Good luck with the date, Senyar

1. I cut my own hair today. You can tell I cut my own hair. Of course, since you can also tell I dye my own hair (bright blue at the moment), I figure it gives me some kind of punk cred to also have it rather unevenly clipped... right? I did make sure to use a longer guard than I prefer so there's enough extra length to have my barbershop guy fix it for me next week when I have barbershop money, but I couldn't stand it being long enough to curl around my ears. Now it's down to, like, a Sid Vicious-y muppet-fur length, which is bearable.

2. I'm doing that thing I do where I work on tons of worldbuilding and character design and then never get around to actually writing anything with it. The thing I started yesterday is Napoleonic War Era Magical Realism, and I'm researching the British East India Company for it.

3. I restrung my acoustic guitar, and in the process managed to snap the bridge pin that holds in the low E string. It's a really old guitar and half of the bridge pins were replaced before I even got it - the one I broke was one of the remaining original ones - so it wasn't really a surprise, but it is an annoyance. That's another thing that'll have to wait until next week. Until then I guess I'll just be playing without a bass string.

Good luck with the date, the run and the getting healthier, Senyar.

Me? My weekend is gone. Quite boring, as I'm supped to be resting as part of tapering to next week's walk. It's been a long enoung time since I had a restful weekend that it stressed me out somewhat.

Yay senyar! Please tell us date stories after.

1 went to a great restaurant called locanda verde for bf's bday friday. I think he liked the presents I got him too. Today is a small party with his friends at his apt

2 my mom is in china, my dad is in mongolia, and my sister is visiting them and now in thailand. I feel orphaned! My grandmother freaked out bc it was a long time since she had heard from my dad, and I told her mongolia is not known for its internet, but then secretly I got worried too after I realized it had beenalmost 2 wks since his last email to me and he is usually more regular. But everyone turned out to be fine, bc mongolian internet just isn't what it used to be.

3 apt hunting is baaaad. We have seen so many places and know prices and can afford what we want, but it seems everyhting coming up is cheaper than our budget which is ok but then they are lacking in some area, or way more than our budget and have crazy things we don't need. There is some gap in price and niceness and I don't get it. We have one strong contender but it is much farther from the subway than we wanted and I am hoping we can find something better while not missing out on this one just in case we dont

rmless2: I will relay some tips to you which can be helpful in finding an apartment. While my advice is NYC-based, this could go for anywhere, really.

Step One: Make a list of three amenities you must have in your new apartment and rank them in order of importance. By amenities, I mean things like a dishwasher or central air-conditioning. I do not mean things like being close to a subway that's convenient to your job. That is not an amenity, that is a necessity.

Step Two: Now, of those three amenities, think about not having the last one. Could you really get along without it? Really think about it, and decide that you may have to get along without it. The most successful real estate searches hinge upon you being realistic about the fact that unless you have buckets of money, you are not going to be able to afford the perfect place.

Step Three: Do an extended search on Craigslist or Street Easy and set your parameters to include the most important amenity. Don't be afraid to look at the smaller real estate firms, too. Of the results that shake out, find the ones that fit your desired location and mention at least one of the other two amenities. If you find all three in one listing and it's within your price range, you have hit the jackpot!

Using this method, my boyfriend and I found a great 1.5 bedroom place in Boerum Hill at a boutique broker's website which while at the top of our price range has enough room for an office for him, an in-unit washer and dryer and a dishwasher. The amenity we gave up was central air-conditioning, but we're within walking distance to the F/G trains at Bergen Street and his workplace. We did have to pay a broker's fee, but considering how a different REBNY-associated brokerage kinda dicked around on us when we were applying for a larger and more expensive coop which also had two of the three, I think we got off lucky.

1) Starting day two of a four day weekend with Mrs Agogo, and I'm quite relaxed. I work from home and tend to end up checking email and working a bit every day even on my vacation, so I never really get that removed mentally from work. But I had to send in my laptop to be upgraded which is great. No work email access means I can't do any work - so it will be like a real vacation.

