I’ve now had nine “adult” teeth removed, although on the bright side each extraction has gotten easier. The first four removed were from back when I had braces as a teenager. As part of the re-arranging of my mouth, they had to come out. Two of them came out quickly, but the other two had double-roots and weren’t so willing to budge. I still have vivid memories of a dental hygienist holding my head in place, while the dentist and a second dental hygienist simultaneously tugged at the stubborn tooth. When it finally came free, they shot backwards across the office and slammed into a wall. Meanwhile, I had so much novocaine pumped into my face that my eyelids were asleep.

The next four were my wisdom teeth, which came out in 1993. It actually wasn’t a bad experience; the teeth came almost all the way in (and were actually cutting up the sides of my mouth) so there was very little cutting that needed to be done. A new extraction, though, happened yesterday. Years ago after a tooth cracked, I needed to have a root canal that went through two teeth. (Eek.) It started bothering me this summer, so I went to an endodontist who was able to fix the one closer in that was causing pain. Unfortunately, the other one (which wasn’t actually causing any pain) needed to come out. So after a lot of delaying, I finally bit the bullet.

I have to give the oral surgeon credit, that was much less painful than I’d imagined. I’d been warned that the tooth was brittle (as all root canal teeth are) so I “might hear some cracking noises.” Eeek. I had mental images of the tooth shattering in the process and then them having to dig the roots out of my gums. Not good, right? But I was worked on for less than five minutes and suddenly the surgeon was taking the brace out of my mouth and saying, “All done.”  You know it’s gone well when even the receptionist is startled at how fast it was taken care of.

That unfortunately meant lots of packed gauze and painkillers for the rest of today, and I’m still taking some 600mg of Motrin to ease the pain today, but it’s not that bad. (I actually just feel unusually tired and run down today more than anything else. We’ll see how the day progresses. Hopefully all will still be well.) I’m also not looking forward to the implant that will need to come for replacing the tooth, as I know that’s the more hefty of the procedures. But still, that’s a few months away.

Hopefully this is the last tooth extraction for a long while. I appreciate that they’ve been getting less and less painful, but still. I’d like to not have to gum my food down the line, right?

[Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.]

I just heard the most awesome thing ever, and it was on my local NPR station, WAMU. One of the classical music CDs they were playing as part of their program “The Big Broadcast” started skipping. And not just a little bit. It sounded like an old 33rpm album cranked up to 45rpms, during an earthquake so the needle jumped every half second.

I normally reserve my hysterical laughing at NPR programs for “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” and “This American Life” but it turns out there is something out there even funnier.

After about five minutes, I gave them a call and let them know what was happening. Much to what I’m sure was great disappointment to the other listeners, they did then fix it about 90 seconds later. (Or rather, the station went silent, and then turned on a BBC radio news feed.)

Craaaaaaaaaaaazy radio!

[Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.]

While heading up to a friend’s shindig this afternoon, it hit me that if I took the Baltimore-Washington Parkway up to the top of the Beltway (instead of the George Washington Parkway up to the side of the Beltway), I’d drive right past IKEA. And since I recently used up the last of my lingonberry preserves, well… a trip to the IKEA “grocery store” might be in order.

If you’ve never had lingonberries before, it’s a tiny bit hard to describe them. They’re a little tart but sweet at the same time, and they’re an essential ingredient on swedish pancakes. (Places like IHOP actually offer a lingonberry syrup for their swedish pancakes.) As I’ve been on a pancake kick lately (and really, why not?), more lingonberry preserves was a must.

I actually picked up two other similar foods that I’ve never eaten before, though; cloudberry preserves, and gooseberry jam. I have no idea what either of them taste like, but how can I resist something called a cloudberry? It sounds like what Frodo and Sam would have picked off of bushes on their trip to Mordor. Or maybe something Mario would eat to get a temporary power-up while trying to save Princess Peach from Bowser. I, for one, can’t wait to try them. (A gooseberry doesn’t sound quite as interesting. But in the interest of trying something new I bought it.)

If I had been going directly home I suspect I would have bought stuff out of the frozen section, too, but I was saved by warmer temperatures outside this weekend. Perhaps next time I’m up in the area…

[Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.]

[Sandra] Lee’s official Food Network bio states that, “Lee then attended the world’s leading culinary art institute, Le Cordon Bleu.” Lee enrolled in a recreational two-week course at the school’s Ottawa outpost, which she acknowledges that she did not complete.

[Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.]

You know when you see a really good deal online, but it’s for something you wouldn’t have otherwise bought? Those are so often my downfall. “Oooh, but it’s so cheap!” I hear in the back of my head. “I should get that!” That said, the best way to avoid such a thing is to just steer clear long enough. My latest victory is avoiding buying the first four hardcover collections of The Walking Dead for a ludicrously low price. I read the series for quite a while, but eventually grew a little weary of it and decided to move on. So I didn’t need the collections, not one bit. But they were so cheap… and calling…

Happily, by stalling long enough, the deal expired. Phew! Saved from the evil voice in the back of my head.

Besides, I did recently spend some money on getting a netbook; it was also ludicrously cheap, but in this case it was something I’ve actually wanted for a long time. Perfect for travelling and the like, in size and weight, and has more than enough power to watch videos and surf the internet. Yay! (I’m also happy to see that Amazon, in an effort to keep up with B&N, is going to be rolling out a Windows version of their Kindle application. Which means that I can put it and/or the B&N software on the netbook and then download free books for it. There are enough ones that don’t cost a dime that I don’t need to actually spend any money on such a venture.) Really, this netbook is going to be attack of the free software. Firefox, OpenOffice, Avast, public domain books… hurrah for free!

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

Just about everyone knows about the film Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. I suspect a lot of those people know there was a sequel in the movie theatres, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey. And a fraction of those people know about an animated series spin-off that ran for 20 or so episodes. (We’re already in obscure territory at this point. Comics fans may even know about the 12-issue series helmed by Evan Dorkin.)

But even I didn’t know until this week that there was also a live-action tv series that lasted a whopping seven episodes on Fox in 1992. And now that I’ve seen the trailer, I cannot un-watch this nightmare.

On a scale of 1 to 10, it’s a negative 17. I love how the two leads were clearly chosen based on the fact that one of them was be easily given blond curly hair like Alex Winters, while the other one could do a semi-recognizable impersonation of Keanu Reeves’s voice (and had a gnarly wig slapped on his head). There’s even some full clips from actual episodes of the show on YouTube, but I don’t recommend watching them in the same way that I don’t recommend staring directly into the sun. I mean sure, you can do it if you really want, but don’t come crying to me when your retinas are burnt to a crisp.

Then again, it also turns out there was a Benji television spin-off involving a hunt for aliens (no, really) so this clearly is not the most inane movie-to-tv-series decision ever. But it’s still pretty impressive in a bad sort of way.

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

Been a while since I’ve done one of these, but things have been so nuts this week otherwise…

Trader Joe’s Pear Sauce. Where has this been all my life? I’m actually not a big fan of applesauce, it’s always very bland and uninteresting to me. I will buy ones that have berries or some other fruit mixed into them, although finding applesauce with both something else added in but not having sugar added can be tough. Well, Trader Joe’s is now offering pear sauce. No sugar added, and using pears instead of apples. Quite frankly, it’s outstanding. It’s got a crisp taste to it, and there’s actual texture to the pear sauce, you aren’t just eating mush. Yay!

Visqueen – Message to Garcia. In March 2005 I went to see Shonen Knife at the Black Cat in DC; super-small show, a ton of fun. But the group that grabbed my attention even moreso was Visqueen, the opening act. I ran out and bought both of their albums and absolutely loved them, a group of indy rockers from the Pacific Northwest. After what’s felt like a small eternity of waiting, their new album hit about a month ago and I’ve been entranced with it ever since. More and more of the songs are slowly lodging their way into my head. You know that normally I would never send you to MySpace, but I’ll make an exception here so you can listen to some of their songs. http://www.myspace.com/visqueen

Sushi for lunch. Such a simple but easy pleasure. Mmmmmm.

Marathon training almost being over. It’s so nice to know that I only have one more long training run this year, for January’s Disney World experience. As much as I enjoy running, 20+ mile runs are no longer exciting or interesting or something to look forward to. It’ll be good to focus on shorter distance runs for a while once it’s all over.

Finishing mind-numbing pieces of work. I know that doesn’t sound great. But after spending seven hours fixing two PDF files (more if you count all the time spent on them yeserday), it is a genuine relief to finally have those two nightmares out of my non-existant hair. Seriously, I almost did a dance of joy, I was so excited that they were finally working properly.

