ReDecorating

I had made mention of a couple of items recently. One was that I would likely be replacing my printer in the near future. The other was the lack of content I've had recently.

Well, I took care of both of them today!!! I was going to try and scan a form the other day, and I couldn't get my printer to get past the “Print Head Not Installed” portion. I messed with it for a few minutes, then called it, and ordered a new one!!!

I stuck with Canon, since I've been happy with the one I had, present experience excluded. Got a Canon Pixima G6020, another all in one with print, scan, and copy functions. Since it's a much newer model, it's also wirelessly connected, and since ink has been a major expense with my previous printer, this one is an ink tank model with big reservoirs. Oh yea, I can also scan and print from my phone now, as well.

As a side note, I had long ago mentioned the artwork on my file cabinet upon which my desktop computer tower and printer have always sat. Never had an actual picture here, only a link to a page on a long gone Geocities site. When we were living in Long Beach, my wife had saved up and bought a set of chairs and a love seat that were black with blue and maroon pattern shapes all over them, and when I got a 2-drawer file cabinet, I painted it black, and hand painted similar blue and maroon pattern shapes to match. The chairs and love seat are long gone, but the file cabinet remains, so I've included it in the picture here!!!

A little over 12 years ago, I had painted the bathroom in a black and white theme. My dad made up the custom painted toilet seat that has been the base for many of the pictures posted on this blog, and when I'd painted it up, I picked up three black 5”x7” picture frames, with the idea that I could rotate in various black and white pictures. (The only picture that actually shows much of the black and white was the third on this post) The first three, I printed out pictures of Mochi sleeping on the top of the cat tree, Leo relaxing in the sink, and a vertical picture of both their paws. I'd added the picture frame effect in Paint Shop Pro, and had them printed at WalMart. Well, those pictures have stayed there since that day, until today!!!

After setting up my new printer and printing the test page and a test picture, I printed out these pictures to replace the old ones. The first two are from out Texas trip from a few years ago, both taken in Galveston. The first was looking out from the window of the Best Western (second picture from the end of this post). The next was on the beach on the Gulf of America (the final picture on this post). When I saw both of these pictures, I knew they'd work great for the theme I was using in there!!!

For the third, I kept with the theme of having a cat picture. I used Sid's X-ray showing the repair!!! Hey, it cost me a lot of money!!!

A Tale of Two Pricey Meals

Last week I had another follow up appointment with my orthopedic surgeon. He took another X-ray, and said it's progressing, but... with such a wide break, it could take up to 12 weeks, maybe more... so I've got another appointment in a month. I had to take off work an hour early to do so, and because of that, my break times got moved up. My lunch break is usually the entirely too early for me 10:45, but since I was leaving out early, it was moved to 9:45!!! Didn't really bother me, it actually spaced out my breaks more evenly. However, when we were waiting for the doctor, my stomach was speaking up!!!

We had been busy on actual Valentine's Day. I had offered to take my wife out to a late night diner in our area, be she declined. I was quite hungry after the appointment, so I suggested that, since it was just the two of us we could have our Valentine's dinner!!! Not far from there is a really nice steak house, and at first we headed over there, thinking that at the late afternoon time on a Thursday it might not be too busy. We got into the parking lot, and it was very full. There were a couple of spots quite far away, but we decided against going there. Nearby on the map, there's a place I'd seen and heard of before, Pie 'N Burger.

It has a much smaller parking lot, but they'd saved us a spot!!! Inside, it wasn't too busy. It's not too big, and there were a few open tables, but the counter isn't that tall which is often an issue for my wife, so we sat there. First thing, my wife orders a chocolate malt. Not a lot of places where you can get an actual malt anymore!!!

Burger is right in the name, and that's what I'd been thinking. They have several sandwiches on the menu, and then I saw they also have chicken pot pie. Oh, that sounds good!!! Whenever we go to a new place, I'll ask the waitress or waiter if they have a recommendation. She said the burger is really good, but one of her favorites is the chicken pot pie. I'm torn. Then my wife says, “Why don't I get the burger, you get the chicken pot pie, and we'll split both???” Genius. That's why I married her. Also, very Valentine-ey!!!

My wife told me to re create the quesadilla and burrito attacking pictures, and there you go!!! Both the chicken pot pie and the burger and onion rings were delicious!!! Oh, and since it's called Pie 'N Burger, chicken pot pie is also totally a pie, anyway!!! Oh, and the chicken pot pie came with a salad, and I got bleu cheese dressing. It was very chunky, awesome!!!

