Just a drive by posting for now... but I did laugh with this video.



[Edit: 8:21 am]
This one is good too. This bear is armed!

Just a fast comment, because I'm terribly late in posting this.  I'm in the Socorro and Albuquerque area until the 16th of January.  I'd like to get together with everyone here.  I'm in Socorro this week, but will be spending Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in Albuquerque.  I'll be pretty free this weekend, so I can spend it either in Albuquerque or Socorro.  (I will need to do laundry on Sunday, so I'll probably be in Los Lunas for a chunk of the day.)

Yes, I'm incredibly bad for not posting about this until today, the second day in Albuquerque.

That said, I'm kinda bogged down right now with work related stuff, so I won't be able to do much more than have a dinner for the next few days of this week.

So, impromptu fur meet in Abq?  Does Ari, Sabot, Skitzycat, Shimmerfox, and Carol have a moment before FC?

In any case, I hope that you all are doing well, and that you've had a good new year so far!

 Not too much to say.  Or, rather, I've got a lot of things to say, but they always turn out ranty and angry.  I've already rejected about 5 posts since the election.  I'm not into subjecting the people on my friends list with the disappointment and anger that I had with the anti-gay amendments that passed nation-wide.  Again.  It's very similar to the anger that I had in 2006 and 2004.  I'm just glad that the Federal Marriage Amendment never made it out of congress, as I have little faith that the people of the States would reject such bigotry, especially if their religious leaders were encouraging them to support it.

Argh!  I said I wasn't gonna be ranty....

We went to the protest outside the Mormon Church last Friday, and I intend to go to the national protest tomorrow.  To find the details, click on the banner below.  (To include the banner in your own LJ: <a href="http://jointheimpact.wetpaint.com/"><img src="http://pics.livejournal.com/tenax/pic/000484wq" alt="Join the Impact!" ></a>)


For the locals, I hope to see you there if you can make it.

It's that time again, the time when I make it past the rotting carcasses of unfinished posts, and give everyone an inkling of what's been going on.

Technical stuff first, ( cut to avoid spilling nerd over your friends page... )

I've settled in quite nicely here in Sandy, UT.  The house we're renting is very nice, and Ken and I put in work over the summer to improve the front flower gardens and keep the yards looking good.  Ivory is rather spoiled since I work at home now, and both her and Nerrin take long naps on the couch while I work.

We've got a number of furry friends here who we try to keep things interesting.  Some we knew before, and others we met after getting up here:
    •    T-Wolf: Laid-back downstairs basement dweller.  We had a spare bedroom, and decided to fill it with wolf.  He wanders out into the streets for work and fun purposes.  He hasn't got hit by a car yet, so Ken and I aren't too worried about his roaming habits.
    •    Hobbes Da Dawg: Burnese mountain dog furry, and part-time evil gun-slinger/luster of wimmins.
    •    Wipeout: Weightlifter with horrible, nasty, no-good working hours.  Seriously, starting work at 3 AM just is a whole bunch of stink.  And not the good kind.
    •    Digital Dragon: Digi brought a whole bunch of friends up from the far-away land of Provo.  He is always enthusiastic, very thoughtful, and a bringer of authentic J-Dogs!
    •    Ren: Hyperkinetic cat thingy.  He's pursuing his dream to become a chef, and I'll wish him luck.  He experimented using recipes of evil and tomatoes, but fortunately they were delicious.  (No one even turned into a zombie, so he's definitely needs to work on his evil.)
    •    Gecko: Quiet, laid-back fellow from the Provo area as well.  Nice guy, and fun to play games with.
    •    Dingo: Gone missing.  Rumors abound that some sort of weird Australian dinosaur has taken up residence at his place.
    •    Hamster: Despite his protestations, his nickname reveals him to be an obvious furry.  Besides, he asked questions about the Socorro Rocky Horror's Sexually Harassing Panda, and nobody but furries asks questions about SHP.

If I skipped anybody, it's most likely that I forgot your name or couldn't think of anything terribly witty to say.

So, there.  Nerdy and furry, all in one post.  I think if I added political to this post, it would never get posted.  So, here you guys go!
Oh, one question.  Does anyone know an easy way of seeing if anyone responded to a comment that you made in another person's journal entry, short of revisiting the journal entry?

