OK, today's experience was totally different, and not in a good way.

I have four MRI's scheduled over two days.

Today is my first day of two scans. And I've never had an MRI. And I'm... nervous.

And so my Curling season comes to a close, with a romping 7-3 victory in 7 Ends. The team finished 4-1 for the tournament, tied for First Place!. But, alas, we did not win the tournament because our only loss... was to the team tied with us. Therefore, they're the "winners".

So, in retrospect, what did I think of Curling?

Other than being resigned to the fact that it's much harder than it looks, other than having no coordination at all is a hindrance, other than being fully incapable of delivering a rock and having to rely on "The Stick" for delivery, other than not being able to master "The Stick" in just 5 short weeks...

... it was very enjoyable.

Would I do it again? Maybe. Talk to me in the fall.

Got home after work last night and was a mess. I felt drained and then i started getting the chills. Carol thought I had a fever, but we couldn't verify that because we couldn't find our thermometer. Carol made dinner and I got through that and I felt better, but then I was sweating my ass off, so who knows what's going on. I slept pretty well, so, other than an occasional cough this morning, I'm certainly better than I was last night.

Carol, in the meantime, isn't. She's been pretty uncomfortable since the surgery and the pain is just a little too disturbing her normal activity. She called the Day Surgery center and they're recommending for her to take a day off and keep her feet up. So, she's staying home today and following their recommendations.

We're a mess. We'll be fine some day, but right now - we're a mess.

I mentioned sometime earlier that I'm starting a new adventure in my life - actually visiting a doctor and getting myself "fixed". No, I don't mean neutered, I mean fixing whatever is broken.

I had went for my EMG/NCV tests, now it's time for the next steps - MRI's.

I have never had an MRI before, so I'm not sure what to expect. I'm hearing everything from it's nothing, just noisy to people freaking out because of claustrophobia. I have absolutely no idea if I'm claustrophobic or not, so I'm not sure what to expect.

I called to schedule two MRI's - Brain and Spine (cervical, thoracic, & lumbar). That's what the Doctor's Orders say. What I found out is that it's actually 4 MRI's Brain, Cervical, Thoracic, and Lumbar! And they schedule an hour for each! 4 HOURS TOTAL!

We broke it into two pieces, and I'm going in Wednesday night for the first two and Thursday Night for the next two.

I don't know what to expect - anybody have any real-life experiences that want to share them with me? Enter a comment or send me an email.

I think what's worse is my blood workup that I had done last week. I have to go in for a follow-up blood test because, well, let's just say something is "askew" and I don't like it and neither does my doctor, but it's something I suspected. I just hope I can manage the whole thing with diet... here I am being fatalistic about something I don't even know what I have exactly... Crap... exercise and diet....I mean, c'mon, I haven't seen a doctor in a while and I don't exercise and I'm overweight... is it a shock that I have to exercise and diet? Well, no... I guess...

Still, I knew I would have to do something to get back "in line". It's just I'm so friggin' lazy it's hard to reconcile. I mean, potentially, changing my diet dramatically and forcing myself to carve-out some kind of time for exercise. It's life changing, I guess.

So, it's time to get my act together. Will I blog about it? Probably. Will it become a major focus of this blog? God, I hope not. It's supposed to be part of my life, not my whole life. There better be more to life than diet and exercise!

I don't need to be berated and/or hassled about this. I know I got myself here. I'm not happy about it. I don't need to be reminded of it. When I need it, Carol will take care of the motivation/admonishing/teasing, etc. All I ask is support. Actually, that goes for the entire readership out there (HA! All, what, 6 of you?) - all I ask is for your support.

I've slept on and off all day. That's my body telling me something's not right. Actually, something is not the same as my normal operating status.

Yeah, the throat's gone. I've got something that's in my throat that I can't clear, so I'm just coughing all the time.

Went over to my mom's house and saw Diane & Melinda and, of course, Jackson.

I haven't written about a few things, like I haven't written any new letter to Jackson recently. Don't know why. He's changing and, up until today, I've been very paranoid that he just didn't think of me as an OK guy. Every time he looked at me, he had an odd look on his face. It wasn't a frown. He didn't look scared. He just looked confused and he just really didn't know about me - good guy or bad guy? I've seen this look before, I just can't explain it.

Today was the first day that, when Jackson looked at me, he didn't have that "look". In fact, he looked at me like anybody else (well, like Carol or my Mom at least... I mean not like Melinda or Diane). And that was the first time that I felt that he wasn't "rejecting" me... then again, I didn't really want to get too close to him since I wasn't feeling too well.

