Ugh

I'm thinking of going gluten free..... Do any of my readers have any feed back on this? Worth it or is it crap? Easy to transition or very hard?

What do you think?

i'm still alive

Thursday was house cleaning, making jerky and boogie boarding with AK at Crystal Pier in PB. Then Kilo moved back in that evening as well. My face got considerably sunburned and I lost a fin but I had tons of fun at the beach that day. It was good to do something new and use new muscles.

Friday was bonfire and fireworks at fiesta island, dinner at Luna Grill, giving my niece and nephew rides on the scooter, taking them to the beach for the first time, playing at the park and giving my mom a ride in the Porsche and doing donuts in the church parking lot with her.

Saturday is sleeping in, training with Kilo, lunch, shopping and maybe Sea World in the evening.

Sunday will be a shortened version of church and then saying goodbye to all my family that is leaving.

The month of September is going to see like 8 different people at least coming to visit. I guess I should have surgery more often to get my family around. Hahahaha. I'm kidding.

Real History is not His Story

June, 2010. Iranian President Ahmadinejad.

"Sixty years ago, my beans of an artificial and false pretext, and my fabricating information and inventing stories, they gathered the filthiest, most criminal people, who only appear to be human, from all the corners of the world. They organized and armed them, and provided them with media and military backing. Thus, they occupied the Palestinian lands and, and displaced the Palestinian people."

This should be all the reason that is ever needed for Iran to have zero access to anything nuclear. Not civilian, not research, not power. None.

I hope and pray the IDF bombs their reactor, like they did the Iraqi and Syrian ones, as soon as they can. And our "allie" Russia providing the fuel? Another fake friend of the US, just like Saudi Arabia and others. The IAEA is a joke as well.

An irrational actor has threatened a UN member state, Israel, with extinction.

What is going to be done about it???

until we meet again

Today is my last day at the bike shop work until I am recovered from surgery. It's been real. It's been fun. And occasionally it's been real fun.

Let's say your outside, shirtless and using a leaf blower to get rid of some spider webs....I think it is safe to say then that it is possible you could have a spider blow back and land on your bare skin. I mean I heard it happened to some guy I know, not me. No way.

If you're not really into it, what Korean food is yummy?

Yeah, if I can take a picture like this with my crappy cell phone, just imagine what it is really like? This is what having one runway at your "major" airport does, route jets right over the biggest park in SD, the biggest freeway and tons of houses.

I can not resist. I just can't. "RAWR, I'm a tiger!"

Real Life

Please help me.

If you want to make a difference in my life, for real, then please contact me. I want you to donate money in support for finding a cure for Crohn's disease through the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America.

Team Challenge is running the Las Vegas half marathon this December and the charity involved is the CCFA. Please donate money to help support Diane in this. Please.

Contact me at ultra_rowdy@yahoo.com and I will give you all the information you need to know. Or click on the "please help me" links to go directly to the webpage.

Thank you soo much.

Please help me.

A new chapter...... Let's just leave that at that.

I want to bbq oysters on the grill this week. It will be my first time but it looks easy and could be amazing. Oysters, butter, garlic, Tobasco and Worcestershire sauce. Yum and Fun!

This is also my last week of work until after healed up from surgery.

I think my church responsibilities are going to be scaled back as well, thankfully.

KRB will be back this week as well as my sister and mom and such. That will be a fun time, I hope I have the requisite energy for them! I want them to have fun while here.

I'm happy it is sunny and warm! I am happy Super D is liking road biking. I'm happy for the new friends I've made. I am happy to have people who care about me and are concerned. I'm happy to let my hair grow beyond being buzzed super short. I'm happy I get to go to the ocean whenever I feel like it.

So yeah, I'm not feeling the best, but I am trying to be physically active and rest in the proper amounts. I'm just ready for the process to start.

Let's get it on!

surprise surgery consult

UPDATE-I was just scheduled for surgery September 13th. Not really liking what was at the house for breakfast I buzzed down to the bagel place at 730am this morning. Who do I see right as I walk in the door? My surgeon!

He smiles, asks me to sit down and we have my pre surgery consult right there. He did ask me if that was ok or if I wanted a traditional office visit, I chose having it right then and there. Easier and cheaper.

So he told me his plan, gave me all the risks, and so on. His scheduler will call me today or Monday. He told me it will be right after Labor Day as he is out of town for the holiday weekend and book up until then.