[Edited Oct 25, 2008 @ 11:15 AM -- Minor grammar fixes]

I'm doing very well in Salt Lake City. Living with Ken has been a happy experience. We both have been insanely busy, though. Every other week, Ken leaves for his Rotations at 7:30 AM and returns after midnight. I've been pulling in more than a few all-night+next work day shifts myself (about 36 hours or so). I'm usually brain-fried by 3 PM the second day, so I'm trying to cut back a bit.

While work promises to remain intense for the next few months, I'm getting the itch to run a role-playing game again. I developed a sample adventure a few years ago. The sample characters and the setting have kept rattling around in my head, so I'm going to expand and turn the thing into a multi-part adventure.

Background

Far from the baroque halls of Harrowsgate, the small village of Gaisce sits in a natural stable meadow near the river Skirfane. The farming community is the last meaningful stop along the river. The Skirfane then descends into a steep canyon that ends at the rocky cliffs a day's travel away.

It has been long since the mercenary armies of the Bisclavret King Riddock decisively routed the Rinaldi fox nobility and confiscated the forests for the wolven lords. Sandwiched between more powerful lords, the Count Zacharius Repense and the Countess Moriah have maintained a peaceful community. The count and countess are considerably eccentric, but are beloved by the townsfolk.

Quiet places are the best places for secrets, and Gaisce-on-Skirfane has quite a few. A few outsiders have settled in the area, hoping to forget the past and start a new life. While perhaps a bit poor and rustic for many, it's an easy place to be lost from the rest of the world.

However, the scheming eyes of enemies are have noticed its position in Calabria. Will those that have settled and hidden in Gaisce rise to the defense of the quirky locals and its strange lords? Change is coming to Gaisce, and it will join the Great Game of the Houses. Will it survive?

Today, the buyer closed on my house!  Tomorrow morning, I close on the house, then drive up to Sandy, Utah.  Ken, here I come!

All is not good news, however.  Last night, my realty agent suffered a minor stroke.  I'll be bringing flowers and a card to the closing so that they can be given to her.

I'm still here.  The grad student buying my house pulled out of the offer.  Through a series of contractual adjustments, his parents are buying the house instead.  While I don't get the earnest money this way, we also avoid having to go through the battery of appraisals and inspections.  The parents have hired someone with Power of Attorney for closing, and paid for the extra appraisal (as they'll be renting to their son).  I had my extra expenses folded into the contractual modifications as the buyer's or buyer's realtor's responsibility.

We're just waiting for the mortgage company to approve the parents' loan.  It's not over until the closing papers are signed.

I'm betting that the grad student didn't get the mortgage he was approved for.  It pisses me off, as I did plenty of investigation of my own finances before I even started house hunting, four years ago.  The raw math isn't that hard, and banks provide on-line mortgage calculators to help you out.

Over this last weekend, we packed up all the remaining stuff into the PODs.  While the POD-people can be very flexible for pickups and drop-offs to/from their storage facility, you can't ship your POD with only a day or two notice.  I've been impressed with their service; they've been very conscientious and helpful.  I kept the previous shipping date, so my stuff will be in a warehouse in Utah by Friday.

I, however, may still be here.  I hope not.  There's very little left: my mother's air mattress with sheets, a single towel and washrag, a suitcase containing my clothes, medicines, and personals.  A single folding table, a single folding chair, and a dog bed.  The house is empty, and echoes slightly.  The kitchen contains only paper plates and bowls, plastic cups and plastic utensils.  I even packed the microwave oven.  The convection oven works just fine, and should be all I need.

I thought about heading up to Utah today, even with the delayed (and variable) closing date.  Unfortunately, should the deal fall through, the insurance penalties for an unoccupied residence are severe, and I won't have much reserves in such a scenario.  I'm not in danger of dying financially, but things could potentially go less wrong if I stay here.

Just waiting so I can start the long drive toward Sandy.

  The housing inspector will be here this morning, so I'm a bit terrified.  I just know that they'll find some sort of invisible elephant of a problem that I was completely unaware of, a problem so heinous that I'll be forever stuck in my house.  It's an irrational fear, to be sure.  The inspector will find problems for me to fix, but my house is in pretty good condition.