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

If you don’t have a problem with heights, you may develop one after watching this video of someone walking across Caminito del Rey.

In the words of Wikipedia:

The walkway has now gone many years without maintenance, and is in a highly deteriorated and dangerous state. It is one meter (3 feet and 3 inches) in width, and is over 300 meters (984 feet) above the river. Nearly all of the path has no handrail. Some parts of the concrete walkway have completely collapsed and all that is remaining is the steel beam originally in place to hold it up. One can latch onto a modern steel safety-wire to keep from falling, though it can’t hold much weight. Several people have lost their lives on the walkway in recent years; after four people died in two accidents in 1999 and 2000, the local government closed the entrances. However, many adventurous tourists still find their way onto the walkway to explore it.

Seriously, I actually felt dizzy watching this 6-minute video, and had to stop several times because it was scaring me so much. There are plans to restore it but I think they should take that money and just demolish the trail instead. *shudder*

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

Today was supposed to be the first of our office’s annual flu clinics. One or two times in the fall, the company pays for a nurse to come in and administer flu shots (at no cost to the individual employee) plus a luncheon. It’s a nice little perk to have and it’s fun because everyone hangs out and has lunch together.

Yesterday, someone from the office called the company that was sending the vaccine and the nurse, and we were told that yes, it was still on. Today? Noon arrived, the food arrived, the nurse and flu vaccine did not. After fifteen minutes went by, we called and were informed that no one was coming. The company was apparently out of vaccine and wouldn’t have more until November, at which point they’d show up. How nice of them to let us know when we’d called to confirm just 24 hours earlier.

Seriously, professional courtesy is dead in this day and age.

I was actually more than a little annoyed because I’d just had my annual physical last month and had passed on getting a flu vaccine shot then because I knew the work one was around the corner. But, undeterred, I called my doctor’s ffice this afternoon and was told to just stop by. Went over, and two minutes later had my arm swabbed and jabbed. So it turned out to be flu vaccine day after all for me, but just not in a way I’d planned.

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

I went running this morning and it was cool enough that I had to wear a long-sleeved shirt, no more than 55 degrees at the most. And when I finished, all I could think was, “It’s autumn! Finally!” Saturday had been warm and humid, the antithesis of autumn in my head. But the temperature dropped a bit on Sunday, and for the past two days we’ve been back to me wearing a jacket in the morning on the way to work, although a stroll to the post office in the afternoon is just warm enough to go without.

Have I mentioned before how much I love autumn? To me it’s a cup of green tea when I get to work, or some apple cider in the afternoon and early evening. It’s the return of squash to the farmer’s market and grocery store, of taking a warm shower after a morning run instead of a cold one, of digging back out my long-sleeved shirts from where they’ve sat in my closet for five months.

When I got back from my run this morning, I opened up all the windows in my home (I’d already turned off the air yesterday), which was a delight to do so. I do wish that I could leave open the windows on the east side of the apartment, but unfortunately that would invite people to climb in and take my things, so no thanks. I can leave the west side windows open, but the breeze doesn’t really come through those so much. Still, as soon as I get home I’ll open them back up.

It’s funny, yesterday I was feeling frustrated by the lack of getting things really done at home. Today, I don’t know why, but it feels like a corner’s been turned in my head. Maybe I just needed the seasons to actually start progressing so I could do the same?

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

Is it possible to feel like you’ve been travelling without ever leaving the area? I feel like I haven’t been home for the past week, even though I was. There’s a trail of debris all over the place to prove it, in fact. But with 953 different things on my plate at once, I don’t think I ever stopped moving for more than a few minutes to appreciate being home.

But, that’s all over for now. The craziness of September seems to be firmly behind me, having culminated in the Small Press Expo (SPX), which I’ve helped run since 1998. It’s a labor of love, certainly; it eats up chunks of time (although not as much as before since I’ve reduced my role to primarily just the Ignatz Awards) but at the end of the day I get to see so many lovely and wonderful friends that it’s worth it. Of course, I don’t ever get to spend enough time with any of them, which sucks a little bit. But even a few minutes chat is better than nothing at all.

I’ve also vowed to start scanning in my wine sketches once more. I know, I’ve said this before. But I mean it this time. Really. It was invigorating being around so many talented artists all weekend long. I also took some photos at the show that—especially the ones on Sunday using a prime lens—I’m pretty happy with.