It is said that everything happens for a reason, and I guess there was a reason for me to go out for breakfast today. I wonder what else will happen cool today out of the blue?

thinking.....dreaming.....wandering.....lost........conclusions.......hope

If 'emo' was around when I was 16 I would have been it. I remember too many rainy days walking alone and detouring through the cemetery. And liking it. And reading obscure old books. And thinking no one in the world felt how I did.

I still have a touch of that certain kind of melancholic romanticism. I want to lay down in my front yard and stare at the sky

(photos courtesy of me, I took them in my front yard)

And here this song playing in my ears over and over again

esophagogastroduodenoscopy

I was in and out of there in about 90 minutes from start to finish. I tolerated the procedure much better this time, thankfully only having to do the upper half.

According to my GI doc it is unremarkable with nothing to explain my delayed stummy (that's for you AB!!) empyting and gastric distension.

This should mean that my surgery will be less complex and less intestine involved.

The question of why I have that gastric distension is still unanswered, but I think it is fading in priority to the partial small bowel obstruction.

Thankfully they used more sedation at my request due to my red hair and ability to be fiesty if not properly under. So, I just got a copy of the report my DI doc sent to my surgeon. I should be getting a call or email soon to get it scheduled and all set up.

There, now you know as much as I do. And can see as much as I do.

today's sound track

A happy theme song:

A ARGH theme song:

A theme song to wander by:

I know it goes both ways, oh how I know it does. But.............

People are your "exes" for a reason.

blame it on the sun.....

guess one new pair of sunglasses wasn't enough.... i had to go and buy another pair. monday was some sporty cool oakleys and yesterday was some classically cool ray bans.

What do you think? Should I call and start taking voice lessons? Actually learn how to sing?
NO way in heck am I 17% bodyfat!! I'd believe 11 or 12%, but not seventeen.
Oh yeah! My new sunglasses.

You Lose!

Not a single person entered my "Photo Caption Contest" for the below photo. And there was even a prize for it too!

This means that I am entering the contest, and of course then winning it! Here is my winning entry:

Guess I will be eating lunch with myself then rather than some lucky reader.....

If this had been any sort of success the next picture for the caption contest would have been either of these two:


If you don't try you can't win...........So you lose.

I got your back.....

And not in a good way suckah! Well, good for me. Soon to be night night time for you.

Today I went up to the Carlson Gracie school in Temecula at the invite of my friend TM who is a black belt from Fabio's who lives and trains up there now. Joao Assis was holding a seminar for two hours and the price was only $40. I was there!

So we spent two hours going over taking the back, keeping the back and various attacks from the back. It gave me a new way to look at things and some new techniques for positions I actually do find myself in. The whole thing was videoed so I am sure I will be on a dvd sometime, somewhere.

It was awesome. I was the highest non black belt there so I got to roll with all the black belts before anyone else. It was good to earn that, ya know? Rank has its privileges. And of course you realize how much you have to learn when you roll with a bb and it is just you getting crushed and tapped.

Joao Assis, me, TM.

Moar Marshmeloz? I haz dem!
I have never liked Courtney Love. Ever.
The dude that wrote that book on barefoot running needs to go, well I can't say it here this blog is read by my family. At least the chia seed drink isn't too bad.

doing my part

Today I did my part for the underground economy. No, it did not involve drugs or sex. Not that underground, goodness I thought you all knew me better than that.

I needed all the big furniture moved between two bedrooms in my house. I'm tired and just one person so I didn't want to take 5 hours doing it myself. How to solve the problem?

Get in my truck and drive down to the nearest Home Depot parking lot. If you ever wanna relieve the scene in any disaster movie where the last survivor with any food or gasoline or whatever is discovered this is a good way to reenact it. As soon as I stopped with the windows rolled down I was totally surrounded and bombarded with pleas, looks, questions and out stretched hands.

Yelling out what I wanted in a mixture of english and spanish and setting some rough terms I then had to pick people based on just looks and what they could say to me. So I picked two younger bigger guys and fought everyone else off. One guy actually just tried jumping in my truck.

After Mario, Jose and I got a better feel for each other and nailed down the firm terms of the contract I drove them to my house, they did the work I wanted in about the time I expected, I paid them and then took them back to Home Depot.

I learned from my last day labor adventure you don't give anyone food or water until they ask for it, or else they take like a 30 minute break right then. I also asked them to take off their shoes while doing the work in my house too, which they did.

I've had a gardener, a house keeper, hired day labor and such things before. I have no "white man's burden" as it were. I don't feel guilty or superior. I just feel like a cog in a really huge machine. Simply that. I want to get stuff done as quickly and efficiently and cheaply as possible. And if that means hiring an illegal or undocumented worker for a few hours, then so be it. (sorry to my friends in the CBP)

Ya big jerk!

