My friend Anthony posted this Nerd test on his blog (http://flocito.blogspot.com). I took the quiz... and apparently fall somewhere between Computer Geek Wannabe and Low-Rank Computer Geek. I guess that means I've got some catching up to do... Nah, I don't think so.

mike hard at work

Here's a great picture of mike hard at work. where is that maytag guy?

Today is Sunday August 21st:
I'm now less than two weeks from my wedding. I've been in Chandler, AZ since this past Thursday for work.

My throat is healing... but it does strain it to talk so much. I'll soon run out of my pain medication (Roxicet - http://www.drugs.com/Roxicet/). We've gone to the Rockbottom (http://www.rockbottombrewery.com) brewery here in Phoenix twice now. Sadly, I was unable to partake in imbibing of libations... I tried a sip of beer, but it burnt the back of my throat. I had to settle for Rasberry Ice Tea.

I'm looking forward to not having pain associated with the most basic function of swallowing my own saliva... I'm thinking that day will come soon. Next Wednesday will be two weeks.

Now back to work!

Today is Tuesday August 16th. Tomorrow will have been a week since my UPPP surgery. The healing is going well. I'm able to consume more fluids than I've been able to in the past few days, and some of my appetite is returning. I made my first attempts at solid food yesterday.

My first foray into real food was a fried egg. I tried some of Traci's on Sunday, and thought I'd give it a try (besides it's good protein). Egg has been going down well. You can cut it quite small, and it's soft and fleshy enough to go down easy. Last night I wanted to treat Traci to dinner to celebrate her first day at work. Her only request was that we be able to sit outside and enjoy the nice evening. We ended up going to Baja Fresh (http://www.bajafresh.com). The best thing I could find for myself was a bean and cheese burrito...

The good part: Wow was it great to taste something other than soup! The flavor of the tortilla, beans and cheese was great.

The bad part: Wow was it difficult to chew and swallow. I did my best to eat what I could, I had to abandon the tortilla because it was too difficult to chew. As tasty as the beans and cheese was, it too was difficult to swallow. Each swallow was painfully laborious. I might be exaggerating a little but it's not far from the truth and of course hindsight is 20/20.

The result: It was good to get some more protein in my system. I awoke with my throat in much more discomfort than the previous day. Granted it could be due to the healing process... but I'm thinking I tried to push my recovery too quickly. So today I will be sticking to the tried and true; soup.

I am also going to attempt to return to work today. Since I took some of my pain medication this morning I'll have to delay my arrival into work, which is probably for the better since I probably shouldn't push myself into a full-day of work if my body isn't ready.

Thursday 8/11/2005:

I'm back home from the Hospital. Some of you may or may not know. I snore... not only do I snore, but I was diagnosed with sleep apnea last winter. The recommended procedure is something called a UPPP (Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty). In this procedure, the doctor removes most of your uvula, trims back some of your soft palate, and will typically remove your tonsils as well. You can read about this here: (sleep apnea description etc.)

I had my procedure Wednesday morning. I have no recollection of the procedure. The healing process will likely take 10 days. Right now, I still have trouble swallowing my own saliva. Fluids are difficult too, but it is key to stay hydrated. I have some good pain-killers... that put me to sleep too. With this procedure behind me, it will ideally alleviate my snoring and most importantly my sleep apnea. We'll see what a restful nights sleep is actually like.

Traci gets back from Alaska this Saturday. I'm looking forward to seeing her.

Tuesday, August 2nd:

I made it to Chandler, AZ alright. This is monsoon season here in Chandler. I stopped for Dinner at Jilly's American Grill for dinner (http://www.azjillys.com). It's a decent place, their niche is that each booth has it's own TV with channel and volume control.

On my way to the Sheraton Wild Horse Resort and Spa (http://www.wildhorsepassresort.com) I encountered the start of the Monsoon. The wind kicked up gusts of 50+ mph, then the rain, thunder, and lightning began. It was pretty thrilling to watch a storm like this from my window. It was directly overhead and was picking up steam (this storm was news worthy). The wind, thunder and lightning was so severe that it knocked out power to the resort and supposedly 1/3 of Phoenix. Power was restored at 1:40AM. Though I was exhausted from my travels, part of me was used to staying up that late coming from Alaska... that coupled with my desire to have the lights back on. Maybe I should've brought my headlamp and flashlight with me?

On our way upriver from Unalakleet to camp.


The view from the top just outside of camp.


Blassi teaching me a few new tunes.

Sunday, July 31st: Back from Vision

Today, we returned back to Unalakleet from camp. Only caught one silver Salmon this year... and I had to work hard to get him.

Vision was good this year as well. (some info on vision here http://home.gci.net/~eccak/biblecmp.htm) Seems like they have a history of organizing good speakers. This year's speaker was Ron Mancini from First Covenant Anchorage (http://www.anchoragefirstcov.org/STAFF.htm). If you talk to him long enough, you'll learn something that his "Sicilian Grandmother told [him]". Ron spoke on Hearing God, stated another way, listening for God. We're all busy people, and taking the time to remove ourselves from our daily distractions is a good thing. His message was refreshing and honest, and I appreciated that (his sense of humor was a great add too). It was really good to see many familiar faces from last year too.

I spent Sunday evening back in Nome, with Chris & Lloyd, and Jamie. Jamie, two of his friends (Josh and Michael) and I went fishing on the Nome river that night. We fished for hours and came up empty handed. The closest I got to catching anything was when I snagged a fishing line and pulled it in and found a fish attached to the other end. Unfortunately the line broke.

Monday, August 1st:
Spent some time tooling around Nome. Flew out to Anchorage and met up with Ty Norrish (a friend of mine from High-school and college) and had dinner at the airport. I got my 3 hours of sleep and proceeded to work that morning... got my stuff packed and flew to Chandler, AZ for the rest of the week for work... more later.