Visit the kelpforest....

Runsamuck has been a bit disgruntled with our dentist since the last time he went in and the good Dr. was a little rough with the dental floss. Also for telling Gareth he wouldn't do anything to the baby incisor that was hanging by a thread and yanking it out anyway. To be honest, it needed to happen - Gareth's mouth has some kind of shark thing going on, and really wanted to retain baby teeth, when adult teeth were already growing in underneath them. This one was clear up above his gumline, but he wouldn't let anyone touch it.

So, the last time the fry and I went to the dentist, as we were leaving, the good doctor called, "Wait, I have something for you." He ducked into his office and came out with this box of Persian candy.

"Here, give this to John; maybe it'll pull some teeth out and make him have come back in to see me!" he laughed.

A peace offering? I looked it up; it actually comes from a small town in Iran. Sort of flowery nougat with pistachios. Two of the fry thought it tasted like soap, but I liked it.

Me: (raising an eyebrow) You're playing Othello against a cotton candy eating Tyrannosaurus named Marvin?

Him: Yup. And losing. Badly.

[Error: unknown template qotd]

I do not judge (that'd be pretty shallow if you did, wouldn't it?), although sometimes I wonder. I remember an LJ friend (one who seems to have disappeared) posting something about wanting a recommendation for a very small mp3 player, because they only listened to seven or eight songs. Hmm? I'd go nuts listening to that narrow a range.

Don't shoot me, but I once was a fan of Barry Manilow. My best friend Beth (a rabid Barry Manilow fan at the time) decided to share our first apartment together; the first time either of us had lived on our own. We got along for the most part. It was a one bedroom furnished apartment; all the appliances, counters and the furniture in the living room was that 70's avocado green, and there was a fake fireplace you turned on with a switch.

Of course, we both brought our music collections with us. I'm sure I had stuff she didn't care for. However, she picked a particular Barry Manilow album - I think it was a live concert - and played it (I want to say every day, but that's probably exaggerating) at least several times a week during the whole time we lived together. Quite frankly, I could live without ever hearing Copa Cabana ever again. But we both liked Billy Joel, so The Nylon Curtain and An Innocent Man got played a lot. We often look at each other and head to Naugles at 1 am, because we were both craving a shake (her caramel, me blueberry - yummy but the blueberries would get stuck in your straw).

The neighborhood wasn't all that great and Beth's car got broken into twice (I didn't own one at the time) - once they stole all her tapes and then the car stereo, which wasn't even all that good. Her brother lived with us for a while after he got divorced. Then a few months later, I decided to transfer to Humboldt State, he was on the remarriage track and then Beth lost her job under very unfair conditions. She decided to move back to the Inland Empire, where she still lives, and I went off to college at the far end of the state.

That was all more than 30 years ago. These days I'm more Billy Joe Armstrong than Billy Joel (although I still like him) and I never recovered from the Barry Manilow burn-out; Crowded House and other artists replaced him shortly after. However, Beth is still one of my best friends - pretty much the sister I never had.

As far as romantic partners, runsamuck likes old-school metal; Metallica, Black Sabbath, etc. and the Blues. I like the blues and admit to a growing taste for symphonic metal (mostly instrumental), but in the house, he prefers to just leave the television on and doesn't actually listen to much music; he even uses his iPod Nano more for gaming than music. I supposed it's a mixed blessing - I get to keep my hearing, but the TV is always on, which sometimes drives me nuts.