Well, it's April 1st, a day infamous for making the internets useless for teh lulz.  I won't insult your intelligence with a poorly done joke.

Growing up, my little sister was always the prankster (not just on April Fools) and I was the straight man.  She short-sheeted my bed on more than one occasion.  I also got the salt-pepper taffy candy, as well.  Just be cautious when your siblings decide to be extra nice to you.

At least I wasn't her friends.  They got the fish candy.  (Ewww!)  Fortunately, cats love fish candy, and they ate most of her stash.

Now, some really amusing images for this jokester day.  These aren't that big, file-wise, so it should be okay to show without a cut.



The following comic proves that ninjas make almost everything better, even scientific inquiry:

The closing date could not be moved for the buyers, so I will be closing on Monday, April 21st. I'm sending this message out in my LiveJournal, the NM Furry mailing list, and to a series of my Socorro friends who can hopefully pass it to all the people that I don't have email addresses for.

Packing Parties

Dates: April 12th, April 13th
From: 8 AM to about 4 PM
Where: My house

What We'll Be Doing: Loading my furniture into storage PODs. Move trash to the dump on April 12th as needed. Packing stuff into boxes. Some stuff will be available for free, if you want it, or I'll drop it off at the thrift stores later on.
What to Bring: You might want work gloves.  Mark will be bringing furniture dollies, but regular dollies and other things that are useful for moving things may be useful too.
What Will Be Provided: I'll have water, diet sodas, and either pizza or sandwiches for lunch.
What You'll Get: I'll be taking people who help me out to the Socorro Springs Brewery and treat you to dinner at 4:30 PM.

Going-away Parties

Dates: April 11th, April 12th
From: 7 PM to midnight

I'll have water, diet sodas, and either pizza or sandwiches. Bring your own beer, but be prepared to either drink it or take it back home with you. Bring desserts, salads, or main courses, if you'd like!

The April 12th party is the "furry" party, but anyone may attend either. I recommend that people come in costumes, fur-suits, or action-figure outfits: I welcome all Jedi, Klingons, Logan's Run Runners, and Rocky Horror assholes! Especially for the 12th, we should have plenty of unconventional conventionalists!

My TV, DVD players and sound system will be packed by myself in the following week, but my movies and games will be boxed and unavailable. So, bring your favorite board games, card games, moves, and video games! (I have a Wii with two controllers, and a PlayStation 2.) For the 12th, folding tables and folding chairs will also be well appreciated.

If you can't make it, I do hope that I'll see you before I go. If that isn't possible, I will be making occasional trips back to New Mexico for work purposes every couple of months.

Thank you all, Techies, Furries, Gamers, Nerds, Drama-geeks alike. I've lived in New Mexico since I was 11 in 1986, and I've lived in Socorro almost continuously since 1995. I hope to get a chance to see you all one last time before I leave this state and travel north to be with Ken.

Directions from Albuquerque:

1. Leave Albuquerque going south on I-25.
2. Take exit 150 for Socorro.
3. The exit will merge to California Blvd.
4. Turn right at College Avenue. (The Smiths Supermarket will be on your right.)
5. Go straight at the 4-way stop between College Avenue and Franklin St.
6. Take the next left onto Caine St. Google Maps and Yahoo Maps have this road mislabeled as Franklin St.
7. Go straight through the stop sign at Caine and Short St.
8. My house is on the fourth house on the left, with the red roof. 710 Caine St.

I haven't posted because, while I've been very busy, I haven't been doing anything that I thought was particularly interesting to other LJ readers.  I had a brief visit with Ken over the hurricane eye of his Spring schedule (yay!).  I've been trying to make up some schedule slippages at work.  My house has almost all the work completed, with just a few polishing touch-ups left.  All court trials that I might have to serve as a jury member have been settled.  So, not much going on that's worth talking about.

Well, I finally got an offer on my house worth accepting.  It's official, my house is under contract to be sold as of 12:35 PM.

