Dumb Name for a Restaurant

I ate here last week because I likes my pitas EXTREME! Actually, the people working here don't look very extreme. If I owned an EXTEME Pita, the following would be required of my employees:

• Mohawk
• Evenings consist of BMX, skydiving, mountain climbing, windsurfing, surfing, snowboarding, bungee jumping, etc.
  
• Minimum of 5 tattoos
• Minimum of 3 piercings (2 face, 1 other)
  
• Each pita would be served with "horns"
• Ollie off the grill
  

Close Call

When we came out of the doctor's office today we approached our car. I heard Kelly say, "Are you fucking kidding me!?" In an already cramped parking garage, someone parked a foot into our parking spot.

It's a miracle they didn't hit our car. It is literally 3" away from our car. There was absolutely no way to get in on the driver's side. Kelly was standing outside the car flipping out and weighing our options. Should we leave a nasty note? Wait for the owner to come out to confront them? Report them to security? Key their car?

In the middle of trying to get in our car from the passenger side, climbing over the console and deciding what to do about the situation I noticed that someone was sitting in the passenger seat of this pickup! Now our options expand to knocking on the window to tell her to move her car.

Upon closer inspection she looked to be about 95 years old so its doubtful she could drive a car. And in all likelyhood would probably die of heart attack if an angry stranger beat on her window in a parking garage. We decided to leave her be and carefully backed out of the spot. I would have reported them to security, but I couldn't find a security guard. I got their license plate so maybe I'll perform a not-so-random act of unkindness at a later date.

(the red in the picture is not from taillights, its reflection from the flash)

Week 13

This past week Kelly has been feeling really good. At the 12-week mark she started feeling a lot better almost overnight. She has more energy, practically no nausea, and a healthy appetite. She's also started feeling some movement in her belly. She says it feels like a little flutter. I've tried, but I can't feel it yet. When I listen I can hear little squishy noises.

We went to see the doctor today. The first thing the nurse asked was if Kelly had felt some fluttering yet. Check. We found out that I have type O+ blood. That means that Kelly will need Rhogam at 28 weeks and then again at delivery. We didn't need an ultrasound this time but we did get to hear the heartbeat. We were able to hear it really well which was exciting.

Everything is going well. Kelly will go back just for some bloodwork and AFP screening on December 29th. Then 2 weeks after that on January 13th we'll go back and do a level 2 ultrasound where we run down the checklist of organs and find out the sex. This ride sure seems to be going fast!

Dr. Jackson said, "It sounds like you're having a girl." He determined this by a very technical scientific method which, when explained in laymans terms, went something like this.... "cause you're wearing red." Plus a fast hearbeat typically means a girl.

Actually that goes along with what Kelly and I think too. A long time ago a psychic told me I would have two daughters. According to a couple of Chinese Gender Predicting Charts we're going to have a girl. There's a old-wives tale that says if the father doesn't gain weight during the pregnancy (which I haven't yet) then its a girl. Another old-wive's tale says that if the mother's weight gain is in the front (which it is) then its a girl. All this is bullshit but, who knows?

Cognitive Ability

It’s obvious when you’re pregnant that your body goes through drastic physical changes. What I didn’t know was the equally drastic mental changes that are occurring. We experienced this first hand yesterday.

I arranged to leave work yesterday in time to make it to our 3:30 doctor appointment. Kelly picked me up at my office and we rode together, parked, went up to Dr. Jackson's office and got there exactly at 3:30. We stepped up to the window to sign in.

There was no clipboard so Kelly asked the nurse, “Where’s the sign-in sheet?” The nurse looked as us a little funny and asked, “for who?” We said, “uh… Dr. Jackson?” “Dr. Jackson doesn’t see patients on Mondays. Isn’t your appointment tomorrow?” She asked, still looking confused. Now we’re all confused. Kelly says, “I thought it was today.” The nurse, already knowing the answer, looked it up on the calendar. “Nope. Tomorrow at 3:30.” “Alright, we’ll see you tomorrow.”

Kelly just got the days mixed up. We’ll try again today.

I’ve charted what I’ve observed so far with Kelly’s situation. On the Cognitive Index scale:

• 1.0 is normal
• 0.9 is forgetting phone numbers
• 0.8 is spilling drinks and bumping into things
• 0.7 is confusing dates

Notice the decline around week 13. Zero, by the way, is full retard.