24 hours of marinading/curing in the super secret brine and now for 24 hours of alder and hickory smoking.

Cue Homer Simpson style, "Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm"

it's my creation

Three pounds of top round steak and an electric carver.
One cup sea salt, one cup brown sugar, black pepper and the rest is a secret!!
24 hours in the fridge and then about 16 in the smoker and voila delicious beef jerky!

Jerky in the store costs about $25 a pound. Three pounds of good low fat meat cost me $11 at Vons. Oh yeah, nothing like DIY sometimes. Especially when it is delicious and unique.

TODAY! HOY! AUJOURD'HUI!

Sometimes, you've got to just live for the day you have today. For me that meant a 5.2 mile trail run/walk at Marian Bear Park. (i was tired ok??) Then surfing at La Jolla Shores. Since I am not good enough to take my cell/camera into the water you are stuck with these non-action pics.

Loading up the truck. Right after I watched some moron put the jumper cables on the wrong terminals on their Porsche and cause a whole heck of a lot of smoke to appear. I quickly straightened them out and got their old Speedster started.
Beached whale!!
Not a cute smile, but a genuine one at least.
Flat. Just how I like it. Ugh, curse of the red shirted instructors of newbie tourists as well.
My board's bottom.
This is what happens when you text and drive. But not what happens when you take pictures and drive.

It's a major award, errr, surgery!

From my GI doctor's email to me today,
"Regarding your surgery, I agree with resection of the apparent short stricture. I'm a little less convinced that you need the gastric surgery, but I will discuss with the surgeon."

So, two out of two doctors recommend I have surgery. Now they just have to decide how much to cut out, how to cut it out and where exactly. And decide about my newly diagnosed stomach issue as well. (and if they want any more imaging tests beforehand as well)

Ok, now that everyone is on board they are gonna cut me open, let's do this! Sooner rather than later.

Bring it on!!!!

no wonder.....?!?!?!?

I guess I shouldn't be surprised I don't sleep well when I have:
-Godzilla
-a baby Jaws
-a viking totem
-startled Sponge Bob

all on my night stand watching me while I sleep........a

(now I just need a cat to come in at night and crawl up the covers and suck the breathe out of me all Stephen King style)

Sunday Snippets

Why should I bother to watch another freaking Hollywood remake like Piranha 3D when I can get this in real life?

Why are all of Alistair Maclean's books out of print in the US? I have read all of them and want to share them with new people, but they will never get the chance now. Kindle? Think not. Sad.

This is my new ring. It is tungsten carbide so it will never scratch, just like the old one. This one is sized for the ring finger on my right hand since I broke the finger on my left hand. Playing flag football! It should be here in a week!!

I have never had a tattoo. I did have my left nipple pierced a long time ago in my misspent youth. I wouldn't recommend it.

Fine, loose leaf herbal teas are one of my guilty pleasures. I bought a few boxes at Harrods in London last month so I then bought an electric tea kettle when I came home. Those things are magic! Hot boiling water in 30 seconds.

Now that I am older than 29 I will never tell anyone my real chronological age. Unless legally required to. Guess that makes me vain or insecure. I don't care. It's my secret and I'm keeping it.

......

Scratch that. After realizing that I had missed ALL my medications today and that I looked like this:from my sunburn, well suddenly it seems as if I am not going to make it to the concert tonight. Oh well.

To live and die in Hell Ay

Went up to LA,specifically Venice, to go to the fan expo for Ninja Warrior. If you don't know what it is then you either don't have access to a computer or don't watch the G4 channel. It is legit, it is real and it is fun! Not some stupid MXC or Wipeout.

Got to see the all-stars, Super D got all of their autographs, I ran the mini course and did it perfect, t shirts were bought and then just the general atmosphere of Venice Beach was thrown in there as well.

Lunch was a trip into downtown LA for pork, beef and lamb french dipped sandwiches at Philippe's. Oh yummy!!

I sunburned my face incredibly bad. It hurts! And now it is time to head to Soma for the Silversun Pickups concert...




What a day!!

F f F f F f F f

Friday: Duh moron, what today is. Any other bright questions?

Fitness: None. I was totally wiped out after running, not eating anything and then two hours of jiu jitsu yesterday.

Fun: A couple hours in the sun at La Jolla Shores reading. And doing some paperwork.

