows 2003 server designation. It is really cool that I have the ability to prepare for these certs at work, it is a luxury I was never afforded at any of my other IT jobs. There is no real need for me to get the cert other than my desire to keep my skillset somewhat current and to always keep myself marketable in the job market. Although I feel very secure in my job I would hate to get caught with my pants down. I’ve seen it happen enough in my industry where people get secure in their jobs and decide to not learn anything new. If for some reason the rug gets pulled out from under them they wind up being in a world of hurt.

Last night I played vball at the indoor 6’s gym. I really enjoy going there even though you wouldn’t always know it by watching me there. I let a lot more expletives than normal fly last night. I was embarrassed by some of them. I couldn’t pass to save my life however I had a few hits that made me feel like I could actually still play a little bit so that evened things out for me. The day after aches and pains aren’t so bad either. I think I have broken down whatever adhesions in my shoulder that were causing such stabbing pain. It still hurts but it is much more manageable. I hope it will be good prep for this weekend. I’d like to at least make the playoffs this time.

First things first, since some of you only read this for the pictures, they are located here. Be sure to read the captions.

Troy’s flight was’t getting in until late. It turned out to be even later when he called me and said that due to some storms in the south, his connection had been delayed an hour, meaning his touch down time in Fort Myers was a few minutes before midnight, ugh. Oh well, I picked him up and while I was waiting I grabbed a latte from Starbucks. When I tried to fall asleep that night I was cursing myself for drinking it. A dreary eyed way to start the visit.

On Friday we tried to lay out some game plans for the weekend. There were several things we were talking about doing like going to the casino, the beach, and the dogtrack during the course of his visit. However on Friday we elected to do none of these things and instead decided to grab lunch at the beach and then headed out to the airboat place. On the way out I was describing how old fashioned this place was. I had my camera ready to snap a picture of the “DANGER, MICROWAVE IN USE” sign from the 60’s that has adorned the front door of this place for as long as I have been coming. Wouldn’t you know they have started to actually do some renovations and the sign was no longer there, bummer! They had a new door, a new sign and redid the ticket booth as well. However, Troy still could get a good sense of the age of this place by the many things that were still apparently untouched from the 50’s that were everywhere. Even though I probably have been on the airboats 7 or 8 times by now it still is entertaining enough that I don’t mind going again for our first time guests. I also took Troy to see the country’s smallest functional post office as well as quick spin through Everglades City. Everglades City is so small that it has one school for ALL grades K-12. It is another place that looks like it has been largely untouched for 30 or 40 years.

After we got home we had to clean up to go to the ECHL hockey game. It was a pretty raucous crowd considering we are talking about hockey that is 2 levels away frm NHL quality. The crowd was really into it but sadly the opposing team just wore down the Blades and wound up winning 4-1. Troy and I drank a decent amount which meant we made frequent bathroom visits, which in turn meant we waited in big lines. Well in truth my line wasn’t as bad because I decided to take a walk to the practice rinks and go there. However, those areas are VERY cold which made the feeling of urgency multiply exponentially. There was the normal amount of sillyness you would expect at a game, people with colored faces, dressed up in costume and plenty of drunken people to laugh at. It took us a good 45 minutes to just get out of the lot after the game.

