He's back...

Sky is back from Baltimore. He didn’t bring home any trophies but he brought home a medal and he had a blast, which was the most important thing. He was up against much stiffer competition than he’s used to at Karate tournaments. I’m sure he’ll do better next year. I was told he only got in trouble once…once in 5 days is quite a record for him…and he did not come home acting like a brat like usual “away-from-parents” trips. He had a structured schedule while there unlike the free-for-alls when he’s been with say, Grandma. Funny thing is she came by to take him to Florida last Saturday but he wasn’t here.

We have had a cat issue going on. No, not Maestro. We took him in for his booster shots and got some ear mite medicine so his scab outside his ear has cleared up slightly. Ian has ear mites too so I am treating him with the medicine too. I talked to the vet about Freyja and she said to bring her in. Freyja had been acting weird for a few days. She suddenly lost a bunch of weight, started drooling profusely, smelled absolutely terrible, was lethargic and distant, stopped eating and was acting dizzy. The vet found an infected tooth was a major cause of her behavior so we scheduled a fairly expensive surgery and got some antibiotics. The vet did pre-surgery blood work which cancelled the dental work for now because it turns out she’s in renal failure. She’s only 10 so that is young for renal issues but that would explain a lot of her other symptoms. We were faced with a choice. Hospitalize her for a few days so they can administer IV fluids (big price) or come in there and learn how to do it ourselves at home (small price). We chose the second so we went in today and got the IV bag and needles. We will give her fluids for a week then do blood work again and see if the levels change. She is acting more normal. I have switched her to a wet food diet and she is eating. She is being lovey again and purring. She still stinks…I do hope that goes away. If her levels go down then she can get her dental work done. She also has a heart murmur that concerns the vet for surgery…with both issues the vet said she wouldn’t stand a chance under anesthesia. I know renal failure is a chronic and progressive disease so I don’t know how this will turn out but at least she’s feeling better for now.

Mau reminded me of a couple details of the poker night that I left out. I forgot that when we were driving over there, we passed a car with a guy standing next to it on the side of the freeway. A portly guy in (what looked like) a pink shirt smoking a cigarette. Mau jokes “haha that looks like Ed”. I forgot Ed has a different car now so I said “Nah, that’s not him.” And we drove on. Ed showed up at the house about 20 minutes later saying he ran out of gas and his cell phone is shut off. It was him! He said some lady stopped and ran him up to the gas station. I also forgot that even though Jack and I split the money, I technically won. I had forgotten about the last hand we played Indian Poker (or other names it goes by) where we put our hole cards on our foreheads then decided on going all in. I had the guy with braces (Alex I think) & Mau saying “Yeah yeah go all in!” so I did and I won with something stupid like a small pair.

When the kid is away...

We are kid free for an unbelievable 5 days! Sky is in Baltimore for a Kung-Fu tournament. Good time to not get paid but we have managed to not let that stop us from some much overdue time to ourselves. We did a little bowling…it’s been a very long time since we have thrown heavy balls down the ol’ lanes. I surprised myself by bowling really good and Mau knocked out a 182. When does league start again? We ran into Robin & Jeff so we bowled a game with them before they had a group join them.

Saturday we had a Grandma pop-in on her way to Florida then Mau pulled up the carpet in the turntable room (thank god, it was getting unbearable up here) and we went to the grocery store…whoohoo. We decided to get in on the super late night poker game over at Faris’ house. We ended up with a nice 12 person game making a huge pot with 3-4 people buying back in the first hour. What is nicer is that I took out 5 people and ended up being one of the remaining 2. It was a tie only because it was 5:30am and no one living at that house was still in the game so me and the other guy playing decided to split it and get out of there. It was cool playing a sit’n’go. I play in cash games everyday online but I haven’t played any tournaments or sit’n’gos in awhile, especially with live people. I wonder if we will be invited back since 2 out of 3 times, we have taken the pot over there.

Edr0 mentioned his parents were out of town at the poker game so we tracked him down on Sunday for some swimming. Ted was at his house so we all headed out to the Chinese buffet that makes me miss Dementia and family and hooked up with 2 other people (Dave & Lauren) then went over to Edr0’s parents’ crib. It was a little cool for swimming but that didn’t stop us. Kali wouldn’t get in the pool because she can’t touch the bottom but she enjoyed hanging out next to it.

Even though we are living it up like childless people, I do miss the kiddo and am wondering how he did in the tournament. I guess Shi Fu is making them wait until they get home to give us the news. Either way I am sure he is having a blast. He was very excited to be going away alone like a big boy.

