Friday, December 03, 2010
Friday 9:00am
In honor of the new TSA screenings, I present Kayte @ work, using the Photobooth XRay setting.
Friday 12/3/10 8:00am
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Saturday, November 27, 2010
Saturday, September 04, 2010
Today Jim and I went to one of our favorite Indian restaurants, Dil Khush. The owner is this cute middle aged Indian woman. She was making us our food when an Indian family came in and started looking at the menu. She said she'd be out in a second, but before she could come out, they left the restaurant.
She came out from the back, and went outside to check in with them as they were making their escape. She came in and looked really frustrated, and told us that they wouldn't eat at her restaurant because they served halal meat, and that was against their religion... but they go to the same temple as the owner.
She then told us how great halal meat was. And we agreed... because it's tasty. I found the whole thing pretty amusing. So, was the Indian family lying? Or did they have a dramatically different version of what is right and wrong from someone else who goes to their same temple? Good to know Christianity doesn't have all the crazies.
She came out from the back, and went outside to check in with them as they were making their escape. She came in and looked really frustrated, and told us that they wouldn't eat at her restaurant because they served halal meat, and that was against their religion... but they go to the same temple as the owner.
She then told us how great halal meat was. And we agreed... because it's tasty. I found the whole thing pretty amusing. So, was the Indian family lying? Or did they have a dramatically different version of what is right and wrong from someone else who goes to their same temple? Good to know Christianity doesn't have all the crazies.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Kaiser
So why do I still have Kaiser insurance? Sometimes Kaiser has been just fine when I get sick or injured, but then sometimes I'm just amazed at how crap they can be.
So I did something stupid to my back a couple months ago, and it really hurt. It got better, but whenever I'd do something strenuous, I'd re-tweak it, and it would hurt again.
Well, last Sunday I was making screens for my bedroom windows, and hunched over assembling it for way too long. I stood up and man, was I sore.
Sunday night and Monday I could barely stand up straight. Moving from seated to standing took about 30 seconds of telling my back to do what I wanted, and my back and hip seemed fused together, making me look like a hunchback with a wood leg. A wood lug that hurt when I put weight on it.
So I called Kaiser, and somehow magically got an appointment the same day. I go to my appointment, standard waiting in the lobby, getting my weight and blood pressure taken in the hallway by a med assistant, and escorted into the exam room. After a few minutes, my NP comes in. The woman was my height, and must have weighed 300+ pounds. I'm supposed to take medical advice from this woman??
So I explain the basics of what I did to my back, how it's been hurting, and how it feels. She has me touch my toes. Does it hurt? Yes. She has me lay on my back and bring my legs in. Does it hurt? No.
OK, so I did something to my back. She tells me she's going to prescribe me meds for swelling & pain. She spends 5 minutes typing things into the computer. Oh, you were here previously for stomach pains? Then I'll prescribe you more meds for that! She then hands me a piece of paper with a referral to Physical Therapy, and gets up to leave.
Um, wait? What am I supposed to do now? "Well, I wouldn't exercise for a while" No shit, your 300 pounds, I bet you don't exercise... I however, would not like to end up like that. She basically tells me don't do anything that hurts, and see the physical therapist. OK fine, maybe they will be more helpful.
I go to the pharmacy and pick up my meds. Prednisone for the pain (1x a day), Pepcid to help my tummy handle the Prednisone (2x a day), IBProfin for pain (3x a day), and Hydrocodone for pain (4x a day). I think I spent more time with the Pharmacist longer than the NP, asking what the drugs did, and how they would affect me.
Called the physical therapy office, and they say that before I can have a 1 on 1 appointment, I have to take a group class for low-back pain. OK, fine, the class is Wednesday, so that's not so bad. Today I went to the class. First bad sign: We received a packet of info & exercises, and the picture on the cover was a man massaging his shoulder, with the title "Care for Acute Low Back Pain." Through the next hour, I sat through learning how to stand up properly, sit down, pick things up, etc. It wasn't bad, but I've been helping Jim do these things for the past several months, so it wasn't very novel. I patiently waited for the exercise portion of class, so I could strengthen my back & core.