...and as Robert Downey Jr. says in Tropic Thunder, "You never go full retard."

Las Vegas

I forgot to post anything when we got back from Las Vegas.

Back on November 13th, Kelly & I went to Las Vegas with our friends Chad & Melanie. They were getting married and Kelly was the Matron of Honor and I was the Bast Man.

When we got married in Vegas, Kelly saw miserable pregnant women walking around and swore that she would never go to Vegas while she was pregnant. We made plans to be in the wedding before we found out we were going to have a baby so we went anyway.

Kelly didn't have a very good time since she couldn't drink and most everywhere you go smells like cigarette smoke. Also the accommodations weren't that great. We stayed at an add-on room at Tahiti Village which is a timeshare that Chad's mom owns. It would have been okay had we had a full suite by ourselves but we saved some money by splitting a room with Chad & Melanie. However, when we got there is was a one-bedroom and we had to sleep on the fold-out couch. That kinda sucked. The second night we got our own room at a hotel next door. We should have done that the first night. Also, the condo where we stayed was a little far away from everything so we ended up spending on cabs what we saved on the room.

All-in-all, not the best trip to Vegas, but the wedding was nice.

If you go to Las Vegas between now and next year you'll notice a huge construction project in the middle of The Strip called CityCenter. Located between Monte Carlo and the Bellagio on the Las Vegas Strip. This is the largest (most expensive) private construction project in the history of the world! It will take a proposed $7 billion and about six years to develop this modern marvel.

Next time we go we'll get a normal room on The Strip... and Kelly won't be pregnant.

Here are some of the pictures.

Wedding Photos

I was just reminded that we don't have any of our wedding photos online, so I’ve uploaded some of our wedding photos on Flickr.

Week 11

We went to the see Dr. Jackson this morning. We briefly heard the heartbeat for the first time today. He did an ultrasound and the baby still looks like little gray blob. The picture on an ultrasound is not as detailed as a vag probe so we didn’t get to see hands and feet like Kelly did in the ER, but it’s more comfortable. Dr. Jackson joked, “Hey, cute kid!” Everything is normal and we go back in two weeks.

One of the ladies I work with sent me an article called “Poppy seed to Pumpkin: How big is your baby?”. It shows average baby size by week of pregnancy compared to fruit. The baby measured 31mm from head to butt which is about 1¼ inches. If you include the legs (which were curled up) that’s about the size of a fig. Three weeks ago (s)he was 15mm. The baby has more than doubled in size since then.

Kelly has an A Negative blood type. I don’t know what my blood type is, but if I have a positive blood type then the baby may have a positive blood type. If that’s true then if any of the baby’s blood mixes with Kelly’s then her body will make antibodies to fight the blood. As a precaution, Kelly got a shot of Rhogam which will prevent this. They took blood from me today to test my blood type. If I have a positive blood type then Kelly will need a shot of Rhogam every 12 weeks. No big deal.

Emergency Room

The title is scary, but it ends well.

Kelly had some spotting yesterday night which worried us a little. The books we have seemed to agree that its a normal thing, but erring on the side of caution, she called Dr. Jackson. His answering service said he wasn't available but she was contacted by the on-call doctor, Dr. Story. Dr. Story is a bitch by the way and wasn't much help at all. She just said to call Dr. Jackson back today.

Kelly continued to have some spotting and tried to reach Dr. Jackson. Being the day before Thanksgiving, his office was closed today. But his answering service didn't take the call either. Now more than a little worried (especially going into a long weekend), we took a trip to the emergency room.

After a blood tests, urine tests, ultrasound and several hours of waiting, the doctor said everything was fine.

As a bonus, Kelly got to see the little hands and feet on the ultrasound. I didn't get to see them and we didn't get a printout, but we have an appointment with Dr. Jackson on Monday.

Moral: Better safe than sorry.

Its Not Over Yet

Just when I thought the whole thing was over I got a call from someone at Circuit City to schedule the technician to come out to install the power supply in my TV even though I called them yesterday to let them know that I didn't need it. ... that I never needed it. The rep updated her system and politely wished me happy holidays.

Then I get a call later in the day from a different rep to confirm my Friday 11 am appointment for the technician. Uh, No.

I have a feeling I havent heard the last from them.