Aside from two meetings for work later this week, it is nice to look ahead and see on my schedule… nothing. (Well, almost nothing. I’ve got two runs in the morning for the weekend, and some stuff starts showing up next weekend. But it’s not like last week for instance where every day had a to-do list the length of my arm.) I’m hoping to spend Thursday night in front of the television because I don’t have other things that must be accomplished first.

I think this is what I’d really like to accomplish in the next two weeks:

• Read some books
• Write some reviews
• Clean the living room
• Cook some new recipes
• Watch some television
• Take some naps
• Go for a swim or two

Will I accomplish them all? I hope so. I also challenge everyone else to follow this list for the next two weeks. I think it’s going to be fun.

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

Too much needs to be done, and it all is catching up with me at once. Back in a week once those stressors are gone.

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

I managed to somehow delete an entire post about the arrival of autumn (it’s not in my drafts or anything) that was going to go here. And to top it off, I realized about an hour ago that I managed to leave my bathing suit hanging on one of the dryers at the gym. Will call them tomorrow and hopefully it wasn’t thrown out. (Probably not, but you never know.)

Just one of those “aaaarrrrggghhhh” nights. Ah well, at least I didn’t accidentally blow up the universe. (Yet.)

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

I literally just spent the last three hours cleaning my bedroom. It’s amazing how much I’ll let some stuff pile up; it was almost all at one spot in particular where books and comics (both read and unread) were slowly accumulating. So instead of getting writing done (which also needed to be tackled today) I rolled up the proverbial sleeves and dug in like there was no tomorrow.

On the bright side, what a difference. All sorts of stuff earmarked for library donation, thrown away, or kept but now in a place where I’ll actually see it again. Always a nice feeling to get that sort of stuff done, even if it was long overdue. Next weekend’s goal is to wipe out the now five(!) bags of books that need to be sorted into library, Amazon re-selling, or eBay. Oof.

Of course, the stuff in the bedroom isn’t the only thing that’s being re-arranged. After a good 20-miler last Saturday, my right calf was feeling pretty sore on Sunday and part of Monday. It felt ok on Tuesday, but after just two miles of running it started hurting again. I went to a Foot & Ankle Sports Medicine doctor who diagnosed it as a strain, and also gave me an insert for my right running shoe to hopefully help prevent this in the future. But it does mean a couple of weeks off of running.

I took this as an opportunity to finally buy a 25-punch visitor pass for the pool near work on Friday (as well as heading over and swimming 32 laps), since it and spinning were both deemed acceptable. If I just keep active between these two, it should hopefully help minimize the amount of rebuilding I have to do before November 1st. I’m hoping the slight break will also help me get a little more jazzed about it when it rolls around; a solid year of marathon training is getting a little mentally wearing as time goes on. As psyched as I am for the Disneyworld races in January, I’ll be glad when they’re done.

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

My friend Graeme introduced me to the phrase of Jungian Radio, where for a lack of a better description, is when you have that song that is forever attached to some sort of moment or memory in your life. While trying to find YouTube videos to drive Charlie insane (it’s my job), I saw a link for a Natalie Imbruglia video, and suddenly I was back in Rome at the end of 2006.

I wish I could remember the name of the club/bar, but it’s lost to me now. I do remember that Tod, Doug, and I went there on a whim; we wanted something simple and easy, and it looked good. The place was going to turn into a dance club in an hour or so, but until then they were still serving food. While we were sitting down and waiting for our food, the music playing sounded awfully familiar. It wasn’t until I’d mouthed half of the words to “Wishing I Was There” and “Don’t You Think?” that I finally figured out it Natalie Imbruglia’s Left of the Middle CD playing on random.  I don’t think I’d listened to any of that CD in about six years or so by that point, and all of the sudden it made me desperately want to hear it again.

All of this, more than anything else, makes me want to go back to Italy. Or really, somewhere new in Europe, there are so many other countries waiting to be explored. When I’m on holiday, you’re given the excuse to walk around in a city or town for hours and just stop at a random cafe and eat something. When I’m home, there’s always something else that needs to be done, or a favorite place that I end up eating at instead of just taking a random stab and seeing what I end up with. (Or most likely, not eating out and just making lunch or dinner.)