Of course, a place with pie as the first word in their name, gotta get a slice of pie!!! After everything we'd had we were nearing the limit, but the pies were one of the first things I'd looked at. They had a peach pie on the list that sounded pretty good, but then I saw they have a butterscotch meringue pie, I've never heard of such a thing, and butterscotch is one of my favorite, not often seen flavors, so that's what we got, once again to split. We even had enough left to take some home for the younger to try.

All of that totaled almost $70, plus a generous gratuity for great service.

Last night I had tickets from my work to a Kings game. We've been to several, and it's one of the younger's favorite sports. It was a lot of walking for a guy with a spiral fracture to the 5th metatarsal!!! Of course, I'd gotten the tickets well before that had happened. I was a little achey in my shin and where the break is after getting to our seats.

Every time we're at a stadium, we always get something to eat, and this was no exception. I thought we'd gotten some awesome nachos there before, and so when the menu had Super Nachos listed, that's what I was going to get. The younger got a tray of tendies and waffle cut seasoned fries, we both got sodas, and a pretzel to split. The nachos were underwhelming, it was a good sized bag of Tostito's and a cup of cheese and jalapenos, they were OK but not what I'd been thinking. I went through about half of them, and the boy had gone through the chicken and had some fries, and we swapped for the rest. The fries were a bit on the spicy side, but they had ranch, and it was great together. The pretzel had a split, making it look like a mouth!!!

It was Japanese Heritage night, and I just happened to take this selfie where we were both squinting pretty hard. I swear, it was not intentional!!!

The Kings were up against the Golden Knights, and it came out to be a great game for the home team!!! Kings scored first, in the first period. The Knights scored twice in the second period. Right at the start of the third, the Kings evened it up. There was a fight between a couple of the guys, and they both ended up in the penalty box at the same time, I'd never seen that happen before!!! Lots of action, and very physical with a lot of checks into the boards.

The Kings scored three more times in the third period. I feel like the Golden Knights were demoralized towards the end, but they never gave up. Oh, and since they switch ends every period, every single goal was on our end of the rink!!!

And here's a much better selfie!!!

There's the mascot, Bailey, taking a victory skate!!! He's always an entertaining character, in one part they had the camera on him, and he had a huge bag of popcorn and was throwing handfuls, and finally grabbed it by the bottom and helicoptered it!!!

On the way out, there were the ubiquitous hot dog carts with bacon wrapped dogs and grilled onions. I had been thinking of getting one before, and as soon as I smelled it, it was a done deal!!! It was glorious, but I really overdid it.

The stuff I got inside came to over $70, including a not as generous gratuity (it's nice that they deliver it right to your seat!!!), and the dog was another $10, so they both came out almost the same!!! Good times!!!

13 Random for '25

I've got a couple of other things I could post, but I'm going to go a bit random instead. It's been a while.

I've had a couple of trips to the orthopedic surgeon since my 5th metatarsal fracture, the second one just yesterday. I took pictures of my X-rays both times. The break is similar to the first web located one I'd used for that post... only worse. They'd put me in the room with the X-ray displayed before I saw the doctor, and I was thinking for sure I'd be in for surgery from the look and the giant gap in the bone. The doctor came in, looks at it and tells me, “In about 95% of these breaks, I don't recommend surgery...” then he paused, and I was almost certain he was going to say I'd hit the lottery with mine, but he's willing to let it ride as is. He gave me a legit boot, and I kept from using it for the 3 weeks or so in between.

The second trip, to me, the X-rays looked exactly the same, but the doctor said it's growing bone back, see how it's got white there now??? Umm, it's bone, it's always been white!!! He gave me the go ahead to start using it some to walk on, and I've been using a cane. It feels like it's making it ache a little, but it isn't bad. I've heard you're supposed to use it a bit as it heals anyway.

This was kind of funny, in Pokemon GO, when you do a raid it displays various achievement cards I guess you'd call them. A week or so after I broke my foot, I got the card for the longest distance walked the previous day!!!

Since my wife was still recovering from her back surgery in early December, for the first time since I've been working there, I didn't take her to the company Christmas party. I took the younger son instead. It was at the Aquarium of the Pacific again, and I saw on the itinerary that there was going to be a sea otter show, so we showed up for that.

On the way in, they routed us around the side into the back, where they've got the shark pools. This ray was huge!!! The water magnification makes it hard to judge, but I'd say 10 feet across!!! They also had some fish swimming around in the same tank that had a horn protruding from their heads. I asked the girl who was giving the talk about the various displays about them: “The fish with the horns in here, baby narwhals, right???” She said they were. Can't tell if serious or trolling.