2) But it won't be an all fun-and-games vacation - we have to paint two rooms before our new carpeting comes. Cleared out part of the rooms over the past few weeks, but I'm not looking forward to taking down and moving six bookshelves full of CDs. Or the painting. I hate painting.

3) Whenever we paint we choose an audio book to help get us through. The audio book for this paint job is the Keith Richards autobiography, read in part by Johnny Depp. Between that and the post-painting cocktails I'm not dreading it as much as I normally do.

1. One of my hubby's friends came for a brief visit to help me select a security device that will make me feel more comfortable since the break-in this spring.

2. I am impressed with all of you health conscious people and need to make myself get into gear with something too.

3. Am going to spend tonight at Mom's so I can get an early start working at the never ending one-person insulation project.

mightshould--Join up with Health Month! I only just started this month but it's been pretty awesome so far.

1. Friday was NARA, which wasn't horrible, but wasn't exactly a barrel of kittens either. I was lucky and missed most of the torrential rain we got but still had enough puddles to splash in when I walked back to my car. (I enjoy puddle splashing, but only when it's warm out so my feet don't freeze.)

2. Yesterday, I felt like I was driving damn near everywhere. I went to see my father's townhouse (about 15 minutes away) that's being remodeled (by him and my brother) and my brother looked at the headlight wiring that had melted to see how much fixing it would need. Then I went home and he called me about an hour later to have me drive up to his house (about an hour away) so he could fix the headlight before he went to visit his girlfriend. He bribed me to take my mother out to lunch. Then my mother said I should swing by her house to see if pops was there. Then pops called and said I should swing back by the townhouse since he was fighting with the icemaker. After all that, I finally made it home to collapse, but at least I went out for a walk, which was very scary, but at least I actually went.

3. Today I'm at work and I've got lots of tiny things to do, which is almost more irritating than having big things to do. I like to get into things deeply and just crank versus having to change activities often.

I am impressed by running since it is suppose to be so good for you but I would never choose to do it. Running away from things is as close as I get.

1. Been struggling with the fact that a friend of mine is a racist. It doesn't come from hatred or politics, mostly from being unexposed to the world and lacking familiarity with things that are outside a small town, Midwestern mentality. It just became painfully apparent yesterday and I'm wondering how much of an issue it really is. I don't think she could ever tolerate being a minority, it would blow her mind. The thing is, I think she considers herself open minded in comparison to most people, and compared to most of the people she is around, probably. I think by virtue of the fact we have been friends for so long, she automatically thinks she is not prejudiced.
I can't believe some of the conversations I've had with people around here who think there are no issues of race and prejudice "around here" because they are only ever around other white people. Just the language being used is startling.

2. My god, do I love not studying. It could be my favorite thing in a way, all things not studying have an added dimension of freedom I feel the need to revel in. Tomorrow I make the half-hearted attempt to be back at it but today stretches forth like an oasis, even though I may wander into the desert a bit to get some research out of the way.

3. Swimming is going to be a bigger feat that I thought. In theory, swimming should work, but I was being far too optimistic about the whole thing. My brother seems to think it is mostly psychological and I am thinking I definitely need to find someone who specializes in adult nonswimmers. Summer seems to be slipping away rather quickly and I wonder if I will make any of my goals or projects for it after all. Should I get over my math phobia enough for the GRE, I will consider myself having achieved something.

1. I finally get to take action on some items that have in the works for a while, and I'm so happy. I never thought that packing and applying for student loans would make me feel so good.

2. Talked with my sister last night. She and her husband are finally planning to come back to the US (she has lived in Australia for the past 9 years. It would be nice to have all my siblings on the same continent.

3. Waiting for the nearby Thai restaurant to open. Sooooo hungry.

1. Went to Costco for the first time in a long time yesterday. Stopped for gas there and we made out in the gas line, which was fun.

2. Daughter is down with her spankin' new GF for the Country Fair, to show it to her, and to remenisce about the illegal and dangerous things she did out there as a teen, which we were only barely aware of. The new GF is cute and smart and we like her.

