One Down, 59 To Go

I guess I'd forgotten how cold it gets out here in Tennessee.  Having enjoyed a couple of months of great weather since I've been back, I feel like I've been spoiled lately.  But all that is behind us now--it's cold here.  Damn cold.  Time to bust out the fleece jacket and my Rams beanie.

Even so, the cold weather won't keep me from doing my almost-daily walking ritual.  I'm supposed to walk every day, but sometimes things get in the way and it just doesn't happen.  On the other hand, I actually like to do it and one of my motivational tools is a copy of 60 Hikes within 60 Miles of Nashville.  I ordered it from Amazon the week I moved here, and that first day of the camping trip, while waiting for the rest of the gang to show up, I sat there under a pine tree reading it, planning all kinds of wonderful adventures in the woods of Tennessee. But just a week later, I was flat on my back in the ICU, with so many tubes and electrodes attached to me that I looked like the a chubby version of the Bionic Man.  It didn't look like I'd be doing much of anything anytime soon.

But adventure delayed is not adventure denied, and since I've made a helluva recovery, one of the things I really like to do is wander around in the woods.  And one of my many new goals is to do every single one of the hikes in the book.  Coincidentally, Hike #1, the Anderson Road Fitness Trail, was the first hike on my agenda.  It's out in Antioch, not far from the airport, and since I had to take Cyndi out there this morning to catch her flight to Dallas, I figured I'd brave the cold, the rain, and the fog, and knock out this first trail, too.

It's listed as being 1.3 miles, and an 'easy' hike, which is right up in my comfort zone.  It's almost 100% paved, which I don't really care for, but then, you can't get lost, either.  But, genius that I am, decided to take a spur trail near the end, thinking it would be a better hike than just walking along a paved road for a quarter mile back to my truck.  Turns out, it was just a mountain biking loop to nowhere and it added an extra quarter-mile or so to my walk.  No harm no foul, but it kinda pissed me off.  First lesson learned--follow the map and the trail guide.

Anyhow, I'm trying to knock out all the easy hikes first--the shorter ones with paved trails or very little elevation changes, or the ones in the local greenbelts and parks, just until I feel like I'm ready to go and tackle some real hikes.  As much as I love the trails at Percy Warner, I'm just not ready to go full-on and do six miles up and down those hills.  I'm still in the baby-step phase.

Still, this was a good place to start.  My own personal journey of a thousand miles began with a few footsteps along Percy Priest Lake, a couple of raindrops, and a brisk 43 degrees.  At least I remembered to bring my camera.  (Clicky for full-sized goodness)

First view of the lake through the trees at the beginning of the trailhead.  The guidebook said to absolutely *not* take the gravel path to the left, which made me question what they were hiding.  But it was just an 'unofficial' trail, so I stayed on the paved path.  At least at first.

It was definitely an easy walking trail as it curved along the lake.  I always use my hiking stick, so I prefer to walk along the edge, keeping the stick moving in the grass and dirt, so I don't sound like a peg-legged pirate when I walk.

After about a third of a mile, there was a wooden bench just off the trail at the high-water mark.  The guidebook calls it a 'contemplation spot', but to me it just seems like a good spot to rest and take a photo or two.  I don't think I did much contemplating.

After meandering along the edge of the lake for awhile, the pathway kind of heads slightly uphill, away from the water and deeper into the woods.

About two-thirds of a mile down the path, just a few feet off the trail, were the remnants of an old well from an early homestead, likely back in the late 1800s.  The woods have reclaimed all other evidence of the cabin and such.

Not far beyond the well, there's a marker letting you know that you've walked a mile.  By then, my nose was freezing cold, but my head had steam coming off of it, like those players in the footage on those old NFL Films highlights.

After 1.1 miles, the boulders mark the end of the trail at the park service road.  You can either turn back and do the trail in reverse, or just walk down the road a quarter mile to the parking lot.
 

Or, you could take this obvious spur trail off to the side that certainly must take you back to the parking lot.

 

See, this is what a hiking trail is supposed to look like!

Unfortunately, the little spur trail didn't do anything but circle around in the woods for a bit, bringing me back to the row of boulders at the edge of the road after about ten minutes.  So I got a little extra-credit hiking done.  

And now that I know I won't melt in the rain or the fog, I'll probably do another hike tomorrow.  I haven't decided if I'm going to walk the greenbelt up at Concorde Park up in Brentwood (meh...), or maybe head south and explore some trails along the Duck River.  Or if the weather is too uncooperative, I may just take the dogs on a walk around the neighborhood.  Believe me, getting dragged around the subdivision by a basset hound with a short attention span is a pretty good workout all on it's own.

Mikey

Everything But the Keyboard

Hey gang--I know y'all are patiently waiting for a cruise post, complete with lots of pictures and funny stories, and I *promise* that it's coming.  Just not immediately.  Yeah, I've been working on it for quite some time, and I'd hoped to have it up first thing this morning, but it just didn't happen.

First of all, the first draft is still unfinished.  Second of all, what I've got so far still needs a bit of editing.  And third of all, I've been away from the keyboard for several days now.  I just haven't had a lot of quality time with the computer for awhile.

It started on Thursday, when I went up to Vanderbilt for my weekly jab at the clinic.  Once I got out of there, I ended up spending the entire afternoon over at Amy's house, then did a Costco run with Tim that evening, and by the time I got home, it was all I could do to stay awake on the couch and watch the Baltimore/Atlanta game.

On Friday, I got up pretty early and drove up to Mamasan's place.  Yeah, she lives 68 miles from my current digs down here in Spring Hill, so it's a commitment to go up and visit.  I packed a suitcase and stayed the night.  We had a nice time, didn't really do too much but hang out, play cards, and do some holiday planning. 

When I headed back south on Saturday afternoon, I had just enough time once I got home to take a shower and get myself all purtified before heading back out once again.  I ended up going to a party with Cyndi and Tim, and we ended up staying there until almost 2:00 in the morning.  It was a helluva good time, almost worth it's own post, but 1) I didn't take my camera, and 2) a lot of things that happened that night should probably just stay in the vault.  Besides, I think I picked up a few new readers while I was there, and well, some of that buffoonery should just remain unshared, if ya know what I mean.

Once I finally shuffled out of bed on Sunday morning and got some coffee in me, it was all I could do to read the paper and make my way to the couch for another day of football.  Eventually I took a shower and got some decent clothes on, and that afternoon, Tim, Jeff, and I spent a bit of time taking apart the dashboard on Tim's truck, trying to fix his headlight issue.  Once we got that taken care of, the womenfolk made it back home, and we had some folks over for dinner.

Cyndi & Tim made a batch of Cincinnati-style Skyline chili, and we had Caesar salad, garlic bread, and four-ways.  It was pretty damn good, but even though I know I'm gonna take some shiat for it, I don't think I'm a huge fan of the spices that go in that Skyline sauce.  I'm more of a traditional chili type of guy, but then again, that's what I grew up with.  Had I spent my formative years in Cincitucky, I'd probably think it's the best thing in the world.  Instead, I found it to be more 'interesting' than 'oh my god get me some more of THAT!'

