Balancing Checkbooks

Molly the Stylist

2012-01-04T20:10:00.000-08:00

Molly the Stylist
I went to see Molly to have my hair cut this morning. It was getting on the shaggy side and needed to be trimmed badly.

Today was supposed to be a day for Molly’s next close up. This is my description of getting a new photo of her and me for the blog. It was a poor hair day and someone was not feeling photogenic.

We did have a discussion on why I should stop giving her candy. Molly loves chocolate in any form and almost dies for M&M peanuts. Perfectly logical decisions I think. I did point out that St. Valentine’s Day was the next likely candy gift until Halloween and that she would have close to four months to get ready for bikini season.

I think that was when she might have decided she was being a bit too hasty in telling me no more candy.

Joyriding
Since I wasn’t interested in the professional football games on television Sunday morning, I went for a joy ride in the MINI with the top down. It was perfect weather for the joy ride.

The temperature was about 80F / 27C.

The sky was cloudless.

The roads were fairly empty of traffic so I could roll right along.

It was a great way to spend some time.

New Shoes
I ordered some new casual shoes from L. L. Bean. They arrived yesterday while I was in class. I put them on this morning and I love my new shoes. They are beyond comfortable. The best feature on my shoes is they were on sale when I ordered them; I saved almost 50%.

Perfect.

Be well and stay happy.

End of Year Excitment

2012-01-01T14:46:00.000-08:00

End of Year Excitement
Maybe calling this blog posting the End of Year Excitement is a classic example of poetic license. I hope my license hasn’t expired yet. I still have lots of writing left to do.
Moving on.

The Year in Numbers
It was an interesting year for me in terms of numbers. Surprisingly, everything added up nicely for me.

The blog finished up the year with a good showing. Of course, it is way off its totals from when I was posting the Woman of the Moment features. That drove travel significantly for the blog. December had 529 visitors who viewed 1,099 pages. The total for the year was 3,878. The cumulative total from when I started the blog in 1995 is 62,299 visitors.

I felt good about my little blog until Doug told me earlier in December that one his blogs, NBA Off Season has over 30,000 followers.

Oh well.

The MINI managed to roll up 6.50 hours of top down driving for the month. It was cold a lot during the month. The year’s total was 209.75 hours; it was a warm Summer. The cumulative top down driving time is 294.25 hours.

The MINI now has 27,693 miles on the odometer.

Excitement
Last week, I was out running errands with the top up. It was 58F at the beach and overcast. I came home and found the building car entrance blocked by a Redondo Beach ladder fire truck and two police cars.

And I missed all of the excitement.

Later that day, I asked one of my neighbors what happened. He said someone had a small kitchen fire that produced a lot of smoke. Someone saw the smoke called the Fire Department. The police possibly showed up because all of the fresh donuts had been sold at the local donut shop or maybe they were bored.

On New Years’ Eve, actually it was early New Years’ Day; I went to Fatburger for a really late meal. They were open until 3:00 AM and I had a coupon for a free bag of fries that expired that night.

I was extremely fortunate to have been able to drive to Fatburger and back home without any problems. The fog was extremely thick; even with my fog lamps and head lights on in the MINI, I could barely see more than fifty yards.

Luckily, I know the way there and back very well.

Last bit or sip of excitement, I received some cocoa from one of my nieces for Christmas. I am not a hot chocolate drinking kind of guy, especially since the only milk in the flat is low fat milk and that is not the best for hot chocolate.

I drink iced decaf mocha from Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf sometimes so I thought about trying some of my instant coffee with the cocoa powder.

I used hot coffee since I thought the hot water would dissolve the cocoa powder faster.

The mixture turned out wonderful. It was sweet, like me almost, and warm.

Thanks muchly Jessie.

University of Utah Football – Go Utes
Our Utes played Georgia Tech in the Sun Bowl in El Paso on New Years’ Eve Day.

The Utes were three point underdogs. At one point, I thought the odds makers made correction predictions. This was right after Georgia Tech scored 14 points in less than a minute in the third quarter.

The Utes came back to tie the game in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter. They won the game in overtime with a final score of Utah 30 – Georgia Tech 27. Since the game was on national television [CBS], I don’t think there is much more that I could add about the game.

I will add that Utah’s win was the first win for the PAC 12 Conference in post season play this year.

Sweet.

Cinema
I did get out to the cinema last week and saw SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS.

I enjoyed the film. It was a nice Summer film that was released at the end of the year as an example of counterprogramming. It has a simple plot line of stopping Professor Morriarity or however his name is spelled. It is a good guy film; it doesn’t require a great deal of thought or understanding to enjoy the two plus hours you spent in the multiplex.

I plan to go see TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY when it goes into general release later this week. Doug saw the film with his movie club and they all loved it.

Doug and the Princess both recommended THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATOO to me. He’s seen it twice now, something he rarely does with films.

I also want to see a film called THE ARTIST. I am interested in the film because it is largely filmed as a silent movie.

Be well and stay happy.

Hiarcuts and Styling

2011-12-09T16:38:00.000-08:00

Haircuts and Styling
I went to see Molly the Stylist for my monthly haircut. She says she styles my hair. In any event, I was due for a trim around the ears. I ran into three of my former students on Tuesday night.

One said my hair was starting to look on the shaggy side.

I wonder where Scooby Doo was.

The salon has a new receptionist. I think her name is Kirstiana. Molly had an assistant. It was the first time that I could remember her having one. Her name is Caitlin; well, I think that is how she would spell her name.

Caitlin shampooed my hair. This was the first time in four and a half years that someone other than Molly or her predecessor Amber has shampooed my hair. Eventually, Caitlin will become a stylist as well.

Molly raved about how wonderful the Hershey’s Chocolate Covered Almonds were. She took them home for Thanksgiving and shared them with her girlfriends and wine. Molly gave me a big thank you hug. Molly also liked her Christmas gift of Ethel M chocolates. She even shared them with Kirstiana and Caitlin.

Cinema
I went to see THE SKIN I LIVE IN based on Doug’s recommendation. It is a film by the great Spanish director, Pedro Almodovar.

It is a very impressive film. It is also not a film for the faint of heart. There is a fair amount of violence in the film including simulated rapes and drunken parties. I was surprised that I had only an “R” rating. I thought it should have carried a “NC-17” rating; but that is just me. The acting is very good with mostly a Spanish cast. The film is sort of a modern version of the Frankenstein story.

I liked the film and enjoyed it. It isn’t for everyone. If you like Almodovar, then you will probably like this film as well.

My GAMERA TRILOGY arrived thus afternoon. This is the Blue Ray HD version of the 1990’s copies of the 1960’s black and white original Gamera films. I hope I made the lineage clear.

This looks like the perfect set to have a movie marathon with on a cold and rainy day. I do have two weeks off starting next Saturday so one of those days could be perfect. Of course, I would have to spring for a bottle of sake.

Wondering why?
As I was driving to Molly’s salon on Tuesday, I missed a traffic light and had to stop. There were a couple of high school girls who crossed in front of my car. Their coats were longer than their shorty shorts. The temperature was a brisk 41F.

Hayden Panettiere, above, in shorty shorts.

Why would someone wear that short of an outfit in that cold?

I guess it was to gain attention or maybe a mild case of hypothermia.

Be well and stay happy.

PearlHarbor Day

2011-12-07T14:05:00.000-08:00

Pearl Harbor Day
Today is the seventieth anniversary of the attack on the United States forces in the Territory of Hawaii and in the Philippine Islands by the Japanese empire. 2400 American died at Pearl Harbor.

We must always remember that freedom is never free. American servicemen and women have paid for your freedom.

Here are three views of the USS Arizona from yesterday and today.

Be well and stay happy.

Proud of Myself

2011-12-06T10:55:00.000-08:00

Proud of Myself
I was feeling really good this weekend. I got my Christmas cards out on Sunday.

I think this is the earliest ever for me since I came home from the war in Viet Nam. I mailed my cards early because I could skip paying postage if I mailed from the war zone. Of course stamps weren’t $0.44 each for first class mail. But I was only earning maybe $325.00 a month.

Everything balances out in the end.

I went to my company’s Christmas Party over the weekend. It was the best one on four years. I had fun and I stayed until around 10:00 PM. That was late for me. the prior ones were horrible and I usually was long gone by 8:30.

This morning I went to Harbor UCLA Medical Center to say good bye to my doctors and the nurses in the Oncology Clinic. It was a happy – sad moment for me. I got a very nice hug from Nurse Vhrunda.

I left Linda and Vhrunda laughing when I said that my departure because I was cancer free would make getting ready for swim suit season a bit easier. No more luscious, sweet chocolates.

Be well and stay happy.

November by the Numbers

2011-12-02T20:06:00.000-08:00

November by the Numbers
The blog had the second best month of the year or last twelve months in November. We had 593 visitors to the blog during the month and 61,770 visitors from when the blog started. The visitors looked at 1,175 pages. No particular page stands out as a leading landing spot any more. The largest total of page views was less than 20% of all of the pages.

The MINI continued to roll along nicely. The odometer flashed at 26, 599 miles as I pulled into the car park in the building. Winter is coming and this will adversely affect my Openometer time. November was only 14 hours of top down driving. My total for the year is now at 203.25 hours.

Be well and stay happy.

Odds and Ends

2011-11-29T14:13:00.000-08:00

Odds and Ends
This is just some stuff that managed to fall into my line of sight recently.

Last week, Mexican archeological authorities announced they had found a second reference to the end of the Mayan long calendar in 2012 at a different site. This ought to drive the doomsday crowd nutso. At least, I should read some more about the long calendar.

I was at my local market yesterday to pick up some food. I was in line behind a guy who had two large boxes of wine. I thought that boxed wine had gone the way of the fountain pen and disappeared.

That would be one party to avoid.

Someone with the name of camgirls left a couple of posts on the blog yesterday. I think he or she was writing in free verse. It didn’t make much sense to me.

There’s going to be another adult entertainment event at the Los Angeles Convention Center next month. I won’t be going. I will admit the scheduling was creative; it follows the Auto Show, two events that seem to cater to males.

Be well and stay happy.

Ending the month

2011-11-27T15:52:00.000-08:00

Ending the month
I managed to survive Thanksgiving Day.

I was up at 6:30 AM and started to prepare the meal around 7:30 with dicing onions. Not the best way to begin a day. I finished making the dressing and I had to wait until it cooled before I stuffed the turkey.

I never knew that I was supposed to wait until the mixture had cooled first. And to think I have been making it wrong for the last thirty five or more years. I am still learning. I made some extra dressing because there is nothing worse than running out of dressing leftovers before you run out of turkey leftovers.

We had a pumpkin pie that came from the freezer. I baked that while the dressing cooled. I also set the table and did last minute cleaning stuff.

Fast forward to supper time.

We, that would be my former wife, my son and me, had a very ice meal although I thought the turkey turned out to be smaller than I thought it would be. It was an eleven pound Butterball turkey. My turkey leftovers were gone by noon on Saturday. I cooked and prepared the turkey with dressing, instant mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie.

After my guests left, I cleaned up for about an hour and a half.

I crawled in my bed at 8:30 PM and slept for almost ten hours. I guess I was tired.

Instead of going shopping on Friday after Thanksgiving, I rested. I weighed myself and was very pleased with myself for only gaining a half pound so far this holiday season.

Teaching
I finally got my teaching schedule for the coming quarter. It isn’t too bad. I have three classes again and that was a minor disappointment for me. I will be teaching Microeconomics, Research Methods, and Project Human Resource Management. I have taught these classes before.

Normally, the course would not be difficult to prepare for since they are repeaters for me. Microeconomics and Research Methods have had their curriculums completely revised so they will become new courses for me. I do have a week with nothing to do except relaxing and addressing Christmas cards so I do have time to prepare.

This quarter will mark the start of my sixth year of teaching at ITT Technical Institute.

This coming Saturday is the company holiday party. It will be different since three campus staffs are combining for one large event. That means there will be three separate groups sort of dining and partying together.

I had planned to go to the event with a date. That didn’t work out as planned. My last eHarmony match closed me out unexpectedly. I was over the closure in a minute or two.

eHarmony
As of the end of November, I had just over 460 closed matches. The closed matches are about equally split between her and me. Right now, I don’t plan to renew my membership when it runs out in December.

During the year, I did have several eHarmony matches that went somewhere beyond the initial exchange of information. There was the liberal political columnist who thought my libertarian-centrist views were a perfect match of her liberal views. She was sadly mistaken.

There were others who didn’t always tell the visual truth about themselves. I discovered that head shots and undated photos were signs something was amiss. One match used a photo that had to be twenty years old.

Honesty is the best policy.

Odds and Ends
I got lucky this month. We are having a warm spell in Southern California right now.

I drove home from school in the MINI yesterday with the top down. It was 88F when I left the campus; it was 67F by the time I reached the beach forty five minutes later. Today, I had to run out to pick up my lunch. It was 77F so I put the top down again.

I finished the draft of my 2011 Christmas Letter and sent it to the Princess and Doug. Doug liked it and only one minor change suggestion. Hopefully, the Princess will get back to me quickly with her comments.

This week, I sent my longest running Internet friend Lara from South Africa a package of coffee and Sunday comics. She loves our coffee and comics.

Be well and stay happy.

Vterans' Day - November 11, 2011

2011-11-11T10:05:00.003-08:00

Veterans’ Day
Always remember that freedom is never free. It was bought and paid for by the sacrifices of countless veterans past and will be purchased by veterans future.

Be well and stay happy and live free

I should blog more often

2011-11-05T10:03:00.000-07:00

I should blog more often
I should blog more often. I do have the time and I do have things going on in my life that present a modest degree of drama. I have my classes at school. With Winter coming on, I’ll be driving with the top down less.

My new very tentative teaching schedule for next quarter is blog writing friendly. I am scheduled to teach three classes on Thursday and Friday nights and Saturday afternoon. Plenty of time to write for the blog.

October by the Numbers
The blog had 619 visitors over the month. They viewed a total of 1,350 pages. My blog has had 61,255 visitors since its inception.

October was not the best of months for top down driving. It was a good month for driving in general though. I had only 14.75 hours of top down driving for the month. My total top driving total hours stands at 182.25 hours.

The MINI rolled over the 25,000 mile marker in October.

The seldom driven Pathfinder finally hit 98,000 miles.

The MINI gets around 32 miles to the gallon. The Pathfinder gets close to 18 miles to the gallon. With the price of gasoline close to USD$4.00 a gallon, it doesn’t require a mathematics degree to see why I drive the MINI more.

Money aside, the MINI is more fun to drive.

I had to take the MINI in to get new wiper blades in October. While I was waiting for my car to be finished, I had a chance to look at the new MINI Coupe. I was going to check it out and sit behind the wheel. I couldn’t find a shoe horn large enough to work my way in to be comfortable.

My reaction was who green lit this idea?

Did the German designers figure out the car’s look on an Oktoberfest beer hall napkin that got crumpled and then everyone thought that was the approved design?

Anyway, I love the MINI so I won’t be buying a coupe anytime soon.

Life Could Be A Dream
I went to see a musical last weekend. Life Could Be A Dream. It is a Romeo and Juliette story told with rock and roll songs from the 1950s and 1960s. The music was nice. The plot was formulaic.

Cancer free me
I had another post operation checkup last month.

I’m fine and doing well. I go back again in six months and then I will stay on a six month cycle of checkups. I’m not thrilled by having to take a CT scan for the next appointment. I have to drink this vile contrast dye before the scan.

On the plus side, it is only once or twice a year so I can live with that.

Molly the Stylist
I have been sending Molly the Stylist a box of Hershey’s miniature candies to her salon for Halloween. Molly loves Mr. Goodbar candies so I think she goes through and picks them all out. I looked in a small dish she had on a table and there were no Mr. Goodbars in the jar.

Molly did give me a very nice hug when I walked into the salon.

Be well and stay happy.

Buzzing around the Los Angeles Freeways

2011-10-03T09:34:00.000-07:00

Buzzing around the Los Angeles Freeways
I was out buzzing around on the local freeways over the weekend. It was warm, sunny, and slightly breezy.

Perfect for driving with the top down as I was.

I was on one freeway and I had to slow for construction. I think half of the stimulus program must have been spent on Los Angeles Freeway repairs.

A guy pulled up next to me in a 5 or 7 series late model BMW sedan. It looked nice and had those wide low profile tires. He was starting to pull ahead of me when his right rear tire exploded in a loud bang or pop.

I’m not certain which; I had the radio on and my station was playing a favorite song of mine so the volume was cranked up.

Anyway, I immediately slowed so I could let him pull over. I was hoping her would get through my lane and off to the side of the road. It looked as if I was watching a slow motion film of the tire coming off of the wheel. He crossed in front of me riding on the wheel rims. Sparks were flying and I could hear the wheel grinding on the pavement.

It was almost like a NASCAR crash only without the smoking tires and car decals and stickers and stuff.

It took forever for him to finally get off the main road and on to the shoulder.

I was extremely happy the tire failed at a slower speed. If it had happened at normal freeway speeds, I might not be here. I might have been in a hospital.

Weather in Southern California and the MINI
I had to drive to school on last Friday. [See MINI JAX posting] The weather gods had turned against me and the MINI. There was thunder and lightning and rain. Large rain drops.

I put on my windshield wipers and the wiper blades disintegrated. They fell apart. This was not what I was expecting to happen. The car is only fifteen months old. That is way too soon to replace wiper blades.

Maybe I have been spoiled by owning a Honda.

Tomorrow, I am going into the dealership to have the wiper blades replaced.

I think this Summer was cooler than last year.

I have a simple weather gauge.

Last year, I was able to drive home from school after class, around 9:45 PM or so, with the top down and not have to turn on the heater for a couple of days. This year, I haven’t been able to do that at all.

Be well and stay happy

MINI JAX

2011-10-02T16:24:00.000-07:00

MINI JAX
MINI JAX is the personalized license of a 2008 or 2009 MINI Cooper. It is a crème colored convertible.

I had a chance to say hello and wave at the young female driver last Friday on my way to school. MINI JAX was in the lane to my right. I first passed her on the 405 Freeway when we slowed down for traffic. I had lowered my top because I had driven out of the rain in Redondo Beach.

It was warm and sunny and a perfect day for top down driving.

We kept pace with each other until we got close to the 405 – 710 Freeway Interchange and then I lost sight of her.

The traffic began to ease in North Long Beach and I saw MINI JAX probably three quarters of a mile ahead of me.

I decided to catch up with her. In retrospect, my decision to catch up with MINI JAX was probably really foolish and risky. I checked my speed once as I darted between very large trucks. The needle indicated we were traveling somewhere north of 75 miles an hour.

It was exhilarating to do something foolish like this.

I pulled in behind her and stayed there for a couple of miles. She might have waved at me after I got behind her; I’m not certain since I was changing lanes and looking for traffic. Then I changed lanes and passed. She followed my move.

We continued on like this for a few miles more until she took either the 605 Freeway exit or the 7th Street exit.

MINI JAX made my drive to school certainly very memorable.

Be well and stay happy.

September by the Numbers

2011-10-02T16:08:00.000-07:00

September by the Numbers
September was an interesting month for me.

The blog traffic and page views jumped to the highest point in a year. There was no one page that stood out. The highest any individual page had in terms of traffic volume was only 19%.

The blog had 504 visitors who viewed 915 pages.

The blog has had 60,558 visitors since its inception.

My driving time in the MINI was off for the month. Spending a week in a hospital and then resting for a week after the hospital stay and doing mostly nothing killed any hopes of top down driving time.

I did manage to pick up 15.25 hours of top down driving. My year to date total time is 174.50 hours. The MINI rolled on to 24,203 miles.

Be well and stay happy.

yard stones

2011-09-27T10:05:00.000-07:00

yard stones
I had thought about titling the blog “milestones”; but, after the doctors said I was free of cancer, milestones seemed to be a poor choice. I haven’t had anything exciting happen to me lately.

I did go see a film DETECTIVE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM FLAME. It is a Chinese film that combines a CSI-like detective and great wire work from CROUCHNG TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. The interesting part of the film is that is based, in part, on historical records.

Fascinating.

While it is primarily an action film, I think I could have taken my girlfriend to see it and she would have liked it. But, I don’t have a girlfriend now. If I did, I would have taken her.

Doug said I should go see DRIVE because it is a truly great film. He’s seen it twice now. He also recommended MONEYBALL to me.

The MINI turned over 24,000 miles on my way to school last night. It was great to drive to school with the top down and cruise on the freeways at almost 70 miles an hour.

I got my weekly performance reports for the new quarter at school yesterday. All of my numbers for the most important criteria were strong positive variances.

I also picked up my student evaluation summary results. The school does a quarterly evaluation. My mean scores were 4.73 on a scale to 1 to 5 with 5 being best. Last quarter was my worst quarter in five years of teaching. I had some really ugly numbers.

My staples are out and I am healing nicely. The itching sensation has fallen off. Now, I just have a long, straight scar.

Be well and stay happy.

Victory Tour Celebration

2011-09-15T20:18:00.000-07:00

Victory Tour Celebration
Victory Tour Celebration is my current working title for my next few months. Doug and I have talked about the Tour when he visited me in the hospital. He thought it was a good idea.

I began the Tour when I arrived at the City of Hope National Cancer Institute on September 2nd for the liver resection. The operation was scheduled to start around 2:00 PM and last four to five hours.

We had a minor complication from the start. My operation required the use of the largest of the six operating rooms. It may seem odd to some that the City of Hope only has six operating rooms. It is a small hospital that is primarily a world class cancer research facility.

By way of comparison, Harbor UCLA Medical Center where I go for my once every three weeks visit is a major regional trauma center. It is in the process of adding a new surgical wing that will have twenty operating rooms.

Doug and I are used to operating room delays. It happened before in January, 2010 when my colon was reconnected.

Around 3:00 PM, the nurses in the pre-operation area started telling us the delay would only last another thirty minutes or so. By 5:30, Dr Joseph Kim, my surgeon, was looking very glum and unhappy.

I tried to make some jokes out of the delays. I told the nurses the delay wasn’t bothering me; I didn’t have anything else to do that day. Besides, I needed the experience so I would have something to tell my students when they asked me what I did over the quarter break.

Finally, the operation went off. It was shorter than originally planned. I can’t say for certain if that was true or not since I was asleep at the time.

Dr. Kim pronounced the operation a complete success. I have a very manly twelve inch long scar to prove I had an operation.

I’m not certain when I was moved from the recovery room to ICU. I just woke up in ICU on Saturday morning. I was beginning to feel like a gypsy when I was moved to a regular room that afternoon.

Dr. Kim came by to check in on me. We talked about the procedure and the results. He removed a portion of my liver that had the famous, two unchanging sized lesions. He found a third lesion.

Nice.

Dr. Kim described the operation as being similar to taking a divot when making a chip shot in golf.

Personally, I’ve always favored the hand mashie or the always reliable foot niblack.

The operation, in terms of the cancerous lesions was a complete success. Dr. Kim went on to say that I now have an early Stage A form of cirrhosis of the liver. The disease was in the early stages so we caught it early. Since it appeared to be a new growth, he believes the chemotherapy was the primary cause.

I would tend to agree with him. Chemotherapy is, by its very nature, a very toxic drug; it is designed to destroy cells. I have been in chemotherapy for almost four years. Since I am going off chemotherapy now, the cirrhosis should develop at a slower rate since the primary cause has been removed.

This also means that my fraternity brothers are not responsible for the cirrhosis. We did tend to drink heavily when I was an undergraduate at the University of Utah.

My life quickly settled into a routine. Every four hours, it was time for vital signs testing and blood sugar tests.

My routine reminded me of serving on the good ships USS Perkins, USS Leonard F. Mason, and USS Lucid. It was like being woken every four hours for the midwatch but with no “mid rats” to help you along.

I never realized how important passing gas is until my stay in the hospital.

Passing gas would mean my intestines and colon were functioning normally. A functioning digestive system was a prerequisite to solid food.

Finally, on Monday morning, I achieved a modest gas passage. That meant I could graduate from IV food to hot flavored water [broth]. Some milestones in life are seemingly inconsequential when viewed out of their proper context.

I’ve never thought of broth as being a proper breakfast food. It isn’t; I tried to give the broth a fair chance. I couldn’t take more than a few swallows and turned to chilled apple juice.

Dr. Kim came by when Doug was visiting me on Tuesday. The big discussion was when to release me. Dr. Kim would have released me on Wednesday. I asked for one more day in the hospital and a Thursday morning release.

No problems; it was Thursday for a release.

The big event for Tuesday was an ultrasound examination of my liver. The purpose was to check on the liver and make certain there were no problems. Fine with me.

Regrettably, no one bothered to share the play book with the ultrasound technician. It was the worst experience ever in a hospital for me. The technician was an Asian American young woman who frankly seemed put off at me showing up late in the day for the test. I almost felt if I should have apologized for being there at 4:30 PM.

I could have come in earlier; it wasn’t like I busy or anything or stuck in traffic.

She had reviewed a CT scan from August. That was nice of her. The scan very clearly showed lesions in my liver. She was obsessed with finding them with her ultrasound transducer. She pressed much harder and deeper than I thought was reasonable or necessary while she tried in vain to find the now nonexistent lesions.

The technician called one of the other technicians to help her find the phantom lesions. This was the only smart act of the session for her.

The second technician saw a large scar over my liver complete with staples. This clearly indicated a recent operation. The second technician thoughtfully asked what I was in the hospital for.

“Liver resection; Dr. Kim removed part of my liver that contained three lesions a day or so ago.”

“Oh.” The two technicians spoke out of my hearing.

The first technician was upset, perhaps even more upset, because she looked like an idiot in my eyes and always will be. She then proceeded to poke and prod me as if she was trying to find some mistake that Dr. Kim might have made.

There were no mistakes.

She had me roll on to my right side, putting my weight on my operated on liver and increasing my pain and discomfort significantly as she searched across my body. This was a lost exercise since the ultrasound wasn’t powerful enough to take a clear image.

Had the technician invested a brief moment of her time and even tried acting like she was pleased to see me, she could have avoided putting me through so much pain. It is true that I am not a medical professional. I am still intelligent and I was aware of what had happened in the operating room.

I could have told her there were no more lesions to find.

I learned a bit about sonar systems during my misspent youth in the United States Navy. I was responsible for the sonar system on the good ship Lucid. I know how much power you need for a clear image.

Anyway, the torture over; I returned to my room for dinner.

Dinner was an upgrade to unclear liquids. I had a bowl of cream of potato soup, iced tea, and a scoop of chocolate ice cream.

My friend Sharon came by to see me after her left her job. It was nice of Sharon to stop by. We talked for about half an hour, maybe a bit more. It was one of our usual pattern conversations. Sharon is a breast cancer survivor. A good part of our talk was about questions to problems at her job.

I don’t think too much of Sharon’s boss.

I doubt her boss could lead a pack of hungry wolves to a side of beef.

Wednesday was a quiet day aside from the once every four hours for tests. I was up and walking around on the floor.

I decided to splurge on food. I was upgrade to regular food. I had a cheeseburger and fries with iced tea and chocolate ice cream. It tasted very good.

Thursday I left the hospital. Doug picked me up and drove me home. I sort of blobbed around on Thursday. I didn’t do much of anything except check my email; I had over 190 emails, and rest, nap, and sleep.

Friday Doug and I ran some errands. I drove the MINI and logged two and a half hours of top down driving spread over several hours. I was great to get out and sit behind the wheel of the MINI.

We had lunch at my local The Counter Grill. I had a buy one – get one free coupon. Perfect. I did exercise restraint and skipped dessert. I am eating a bit healthier now. One of the stops was the Wal-Mart pharmacy to drop my Vicodin prescription that Dr. Oxner wrote out for me. I got around to picking it up on Tuesday.

I mostly rested over the weekend and got ready for school on Monday. I watched Utah play USC in football. It was depressing because I thought the Utah coaches’ play calling had all of the inspiration of a bowl of three day old mashed potatos.

Skipping ahead to this Wednesday, I went back to the City of Hope for a checkup and staple removal. Staple removal, I’ve been told, is painful. I never experienced that aspect.

I asked Dr. Kim if he could give me a simple easy to understand explanation of my medical condition. He thought for a moment and said that I could say that I’m free of cancer.

“I’ve free of cancer.”

Life is very good for me.

Be well and stay happy.

August by the Numbers

2011-09-10T14:47:00.001-07:00

August by the Numbers
I was thinking that August was going to be better than July when the month started. The blog visitors were up by almost 100 for the month of August. Page popularity was unchanged. MINI top down driving was down by four hours.

Blog visitors: 310

Most popular page: September 1, 2007
Second most popular page: February 1, 2007

MINI cumulative miles: 23,286
MINI monthly top down driving time: 34.50

I guess it was a draw.

Looking ahead, I don’t think I’ll to as well in top down driving since I was in the hospital for almost a week.

Be well and stay happy.

not going there

2011-08-26T08:41:00.001-07:00

not going there
I won’t be attending the hemp.com convention and the Exxxxotica Convention this weekend. They’ll be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Adult entertainment and hemp certainly make for an interesting combination. I can imagine who the attendees might mingle at the end of the day.

There is a cat festival of sorts in Santa Monica this weekend also.

For a brief moment, I had thought about dropping by. I figured I might have a chance to meet women in my age group at the show. Then, I realized those women would probably be cat fanciers or even worse have cats at home.

