For some reason I was unable to sign into Blogger Thursday, but I wanted to let you folks know how things turned out.

Donna is home and getting used to her medication. Unfortunately, one of the side-effects is possible dizzy spells, which was also one of the symptoms of her heart ailment. Thanks to the major pharmaceutical companies for doing such a great job!

There are no major problems, but there appears to be a portion of her heart which is not receiving enough blood. This is in the tip of the heart (if you glance at an illustration) and her doctors feel that it is not serious enough at this time to operate or do anything invasive.

They want her to have a 'sleeping test' to monitor her outside the hospital. They believe she may have sleep apnea, but neither of us have seen any indication of that. As someone who was thought to have had that myself I think I'd have noticed after all this time.

She will be going back to work on Monday and we'll be keeping an eye on her, as you can imagine. It was wonderful to receive the phone calls and e-mails asking about her. We gratefully appreciate it.

Okay, here it is down to the basics.

Donna had not been feeling well and had an appointment to see a cardiologist today. Monday she was tired and her feet were swelling, but we chalked it up to the cruise. Tuesday morning both feet were badly swollen, she had shortness of breath and it appeared that her lips were bluish. She got an immediate appointment with the doctor (one of the perks of working in the medical field where so many doctors know each other) and was told that she had to be admitted to the hospital.

She spent yesterday undergoing different tests on blood, a CAT scan and with various monitors attached. This morning she will be having a 'stress test' and hopefully will be released by this afternoon.

There does seem to be some irregularities with her heart and the diabetes, plus her other meds are making things diagnosis difficult. Sadly she had a bad night, but I guess we expected that given her being wired and unable to shift much in bed.

I'm concerned, but trying not to panic. I love her very much and hoping that everything will work out.

I'll let you know as things progress.

Oh, man! I am so beat....

Donna and I have been up since around 5:15 this morning, since we decided to do the self-check out option. Had to be all packed and ready to leave the ship by 6:30am. Maybe sitting in the casino, gambling and having drinks wasn't the best idea for Sunday night. :-)

While the cruise was fun overall, we've agreed that we won't be doing a July 4th one again. Seems that a third of the passengers were twelve and under, with little parental supervision. Place felt like a Disney cruise sometimes!

The next thing on the agenda (not counting some doctor appointments) is the San Diego ComicCon at the end of the month! I think Donna will be happy to have the place to herself for a few days.

Donna and I are heading out for a weekend cruise on the Carnival Paradise, so I won't be lurking or posting until next Monday (7/7).

Folks might remember that we took the same ship on the same 3-day package last November with Donna's BFF, Fran. This time out it is just the two of us away for a romantic break from everything. This will get us into practice for the Alaska cruise next month! :-)

Hope that you all have a safe & happy Independence Day weekend. Take a moment to think of the history of this country and the men & women in uniform not able to celebrate with their families.

See you all on Monday!

I had a nice time at the American Library Association annual convention this past Sunday. Ran into a couple folks I know and got all kinds of stuff. I actually had to go out to my car after a couple of hours as my 'goodie' bag was getting heavy, after dropping off all of that I headed back in for another hour or so.

Got to chat with Dave Kellett, who does the SHELDON strip, getting a nice sketch of Arthur in my copy of the 1st SHELDON TPB,"Pure Ducky Goodness". The guys from UNSHELVED seemed busy, so I'll try to catch up with them at San Diego later this month.

Lots of publishers were promoting manga (Viz, TokyoPop, among them) and there were a couple of anime distributors showing off their catalogs. I must have about thirty catalogs from different publishers and I plan to go through them, as well as actually reading some of the manga, comics and prose novels I was handed. I have at least two DVDs and some audio CD samplers that I grabbed.

The biggest prize was totally unexpected and I don't really know if I should mention it, since I don't believe that it was supposed to be a give-away. I'll just say that it sometimes pays to act the total fanboy, which I have down pretty well after all these years. I'll only mention that it includes a PVC figure of one of my favorite comic characters and a reprint of one of his mini-series.

Somewhere on the 'net there are supposed to be photos of me with IRON MAN, a couple of pirates and a pic of me holding a copy of the aforementioned SHELDON TPB. They were all seperate incidents, so as not to confuse you. It's possible that I might also show up in other photos of the Anaheim convention, since there were a lot of exhibitors taking video and digital pictures of the show.

The CS6 Numa Numa Project

This is how I spent almost ten years of my life. Things haven't changed.

FTN!!

How could I not post this? I also heard that there may be a Mr. Peabody & Sherman live-action movie in the making. We'll see!

Talking Points Memo had this article today, with a link to the original Washington Post column from Richard Cohen that explains the 'real' reason that John McCain is getting off easy. Now it all makes perfect sense! Recommended read!!

If you do head over to TPM check out the two items regarding Albania. Coincidence?

