Post Aiko Tanaka Blog Traffic

Post Aiko Tanaka Blog Traffic
Surprise, surprise; the blog traffic is down about 30% after I removed the Aiko Tanaka images. This was about what I had expected to happen.

On the plus side, our visitors have been discovering other Women of the Moment in the blog. I expect that those past Women of the Moment will see their traffic volume build. There does not seem to be a clear preference established yet for a replacement Woman of the Moment for Aiko Tanaka who averaged about thirty visits – views a day.

I will wait and see who you like the most over the next few weeks after the volume settles down.

School and Doug
Doug was a guest speaker for my Managing Corporate and Virtual Teams course yesterday. He spoke on life as a virtual team member that was based on his time with Defamer.com, part of the Gawker Media empire.

Doug’s experiences were unusual because he was in an extreme form of virtual team membership. His team, the Defamer writing staff, had to produce a completely new product every day of the business week. The course textbook only talked about virtual teams that worked over a period of time to arrive at a decision or some other activity.

They students responded well to his presentation. They asked a number of questions that showed they were paying attention. His presentation also ran longer than I thought it would go so that was another positive sign.

Looking Ahead But Not Very Far
Tomorrow, I am going to see Molly the Stylist and hopefully Natalie the Receptionist when I get my hair cut. I am also dropping off some Halloween candy for Molly and Natalie; I do hope they share with the others.

After I get my hair done, I will roll down the 405 freeway to Gloria’s frozen yogurt and ice cream store. I do need the ice cream so Dr. Karen won’t yell at me for losing too much weight.

Saturday I am going to the La Mirage Theater to see a musical based on the 1980s television show Happy Days.

If the play is not that good, I can always bail out early at intermission and swing by Gloria’s on my way home. The store is open until midnight on Saturday nights. With Winter coming on, I suppose the frozen yogurt and ice cream store will be less crowded and that is good for me.


I hope your weekend is fun for you.


Be well and stay happy.

Picking Up Where I Left Off

Picking Up Where I Left Off
Hmmmm. I think I was closing up on the Weekend Update. That means I am down to the odds and ends of the Weekend Update posting. I will also toss in some minor stuff that doesn’t fit anywhere else and is too short for a full heading and paragraph.

With the last series if updates from Microsoft, I am now able to create a blog posting in Word 2007 and then upload it in a cut and paste mode to Blogger.com. This is a change that I really like since Word has a much larger dictionary of standard and custom words. I also enjoy the auto-correct function of Word since I am a sloppy typer at times.

One of the units that is for sale in the building had an open house last weekend. I only mention this because the until has been on the market since late Spring when it was priced at USD$435,000. It is now on the market at USD$385,000. That is a large step down in the asking price. I don’t think that there were too many visitors – potential buyers to the unit.

I think the price will have to be reduced some more for the flat to sell. There are still four other flats that are for sale in the building and some will have even better views and not be adjacent to the building elevator.

Although the unit has a city lights view, I think it is inferior to my no lights view flat because the second bedroom in the for sale flat is right at the elevator landing for the floor. Living there, you can see everyone who comes and goes and you can be disturbed by the noise of conversations and the opening and closing of elevator doors.

All of this is largely academic for me. My flat is paid for and I do not intend to move or sell it. Selling is something that the Princess and Doug can do when I pass on to my final reward.

My Vehicles
The Pathfinder rolled over to 84,000 miles this morning on my way to school. I don’t drive it very much because it doesn’t get as good a gas mileage performance as the Prelude. It just has a better air conditioner system and that is important in our Summer.

I had been thinking about getting the Prelude washed this weekend since it is on the really dusty and ditty side. The local weather forecast is calling for a chance of showers over the weekend. Now, I have to make a decision about the Prelude. I am generally leaning towards getting it cleaned if only for the reason that it will soon become the primary vehicle now that cooler weather is close at hand.

School and My Friend Gloria
I had planned to go visit my friend Gloria’s frozen yogurt and ice cream store today after my morning class. Dr. Karen likes to see me consume calorie laden food so I can maintain my strength for the chemotherapy. I am highly confident that Dr. Karen would approve of a scoop of chocolate ice cream with chocolate sauce and chocolate sprinkles on it.

This was my plan until I had a brief lunch with two of my morning students. Today was part of the Student Appreciation Days at school for the term. The school passed out hot dogs and chips and sodas for a student lunch.

We got to talking about food after we finished up on sports. One of the students had worked as a cook and he followed the Food Channel on cable television. He started talking about how Texans really enjoy their deep fat fried foods. He said that Texas was the fattest state in the nation and that Houston was the fattest large city in Texas.

