deadpansev

Second day of our long weekend in South Dakota. Today we did not have to drive, so that gave us plenty of time to do things as well as relax and hang out.

We got up and went to a little diner for breakfast and then went to Jewel Cave. The cave is pretty cool, but it is mostly large rooms and very few decorations. The tour was pretty full, but even the kids on the tour were pretty well behaved. After the cave tour and a little hanging out at Jewel Cave park we tried to pay it forward by giving away our parking permit for Mt. Rushmore, but after we gave it away the person who took it noticed that the parking permit had our license plate number on it so we couldn’t even give it away. So we left Jewel and went to get a snack, we found this really cute ice cream and pie shop. Barb and I had a slice of pie. We then headed back to the hotel for a while to relax, one thing that we do a lot of when on vacation is relaxing. After a couple of hours we headed over to see the Crazy Horse monument.

Crazy Horse is pretty cool and better than Mt. Rushmore, although I wish they had a trail that takes you closer to the monument like at Rushmore. Once a year they have a big hike up to the site, but that is the first weekend in June so we are several weeks off. One thing with Crazy Horse is that they refuse any government money, and they actually use their orientation video to promote the idea that these kinds of massive projects do not need the government to do them. It was funny when they were talking about this in the movie you could hear murmurs of approval, unlike at Rushmore where the video there was greeted primary with silence and some snickering and mocking.

We came back to the hotel after eating, and then went to Custer State park in the hopes of spotting a couple of animals, but we didn’t see anything but some deer before it started getting dark.

I am not positive what is on the table for tomorrow.

( Here are some pictures from today. )

Yesterday was my birthday, so Barb and I took off of work and we drove to South Dakota. Barb had to get the emissions on her car before we left, so we managed to get out around 9:30 in th morning. It was about 4 when we finally arrived at our hotel in the pretty little town of Custer where we have already seen 3 little shops that claim to serve homemade pies, so that must be a thing up here, not that I mind I love pie.

Barb has never been to South Dakota before and so has never seen Mt. Rushmore. When you are here you feel like that is something you have to do. The thing is that it really is an amazing sculpture, the eyes of each of the presidents alone is over 8 feet high. However when we were there, the propaganda runs so thick with lies, myths and praise for the almighty power of the state, that it is a real turn off. To illustrate the point we arrived and took the trail, read about how the sculpture was done and generally felt in awe of all of the work that went into such a monument, but then we went into the museum they have there and watched a propaganda video about the presidents. Barb and I were cutting jokes and making fun of the lies the video was spreading as we could see right through it, but we left feeling a little dirty and were basically ready to get out of there at that point.

One of the other things that is a real pain in the ass about Mt. Rushmore is that it is supposed to be “free” however they have a huge parking lot they charge for, there is also a free lot, but this time they had it posted “authorized vehicles only” so we didn’t think we could park in it and ended up paying to park like everyone else, only to find out that we could have parked in the free lot, it is just that the lying scum bureaucrats put up the sign to trick people into thinking they might get towed or something like that if they tried.

After we left the tyrants we ate some pizza and called it a night, so far the weather has been great and I am having fun. Everything out here is a bit busy, but it otherwise has been very cool.

( day one pictures )

I had my sleep study last night and this time it went great. I took an Ambien, then they hooked me up to the wires. They didn’t dick around this time trying to see how shitty I normally sleep, they just put me on the CPAP right away. I don’t know if it was the CPAP or the ambien or both, but I slept really well, even though I only slept for about 6 hours while there. I even was able to sleep on my back all night, which is not something I have done in years. I am sure the doctor is going to recommend the machine for me. I knew this would be the result already, I just wish there weren’t so many government roadblocks making the process so slow.

