http://www.flannelchef.com ...embracing chaos... en-us FlannelChef.com - 2005 Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:02:27 EST http://flannelchef.com/default.cfm?entry=528 Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:18:57 EST Trust me...I don't know either. Here is what is going on: I am in mental crisis mode I am overloaded yet not in constant motion (I am trying to compensate...HA!) I am in pain (still with the arm!) most of the time. When I am not in pain I am sleeping. I am in a spiritual drought but am starting to turn the corner I have gained somewhere between 10 to 15 pounds just in the past month In the past month I have been named in an investigation In the past two weeks I have been "interviewed" (aka, interrogated) I am too self aware I am tired So. I have a bit of complaining but don't really want to do that so I won't. You know, I never really understood why I started blathering about my life on this thing. It was started as a way to give people info about the Deuce after he was born (which means this thing is over 5 years old). Then it was where I posted crazy stuff. Then I got all narcissistic and needy and starting whining. Then it became a way to warn the people around me that I was about to have a "moment" and that distance was a good idea. I have shut this thing down once and then opened it back up (flake!) and am considering what to do next. Does it matter and does anyone really need to see this stuff? http://flannelchef.com/default.cfm?entry=526 Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:03:22 EST The long road. db_______________________MoPhoBlogged http://flannelchef.com/default.cfm?entry=525 Sat, 26 Jan 2008 09:20:50 EST Ahhh!A new Haiku from MrReRe! I miss you guys too. Since the move there has been a bit of a sense of disconnect for us since we are looking for a new church. A long but necessary process. I do miss playing in a band and all the time we got to just hang out. For anyone who cares, Giggles and are doing a 365 day challenge on Flickr. Mine are all shot using a camera phone and uploaded from the camera phone (personal rule I have set). You will notice in some shots some black spots and smudges. It turns out that some crap has gotten under the lens and is not about to move. But, I am not getting a new phone just so I can make the black spots go away, so they stay in the picture. Also, sometimes the title of the pic will not have 'Day whatever' because I have not logged in and changed the title (I don't know how to send the title from the phone yet, just the text. So, the link is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/flannelchef/tags/365days/ I figured it would be a good way to document this year of change I am going through. It has been tough so far but worth it. Some of this things the Dr. has started with me have made me sick for several days in a row on two occasions...but again, worth it when the sick is over. Geez...I think my boys are trying to beat each other up again... http://flannelchef.com/default.cfm?entry=524 Mon, 21 Jan 2008 23:18:29 EST What do you expect? I have been busy! Ok...not completely true, but I have been rather busy. It just turns out that most of the time that I have to think about sitting down and writing something on the computer (other than the seemingly constant writing I have to do for class), I just don't want to do it. That and the fact that I have been in a bit of a deep funk for a few weeks. I am really trying to shake it, but it is fairly pervasive. But I can be persuasive to the pervasive and hopefully reach a point of perverse persuasion. Oh, and the doc jacked one of my meds up quite a bit so I have moments where I say stupid stuff....like that last sentence. Oh, I got whipped on a project management class assignment and lost 3 out of 15 points for how I did the dependencies in my MS Project file. After looking it over after getting it back for review, I deserved to loose 3 points. Man! Swing-and-a-miss! Well, as part of my new sleep schedule, I get up at 4:30 am. So, I probably should be heading to bed about now. See you in about 15 days! HA! http://flannelchef.com/default.cfm?entry=523 Sun, 06 Jan 2008 21:22:10 EST Yep...back to the office in the morning. And on top of that, school starts back on Tuesday. Sadly, even with all of the time off, it has been a struggle to keep my mood balanced as much as possible. But, I am trying. Trying, trying, trying. I got a new Haiku from Mandy the other day (nice surprise). Yes, in a manner of speaking I did disappear and I will explain more later. I will also open up the comment section for those that care after I writea patch to block those nasty mass comment crawlers (I did have an "authorize" admin function but it became me against web crawlers that don't sleep and took too much time). Other things are afoot. But I will chat about those later. For now I am going to pack my lunch and go to bed. http://flannelchef.com/default.cfm?entry=522 Thu, 03 Jan 2008 07:32:23 EST Giggles and I are spending the next two days just hanging out. I took leave