Everyone trusted Dr. Yueh; his Suk school training forbid the taking of human life. But when he betrayed the Atreides, he offered Duke Leto an opportunity to avenge himself on the Baron Harkonnen.

"Be quiet, please, my poor Duke. You haven't much time.

That peg tooth I put in your mouth after the tumble at Narcal--that tooth must be replaced, in a moment, I'll render you unconscious and replace that tooth." He opened his hand, stared at something in it. "An exact duplicate, its core shaped most exquisitely like a nerve. It'll escape the usual detectors, even a fast scanning. But if you bite down hard on it, the cover crushes. Then, when you expel your breath sharply, you fill the air around you with a poison gas..."

Cool remoteness spread upward from Leto's jaw, across his cheeks. The shadowy, hall narrowed to a pinpoint with Yueh's purple lips centered in it.

"Remember the tooth!" Yueh hissed. "The tooth!"

To bring the occasional Paul participant to speed, an upper-rear tooth cracked w/ a capital 'C'. Paul dutifully ignored it and it crumbled to the gumline. Yes, yes - Bad Paul. The concern was finding a gifted dentist, unlike the previous several. Doc Mollow was recommended by an only recently cavitied Lili and I have to say, he's amazing. Our time together is spent talking books, giving and taking titles to look up and him understanding my in-chair mumbles.

Anyway, yesterday was my tooth extraction and it went very well. I was understandably uncomfortable once the shots wore off but, it wasn't anything threesomes of 600mg ibuprofen, beer and pudding couldn't solve! I'd hoped that solid food would be in the works but, I'm not even sure that'll come to pass today. At most, I'm talking chinese take-out noodles.

Today, I'm at work and tittering over Dune comparisons. I'm dying to speed to the local Starbucks for coffee but, I'm not sure how sensitive I am yet. *sigh* Perhaps I'll buy a cup and just let it come to room temperature. Granted, it'll take an hour but, it's certainly better than nothing.

What should help is the little "flipper" appliance I'm now sporting. Think - single tooth denture. The grand plan is to go back for a dental implant in the Fall. Until then, others are allowed a complete smile and I'm spared more drilling. I'm having to get used to how it sits in my mouth. It has this plastic molding that fits around my gums and adjacent teeth but, it's kinda obnoxious. It feels like jamming chewing gum around my teeth and letting it sit there. Trying to speak w/ it is worse as it brings the want to lisp. :-( We'll have to see if Socratic marble exercises actually work.

Labels: amusements, dune, teeth

Early drinks + movies + dinner w/ The Amandae = Happy Paul and dog!

Labels: Amandae, Eggy, Lili, Susan B

A noontime rest for a full-fledged assembly worker at the Long Beach, Calif., plant of Douglas Aircraft Company (LOC), originally uploaded by The Library of Congress.

FYI - The Library of Congress posted more than 3000 public domain pictures up on Flickr. They have opened the pictures up to community tagging. Most are rare glimpses at images not seen in decades and all are stunning (as are the freckles in the above picture)! Run, don't not walk!

Labels: flickr, library of congress, photography

Suffering from over-caffination. Desperately looking for something to do but, I'm having a hard time making up my mind...

Woken by Lili's alarm at Snooze Strike #2 at 5:30a. She felt extraordinarily bad but, I figured I could get up, brew a pot of coffee, read some geek news feeds and merge & convert a couple of more iPod-compatible audiobooks. Rather I'm taken with skulking around SG, catching up on who's posting and what. Boredom, really.

It could always be worse. My alarmist supervisor called off the meeting I was supposed to attend, almost literally as I write this. The snow storm turned into a slushy mix and a day off. Joy!

For those of you keeping score, my rollerderby league had another inter-league scrimmage last night. Boston's Derby Dames rolled down with their newer 'B' skaters and happily, it was a great little bout. Our girls scored somewhere near 105 to their 54, I believe. More importantly, I was able to jam ref again and do a hell of a job doing it!

Okay, I've decided plugging-in and working on chord/scale transpositions wins out. Maybe that and transcribing a li'l Jeff Buckley. Until later...

Labels: guitar, over-caffination, rollerderby

Bored and occupying deskspace. Stomach growling and looking for something to do. Happily, Radio Paradise has kept me company for the past few hours. Plans are gearing up towards New Year's Eve, Take Two. Since lovely Lili and myself were out by 11p on New Year's proper, we decided that we deserved another chance. The plan-at-hand is renting 200 Cigarettes, trying out my new tabletop fryer & make jalapeño poppers from scratch and blow our tops at midnight. If we were really smart, we would've DVR'd actual programming from that night. Yeah well, perhaps next year. Since Susan B. was absent for the second year in a row, she's equally down for the repeat play. Photos to be posted. For now though, here's my favorite un-proofread bumper sticker!