But once we finished our dinner and the company had left, I believe I dozed through Iron Chef and/or the Steelers game before calling it a weekend.  And I don't feel like I got much sleep last night, either.  My bed is a bit too soft for me, I've found, so I wake up with a sore back every day.  Tim offered to pick up a piece of plywood while he's out today, so we'll stiffen it up a bit and I won't need to spend a good chunk of every morning trying to work the kinks out.

Anyhow, now that it's Monday morning, I've still got a lot to do.  I'm leaving in a few minutes to take Cyndi to the airport (her job is 100% travel, so she's only home on the weekends), and then I'll probably head over to Percy Priest Lake and walk the Anderson Road fitness trail.  It's still kind of cold and nasty out, but I need to get out and do some walking--I haven't done nearly as much as I should this past week, and I'm feeling antsy. 

But once I get back, I promise to sit down at the keyboard and get some work done on that cruise report.  It should be up very soon.  I just hope I haven't built up your expectations too highly. 

Until then, I'm outta here!

Mikey

Sorry For the Delay

I know that I've probably pissed off most of you regulars out there, but I want you all to know that I'm still working on my cruise post.  I tried to cut it down to a reasonable length, which I can't seem to do, no matter how honorable my intentions, and also, I'm working fewer photos than I thought I'd have.  (Still, I've got over 200 to choose from, but that's not making it any easier).

Anyhow, I'm still pluggin' along, making progress, but the light at the end of the tunnel is still just a mere speck.  I worked on it for several hours yesterday, and have no plans at all today except to sit here at the keyboard and keep pounding away.  

In the meantime, do me a favor.  Click over to Eric's blog and cough up some couch change.  He's heading back to Haiti--again--in January on a self-funded medical mission and needs donations to help with supplies and medicine and such.  If you've paid any attention to the news, you'll know that it's a very good cause, and every little bit counts.  And unlike some of the bigger charities where so much money goes to overhead and salaries and such, all of these donations directly benefit the people in his care.  And I, even in the dire straights that I find myself these days, thought it important enough to put my money where my mouth is and found a little extra to send his way.  If you look hard enough maybe you can, too.  I'd appreciate it, Eric would appreciate it, and the kids in Haiti would definitely appreciate it.

Please help out if you can.  Thanks.

Anyhow, I'm going to get back to writing and sorting pictures, so y'all have a great Wednesday and check back soon.  I think I've got my second wind and I'm feeling very productive!

Mikey

Patience, Grasshopper

Hey everyone...  Gotta start off by apologizing for my absence these past few days.  I'm working on writing up stuff from the cruise, and also sharing some pics, but it seems that nobody I went with is sharing their pictures.  I got a few from Cyndi and Tim, and I suppose that if I use some of those with some of mine, it'll get the job done.  But I was really hoping Reverend Dave would get his you-know-what in gear and upload some of the thousand-plus pics he took.

And y'all thought *I* was lazy...  Heh.  Meet the family!

Anyhow, not only am I waiting for some more pictures, but I've also been fairly busy.  Friday was a too-cold-to-do anything but hide out under a blanket all day kind of day, and then that night Amy and I went out to Puckett's Grocery down in Franklin to see Scottie's band play.  We had a good time, and I really dig the vibe in that place.  The food could've been better, but we chalked it up to the kitchen being overwhelmed that night--the place was packed to the gills.

On Saturday, I gathered up all my clothes and books and whatever else I had there at Amy's house and moved back down to Spring Hill.  Yep, I'm healthy enough to live in a house with stairs now, so it was time to move on.  My recovery is coming along nicely, and the hard part is behind me now.  I can start acting like a normal person once again (I even got the classified ads from the paper on Sunday morning so I can start looking for a part-time job).

The bummer of it is, no more pugs keeping me entertained all day long, but on the other hand, there's a house full of animals here, too.  First of all, there's Jake, a typical man's-best-friend dog--just great to have around and lots of fun to play with.  And he's mellow as hell, too.

... And then there's Nelson.  He's a very sweet and happy-go-lucky hound dog, but he ain't the smartest dog to ever sniff the fire hydrant.  On the other hand, he's done pretty well for himself starring in various adult films, IYKWIM...

Rounding out the herd is Major, the smartest cat I've ever seen.  I don't have a picture of him right now, but he's one cool customer.  He answers to his name, comes when you call him, and loves to sit up on you and be affectionate.  He's also a total narc on the other animals when they're doing something they ought not to be, and when he talks, he's like Lassie--you always know exactly what he's saying.  I'll get some pictures of him soon, but the bottom line is that Major will turn even the most jaded cat-hater into a cat-lover.  Just ask my brother Tim...

Anyhow, I got moved down here on Saturday evening, but we didn't do much but hang out around the house that night.  Just loading my truck with a few suitcases and bags took its toll.  Today was a football day and there was more of the same--I just laid about on the couch under a blanket.  Ever since we got back from the cruise, I've been extremely tired--I got more exercise that week than I had the entire month previous, and I think I wore myself out a little bit.  I'm trying to get back into the rhythm of recovery, but man, I'm just pooped.  Not only that, but I think my heavy-assed luggage did an encore on me, like that time I accidentally tried to pick up the case of water a few weeks ago.  Well, this time, I lifted, carried, and dragged my luggage around, and my ribs feel like I went a few rounds with Mike Tyson.  Couple that with all the exertion from the cruise (I'll tell you about the swim to shore and back that damn near did me in), and well, I'm still hurtin' a little.

Hopefully on Monday the sun will be out and I can go out and take a nice long walk--I know that'll make me feel better after all the laziness of the past couple of days.  I'll also work on polishing off the details of the cruise, so maybe that'll be up by Tuesday.

Anyhow, that's all for now.  I just wanted to let you know that I'm still here, but just kinda runnin' on empty for a couple of days.

Peace out.

Mikey

Back From the Islands

Wow, has it been eight days already?  Talk about time flying when you're having fun...  We made it back early on Wednesday afternoon from the sunshine and breeze of the islands, to the drizzle and chill of Nashville.  But even though the weather sucked, it was nice to be home.

Long story short--I had an absolute blast, as expected.  Also, we ran into Hurricane Tomas in our travels, and our itinerary got changed in mid-stream.  So no, we never made it to St. Lucia.  And even though we actually made it into the harbor in St. Kitts, it was so windy and choppy that the captain gave up on docking the ship after a couple of failed attempts.  So we didn't go there, officially, either, although we got tantalizingly close.  Instead we high-tailed it back north, out of the hurricane's path, and spent the last two days of the cruise at Grand Turk and Nassau.  (Never been to the Turks & Caicos before, been to the Bahamas several times).  It was kind of a bummer at first, but we still had a lot of fun.

Once we got finally got back to the house, we realized how exhausted we were.  We dragged all the luggage in, played with the puglets, and ordered some pizza.  Then everyone spent the rest of the afternoon dozing...  And even though I had a four-hour nap, I'm still pretty tired.  I got more exercise and pushed myself much further in the past week than I thought I could.  It was good for me, but man, it took it's toll.  I didn't 'overdo it' so much as I just stretched the envelope as far as what I had the strength to do.  But that was a good thing--I feel 1000% better now than I did when I left.  Almost back to 'normal'.  All that fresh fruit, exercise, sunshine, and tropical breeze is not only good for the soul, but pretty damn good for the body, too!

