Back to School

Well, school has started for the Fall.

I'm teaching 2 pre-calc classes and a calc 1 class. The beginning of the year has been somewhat uneventful, at work.

On the homefront, well maybe not the homefront, but the healthfront, I've messed up my lower back. I've had minor backaches after playing soccer for months, but for some reason after our last game on Friday (I scored twice, thank you very much), my back got messed up.

On Saturday and Sunday, I could barely walk; on Monday and Tuesday, I wore a back brace while teaching, just to keep myself from keeling over; today, I was finally able to see a doctor. I have a joint problem in my lower back. What does this mean? Going to physical therapy (and no soccer) for the next month or so. I was just getting back into soccer form, after my 3 month break from the sport, and now I'm out again. Dammit!

Killing time with Homicide

"Only a man with no woman in his life eats extra onion for lunch."
- J.H. Brodie

I've been really congested over the past few days. I never had congestion, without my nose being blocked up, until about two years ago. Who knew you could be congested and still breathe normally?

Anyhow, a couple of years ago, while in Ghana, I got this pain in my right ear. After various conjectures as to what might cause it, I've come to realize that I am congested when I get that pain.

I really dislike that pain, and this week it has been pretty bad. I think I'm noticing it more this time around, because I'm not doing much else this week. In Ghana, we were walking around and trying to get by, so I would only notice the pain during the down times. The few other times I've had this pain, I've been teaching and going to class so, again, I only noticed the pain during down times.

Tomorrow is my first day back to work and I like to have a few days before the Fall starts, to just do nothing. With this downtime, I've been noticing the pain in my ear, constantly.

I went running this morning, in the hopes that it would make me feel better. I'd been avoiding running, because putting earplugs into my right ear really hurts. I toughed it out today, and I did feel better after running (and the earplug didn't cause much pain after it was in place).

With this down time, I've watched four episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street, in the last 3 days. I've actually gotten as far as season 5 of the series, since sometime in May.

Homicide takes place (and was filmed) in Baltimore. The series started when I was in high school, in Baltimore, and continued it's run until sometime when I was in Michigan.

Many people's view of Baltimore comes from the HBO series The Wire. While I think The Wire is a fantastic series, I don't feel like it does a good job of showing Baltimore in it's true light. It shows one face of Baltimore, and that has always bothered me about The Wire. Homicide, while it deals with murder, does show other sides of the city. You see the cops at home, you see murders that happen in the richer parts of the city, cops spend time in Fells Point, and there is just a wider view of the city on display.

Why I'm rambling on about this, I don't know, I guess I'm trying to do other things, to avoid thinking about my ear.

BTW, the quote above is from one of the episodes I watched today. The crime videographer says the line after one of the detectives (who's been divorced 3 times) orders a sandwich with extra onions.

The Nugget Man

I hope this works, but here is one of the funniest songs I've heard in a long time, Nugget Man.

Thank you Paul and Storm, for making me laugh.

You can read more about the nugget man here.

The 2nd Honeymoon

We got back from our 2nd honeymoon to Northwestern U.S and Southwestern Canada. Here are some of the highlights...

If you don't want to read my ramblings, and just want to look at stuff, I have some pictures here.

Seattle:

We saw what you're supposed to see in Seattle; the Space Needle, the Underground Tour, Pike Place Market. We also had dinner with a high schoolmate of mine, who I haven't really talked to in about 13 years. I really liked Seattle (I had never been there before), and I hope to go back at some point, maybe to live there, in the future.

Victoria:

We took a couple of ferries to get to Victoria. I'd never been on a car ferry before. It was pretty cool.

I realized I forgot to pack a jacket when we got to Victoria, so I spent much of the time in the city looking like a tourist, wearing a Victoria fleece I bought on our first night there. There's not much to see in Victoria, so we were able to do all we wanted to do in a day. We also met up with Lauren's 7th grade teacher, who now owns a quilt shop. That was Victoria.

Another ferry, and onto...

Vancouver:

I had been in Vancouver for a month in 2001, and it didn't seem quite as great the second time around. This might have been because it rained a fair amount of time on this trip (the sun came out on the day we were leaving town). We ate at Vij's, which has lines that go on forever. We were in line for 20 minutes to get to the door, then had to wait an hour for a seat. It was not that great, in my opinion.

We also went to Punjabi Town, which was pretty cool. I'd never been in an Indian district of a city and I enjoyed it a lot, even though we were only there for about an hour.

We also spent some time in North Vancouver, which I had not been to in 2001. It was nice, not spectacular, but nice.

On our last day in Vancouver (the day we drove out of town) we went to the aquarium, which was...an aquarium. I don't think I'm an aquarium person because I feel like once you've seen one, you've seen them all. The "thing" in this aquarium were its Baluga whales, which were kind of cool looking, because they are white.

We stayed in 3 different Bed and Breakfasts in Canada. for that past 10 years, or so, I've had this fantasy of running a Bed and Breakfast. This trip brought that thought back again. I often think about what I would like to do, if I leave teaching, and I think I would really like to run a B&B.

Anyhow, onto...

Portland:

Portland was kind of a disappointment. After going to Powell's Books (which was cool), we wandered, looking for something to do, and wandered, looking for something to do, and wandered, looking for something to do. We drove through Washington Park, then back to our hotel.

That night, we went to dinner with a high school friend of Lauren's, who then took us to Voodoo Doughnuts, the coolest doughnut place I've ever been to.

The odd thing about that night was, at some point during the evening, I lost my wedding ring. I feel like I lost it in the hotel room, but after ripping the room apart the next morning, I couldn't find it. The cost of the ring is not a problem, but it sucks losing it, because it was the ring that Lauren put on my finger the day we got married.

We left Portland and headed to...

Klamath Falls:

The parents of a childhood friend of Lauren's live in Klamath Falls. It was cool to spend the evening, and night, in farm country. They had a number of horses on their land, and there was a feeling of being in the middle of nowhere. At night, when I looked out the window, all I saw was black. So cool. I don't think I'd want to live in that rural of an area, but it was great to experience it.

That was the trip.