for Thursday and Friday and Lex and the Deuce both have school these two days. But, then I have to go and check my email and see that there are more demands, more stuff that has to be done, more, more, more, more, more. Deep breath. How do you catch up when more stuff keeps getting piled on top. Not only that, but how do you maintain a level of passion about trying to dig out of that pile. I have to figure that out this year. This "deep in a pile" condition is not going to change anytime soon in my life. It is something I bring upon myself. I have to learn to deal with it better. Ok...now to go and enjoy the day. http://flannelchef.com/default.cfm?entry=521 Mon, 31 Dec 2007 16:16:55 EST I turned 39 today. Not a particularly momentous age, but a point in time. As the date approached and a number of changes in my life began to take shape, it came to mind that I might want to document the process a bit.This documentation will not just be about 'life stuff' but will include anumber of work and school things as well. But, there will be much about how I am trying to reach sane and healthy balance in my life. For the most part, there were parts of 38 that were not good and there were some parts that were very good. I would like to think there was some balance overall, but that is just the human urge to want to reconcile everything. I am going to have to let go of that urge from time to time. So I am 39, blessed with an unbelievably awesome wife, two great kids and a job that provides for us. Not bad at all. Yes, I am reopening the site. Nowoffto work on reaching a healthy and happy balance. http://flannelchef.com/default.cfm?entry=516 Sat, 01 Sep 2007 10:00:00 EST Four years of comments (filled with some empty gaps) needs to come to a close. What was once a rather vibrant site needs to go quiet. There are reasons! Really! Such as: After the surgery, my arm can only do so much on the computer. I have not even picked up any of my guitars for 9 months (depressing!). I have not played in a band for about 10 months (more depressing). I have gone back to school to get a masters degree and am devoting much of my time in that direction. My attitude towards some things really does not need to go on display online...at all. I have lost interest in trying to write how I feel about things and entertain at the same time. A little known fact. When I started this "blog", I didn't know what a blog was! It was a way of tracking the activities of my youngest kid as I spent many nights up with him. Some of you may remember the dynamic charts that tracked his feeding amounts. Anyway...with little fanfare, it is time to shut this thing down. Take care. http://flannelchef.com/default.cfm?entry=514 Tue, 12 Sep 2006 15:51:22 EST You know how some projects really take up your time? And then you don't want to do anything else that has anything to do with computers and mice and keyboards? Well..that is where I am at right now...in that kind of project...and have been for over two months. This would explain the lack of anything on this site. I want to start writing here again, if only to put in some of the successes and techniques in cfml that have worked so well, but that takes time. At least I have partially convinced myself to not feel so guilty about not working a home each night and part of the weekend...that part of the project is over for now. I hope. So...still here...kinda. http://flannelchef.com/default.cfm?entry=513 Thu, 20 Jul 2006 21:17:27 EST That says it all. http://flannelchef.com/default.cfm?entry=511 Sun, 16 Apr 2006 18:33:12 EST Today was the day Giggles got to ride in a NASCAR stock car (one of the ones that Dale Jarrett used to drive - #88) at the biggest and longest track on the NASCAR schedule (Talladega SuperSpeedway in Talladega, AL). Here she is suited up and ready. And here she is getting loaded into the car. When we get to a place with a faster network connection, there will be more posted. http://flannelchef.com/default.cfm?entry=510 Tue, 04 Apr 2006 09:08:32 EST Maryland Man Is Glued To Restaurant Toilet Seat Police Wonder If This Was An April Fools Prank POSTED: 7:04 am EDT April 4, 2006 SALISBURY, Md. -- A Fruitland, Md., man became stuck to a toilet seat early Sunday morning at a Denny's restaurant in Salisbury, Md., when he used the restroom. Police said someone had put glue on the seat. Authorities said customers called 911 after the man yelled for help. Paramedics took the man and the seat to the hospital, where it was removed. Police are wondering if putting the glue on the seat was somebody's idea of an April Fools Day prank. In a similar case, a man in Colorado found himself glued to a toilet seat at a Home Depot in 2003. That man sued the home improvement chain last year. http://flannelchef.com/default.cfm?entry=509 Fri, 31 Mar 2006 10:14:14 EST Yep...it can be the little things that make a day a day. Take for instance the image to the right. It is a Braum's Brownie Fudge Sundae. I ate it after I ate a Braum's burger and fries. I ate it in the hotel room. This required a little bit of engineering on