August 2003 Archives

We just got home from watching Whale rider. I had read good reviews about it when it first came out and had been meaning to see it for close to two months now. Of course, all the good movies somehow end up showing only at West Gate in South Austin. However, when I checked the paper today, it was showing at Gateway, so there we went.

This is one of those movies that just blows you away. I'd been thinking that we hadn't seen anything really good in a while (OK, Spellbound was pretty funny, but it's a documentary) and then comes this little gem. It's a coming of age story (girl born to lead, fighting the odds) set in a Maori village in New Zealand--the plot and the characters are very engrossing and the ending is riveting. As Jfer put it--it's been a while since a movie made her cry. Both the two main characters, Keisha Castle-Hughes as Paikea and Rawiri Paratene as her grandfather where simply incredible.

So if you think PG-13 movies are boring, think again. Go and check this thing out--you'll be glad you did.

We are in the process of cleaning out the study (a.k.a. computer room, a.k.a. sewing room, a.k.a. big-pile-of-junk room). We've made great progress last weekend and we're trying to continue with this. I ran across a box of old software that I didn't succeed in selling at our garage sale--floppies, manuals and all, in boxes and everything.

It's stuff that I had bought for my old Quadra 650 some time during the nineties. Somehow I feel bad about throwing it out, but does anyone want or need old software like this? If I still had the machine, I could probably get rid of it together--but the Quadra never made it back to me after a breakup (not that I wanted it).

So what's a place that would take vintage Macintosh software in Austin, TX? Does anyone want MacInTax for 1994?

I've had a physical this morning--the first one in over ten years. I'm usually never sick and I've never had a "regular doctor" while living in Austin. Still, I know you're supposed to go for checkups and stuff, and I'm not getting any younger. Getting a Dr. has been on my todo list forever and thanks to the Poison Ivy incident I finally got one.

The checkup was nothing exciting. My blood pressure is good, and although the Dr. said that I should be more active, he didn't get anywhere near on my case like I know Jfer was hoping he'd do. And while I did have to do the cough thing, I managed not to get "probed", if you know what I mean. I didn't ask about it, in order not to encourage him.

I still have to get blood drawn and tested, but overall it was a good visit with nothing negative--and now I know where I'll head when allergy season hits.

It looks like Canon finally released the EOS 300D "Digital Rebel". If the reviews are good, I have a very good idea what is going to be on my Christmas list. I better start being nice...

My email address at work has been receiving more and more spam messages over the last few months--often 50 or more per day. I don't know how my work email address made it onto so many spamming lists, but once it's out it's out, right? I've had been using SpamNet and later iHateSpam to deal with this and that, along with a few rules in Outlook, had made it almost bearable.

Until the stupid Sobig.f virus hit the world, that is. My computer didn't get infected--I don't tend to fall for that kind of thing and our corporate filter is pretty good. But since my address had been on so many spam emails, it now exists in countless addressbooks around the world. So now I kept receiving emails from all the spam co-recipients that did get infected with Sobig.f. That, plus all the email from mail server replying to my (forged) sender address that they had received a virus from me caused my account to be swamped with email. We're talking hundreds and hundreds of messages every day. I feel like my phone number had been posted in bathrooms all over town and everyone is calling for a good time.

So our IT guy cut me off. My work address is disabled, for now at least. If you need to email me at work, use my first-name only (yeah, like I'm going to post the new address here...)

My poison ivy rash had been getting bigger and bigger. The skin on my left arm was disturbingly swollen for a couple of days and although the itching was improving, I wasn't feeling to well about it. So I broke down and went to the doctor's yesterday. Since I didn't have a GP, I found a Dr. Toupin close to my house and managed to get an appointment the same day. He's a young guy and seems quite pleasant.

He prescribed a course of Prednisone which seems to be the cortisone of choice for poison ivy. He also prescribed some topical cream and hooked me up with Allegra samples to help with the itching. The drugs appear to work--my swelling has definitely improved and the bumps on my skin have reduced. So now it looks more like a severe sunburn instead of Hansen's Disease.

When I got home, I noticed that Prednisone is what Homer is taking for his buggy eyes (although my pills are twice the strength). I know they say that pet owners begin to resemble their pets over time. I didn't realize they start to take the same meds, too. I wonder how long before I'm on a monthly regimen of Frontline and Heartgard. And I don't even want to think about getting "altered"...

As I mentioned in my previous post, I got poison ivied when I was fixing the fence after the storm. I hadn't realized, that poison ivy can take up to a couple of days until it fully kicks in. I figured that since I had washed my hands after handling it and there was no noticeable effect, I'd be fine.

