bad news blog

don't want this to become that...

The last couple of days have been work-crazy with late nights (but short afternoons). Kyle's spring awards night was Wednesday... JV participation certificate. He seemed all right with no hardware... I was a LITTLE disappointed... the kid who took JV MVP ended up going up to varsity and won a varsity letter... sooooo, is he JV or not? Whatever... I think it lit a fire under Kyle... he made the statement heading out of the library that he was going to challenge the varsity goalie this year (instead of waiting a year on JV and pretty much being anointed in his junior year)... good, hopefully he will follow through and work his ass off this summer--which should be a little freer as he told the SB water polo coaches that he was going to not participate in Summer Polo... he wasn't going to be "the man" on either the elite or "b" JO teams... and since this allows him to pursue Junior Lifeguard status and get a leg up on the Honors English reading... I think it's a good idea... the coaches said that he'd be missed and that he's welcome back any time (and they're expecting him after high school polo is over).

But ANYWAY...

I wanted to write yesterday about Almost Famous... it was HBO the night before... such a great movie... but work craziness kept me from it.

But today, I had planned to skip writing again (and probably skip working out again... for the entire week...), but dad just called from the VA doctor... they're having him stick around as they figure out what tests to run... they think it was whooping cough... something I suggested to him (and Lisa when Kyle's cough was really bad)... but the doc also heard something when listening to his heart... great... so now there's suspense.

I hate suspense.

-----------------------

Pa just called. They're pretty sure it's whooping cough... they're putting him on yet another antibiotic (they promise this one will work). The doc ran a EKG and while the heart looks good, the doc heard fluid building... so they've prescribed a diuretic and a prescription for potassium to replace the potassium that will exit the body because of the diuretic... sigh. The doc says he needs to be near a bathroom for the next day or two...

Hope this all works.

in a funky place

so that's where I am today...

don't know if it's the post-long-weekend emotional/philosophical hangover (not an alcohol hangover... that was yesterday).

don't know if it's the fact that I'm listening/watching Ricky Jay playing poker on DVD... it's really more fascinating than you'd believe.

listening to some new music (some by a new discovery, Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles; others by the wonderfully witty Scott Miller) isn't taking me out of it.

don't feel like working out, though I really need to, especially given my caloric intake over the weekend.

weird... yesterday, at a party at Kyle's girlfriend's parents' house, we discussed fears (specifically after my falling into the water while trying to go kayaking with Jack)...

if you don't know me, then you don't know I have a fear, a phobia, of water... Kyle pretty much had to jump in (with Haley) to save my ass

so anyway, we discussed fears (my jumping out of an airplane seemed unimaginable to the swimmers on the deck)... and maybe that's why I'm feeling the way I am... (that, and the fact that The Bucket List was on HBO last night)... but I'm thinking about my Bucket List.

more to follow...

tired

Another late night last night... I love coding Flex... hate coding Flash, and that's killing me right now: the flash movie works locally and on the server when you bring it up on its own... so we know it works as a unit... but when it's called from my Flex app... it doesn't work completely.

WTF

Have a call out to a fellow developer, hopefully he can enlighten me.

Kyle's cranky and nervous this morning... another orthodontist's appointment today. Last week's installation of the brackets and the bottom braces and wires had Kyle eating nothing for a day, and only soft foods for another three, and grumpy the entire time (actually more than grumpy... downright hostile at times)... so with today's installation of the upper braces and wire (and possibly the palate expander, too), we're bracing for what could be an incredibly unpleasant weekend (a three-dayer... woo freaking hoo... begin the IV of rum and tequila now please, doctor). He didn't sleep well last night, and he doesn't think he'll be able to sleep much tonight (as was the case last weekend)... so add fatigue to pain.

As for me, yesterday was horrible with this coding issue... the only good point was Jack's Open House... he's doing so much stuff in Spanish... but the really cool thing is that it was the Spanish stuff he was most proud of: he wanted to talk about those items, read those pieces, more than the stuff in Ingles. Pretty damn freakin' cool. And his artwork kicked ass.

But today, it's back to coding hell, with a side trip to Army command bureaucratic purgatory: a conference call with all the commanders whose soldiers are using the app I've built... they're all happy (or at least they were ecstatic during the last call, and I've heard no complaints since), and that's part of the issue... I received two days ago a development roadmap for the next three quarters. I feel like Pacino:

Every time I think I'm out, they pull me back in.

Or the Bill Paxton character in Aliens:

And, man, I was short.

I thought we were wrapping up the app, and I'd be able to rejoin my web team brethren... not so much... but at least it's job security... that's a good thing...

right?

crazy

Work's been crazy... up past midnight last night working...and that after a water polo parents meeting.

Today not much better, though I did work in time for a workout.

Tonight, crazier with Jack's Open House... though Pa's running late getting Kyle home from practice, and I'll have only moments to put together ravioli... all while trying to finish a work thingee... it's compiling as I type... hope it works... otherwise, tonight will not be fun.

Let's see if it works....

wait for it...

wait for it...

still waiting for it...

SHITE... I SUCK... it's going to be a loooong night after Open House, I think.

Damn

ah... work wasted... but fun nevertheless

from Kyle's English Teacher:

Hello Mr. Walthall,

Thank you so much for your effort to present to our class; however,
It doesn't seem as if we will have a sufficient amount of time to
work your presentation in.

I apologize for any inconvenience this may have created for you.

Have a great day!

Damn that's disappointing... had put together a PPT for the presentation, and was ready to spend a period talking about Romeo and Juliet... At least it was fun to immerse myself in the text again...

Maybe I'll post it (or write about it) later...

Why When How

can't I find/seem to make time to work out?