Currently, the closing date is April 21st (a Monday), although I've asked that the closing date be moved to that Friday, April 25th.  In New Mexico, you need to be out of the house by 5 PM on a closing day, so I will be heading north to Salt Lake City at that time.  Ken and I are already reviewing rental properties that would take a white german shepherd and a cat around Salt Lake City.  The washer, dryer, and refrigerator are staying with the house, and I'll purchase new ones when I get to SLC.  I'm thinking about using one or two PODs to move, as they are much cheaper than a professional moving company, and I won't have to make multiple trips with a creaky self-moving van.  Moving by PODs to SLC will cost about $3600, according to the estimate I got yesterday.

I know, yada-yada-yada, get to the going-away parties!

Given how constrained for time I am, I'm going to combine the packing parties and going away parties.  The dates of the parties depend on the closing date.

If I close on April 21st, as is currently written, the going away parties will be on April 11th and 12th.  If the buyer agrees to close on April 25th, then I will have the parties on April 18th and April 19th.  Those are the Fridays and Saturdays for those weeks.  I should know if the buyer rejects my date proposal during this weekend, or maybe even this evening.

The going-away parties will start at 6:30 PM.  I'll probably have more sandwiches or pizzas, and sodas to drink.  You are welcome and encouraged to bring desserts, drinks, and games.  For the Saturday party, I also encourage you to bring folding chairs and folding tables.

Everyone is invited on both days.  For those who care, I'll declare one day to be a "furry" day, and the other to be a "normal*" day.  (*Trust me, there is no such thing as normal in this town, only people who aren't furries.)  If you're furry, I welcome tails, ears, and even fursuits!  If you're into "action figuring," I also welcome both Jedi and storm troopers.  Please feel free to bring your own alcohol, but be prepared to either drink it or take it back with you.

During the Saturdays and Sundays (either April 12 and 13, or April 19 and 20), I'll have loading parties.  For those days, I'll be moving stuff into the PODs during the mornings and afternoons on the party days.  Anyone who shows up to help will be treated to a dinner at the Socorro Springs Brewery at about 4:30 PM.  I'll have some sandwiches for people to munch on before the dinner.  On Saturday, I could probably benefit from a small pickup, as we also move any debris to the dump.  (The dump is closed on Sunday.)

The most difficult thing to load will be my entertainment center.  My coworker Mark will be lending his furniture dollies to me, and that should help a lot.  The rest of my furniture disassembles, and can be loaded by one or two people.

Then, if everything goes as planned, my stuff will be loaded to go to Salt Lake City.  I'll put my computer, suitcase, Ivory, and Nerrin in my car.  Then, I'll say "good-bye" to the state that I've called home since the fourth grade in 1986.

I don't doubt that I'll get homesick.  I do need to move on, though, and Ken deserves this opportunity.

If you can't make the parties, don't be too sad.  Since I'll be telecommuting at my current company, I will be making the occasional trip back to New Mexico to do tasks I can't perform remotely.  I'll try to let folk know when I'll be around.

I voted in the primary yesterday, just after lunch. In Socorro, the worst problem was that the area for the Democrat's caucus was a bit cramped, little more than a small hallway that they were trying to fit three separate lines of people down. Apparently, nobody whose last name was between T and Z were voting at that time, so I got to waltz in, cast my vote, and leave. In other places, lines were reputed to be long and slow.

I voted for Obama. I like the record of bills that he's helped pass or authored: requiring that police tape their interrogations in Illinois, requiring more open records from lobbyist donations, and so forth. I personally believe that almost everything the government does should be public record. Otherwise, people can't ensure that the government is working properly. The current administration has been one of the most secretive, and the previous Clinton administration was also pretty darn secretive. I can understand the impulse: if nobody knows what you're doing, you can't be attacked by your opponents for doing it.

However, then you get stupid crap, like the text of a treaty between the U.S. and other countries being classified. About gambling. Ed Brayton got the following response when he filed a Freedom of Information request for the text of the gambling treaty:

This is USTR's response to your request for "a copy of the full text of the settlement between the USTR and the European Union regarding America's online gambling laws", under the Freedom of Information Act.

Please be advised that the document you seek is being withheld in full pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(1), which pertains to information that is properly classified in the interest of national security pursuant to Executive Order 12958.

Utter garbage.

I have other reasons for voting for Obama, but I think that transparency was one of the big ones.

