Fourth Week in June 2011

Monday after work I came home and did lawn work. Troy was grilling, I asked him to cook some sausages and chicken I had while I was cutting the lawn. When I finished, I used the meat to make two meals for the rest of the week: a cold chicken / tomato pasta salad, and my jambalaya.

Tuesday after work I met VK downtown and used my Groupon for Vivace and had a nice dinner. Then we went for a walk down to see the flooded river.

It was a pretty night for walking.


I wouldn't drink out of the lagoon at Heartland of America Park, but some will.


They were pumping an incredible amount of water over the retaining wall.


The water here is at 983.37 feet above sea level. 36 hours later it was at 984.20,
how long until the hammer is the only thing showing?

Needless to say, after all that walking, we had to get some ice cream at Ted and Wally's. If you'd like to see all the pictures from our walk, you can see them here.

Early Wednesday morning I woke up at about 0430 with shivers and contemplated calling in sick ... but they dissipated fairly quickly, and I got back to sleep. When I woke back up, I felt fine. It was my coworker Gary's 60th birthday, and we had a food day to celebrate. I stopped in on the way to work and got a Village Inn cherry pie for my contribution for my coworker Gary's 60th birthday, and the food day we had to celebrate. It was kind of a wild day at work with so much going on that didn't have anything to do with actual work. In addition to the birthday, the new fitness track opened, I walked six laps at 200 meters a lap.

Around 1700 things got weird. I got the shivers again, and this time I was freezing too. Regan said I looked really pale. I hadn't felt that miserable since September '96 when I got the flu (or flu like symptoms). I drove home with the air conditioning off in the car and I was still shaking. When I got in the house my temperature was 101°F. I went to lay down and the shivers faded away but my temperature kept climbing. At 103.5°F, I decided I would try to take a cold shower to cool down, but it only brought the shivers back. I laid back down and within minutes I was at 103.8°F and I decided to go to doctor. Troy took me down to a local urgent care place ... and I got a look like I had a third eye for wanting to see a doctor. I never did check in. I waited about ten minutes and my fever was stable at 103°F, so we left. The odd part about it is that once I 'felt' warm, I 'felt' fine ... but with a high temp. I came back home, laid down and semi-slept for the next two hours, by which time the fever was under 101°F, and when I woke up at 0115, it was 99.3°F.

When I woke up at 0815, I was at 98.3°F, which is probably fairly normal for me. I didn't go in to work because I was so worn out from the whole thing. I slept again until around 1100, got up, started chores, and then around 1215, I went to get some ice cream at DQ, because I figured ice cream is the best thing possible when you don't feel well. I took my camera with me parked on a side street about a quarter mile from Haworth Park, and walked down to the river. The river was actually on Mission Avenue at the bottom of the hill, I never thought I'd see that, probably neither did the city planners.

A little flood cannot stop narcissism.


This is not a canal, it's the BNSF railroad. Under the bridge they built a dike.


I found this amusing. Birds can't drive.

I walked back up the hill, ran a few more errands, then went home and napped again. If you're interested. I have a set of flood photos that I've taken.

Friday morning I felt well enough to go back to work. Friday after work I went to the dance, I had clean up duty. It was a small crowd, not untypical for a holiday weekend.

Saturday morning I woke up with a bad attitude and it showed. I spent a good portion of the day working on the game I am designing so I could have it ready by Kaleb's game night. Jenny's annual Independence day party was at night, and I said that I would help VK out with her garden. It was quite enjoyable to work with my hands and pull out weeds for an hour or so, although I ended up ruining my shirt. I was handsomely paid with a delicious sandwich.

I really tried to be late to Jenny's party. Really I did. I arrived at 1726 for a 1700 party ... oops, the party actually started at 1730, so I was right on time. Jenny got the food cooking right away, and then somehow walked away and Jonathon took over ... no worries, the food was fabulous. Speaking of which, VK used all those berries we picked to make a pie. I almost missed out on it while I was playing volleyball because it disappeared so quickly.

Say hello to my little friend.


I am guessing that I just hit the ball and Jenny is going to spike it on my head.


If Jonathon is really dead, why is everyone smiling? Photo credit: Matt


Anne is not allowed to share sparklers with the gorillas at the zoo.


This is really cool, except it is supposed to say 'WOW', not 'WIN'.

I took a bunch of pictures, you can find them here. Matt took pictures too, you can find them here. Sarah also put up nine pictures, you can find them here and hit forward. I left there about 2200 after shooting off some fireworks safely, and I went over to Kaleb's game night. I didn't play any board games, except for the one that I made. It went pretty well, Joe, Maggie, and Franz played, and I could tell no one was interested at first, but they were into it at the end of the game. I'll try a rewrite, then play it some more for rebalancing. There were also the usual Ping Pong shennanigans, including me finally winning a game of Around the World Ping Pong. I left fairly early, getting home around 0230 Sunday morning.

I was up at a reasonable hour, and got a big breakfast at McDonald's, which I didn't finish, and read the paper. I was back in bed soon enough napping on and off until 1430. It turns out that playing volleyball for an hour and a quarter will leave a person (my age) fairly worn out. Troy, Kevin (who is back in town), and I went and had dinner at China Buffet. I almost ate too much, but I stopped myself, barely. Afterward I went for a walk on the Keystone trail starting at Fort Crook where the trail was closed (to the south) and walked north.

Wait ... isn't that supposed to be flowing the other way?


I put a pretty bird here because I could.

The day wound up with me crowdsourcing my Independence Day fireworks watching. No driving anywhere, no parking hassles, no fighting crowds, no expensive food, no waiting for a bathroom ... just sitting on the back deck with a cold drink and watching explosion after explosion after explosion all over my neighborhood. I watched for two hours. When I was a kid, I remember about every 3rd professional firework was a dud, now anyone can buy better stuff than the small towns I lived around had.

Part of my view from the back deck.