Home from work today, as Gareth's been sick all week, with runsamuck following suit shortly after. Gareth started feeling poorly on Saturday, then on Sunday he had a temperature of 103.4°F. We kept pushing the fluids and ibuprofen, and made him take a tepid shower to cool down. It started coming down later that evening, enough that after he was asleep, John and I went up to Dismalland for about an hour for my birthday. The fever was mostly gone the next day, except for about a degree higher in the evening, but he was still pretty miserable with the cough and aches that remained. We kept him home Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday was a holiday, and we were going to try going back today, but he's still a bit out of it. I figured he was going to need a doctor's note to go back to school anyway, so I took him to get checked out today. After examining him, and listening to his symptoms, the doctor told he probably did have H1N1, but he was on the tail end of it - a lot of kids are getting it but don't seem affected too severely. He still has quite a bit of lung congestion and coughing, and started getting a runny nose today, so he told him to take tomorrow off, too. While that seems to be a free week off school, he's probably going to have a lot of homework to make up on the weekend.

runsamuck has it now too, . Dammit, I really wanted him to get a vaccination, but he didn't ask his doctor about it last time he went in. When I called to make Gareth's appointment, I unintentially got that medical office's H1N1 update, which said they'd ordered 2500 vaccinations, but only received 100 so far. Those were given to high risk patients and are all gone already. He can't get one now being ill. So if that's what he has, should he bother now? Apparently, they're not testing for it, they're just assuming everthing is. Anyway, John's weird - he always acts like he has a fever - constant alternating chills/burning up - but he only rarely has a temperature. And every time he's sick he starts having nightmares.

Angus is ok; Avalon has the sniffles but no fever, she might be staying home tomorrow, too. As for myself, I had a bit of a tickly throat and dry cough earlier in the week (I didn't really feel sick, but I did try to be careful to wash hands often and smother any coughs on a closed mouth), but it seems to have gone now. I dunno, can one virus affect everyone in different ways like this? If you've had one, but you don't know for sure which one it was, should you still get the other or both?

I asked Dad to check with his doctor before he catches something - has he yet? No. Gonna have to keep bugging him.

Somewhat related - Ran across this blog post today; silly person is trying to blame his athlete's foot on getting a flu vaccine. Idiot.

I guess I never posted about this here at LJ. We had a bit of a scare on the last day of September. I got up at 4:30 am as I had dock sampling that morning and runsamuck sat up at the same time and said he felt like someone was trying to shove a fist through the right side of his chest. He also felt an extremely strong sense of forboding. That sounded ominous to me, so I looked up heart attack symptoms and, sure enough he had a few more, as well. He was very uncomfortable, and I decided not to take chances and called a co-worker to fill in for me, and we headed for the emergency room. The doctor thought he was ok, but wasn't 100% sure and ordered an overnight stay in the hospital and a stress test in the morning. As it turned out, they said he has the heart of a 30-year-old - but his lungs are about 50 years older (which we already knew - that's the usually reason for an emergency room visits).

I took the kids by for a visit as he was stressing out just being in the hospital.

HB Hospital
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
30 September 2009

( other details... )

Bowtie for woodworkers
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
10 July 2009

Maybe runsamuck should start selling them...

runsamuck volunteered (or was volunteered, I was never quite clear on that) to fix up Avalon's teacher's backpack bin/rack over the kid's spring break. He tightened all the loose joints, gave it a new coat of paint - which his friend who works at a hardware store donated - and installed all new hooks and handles on it. Avalon is doing her "pretend I'm a kittly - meow" pose. For some reason, the kids can't bring their backpacks into the classroom (takes up too much room, maybe), so all the teachers have either boards with hooks installed, sets of plastic bins, or these sorts of things.

He's told me between this and sanding all those damn horseshoes for 49'er Day, he thinks he's done his volunteerism for the year.

Backpack bin
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
11 April 2009

On Easter, we took the grandparents out for brunch: John's mom and grandma (the kids call her GGma for greatgrandma), and my dad. He has kind of tense relationship with these two women, however, he said today it was nice actually talking with his grandmother one on one, without being interuppted (the kids and my father being at the other end of the table). It still trips me out a bit that John is only a year younger than me, but his grandmother and my father are only a couple of years apart themselves.

Hof's Hut patio
Long Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
12 April 2009

( cake! )

Finally getting a tree. This is not late - runsamuck actually prefers to get them on Xmas Eve - sometimes you can get one for free!

Home Depot
Huntington Beach CA
Sharp VE-CG30
22 December 2008