All of a sudden I had an epiphany and discovered staying home and teaching were so much better options for me

A cat show? What was I thinking?

Be well and stay happy.

I've been away on vacation, sort of

2011-08-25T20:33:00.000-07:00

I’ve been away on vacation, sort of
It’s August. It’s Summertime; that means vacations or in my case a staycation. I stayed home this Summer.

Why go anywhere when I live in Paradise or what passes for it?

I didn’t just blob around all August. I did teach four classes at ITT Technical Institute.

The MINI and I went joyriding several times during the month. It was great to drive very fast with the top down. I think the radio was playing loudly; I could be wrong since I couldn’t hear anything.

eHarmony
eHarmony came through for me and found me some matches. I went out with one woman for five dates. Then she decided we had a culture difference thing. Hello Ms China, you knew I wasn’t Chinese when we first met. What made you believe I was anything but a normal European American male?

I will admit that I was ready to leave when she started dropping marriage bombs and marriage ultimatums by our second date. I am not opposed to the idea of marriage. I just want to move into the idea on my own, at my own speed, and under no duress.

Hopefully, one of the current batch of potential draft choices will work for me.

Me and the Cancer
I get to spend Labor Day weekend in the hospital so I can have my operation to remove part of my liver. It’s OK, the liver will grow back.

I’m surprised that I have any blood left in me after all of the blood tests I went through. My arm felt like a pin cushion. The testing reminded me of when I had to get shots for active duty in the navy in my senior year in college. A former girlfriend was a nursing student and she gave me my shots personally.

I will never forget Student Nurse Joyce.

Neither will my arms.

Enough of my past.

Doug and I met with the surgeon this month to firm up the surgery schedule. I had sent him an email that said I could come to the hospital on August 30th. He thought I was ready for surgery on August 19th. We resolved the schedule so now it is September 2nd. This is at the late side of my time window. I can still have the surgery and be back to teaching without no downtime.

I will have to use my cane for a couple of weeks of school and I will have to sit down more often than I normally do in my classes. I had thought about using my walker during the first week or two of school. I gave that idea up since the school director and dean have never seen me use a walker.

Don’t need to shock them.

Doug said it was fine if I smoked a cigar or two after the operation. Smoking a cigar will be the first since 2005. I am entitled to have a modest Victory Over Cancer celebration.

Nurses Vrunda and Valerie were not thrilled at the idea of me cutting back visiting the clinic after the operation. They have become attached to the candy I bring in from time to time. Vrunda said I have to visit them regularly and that I have to bring her candy. Vrunda is not big on the sharing with the coworkers concept yet.

idle promises
I won’t make any idle promises about writing more regularly. I’ll think about writing more frequently. My teaching schedule of all evening classes next quarter should allow me to write more often than once a month.

Doug said that I didn’t have to write every day if I didn’t feel like writing.

That makes sense to me.

Be well and stay happy.

Me at the half point, sort of

2011-07-06T20:17:00.000-07:00

Me at the half way point, sort of
2011 is just over half complete. The year has certainly gone by fast or so it seemed for me. I suppose the second half will be just as fast.

I thought I might take a look at the year in review.

Me and the Cancer
It has been a very good year for me so far with my colon cancer.

I am still going to Harbor UCLA Medical Center once every three weeks. I am now seeing two new doctors, Dr. Dilruba Haque and Dr. Deepu Maddurri. Dr. Kwan and Dr. Wang have moved on. Strangely, all of my doctors at Harbor UCLA have been women.

I wonder why.

I finally went out to the City of Hope, a major cancer research center, for a second opinion about the cancer treatment. The oncologist I have been seeing likes to take an aggressive approach to my treatment.

He will be operating on me at the end of August and perform what he calls a minor liver procedure. I think it is a major procedure but, then, I haven’t gone to medical school and all that stuff so I’ll take his word for the procedure.

I’ll get another scar, about six to eight inches or twenty to twenty five centimeters long when he removes part of my liver. The liver will grow back completely. The portion he will remove has two small lesions or masses that are probably dead cancer cells that originated in my tumor in my colon. Once they are gone, Dr. Kim has said I will be cured and can go off chemotherapy.

Excellent.

My future is bright and hopefully in a few months after the operation, my hands will start healing to the point that I can take up golf again. My hands are badly cracked and dried out like the Mojave Desert from the three and half years of chemotherapy.

eHarmony
I signed up for eHarmony because the Princess had been nagging me to do so for years.

I can’t say that I have found a match yet. I thought I had come close twice last month but the women changed their minds I guess and decided I wasn’t what they were looking for.

Now, I have some new matches and some actually look very promising from my point of view.

After reflecting on over three hundred closed matches, closed by either her or me, I decided to change my approach. I’m going to take my time working through the new matches and see what develops. I’ll also allow the matches to have a longer time to respond to me since this is the vacation season. I’ve learned a few ideas since I’ve been with eHarmony.

Women who don’t have photos are hiding something.

Women that only have head shots are probably hiding something.

Women that have undated photos are probably hiding something.

Women who say they love foreign travel, fine dining, shopping, and long weekends at five star beach front resorts probably want me to pay for everything.

Anyway, I will have something to do this Summer.

Teaching
I am now into my fifth year of teaching at ITT Technical Institute. I guess I must be a good teacher since i am still there.

This quarter I have four courses, two of which are new ones. That means I have a lot of work to do this quarter and then I can coast for the next several years while I make minor changes in my lecture notes. This quarter I am teaching American Government [complete new course], Business Law and Regulation [new text and new curriculum], Overview of Digital Technology, and Introduction to Project Management.

Next quarter, ITT is beginning to offer two new degree programs in business. I am hopeful of being able to teach more business classes. That would be sweet for me.

Writing
I tried my hand or fingers at writing a novel. I chose science fiction since I like the genre and it allows you to make things happen without having to explain why like, for example, how do dilithium crystals help the engines mix matter and antimatter in the combustion chambers.

The first book is just over five hundred pages long.

Doug looked at it and said I should have less narrative and maybe explain some parts a bit better. Since I have so many pages and I feel that I need to write a prologue, it will be easier to cut sections out than it will be to write more material.

At this point, I have no idea if it will have any commercial value.

If nothing else, I have kept my mind active and my fingers limber as I wrote or typed it out.

Things I won’t be doing or events I won’t be visiting
I don’t think there is much likelihood that I will put in an appearance at the tattoo expo this month. Body art is nice up to a point. Unfortunately, this event goes so far past that point that I couldn’t see if I used the Hubble telescope.

The adultcon.com show won’t have me as a patron. This is the annual or is it semi-annual adult film entertainment industry show. Doesn’t matter which one it is since I won’t be there. I was reading in the local newspaper that this is second largest annual event at the Los Angeles Convention Center and it draw just over 30,000 visitors.

I didn’t realize the adult entertainment industry had so many open admirers. Maybe the big draw is the opportunity to meet the actresses and actors from the films.

The Month in Numbers
June was an excellent month for top down driving in the MINI. I managed to improve my suntan with 23.75 hours of open top driving and none of the driving was joy riding. My year to date total open air driving time is 85.50 hours. With any reasonable luck, I should be over 100 hours by the end of the month.

Epic.

The blog continues to draw visitors. June had 178 visitors and the year to date has seen 1,120 visitors. June was the first month in five years where January 1, 2007 was not the most viewed page. In June, September 1, 2007 was the most viewed page with 28% of the visitors. January 1st was a sort of close second.

Be well and stay happy.

Feeling Lucky

2011-06-10T17:16:00.000-07:00

Feeling Lucky
I’m feeling lucky today.

Yesterday, I got an email from the building management. One of the drainpipes was cracked and it was believed to be from my unit. The plumbers wanted to knock out part of my wall in my bathroom to replace the pipe.

Not good for me.

I spoke to the manager this morning to make arrangements about the cracked pipe. She said there was a chance the pipe was to the unit next to mine. I suggested that I go run some water through the pipes so we could determine for certain which unit needs to repaired.

The leak wasn’t coming from my bathroom so I don’t have to have any repairs made or walls knocked out.

Perfect.

May by the numbers
May was a good month for top down driving time. I had 18.5 hours of no blind spots driving in the month. My total for the year is now 61.75 hours. May was a cool and overcast month.

My blog still is attracting visitors in spite of my limited writing and posting. The blog attracted 170 visitors for the month. The blog to date total was 59,476. I suppose that I could have more visitors if I stared my Woman of the Moment feature again.

The January 1, 2007 has seen its popularity fall of dramatically. Traditionally, this page has averaged eighty percent or more of the traffic. It is now down to only thirty percent.

The current blog page is at twenty two percent of the traffic.

Teaching
It looks like I will only have two classes to teach this quarter.

I think I could have had classes but I turned down teaching three sections of one class. The class is abysmal and devoid of any fun. I hated to teach the course on both of the last two times that I taught it.

Both of my classes are essentially new classes as the textbooks have changed and the course curriculums are completely different. On the plus side, one class is scheduled to have five students and three are repeat students for me. The other class has fifteen students, all new to me.

All in all , a good quarter schedule for the Summer.

Be well and stay happy.

Memorial Day 2011

2011-05-30T09:01:00.001-07:00

Memorial Day 2011
As we enjoy the Memorial Day during the 150th anniversary of the start of the greatest American war, the Civil War, we should be mindful that liberty and freedom are never free. They were provided and always will be provided by veterans.

Be well and stay happy.

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-05-29T19:48:00.000-07:00

Feeling bummed out
I was sort of feeling bummed out.

I was working on the laptop this morning when the Word program froze on me. It wasn’t the first time this has happened. Most of the Microsoft programs and Firefox seem to stop responding from time to time. I shut the program down and restarted.

When I restarted Word, I discovered that I had lost about fifteen pages that I had written over the last two or three days for my attempt at writing a novel. I felt that I had written some nice work in those pages. It shouldn’t have happened, I have the auto save function enabled in Word and I manually save the document whenever I leave it for an extended period.

Later, I found that I had created two copies of the document, the last chapter in the second novel, I had been working on. I clicked on the regular file where the lost pages were. After searching the hard drive, I found the other file with the missing pages.

All was not lost; just misplaced.

Perfect.

Chuckay Dinner
I celebrated my birthday with Doug and his mother. As usual, we went to Morton’s the Steakhouse because I love their beef. Morton’s also serves my favorite single malt Scot’s whisky, Lagavulin.

The meal was very predictable. It was excellent.

I had a small steak. Small is a relative term, eight ounces is small at Morton’s.

Doug had a whole lobster. He had the kitchen take all of the meat out of the shell for him. I think takes away part of the enjoyment of cracking the lobster open and digging the meat out yourself. I did that when I went to Seattle for the Princess’ birthday.

Doug’s mother was caught in a quandary; she loves prime rib and she loves lobster. She was having trouble making up her mind. I suggested that she order both and take home something leftovers for Sunday dinner.

She said it wasn’t on the menu.

I said that if she asked our server to have her dinner that way it could be done.

Our server said excellent and asked how she wanted the prime rib cooked. No problems at all.

She had a lobster tail and a giant slab of superb prime rib. It was close to two inches thick. It was her dinner for Saturday, Sunday, and the following Monday.

We shared a Morton’s Chocolate Cake for dessert. We managed to finish less than half; Doug finished the balance off.

13 Assassins
Doug and I went to see the Takashi Miike samurai film 13 ASSASSINS as part of the month long Chuckay Festival. We both loved the film.

The cinematography was excellent. Some of the images and long shots were simply stunning and breathtaking. The best part of the film was the ending; a twenty five minute long sword fight. I particularly like the use of English subtitles in the film instead of dubbing English.

I can highly recommend the film to those who enjoy this genre. It is on my list of films to acquire.

Shameless Joyriding
I went out for a shameless joyride in the MINI today. The weather was not the best but the freeways weren’t very crowded. That was a good trade off. I started out with the top down and drove for about an hour until the weather changed.

The temperature was falling and I started having raindrops fall on the windshield. Fortunately, I was traveling on a freeway with light traffic so I could pull over and put the top up.

It’s Memorial Day Weekend. It shouldn’t be even misting in Southern California.

Anyway.

The top up and the heater on, I finished off my drive. It was a fun way to spend almost two hours.

Be well and stay happy.

Happy Birthday to Me

2011-05-08T14:15:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to Me
Yesterday was the 66th anniversary of my birth. I didn’t celebrate very much; I had two classes to teach at school. That was the day after I taught two classes at school on Friday.

I bought donuts for my morning class. I also bought a donut for one of my fellow instructors. She has developed a taste for chocolate so it was a chocolate covered chocolate donut. My friend thought it was perfect.

Excellent.

The afternoon class got a birthday cake. I would have loved to have purchased a double layer chocolate cake with chocolate icing but that would have been way too much for me. I exercised what passed for restraint and picked out a chocolate mousse cake instead

There were no candles for several reasons. First, the candles might have set off the fire sprinklers. Second, there wouldn’t have been any room; it was smallish cake. Third, the first candle that I lit would have burned out by the time I lit the last candle, leaving puddles of wax on the chocolate mousse.

Since I had two long days at school, I went to bed early and indulged myself further by staying in bed until 7:30 this morning.

Doug and I will celebrate next weekend with our traditional dinner at Morton’s the Steakhouse.

Molly the Stylist and Me
I went to see Molly on Thursday for my regular hair cutting – hair styling. I was in a good mood because I had been driving around with the top down on the MINI. I let Molly talk me into changing my hairstyle. I have parted my hair on my right side for probably fifty years or more.

Molly convinced me to comb my hair straight back and to hold it in place with some jell or goop in my words.

I thought I looked pretty good when I left her salon as I drove off with the top down to meet Doug to go see a film. I had my hat on so my hair stayed in place as the MINI and I raced along the 405 Freeway.

Doug said, “Noooooo, this is not a good look Dad. Put your hat back now,” when he saw my new hairstyle.

After the film, I drove back to the beach. I stopped at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf for a large ice blended. Tihana the barista said, “Grossie. What did you do with your hair?”

Her large ice blended drink was excellent.

My last stop was at Giuliano’s Deli for a sandwich for my dinner. I had skipped lunch except for a box of low food value candy at the film. Luci was one of the counter girls working when I walked in. I have been seeing Luci at the deli since she was junior in high school and now she is getting ready for graduate school.

Luci was on the blunt side. She said, “Oh my god Chuck, your hair looks terrible.”

I changed my style back to the original look after I had my sandwich for dinner.

Change is not always a good idea.

On Posting to the Blog
Doug and I talked about my time away from the blog.

Doug said it was fine to take a break from posting. It’s not a big deal and that resting is a good thing. After we finished that subject, I decided he was right and that I shouldn’t feel guilty about not writing.

Perfectomundo.

eHarmony and Me
When I joined eHarmony at the end of January, I thought I might get a few matches and that I might me someone who was interesting and was interested in me.

In a little over three and a half months, I have had over two hundred matches and no matches. None have gone beyond a first meeting. Of course, some of the women cancelled me out without even exchanging any information.

I had one woman yesterday cancel out on me before I even knew I was matched with her.

Oh well.

One of my students works for eHarmony. He gave me some suggestions about how to improve my match selection results by tweaking the search parameters slightly. Maybe it will work for me.

I have learned several things from my time with the program.

Matches with no photos are not a good sign.

Undated photos can be used to hide the truth.

Nice photo shopped head shots are misleading.

Women who say they love dogs but have a photo of cat in their gallery are untrustworthy.

The Month of April by the Numbers
The MINI now has just over 15, 650 miles and 43.25 hours of driving so far this year with the top down.

The blog had 151 visitors for the month who viewed 240 pages and 59,193 visitors since inception.

eHarmony closed matches stood at 200.

Be well and stay happy.

The PET Scan test results

2011-02-07T16:07:00.001-08:00

The PET scan test results
I got an email from City of Hope and Dr. Kim this past week.

The test turned out very well for me. The official radiology report or comment was “there were no abnormal conditions noted.” Obviously, I was very pleased with those results and so was Doug.

Dr. Kim wants to schedule a meeting for late March. He saw something that he didn’t like; probably one of my lesions. I think he’ll want me to go ahead with the surgery he proposed, to remove the lesions.

Right now, I am leaning towards going along with his surgery suggestion. I think Doug does as well.

Teaching
I have what I call a tentative teaching schedule for next quarter. It is tentative until probably the first day of class and that won’t be until March 14th. I am scheduled to teach two Business courses that I have taught before and two Economics course, only one which I have taught before.

My fifth class is a Writing course. I could have that changed to another course in Project Management or Criminal Justice. I have taught the Project Management course before so that would be no preparation for that course.

One of the Economics courses and a possible Criminal Justice course would be new to me. The Criminal Justice course would either be in Criminal Law or Constitutional Law. I ought to have no difficulty with the preparations for the Criminal Justice class.

I’ll just sit and wait and see what develops for my courses.

I discovered the battery on one of my watches died during the night. This happens; I just wish I had discovered the dead battery before I left for school this morning.

eHarmony and Me
I’ve cut my second group of eHarmony matches plus holdovers from the first set down to seven as of now. The list will shrink by one or two more tonight. I plan to start more extended emails with some of the more promising ones this week.

Be well and stay happy.

The Monthe by the Numbers

2011-02-03T10:09:00.000-08:00

The Month by the Numbers
It was a good month for me by most any measure.

I managed to drive for 19.25 hours with the top down which says a great deal about living in Southern California. The odometer rolled over to 10,957 miles.

The blog had 372 visitors who viewed 531 pages. The most popular page is still January 1, 2007, primarily for the images contained in it and not for the prose. Since I created the blog six years ago, it has received over 58,500 visitors. I am assuming that some of these were repeat visitors.

City of Hope
I was at the City of Hope on Tuesday for a CT/PET scan. I had the scan to determine if I am a good candidate for the liver procedure [see below in the Cure posting]. The test is designed to find traces of cancer cells in my body. You get injected with a radioactive marker agent that attaches to cancer cells. When my body is subjected to the proton emissions, the marker agents glow and is easily identified.

I think it will be a week before I hear from the doctors at the City of Hope about the test results.

It would have been a perfect day if the temperature had been a bit warmer. I could have pulled in a two or three hours top down driving session.

Teaching
I am now teaching six courses at school. I picked up my sixth with the Tuesday night Criminal Justice course. This will mark my sixth course that I have taken over in the middle of the class.

The students seemed happy to have me as their teacher for the remainder of the term. Some of my former student who knew what I am like as a teacher were particularly happy because they knew I wasn’t going to treat them badly because of the lack of a steady instructor prior to my taking over the class.

The Criminal Justice chair on Tuesday asked if I would be interested in teaching other courses in the program. Naturally, I said yes and we talked about me teaching Criminal Law and possibly Constitutional Law; both subjects that I would enjoy and ones that do not require any knowledge of policing.

Perfectomundo.

eHarmony Backup Plan
I decided to create an eHarmony backup plan on Sunday. It always helps to have a backup plan.

My high school class will have its fiftieth reunion in two years. The one of the reunion committee co-chairs asked me to serve on the calling committee. I have known Wendy since fifth grade so it was hard to say no.

I sent her an email saying I would serve and make some calls for the committee.

I also asked if she knew of any single women from the class who were in our area since I was at a stage in my cancer treatment where I could actively date. My thinking was that Wendy knew lots of the class members and the probability favored me. There was the high likelihood that I would have been in classes with any of the potential names she might find. Since both of us would have shared a common childhood and possibly been in school together for all thirteen years, the basis for a connection would be good.

Wendy replied and said she, Pam, and Caren, the two other committee co-chairs would be meeting this month and they would put the brain trust together and see what developed.

My immediately reaction to her reply was to think of the opening scene from Macbeth. You have to read the play to understand my thought.

Be well and stay happy.

Cure

2011-01-30T14:33:00.000-08:00

Cure
Doug and I had a follow up appointment at City of Hope Medical Center on Wednesday. I was supposed to see the oncological surgeon. He either must have ran over a prior appointment or had an emergency and I didn’t get see him.

I did see Dr. Joseph Kim who is a liver specialist. The appointment was all about what to do with the two small lesions on or rather in my liver. This topic has been kicked around more than a soccer ball I think.

The lesions have been very cooperative for me, medically speaking. They haven’t changed size since they were first noticed back in October, 2007. That was very gracious of them.

Anyway and more to the point.

The surgeons at Harbor UCLA Medical Center have adopted a wait and see, monitor and watch approach to the lesions. Since I haven’t produced any signs of active cancer since my first surgery, they want to wait before making any big decisions. On the other side of the operating room, City of Hope would like to go in and remove a good chunk of my liver containing the lesions and be done with them. My liver will grow back to its normal size quickly.

Right now, Doug and I are close to going to City of Hope for the partial liver removal surgery.

When Dr. Kim was discussing how he would approach my condition with the surgical procedure, he used the word “cure.”

Cure.

This was the first time that Doug and I could remember anyone using the word cure in a contextual discussion of my cancer treatment and outcome. It certainly gave me something to think about on my drive home from the City of Hope.

Of course, my medical insurance company has to approve the procedure before I can have it. If the procedure is approved and is not an emergency operation, I am leaning towards having the procedure done during my break from teaching at the end of May or early June. Doug will be home from his trip overseas and I will have two weeks to recover so that I wouldn’t miss any classroom time.

Excellent timing.

The MINI and me

I don’t have the final numbers for the MINI and me for the month yet except for my top down driving time for the month. I drove with the top down for nineteen and a half hours for the month. I’m in for the rest for the day so no more driving today. I won’t be driving with the top down on my way to school in the morning since it is going to be too cool plus there is a chance of showers.

Teaching
I was talking with the Associate Dean on Saturday after my morning class about my teaching schedule for the next quarter. He said it looked like I would have five classes to teach and all of them would be repeat classes for me so I won’t have any or at least very much preparation work for the classes to do.

The school called me on Tuesday afternoon and asked me to substitute teach a class in the Criminal Justice curriculum. I had never taught it before but I was available and that was that counted. I feel that I did a creditable job of teaching and the students seemed to have enjoyed my work. One aspect of the class that helped me was that I had taught about half of the class before in one or more classes.

I had a Mr. Chips moment on Wednesday when one of the students who used to think I was a horrible teacher sent me a note, email actually, that thanked me for teaching the class. I felt very good for the rest of the day.

I am subbing again on Monday. I will be teaching another Criminal Justice class in a subject that I haven’t taught before.

eHarmony
I called the Princess since she is my online dating adviser I had many questions for her. I wanted to know the proper protocol for ending a potential match after several exchanges or a conversation.

The Princess thought the simple close out was the better approach since it left me out of the loop. eHarmony sends the notice that I have closed the match. It is more sterile and less painful for me at the same time.

I now have 67 closed matches, mostly because I was too open with my selection criteria when I joined eHarmony not quite a month ago. I am also closing potential matches out faster than before.

I have twelve matches that you could call are active right now. If a match doesn’t respond to a first contact message from me by the end of the week, I will close the match out.

Strangely, four women who I closed out earlier today viewed my profile. I wonder if they were upset that I closed them out or what; not that I care all that much now.

The Princess
We also talked about my now traditional trip to Seattle for her birthday celebration. I picked the weekend of March 11th and 12th. She said that would work out nicely. I will fly up on the morning of the 11th; have dinner with the Princess and the Golfer, my niece Jessie and her husband, and my nephew Rob and his girlfriend; and fly home on the 12th, just in time for the start of the next quarter. I have no idea where we will end up dining; Rob's girlfriend would love to go to Morton's the Steakhouse.

Surprises are good for me.

Be well and stay happy.

Tommy Lasorda and eHarmony matches

2011-01-23T13:35:00.000-08:00

Tommy Lasorda and eHarmony matches
I think eHarmony matches are a lot like Tommy Lasorda, the great Dodger and Olympic team manager. He always had a strong starter for the opening day game at Dodger Stadium. But, he also had a couple of relief pitchers who could quickly warm up in the bull pen if the starter was not performing well.

I have been a member of eHarmony now for two weeks.

In that time, I managed to accumulate fifty three matches. Of the fifty three, I have or she has closed the match twenty six times, meaning there is no interest in going further. Some of the closures, on my part, were based on things like age or geography.

This is my bull pen.

I have ten matches that I have some form of communication going on. Only three from this group have active communications going on now. I am waiting for the others to respond to my first message to them. I plan to wait until the end of the month and then close out probably most of the nonresponders.

These are my starting pitchers.

So far, I have had two and a half face to face meetings with my matches.

My first face to face sort of blew up on me.

I went to check on the meeting venue since I had never been there. It turned out the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf was in a market. No hope for a meaningful chat there. I sent the match an email and suggested a new location a block or so away. She said that was fine.

Four hours later, she closed the match.

I guess she was put off my thoroughness and organization since we had only exchanged emails through eHarmony.

Moving on, I had my first face to face during the week. It was, on balance, a good one. She was on time and that was good for me. We seemed to get along well. We had a great deal in common. I think she was trying too hard to make me like herr. She was too eager to exchange phone numbers and wanted to meet again soon.

I had my second face to face yesterday afternoon. The match picked the venue, the Urth Café in Beverly Hills. I suppose the Urth Café is a nice place to eat or have coffee. It was a poor location for a meeting since it was crowded and very noisy. Given my bad hearing, it was a struggle for me to understand what she was saying. There was a much quieter Peet’s Coffee and Tea directly across the street and it would have been a much better venue. On my drive back to the beach, I decided to close this match.

I had a really great tasting Café Mocha Granita at the Urth Café. It is an ice blended drink with mocha, regular coffee, and some strong espresso. I figured it would keep me awake last night. Instead, I was in bed and asleep by a little after 8:00 PM and didn’t move for almost six hours; then I slept off and on in two hour or so stretches until I got out of bed around seven this morning.

So much for the strong espresso.

Looking ahead with eHarmony, I am going to try a phone call with one of the communicating matches. I think this is a great idea since she is not close to me. Maybe I can save myself a long drive, between forty and fifty miles, some money, and avoid a face to face that probably won’t work out for me.

Since I live in Southern California, I figure that I can close out a bunch of the matches and get some more. If I can gather in fifty three in four days, I ought to be pick up twenty to thirty more even if I reduce the size of my search pattern radius from sixty miles to thirty miles.

It’s not like these women were the only ones who could match me

The MINI and me
I drove back to the beach with the top down in the MINI. It was so nice to roll down the 405 on the west side of Los Angeles with the sun on my face and arms. So far, I have logged around fourteen hours with the top down this month.

January seems warmer than usual, so far.

Excellent.

Things I gave up this weekend
I gave up going to a tattoo exposition this weekend. It was paired with a mixed martial arts show or exhibition. Neither of those interested me very much, especially since I would have to drive a good distance.

Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update - January 16th

2011-01-16T15:54:00.000-08:00

Joining eHarmony
I joined eHarmony a week ago. The Princess had been urging me, badgering me, nagging me to join eHarmony or Match.com or Chemistry.com for years now. She found her husband through one of these services.

If I joined, I thought I would be able to end the urging. I had nothing to lose except for some money that I would have spent on either DVDs or books. I might even find someone.

I filled out their questionnaire and personality profile. I didn’t get too specific on what I wanted in a companion, of lack of a better word for now. I was aiming at the upper half of the bell curve; if I was too specific I would be aiming at the outliers.

I pushed the button and went to bed.

When I got up on last Monday morning, I checked to see if I had any matches. I had four and that seemed promising for me. I didn’t look closely at any of them because I had a morning class to teach. When I got home, the number of matches had grown to ten. I thought I was really lucky now.

I called the Princess to tell her how I had done so far.

The Princess was amazed at how many matches I had achieved. She said some of her friends had gone over a week without a single match when they joined. We talked about why I was successful. We developed three hypotheses:

First, I was very open with my criteria.

Second, the women were very open with their criteria.

Third, I am super awesome compatible.

Personally, I believe the third hypothesis as the most likely explanation.

I was finally able to stop the flow of matches on Thursday night. By then, the total had grown to 56 matches.

I felt embarrassed with my success at finding women.

Some of the matches were more aggressive than others. They sent me questions to answer. I’ve had forty or so of the matches view my profile. My profile is only 37% complete. I’m wondering now if I should take the time to complete the profile or not since I seem to be doing just fine as it is.

I did include a photo of me and the MINI with the top down. It’s a subtle hint that I am going to be driving a convertible and I like to drive with the top down. One of the criteria I have been using to winnow the matches down to a workable number is hair length. I figure a woman with short hair is not as likely to object to riding in a convertible as one who has hair down to the middle of her back.

eHarmony has a ritualized communication program for matches. You start off exchanging canned questions and such. You build up to emailing as you get to know something about the other person. I played the question game honestly.

The first match I played questions and answer with seemed interesting. She lived reasonably close to me and had short hair. Perfectomundo. I sent her an email, which was probably out of order, to see if she would like to meet for coffee, at a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, of course.

We’re having coffee tentatively on Tuesday afternoon.

Another match was big on questions. She seemed interesting as well. We exchanged questions and even went to the second level of canned questions before I sent her an email asking if she would like to have coffee sometime soon? She also has shortish hair, excellent.

We’re having coffee tentatively on Thursday afternoon.

As I sit here on Sunday afternoon, I am thinking I won’t renew my three month membership. I have over fifty matches and the odds are long in my favor of finding a companion from the current matches between now and when my membership ends.

Perfectomundo.

Life is good for me.

