My Dad

Last Wednesday my dad had surgery on his right shoulder. He injured it when he flipped his riding lawn mower. I don't know how he did that, but he did. It turned out that injury may have saved his life.

While dad was recovering from his shoulder surgery, he suffered a heart attack. Since the surgery took place in a hospital in a small town, they had to fly him via a helicopter to a hospital in Greeley, CO.

After they stabilized him, they discover he had blood clots in all his arteries. They immediately started him on blood thinners, but that caused internal bleeding from his surgically repaired shoulder. After a back and forth with the blood thinners, they were able to stop the bleeding and begin thinning out the blood clots.

I almost lost my dad that day. Thankfully he is out of the woods and may go home today. What a relief. If dad would have been at work or home instead of in a hospital when he suffered the heart attack, he may not have survived. Interesting how an accident in the summer saved his life this fall. I'm grateful.

I Ain't Afraid of No Ghosts

It seems that there are a lot of families out there in which at least one member has a ghost story to tell. It could be as nice as a visit from a beloved grandparent to as creapy as items missing or moving around on their own. My mom and sister both have quite of few stories of the paranormal they have shared with me over the years.

Unexplained encounters has always fascinated me. I love shows about UFOs, bigfoot, and ghosts. Does that make me crazy or weird? I hope not. I am fascinated by the shows because of the possibility that there are things out there that make us question what we already know. I don't know what to believe for sure, but I am willing to look at any proof someone may have.

John Wornall House

Which brings me to a couple of Saturdays ago. I went on a ghost hunt sponsored by a local paranormal group. The house we were investigating was the John Wornall House. I was joined by Queentuffy, Average Jane, and Alex. Alex and I were in the "I want to believe, but I haven't seen enough proof" camp and Queentuffy and Average Jane were the skeptics. I believe every paranormal investigation needs to have skeptics in attendance.

Cassi, Mykala and Val of Premier Paranormal Research

The hunt was organized by the Premiere Paranormal Research Group. They gave us a quick tour of the equipment and we watched a video. Then we were ready to hunt. They split us up into three groups. The four of us I mentioned before were a group with Val as are investigator/teacher. Alex wanted to start in the scariest part of the house first. So, we started upstairs in the kids room. This room was rumored to have the most activity.

We sat in a circle on the floor of the kids room in silent darkness. We had a voice recorder in the center of the circle and an ir camera to gather any evidence. This was by far the coolest part of the night. We sat there waiting for something to happen. Val would ask questions in hopes that any spirit present would interact with us. Of course, nothing happened. The room did not feel creepy and I never felt uncomfortable to whole time.

The Carriage House

We moved around to different areas of the house including the detached garage they called the "Carriage House." Nothing unexplained happened in any of the other areas either. They was a strange light that passed in front of one of the ir cameras stationed in the kitchen. When I looked at the footage, it looked like light coming in when the door was opened. Even though it was clear to me that is was nothing, others in the group were convinced it was paranormal. Queentuffy labeled them "freaks." She may not have been too far off, but I appreciate their desire to see some evidence.

Though nothing paranormal happened (the evidence is still being reviewed) I had a great time. I can't wait to do it again.

Do you have a parnormal story to tell? If so, I would love for you to share it with me.

Tough Year

This has been a tough year for Queentuffy and I. Queentuffy's dad is still fighting cancer (and doing a great job) and earlier this year my mom was diagnosed with Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Luckily both her dad and my mom are doing great. Mom was declared cancer free at her last PET scan and gets here chemo port removed in 2 weeks. Queentuffy's dad is putting on weight and looks and sounds his best since this all started in June 2009.

Financially it was tough because we had to exist as a one income household for about 6 months. It was rough at times, but we made it through. After we become a two income household again, we refinanced the house and have made a few changes to keep things rolling. We could always do more to save money, but somehow we cannot seem to stay focused.

Now for the good news. I just learned today that we are going to get some of the 10% pay cut back. Only 2%, but I will take it. I hope this trend continues. Being back to where we were in 2008 would be great. It will be nice to plan vacations, again. I hope everyone else is feeling as optimistic as I am.

Passion

Queentuffy and I have been catching up on TV shows via DVD. Our latest is Project Runway (don't judge me.) Though I know nothing of fashion, I like the show. When I was a kid, I wanted all my shirts to have numbers on them similar to football jerseys. Yes, I was that fashion forward.

As I mentioned before, I know nothing of fashion and the industry associated. I still find Project Runway fascinating and entertaining. I don't find the clothes or the judges all that interesting. What I do find interesting is the designers. Watching people follow their passion is great TV.

Watching these passionate people gets me thinking about what makes me passionate. That is where the problem begins. I can't think of anything that I am passionate about. The designers on Project Runway have spent many hours per day for many years perfecting this passionate craft. Some of the designers wanted to do nothing else that they struggled to the point of homelessness to keep the dream alive.

I am a person who has many interests. Nothing I would call a passion. In high school I played sports, was an award winning artist, and gear head (I partially restored a '53 Ford.) Since high school I learned to play the drums and was in and out of a few bands. None of these things kept me engaged enough to be passionate about them.