So we lay on the ground, and contract our abs. Magic! And then we bring a knee into our chest, and then the other. And then, the most amazing exercise - cat/cows.
2 of the other people in the class were an older man, and an older woman. They were both obviously fairly inactive, and have had health problems. Arthritis, knee replacements, falling episodes, all sorts of fun old-people problems. And I was just thinking - jesus, I need to keep myself fit, I don't want to be them. I want to be healthy as I get older.
So the class was ending, and the physical therapist decides to actually take us a minute to talk to us individually. She now had approximately 2 minutes to decide if we should take an exercise class from Kaiser, or get referred to 1-on-1 physical therapy.
So I tell her that I do yoga, and that my back doesn't hurt during yoga, but it does afterword, and I'm not sure what part of yoga makes me hurt. So I get the 1-on-1 referral. But, can't she give me a little help until I can get an appointment? I don't want to get old and brittle and frail, I want to go home and exercise! No, she has another class, she can't tell me anything, and there isn't anyone there who can help me right now.
So I go to the desk, and sign up for the very next physical therapy appointment... 2 weeks away. But what am I supposed to do until then? I ask the receptionist, but she's just a receptionist. My obese doctor says not to exercise, my physical therapist has told me how to put on pants without hurting my back.
Oh, and would you think that if I'm having severe back pain, maybe I should get an MRI, see what's going on in there? Nah, Kaiser would rather give me drugs and PT, and see what happens.
So I go to work, frustrated, wanting to take good care of myself, but not knowing what to do.
I call the one health care provider that I know I can actually talk to - my chiropractor.
I call her, she picks up the phone, recognizes my voice, and we talk for 20 minutes. I tell her my dilemma. I want to be fit! I don't want to get old! I don't someone to help me! She has 45 minutes before her next appointment, so I close my computer, and head to her office. She gives me an adjustment, looks at my spine, and tells me that she doesn't think it's a disk problem, she thinks that my sacrum has been tilted, which is what causes me pain. Then we talk about what hurts, what puts pressure on my sacrum, what exercises I can do, and what I shouldn't.
I shouldn't do anything that involves curving my back forward, my back should be straight. And I shouldn't do anything that puts a lot of pressure on my back, like hard laying on my back, and lifting my legs. Sweet, I know all the modifications in yoga, I can avoid doing those things.
Our goal is that by the time I have my physical therapy appointment in 2 weeks, I've already mostly healed myself :-) A good goal I think.
So now I'm at home, lots of Kaiser drugs flowing through my system, but I have a PLAN. Modified yoga, exercise, drugs, healing. And at the next open enrollment, I'm picking another health care provider.
So why do I still have Kaiser insurance? Sometimes Kaiser has been just fine when I get sick or injured, but then sometimes I'm just amazed at how crap they can be.
So I did something stupid to my back a couple months ago, and it really hurt. It got better, but whenever I'd do something strenuous, I'd re-tweak it, and it would hurt again.
Well, last Sunday I was making screens for my bedroom windows, and hunched over assembling it for way too long. I stood up and man, was I sore.
Sunday night and Monday I could barely stand up straight. Moving from seated to standing took about 30 seconds of telling my back to do what I wanted, and my back and hip seemed fused together, making me look like a hunchback with a wood leg. A wood lug that hurt when I put weight on it.
So I called Kaiser, and somehow magically got an appointment the same day. I go to my appointment, standard waiting in the lobby, getting my weight and blood pressure taken in the hallway by a med assistant, and escorted into the exam room. After a few minutes, my NP comes in. The woman was my height, and must have weighed 300+ pounds. I'm supposed to take medical advice from this woman??
So I explain the basics of what I did to my back, how it's been hurting, and how it feels. She has me touch my toes. Does it hurt? Yes. She has me lay on my back and bring my legs in. Does it hurt? No.