There have been fires raging around here, in no small part because of our stupid local and state government. Of course, that means lots of red flag days, which prior to this they've had 3 other times this season. On the day we were coming back from our anniversary trip, those rat bastards called one, ticketed and towed Scruffy and the Falcon before we were able to get home. Cost over $800 for all that, and of course it wasn't even windy in our area. For this one... the first night they were going to be calling it, it actually did get a good wind whipped up. I was sure it was going to break at least one of our trees, but it didn't. Of course, I was in no condition to drive. Our neighbor was going to help moving the cars to where they don't have the parking restrictions, but instead drove one to the next street over, where they have the same restrictions. Then the battery in Scruffy was dead. Long story short, my wife drove the Falcon for the first time in ages, and my younger son, who is as of yet still unlicensed, drove two others.

Anyway, this is a picture of the first morning. I start at 6 AM, and it's usually dark out when I do, and by 7 AM it's light. Didn't even realize until they mentioned on the radio, it was still dark out. I stepped out at around 8 and took this picture. I've had a little cough ever since, and a low level wheeze. It was just the first night of it that we had any wind, but that hasn't stopped them from having a near constant red flag alert. They dropped it for a couple of days, but it's back on. Knee jerk, I think, at this point.

Towards the end of last year, the ceiling fan in the bedroom stopped turning on. First, checked the remote battery, and that didn't work. Next, I pulled the wall switch to see if it was getting juice, and it was (I'd not long before added a timer switch for the bathroom fan, and the wiring backs up to the bedroom). Finally, I dropped the ceiling trim ring, and hard wired past the remote receiver. That did the trick. Tried bypassing to the fan motor while I was at it, and it was fine as well. Found a replacement remote and receiver, and had it mailed, and installed it, and it's all good now. Oh, and now I've got a timer function!!!

For Thanksgiving, we went to our friends' house where they were hosting a get together pot luck. I brought pulled pork and buns and slaw, and it was a big hit. Some other friends that have moved to Arizona were there, and they brought their sphinx cats!!! My wife came (the day after she got out of the hospital, after which she didn't leave the house for quite a while) and was reclined on the couch most of the time. The sphinxes are very cuddly!!!

Look at that, without all the fur, you can actually see the brain wrinkles right through their skulls!!! Also pictured is another recent shirt my wife got me, it says, “It's not easy being my wife's arm candy, but here I am nailing it!!!”

A couple more Catalina vacation notes. Since my wife doesn't get around too well on her own, we always take her wheel chair. It's about the only place we take it all the time!!! Since we were taking surrogate son, fitting it in our car would be near impossible, so we borrowed my mom's car. Brought it to our home, and after climbing the hill, it blew off it's upper radiator hose!!! Now, for some back story, near the beginning of last year, she'd had an incident where she said it was smoking. I don't know if it was the leaky transmission pan, oil pan, or a cooling system issue, but she took it to what I've long considered to be a shady mechanic, Gretchen's Automotive, near her house. They came out with a huge laundry list of things that needed to be done totaling thousands of dollars, “Or, I'll buy it off you for $1,000, I've got a son who needs a car...” and she was going to do it!!! It doesn't have many miles on it, and she recently had the transmission rebuilt. I was pissed!!! One of the things they'd said was it needs new radiator hoses, and before she was able to back out of it (the theft of her car, that is), they'd replaced them and supposedly flushed and refilled the system, and they charged her nearly $300 for just that!!! I told her she'd never authorized the repair, since she'd used her charge card call them up and dispute the charge. She wouldn't. Anyway, there you go, you to Gretchen's Automotive in Long Beach, and they'll screw you and do a crap job of tightening your radiator hose clamp!!! Gretchen's Automotive, where elder financial abuse is the name of the game!!!

This was in the window of the place across from where we were staying in Avalon. A ghost tours place. Creepy.

We gave one of the youngers' friends a plush for her birthday, Alan from Smiling Friends. As we'd hoped, she likes it a lot, and sent a picture with the message, “He will sit next to my Perry!”

Sidney is always messing with the trash can in the bathroom. Usually it's just knocking it over, or messing around with the liner. A few weeks ago, though, he pulled the liner our, and jumped into it!!! He was just laying in there, purring!!!

We got dinner from Panda Express a few weeks ago, and this was my fortune. They gave me the title of a Killers song for my fortune. I feel like I was RickRolled by a cookie!!!

Farewell 2024

Welcome to (in all likelihood) the final post of the year!!! I had a few others in me, but they're not ready for prime time as of yet. So, what do I now have in common with my cat???

In 2024 we both have broken a bone related to walking!!!