My Mom was finally feeling better. I haven't written about it here, but she's had bronchitis and pneumonia. She's been week and not eating, but she's storming back. She's taking her medication and she looks and sounds SOOOoooo much better. She hasn't been back to church - yet - to do all of her volunteering, whether it's counting the money from the weekly donations at the masses, or being on the board of the Ladies of St. Anne, or working the parish Fish Fry on Friday nights (My guess is that this is something we're not going to participating this year) She's been getting sick around this time of year for the last few years, and we think it's just because she's doing too much and is getting worn down, which drops her immune system and she just gets sick. Easter and Lent is a big time of year, so she just overextended herself. She's just having a real problem realizing that - even though she feels good "in the head" that her body is aging and it just doesn't do the things she wants it to do anymore.

Jackson started eating rice cereal, so he's starting to "grow-up". It looks like he enjoys eating, he just needs to get the mechanics down, and not unintentionally push the food out of his mouth. Practice, practice, practice.

He still has this WONDERFUL laugh, and me like an idiot, forgot my iRiver to record some of Jackson's meanderings.

He's also, umm, "squawking" a bit, where he obviously wanted to say something, and he says it out loud... dang, if you can tell what the hell it is. He thought it was important.

We all left a little early, since I was "off my feed" and Jackson's bed time was just the right time to [pack him up and get him into the car for the drive home.

We got a last minute invite, and Carol & I headed into the city tonight to hang with our friends B&B. We enjoy just sitting around and talking and finding out what's new in our lives. They made Baked Ziti, so we can sit around at talk Soprano's for a while - along with other things going on in the world... and in our lives. I think I've said this before, but if we were to classify us, B&B are "Movie people" and Carol & I are "TV People", so when we're over at B&B's, you can bet they've planned a movie for the night, either a rental or a cable On Demand, or, if the stars align correctly, a movie on cable. Tonight, there wasn't much of a pick, and for some reason B&B wanted to watch a movie from one of our favorite production companies - Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. We love Aardman films, and B&B never saw a Wallace and Gromit flick. I think it's safe to say that they enjoyed it.

By the time I got home, though, my throat is burning and sore. I'm coughing a bit. Oh, crap I'm coming down with something...

I actually had an opportunity to walk around outside yesterday afternoon, and I did so without a jacket.

It was 49 degrees and the sun was out.

I didn't walk very far, just around a parking lot at Northwest Community Hospital (Long story... Carol was in for an outpatient/day surgery kind-of-thing ...no big deal... and I had to wait around, so that's one of the things I did)

I bring this up because it's Spring. That 49 degrees is also the average for this day.

I've been bitchin' and moanin' that the weather sucks and I'm tired of it.

It's supposed to be in the 30's with snow today and the next couple of days.

See? THAT'S why I want this over with. I just want it to be AVERAGE. It doesn't have to be SPECTACULAR SPECTACULAR, just AVERAGE. That's all I want.

I'm not sure what's going on, but the Primary elections yesterday are really screwed-up in Cook County and Chicago. There's a bunch of ballots that won't be counted until after 1 pm today.

They used new voting machines yesterday (to get around the damn punch-card paper ballot "hanging chad" thing that we have been part of until this election) and they warned that - for some reason - that voting will take longer. Nobody expected this though. I Board of Elections stopped counting somewhere around 3am and "took a break" until 1 this afternoon.

Great. Now there's calls about the "integrity" of the ballots and election process because people don't "know" where some of the ballots were (or are?) and who may have had them.

i don't understand this - they're calling this a technology breakdown. I hope we'll find out more later today.

Our little curling team is now 3-1 in our competition. Going into tonight, I didn't expect that. In fact, the game was back and forth all game, with us pulling into the lead with 3 points in the 7th end. Then - I think - we had another two in the 8th and that was it. It was down to the last rocks, too.

So now we're tied with another team. I don't know what's going to happen next week. All I know is that we can't have a playoff - that would be the week after and that's my first White Sox game! And - in my life - certain things take precedence!

We've got Primary voting today in Illinois (thank God... I couldn't take the political ads anymore, let alone the autodialiners with recorded messages, leaving them in our voice mail...)

I'm not voting.

I never vote in Primary elections because you have to declare a party and you can only vote for candidates in that party. I don't believe in that. I vote for candidates that I want, regardless of party. And I don't want to be pigeon-holed as a Republican or Democrat.

I know it's my civic duty, but it's more important to me to be free of party politics.

I had my physical today - first time in at least 4 years. It was your typical thumped-prodded-poked-and-pricked type of physical, not to mention, um, coughing and bending. I've got orders for two MRI's and a referral to a neurologist. Drawing blood wasn't a big deal today - peeing into a cup was. I had nothing - I guess I didn't drink enough water during my 12+ hours of fasting.How embarrassing. I had to drink as much water as I could, waited around the reception area reading magazines for at least half an hour before... I could leave.