And to think, I almost moved to Houston to work there.

I could almost hear my arteries clogging up just by listening to him.

When he was finished, I had lost all interest in stopping by Gloria’s today. It seemed so wrong to me. I will stop by Gloria’s on either Friday or Saturday so all will be well in the universe.

Looking Ahead for the Rest of the Week
I have my State and Local Government class tomorrow night. It ought to be fun.

Friday is my day to go see Molly the Stylist for a haircut or styling as she likes to say. I will get another purple rinse and I will look nice for a few weeks.

Then, there is the weekend and I will write about it on Friday.


Be well and stay happy.

Doctor Karen and Me

Doctor Karen and Me
I went to see Doctor Karen for my once every three weeks visit with her. I asked her if I could take her photo so I could include in the blog. Dr. Karen declined but thanked me for asking for her permission.

I will ask Doug to see if he can find me an appropriate avatar. I am confident that he can.

The visit with Dr. Karen was fairly normal. All of my tests with her were fine. She was pleased with my diabetes and cholesterol test results from my regular doctor.

Peripheral Neuropathy
I have a form of peripheral neuropathy. This is the medical term for the continued tingling that I feel in my finger tips and feet. Dr. Karen said it was the result of the Oxaliplatin that was still in my system after five month snow since the last infusion.

It will go away eventually so that is good for me. I just wonder how much longer the residue will remain.

In the meantime, Dr. Karen suggested that I use some had lotion to help keep my fingers from drying out too much. I can do this.

Mental Ramblings
I was going to put a posting up on Wednesday after I finished with the tests. I was tired so I took a nap and didn’t make a posting.

Then on Thursday morning, I went blogger.com to type in a posting. Blogger was not available.

I had automatically downloaded a Microsoft security update. I click on the install, restart, and then shut-off button since I was on my way to school.

On Friday, when I returned home from my visit with Dr. Karen, I tried to log onto the web and pickup my email. All that I got was a 404 Error, page not found. I couldn’t pick up my email either.

Well, the Microsoft update was a security one. It was working very well. I couldn’t go online and therefore pick up any viruses or any other bad things.

I couldn’t pick up any good things either spent most of Friday and part of Saturday trying to figure out what went wrong. I had tried to go to a restore point in case the download was the cause. None of those attempts worked.

I finally tried a power cycling of the modem. This solved my problem. I would have tried this approach sooner but the modem activity lights were all blinking in a normal manner. The modem looked like it was operating fine from the outside. I had called my DSL service provider. They tested the phone line and found the line was working normally.

I learned that there are about 540,000 words in the English language. I never thought there would be so many words. I think I might be able to build a vocabulary of maybe a couple of thousand words.

Visitors
The blog achieved a milestone of sorts this week. We recorded our 25,000th visitor. When I started out blogging, I never thought that I would reach this many visitors.

We had about 425 visitors to the blog last week. I think with the removal of the Aiko Tanaka photos the traffic will start to decline beginning this week. Traffic was about evenly balanced between foreign and domestic visitors.

Lara
Lara is my oldest Internet acquaintance. We have been friends and chat partners for the better part of thirteen years. We met at the old Empire magazine film bulletin board. It was a forerunner of modern chatting and instant messaging.

Lara and I reconnected this week when our online paths crossed. Lara lives in South Africa so we have a nine hour time difference. Between our schedules, it is difficult to meet online now. She is the owner of two video rental stores in Johannesburg; actually, they are in a suburb if you want to be correct.

Lara worries about me too much. She thinks I am not taking the cancer seriously and that I am too light headed about it. I tried to explain to hear that I do take the cancer seriously but that I have a happy positive attitude to my treatment and I know I am going to win.

While I was talking with her, I made some tentative plans to visit her in March 2010, before the World Cup. It will be her start of Fall and my end of Winter. Lara wanted me to come earlier in 2009 during her Summer. That won’t work for me because I ought to be having my operation then to reconnect my colon. Also, I will have more time available to travel in early 2010 because of my teaching schedule.

I told Lara that she had to be the tour and entertainment director for when I am there. Lara said the ocean wouldn’t be very good for swimming then. We could do other things instead. I figure that with eighteen months or so to plan the arrangements Lara will do just fine.


That was most of my weekend. I hope your weekend was better than mine.


Be well and stay happy.

No More Aiko Tanaka Photos

No More Aiko Tanaka Photos
I was looking for some black and white crepe bunting to drape over the blog today. Regrettably, I could not find any. White happens to the color for mourning in Asia; just as many Westerners morn in black.