Anyhow, I'll write up a more detailed post later, probably starting on it Thursday (pray for more rain, reclickers--that'll keep me indoors!), with a bunch more pictures.  But in the meantime, here's a little taste for you. (Clicky for full-sized goodness)

Sunrise at sea, as seen from my balcony

St. Maarten, first thing in the morning

Our ship, the Carnival Miracle, and the Holland America Eurodam, sharing a dock in Grand Turk.  Frankly, I'm surprised that this picture turned out so well because I was two orders of magnitude beyond f*cked up when I snapped this photo.

More soon...

Mikey

Taking My Talents to South Beach

Here I sit, impatiently waiting for the hour-hand to make two more orbits.  Yep, just 24 hours from now, we'll be on the plane, likely making our initial approach to the airport down there in Florida.

No, we're not actually flying into Miami, but just up the road a bit to Ft. Lauderdale.  And once we arrive and the luggage is gathered up, then it's a quick taxi ride over to the cruise port to do the check-in shuffle, and before long we'll be onboard the ship, trying to avoid the photographers who treat every passenger like Brangelina.  Seriously, that's by far my least favorite part of cruising--the ship's paparazzi.  (Well, that, and the lifeboat drill).

But I'm not gonna worry about that at all.  I'm sooooo looking forward to this trip that this last day of preparation makes me feel like a kid on Christmas Eve.  I won't be able to sleep tonight, and oh yeah, I'll be up very early tomorrow morning.  (We have to be at the airport by like 6:30).  I'm not completely finished packing just yet, but that'll be taken care of later this afternoon.  Once I finish off this post, I've got to head back down to the clinic at Vanderbilt and get stabbed one last time, then it's back to the house to do my last load of laundry.  (I don't have but a small percentage of my wardrobe here at the house, the rest are either in storage or down at Cyndi's place, so I have to pack pretty much everything I have here in order to have eight day's worth of clean clothes).

I started packing last night--mostly the nicer stuff that needs to be hung up. The t-shirts, swim trunks, shorts, and skivvies will go in the suitcase later today.  Once that's done, I'll worry about my carry-on stuff and check to make sure I have my passport and ship's boarding pass at least two dozen times before we leave.

As far as sneaking the booze on board, I think I'm not even gonna bother.  They let you bring one bottle of wine on anyways, but then you've got to pay a $10 corkage fee in the dining room.  (Unless you uncork it yourself in your cabin first, I'm told.  But then I'd have to bring a corkscrew, and that's just jumping through too many damn hoops just to be cheap.  And I'm not like that).  I can't really drink the hard stuff right now, except in very small quantities, so trying to smuggle a couple of bottles of booze on board just isn't worth the effort to me.  I'd rather just pay for my rum (sodomy and the lash, however, is complementary, so I've heard).

I'll have a few fruity drinks each day, and some wine with dinner, but that's about it.  Besides, the prices for wine onboard really ain't that bad, especially if you're buying the good stuff.  Waaaay less markup than at restaurants, unless you're buying that god-awful Beringer white zin.  (I think it's like $6.99 at Kroger, but thirty bucks on the ship).  The more expensive wine, believe it or not, is a much better deal.  So I'll probably buy a bottle of white and a bottle of red for the dining room to have with dinner, so the damage will be minimal.  And the extra expense is fine with me to avoid the effort and hassle of trying to get around their alcohol policy, anyways.

I may have mentioned it before (too lazy to go look), but I think we have the perfect itinerary--two full sea days (my favorite), followed by three island days, and then two more sea days before returning home.  And this cruise is eight days, not just seven, and an extra day at sea is just fine with me! And we're chartering a private sailboat while we're in St. Martin, which I can't wait for--I haven't been sailing in far too long, so I plan on enjoying every minute of it. 

We've got a 40-foot catamaran reserved, and I think we have it for seven hours.  Our plan is to spend the day sailing and snorkeling at a couple of different secluded spots and then hit some small offshore island that has a tiki bar on the beach.  Oh, and as a bonus, our charter includes and open bar and lunch, and word around the campfire is that our charter captain is also a retired chef.  Everyone is looking forward to this excursion...

I don't have anything planned while we're in St. Kitts, maybe just a beach day.  In St. Lucia, Sherry, Steve, and I are getting single-day passes to the Sandals Grande resort.  Oh hell yeah--full run of their facilities, including all the water toys (plus all the food and booze you want).  I'd like to go see the Pitons or do some exploring, but everything worth seeing is an hour-and-a-half bus ride from where the ship is docked. F*ck that.  I'd rather just chill in a hammock all day at this place:

Ain't no way I'm gonna spend three hours of my day riding a bus with a bunch of tourists...

Anyhow, that's all I've got.  I'm just gonna do all my last-minute packing and stuff, then try to get some sleep before we pull the ripcord and make our escape first thing tomorrow morning.  I won't have my phone or computer with me, so there will be no updates, nor will I be able to moderate any comments after tomorrow morning.  This website will officially be in limbo for the next nine or ten days.

But when I get back--oh yeah, lots of pictures and stories.  Until then, y'all enjoy your cubes.  I'm heading to the islands!

Mikey

It's The Final Countdown!

 

Yeah, I'm ready to get me some Caribbean vacation on!

No More Doctors!

At least for three months... 

Yep, I'm free of hospitals and doctor's offices for awhile.  My surgeon didn't feel the need to schedule a follow-up appointment when I met with him on Tuesday, and I met with my new primary-care doctor yesterday, and he was rather impressed with my recovery.

After giving me the look-over and checking all my particulars, he scheduled me for another lab test just to check my blood sugars and such.  He seems to think that the endocrinologists at Vanderbilt were a little too strident with the whole diabetes thing, and once he gets my lab work back, he said he'll likely cut that blood-sugar medicine dosage way back with an eye to eliminating it altogether.  I brought in my notebook where I've written down absolutely everything I've eaten and drunk since I got out of the hospital (which also includes tracking my weight loss), and he seems to think that I'm 'wiping out any risk' I had of diabetes with my new diet and regular exercise.  And two inches off of my waist in the last month helps, too.

Anyhow, the plan is that once he gets the results back, he'll mail me some instructions and then I don't have to go back and see him again until the end of January.  Woot!

Oh, I still have to go to the Coumadin clinic every week to make sure my blood doesn't get too thick or too thin, but that doesn't bother me at all--it's quick, easy, and almost painless (I'm fairly immune to needles at this point).  It' pretty well balanced out now, and I've been right where I should be these past couple of weeks.  And I've got my visits scheduled around the cruise, too.  I go in again on Monday, then I don't have to go back again until the Thursday after we get back.  On the other hand, I still have to take a ziplock bag full of drugs with me on vacation.  I imagine I'll muddle through, somehow...

Anyhow, it's another nice weight to have off of my shoulders as I head into this long-awaited vacation.  Can you believe it's been six long years since I went on a cruise?  That whole Vegas experience kept me from enjoying all of my weekends, holidays, and all family vacations.  I can't believe I put up with that shiat for so long.  What was I thinking?  I think that when all is said and done, I'm going to look back on that whole Vegas experience like I do when I think of my time in Alaska--I'm glad I did it, and it was a hell of a time, but I'll never do it again.