This morning I took my car to the shop to have the oil changed. I took it to a new place, Midas, because I had purchased a prepaid oil change card. They took forever getting the oil changed, and then they called and said “your water pump needs replacing, and with everything (thermometer, hoses, etc.) it will be $400”. I am not going to just accept anyone’s opinion on something like that so I told them I wasn’t interested in getting it replaced "at this time". I picked up my truck and drove it around, I got gas, etc. The truck never overheated and I checked the fluid, and I am really having a hard time believing that there is anything wrong with the water pump. This kind of thing pisses me off. Now I am left in a state of not really knowing if there is something wrong or not. I am no genius, but I am smart enough to know to look up the signs of a bad water pump on the internet, and I am not experiencing any of them. No leakage, no noise, no overheating. However I also don’t want to damage my vehicle, but I will be damned if I am going to pay $400 to fix something that is not broke. I guess I will just keep an eye out and see if I see any signs in the future. I am a little bit leery of mechanics in the first place as I have been ripped of in the past.

It has been a while since I have posted an update, but I am sure I will post several over the next few days as I have the rest of the week off of work and we are heading to South Dakota for the weekend.

Tonight I have another sleep study and this one is to fit me with a CPAP. The last time I had my study the tech told me that they did not get good enough results to make a determination, but the doctor who reviewed the data disagreed and made the determination that I do have obstructive sleep apnea and should get the CPAP. I knew it, but it is nice to know that maybe by tomorrow I will have the machine and I might be able to sleep through the night without suffocating every 10 minutes for the first time in a long time. My doctor also loaded me up with 30 Ambien, so I am going to try that tonight. I think I might also take the pills periodically when I don’t think I am going to get a good sleep for some reason (like at an unfamiliar place).

One of the places we play trivia, the Fainting Goat on Sunday’s is canceling their trivia night. This sucks. I hope we find a good replacement. We really like Tuesdays at Moe’s, because it has a coolness factor missing from the goat, but the competition there is pretty hardcore and so it is very difficult to even place.

One of my friends, crispyx was on Americas got talent. He got XXX'd out, but it was still cool for him to be on the show at all, and they even used him in a couple of the promos. He did two of his tricks, he stapled money to himself and he lifted a car battery with his nipples. Even though he was XXX'd out he still did entertain for a few minutes and the judges were entranced, even if they thought he was crazy and thought his act was a bit bizarre.


Crispy in Denver, I tried to do a google search for an image from the America's got Talent performance, but I couldn't find one. Maybe there are copyright issues. This one has no copyright as it is my picture (and I don't believe in copyrights so even if it were good enough to copyright, I wouldn't get one).

I had my sleep study last night. So there I was at an unfamiliar place with more wires coming out of me than Frankenstein's monster, tired as hell and ready to do the study because if I was having apnea episodes while I was sleeping they would hook me up to the CPAP machine right then and see if it would work for me. I am so ready to get some decent sleep for once. I am all hooked up and ready to go and I lay down and then what happens? My mind starts racing and I am not falling asleep. I call the sleep tech in and have her unhook me so I can use the rest room and she tells me it is 1:00 am. When the study is over at 5:00 am she tells me that I didn’t sleep hardly at all and that they were not able to gather enough data, and I never even entered REM sleep. The tech recommended that next time that I take an Ambien before doing the study.

I am disappointed because I was hoping this would be it, but now I have to talk to my primary care physician and have her prescribe another sleep study as well as sleeping pills. I have no idea how much time that will all take, and I am not a patient person, once I start something like this I want it done immediately. I already do not believe that a CPAP machine should be something you need prescription for and it pisses me off that I can’t just go buy one and adjust it until I find a setting that works for me. All a CPAP is, is a fan that pumps air through a face mask. It is not like it hurts you even if you don’t need it, and since it is by prescription only to buy one, not only is it difficult, but they charge more than a thousand dollars for one, if they were “over the counter” they would cost about as much as a humidifier.

The sleep tech did confirm that I am having episodes during my sleep, so that is good news. She believes that they will put me on the machine if they can get a good enough read. At least I have some hope that eventually I will be sleeping better.

My friends bete_noire and dragon_smoke and pale_elf were pictured in the Denver posts photo gallery today.

http://photos.denverpost.com/photoprojects/galleries/cologalleryV6.html#id=album-5372&num=5

Sorry I cannot just embed the picture.

