23 posts from February 2008

I'm talking to you Iron Maiden!!!

Just received the following in e-mail.  At least they said it's only the first leg of the American tour.  Hopefully they will remember their fans on the east coast for the second leg.  I would have been all over the New Jersey show except it's the worst possible week of the entire year for me to take off of work.  Will there ever be a Maiden Albany show?  I doubt it, but I'm willing to travel for Maiden - just not to Texas.

Iron Maiden have announced the first leg of their eagerly anticipated North American summer tour.

After tickets for Iron Maiden's current "SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME -- WORLD TOUR 08" dates at the Los Angeles Forum and New Jersey's Izod Centre sold out months in advance, the band are delighted to announce they are coming back for more major USA concerts this summer which will take them to a number of cities they have not played in many years along with a return to the Los Angeles area with 2 nights at the 16,000 capacity Verizon Amphitheatre on Friday May 30 and Saturday May 31. Tickets for the majority of these shows will go on sale to the public on Saturday, March 1st.

Wed 5/21/08 San Antonio, TX - Verizon Wireless - on sale 3/1 10am

Thu 5/22/08 Houston, TX - Woodlands - on sale 3/1 10am

Sun 5/25/08 Albuquerque, NM - Journal Pavilion  - on sale 3/1 10am

Mon 5/26/08 Phoenix, AZ - Cricket Pavilion - on sale 3/15 10am

Wed 5/28/08 Concord, CA - Concord - on sale 3/9 10am

Fri 5/30/08 Los Angeles, CA - Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre - on sale 3/1 10am

Sat 5/31/08 Los Angeles, CA - Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre - on sale 3/1 10am

Mon 6/02/08 Seattle, WA - White River Amph - on sale 3/8 10am

I just had a sad phone call.  Turns out my doctor is retiring from his practice to work on his medical software.  I guess that's what I get for finding a doctor who is a geek.

I had never had a regular family doctor who I was terribly happy with.  We didn't see a regular physician when I was growing up, if we had a problem we'd go to urgent care or a specialist. When I moved to Albany I left my first doctor because his staff was incompetent.  I left my second doctor because I had never met the man, I only ever saw a nurse practitioner who was a little too enthusiastic about prescription medications.  The staff there also managed to lose my file no less than three times.  They never did find any of my prior files, god only knows if anyone had ever reviewed my history.

I searched online extensively, but that doesn't usually tell you much about how you will relate to the doc.  Nevertheless I found the blog of local doctor and I really liked the way he wrote about his practice.  He was passionate about being a "family doctor" rather than just an internist or other primary care physician.  I went to my first appointment and it was the first time I ever felt like a doctor *really* listened to me.  He spent TIME with me.  He took extensive notes.  He respected me.  He didn't judge.  He also talked about how they are a true family practice and take care of all sorts of medical things, so I decided to start getting my annual exam and pap smear at their office (I wasn't very attached to my old gyno anyway).

Of course, when I came in for my second appointment (which was a pap) they had lost my file.  [What the hell?  Is there someone out there that's trying to keep my baseline blood work and detailed history from staying in a file?]  Luckily I really liked him so I stuck with him.  It did seem a bit awkward at that second appointment, there I was, cooch in his face and they had no record of me being there before.  I guess I would've preferred my history was on his computer before spreading and sliding to the end of the table.

I've only seen him a handful of times over the past few years, he probably doesn't even know who I am (which is completely understandable in this field), but I am really sad to see him go.  I always have felt confident that if I had something serious happen I'd have a compassionate, caring and thoughtful doctor to see.  Some of the doctors in the practice have worked for Planned Parenthood which gives me even more warm fuzzies if I were ever in a "situation".  The whole practice seems very liberal to say the least.  I've seen another doctor in his practice who I also liked a lot, but she also left last year.  Guh.  The third doctor in the practice is who Mr. Val saw last fall and I liked her a lot too, but now her caseload is massive with the other two docs leaving.

There are several new doctors in the practice.  I'm going to see one of them.  She's a D.O., and I like their approach.  We'll see how it goes.