The MINI and Me
I was out running errands today. It wasn’t cool so I had the top down. It was nice weather for driving. The MINI rolled over 10,000 miles today. I didn’t have my camera with me and even if I did I wouldn’t have been able to take a photo of the blink over.

While I was out driving, I pulled into a car wash and had the MINI cleaned up. I am seeing new women this week so I wanted to have the MINI look nice for me.

Teaching
I got a bonus for good teaching last quarter. It wasn’t very much, only USD$400 before taxes. Still it was nice to get. I had my best quarter yet at the school. I managed to achieve 14 out of 15 goals.

The ironic aspect of the last quarter was that I got a horrible student evaluation in the one course that I earned a bonus in teaching. I had very high positive variances from the norms fro that course.

I had a couple of students who didn’t like me because I made them read the textbook, do the assignments, and I caught two of them plagiarizing their assignments. That earned those two a zero on the assignment and that bounced them off of the Dean’s List. It also earned them a remark in their online records for plagiarism.

This is one group of student that I won’t be writing letters of recommendation for.

Be well and stay happy.

Who are Barbara, Connie, Alise, Mary, Kristen, Joanne, Jean, Pat, Kathy, Linda, and Lynne?

2011-01-10T16:38:00.000-08:00

Who are Barbara, Connie, Alise, Mary, Kristen, Joanne, Jean, Pat, Kathy, Linda, and Lynne?
I joined eHarmony.com last night.

The Princess had said that I should try it; she has been saying this to me for three or four years now. I’m a slow listener sometimes. Even my former wife has encouraged me to join some service like eHarmony or one of the other similar programs.

Today was my early morning class at school so I didn’t bother checking my email inbox before I left. I don’t like to be late to class plus I have all afternoon and evening to check the mailbox.

When I got home from school and after my lunch, I checked to see if I had any matches. I had eleven matches including two who wanted to get a message from me. I was not prepared for such a response.

Now what do I do?

First thing I did was the check where they lived. With the price of gasoline what it is now, driving, even in the MINI, can get expensive. I think I may cut one or two from the list based on geography. One of the women lives in Redondo Beach so that is a major plus for me. Another woman lives in the next town over and that is almost as good as Redondo Beach for me.

I was wondering as I was driving home from school if people sign up with more than one of these e-dating services. Would a person sign up with eHarmony.com and Chemistry.com or Match.com at the same time?

I noticed that a couple of the women are cat people and I think I may pass. I have never gotten along well with women who like and keep cats. Dogs, man’s best friend, are much different story for me.

My next step should be a close look at their profiles and see which ones come close to what I am looking for and what I like to do.

If nothing else, I will have some fresh fodder for the blog as I figure my way through this new form of dating.

Cinema
I went to see THE BLACK SWAN last week.

I really enjoyed it. Doug and I talked about it over the weekend. I thought it was a lot like INCEPTION or the SIXTH SENSE where you weren’t sure what was real and what was a part of the dreams. Doug didn’t quite share my point of view. We did agree that it was a very well made film; Doug had it as his best film of 2010.

I was talking about the BLACK SWAN in class today. I said it was a good film if any of the male students needed some chick-flick credits so they could go see TRON with a clear conscience and no nagging from Ms Could Be Right.

Tomorrow, I hope to see THE KING’S SPEECH before it leaves the local multiplex. If things go well for me, I will also get into the multiplex for TRON: THE LEGACY.

MINI and Me
It was sunny and not very cool today. I had to run a couple of errands to the cleaners and post office. I drove around with the top down for part of my driving. I did have the heater on so my feet stayed comfortable.

Be well and stay happy.

Surprised Myself

2011-01-05T09:09:00.000-08:00

Surprised Myself
I surprised myself this morning when I stepped on my scale. The last time I weighed myself was on Christmas Day. Today, I weighed a half pound less than on Christmas Day. I was expecting to weigh more since I did eat more than I usually do during the end of year Holidays. I did get that pound of almond brittle from my niece and her friend in Colorado.

Surprises are nice.

Doug called yesterday just to check in with me. We talked about movies to go see. He recommended that I go see BLACK SWAN, TRON LEGACY, THE FIGHTER, THE KING’S SPEECH, and BLUE VALENTINE. Doug said that I shouldn’t see TRON in the IMAX format because it will be too loud for me. The films seemed like good choices. Doug said Olivia Wilde was very good in TRON.

I can see most of them during the week. My school campus is across a parking lot from a multiplex. Since I don’t have to prepare any lesson plans or lecture notes, I can go to school early, watch a film, walk across the parking lot, and make any photocopies that I need for my class.

Perfectomundo.

When you are on break, it is difficult to have any drama in your life. How exciting is it to say the big event was a short drive to the cleaners to drop off two suits for cleaning?

Be well and stay happy.

The Year and Month by the Numbers

2011-01-02T20:07:00.000-08:00

The Year and Month by the Numbers
I forgot to include the numbers for the year and the month in my almost end of year posting. I didn’t have all of the numbers then.

The blog saw a drop off in monthly visitors to 245 for December. December has usually been a slow month for the blog; there are other activities going on. For the year, we had 6,430 visitors and the blog has been visited 58, 221 times since its inception

The most popular blog page is January 1, 2007. The last time I checked it had 60% of the traffic. The number varies but it has been the leader since I started noticing these sort of things.

The MINI now has 9,266 miles on the odometer.

I managed to sneak in 5 hours of top down driving in December. I might have gotten in more time if December had been dryer. In the last two weeks of the month, we had about nine inches of rain in Redondo Beach. Remember, I live on the edge of desert and it is supposed to be a La Nina Year or dry year.

My cumulative top down driving time is 88.75 hours. We also had one of the coolest Summers on record this year.

I thought the MINI convertible would be the perfect car what with all the talk about global warming.

Be well and stay happy.

End of the Year Update

2010-12-31T14:37:00.000-08:00

End of the Year Update
It really is the end of the year, all 365 days.

Wowie kazowie.

Time went by almost as fast as my MINI Convertible takes turns on a dry road. Of course, we haven’t had much in the way of dry roads where I live lately.

I took some time off from the blog in December. I ran into a spell where I had the time but no inclination to write a posting. I suppose I could make one of those New Year’s resolutions to post on a more consistent basis. I could; but, I won’t because I know that I would break it rather soon, before February started, I think.

Part of my spotty posting in December was caused by my dull live style. There is no drama in my life to speak of. Since I am between girlfriends and have been for four years now, I am not certain that I want to use that term. It is very difficult to find a way to create something worthwhile when all I have done that day is two loads of laundry, completed the daily Sudoku puzzle [moderate difficulty], and read in a book. If I stretched that as much as I could, I might be able to fashion a four or five sentence blog posting.

As I have said before, I have no drama in my life.

One can always hope for a more exciting 2011. I will.

Doctor D and Me
I went to see Doctor D this month for my once every three weeks visit.

Doctor D said I am fine and that is about all she will say about my medical condition. Doctor Karen said the same thing for almost two years.

Being fine is good I guess, especially when you consider the alternatives.

We talked about the City of Hope Medical Center second opinion regarding my condition. Although she wouldn’t come straight out and say, “go ahead and let them operate. Remove that portion of your liver and we won’t have to worry about it,” she certainly came very close to saying that.

She also said she would have a third opinion before she had surgery. All of which raised questions in my mind about surgery and surgeons.

Doctor D gave me a Christmas gift of sorts.

She said since I was doing so well and all that we could skip our regular schedule appointment between Christmas and New Year’s and go back on schedule in mid-January. I could even skip a prescription round of the Xeloda if I wanted to skip it.

I skipped it.

When I saw Doctor D, I also saw the oncology clinic nurses. Wendy and Vhrunda each gave a bug hug; Vhrunda gave me several big hugs and that was epic. They loved the Fairy Tales brownies [brownies. com] I left with them. The brownies are among their favorite sweets that I leave with them from time to time. I think they reluctantly agreed with my request that they consider sharing the brownies with Doctor D and Doctor Maddurri.

Nurse Jackie and Me
I see Nurse Jackie once every six months when I go to the Colorectal Surgery Clinic for a follow up appointment.

This time around I ended up seeing an annoying resident doctor. I don’t think he is a bad doctor. He just had an annoying habit of saying everything was “fantastic.” That was going overboard; not everything can be fantastic; a traffic jam can never be fantastic for example. He said I was doing fine, just like Doctor D said I was.

When he finished up, I asked to see Nurse Jackie.

Nurse Jackie was surprised when she popped into the examination room since she wasn’t scheduled to see me. I said that I was fine and that I wanted to give her a Christmas card and some brownies. This was totally unexpected and she greatly appreciated the brownies.

Nurse Jackie gave me a big hug and she left the room with a great smile on her face.

Christmas
Doug and my former wife came to my flat for Christmas Dinner. I went to their house for Thanksgiving.

I cooked another great turkey. I would have preferred to have tried a ham for Christmas. Unfortunately, Doug doesn’t like American hams; he only likes Spanish hams which he says are cured much better.

Being the good father that I am, I went to several specialty markets in search of a Spanish ham. I knew I was in trouble when almost all of the butchers that I spoke with either had a completely blank face or quickly said no. They said they had some truly wonderful and flavorful American hams.

We had a Butterball turkey instead and it was perfect.

I could tell it was perfect because no one spoke while we were eating and Doug had a healthy sized second serving.

I couldn’t find a frozen mince pie to bake this year. I ended up with a semi nontraditional Christmas Dinner dessert. I had a slice of fudgy wuggey cake from Giuliano’s Delicatessen. Everyone else had pumpkin pie.

Fixing the Flat
I had chance to meet Dave the Plumber this month.

Dave is a very good, professional plumber who knows what he is doing. That is refreshing.

I finally decided to make some plumbing repairs to the flat. What I thought were simple repairs turned out to be rather complex work. Most of the repairs had to do with replacing faucets and valves that were almost fifty years old. The old stuff came when the building was built.

The repairs took Dave two separate sessions to complete. I would have preferred a shorter time but I’m very happy Dave took his time and did the jobs correctly.

Dave probably saved me from a hot water heater failure. The last plumbers who weren’t really plumbers used a combination of hot water copper tubing, perfectly fine, but connected the tubing with a zinc fitting, very bad. The connection was well along in electrolysis and would have failed sometime soon. Part of my flat would have been flooded.

Dave also replaced all of the parts with American made, solid brass or solid copper fittings. These parts were more expensive; but, as Dave said, they will last much longer. He figures that ought to last another fifteen to twenty years.

That’s way long enough for me.

Perfect.

I celebrated my new plumbing repairs with a long hot shower.

The MINI and Me
It was Christmas time and I couldn’t forget Alex the Sales Pro from South Bay MINI.

Alex and I share many loves in common, mostly driving fast sporty cars and chocolate. I could have to order of fondness inverted though. I had thought about brownies but reconsidered. The brownies would be loved, savored, and enjoyed by Alix and at the same time would have possibly wreaked havoc with her New Year’s Eve party dress.

Instead, I gave Alex a Hershey’s chocolate tee shirt. It is dark brown, naturally, with the words chocolate printed all over it. Alex loved the tee shirt.

The tee shirt was a much wiser decision.

The Novel
I think I mentioned that I stared writing a novel once before. At this point, I have absolutely no idea if this writing effort can ever bear fruit or outside readership. I finished what I thought was the first novel and asked Doug to give me his thoughts on it. Doug has worked as a writer so he should know something about writing.

While I was waiting for Doug to give me his comments, I started on a second novel. Right now, I am about 580 pages into it. I think I will need another 300 or so pages to finish everything that I wanted to cover in this book in the series.

Doug finally got back to me with his thoughts. He thought I had too much dialogue. That was a great suggestion. I can either take some dialogue out or add more narrative. I will got back and add more narrative to the first novel.

I had already planned to write a prologue that set the stage for the beginning and provide some background. My initial estimate of the prologue was probably close to one hundred pages. I’ve also been writing more narrative in the second novel as I go along now.

My plan for the novel is to finish the second one first and complete the rewrite or add narrative to the first. Then, I will rewrite the second novel with a goal of finishing both by the end of March.

Happy New Year

Be well and stay happy.

The Riders Club

2010-12-08T11:27:00.000-08:00

The Riders Club
Doug and I went to the Riders Club in San Clemente, California for lunch on Saturday. I was at school making my course material copies before the start of school on Monday. I do this because the photocopier is usually down when the instructors need it most.

It broke down on Monday.

The Riders Club is a new, primarily hamburger, restaurant. It does have some other food like a salad and carnitas I believe. Doug and I had hamburgers. It is a very small place. I think it can seat probably twenty inside and maybe another ten to twelve outside, assuming the weather is nice. It is a come as you are place and there are no reservations.

Compared to one of the major chain hamburger places, it is more expensive. Our bill ran to $26.00. This compares very favorably to The Counter. You pay extra but you have a much better dining experience with fresher foods and a wider range of add-ons to choose from.

The Riders Club operates on a similar to The Counter where you can customize your burger with a bunch of add-ons. We both rated it better than The Counter since it is owner operated and not part of a chain.

We both loved our hamburgers. Doug added a fried egg and bacon to his. I added avocado and Havarti cheese to mine. I had planned to add Swiss cheese to mine until the cashier suggested that Havarti would taste better with the avocado. That was an excellent recommendation by the cashier; my hamburger was superb. The burgers are one third pounders and are made with only fresh meat.

Doug liked the place because they serve Coke in a glass bottle which means it was made in Mexico with the old traditional formulation that uses cane sugar and nor high fructose syrup. The Riders Club also has about two dozen craft and microbrew beers on tap. I could be wrong on the number of beers but they have a lot to select from.

For those of you who live in Southern California, you should try Coke in a glass bottle.

The only drawback to a fine roadhouse hamburger is parking. There is almost no onsite parking to speak; ok, there are four parking spots that are best suited for small and very small cars only. I drove the MINI so parking was not much of a problem for us. It would have been a real challenge if Doug drove his Honda Accord. Street parking is not much better, in part because of road construction in the immediate area.

Overall, we would give The Riders Club 5 Napkins, our highest rating.

I will probably go back to The Riders Club in the coming months. I have Saturday morning class so I am half there after I leave school.

Restaurant Ratings
We have given 5 Napkins to the following hamburger restaurants:

The Original Tommy’s Hamburgers [a rare 6th Napkin for the original Rampart and Beverly location in Los Angeles]

Fatburger

Teaching
I had my first class on Monday. It is State and Local Government. This class was a real pleasure to teach and I think it will be one of my best classes in a long time. They are lively energetic and seem to want to learn and appear willing to work unlike my last class.

Of course, I may be wrong in my initial appraisal. Lord know how many times I have been wrong before.

Be well and stay.

November by the Numbers

2010-12-02T11:26:00.000-08:00

November by the Numbers
November was an interesting month for me as far as numbers go.

I had no MINI driving with the top down hours this month. It was cool and cloudy for part of the month and then I had a nasty cold that hung for close to two weeks. I almost drove with the top down yesterday but I had just seen Molly the Stylists and I felt that I owed her at least a day before her efforts were lost. The MINI did end the month with 8,102 miles on the odometer.

The blog had a sharp drop off in visitors from September and October. That happens from time to time. Someone finds the blog and then there is a brief spurt of activity generated by a viral message from friend to friend and then they go away.

The blog had 311 visitors who viewed 433 unique pages. Still, it was a good number especially since I dropped the Woman of the Moment feature four years ago. The Woman of the Moment was and still is the biggest draw to the blog with about 70 to 75% of the page views depending on the month.

I think I may have mentioned that I started writing a novel, sort of out of boredom I guess more than any other reason. My first effort produced one that was just over 600 pages long. I need to go back over it and polish it more; I need to add more narrative to help explain things plus I need to add a prologue to help set the whole story.

Right now, I have let the first novel rest while I pound out the second one in a series. I am ambitious if nothing else. I have got about 430 pages written in the second round. I hope to finish it by the end of the month.

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1
I went to see the seventh film in the series this week. One of my instructor friends from school went to see it during a Wednesday midnight showing. His wife is Potter fanatic so she had to see it at midnight.

I figured that I could wait since it wasn’t going to be gone in two weeks. My friend said it was the darkest Harry Potter film he had seen. He was right. It certainly was dark. I did miss not seeing Hogwarts in the film. It sort of reminded me of a couple of old classic Western films, HIGH NOON and John Ford’s THE SEARCHERS. Doug could probably identify a Kurosawa of French film that may have influenced the Potter film.

I saw the film in an IMAX theater. That was incredible except for the insistently loud sound system. I know that the sound has to be set for the theater on the assumption that the house will be full. The sound, at times, hurt my ears. It could have been turned down without killing any of the impact since there were less than thirty customers in an over 700 seat theater.

I do recommend seeing the film and see it in an IMAX theater if your ears aren’t as sensitive as mine are now.

Holy Irony and Molly the Stylist
I went to see Molly the Stylist yesterday since it was the first Wednesday in December.

One of my objectives was to give Molly the Mr. Goodbar miniatures that I received over the Halloween period. She loves Mr. Goodbar so I saved them for her. Unfortunately, I left them in my refrigerator. I remembered that fact when I walked into the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in the Belmont Shore section of Long Beach.

Molly asked for an iced vanilla latte. I went for the simple brew, medium sized decaf. While I was waiting for Molly’s drink, I noticed there was a nice chocolate croissant in the display rack. I got that for her as well since she loves chocolate.

It was hard to tell if she was happy or upset with me about the croissant because she had her mouth full of croissant at the time. I’ll go with happy

The photos of Molly that appear in the blog were taken a year ago. I asked if I could take a new photo. She said no because her hair was not looking good. I thought it looked very nice but what do I know; Molly is the professional stylist after all.

Holy irony Molly! A stylist who’s hair was not looking good.

Be well and stay happy.

Where did the year go?

2010-11-28T15:52:00.000-08:00

Where did the year go?
It seemed like only yesterday that I was in the hospital for surgery to have my colon reconnected after having to use a colostomy bag for two and half years. But, of course, that happened at the end of January.

After recovering from surgery, Doug joined my fraternity in April when my old chapter was reinstalled. Doug will be the first to admit that he was luke warm to the idea of joining a fraternity. After going through the initiation and participating in some of the ceremony, he was very glad that he did.

Then, I got my not so new MINI Convertible in the middle of June but I had to wait another week until the dealership fixed some factory defect. Since the car was assembled in the United Kingdom, I was not surprised. I don’t think they understand the concept of quality control very well.

I have owned two cars that were assembled in the United Kingdom. Both came with factory defects. That is not a very good track record.

I do love driving the MINI. I have put over 8,000 miles on it since I finally took possession of it.

Summer was sort of a blur since it was one of the coldest or maybe coolest Summers on record for Southern California. It was not good driving with the top down weather for me. I did manage to catch a nasty cold; possibly from too much top down driving, that lingered for almost two weeks.

For some unknown reason, I started to write a science fiction novel this Summer. I managed to finish it and it has something over 600 pages, which was way more than I thought I could write.

I even started to write a sequel to the first novel. Right now, I am at Chapter 11 of 20 Chapters and I have just over 400 pages written.

When I finish the second novel, I have to go back and add perhaps as much as 150 pages to the first one to provide more narrative and background material. So far, I have plotted out, in varying degrees, ten sequential books. Obviously, the far out books are mere hints of a skeleton outline now.

I am going to have to take a break from novel writing for a day or two while I write my Christmas Letter.

Where did the year go?

On holiday probably.

Second Opinion
On Wednesday, I drove out to the City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, California to receive a second opinion on my current colon cancer treatment plan. The City of Hope in a nationally recognized, highly ranked cancer center.

Doug had thought about going with me until I told him my appointment was at 7:30. He decided that he could wait and get my version of the opinion.

I got up at 4:15 AM that day. I wanted to make certain that I arrived on time. It had been raining the day before and one never knows what the morning freeway traffic will be like. My drive was very nice to Duarte. I should certainly have hoped so. Leaving so early, the freeway onramp traffic flow meter was off so I was able to drive on to the onramp and then swing around a curve at full speed in the MINI.

It felt very nice to lock up the seat belt tensioners as the MINI held the curve like it was on a Disneyland ride track

Needless to say, I was very early for my appointment. Fortunately, I had the day’s newspaper and my Kindle with two unread books in it. The waiting room chairs were soft and there were few patients waiting with me.

Excellent.

I saw Dr. Julio Garcia-Aguilar. He is the Chief of Oncological Colorectal Surgery; that’s a mouthful of titles.

The short version of his opinion is I ought to have the lesions on my liver biopsied at a minimum. He would prefer to cut that portion of my liver out and be done with any worry about the lesions. The liver is one organ that will grow back I think he would like to remove any more of the old tumor that is next to my left ureter. He also recommended that I have a specialized CT scan done of my liver.

I will see Dr. D. in a week or so and we’ll talk about what to do next. I also have an appointment with the colorectal surgeons at Harbor UCLA Medical Center and I will see what they have to say about the second opinion.

Teaching
I have my teaching schedule for next quarter. I will be teaching five courses as of now. Things can always change up to almost the last minute at ITT Technical Institute. The nice thing about my courses is that I have taught them all before so my preparation time will be minimal.

This week, I learned that our long term Dean of Academic Affairs had left the school. Depending on who you spoke to, he retired, resigned, or was fired. The method of his separation from the school doesn’t matter that much to me. I will miss him. He was a steadying influence on the instructors.

Thanksgiving
I had my Thanksgiving Dinner with Doug and my ex-wife at her house on Thursday.

They had a turkey with all of the usual side dishes and snacks. I really enjoyed myself. My ex-wife cooked the sweet potatos differently than I do. She mashed hers with chunks of pineapple. It was an interesting combination. I think I will serve my sweet potatos in my usual way with brown sugar and spices when they come to my flat for Christmas dinner.

We had a long discussion about what to have for dinner at Christmas. Doug is somewhat of a selective eater; he will eat tuna belly but not Honey Baked Ham. It made him sick once and he swore off it since. He will eat Spanish style cured ham.

I said that he shouldn’t hold his breath because some Spanish style ham, from Spain of course, costs USD$1,200 for a five pound ham.

His mother was shocked.

I told that I would look and see if I could find a lesser priced Spanish ham for him. I will also cook a turkey with homemade dressing. I’ve already started picking up my ingredients this week. I just have a few items left to purchase now like a turkey and some vegetables.

Be well and stay happy.

I used to think I was smart

2010-11-21T15:51:00.000-08:00

I used to think I was smart
I used to think I was smart.

Really, I’ve earned four college degrees; three of which were graduate degrees. I missed honors for my MBA by only 0.03. I earned honors in classwork for my doctoral degree. I teach college level courses now and have been doing so for four years.

My belief in my intelligence seemed reasonably well founded to me.

Then, I had to find a Medicare Advantage health care plan.

Naturally, you are generally left to do this on your own and at 65 just to make matters even worse. There must be literally dozens of plans, probably more. You have to wade through pamphlets and books that are written in governmentese which is unintelligible to most of us.

The plans are almost identical so making a choice is difficult.

I made a choice and selected a plan based on how close the doctors would be to my flat. Hardly the most intelligent or logical selection method that I know of. At least, I can change my mind in a year.

Being able to correct a mistake is a good option except for the fact that I will get buried under new solicitations from the insurance companies that operate these programs for the rest of my life.

So much for conservation and the environment.

MIA
I know that I should have been posting more frequently to the blog. I would feel badly but I don’t because I know that 80% of the blog readers go to January 1, 2007 as their only entry and exit point. This date is noteworthy only for the access to the month’s Women of the Moment feature that I used to have.

The first two weeks of the month I had a nasty cold that wouldn’t go away. I tried everything I could think including chicken soup. The soup was nice and tasty but it didn’t help me very much.

In the end, I finally got rid of my cold.

October by the Numbers
The numbers for October were nice.

The MINI reached 6,695 miles on the odometer. I had a total of 18 hours driving with the top down for the month and a cumulative total of 82.50 hours with the top down.
The blog had a total of 787 visitors who looked at 1,126 pages. This was one of the best months in the last year.

Halloween Candy – “Oh my gosh Charles!” and “Holy Moly!
Alex and Molly definitely liked or more probably loved the Halloween candy I sent them. I knew they would.

I sent Alex some personalized M&M candies. They were black and orange for Halloween, naturally. The orange M&Ms were personalized with Alex – Sales Pro. Alex enjoyed the idea that I remembered her. I think she also liked the personalized M&Ms so it would be difficult for her co-workers to help themselves to her rewards.

Molly loves chocolate. She has a Hershey’s Chocolate tee shirt. I sent the salon a very large box of Hershey’s miniature candies. I ordered a 25 pound box because most everyone at the salon loves chocolate and the box arrived early in the month. Since Molly is the owner and my stylist, she helped herself to most of the Krackel bars and the Mr. Goodbars. That left the rest of the staff with the peanut butter cups, milk chocolate bars, dark chocolate bars, and kisses. Everyone was happy.

Surprisingly, the salon still had some candy left when I went in for my November haircut.

Teaching
I have my tentative teaching schedule for next quarter. I will be teaching five courses again. All of my courses are repeat ones from before so I will have a minimal amount of preparation work this coming quarter. I only have two morning classes; one on Monday and one on Saturday. I also have a Friday night class.

The Friday night – Saturday morning classes are not so bad because we can dress in business casual. Since it is our Winter, I can wear some of my flannel shirts.

Dr D and Me
I went to see Dr. D. this week. She said I am fine and everything in my last lab test was beautiful.

I said, “just like you.”

I don’t think I upset her judging by how she smiled after I made my comment.

Dr. D. is pleased that I am going out to City of Hope, a major national cancer center, for a second opinion this week. She was very happy that I will see the chief of oncological surgery. Hopefully, we will be able to talk about the second opinion at our December appointment.

I do not share her enthusiasm for the appointment since I will be getting up at 4:15 so I can be on time and allow for unforeseen problems on the roads.

I had left a jar of Hershey’s for the nursing and support staff of the Oncology Clinic for Halloween as well. I was pleased that there were only a few left when I had my appointment this week.

Tracings from wandering the Internet
I found a rather interesting factoid from wandering the Internet the other day.

There is a city in New Zealand called Lower Hutt.

Would that make Jabba the Honorary Mayor of Lower Hutt?

Be well and stay happy.

Stuff I forgot to say

2010-10-15T13:59:00.000-07:00

Stuff I forgot to say
I think I forgot to mention a number of things in my last blog posting. This will be the first time in a while that I have made two blog posts in a week. Having three new classes requires more preparation time especially when they are all small classes.

Teaching
I had an email from my department chair this week. He was congratulating me for having great engagement [class attendance] numbers. That was on Tuesday night before one of my two students called me and said she wouldn’t be in class. Then, last night, my only student in my class called in and said she wouldn’t be in class.

My engagement numbers went right into the toilet.

I ran into one of my former students a week or so ago. I hadn’t seen her in over a year; she takes morning classes and I have been teaching at night. She had dyed her hair or rather let it return to its natural color, dark brown.

I felt embarrassed because I didn’t recognize her. On the plus side, she did look absolutely stunning with dark hair.

The school gave me an unexpected surprise today. I earned a bonus from last quarter. The bonus was more than I had expected. I will use it to buy myself an early Christmas gift, to me from me. I’m going to get a Kindle DX reader from Amazon. I had thought about buying a Kindle 3 but the bonus money will about cover the reader. The extra three inches of reading space was a deal clincher for me.

Theater
I went to see “The Allergist’s Wife” at the La Mirada Theater on opening weekend. I read the Los Angeles Times’ critic’s review of the play.

The critic thought it was only so-so. That was probably because she left at intermission. The play got better in the second half. I thought the play was good. I gave some vouchers for tickets to the play to a friend of mine. She went with one of her girl friends; they liked the play.

So much for professional reviewers.

Weather
I was going to get the MINI washed today. It was looking a little sad from last week’s drizzles. I woke to the sound of “Here Comes the Sun” on the radio and rainwater in the building gutters and downspouts.

So much for a car wash trip.

Rain on a convertible roof sounds so much different than rain on a steel car roof. I like that softer sound. Of course, I haven’t been in a heavy downpour yet so I may change my mind.

I was listening to a local weather newsreader the other day. He said this past Summer was one of the coolest Summers on record.

Perfect timing to get a convertible.

Be well and stay happy.

End of September, end of the Summer

2010-10-10T16:58:00.000-07:00

End of September, end of the Summer
Yes, I do know that it is now almost the middle of October. I have had some distractions in my life lately. It is 10/10/10 today.

Distractions happen.

The Month in Numbers
The MINI ended the month with 4,773 miles on the odometer.

The blog had 801 visitors, the most since July 2009.

The MINI had 23.5 hours on the openometer and 64.50 total hours on the openometer.

University of Utah Football
Our Utes are doing well in football, improving to a 5 – 0 record so far after crushing Iowa State University at Ames, Iowa 68 – 27. Utah now has 21 wins over BCS teams; the most wins by a team from a non-automatic qualifying conference.

It certainly looks like Utah is ready for the big leagues now.

Next week, our Utes play Wyoming. Wyoming has a 2 – 4 record now.

The Mountain West Conference now has three teams ranked in the Top 25 in the nation. Texas Christian University and the Air Force Academy join Utah in that grouping.

Sweet.

The Princess’ South Carolina Gamecocks knocked the nation’s number one ranked college football team in a game at Columbia. That moved South Carolina to the Number Ten spot in one poll, dropping our Utes to Number Eleven.