On Saturday we had the dog track on the schedule. Troy wanted to go to watch and bet on the Preakness. However in the morning I had to run in to work to address an issue so we got to the track a little later than we expected. I had never been to a dog or horse track before so it was all new stuff for me. My first impression was dubious as we passed two drunken, staggering rednecks on their way back out to their cars while yelling at the little kid that was with to hurry up in language that is not suitable for blogging, nice. Once we got to the clubhouse it was a nice surprise, very clean and modern. I was immediately struck by the imagery of loser tickets scattered about, people intently studying odds books like they were studying for SAT’s and the intensity of people watching the various races taking place simultaneously on the dozens of screens. We settled into a nice spot where we had our own TV’s and a good view of the track. I was impressed by the technology of the entire system. You basically could throw money in a terminal, get a credit voucher and then place bets for this track or any of the other dozen or so that were running instantaneously. It was really cool. If you win the payout was immediatwely reflected when you pumped the winning ticket back into the machine. The amount of ways you could bet and the strategy behind the bettting was way beyond what I could take in during one sitting. I stuck with simple small bets, usually betting on the favorite. I had a few small winners but probably wound up losing 20 to 30 bucks overall. It wasn’t bad for 4+ hours of entertainment. It was really an experience seeing the dogs run. They were much faster than I imagined, they absolutely flew around the 1/4 mile track. They did it in about 30 seconds. It was very funny to watch them gate up the dogs, in almost every race one or more of the dogs had to stop and relieve itself before hand, nerves maybe? Then as the pace rabbits came around you could see the dogs pawing at the door, going crazy to chase it. Funny stuff. Since my new found fondness for dogs I felt a little uneasy because I have heard the stories of how greyhounds have a rough life. However they looked very happy to be chasing that rabbit so I didn’t think of it much. I really enjoyed the track, I am sure I will be back. Saturday night was low key, we ate pizza, drank beer and watched The Rundown on Pay-per-view. It was another late night.

Sunday was the big finale, although you wouldn’t know it. Ali was going shopping with my mom that day so Troy and I had most of the day to ourselves. We talked about hitting the beach, maybe the casino but nothing concrete. It was blustery and raining outside in the morning so we decided to fire up the XBox and play some NFL2K4. Troy and I have a long running football video game history dating back to the early Madden games. During the history of our contests I have a stellar winning percentage with Troy only stealing a few games here and there when I was off my game. However with NFL 2K4, I had only played the game maybe twice since I got it for Christmas and I hadn’t played it for at least 5 months so I was far from polished in my gameplay. It showed in the first game as I suffered an embarrasing loss of 28-3. Of course I couldn’t leave it at that and we played 2 more games that were hard fought but I wound up winning both pretty convincingly by the end. Our mini-tournament took us into the early afternoon and we still really hadn’t done anything. The skies had cleared so we decided to quickly pack up and hit the beach. The beach wasn’t that full so that was a nice change. We went in the Gulf, it was nearly 80 degrees. As we were standing there cooling off, we noticed what appeared to be a large man standing out in the water down from us. As our eyes focused, we realized what we were looking at was in reality a large woman that had her bathing suit top off! It was not an appealing image. She must have been european as she stood out there for a long time in that state. She pulled the suit up to exit the water and then Troy said he saw her lying on her blanket sans top again. Nasty. After some more relaxing, we grabbed a drink at the bar located right off the beach and then headed home.

Ali was suprised by our lack of activity for the day but we enjoyed ourselves so that was all that was important. Sunday night we wrapped things up with a trip to the Snook Inn for a very relaxing and enjoyable dinner. We take almost everyone that comes down there, it is just such a great place. Sitting by the water, listening to live music in open air is just fantastic. On the way back we stopped at a huge beach souveneir place where we had fun trying on hats and checking out all the paraphinalia. Troy wanted to pick up some things for his daughter. Once we got home it was late but even so we had to have one more XBox football match to prove decidely who was the dominant player. I won by 2 scores, however for almost 3 quarters it was a zero zero deadlock so we were more evenly matched than the final score showed.

This morning I got up a little early in order to drop him off at the airport. It was great having him visit, hopefully he gets to do it on a more regular basis. Next scheduled visitors are my brother and sister-in-law memorial day weekend then in June we have my dad and Alison’s brother coming down. We are making up for lost time since we had next to zero visitors during the past year. Today I am feeling a bit drained from a lot of late nights and consumption of much more alcohol than is normal. Long blog but what did you expect?

Oh yea, I finally kicked the cold/flu thing over the weekend. It hung on about as long as any illness I can recall having.

It was ironic that the local ECHL hockey team, the Everblades were playing the team from my old home town, the Reading Royals. It was a great series that the Blades managed to pull out. I jumped on the bandwagon and got 3 tickets for game 1 of the championship series on Friday. Keener is going to go with us. Should be fun.