I did see lots of enthusiastic people going in and out of the poll.  At this point, Obama leads Clinton in New Mexico -- by 79 votes.  The primary election, she ain't over.

Ken came down last Thursday and left Monday morning.  He's finished with his classes for the semester, and came down to help me work on the house.  There's a few more things to do: plenty of little painting touch-ups, tiling the laundry room, and outdoor work.  With the new carpet, paint job, flooring work, doors, sliding glass doors, locks, and light fixtures, the whole house looks pretty darn nice.

It's been a heck of a lot of work.  I must thank Jodi, my mother, and my aunt for helping me with the paint, carpet, and decorating.  My Dad has been instrumental in single-handedly performing many difficult repairs.  Ken put in a tremendous amount of work getting the backyard in order with Ivory's (enthusiastic, but somewhat unhelpful) help.  Everyone is putting so much work in helping me get my house ready for sale.  It's been hard work, and we've all had some terrible events happen this fall.  I'm proud to have friends and family that support me this well.

Staging the house properly for sale is going to be a weird and hard.  Basically, I'm going to need to move even more stuff out of the house.  The house can have personality, but it's not supposed to be your personality.  You want people to come in and be able to imagine themselves putting there things on the almost-empty desk, with their coats on the empty coat hanger.

I'm talking to a realty agent on Wednesday, and I should be done with re-tiling the laundry room this week.  Rest assured, residents of the New Mexican persuasion, that I will have a going-away party before going away. 

I'll be spending next week with Ken in Salt Lake City.  While I'm gone, my Dad is going to re-roof the workshop, install new skylights for it, and make other repairs.  I don't know when I'll be able to put the house on the market, and I have no idea how long it will take to sell it.  I do know that I'll have a house that I won't be embarrassed to sell to someone else.

I am so glad that Ken got to visit last week.  Last semester was particularly rough on him; classes were tough and his work environment is extremely stressful and unpleasant.  I haven't seen him since the trip to Yellowstone in early October.  Long separations are always difficult -- there is so much emotion and subtleties that are lost over a staticy phone connection.  What we did together this time was mundane, perhaps, but revitalizing.  We had time to watch Avatar and play Arkham Horror with skitzycat and shimmerfox, enjoy Shimmer's birthday, and even play a bit of Mario Party 8 on the Wii.  We attempted to go see The Golden Compass at the Los Lunas theater.  Unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea, so Ken and I played some games on the Wii instead.

My television broke on Saturday, forcing Ken and I to play Wii at Skitzy/Shimmer's house.  The old Emerson CRT tube had a good run of almost 19 years.  I picked up a 23" television yesterday, though, so everything should be good.

New TVs have more fiddly bits than my old one.  While playing with the fiddly-bits yesterday evening, I found that they now have the ability to add many more kinds of suck to your TV watching experience!  Fortunately, you can turn off the suck.  (Of course, if you're watching a sucky show or movie, the TV can't do much about it.)

Again, I'll be up in Salt Lake City next week, starting Saturday afternoon.  Ken is working Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, so his friends and family can potentially abduct me for fun and profit (all proceeds must be split with Ken).

In the early morning, a car drives into the semi-circular driveway outside of a two story house. The car pauses long enough to eject a bag of trash from Sonic, and a medium-sized black puppy. The puppy remains next to the fence for at least four hours, terrified at being abandoned, alone.

As the house awakes, my sister steps outside to collect the paper. She shouts at the black thing with the big ears to go home, but the puppy, still pressed against the fence, sinks to the ground. After a moment inside, we let the puppy inside our fence, where we'll take care of it until we can find a home for him, or take him to the pound.

I just moved off campus after three years of school. I deliberately looked for a house to rent that I could have pets, but I did not yet have a dog of my own. I always wanted a German Shepherd type dog, and the black puppy is absolutely thrilled with me. By that evening, Sonic Bob was my dog.

Bob is gone. He died yesterday at about 5:30 PM.

Dad had made a loaf of bread with the bread machine. The warm cylindrical loaf is cooling on the center island in the kitchen... or it use to be, anyway. We find Bob curled up around the loaf of bread on his dog bed.