How embarrassing.

Yes! It's finally here!

The last FULL day of Winter!

Going to be in the 30's all week, though. Crap. Winter - astronomically - will be over, and yet it still hangs around. It's been sunny the last couple of days. It's taunting. It's teasing. Sun. Blue Sky. I hear it calling... "Come outside... it's nice... and cold..."

Can you tell I want this over?

Carol decided to take off and go up to Gurnee Mills (after visiting Jiffy Lube) and give me most of the day to myself. I've got some audio recording and editing to do today (hint hint), so this is just a wonderful feeling. And the "Ball Boys" (Chicago White Sox) (as we call them, as opposed to our "Puck Boys" being the Chicago Wolves") are on TV this afternoon.

What a nice day. Thanks, dear!

Since everything was covered with a crust of snow, nothing came close to looking green on this St. Patrick's Day. Cardinal George has given general dispensation so we can eat corned beef and cabbage... as long as we do some other penance. It may be easier to lay-off the meat than to figure out a good penance.

It's going to be a cold weekend here. When the hell is spring going to show up?

The snow stopped. Not even an inch outside. Oh, and the only reason I saw the snow blowing sideways is because of the slight wind that was being funneled between two buildings and it looked like hell. When I actually left work, the wind wasn't bad, and the snow was those big flakes. It covered all of the tree and bush branches everywhere, while the streets were wet (thanks to ample salting by the local municipalities) and traffic wasn't really all that bad.

I had a feeling that the weather critters were just pumping-up this storm up for our area and nothing happens. Again.

OK, the ground is covered now. That was quick. OK, maybe this is not going to be very nice...

All day log - nothing.

I've had my head deep into my work and just looked up and looked out the window at the end of my row of cubes.

The big snowflakes outside are blowing sideways, left to right. I can see the start of accumulation down below in the grass and the dirt around the trees and bushes.

And so it starts...

Where's the snow?

Where's all this stuff that's supposed to cause havoc today?

C'mon, bring it on! Let's get it over with!

Oh, God, here we go again...

Apparently we've a Winter Storm Warning for tonight and tomorrow. Up to 6" of snow north of us, but I'll betcha we get 1"-2".

We have had too many nice days recently that I'm done. I want this over. It's almost "Spring", for cripes sake.

C'mon. Screw the snow. Where's the sun and 50 degree temps?

We smoked our opponent in curling tonight. They conceded after 7 ends. I think the final was 10-2 We were missing our Vice Skip, Craig. His sub, though, probably could be classified as a "ringer". Yeah he's been curling for 23 years. And he's only 26. Yeah, he started when he was 3 - he's from Canada, what would you expect? I knew something was up when he walked onto the ice and - without warmup, just crouched in the hack and pushed-off - and when halfway down the sheet in perfect form.

After the game, I found out that the bar has a Canadian satellite feed (as well as DirecTV). we watched curling from Canada on TSN for an hour or so. Very entertaining.

I'm starting to fall into the game. things are very slowing starting to work the more I play.

Was St. Alexius Hospital this morning for my first series of test on my legs to try to figure out why they twitch so much. I was scheduled for a Nerve Conduction Velocity (NCV) and electromyography (EMG) test.

For the first time since this whole thing started years ago, somebody actually said something that made me feel "better", because at least it was something.

She (the neurologist) was doing a quick physical before we started to prodding. She started manipulating the soles of my feet to measure my reaction when my left leg twitched. She was able to recreate the twitch on command. She stopped, thought a second, and said to me "I'm going to do this test, but this test isn't... it's probably a problem higher up, in the spinal chord". (I asked later about what could it be and she said something like a disk out of line or even a vitamin deficiency, and she recommended a full spine MRI.)

So we started the NCV. I had forgotten how painful/upsetting that test is (yes, I've had them before), because they are applying POWER to the nerve, with increasing voltages. Holy crap, I just LOVE that feeling, plus having your extremity involuntarily flailing all over the table. Though the doctor always apologized for dong it, she kept doing it. The EMG is no fun as they put needle-like sensors into the skin, into the nerve, and you have to move your leg/ankle/toes to measure how well the nerve is firing. To top it off, they also have it amplified on a speaker so you can hear the nerve firing. Great. I was glad it didn't last long and I went back to work quickly.

The report should be at the Doctor's next week, in time for my physical.

Let's see... it's Chicago and the weather has been changing just about every friggin' day for the past week.... Today, it's High Wind Warnings with winds up to 50-70 mph (according to a news tease I just saw on television). Saturday, the temps were in the 60's. Last night, huge storms blew through the area. A week ago yesterday was 1-2 inches of snow. Our sinuses are going nuts. Headaches galore. I just want the temperatures above, oh, let's say 47 as an arbitrary number. I'm done with Winter - give me a full-on Spring, as long as it's warm.