But that's behind me now.  Today I'm doing more vacation-prep, and right now I'm in laundry and packing mode.  Everything that gets hung up goes in the garment bag tonight.  I'll pack the foldables on Monday night.  But once my morning chores are done, I'm gonna motor over to the east side of town and meet Sherry for lunch, then we're going to get manicures and pedicures done.  Gotta look well-groomed if I'm going to be out wandering the deck with flip-flops on.  Plus, as I mentioned before, the ladies like it when your nails look good.  Don't know why, but it's a chick thing.

After all that, it's back to the house for a relaxing Friday night, maybe videos and Chinese take-out.  Tomorrow is the bon voyage party, and then I have no idea what else is going on until we head to the airport first thing on Tuesday morning.  I'll be leaving my laptop and phone here at the house, turned off and unplugged.  I'm going off the grid for eight wonderful days!  I'm sure all my iPhone addicted relatives will be bringing theirs because they can't function without them, but not me, the only phone call I want to get next week is the one waking me up telling me to get out of bed because we've just docked in St. Martin.  (Did I mention that we've charted a sailboat for the day there???)

Until next time...

Mikey

Just Another Day In Tennessee

I guess it's better than painting Free Candy! on the side...

Mikey

Running Out of Things To Do

Howdy gang!  I've got a few minutes to enjoy this brisk fall morning with my coffee, so I thought I'd take a break from watching the puglets unsuccessfully chase the squirrels in the back yard and check in with all of you re-clickers.

Just in case you're wondering, I'm doing pretty well.  After my visit to the doc the other day, I've been in a damn fine mood, feeling almost normal again.  I've got another appointment in a couple of hours over at the ghettofabulous walk-in clinic, which I'm not really looking forward to, but hey, gotta do what I gotta do.

I've been spending my week trying to come up with stuff to do to prepare for this trip next week, and I think I've run out of ideas.  Back in the day when I was working right up until the day I left for the Caribbean, it felt like I didn't have enough time to get things done and I always left with that nagging feeling that I'd forgotten something.  No chance of that now--I've been preparing so much that I'm damn near to the point of making up stuff to do.

I made my last purchases at Wallyworld yesterday, the main thing being wire clothes hangers.  All I have are those big plastic hangers, but those just won't do in my garment bag.  I've got about eight shirts, four or five pairs of pants, and a sport jacket that I need to go on hangers, and I've gotta have wire hangers to get them all in the suitcase.  Other than that, I picked up a few random items like moist towelettes and a small spray bottle, and now I'm pretty sure that I'm all set.  All I have left to do is pick up the clothes from the dry cleaner tomorrow and pack my bags.  Oh, and tomorrow I'm going with Sherry to get a manicure and pedicure too.

After that, it's the weekend.  I know, weekends don't matter much to me, but everyone else will be around goofing off, too.  Reverend Dave is coming up on Saturday, and then that evening we're having a bonfire/Bon Voyage party here at Amy's house.  We've got a group of eleven people going--Sherry & Steve, Cyndi & Tim, Amy & Scottie, Gaines, Reverend Dave, and me, then Mamasan and her friend Mary.  The cool thing is that ten of us are all on the same flight out of Nashville (Reverend Dave is flying out of Huntsville since he has to work on Monday back down in Sweet Home).  That should be a good time...

Anyhow, the party is obviously Caribbean-themed, and everyone is supposed to bring a dish.  So far, all I know is that Amy is making coconut chicken, and Mamasan is bringing the black bean & pineapple dip.  Other than that, I have no idea what we're having besides pina coladas.  I just hope it's not too cold that night, although a big bonfire and some tiki torches will take the chill off.  Even if it is cold on Saturday, I don't care, because next week it'll be nothing but sunshine and sea breeze.  I may even come back with a tan!

So besides cruise prep, I've not had a whole lot of really interesting things going on.  Now that I can drive again, I feel like a guy just let out of jail--I can go do anything I want!  Of course, I don't really have much disposable income, and everyone I know works during the day, so there ain't much I can do.  However, I spent damn near all day yesterday running errands.

I left the house around 10:00 o'clock in the morning and drove up to Madison to hit the Casual Male store.  I needed to pick up some more underwear, and figured that maybe I'd get a new Hawaiian shirt or something, too.  Unfortunately, all they had was winter clothes.  So I got my underwear, and then picked up a bathrobe and some long flannel pajama bottoms (it's cold in this house in the morning!).  But the purpose of the robe was two-fold; 1) I don't have one, and need one anyways, and 2) I'm going to use it for my Halloween costume.

We'll be on the ship over Halloween, and of course there is a costume party that night.  We've been going around in circles for months trying to decide what to wear that night, and I've decided to go as Hef.  I got the robe and pj bottoms, and instead of a heavy set of slippers that I'll likely never wear again, I'll just wear flip-flops.  Plus I have a pipe, and today while I'm out I'm going over to Party City to pick up a gray comb-over wig.  I've also got some of those office-style nametags, the ones that say 'Hello, my name is...' and I'll just write HEF on one and stick it to my robe.  I may roll up a Playboy and shove it in one of the pockets, and as a brilliant stroke of genius, I'm also going to pick up a few pink bunny ears at the party store to carry with me.

I can guarantee that I'll have and entourage of gals following me around at the party--and no, I don't mean my sisters, either.  Yep, it's gonna be a good time.  I'll be sure to take lots of pictures, too, because I know how you people get...

After getting my clothes/costume, Scottie called and asked if I wanted to meet up with him and Amy for lunch, so I hauled myself down to West End, down by Centennial Park, and we ate at Bombay Palace.  I can't remember ever having Indian food before, and it was pretty good.  They set it up as a small buffet, and I think I had a small sample of everything except one dish that had goat as the main ingredient.  Anyhow, the naan bread and the spicy dishes were really good, but they had this tomato chutney stuff that was amazing.  I could've made a meal out of that and the naan bread all by itself.  Good stuff, although it felt like everything they offered was spicy.  I wish I could've remembered the names of stuff we ate, because some of it was really tasty.  Scottie has lunch there about once a week and said that the menu changes every day, so you don't get the same thing every time.  I'd gladly go back and try it again though--maybe I didn't have very high expectations, but it was surprisingly good food.  

After lunch, it was back over to this side of town to hit Wallyworld and get my prescriptions filled.  I did the last of my shopping while waiting, and then finally got home around 2:30 in the afternoon.  I sat down to relax for a bit, and of course dozed off in the chair for a half hour or so.

Once I got up from my 'nap', I got busy in the kitchen preparing for dinner.  We were having some friends over to grill burgers, and we did those marinated dry-ranch burgers that Amy and Scottie came up with.  So I mixed all that meat up and set it to marinating in the fridge, then went out and got the bbq grill set up and ready to go.  After an hour or so, I made all the patties and put them on waxed paper, and did all the other prep stuff I could think of to get dinner ready.

Our friends came over around 6:30, and dinner was a hit--we had our grilled cheeseburgers, some baked maple/bacon beans, and some casserole-style mac & cheese.  It was damn tasty.  Amy also made an apple 'dump cake' and yeah, I had a small piece of that for dessert.  Guess that means I'm gonna be doing some extra walking today.  I don't care--it was good, and the nutritionist said I can 'cheat' a little when I go on the cruise anyways, as long as I'm doing my exercises.  I just told myself that I was getting a head start on my vacation.  Heh.