Aiko Tanaka’s attorney forced Doug and me to take down her photos. We didn’t want to face legal action. The attorney said that we weren’t portraying her in a “bad light.”

I was reminded of the phrase from Shakespeare’s Henry VI of “The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.”

But, not all lawyers are evil.

Anyway and more to the point, it seems to me that Ms Tanaka is the one who is being harmed the most by the removal of the photos. Based on some Sitemeter.com tracking information, her images have been viewed, on average, 25 to 30 times a day over the last eighteen months. Assuming an average number of views of 27 a day, this means that 9,855 of her fans will not see her over the next year.

In closing, sorry guys, life happens and to Ms Tanaka, good luck with your career.


Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update - October 19th

Weekend Update - October 19th
Well, the weekend is about over for me and probably for most of the readers of the blog. Some of you may already be at work on Monday morning. After Friday and Saturday's postings, I really do not have too much more to say

It would require a superb writer with skills far beyond to be able to wax poetically about doing two loads of laundry this morning.

I had planned or at least thought seriously about going to see CITY OF EMBER on Saturday. I changed my plans when I saw that Circus Vargas still had its big top tent up in the parking lot next to the multiplex. No sense at all in fighting the crowds plus my car would be down wind from the circus for several hours.

Not good, not good at all.

Circus Vargas is a through back to the old style of the traveling circus. It is a regional circus in California. It has sawdust and straw on the floor. It is not as fancy as the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus which is now set up inside of arenas.

I took the Princess to see Circus Vargas when she was small. I don't think she cared very much for it because it was hot and dusty. Then, I took her to see the Ringling Brothers circus at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena when she and Doug were older. We had great, front row seats. I think the Princess lost interest when a camel left something on the ground in front of her during the grand opening parade.

The circus will leave tomorrow so I can go back to the cinema for the weekend.

I discovered the circus was still there when I went to the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf for a large ice blended drink on Saturday afternoon. The young lady who makes perfect ice blended was there and made a perfect one for me.

Unfortunately for me, I drank the ice blended too late in the day and slept very poorly as a result.

I took a nap this afternoon and feel much better now.


Be well and stay happy.

Stuff I Forgot to Mention

Stuff I Forgot to Mention
This is where I get really caught up for the week. Not that there is all that much drama in my life.

I discovered that I have theater tickets for November 1st. I actually knew that I had tickets; they were listed on my Palm Pilot [Zire to be more correct]. They had just slipped my mind since I couldn't see them when I was looking at the month of October.

The next play is a musical that is based on the television series Happy Days. So much creativity and original thought to come up with the idea for a play.

Now all that I need to do is decide if I want to ask a young lady [any single female who is younger than me] to go to the theater with me.

When I went to the Urology Clinic on Tuesday, I saw Glenda, my favorite Baby Blue. She said she didn't recognize me with my new mustache. I said that I almost didn't recognize her in the dark purple nurse's gown she was wearing.

Glenda giggled.

On Tuesday, I went to El Gringo for my dinner with Merit. It was then that I learned that Merit was no longer working at El Gringo. I decided that I could go somewhere else for my dinner. The server who was working is an older woman than Merit and I think she might even be pleasant to be around except for the fact that she never smiles.

Why hang out at a restaurant where the server doesn't smile?

Doug will be happy that I am no longer going to El Gringo because he says their food is too spicy. Maybe he is correct.

I ended up going to new Corner Bakery store in Redondo Beach and I picked up a sandwich to go instead. On the plus side, the sandwich was very tasty and healthy for me. It was also healthy for my wallet since there was no tipping on a takeout order and my bill was smaller.

Saving money is always a good thing.

The Princess will be very happy. Our Utes came through with a solid victory at over Colorado State University Rice-Ecceles Stadium in Salt Lake City.

Associated Press via ESPN.com

SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah remained in contention to be a two-time BCS buster by looking a little like the Utes team that did it first.

Five players scored touchdowns and the No. 14 Utes had their best offensive performance of the season in a 49-16 win over Colorado State on Saturday, improving to 8-0 for the fourth time in school history.

"It was definitely our most balanced game and we really got the spread run game going," said Brian Johnson, who passed for two touchdowns and tied Alex Smith's school record of 21 wins as Utah's starting quarterback. "That's where it all started, spreading that defense out and making them cover every option we had on the field. We made it tough on them."

Corbin Louks, Johnson's backup, ran for 109 yards and two touchdowns, Matt Asiata scored twice and Jereme Brooks took a reverse for a touchdown as the Utes (8-0, 4-0) gained 549 yards of offense -- 162 more than they averaged through the first seven games.