If you don't like the multiple posts, deal with it! I was without internet for 3 days and had withdrawal! And am making up for it today.



I got a couple of questions about the caves and where they were. So I made this little map to give you the idea of the route that Barb and I took to get to Las Vegas. We traveled down I-70 to Rifle then shot north, then we headed over to near Salt Lake City and this is where Tampangos caves are. Then we traveled west across pretty barren land to the Nevada/Utah border, this is where Leman caves are. Then we dropped straight down Nevada and into Las Vegas, this route added probably 6 hours of drive time on the way there (turning a 12 hour drive into an 18 hour drive), so you really have to plan it out. It is not like Leman caves are on the way to Vegas from Denver. I just like going to caves so Barb and I make special plans to visit them when we can. Going to see caves is a hobby of ours, so we are willing to drive a bit extra for a good cave.

When we were in Vegas Barb got a call saying that a tornado had hit near our home by our cat sitter (tuculina) She said we had some damage on the patio, we lost some boards from our fence and our screen door got messed up a bit. I was worried, but once I got home I realized that the storm really had not done any damage, and all of that stuff was just that we live in an older house that already had some heavy wear and tear on it.

We left our phone charger somewhere in Utah and also lost Barb's house keys at some point, but overall we came out ahead. Barb won a little bit of money and I lost a little bit of money, which is typical for us.

Kreeps wedding was cool. The preacher was too into Jesus for my tastes, but the food was good. The bride looked good, and a fun time was had by all. I am not sure what pictures kreep would want posted and what she wouldn't want made public because she can be weird about that kind of thing at times, so I will probably just not post from the wedding until I have permissions, but I got video of her son Seth doing a funny dance because he thought his dress shoes were tap shoes so he is dancing like a tap dancer. It is pretty funny.

Here are some pictures from the trip, none of the wedding yet. Barb took a crapload, but I will probably only post one or two of those.

( pictures, enjoy )

I wrote these posts not aware that I would not be able to actually be able to post them while on the road, but read through them if you desire. There is more to follow, plus lots of pictures. Las Vegas is the worse place to visit if part of your trip normally includes hanging out on the internet, describing your trip to friends:
( stories from the road )

Tuesday was Barb’s 34th B-day. This called for cake! I bought her some gifts that she liked and we played Geeks Who Drink at Moe’s. Unfortunately we did not place, even though we were in second place most of the game, our last two rounds blew it for us. We were team Rumpleforeskin (I made that up). Everybody shared in cake, which was really good, and we had a good time. I won a book on how to get along with girls, written in the 1940's. I probably need a book about how to get along with people in general, but girls are a good start.

( visual proof of the debauchary )

Memorial Day weekend was pretty cool. I worked today (Monday) but Barb had off and so she went shopping for a new pair of shorts to wear over the summer. My work was slow, so I was happy about that, this was my first really slow day in my new department. In a way it was a relief to see that slow days are actually possible there.

Saturday we went to the shelter and I don't think I danced to a single song. Our friend kreep came over before we headed out to the club and her and I drank, then we went to the club and just kept drinking. It was fun, maybe a little too much drinking. She likes the milk room and Barb and I like the Jazz room, and that might partially explain why I really didn't dance, that and they don't have a dance floor and it sometimes seems goofy dancing in the isles. Barb wore a new outfit that she had shipped in from Japan, and she had several people say they liked it. She looked good, I tried to take a couple of pictures but really I was too drunk to get a decent picture, I got a picture with my thumb in it and one with my sleeve in it, and one I like, but she doesn't that has both of us in it. So I guess the next time she wears the outfit you might see it. Saw lexondray but didn't talk to him very much, he was mostly talking to a woman. I hope he looks good in his $100 hair color! He got it on Sunday.

Sunday we went to cluebyfour's house for some bratwurst and burgers. It was a good time not too many people were there. The weather turned on us and even started hailing for a bit. Luckily it was a small enough gathering that we all easily migrated inside. I felt bad for dragon_smoke and pale_elf because they rode their scooters over before it rained, and had to ride home in the rain or shortly afterwards.

