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July 1st

I got around to reading the ream of paperwork I left the hospital with, and the ear pain is totally normal. It's coming from the throat, so there's nothing to worry about. Joy.

It was Saturday, so I went to the SPCA. It was a quiet day, I'm assuming that most people were doing all the stuff they haven't done for the last two weeks because of the heat.

The crazy temperatures have finally crashed, so it's in the 90s rather than the 110s. That's nice, as I can go back to having the windows open at night and into the morning again - it had been that it was 90F at 23:00, and again by 08:00, and getting down to 80ish in the middle of the night. It doesn't take much to make me happy :o)

The vet called about Chloe's blood work - it didn't show any problems, apart from maybe a slightly elevated kidney function that's probably due to the diuretic she's still taking. They've asked for a urine sample, which'll probably be entertaining to get. I can imagine me traipsing around the garden after her with a bowl while she looks at me with a "bugger off, I'm trying to pee" expression. Other than that, she's fine, so I'm not worrying unduly.

Oh, I'm doing pretty well too, thanks for asking. While I'm not eating crisps or anything stupid yet, I'm doing a lot better on the food front. I've noticed that I'm often getting a sharp pain from what I assume is the muscle for the left hand side of my tongue up into my left ear, but the pain medicine helps here a lot. I'm supposed to be going in for a check-up on Thursday, so I'll mention it then.

Chloe had coughed a few times over night and in the morning, but interestingly was perfectly OK once she'd had her breakfast, but it was off to the vet anyway. They took her in for an X-ray, that showed there was some fluid in her lungs. They gave her a diuretic, and that seems to have cleared the fluid, but we're waiting for the results of a blood test to see what the problem really is. I'm hoping for a minor infection, as if there's nothing wrong with her, it could indicate some sort of heart disease :o(

The SPCA has been in the news today, and not for any good reasons :o( Still, this'll probably help with adoptions, as people will rush in to "save" the animals.

The new TiVo showed up and got assimilated into the TV stack. Now I just need to program it to find Battlestar Galactica and suchlike :o)

My throat's been feeling much better, enough to let me eat a banana, anyway.

I played some World of Warcraft, pulled a few weeds in the garden and suchlike until I could watch the MotoGP. I was bothered reading this and this, but I needn't have worried.

I was disappointed by Rossi's lack of finishing, as it looks like Hayden has won the championship now. As much as I like Hayden, I like Rossi more, and I'd have liked to have seen him push Hayden to the end of the season. Oh well, this has to be Rossi's unluckiest year ever, what with 3 DNFs and a wrist and foot injury.

I mooched about the house, taking the pain medicine when I wanted to be able to swallow anything - I'm up to yoghurt and ice cream. At least I caught up on the stuff on the bedroom TiVo, and slept a fair amount. I did play a bit of World of Warcraft, but not enough to level or anything.

Jeff picked me up first thing in the morning so I could go and get my tonsils out. There was a lot of paperwork, then I slept through the operation and Jeff took me home. It's uncomfortable rather than painful, but swallowing hurts a bit. The strange thing is how much my jaw and tongue hurt from being pulled about, and how swollen my uvula is.

I left the TiVo resetting while I was in the hospital, and came home to find it hung on the reset. Just as well it's under warranty then, as I think that's toast.

I called DirecTV about my TiVo playing up, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it's still under warranty - cool. It keeps freezing solid, and rebooting, and all of the stuff we checked made no difference. I now have to try and watch what I can't live without, and do a total reset... a reinstall, to all intents and purposes. That'll be fun - the main thing I want to do is get a list of my season passes, the programs it always records for me, as I'll never remember all of them.

After work I ran around like an idiot picking up wheels, dropping off a hangar key with my new hangar mate at the airfield and then putting the wheels back on Vic's bike.

I need a vacation.

Vic came over in the evening so I could make up a very Heath Robinson collection of straps and blocks and the bike lift to get the wheels off her bike. Being a cruiser, you have to jack it way up in the air to get the wheels out from under the mudguards. This is the first time I've taken the rear wheel off a shaft drive though, and that requires taking the whole shaft off, which I wasn't expecting. This has all been a bit rushed, as she goes on a trip for her vacation on Thursday, and the tyres really, really needed replacing, but nobody had them in stock. I ended up buying the rear on eBay! Anyways, it took about an hour to get both wheels off, which really isn't that bad - I could do the Hawk in under half that, but I know what I'm doing there. Hopefully refitting is reverse of removal :o)

As I'd been at the SPCA during the race, and Vic had shown an interest in seeing it, we watched the MotoGP race from Germany. Very good, and I approve of the finishing order, as it's still all to play for. She enjoyed the race too, as I can get quite animated :o)

Craig at the SPCA was on vacation still, so they were short handed and asked if I'd come in, which I did. Only 1 dog adoption, but there were a couple of Guinea Pigs and rats that we were glad to see the back of - people generally only come in to see cats and dogs.

