Out of The PIT

So during our annual Christmas dinner with the clan, my dad fainted and fell on the floor. He was out for less than a minute and came too, but we figured that calling the ambulance was a good idea, considering that his face went ashen and he started to pass out again after we sat him down. Lifting his legs helped and he came to. The paramedics arrived and found that he was pretty normal, but he went to the hospital with MJNL anyway just to make sure that there was nothing more serious going on, considering that he had a fainting spell a couple of months back as well. After spending all night at the hospital, he came back with nothing indicating any issue, which is a relief. Everyone at the party was pretty frazzled, but it all ended well enough!

So I've been sick and have had a terrible cough since Thanksgiving but things cleared up last week and I felt so much better. I also noticed a side effect: exercise does not trigger a coughing fit anymore. In fact, neither does cold, dry air. Now, asthma occurs when your airways get inflamed and constrict your air passages. I've been getting asthma like attacks for years now and they had been gradually getting worse over time, coming to a head this past month. But the fact that I suddenly feel a lot better (coughing wise) then I have in years after my month long coughing fit makes me wonder if my asthma attacks were caused by a chronic infection triggered by certain environmental events that got worse as the infection continued to spread. The last cold/flu/HFM/whatever virus that hit me two months ago probably triggered my immune system to ramp up anti infection procedures and I started to cough out everything, and I mean everything out of my lungs. Even deeply rooted biofi...

We had our company Christmas party this afternoon and during the raffle, I ended up winning one of the small prices as well as the grand prize! Both were gift certificates for food, which I will take advantage of in the coming months..

So MJNL and I went out tonight to watch Brain Candy Live!  I had a good time. It was an entertaining show even though I didn't really learn any new science. However, a lot of these experiments (and jokes) that they performed would have definitely wowed a younger and naiver me. If it had not been for the discount from the daycare that we used I would not have known that they were coming to town and I would not have gone. A pretty serendipitous event indeed. Too bad I was too late to get VIP tickets. It would've been good to meet both of them in person.

After the Ride for Heart, I left my bike locked up in my parking spot in the garage. Later in the summer, MJNL needed to use the bike lock to lock up the stroller when she went with EYS to Wonderland, so I took it off my bike for her to use. For months my bike was left in that state without being disturbed, but last Monday, when I went down to my car I noticed that the bike was missing.. The bike was there around 0100 the day before, so the time-frame for its disappearance was pretty small. I did not bother informing the concierge or following up. The bike was old, clunky, and - although not as bad as my last bike - was still a really cheap bike. I used the bike once a year at most and it was taking up space that I could use for other stuff. It was not a great loss. Still, I really should take better care of my bikes..

I've got a motto that I try to live by: Remember the past; enjoy the present; plan for the future . But now that I've seen what happens when people get stuck in the past, I'd like to change my motto to: Learn from the past; live in the present; prepare for the future.

Okay, I should've checked yesterday, but this morning when I got to work, I grabbed a flashlight and looked at the inside of my throat in the bathroom mirror and noticed that I had white spots at the back of my mouth. That would explain why it was so painful to swallow the last few days. The pain was manageable last night after popping some acetaminophen over the course of the night so I actually got a fair bit of sleep, but now that I realized that I cannot finish my lunch due to the pain (my lunch was soup), I think I will be staying home most of this weekend. I'll get myself checked by a doctor this afternoon to determine if I have something that antibiotics can treat, otherwise I will be sequestering myself until this thing goes away. 

Where does the saying "sick as a dog" come from? I've met many a dog and none of them have ever been as sick as I (or my child) has. I got sick over Thanksgiving, got a little better, and now have a sore throat that has been bothering me all week. Recently it has made sleeping difficult as swallowing is painful. I think it will be time to take something to assuage these symptoms, but what I thought was going to be a acute infection has gone on a bit longer than I had anticipated.

So, I mentioned yesterday that I still had not had a nosebleed? Well, I got one last night. I was just washing my face and my nose started dripping. Just like that. Sigh.