Barb had a headache off and on all weekend so we probably would have done more. We had other things we could have done, but you know how it is when you have a headache, it kind of drains all motivation out of you.

( a couple of pictures )

We had a good time at dragon_smoke and pale_elf’s party last night, many thanks to them for inviting Barb and me. I brought over some sweet tea vodka and some lemonade, I tried that stuff at Moe’s last week and found it to be really good. Nobody had tried the sweet tea vodka yet, and most that tried it, enjoyed it. That stuff sneaks up on you because you really cannot taste the alcohol. I still have another bottle, but will wait for another weekend to drink it. They had said they would provide “the basics” so I had figured that meant some beer and perhaps some snacks like chips and salsa, instead it meant a ton of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and biscuits from Popeye’s, plus a keg and other assorted alcohols. Their house is cool, and is a little maze like, due to it being an older house that has had a lifetime of additions.

Otherwise the weekend is a quiet one, I had considered going to TKK tonight if we could not get a trivia team together, but they canceled due to breaking up. I was not positive if we would go, simply because I have seen TKK so many times in the past, but still they are a cool live show and I saw a few pictures from their Tulsa show that made it seem like it would be fun and that was where our normal Sunday night trivia teammates were planning on being.

My friends page has really slowed down in the number of postings lately, I think everyone has transitioned to facebook, or dropped off in some other way. It sucks because I have always liked LJ the best for more mature and in depth conversations and postings. I don’t have a facebook, but am beginning to feel the pressure to go over to facebook at least tentatively.

The cops shot one of my co-workers kids. I don’t know the truth behind what happened, but I feel very sad for Crystal, because right or wrong, the cops will never see justice if they did execute the kid. They claim he shot at them first, but I am not sure I believe that. Even if the cops are telling the complete truth, it is going to be hard to believe them if they block an independent investigation by a non-government agency.

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We had a good round of trivia last night, even though it was kind of slow at Moe's. Barb and I, plus Barb's friend from work Mitch and two of his friends formed our team, "The Billionaire Boys Club: Bailout Edition".

Moe's had a special on sweet tea vodka and lemonade. This stuff was the bomb. It tasted exactly like an Arnold Palmer and you could not taste the alcohol at all, but I could feel it even after just two drinks. It is definitely something I will drink again.

( pictures )

We took Barb’s mother up to Blackhawk today for a bit of gambling since tomorrow is mother’s day. It was fun enough. I only lost about 3 dollars all day, except that I bought lunch so that was a bit more. We ate at the Ameristar casino buffet and it was the best buffet we have been to in BH. I really liked the jerked pork (lol).

( pictures )

I am really not sure what I want to do about my mother this mother’s day. I am not very happy with her as I feel like she is completely taking advantage of my generosity. It is one thing to need help with rent for a couple of months, but not paying rent for almost 3 years and just expecting Barb and me to cover it, is really getting on my nerves. It is the only thing that causes tension between Barb and me.

Barb bought a box of Andes mints the other day and when we opened the package and found half of the package was filled with... packaging. You could not tell this from the outside of the package.




Work is going good. Everyday I am learning something new and finding a new challenge. Quite a change from my previous position. The downside it that it is wearing me out more and I am getting fewer chores done after work, so my house is not looking very good right now.

Buy stamps this weekend because the price is going up on Monday!

It has been a while since I posted any of the trivia pictures or little notes. We have been playing a lot. I just haven't been as good about posting as I had been before. Saturday we met up with one of my co-workers in the tech center and we got 4th place out of 14 teams (not bad for the 3 of us). It was fun and Justin is a cool guy and a really good player so I am sure we will have him join us again.

Besides trivia we haven't been doing much else.

( read more and view pictures )

Last night at trivia we placed 3rd. Not bad for a three person team. I think we could have placed first if slave1 had not come down with the sickness, some of the questions were right up her alley, especially the visual round which featured pictures from a bunch of different zombie movies. All zombies look the same to me. We did manage to get about half of them right, but I am sure she could have got them all. We missed Kriska and Dave our normal Sunday Night trouble makers.