I had a very odd thing that happened last night at the Wolves game during the First Intermission.

There's a phenomenon that happens to season ticketholders at sporting events. Over time, you start developing a new "clique" of friends. At first, this new "Sports Family" may be just people that you may not have started talking to, but may be made of people that you recognize game to game, and perhaps you've made nicknames for. Over time, because of your connections as fans of the team you are watching, you start talking about the team. This could take months or even seasons before that start happens. Eventually, depending on the people involved, you may start talking about other things, outside the team and the sport - maybe even personal things. It's usually by now you may learn the person's first name. It's rare to eventually find out their last name, unless your relationship starts to transcend just your sports relationship and they actually become friends.

I had one of those things happen as I was standing around with two other guys, Joe and Bob, part of the "extended family". That's when I found out that all three of us went to Gordon Technical High School - Joe graduated in '73, Bob in '78, and I graduated in '75 - which meant I was in school with both of them.

Do I remember them? Hell, no. The school was too big (the year I started - 1971 - we had 2,770 students).

Too bad my yearbooks are buried in a closet in the 2nd bedroom, impossible to get to. I need to see some pictures!

Haven't been going to work at this hour for a while. And it's only 15 minutes away. I like being busy. I like the pressure (right now). Head down, doing work... can't talk...

Too busy, didn't realize what time it was to go home. Wow. People are still here working... though they don't look familiar... they must come to work later and I just don't notice them...

I went to the Country Club tonight, with hopes of just practicing and just cheering-on the team while my substitute plays for me.

Wrong - no substitute showed up.

I was dieing out there. My stomach acid was really stirring up stuff. I'm getting better on my rock delivery, but I just can't get the weight correct. It's only my 3rd time on the ice, so what can be expected of me? More practice time?

Anyway, we lost big (9-2 maybe, I don't recall), and conceded in the 6th end.

At least that meant I had less rocks to sweep.

You know what, though? Sitting around in the bar area after the match - I actually felt better. Go figure.

Man, I'm not feeling right today... I feel a little light-headed, a little "disconnected". I even feel a little week. It feels like my blood pressure medication is screwed-up.

How the hell am I going to sweep 48 stones tonight? I'm never gonna make it. I'll fall over or passout. I need a sub.

We actually started the day by picking-up my mom and taking her to Diane & Melinda's for lunch. Of course, it was for a Jack visit, too. Diane made some beef stew that was actually very good. Melinda made a cake that looked great, tasted fabulous. Something happened along the way, and it was the densest cake we've had - like the yellow cake turned into pound cake and the frosting turned into this wonderful almost fudge-like consistency. Too bad it was so damn heavy, because it tasted fabulous.

We left early to go to B&B's for the annual Oscar party with the usual suspects. The difference this year is that we sort of laid-off the food. It seems like we've always made too much food for this event. This year, it was pizza and some snacks and it actually worked-out well. I was really surprised at that. Maybe I didn't care because of the food we had at Diane & Melinda's.

We watched the preshow on E! and were underwhelmed by the coverage. It felt that we didn't see everyone on the red carpet. Turns out we didn't, because as we watched the ABC preshow, we saw people that didn't stop by Mr., Mizrahi (were they avoiding him, maybe? or was the director at E! just stupid enough to not even shoot these people from a distance, instead of showing us the same damn people over and over and over).

We felt the show was great. Jon Stewart did a WONDERFUL job and really looked comfortable throughout the show. Extremely happy Clooney got an award, shocked but happy the Crash got Best Picture.

Even more shocked that the show moved quickly and ended at a time that actually seemed EARLY compared to prior years. And why the hell do they have to play music throughout every speech? Maybe I wouldn't mind it as much if it wasn't as hot as it was - it needed to be under a little bit more compared to the speaker's volume.

The show is STILL TOO STUFFY. I want something more Golden Globe-y. Maybe they need to go back to the dinner party atmosphere of decades ago.

I guess it's been long enough ago that it just didn't hit me yesterday.

You know. Yesterday.

March 1st.

Know where I used to work years ago? During the Great Internet Boom?

Yes, marchFIRST.

Those were the days. So long ago...

YEEEEEEESSSSSSSS!!!!!

Sitting at my desk and listening to baseball on the radio!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, it's preseaon.

OK, it's a different station covering the games.

OK, it's a different broadcast team covering the games.

But, it's baseball!!!!

"Rabbit, Rabbit!"

(It's Times 2 because of the two because of our two resident rabbits!) Could it be "White Rabbit" or Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit!?