The Utes subbed the speedy Louks for Johnson a few times to keep the Rams (3-4, 1-2) off guard and Louks capitalized by taking two option keepers for touchdowns, including a 69-yard, zig-zagging run that put Utah up 49-16 with 9:30 left to play.

"We were hitting them from all different angles," Johnson said. "They had to guess who was carrying the ball and what we were trying to do with it."

The Utes have been 8-0 only three other times -- 1930, when they were perfect in an eight-game season, 1994, and the unbeaten team of 2004. The Utes went 12-0 that season, becoming the first team from a non-BCS conference to make one of the top four bowl games.

As long as the Utes stay unbeaten, they will have a chance at getting back to the BCS.

"Every week is getting bigger and bigger for us," said defensive end Paul Kruger, who had seven tackles and tipped the ball on an interception for the Utes in the third quarter. "We've been confident all year. We want this so bad so every game has been a huge thing for us."

Utah is off until playing at New Mexico on Nov. 1 and heads into the bye week with its best offensive game of the season. The Utes' previous high for offense was 461 yards against Utah State on Sept. 13 and they topped that by 88 on Saturday.

"We had total focus and concentration for the entire game," said Johnson, who completed his first eight passes and finished 18-for-26 for 185 yards with one interception. "When we do that we have a chance to be a very good offense and hopefully this will be a springboard for the final four games of the season."

Jason Smith kicked three field goals for Colorado State, including a 52-yarder that made it 28-16 midway through the third quarter. Gartrell Johnson ran for 95 yards on 20 carries for Colorado State and Billy Farris was 19-for-33 for 166 yards with a touchdown.

"We came in here and played a very, very good football team. We hung in there in the first half," Colorado State coach Steve Fairchild said. "In the end we just didn't make enough plays and it got out of hand there a little bit in the second half."

The Rams were driving in the third quarter, but Chaz Walker intercepted a pass that Kruger tipped as Farris threw it and Utah got the ball at its own 49-yard line. A few plays later, Louks ran up the middle for a 21-yard touchdown to put Utah up 35-16 with 2:20 left in the third quarter.

Brooks added another score when he leaped over the goal line at the end of his reverse in the opening minute of the fourth quarter, then Louks capped the scoring with the run of the day.

Utah was at its own 31 and Louks kept it on the option, breaking free and heading for his own sideline. Colorado State just about had him inside the 25 yard line, but Louks cut back across the field and outran the Rams to the end zone.

"That was a long one. I was a little winded after that," said Louks, who missed two games after separating his right shoulder in the season opener at Michigan.

I finished up my first Xeloda cycle on Thursday after being off of the medication for about four months. I think it is causing me to lose some of my appetite and making me more tired than usual. Now, I have some questions for Dr. Karen on Friday.

My old Canon printer died on me on Friday. I think it was the paper feed mechanism that gave up the ghost. I wanted to buy another Canon printer because I still had some unused printer cartridges. The only Canon printers that were available had the same paper feed mechanism and I decided it was better to go with an Epson printer.

I purchased an Epson WorkForce 500 printer. I like it better because it takes less time to cycle up than the old Canon. It is noisier but I can live with that since I do not print that much.

Friday was a day for running around for me. I went to the Urology Clinic to drop off some previous urology procedure reports so the new team would have a better understanding of what has been done. The sign on the door said the clinic opened at 8:00 AM. The clinic opened at 8:30 AM.

I guess some folks have a different idea of timeliness. I am one of those terminally prompt people.

After the trip to the clinic, I swung past my local market and picked up my earthquake supplies. I live in earthquake country so it makes sense to have supplies on hand. My supplies will last about eighteen months and then I will consume them.

Some of my friends go out and buy the freeze dried food because it is light and doesn't take up too much space. I think they have never had to eat any of the food.

A long time ago, when I had short, dark hair, I learned from my Gunnery Sergeant that hot sauce will make anything, even Marine Corps field rations, taste good eventually; so long as you don't run out of the sauce. I once ran out and the field rations were really bad. Of course, this was in the early 1970s and the food was prime 1956 issue.

My earthquake food of choice is ready made soups that can be eaten right out of the can. They are more flavorful and they taste better. Since they are liquid, they can also act to replace my body fluids.

I also have a bunch of bottles of water to go with my soups. When you add in my extra toilet paper and ketchup, I am well set for an emergency.

Tomorrow is grading assignments and quizzes day. I also have to prepare lecture notes that will cover about eighty pages of text. I know I will have more lecture notes than I will need for my class.


Be well and stay happy.