Oh was I wrong. Yesterday I had some rash on my fore arms and itched in some other places I won't mention (but let's just say that I had to go #1 after clearing the fence). Last night I put on some ointment and slept in a long sleeved T-shirt. Well, this morning I noticed splotches on my face and my arms were turning red and I was itching more and more. After lunch I was starting to go nuts and did some quick research and decided I had to do something -- NOW! So I went out and bought a tube of Zanfel and didn't even blink at the price ($40 for a 1oz tube). I washed my arms and face with this stuff in the office bathroom (getting some weird looks, but I so didn't care) and it definitely made it feel better. I'll do another application (in all the itchy places) when I get home.

So I have gained proper respect for The Plant. I will no longer scoff at Meredith when she keeps admonishing her boys to stay out of it (they too will lern their lesson some day). And I'll definitely get some Weed B Gon, 'cause it's personal now, we're at war and I'm going to win -- just as soon as I stop scratching, that is.

We had a cool storm blow through our neighborhood on Monday night. After Jfer got home from work, we hang out with our neighbors and their dogs enjoying the cool breeze and watching the ominous sky. The drops started to fall within a few steps of the house and by the time we got in it was pouring.

Then the winds picked up and soon there were such gales that the trees we recently planted were bending 90° (they didn't get harmed) and the huge branches of the mighty oak up front where whipping against the porch (only a few branches broke off, although lots of the moss got blown away). The paper reported that winds reached up to 57 MPH.

Soon the deluge was such that you couldn't see to the street. Then the hail started and we frantically cleared out stuff in the garage and moved my car in. Then the power went out -- twice. Luckily we have plenty of candles and it had cooled down so much that air-conditioning wasn't really necessary.

The aftermath the next day was pretty impressive. We only suffered a few broken branches and two sections of our back yard got blown over. We fixed these fairly quickly (and I'm now have nice poison ivy rash to show for it). I'm proud to say that our shed didn't budge an inch! When they recommend that you anchor down structures, listen to them...

Other people weren't as lucky. There were quite a few broken or overturned trees in the neighborhood. Lots and lots of blown down fences, roof shingles and other debris. There was quite a bit of lightning during the storm and one split a huge cottonwood in the park which then toppled on another one and they are now precariously hanging over someone's house. Some nice oaks got damaged, too, and a very pretty maple was laying broken, blocking one of the bridges in the park.

But there is now water in the creek and the air seems so much cleaner and cooler. And in a couple of days most of the broken stuff will be cleared away and there'll be rain lilies everywhere. It just goes on...

We're having a heatwave in Austin. It's not like the summers tend to be balmy here, but the 110°F (that's 43°C for the rest of the world) we had yesterday is just ridiculous. We walk Homer at dusk, but even then the heat is everywhere - upper 90's with now breeze is no fun.

Today we'll try to fight the heat with the "hottest, coolest times in Texas". Sunburn here I come...

Jfer picked up Homer at the eye doctor's and it sounds like everything is going to be fine. He was diagnosed with extracoular myositis which is an inflammation of the muscles around the eye. I found a site that talks about a case study in a Golden Retrieve--the before and after pictures look a lot like Homer. There are quite a few possible causes for this, including hypothyroidism, Grave's disease, autoimmune disorders and others. The vet decided to treat the symptoms and if it recurs, we may run additional test.

So Homer is now taking steroids to reduce the inflammation. He loves those little pills--I suppose it helps that we serve them wrapped in prosciutto (hey, that's what we happened to have at home). Now that he's popping 'roids, I wonder whether he wants me to replace is toys with some free weights and whether he'll start begging for one of these shirts.

Homer's eyes occasionally bulge, giving him a rather psychotic look. This has started quite a while back and it comes and goes--we hardly notice it anymore, but people sometimes point it out. It doesn't seem to be bothering Homer and since I couldn't find anything about this online, I didn't give it too much thought. I just subscribed it to his high-strung personality or allergies or maybe pug ancestry.

Today Jfer send me a link to this site and apparently "bulging eyes" can be symptomatic of some severe conditions. Guild ridden, I called the vet today, got an appointment for the afternoon and took him in. The vet ruled out some common problems and referred Homer to an ophthalmologist. I drop him off tomorrow at the Austin Animal Eye Clinic and hope for the best.

I've done some more searching online and discovered a site for owners of blind dogs (no, I'm not expecting it to come to that, but you know you always think of the worst scenarios when you're in a doctor's waiting room). And then there is this helpful article telling you how "to replace an eye that has popped out" (if it ever comes to that, I'm calling dibs on holding down the dog--Jfer can have the ocular honors).

We saw Crazy for You at the Zilker Hill Side theater with Doug and Luca. Although I recognized quite a few of the tunes, I swear I've never heard of that musical before. Weird.

As usual, the show was up to Zilker's high standards--the whole cast was full of energy and I really liked Marita Stryker's (Polly Baker) vocals. And it was actually pleasant on the hillside, the breeze kept it nice and, well, not too hot. Next Saturday is their last show, so if you're planning on seeing it (and you really should), you better hurry up.