The Prednisone steroids helped Bob perk up for about a week. Then, we dropped the dosage and he started becoming weaker again. Last weekend, he peed in the kitchen. My aunt said he didn't even seem to realize he was doing it until she called out to me. Bob then started panicking, slipped in the urine, and couldn't get up. I carried Bob outside, then carried him to his dog bed and soothed him until he calmed down. We brought the amount of Prednisone back up to its previous amount.

My mother and my sister come into the living room while having an argument. Bob hears the raised voices, and looks fearfully in their direction, although the argument doesn't involve him. His ears droop, he rolls on his belly, and the argument ends as a fountain of urine streams into the air.

Later, Bob is on my mother's velvet couch. My mother and sister are in front, trying to coax Bob off with kind voices and forced smiles. They know if they grab his collar to try to pull him off or yell at him, Bob will lose bladder control.



My aunt stayed with me for the evening, and we talked about our stories about Bob. We have a lot of them, and I've interspersed several that I like best among this post. My Dad came down to Socorro, despite a nasty cold, to help me continue to fix up my house.

Friends have called me, have visited me, and I have visited them. The house is very empty, and the seat on my couch next to me is missing a critical weight. It's better, even now, than it was yesterday. I want to thank my friends, both in Socorro, and those who live more distantly. Ken has been an excellent sweetheart, listening alternatively to my stories about Bob and the tears about the last three horrible weeks.

Talking helps, being with someone helps. Talking about the events of the last three weeks hurts, but each repetition takes a little bit more of the sting away. All the little details are still with me, but even now are fading somewhat. I found blood on my shoe this morning, and Bob's leash still lies on the floor of the kitchen where it fell. But the blood is wiped away, the leash will probably get picked up tomorrow, and the painful hole in my heart will fade to a dull pain in the future. I wanted to record some of these details before they all went away.

Especially the happy stories about Bob, and the comfort my friends have given me. Those are the parts that I will hope to remember, so I can bring out occasionally in happier times.

Goodbye, Sonic Bob Trowbridge. You were everything that I wanted from a dog.

Wow.

A French soft drink company sells an orange-flavored drink. Apparently it's supposed to be a "natural" drink, and the company likes the idea that sex sells. Heck, you see it all the time on American television.

Obviously, this means Chippendale bears, ambiguous peacocks, and does in daisy duke's cavorting about in a musical, dirty-dancing inspired commercial. Oh, and there's an anthro fem octopus. It's so over the top, I've been giggling for some time now. It's probably not work safe. The video is behind the cut.
( Yay, furry soda musicals! NSFW )
( When you think of an octopus squeezing oranges against her breasts, you think Orangina! NSFW )

Bob is doing much better now. He's still a weak doggy, but he can urinate without falling over, and can walk the length of the house. He's on a combination of drugs right now:

• Steroids, to kill the immune system reaction that's attacking his muscles
• Antibiotics, to kill the aspiration pneumonia and prevent other opportunistic infections
• Stomach coaters, to prevent steroid-induced ulcers
  

From what I've read, Bob should recover fully from last week's myasthenia gravis attack. Myasthenia gravis can't be cured, only treated, so he will be vulnerable to a relapse. When I board Bob in the future, I'll need to make sure that his caretakers are aware of his condition and the signs of a relapse, so they can contact the vet and start treatment immediately if he suddenly becomes weak.

I've made changes to the way I feed and water Bob and Ivory, so Bob shouldn't get aspiration pneumonia again.

Bob is recovering, and I'm no longer terrified of abruptly losing my dorky black doggy. Again, thank you all for your kind sentiments.

On Sunday, I found a little bit of vomit next to the dog bed where Bob was sleeping. I cleaned it up and went to bed. Later that night, Bob vomited on my arm while I was sleeping about 4:45 AM. I found other vomit spots around the house after I took a shower. Bob made another one as I was escorting him out.

Very odd, as there was no noise. No gagging sounds or choking sounds. Just suddenly, as if to even take Bob by surprise, a yellow foam poured out of his mouth. The various vomit spots were mostly foam, with few particles indicating food.

Upset stomach, maybe. Maybe Bob had eaten something when I walked Ivory and him in the dark that evening. Still, I made Bob sleep in the laundry room, in case he needed to vomit again. A dog bed, covered with lots of easily washable dog blankets.

