Adventures in Dentistry

I have great parents. They've done everything they can to give my two older brothers health, education and opportunity. This, of course, means frequent trips to the dentist. I unfortunately got my father's apparently dominant genes for crooked and crowded teeth. 11 baby teeth pulled in 3 sittings, 4 premolars pulled to make room for my eye teeth which came in high and looked like fangs, 2 years of braces (a horror all their own) and then the coup de gras, the wisdom teeth removed. Now mind you, thanks to all this work I have good teeth now. They are straight and properly spaced. The down side of course is a bit of an aversion to dentists. Enough of one that I haven't been in 13 years.
My partner recently had major problems with a molar that cummulated in getting 2 teeth pulled.
I started thinking...
I have dental insurance...
my parents made a huge financial investment in my smile...
I need to suck it up and go to the dentist.
Thankfully, we happen to know one in town. She's a wonderful person and very good at her profession. So, while the girlfriend went in to get a quick checkup after the extractions, I made an appointment for myself and talked our roommate into doing the same.
The roommate and I went in today for the x-rays and evaluations and for me, I was pleasantly suprised. 13 years and all I need is a good cleaning and 4 very small, shallow fillings.
The roommate wasn't so lucky. At 33, her wisdom teeth need pulled and she needs 3 fillings and she needs a deep cleaning (not a fun experience).
Needless to say, I'm not the most popular person in the house. We all neglected dental care and I seem to be getting off light. My cleaning is Thursday before work (yippee) and the fillings in April also before work. That should be fun, a completely numb face 1.5 hours before a conference call.
I'm still in better shape though and now think it's time to be a grown up and get my teeth cleaned on a regular basis. I don't want to experience tooth extractions ever again.
Next on the list...primary care physician and a chiropractor. I figure I need to be in shape and healthy in order to have a long and interesting (occasionally exciting) future.

Odd thoughts

Why do people feel the need to speak with you when you are in a bathroom stall?
At the sink, I understand.
Over the stall wall, not so much.
I'm a little busy at the moment. Is there something so important to talk about that it can't wait 2-3 minutes?
I also love the people who have cell phone converstations while in the bathroom. Personally, I would think the sound of flushing toilets would really be a deterrent to a deep and meaningful converstation.

The Children Cometh

Well, I survived the return trip from Phoenix to home. I had enough frequent flyer miles to upgrade to first class and eat real food with real silverware on the flight in a seat I could actually comfortably sit in with leg room! I may have to try the first class thing again for long trips.
Once I returned my partner reminded me her grandchildren would be over to spend the night Saturday.
A 9 year old and a 2 year old boy...
In the house...
for 24 hours....
I thought, well, they always get bored, let's find something fun that will keep them busy and make tired at the same time. So we decided to go tubing at Peak N' Peak ski resort.
I am not a skiier. I tried it once with disasterous results and I've learned the older you get the more sled riding hurts. Tubing is different however. You have a big innertube that cushions you on your travel down the slopes. The slopes are professionally maintained. You don't have to walk uphill. Just hand your rope over to the tube lift person, sit down, hold on and get pulled to the top.
We discovered that children under 5 are not permitted so off I went with our roommate and my partner's 9 year old grandson to the Peak, leaving the 2 year old behind with Nana to watch movies. Suprising to me, we had a fabulous time. Tubing was a ton of fun with little work, we broke midway through the fun for hot chocolate and watched the crazy snowboarders go over jumps, and the 9 year old was really well behaved, and had a lot of fun.
I may have to go again before winter ends.
As far as the younger child goes, he had fun watching Nemo for the 8 millionth time and both kids were out cold by 1230 am (not bad for sleeping over on a weekend). Of course, they were up at 6 am the next morning but overall we had a lot of fun.
Watching the cats interact with the kids was a good laugh. The youngest cat, Curious George, had never really been around kids and spent a lot of time in hiding but his curious nature kept overcoming his fear and he would sneak out for a look at the fast, loud, little people running around. All three cats slept from Sunday afternoon when the kids left till Monday morning. The workout did them good...

Traveling through the February Fury

I will admit I am a bit of a Weather Channel addict. I love watching how excited the meteorologists get when the weather is going to be bad. So I flew from Erie, PA to Pheonix, AZ on Tuesday, the day the aptly named (by the Weather Channel) February Fury of snow and ice and wind hit the midwest and northeast area of the US. And of course, my flight wasn't until the afternoon. I seriously considered trying to back out of this business trip but my boss was meeting me there (he's from Omaha, NE) and bringing me my nifty new work toy that I'm typing on right now... a brand new Macintosh laptop with lots of training development toys on it. Motivation enough for me.
So I glued myself to the weather channel while finishing my packing, and drove to work. By the time I left work the snow had begun. When I got to the airport, it was snowing sideways and lots of flights to Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, DC, Balitimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland were all cancelled. Lucky me, I was connecting in Detroit and the Detroit flights were only delayed. Second bit of luck, I had a long layover in Detroit so the chances of me getting to Phoenix were looking pretty good. The puddle jumper (i.e. really little plane with propellors) took off 1.5 hours late and made it to Detroit with a minimum of bouncing. I found out the next day that we were the last flight out of Erie before the airport was shut down due to low visibility. I have a mental image of my pilot radioing the tower saying, "I can't see Sh*t!"
Detroit was getting less snow but it was really, really windy. Lucky me, my plane boarded on time and I thought I'd actually get to Phoenix on time......
1.5 hours on the jetway just sitting, getting hot, listening to the small child behind me screech every few minutes because she didn't want to settle down and go to sleep and she wanted to be in Daddy's lap. Oh joy, it's a 4 hour flight to begin with and now we are sitting on the jetway indefinately.
The pilot finally explained that the nozzle they connect a water hose to for fillling the water tanks (so those lovely sinks in the spacious bathrooms work) was frozen and they were considering putting a bunch of wet naps in the bathrooms instead just so we could get going. Instead they oppened the back door (3 rows behind me) letting in a blast of artic, yet fresh, air and guys in orange vests were on and off the plane trying to fix things. Eventually everything was working and we were off into the wild yonder. But wait, we need to deice. Another 30 minutes on the ground. All I want is my MP3 player cranked on high in my ears playing my 106 songs in alphabetical order by artist (Avril Lavigne, Nickleback, etc) so I can't hear the screeching kid but you can't use electronic devices until the plan is above 10,000 feet.
Needless to say, I did make it to Phoenix, out of the Fury and into the 65 degree weather. Now it's sunny today, it actually rained a bit yesterday. I was very late getting in and didn't even get to bed until 230 mst (430 to my east coast brain). But at least I was safe and I don't have to snow shovel and best of all...
I got a Ford Mustang, bright yellow and the car rental. I'm went with National and I'm and Emerald Aisle person. They put the mustang there as a complimentary upgrade. It's a fast, fun car. I really, really, really want to floor it on the interstate but I've been good....so far at least.
Back to the artic tundra tomorrow but for at least today, it's sunny, 65 degrees and I have a Mustang and a new computer....