I followed Vic to her place before we went to get something to eat... it's funny watching the traffic part like the Red Sea to let her lanesplit through on the freeway :o)

I was thinking about how people are with World of Warcraft...

Were you busy today?

No, I spent 2 hours playing Warcraft.

Were you busy today?

Pretty busy, but I managed to get in 2 hours playing Warcraft.

Were you busy today?

Yeah, I barely had time for 2 hours playing Warcraft.

Both my toons are level 36 now :o)

It was Saturday, so I must have been at the SPCA. It was a busy day, and we adopted out 6 dogs, mostly small, but we had Aiden, a young Pit mix puppy who look a lot like Chloe did at that age, and Micah, a long standing black Pit mix leave us. Very few dolts, so it was a good day :o)

I went to the airfield to see what was happening with the hangar door. Nothing. Interesting. However, my Rans is the only thing in there, so I was able to get it out for a little flight. I ended up landing after 50 minutes because I hadn't been wearing a hat when I took Chloe for a walk, and the sunburn on my head was starting to itch :o). I discovered that my new cellphone can charge using a USB 2.0 port, which is cool. Of course, all my tunes are on my USB 1.1 only laptop, but it means I need only carry a 3" USB cable when I travel, rather than the charger. Cool.

It was hot. Damned hot. I tidied up in the garage a little, then gave up and called it a day :o)

I went to the SPCA, and they closed early because of a fund raising concert that I didn't feel like going to. During the day we adopted a Chihuahua mix thing called Spike who had colouring remarkably similar to Chloe. I was thinking I should adopt him and call him MiniMe.

Afterwards, I went to get a new cellphone, after the usual business style comedy of errors saw my old contract get cancelled by some scribbler who didn't recognise my name. It wouldn't have been so bad, but I can't reinstate it, despite having the phone in my hand, and Sara, our long suffering admin, can't get it reinstated despite paying the bill every month.

I love shopping for toys.

Best Buy, a play in 1 act:

I ended up at the Cingular, where they "thought" that this particular phone could send, but not receive email. Close enough, and I can take it back if it doesn't. They offered to let me try and download my email to their phone in the store, but, call me paranoid, I declined. So, I ended up with a Motorola SLVR. I hate having to use iTunes to get tunes on it, but now I have, it's pretty cool. Oh, and as I thought from looking at the menus, it does do POP and IMAP :o)

Scott came over and picked up the trailer - as I'm not racing, I never use it. I now have a little space in the garage, so I can start trying to get some things done in there :o)

I went to the ear, nose and throat specialist, on a referral from my quack visit last month. He looked at my tonsils, listened to my tale of woe and looked at the results of my last blood test before telling me that I probably have a long term infection. It appears what can happen with glandular fever (1990ish) is that the tonsils get damaged enough (my quack in the UK told me my tonsils were damaged) that they never heal infections properly. So, I was left with three choices:

  • Try more antibiotics (did this in the UK)
  • Take them out
  • Live with it

I'm waiting to hear about the date, but we're hoping to yank them out at the end of the month sometime.

After all the horror stories about the pain and suchlike, I was talking to a friend who had the same thing. He'd opted to ignore it until he ended up having his tonsils removed in the Emergency Room after an abscess. I think I've made the right choice - after all, it's 2 weeks of pain and discomfort to end the lesser pain and discomfort I've been ignoring for 16 years :o)

I had some crazy idea about going to the airfield and trying to get the Rans out, but kids playing with fireworks freaked Chloe out, so that didn't happen.

Independence Day. Aliens didn't attack, so I spent the day just lazing around and watching TV in preparation for the evening listening to music loud so Chloe didn't fret too much about the fireworks.

Today was a holiday here, in California at least. I cut the grass, went for a cycle and played a little World of Warcraft before settling down and watching some of the stuff that the TiVo had recorded for me.

I bummed around the house, tidying up and so on until I could watch the MotoGP race. I'm glad the finishing order was what it was, as it's opened up the championship again :o)

In the evening, I watched 2010 on HDNet. Andy and I have theorised about the "whoosh bang" generator that they use in space - as you know, in a near total vacuum, sound can't travel. Flames can't burn either, but that's another story. Anyway, 2001, there's no whoosh bang generator. In 2010 there is. We don't have one yet that I'm aware of, so it must be developed in the next 4 years. It's nice to know that in these troubled times, NASA are working on what's truly important. It must be a black project though, as it doesn't show up on their budget.

Jason sent me this interesting link about regenerating nerves. Still a ways to go though, by the look of things, but it's hopeful.

Having fixed the puncture, I went for a ride on the mountain bike. Then, as usual, I went to the SPCA, then went home and collapsed in front of the TV for a while. I was expecting some fireworks to freak Chloe out, but there weren't any, so I spent a some time playing World of Warcraft, then went to bed.