About 5:30 AM. Too tired, I moved him to spend the rest of the morning outside while I cleaned up and then slept to my alarm.

When I let Bob in, he ran to his dog bed. He also "urred" with every breath while I got ready. I took him to the vet.

Bob was dehydrated, so they put him on an I.V. drip. He was still vomiting, but his white blood cell count was normal, and the normal blood work didn't show anything.

I visited every day for at least half an hour. Bob was alert, but a little unsteady on his feet. I thought it might be some of the medication they were giving him.

The x-rays this morning indicate that Bob isn't swallowing. He can't swallow, not really -- his esophagus is flaccid, and not pushing food down. Without the muscles pushing them down, the food and water can flow into his lungs, slowly choking him.

It's called Aspiration Pneumonia. It's the most likely way to die from Myasthenia Gravis.

The vet thinks it's Myathenia Gravis. If so, Bob's immune system is attacking the receptors that cause muscles to contract. It becomes difficult to move, and in the most severe cases, you stop breathing as all your muscles relax. Most often, you simply choke to death from slowly breathing in your food and drink.

It is treatable with drugs, although the symptoms may vary rapidly, and I'll have to be vigilant. The vet sent out a sample of Bob's blood to test for the antibodies to confirm the disease. Hopefully, we'll know for sure very soon.

These sorts of things always leave you wondering: was there something I could have foreseen. At least Bob doesn't seem to be hurting.

The disease can have a very sudden onset. Sunday, we went for a long walk. This evening, I carried Bob inside after he fell trying to urinate in the backyard. He could not stand to get out of the urine. We're going back to the vet tomorrow for another round of check-ups.

I don't know what's wrong with Bob, but it's tearing my up insides, so I had to write about it. My pillow is wet, and needs a chance to dry. Thank you.

Last Saturday, New Mexico Tech celebrated Forty-Niner's, the annual post-midterm festival, featuring plenty of gambling, bordello auctions, and plenty of drunken college students. What better time to have a Rocky Horror Picture Show?

Billy, our esteemed MC, handled the appearance of Pimp Ralph very well. Ralph stumbled upon the show looking for appropriate "employees," and used a measuring tape to examine the "personalities" of the unconventional conventionalists. Billy used the "purple upstaging coyote" to examine the uncertain genders of some of the virgins and help out with the Rocky Horror Portable Orgy, and even gave Ralph his own two personal Virgin employees!

Ralph met Oblivion, a very engaging spectre of death with a variety of entertaining props. Unfortunately, Ralph entirely missed the Purple Onion (who was late to the event AGAIN).

A rogue confetti egg spattered all over the MC while he was reviewing the Rocky Horror Rules , and Ralph was the first one blamed. Totally unfair! He'd been passing out confetti eggs to the audience, and one had merely slipped.

While the Chocolate-Cherry Virgin Sacrifice looked exceptionally delicious this year with the additional fish sauce, most of the fans seemed oddly disgusted at the flavor. Obviously, it lacked the appropriate salsa.

There's no photos inside the event, but a door guard was kind enough to get a photo. Overall, I think Ralph helped add to the chaos and zaniness of the pre-show.

Very fun!

Almost time for the best night of the year.

Little Jack giggled as Daddy helped him put the mask over his face.  This mask was especially nice, and the smooth and rubbery surface would be great for Halloween.

"Is New Mommy coming with us this time?"

"Not this time, Jacky.  She's going to stay home with your new sister."

"Okay.  Mommy can have my Twizzlers."  Jack didn't like the Twizzlers, as they stuck to his teeth.  Butterfingers also stuck to his teeth, but they tasted much nicer.  Scuffing his feet against the carpet, Jack felt bad for being stingy.  "And some of my Butterfingers."

Daddy actually looked very sad.  "Okay.  But she might not eat very many Butterfingers.  Mommy doesn't feel very well right now."

Now it was very nearly time.

"Can I say good night to Mommy?  Before we go?"

With Daddy's small nod, Jack ran as fast as his little feet could carry him, over the linoleum, back to the carpet, to the place where the carpet changed colors.  New Mommy lay on the bed, her tummy extra large now.  She looked very, very tired.  Daddy said that Jack's new sister liked to kick.