No. 10 Utah makes statement, stomps out Iowa State

AMES, Iowa -- (AP)After watching two early turnovers turn into quick Iowa State touchdowns, No. 10 Utah knew it was time to find its trademark rhythm.

It didn't take long for the Utes to turn things around.

Jordan Wynn threw for 325 yards and two touchdowns, Shaky Smithson threw a TD pass and caught another one and No. 10 Utah blew past host Iowa State 68-27 Saturday night, scoring its most points since beating Wyoming 69-14 in 1983.

Eddie Wide added three touchdowns for the Utes (5-0, 2-0 MWC), who overcame an early 14-10 hole with 31 unanswered points in the second quarter.

"I just kind of got into a groove and rolled with it," Wynn said. "As a whole offense, we just started clicking."

Once the Utes got going, they didn't stop.

Smithson, a wide receiver, gave the Utes a 17-14 lead with a 32-yard touchdown pass early in the second quarter. Matt Asiata and Wide followed with short TD runs, and Wynn found Smithson for a 61-yard touchdown to make it 38-14 late in the first half.
Reggie Dunn's 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown pushed Utah's lead to 51-20 midway through the third quarter.

Austen Arnaud had 178 yards passing for Iowa State (3-3, 1-1 Big 12), which has surrendered 106 points in the last two games.

Utah had seemingly gotten lost in the BCS-buster shuffle as Boise State and TCU rolled out to unbeaten starts. Utah's lone big win came against scuffling Pittsburgh, 27-24, in its opener, and the Utes had feasted on UNLV, New Mexico and San Jose State in subsequent weeks.

The Cyclones certainly aren't a Big 12 powerhouse, but the ease with which the Utes handled them was impressive.

Utah racked up 593 yards of offense, topped 50 points for the third week in a row and held Iowa State -- which beat Texas Tech 52-38 just a week ago -- to 0-for-11 on third downs.

"Everyone was underestimating us. I mean, that's kind of been the story of this whole season," Utah linebacker Chad Manis said. "We're going to go out every game and make a statement. We earned our ranking."

On a night when seemingly every Ute shined, none stood out quite like Smithson.

In the first half alone, Smithson set up a touchdown with a spectacular 78-yard punt return, threw his TD pass off a reverse and snagged a long touchdown pass to help put the Utes ahead 41-14.

On his punt return, Smithson fought his way through traffic near the right sideline, cut left and then back inside before running out of gas at the 2-yard line. Wynn followed with a short TD pass to Wide to give Utah a 10-7 lead.

Smithson then pulled up on a reverse and chucked the ball into the end zone. It was a risky toss between two Iowa State defenders, but the ball plopped in DeVonte Christopher's lap to put the Utes back ahead 17-14.

Smithson later pulled up on a fly pattern to grab Wynn's pass, shook off his defender and sprinted 61 yards for the score.

"Whenever I got the ball in my hands, I was just really tried to make a big play and just get the momentum for my team," Smithson said.
Iowa State knew it would need some breaks to hang with the Utes, and the Cyclones took advantage of two early takeaways to jump ahead 14-10.

A Utah fumble deep in its own territory led to a 2-yard TD run by Alexander Robinson, and Arnaud followed a Wynn pick with a 20-yard touchdown toss in the back of the end zone to Jake Williams.

The lead didn't last though, because Iowa State couldn't control the line of scrimmage or even slow the high-flying Utes.

"Some days you get up and you get the unexpected. That was a heck of a football team. There was clearly a big difference in team speed out there tonight," Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads said. "That showed in all phases, special teams in particular. We were soundly beat in all three phases."

Even when the Cyclones scored, Utah quickly topped them. Arnaud threw a 36-yard TD pass to Collin Franklin in the third quarter. But Utah blocked the extra point, and Dunn took the kickoff 100 yards for a score.

The Utes had 109 yards on a pair of interception returns and 156 yards on six punt returns.

"Once we got the two turnovers behind us in the first quarter, we got into a rhythm and did a nice job," Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. "We were very productive."

Road tripping with the Princess
The Princess phoned me on Thursday to ask me if I could drive her to Santa Barbara in the MINI on Friday and then pick her up on Saturday and drop her off at Los Angeles International Airport. I tentatively said yes because I wasn’t sure if I could get all of her stuff in the car. The Princess was coming to town for a campus recruiting trip.

The Princess emailed me the dimensions of her easel that she was going to use for her presentation. It fit in the back of the MINI if I put the back seats down with three inches to spare. I was going to put the seats down regardless since it would be easier to carry her suitcase there.

Friday was a perfect day for road tripping in the MINI with the top down. It was warm and sunny and 76F / 25C when we left LAX and turned north on the 405. The 405 was a crawl through the Westside until we passed the 10. Then, speeds improved.

On the plus side, the slow speeds gave us time to talk. Driving at 65 miles an hour is too noisy for a conversation.

The MINI handled very well and drove like a dream as we reached Santa Barbara. On the return trip to Redondo Beach, I opted for the scenic route along Pacific Coast Highway. This was an excellent opportunity to see how the MINI handled in S curves at a moderate speed.

It handled perfectly.

This was my best time to try this since S curves are not popular with the Princess.

The Saturday drive was much better because there was no traffic to speak of as I drove to pick her up. As the Princess had planned, she did pick up some sun on the ride to Santa Barbara. We made excellent time on the return trip.

This was particularly good because I was able to drop her off directly in front of the curbside baggage check-in spot. She only had to walk three feet to check her bags and, best of all, she was the only one checking in at the time.

By checking in a hour and forty five minutes early, the Princess had time to relax and find something to eat before her flight.

We compared tans after the drive to Santa Barbara and back.

Perfectomundo.

This was my first time driving for an extended time. Each trip was four to five hours behind the wheel. Overall, I felt very well after the two trips.

The MINI ended the weekend with 5,735 miles on the odometer.

I did find one minor disappointment with the MINI. It has a smaller engine than the Prelude and so has less power climbing hills like the grade on 101 coming south out of Oxnard and the Sepulveda Pass. The MINI did automatically down shift into the lower gears and I was able to maintain my speed.

More power would have been nicer but this would result in lower fuel efficiency.

I can live with lower power.

Doctor D and Me
I went to see Doctor D this past Tuesday. Doug came with me because he hadn’t met her yet.

My lab tests were all in the normal for me range and that made Doctor D happy. This was the first time that she has worn scrubs for an appointment. Doctor Karen rarely wore scrubs.

Most of the appointment was spent in discussing whether I should take a referral to the City of Hope, a major national cancer hospital, for a second opinion on my treatment plans. Doctor D wanted me to do that and said the City of Hope was more aggressive in its approach to treating cancer than the Harbor UCLA Medical Center.

After talking about the second opinion option for about ten minutes, I agreed to do that. Doctor D will send me a referral form in the mail.

Doug also agreed with Doctor D. He also said the Tuesday appointments were great because there are fewer patients in the appointment cycle. Doug did have a point there.

I also ordered the Halloween candy from Hershey’s for the Oncology Clinic nurses. They love chocolate.

Lunch with Doug
Doug and I had lunch after the appointment with Doctor D. We went to BJ’s Brew Pub in Torrance since it is on the way to my house.

We talked about writing and the cinema, our usual subjects lately. I said that I figured that I needed to add perhaps as much as one hundred more pages to the first book to provide some foreshadowing and deeper narrative based explanations.

Doug recommended that I go see SOCIAL NETWORK. I would have done that this weekend but I was out on the roads instead.

Be well and stay happy.

I had a wonderful Saturday

2010-09-19T19:34:00.000-07:00

I had a wonderful Saturday
It was a good day for me for many reasons.

My favorite barista at the local Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf is back at work now. Tihana had been out on maternity leave.

The quality of my ice blendeds had declined as her absence grew longer. I was so put off by the poor quality of the ice blendeds that I had stopped going to the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. My pile of loose change on top of my dresser had grown substantially. It had to have been close to USD$12 or $13. That is a lot of quarters, dimes, and nickels.

I went to the Coffee Bean to pick up some semi-exotic coffee for my oldest Internet friend Lara who lives in South Africa. Lara loves to drink really good coffee that she usually can’t find at home. Her personal favorite type of coffee is strong and dark.

Personally, I am a medium type of coffee drinker and I prefer decaffeinated coffee because it will not increase my blood pressure.

Lara said that she doesn’t have time to enjoy a good cup of coffee now. Her life is too hectic. Lara’s life has always been hectic and, in our fifteen years of chatting and complaining and misunderstanding each other, she has always found some time for a cup of the coffee that I send her.

I will send the box off on Tuesday since it fits with my schedule to run around a bit that day. With any sort of luck, the box should arrive for her sometime in the second week in October.

I was particularly lucky when it came to picking out the coffee; all of the bags have expiration dates of at least a year or longer. Lara is getting a new coffee, Bali Blue Moon, along with two of her favorites, Viennese Blend and Sumatra Mandheling.

Perfectomundo.

The MINI and Me
As some of you may remember, I don’t like the MINI’s digital odometer because I can’t enjoy the slow rollover of the six or seven number wheels at one time.

Doug said I should just get over it and move on. “It’s a digital world Dad.”

I’m trying to move on. It will take some time.

I blinked and missed watching the odometer flash over to 4,000 miles. For the record, the car was in traffic and I had my eyes on the traffic and the pored at the time. 4,000 miles isn’t that much of a significant event for me.

On the other hand, the MINI has lots of toggle switches, knobs, buttons, and dials. Enough to keep me happy and satisfied. I really like the toggle switches that are surrounded by steel frames so that I don ‘t hit one by accident like opening the top when I am driving on the freeway.

The speedometer has seven warning or indicator lights or dials alone and the tachometer has another six indicator lights.

More perfectomundo.

American Football
Our teams were victorious over the weekend.

My old high school was victorious on Friday night. My brother and I played on the football team; he played longer than I did because I injured my knee and stopped playing.

The one of Princess’s school, the University of South Carolina, won on Saturday. They played Furman and won convincingly. South Carolina was ranked Number 13 in the nation before the game.

Our University of Utah was ranked at Number 14 before its crushing victory over New Mexico, 56 to 14. Next Saturday, our Utes will play San Jose State University at Rice Ecceles Stadium in Salt Lake City.

November looks like a challenging month for the Utes, they play Texas Christian University in Salt Lake City on November 6th . They travel to South Bend to play Notre Dame on the 13th. Oh yes, then there is the game with Brigham Young University at the end of the season on Salt Lake.

Utah Tops New Mexico, 56-14
Terrance Cain was 20 for 23 for 248 yards and 3 touchdowns

Sept. 18, 2010
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -Terrance Cain might have to give up Utah's starting quarterback job when Jordan Wynn gets healthy.

But if Cain does end up heading back to the bench, he'll have a record to take with him.

Cain completed 20 of 23 passes to set a school record for completion percentage in a game and Shaky Smithson capped a three-touchdown surge in the third quarter with a 73-yard punt return as No. 14 Utah beat New Mexico 56-14 on Saturday night.

"It's great to have that stat but the most important stat is to get the victory," said Cain, who completed 87 percent of his passes. "That's all I'm worried about."

Cain finished with 248 yard and a career-high three touchdowns for the Utes (3-0, 2-0 Mountain West Conference). He broke the completion percentage record held by his quarterback coach, Brian Johnson.

Wynn started Utah's first game but has sat out the last two with a sprained thumb. "The receivers ran great routes," he said. "The offensive line was holding them great. Running backs, tight ends and receivers were making great catches so it was just my job to get them the ball. They're working their butts off to get open so I just have to get them ball."

After A.J. Butler returned a fumble 27 yards for touchdown to pull the Lobos (0-3, 0-1) within 21-7 to open the third quarter, the Utes responded quickly.

"If we let the turnover and the touchdown get us down, it's a momentum shift," Cain said. "We had to get the momentum right back and strike back. Then our defense got pumped and made a great play and it just started from there."

Cain found Jereme Brooks for a 75-yard score and on New Mexico's next possession, linebacker Matt Martinez went 36 yards with an interception return for a score.

Smithson followed with his touchdown and finished with 223 total return yards.

"You really don't want to think too much," he said. "You just want to execute whatever the coach calls. And I know my teammates are going to make great blocks, and I all have to do run the ball, then just make a couple people miss. All the great special teams players just make a couple of people miss."

New Mexico played without starting quarterback B.R. Holbrook because of a knee injury. Replacement Brad Gruner went 3 for 8 for 33 yards and ran for 32 yards before leaving with an injury.

New Mexico has been outscored 180-31 to start the season in a stretch that has included two ranked teams.

"That was a very good Utah team, very deserving of the No. 14 ranking," Lobos coach Mike Locksley said. "I am disappointed that we didn't play as well as I had hoped we were going to play. We just finished a very rough three-game stretch."

Be well and stay happy.

The Original Tommy's Hamburgers

2010-09-17T18:06:00.000-07:00

The Original Tommy’s Hamburgers
Doug and I went to the Original Tommy’s Hamburgers for lunch last Thursday. It was one of those days when everything was almost correct. It started out on the cool and overcast side when I left home and turned warm and sunny by the time I had left school.

I had a Mega Combo for lunch. This is an excessively large and highly overindulgent eating on my part. The entire meal could provide enough calories for me to last for two or three days. The meal is built around a triple decked chili cheeseburger with lots of onions and pickles and tomatos slices, an order of chili cheese fries, and a very large drink. You need a large drink with all of that chili.

Fortunately, for me, I only do this once or twice a year.

We had lunch after I picked up my books for the new term.

Doug was going to have a Number 2 Combination, which is his normal order. He changed his mind and got a Mega Combo as well. While I don’t think he will say that he truly enjoyed the meal, he did manage to eat all of the serving.

Teaching
My teaching schedule has been a fluid one. I started out with four classes and then lost two of them. I picked up two more classes so I was back to my original number.

Then, I got a call last week to teach a fifth class. The class was in the Construction Management – Business program. It would have been a new for me class but one I felt comfortable to teach. Last Friday, the class was given to another instructor. So, I was back to four classes.

I had my two student seminar class last night. I can’t really stand up in front of two students and lecture. I felt that an informal seminar approach would work best. My students agreed with me.

While I was at break, the Associate Dean and a department chair asked me if I wanted to teach a fifth class that would be on Wednesday. The new class opportunity came about because of a schedule problem elsewhere in the school. I said that I would like to teach the course as it was one that I had taught before.

That was nice for me.

I was still waiting for my two students to return from their breaks when another chair asked me if I was interested in teaching the Construction Management course. I told him that I had committed to teaching another course.

It is now 3:00 PM and classes start at 6:00 PM. No one has called me from the school to confirm whether I am teaching a class tonight or not. I found out at 3:15 that I was teaching a class. I had to call the school to find out. So much for follow up.

The MINI and me
I found some more features of the MINI that I really like.

Alex the Saleswoman connected or activated the Bluetooth function on my cell phone so that I can send and receive a call on my cell phone without having to use my hands. I haven’t tried the send function yet because I would need to be wearing glasses. I don’t drive with my regular glasses on.

I have taken a call in the MINI while I was driving. The sound was good and the Bluetooth functioned as I expected it would.

Unfortunately, for the caller, I was driving on the freeway with the top down. It was very noisy so I suggested the caller try again when I knew I would be driving more slowly. At slow speed with the top down, the phone call seemed close to normal.

The openometer gauge only records up to seven hours of top down driving before it resets itself. I have been able to track my time so far. I do believe that I will forget some time somewhere. I discovered the MINI would display a cumulative top down driving total.

Perfect.

It turns out that I am only off about an hour from my manual calculations and the cumulative display. I think this is because the car was a demonstrator, for about fifty miles, and some of those miles could have been with the top down.

Be well and stay happy.

Road Tripping V1.0

2010-09-08T16:55:00.000-07:00

Road Tripping V1.0
I went road tripping today. I think road tripping sounds so much more dignified than gratuitous joy riding.

Doug had urged me to take a road trip during my break. I decided against going last week because I had class on Monday, a meeting at school on Tuesday, and a visit with Dr. D on Friday. This week would be better for me.

I decided to cruise down the coast to La Jolla for lunch at the Prep Kitchen. Santa Barbara seemed to be too cool for a drive. As it was, most of my drive was in cool conditions. It never really warmed up today. It was cloudy and overcast all day. The high for the day during the drive was a balmy 75F / 24C. that lasted about five minutes and then the temperature plunged into the High 60sF / 18sC.

The drive to La Jolla was a closed top affair. It was nasty looking outside. It was dull also. The ride goes through Camp Pendleton and there were no marines in the field today; not even some helicopters in the area.

I had looked up the Prep Kitchen before I left the flat but I couldn’t find it when I got there. I guess I wrote the address down wrong.

Anyway.

I ended up at the Aroma Café, which is at the corner of Prospect and Fay in La Jolla. It’s in the old Hard Rock Café location if you are familiar with La Jolla. It is right across the street from my former employer that went belly up in 2009.

It seems as if the Aroma Café is new and still trying to find its way gastronomically speaking. The service was about average. The food was good, not great. It was filling. I had a roast turkey sandwich and a cup of soup. Remember, it was cool today.

I might go back if I was in La Jolla sometime in the future but I would definitely do a much better job of writing down the address for the Prep Kitchen, which would be my first choice for dining.

As I was on my way back to Redondo Beach, the outside air temperature kept slowly creeping up as I was going through North San Diego County. When it hit 72F, I decided to stop and put the top down. It doesn’t work very well if you try to take the top down when you are driving at 65 miles an hour.

I now have 42 hours and change driving with my top down on the MINI.

I was very glad that I had my University of South Carolina Gamecocks hoodie on today. The temperature did hit a high of 75F but that lasted for about five minutes in Long Beach. By the time I pulled into my building, it was 66F.

I did have some fun and enjoyment on the road trip. I’ll probably take another trip soon.

Where I won’t be going
I won’t be going to Adult Con 2010 or Hemp Con. They are both this weekend at the Los Angele Convention Center as I recall from the highway billboards today. Normally, neither event would appeal to me.

This weekend is our Patriot Day weekend and it seems like the wrong time to me for these events. Patriot Day is our remembrance of the attack on the United States by Arab terrorists on September 11th.

Teaching
I have to make a run out to school on Thursday so I can pick up my textbooks for the coming quarter. I know I could have swung by the school today but that was not the point of things.

After I pickup my textbooks, I’m going to swing behind the Orange Curtain and have lunch with Doug at the Original Tommy’s Hamburgers in the South O. C. This is why I skipped having lunch at Albertacos in Mission Viejo [No. 8 combination and a medium drink].

Be well and stay happy.

Another Mr. Chips Moment

2010-09-04T15:33:00.000-07:00

Another Mr. Chips moment
Finals ended at school on Monday. My last class on Monday was what I call a “show and go” session. The students had to present their projects to me for a review and then they could go.

If nothing else, this guarantees most students will show up to class on time or even ahead of time. That makes my night go by quickly.

I had what I call a Mr. Chips moment on Monday.

I share a computer lab with another class section on the same course. This irritates many of the other students because the two classes fill up the lab. Life happens.

Anyway.

Two female students from the other gave me hug at the end of the first hour, just before they left for the night. This was the first time that any student has given me a hug at the end of a course. I did have about a dozen male students shake my hand as they left the class.

The remarkable fact about the hugs was that one of the students has never been in one of my classes. We have talked off and on over the last two years. I guess she liked my suggestions and comments. Apparently, she is taking some of them to heart as she goes forward with her course of study.

Fascinating.

Teaching
Classes will start on the 13th for me.

I am going to be teaching five classes and that is a full load for me. Four of the five classes, Economics and Change, Marketing Research, Consumer Behavior, and State and Local Government, are ones that I have taught before so my preparation time will be reduced a bit.

I will have to recreate my lecture notes for Marketing Research and Consumer Behavior. These classes and my new course will only have one student in each class. It will be fun and interesting to teach a single student in a class. I certainly hope the student comes to class fully prepared or, otherwise, it will be a long night in the classroom.

My new course is Introduction to Microsoft Project 2007. It should be fairly simple as I have taught several other Project Management courses this year and I have used Project 2003 regularly.

I am looking forward to the State and Local Government course. This should be an excellent time to teach the course since this is an election year. I plan to show a couple of films that Doug approved; one is MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, a Frank Capra classic, and the other is ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN.

The class will also debate some of the ballot measures on our state ballot. We have eight propositions to vote on ranging from redistricting to marijuana possession to green house gases. This should lead to some interesting debates.

The Prelude
I finally donated the Prelude to the Salvation Army. It was picked up on Wednesday.

The Prelude had 361,520 miles on the odometer. I certainly got my money’s worth out of the Prelude. I will miss driving it since I have owned it longer than any other vehicle. I am not going to miss the car’s underpowered cabin fan. It has always been unsatisfactory in terms of being able to circulate air inside on the passenger compartment.

I had thought about taking a photo of the Prelude being towed away. I decided that I could do without that image.

Molly the Stylist
I went to see Molly the Stylist on Wednesday for my regular appointment.

Molly thought my hair looked fairly good. That was probably because it had only been three and a half weeks between stylings as Molly likes to say. I will look a bit shaggier the next time she sees me when it will be five weeks between stylings

We talked about Fall and some of our favorite holidays, Halloween and Thanksgiving. I had to remind Molly about Halloween. Once I mentioned Halloween, Molly said, “Oh yeah, Halloween, another favorite holiday.”

Actually, I think Molly remembered last year and my box of chocolates. Molly loves chocolates.

But, then, who doesn’t love chocolates?

Dr. D and Me
Last Friday was my appointment with Dr. D the oncologist.

I was really curious about all of the lab tests that she had ordered for me. I had seven tests done and I felt like a drained pincushion afterwards. All of the tests were normal and this is always good news to hear. Dr. D said my liver was functioning normally, good, and my platelet count was up, even better.

We talked about my plan to transition from the Oncology Clinic to my new medical program that starts in January. I wanted to go off the Xeloda at the end of October and be off for two months before starting back up with the new oncologist and the Xeloda.

I had talked to Doug about my transition plan. He thought that it made sense and it seemed reasonable. I had been off Xeloda before for six weeks when I was seeing Dr. Karen and the surgeons were thinking about reconnecting my colon.

Dr. D, being the oncologist, had a different point of view. She said that going off Xeloda could be bad for me because studies had found the rate of reoccurrence is higher for those patients who go off their medication.

Obviously, that would not be a great outcome for me.

Dr. D suggested that we drop the daily dose of Xeloda to 2,000 MG a day from 2,500. She thought this would help with the skin-cracking side effect of Xeloda and recommended continuing to see her until the end of the year. This seemed like a better approach for me.

When I saw her, there was a possibility that I might have a Friday morning class and that would conflict with my Friday morning Oncology Clinic appointments. I asked her if she could move me to Friday afternoons.

Instead, Dr. D moved me to Tuesday morning. That works out much better for me because the Tuesday clinic doesn’t start until 9:30 AM and I can avoid most of the parking problems.

Doug and the Movies
I spoke to Doug about films to see while I am on break.

Doug suggested that I see THE EXPENDABLES and PIRANHA 3D. I thought those films were a bit much. He said they were great Summer films where you didn’t have to think about the film to enjoy it. He said Dolph Lundgren was really good in THE EXPENDABLES.

I haven’t made my mind up yet and I can still go see those two films this weekend or next week.

I asked Doug if he was going to see the Robert Rodriguez film, MACHETTE. He said he was going to see it this coming Tuesday at the Cinerama Dome Theater in Hollywood with The Movie Club. The Cinerama Dome is a great venue for a film. I’ll probably go see the film at the local multiplex in the middle of the week after the kids are back in school.

Perfectomundo.

The MINI and Me
The MINI rolled over to 3,000 the middle of the week. I did see it and I did not blink. Excellent.

One of my thoughts for how to spend the week on break was to go driving in the MINI. One trip could be a run down the coast to La Jolla for lunch. Doug suggested that I consider the Prep Café in La Jolla. He said it was excellent.

I also thought about a lunch run to Santa Barbara. This would be better in the MINI since part of the drive is right next to the ocean. Doug said there were many great places to go for a meal on State Street in Santa Barbara.

Then, there was the third road trip option, a drive to Paso Robles and the Central Coast wine country and back. That would be an all day trip and it is appealing to me. I could enjoy the MINI and pick up some wines at the wineries.

The Paso Robles trip would be perfect for smoking cigars since the MINI would have plenty of time, several hours to air out. Regrettably, the MINI has no ashtray.

I’ve got my Openometer time up to 42 hours now. Anyone of the road trips would certainly boost my top down driving time.

Quarter Break
I’m on quarter break now. I don’t have much in the way of plans or things to do in the coming week.

Doug and I are going to lunch at the Original Tommy’s Hamburgers on Thursday. I have to go to school and pick up my textbooks for the Fall Quarter. Since I will be well past half way to Doug’s house when I’m at school, it makes sense to get together for lunch.

I also have some film viewing and a possible road trip or two.

Lastly, I plan to rest and relax while I enjoy the last of Summer.

Be well and stay happy.

Call me!

2010-08-17T10:33:00.000-07:00

Call me!
The MINI and I were just pulling into Giuliano’s parking lot early on Saturday evening. I was stopping by to pick up a sandwich for my dinner and some Fudgy Wuggy cake for my dessert. The cake is my treat for the week.

The Fudgy Wuggy cake is a really rich chocolate cake with a chocolate fudge icing. I have no idea of how many calories it has and frankly, I really don’t care to know. My blood sugar tests were fine at my semi-annual checkup. My doctor says that I can indulge so long as it is in moderation.

Anyway and more to the point.

I had to wait for the opposing traffic to move past so I could enter their parking area. I had the top down and the radio on, not too loudly either. I was enjoying life and the remains of the day.

A younger and attractive woman pulled alongside of me and smiled at me.

Sweet.

“Call me!” she said with a big smile and then she drove off.

Great. My pen and paper were in my briefcase that was in the MINI’s trunk. For a brief moment, I had a fleeting thought of following her and then I gave that idea up. Too much traffic to fight.

Motoring on, Alex the Saleswoman would be pleased with me for using MINI phraseology.

I now have twenty-eight hours and change of driving with the top down on the MINI. Normally, I would have expected something close to double that level. But, this has been a cool and overcast Summer here in Southern California.

Last Thursday, I had to go pick up some shirts at the laundry. I headed out of the building at about 3:00 PM. The MINI”s outside temperature was reading a chilly 63F. The skies were overcast and there was a steady breeze blowing in off the ocean. I had the top up and I had on my slightly fading red University of Utah hoodie and my red Utah baseball cap.

I was not color coordinating with the British racing green of the MINI.

I have over 2,500 miles on the MINI and I should reach 3,000 by this time next week or sooner if the sun stays out or I go joy riding again this weekend.

The new photo of the MINI and me was taken by Alex. I should ask Alex if I could add a photo of her to the blog.

Teaching
I think I am going to be teaching four classes next quarter. I’ve taught them all before so my preparation time will be significantly reduced.

One of my classes is State and Local Government. The Fall election will give me a number of live teaching aids. I plan to have the students debate some of the more interesting California state ballot measures. Time permitting; I also plan to show a couple of films, one will be the Jimmy Stewart classic, MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON.

This quarter will end in another week. Most of my students are doing well but there are some will not pass.; primarily because they did not complete the assignments.

Doug
Doug and his girl friend took me out to dinner last Friday.

We went to L.A. Food Show because we all like the food there. I had a new menu item, a deli burger. It was ok. I don’t think I’d order it again. It was your basic burger with a couple of corned beef on top of the burger and some coleslaw, served on a brioche. It was supposed to have some pickles. I think I missed them. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best, I would give a 4.5 or so.

Doug had a simple herbed grilled chicken and his girl friend had fried chicken and waffles. I think she said that Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles did it better.

I skipped desert because I knew I was having Fudgy Wuggy cake on Saturday.

Dereliction of Blog Duties
I know that I have been derelict in posting to the blog this Summer. In my defense, I would point out that it is Summer in Southern California and I have a new convertible car to distract me.

I won’t make any promises about writing more because they may be hard to keep. For example, what if I see the woman who yelled at me and she gives me her phone number? I think that could adversely affect my time to post to the blog.

Be well and stay happy.

The MINI and Me

2010-08-04T17:22:00.000-07:00

The MINI and Me
I finally found something about the MINI that I don’t like.

I don’t like the digital odometer.

I know this is a very minor point. Doug said I was overreacting. Doug also said that I need to move forward into the digital world.

Digital world.

Smigital world.

I want the old style analog odometer. I live for the visceral pleasures of watching up to seven number wheels rotate in unison to spin over the 100,000 mile marker. That is truly enjoyable. You have an opportunity to savor the moment longer.

I don’t have that pleasure anymore with the MINI. I blinked and missed the MINI hit 1,000 miles and I was looking in my rearview mirror when it rolled over to 2,000 miles.

In another 3,000 miles, I will get to watch the Pathfinder finally roll over to 100,000 miles. That ought to happen next year sometime, depending upon what passes for our rainy season here. I got to see the Prelude spin over seven wheels three times.

Since my personal major milestones are not very frequent, I guess I can live with the digital odometer.

Moving on
I was out joy riding again this weekend.

It was a perfect weekend for joy riding except that I had to teach from 8:00 AM to 5:20 PM on Saturday. That sucked up most of the prime top down joy riding time. I did enjoy the top down drive home from school.

Sunday was my joy ride day. I spent close to three hours buzzing around Southern California. Sunday was a perfect day for it. It was warm but not hot. The freeways weren’t particularly crowded so there was very little need to slow down.

