My fingers are cold. Clearly, the blood isn’t flowing to my hand as well as it used to before the fistula. My mother suggested I mention it to the surgeon tomorrow. However, she added that I should expect that whole left side of my body to feel colder from now on. Great. I had already found myself keeping my coat on at work over the past month, when I’ve actually gone to work.
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New GEICO “celebrity” commercial. The talking syrup bottle always does it for me, and I am not one to be easily amused…

Healer II

Originally uploaded by toastiest

It looks like the result of a failed suicide attempt. It’s just my post-surgery bandage. I’m supposed to keep my arm elevated. Aremid curled up on my shoulder to keep me company last night.

Oh, boy, more pet pictures! And they’re not even new ones. I’ve been messing around with my Flickr account and decided to update my set of Top 20 pictures of my pets. Out of about 700 pictures, I’ve had this set I’m determined to limit to 20. I won’t reproduce the complete set of 20 here. Instead, I’ll just try to select my 5 favorites…

It’s been over six months since I posted one of these. Granted, not the funniest thing in the world (it’s not Monty Python after all), but it cracked me up. Found this after receiving a rare legitimate MySpace email. It was not from Betty White, although Betty is one of my MySpace friends.

Blog needs a laugh…

Summary: I’m getting an AV fistula tomorrow. It has nothing to do with the kind of fistulas you have benefit concerts for. Video cuts off after five minutes; I realize now that ViddYou only lets free accounts post up to five minutes in one video. That’s just as well, since a video blog entry should not take more than five minutes to listen to.

I’ll play. I need the diversion. I’ll make all my things “fun facts” instead of “ten physical ailments that I have,” because I think we’re all a bit sick of that. I have been graciously tagged by the “general knucklehead” at The Durham Bull Pen. (Am I the only person in town who doesn’t actually know his identity?)

Here are the rules:

Post 10 random things about yourself.

Choose five people to tag and a reason you chose them and make sure to tell them.

Don’t tag the person who tagged you.

My 10 random things:
(these might be referenced somewhere in my pre-Toastiest blog archives, but I don’t expect anyone is reading those)

I named Aremid after the fictional town of Aremid, which was the locale of a mysterious storyline on Days Of Our Lives in 1996

In November 1999, I failed to reach the Hot Seat on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire by three-tenths of a seconds during one of the Fastest-Finger Rounds; I missed another question by six-tenths; I blew the unprecedented third Fastest-Finger by failing to have studied my Kentucky Derby winners out of the World Almanac I had purchased in Manhattan the previous day. (I do have this Polaroid memory of sitting across from Regis Philbis during a practice round).

As a child, I played lots of Micro League Baseball on my Apple ][ Plus. I’d have leagues with both real teams and teams I had created featuring rosters of television characters. (Any further details would really be TMI).

I…internet-streamer of Barry Manilow and Air Supply…had a show on WXDU…seriously…back in the Spring of 1994. I had the prime 5-7AM slot on alternate Sundays. It was an accomplishment; freshmen didn’t get their own shows to often. I played all the crap I was supposed to, with what cheesy stuff I could mind sprinkled in. I was “The Cheese Whiz”. I made a stupid mistake one day that probably could’ve been easily remedied, but I didn’t, and that was the end of my DJing career.

When I was six or seven years old, my family had a pet white rabbit named, very creatively, Snowy. But my father was allergic, and Snowy stayed in the basement, until we gave…him/her/it…to a nursery school

The first CD I ever purchased was Bryan Adams’ Waking Up The Neighbours. Yeah, I did get it for “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You”, but there are several other awesome tracks, such as “Do I Have To Say The Words”.

My first job was as a Burger King cashier at the age of 14. It sucked…a lot. Still trying to break out of that 0-for-67 slump. (Just kidding, I love my current job).

I represented the state of New Jersey at the 1992 Future Business Leaders of America national convention in Chicago, having placed first or second (can’t recall) in the state’s Business Calculations competition(!) From this, you can infer that I was a member of FBLA. I never did nor do I have any ambition at present to become a BLA.

I own a Duke Lacrosse sweatshirt. It is over 14 years old. I bought it from freshman dorm-mates. Shucks…they were great guys, first-rate all the way.

In April 1999, I was on the waiting-list for a psychology masters program at the University of Richmond; I didn’t get in.

Now for tagging others. Everyone I read has either already done this or will loathe the idea of doing it or doesn’t write about himself much and probably won’t want to now:

Barry @ Dependable Erection

Mrs. Dependable @ Crone Report

Valerie @ We-Love-Durham

Angry Grrl @ Angry Grrl Rants

Ashley Sue @ Green Grounded

This brilliant video captures the triumph of the work of Amanda Arrington, Lori Hensley, and dozens of other volunteers over the past year. They have transformed the lives of dozens of dogs, and in doing so, have been transforming Durham’s neighborhoods.

Two ways you can help the Coalition to Unchain Dogs in the coming weeks:
- Help them raise $10,000 in the Great Human Race, which is next Saturday. As of now, they are 93% towards their goal
- Come to their 2nd annual garage sale, on Saturday, April 12 (see flyer)

On the main website, there are also links for making a regular donation, buying Cafe Press gear, and signing up for their list-serv if you are interested in helping build a fence or just following the progress of the organization.

I only filled out seven brackets this year for the men’s NCAA basketball tournament, dispersed among various contests. In one, I’ve only picked 5 of 12 games correctly. In another, I am 12 for 12 so far. Should I win this latter contest, the prize will be…considerable. However, I am currently tied with 14 others; it’s a big contest. And there are still 51 games to go. I will afford myself a few minutes to be amused.

I did not pick Duke to win the title in any of the seven brackets. I did, however, pick them to win in their first-round game in each bracket. Gutsy choice, in retrospect.

I just realized that half the plastic junk I’ve been putting out with recycling can’t be recycled by Durham’s recycling program. Furthermore, they actually expect me to examine each item to determine what kind of resin code the plastics have. Maybe I’m exaggerating the complexity of this, but I’d like to think that if a container has the recycling logo on the bottom that’s it’s ok. Apparently not. And I thought that number in the middle of the logo was supposed to mean something. Durham’s guidelines don’t give me a list of numbers. They tell me that a detergent container is ok but not a margarine container. There are a billion things in between that don’t seem so cut-and-dry though.

Maybe I’m complaining about something everyone else already knows. I guess my big question would be, what is preventing Durham from having a recycling program that accepts all recyclable plastics?

Furthermore, I’ve never received a note telling me that half of my junk is no good for the recycling program. What’s happening to that stuff?

The City of Durham’s Frequently Asked Questions: Plastic Recycling

I thought I had been doing a good job of separating out my recyclables. I suppose, from now, just bottles are going in, and I’ll kill the planet with everything else.