my part since I needed to keep it cold while I ate (and recovered from) the previously mentioned burger and fries. So...you take the bag out of the ice thingie, put the brownie fudge sundae into it (it comes in a nice protective box) and put it at the bottom of a trash can that you then fill with ice. Worked very well. And that ended the trip to Oklahoma (actually, I am sitting in the airport in OKC waiting for my flight), a place where we lived for 10 years, and moved from 5 years ago. I forgot how much easier it is to get around this area vs. the DC area...so, so, so much easier. The fact that I got to visit with several people made the trip really nice (not to mention the meetings I was attending went well) and it was fantastic to see everyone and get to hang out a bit. In some cases it was like time had never past. http://flannelchef.com/default.cfm?entry=508 Mon, 20 Mar 2006 09:58:20 EST First Atlanta rained out...and now they are going to run it today while I am at work. BAH! Maybe that will give Carl another night's sleep to get his crap together for the race. http://flannelchef.com/default.cfm?entry=507 Wed, 15 Mar 2006 12:11:21 EST Because Lenny stopped driving? O.K. Bad Simpson's reference. Sorry. I have Carl because he has been on a hot streak, drives for Jack Roush (1 of 5 Cup drivers that do) and finished third in the chase last year in his first year. But he has been a bad luck magnet since Daytona (you can see his #99 getting frisky with Kyle Petty's 45) and I am just waiting for it to turn and MAYBE it will in Atlanta since he won both races there last year. Maybe. But I am going to look at his qualifying runs and practice/happy hourspeeds in Atlanta leading up to the race to see if they are putting the equipment under him to get the job done. If not, he will have to go the way of Jr. and the other two I dumped in exchange for Jimmy Johnson (1st, 2nd 1st so far this season but EXPENSIVE). Mandy: Is there a Fantasy Knitting pool out there for those of us who can't knit but like being involved in the action? Jeff: I have to admit that I stole the chart from my Fantasy NASCAR site (cut and paste...I don't have THAT much patience!). http://flannelchef.com/default.cfm?entry=506 Tue, 14 Mar 2006 20:52:09 EST Race #3: UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 Official Results Team FlannelChef Drivers #DriverValueFinishPlaceFinishScoreQualifiedPositionLeada LapLeadMost LapsTotalScore 31 Jeff Burton $910,000 7 146 8 0 0 146 99 Carl Edwards $1,465,000 26 85 21 0 0 85 24 Jeff Gordon $1,740,000 5 155 13 0 0 155 11 Denny Hamlin $565,000 10 134 16 0 0 134 9 Kasey Kahne $1,305,000 4 160 5 0 0 160 6 Mark Martin $1,665,000 6 150 18 5 0 155 20 Tony Stewart $2,070,000 21 100 2 5 0 105 18 J.J. Yeley $300,000 17 112 12 0 0 112 Total Team Value: $10,020,000 Total:1052 Bank Balance: $120,000 Net Worth: $10,140,000 ScoreRank - RaceRank - YTDPit Points RaceYTDDivisionOverallDivisionOverallDivisionBonus! Race #1 865 865 61 4848 61 4848 0pts 0pts Race #2 911 1776 67 5778 66 5753 0pts 0pts Race #3 1052 2828 54 4380 66 5204 0pts 50pts Avg Score: 942.67 50pts View Complete Maryland 1 Division Ranking For those who care (and sorry to those who don't) I traded Waltrip, Dale Jr. and Truex Jr. for Kahne, Yeley and Burton. It paid off in the short run for this race but I am in the hole aready (4380th place people!). Yes, Mandy....I know...from the South. (oh, and welcome back to the U.S.). Jeff..does this qualify as not boring? http://flannelchef.com/default.cfm?entry=505 Sat, 18 Feb 2006 10:02:57 EST Yes...I have put in my NASCAR Fantasy picks for the start of the season (FantasyCup). Here is the starting lineup: Driver Team Number Why I picked Tony Stewart JGR 20 On a roll and a proven team Jeff Gordon Hendrick 24 Pissed about last season and more focused as a team Carl Edwards Roush 99 Amazing first season and a driver for Jack Roush Dale Earnhardt Jr. DEI 8 Due to do better Martin Truex Jr. DEI 1 Cheap and fast Denny Hamlin JGR 11 Semi-cheap and Mark Martin Roush 6 Steady and also a driver for Jack Roush Michael Waltrip MRW 55 Out of the DEI club, kinda on his own and another person with more focus We shall see how I do. http://flannelchef.com/default.cfm?entry=504 Fri, 17 Feb 2006 15:21:00 EST I was taking a wiz the other day and had one of those odd thoughts pass through my brain. You know how when yousneeze you close your eyes? There are other things similar to this as part of the human experience that I don't feel need to be discussed, but you probably get the idea...biological responses to a biological event that are tied closely together. So... I am standing there (still taking a wiz) and the following thought passed through my brain: "What if, when you were peeing, you screamed? To expand on that...as you are urinating, you are screaming. Not in pain or anything like that, but just a good basic scream. So then I start to think about what public restrooms would sound like, and that is when I started to crack (still taking a wiz) and further tried to control just laughing out loud (since I was in a public