I now have 23 hours of driving time with the top down.

The MINI holds the turns like an old Autopia car from Disneyland [the cars are on a track so they can’t go off of the ride]. I don’t know if the ride still exists at Disneyland or not. It has been awhile since I was at the park, maybe five or six years now. I ought to go sometime soon.

I am getting better at watching my speeds on the freeways now. I have been able to improve my gas mileage by watching my speeds. I think I am averaging close to thirty miles to the gallon.

Molly the Stylist
I went to see Molly the Stylist today.

Today is the first Wednesday of the month. I try to get my hair cut around the same time each month; that way, I don’t look too shaggy the day before I see her.

Molly said my hair was getting on the ragged side when she started to cut it. It had been a bit over a month since she last cut it.

Molly made me promise to put a hat on or drive home with the top up so my hair could look nice for a few hours. I wore my fading red University of Utah baseball hat. When I buy a new one in a year or so, I will buy a black one so it will color coordinate the MINI better. The fading red of the cap and the MINI’s British racing green just do not look that good together now. They will look very seasonal at year end.

Teaching
I had one of those days when you wonder if it was all a dream yesterday.

The school has a systematic program of having the students evaluate the courses and instructors each quarter. Overall, I feel that I did. I mostly hit the target number which is 91%. I had one student of out 85 who didn’t like me. I can’t please everyone I guess.

I had two women in my Microeconomics course last quarter. Students can write comments about the instructors if they want. I think one of the two females wrote, “I think he is handsome,” in the comment section.

At least, I hope it was one of the women in my class.

I don’t intend to ask either one of she was the one who wrote the comment. She would likely deny it and I don’t see anything to be gained by embarrassing the women.

I so do not want to think about the possibility the comment was written by one of the thirty eight male students.

Be well and stay happy.

It's So Cute and Tiny

2010-07-19T12:31:00.000-07:00

“It’s So Cute and Tiny.”
That’s what my favorite and only ex-wife had to say about the new MINI. She said she liked it a lot more than my old MGB which really was a possessed car from hell.

Actually, she hated the MGB for a variety of reasons starting off with the fact that she couldn’t drive the manual transmission. The MINI has an automatic transmission that allows for manual gear shifting so she could drive it.

She was taken by the fact the convertible top is automatic, no chipped or broken nails. She liked the idea of the sunroof function on the convertible top. “I can have the benefits of the top being down without messing up my hair.”

My ex-wife was very happy for me and my decision to buy the MINI. “I knew how much you enjoyed driving the MGB and I was so thankful when you gave it up for me. You really should enjoy this car now.”

[I got rid of the MGB and purchased a Nissan Z that she drove most of the time.]

The Cup Holders Work
I went to see Molly the Stylist for my regular monthly haircut or styling as she likes to say. I picked up some coffee for us on my way to her salon. Since it was cold, well cold for Southern California, and overcast, I phoned to see if she would like to change from an iced drink to a hot drink.

Molly opted for regular coffee.

As we usually do, Molly asked what was new in my life. I said that I had a new car and pointed it out to her. It was parked in front of the salon, I was lucky with parking that day. Molly liked the MINI as well. She said that I needed to find a girl friend to go with it.

I said I needed to find a younger woman with either short hair or one who liked to put her hair up in a pony tail or wear a cap.

Molly thought for a moment and said, “Uh huh. Long hair could be a problem with the top down.”

The new receptionist at the salon likes MINIs and she said the “MINI looked yummy.”

I decided against asking for any clarification of yummy.

Sunscreen
I need to pick a tube of sunscreen for the MINI. Driving around with the top down and driving fast makes it difficult to know when you are getting a burn. I picked up a nasty little burn on part of my arm where the skin had been partially removed by my blood test tape when I took the bandage off.

Openometer
I now have almost eleven hours on the openometer. Since it is Summer, I can drive at least one way to school with the top down. This is driving up my time.

For now anyway, at the beach, we have a thick marine layer of clouds that lasts all day or maybe only allows for an hour or so of sunshine. Since most of my local trips are short ones, I don’t take the top down just be chilled a bit more from the wind effect.

Shameless Driving
Doug has been urging me to go out and drive for the fun of driving in the MINI.

I finally took him up on his suggestion. I went out and drove for 60 or 65 miles on the local freeways with the sole purpose being driving fast with nowhere to go except back home. Of course the MINI handled well and it was fun for me.

I have found that I am driving around corners faster than I would have with the Prelude or the Pathfinder. I need to be a bit more cautious going forward.

The New Doctor
I have a new oncology doctor now.

I went to the Oncology Clinic on Friday with a fair amount of fear and trepidation. I was going to find out who my new doctor would be. Regardless of how talented the new doctor may, I knew that he or she would never be able to replace Dr. Karen in my heart or mind.

I was also concerned because I had an afternoon appointment; my first since January 2008. Afternoon appointments are bad because the doctors schedules are all off and you end up waiting for what seems like an eternity.

My appointment was for 1:00 PM; my new doctor called my name at 4:50 PM.

My new doctor is Dr. Dilruba Haque, MD. Don’t ask me to pronounce her first name. Her last name is pronounced Hock. So far, she seems to be a good doctor. We discussed the skin on my hands cracking. She was willing to consider a reduction in the Xeloda dosage now. I said that I could stand the current dosage a bit longer and it seemed better to me that we should give the new lower dosage that Dr. Karen started me on a chance to take effect. She smiled.

My next appointment is in the morning.

Perfectomundo.

I do need to come up with a new avatar for Dr. Hock.

I had a chance to talk with Nurse Vhrunda and Nurse Linda. They both said that Dr. Karen has gone to one of the Kaiser Hospitals and was working there now. Linda said she would contact Dr. Karen and find out which one and tell me the next time I see her.

Be well and stay happy.

Two weeks and 603 miles later

2010-07-01T12:03:00.000-07:00

Two weeks and 603 miles later
I’ve been driving the MINI now for two weeks. The car has been driven for just over 603 miles.

Contrary to Doug’s suggestions that I take the MINI out for a drive with no purpose other than spending time behind the wheel on the highways, I have avoided driving for the sake of driving so far. Since this weekend will be a long one, I just may take the MINI out for some recreational driving.

I have a difficult to decision to make for the weekend. Do I finally finish reading the Owner’s Manual or do I recreational drive?

By trial and error, I have figured out most of the control and switches on my own. Alex the Saleswoman gave me a quick run through all of their functions when I picked up the MINI at the dealership. I should have taken notes. The only remaining area that I will need the Manual for is how to set up and operate the radio. In the meantime, I have a wonderful CD that Alex made for me to listen to.

Excellent.

It would be easy to recreational drive if the MINI had an ashtray and cigarette lighter so I could smoke a nice cigar while driving with the top down. That would eliminate the possibility of tobacco smoke smell in the car.

Alex the Saleswoman said the MINI has neither. She also said it was bad to smoke anyway.

I do truly enjoy driving the MINI. I especially like and enjoy the way it handles. It corners crisply with precision. There is nothing that resembles a sense of drifting or loss of control when I take a turn sharply.

Alex told me that I should rotate the key fobs about once every four months or so because their batteries need to be charged. Once every four months is a challenge for me so I have been changing off every week. That is easier for me to manage.

Alex would probably say that once every four months is better.

[Shrugs]

I am very glad that I ignored Doug’s comments that green is a Boston Celtics color. I am beginning to love the green car more and more every day. I was stopped in traffic earlier this week and all of the cars around the MINI were black. I liked being able to stand out.

Last Saturday, I took my friend Mariola to lunch. We both teach at school and we both attended the great University of Utah although at different times. She thought the green looked very handsome. Mariola also liked how comfortable the seats. We didn’t have a long lunch because we both had afternoon classes to get back to teach.

When I was driving home from school last Saturday in the bright and warm Southern California sun with the top down, I was stopped in traffic in Torrance at a traffic signal. A family in a minivan pulled alongside of the MINI. The father looked down at me in the MINI and shrugged and smiled; he clearly would have preferred to be driving the MINI and not the minivan with a back seat full of noisy children, judging from the expression on his face.

I waved and smiled as I drove off. I didn’t feel guilty at all at being in my MINI convertible then or now for that matter.

My driving during the first tank of gasoline was less than judicious for me. The car averaged about 26 miles per gallon for my driving. The MINI drives so well that I have to make an effort to not speed.

When I drove out to school last Saturday morning on an almost empty 405 Freeway, I noticed the tachometer was running at 4,000 RPMs. My first reaction was that I was driving in a lower gear and hadn’t shifted up to fifth gear. I looked over at the Speedometer that was indicating that I was driving at 85 miles an hour.

Not a good speed for economical driving. Good thing for me the Highway Patrol was somewhere else and not behind me because I would have been stopped and given a traffic citation that carried a hefty fine.

Teaching
This week has been a good week for me at school. I found out that I picked up USD$600 in teaching bonus money for last quarter. My actual spending money will be less because of withheld taxes.

I taught as a substitute last night and picked up about USD$110. It was easy; all I did was sit in class while the guest speaker, an undercover detective, told adventure stories from his career of chasing criminals to a class of Transportation Security students.

The Paralegal Studies chair spoke to me last night and asked if I was interested in teaching some more paralegal courses in the Fall Quarter. I said sure; the subject matter is relatively easy and the classes for the most part are small which translates into higher evaluations and bonus money for me.

This was the first time anyone at school has asked me about teaching so early in the quarter. This is the third week of the quarter and teaching decisions are not usually made until Week 9 or 10 of the quarter. I guess the chair likes me as an instructor.

I’ve already mentally spent the bonus and substitute money. I will be buying Microsoft Office 2010 Professional and I will be picking up some DVDs and maybe a Blu-Ray or two from DVDPlanet.com.

Perfectomundo.

Be well and stay happy.

There's no blind spot when the top is down

2010-06-20T21:54:00.000-07:00

There’s no blind spot when the top is down
It was really great to drive home on the freeways from school on Saturday with the top down. Being able to enjoy the California sun and drive fast is sort of compensated for having a class that ran until 5:20 PM.

When the top is down, there is no blind spot for me to worry about.

Perfectomundo.

The wind turbulence was not very bad when I was driving at around 75 miles per hour. My University of Utah baseball cap stayed on without any trouble or constant adjustment on my part. I have to learn to glance over at the speedometer and not look at the tachometer that is positioned over the steering wheel.

I think I will need to reconsider my baseball hat. I’m not certain that the red cap goes well with the British racing green color of the car.

The MINI is very responsive and agile. This makes lane changes almost fun for me.

I had thought about comparing the MINI with the Prelude.

I thought some more and concluded that was a useless exercise on my part. For example, the Prelude has a bigger engine but it is a heavier car so it should have a bigger engine. The MINI gets better mileage because its engine and engine management technology are state of the art while the Prelude’s technology is over twenty years old.

In the end, it is like what so many medieval monks did after vespers. They would argue over warm beer, obviously a bad start for clear headed thinking, just how many angels can stand on the head of pin.

A pointless exercise even with warm beer.

Monday, I am going to read my owner’s manual; all 175 pages of it. Then, I will be able to select and set the radio to my favorite stations and figure out how to work the ventilation system and the air conditioning.

Looking Ahead
This is a medical week for me. I get to see the colorectal surgeons on Wednesday afternoon. This is a six month follow up to the January operation. I am not expecting much of anything to come from the meeting. I will go and make the doctors feel good while they look at my scar and ask me lots of questions. Hopefully, I will not be abandoned by the doctors in the examination room.

I tried to talk the doctors out of having me take a blood test they ordered for me. I have never been that fond of or happy to undergo a blood test. It is one that Dr. Karen orders every three months. It always comes back negative. With a little luck, the bruise from the test last week will have faded by the time of the appointment.

After spending time with the surgeons, I am going to walk over the hospital for Dr. Karen’s regular blood tests. Oh joy, more blood tests.

Friday is my final appointment with Dr. Karen. She is finishing her fellowship and will leave the hospital’s oncology clinic at the end of the month. I have asked her to see that I get put on a nice, new fellowship doctor’s panel until she can get established in private practice, hopefully in Southern California so I can continue to see and be treated by her, and I can get my medical insurance figured out.

Be well and stay happy.

The MINI and Me and Not Mini-Me

2010-06-18T17:55:00.000-07:00

The MINI and Me and Not Mini-Me
I finally drove the MINI home on Thursday afternoon after Alex the Saleswoman gave me a quick run through of the more important features of the MINI like how to start it and operate the convertible top.

This is Alex trying to show me how to operate the MINI.

Very useful stuff.

That small gauge to the left of the tachometer is the Openometer. It records how long the convertible top has been open.

Alex was able to synchronize my cell phone with the MINI so now I can receive phone calls while I and driving, assuming for the moment that I would pick the call up. I can now also call out from the car in a mostly hands free mode.

No more Borg like ear piece that rarely seemed to work for me.

I suppose some of you may be wondering why I only took the car home on Thursday when I signed the purchase order last Saturday. Good question. I had planned to pick the MINI up on Tuesday because Doug would be around and would be able to drive me to the dealership and take some appropriate photos of the event.

Alex, and I do not know what Alex is short for, discovered what she thought was a minor problem on Monday. The passenger’s side window did not go all of the way up. In the Summer, this would only be a minor inconvenience since we don’t get much in the way or rain in Southern California, the Winter would be a different matter.

Alex thought the problem could be corrected by the time we came to pick up the MINI on Tuesday. Regrettably, this was not the case.

Alex told us the car was still in the shop and the mechanics were not having much success in finding the cause of the trouble. She told us that would be Doug and me that the mechanics had reprogrammed the car’s computer and changed two modules and had been unable to resolve the window problem.

Obviously, I was disappointed as I had planned to drive the MINI to class on Tuesday night.

Alex almost squealed with delight when I gave her a modest thank you gift for her effort and for finding the defect in the MINI before I took it home.

Alex likes chocolate brownies. Doesn’t everyone?

I described the small Fairy Tale Brownie calorie cluster bomb; it only contained 12 assorted brownies. I could almost see the calories running up Alex’s slender fingers and onward to parts of the body that no one wants to see calories cluster. I warned Alex about the dangers of uncontrolled consumption of the 400 calorie brownies and the consequences for which I would not be responsible. I also discovered that neither one of us likes nuts in our brownies.

I’m uncertain if Alex was paying attention to me or not. I think she was focused on the brownies.

Alex said she would call me on Wednesday when the car was finished. I thanked her for her efforts of my behalf.

Doug and I left the dealership to have lunch at Jerry’s Deli. It was noontime and I wasn’t going to be driving my new car anytime soon. We had a very good lunch; I had a corned beef sandwich and Doug had turkey pastrami sandwich.

I received Alex’s message when I got home from school around 10:40 PM. Alex had called earlier that night to let me know the mechanics had been unsuccessful and that the shop foreman was now working on the MINI. Alex said she would call me on Wednesday and let me know how the repairs were progressing.

Alex called me on Wednesday to say that the problem was still being worked on and that it appeared to be a wiring problem. I thanked her for the new information and expressed my hope that the problem would soon be resolved.

Thursday proved to be a much better day for me and the MINI.

Alex called to let me know the problem had been fixed. It was a wiring problem that came from the factory. The factory did not put a lock nut on a wiring junction so that resulted in an intermittent connection; sometimes the widow would work and sometimes it would not.

Alex then asked how I wanted to take delivery of the MINI. She was prepared to drive the MINI to my flat and show me everything here. I said that might not be necessary because Doug was going to stay overnight at the flat. I would call him to see if he could arrive earlier and take me to the dealership.

Doug arrived early and drove me to the dealership where I picked up the MINI.

I am still getting used to the car. I do like the way it handles and performs. I didn’t pay attention to Alex’s explanation of the radio and CD player very well. Alex made a CD for me, complete with a Hello Kitty sticker. I will be reading the almost 200 page owner’s manual this weekend.

I can operate the convertible top.

Perfectomundo.

As I look back on this interesting series of twists and turns, I feel confident that Alex did all that she could to insure my satisfaction. Obviously, it would be totally wrong to assign any blame or fault to Alex. The dealership did everything it could to make things right with me.

While I don’t have much experience in buying cars, this was the first one in almost 22 years for me, I consider Alex to be a highly competent, professional saleswoman. Alex exceeded my expectations.

I’m not certain if Alex can walk on water successfully or not. In my mind, if Alex tried to walk on water, she would only get her toes wet and possibly her ankles on occasion.

I can highly recommend both Alex and South Bay MINI for those of you who are locals and in the market for a new vehicle.

Be well and stay happy.

Car Shopping with Doug

2010-06-13T16:51:00.000-07:00

Car shopping with Doug
Doug and I went car shopping on Saturday for my new car.

We planned to visit four dealers primarily to see about features that could not displayed or answered clearly from an online source. One of the questions was could I find a comfortable seat. This sounds simple but I have had a stiff back since 1968 when I was tossed into the binnacle of the good ship USS Leonard F. Mason after a rogue wave hit the beam of the ship on the midwatch.

Another question was how large was the driver’s side blind spot. This was important since I drive a lot on the freeways of Southern California. I will have to change lanes and I want to be able to look over my left shoulder to be sure there is nothing there so I can change lanes safely. I was planning to purchase a smaller sized car so I was properly concerned with this consideration.

My plan was to visit the dealerships Saturday and then analyze the benefits and features of each vehicle. Then, I would make and select a model. The next step would be to solicit online price quotations from local dealers on Sunday.

Monday was going to be devoted to negotiation for the car. Tuesday or Wednesday would have been new car pick up day.

Our first stop was at the Scion dealer. We both liked the Scion tc. It met all of my requirements. I especially liked the dark charcoal color. The seats were comfortable and the blind spot was acceptable. The headroom was a little on the tight side but manageable. The saleswoman Lindsey was helpful.

We left the dealership and headed to the MINI dealer. We figured that we didn’t need to stop at the Honda dealership to look at the Civic since we were so familiar with the Honda product line.

One of the MINIs we first saw was a 2009 convertible in red with a black top. I had discussed color choices with Doug and red was an acceptable color for me. I was giving up driving black cars for now. Unfortunately for us, the red convertible was sold.

We did see a British racing green MINI convertible. It was a new 2009 model with a USD$4,500 discount on the window and it had an automatic transmission.

I know some of the readers may gasp at the idea of driving a MINI with an automatic transmission. Those of you who do have never driven in Southern California traffic during the commute times. I have burned out several clutches in earlier cars because of the constant shifting that is required with this type of driving. If I am going to be stuck in traffic, I want to have as much comfort as possible.

Doug wanted me to get a car with a navigation system. A navigation system was a USD$2,000 extra. I can find my way around well enough on my own. I can use maps; I know that is old fashioned but maps never crash or need to be rebooted. If I have to go to a new place, I can always rely on MSN Maps.

Alex the saleswoman opened the car for me so I could see if I could sit in the seats. The seats were the optional sports seats and they fit me perfectly and provided full support for my back. I hated to get out of the car.

Doug was not thrilled with the green color since he is a true Los Angeles Lakers fan. He said it looked the Boston Celtics color. I said it was a much darker color.

The blind spot was acceptable and would be close to zero when I would drive with the top down. There is nothing in the way of storage beyond the back seat which is really a shelf in the shape of a seat.

We left the MINI dealership and headed for the possible last stop at the Nissan dealership to look at the Altima coupe. Since we were traveling on surface streets, we had plenty of time to talk about car choices.

Doug said that since this was most likely the last car that I will ever buy because I tend to drive them into the ground, I ought to buy the car that would provide me with the most enjoyment. We discussed this concept for a while.

Mentally, Doug was correct. I should buy the car that will give me the most enjoyment. I decided to buy a 2009 MINI convertible. So, I turned around and drove back to the MINI dealer and Alex the saleswoman.

Doug did the right thing by questioning me about my decision. I went through my analysis and decision process. All I was doing was compressing the time frame somewhat.

Doug said that he thought all of the discussion about looking at other cars was just a mental cover so I could feel good about buying another Honda. I told him that my plan, from the beginning, was to find the best car for me.

We found Alex the saleswoman. She was surprised to see us back at her dealership. Alex was with another customer so I asked to see her when she was free. Alex said that we could come inside the dealership and wait for her. We stayed outside and looked at the various models.

After we waited inside for a few minutes, Alex was free. She wanted to know what brought us back and I said that I wanted to buy a car and that I thought she could help me. Alex smiled. I asked if she had a red 2009 convertible with an automatic transmission available. She said no. Red would have been my first color choice primarily because red is Utah’s color.

One of the silly features on the MINI is an openmeter. It tracks the amount of time the top is down. Alex said it was part of a promotion in 2009 when the convertible was introduced. I will have to see how much time I can run up on the meter this Summer. I ought to be able to log a few hours since I live in Southern California. Doug said I might lose my red Utah baseball hat if I drove around with the top down. I said that I could wear my hat backwards.

Doug said, “Noooooo, Dad, don’t do that.”

Anyway.

I bought the British racing green MINI. Doug’s girl friend, the Mademoiselle, thought it was very nice. He sent her a photo of the car with his iPhone. I phoned the Princess to let her know since she learned how to drive on the Prelude. She was out or not answering so I left her a message.

I will pick the MINI up on late Tuesday morning and try to get a photo of me and the car posted a day or so after that.

The more I think about the MINI, the happier I am with the decision. I pointed out to Doug that I could smoke a cigar in the MINI if I wanted to with the top down. Doug said that I shouldn’t smoke at all. I said that it has been almost three years since I smoked a cigar.

I am looking forward to driving to school on Tuesday night in the new car.

Cinema
I saw IRONMAN 2 and PRINCE OF PERSIA last week. Doug saw SPLICE with his Movie Club. He thought it was similar to an early David Cronenberg film with the rather graphic sequences. He did say that he enjoyed the film as did most of the Club members.

Both of my films were completely satisfying as Summer mindless escape, action films. They fit the genre very well. I thought dialogue in IRONMAN was much better than the first film. It seemed to have a much tighter flow for me. I was intrigued by the introduction – crossover of the Avengers and Nick Fury. I am looking forward to seeing that film on the big screen in the next year or so.

The PRINCE OF PERSIA was one of those sand and sandal films that always seem to hook me in. Granted, it was mostly spectacular CGI scenes, panoramic vistas, and sword fighting. The dialogue was on the thin side. Still, it was enjoyable. I hope the sequel follows the usual Hollywood pattern of the first sequel being the best film of the trilogy; remember THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK?

I can recommend these films because they are excellent Summer films that don’t require any great thought or involvement to enjoy.

The Blog Visitors
May was a fairly decent month for blog traffic. We had 504 visitors who stopped by to look at 579 unique pages. January 1, 2007 is still the traffic leader. The current blog page is in second place.

I do appreciate all of you who stop by and visit the blog.

Lunch with beautiful women or it’s wonderful week for Charles
My Friend Sharon
I had lunch with my friend and former co-worker Sharon on Friday. Sharon brought her assistant along for lunch. We went to the Elephant Bar in Riverside for lunch because we can agree on the menu. I mentioned this to Doug yesterday and he said that was a really, really long drive just for lunch.

Sharon said that I always ordered hamburgers and that is not always correct. I do order hamburgers from time to time. I also order other things on the menu like the specials for example. I mentioned a restaurant, the Parkway Grill, that Sharon and I and some other staffers would go to in Pasadena and she agreed that I never ordered a hamburger there; she said I ordered fish. I said I ordered one of the specials; fish was always one of the specials.

Sharon brought her assistant along because Sharon’s boss had given her an impossible task and Sharon thought I could come up with a solution.

After thinking for a while, I concluded that there was no simple solution short of industrial espionage. I didn’t recommend that solution. I did think some more and came up with a solution that could work and would be likely to provide a perhaps 60% solution to the problem. I even gave Sharon and Kay, her assistant, a simple way to test the proposed solution.

Since it was just after Chuckay, my month long birthday celebration, Sharon bough the lunch. That was very nice of her. I had a Cobb salad that was marginally healthy for me once you looked past all of the sodium and calories in it.

Sharon thought that I had lost a lot more weight. She hadn’t seen me since the January operation. I said I was just slightly over my goal weight of 175 pounds because of Chuckay. I said the goal weight was what I weighed when I graduated from high school, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Sharon sighed. Her weight loss program has not been as successful as mine has been for me. I don’t recommend having major surgery for colon cancer as a successful diet plan though.

Vivian and Lisa
I had lunch today with my friends Vivian and Lisa. We used to work at the same office of a bank that has since failed and been sold off to another institution. We always have lunch together at the L. A. Food Show; we like the food there and it is a semi-central location except for Lisa who has to drive a bit to join Vivian and me. I compensate Lisa by driving out towards her home for lunches without Vivian.

It has been close to a year or maybe a bit longer since we last had lunch. We spent most of the time catching up with each others' lives. My life is still dull and boring. Vivian and Lisa had gone through a great deal in the last year or so with the failure of the bank and subsequent sale in December.

Vivian is working at a new bank with some people from the old bank. Lisa seems to be sticking with the bank that acquired parts of our former employer. They are sending her off for training so that is always a good sign.

Our lunch ended too early today. But, then, it always seems to end too early for me.

Be well and stay happy.

Mr. Chips Moment

2010-06-09T15:35:00.000-07:00

Mr. Chips Moment
I had a Mr. Chips moment at school last week.

I had given one of my former students some suggestions on topics for her bachelor’s thesis. My student has never been one to think actively about her class work. Usually, her course projects in my classes have either been completed, poorly I might add, the night before or in the minutes before she was to present the project.

By suggesting some topics to her, I was hoping against hope that she might find one that caught her interest and would even begin thinking about it. She wandered into my Friday evening class last week to tell me that she was really happy with one of the topics and that she had already started to research it further.

On her way out of my class, she turned, smiled, and said, “Good one Reinhardt.”

That made me feel very good.

I had successfully reached a student and got her thinking about her thesis a quarter early. Maybe I am a good teacher after all.

Monday Was Earthquake Day
Monday was earthquake day at the beach.

I think I slept through the first earthquake in the swarm of ten or eleven quakes that were centered in an area about four or five miles off the coast of Hermosa Beach, about five or six miles from the flat. The first one was in the early morning hours around 2:00 AM or so. It was a 3.5 on the Richter Scale. There some aftershocks that ranged from 1.5 to 2.3.

There were two, 1.8s aftershocks during the day. There was also a 2.3 quake and a 2.7 quake. These quakes preceded and I am not certain if that is the proper description or term to use here a 3.7 quake that hit a 5:00 PM.

I was typing on the computer when the quake struck. There was no rolling motion with these quakes. It was more a stiff shaking sensation.

Naturally, there were some more aftershocks that included a 2.7 quake, a 2.3 and a bunch of aftershocks in the 1.8 to 1.5 range.

I suppose the most troubling thing to me was the quakes seemed to be centered on an unmarked fault line at the USGS earthquake web site. Of course, the fault line could have been too minor to warrant a place on the map. After all, Southern California is earthquake country. Alternatively, this could have been an unknown fault line because it had had no significant activity in recent memory.

If I wanted to avoid earthquakes, I would live in Salt Lake City.

Election Day
One of the great benefits of the primary election was the end of robot political phone calls. It will also make the end of political junk mail that filled my mailbox during the campaign season. I was getting five to six political phone calls a day.

I voted around 9:00 AM or about two hours after the polls opened. I was the eleventh person registered in the political party to have cast his or her vote. That didn’t seem like much of a turnout to me.

Break Weather
The weather is not cooperating to make my quarter break pleasant. The local weather pattern is usually described as low clouds and fog along the coast that may stay around all day. Another description is June gloom.

Today was the earliest that the sun made an appearance at my flat. It became sunny at about 2:30 PM. It will probably be gone by 5:00 PM or so.

So much for sunny Southern California and living at the beach today.

Be well and stay happy.

Odd and Ends

2010-06-07T14:22:00.000-07:00

Molly the Stylist
I went into see Molly the Stylist last Wednesday for my regular haircut or styling as she likes to call it.

I indulged Molly by stopping by the local Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and picking up her current favorite beverage from there, a large iced vanilla latte. I had my usual large ice blended, half mocha and half white chocolate with decaffeinated coffee and whipped cream. Mine was very good and Molly’s must have been good as well, judging by the size of the gulps she took.

We talked about my hair length. I had wanted it longer and Molly had thought that I wanted it shorter for the Summer. We agreed to let it grow longer for now anyway. I will have another chance to revisit the question in early July.

I had shaved my moustache off in the last week of May and this was the first time that Molly had seen the new. Molly said she liked the new look.

Molly also said she liked the moustache when I grew it last Fall.

Teaching
I finished up with my last class on Friday night and worked on my electronic grade books during the day.

I took my three Friday night students out for a beer after their course project presentation. They have been in ten or eleven classes with me and this was their last class with me. They only have two more classes to take and then they will graduate in September. I will not be teaching those classes. It was a very nice way to finish off the quarter.

This was the first quarter in a long time that I did not have a single student fail any of the courses. Microeconomics is the toughest course that I teach and I believe it is the most difficult class in the entire school.

My schedule for next quarter seems to be set at four classes; old ones and two new ones. That is not too bad for me.

Dr. Karen and Me
Friday was my regular appointment with Dr. Karen.

My appointment was scheduled for 10:30 but Nurse Linda said I “would be the first one to see Dr. Karen today.” It certainly pays to take care of and remember the nurses.