After dinner, we spent an hour or so laughing our asses off watching videos.  Did you know that with Tivo you can watch YouTube on your television set?  I didn't!  Well, because of that, we sat in the den cracking up, looking up our favorite videos.  I discovered that there were still four people in this world that had never seen the 'Yatta' video, which somebody sent me long before the days of YouTube.  I still have the old movie file somewhere on a hard drive, but now, anyone can see it.  For those of you who've never seen it, well, prepare to be shocked.  Seriously, it's five minutes of total WTF????  Here ya go:







Oh dear god--just watching the reaction on people's faces who'd never seen it before was absolutely priceless. I had to take a pain pill afterward because I was laughing so hard that it was just killing my chest.

Anyhow, now that you've seen that, here's a little palate cleanser--my new favorite song from Train, called Save Me San Francisco.  It's a catchy tune that I heard for the first time yesterday while I was out driving around.  It's not really much of a video, but the song is the important part.  Enjoy! 





Have a great day, y'all!

Mikey

Clean Bill of Health

Today has been a great day so far!

First of all, I drove myself down to Vanderbilt.  This is quite the milestone, as the last time I drove anywhere it was back from the Kroger where I damn near passed out the day before I went in the hospital back in early September.  Again--progress.

Anyhow, my follow-up appointment with the doctor who did my surgery was today, and it couldn't have gone better.  He was impressed with my recovery so far and told me I looked about a thousand percent better than the last time I saw him.  Truth is, I feel about a thousand percent better than the last time I saw him, too. 

The good news is that I'm pretty well down the road to recovery, and although not quite 100% just yet, I should be there soon.  I'm shooting for 'normal' status around the new year.  In the meantime, I've just got to work on getting my strength back and building some endurance.  And on the plus side, he cut out about half of my medications, and told me that I can start weaning myself off of painkillers now, too.  No more potassium supplements, either.  And I'll be especially thankful for not having to take that Lasix stuff anymore either.  Having to go pee every half hour or so is a real pain in the ass...

They poked and prodded at me for just a few minutes, examined my scar, asked me a few questions, gave me some prescription refills on the stuff I still have to take, and then told me that I was good to go.  No other appointment was made.  (Still not out of the woods just yet--got an appointment on Thursday with me new 'primary care' physician, but that won't be much of a hassle).  I still have to go to the Coumadin clinic every week and get my blood tested, and I'll be on that stuff for six months, but that's actually not too tough.  Now I know that the doctor wants me to go to cardiac rehab therapy, (basically supervised exercise where they monitor your vitals the whole time), but the one he referred me to is $186 per session, and the standard 'recovery package' is 36 sessions.  That ain't gonna happen...

In the meantime I'm just gonna keep on walking, and maybe invest in some lightweight dumbells to help build back up the strength.

Anyhow, just having the folks who put me back together telling me that I'm doing well, well, that just improved my outlook immeasurably.  Sitting around the house wondering if life will ever be normal again is a tough thing to chew on day after day. 

So once I escaped from Vanderbilt, I felt like a free man once again.  I could drive--I could go anywhere I wanted to!  So what did I do?  I came back to the house.  I rested a bit, then gathered up all the stuff that had to go to the cleaners, some outgoing mail, and off I went to run errands.  I also went to the grocery store, but didn't pick up but a few random things.

When all that was done, of course I was exhausted.  I came home and dozed in the easy chair for a bit, but then got up and fixed some lunch.  I think I'm done exerting myself for the rest of the day, but tomorrow I'm going to go on a real hike--I'm going to do one of the longer trails over at the park.  I still may go out and do a walk this evening, depending on how I feel.  And whenever Sherry's next day off is, I'm gonna drive over there and do another trail I saw that's near her house. (She said she'd walk with me).  Gotta get in shape for this cruise--that ship is over 900 feet long, and just getting off the dock is a hike.

I wish I had more to share, but that's all the news from here today.  But it's good enough for me.

Mikey

Quietly Getting Back To Normal

Hey gang--hope everyone had a good weekend and a lovely Monday at work.  Me?  I had the good weekend...

I took off on Thursday to stay up at Mamasan's place, and we had a pretty nice visit.  It's always relaxing to hang out up there--We don't do much but play cards and such (I mean, I never watch tv or anything when I'm up there, I just chill), and it was a nice getaway.  On Friday, we took a nice long drive in the country, mostly just looking at all the brilliant fall colors.  Oh man, there are lots of beautiful trees in middle Tennessee, and we spent most of the day searching them out.  I tried to take a few pictures, but all those back roads have power lines which kept screwing up the photos, so I gave up.  Also, I didn't have hiking shoes on, either, so I didn't want to go traipsing around in the underbrush to get a better shot.  Still, it was pretty cool.

We stopped at a produce stand in Ridgetop, the town we lived in when I was just a pup, and got a few things.  Mamasan got some really nice potted flowers for her porch and her deck, and we also bought some fresh tomatoes and some of the best-looking green beans I'd ever seen.  Having eaten nasty overcooked canned green beans twice a day in the hospital, I'd given up on them, but these looked so good sitting there in the crate that we bought a couple of handfuls.  I think we also got a homemade coconut cake, and I picked up a Mason jar of home-made blueberry preserves, too (Had the preserves on toast for breakfast yesterday morning.  Oh hell yeah, they were damn good!).

After that, we drove by the old house waaaaay out in the woods, then made our way down the back roads to Goodlettsville, just like we used to do when I was about ten years old.  Eventually, we got on one of the back road Tennessee highways and found our way back to Mamasan's place.  I was absolutely worn out after that, so I took a nice long nap.

I woke up to a wonderful dinner, though.  Mamasan had made some of her famous pork chops, a salad chocked full of all kinds of good veggies, baked potatoes, and those farm-fresh green beans.  Man, they were great--I ate two large helpings of them, ruining me for life.  I won't be able to eat normal frozen or canned beans ever again...  Oh well.

On Saturday morning, she dropped me off down by Titans stadium where Sherry met me. We drove out east towards her place, but first we had a nice leisurely breakfast together at Cracker Barrel.  First pancake I've eaten in months, and it was pretty damn good.  I also went with turkey sausage, and it was surprisingly unsucky (they also tried to feed me turkey sausage EVERY morning in the hospital, and it was awful!--the Cracker Barrel version was much better).

After breakfast, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some picnic items, then we went back to Sherry's house for the rest of the day.  We spent the entire afternoon looking through photo albums of all of her past cruises (she's been on twelve of them now!) as we anticipated our upcoming trip.  We've got the fever, and this last week is gonna be tough--y'all think I had it bad waiting for a Vegas trip back in the day, well, I look forward to the cruises even more!

Anyhow, after looking through all the pictures and planning our sailing charter in St. Martin, her husband Steve came home and we got ready to head out for the evening.  Our plan was to go out and enjoy the offerings at Arrington Vineyards.  So we packed a picnic basket and some shopping bags, loaded up a folding table and some camp chairs in the back of Steve's truck, and headed down south.  Amy and Scottie were planning to meet us there later and make a party of it, too.

So I didn't know quite what to expect.  Hell, I had no idea that they made wine in Tennessee.  I thought all we had was Yazoo Beer and Jack Daniels.  But this place was amazing.  It's pretty far off the beaten path, up on a beautiful hill overlooking other beautiful hills, surrounded by forest and streams.  And when we got there, we were shocked to see about seven or eight hundred other people there already, and people directing traffic and such.