The Part is In

Circuit City called Wednesday to let me know that the part for the TV arrived. They said they would come out Friday. One team has to come out between 9 and 11 to de-install, then the technician will come out between 12 and 2 to install the part, then the install team will come back out from 4 to 6 to re-install.

I had zero-confidence that they will be able to execute such a logistically complex plan. And I was right.

I took off work on Friday. The de-installers didn't come out as scheduled. The technician called me to ask if the TV had been de-installed and gave me his number to call him when it had. I spent a lot of time on the phone with FireDog and Circuit City's warranty department on Friday speaking to about 6 different people. Again they apologized all over themselves which ment nothing at this point. After being hung up on twice and laughed at by a CSR once, I finally reached Dan who acted like Winston Wolfe from Pulp Fiction in Circuit City customer service. At that point in the day Dan wasn't able to do anything else but reschedule the de-install, technician, and re-install for Saturday.

Saturday morning the de-installers came out on schedule and took the TV off the wall and set it on the floor in front of the fireplace. I called the technician to let him know it was time to work his magic. He said that he didn't know the de-installers came out, that he was now booked and might not be able to come out. Kelly & I came unglued and spent another portion of our lives we'll never get back on the phone with everyone at Circuit City.

Aparantly the technician, not having received word that the TV was de-installed, cancelled the appointment himself. No other technicans would come do the work because he had the power supply with him and he is the only technician servicing my zip code. Dan was on vacation that day.

If all that wasn't bad enough, now the story get's rediculously stupid. I decide what the hell, try plugging the TV in. I do. It works fine. WTF?! Are you kidding me? Is this some sort of cosmic retribution for materialism? After some research in manual I discover that the AC cord that they gave me with the tv is not the right cord. The one that comes with the TV has clips on the end that clip onto the TV so it won't shake loose but the one I got was just a regular AC cord.

There was nothing wrong with the power supply, it was becuase it was a open box item they had the wrong cord with it. That's why it worked for a week fine while it was on the floor, but shortly after it was mounted it stopped working because the cord came loose.

When the technician was there and he looked at the TV for all of 5 minutes before determining that it was the power supply I asked him to check the cables. He did and said they were fine. If I find that guy, I'm going to strangle him with a clip-less AC power cord.

Dan called back on Sunday to see how everything went. I explained to him everything that happened. He arranged for the correct cord to be available at the store for me to pick up. Sunday afternoon I picked up the cord.

While at the store, the stupidity of the average employee at the customer service counter puntuated the entire story. The average age of the customer service person at Circuit City appears to be 15 and the ratio of employees to customers is about 5:1. Its like a swarm of stupid bees in red t-shirts in there. I explain the story and I tell them I'm there to get the cable and that I spoke with Jennifer the manager. The guy behind the counter is not impressed by my story. Its as if this sort of absurdity is common. They ask me to wait while they find Jennifer. I wait, and wait, then another manager arrives and says that Jennifer has left for the day. I tell him my story and produces the cable from behind the counter.

Dan was able to schedule the installers for Tuesday from 2-4 to put the TV back on the wall. Again I leave work early to get home in time. When I get home there is a message from the installer saying they are running behind schedule and to call them. I called them and they said they were triple booked for the 2-4 time slot and would the 4 to 6 time slot be okay. I'm so close to the finish line I tell them to come whenever as long as they come that night. They get to the house at almost 8pm.

They install the TV, clean all the fingerprints off of it, sympathize with my situation, we have a few laughs and they leave and its done. So if anyone wants to come over and watch TV, we can.

The de-installers came out and took the TV off the wall as scheduled, but when I called the technician he said he was already booked and that no one had scheduled him to come out. I later found out from his superior that he was booked, but he canceled it because he thought the TV hadn't been de-installed first.

I just found out that Circuit City is possibly facing bankruptcy. Great.

8 Weeks

We went to the doctor today and everything looks good. We didn't get to hear the heartbeat this time though. Dr. Jackson said we'd probably be able to hear it the next time we go in two weeks.

He took another picture with the Vag Probe. I love saying that... Vag Probe. I'm sure its not as fun to receive as it is to say.

The little sucker is getting big fast. Last time it was about the size of a grape. This time its about the size of a strawberry. We were able to see the heart fluttering away. Dr. said the due date is still June 22nd.

