Sunday, June 14, 2009

More Updates!

Currently Reading: Our Man In Havana by Graham Greene

Yes, I know, haven't been blogging regularly like I'm supposed to. I should be blogging every week, at least once, to keep everyone up to date with what's going on. And you know, normally I would but what passes for normal around here changes all the time.

End of May, right around Memorial Day, things took an odd turn. The other groomer that works at the clinic decided she'd had enough of working there and was going to quit after Memorial Day. No problem. Then she just up and quit with no warning the week before. Seriously, one week before Memorial Day she comes to the clinic, packs up all her stuff and walks out, leaving them with a full slate of dogs on the schedule, some of which had already arrived. Talk about rude. One semi-frantic phone call later and I'm on the scene taking over.

Naturally this put a major kink in my daily routine. I went from being off 2 to 3 days a week to working a full 5-day week just like everyone else. That means less time for chores or errands or blogging. I'm still getting used to it and I've been at it now for 3 weeks. The chores are mostly getting done now and so are the errands but the blogging, that's taking a hit and I don't play Warcraft nearly as often as I used to.

So that was event number 1. Number 2 was my endoscopy. I don't remember if I mentioned it but I know I told several people in e-mail and on the phone. I was having a problem with acid reflux and my GP gave me a referral to see a specialist who said we were going to do the scope. Went in and had that done on the first of June. Pretty uneventful actually. CC had read on a web site that most of the discomfort that you feel from the procedure comes BEFORE you actually have it and that's only because you're worried about having it in the first place. Seriously, there was no pain or anything involved. We went over there for the appointment (I had to fast of course). Went into our little curtained off area. I changed into a gown and climbed into bed. After a while they came and got me, wheeled me over to the scoping room. The nurse tech had me roll over onto my side. She put on all the monitoring wires and sticky things and at some point the doctor came in. I remember the ringing in my ears started to go away which means I was starting to lose consciousness. I had just enough time to switch off my hearing aids and BAM. Next thing I know I'm back in the curtained room facing the wall. A little while later, after everything wore off, I got dressed and CC took me home.

The results! Well the findings from the procedure that day say they found a mild sliding hiatal hernia and evidence of nonerosive gastritis. Everything else was normal. They took a biopsy of something and we got those results on the 6th. That also came back normal. They put me on some new meds and that was it. Yeah, I know, boring right?

So that brings us up to our FINAL update, Citizen Cecille!

Yes, it's true, my wife is now an official AMERICAN! On Thursday she had her swearing-in ceremony and that went just fine. I'll skip the details and let her write about that in HER blog. I took lots of pictures so I know she'll share those too.

And that brings everything up to date except for ONE little thing. Our fabulous Japanese neighbors from downstairs had to move back to Japan. His company cut back on the number of workers they needed over here from Japan. So Wednesday, they flew back to Osaka. We're going to miss them. They were great neighbors. We gave them a picture book of Memphis so they'll be able to look at that and remember the good stuff. There was a teary scene Tuesday morning when we gave them the book. They didn't really want to move.

So now there are THREE apartments vacant in our building. I hope we get more good neighbords. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

They Went Through An Awful Lot of Trouble To Kill Winona Ryder

Currently Reading: Our Man In Havana by Graham Greene

I'm sure we've all seen the new Star Trek film by now so I'm not really worried about giving away any spoilers at this point. If you haven't seen it, you probably have no intention of seeing it anyway right? So no worries there. That being said, here's my take on the film . . .

The title says it all. They went through an AWFUL lot of trouble just to kill Winona Ryder. I'm not what you'd call a fan of hers. I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm a Winona HATER but something about that woman just strikes me wrong. On the whole, I can only think of a few movies of hers that I actually liked and in all those cases it had nothing to do with her.

So, on with the Trek. Crazy Romulan ends up going back in time to get revenge on Spock. Not a bad premise for a film. Lots of possibilities there. We've got a new Trek family building up here and, as an added bit of genius, an entirely different time-line to mess with they don't have to worry about upsetting the Trekies.

In this film, Winona plays Spock's mother. Wouldn't have been my first choice but then who really cares right? I mean, she's not a major character or anything and really only shows up a few times in previous Trek outings to mess with Spock and to remind us that he's half human. So no big deal about the casting. I figured I'd just ignore it. I mean hey, who knows, maybe she'll do ok right? But as the plot progresses, I started to think the writers had it in for her.

Ok, Romulan shows up, sticks a big tube into the center of the Vulcan homeworld and starts his machine that creates the mini-black hole in the center of the planet which will make the whole planet implode. Pretty cool actually. Great special effect too. Naturally everyone ON the planet is going to die, including Spock's mom, Winona Ryder. YAY! But wait, a simple, off-camera death isn't good enough. No, they have to send her and several of the Vulcan elders to some secret cave where all these Vulcan relics are being kept.

Enter the Enterprise! Spock and company beam down to the planet in order to save some of these relics so that Vulcan culture can be preserved blah blah blah and wow, what a coincidence, Spock's parents are there. That's just super! Winona is SAVED! Or is she? With the planet imploding around them and things generally going all to hell, they lock onto the coordinates to beam everyone onboard. But wait! What's that happening under Winona's feet? Oh NO! The ledge is collapsing! And . . . wait for it . . . POOF! Winona falls into the gaping chasm thus throwing off the transporting sequence and she dies.

So, in order to kill her off, they don't just shoot her with something or blow her up in a building or even a starship. No, they have to implode an entire PLANET just to get rid of her. But they've got an eye on her, lest she sneak out and somehow survive. Taking refuge in a cave, dodging bolders and stuff falling all over the place, I mean they're TRYING to kill her and still, she won't die. But undaunted, they wait until the last minute before the teleport and BAM that's when they get her.

Just seems like they went through an awful lot of trouble, that's all I'm saying.