Dr. Karen said the MRI and the CT scan both showed the two spots on the right lobe of my liver as unchanged. This is what we had thought the results would be. My other tests were all normal. My platelet count was up to 112; this was the first time in maybe a year that it has been over 110.

We talked about the condition of my hands. The Xeloda that I take for chemotherapy has a side effect of severely drying my hands. The skin on my fingers of my right hand is starting to crack at the joints. My left hand is only beginning to show signs of the cracking. Dr. Karen said that she might have to change or reduce the medication dosage soon.

Odds and Ends
Our primary election takes place on Tuesday. This means the auto dialer phone calls will stop and my mailbox will have less junk mail in it.

The weather forecast for this week, my quarter break week, is mostly calling for overcast skies at the beach all week long. Naturally, it was sunny last week when I had to go to school.

I’m reading a book on the fall of Rome. I have no idea why I purchased the book. It is interesting for me.

Be well and stay happy.

Return of the Crows

2010-06-01T10:52:00.000-07:00

Return of the Crows
The crows have returned to the park that is next to my building.

This is a yearly ritual with me and the crows. The crows returning to the park has been going on for at least fifteen years and perhaps even longer. They usually have arrived earlier in the past, typically in April. They seem to stay for two months or so and then leave.

I was reading on the balcony when I first heard them and then I saw the crows. I think there were about twenty in the flock. They seem to like the tall eucalyptus trees for some reason. There are pine trees in the park but they are much lower.

While I do not hate the crows; their loud, constant cawing does ruin or spoil my reading time on the balcony. I suppose that I will have a difficult time this quarter at school because I have always graded the Summer Quarter assignments out on the balcony. Sometimes, I take one of my Dutch buddies [a can of cold Heineken’s] with me to keep me company. I think that I may require more than one can to make it through the grading session.

[Full and fair disclosure; I receive no compensation for mentioning Heineken's beer in the blog.]

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly or How was my CT scan today
I had my once every six months CT Scan this morning. This is not how I like to start my mornings.

The Ugly part of a CT Scan has been the reactive dye agent that I have had to swallow. Doug says it smells like wall paper paste. It tastes much worse I think. The Bad part is being stuck with a needle for a reactive dye agent IV. The Good part is that it is a quick procedure and there is no narrow tube to be stuck in as with an MRI procedure.

Today was my lucky day. I only had an IV instead of the dye combination. This is a very good part of the procedure for me.

Perfectomundo.

The Bad part was the technician needed to stab me in three different veins before he could get the IV needle in my arm.

I will get the results on Friday when I see Dr. Karen.

Be well and stay happy.

Memorial Day - May 31, 2010

2010-05-31T11:30:00.000-07:00

Freedom is never free. It was bought and paid for and will be paid for by countless young men and women who have made and who will make the ultimate sacrifice.

It was also paid for by generations of veterans who sacrificed their time and liberty to ensure the freedom of others. Some veterans were welcomed home with parades and others were spat upon by those they sought to protect.

If you are enjoying your freedom, be sure to thank a veteran.

Here’s a very shortlist of other simple things you can do to honor your freedom and those who paid for it:

Take off your hat when the National Anthem is played.

Stand up for the playing of the National Anthem.

Stand up and take your hat off when the National Flag passed you in a parade.

I am very proud to have been able to put on the uniform of the United States and to have taken the President’s dollar when I served in the United States Navy.

Be well and stay happy.

Teaching and the End of the Term

2010-05-30T14:27:00.000-07:00

Teaching and the End of the Term
I filled in as substitute on Thursday. I had expected a reasonably trouble free evening; about a third of the students had been in one of my classes before.

Boy was I ever wrong.

This was, without any doubt, the worse behaved group of young adults that I have ever had the extreme misfortune to have in a class. They were rude, boorish, ill mannered, vile, and generally unprepared. I hope that I never see any of them in any of my future classes.

After a night like that, I am questioning why I am even trying to prepare these students for their future careers; McDonald's does an excellent job of training people to flip hamburgers.

My Summer Quarter teaching schedule seems fairly firm now. I will have four classes; one each on Monday and Tuesday evenings and two on Saturday. Two of the classes are ones that I have taught several times before including one from this quarter.

I only have to drive to school three times a week instead of the five that I drive this quarter. I ought to be saving a few dollars since my weekly trip will drop from a total of 340 miles to 200 miles.

Pathfinder
The Pathfinder rolled over to 96,000 miles / 154,500 kilometers on the way to school on Friday.

Assuming that I purchase a new car during the first week in June, I am planning to replace the timing belt in the truck because it is close the 100,000 mile suggested replacement interval. The timing belt is also over15 years old so it should be wearing out soon.

Looking Ahead
This coming week is finals week at school. I will be busy grading the course projects and final examinations. This may be the first time that I will end up assigning failures to students in classes other than Microeconomics.

My Monday evening class is one of those classes that is in trouble. The trouble largely is of the students’ own doing; some have not turned in any homework assignments for the course. It is difficult for me to have any sympathy for those who were unable or didn’t care enough to turn in any work when others were able to do so.

Tuesday morning is my CT scan. Wednesday is my day for lab testing. Friday is my day to see Dr. Karen again. This will be my next to last appointment with Dr. Karen since her fellowship will end at the end of June. I will truly miss her.

Be well and stay happy.

It's a Small World

2010-05-25T11:27:00.000-07:00

It’s a Small World After All
I had to withdraw some money from a mutual fund account yesterday. This was in preparation to buying a new car. It was on the windy or perhaps breezy side yesterday so I put on my old University of Utah hoodie sweatshirt; it is a slightly faded red with large white letters spelling out UTAH.

It is hard to mistake where I went to college.

It turned out that the manager of the mutual fund company office not only went to the U but was a member of my old fraternity. We talked for about fifteen minutes which made my withdrawal take much longer to process. I didn’t mind the extra time; I was able to bring him up to date on the fraternity and I described how the re-installation of the chapter went in April.

It was a very nice day for me.

This morning I was reading a business news RSS feed from the New York Times. One of the summaries in the news feed was about a bond being issued in the United Kingdom by a gourmet chocolate company that allowed the bondholder the option of receiving interest payments in chocolate.

I forwarded the news feed to my broker at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney with a note that said, “this looks like a sweet deal.”

Be well and stay happy.

It feels like fall

2010-05-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

It feels like Fall
I was out this morning running some errands. It was a really, really nice morning; the sky was clear and a bright blue. It was windy as well. The national flag was standing out straight in the breeze and some of the larger flagpoles were bending under the pressure of the wind.

Perfectomundo.

The wind was on the nasty side last night when I drove out to Morton’s. It was strongest when you came closer to the coast, especially the West facing beaches.

I was also out walking along the beach as part of my exercise today. The wind chill affect made it feel much colder than it was; that kept a lot of people off of the sand. It also adversely affected the beach volleyball matches. I think they were postponed because of wind.

Oh well, there is always tomorrow for exercising.

Chuckay Dinner
Last night was the traditional Chuckay Diner at Morton’s The Steakhouse. Our dinner was perfect.

I did something last night that I have never done in the thirteen or fourteen years that Doug and I have been going to Morton’s. I did not have any beef for dinner. In fact, I had appetizers and a salad for my dinner. I think this was a wise decision because I slept very well last night and I did not feel loggy when I woke up today.

I had been thinking about ordering a small roast prime rib of beef and a small lobster tail for dinner. That seemed to mentally fill my mind and stomach. We all talked about what we were going to have. I mentioned my prime rib idea. Doug and his girl friend both picked up on my idea.

After all, great minds think alike.

Unfortunately for us, Morton’s had run out of prime rib before we placed our order. Morton’s only cooks a small amount of prime rib each night.

I ended up ordering some smoked salmon, a chopped salad with oil and vinegar dressing, and broiled scallops wrapped in bacon with an apricot chutney sauce. I also saved room for the Morton’s Chocolate Cake.

Doug and his girl friend both ordered New York strip steaks and sides of grilled asparagus with a balsamic glaze and sautéed mushrooms and spinach. Overall, I thought our table’s order was very eclectic.

Doug said his girl friend, the Mademoiselle, is going to France to teach English in an elementary school. The Mademoiselle will leave at the end of Summer and will be gone for six to nine months. She is a French major at California State University Fullerton.

I think her first classroom session will be interesting for her students. She is an Asian American and I don’t think the French students will be expecting like a teacher her in their classroom.

We talked about her new career. The Mademoiselle likes to cook and is a very good one now. I pointed out that she will have time to pick up on French cooking while she is in France. She smiled and said that she was planning to do that. Doug said she could concentrate on pastries and cakes. She does make wonderful pastries

The Mademoiselle liked my tentative car choice of a Mini Cooper. Doug thought it would good in red with a white roof.

I told Doug that I was going to shave off my moustache.

He said, “Good and not too soon either.” I guess that he was not fond of it.

Be well and stay happy.

End of the Week

2010-05-22T14:09:00.000-07:00

End of the Week
I spent three hours and change at the local Nissan dealer while I waited for them to install the final part that was necessary to fix my speedometer cable. This was my third trip to the dealership in three weeks.

At the end of the day, I can say that the speedometer functions properly in the Pathfinder now. I can also say that I do not have very much confidence in the dealership or perhaps I should say its technicians. If one of two parts that make up the speed sensor is damaged, isn’t it more likely the other part will be damaged as well? I think so.

The technician in my mind either knew or should have known that the other part was either worn or likely damaged and should have recommended replacing both of them at the same time. I would have been able to save at least three hours in dead time and perhaps as much as USD$250 in labor charges.

I had ordered some tee shirts from L. L. Bean as a birthday gift to me from me. They arrived on Friday.

Perfectomundo.

These tee shirts have a very soft, almost well worn flannel feel to them. I guessed the right size and they fit perfectly. I ordered four colored, short sleeved tee shirts and two long sleeved ones. I think I am going to enjoy wearing them this Summer and Fall. I wore one to class with a colored dress shirt and they matched their colors well.

Car Searching
There was one positive outcome to killing time at the Nissan dealership this morning. I learned that the Altima comes in a coupe version. I compared the price for the Altima coupe and the Honda Civic and Accord coupes and the Altima is in between both of the Hondas.

I think I will add the Altima to the list of potential vehicles for me to purchase. I have owned a Nissan 510 sedan and a 260Z sports car. They were both fine cars for me and the ex-wife.

Doug and I will check it out probably next month. I would go back to the Nissan dealership to look at the car but I probably would buy it someplace else unless the dealership was the lowest price. If that was the case, I would have it serviced someplace else.

Teaching
I was at school yesterday for my Friday class.

Friday was not a good day at school. The new school director has adopted new rules about smoking that seem to border on unreasonable. For example, students may not smoke in their cars when they are parked in one of the building parking lots. It will be a difficult rule to enforce since it goes beyond what the building owner will allow and I know the new director’s rule will not apply to the other tenants in the building. Some of the instructors have said the students are ready to mutiny.

Where are the Marines when you really need them?

Some are out smoking I think.

The new Criminal Justice program chair spoke to me about teaching two paralegal studies classes on a Saturday in the coming term. Her predecessor had talked to me about teaching four classes instead. I had mentioned the desire of the now former chair to my chair before the teaching schedule was being worked on.

So what does this all mean to me?

It looks like I will not be teaching five classes as I had planned on teaching and this is a real disappointment for me. My income from teaching will be down.

Maybe it is time for me to look for a new place to teach.

Chuckay Dinner
The day will end on a high note for me. Today is the Chuckay Dinner at Morton’s The Steakhouse with Doug and his girl friend.

Usually, I know what I will have to eat long before I even leave my house. Right now, I have no idea what I am going to order tonight. I guess I will wait and see what is on the serving cart tonight. I will write more about dinner tomorrow.

Fatburger
I had dinner to go at Fatburger last night because my coupon for a free bag of fries was about to expire. I hate to waste something valuable like a free bag of fries. My receipt had another free fries coupon on it.

Excellent.

Some days, life ends well after all.

Be well and stay happy.

Older Vehicles

2010-05-16T15:59:00.000-07:00

Older Vehicles
One of the very nice benefits of owning an older vehicle, in my case, is that I do not have to make any car payments. Savings money is always a good thing.

On the other hand, owning an older car means replacement parts may be difficult to obtain. It took almost two weeks for the headlamp and fog lamp blubs to arrive at the Honda dealership for the Prelude. I will have them replaced on Monday morning. I will also take a look at the 2010 Honda Civics at the dealership since I will have time to kill while the Prelude is being repaired.

I took the Pathfinder in for service on Saturday. This was supposed to correct the problem with my speedometer cable. After spending three hours waiting, I learned that I needed another part that is joined to the part that failed. I will have that taken care of next Saturday and waste three or more hours doing so.

This experience at the Nissan dealership has raised my doubts in their ability to perform any sort of service work properly and correctly the first time. I can have the Pathfinder serviced by any Nissan dealership or independent repair shop since the vehicle is out of warranty and has been for ten years.

The first Nissan dealership recommended that I replace the timing belt and do some other minor work.

I will probably have the work done soon but by another repair shop or dealership.

May – June Low Clouds and Fog Along the Coast
It is that time of year again where we have low clouds and fog along the coast. For the most part, the condition will last from May through June. The low clouds or fog, take your choice, tend to stay around all day at the flat. If I go a mile or so to the east, it is bright sun and ten degrees [F] warmer.

I do not do well in this weather since it is a cool, damp atmosphere. I am sensitive to the cold and damp from my cancer treatments.

I should be working on grading homework assignments and preparing lecture notes for the last two class session of my new classes. I should but I don’t feel like doing that today. I can do that on Tuesday since I will have time in the morning before school.

Be well and stay happy.

Dr. Karen and Me

2010-05-14T14:02:00.000-07:00

Dr. Karen and Me
I got a phone call at home last night from the Oncology Clinic. The clinic was calling to cancel my appointment because, the caller said, Dr. Kwan wanted to wait until after my CT scan on June 1st. This seemed reasonable to me. The caller said that I should come in and pick up another prescription for the Xeloda.

I would have preferred to skip the Xeloda for an extra three weeks.

While I was waiting for my prescription, Nurse Vhrunda said she would find the first available doctor who came to the clinic to sign off on the prescription. That was nice of her. As things turned out, Dr. Karen was the first doctor in the clinic this morning. She spoke to me briefly and explained the clinic was overbooked today and that I could postpone my visit until June 4th.

I was happy with that outcome I guess.

I am going to be busy during the first week in June. I have the CT scan, lab tests, and Dr. Karen’s appointment as well as a trip to see Molly the Stylist. Oh yes, I will also be passing out final examinations and grades that weeks as well.

Be well and stay happy

Lunching with Doug and the new campus

2010-05-13T16:37:00.000-07:00

Lunching with Doug and the new campus
I killed a couple of birds with my trip out to see the new campus. First, I needed to be sure how to get there. Driving in traffic on your way to teach a class is not the best of times to figure out the best route to school.

Second, I wanted to see the new campus before the students got there. True, it was sort of messy from the move.

Third, I wanted to talk with Doug about setting up a time to go look at new cars. I feel that I want to take action in June rather than wait a bit longer.

I got to the Corner Bakery area of the Block of Orange before Doug so I forced myself to sit on a bench in the warm sun and watch the passing scene and parade. It was a nice way to spend some time.

We had planned to eat at the Corner Bakery. But, it was crowded and I didn’t want to eat outside since one of my medicines says to avoid sunlight.

We ended up at the Alcatraz Brewing Company which was across the mall walkway from the Corner Bakery. As its name would imply, it is a brew pub with a San Francisco – Alcatraz Prison theme to it. The middle of the day was not prime time dinning in the brew pub so we had no trouble getting a table inside.

I ordered a turkey burger and Doug had a chicken BLT without the bacon. My turkey burger was not that great. The turkey burger at The Counter Grill is much better. Doug seemed to have enjoyed his sandwich based on how empty his plate was at the end of the meal.

We talked about going new car looking. Doug said he was game for the adventure and wondered why I was only going to look at the Toyota Scion tc and the Mini Cooper and not consider the Honda Civic. I said there was not too much that we could learn from looking at the Civic that we didn’t already know. I pointed out the 2010 Civic is substantially the same car as his mother’s 2007 Civic. The only choice with the Civic was what color to pick out.

Doug said that he could come up any day with some notice. He also said that he would have to come by my flat in the early afternoon after a stop in San Pedro at Bea’s or Bee’s Market for one of their sandwiches. One of his friends introduced him to the market and he says they make the best sandwiches in town.

My Brother
My Brother called me yesterday to wish me a Happy Birthday. He said he was late in relation to my actual birth date; but, since I have a month long celebration of all things Chuck, he felt any day in May would work.

We talked about new cars. He believes that I should buy a new car now. I’m not certain that he is on board with the idea of me buying a sporty car or not. He is an accountant after all and maybe he is just being conservative; our father was like that.

My Brother was talking about his latest painting project. He is a fine art painter and not a house painter. He said our friend George had given him a large old French frame that I suspect is rather ornate. He is painting a landscape of some mountains in Scotland and hopes to have the painting completed in another two months or so.

The new campus
I thought the new location was really nice, even if it was a little messy. I found where my classrooms are in the new building. It is nice to have everything on one floor. Parking is about the same.

The new campus is located across the street from the Block of Orange, an outdoor regional shopping center. I think it will be a very attractive nuisance and a major distraction for the students. I think they will be taking longer breaks especially during the evening classes.

The plus is there is a better selection of places to go for meals. If I get to teach a split shift, a morning class and an evening class n the same day; then I can have a very nice lunch and dessert where I don’t have to prepare the meal.

Perfectomundo.

I also finished preparing the study final examination guide for my Microeconomics class. The final exam was changed last quarter and is now harder, in my mind, since there are fewer question groups. Question groups are questions on a much related subject matter topic like Supply and Demand. This means the students will have to study more.

Personally, I believe I am wasting my time for the majority of the students. They will not bother to use the study guide let alone read the text book. They will try to get by on listening to what I said in class. Those students will probably pass the course with low grades.

Lab tests and the hospital
I went in for my lab tests in preparation for my appointment with Dr. Karen on Friday morning. I made an effort to get to the hospital early so I could find a parking spot which I did. Drawing the blood sample went fairly normal with a minimal amount of pain on my part. I will get the results on Friday.

Now that I am an old fart and eligible for Medicare, I have to change my identity card at the hospital. That was something that I tried to take care of yesterday. I think the data in the computer system was updated but the machine that embosses the cards was not functioning properly and I will have to go back on Friday. I will have time to kill after I turn in my prescription and when it will be filled.

Be well and stay happy.

The Pathfinder

2010-05-11T11:33:00.000-07:00

The Pathfinder
I took the Pathfinder into the dealership for service and to have the speedometer cable checked. It was time for an oil change and I haven’t really cared all that much for setting my driving speed based on the tachometer.

It turns out that I have a broken speedometer part that I will have replaced on Saturday morning. It was a special order and it won’t be in the dealership until Thursday when I’m having lunch with Doug after seeing the new campus location. Friday is my date with Dr. Karen and that takes up the whole morning when I add in time at the pharmacy waiting for my prescription to be filled.

Since I was at the dealership and I did have time to kill, I took a look at the 2010 models that were on the showroom floor. There was one special model 370Z sports car that had a sticker price of over USD$90,000. I can remember when I bought a 260Z for a little over USD$3,000 but that was a long time ago.

Then, I got serious and looked at a standard model 370Z sports car. That was sensibly priced at about USD$32,000 plus tax. That was more reasonable I suppose; compared to the special edition model it was.

The standard model was a charcoal grey hardtop model and I looked at it for a long time. I could see myself driving up Pacific Coast Highway to Santa Barbara for a late Sunday morning brunch.

Perfectomundo.

Reality brought me back to Earth.

Yes, I would love to drive a sports car like that again. But, I need to be realistic about my choices and consider a lot of other factors besides the thrill of getting behind the wheel and roaring off to the sound of Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild” blasting out of the speakers.

I did drive home thinking about more modestly priced vehicles.

[Note to self: take a photo of the Pathfinder.]

Be well and stay happy.

What I forgot to mention yesterday

2010-05-10T11:12:00.000-07:00

What I forgot to mention yesterday
I checked on the blog’s April traffic and page view counts. April was an average month for the blog. We had 545 visitors who viewed 685 pages. I do appreciate all of you who come by the blog from time to time.

The most popular page is still January 1, 2007 with about 70% of the blog traffic. The main or current blog page is next with around 16% of the traffic.

Nice.

I talked to one of the Associate Deans at school last week about my upcoming teaching schedule. I am fairly certain that I will end up with four courses in the Paralegal Studies program so I wanted to see about my fifth class. I was able to have him agree to give me one of my favorite courses to teach.

Of course, this being school and me being the duty utility instructor, I may have a completely different schedule when the dust finally settles. I could end up with courses in the Business and Project Management areas.

Be well and stay happy.

Gray and Overcast This Morning

2010-05-09T17:29:00.000-07:00

Gray and overcast this morning
Gray and overcast was a fitting way for me to start off my morning. I hadn’t slept all that well last night. I slept fine until around 4:00 AM when I woke up for no particular reason. I was very quiet at the flat. Then, I couldn’t fall back to sleep.

I wasted a perfectly good morning for sleeping in. I had nothing to do this morning.

Nothing.

My day did improve after the Princess called to see how my birthday went. The sun came out. I thanked her for the book and cards that she and the Golfer sent me. The book, a new one by Clive Cussler, will be very handy on Tuesday when I take the Pathfinder in for service and I sit and wait for the work to be done.

I just hope there are no screaming children in the waiting room.

The Princess and I talked about a lot of things. It was very good to catch up with the drama in her life and her work. We ended talking for almost an hour which is a long conversation for her.

I have no drama in my life.

Molly the Stylist
I had my hair cut or styled as Molly likes to say on Wednesday. I have a schedule because I am a creature of schedule of having my hair cut on the first Wednesday of each month. It makes easy for me to remember.

I stopped at the Belmont Shore Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on my way to her salon and picked up a large ice blended for me and a large iced vanilla latte for Molly. Judging by the way she drank the latte, it seemed to agree with her very nicely.

We talked about one of our favorite common obsessions, loves, or desires, chocolate. This is becoming an all consumer subject for us when I have my haircut. I told Molly that personalized M&Ms now come in a ten pound bulk package. We talked about how they could be printed with the salon’s name on them.

Then, I noticed that Molly’s eyes seemed to sort of glaze over. I wasn’t sure if this was an anticipatory sugar high or fears that I might order her a ten pound box when I got home.

I told Molly that if I ordered her a ten pound box I would also order it with a dispenser so she could exercise some restraint.

Molly smiled.

I said that someone in the salon might end hitting the dispenser handle like a slot machine in Las Vegas. Molly failed to see the humor in that observation.

Former Student
One of my former students emailed me this week. I hadn’t spoken to her in over a year. She is applying for graduate school and asked me to write her a recommendation letter. I felt very comfortable agreeing since she was in nine or ten of my classes and did well in them.

I asked her if she wanted the “walks on water” or “gets her ankles wet” recommendations.

She said that she would love to have the “walks on water” but would be very happy with “gets her ankles wet” recommendation.

I have plenty of time to write the letter since she is going to be applying for Fall 2011.

Car Choices
I have been thinking about one of three cars for right now; a Honda Civic coupe, a Toyota Scion tc, and a Mini Cooper.

Doug and I were talking about me buying a new car yesterday.

We decided there was nothing to say or discuss about the Honda except what color to get. Doug has an Accord coupe. His mother has a Civic coupe. His sister had an Accord coupe and now drives a Civic sedan; her husband has an Element and an S2000. They all run perfectly; just like a Honda.

My experience with Toyota is favorable. We had an old Corolla and it ran perfectly. The Scion’s only drawback is that it comes only as a hatchback in the coupe model. It comes very close to the Civic and I would have expected that much.

The 2010 Mini Cooper is sportier compared to the others but it is more expensive. I suppose I could get a 2009 model if one was still around. The thing I don’t care for with the Mini is that I have to pay extra to have stuff that comes with the Civic and Scion like air conditioning. Those cars don’t have much in the way of options as far as I can tell.

I have some free time coming up this coming week while the school moves and then I have a weeklong quarter break to take a closer look at the potential car choices.

Be well and stay happy.

Chuckay Day

2010-05-08T11:51:00.000-07:00

Chuckay Day
I celebrated Chuckay Day by working. In the morning, I worked on lecture notes for my Friday evening class. Not a very promising way to start celebrating.

Then, I went to school to teach the class that I had been working. That class went for me. I had 100% attendance which will make the administration happy. The students need the class so they can graduate in September. If they didn’t take it from me, they would have to repeat the course in an online environment.

One of my students gave me a semi-gag birthday gift at school on Friday. This is easy to do since I have been teaching at the campus for three and a half years now. Her gift was a joke can with spring snakes inside that burst out when you open the can lid. She thoughtfully included some chocolate candy as well.

This was the first time that any of my students have ever gotten me a birthday gift.

One of my current students sent me an email birthday greeting. During an ice breaker exercise in one of my classes, we discovered that we share the same birth date. She was so surprised to find someone with her birth date; I think she was more surprised to find out it was her instructor. She signed the email, your Birthday Buddy.

Excellent.

My Facebook wall was written on by former students who wished me a Happy Birthday. One former student said she bought a case of cold Heinekens in my honor but was going to drink it with her friends.

At least I can take credit for upgrading her beer choice.

The Princess and the Golfer sent me very funny cards. I think she spent some time finding these cards because they were very funny. The Princess is not much on sentiment.

Doug called to wish me a Happy Birthday.

Since school is going to be closed for part of next week, I suggested to Doug that we get together for lunch on the 13th. I wanted to look at the new facility before classes start on the 17th and find out where my classrooms will be. I said we could have lunch at the Corner Bakery in the Block of Orange which is a compromise in terms of distance and it is adjacent to the new campus location.

Doug asked about the 14th. That wouldn’t really work out well since that is my next visit with Dr. Karen. He said the 13th worked for him.

Perfectomundo.

Be well and stay happy.

It's Chuckay

2010-05-02T10:11:00.000-07:00

It’s Chuckay
Yes, it is Chuckay. Chuckay, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the event, is the month long celebration of all things Chuck. The event is sometimes hard to understand for those who are outside of the family. I think Doug’s friend Robin Brown said it best when he remarked, “It’s just Doug and his dad.”

Doug and I had a pre-Chucky lunch celebration on April 30th at Albatras; one of Doug’s favorite Mexican American restaurants in the South O. C. This was my first visit to Albatras since before my operation.

I had my usual No. 8 combination of two soft beef tacos, rice, and refried beans. Doug had a large chicken burrito. I surprised myself and was able to finish the entire meal. Previously, I had been uncertain about whether I could finish the meal or not. In any case, I could have always taken the left over portion home and reheated it in the microwave oven.

Doug and I talked about the traditional Chuckay Dinner at Morton’s. We agreed on our usual day; the first Saturday after Mothers’ Day. My birthday is just before Mothers’ Day. Once, we went out for the dinner on Mothers’ Day Weekend. This was a mistake for us; it was crowded and noisy and not much fun.

Me and the Other Doctors
Friday was my day for the semi-annual MRI examination. I can tolerate MRIs because I only have to have them twice a year. I am not that fond of being placed in the narrow tube for the procedure.

The MRI was part of the current treatment plan to monitor my two liver lesions. The lesions were discovered when I had my first operation in October 2007 to remove my colon cancer tumor. Since then, the lesions have remained the same size and are relatively unchanged. The colorectal surgeons want to watch and wait with the lesions. Their thinking is that if the lesions do not change then there is no need for a costly and more risky surgical procedure to address the lesions. Based on the cost of an operation, I think the hospital can get a lot of MRIs for the price of one operation.

This seems reasonable to me.

I also received the results of my semi-annual visit to my family practice doctor. All of the significant tests were well within the desired range. This is all good for me; I don’t have to take any increased amount of medicine or change the prescriptions.

Prelude
I took the Prelude in for service on Saturday. I needed to have the dealership replace one of the headlamps and one of the fog lamps. These parts are now special orders and it will take a week or so for the parts to come into the dealership.

While I was at the dealership, I asked to have one of the mechanics take a look for an oil leak. I had noticed some oil on the car park floor when I pulled out to go to the dealership. As luck would have it, the leak came from the car’s transmission. This meant that I am now looking at putting a rebuilt transmission in the Prelude because the transmission is failing.

The cost of a non-Honda rebuilt transmission is between USD$1,800 and USD$2,500. The maximum warranty is uninspiring at only 36 months or 36,000 miles, whichever comes first, is horrible considering the current transmission is over 21 years old and has driven for over 361,000 miles.

Even after replacing the transmission, I will still have a Prelude that is almost 22 years old. Parts will continue to be a problem for me. I am certain that I will be entering a period of expensive component replacements.

I came home from the dealership and had my lunch.

Then, I brooded for a while about what to do with the Prelude.

I made the decision to purchase a new car. This seems like the best alternative for me. While I do so love driving the Prelude, its low flow air supply working with the air conditioner in the Summer is just not what it needs to be for someone who lives on the edge of the desert as I do. This has been a design flaw since I purchased the car new in 1988.

What kind of car did I want to get? That was the question.

Of course, I would love to have a new Porsche 911 convertible. But, price is a factor and, unless I win the Mega Millions Lottery on Tuesday, the Porsche is just so much of a dream.