I guess it's not exactly a secret.

So we unloaded all of our gear from the truck, and then we were faced with a dilemma.  Sherry thought there was absolutely no way I'd be able to climb the hill up to the main part of the vineyard--believe me, it's a long and steep mutha.  I was willing to give it a try, but just then one of them shuttle-service stretched golf carts showed up, and we piled everything in it and they drove us up the hill.

All of the picnic tables were taken by then, but we found a relatively flat area and set up our camp.  They grow grapes all over the property, but the main tasting house and store are at the top of the hill, kind of like the headquarters of the place.  There is also a big covered patio for dining, a concrete area with a stage and several more tables off to the side, and then on the other side of the tasting house, there is a huge fire pit for bonfires. The rest of the property is expansive green space with random picnic tables and swings for people to just come out and enjoy.

And the people come out by the hundreds to enjoy it.  Yeah, there was a band over by the tasting house, but there was only room for about a hundred people over there, but there were families and small groups of friends scattered all over having picnics and just relaxing in the last bit of warmth from a sunny autumn day.  Seriously, the place looked just like you'd expect to see in a wine commercial.

Amy and Scottie showed up a bit later, and we stopped in the little store to get some of the wine.  We each bought a bottle, and while some of it was good, some of it was, well, Tennessee wine.  Not Napa or Bordeaux or anything like that.  I'd say two of the bottles were good, the other ones, not so much.  But the atmosphere was absolutely top notch.

So we sat at our picnic table enjoying cheese, crackers, fruit, summer sausage, fresh bread, etc., sipping on our wine and just marveling at how nice it was to be out there.  Oh, we're definitely gonna do it again.  Once the sun went down, it got pretty dark out and most of the crowds started heading home.  We never got to do a wine tasting--the waiting list was much too long--but we enjoyed the bonfire and the live music before calling it a night.

Sherry and Steve passed me off to Amy and Scottie, and we then made our way over to Cyndi's place in Spring Hill, which isn't too far away from where we were.  But Amy and Scottie had spent their Saturday buying a new pickup truck (they got used to using mine since I've been here, and decided they needed one since Scottie's Altima is about to got tits-up on him), and Cyndi and Tim spent their day buying a new, ahem, mini-van.  So we had to go over and compare the new rides.

By the time we got out of there, we were all dog-tired and had to make that long trek back up to Nashville, where we all went straight to bed once we got home.  It was a long day, and all that hiking around at the hilly vineyard just wore my ass completely out.

On Sunday morning, it was nice to just sleep in and be a slug for awhile.  But we couldn't relax at the house all day, there were chores to be done.  I went through all of my 'cruise clothes' and found the stuff that's going to the cleaners, then I went through everything else and found a bunch of stuff to take to the alteration shop, too.  But that chore didn't get quite completed--none of the local cleaners are open on Sundays.

Once the chores were done, Scottie and I met Cyndi and my niece Diana over at the Loveless Cafe.  Once we hooked up with them, we were waiting on Tim, Reverend Dave, and Diana's boyfriend Jeff.  They had all spent the night down at Dave's place in Alabama and were riding their motorcycles up the Natchez Trace.  Since the Loveless is right there on the Trace, we agreed to all meet up for lunch.

Of course we started with their famous biscuits, and some folks had breakfast.  But I went the lunch route and had the best damn grilled turkey and Swiss with onion sandwich that I've ever eaten.  Seriously, it was quite the nom-fest.  They have a big damn display window in the kitchen, and I think Scottie's head almost exploded when he saw the bin-o-bacon.  He got so excited that he couldn't sit still after that.  Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me, or else you'd be seeing it here, too.

After our meal, Scottie picked up a jar of those famous blackberry preserves for Amy (who couldn't join us, as she had a prior commitment), and then we headed back to the house.  Reverend Dave came by to hang out for a bit before too much daylight (and warmth) burned away, but the rest of the afternoon was completely mellow.

I think on Sunday night, we had Chinese food and watched the first Harry Potter movie.  I've never read a single Harry Potter book nor seen any of the movies, but I think Amy is trying to convert me to being a fan.  But the movie wasn't too bad.  I'll probably give the book a chance.

My Monday was rather boring.  I caught up on my sleep, and spent most of the afternoon playing with the puglets.  Man, they are two little bundles of ready-made entertainment.  I swear, I laugh my ass off every day with them.  The highlight of the afternoon was getting them all wound up and playing on the polished hardwood floor in the living room, and then dropping a fleece blanket over the top of them.  I swear it was the highest of high comedy watching them negotiate that.  Holy hell, I almost peed myself laughing.

Once their 'parents' came home, we put the harnesses on them and took them over to the dog park and let them roam free.  Oh man, they love that.  I just went off by myself to walk the perimeter (it's a quarter mile around if you stick to the fence), but before long, I was the pied piper of puppies--they were all following me around.  One of my favorite dogs is down there all the time--he's a HUGE German Shepherd named Wyatt, and he's just downright beautiful.  And he looks like he's not something to be trifled with--very intimidating if you're not a dog person.  But I got to play with him for a bit, too, which is always nice.  I've always wanted to get a German Shepherd again (that's what we had as kids when we lived up in Ridgetop), but dogs like that need a big damn yard.  Hell, at this point, I don't even have a house anymore...

But we had fun, and the pugs always love to go to the dog park.

On the way home, Amy needed to stop at the store, so while she was doing her thing, Scottie and I wandered over to the hole-in-the-wall Mediterranean joint in the same strip mall and picked up some dinner.  I'm not at all familiar with the genre of food, so I just told the proprietor to load me up with lots of veggies and salad on a combo plate.  We got some warm pita bread and hummus to go, too.

We got home a few minutes later and ate dinner in front of the tv--I don't quite know what I had exactly, but damn it was good--and good for me, too.  I couldn't begin to even spell the stuff we ate, much less pronounce it, but I enjoyed every bit of it and will gladly be going back for lunch again soon.  While eating, we watched an interesting documentary about the road to fame that Tom Petty took.  All three of us are big fans, so it was a great way to spend the evening--good food, good music, good documentary.

But I've got to go to bed early, so I need to wrap this up.  I've got my follow-up appointment with my surgeon at 8:00 this morning, and I'm hoping he'll tell me that I'm cured.  I'm feeling much better nowadays, my chest only hurts first thing in the morning when I first get up, and I'm moving around pretty well.  I don't have all my strength back, but I can tell that I'm more flexible than I was before I got sick.

I hope that it goes well and that I'm finally able to come off some off these medications.  Once I get done with the doctor (and the blood lab--can't forget about that!), I'm going to run a couple of errands and then do a little grocery shopping.  Once I get home, I'm going to spend my afternoon on the internet, looking at pictures of the Caribbean.

We leave in a week.

Mikey 

I Think I Need A Vacation

All this rest and recuperation stuff has worn me out.  I need to get away.  Oh, did I mention where I'll be in ten days???  Well, not anywhere near the beach in that picture above.  That's actually like fifteen days away.  Heh.

To say that I'm ready to go is an understatement.

