This is an archive of articles that I've deleted from the current issue of The Flying Wolf
Laura, Joe, David and I met in Reading to have Thanksgiving dinner
with our Grandmom at Chef Allen's Restaurant. Here are some pictures.
Last summer (?) I answered a call for help from my local chapter of the National Organization for Women for a Web Mistress. It took a lot of time, but the site is up and running at: http://www.mcnow.org. I've been pretty lame about updating in and wouldn't be upset if someone wanted to take the job from me.
I finally saw a new doctor about my lower back which never really healed after seeing a chiropractor for 8 months last year. He looked at my x-rays (which were pretty poor) and examined me. Since his explaination of the cause of my muscle pain was using a model it's hard to explain since I don't exactly know what things are called. What he showed is that my hips (where they attach to the spine) are locked. One tilted forward, the other back. This makes one hip higher than the other, and one leg longer - which was something that always showed up during exams last year. Because these joints are locked they are not taking any of the shock that they are supposed to and the spine is taking lots more and all the muscles attached are unhappy. I have arthritis between L5 and S1, and while this may be causing some of the pains I've had going down the legs, it's more likely a result of the muscle inflammation putting pressure on the nerves.
Unlocking these joints and retraining the muscles to do what they are supposed to do is going to cause me more pain in the short run, but be a long term solution. I could hardly walk after my first treatment.
During the third treatment something popped - a good pop - in my right hip. The pain was much less immediatly after. A couple weeks later my left hip moved. I managed to go camping in June without having any sciatic pain!!
Many of you may have heard that my sister's cat, Bono, was diagnosed last fall with Feline firbrosarcoma which he got at the site of a distemper vaccine. Laura assures me that he is doing fine. The tumor has been removed and he is his old adorable self again. The rate of recurrance is high, but there's not much we can do but enjoy the cute fuzzball while we can and use this as an opportunity to educate people about this terrible disease.
The most informative site we've found is Sylvia's Journey of New Hope and rather than trying to reproduce the information Sylvia's family gathered I'm just going to send you to this site for more information. Bono is one of Sylvia's "Photo Friends."
Earlier this year, after observing David (who was in great need of a vacation) watching the space shuttle activity I suggested we go to Florida and watch the next launch. So, there we were, Thursday, May 27th on the shore of the Indian River in Titusville, FL watching the sun come up as we waited for the launch. It was a really neat experience. It was a short trip, but we got to spend a couple days playing tourist. I put some pictures on a different site (for faster viewing)
This summer flew by, mostly unenjoyed due to the results of two episodes of temporary insanity. On May 26th, two days after the wedding, I registered for a course at the University of Maryland. It was a 400 level web-based course called "Issues in Cyberspace." Distant learning was new to me and I found some things easier and others more of a challenge.
My other major insane move was agreeing to be in charge of the Internet Lounge (IL) at Bucconeer, the 56th World Science Fiction Convention that took place in Baltimore, MD from August 5th through August 9th. This wouldn't have been so crazy if I had had this job months in advance of the convention (I originally volunteered back on January 21st.) Unfortunatly I wasn't put in charge of the IL until June 6th. At this point I should have said NO. I know this now. (Hindsight is a wonderful thing) I should have taken the clue when it took over three months for the division head to answer my January message (it was answered April 30) and then another month for him to finally agree with David's May 6 suggestion that SOMEONE should be put in charge of this thing.
I'm not going to get into all the %$#^-ups, but I spent the better part of July on this thing, I spent most of my vacation working on IL stuff. My division head never did put me on the Manager's e-mail list, so what little information I got about logistics was given to me second (sometimes third) hand. My name wasn't put on the Web site's list until a week before the con, so noone knew who was in charge of the IL (or if there was going to be one). The procurement chief never did get us couches. I never did get to see the art show. The only programming items I made it to were: Clam Chowder concert, one of the B5 presentations, and the Masquarade. I was too exhaused to go to many parties at the con. I never did make it to the volunteer lounge and by the time I sent someone over there for me they were out of T-shirts so I didn't get one.
The lounge actually went over real well. The computers worked (most of the time), you could even telnet (most of the time...) and most people understood why we couldn't be open 24 hours a day (we were located in the convention center which had strict hours).
Time constraints caused me to struggle through my course at the University of Maryland this summer. (see the above article if you can't figure out why). But the instructor was very generous with his grade and I got a 'B'. Like ice dancers, I think I was graded on my potential, not what I actually got done for the course. So I'm three more credits closer to getting that piece of paper. Unfortunatly this summer exhausted me so much that I'm skipping taking a class this fall. I was really hoping to get six credits in, but I did a reality check and don't want to risk my sanity.
On Sunday, May 24, 1998 David and I and a bunch of our friends and family got together for a celebration of our relationship and commitment to each other. A short ceremony was officiated by our friend, Steve Aines.
Marie and Lois have earned our undying gratitude for busting their butts to help keep Maria (me) sane through this whole thing. They helped tie dye tablecloths and Lois made my dress. I don't think the tent would have gone up without them!
Everyone claims they had a good time. It didn't rain. Nobody killed anybody. Nobody embarrased us (well, not TOO much!).
In January David started working for a small 'start-up' company based in Potomac, MD. While, Maria still has her nasty commute to her DC workplace, her husband has been working from home and gloating about his commute.
Some people have talents that they can use to earn money or amuse their friends. My biggest talent is hurting myself. (Although, I will admit, I did have some help this time.)
It began in April with a couple stumbles that weakened my left ankle (the one I had surgery on a couple years ago). On May 1, some kids fucking around ran over my right foot with a shopping cart at the Home Depot. Two weeks later I completed the damage by spraining my already weak left ankle in a fall on our back porch. My feet hurt!