Happy, Happy, Joy Day

Happy, Happy, Joy Day
Yes, it is a Happy, Happy, Joy Day for the Princess and me and our University of Utah Utes. Our favorite college sports teams are the Utes and whoever is playing BYU.

Texas Christian University beat Brigham Young University 32 to 7 last night in a Mountain West Conference football game in Forth Worth, Texas.

Perfectomundo.

The Princess said, in an early morning e-mail, "Did you hear that BYU lost last night? Hallelujah!"

Today was a doubly sweet day for the Princess since the annual Halloween package of candy from Hershey's Chocolates arrived at her house yesterday.

The BYU loss puts Utah in the best position to get a BCS post season football bowl invitation since it is likely to be the highest ranked, unbeaten, non-BCS team. The invitation has to be earned by continued victories on the playing field. The 7 and 0 Utes have five more games to play between now and the end of the season. They will play Colorado State, New Mexico, and San Diego State. None of these teams have winning records and the Utes should be the favorites in all of these games. The other two games are against TCU in Salt Lake and BYU in Provo. Playing in Provo is almost like playing a home game since Provo is only fifty miles away.

Urology Clinic
I went to the Urology Clinic with Doug on Tuesday. The appointment was about the stent that was placed in my ureter last year. Stents are only supposed to last a year in place and the time was about out.

Doug and I are used to repeating what happened to me to each new resident. I guess they are either curious or they don't want to spend the time to read through the growing file although my file is still small by the Oncology Clinic standards.

On Tuesday, Medical Student Rebecca took down my information. I guess she has an interest in urology or that was her clinic rotation assignment and I was the designated patient.

After Rebecca took down my information, she left and returned with the Urology Clinic Director who is going to be my attending physician during my time in the department. After an examination, he pronounced my prostate as being very normal.

Good news.

Then, I had to go get an x-ray so the Director could decide what to do with me. I can take x-rays almost all day long. They are so much nicer than other tests. The x-ray showed that my stent had only minimum calcification; that is very good because there was no immediate danger to me and it could be removed in an orderly manner.

I have some more blood test to take in preparation for the removal. I'll do the tests next week when I go in for my regular Oncology Clinic blood tests. I just hope that they do not drain me for the tests.

The removal procedure will be down on November 18th, early in the morning. This was very convenient for me and for Doug since he is thinking about taking a short road trip with his friend Robin the week before the procedure. I should be able to have the procedure done and then be able to go to my Tuesday night class.

In the event I am unable to go to class, my department chair said she would fill in for me since all she will have to do is pick up assignments. It seems that I am about the only one on the
faculty who can teach the Income Tax Preparation course.

School
My classes seem to be much better this term when compared to the last term. It seems that the students are more open to my favorite style of teaching; I love to use the Socratic Method and this approach seems upsetting to some students.

I made a bunch of students in my Thursday night class happy. I had met with one of the other faculty members and approached her about letting our common students use the same course project paper for both classes. The other instructor was agreeable to the proposal and the affected students were very happy because they now had to write only one course project paper and turn it in for two classes.

Excellent.

Other Drama in My Life
I still can't write the blog in Microsoft Word and then paste it into the blog. I really liked that feature because Word allowed me to use a much broader dictionary, one that I could add my special words to like "Perfectomundo," for example.

I started my Xeloda free week today. It is going to be very nice to not have to take the extra seven pills a day that I was taking with the Xeloda.

One of my former students emailed me and asked me to write a letter of recommendation for her. She is getting ready to interview for her first real job and wants everything to be just right. I will give her the letter on Monday, before my evening class starts.

That was nice of her and I felt very good about her request.


Be well and stay happy.

Catching Up with Time

Catching Up with Time
Well, here it is Saturday afternoon and I finally have some time to catch up with the blog. I was busy, for me at east, during the week.

I went to see my regular doctor on Monday to have him renew my regular prescriptions and to follow up on a potassium supplement he had me taking. I also wanted him to check my fingers and toes because I have had an annoying tingling sensation in them for the last month and a half now.

Since I was off the Oxaliplatin, I thought the tingling might be a result of my diabetes. The doctor checked my circulation and sensitivity to touch and said that the tingling was not related to my diabetes. He thought it was related to a delayed reaction to the Oxaliplatin and that I should talk my the oncologists about this.

Something to ask Dr. Karen when I see her in two weeks.

I spent a day and a half working on my lecture notes for my Wednesday morning class.

On Thursday, I had my high definition cable converter box installed. I do like and enjoy watching high definition television. My only disappointment is that my really crummy cable company [Time Warner Cable] has only about two dozen channels in high definition and I only watch maybe half of the channels.