I was looking for a sporty type of vehicle in a two door body style. The MINI would certainly fit my needs but I was put off by the pricing. It seems that every time I went to select an option, the process would end up adding something that I would never want like electrically heated seats. It doesn’t get that cool in Southern California.

I also considered the Honda Civic Coupe; that seemed so logical for me even though the cars are now made in Ohio and the Prelude came from the Home Islands. Another car that seemed to meet my needs was the Kia Forte Koup from Korea. Both of the cars could be priced out at what I wanted for less than the MINI. Both have better warranties and the Civic is a Honda.

Since school will be closed for the campus move from May 11th to the 15th, I will have some time to go take a closer look at the possible car purchases. I can take a look at the Civic when I take the Prelude in for service. I will be there and will need to kill so why not look at the Civics.

Teaching
Barring a sudden change in the teaching roster at school, it looks like may be teaching four classes in the Paralegal Studies program this next quarter. I may even have a Saturday morning and afternoon class which would be nice since I would have two classes with only one drive out to school. But, Saturday afternoon classes in Summer Quarter are like trying to cross Death Valley without a full load of fresh water. Attendance is poor to start with and get worse as the Summer drags on.

There are compensations with Summer Quarter. We get to wear business casual during the Summer session. We will also be in a newer building with hopefully a much better air conditioning system.

Be well and stay happy.

I'm Healthy

2010-04-25T16:26:00.000-07:00

I’m Healthy
Yes, I really am healthy.

After seeing my doctors this week, I know I am healthy. My regular family practice doctor said I was fine when I was in for my six month follow up visit and prescription renewal. He was pleased with my weight loss and the colostomy take down surgery.

I asked him if I was able to take a prescription for Viagra or Cialis. It has been over two and a half years since I was dating and having fun. Wearing a colostomy bag on your stomach is a relationship killer. Given my age, almost 65, I thought I might need one of these prescriptions. He was ready to write out a prescription for me; all he needed to know was which one I wanted.

I said that I would wait until I knew I needed it.

On Friday, I had my date with Dr. Karen. It was our regular once every three weeks visit only this visit was four weeks because I was in Salt Lake City last Friday with Doug.

My regular lab tests were all normal. The cancer blood marker test came back negative but then it always does. My tumor never secreted the marker so the tests are always negative. Dr. Karen runs the test every two or three months just to check and make sure everything is fine within me.

I asked her about the colorectal surgeons desire to run their own version of the test.

She giggled and said that they could have their own test in June. I have to remind hear not to order one then.

Dr. Karen giggled more when I told her how I had been abandoned by the medical student at the colorectal surgery clinic. I said the abandonment probably would not have happened if I was at the University of California Davis Medical School. Dr. Karen smiled and nodded her head yes.

Dr. Karen is a graduate of the UC Davis Medical School.

Lastly, I asked her about a prescription for Viagra or Cialis. She looked at some information about drug conflicts and said either one would be fine with my current drug regime. I thanked her and said I was only planning ahead if I felt I needed the prescription.

Teaching
The chair of the criminal justice program spoke to me this week about teaching some more paralegal studies courses for the Summer quarter. He was thinking about having me teach four morning classes.

That would be nice except that I don’t want to get too attached to any one program. Four paralegal studies classes would only leave me with one more class to teach. I am not keen on giving up the project management program since I have invested my time teaching three of the courses over the last two quarters. I am also a General Education instructor and there are a number of classes that I really enjoy teaching in that program. I don’t want to give those up because they are more fun to teach.

Teaching four paralegal studies morning classes would meant that I would have to drive to school for at least four days and possibly five days. There would a very limited likelihood that I could teach a split shift, morning and evening classes. With the school moving in a few weeks further away from me, I am going to be looking at a 70 mile a day round trip to the campus.

Oh well, I will speak with my department chair this coming week and let him know how I feel about the upcoming quarter. Then, too, I may be worrying unnecessarily since the schedule has yet to be made out.

I had arranged for an acquaintance of mine from MBA school to come speak to the school’s paralegal students on Saturday. My friend’s presentation was excellent; the criminal justice department chair wanted her to become a teacher. She would be an excellent teacher because she has a great deal of knowledge about the subject and patience with people.

Other Events
It looks like I will have to take the Pathfinder in for service this week or next. It needs an oil change. The speedometer cable seems to malfunctioning. I hope that it is only loose and not in need of a replacement. The Pathfinder also turned over 95,000 miles or about 153,000 kilometers.

One of my former students friended me on Facebook. I have no idea why this happened since I don’t use Facebook beyond having a page where several of my former students keeping inviting me to join them on their Facebook farms or participate in Mafia Wars.

I decided to drop out of my Doctor of Business Administration program. I don’t have the desire or passion for the program anymore. Sometimes, I don’t have the energy for it as well. I talked to Doug about my decision and he was very supportive. I will be saving a chunk of money from dropping out so that is not all bad for me.

Be well and stay happy.

Abandonment

2010-04-20T11:44:00.000-07:00

Abandonment
While I was killing time on uncomfortable chairs in the waiting room, Nurse Jackie came into the room and seemed to light the room up with her cheerful attitude. Well, it seemed that way to me. Jackie thanked me for the nice words I wrote about her in my January 5th blog.

I was hoping that I would see Nurse Jackie for my appointment since this visit was to see how well my incision was healing. This was something that was well within her capabilities. I could see from my daily, post shower inspection that the wound was almost completely healed. I was just waiting for the last scab to drop off and then I was going to say that the wound was healed.

I also like Nurse Jackie because I have a great deal of confidence in her and her abilities. I also like her sometimes dry sense of humor. Nurse Jackie has a generally much better way of dealing with the patients than some of the doctors.

My wish was not granted.

I sort of felt like I had been abandoned yesterday when I went to the see the surgeons for a follow up visit to my January 29th operation.

My first sense of abandonment came when the medical student came into the examining room. Previously, I had been seen by either surgical residents or Nurse Jackie. The medical student was in a surgical training rotation; she wanted to go into either family practice or pediatrics.

So much for interest in a cancer surgery patient.

The medical student took the time to glance over my file to gain some understanding of my condition. I sometimes worry when I am more familiar with the course of my treatment than the doctors who are supposed to be managing it. She asked me a lot of questions which I duly answered.

I asked her about a reaction that I had been having intermittently when I drank a large glass of cold liquid. She asked some more questions as she thought I might have lactose intolerance.

Not likely; I have been enjoying milk and cheese since I can remember.

She went off to ask her supervising physician about my question. She said she would be back in a few minutes.

That was not to happen.

I knew this was going to be more than a few minutes. But, after 40 minutes of waiting on a modestly comfortable chair, I got up and stood in the doorway as Nurse Jackie came by. I asked her if I had been abandoned since I had been waiting so long for the medical student to return.

Nurse Jackie took charge; she asked me to have a seat in the waiting room while she straightened things out for me. It is nice to see a woman take charge. I had barely gotten comfortable in the waiting room when a nurse called my name and gave me my next appointment, a follow up appointment in June.

Thanks Jackie.

I’m not too thrilled with the next appointment since the surgeons want to run a cancer marker blood test. Dr. Karen has one scheduled for tomorrow. I will ask her if I need to have another one in June or not when I see her on Friday.

The Fraternity
This past weekend was a Fraternity weekend for Doug and me. We flew to Salt Lake City on Friday morning after spending a near eternity going through the passenger screening process. The Los Angeles terminal for Delta Airlines was not running smoothly Friday.

My old chapter had been suspended five years for a variety of problems. It was reinstalled over the weekend; Doug and I participated in the reinstallation ceremony although Doug’s participation was unplanned for.

Because the chapter was being reinstalled, we initiated a group of undergraduates so they could take over the chapter operation. Doug and four other men were initiated into the Fraternity as special initiates.

Since the ceremonies are secret, I can’t really write very much except to say that Doug had a great time and was really glad he went through the ceremony. We have even made plans to go to next year’s Founders’ Day.

My Friend Sharon
My friend Sharon phoned while I was writing the blog entry.

Sharon wanted to know why I hadn’t written a nice recommendation for her for her Linked In page. She complained that I had done it for others.

Fair question I guess.

I said the others had asked me to write a recommendation for them and that I had. I pointed out that she had not asked me.

Oh. Yes, I will write a recommendation in a day or so. Sharon is now happy or will be after I write and post it.

I asked Sharon about getting together for lunch in May. School is moving and the campus will be closed for five days so I have time on my hands. Sharon thought this was a good idea and that I should sent an email out to her and Sue to confirm things.

More work for me.

Be well and stay happy.

Haircuts and Teaching

2010-04-11T11:53:00.000-07:00

Haircuts
I went to see Molly on Wednesday for a haircut. It was my first Wednesday of the month session.

My hair was starting to get ratty again. By ratty, I mean it was starting to develop curls or waves and not lay flat on my head. I think I make a bad visual impression when I have this large cowlick standing out on my head.

It was on the warm side in Southern California and I was running ahead of my scheduled appointment time. I decided to stop at my favorite coffee shop, the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and pick up my favorite large ice blended drink. When I got to the Bean, I phoned Molly to see what she would like to drink.

Molly said thanks, through Lindsey the receptionist, and asked for an iced vanilla latte. Since I was drinking a large, I got Molly a large one too. This insured the carrying tray was at least weight balanced.

Molly enjoyed the ice blend latte. This was my first ice blended drink in two and a half months; the last one was just before the surgery in January.

Molly also thought I was a hero for not looking at the Hershey’s and See’s Easter chocolate candy catalogues that came to my house and then ordering something for the Salon.

I can be a nice guy when I want to be.

Molly had Lindsey take a photo of the two of us for the Salon’s Facebook page. I am now a friend of the Salon. I think our photo will be a bit out of place since I was wearing a suit and most of the other photos on the page are casual.

After the photo opportunity, I drove off to school.

Teaching
I met one of the Career Services [job placement office] workers in the hall as I was on my way to the faculty lounge and work area. We spoke briefly. The worker told me that one of my students said that “I was the only instructor who knew what he was doing at school” and that the other instructors were idiots.

She asked me how I felt about the comment.

I thought for a moment and said that “I was embarrassed and disappointed.” I don’t think this was the answer she was expecting. I went on to say that the school should be doing a better job of finding and hiring quality instructors for the classrooms. Then, we went our separate ways.

This is the end of Week 4 of the term. I have quizzes to grade in four of my five classes. The fifth class has a midterm examination in two weeks. I don’t like to give quizzes because I do not believe that they can accurately measure what the student has learned.

I am having some trouble with one of new classes. We have unit plans that outline what we are supposed to teach and include teaching ideas. This past week, none of the week’s student learning objectives was part of their reading assignment. It is difficult to prepare lecture notes when the material and objectives do not match. The course plan calls for spending three weeks, almost 30% of the course, on one chapter. This seems dreadfully excessive and forces me to pass some really interesting topics like international marketing which could be very helpful in Southern California since it is the Gateway to the Pacific Rim.

One of my evaluation factors is class attendance. With three small classes, one absence can kill that week’s evaluation. I have already had two absences in my class of three so that makes my average attendance around 83% or below the standard which is about ten percentage points higher.

Visitors
Surprisingly, the visitorship to the blog hasn’t really fallen all that much.

We had 642 visitors in January; 478 in February, a much shorter month; and 507 in March. The most popular page is January 1, 2007, one of the last of times that I had a Woman of the Moment feature running. The periodic posts are the second most popular page. Maybe if I posted more frequently, I would have even more traffic.

I will try to post more frequently. That will be a challenge since Summer is just around the corner in Southern California and I am easily distracted by young women in bikinis.

Be well and stay happy.

The Missing March Post

2010-04-10T16:56:00.000-07:00

The Missing March Post
I went to see Dr. Karen towards the end of the month just before I flew to Seattle.

Dr. Karen is going to keep me on the Xeloda for as long as I can tolerate it. She thinks it has greatly helped me with the cancer fight. Easy for her to say, she doesn’t take it. My hands are still drier than the Mojave Desert in Summer. I am still just as sensitive to the cold.

Although, on the plus side, I no longer have the colostomy bag glued to my stomach. I have a rapidly healing scar to replace the bag. I know the scar will be completely healed in much less than two and half years. I can actually look forward to having a social life very soon.

Dr. Karen said that my cancer is “very stable” and “well controlled” now.

Dr. Karen does not use excessive adjectives when discussing my medical condition. I guess those adjectives are not terribly bad when you consider all of the other ones that she could have used.

Doug went with to see Dr. Karen. He wanted to come along since it had been a while since he last participated in a clinic visit. I like it when Doug comes along because he asks some very interesting questions and thinks of ideas that I have overlooked.

I saw Nurse Vhrunda and Nurse Wendy when I saw Dr. Karen. They both thanked me for the last tub of Hershey’s chocolate candy. Nurse Vhrunda said that the last time she saw me that “I looked like death and now I looked much better.” I guess that I will take that as an improvement and a complement.

I guess Vhrunda’s comment was true since a lot of my current and former students have made the same or similar observations. Some of my students have asked what happened to my cane. I used a cane when I first came back to teaching because I hadn’t recovered my full strength. I am close to being at my full strength now.

Molly was nagging me about how long and ratty my hair looked when she cut it this month.

It should have looked long and ratty. It had been two months since she had previously cut my hair. I had my hair cut during quarter break so I wore a plaid shirt again to her salon because it was on the cool side; Molly had on a plaid blouse too. We both kidded the receptionist about not reading the memo to wear plaid to the salon.

Molly said she loved me and hated me, all at the same time. She loved me for the Ethel M chocolates. Molly has a sweet tooth the size of a T. Rex incisor and a near incurable addiction to chocolate. She hated me for the chocolate because she plans to look stunning by the time warm weather rolls around and she fits into her bikini.

Personally, I believe Molly will look stunning by Summer regardless of how well she does at fighting the chocolate addiction.

I have five classes to teach at school. I was going to teach a course in Research Methods but that got changed at the next to last minute. I am teaching a new course in Integrated Marketing Communications instead. The schedule change was the result of an instructor deciding at beyond that last minute to not return to the campus; this resulted in a major schedule rework.

My Group Dynamics course and my Microeconomics course are both large classes with 36 and 31 students respectively. My other three classes have a total of 16, combined enrollment. All of my small classes are new classes to me. It takes me about four hours or more to prepare for one of my new classes.

The school has an instructor measurement program. We are expected to achieve half of scores. In my case for last quarter, I had five classes with three evaluation factors. I hit 12 of the 15 scores so I considered by this measure to be a good instructor. I would have done better if I had not been for four weeks following my operation, attendance in all of my classes dropped off in varying degrees.

My trip to Seattle for the Princess’ birthday went very well for me until it was time to fly home.

I had told the Princess that I didn’t feel up to eating at Morton’s where we, the Reinhardt clan, usually go for birthdays. I didn’t think I could eat all that Morton’s will serve because my appetite had not returned to its pre-surgery level yet.

The Princess got together with the Nutritionist and decided to try a new place, called Salty’s, which featured fresh seafood. That made a great deal of sense since we were in Seattle after all. Salty’s is located on Puget Sound in West Seattle. This gave us a great view of downtown Seattle since the clouds had lifted for the afternoon.

The Nutritionist and I ended up with scallops for our dinners. The Princess and the Golfer had grilled salmon. My nephew had a lobster; his girl friend is not a fish lover and elected to have a slab of beef. I am certain that I can have one of the clan vote for a return to Morton’s The Steakhouse for next year.

My flight home was an E-Ticket ride. It was very turbulent for the first hour or so and then the turbulence tapered off for the rest of the flight. The woman in the seat behind me was traveling with two pre-teen girls and a two year old. The two year old practiced her tap dance lessons on the back of my seat for most of the flight. I was tempted to say something but chose not to; the woman had enough trouble without me making it worse. Because of bad weather in San Francisco, she missed an earlier flight that would have end up taking her to San Diego so the group could sail on a weeklong cruise to Mexico.

Because of the change in flights, my flight was leaving two hours after her original flight; she was going to be landing in Los Angeles. She had to deal with getting her bags without any help, get the kids and bags to a car rental agency, drive to San Diego, turn her rental car in, and board her ship before it sailed at 5:00 PM. Our plane landed in Los Angeles around 1:20 PM.

If I were betting, I would have bet that she would not make the ship’s sailing.

I did my taxes and Doug’s taxes to end the month. Doug was very happy when I told him that he didn’t owe any money for taxes. I was surprised at the size of my tax refund. It was much larger than I thought it would be.

Be well and stay happy.

The Lost February Blog Post

2010-04-10T15:58:00.000-07:00

The Lost February Blog Post
I was in the hospital for a week after the surgery and then I was home for week before I could even think about writing for the blog. By that time, my email in-box was overflowing with student emails asking for help with assignments, copies of homework that they lost, and requests for more time to complete their work. With 100 students, the pile of assignments to read and grade managed to climb to just over an inch tall.

When I went back to teaching in February, I had two weeks to go until the end of the Winter term. Students who had previously been excellent students had slacked off and were cutting class. I had to struggle to get them ready for their final exams and course project presentations.

Using a liberal interpretation of “minimally demonstrating competency” in a subject, I was able to see that all of my students were able to pass their courses. Some passed with a grade of “D” which some of the instructors and I like to think of as “D stands for diploma.”

I think I will go back to writing in the blog beginning next week and ease into the writing. I will have to balance the blog with the new courses I am scheduled to teach this term.

This is our Spring Term and I am scheduled to teach five classes, the most that a part time instructor may teach. Three of my courses are ones that I have taught before, Microeconomics, Group Dynamics, and Research Methods. I have two new courses, Introduction to Paralegal Studies and Project Management Communications and Documentation.

Spring cannot arrive soon enough for me. My cancer medicine makes me very sensitive to the cold. I have been wearing long sleeved shirts and then a sweatshirt on top of that just to stay comfortable and I have been sleeping with two comforters on my bed. I know that I could turn on the heat in my bedroom but then I will be heating a room that may not need to be heated except for the times when I have to get out of bed in the night.

Of course, I still have my once every weeks visit with Dr. Karen the oncologist. I also have periodic, post-operation follow up appointments with the surgeons. Most of the time, I end up with Nurse Practioner Jackie who has a much nicer demeanor instead of the surgeons.

I managed to lose more weight with this surgery. I now weigh 175 pounds or 79 kilograms. I don’t think that I have weighted this much since I was in high school, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Doug was over on Thursday afternoon. He seems to be concerned about my current weight. He said, “Uh Dad, do you think you could put a belt or something? Your pants are too low on your hips and it’s creeping me out.” I told him that I would think about it.

With the weather improving here in the States, I am going to be traveling. I will go to Seattle the end of March to celebrate my daughter’s birthday. Then, in April, Doug and I will go to Salt Lake City for a fraternity event. After those trips, I am going to wait and see what happens next for me.

Be well and stay happy.

Defragging my internal hard drive

2010-01-24T11:44:00.000-08:00

Defraggng my internal hard drive
Yes, I know that it is impossible to defragment one’s mind. I look at this concept as a way to clear odd and now irrelevant ideas from my mind. I do this periodically; I think it helps me.

I was opening some mail after I returned home from school yesterday. I had let the mail pile up. I had a letter from an insurance company that threatened to stop sending me unsolicited and unwanted mail unless I responded immediately to their final letter. The only thought that crossed my mind as I tore the unopened letter apart was that the insurance company keeps its promise and doesn’t write me anymore.

The blog had a visitor from Chunky, Mississippi this past week. I was struck by the potential of the humor that might occur if you lived in Chunky. What if you were somewhat overweight and lives there?

For the record, I am slowing losing weight. I weighed 184.5 pounds on Friday morning after my shower. It has been easy for me to lose some weight; I eat smaller portions and I don’t consume as much sweets with their empty calories as I once used to do.

I stopped at Giuliano’s on my way home from school yesterday; Erica took my order for a large sandwich and a chocolate brownie. At one time in my life, I would have consumed the entire sandwich in one meal; now, I will take four meals to finish it off.

For the last month or so, I have been eating Stouffer’s Lean Cuisine dinners. I won’t argue the fact the dinners are frozen and microwavable and probably do not taste as well as a freshly prepared meal would taste. They are relatively low in calories so that I can get out of dinner with about 600 to 700 calories; I usually have a small salad with the main meal.

Last week, the blog had 180 visitors including one from Chunky, Mississippi, who viewed 214 unique pages. I do appreciate all of you who stop by the blog.

One of my former students sent me an email this week asking for help in how to properly cite a United States Supreme Court decision on a paper that she was writing. I will admit that I had to look the proper method up in my Publication Guide because Supreme Court cases do not usually appear in business school dissertations. I sent her the answer about two hours after I received her request. She thanked me when she saw me at school.

It does feel nice to be helpful and appreciated.

My drive to school on Saturday was epic. The roads were almost empty of slow moving traffic; that is such a joy to be able to drive at full speed. The five or six days of ran washed all of the oil and other stuff off of the road surface so the traction was great; I took some turns faster than I normally would have and the Prelude held its grip of the road perfectly. Granted, I was driving east into the rising sun. The sky was clear and close to cloudless so I was very glad to have my Bausch & Lomb sunglasses on yesterday.

I took this photo of our local mountains this morning. It is not the best photo of snowy mountains because my camera is an older model and the mountains are about forty or fifty miles away. The series of rainstorms probably dumped five or six inches of rain on the area and left several feet of snow in the mountains. It was a good start at ending the drought that has hit Southern California.

I don’t think I am going to be doing in the next week or so because of the scheduled surgery and recovery. I will be back when I feel better.

Be well and stay happy.

Earthquakes, Fires, Floods, Mudslides, Drought and now Tornados

2010-01-20T11:19:00.000-08:00

Earthquakes, Fires, Floods, Mudslides, Drought, and now Tornados
I thought I had lived through all that Mother Nature could toss at Southern California. I have been here for every major earthquake since 1952. I thought I had seen it all.

Yesterday, a tornado or tornados struck the Orange County coast; none were near Doug. Compared to tornados that strike our Midwest, our tornado was a minor one; an overturned SUV, some roofs blown off, some boats blown out of the water, and some damage to homes. I don’t think there was any damage to trailers or mobile homes.

Of course, there was thunder and lightning. There was what seemed to be a large strike that was about two miles from the building.

This was all from the weakest of the three storms that are supposed to roll across Southern California for the next few days.

It is raining again. I heard some thunder but I think the lightning strike was fairly far away because I didn’t see any light flash.

Driving to class was a nightmare yesterday because a tractor trailer rig crashed and blocked four lanes on the freeway at the beginning of the afternoon commute. There was only one lane open and traffic was rapidly backing up. I exited the freeway as soon as I could and took alternate routes to get around the accident.

That was no fun at all.

I expect the drive to school tonight will be worse. How much worse is open to question. I will be leaving on the early side for school though.

On the plus side, my third hospital book arrived yesterday so I am set for reading while I am recovering.

Be well and stay happy.

Writing in the Rain

2010-01-19T11:51:00.000-08:00

Writing in the rain
I am not actually writing in the rain. That would be silly for so many reasons. First, I would probably develop a case of pneumonia and that would cause my surgery to be put off for some undetermined time. Second, the new Lenovo T500 laptop would get soaked. I know that water and electronic equipment do not play well together.

I ducked out of the flat this morning to run a few errands. Rain began again as I was out. I heard some thunder as I went into my building at the end of the trip.

I am not looking forward to the drive to school tonight. It will be long and on the messy side. Southern California drivers, as a rule, do not drive well in adverse conditions like wet pavements.

Yesterday and today are shaping up as days when former students, co-workers and current students are phoning or emailing me.

Two current students emailed me last night about getting some extra tutoring in one of my Project Management courses. This is not the best time for tutoring since I am going into the hospital on the 27th for surgery. I gave them a couple of days when I will be at school.

One of my former students asked me how to properly cite a United States Supreme Court decision for a paper she was writing. This was relatively easy to help her.

Then, I had a former co-worker call me and ask for help on how to prepare a motion for his credit union’s board of directors. It seems the examiners would like to see more detail in the reports and minutes. I gave him a couple of solutions for the board of directors’ reports that should work for him and a suggestion on how to increase his income without taking on any undue risk or asset liability management problems from the examiners.

ethel’s Chocolates sent me an email saying the candy I had ordered for Molly, Natalie, and Rachel will be delivered on Thursday. That should make them happy.

Be well and stay happy.

My hands seem to be better

2010-01-18T11:25:00.000-08:00

My hands seem to be better
I was looking at my hands this morning while I waited for the toaster to brown the muffins inside of it. Based on a quick once over, non-professional look, they seem to be better.

Of course, Natalie would be able to tell me more accurately; she is studying to become an esthetician. Natalie told me that an esthetician works with a person on the condition of their skin and how to improve it.

She could probably do a term paper on my hands.

The current widely recommended H1N1 influenza treatment plan of washing your hands regularly in hot, soapy water plays havoc with my skin. The washing seems to accentuate the drying and cracking processes.

By my count, I have been off of Xeloda now for three weeks.

Excellent.

I still have my symptoms of peripheral neuropathy in my toes and heels. It feels like I am walking with pads on my toes and heels. The feeling seems to be going away. The peripheral neuropathy began two years ago when I was taking a combination of Xeloda and Oxaliplatin for my cancer drug therapy.

I did my full tour of duty, eight cycles, with the Oxaliplatin and I can truly say that I do not miss the drug. I am extremely happy that I was able to endure the treatment because it helped kill off the cancer cells. One of its most pronounced side affects is an extreme sensitivity to cold; obviously taking it in even what passes for Winter in Southern California was no fun for me. I looked silly driving the Prelude in April with heavy fur lined leather gloves.

Getting ready for the hospital
I spent part of the weekend putting things in order for the hospital stay. I finished up most of my lesson plans and I only have one set of lecture notes to prepare. Then, I need to photocopy the material and put everything in envelops for the substitutes.

I have resisted the temptation to read one of my new books. I started to read Lords of the Sea before I knew that I was scheduled for surgery.

Planning ahead, I ordered the candy for St. Valentine’s Day. I expect that it will be delivered before February 14th but I do not believe anyone will be terrible upset about an early delivery.

Be well and stay happy.

Getting ready for the Hospital

2010-01-13T13:57:00.000-08:00

Getting ready for the Hospital
I have been busy getting ready for my hospital stay. I have been practicing sleeping on hard or lightly padded surfaces, think hospital beds. I have also focused on the dinning pleasures of broth and jello.

I have not had much success with those ideas. I keep returning to thoughts of much more pleasurable dining experiences like at the L. A. Food Show, the Original Tommy’s Hamburgers, Fatburger, and Morton’s The Steakhouse.

One of my better plans has been to stock up on good books to read. I have two books on hand now and a third should arrive the week before my surgery. Both of the books are histories and were written by academics. I have never been able to finish one of these types of book in a day like I can with a good Clive Cussler or Tom Clancy novel

Excellent; slow reading takes up a lot of time.

One book is about the birth of the Athenian navy and the rise of democracy in ancient Greece. The other book is an alternative view of the fall of the Roman Empire.

The books will help me kill time while I am in the hospital when Doug is not there to visit me. Doug is planning to stay up at my flat while I am in the hospital. This will make it is easy for him to see me and also spend some time with his girl friend.

Perfectomundo.

Everyone is happy.

I wonder if I will be visited by any of the Oncology Clinic nurses.

I guess that I will have to wait and see what develops.

Be well and stay happy.

No More Xeloda

2010-01-10T18:01:00.000-08:00

No More Xeloda
I saw Doctor Karen on Friday for our regular, once every three weeks, visit. She asked about my Christmas and the holidays. I said that I received my best and last Christmas gift this past Monday.

Dr. Karen had a surprised look on her face since this was not what she had expected for an answer.

I told her the colorectal surgeons had scheduled me for a colon reconnection at the end of the month.

Apparently Dr. Karen did not know about the procedure scheduling.

“Oh, that’s so wonderful.” Dr. Karen was smiling broadly and very happy. The surgery marks a very significant and positive milestone in my battle with cancer.

The balance of the visit was mostly fun for me. I kidded her about making a house call to visit me for the next regularly scheduled which would be the day after the surgery. I said she could drop by anytime it was convenient for her; I wasn’t going to be going anywhere and I had no other plans for that day.

Dr. Karen giggled.

We also talked, very briefly, about the Poinsettia Bowl. Dr. Karen’s University of California Bears lost to my Utes.

I did manage to be serious during the visit. I asked her what medicine she planned to put me on now. Dr. Karen said that we would talk about that when I had my next in clinic visit with her on February 19th. She had not had time to consider what drug to put me on.

But, Dr. Karen did say the magic words for me, “No more Xeloda.” This was the first time that I have not had to persuade Dr. Karen to not give me a prescription for the drug. I was so happy when I left the clinic on Friday.

I did stop and speak briefly with Nurses Wendy and Vhrunda. Wendy was not a happy nurse because she had missed out on the candy that I dropped off at my December visit; Wendy had been on vacation. Vhrunda just sat at her terminal smiling like a Cheshire cat when Wendy said that she didn’t get any candy. I’m guessing that Vhrunda was not as generous or in the sharing mood when it came to really good chocolate.

I reminded Wendy that St. Valentine’s Day was coming and that I knew there wasn’t any type of chocolate that she and Vhrunda did not like. They both giggled. Wendy gave me a big hug and thanked me for remembering her.