On Saturday, 4 days ago, I was coming down some stairs, and on the last one I rolled my foot to the inside, and I swore I heard a pop (and, yes, I swore). It was painful, and I was limping around afterwards, but the pain wasn't in my ankle as I would have expected. I went to a local urgent care (which I'd been to once this month already, I had a cough that wasn't going away, and it turned out I had a bacterial infection. The stuff they prescribed did a fine job clearing it up!!!) and was told there was around a 3 hour wait. I expected as much, being a weekend, it wasn't anywhere near that long when I went on a Tuesday. Of course, I work in the evenings on Saturdays, and it was going to be close at best.

After a wait commensurate with the time estimated, they took me in and took my vitals and my story. After a quick visual inspection they took X-rays, and a bit later the doctor comes back and tells me I broke it. Displaced 5th metatarsal fracture, to be exact. They put on a splint (which feels loose to me) and gave me a pair of crutches and referred me to an orthopedic surgeon for further evaluation. Oh yeah, they told me before they put the splint on that I may have to cut off my pants when I got home. No thanks, I'll just take those off now!!! My surrogate son had been driving us around, and I know he had his windbreaker, and I figured I'd fashion it into a kilt. I never did, but that's what I was thinking of doing.

Ended up 45 minutes late to starting work that day. I tried to contact the orthopedic surgeon they had referred me to on Monday, and it put me on hold forever, then put me through to a message machine, which told me it was completely full after it beeped. At any rate, I had been looking them up the day before on the map, and they aren't very highly rated. My wife happens to know a place that does some orthopedic surgery, so I contacted them. The soonest they could get me in is this coming Friday.

I never saw the X-rays, so I don't know exactly the location or extent of the fracture. Most of the information I found was it'll be 6 to 8 weeks if no surgery is required. It honestly doesn't feel that bad, unless I try and walk on it or put pressure on it. There are a few types of fractures it could be, avulsion, Jones, or dancer's. I found a couple of images of them, and one of them was actually from another guy on Blogger, and it sounds like his injury came about similarly to mine, but it looks like his was worse, with some swelling.

This is now my second broken bone, the first one I referred to when it had happened, back in 2005 around when I'd started blogging. I have a couple of mentions and links to the picture, but they were hosted on Geocities (now defunct, if you didn't know), and if I'd posted about it, it was probably on MySpace. You remember MySpace, don't you??? Maybe I'll post about it at some point, I tell people it's where my newest tattoo came from (they injected numbing agents in my knuckles through my greasy dirty hand, and the mark remains) and it's one of my many tales that my younger likes me to share with his friends.

I was thinking of making this into a random post with several bits of the aforementioned possible future posts, but not tonight. One of the things I would have had that carries over is my wife had broken some of her back rods again, and had surgery at the beginning of November to repair and reinforce things. She got out the day before Thanksgiving, and thankfully she's got a good amount of her mobility back, which works out since I now can't drive. It was on my right hand foot.

Still holding the title of Titanium Queen!!!

Fixed It!!!

We've been doing a lot of going back and forth to the vet's with Sidney's leg.

I'd thought they wouldn't take a follow up X-ray until his 4 week follow up, I know I'd heard that anyway. But on one of the many trips, my wife got them to send these X-rays!!! Nice though, apparently after 4 weeks, he'll no longer have to have his leg wrapped!!!

Every week they want to check up on his progress, so that's what some of the back and forth has been, just taking him over to get checked out. They sedate him, check him, and re wrap the legs, so it's one trip to drop him off, then pick him up a couple hours (minimum) later, so two trips each time. Twice they've failed to wrap his other foot well enough, and he's kicked the splint off, resulting in follow up trips the next day.

So there's the repair!!! They put a rod down the length of the bone, and screwed a plate on the outside. Design notes from a tooling designer, I think they should have radiused the edges of the plate, and I think it should have been moved up a little, it looks like of all the screws they put in, only 2 made it into the unbroken upper part of the bone, and short ones at that. Not sure, but it looks like the longer ones may be poking through the far side. Hope that isn't an issue.

Hadn't mentioned that I never knew that the bony elbow portion of a cat's leg is actually a portion of the leg bone that runs long!!!

And there he is, being his friendly self!!! Still has the licks and nibbles for us, and reaches out from his cage for us. Just trying to get a picture, and he comes right up into the camera!!!

My wife and my cat now both have titanium bone reenforcements!!! For this post I added a new label that I could go back and add to several other posts!!! What is the cost of all of this?? If I hadn't recently bought the Sky, it would be more than I've ever spent on any of my cars!!!