Jack tottered over to the bed, kneeling to rest his head near New Mommy's hand.  He was very, very careful not to disturb her.  "I'll bring you back lots of Butterfingers and Snickers and jaw-breakers, and everything else you like," Jack whispered.

The hand flinched.
The cords held.

"I love you, New Mommy," shouted Jack as he ran out of the room.

It was time.  Daddy led Jack from the New House, out to run with the other kids, getting treats from the nice neighbors.  Jack liked this neighborhood, liked the kindly old man who had lost his cat, the crooked tree that made climbing easy even when wearing mittens.  He liked this neighborhood as much, if not more than, all the previous neighborhoods he had lived.  Even to his young mind, he knew that, tomorrow, his father would hustle him away from the smell, away from the maggots and the neighbor complaints and the weird looks.  He'd have to leave behind his wonderful mask.

For now, though, was the bestest time.  A time for candy.  And when Jack would get home, he'd have a new sister.

Yellowstone, Redux

I spent this weekend at a vacation home near Yellowstone with Ken, some of his coworkers, and their families. Justin, Ken's coworker, had invited everybody up for the weekend for a late-season trip to the park. Everyone was a lot of fun, and we had a blast visiting the park, photographing the wildlife, and playing late-night games of Werewolf and Murderer.

Cogs are moving toward Utah

I've finally put events in motion. With Ken's support (and lots of nudging!), I have started with plans to move to Salt Lake City. Ken and I are going to rent a house together as we put together the next stage in our relationship. Hopefully, I'll be there in time for Thanksgiving (or Christmas, at the latest).
Lots of excitement and a tinge of fear. Up until now, my life has been fairly predictable. That's not to say it has been boring, just that it has been safe. I've got a lot to do before I can get up there, and the months are screaming by as it is. I'd like to sell my house before leaving. Which leads into....

House Renovations

I'm trying to get my house in order so I can put it up on the market. My mother, aunt, and housekeeper have been helping me paint my house from beige with steel blue trim to a very light blue with chocolate trim. I think that we'll finish the painting this next weekend.

Painting is a very effective and affordable way of improving the appearance of a house. Painting is also easier and less stressful when you don't care about the carpet. My carpet badly needs replacing, with holes in the living room and hallway.

I then just have a few other things to get fixed before leaving:

1. Minor crack repair in one room
2. Several doors need replacing. I have the doors and door frames, but I need a contractor to install them.
3. Replace the sliding glass door, as it really doesn't slide much.
4. Finish putting flooring on the step into the den/dining room. (Will get done when the ordered supplies arrive.)

We'll see how fast things go. I'm going to be pretty busy until I get moved... then I'll be pretty busy getting unpacked... but then I'll have time!

I do believe that I have found the nerdiest band ever: Science Groove.  Both albums are catchy, nerdy, and fully online.  Each song also has an associated Power-point slide on its "Show" link which can the biochem illiterate (ie, me) figure out what the song is about.

I love my magnet; it gives me spectra full of peaks,
And, with a standard, I'll find the numbers that I seek.
Consider this case: peak A is twice the size of B.
If B's the standard, then you know A's molarity!
I don't like all this chemistry.
It's great for scientists like me!
Hooray for NMR spectroscopy!

These songs had overzen and me in stitches.  Muscle and Magnets also has a rap about ATP (The Molecule That I Like Best) and a folksy ditty about Oxidative Phosphorylation (?!).  "My Dissertation" has such classics as "Title Slide," the funky "Here is the Outline," and the bouncy "An Example Show." 

I dunno.  I suppose t_wolf could really figure out what the types of music of each song is.  I'm not very good at identifying categories of music.  Grab your magnet, pocket protector, your textbooks, and groove!

Just look at the slide, is an example show.
Right there before your eyes
Is an example show.
100 sibling pairs divided not by chance.
P-values indicate we have significance.

Hug your neighbor. Kiss the baby.
Help the old man. Charm the lady.
Dance calypso. Do the cha cha.
Make it spicy like the salsa.

I await your inevitable accusations of being a complete and total nerd.