OK, so I did something to my back. She tells me she's going to prescribe me meds for swelling & pain. She spends 5 minutes typing things into the computer. Oh, you were here previously for stomach pains? Then I'll prescribe you more meds for that! She then hands me a piece of paper with a referral to Physical Therapy, and gets up to leave.
Um, wait? What am I supposed to do now? "Well, I wouldn't exercise for a while" No shit, your 300 pounds, I bet you don't exercise... I however, would not like to end up like that. She basically tells me don't do anything that hurts, and see the physical therapist. OK fine, maybe they will be more helpful.
I go to the pharmacy and pick up my meds. Prednisone for the pain (1x a day), Pepcid to help my tummy handle the Prednisone (2x a day), IBProfin for pain (3x a day), and Hydrocodone for pain (4x a day). I think I spent more time with the Pharmacist longer than the NP, asking what the drugs did, and how they would affect me.
Called the physical therapy office, and they say that before I can have a 1 on 1 appointment, I have to take a group class for low-back pain. OK, fine, the class is Wednesday, so that's not so bad. Today I went to the class. First bad sign: We received a packet of info & exercises, and the picture on the cover was a man massaging his shoulder, with the title "Care for Acute Low Back Pain." Through the next hour, I sat through learning how to stand up properly, sit down, pick things up, etc. It wasn't bad, but I've been helping Jim do these things for the past several months, so it wasn't very novel. I patiently waited for the exercise portion of class, so I could strengthen my back & core.
So we lay on the ground, and contract our abs. Magic! And then we bring a knee into our chest, and then the other. And then, the most amazing exercise - cat/cows.
2 of the other people in the class were an older man, and an older woman. They were both obviously fairly inactive, and have had health problems. Arthritis, knee replacements, falling episodes, all sorts of fun old-people problems. And I was just thinking - jesus, I need to keep myself fit, I don't want to be them. I want to be healthy as I get older.
So the class was ending, and the physical therapist decides to actually take us a minute to talk to us individually. She now had approximately 2 minutes to decide if we should take an exercise class from Kaiser, or get referred to 1-on-1 physical therapy.
So I tell her that I do yoga, and that my back doesn't hurt during yoga, but it does afterword, and I'm not sure what part of yoga makes me hurt. So I get the 1-on-1 referral. But, can't she give me a little help until I can get an appointment? I don't want to get old and brittle and frail, I want to go home and exercise! No, she has another class, she can't tell me anything, and there isn't anyone there who can help me right now.
So I go to the desk, and sign up for the very next physical therapy appointment... 2 weeks away. But what am I supposed to do until then? I ask the receptionist, but she's just a receptionist. My obese doctor says not to exercise, my physical therapist has told me how to put on pants without hurting my back.
Oh, and would you think that if I'm having severe back pain, maybe I should get an MRI, see what's going on in there? Nah, Kaiser would rather give me drugs and PT, and see what happens.
So I go to work, frustrated, wanting to take good care of myself, but not knowing what to do.
I call the one health care provider that I know I can actually talk to - my chiropractor.
I call her, she picks up the phone, recognizes my voice, and we talk for 20 minutes. I tell her my dilemma. I want to be fit! I don't want to get old! I don't someone to help me! She has 45 minutes before her next appointment, so I close my computer, and head to her office. She gives me an adjustment, looks at my spine, and tells me that she doesn't think it's a disk problem, she thinks that my sacrum has been tilted, which is what causes me pain. Then we talk about what hurts, what puts pressure on my sacrum, what exercises I can do, and what I shouldn't.
I shouldn't do anything that involves curving my back forward, my back should be straight. And I shouldn't do anything that puts a lot of pressure on my back, like hard laying on my back, and lifting my legs. Sweet, I know all the modifications in yoga, I can avoid doing those things.
Our goal is that by the time I have my physical therapy appointment in 2 weeks, I've already mostly healed myself :-) A good goal I think.