Hmmm, now what should we do tomorrow?

I have good news!

I just saved a bunch of money on car insurance by switching to Geico! Really I did. The commercials say you could save 15% but I saved like 50%. I didn't realize I was getting the shaft from my other car insurance company for years now...at least since we have had to have full coverage anyways. Thanks FunkyB for the idea.

Banana Boat 30 spf anyone?

We were at the waterpark the other day. We had just arrived and were getting set up with our lounge chairs. I sat back to casually apply sunblock when I saw a flying insect buzzing around my inner thighs. Thinking it was a bee, I totally flipped out yelling for Mau to “Help me, help me!”. I jump up not wanting to be stung THERE and try to swat at it with my sunblock bottle. Little did I know it was a flying beetle and the top of the lotion bottle was open so, in the chaos of the moment, I was squirting lotion all over the man relaxing 2 chairs over from us. I apologized profusely but luckily he was friendly and joked about it. I was completely embarrassed.

My DDR metal pad is not functioning properly anymore. All the arrows are cracked but that is fine…it still plays fine despite that. 3 arrows have started to not respond, one being particularly assy. Heavy songs are not possible when you miss that many steps but I can get through most standard songs. I tried to simply go to Red Octane’s site and order new ones. No can do. They make a newer model now and the arrows are different and not compatible. I emailed them but, before I got a response, I found a link to order them. They arrived but are the new ones so I cannot use them. I received a response from them and they are sending me 3 red arrows for free but they don’t sell them anymore and are refunding me for the new ones. What a pain and I am still without a properly working pad until next week. Someday their new model will be off backorder and I will be able to afford it then I can play doubles again and let others play…with it being so temperamental, I forbid it currently. I don’t mean to be a DDR nazi but…

In the world of orthodontics, I am purple now and get to ditch the canine to canine elastics. I got a bigger wire on top (I have the biggest possible on bottom already) and I have to wear an elastic from top canine to bottom 2^nd molar on one side only…Giant Panda, they are much bigger than the Mountain Gorillas. This is to bring my midline on that side down and even. I asked if I was on schedule and was told if I wear my elastics as instructed (and I do), I am ahead of schedule and should be out of braces earlier than expected. Wow, whoohoo, awesome! I will not get my hopes up but that would be so so nice.

Boom Boom Snip Click...

FunkyB came down for the 4^th to help eat some BBQ and light off explosives. We played a little Karaoke the night before just so Freyja could use her vocal coaching skills again on Mau. Once again, she sat calmly while FunkyB & I sang (and we were rusty) but started freaking out when Mau stepped up to the microphone. I’m not sure how FunkyB slept that night with Mau & I singing duets after he went to bed which included me imitating Dino off the Flintstones during guitar solos. I guess he couldn’t hear it over his snoring :P

Mary Jo’s daughter came by on the 4^th with her boyfriend and their arsenal. Altogether we had, dare I say it, TOO MUCH! There, I said it. We were lighting off mortars 3 at a time. I also have to say I thought those M88s were going to be lame and they turned out to be more fun than I could have imagined when we added things like recycling bins and coffee cans and something to kill time while we waited for darkness.

Maestro has finally been neutered. We found a cool mobile spay deal. He’s been wanting to hang out more in the house now and I haven’t noticed any spraying from him *crossing fingers*.

Sky got his picture in the paper here today. A photographer from the local paper noticed him playing in the water fountain at the park yesterday so she asked if she could photograph him. After Kari & I convinced him to stop doing his cheesy smile, she got some good shots and said it might make today’s paper. I told Mau to pick one up on his way home from work and I woke up to the paper laid out with the photo right there. Sky is completely excited so we went out and bought a couple more so I could send it to Grandpa and my sister. The park guys drove by us today wondering if we saw his picture was in the paper and asked him for his autograph…silly but Sky digged it.

The 4th

Happy 4th of July! As usual, blow shit up!

It's big and black...

We now have a new, shiny, black fridge with ice and water. I think that we must be old if we are this excited over a new fridge that we have now nicknamed “Darth Frader”. Edr0 says it’s creepy because “it’s big and black and…well, it’s Darth Frader”. It is our first brand new fridge so it’s a bit exciting and it’s fancy and we did not care much for living out of a cooler. It did not come without complications but it worked out. They couldn’t get the original one through the doors so we had to pick out a smaller one that was slightly fancier…our main goal was to avoid white if at all possible. Dirty kids hands and white fridges don’t mix.