Molly the Stylist and Me
On Wednesday, I had my hair cut. I was about two weeks late in getting it cut. I decided to wait until after the holidays because I knew Molly would be busy with her female clients and parties. I was on break from school and my family doesn’t get very excited about longish hair.

The Princess and the ex-wife both liked my longer hair but did not like the idea of a moustache at all. The both said no to the idea; my ex-wife called in a “lip wrap.” Molly understood that she had been outvoted on the idea of growing another moustache.

We talked about our holidays. Molly had a very successful holiday dinner for her extended family. I was happy for Molly.

Then our conversation drifted on to what type of candy would she and Natalie and Rachel enjoy for St. Valentine’s Day. This caught her without a quick answer. One reason why I like and enjoy having Molly cut my hair is that she is a truly great conversationalist.

I said that, “there isn’t any type of chocolate that you don’t like Molly.”

Molly giggled and said, “Oh Charles.”

I said that I would select a perfect chocolate gift, one that had been previously tested and approved by the Princess.

It would have to be delivered by mail since the next appointment would logically fall on the day I will be discharged from the hospital following the surgery. Having my hair cut was not that high up on my plans.

I will see Molly again in March when I am going to be more ambulatory and energetic.

When I got home from Molly’s salon, I trolled across my favorites list of chocolate vendors’ web sites. Naturally, they all had appropriate gifts. After conferring with my chocolate advisor, the Princess, I selected what should work well for all and result in a short or brief silence at either the Oncology Clinic or Molly’s salon. Eating rich chocolate and talking is difficult because someone might pick the piece you wanted while you were busy talking.

Other Drama in My Life
I somehow managed to pick up a rather nasty sinus cold this past week. Since my immune system has been somewhat compromised by my chemotherapy, it has taken longer to overcome. It should be gone by Monday with any luck.

I spent part of the week finding substitutes for my classes since I will be out from three to four class sessions. All of the instructors I approached were willing to fill in for me; they get to pick up an extra USD$120 for each session.

Visitors
We had a total of 653 visitors during December, a good turnout for the blog. Last week, we had 139 visitors who viewed 188 unique pages. The blog is the second most visited page after January 1, 2007. The blog had a total of 19,253 visitors during 2009.

I do appreciate all of you who stopped by and spent some time at the blog.

Be well and stay happy.

Did my Christmas come early or later?

2010-01-04T19:33:00.000-08:00

Did my Christmas come early or late?
I asked Doug whether he thought my Christmas came early or late when we were sitting in the waiting room at the Colorectal Surgery Clinic this morning after my appointment with Nurse Practioner Jacquelyn Marsh.

Jacquelyn had just told us that I was scheduled for a colon reconnection surgical procedure on January 28th. She said that Dr. Kumar would perform and supervise the procedure. Dr. Kumar is the head of the Colorectal Surgery Clinic

This was my first knowledge that I was going to have the procedure. I know that Dr. Karen and I had talked about the procedure off and on over the last eighteen months. We had never had any indication that the surgeons were with us or not and my desire to have the procedure done.

The decision by the oncologists and surgeons to go forward with the procedure means that they are confident that there is a low risk of reoccurrence of the cancer. All of the tests for the last two years have been unable to find any traces of cancer in my body.

The balance of the appointment was sort of anticlimactic for me after her bombshell announcement. Jacquelyn went over the time line and schedule of the procedure. I need to check in the day before the procedure and I suppose try to get used to an uncomfortable hospital bed mattress.

There is one open question. I have two very small lesions on my liver. They have remained the same size since they were discovered in 2007. The doctors have gone back and forth over whether it made sense to remove that portion of my liver or not. Since my liver will grow back, I have always leaned towards having that portion cut out when the surgeons do the reconnection procedure.

Jacquelyn didn’t mention this when she talked about the procedure. I asked why not cut the portion of the liver when I am already open and never have to worry about them again? She said Dr. Kumar was undecided about this aspect of the procedure plan. Jacquelyn said she would speak to Dr. Kumar about the liver resection, I think that’s the proper medical term, later this week.

The only reason to go forward with this approach is that I will be reducing, in my mind anyway, the likelihood of an additional surgical procedure in the future. The fewer times that I have to think about and undergo an operation the better it is for me.

The bottom line for me is that I will no longer have to wear a colostomy bag. I think I will end up with a couple of unused bags but that doesn’t seem like of a concern for me. I will have to check and see if the plastic used to make the bags is recyclable or not. I can’t say that I will miss the bags because I won’t.

Having the reconnection procedure means that Dr. Karen will be taking me off of the Xeloda much sooner than I thought she would.

Excellent.

Maybe my hands will be closer to normal by Christmas this year. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Xeloda, one of its major side affects is an erosion of your fingerprints and severe drying of your palms.

This was an unexpected turn for the better for me and I am so very grateful to the doctors and nurses who have worked to bring this event about.

Be well and stay happy.

Wrapping up 2009

2009-12-30T11:17:00.000-08:00

Wrapping up 2009
I think this will be the last posting for 2009. All in all, I believe that 2009 has been a good year for me.

I did have a wonderful Christmas this year. The Princess came home for a brief stay. Out Utes won a crushing victory at the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego. Dr. Karen got married. Molly the Stylist had her photo taken with me.

Life is good for me.

Perfectomundo.

My old employer, Imperial Capital Bank, failed because of bad loans. This was not unexpected; I had seen some examples of really weak loan underwriting as far back as 2005 when I was still working there. I don’t believe the bank ever adopted a strong credit culture; instead, it opted for a do the deal culture. A strong credit culture probably would have saved the bank in the long run. I know there committed, honest employees at the bank. Too bad they were not in positions of leadership.

I do feel truly sad for the employees who put in so much of their time and effort in an attempt to help the bank succeed. They deserved much better from the bank. The senior management got what it genuinely deserved; valueless stock options and probably no chance of ever becoming employed by a FDIC insured bank again.

The blog got a visitor last week after my post about the school’s Christmas party or employee appreciation diner at the Aquarium of the Pacific. I guess they were checking on what I had to say about the Aquarium. It is a nice place to visit although parking is a bit pricey in the evening.

We had 129 visitors who viewed 144 unique pages in the last week. One of the visitors came from Vanuatu which is an island nation in the South Pacific. This was the first time that I can recall a visitor from Vanuatu.

Celebrate the New Year responsibly.

Be well and stay happy.

Christmas

2009-12-26T16:14:00.001-08:00

Christmas
Christmas came early for me this year.

This year, the Princess flew down to Southern California from Seattle for an early and brief stay with the family. She flew in on the 19th and was headed home on the 23rd. Her husband, the Golfer, stayed in Seattle with the cats and dogs and the golfers who needed advise and help on what club to buy for the perfect gift.

The Princess and I had two opportunities for father daughter talks, when I picked her up and the airport and when I drove to the airport. Dads must grab what chances they have. You can learn a lot if you ask the right questions.

I did.

I learned that the Princess is in charge of scheduling all of the audit, tax and consulting staff for all three Washington state offices of her firm. I thought she was only in charge of the scheduling for her own office. She seems to enjoy the challenge and the power that comes with the job. The Princess said, “that sometimes she enjoys saying no to a request.”

Perhaps enjoys is too much of an adjective here.

I also learned that she likes the extra pay that comes from working in the private, for-profit sector. She also said that she doesn’t miss sitting around a cold office on New Year’s Eve and eating cold pizza or reheated pizza slices while processing last minute gifts when she worked at charities.

I also learned that both she and her mother strongly disapprove of my idea to grow another moustache. They both said no in unison. Right now, the vote is running against the moustache. Molly the Stylist is the only one who is strongly in favor of the moustache but only until Spring. The Princess and her mother did like my longer hair style that Molly thought would look good on me.

We celebrated Christmas at Doug’s and his mother’s home. It is larger than my small flat. My contribution to Christmas Dinner was the homemade stuffing and carving the turkey. I thought I did a very good job of carving; everyone liked my stuffing. The Princess said it tasted better than the kind that comes with a store cooked turkey.

While we were having dinner, Doug brought up the subject of where he wanted to go for the traditional Douguary Dinner. Doug and I have traditionally gone to Morton’s the Steakhouse or the new Wolfgang’s Steakhouse. It was unusual for Doug to be thinking so far in advance; we usually end up having the Douguary Dinner on the last Saturday in Douguary.

Doug said that he got the idea of a new venue from his girl friend. He mentioned the name but it was noisy at dinner as most family dinners are so I don’t remember it. One thing that he said was that I had to wear one of my plaid flannel shirts. I can do that; it will be easier to get ready, no tie to wear. Doug said the restaurant is on the smaller side and serves large portions of food. I can work with that.

Doug’s girl friend made a wonderful chocolate cake that I only later wished that I had taken a slice or two home with me. I mentioned that to Doug when I spoke to him yesterday. He said there was still a good portion of the cake left. I noticed that he made no mention of stopping by my flat to drop off some cake on his way to his girl friend’s home for Christmas with her.

I would have walked out to the curb to pick up the cake so he wouldn’t have lost too much time dropping the cake off with me.

I did receive some very thoughtful and well considered gifts from my family. I also have my health and I am very thankful for it.

My Brother called me during the week to wish me a Merry Christmas. We talked about the family. He said that his son and his girl friend went to Paris for a week and that his son took over 2,000 photos while they were there. That’s a lot of images. It would also seem to point to a wedding in 2010 for my nephew and his girl friend.

All things considered, I had a very, very nice Christmas.

Be well and stay happy.

Utah Goes 10 and 3 in a Rebuilding Year

2009-12-24T12:15:00.000-08:00

Utah goes 10 and 3 in a rebuilding year
Our Utes came through in San Diego again this year at the Poinsettia Bowl, beating the University of California Berkley 37 to 27. As usual, our Utes were the underdogs. The win pushed Utah’s record against the PAC-10 Conference to 8 and 3 and prolonged its consecutive post season bowl game winning streak to nine; tying USC behind Florida State.

This season was supposed to be a rebuilding year of sorts after last January’s Sugar Bowl victory over Alabama. Our Utes had lost a number of key players to the NLF, graduation, and missions.

Christmas came two days for early for the Princess and me. My Brother got on the Utah bandwagon and is very happy that Cal lost.

This article is from this morning’s Los Angeles Times.

Utah storms back to beat California, 37-27
By Ben Bolch
December 24, 2009

Reporting from San Diego - Robert Johnson might have provided his team with the perfect recruiting slogan.

"You come to Utah," the senior free safety from Los Angeles said, "you win bowl rings."

Johnson collected his third piece of postseason jewelry Wednesday evening at Qualcomm Stadium after Utah scored 27 unanswered points to rally from an early two-touchdown deficit and overwhelm California, 37-27, in the Poinsettia Bowl.

Freshman quarterback Jordan Wynn completed 26 of 36 passes for a career-high 338 yards and three touchdowns for the Utes (10-3), who stretched the nation's longest bowl winning streak to nine games. Utah tied USC for the second-longest bowl winning streak in NCAA history, behind only the 11 consecutive postseason victories recorded by Florida State in 1985-96.

"I believe our guys outwork the opponents in the bowl situation," said Utah Coach Kyle Whittingham, who improved to 5-0 in postseason games. "They understand that a bowl game is a chance to win another ballgame, and our guys have done that for a lot of years now."

It was the third bowl victory by a Mountain West Conference team this season and the second over a counterpart from the Pacific 10 Conference in two days after Brigham Young upended Oregon State on Tuesday in the Las Vegas Bowl.

Cal Coach Jeff Tedford said his team did not underestimate the Utes.

"That team right there had seven starters back on a defense that beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl," Tedford said. "That's a good football team."

Making his fourth consecutive start in place of injured tailback Jahvid Best for the Golden Bears (8-5), Shane Vereen had 122 yards rushing and two touchdowns, with 77 of the yards coming in the first quarter as the Bears built a 14-0 lead. The former Valencia High standout ran one way and then cut back for a 36-yard touchdown to give Cal an early 7-0 lead.

When Cal linebacker Eddie Young intercepted Wynn's next pass and returned it 31 yards for a touchdown, the Bears held a 14-0 advantage and appeared to be on the way to helping Tedford improve his 5-1 bowl record.

Then their offense went into hibernation mode. Here's how the rest of Cal's first-half drives ended: punt, punt, punt and halftime, with the Bears gaining three first downs along the way.

"They kind of took us out of our game," said quarterback Kevin Riley, who completed 20 of 36 passes for 214 yards and one touchdown with two interceptions. "We didn't really get anything going."

Utah held Cal to 11 yards rushing over the last three quarters.

Meanwhile, Wynn, a true freshman from nearby Oceanside High, continually gained confidence, completing all three of his touchdown passes in the first half as the Utes took a 24-14 lead.

"I just kind of relaxed and didn't force it in there," Wynn said.

Wynn's favorite targets included receiver David Reed, who caught six passes for 103 yards to set a school record with 81 catches and 1,188 yards in a season.

Johnson intercepted a pass and broke up several others with bone-jarring hits. The former Fremont High and Los Angeles Southwest College product added a second Poinsettia Bowl ring -- the Utes also beat Navy here in 2007 -- to go with the one from the Sugar Bowl victory over Alabama last year.

"Me getting recruited here, I was feeling like I could probably win some rings," Johnson said.

"I've been here three years and won three rings."

ben.bolch@latimes.com
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times

Think Pad T500 Laptop from Lenovo

2009-12-21T15:26:00.000-08:00

Think Pad T500 Laptop from Lenovo
I bought the T500 because I was so unhappy with the first one that I ordered from Lenovo. The primary reasons for the new laptop were my hard drive on the old T60 was making sounds that were not normal and this made me anxious about how long it would last and I hated the Windows Vista operating system that was installed on the machine.

Lenovo did an absolutely great job of handling the manufacturing error of shipping my original Y550 with Vista installed instead of Windows 7. I ended up completely satisfied with the resolution and Lenovo’s customer service.

The T500 is the same size as the T60 it replaced which is really sweet because I didn’t have to order a new docking station with the new laptop. I have a USB port surplus now with four ports in the docking station and three in the laptop. I could probably have more if I hooked up one of my small USB routers but that would be pure overkill and serve no useful purpose.

One of the new features that I paid extra for when I ordered the T500 was Intel’s Turbo Cache memory chip. I am not a computer wonk and probably never will be. I am enchanted with how it accelerates the stat up process. I asked one of my computer networking students at school to give me a simple English translation of what the chip did for me.

The Turbo Cache memory stores all of my frequently used programs in a flash memory chip that is next to the Centrino vPro chipset. The impact of this is the startup program doesn’t have to search all over the 250 GB hard drive to find the program elements which results in a faster startup run sequence. With 2 GB in the memory chip, I should be able to store several programs there.

Uh huh.

Now, I will be the first to admit that I may have gotten the student’s message slightly off. His message does make sense to me based on my observations. I do know that the startup function runs faster. Of course, this could also be a function of more RAM and a faster chip.

The T500 does come with a NASCAR like collection of manufacturer’s stickers on the hand rest. I’ve gotten used to seeing them.

I do love the fact the T500 came without the evil fingerprint recognition security feature. For the average person, I think this is an absolutely great advance in security because the user doesn’t have to remember a complex set of characters and symbols to unlock their machine. Since my primary chemotherapy medicine has essentially eaten away almost all of my fingerprints and generally shrunken the skin at my finger tips, fingerprint recognition was a useless feature for me.

One of the really great results has been improved program operation. All of my programs seem to work well with Windows 7. I did have to download only one driver and that was for my SONY digital camera that was purchased before Windows Vista came out.

The Windows 7 file transfer program from one computer to another computer performed well beyond my expectations. It transferred all of my old settings and passwords. Granted the process took about 25 minutes, it was much shorter than making copies and swapping CDs in and out of disk drives.

Whenever I have purchased a new computer, it usually takes me twenty minutes on a call to the ISP customer non-service center to reset up my Internet connections. With the Windows transfer program, I only needed to click my mouse two or three times and I was ready to go.

Perfectomundo.

The display seems to be sharper and clearer than the old T60 which is nice if you have to wear glasses like I do for up close work such as typing on a laptop keyboard.

I am still experimenting with the display settings as I fine tune the machine’s operations. At some point, I may just accept the fact that some programs will have a slightly different look to them when compared to everything else. I think that I can live with that outcome. Besides, those programs that have a different look are ones that I do to use all of the time.

I guess that you can say I am very satisfied with my new Lenovo T500 Windows 7 laptop.

[Full and Fair Disclosure: The T500 is my fourth Lenovo laptop. My first Lenovo laptop was an IBM 385ED machine with no USB ports, a 3 ½ inch floppy drive, and only a pop-out RJ11 modem jack. I have come a long way with Lenovo as you can see. I am not a Lenovo employee either.]

Be well and stay happy.

Catching Up with Myself

2009-12-20T16:39:00.000-08:00

Catching Up with Myself
Yes, I have been busy and I have been away from the blog. This is, after all, a hectic time of the year for me and most everybody that I know.

Dr. Karen and me
I went to see Dr. Karen on the 11th for my regular once every three weeks visit. In addition to the appointment, I was also dropping off my Christmas gifts of Belgian dark chocolate brownies to the nursing staff and Dr. Karen.

The nurses love the brownies; they’ve had them before and Wendy and Vhrunda always say that I can bring them more at anytime. I wasn’t terribly surprised when they ignored my comment that each brownie was between 200 and 250 calories. They were too busy looking for their favorite flavors.

This was the first time that Dr. Karen received her own box of brownies. She is more concerned about my health and eating healthy foods in general. She was apprehensive about the calorie count. I think that concern dimmed a bit when I told her the brownies could be frozen for up to four or five months.

Dr. Karen will be the first to freeze the brownies. Everyone else finishes them off in a week or less time.

Getting back to my medical condition, Dr. Karen said that my lab tests were good and what she expected. I am in a medical limbo of sorts until after I see the colorectal surgeons on January 4th when we talk about their treatment plan.

My next regularly scheduled appointment with Dr. Karen was scheduled for January 1st. I told her that I was more than willing to show at the usual time for an appointment.

Dr. Karen smiled and said, “That’s ok Charles; let’s just slide your appointment to January 8th.”

Perfectomundo.

The January 8th appointment means that I will get an extra week off of Xeloda. That has to be good.

Growing another moustache
I had given some thought to growing my moustache back this Winter. I have asked a number of women that I see regularly what they think of the idea. Molly the Stylist thinks growing it back is an excellent idea but that I should cut it off when Spring comes around. Wendy and Vhrunda were too busy with the brownies. Half a dozen of my former female students that I have spoken to since school started think that I should grow it back. There is, of course, a possible element of student insincerity and currying favor with the instructor in or with some of those comments.

I will ask the Princess and her mother when I see them on December 22nd when we will observe Christmas.

Fountain pens
I have a couple of rather old, more than thirty years old, fountain pens. I keep them mostly for sentimental value largely because of how I obtained them and how I used them over the years. They have deteriorated and were no longer working. I was on the verge of throughing them out when I decided to see if there were any fountain pen repair places in Southern California.

Actually, there are several repair stores in Southern California. I found one that I will visit during my Christmas Break from school. I hope that I won’t have to spend a small fortune to repair them.

University of Utah football
Our Utes ended up doing very well in the BCS standings and with a very commendable record of nine wins and three losses. All three losses were to teams that were ranked higher in the BCS including two teams who ranked in the top ten in the nation.

Not a great season but a very good one nonetheless.

Go Utes. Beat Cal.

Visitors
November was a good month for visitors. We had 673 visitors come to the blog; this was up slightly from October. In the last week, we had 143 visitors who looked at 166 unique pages. The most popular page is January 1, 2007 with the current blog posting as the second most popular page.

I guess it is good to be in second place after a page full of photos of young women in skimpy bikinis. I guess it would suggest that the majority of the visitors to the blog are male

School and the School Party
The December Term is now two weeks old. So far, this is looking like it will be a good term for me. The class rosters seem to have settled down.

I do have a very large Microeconomics class with a roster of 39 students. I do expect that I will lose a couple of students when school starts again in January when they pick up their third consecutive absence. This is also my most difficult class because I have no experience with the students.

I have the same group of students, 12 in all, in two classes so it has been easy to work with them. The other nice thing about these classes is that they are program specific course so the students are more interested in coming to class regularly.

About half of the students in my other two classes are repeat students who have been in two or three of my previous classes. That makes it very easy to learn the names of the new students.

The school had its annual holiday party last night. Well, it used to be called the holiday party; now it is just called the staff appreciation dinner. The school keeps moving the venue around every year. I guess this is so that everyone gets to drive some distance each year.

This year’s party was at Long Beach’s Aquarium of the Pacific. I went by myself since I am, as Doug would say, between girl friends.

On paper, it sounded like a good idea, having the party at the Aquarium. We could have drinks and wander around the aquarium before enjoying a buffet dinner, hopefully, one with no fish dishes. Regrettably, there was a mix up with the school’s reservation and there was no wandering around. We did get passes to the aquarium if we want to come back during this week. I think I will pass on the return visit.

Fortunately for everyone, the weather was nice enough to allow us to have our drinks outside so we had a great view of part of Long Beach Harbor and the former RMS Queen Mary. Since it is December, many of the ships were displaying lights and that added to the festive nature of the evening.

The food was rather good for a buffet. It didn’t get too dried out and there was a wide variety of choices. Last night was the first time that I have seen prime rib of beef without any ribs in the slab of beef. I guess this was done so the slices of beef could be smaller or thinner. I went back for seconds on the beef.

I enjoyed myself at the party. I wished that more of the staff had shown up for the event. That would have made the evening better for me.

Be well and stay happy.

Molly said, "I see you got the memo on wearing plaid Charles." or my Wednesday Grand Slam

2009-12-03T19:39:00.000-08:00

Molly said, “I see you got the memo on wearing plaid Charles.” or my Wednesday Grand Slam
Molly was in a very good mood when I arrived at the salon yesterday. While she was finishing up on one client, I went next door to the day spa to see Natalie and drop off her Christmas gift from me.

Natalie gave me a big hug greeting because I hadn’t seen her the last time I was in for a haircut. She almost screamed with delight when I handed her the box of personalized M&Ms. I knew that she would because we have had many discussions on the joys of chocolate and M&Ms. They are one of her very few weaknesses.

Molly was just like Natalie; she almost screamed with joy as well. Chocolate, in almost any form, is Molly’s big weakness. She gave me a big hug after I handed her a box of personalized M&Ms. Then, we talked about how to cut my hair.

I asked Molly about leaving my hair thicker or fuller on the sides. Molly thought for a moment and agreed that I would look good with fuller hair. I asked if she could cut my hair a little shorter in front. It has a tendency to fall down and hang in front of my eyes shortly after the haircut. I think I look silly constantly brushing my hair with my hand. Molly said that she would cut it shorter but that it would still fall down, just not as far.

I almost didn’t recognize Rachel the Receptionist because she had changed her hair from blond to a medium brown. Most of you know that I do have a good sense of humor and that I enjoy a good joke. Rachel always asks me if I would like something to drink when I walk into the salon. I always say no because I have had my morning coffee. I was running ahead of time on Wednesday so I stopped by the Belmont Shore Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf for my usual large ice blended drink. It was not as good as the ice blendeds from the store in Torrance. I walked into the salon with the drink in my hand.

Rachel said, “Hello Charles.”

I said, “Hello Rachel.” Then I asked if she was going to ask me if I wanted a drink.

Rachel said, “No, cause you have one in your hand.”

I handed Rachel her Christmas M&Ms, a small bag of red ones and a small bag of green ones. She was surprised because I don’t think she saw this coming. I found out that Rachel also loves M&Ms and chocolate.

This is a photo of Molly and me; she’s the one on the left. She wore a plaid blouse and I had on a plaid shirt also. You can see me if my green plaid shirt if you scroll down a bit.

Teaching
I finally received my teaching assignment confirmation email yesterday. I am still teaching five classes. That is good. The Associate Dean asked me if I had any concerns about teaching two new classes when I was at school yesterday to pick up some textbooks. I said no and reminded him that I started teaching just four years ago and I had five new classes to teach.

He smiled.

I picked up my textbooks for my two new classes. They seem to be fairly nice and all. The text for my new Project Management course looks almost identical to the one I have been using to teach another version of the same course.

Since I was at school, I stopped in to check my school email. One of my instructor friends told me that the attendance records for the new term were available.

Sweet.

I logged in and found that I had been misinformed by my chair about the class sizes. I knew that my Microeconomics class was going to be large. It has a tentative roster of 34 right now. My two Project Management courses had been scheduled for six students; now I have the same ten students in each section. The other Economics course was supposed to have12 students and now it is at 22. My Research Methods course was going to have ten students and now the roster is close to 25.

I also know that not everyone who is on the roster today will be on my roster when classes start next week. I also know that some students will drop the courses so the final roster number is yet to be determined.

On the plus side, with the exception of Microeconomics, most of my classes have former students so I will have fewer names to learn. On the minus side, the students in my Research Methods class will have significantly less personal attention from me. This is very regrettable because many of the students are poor to very poor English language writers.

On balance, I am happy with my classes. So far anyway.

Lunch with Doug
I headed out to the Counter Burger in South Orange County to meet Doug for lunch after picking up my textbooks. We both like the Counter Burger because we can create the hamburger the way we want it to be; sort of like Burger King’s “have it your way” concept only with more and better choices and options.

Doug took this photo of me while we waiting for our food to come out from the kitchen. Now, you can see why Molly talked to me about wearing plaid.

As usual, Doug and I had a great time at lunch. We got there after most of the noontime lunch crowd had left so that left the Counter Burger on the quiet side for a change. We had a nice tale next to a window on the sunny side of the building. I keep making the same mistakes when I go there. I ordered sliced avocado instead of guacamole that would spread much easier on the burger. I also ordered a honey mustard sauce when I really should have asked our server to bring me some Dijon mustard.

RED CLIFF
Going to see RED CLIFF was the last activity of the day except for the longish drive home from South Orange County at night.

I will admit that I went to see the film with very high expectations. I had read some of the reviews and they were all glowing. I had also read the book, “The Three Kingdoms,” so I was familiar with the historical context of the film.

The version I saw was a shortened version for Western audiences. It was about two and half hours long. I am waiting for the full length DVD set which ought to run somewhere between five and six hours. The film is in Mandarin with English subtitles. After a few minutes, you don’t really notice the other language.

Having been well prepared, I was so completely unprepared for the film watching experience that John Woo created for me and the rest of the audience. After seeing this film, I think that Woo is one of the best epic film directors ever. I’ll put him up there with De Mille or John Ford and be willing to take the Pepsi challenge.

The fighting scenes are the best choreographed ones that I have ever seen. Some of you may have seem CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON by Ang Lee and been amazed by the wire sword fights; I was. But, I was completely blown away by the intricate detail that went into the live action battle scenes. The major battle lasts about twenty or twenty five minutes long. It is a graphic and bloody battle but there is no true gratuitous violence in the film.

The cinematography was brilliant and the juxtaposition of some elements, like the young boy playing a flute while the army was practicing its combat tactics, was perfect.

All of the actors and actresses were superb. I just wished that the closing credits would have included the role the actor or actress played in the film so I could make a better connection with them. Hopefully, the multi-disk DVD package will include more information about the cast.

The CGI work was on a par with anything the Pixar or Industrial Light & Magic can create.

I highly recommended the film to Doug.

As for me, I will be buying the full length version on Blu-Ray as soon as it comes out for sale.

This was the end of my personal grand slam; getting four major events completed in one day.

Be well and stay happy.

Cyber Friday and Cyber Monday [posted on Tuesday]

2009-12-01T16:07:00.000-08:00

Cyber Friday and Cyber Monday
I feel proud of myself in an Internet sort of way. I was able to complete my laptop shopping and some Christmas shopping on Friday and Monday without much of a delay. Of course, the fact that I was ordering standard products today may have had an influence on easy of a task I had to face.

The laptop should arrive around the middle of December if I am lucky. That will be good for me since I should have time over the Christmas Break to become familiar with it and to download most of the stuff on the current laptop.

The other order was for brownies. They should arrive by the end of the week if I am lucky. Hopefully, with the weather change to cooler temperatures, they will arrive in perfect condition. The brownies are for my favorite oncology nurses and Dr. Karen.

Utah Football
All is not so lost for our Utes. I was reading in the local newspaper sport section this morning that our Utes are still ranked in the Top 25 in three out of four major polls. I will admit that being ranked 25th is not the ranking that I would have hoped the Utes earned.

On the other hand, there are a lot of teams that never were ranked in the Top 25 by any poll. Even more will be staying home in December so they can watch the Utes play in another post season bowl game.

Perfectomundo.

RED CLIFF
I got really lucky with my plans to see the new John Woo film RED CLIFF. Doug had checked, using his iPhone, where it was playing when he was here for Thanksgiving. He used my ZIP Code as the search from location. He came up with a theater in Westwood and one of West Hollywood as the closest ones to me.

Neither choice appealed to me because the drives to get there are crummy.

When I checked the show times for the theater is Westwood, I discovered that the same chain was showing the film out in South Orange County.

Excellent.

In addition to having lots of parking and being 405 Freeway on-ramp close, I can also see it as part of a lot of errands on Wednesday. I am scheduled to see Molly the Stylist first then I will swing by school to pick up two textbooks that came in late. Since I was already now in Orange County, I called Doug to see if he was available for lunch; he was so we will meet for lunch at the Counter Grill. After lunch, I should have plenty of time to get over to the theater for the 3:30 showing of the film.

Be well and stay happy.