3. Gillian Welch tonight!

I'll give eharmony points for if they do find a match for you, it is a pretty damn good match.

The highlight of my weekend has been, and most like will remain, the Nascar race yesterday, so I got nothing.

I am impressed by running since it is suppose to be so good for you but I would never choose to do it.

I am with you on that. I have a handful of friends who run and it knocks me out with admiration... and an undercurrent of "oh, hell no."

1. Went out to our neighborhood bar last night to celebrate a friend's birthday. It was great to see so many friends --- I needed those hugs, it turns out.

2. My whole family is in town. Yikes.

3. I've had the hiccups for about 30 minutes now. Make. It. STOP.

1. Back from the date. He was okay, a little older than his profile said, and definitely not 5'6", but as I'm 4'11", it wasn't that big a deal. We didn't run out of things to talk about but there was no spark. He's only had one relationship in his entire life, at 35, and has been single for a long time. He seemed a little closed-in.

2. I just cooked my steak, and it was f'ing awesome. I had it with dry-fried courgette (zucchini), a yellow bell pepper and asparagus (both also dry-fried) and a salad with a little ranch dressing as an indulgence.

3. Now Lucy and I are relaxing on the sofa, watching trashy TV. I'll be talking on the phone to my best friend in an hour or so.

1) Happily playing with spankin' new smartphone and google+.

2) Had a week where my upper back was acting up; any time I moved my arms my back hurt, my neck hurt, and I couldn't breathe. Looks like I'm over that today, whoohoo! I hate it when it gets like that. Now I can go back to Doing Things.

3) I continue to be delighted about the state of my driveway. We had someone come in and just remove all the (overgrown) bushes lining the sides and chip them up. So nice! So open! So much more usable! I've hated those bushes since we moved in years ago.

1. I have been enormously anxious all week long for no real external reason and I wish it would stop. We're going hiking today, though, which I think will help.

2. Yesterday I finally went to a jeweler and talked to him about designing earrings out of the side-stone diamonds I inherited six years ago from my mother's engagement ring. My mother had given me an amethyst pendant set with the (teeny!) diamond my father had given her when I was born, so I'm trying to get these other little stones set with amethysts as earrings so that I'll have a set. The jeweler had some good ideas and I think they're going to be really pretty.

3. There's a cow grazing pasture across the street from our subdivision, and the cows have been whooping it up for the last 24 hours or so. Moo moo moo all day. It's cracking me up -- they sound so indignant.

1 My beard continues to grow. Soon I'll look like a dude in a John Carpenter flick. My sweetheart admires it from afar. Sigh.
2 I'm skint so I've been eating sardines and rice or toast, frozen vegetables, miso soup, other cheap nourishing stuff. I'll never find a job. But I'm less fat so that's good.
3 Had a nice walk in my neighborhood yesterday. Today's similarly beautiful, so I'll probably get bored and go tool around some more. Beats staying home.

Wonderful photos, Hugh.

1) It's hot. Damn hot. Real hot. Tired of Summer.

2) Talked to a counselor at State U. and since I'm classified as non-degree seeking, I don't have to go through orientation (yay!). But I do have to drive over there and meet with an advisor. Boo. I only have four classes I need to take there and I know exactly what they are, dammit. Oh well. I should have everything sorted by Friday, so that'll be nice.

3) Decided that I'd have a massive amount of regret if I didn't, so screw it, I'm driving down to Dallas two weeks from today to go see Mission of Burma with a buddy. And I'm excited beyond words. I've never had an opportunity to see them before, and I may never get another chance. Can't. Effing. Wait.

My weekend mostly featured disappointment. I will be glad to go to work tomorrow.

I just finished a project for work. Slightly overdue, but I promised it would be done by Monday morning. DONE. What a pain the ass.

ufez! i am excited for you! I've seen MoB a few times live and they ROCK. Are you into their new stuff? One of my friends is always disappointed because they do tend to play a decent amount of their new music (as they should, IMO) but she only likes the old stuff.

