Dental Horrors

So, I had to have oral surgery on Tuesday. In consulting with the oral surgeon and his nurse in the weeks leading up to the procedure, I was assured that it was going to be no big deal and that I was going to be surprised at how easy it was going to be and how quickly I was going to bounce back and feel great. Well, not so much. I went in at 1:30 on Tuesday for what I thought was going to be an hour appointment, I ended up leaving three hours later in severe pain and completely traumatized. It was horrible. They had to extract this back molar and apparently the tooth that had been under the bridge was so decayed that there was nothing for him to grab on to. He ended up having to hack it into pieces and crack the tooth out of the bone, piece by piece. My every limb was shaking like a leaf and the novacaine was wearing off by the time I left the office. I then had to make a detour to get my prescriptions filled, by the time I was finally driving home, I was in so much pain and in such a state of panic that I was literally freaking out. Looking back at it a few days later, I am completely relieved that it is over but still somewhat traumatized by the experience. My lower jaw is also still pretty sore and swollen too, but at least have some Vicadin that I can take at night. I am not having a good week at all.

Singing Pug

This cracked me up so much that I had to post it.

It's been so long ...

Oh MAN it’s been a long-ass time since I’ve written! Bad blogger!. Maybe you can blame it on my new life in New Hampshire. Used to be while living in NYC, I spent pages ranting or complaining about all the annoyances of daily life there. Here I honestly find very little to complain about.

Here are just a few quick notes about what’s been going on with me over the past few months:

Travel. In late May I traveled to Las Vegas for a conference for work. The conference was pretty good and it was also good to see a few former colleagues from Old Company. Vegas though, I don’t think is really for me. Maybe I would feel differently if I was there with friends and just hanging out, but I don’t know. Everything is so … fake. And, yes, you KNOW it’s fake going in, it’s not like they’re trying to pull something over on you or anything, but I guess I just wasn’t expecting myself to find it so cheesy. I also found it surprisingly expensive, but I didn’t have much time to go wandering around looking for deals either. So, bottom line, I guess if given the opportunity to go another time with friends I would give it another chance, but I’m not going to be going out of my way looking for trips out there either.

Sh*t Happens. Coming home from Vegas late after about 12 hours of travel, I somehow managed to back into this low-slung cement pylon at the Manchester Airport. $1,300 worth of damage – lovely. My wonderful, wonderful car! Of course I got it fixed, insurance paid, but I still had to shell out $500 for my deductible.

Home. Around that same time I discovered that the air-conditioning set up here did not work at all. I had deluded myself into believing that I could struggle through this Summer with what was here (two completely antiquated wall-installed units). After getting a couple of quotes I found that these 20 year old units are not salvageable and are not even a standard size, so the cost of replacing them would end up costing as much or more than the solution I finally went with, since they would have to resize the wall cut-outs. It just didn’t make any sense to spend that kind of money on something that wasn’t even an efficient or adequate cooling method. Because I have radiant, electric heat, I don’t have ductwork in the house, so installing central a/c wasn’t a viable or affordable option (I could probably have gone into debt for about $20,000 and had ductwork run and central installed and hoped that my heating network didn’t end up being damaged in the process, but I didn’t want the debt or the risk). So, I finally ended up having a “ductless central a/c system” installed. It basically works very similar to traditional central air, only instead of ductwork, there is a unit on the wall that distributes the air, it works with a condenser that sits outside (like central air) and eliminates the humidity too, etc. Anyway, it wasn’t cheap, but it was the best option that I could pay for with cash, so that’s the way I went. There are plenty of days here where I don’t need a/c (like tonight), but on the days that get up there, and/or are very humid, I’ve been pretty happy with the results. It’s also nice and quiet, so I hardly even realize it’s running sometimes. Anyway, so that was a chunk of change.