Food: Going out tonight to Bo's Seafood and Grill. Add another F just for the fish.

Friends: My two friendly neighbor doctors are going with to the above "food" part.

Film: I'm probably going to see The Other Guys tonight with Will Ferrell.

Fine: Evidently my parking job was not as legit as I thought...

Fart: From an article in the New Yorker today, evidently flight attendants will fart on you as they walk by if they don't like you. Passive aggressive retaliation. David Sedaris says so.

Surgery Update

First, thank you for reading and caring. I do appreciate it and can feel people's concern and love. It does help me through it and to not feel more alone. Family, friends, friends I've yet to meet "THANK YOU!"

So on Tuesday I saw a general surgeon who quickly realized my case was too complex for her. She then referred me to surgeon who specializes in the bowel and ordered a few tests to be completed before my consult with him. Her final words to me were that it was her opinion I would benefit from a surgical resolution.

Waiting from Tuesday until today I have only been able to sleep about 6 hours. So after a 3.5 mile run this morning I was off NPO to get some radiology studies done. Let me tell you if you don't already know, Gastrografin is disgusting! Fortunately my GI test only lasted 90 minutes rather than the possible 4 hours they primed me for.

Then I relaxed for a bit and avoided any real lunch as I didn't feel totally well. Then off to my afternoon appointment with the specialty surgeon. After a bit of discussion we started to build a report and he offered me a soda out of his personal fridge. Now I realize this was just to get my defenses down before he took me to the "special" room and next thing I know my pants are around my ankles and I'm bent over getting the "treatment" up the you know where. Thankfully I have a beautiful backside and now I have proof.

What did I learn today? That I have two areas my surgeon is concerned about. Evidently I have a huge stomach for my size and it doesn't empty right at all. Most likely due to a Crohn's disease problem in my duodenum down stream from my stomach. But with all my imaging tests so far they are unable to find out exactly what is going wrong there. To them though, there has to be something wrong there or else my stomach wouldn't be doing what it is doing.

This surgeon feels I have 10-12 surgeries left in me before I am a nutritional cripple and on TPN. This is dramatically different than the last surgeon's opinion and is at odds with my GI doctor. The told me I had two left in me. So it would be nice to really have that much leeway in the planning and treatment of me surgically. Less scare and concern of short bowel syndrome.

What is the plan? This is where I am still frustrated. It is more tests, more talking, more waiting and then a decision. Due to the complexity of my history, my disease, multiple parts of my bowel involved and the number of my previous surgeries everyone is really trying to make sure things are totally figured out before anything happens. Which to me seems to make the process last far too long when I have been fairly sick since February.

My surgeon and GI doctor are going to talk. Then they will get more tests done on me. Then we will all talk about what we think is best for my treatment. Then with 85% surety we will schedule a surgery. This process is going to take weeks.

The types of surgery planned is two-fold, a resection of the 10cm section of small bowel that is partially obstructed. Then the big surprise today, connecting my jejunum in a bypass to my stomach to facilitate its emptying. Basically gastric bypass surgery like they do for weight loss!! This would still equal a big scar on my abdomen, a week in the hospital for sure and months of recovery. But with initially the impression that all will be right with me once it is completed.

I am somewhat frustrated because I want it to be clearer, easier, simpler and faster than this. But I am not dying and they want to get it right. So it is going to take weeks, not days to figure out. But now you know as much as I do. If you got a question email me or leave a comment and I'll try to answer it.

WTH?

Normal testosterone level is 300-1,000 ng/dl.

My first test was 102 ng/dl without being on any kind of hormone replacement. (aka juice, gear, roids, barry bond's vitamins)

My second test after being on Androgel for almost two months was 38 ng/dl !!!!!!!

Seriously, WTH? Do I have to have a pituitary tumor added to my life now too?? (not that that has been proven yet, just saying)

I swear, God must have arranged these medical problems for me to keep me from taking over the world. Because if I can do what I have through all of this, imagine my super powers if I was "normal"?!?!?!?!

dichotomy

I'm a serious person, believe it or not. But I also have a strong duality to my personality. Therefore I also enjoy humor and playfulness.

In that vein here are some pictures I have been lucky enough to capture on my cell phone. And a few silly ones of me as well to, just to keep my own ego in check.

If you're having a bad Tuesday, I hope this cheers you up some. Or at least causes the faintest of smirks to cross your face.










And I didn't feel like writing much today so it is easier to just throw a ton of pictures up.....

Speaking of, please submit something for the picture caption contest for the photo at the top right!!!