A Tribute to George Carlin

Nothing says more about the man than he did in his own words.

Always remember!

I was deeply saddened to learn earlier today of the passing of George Carlin. The man was brilliant and except for his attempts at a sitcom or two, he seemed to succeed at just about everything he did. Writer, actor, comedian.

Like most guys my age, I listened to Carlin's albums over and over until I could do entire bits by memory. Along with those of The Firesign Theatre and Cheech & Chong, the Carlin albums helped to form my adult sense of humor, as the Stooges did that of my youth.

Wherever or whenever you are, Mr. Carlin, I hope you have room for your stuff!

When I get a chance, either here or over at Shot's Shack I'll probably post some video clip in memoriam.

This should come as no surprise, but here's the article from the New York Times discussing the oil deal being wrapped up in Iraq.

I can't even joke about this and the fact that it is one those great "no bid" contracts makes it even more obvious that this has been one of the goals all along.

Have you no shame, America? Was it worth the over 4,000 U.S. troops that lost their lives? Will cheaper oil make us safer and cheer the families of the dead?

I suppose it should not have been a surprise, but I was disappointed to learn that the New York Mets have fired Willie Randolph as their manager.

There were calls from fans and the NY sports press to let Willie go at the end of last season and the bad early showing of the team increased those calls. Still it seems odd that the Mets ownership would do this after the team won the last two games.

I'm sure this won't be the last we'll see of Mr. Randolph and I would like to see him bounce back, perhaps leading a NL team next season to victory over his former employers.

I also don't expect to see any manager picking up the pieces at this point and do a much better job. We'll see.

While I'm on the topic of baseball. Go Red Sox!!! If they could only play as well on the road as at Fenway there would be no stopping them.

I hope you all enjoyed your Sunday, whether you celebrated Father's Day or not. We relaxed and did some domestic stuff, then ended the day tossing some burgers on the grill. We had spent a couple of hours down at the pool on Saturday evening, but were more in the mood for air conditioning and our recliners last night.

My sympathy goes out to any of you in the mid-west who are having problems with flooding and the weather in general. I see that the mid-Atlantic is going to be hit today or tomorrow and I'm certainly glad to be missing out on that. I'm sure those of you in Iowa and other effected areas are all looking forward to G.W. flying out to tell you how he and Homeland Security are going to help out, now that he is returning from his latest overseas waste of time. Seeing video of the flooded homes and businesses immediately makes one remember New Orleans, but have our fingers crossed that things might go a bit better for you this time around.

I had to pay $4.53 the other day at the pump and I'm afraid to see what it might be Wednesday when I have to refill. Donna and I were laughing at some guy complaining about paying $4.10 somewhere, wishing we were only paying that much! We're already seeing some supermarkets raising the prices on some items, especially California tomatoes which have been declared safe.

As you can see, nothing of note to pass along, but did want to let you know I'm thinking of you!

John McCain: No, You Can't

I enjoyed this.

I was surprised and saddened to hear the news yesterday of Tim Russert's passing. I had my problems with him at times, but you certainly couldn't argue that Meet The Press was one of those shows that news junkies had to follow. Also, if you watched NBC, MSNBC or even local NBC affiliates you saw Russert discussing the current political stories.

As many of his friends and colleagues said it will be strange not to have around during the rest of the election cycle. They guy sure loved politics.

My condolences to his family, friends and the viewers who enjoyed his broadcasts.

On a personal note, I was surprised to discover that Russert and I were the same age. It was especially strange that I heard the news as I was coming from a visit to my own doctor's office where she scheduled me for tests of my heart. My mother and both paternal grandparents suffered from heart problems and with that kind of history I probably shouldn't take chances.

Not shocking, but still an interesting article in USA TODAY on folks in higher income brackets not paying their fair share. Right! Big surprise, huh?

Since getting told that removing our troops isn't important to John McCain, I guess he'll be focusing on his economic policy plans. A leader for change, for sure!

It's time to write your Congress person to get behind Dennis Kucinich on the articles of impeachment.

I don't expect anything to come of this, given the cowardice of the Democratic leadership in both Houses. However, I think an e-mail or phone call to your representative might let them know that we are not just a few out of touch Leftists.

So how was your day?

Well, the past weekend was pretty busy.

Saturday we finally got around to putting up the Thomas Kincaid print we bought at auction & had framed. It looks really nice over the loveseat. We also put up a valance over the window to the balconey, something we have talked about since we moved in but put off. Now that we have put the househunting on hold we are doing some rearranging and decorating on the apartment.