Dr. Reider - I know you're even geekier than me, so if you track this back from Technorati I wish you the best and I've been happy to call you my family doctor for the past several years.  Take care.

My grandma went parasailing!  My family is having *way* too much fun in Florida this winter.  :-)

I'm sure she doesn't mind that cutie with the six pack helping her out either!!

God, he's so dreamy.

After lugging my big ass mac through the goddamn fucking mall to have my bad power supply and logic board replaced (on a brand fucking new machine) I took it home only to find that something was jammed in the fucking cd drive.  Now I have to lug the goddamn thing back through the mall because of their SECOND fuck up.

Fuck them.  Apple's going on the list.  I'm so fucking pissed right now.

UPDATE: The dude at the apple store quickly realized that after repair last week, when the shit was put back together, something slid up and blocked the entrance to the cd rom drive. He took it apart and fixed it.  Seems to be working now.  All in all, not terrible, but it was another wasted hour of my life, a waste of gas, and I really hate going to the mall and being exposed to ebola.

My alarm had been going off for ten minutes before I awoke this morning.  I dragged myself out of bed and into the shower.  It was there that a dream from the night came racing to the forefront of my mind. 

I dreamed about him again, I dreamed about Jimmy.  It's been a long time...six months...maybe a year.  When I dream about Jimmy the place is always different but I am always thrilled to see him. I never remember what happened when I'm dreaming about him.  I can't believe how much he's changed since I last saw him.  Last night he looked different than I remember him, he was older, maybe 25.  His face had filled out, his red hair had turned more of a strawberry blonde, but he was the same Jimmy.  The same grin.  The same eyes.  As he usually is in my dreams, he was all smiles, no words. I am always comforted by his appearance in my dreams.  I feel reassured. But about what, I don't know. 

It'll be eight years this May since we lost him at 16.  I miss him so much.

Sing it with me: TGIF

I think I'm young enough that it's ok that I know that song...or not.  But if you know it too you're just as guilty, so there!

We bought our first video game for the Mac. Can you believe it?  A game for the Mac (sorry, can't embed it, but it's short and hilarious)!  And even though it's several years old at this point, I've been excited about playing (ahem, or watching Mr. Val and his 1337 skilz play it) Emperor's Tomb since they announced it.  We ordered that and our Apple Care last night. 

Speaking of our favorite professor, I'm assuming everyone has already seen this, right?

Ok, that's enough pretty stuff to look at, here's some pretty stuff to smell. Every few months I cave and change my soaps, shampoos and other smelly stuffs.  Sometimes my reaction to stuff changes and sometimes I just get bored and want to try new stuff.  When looking for belly butter for Sister I discovered FlameWorks.  Oh, how do I love FlameWorks, let me count the ways: one body butter, one soap, one deodorant, one belly bar, one lip balm.  I cannot even begin to describe how much I truly love the body butter. 

It's the best I've ever used - hands down.  She has samples, try them, you won't regret it.  She has a lot of scents to choose from too.  I lurve Zen Tea.  I can hardly describe the smell, but it's fresh and woodsy and I can't stop sniffing myself.  I've also tried the Apricot Fresia, it's fruity and flowery without overpowering the senses.  I've been putting that on my hands at night and falling asleep with my fingers under my nose because - again - I can't stop smelling myself.  I tried the Apricot Vanilla, but that just made me hungry for sweets, so that's out.  Pomegranate Mango is good too and leaves a strawberry after-scent.  She has a deal where you can get a sample of 5 soaps, but they're her choice and I really didn't care for a single one of them (I'm not big on anything that smells perfumey, patchoulish or flowery), BUT, that's a personal choice thing.  I just didn't luck out.  Now that I've figured out what scents I do like I want to get the body wash, the hand soap, the sugar scrub, the bubble bath...sigh.  I should learn how to make this stuff.

Found here.

*dies*

Cranky - they'll be in Philly a couple of days before they come here.  Thought you might wanna know!