A special love: homophones

griz: http://wordsmith.org/words/haplography.html
rev: Car talk had an interesting puzzler this weekend. And since I only hear Car Talk about every six months I'm sure I'll never hear the answer. What 5 letter english word can be turned into a homophone of itself by removing either the first or second letter?
rev: which of course requires me to reference this:
rev: http://pbskids.org/lions/songs/homophones_qt.html
griz: arg. now I'm going to have to figure it out, since I only hear car talk about once every month, and less since the local station re-arranged it's weekend schedule
griz: I'm guessing books about homophones are probably banned in Texas.

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Point! Not! Point! Not!

In my assorted notes I ran across the following

From the menu: Prepared in granola oil only, contains lowest saturated fats, no trans-fatty acid, non-hydrogenated, cholesterol free. Served with fries.

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Best to wrap your savior up in cellophane

First up, I like any music review that involves formal logic. I'd like to see more reviews like this. I've
never heard the song "This is why I'm hot" , though I've heard of it.

Boo discovered a new toy over the weekend while we were packing up my stuff from her new room (formerly my office). Jesus Dress Up. This kept her occupied for fully 45 minutes on Sunday afternoon, and another
half hour later in the day. I just realized they have more sets (I only have the basic one). The funniest part to me is she has no idea who this "Jesus" is. To her it's just "that dress up man". Which is as it should be.

At dinner last night, Mae suggested perhaps we should get her something more traditional, like this.

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I read the news today, oh boy

Huh, so I'm "Local Blog of the Week" this week in our local 'alternative' paper. At least they picked me at a time when some of my most recent posts are actually interesting. And I agree with them that I use the word 'awesome' way too much. It's a crutch.

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I know I believe in nothing, but it is my nothing

I don't generally read Daily Kos, it's too much preaching to the choir. This story bubbled up however and it's incredible. It's a wonderful depiction of the perspective on the Virginia Tech tragedy by someone who does not believe in any sort of god.

And in a more general arena, here's a great bit on what atheists do to build a sense of community and to help out their fellow citizens.

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These little conversations

Me: Where are you going to put your egg cup?
Boo: Up on the shelf. Forever.
{pause}
Boo: Not that ever, this little tiny baby ever.

I try not to laugh out loud when she says things like that, because she gets very embarrassed.

On another note, there's a lot of incredible music out right now. Between Nine Inch Nails, Manic Street Preachers, and Arctic Monkeys, I can't figure out what I want to listen to more. I haven't even had time to listen to the other stuff in the queue.

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Springtime was always my favorite time of year

One week post op appointment went smooth. He saw no problems at all. He did note that I will not be considered sterile for at least 6 weeks AND a dozen or so 'incidents' as he put it. While the tubes have been cut, there are still hundreds of thousands of viable gametes already in the system that need to be cleared out. Hadn't thought of that. Aside from some tenderness and mild discomfort the biggest impact I'm feeling is that it's difficult to sleep. It's tough to get comfortable and as a result my back hurts a lot. Add to that the fact that sitting in an office chair for 8+ hours a day is not really ideal for the recovery. Still and all it was a pretty easy experience compared to what women go through.

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Aches and pains

Yesterday was a tough one. My dockers were significantly more uncomfortable than the pajamas I wore all weekend. The poor sleep I'm getting isn't helping. Daughter number one has been getting up at least once overnight for the past week or so, plus overnight feedings for daughter number two.

Add general discomfort making it tough to sleep well and a full day in an office chair that is uncomfortable under the best of circumstances, and yesterday just sucked. I don't expect today to be much better. Though I wore looser pants.

What's bugging me most is my back from the ways I'm having to sit and having to sleep. There is no discomfort at all in the area of the operation.

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Give it to me I throw it away (remix)

It would have been nice to avoid the stairs today. I should have expected all four elevators to be on the fritz.

Mild tenderness continues. No real discomfort except for the aforementioned athletic supporter issues. I'm walking a bit slower, taking shorter steps until the tenderness goes away.

Note: if you have this procedure I don't recommend sleeping on your stomache for at least a week or so.

Also: gauze not recommended. Non-stick dressing of some sort is a good idea. Gauze gets stuck, you have to pull to get it off the wound. Not advised.

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My balls feel like a pair of maracas

In which we experience the after effects of a vasectomy.

Athletic supporters were not designed to be worn 24/7. At this point the discomfort from the supporter is more of an issue than the discomfort from the procedure. There is a mild ache in the general region of the surgery intermittently. There is constant irritation where all of the straps of the supporter are creating pressure.

Someone asked if it hurt to urinate. It does not. It's a little tricky in terms of the dressing, but it doesn't hurt at all and didn't at any point post procedure.

That is all for now. I will update again tomorrow after a dressing change.

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Give it to me I throw it away

Post op report number one: 24 hours

The procedure was quick. It was very hot in the room from all the lights. I hopped up on the table, which is basically the same table that they use for OB/GYN visits. The only pain was the shots (one for each side), I didn't feel the cutting or the cauterizing. When I left my legs were a little sore from the muscles being tense the whole time (I'm the same way at the dentist, it's purely psychological). I was slightly lightheaded and nauseous, but that could have been from hunger as much as anything as I'd had both a light breakfast and a light lunch.

The afternoon and evening of the operation I slept most of the time. I got up for dinner and to watch Boo while Mae took her shower.

Pain? Very little. There's some tenderness of course, and there is an occasional sharp pain when I move too quickly or try to do something I shouldn't (or more precisely when my 3 year old tries to climb on me). I took Motrin for the first 18 hours, but nothing since.

It's a bit surprising how much you use your groin muscles for without being aware of it. It's almost harder to transition to sitting from standing than vice versa.

Athletic supporters feel very very strange if you aren't used to wearing them.

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When your time has come, you'll accept the blade

So at work today the expected jokes were made about possible instruments used to perform the surgery. Rusty butter knife, hedge trimmers, etc. Someone did ask "What if you hear a third snip". Good question. I don't even know how long the procedure is supposed to take, though I'm guessing only about 10 minutes.

The paperwork indicates there will be some discomfort but that by 48 hours there should be no need for "pain medication" (that's precisely how it appears in the paperwork, scare quotes and all). I'm not too worried about that either. Mildly frustrated that I'll be restricted to bedrest all Saturday and limited physical activity on Sunday. I've got stuff I need to get done around the house.
Unfortunately I didn't realize the timing of this, so I'll miss the wonderful Easter Egg hunt with Boo this weekend.

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Same P.R. problem as EST

I've called several customer service lines recently and been prompted early on in the process that I am eligible to take a survey after I am done with whatever I actually called about.

First of all, I am truly honored that by gazing deep into my soul they are able to determine that I am worthy of giving them marketing information without offering me anything of note in return. That just makes me feel so special and valued.

Today when it happened I thought of something else. Do they flag you as 'will take survey' as you go through the system? I would think that would impact your quality of service if the various CSR's you interact with see a little flag saying "I'll be reporting on your interactions with me." Probably not the best way to get a realistic view of how your call center operation is working.

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