He said we couldn't go to Vegas until after we paid his bill. He's a funny guy. Almost too funny. I half expect him to do magic tricks and pull a rabbit out of my wife as a goof.

The biggest complaint Kelly has had has been nausea. She actually threw up in class the other day. The doctor was able to prescribe some Zofran for that. We picked the pills up from Walgreen's and Kelly took one in the car. Hopefully it will help. No one deserves to feel that bad. Plus it would suck for Kelly to have stay in the room at Vegas the whole time because she feels like crap. The doctor said she can take Tylenol too so we're set.

In this picture he had to mark the edges of the baby and it left a couple of "X's" on the screen. When I showed the picture to my mom she said, "What's that?! Does that mean there's two?!" No. Thank God. They're just they're just there for measuring.

TV Woes

When last the TV repair guys was here he said it would take seven to ten days for the part to come in for the TV. That was November 1st and this is November 11th and I haven't heard anything.

I called them this afternoon and it took fifteen minutes before I was able to speak to someone and they looked up the claim. They explained that the part was ordered November 7th and that it sometimes took a few weeks to arrive. I asked why the order was placed on the 7th and not the 1st. They explained that they have to get approval from the manufacturer and that took several days.

The representative, Alice, apologized all over herself but it looks like the part won't come in until November 20th. By the time the part gets here and a few more house calls are made I will have had this TV for over a month without being able to enjoy it yet. It's going to be really nice once its working but what an ordeal.

Rescheduled

Our doctor appointment was today at 3:00. We were across the street at the mall at 2:15 when the doctor' office called to tell us the doctor had to reschedule because he had an emergency delivery. Oh well; that happens. We rescheduled to tomorrow at 3:00.

New TV

Saturday
We were walking around Katy Mills Mall a few Saturdays ago and stopped by Circuit City. We weren't there to look at anything in particular, just browsing. We were looking at their TVs and they have some pretty good prices. We've been wanting a flat panel TV to go over the fireplace in the living room for a while so we started talking to one of the sales guys. His name was TJ.

My only requirements were I wanted 1080p with a few HDMI inputs around 50 inches. He showed us some plasmas. I had always heard that plasmas don't last very long, are difficult to transport, and can easily get burn-in. He explained that when plasmas first came out that was true but they are a lot better now and the Panasonic was the best rated. Also, all plasmas run at 480hz as opposed to LCDs which run much lower.

So we found the Panasonic TH-50PZ800U. Its a 50" 1080p 480hz Panasonic with 4 HDMI inputs. They even had an open-box of the same one where they had taken off a few hundred dollars. Its has an MSRP of $2500 but it was going to be $1080. A deal that was too good to pass up.

So we started the purchase which is more complicated than buying a car. If you are going to buy a TV from here, please set aside a whole day. Its a lengthy process. In addition to the TV we got a swivel wall mount, a Monster power supply, 2 Monster HDMI cables, a PlayStation 3, and the extended warranties. TJ was real good about finding all the coupons and discounts for everything. So-and-so dicount for the mount if you buy a TV, so-and-so discount on the cables if you get the warranty, etc. etc.

When we were done the final damage was $3800. Swiped the debit card... declined. Swiped again... declined. The money was there but the card wasn't working which was weird since we had just used it elsewhere in the mall. TJ said they'd take a check so I had to walk to the other side of the mall to where the car was parked to get my checkbook. When they tried the check it was declined too. I suspected that there might have been a fraud protection activated on my account since earlier that week we'd purchased plane tickets to Las Vegas and some furniture. I tried to call the bank but there's no way to speak to a representative. TJ agreed to hold everything for us if we would come back Tuesday. After having spent all that time in the store trying to complete the purchase it was disappointing to leave empty-handed. When I got home there was a message on the answering machine from the bank saying that they had put a hold on the account for suspicious activity so I called and straightened it out with them. Nice feature, but a pain in the ass when you actually want to make a large purchase.

Tuesday
Tuesday morning we went back to the store and were there when it opened. I had stopped at the bank the day before and got cash in case there was a problem with the card again. We decided to save a little money and hold off on the PlayStation 3. We bought everything else and scheduled the delivery for Wednesday and the installation for Tuesday. Later that day I called Dish to schedule to have them come out to put a satellite drop in the living room and switch out a receiver we don't use upstairs with an HD receiver with DVR. The earliest they could come out was Monday.