I don't like the idea that the only full screen programs are the ones broadcast in high definition. All of the other programs, the ones I like to watch, and the commercials are truncated and shown in a narrow version.

Doug suggested that I ought to call Time Warner and find out what their high definition plans are. He also suggested that I could go with satellite television. I'm not sure about satellite just yet.

I think I will go back to the regular digital broadcast if there is going to be a long time to wait for more high definition television programming on Time Warner. This is a simple solution that guarantees every program will be a full, wide screen image.

I had time to kill while I waited for the cable guy. I ordered the Princess her usual, Fall tin of chocolate candy from Hershey's. This is something that I have been doing since she went off to the University of Utah, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. I also ordered a small tin of Hershey's chocolate for Molly the Stylist because I will see her on Halloween.

I went to get my eyes checked on Friday; what a painful ordeal. My appointment was for 10:00 AM; the mall store [EyeExam - Lenscrafters] opened ten minutes late. It took me an hour and forty five minutes to get my eyes checked and place an order for a new prescription and I was the first appointment. Part of the examination was an extreme dilation of my eyes so I couldn't read or type until almost dinner time.

My glasses come in a progressive lens style; there is no specific definition of where the close vision section is and where the other portion starts. I had been using my old glasses for just over two years so my eyes were very accustomed to finding the proper section without much thought or effort on my part. Now, I will have to train myself to get used to the new lenses.

Friday wasn't a total loss for me. I stopped at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf that is adjacent to the mall were EyeExam - Lenscrafters is located at picked up some coffee for my friend Lara in South Africa, some coffee for the Princess' old roommate, and some really interesting sounding tea for the Princess. I got her some pomegranate blueberry tea and some Bagawanalawa Estate tea from Ceylon [Sri Lanka].

Try saying Bagawanalawa three time quickly and see what happens.

I also picked up a bag of India Elkhill Estate coffee and a large ice blended drink. I never knew that India was a coffee growing region; I always thought of India and tea and maybe some opium on the side for the old China trade during the Raj.

The young woman who usually makes my large ice blended was acting as the cashier. After I placed my order, she had a look of "I know that order," or something like that. I told that she does a wonderful job of making my ice blendeds.

She must not get very many compliments like that because she was smiling so broadly when I left. I should have asked for her name so I could call and see if she is working when I am in the mood for a large ice blended.

Saturday was my running around and doing errands day. I was busy. I went to the post office to mail the coffee and tea packages. Then, I went to the Redondo Beach e-waste recycling clean up and dropped off an old black and white television, an old VHS tape player, a broken clock radio, a bunch of batteries, and a bunch of old prescriptions.

After dumping the electronic waste, I went to the market because I was out of food almost. The store had in my Arizona Tea Company Arnold Palmer Tea product; I have only been nagging the store manager for a month to get it in. I bought every bottle they had on the shelf.

Perfectomundo.

I finished off my lunch with a trip to visit my friend Gloria's frozen yogurt and ice cream store for some chocolate ice cream. Gloria gave me a big scoop and asked if I had had lunch with my son at the Original Tommy's Hamburgers. I said that I came out to see her and indulge myself in some very rich chocolate ice cream.

That made Gloria blush.

I had absolutely no shame when I put chocolate sauce and chocolate sprinkles on my chocolate ice cream. I know Dr. Karen would smile but I think my regular doctor would be frowning at me.

University of Utah Football
[From the Associated Press via ESPN.com]

LARAMIE, Wyo. -- With an interception and blocked punt returned for touchdowns in the first half, Utah's defense and special teams put this one away before the offense got in on the fun.

Sean Smith returned an interception 25 yards for a touchdown four minutes into the game, and Matt Asiata ran for a touchdown and caught another as the 14th-ranked Utes beat punchless Wyoming 40-7 on Saturday.

Playing in a gusty and biting wind, Utah (7-0, 3-0 Mountain West) remained undefeated, having no problem clearing this hurdle on it way to what the Utes hope will be another run to the BCS after needing a last-second field goal to beat Oregon State last week.

"We think we're heading in the right direction," Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. "But you know we have not played our best football as a team to this point."

Wyoming (2-5, 0-4) lost its fourth straight game, but managed to avoid being shut out for the third time this season.

Brian Johnson was 10-for-19 for 110 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions for Utah, and Asiata added 37 yards on 11 carries. Smith had two interceptions, including one in the end zone that thwarted one of the few Wyoming socring chances.

Johnson said the Utes didn't risk overlooking the Cowboys and won't look past other Mountain West opponents like Colorado State, which Utah plays next week in Salt Lake City.