restroom and laughing while taking a piss would be as acceptable as screaming). Along with that, the fact that in our building (and in most buildings) the bathrooms for men and women share a common wall and you can often CLEARLY hear what is happening in the adjoining bathroom. Just wanted to share. http://flannelchef.com/default.cfm?entry=503 Sun, 12 Feb 2006 21:48:45 EST So, what is there to not like about this guy? The story(and here is an image of the story for when the Guardian pulls their copy offline). http://flannelchef.com/default.cfm?entry=502 Sat, 04 Feb 2006 12:34:21 EST I thought those words, but didn't say them...but I imagine the look on my face told the Dr. what I was thinking. Simply put, on Wednesday I got to experience Cardiac Catheterization for the first (and hopefully LAST) time. For those of you who don't know what it is, please follow the link I have provided and you can start getting your fill of the subject. If you don't want to read I will tell you this...they make a hole in a big blood vessel in your leg and push a thin tube into it until they reach the chambers of your heart. Follow that with the process of shooting dye into your system so they can take nice x-rays using fluoroscopy and you have the basics. I was going to put a graphic up of the process, but all the ones I googled had it so you could see the dude's junk and I just didn't want that on the site. For the really quick rundown of how this happened: Over the weekend I had some chest "discomfort" and some mild lightheadedness that eventually went away Monday night I had chest pain (not too bad) and pain in my left jaw that would not go away (with motrin or anything) and lightheadedness Tuesday morning I went in for sick call to just get a doctor or PA to say, "nothing at all, go to work" By the time I got to sick call, the pain had started again The sick call folks tossed my ass into a wheelchair and took me to the ER (after giving me the friendly "denial" talk for about 10 minutes) The ER folks filled me with needles, covered me with little probes and started collecting information Now...to try to deal with the chest pain, they gave me nitroglycerin tablets and noticed that with each one the pain lessened and my blood pressure went down more (I have have high blood pressure for years) At this point, Giggles had driven to the hospital and tracked me downand found me in the ER So, based on this and a few other pieces of sleuthing, they decided to admit me to the hospital cardiac ward The cardiac ward people put more needles in me, drew blood like there was no tomorrow, gave me MORE nitroglycerin tablets which caused INTENSE HEADACHES followed by morphine to get rid of the headaches. That night? More blood being drawn, blood thinner shots into my stomach, more nitro in the form of a paste and (imagine this) more morphine after the headaches started to drive me out of my freakin' mind (to give you an idea of the headache level, it involves me clawing at my head and pressing down on different areas of my skull while writhing...these ain't normal headaches) The next day at around noon, two dudes wheeled me into the room for the procedure, joked about how they were going to shave some girl's name and phone number into my pubes...and then started shaving. If anyone wants a number for a "Sandy R.", just let me know, but be quick before it all grows back They drugged me, doctors came in and went at it About and hour and a half later they were done. I saw some of it going on but had to decide each time if I really wanted to watch. Seeing something slither up past your rib cage on a TV is freaky Back to my room, Giggles was there to greet me...along with what seemed like a billion people who wanted to keep looking at the incision and take more blood and put this or that in my IV and get ANOTHER of what seemed like a million EKGs Doc came in a bit later and said that all was well. They didn't have to stint me or use the balloon at all that that there was minimal plaque on my arteries. Also, from all the gallons of blood they had run through the lab, my cholesterol was good and blah and yadda and so on SO WHY WAS I HAVING FREAKING CHEST PAINS? Turns out my thyroid is doing some funky stuff and it may be the cause of a NUMBER of things going on. The one thing that kept showing up weird on the blood test was thyroid stuff, and it has in the past as well, but not as clearly. So, now I am home recovering, can't do much of anything and my car is STILL in the parking garage at Navy Med. Add to thatI was to be playing in the band tomorrow and can't do that (which sucks). Butwe now know my heart is OK. They did find something that can explain what is going on (so I am NOT loosing my mind...yeah...insert your jokes here) and I am now scheduled for a million other things with people to help figure out what it is. Could have been worse; wasn't; blessed and happy that everything is OK. When I go in for the MRI later this month, I think I am going to try to sneak some ball bearings into the tube by holding them in my mouth...that could be fun.