I started seeing a chiropractor about a month after twisting my lower back during a minor fall on Dec. 24th, 1997. The injury wasn't healing and I was ocassional having pains going down my legs. Having my neck pain greatly diminished after being cracked by someone I just met at Arisia made me brave enough to see a chiropractor again (10 years after seeing one who just made things worse).
While it did take months for the lower back to really begin showing some improvement, Dr. Rifken immediatly helped my neck - decreased the constant tension and pain and greatly increased my movement range. (I can now look over my right shoulder when changing lanes!).
David started going in February and likes Dr. Rifken so much that he involved himself in a car accident in March and fell off some scaffolding at Balticon just to avoid decreasing the frequency of his appointments.
As you might guess, a lot of things didn't get done this year because neither of us were in any physical condition to do them.
After running my 1988 Toyota Tercel into the ground and getting
tired of hearing my knees pop when I used the clutch, I decided
to buy a new car - a real NEW car! After consulting with Consumer
Reports and Edmund's Automobile Buyer's Guides I was leaning toward either a Nissan 200SX or a Honda Civic.
David made me look at the Toyotas also, and we drooled over a
Supra Special edition ($50,000 srp), none of the Toyotas felt
right. At 4' 11 3/4" short, being able to reach the pedals AND
see over the steering wheel without hurting myself are important
consideration. I test drove a Honda Civic EX, and while it was
a nice car I was put off by the pushy car dealership and useless
dealer pre-installed 'options' that added over $2,000 to the price
of the car.
Unlike Honda dealer, the Nissan dealer let us take the car out by ourselves. He didn't pressure us at all. I knew what I wanted, knew what it was worth, and he didn't waste our time with sales BS. Thanks to David I got a real good price too. The only thing I wasn't able to get was my #1 color choice, which was Pacific Blue. But in the right light, and using the right camera it looks blue, which is good enough for me.
I slowed down a bit this year in my pursuit of a BS in Business/Computers at the University of Maryland University College. I only earned 3 credits this year because I took the Spring semester off to pursue other interests and my summer class was canceled. See my review for more details about my fall class.
I only need 12 more credits for my degree, but at this rate, it could be the year 2000 before I actually get it! (I'm on the 18 year plan!)
Until I figure where to move this you can still reach the one paper I wrote last year that I actually converted to html here. How to Plagiarize Papers off the Internet.
Last year I spent lots of time trying to convert a fenced in plot of ground by the driveway into a vegetable garden. First, David and I discovered that the driveway was much wider than it looked... and the plot much smaller. Then I rediscovered how much work gardening is. Last year my garden produced a nice crop of snow peas in the spring, far too many sweet peppers and buggy tomatoes (it was a very wet summer). And, lets not forget the weeds.
This year was going to be different. But I planted things late and lost a lot of plants due to some very hot Washington, DC weather. (It reached 105!) I tried some yellow pear cherry tomatoes (a friend grew some really yummy ones last year) but the plants were fried during a heat spell even though I was watering them regularly.
My carrots tasted funny - and seemed a little burned. The new location for the tomato plants didn't produce real well, and the pepper plants were transplanted too late. I was thinking of planting some stuff for a fall crop, but never found the time. Well, maybe next year will be different!
David and I were legally married at the Judicial Center in Rockville,
MD on May 28, 1997. We tried not to make a big deal out of it,
and even went to work that day. It was a legal procedure done
so David could be on my health insurance policy. On Sunday, May
24, 1998 we'll be inviting our friends and family for a ceremony
and party to celebrate our relationship and commitment to each
other.
Last year we flew west for our vacation, this year we drove north. David went on vacation a couple days before me, because I had to be at work. He rode his motorcycle, visited with friends in NJ and PA, and arrived at Big Indian, NY for the start of Baitcon X, Jailbait's annual bash. I drove up Saturday with our camping gear, towing my motorcycle on a trailer. Of course, I had a headache when I arrived which I tried to kill with Advil, but even 2 four Advil doses wasn't enough and David had to shoot me. The Imitrix injection worked, and I was able to enjoy the rest of the evening. We stayed at a cabin down the road from the party. I've given up camping at Baitcon. I like real sleep and a hot shower in the morning, and both are impossible when over 100 people camp in someones yard.
We left to continue our vacation on Monday, loading both bikes on the trailer and driving north to our campsite near Lake George in Adirondack State Park. We both had a nice, relaxing time. We took a steamboat ride around the lake, rode our motorcycles around, saw 'Men in Black' on the day it poured, and had a nice visit from our friend, Ann, on Thursday. Friday morning we crammed everything back in my car, loaded the bikes and drove to Boston for a visit with David's sister, Rachel and her family. We saw some real nice fireworks on the 4th, and had fun at 2 parties on the 5th.
On Sunday we drove home. Somehow David managed to squeeze Rowan into the already overfull car (who says Tetris is a waste of time?) for the ride back so she could attend the first day of summer camp. Her father remained in Boston to have their sick car fixed. It was a very long, but pleasant drive south. We were both glad to be home.
In the past I've occasionally lost a glove or two, or an umbrella while traveling through the DC Metro system. This year my losses escalated. In the spring I lost a pair of expensive eye glasses which kept me in sunglasses a couple days until my lenses came in. One day this fall my Palm Pilot disappeared. Hopefully my luck has changed, but neither turned up in the Metro lost and found.
[an error occurred while processing this directive] This page was last updated Thursday, 03-Aug-2006 21:19:06 EDT .