Okay, the anti-picking regimen did not seem to stop me from getting sick, although I am still nosebleed free and will continue to abstain for.. well, ever? My coughing attacks that have plagued me since I was a kid have gotten worse, and I do want to get tested for asthma. I'll need to find all of my triggers though. That should help with diagnosis.

For decades now I have suffered from regular nose bleeds. I know part of the issue is from my general dry nose and seasonal allergies, but I believe that the main reason for my chronic epistaxis is because I am a miner. A deep, deep miner. I tend to dig for those annoying nuggets that you feel way up in the cavity, and get a rush of exhilaration when I remove the offending rock from the passage and throw it away, never to be seen again. Of course, my over exuberance has led to annoying gushers after I retrieve said rock, leaving me hanging my head in shame for the next several minutes while I let my blood do it's clotting. In recent years, my nose has been bleeding on it's own, and it is bothersome and troubling both at once. Perhaps my nasal passages are so damaged from the years of digging that they will forever be prone to sudden releases of blood. But I have decided to remove one factor contributing to my regular bloody releases. This is a long, long habit I have ...

I have not had spam on my blog for.. ever? I honestly do not remember the last time I had spam on here. But this morning I got a message that someone commented on my blog. There was a lot or Arabic in the comment so I figured that it really did not apply to me. *delete*

So I bit the bullet and purchased a number of single play games. Namely, an escape type puzzle in card form called Unlock! I invited a number of people over to try it out last week and the response was mixed. We had so many people show up that we divided in to two groups; each one trying a different deck. My group, including Laz and Stonaday had a good time playing  Unlock! Squeek and Sausage  while the second group consisting of KH, Master Storm, Tomer, and AL had trouble with Unlock! The Formula . Most of the trouble came from the game mechanics, as all of the players on that team had only played the tutorial just before playing the actual game. Our group on the other hand, had played the tutorial (albeit a black and white version) a couple of weeks prior and had a better inkling of what was expected - although I do think our game may have been better designed than the other. We can find out soon enough the next time I hold one of these escape parties..

Late last week I got an invite to try out a room escape near our place at the Riddle Room with DeeL and Stonaday. I invited Laz and Stonaday invited his cousin and the five of us tackled the Castle, the hardest room there, to see if we could escape. It took us 29:53 to get out, which is no so impressive when we had a total of 50 minutes to get out. I'm sure we could have gotten out earlier, but it was not as challenging as I would have liked. The success rate was 40% so I was expecting to get out with ease anyway considering our talent pool. Afterward, we were given a free hour to play with any of the board games in the room, so we tried out Splendor, which was quite a simple, yet strategically interesting game. I am sure we all would have played more than one game, but it was already way past my bedtime so we all went home. Stonaday is pumped to do more and I'm sure there will be a next time. He also asked if we were interested in running our own board game cafe.. *rub...

Who knows what the question is, but at least I've finally reached the answer.

I went on the Ride for Heart yesterday. I was kind of not planning to go as there was not a lot of incentive for me to take part, but since we had a couple of neophytes who wanted to try this year, I decided the week before to raise the requisite funds to participate. Long range weather forecasts predicted rain during the weekend, with Sinday morning smack dab in the middle of the rain grouping. It was looking quite likely that the ride was going to be a wet one. As the day approached, it looked more likely to be wet and cool, with temperatures in the low-mid teens and moderate to light winds. This combination was the same as two years prior where the ride was so wet and cold I never felt warm during the ride, and I had to keep moving to prevent my body from falling into a state of hypothermia. Well, on top of all of this weather, I decided to ride down to the starting line from my place instead of driving or taking transit. The former was cumbersome and not any faster, while the l...

MJNL and I have started house hunting. We have yet to find a three bedroom house on the east end (this includes Scarborough) for less than $649000. In fact, all of the houses that we saw that were sold were sold way over asking. None under a million. A million dollars for a tiny three bedroom house. Not even detached! Madness! I am glad we don't need to move yet. It is quite a depressing state of affairs for any would be buyers. We are chalking this all up to a "learning experience". We probably should've bought that 600000 house in that nice neighborhood several years back. It certainly is worth twice that amount now!