Dental. After my root canal and other dental work I had a few months ago, I had a consultation with the oral surgeon about the work I have to have done on the adjacent tooth. I actually have to have the tooth extracted, they will then do a bone graft and let it heal for about five months and then I get a dental implant. The cost for all of this is $6,000 – yikes!

Money. So, with all the outlaying of cash I’ve been doing over the past few months, most of my home improvement projects have been on hold for a while. I’m determined to live without debt (other than my mortgage) so the stuff I want to do in the house will have to wait until I have some free cash. Luckily with the dental work, at least, I get to pay for it as each piece of the work is done. This means that I only have to pay about $1,800 this month and the balance won’t have to be paid until the rest of the work is done, about five months from now.

Anyway, so I’ve had some financial things come up. I’m a little disappointed that I haven’t been able to do anything more with the house at this stage, but I figure that I don’t have to be in a rush either, so I’m not really stressing out too much about it. I really would have liked to get some wicker furniture for my screened porch though, but maybe I’ll be able to find something on sale next month. If not, it can wait until next year.

Friends. My friends Luminita & Paul are moving to New Hampshire! Luminita had contacted me months ago because she was interested in looking into opportunities at New Company. At the time I asked my manager for help in finding an area where I could target her resume. Well, Manager liked her resume and kept a hold of it, hoping that maybe something would open up (he actually had hoped to create something). Well, that never happened, but then a great position opened up in the group (our internal customer) where I’ve been working and so, we forwarded her resume to our contacts there. They interviewed her, they liked her and offered her the job! So, they move up here next week. It will be great to have some local friends and they’re also very excited about their new lives here, especially now they will now be able to afford a house.

Work. I got a raise! And had an “Exceeds Expectations” rating for my review. I was almost more excited to hear my rating than I was for the extra money. I still continue to struggle with confidence issues and concerns that I could be doing a better job, so it is very nice and a relief to get such positive feedback. I love my group at New Company.

Dogs. My dogs are the greatest, I just love coming home to their funny, happy faces every day. That little Fitz is not so little anymore, he’s kinda huge, almost as big as Lola at this stage (I’ll have to post some updated pictures soon). He is a total sweetie too, as well as a little naughty boy (as dogs his age tend to be). I have also filled out an application with a New England Boxer rescue group. They followed up with a lengthy phone interview, they’ve checked my personal and vet references and now I’m waiting for a home interview to be scheduled. If I make it over that hurdle, I will be cleared to adopt a Boxer sometime in the future, when an appropriate dog for my situation and canine dynamic becomes available. I know some people think I’m crazy for wanting to have a bunch of dogs, but I don’t care, it’s always been my dream to have a few and it’s something I was never able to have while living in a city apartment. Anyway, with all that said, I think three should be enough for awhile. Someday I may live in a place with more space and a bigger yard or whatever and may consider having more, but I think three should do it for now.

Exercise. I’ve been trying lately to walk more, taking my dogs on 2-mile loops around an adjacent neighborhood. And I joined a gym in town this week. It’s amazing how inexpensive it is! $20 a month and I can also go to any other location they have (it’s a Gold’s Gym). I figure for $20 a month, even if I’m not going every day, it’s worth it. They have a pretty big facility and they have Spinning! In NYC, a similar membership would cost close to $100/month.

Health. I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow morning with a new doctor (primary care recommended by my GYN). I’m nervous as I really hate going to doctors and I get especially freaked out when I’m scheduled to see a new one. I’ll be a lot happier when the appointment is over.

Female Problems. Nah, I’m not going to go there. Consider yourself spared.

The Definition of Irony

There is not a staple or a stapler to be found anywhere on this floor at work. I did, however, find a large cache of staple removers.

You Know You're Not Fully Awake ...

... When leaving the house in the morning, instead of giving the dog her morning doggy treat, you try to hand her the cell phone instead. You know, in case she wants to make a phone call during the day or something. Sheesh.

Spring is about change

What is it about Spring that makes you want to get organized, clean up, get rid of clutter? Why do I start feeling restless this time of year, tired of being cooped up inside, sick of TV? I guess it's the opening up of windows and the fresh air -- still fresh even if it's raining outside.