Charlie and I spent part of Saturday looking at some different neighborhoods, ones to just try and get a better grasp of what’s out there and what our future options are. One of the most exciting things about doing that? The idea of having the slate cleared on all of those patterns and habits that we fall into. Start over, reset and reboot, ctrl-alt-del. Get forced to find something new. I like that.

Funny what a single YouTube link will dredge up.

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

I’m not sure what it says that my favorite self-portrait (in my ongoing 365portraits project) in a while has everything but my hand deliberately out of focus.

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

I’m already blocking off part of November accordingly.

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

I’m not sure how I can be burnt out from doing too much while not really accomplishing anything, but I’ve come to the grim conclusion that it seems to be my life these days. It has been nice to check some items off of the list, though, and move closer to getting other things completed. (Although even things that take up time can still be sad to see go away.)

I did have the last of my “lap swimming class” through Arlington last night, which I’d signed up for primarily because the rec center near my office was overrun with kids camp all summer long. It was strange (to me), though, in that we started with nine people and by the end would have anywhere from two to four people show up. Last night was just me and one other guy. I admit it, I missed two classes (one due to work, one due to sickness) but it was more than just that in terms of absences. The instructor had even said early on that adult swim classes had a steep attrition rate but this was a little out of control. On the bright side, we each had an entire lane to ourselves, how nice is that? The final two weeks we were told to “just go and swim as much as you can without stopping” and I was pleased with the end results: 34 laps in 35 minutes last week, and 39 laps in 40 minutes this week. Nice steady pace with no burning desire to stop. It’ll be nice to have Monday nights back, but I will miss having my own lap lane ready and waiting for me.

Over for SPX, the Ignatz Ballot is out in the wild, and the jury this year did a fantastic job. I’ve been very slowly lining up presenters, so hopefully I can get that done in the next week or two with lots of time to spare. It’s hard to believe the show is just a month away (yikes) but I’m whittling away at my remaining parts, which feels good.

On the downside, though, my home has lately been looking like a disaster area in various stages of disrepair. I’d hoped to really roll up my sleeves and get rid of stuff a couple of weekends ago but it just didn’t happen. I think I’m going to have to just draw up a schedule for myself even if it’s as simple as, “Tackle these two shelves this weekend” so it doesn’t look quite so daunting. (Once I get rid of some things, I will then have room for the other things scattered around my home.) Doubly so for if/when Charlie and I get a place together, this is a process that needs to be taken care of.

Alternately, gods of the lottery system, the Virginia Lottery is at something hugely ridiculous right now like $252 million. I know that supposedly more money brings more problems, but I am willing to give that a shot and see what happens. Then I can spend my days doing research on important things. Like if squirrels can really talk out of their butts or not.

While I’m at it, I need to figure out something else to do with the never-ending supply of peaches from my CSA. I love peaches but I am starting to burn out on them. I cannot eat them fast enough. (Well, I suppose I could but it would be fairly disastrous.) Maybe I should make some sort of smallish peach cobbler? I suppose there are worse fates in life.

Oh, and if the heat could drop about 10 degrees I’d be appreciative. I’d like the option to run after work instead of having to get up super-early to avoid melting.

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

Oh, come on. You could at least try, people.

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

I’m watching a show I taped on Food Network, and my hands are full so I can’t hit the fast-forward button when the commercials kick in. A particularly cheesy ad comes on for an exercise machine (I’m not linking to them, sorry) that just seems ludicrous. Utter waste of money. But at the very end they say, “Try it risk-free for just 30 days! Yours for just $14.95 plus shipping and handling!”

And suddenly the thought pops into my head. Just how bad do they gouge you on shipping and handling?

So out of curiousity, I go to their website and go to the ordering page… and it’s an even bigger rip-off than I imagined. As it turns out, there are two ordering options available:

Send me:

The [big rip-off] for one easy and convenient payment of $199.75 plus $34.50 S&H. Save the $14.95 trial fee!

The [big rip-off] to try for 30 days in the comfort of my own home for only $14.95 plus $34.50 S&H. If I decide to keep it after the 30 day trial, then it is only 5 easy payments of $39.95.

Holy cow. Funny how they don’t mention the $14.95 is just a trial fee. $200 plus another $35 shipping. I wonder how many people they sucker into their trap who just blindly call the phone number? Yeesh. This is why I don’t really miss commercials at all.

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.