Besides going to trivia on Sunday, it was a quiet weekend mostly watched movies on Saturday. Barb wanted to go shopping so we went to Fashion Nation and she got some new Doc’s and then we went over to the new punk rock baby clothes store “Babysitters Nightmare” and got some cute little baby rockabilly girl clothes for a friend who is knocked up. I guess we were in a shopping mood because then we went to Kohls and I bought a pair of cargo pants and a couple of polo shifts for work and Barb got a new pillow.

My new job is still going okay. Everyday is a new challenge, and I think that is turning out to be a good thing. I was wasting my talent over in surv. They are also hiring 7 new people so I am no longer going to have the lowest seniority, that will come in handy come shift bid.

( pictures from last night )

Had a good time last night, got drunk at a party for Laura’s Birthday. They just got back from Vegas where they had went to the Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly convention. She had a little party to celebrate her birthday which was actually 3 weeks ago, but Laura and Christian had too much going on to have a party sooner. There were only about 10 people there and then a bunch of zombies showed up! I guess the zombies were members of a band I had not heard of. They seemed cool, but didn’t stay very long and brought a couple of really young people with them. I am sure the party seemed boring to them, we are mostly older than they are and we had very little alcohol. I had fun hanging out and getting drunk. Barb played with some pictures on the Wii, mostly drawing penises into pictures.

Today should be fun as well. Barb took off to go to a Baby Shower, but this afternoon we are heading over to Jason and Gordon’s house for an early dinner, and then we are planning to go to GWD at the goat. It has been 2 or 3 weeks since we have been to the goat and I am having withdraws.

Anyone need a large wife or a couple of huge kids? Barb spotted this sign last night on our drive over to Laura's, it was funny:


Large wife sale

( pictures from party )

I have been at my new job for a week now. It is going well. Technically I took a demotion to come over to this new position, the thing is that this is a lot more difficult job. I am enjoying the challenge, but it strikes me as odd that the job considered to be “higher up” is the easier job, and the demotion is the more difficult position. At least now I feel like I am adding value to the product. In my last position half the time I was surfing the internet. Don’t get me wrong, I like to surf the internet, but it doesn’t leave you feeling very fulfilled at the end of the day. I also feel more comfortable about the likelihood of them keeping me around for as long as I want to stay, when you know you are adding a lot of value to your organization it is much more difficult to picture them getting rid of you. I am also in a growing department and division at my company, we added 11,000 new customers last month alone! The only downside it that there may be overtime in my future, and some OT isn’t even that bad of a thing, extra work for extra pay as I stayed hourly by taking the new job.

I changed my primary care physician, but won’t make an appointment until I get my new insurance card. Then I am going to make an appointment and hopefully this new doctor will get me a sleep study, so I can find out why I am not sleeping well. I suspect sleep apnea, but it is time to find out for sure so I can get it treated.

Not much else going on. Haven’t felt like blogging. Most of my thoughts have been about work. I expect that to continue until I hit a certain comfort level threshold with my work, and my co-workers. I can keep this LJ up because for me it really is a live journal, not really a blog in the same way as my other blogs where I discuss political topics.

Sunday:
Cleaned house.
Family from all over went to Cinzetti’s Italian buffet. The food was alright, but the deserts were good. They raised their prices for Easter.
My cousin David and his wife Crystal stayed at our house. We didn’t talk to them as much as I would have liked.

Monday:
Back to work, first day at my new job really doing the new job duties.
Semi truck tipped over on Hampden at parker, this is something like the 4th one to topple and they are all making the same run, you would think they would have learned already to take it easy at that corner.
We were supposed to go to Longmont for dinner with cousins, and to make up for lost time due to the overturned truck we decided to take the toll road. Every mile there was another toll, it got to the point where I had to ask the lady taking the money “how many more of these will I have to pay before we are at our destination?”. It turned out to be a lot, and I am never taking that road again. $7.50 for about 10 miles.
Saw my cousin’s baby for the first time, he was a cute kid.

Tuesday: Slept like crap and was tired all day, heading to bed early.