Wednesday
The delivery guys came and dropped everything off. I had to be there when they got there so I worked from home that day. I didn't have Dish and it wasn't on the wall but I was able to play Xbox 360 on the floor.

Thursday
The installers come out and as soon as they got there they noticed I didn't have a power outlet above the fireplace. They aren't certified to install high-voltage lines, so they said I needed to call an electrician and have them install a power outlet and then call them and reschedule the installation. That was something they didn't tell ask me at the store. They also recommended against the swivel mount. They recommended I get the tilt mount since you can see the TV from anywhere in the room anyway and the swivel mount is really heavy, sticks out from the wall pretty far, and when you pull it off the wall and then put it back it wouldn't be straight unless you leveled it each time. that was fine with me since the tilt mount is $500 less than the swivel mount -- money I'd spend on the electrician. I called and scheduled an electrician to come out for a quote on Friday. I worked from home that day too.

Friday
I took the swivel mount to the Circuit City at West Oaks Mall which is closer to my house than Katy Mills Mall. I knew I'd made the right decision to exchange it when I saw the one they had on display. Unfortunatley they couldn't exchange it since their POS system is different from the Katy Mills store because the Katy Mills store was a newer store where they were piloting a new POS system. So I had to drive back out to Katy Mills to exchange it. I got the tilt mount and $500 back. I bitched at TJ for not telling me about the power outlet and I got 15% off the tilt mount. Later, the electrician came out he quoted $400, but he didn't have all the supplies he needed and someone would have to come out Saturday to do it.

Saturday
The other electrician comes and installs the power outlet. He only charged me $360 and I got him to fix my busted porch light too. I called Circuit City to reschedule the installation and the soonest they could come was Wednesday.

Monday
The Dish guy comes out and picks up the old receiver and sets up the new one.

Wednesday
The installers come and hang the TV on the wall. Finally I have everything all together. It looks awesome. The picture is amazing. It really changes the shape of the room. All the cabling is behind the wall so its very clean looking.

Monday
The TV quits working. It just turns off and doesn't turn back on. A few times it would come back on by itself and then later turn off. I checked the outlet, the surge protector and the power cable and every thing was good. It just wouldn't turn on. I called the extended warranty people and they scheduled to have a repairman come take a look at it on Saturday. Now I have $3000 worth of broke TV hanging above my fireplace. That's what I get for buying an open-box item. Good thing I got the extended warranty though.

Saturday
The repair guy comes out and checks out the TV and determines that its the power supply. He's going to have to order the part which will take about 7-10 days. When the part arrives I have to schedule the installers to come uninstall the TV, then schedule the repair guy to come replace the power supply, then reschedule the installers to re-install the TV. What a pain in the ass.

Stray Dogs

A couple of weeks ago Kelly came home from school, opened the garage, got out of her car, and there were two stray dogs there. They were dirty and matted and they looked like they’ve been on the lamb since the hurricane. They are both males and one is tan and white and the other is gray and tan. They looked like brothers and we figured they were shihtzu. Neither of them had collars.

She put them in the garage and left it open just a crack so it wouldn’t be too hot in there. When she went to check on them later, the gray one had squeezed out of the narrow gap below the garage door.

If the remaining dog was going to be around our other dog, Abigail for any length of time we wanted to take it to the vet so to make sure it didn’t have anything that Abigail might catch. Kelly took it to the vet and found out that it had hook worms and whip worms which we got medicine for. Later on a neighbor found the gray dog and brought it to our house asking if it was ours. It wasn’t, but since they were a duo we took him back. We named the tan one Sam and the gray one Charlie.

Kelly printed up some “found dog” signs and hung them on the mailboxes in the neighborhood.

The guys were pretty badly matted so we wanted to groom them so they’d feel better. We bought some dog clippers and went to town on Sam. Poor guy looked like he lost a fight with Edward Scissorhands. What the hell do I know about dog grooming? We spared Charlie the humiliation.

Then we had to take Charlie to the vet too. He had hook worms, ring worms, heartworms and a swollen prostate. We got them rabies shots, all the medicines and scheduled to have them neutered. No one had called on the signs so we considered them our dogs at this point. Especially since their previous owner took such poor care of them.