This week is hell:
Monday: Kyle SBWPC JO team tryouts; Jack begins Titan water polo
Tuesday: Jack water polo; Lisa has a Principal appreciation dinner; I have a haircut
Wednesday: Kyle tryout; Jack water polo; high school water polo team meeting
Thursday: Jack and Lisa Open House
Friday: Kyle orthodontist appointment; I'm going to RM to discuss Romeo and Juliet with Kyle's honors English class...

When will I fit in working out? (while still getting work done?)

How do people do this?

Driving Me Crazy

Dad is driving me crazy. He worries me with this damn cough, and then he does something that makes me want to go BERSERK (sorry for the Billy Jack reference).

So he wakes up in the middle of the night in a coughing fit. And he gets on the internet to research sleep apnea, coughing fits, etc. ... as is his hypochondriac want to do. And finds some stuff related to his GERD as well. So now he thinks that's the root cause.

Why? Because....

A while back, he stopped taking his Prevacid.

Why? Because...

well, his bowel movements have been better lately.

Well, was the Prevacid constipating? Or causing diarrhea?

Not sure.

So he just stopped taking it. Great.... so I take the tack our doctor would:

"So how many years of med school have you had?"

When a doctor prescribes a med, you need to take it. You can't just stop taking it willy-nilly because there will be repercussions. Jeez, this is crazy.

Lisa said I didn't go too hard, loud or sarcastic on him ... but he'd damn well better start taking his meds again (he said he has)... and if his cough goes away within the next couple of day, I'm going to give him a HUGE amount of shite... and will bug his constantly about taking his meds. He had me worried, but if this is all because of his own actions... aaarrrghhhhhh!

On the bright side, I hulu'ed the season finale of 30 Rock (and not just because of my crush on Ms. Fey)... it's the best episode of the year... great moments ("I'm a kidney"... the doctor's "opposite" ... "What do you think this is, Wings?")... but it's the guest stars for the episode-ending musical benefit that Rock-ed the most: "international art thief" Declan McManus, er Elvis Costello and others (including the page's "cousin" Clay Aiken):

Just Give a Kidney



Laughing my ass off...

Give the gift of giving
Give it in a giving way...

Listen, when someone starts talking in the middle of a song, you know it's serious

A hand would be an even harder thing to give...

What a line-up: Elvis, Steve Earle, guitar badass Robert Randolph (he's the one singing with Cyndi Lauper, one of the drunk ones), Sheryl Crow (the one getting paid), the Beastie Boys, Wyclef Jean, Moby, Norah Jones (was that her in the really short haircut?).. and a bunch of others...

Yes, they've had quite a year...

------------------------------------------

The Bones finale SUUUUUUUUUUCKED. The only thing good about it was this commercial shoehorned between segments:

shape

as in getting back into.

Went with Kyle to the gym this morning (445 wake-up, at the gym by 530, home by 650 to see Jack and Lisa off to their field trip). Pretty good workout. But I may need to buy more personal training sessions... I'm not pushing myself as hard as he did on the treadmill.

But I am starting to see results... was back up to 239 when we joined the gym a month ago... now down to 236... three pounds... but those came in the last two weeks... there was no drop in weight those first two weeks, even with change of diet.

My goal is to get my legs and core back enough to get on the bike and have FUN, rather than just go for a ride.

Last night, I took Kyle to water polo practice. We carpool, so we had a full Pilot. One of the kids is obnoxious, that weird and horrible mix of bullshit artist, troublemaker (who thinks he's a joskester), and egomaniac who loves the sound of his own voice. Quite frankly, I'm glad this is the end of spring polo... hopefully, our carpool won't include him in summer... because I don't want to ride with him. Riding with him is pretty far up the list of things I don't want to do... just below:

2) having my eyeballs scooped out with grapefruit spoons, while simultaneously having my scrotum punctured by fondue prongs, all while having a crack addict (high on PCP) wearing boxing gloves perform a root canal on me THROUGH MY ASS

Yeah, he's that obnoxious. On the plus side, as I told Kyle, when we ride with that kid, I'm prouder and prouder of my boys...

begin again (again)

So why am I up at 4am?

So many things going through my head: Kyle's falling grades, Jack's possible water polo, Pa's continuing cough... and those are just the major ones (minor ones include continuing scandals at the school, er, institution in So.Central; Pauley reconstruction; Star Trek; Romeo and Juliet).

But let's hit the one that had me waking up at one.

Pa's cough has been going on so long, I can't even remember. I think I took him to the ER on Saturday, April 18 (I think that was the date, since I think it was only a week between ER visits, with Kyle's coming on April 25, after the UCLA spring football game). But before the ER visit, it had been a couple of weeks. Over the course of time (though mostly in April), he had three x-rays, was prescribed probably half a dozen cough syrups/expectorants/etc., and seen his doctors (or called them) maybe ten times. No one knows shit (of course, Kyle's substitute pediatrician said the same thing a week ago, prescribed Singular and began the HMO referral process for an Ear/Nose/Throat specialist... in the intervening days, the cough has gotten better/infrequent, though the spasms are still there).

Yesterday, Pa got a new prescription, these are pills. I hope they work.

He stopped going to the gym early in April because of the cough. The cough fatigues him pretty badly. It's gotten to the point where he's sleeping in him chair more than watching TV. And if that wasn't bad enough, it's not the usual sleep in reclining mode, it's sleep sitting up.

Like GG in the past year or so.

So yeah, that's running through my head.... but Kyle's grades are falling, too... back to B's and a C. After all the talk at the end of last semester of this semester being different... uh, not so much.

After getting that off my chest, maybe I can get some rest... probably not.