Adventures in Driving

Another day, another inch of snow on the car...
The heavy amounts of snow are over (for now until the lake thaws in March) but every morning this week I've woken up to an inch or so of snow on the car. Not much but enough for me to go running out with bed head and improper shoes (the boots take too long to put on) to brush off the door frame, unlock the thankfully not frozen lock, hop in, start up the car and crank up the heat and defroster. Then I run back inside and finish getting ready. when I go back out to the car it takes just 2 minutes or so to brush it off (I'm a good driver and brush the ENTIRE car off, not just the windows) and get into the now warm car to head on my merry way.
What amazes me daily is the number of cars I see in the median on the interstate. Despite the inch-a-day snow, that road, at least, is clear and free of ice and snow yet somehow, at least one person a morning manages to basically bury a car in 4+ feet of snow in the median requiring a tow truck to get them out.
Yesterday there was a four car accident that slowed the road down to a crawl.
Wednesday was 7 cars in the median at various locations over the 22 mile stretch I drive each day.
I just don't get it.
When the road is snow covered and/or icy I completely understand but dry and clear??
Of course, now that I've voiced this I'll probably end up the next unlucky person to somehow park in the deep snow and even if that happens I probably still won't understand why.

Snowmobiling

Keeping in theme with the Year of Adventure, I got to have my first ever snowmobile experience on Saturday. Funny, I grew up in the Pittsburgh area and have now been in the great lakes snow machine area for over 10 years and somehow I've managed to never ride or drive a snowmobile.
I think I've discovered one good thing about winter.
Snowmobiles are fun...
Lot's of fun...
Huge fun...
I took a ride first then got to drive one wearing a nifty helmet that plugs into the snowmobile and defrosts/fogs the visor.
Now I can't wait for another opportunity.
We currently have over 3 feet of snow on the ground and the lake has finally started to freeze so we shouldn't get dumped on again.
For those of you unfamiliar with lake effect snow: Lake effect snow is caused when a cold air mass moves over an unfrozen body of water (like Lake Erie). The cold air picks up moisture from the relatively warmer lake and then dumps that moisture in the form of snow on the lake shore and more heavily on the snow belt area about 20 miles inland from the lake. By dump, I mean getting 1 or 2 day snowfall totals in the 1-4 feet range versus inches. Once the lake freezes the lake effect snow machine stops and we only get a couple of inches of snow at a time. The lake froze very late this year (i.e. last week) due to a mild fall so I'm up to my eyeballs in snow.
I don't ski or snowboard (my knees really couldn't handle the abuse) so I've never been very happy with having tons of snow on the ground.
Now I've discovered snowmobiling. While it doesn't completely make me happy in regards to the snow ( I still hate cleaning my car off and dealing with idiots who can't drive in snow on the road). Snowmobiling gave me a couple of hours of pleasure, I nice adrenaline boost and a sense that once in awhile a lot of snow isn't a bad thing.

Welcome notes

Well, I've been reading other's blogs for years now and have always been terrible about updating mine. I had one on Live journal for a short bit and a Yahoo 360 page I never even finished. Now I'm making a late resolution to do this again.
It is 2007, my friends and I have deemed this the Year of Adventure. So far the adventure has started with 2 failed attempts to quit smoking (I will quit and it will be this year if it kills me to do so), a new gym membership to Snap Fitness that I've actually been using, plans for more home renovations and a decision to go on vacation to a beach this year.
Why the year of adventure, well, last year was the Year of Growth to recover from the previous year, the Year of Change. I named the year of change, the year I ended up single on new years eve at midnight when my 8 year relationship fell apart. I moved back from the fly speck of a town I was living in, got promoted at work, got a wonderful new person I plan to spend my life with, now own a home (in process of massive renovations), gained a cat, on and on. It was a fast paced year. The year of growth was all about learning from the past and looking toward the future. This year is about having some fun. Even more fun than last year.
There will be canoeing and camping, I might go out hunting with my roommate though I highly doubt I could ever pull the trigger on an animal. Yes I eat meat, I just don't like to see it walking around first, Beach vacation, a week riding on a semi, theme park in there as well.
So the year of adventure (whether it turns out to be adventurous or not) will be chronicled here.
All Hail the Adventure.