I woke up on Saturday morning and felt invigorated to unpack some more boxes, go through papers, throw a lot of crap out. Last week during our impromptu, unseasonable "Summer" weekend, I very much enjoyed sitting out on the deck reading and listening to music. I've been taking the dogs for walks around the neighborhood after work and Fitzie and I are on week 3 of obedience training at the Nashua Petsmart. It's great to get out of the house on a weekend, but it's especially been a hoot just to go there every week and socialize with all the dogs and let all the people we encounter admire and fawn over him. Anyway, more and more as Spring burgeons I'm enjoying cleaning up and getting out more. During the Winter it was lovely to be cozy inside with the dogs piled on top of me with a fire going and the latest Netflix delivery, or "Grey's Anatomy" installment playing. Not that I don't enjoy these things during this time of year too, but I also feel motivated to clean up and get some fresh air.

There have been some recent changes at work as well. There was a big personnel change on the project where I am assigned. Basically, all the major business project managers and sponsors have left the group or moved into different roles. This has been stressing me out quite a bit over the past couple of weeks just with the uncertainty with everything and what this was going to mean for me. But I finally had some information about who I was going to be working with and had a meeting first with the head of the tech group I'll be aligned with and then with the entire group later in the week. They all seemed great, very open and with good communication and I really feel like I will be integrated with the daily workings of the business and with the end users like I never had the opportunity to be before. So, I came away from last week encouraged and excited about these new changes and the opportunities they represent.

I just posted this picture again because I really like it. I'm also amazed ... Fitzie was a fraction of his current size when it was taken.

Matt Lauer

I had a dream this weekend that I was tooling around with Matt Lauer in a Mini Cooper. Now, that was a fun dream. heh.

This is what is happening in my yard RIGHT NOW

(You can't really see it falling all that well in the pictures, but trust me, is is!) Crazy snow on April 15th. Woo!

It's April 12th

Can someone tell me why there is about 3" or so of fresh snow in my yard? This is some crazy shit. Seriously.

ARGH!

It's been a bit of a crazy week at work. I have my usual project work going on, there have also been some new-customer-related meetings and activity to supplement my regular work. Plus, they are going through a major personnel upheaval in the group with my current project. So because of all of these changes, I have the added tasks this week to create process flow documents for a bunch of the reports I've worked on over the past year. So, this is pretty time consuming and a bit stressful because of the time crunch outside of my other work, so I thought I'd get a jump on some of it for today by working on one of the bigger flow charts last night from home. Okay, so I finally finish it at 11 PM, come into the office this morning and go to drop it into the document this morning and I can't open it! Turns out that the version of Visio I have on this machine is incompatible with the version of Visio I have on my home machine. ARGH! I mean, it's not the end of the World, I'll just complete it from home a little later, but still ... ARGH! Sheesh.

Work. Is. Good.

So I had a short meeting with one of people I'm writing a series of reports for the other day. I know that this part of this project is particularly high-profile. It's not anything that looks so impressive on the surface to the lay person, just a bunch of columns of numbers. But there is a lot that is going on under the surface to pull all of this data together. Many different data sources are involved, lots of pulling of bits apart and lots of putting bits together, lots of analysis and various other moving parts to put everything together into one, seamless-looking output. Anyway, the professional portfolio managers know the value of what they're looking at and the portfolio manager that I spoke to the other day just gushed on & on to me about what a fantastic application this is for them. He actually said, "this is revolutionizing how we manage and invest these (big magilla company) plans" (big magilla company being my words, of course). He also said that the data has been going directly to the Senior VP, head of this entire trading division. Wow. I was blown away (and a little impressed with myself, to be honest). It's especially nice because too often you don't hear much unless something goes wrong. It's truly deeply satisfying to know that people are getting lots of immediate benefit out of something that I actually created. Woo!

