This Fish

I'm finally catching up on a post I meant write last June.  I had some stuff written on a piece of paper, but didn't find it until recently.  I just looked under the mess of stuff on my computer desk.  I also found a gift card I didn't even know I had.  Time to clean/organize my room more often.

When I was filling in at the Airdrie store I was putting a shipment of lobster into the tank and found one that was tagged.  I checked out the tag and it had a website address and a serial number on it.  To get the details head on over to thisfish.info and enter the code L162811.  ThisFish is a website that is designed to help you to get to know your seafood.  You can find out when it was caught, where and by who.  It's kinda cool.  That was the first tagged lobster I've seen and I haven't seen one since that either.

Wassssupppp!!

Did you miss me?  I know at least Mike did, so thank you for you concern Mike.  Here is the whole (boring) story of why I was absent for so long.  I was lazy!  That's not entirely true, but it all goes back to my back pain I was experiencing last spring/summer.  Turns out it wasn't anything to do with my back, but the pain was from a kidney stone aka urinary calculus. 

I had been to the doctor a few times about the back pain and eventually he sent me for a x-ray which showed nothing.  I had some pain in the back again, but it wasn't as painful as before, but this time I had some blood in my urine.  I pretty much knew then it was a kidney stone, but I'm no expert.  I went back to the doctor and he sent me for an ultrasound which showed it was a kidney stone.  They went back and looked at my previous x-ray and it showed the kidney stone too which they missed the first time.  Thanks a lot!!

The doctor sent in a referral to see the urologist.  He marked it "urgent", but it still took me two months to get in to see him.  I had my appointment with the urologist on Nov 17th.  I had to go for another x-ray before I saw him though.  Anyway, when I met him he said the stone was too big to be passed the old fashioned way, so that left two other ways to get rid of it.  He was originally going to use lithotripsy which is a shockwave treatment meant to break up the stone.  That was the x-ray was for, but it didn't show up on the x-ray.  It was probably hiding behind a pelvic bone.

That left an ureteroscopy which the doctor guides a fibre optic cable up your existing "plumbing".  This is a day surgery option meaning you go to the hospital, they put you out, do the procedure, and you go home the same day.  I've only been in the hospital twice, once when I was born and later when I diagnosed with my diabetes.  The plan was to go in and place a stent in my ureter and then laser the kidney stone into smaller fragments, so they could pass.  The stent dilates the ureter and allows the stone fragments to pass into the bladder.  The stent would have to stay in there for a week, then it would have to be removed.  This would require going back to the hospital to be put out again.  I got lucky and they removed the kidney stone via basket extraction and no stent was needed. 

My original appointment for all this was April 24th.  I don't want to have to wait five months!  Somebody cancelled their appointment, so I went in on Nov. 22nd.  A five month wait turned into five days.  I took it because I didn't want to wait five months, I just wanted to get it over with ASAP.  My parents came up on Monday and my mom took me to the hospital and stayed with me cuz that's what moms do.  My surgery was at 7:40 am, so I had to be there at 6 am.  It went pretty smooth I guess because I was in the room ready to go at 7:40 am.

When they put the "gas mask" on me I was thinking this stuff smells funny and how come it's taking so long to work.  Of course next thing I know I'm waking up and a nurse is telling me that my surgery is all done.  The doctor was hanging around the recovery area waiting for the next patient and he told me it all went good and they got the stone out and didn't have to put in the stent, so I happy to get some good news.  I got wheeled back upstairs to the day surgery unit and I could leave soon as I felt able.   They make you drink a lot of water because you can't go home until you go to the bathroom.  Yeah, one side effect is that it will burn when you urinate, but luckily that went away fairly quickly. 

My back was hurting a bit because having the thing in my ureter can bring on pain similar to the kidney stone pain.  I asked for a pain killer and I was given the options a Tylenol 3, something I don't remember, or a morphine suppository.  I said "Hell no!" to the suppository.  I already had something shoved up my penis and didn't anything going up my ass.  Leave my orifices alone!  I got the stuff I don't remember put in my IV and it worked.  I also got a bit nauseous probably from the anesthetic, but got a shot of something and didn't puke or anything, so it was all good.  After that I went to the bathroom and got dressed because I wanted to get out of there and get home.  I hoping to go home earlier, but didn't leave until 2:30 pm.