I was a recruit; part of a force that was invading some alien structure or planet. I was with team of ten or so other recruits lead by an army veteran who was training us. We were all issued standard space uniforms as well as energy rifles. The enemies we were facing were all humanoids that were dressed in green garb and were easy to take down. I entered the room that I was assigned to and quickly dispatched the occupant before it had a chance to fire back. Mind you, our main invasion force had already gone ahead and cleared out the bulk of the enemy forces. We were just there for cleanup. As we cleared the level, we began to muster in the foyer area. The room was large, spartan, and brightly lit by white light from the walls and ceiling. Our squad, led by our team leader, was lined up in single file on one of the many elevated platforms in the foyer. There were dozens of other squads in the area, all recruits, all lined up in single file waiting for the order to advance to the next ...

I went to another specialist last week and forgot to mention that I thought that I had solved my medical issue when I stopped using the retainer. Hopefully I will remember for next time. One interesting point he raised was that the symptoms I described were very much like asthma. But I don't get short of breath, just phlegmy. It is an avenue that I should look into though.

Bill Paxton passed away. I just wanted to use that quote.

Seems like I have a case of bursitis and not anything more serious than that. I'll keep stretching the joint but I should heal over time.

Since my diagnosis last week, I had been thinking of what might have been causing my skin to react so badly. After thinking about it, I believe I have a source for my ailment. It could be the blanket I am using at my parents' place. The lesions started to appear soon after it got cold, and I started using a second blanket in the bunk bed room. During the interim period where no new symptoms appeared, I did not sleep over in the bunk bed at my parents' place, but once I started doing so again, at the end of the year the symptoms returned. In fact, since our return from Dubai, we have been staying there every day, and I had spent most nights in that room, and lesions had not spread to most parts of my body - particularly areas that become exposed - namely the lower legs, arms, neck, collar, and the waistline. There are some other spots that are not exposed, but much rarer. Now, these bunk beds were normally used by my niblings when they come to visit and they have had a history...

Well, there you go, at least I know what it is. It comes with a number of names, like nummular dermatitis, but the treatment is basically: change your soap and moisturize. I was given a cream to help too. She said that it would clear up in five weeks. Next up: Nausea.

This morning while I was driving to work, I was crossing through a large intersection and watched as a car made a right turn into my lane. No problem, right turns on red lights are legal and I was plenty far away. However, the mini-van behind the first car did the exact same thing, with nary a pause, while I was already in the intersection travelling at the limit. Did the driver even look for oncoming traffic? I leaned on the horn and the brakes and managed to stop less than a meter from the other car which, due to the commotion, basically stopped in front of me. In the driver's seat, a middle aged Chinese lady looked at me confusedly. WTF lady? She just drove off. Had the roads been icy as it was originally predicted to be at this time, that lady would have been dead. I probably would have been a little slower, but I would not have been able to stop nor swerve in time. No wonder why auto insurance rates are higher in this area. (Another reason why I like living downtown.)

I made an order for delivery last night and the estimated delivery time was 90 minutes. Ninety minutes! Madness! I called the restaurant to confirm the delivery time and asked how long it would be if I came to pick up the food. She told me 15-20 minutes. I figured that I might as well save my self a few bucks and an hour of hunger if I went to pick up the food myself, so I headed down the the restaurant. When I got there, she told me that she would take off the delivery charge of $2.99 from the $27.28 bill. I paid by card and the amount that came up on the device was $24.38. Uh.. Mathematically speaking: That ain't right. I tried to explain the the girl that if you subtract three from 27.28 you get 24.28. But she was persisted saying that, "I put it in the calculator." I wanted to introduce her to the concept of GIGO . I was ready to argue over my 48 cents (there is also tax applied to the delivery charge) but I figured that it was not worth the time, effort, and...

It is what it is.

So some people were not happy with how 2016 went down. I thought it was a great year, if only because the new addition to our lives. One's perspective can change quite a bit when caring for a newborn and watching them grow before your eyes. We'll enjoy the time we have with her as long as possible, and slowly grow our little family over the next little while. I wouldn't mind having a large family, but I think MJNL would have a few words to the contrary.