We took them to Petsmart to get them properly groomed and then we took them to get them neutered. They are really good dogs. Sam is an attention whore and is the alpha male. He likes to play and can jump really high. Charlie is real laid back and couldn’t care less about everything. He’s always bringing up the rear. They both ride in the car well and are housebroke. The vet said they were about 5 years old and that they are not shihtzus but lhasa apsos. And best of all they get along with Abigail. Kelly’s mom, Peggy, said she would take them since we are going to have our hands full with a baby soon. We went around the neighborhood and collected the signs but two of them were missing.

Here’s where the story takes a twist -- someone called on the sign. I called the guy back, he described the dogs and said that they belonged to his girlfriend’s mom. I struggled with the dilemma and ending up lying to the guy. I told him that we had the dogs for a while but they got out of our backyard and we haven’t seen them since so we took the signs down. He said this was the third or fourth time they’d gotten out. I asked him what their names were just in case I saw them again I could call them and they’d come to me. He said the tan one was Jake and the gray one was Bouncer.

This was really hard for me to do. I thought about a little old lady somewhere who’d lost her friends. I rationalized my lie by thinking that they were matted, had all sorts of parasites, prostate problems, and had gotten out several times in the past, and didn’t have collars or tags. If she loved them like they deserved then she would have taken better care of them. The vet said that if we hadn’t done all the stuff to them that we did, they’d probably be dead. When is it okay to lie? I think it’s okay when you can save a couple of puppies.

Jake’s a good name so we kept that name. Bouncer is a stupid name for a dog so we kept calling him Charlie. They don’t come when you call them either name so it doesn’t really matter. We got them collars and tags.

We took Jake & Charlie over to Peggy’s house. Charlie gets along with her other dog Toby, but Jake really didn’t. We decided that Peggy would take Charlie and we’d take Jake since he got along well with Abigail. We started to treat Jake like a member of the family. He’s a good dog. The only problem is he and Abigail compete for your attention. If Abigail is in your lap Jake wants to be there too and vice versa. They were always climbing all over us all the time. We can’t have dogs jumping on Kelly so we started looking for a new home for Jake.

Melanie’s friend Rachel said she would take him. They have two little girls and no other pets. This is going to be perfect for Jake since he’ll get lots of attention, and won’t have any other dog’s to compete with. Melanie came to pick him up yesterday. We were sad to see him go, but relieved that he’s going to have a good home.

I’m not sure we did the right thing, but what’s done is done. I take comfort knowing these dogs are going to live long, healthy, happy lives.

1st trip to the vet - $120
Dog clippers - $30
2nd trip to the vet - $280
Deluxe grooming, collars, & tags- $150
3rd trip to the vet - $195

Lesson learned – don’t pick up strays and if you do take them to a no-kill shelter immediately.

We're having a baby!

Kelly and I have been trying to have kids for a while. We had almost given up and decided to buy a boat instead. Everyone says that when you stop really trying that that is when it will happen. Well that was true in our case.

A couple of weeks ago Kelly missed her period. She took a couple of home pregnancy tests and they were all positive. We went to the doctor and they did another home pregnancy test and a blood test both of which were positive.

So here we are in full swing baby mode. We've got a bunch of books, a few baby outfits, some maternity clothes, and started buying diapers every trip to the grocery store. We figured that it was time to start doing some stuff to the house that we'd been putting off because we may not get a chance later; so we got a few things for the house and a new TV.

We were recommended a OB/GYN by a friend and went to see him last week. His name is Dr. George Jackson, he's a older guy and he seems pretty cool. We went to our first appointment with him on Oct 28th. He said Kelly was about six weeks along, which puts the due date at June 22nd. We got to see the heartbeat and he took a picture.

Its a little hard to see, but those few pixels above the arrow are our future. Its about the size of a grape right now. The doctor said it will be about the size of a strawberry by the time we go to our next appointment on Nov 11th.

Kelly has all the typical symptoms for this time of the pregnancy -- moody, runny nose, nausea, peeing a lot, big boobs, tired, etc.

We're really excited... and a little scared. Neither Kelly nor I know anything about babies. I'm an only child and Kelly is the youngest. Neither of us have ever changed a diaper or babysat or really been around kids that much. We've got a little time to get used to the idea and we're planning on finding a parenting class to take.