Once at home I just laid around and was super lazy in general for pretty much the rest of the week.  Another side effect of the procedure is you'll have blood in your urine for a few days after.  It was always scary to look in the toilet and see red because it's not supposed to be that colour.  Anyway, I survived the whole thing and have an appointment to go back to see the doctor in two months.  They can analyze the kidney stone to see what it's made from because it could be caused by certain things in your diet.  I'll let you know what happens!

I was planning on writing this a lot sooner, but I was super lazy and not really doing anything the whole time besides watching stuff on TV or my PMP.  Yeah, I finally got my replacement for the one I broke, but that will have to wait for another post.  I haven't been at work for 7 days days and I'm almost looking forward to going back because I've been doing nothing the entire time.  I'm bored!  I wish I could seen my kidney stone or gotten a picture of it. 

Chocolate sandwich

It took me a while, but I'm finally eating Nutella.  I don't know what took me so long to jump on the Nutella bandwagon as it's basically a chocolate spread.  I'm sure I've tried it before, but for some reason I wasn't that impressed with it.  A little while ago a thing came in the mail from Nutella and attached was a sample packet.  I quickly grabbed it and hid it, so Cody couldn't have any.  I tried it and this time I liked it.  Chocolate!

I've bought it a few times and now it's usually part of my breakfast.  Nothing gets you going in the morning like a chocolate sandwich.   It's nice to take a break from peanut butter, plus Nutella has less fat.  Look I'm eating healthy!  Although, I don't like the weird shaped jars Nutella comes in.  It makes it hard to scrape out the last chocolatey bits.  I bought this jar of Nutella the other day, but it had a more conventional shape.  Also, they were out of the other sizes, so it's not like I had a choice.

It's cool because it's basically a glass cup with Nutella in it, so once you are done it can be washed out and you have nice new drinking glass.  Unfortunately for me, I rarely drink from a cup.  Why would I unnecessarily dirty a glass when I can drink straight from the carton or container?  I'm just doing Cody a favor, so there will be less dishes when he washes them.

Doctor's orders

Things on the Battlefield 3 front are mixed.  Sometimes I do good and sometimes I do bad.  It doesn't help that I'm constantly put on the worst teams.  The other day I joined a game of Conquest (aka Capture the Flag) already in progress where my team held no flags at all.  I was only in the game for five minutes before it ended and I went 4-1, but was number one on my team in terms of points.  What the hell was everyone doing before I got there?  If I'm the best player on the team then doesn't say much about the other 11 players.

My biggest annoyances with the game have to be some of the spawns.  I've literally spawned into bullets and getting killed before you even get a chance to move can be frustrating.  Also, you can unlock tactical flashlights and laser attachments for your gun that will blind your enemy.  I find these pretty cheap, but they do work.  I don't use them, but that's just the way I play.  The worst is when players on your own team are shining them in your face.  Me and some guy on my team were across from each other in front of a door and he kept shinning his stupid light in my face, so I couldn't see anything and when two enemies walked in the door and I was blinded.  I did the old "spray and pray" and managed to kill them both.  Then I got out of there because next time I might not be so lucky.

So far I pretty much usually play the Engineer class because I like that you can carry a RPG and anti-tank mines.  What can I say, I love blowing stuff up.  I throw down mines all over the place and somebody always runs over them.  I just like sitting back watching and waiting as a tank drives over my mines.  I'm getting good with the RPG too as one match the other day almost all my kills where with mines or RPGs.  I kept kept launching rockets across the map and killing snipers.  The engineers use carbines which lack accuracy at range, so I will just shoot rockets at guys I can't get with my gun.

Anyway, the whole point of this post is for you guys to give me your Dr. Pepper PIN codes.  EA and Dr. Pepper have a deal where you can redeem PIN codes from Dr. Pepper for goodies to be used in EA games.  They did this back for Bad Company 2 and Medal of Honor, but it was only open to residents of the USA.  Luckily, now it's been brought to Canada too, so you can unlock game gear for Battlefield 3, Need for Speed: The Run, The Sims and some older titles too.  I unlocked some camo for my guys from a 500ml bottle I bought this morning.  Also available are some avatar gear and dog tags.  I don't bother to equip my guy with dog tags, but I will get them anyway because I'm OCD like that.  That's why if you happen to buy a Dr. Pepper send the PIN so I can redeem it for some game swag.  Thanks bros.