I wonder if life would be better or worse having a dream you are so passionate about that it is all encompassing. I think this kind of passion makes some people's life worth living. But does it have the same affect on everyone. I don't know the answer to that, but I wish I had a passion to follow. I will keep looking. Maybe one day I will find one.

Modern Warfare 2

So, I have found a new obsession Modern Warfare 2. It seems I'm playing every chance I get. That often means playing until way too late at night. Even though I go to bed bleary eyed, I could have played for hours longer.

My favorite aspect of the game is playing online challenges against real people. I'm not much into playing the part of the game that is the story. I'm sure the story is fine, but I like testing my skill against thumb quick youngsters.

I spend most of the game getting out quicked and dying often. I bought the game months after it was released. That put me behind all the other users. I know that is an excuse for all my dying, but that is my story and I'm sticking with it.

So, if you are ever playing Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox Live, invite me (kipkillagin1) to play. You can rack up a lot of points killing me. It's easy.

Toothache Weekend

I couldn't sleep Tuesday night because my one of my teeth was causing me discomfort. So I made an appointment to see my dentist on Wednesday. My dentist thinks that that tooth is abcessing and sent me to a specialist. Unfortunately, I had a deadline at work and could not see the Endodontist until Monday. At the time it didn't seem like a big deal. Until Friday.

Friday morning I woke up and the tooth felt fine. I had a bowl of cereal and headed for work. During my commute the tooth starting hurting. It hurt all day. The only relief I could get was swishing cold water in my mouth and that only works for a short period of time. I forgot my pain medication at home and Queentuffy was gracious enough to bring it to me. I took two vicodin because I was in severe pain. That made me sick to my stomach and went home early from work.

I could not get any comfort. I went to bed after dinner and couldn't sleep. Queentuffy and I got up around 1 am and watched DVRd American Idol episodes (don't judge us.) I took some more vivodin and tried to go to sleep. Finally at 4 am we decided to go to the emergency room.

The er doc gave me a shot to deaden the pain. That was great. We finally got some sleep after 5 am. I slept until about noon and got up because I was hungry. I had another bowl of cereal. Soon after the tooth started hurting again. I quickly showered and went and had the prescription the er doc gave me filled. I took two percosets and hoped for the best. Another hour passed and I took a third percoset.

We almost went back to the er because nothing was working. Finally the percosets made me sleepy. I went to bed at 3:30 in the afternoon. I slept until 9:30 the next morning. The good news is my tooth doesn't hurt as bad. I think it was the cold of the cereal causing the problem.

Monday I will probably have a root canal. Normally I wouldn't be this excited about having a hole drilled in my tooth, but this is going to be such a relief. I can't wait.

Pancakes

I have never made pancakes from scratch before. Queentuffy and I decided we need to eat more at home. With that decision I realized I wanted to try making pancakes from scratch. I didn't have a recipe. So, I did a search on the web. I decided to try buttermilk pancakes using this recipe. I don't know who Scott Jensen is, but he has a great pancake recipe.

I would have taken pics of the event, but I was focused on not mucking this up I forgot. You'll have to trust me. They were great. The website did a good job of explaining the whole process. A process that was much simpler than I expected. Thankfully.

Queentuffy said we have to add these to our normal dinner rotation. I have to agree. I like these a lot and look forward to having them again. Next time I will add bacon on the side.

My-Verse

According to the Obama campaign it was time for change. Though our change wasn't felt country wide, it still was big for us. That's right we kicked Time Warner Cable to the curb and got AT&T U-Verse.

After months of discussing amongst ourselves and friends who have U-Verse, we decided it was time for a change. Time Warner had been a let down as of late and Queentuffy never liked being "hijacked" by them. Though our cost will be about the same, Queentuffy likes the fact its not Time Warner getting our money.

For me it was the inconsistant internet connection. I'm quite addicted to Xbox Live. I love to play Battlefield 1943, 1 vs 100, and Modern Warfare 2 online. It was pissing me off everytime we lost connection and I got kicked out of the game.

Besides a consistent internet connection there are more things to like that we didn't get with Time Warner. We can record a show on the downstairs dvr and watch it on the upstairs tv. That comes in handy when I record Ghost Hunters. Queentuffy doesn't like the show and now I can watch it when I want to and not wait to be home alone.

We can set the dvr from our phone or work computers. This may not be that big of a deal, but you never know. I remember being out of the house and it dawning on us that we forget to set the dvr. This won't be a problem anymore.

I has the NFL network. I could never understand why Time Warner didn't offer this channel. Now I don't care. AT&T has it. It is nice. Especially during the playoffs. Next season I won't miss any of the NFL network only games. Yes. I'm stoked.

One last cool thing. It could be our imaginations, but I think the picture is much better with AT&T. I don't have a HDTV so I didn't expect too much from picture quality. I am very happy with the picture improvement.

I am happy with the decision. Hopefully we will be happy for years to come.