1. Hurt my back at some point on Thursday. It feels a little better every day, but it still hurts, particularly near the end of the day after I've been schlepping around. Resting on the couch!
2. Apartment is coming along well. We went to Michael's yesterday for some frames and hooks to hang things. I saw all the stretched canvases there and got an idea- do you think you could use a canvas as a bulletin board? I would like to paint two, hang them over our desks, and use them for pics, clippings, etc. Think the canvas could hold it?
3. Went out for brunch so dinner is very low key- rice, carrots, watermelon.

My weekend has been hell. No numbers. I've been getting episodes of excruciating stomach pain occasionally for many years now. I'll know when it's happening and there is nothing I can do to stop it. I feel the first twinges in the pit of my stomach and know that I'm in for a demonic roller coaster of agony for at least eight hours. The pain builds slowly over the course of about four hours and peaks for four. This is when I am alternately praying for death and cursing the world.

For the last two years I've gone through several tests all of which come up negative. Sonograms, eating eggs laced with a radioactive tracer, CAT scans, X-rays, and drinking several gallons of barium, endoscopy. All nothing.

Now my regular doc has me get another sonogram. This time he thinks the common bile duct is enlarged. Maybe gallstones? Go get another endoscopy. This time they'll check the gall bladder. Okay, no prob. So Friday morning I'm in the hospital. I awake from the anesthesia and my endo guy is there. Nothing. Bile duct was fine, gallbladder, pancreas all perfect. He actually said I was perfectly healthy.

I go home. My throat hurts and my stomach hurts, but I'm hungry. I decide to attempt some vegetarian vegetable soup. Half way through, I know. It's happening again. My mother gives my some Tylenol codeine tabs. I don't even notice them.

The fucking endoscopy has triggered the mother of all attacks.

I am sitting in bed several hours later crying like a baby and rocking back and forth. The hospital calls for a post-op check. I tell the lady on the phone about my problem. She asks me, on a scale of one to ten how bad does it hurt. I tell her, between sobs, 10 plus.

She says. "That's not good. You sure? That's a lot of pain."

I hung up.

A bit later my wife answers my phone, its the endo guy. Hospital called him up. Wife puts me on the phone. I tell him as much as I can get out. He says go to the emergency room. I'll call ahead for you.

So the wife drives me back to the hospital, every bump is screaming torture. When we get there the endo guy's name is a magic word. I'm on a gurney and a nurse comes over to plug a tube into my hand. A resident comes over and sticks a needle into the tube.

I fucking LOVE morphine.

In a matter of seconds the pain is a memory.

I'm smiling and joking with the wife, the resident. I ask for some morphine to take home. She says to be careful what I say, she doesn't want me to get arrested. Huh?

Anyway, they want to keep me in the hospital for tests. Yeah right, more tests. I check myself out before the morphine starts to wear off. I sign an against medical advice thing and go home.

I slept all Saturday. When I did wake up I could barely move. Everything from my neck to my navel hurt like I was beaten with baseball bats. I finally woke up today around 1PM and had something light to eat. Things are a bit better.

My weekend? I've had better.

(((((((((Splunge)))))))))))))

TPS: You can paint the canvas, then sort of weave some ribbons across it (spaced apart, vertically and horizontally). You can then tuck in photos, etc.

My weekend (just Today, as I work on Saturdays), has been lovely. I woke early this morning and wandered to one of my favorite auctions (I love looking at stuff). Spent a blissful couple of hours there. Then, while driving home, I saw a sign for an estate sale, and wandered in there. Spent another couple of hours (my goodness, that woman had STUFF).

All in all I came away from my day with four antique books, a chip n dip holder, a new sundress, and a gorgeous wedding picture from the late 1800s/early 1900s. Then I spent the afternoon relaxing in the sun/shade of a beautiful day. Ahh, this is the life!

But could I pin things directly in the canvas? Or would it rip over time?