Shelton Kang

Shelton & Linda in November, 2002

I've wanted to write something about the passing of Shelton Kang before now, but I don't really know how much I can add to what Julia wrote, she spoke about him so perfectly and beautifully. I will say that Shelton was a genuinely nice person who always saw the best in people. I never heard an unkind word come out of his mouth. He was a man who, despite his limitations, really knew how to get the most out of life. After losing his wife Linda suddenly and being diagnosed with congestive heart failure himself, he could very easily have just stayed home and used it as an excuse to give up and wallow in misery, but not Shelton. He reinvented himself and started a walking program, ultimately walking four marathons and countless half-marathons and other races of varying distances all over the country. Everywhere he went he made friends and spread actual joy. How many people do you meet in life who spread actual joy? He was just a sweet, sweet man who enjoyed life & people. And he was a total dog lover, which always makes someone pretty great in my book.

The news of his passing struck me particularly hard for some reason and I'm not even that sure why. I knew Shelton, I probably saw him about once or twice a year in a group setting. In fact, I had just seen him a couple of months earlier in Boston. But I didn't see or talk to him often enough to really consider him one of my closest friends. Maybe it was just that buoyant spirit of his, it seemed like he would always be around. Or maybe it was just that he always should be around.

Finally: my completed living room bookcases

Spring Snow April 5th, 2007

Oh and

On an unrelated note ... I'm finally finished with the antibiotics (feel like I've been on them constantly since January). I think I'll have a beer. At last.

Weird Freaking Dog

So, very recently Fitzie (who is being neutered tomorrow, btw) has taken to peeing in Lola's food bowl. He doesn't pee in his own bowl, nor the water bowl, always just her bowl. Bizarre. I guess he's trying to tell her something. Poor Loly-girl. I made him eat of of the pee bowl tonight (I washed it first, of course).

Tax Woes

I am really annoyed. I had an appointment scheduled with a CPA for late this afternoon to help me with my tax preparation since my financial picture for 2006 is pretty complicated (between moving from NY to NH, relocation benefits, selling property in NYC, buying property in NH, higher salary, bonus, rolling over IRAs, etc.) Anyway, I was looking for CPAs in my town and had found her name somehow and sent her an email inquiry to possibly set up an appointment. In the email I briefly sketched my situation and she wrote back, “I don’t do NY tax returns”. Okaaaaay. So I wrote back and said, well I was really only living in NYC for 2 weeks in 2006, but could she perhaps recommend someone else? She writes back, “Well, I guess I can help you”. Gee thanks, don’t knock yourself out or anything (it’s not like I was insisting that she help me or anything, I just asked for a local recommendation). All of this tax stuff is stressful enough, do I really want to deal with someone who is so lukewarm about working with me? Anyway, not knowing who else to contact, I made the appointment.

So, since I have the appointment for late this afternoon, I go to the trouble to make sure that I get to work early so that I can work a full day before having to leave to make it to her office on time (which is conveniently located around the corner from work). But what happens? I get an email from her around 8 AM stating that she has to cancel because she’s not feeling well. WTF??? So, obviously she doesn’t really want my business. Frustrated, I vent about this to a co-worker and he suggests that I contact my realty office and see if they can recommend someone. So I do. It ends up being a good idea because they recommend a CPA firm (raving about them in the process) who I call and who goes out of their way to accommodate me (scheduling me in on a Saturday) and who also, when I mention the NY aspect of my situation, says, “No problem! We can deal with any state”.

I sent an email to the first CPA chick that says, “I’ll just make other arrangements then. Thanks for your help.” I haven’t heard back from her. I’ve got to wonder how someone like that is able to run a successful business. So unprofessional. She could have just said, “I’m sorry, I’m not very comfortable with the NYS stuff, but perhaps I can recommend someone else for you”. How hard would that have been? SHEESH.

toe

This is what my toe looked like when I took off my sock tonight. Gross.

Yet Another Pug Picture