Actually I spent a a few hours of my Thursday in preparation for the cruise.  Since it has been six years since the last cruise I took, I figured things may have changed a bit.  So I spent a good portion of my morning browsing around all the nitty-gritty details and FAQs on the Carnival website.  Still gotta sneak booze aboard, except for 1 bottle of wine per person.  My sister Sherry is a booze-smuggler extraordinaire, and she's got the science of it down to an art.  But it's just too much damn work for me.  Besides, I'm not going to be drinking nearly as much on this trip as I've done on cruises past--my system just can't handle it, and I'm sure all those nice people at Vanderbilt who spent a week taking me apart and putting me back together would absolutely lose their shit if they found out that I went on a week-long bender.  No more $700 bar bills for this guy.  (Yep, on my first cruise ten years ago, my individual bar bill at the end of the week was over $700, almost twice what I'd paid for the cruise!)

This time around, I'll indulge in an umbrella drink by the pool during the day, a glass of wine with dinner, and maybe a late evening cocktail to go with my cigar out on the balcony before I go to bed.  No more buying a bucket of beers and wandering around making new friends, and no more free drinks in the casino at night.

Oh, I may bring an airline bottle or two of The Captain with me, cleverly disguised in my toiletry bag, but that'll be the extent of my subterfuge.  Sherry and Steve have that big-ass suite and balcony off the end of the boat, and well, it just wouldn't do to show up empty-handed at the Bon Voyage party.

So once I finished off my morning coffee and filled my head with all sorts of cruising information, it was time to get my day started.  I had to wash, fold, and pack a bunch of clothes first thing, because I'm staying up at Mamasan's place for a couple of nights.  I did that and tried to straighten up the house a bit, but man, everything still takes me about four times as long as normal.  Nothing is easy.

Mamasan showed up while I was in the shower, and she helped me finish packing my clothes and also gathering up everything else I needed (phone charger, laptop and cords, my 'good' cards, a few books, all my meds, etc.)  We finally got on the road about an hour later, heading back down to the clinic at Vanderbilt.  They poked another hole in me, and once that was done, I had them get me a new prescription for pain medication.  I'm all out of Percocet, so now I'm on Lortabs.  I'm feeling a little better nowadays, and the residual pain from the water bottle incident is pretty much gone and all I have to deal with is that whole chest-getting-cut-open thing.

But we made our escape from Vanderbilt and headed off to run errands.  The first order of business was for Mamasan to stop and get a haircut.  It wouldn't have been so bad, except that it took forty minutes.  And I'm still taking this Lasix stuff that makes me pee every thirty minutes.  Plus it's a long drive back up north.

I managed to make it all the way to her friend Mary's house, our next stop in our journey, but man, it was like the Teton Dam breaking once I finally got there.  I was pretty tired by then (everything makes me tired), so I made myself comfy on the sofa while they went out shopping for an hour or so.  After a bit, I started getting restless, so I decided to grab my camera and walking stick and take a hike.  Mary lives waaaay out in the woods, and the trees in her neighborhood are turning this week, and there are some great pictures waiting to be taken.  Unfortunately, by the time I got to the end of her long driveway, and out to the end of the property, I decided that it was a fruitless endeavor.  I couldn't keep my pants up.

Seriously, I've lost a bit of weight, and all of my shorts and pants are way too big for me now.  Not only that, but my belt has about two-and-a-half inches of play in it, so it really doesn't help at all.  So walking with one hand trying to keep my pants up, and the other one on the walking stick to help me keep my balance, well, it was just too much for me.  I turned around and went back in the house, where I promptly dozed on the couch until they got back home.  Once they did, we found a pointed rasp and a hammer in the toolbox, and I took my belt out to the back deck and punched a few more holes in it.

Progress, baby.  I'm makin' it!

Next on the agenda was to head over to WalMart and get my prescription.  I also wanted to pick up a bunch of travel-sized toiletries too.  Unfortunately, the pharmacy was closed when we got there, forcing us to wander around for a half an hour.  So no, I didn't get my hiking done in the great outdoors, recording the wonders of nature on my camera.  Instead, I got my exercise in Wally World, pushing around a damn shopping cart for a good chunk of the afternoon.  But at least my pants stayed up, and I got a bunch of travel goodies to fill up my new toiletry bag--and a few more items have been crossed off of the vacation to-do list.

One of the things I got were a couple of single-load packets of Tide gel.  Normally, I find a local laundry service on one of the islands to wash all my dirty underwear, socks, and t-shirts about five days into the trip (I hate traveling home with a suitcase full of dirty clothes--I'm always afraid it'll bust open in the middle of the airport, embarrassing me to no end), but no amount of internet searching has revealed such a service.  Too bad we're not going to Cozumel--there's a little shack at the end of the dock where you drop off your bag of dirty clothes and pay 'em like fifteen bucks, and three hours later it's all cleaned, pressed, folded, and bundled, wrapped in brown paper and tied with a string.  I love that.

Nothing like that exists on any of the islands we'll be visiting, as far as I can tell, and at least Carnival has onboard laundry rooms, so I can do it myself early in the morning on one of our last sea days.  Hell, Royal Caribbean doesn't offer self-service laundry rooms, so getting a duffel bag full of undies and socks washed ran me about about sixty bucks last time I was on one of their ships.  Ouch!

Anyhow, once I got my cruise goodies and prescriptions paid for, we finally got to come home.  A day of running around like that leaves me pretty tired.  We made some turkey sandwiches for lunch and chilled out for the rest of the afternoon.  I can't quite remember what I did, but the smart money is on 'dozed on the couch'.

It started to feel a little chilly in the evening, so we made a pot of coffee to warm up.  Our original plan was to make a nice dinner with salad and such, but that idea went out the window because nobody felt like chopping a bunch of vegetables.  So we had breakfast for dinner, instead.  Mamasan made some ham steak and eggs, and we had toast, coffee, and juice, too.  It was damn good!  And it was the first egg I'd eaten since I got cut open.  The nutritionist said I can have three eggs a week, but so far, I've just skipped 'em altogether, opting for cereal or fruit most mornings. So it was a nice treat.

After dinner we played cards for awhile, then refilled our coffee cups before moving back over to the living room, this time adding a contraband splash of Bailey's.  It was pretty damn good, but that was enough for me.  We stayed up for a couple of hours planning our Friday, talking about the upcoming cruise, and also playing the 'remember when' game from 30+ years ago, talking about people and events from waaaay back in the day.

That kept us occupied for awhile, and the caffeine worked it's magic, but eventually we called it a night.  Well, Mamasan did--she ambled off to her room to watch TV before going to sleep, and well, here I am at the keyboard.  But I think I'm ready to go to bed now, so I'll leave you Friday morning re-clickers with a little bit of pre-vacation eye candy.

There.  That should do it.

Mikey

Late Night Posting

Well, I suppose I shouldn't have had two cups of coffee at 9:00 pm, but here it is a few minutes after midnight and I'm wide awake.  That's ok, I'll probably be watching the Chilean mine rescue for the next several hours, and it's not like I have anywhere I have to be in the morning, either.  I was much too young to remember Apollo XIII, but this has to be right up with it on the scale of human drama.

But once I turn off the tv and get some sleep, I'm gonna spend my hump day doing a few chores--it'll wear me out, I'm sure--and since I move at about half speed, it'll take a good chunk of my day once I get out of bed, anyways. 