Free t-shirt update

I finally got around to redeeming my PIN codes for the free Post cereal t-shirts.  For the past Kellogg's free shirt offer, you redeemed your PIN then picked which shirt you wanted.  Post did something different in when you redeem your PIN you get the shirt from the cereal brand the PIN came from.  So when I redeemed my Alpha Bits PIN code, I was only allowed to pick a Alpha Bits shirt.  The other shirts were not available.   I didn't mind because I only wanted the Honey Combs and Alpha Bits shirts anyway, and those were to the two cereals I bought, so it worked out.  If you wanted a Sugar Crisp shirt without having to actually eat some Sugar Crisp then you are SOL.  But why would you want one, Sugar Crisp is gross.  Now I just have to wait the 6-8 weeks for my shirts to arrive.

I'm also just finishing off the leftover Halloween candy.  The peanut M&M's are still a big rip off.  I opened a bag that only had three M&M's in it!  And I was complaining about only getting four M&M's before, I was lucky to get that many.

Also, yes I had a shower.

This stinks!

Today the resident manager of the complex we live in came over to look over some repairs we had given him.  Of course we had given him the list back on Sept 1st when we gave him the rent, but he just got around to doing it now.  I'm sure the second list of repairs we gave him with on Nov 1st reminded him.  Anyway, I was out this morning doing stuff and buying $180 Lego sets and when I got home I saw the note he left us on the kitchen table.

I can't shower until Friday?!  It's not that I don't mind, but I can't speak for anyone in closer proximity to me.  I only work a half day on Thursday and I don't work at all on Friday, so it probably won't be too bad.  That still seems like a long time without a shower.

Vote!

If there was ever a time to weigh in and be heard on an important ground breaking decision, that time is now.  Your vote could affect people all around the world, so make sure you cast your vote, it's your right and your duty.  What exactly are we voting for?  Why the next Star Wars figure to be produced by Hasbro!

VOTE

Yes, believe it or not, there are still a few Star Wars characters that Lucas hasn't made money on yet, so the all important choice is left to us, the consumer.  You can choose one from 20 twenty characters from all mediums of the Star Wars universe from the movies, books, comics and cartoons.   After looking at the characters I recognized a few, most of them I didn't.  I think a couple of the movie characters you have to pause the movie and go frame by frame and then pick them out of the background or something.  I also find it funny that you can vote for an action figure.  So we can vote for an action figure to be made into an action figure?  I also find it hard to believe the Emperor w/throne figure hasn't been done yet.  Chances are that will be the one that gets made.  I know I'd rather have that than a Sim Aloo figure, that dude is a scrub.  If for reason you want a Sim Aloo figure or a Jaxxon figure, then go vote already.

Free bars no more!

I keep forgetting to mention that a few weeks ago I received my free Kashi bar sample in the mail.  If you didn't get one when I told you too then you are SOL.  The free bars are all gone!  I actually took a picture of the box, but accidentally deleted the picture off my memory card.  The box has since been recycled, so you'll have to use your imagination.  I'll help you out, it was rectangular.

The box the free bar came was pretty big, it seemed like a waste of packaging to put only one bar in it.  Cheap skates!  I got my bar and I ate it.  The whole deal behind the free bar was some guy said healthy food can taste good and if it doesn't then he'll eat the box.  You can vote at the Kashi site on weather or not you liked it, disliked it or just was to see that schmuck eat the box.  Everyone takes enjoyment in the misfortunes of others, so I say make him eat the box.  Make sure you vote for him to eat the box because right now it looks like he's not going to do it.  If he ends up not eating the box I'll never eat another Kashi bar again.  They don't know how to have fun.  Hey, the box has more fibre anyway!  Get it?!

Is it just me or does that look like a cross between Jarod from Sub-Way and Galen Weston?