So now I'm at home, lots of Kaiser drugs flowing through my system, but I have a PLAN. Modified yoga, exercise, drugs, healing. And at the next open enrollment, I'm picking another health care provider.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
I've had a big year. You know all those big life changes, yeah, I've had a lot of them. One of my colleagues was encouraging me to sign up for this really awesome Project Management Certification at Stanford, and I was realizing that it was about this time last year that I dropped out of my MBA program. I want to take more classes and further my education, but I like a work/life balance, and I have stuff going on! I also like lists, so here's one for today:
My last year:
I love cheesy Christmas update letters, but didn't do one this year, because I was crazy busy, and because it felt like I'd have three things to say:
My last year:
- March: dropped my MBA program
- April: lost my Dad - in San Diego for a month
- June: Went to Telluride
- August: Got married
- August: Mini-moon in NorCal
- November: Birthday party with 20+ friends & mom & her new boyfriend
- December: Got a promotion
- December: Visited Grandma in Effingham Illinois
- January: Celebrated 5 year (dating ) anniversary with Jim
- January: Started fostering Sanzu (kitty #2)
- February: Start looking for a house
- March: Buy a house, move from San Jose to San Mateo
I love cheesy Christmas update letters, but didn't do one this year, because I was crazy busy, and because it felt like I'd have three things to say:
- Dad died
- I got married
- Jim still doesn't have a job
Sunday, March 21, 2010
We haz a house! Yesterday was moving day, and I'm so glad that's done. It's great to actually be in the house. We have a lot of work to do still, but at least we have a great home base.
First my office moved. That was a lot of work too. Fortunately, as we unpacked, I got to take a bunch of the boxes. They filled my cube, and I was unsure that I would actually need THAT many boxes. But I did.
Then we had to do a few things to get ready to move in. We had to buy appliances. This is Vasily and I getting rejected for the Sears credit card. Because we can buy a house, but can't get new applicances. Stupid Sears. Oh well, we still bought our appliances from them.
Then we did some work on the house. We changed the locks, and installed new knobs where there were none. There were also locks that locked us into the house. That's not a good idea. Fixed that.
Then we painted the baby blue office grey!
And Vasily's horrible red walls were painted.
We also had our first meal in our new house, sitting on the floor of our dining room.
The appliances finally came and were installed. They are new and pretty and shiny.
Meanwhile, at home, we piled everything we own on top of each other to make space for boxes, and the like. Sanzu was a fan of climbing.
Moving day finally came, and we had an excellent team. And by team, I mean small village. Which is exactly what we needed to move this ikea bookcase. We had to basically push it over our balcony and have about 8 people catch it.
It's always fun to move large furniture around narrow spaces...
Also, holy crap I have a lot of stuff. A lot of old fragile nice furniture. I can't believe how much stuff I have...
That 26 foot truck, it ended up pretty full. Holy crap, I have a lot of stuff.
The next stop was Vasily's house, where we somehow made room for everything of his in the truck, and in everyone's cars.
Jim drove the giant UHaul, and was AWESOME. Although it was pretty funny when he trapped Brian's car in our new driveway. Brian eventually got out, and Jim was directed by about 10 people and managed to back into our driveway.
Once everything was unloaded, the crowd rejoiced! Thanks much in part to Margaret, our awesome realtor who brought us pizza and pasta.
Zana wins for coming all the way from Oregon and helping us move. This is our living room at the moment, you can actually walk through it, which I find quite impressive.
I like this picture because it looks so casual. It looks like it could be from any party at our house, and not like these people just hauled everything we own up the peninsula. And they all fit in the living room. Amazing!
This is where I am now. It's Sunday morning. I spent the first night in the new house, and it was great. The kitties are much less traumatized than they were while we were moving. Jim is still asleep (he's the lump next to me), and now all I have to do is figure out which box contains clean clothes, and then I can start unpacking!
One more shout out: Jim, Vasily & I have the most amazing friends & family in the whole world. It's crazy that so many people willingly volunteered to help us move. It was so nice to be able to let the strong men do the heavy lifting, let the tetris masters figure out how everything fit in the truck, and in general just have people to step up and help out with everything. Thank you so much!!