Labels: Amandae, Lili, New Year's, Susan B

I'm now in the semi-swing of my new position's schedule. As it's yet to be determined when I'll be meeting w/ new clients & their families, I'm attending the standardized meetings, huddles and introductions for my post. Some of it feels particularly silly as I earned this promotion well more than six months ago. Even some of the meeting attendees have made jokes about the zombie-speed foot dragging in getting me in the door. I'm just happy to be there and making efforts to get settled. Examples: Desk assignments, memos about computer requisition, etc. I like minutiae, nesting & new starts and so far, so good.

Labels: fun w/ meetings, productivity, work

So, vacation's at a sad end. Amanda visited last night, catching up on events missed since both of us were sick. She agreed that an additional vacay was now needed.

The skate event the other night succeeded with mixed results. It seemed that bake and merch table sales were successful. Turn-out though was what I predicted - maybe two dozen, including immediate family and friends. Note to self: Never hold anything on a Sunday night, in Waterbury, with unmandatory participation, with exclusively internet promotion and/or in inclimate weather. The important thing is that Lili got her hoodie, finally!

This morning I've been reintroducing myself to my Palm TX. I acquired it by housesitting for a work administrator. She couldn't make head nor tails of it and knew that I surely could. Since then, it's phased in between being an under-used address book, a planner for my very-predictable schedule or a dust collector - a waste at any measure. With my impending job transfer though, it needs to be mastered immediately! Week One will likely have me huddling w/ my agency's IT department having it sync twelve different ways. Week Two will find me shopping for after-market bluetooth keyboards. At least all of this will make me look busy while I scramble to figure how to do my job.

Labels: productivity, rollerderby, Vacation, work

I'm sitting down quickly in between miscellaneous fabrication for chili making... Finally getting around to making dusty cans of Goya chipotles in adobo sauce in chipotle paste. Gloving up, separating stems and seeds from the jalapeños - Yes, couldn't help but chuckle either. Foraging cups for pulp, sauce and debris. I'm happily find use for the stick blender I bought myself for yet unmade soup. Grinding barely bound fiber, missed seeds and scraped out adobo sauce into a pulp, placing into a soon-to-be-stained Tupperware. I'm thinking of smoldering Pumpkin Soup for dinner Monday. Yeah, without a doubt.

Projects for Saturday: Networking my parents house - Best allowing my younger brother to death match cronies from bedroom, living room or basement lair. So jealous. Hanging out w/ James and likely watching my used purchase of Apocalypto. Maybe a good reason to make spicy hot chocolate?

Projects for Sunday: Bag and tag bar cookies for the bake sale section of the CT Rollergirls "Skate With A Rollergirl" event. I'm bringing the same thing as last year, these huge Walnut & Chocolate Chip monsters. Easily a dessert for two people or, for a foolish single.

Labels: chipotle, cooking, Recovery, rollerderby, Vacation

I really rarely pay attention to holidays anymore. With that in mind, I'm coming to grips with my significant other pays attention to every holiday. The recent compare/contrast brought about discussions of New Year's resolutions. For years now, I've only kept one - To forcibly poke myself into situations that would normally avoidant, or at least very uncomfortable.

For instance, you are at an amusement park. It's not likely you'll be back again this season so, you get off your ass and ride a wooden coaster or two. You're not sure if you know someone at a meeting? Introduce yourself afterwards. Comment on boards you would otherwise glance at. I think you get the picture. The Girlfriend thought this idea smart so, we're going to spend a few months taking notes.

Happily, I'm writing this not so much for my usual guilt of abandoned journals but, caffeine consumption. Every now and again, I want to renew old contracts of documenting what's important, what's taking precedent at the time. In the past, its been successful in different forms - college-ruled notebooks, notepad entries and leading up to my account @ SuicideGirls. I'm hoping that this works well as Google universality has been working well for me.

This week I find myself off through my work's Winter Break vacation policy. Our union contract mandates that employees have to take a mandatory week's vacation somewhere within the holiday season. I've traditionally taken the first week of the year off for part Spring Cleaning, part video game binge. The day prior to vacay, I came down with a sinus infection that quickly turned into the flu, which upgraded itself into a systemic allergic reaction - My body covered itself in bright red splotches and raised burning itchy bumps. Chicken pox in the fifth grade have got nothing on these guys!

After a New Year's Day trip to the ER, I'm hopped up on steroids and an industrial antihistamine. For the past couple of days, recovery has been measured in the smallest of victories - Sleeping without clenching my hands as not to scratch, not snapping at my girlfriend's suggestions & immediately apologizing for the shitty remark. Today is the first day in several where I've felt down right industrious! I'm really feeling better, happier, humorous and eager for my vacation to properly start.

With that, I leave to go get started.

Labels: Flu Season, New Year's, Recovery, Vacation