I don't think the canvas would hold over time. I've seen the items that redvixen has mentioned, they can be quite pretty. BUT! You can paint cork bulletin boards. The internets have many how-tos.

1. Quiet weekend.
2. Blew off library book sale, kinda wish I hadn't, but oh well.
3. I finally decided that I would go to the family reunion later this month. Hotel room is booked so I'm committed.

(((Splunge))) I hope they come up with some answers for you very soon.

PS: Looking at the how-to paint cork boards, someone mentions putting fabric over it. That would look great, too.

Holy shit, splunge. That sounds miserable. Hope you get some relief soon.

gaspode: Are you into their new stuff? One of my friends is always disappointed because they do tend to play a decent amount of their new music (as they should, IMO) but she only likes the old stuff.

Heh. Thanks, gaspode! I figured if anyone here would appreciate the opportunity, it'd be you. I've got On/Off/On (which contains a couple of my all-time favs of theirs, "Wounded World" and "Nicotine Bomb") and The Obliterati (which I may have never given a fair shake, but I just ripped it to my hard drive and will be putting it on my iPod shortly to listen to at work), so yeah, I'm cool with a fair amount of the modern stuff.

I'm sure they'll play certain, uh, hits? But if I had my druthers, I *really* want to hear New Nails or The Ballad of Johnny Burma, or Peking Spring. They're playing Austin two nights before, so I'll be seeking out a setlist for sure.

Bonus points for "...Certain Fate", though: I'll be driving down from Tulsa. Which is nooooot thaaaat faaaaaaaar! (sorry, I'm geeking out tonight about this).

Bonus: I just got a text from item and he's going to be there too, which is great! I haven't seen him in years.

Oh, Splunge, I'm so sorry --- that sounds absolutely harrowing.

Oh yeah, they will play a buncha crowd pleasers for sure.

And The Obliterai is *really* good, I think. It dragged me in on the 4th or 5th listen through and now I love it.

Blarghl, splunge! I hope they figure out what it is soon.

1.I'm still clogged, but no longer coughing up green. Getting acupuncture Tuesday.
2.Won't be able to go away in August because I need my eye checked.
3.Am going to have to take legal action against my condo board.

Splurge, are they sure it's not your gall bladder? I suffered for years like that, too. I'd wake up in the middle of the night with terrible gut pain for several hours. Four advil did nothing. On me, they thought they saw gallstones on the sonogram, but when they did the surgery, nothing. None-the-less, removing my gall bladder (laproscopically, with just one night in the hospital -- up and walking around the next day), did the trick. The main pain was gone immediately. I was so grateful. It then takes your body a couple months to adjust, so you may still get attack-like symptoms for awhile, but after that, no more pain. I've been painfree for five years now. In my case, I kick myself for suffering so long before going to the doctor.

Thing is, the surgeon warned me that they weren't sure it was the gall bladder, but I was desperate, and, based on results, it was the gall bladder, though there were actually no stones. It can be a functional problem, with a kind of sludge that builds up and doesn't show on tests.

I'm not a doctor, mind you, but your symptoms sound very similar to mine, especially if the pain gets worse after you eat (apparently it tends to feel better when you eat if it's a stomach problem and worse if it's a gall bladder). Again, I'm not a doctor, but maybe you need a different one, maybe the best emergency room in your area the next time you have an attack. I live in NYC, and it took two visits to the Columbiia Presbyterian ER, with a surgical consult the second time, to get a diagnosis. (It helps if you have insurance; I didn't get the surgical consult the first time when, for some reason, they didn't think I had insurance.)

Anyway, I hope you find the solution soon.

(splunge, not splurge, sorry -- darn autocorrect)

That's incredibly interesting. I'll call my endo guy tomorrow and ask him about it. And perhaps it is indeed time for a second opinion. Thanks for the info. If it turns out that you're right, well, I'll owe you BIG time.

No problem, Splunge... I hope it's helpful and, again, I hope you find a solution soon.

(Thanks for the email, by the way... I just replied.)