Since I didn't get to go walking on Tuesday, I'm going to remedy that and hopefully go twice, maybe doing a shorter walk early on, and then a full-on mile-long hike before it gets dark. I'm also gonna try and do some laundry, but since I can't lift very much, I'll probably get enough exercise just walking back and forth from my bedroom to the washing machine.  Ah, the joys of being an invalid...

I'm also going to be patiently waiting for the UPS man to arrive, as there is a shipment of cruise goodies on it's way.  Some generous folks provided a little scratch in the tip jar a few days ago (again, thanks everyone!) with explicit instructions to "Use this for your cruise!", so I spent a bit of it on items I'm going to be needing for the trip.  I think in this shipment, I've got a couple of books that I'll take with me for those lazy sea days where I sit in a chaise lounge out on the balcony sipping an umbrella drink and watching the ocean roll by.  I've just got to be patient enough to leave them alone for the next two weeks and not read them before I go.  I've also got some oversize neon-colored luggage tags (and some TSA-approved luggage locks) coming so that I can pick out my suitcases from the sea of black luggage at the airport and cruise terminal.  Rounding out the shipment is a hanging toiletries/travel accessory kit bag so I don't have to bring my nasty old toothpaste-stained vinyl Walmart special.

Other than that stuff, I'm pretty much set as far as cruise prep goes.  This past weekend, I rounded up all my clothes I'm gonna need from the closet at Cyndi's house and the storage shed up at Mamasan's (when I got out of the hospital, I had a bare minimum of clothes with me here at Amy's).  I was thinking about renting a tux again, but that's an expense that I really can't afford--and I probably shouldn't be spending money on that, anyways.  So I found my blue blazer that I haven't worn in years, and gathered a few dress shirts, slacks, and ties, too.  Not to mention decent shoes and swim trunks.  Oh, I'll have to take some stuff to the cleaners and the alteration shop this weekend, but then my wardrobe be set.  After that, a quick trip to the drugstore for some travel-size toiletries, and I'll be ready to hit the high seas.  (And we're still working on Halloween costumes, but I'll discuss that in more detail later on).

We leave on a Tuesday, but the weekend before we go, we're going to get together and have our traditional pre-cruise party here at Amy's house, and participate in another tradition that I'm hesitant to share with the masses.  But what the hell, I don't care--Before we leave on our 'annual' cruises, we always go and have a 'spa day' together.  Yes, I go with my sisters and get a manicure and a pedicure done.  Don't hate--believe me, the ladies notice, and if I'm gonna be out in public with nothing but bare feet or flip flops for eight days, well, I can't have nasty feet.  And working all those years in a casino, I remember how many times I got compliments on my hands whenever I got a manicure.  So even if it ain't the most masculine thing in the world, I don't care.  At least I'm not getting a massage from a dude.

I'm also going to have to pack a small travel bag for the next couple of days.  On Thursday, after I head back down to Vanderbilt for another stickin', I'm gonna head up to Mamasan's place up north for two nights.  No particular reason other than a change of scenery.  I've been shuffling back and forth between my bed and the big easy chair in Amy and Scotties den for the last three weeks, most of that time all alone and unsupervised, so I'm gonna go spend some time up there.  It'll be more fun to play some cards or some board games during the day, and we also plan on going for a drive and exploring the woods and such, so I should have some good pictures to share, too.

In addition to my chores and cruise anticipation, I may also do some writing.  Since I got this new look on the blog, it's motivated me to put up fresh material.  So who knows what kind of silliness may spout from my medication-addled brain--you should pay close attention for the next few days because I may just surprise you.

Mikey

Technical Difficulties -- UPDATED

Hey Gang--

Hope you all like the new look.  Unfortunately, with the new template, I had to re-install the commenting software.  I could go back to the old blogger commenting, but if I do, I lose *all* of the old comments.  I'd prefer to keep them, so I'm sticking with the current system until the end of the year, and then I'll re-evaluate at that point.

Anyhow, there was a glitch.  When you click on the comment link, it just scrolls you down and puts the comment link at the top of the page.  Then you have to click it again to make your comment.  That ain't supposed to happen.  I've tried to fix it, but can't figure it out, so I've got a help ticket in with Echo support.  Depending on when they get back to me, we'll have to put up with the extra weird step.

But go ahead and leave any comments--I always appreciate feedback.

Mikey

**UPDATE**

Ok kiddies, I've got a temporary fix in.  Instead of my usual pop-up window, I've got it set so that when you click on the comment link it'll bring it up on the web page, not in a pop-up.  Of course, that also takes it to a 'post page', which is an individual page for each post, taking you away from the main page of the site.  So once you're done commenting, you'll have to click your bookmark or re-type the address in your browser window, basically doing again whatever you did to get here in the first place.  I know, it's a pain in the ass, kind of a cheap way to drive traffic (like Instapundit), but until I hear back from the tech support folks, this is the way it'll have to operate.  We now take you back to your regularly scheduled browsing...

Time to Change

See what happens when I have too much time on my hands? 

Yeah, I've been bored with the look of this site for some time now, and I also felt like there was too much wasted space.  What really bucked me were the artificially wide margins, so I started farting around with the software and stumbled onto some new and easy-to-use templates, and well, I like the look of this one.  So here we are.  I don't know how the archives look or how well it's gonna work, so I may just change it up again.  It's a work in progress, and who knows just how progressive I may end up feeling before all is said and done.

I think the source of today's boredom is the fact that it's been raining all day, and even though I'm pretty much confined to the house anyways, today was one of those days where it just feels like an indoor recess day.  Although it's hard to play Heads Up 7-Up or Duck Duck Goose all by myself...  So I slept in late, which has helped (I'm still hurting from the 'Case of Water Incident' this weekend'), and then I haven't done much but watch TV, read, and play on the computer. 

Last night, Scottie and I went out to a local restaurant, Caesars, for dinner.  Both Amy and he said that they had the best pizza in Nashville, so we had to try it out.  It's not really a pizza place, it's more of a mom-and-pop red sauce joint, kind of a poor cousin to Casa di Amore out in Vegas.  Same menu, although a few bucks cheaper here and there. 

The pizza was pretty good, but it didn't blow my skirt up too much (Grimaldi's has ruined me).  We had a large combo pizza with lots of veggies and a little bit o' meat, and shared a carafe of surprisingly good house Chianti.  I'm not normally a fan of Chianti, but this stuff was very tasty and enjoyable.  I'll definitely be going back--maybe not for pizza so much, but something off of the regular menu paired with some good house wine.

Once we got back home, we were both pretty tired.  I had a sip of Port and two squares of dark chocolate for 'dessert', and we tried to watch the football game, but gave up after just a few minutes and called it an early night.  Although I didn't get to see it live, watching the SportsCenter highlights this morning of Brett Pevre tossing a pick-six to ice the game made me especially happy.

But as far as today goes, I'm just hanging out here at the house being mellow.  It's raining much too hard to go out walking, and I don't have anything resembling proper rain gear anyways.  So unless it clears out fairly soon, my daily walk ain't gonna happen this time.  That's ok though, I think I need the rest.  

BTW, there's a little exciting chatter going on with my email box and Facebook messages today.  We leave for the cruise in just two short weeks, so the natives are getting restless.  I can't wait!

Mikey