I picked up the cat yesterday. She was back to normal more or less. The treatment plan calls for halfing her insulin dosage and montioring her progress from there. Did I mention I am sick of cats? The grand total in vet bills for this go round was about 300 dollars.

When I read of the video taped beheading of the American civilian that is out there, it made me ill. I have no desire to see that clip, it would just haunt me. It just reaffirms my hatred for these insane bastards. I am getting to the point where I just want to get our people out of Iraq and let the country fall into chaos like it is going to do anyway the moment we leave. I mean what is the point? They hate us, it is costing us a fortune to be there and once we let them off the leash they will immediately turn to civil war as the preferred method to establish a government. However don’t let my aversion to staying in Iraq lead you to think I don’t want every one of these terrorist bastards that continue to take shots at our people to pay dearly. If we capture those murderers that beheaded that man are we going to complain if they get rough treatment in prison? It’s just a no win situation however I look at it. The world is just f’d. It’s not a matter of if it will all blow apart, just how long till it happens.

Yep I’m still ill. This morning I was coughing, sneezing and blowing my nose non-stop. I am going to the gym today for the first time in over a week and try to burn this shit out of me. Going to do an hour of hard cardio.

Last night was unpleasant. Shortly after we got home, I was working on my computer and looked over at Buttons, the diabetic cat. She was meowing loudly and looked like she was getting ready to heave like she does on a psuedo-regular basis. I told Ali and she came in with a paper towel trying to catch the mess. Well after a bit it became obvious ther was something else going on. The cat’s toungue was hanging out of her mouth and she was panting at an unbelieveably fast rate. She was sort of staggering around as well. The Ali yells, SHE’s PEEING! Oh great. I didn’t know what was going on, if she was having a stroke, a heart attack, or a seizure. I scooped her into a box and took her out on the lanai. I let her out and she continued staggering, panting, meowing and then she dropped a number 2 as well. Ali called the emergency animal hospital and of course they advise we bring her in as fast as possible. It was decided I would be the one to take her since I would be the more reasonable one if it came down to some sort of decision on the cat’s well being. This place is open from 5pm to 8am every night, weird but tailored to these types of situatons and as I later found out, custom tailored to try to financially rape anyone that needs their services.

The first thing when I got in the door I had to fill out a form and agree to a 69 dollar charge regardless of what action was necessary. They took her back and came out shortly afterward saying her blood sugar was very low, and this was a hypo-glycemic reaction. This has never happened before so I was surprised to hear this. The Vet outlined a treatment plan which I said was fine and then she said she would prepare an estimate and send it out. One of the assistants presented me with the estimate, it had a low and high end number. The low end was 335 bucks and the high end was over 500. Woah! I immediately expressed my surprise and concern over this huge number and told her I needed to call my wife. This is why I went, because Ali would have just rubber stamped any treatment plan without regard to the cost, it’s just her way.

I went back in and asked to talk to the vet to go over the “estimate” When she came out I expressed my concern over the high costs we were being quoted and began to go over the estimate line by line. Included were a number of diagnostic tests that may have been helpful however they were unnecessary to stabilize the cat. I explained that in the past we have dropped big bucks on her condition when she was first diagnosed and there was a financial line that I did not want to cross. The cat is over 10 years old, has bad teeth, and has puking issues so I am not going to throw a fortune into treatment. She is getting to be an old cat and the diabetes acclerates this. We agreed upon a slimmed down plan that still cost me over 200 bucks. I just really hate how operations like that seem to take advantage of you because they know you have few options.

We picked the cat up this morning. She seemed better. We are taking her to our normal vet today to get a workup to see if we need to adjust her insulin level. Apparently what happened yesterday was because for some reason the cat ate very little yesterday and as a result, the insulin pulled her blood sugar level way down, causing the reaction. It will be interesting to see what the revised plan is. I had such a headache when I got home last night, hopefully the news is good. I’m just not willing to go to extremes to maintain our cats at this point. They are both getting up there and when it is their time, I am willing to let them go.