"The thing is we've lost to every conference opponent since I've been here," Johnson said. "There's not a team in this conference that hasn't beat us before, so we have to know that if we don't come out and play our game every week that everything that we've worked for kind of goes down the drain."

Wyoming's Karsten Sween, one of four quarterbacks to play for the Cowboys, was 8-for-18 for 52 yards and three interceptions. Devin Moore led Wyoming with 106 yards on 23 carries.

Wyoming's offensive woes continued as the Cowboys turned the ball over five times, gained 252 total yards and converted 2-for-13 on third down. The Cowboys' only score came midway through the fourth quarter when third-string quarterback Chris Stutzreim found receiver Greg Bolling in the end zone with a lofting 18-yard pass.

"We need to find a guy that can throw the ball," Wyoming coach Joe Glenn said. "I thought Karsten (Sween), being the veteran guy, was in the best position to do that, but we will look at our quarterbacks and evaluate who we think can best help us win some games."

With the wind whipping scraps of paper across the field, both offenses concentrated on rushing and short passes. Wyoming gained 184 yards rushing to Utah's 123.

"Wind is more damaging to an offense than rain or snow," Whittingham said. "When you get the stiff wind like that it's very difficult to throw the football in either direction.

Utah built a 33-0 lead early in the third quarter when Johnson, rolling to the right, found Asiata for a 13-yard touchdown pass.

The Utes added their final touchdown late in the fourth quarter when Wyoming's Tashaun Gipson brushed, but failed to catch, a punt by Utah and the ball rolled into the Wyoming end zone, where R.J. Rice fell on it to put Utah up 40-7.

Wyoming's best field position of the game came off a muffed Utah punt midway through the third quarter. But the Utah defense held Wyoming for three downs, and Sween's fourth down pass attempt was intercepted by Smith in the end zone and returned to the Utah 31.

Utah led 27-0 at halftime, fueled by defense and special teams. Wyoming threw two interceptions and lost a fumble, leading to three Utah scores.

Utah's defense opened the scoring four minutes into the game when Smith snagged a tipped pass and scrambled 25 yards through Wyoming's lunging offensive players for a touchdown.

Later in the second quarter, Utah's Aiona Key burst through the Wyoming line to block Austin McCoy's punt at Wyoming's 5. Key collected the bouncing the ball and darted into the end zone to make it 19-0 with about 9 minutes left in the first half.

Utah's offense added to the scoring when Asiata barreled 3 yards into the end zone to make it 26-0 in the closing seconds of the first half.

Utah's Louie Sakoda added field goals of 50 yards and 39 yards in the first half.

Perfectomundo.

The Princess and I are so happy for our Utes. This is a very good way to end the day.

Be well and stay happy.

Attempted Rain

Attempted Rain
I am going to call what may have passed for light rain on Saturday as being only "attempted rain." I did have to turn on my car windshield wiper on an intermittent level for four or five wipes and then off. The Prelude was dirty so the few drops of rain didn't make too much more of a mess.

Visitors
The visitor traffic seems to have settled in around 470 visitors each week. The traffic remains about evenly split between the United States and international traffic.

We had 2,271 visitors in September. This is down significantly from the over 2,800 visitors im August. I think the decline is due, in part, to the improved visitor tracking software that sitemeter.com installed.

And other thoughts
I should probably ask Dr. Karen if I can add her photo to the blog periodically when I write about her.

Doug suggested that I try out a DVD on my new high definition television set yesterday. I watched the first of the John Ford Monument Valley cavalry trilogy films, FORT APACHE. I really enjoyed the clarity and crispness of the image. I am having the high definition cable television converter box installed on Thursday. I wonder what the Korean historical dramas, that I have enjoyed, would look like in high definition.

I got a survey from the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf when I was there on Saturday. After completing it, I will have a USD$1.00 off of my next purchase.

Sweet.


That was my weekend. I hope you had a good weekend.


Be well and stay happy.

Dr. Karen and Me

Dr. Karen and Me
I had my now, regular appointment with Dr. Karen on Friday.

The appointment had a routine air about it. There was no new information for her to give, aside from my blood test results [all good]. We talked about my visit to the colorectal surgeons and their plans for my treatment. Since any surgery is a year away, I started my low level chemotherapy maintenance on Friday.

Dr. Karen said that my liver and kidney functions were all fine and within the normal ranges. Even my diabetes readings were in the normal range in spite of having more than one Dr. Karen meal recently. Dr. Karen was confused until I explained that a Dr. Karen meal was one that was high in calories so that I could maintain my weight.

She smiled broadly.