Once we've settled in and unpacked, I'll take more pictures of the house, and yes, we'll have a housewarming party too, so that we can see everyone without subjecting them to physical labor all day.
First my office moved. That was a lot of work too. Fortunately, as we unpacked, I got to take a bunch of the boxes. They filled my cube, and I was unsure that I would actually need THAT many boxes. But I did.
Then we had to do a few things to get ready to move in. We had to buy appliances. This is Vasily and I getting rejected for the Sears credit card. Because we can buy a house, but can't get new applicances. Stupid Sears. Oh well, we still bought our appliances from them.
Then we did some work on the house. We changed the locks, and installed new knobs where there were none. There were also locks that locked us into the house. That's not a good idea. Fixed that.
Then we painted the baby blue office grey!
And Vasily's horrible red walls were painted.
We also had our first meal in our new house, sitting on the floor of our dining room.
The appliances finally came and were installed. They are new and pretty and shiny.
Meanwhile, at home, we piled everything we own on top of each other to make space for boxes, and the like. Sanzu was a fan of climbing.
Moving day finally came, and we had an excellent team. And by team, I mean small village. Which is exactly what we needed to move this ikea bookcase. We had to basically push it over our balcony and have about 8 people catch it.
It's always fun to move large furniture around narrow spaces...
Also, holy crap I have a lot of stuff. A lot of old fragile nice furniture. I can't believe how much stuff I have...
That 26 foot truck, it ended up pretty full. Holy crap, I have a lot of stuff.
The next stop was Vasily's house, where we somehow made room for everything of his in the truck, and in everyone's cars.
Jim drove the giant UHaul, and was AWESOME. Although it was pretty funny when he trapped Brian's car in our new driveway. Brian eventually got out, and Jim was directed by about 10 people and managed to back into our driveway.
Once everything was unloaded, the crowd rejoiced! Thanks much in part to Margaret, our awesome realtor who brought us pizza and pasta.
Zana wins for coming all the way from Oregon and helping us move. This is our living room at the moment, you can actually walk through it, which I find quite impressive.
I like this picture because it looks so casual. It looks like it could be from any party at our house, and not like these people just hauled everything we own up the peninsula. And they all fit in the living room. Amazing!
This is where I am now. It's Sunday morning. I spent the first night in the new house, and it was great. The kitties are much less traumatized than they were while we were moving. Jim is still asleep (he's the lump next to me), and now all I have to do is figure out which box contains clean clothes, and then I can start unpacking!
One more shout out: Jim, Vasily & I have the most amazing friends & family in the whole world. It's crazy that so many people willingly volunteered to help us move. It was so nice to be able to let the strong men do the heavy lifting, let the tetris masters figure out how everything fit in the truck, and in general just have people to step up and help out with everything. Thank you so much!!
Once we've settled in and unpacked, I'll take more pictures of the house, and yes, we'll have a housewarming party too, so that we can see everyone without subjecting them to physical labor all day.
Monday, February 15, 2010
We can haz house!!
All engines are go for our new house in San Mateo. I'm really looking forward to being a homeowner, but I'm quickly realizing that in addition to all of the maintenance and work to be done, I need a lot of STUFF. Here's my ever growing list. If you happen to have any of these things and would like to give them a good home, please let me know. I'll soon be scouring Craigslist to try to find these items cheap...
All engines are go for our new house in San Mateo. I'm really looking forward to being a homeowner, but I'm quickly realizing that in addition to all of the maintenance and work to be done, I need a lot of STUFF. Here's my ever growing list. If you happen to have any of these things and would like to give them a good home, please let me know. I'll soon be scouring Craigslist to try to find these items cheap...
- Fridge
- Stove/Oven
- Range hood
- Washer ( I think I already have a dryer...thanks Julie!)
- Lawnmower
- Tree trimming tools
- Primer & Paint
- Futon
- Doorknobs
- hose
- ladder
- bookshelves
- area rug
- light fixtures
- lamps...hmm, not sure what built in lighting there is, this might go up to a 'need'
- pink flamingoes
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
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