This Friday marks the countdown for the end of the year. Company Lunch today, bonuses are paid. Have to do 3 trips to TX and 1 to SC and take 10 days of vacation and call it done. sigh.

Copy my last Friday post. Not sure it'll be Long Trail or not, but something malty and hoppy will join me in my recliner while I catch up on my DVR'd shows. But first I've got a 3:00 conference call, then Daughter's BBall practice then my oldest son has a BBall scrimmage at 4:00. After that it's recliner time!

I get tired just reading about all of your work, Dee. ;)

That's no good. Getting old does suck!

Plowing through contracts and proposals at work today, probably off to Joanie's tonight - one, because it's a great place to hang out, two, because we haven't been there with much regularity lately, and three, it's about the only place I can go to eat out these days - she'll make whatever I need :D.

Doing an allergy "elimination" diet - 3 more weeks of no meat (easy, haven't done that for years), no fish (had just added that back ~ 6 months ago), no wheat, no eggs, no nuts, no cow based dairy, no soy.

VERY fortunately for me, Darling Wife is an amazing cook who loves a challenge. She's come up with all manner of wonderful foods that work. Been grinding her own flours and tweaking all sorts of recipes to make yummy breads. Got a vat of a 4 bean soup and a huge chunk of banana bread sitting on my desk tempting me to eat lunch early :P.

Weekend will likely be working on our house. Or Chickie's. Or both. Or running Ed back and forth between Frederick and PA (his friend Linda was downgraded from a prognosis of "weeks" to "hours" Wednesday).

Sunday night, Chickie's brother has hooked us up for dinner with some or all of these guys before their show at the 9:30 Club in DC.

http://2010.theframes.ie/images/stor...York-1-001.jpg


I've been assigned the task of keeping Chickie's head from exploding (she's had a serious crush on Glen Hansard for years).

Who is that, Jim?

The Frames

Band founder Glen Hansard also starred in the movie Once.

Well, I guess I'm pretty out of it. I've never even heard of them. No wonder I failed to recognize them.
You all seem to stay busy all the time. I don't know how you manage to do all the things you do.

Hey Jim! Have you been through the "Poke/Scratch" test yet? Or, is this "diet" because of the "P/S" Test?

It was so long ago, I forgot which came first...the "P/S" or "Elimination."

Hopefully, you won't need the shots...if they're still doing that sort of thing... :rolleyes:

BTW: I'm feeling MUCH BETTER now! :thumbsup:

Danger: High Voltage
 

Tomorrow. 3PM. Wells Fargo Center. Philadelphia. TSO.:cool:;)
The word is: Outstanding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDS8U08Swb4&feature=related

http://www.trans-siberian.com/tour1/#WinterTour

I loved that movie.:cool:

He looks kind of like Louis.

Did the poke test for non-food stuff several years ago. "Highly allergic" to pretty much everything grown as a lawn, a bunch of weeds, several trees, cats, and I don't remember what all else. Been getting the shots for ~ a year or so, down to once every month (started at once a week). Only four more years to go :rolleyes:

Was able to quit taking my arthritis meds about 6 months ago, and my gut revolted. Which it has done EVERY time I've been off arthritis meds for the past 25 years. But GI doc can't explain why. So he's got me on Protonix (based on sorta healed ulcers and esophagitis) and shrugged shoulders. Supposed to go back for another endoscopy in a couple months to see if things look any better.

Meanwhile, I went back to the allergy doc and asked about foods. She did the poke test for 33 different foods - nothing. No reactions. But, it seems that you can still be allergic, there just isn't a histamine response, so the poke test misses it. Hence the elimination diet.

Gut is better, but still not right, after about a month of Protonix and a couple weeks of the elimination diet. Not sure which to give credit for the improvement. Guess we'll find out when we start adding foods back in.....

$hit. F'n H E double hockey sticks.

Went to Joanie's tonight. Hanging was great, people were fun. Ed was there. Everybody went out to the parking lot to watch the Fire Girl do her thing with flaming hula hoops and spinny things twirling around her head. All good.

Ed goes to leave. Mentions off hand that he has no headlights. WTF? Since when? says me. "I dunno - a few days ago" says Ed.

Let's go look see. Pop the hood, please. (Sidebar - this is the 1990 300D we bought for him when his Corolla officially died - was clean, everything worked, had no trash in it 3 months ago). Fuse box cover is gone. Half dozen or so fuses are missing. Says me, again: WTF? Where's the cover? Why are all these fuses gone? Says Ed: "Every time I used the turn signals, the windshield wipers turned on, so I pulled the fuse."

Sigh. So, again - where is the cover so I can figure out which missing fuse is keeping your headlights don't work? Ed: "In the trunk."

Pop the trunk please.

I start digging through MOUNTAINS of crap in the trunk. Seems Ed emptied out the trunks of one of the other crapload cars he owned and dumped in the trunk of the Benz. Paperwork from 1982, clothes that nobody knows the origin of, seriously scary porn VHS tapes.

And a f'n loaded gun. Floating lose in the pile of $hit.

I lost it. Snapped at Ed big time.

Too much. Overloaded with everything involved in trying to manage the world of a "parent" who should be able to deal with the world but can't.

Wound up sending him on his way without headlights (but working fogs) for the whole 6 blocks he had to drive home.

And now I'm feeling like total absolute f'n $hit for snapping at Ed.

He's a grown man, not a kid. That kind of behavior might be expected and excused in an irresponsible teenager but I wouldn't even let my teenage daughter get away with such nonsense. You shouldn't feel like a $hit.

What, Jim? You found out you're human? Don't beat yourself over it. Tell DW you've been a bad boy and need to be punished.:P

I'm sure she can think of a suitable bit of repentance for ya!

Of course, I think if it had been me and I had 4 bean soup and a chunk of banana bread for lunch I'd have probably exploded internally!

I don't think I would have let Ed drive the car with just fog lights however.

Jim, I can't even begin to see where you were even remotely out of line. I can say you were probably more restrained than I would be given the situation, FWIW. Don't beat yourself up!

I do think Mike is onto something with the sticks and dirt diet, though. ;)

Thanks guys.

Problem is, even though he is ~ 10 years older than me, Ed is functionally less capable than a hormonal teenager most of the time. Strokes, depression, whatever - he's broke. So we tread a fine line between taking over and supporting. Last night, I was out of line based on the overall context.

Today, Ed came by, was all proud that he'd got his prescriptions filled and found (with the help of an awesome pharmacist) a way to get $46 worth of his meds for $9. Much praise and support from me and Darling Wife.

Told Ed I was sorry for snapping at him last night. He said I'd done nothing wrong, is all good, never got his feelings hurt.

We went outside, figured out what was wrong with his headlights (f'd up connectors, not fuses) and got 'em working again. Cleaned the pile of crap outta his trunk, separating the utter trash from the maybe possibly worth thinking about keeping stuff of Ma's. Convinced him to let me help clean out the Toyota (two giant arse trash cans full of pure trash) so that we could haul it down to Crazy Ray's next week and get him a check for $300 for it.

Sigh.

Life goes on. Maybe one less wreck in our drive way by the end of the week, Ed will have have a few dollars to keep the lights on, and we can move on to the next issue.

Just gotta remember to keep breathing, and never, ever, ever stop appreciating how much happiness and joy Darling Wife has brought to my world. Like the oh my f'n goodness amazing dinner she created tonight.

I am a truly lucky guy. In spite of the chaos.