Now that I had her in a good mood, I hit her up with desire or plan to lose some weight, about ten pounds or so over the next few weeks or months. Dr. Karen agreed with my plan so long as I took the weight off slowly.

I can do that.

Then, we got around to answering any questions that I might have. I was curious to know where she went to college, University of California, Berkley, and where she went to medical school, University of California, Davis. We also talked briefly about college football

That makes her a NoCal Gal [Northern California Woman].

And, that, gentle readers, was my day with Dr. Karen.


Be well and stay happy.

My hair is still gray.

My hair is still gray and other observations
Yes, my hair is still gray and it is still on my head where it should be. I can't tell if it looks any better because of Molly the Stylist's purple rinse or not. After all, I see my hair several times every day so it is very difficult for me to notice any change unless the change was truly dramatic.

Still, I have to watch and keep alert when I see Molly the Stylist again; last time, she got me to allow her to try a little hair spray on my hair.

First hair spray and now a purple rinse, what would my old Gunnery Sergeant from Navy ROTC say now.


I was surprised that neither my friend Lisa or Molly noticed or commented about my moustache.


The phone company came out and fixed the phone jack box in the other room on Thursday. This means that I get to spend Saturday moving things back into the other room and cleaning up as well.


Office Depot sent me a reminder email about a technology sale that is going on now and that it ends on Saturday. I guess that I will drive on over there and take another look at the Lenovo Laptop that comes with Windows XP. Having a laptop with Windows XP would solve a lot of computer based troubles in my life.

Something to think about tonight while I watch Star Wars: The Clone Wars cartoon show and later Sanctuary on the Sci-Fi Channel.

University of Utah Football
Our Utes came through in the final seconds of the game last night against Oregon State. with time expired, Louie Sadoka kicked a game winning field goal and the Utes walked away with a 31 to 28 victory over Oregon State, the school that beat the former Number 1 ranked team in the country a week ago.

The victory puts the Utah record at 6 wins and no losses. The latest ranking puts the Utes at Number 15 in the nation. I think it is likely that the Utes will move up in the rankings on Sunday.

Utah will play Wyoming, Colorado State, New Mexico, and San Diego State, all teams without winning records, before playing BYU, ranked 8th in the country and 4 - 0 in Provo on November 22nd. It seems likely that both Utah and BYU will meet each other with no losses, setting what may result in a major post season bowl game invitation for the winner. The loser would likely get a good post season bowl invitation as well.

I and a bunch of my fraternity brothers will be at the San Diego State [American] football game in San Diego. It seems highly likely that we will be reasonably well behaved and not out of control like we were as students.


Be well and stay happy.

"I want to try a purple rinse, Charles."

"I want to try a purple rinse, Charles."
That was what Molly the Stylist said to me when she was about half way through with my hair cut or styling as Molly likes to say.

I had all kinds of thoughts racing through my mind. Would I end up with blue hair like those little old ladies have? Would the purple rinse cause my hair to fall out? Would my student laugh at me tomorrow at school.

I felt brave and agreed to Molly's request. I did have a viable, workable backup plan. I could always go back and ask Molly to shave my head. Obviously that is a harsh solution and one that would be with me for a long time. Still, a bald head is much better, in my mind, than having tinted hair.

One of my students in my morning class today has tinted hair. She is a female so tinted hair generally looks good on women.

I really do like the job Molly has done on my hair. She is the first stylist in maybe twenty years to get my hair correct. Of course, I did tip Molly nicely and I will be seeing her more often than I saw Amber the Stylist.

Typing about Amber the Stylist, Amber graduated last night from college. I am guessing that she will be out looking for a more rewarding job [higher paying] than being a hair stylist. And, she is likely to be moving on soon.

Natalie the Receptionist
Natalie the Receptionist called me yesterday afternoon to remind me that I had an appointment with Molly at 1:00 PM today. I recognized the call because my cell phone has the Salon in my directory.

I always enjoy our brief talks and wish we could have had a longer talk. I wanted to know what new excitement had entered her life. Natalie now works in the spa section of the Salon so I don't see her all that often.

Maybe I will see her when I go in for my next appointment with Molly on October 31st or Halloween.

I wonder if Molly or Natalie will be in costume on the 31st.

Prepping for my time with Dr. Karen
I went in for my blood tests this afternoon. It was not too bad except for the screaming children. I picked up some donuts for my morning class; I needed to add a pound to weight so Dr. Karen won't get upset with me too much.

The truth is, Dr. Karen always seems to be overly concerned about my desire to lose some weight. This is understandable since I am a cancer patient.

Oh well, I will say that I will try harder to gain some weight when I see her on Friday.


Be well and stay happy.