We have some more valances to put up in the guest room and I have to decide if I'm going self-frame my Speed Racer poster or have it professionally done. Considering it is signed and the price (don't ask, even at auction!) I might have somebody who knows what they are doing take care of it and not just throw it into something I pick up at Wal-Mart. :-)

Don't think I mentioned it, but our PC monitor went out after barely two years (I do not recommend Acer!), so we went to Circuit City to buy a new one. We got a nice 19" HP flat-screen, which we are happy with so far. Also, Donna got me an early Father's Day present and I returned the favor, for no reason other than we both wanted one, by buying me my first MP3 player. We went with a couple of Sansa products, with FM tuners, since it will be nice to have that as an option. As I learn more about using it I'll let you know what I think. So far, I'm happy with the FM presets, but not sure how I feel about the five 'free' songs that come already installed.

More on all this tech later.

Does it pay to even discuss the events of the past week? I mean the pundits and talking heads have been all over the Clinton/Obama thing since Tuesday night, so I doubt I have anything new or original to say. Not that I’ve let that stop me before. :-)

It bothers me that there are actually websites being set up by supposed Hillary supporters to urge Democrats to vote for John McCain. I know that I’ve said things in the past about not voting for her, but I know that I would NEVER vote for McCain out of spite. The man and his Party represent everything I am against culturally and philosophically. Personally, while some of these people setting up the site might actually be Dems, I think a lot of folks signing up are really Republicans hoping to keep the animosity going through November. They know that only if the Democratic Party splits will McCain win the election.

I also don’t believe the ‘campaign maps’ that the news shows are trotting out. I don’t think that there really is a huge base of support for McCain, even among Republicans. I’m sure there are a great number of people who respect him for what he did and what the media paints him as, but I don’t know that they are all waiting to see him in the White House.
Of course, I was wrong about the last two elections, so….

Bad commute into work this morning, due to a couple of accidents. First one was on Crown Valley Parkway, which turned a five minute turn-off for gas into about fifteen minutes. Then there was an accident which tied up two lanes on the 5 and backed up everything before the 55 turnoff. I'm glad I tend to leave early everyday since I never know what I'm going to encounter.

By the way, I've all but stopped looking at the price at the pump, since it has passed the $4.13 a gallon mark for Regular. It would take longer to search for cheaper gas than to head to the AM/PM where I usually stop off. It generally has the cheaper gas in the area anyway. Heck, a gallon of gas costs more than a pack of cigarettes, which considering the taxes on that stuff here in California is up around $3.80 a pack. Glad that cigarettes aren't among my current vices!

We rearranged the living room yesterday, so that meant the folks from Cox Communication had to come out and switch on the cable. We used their visit as the final incentive to get a DVR for the one set, but haven't started playing around with it yet. According to them we can record two shows simultaneously, although we can't watch a third one at the same time. When we do start recording we would probably move to the bedroom and watch there. Of course, it is pretty rare when there are more than two shows we watch at the same time. We do like the way the 'guide' appears now, since it allows you to watch the current station while scrolling the upcoming shows. The previous version didn't allow that, so we would usually wait for commercials to check on what we wanted to see next.

Yeah, we do have pretty boring lives, don't we?

Back in my youth I had the opportunity to catch a number of concerts. I’ve talked about some of them before, but the death yesterday of Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Bo Diddley reminded me of the time I saw him perform.

I was stationed in Norfolk, VA at the time and a few of us decided to take in a ‘rock ‘n’ roll revival’ concert on evening. The headliner was Chuck Berry, along with Bo Diddley, ‘Chubby’ Checker and several singing groups from that era, The Dovells (“Bristol Stomp”) & The Shirelles (“Soldier Boy”).

The show was opened by a local 'fifties' group that played covers of several artists, none of them part of the show. They also played back up for some of the artists later. First The Dovells performed, followed by The Shirelles. Both were excellent, but I don't know enough about either group to be able to tell if how many, if any, of the original members of either was on stage that night. There was no mistaking Chubby Checker when he came out and performed about a half dozen songs. Doing the 'twist' for so many years, he was certainly not 'chubby' by any means and he had the crowd up and moving for his entire set.

A couple of hours before the show one of my friends (Don Ludwick, I believe) and I were sitting in front of the hall trying to decide if we wanted to grab a bit to eat. A black guy, in a wide-brimmed black hat and carrying a guitar case comes over to us and asks if we know how he can get inside. I ask him if he is in the show and he smiles, telling us that he is. We tell him that if he goes around the side of the hall that he’ll see the delivery doors and that they would probably let him in there. He thanked us and went off as we had directed.

By now of course, you know where this is going. As he walks away both of us realize that the guitar case he has is rather oddly shaped. It’s square! At the same instant we both say to each other…”That was Bo Diddley!!” Brush with greatness, indeed.

After Chubby Checker, it was time for Bo Diddley to step on stage. If Don and I had any doubt about the identity of the man before we were not disappointed to have been proven right. Not only did Bo Diddley do his own amazing set, but he later sat in on drums backing Chuck Berry. How can you forget something like that?

Rest in Peace, Ellas Otha Bates. Hey, Bo Diddley!