The Dark Clouds Have Parted!

It appears that the dark clouds have parted and the sunshine is out!

My dad was released from the hospital this afternoon. In the span of 3 days, my dad was given 3 doses of medication to expel fluid from his system which resulted in him losing a total of 5lbs. I can't imagine that he had that much fluid built up in his lungs, but he absolutely swears that there is no more discomfort in his chest. After he does something as simple as walking to the bathroom, he says that he no longer exhibits a shortness of breath or any discomfort (as he had experienced last week). This is, of course, great news!

The downside of this cardiac episode is that there probably is some impact on the health of his heart. To that extent, his cardiologist made an appointment to see him this Tuesday to have another checkup. He'll have another battery of tests run, so we'll see how that goes. But right now, I am just ecstatic that he's home. I can finally get some restful sleep!

Dark Clouds Above Me?

There must have been a few dark clouds above me as I spent the evening at the hospital emergency room with my dad. Let me explain...

At around midnight, I receive a call from my mom. She tells me that my dad isn't feeling well and wants to go to the emergency room. As you can imagine, I put on the first thing I can find and my wife and I head on over to my parents' house. We pick them up and head to the hospital.

On the way there, my mom tells me that my dad had been feeling discomfort all day long. He had wanted to go see his doctor, but it turns out the office is closed on Thursday. My dad decided to stick it out and see his doctor tomorrow rather than go to the hospital. Unfortunately, his body didn't quite agree - the discomfort got worse, he became short of breath, and he starting experiencing discomfort in his chest. He was also looking pale. The chest discomfort was the most worrisome thing as my dad has heart disease and went through a quadruple bypass some years ago. As you can imagine, we were all very worried.

We spent a total of 4 hours at the emergency room where they did the following:

• Blood pressue and heart rate monitoring
  
• ECG
  
• Chest x-ray
  
• Blood work
  

It turns out that there was fluid buildup in my dad's lungs which was causing him to be short of breath. In turn, this put stress on his heart as it struggled to pump more blood and oxygen through his system; hence the chest discomfort. The doctor at the emergency room proceeded to give my dad medication to start expelling water from his body. (And by expelling, I mean, he started to pee every 5-10 minutes.) This helped tremendously as after about an hour, his heart rate started to slow down and some color returned to his cheeks.

The emergency room staff got in contact with my dad's doctor once they had stabilized my dad's condition. They briefed him on what had happened and they decided to have my dad admitted to the hospital for continued treatment and observation.

We got home around 4am which means I had been up for almost 24 hours straight. I was very tired and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I woke up at 9am, sent off an email to let my manager and team know that I wasn't going into work today, and washed up. I then went to pick up my mom and we visited my dad.

Happily, I can report that my dad looked better this morning. He was awake and alert. The doctor had visited with him at 7am and now we're waiting for his cardiologist to swing by to check him out as well. I suspect he'll be in the hospital for at least another day or two, but hopefully all will be well and these dark clouds will break for some much needed sunshine.

Saying Goodbye to My Friend

I received sad news last week when I was told that my friend B suddenly passed away. He got very sick and within 3 days time he was no longer with us. It was a shock to me as B had always been as healthy as an ox and hardly ever got sick.

B's funeral was today and I was quite somber. I had a ton of regret because I had lost contact with B and I just felt awful. It was only a few weeks back that I had thought of him, but never got around to calling him. Now, I'll never have the chance to renew our friendship and to catch up on what's happened to each of us within the last few years.

I saw some mutual friends at the funeral. They told me that in the last 3 years, B had become a collector of classic cars, an avid dirt-biker, and a big fan of motorcycles. As we got to talking, it was apparent that each of us had fond memories of B and all of them involved his sense of humor and happy-go-lucky ways.

B had served in the US Marine Corps and was sent to Iraq for Operation Desert Storm and Desert Shield. He even has a picture with President George Bush (Bush Senior) to prove it. When he came back from Iraq, he got into a serious car accident and broke his back. He was lucky that he never lost the use of his legs and I'm sure that played a big part in how he lived his life. He had been through so much that he had no fear and lived every moment to its fullest. It's a lesson that we can all learn from him.

As I sat through the funeral mass, all these funny moments that I had with B came flooding into my head. My mood started to lighten as I realized that while I should mourn the loss of my friend, I should be grateful for the good times...that B would not want me to be sad, but to recount those moments with a smile and chuckle.

He received a hero's farewell at the Riverside National Cemetery with all the honors bestowed upon a person who served our country. I said goodbye to B, but he will not be forgotten.

God Bless, my friend. I will miss you.

Lacoste Semi-Annual Sale has Started!

For you Lacoste wearers out there, the Lacoste Semi-Annual Sale is going on right now. Enjoy!

For Men's items, go here.

For Women's items, go here.

For Children's items, go here.

For Accessories, go here.

The Stig Revealed???

Well, the first episode of Top Gear Season 13 is out. Unfortunately, it won't be on BBC America for another few weeks yet, but the following has already occured:

* There's a new car atop the TopGear Powerlap ranking
* The Stig is revealed

Check this out:



Okay, okay. So maybe Michel Schumacher isn't really The Stig. But what he does in this episode is stunning!

I can't wait to see the whole scene!

Top Gear - Season 13 is Nearly Upon Us

I don't know about you, but I am anxiously awaiting the new season of Top Gear! It's season 13 for them, but I've only been watching for a little over a year. I have lots to catch up on.

To whet your appetites, the BBC is currently running the following commercials for it and the new season looks like it won't disappoint.

Enjoy!

Commercial #1



Commercial #2

Review: JJ Cafe's Baked Pork Chop Rice

From an earlier baked pork chop rice review, a commenter asked if I tried JJ Cafe's Baked Pork Chop Rice. Well, I finally stopped by over the weekend and here's my review.

Per my first post on this blog, I judge baked pork chop rice on the following criteria:

• Tomatoeness
• Flavorful rice
• Lightly fried pork chops
  
• Amount of cheese
• Overall texture

JJ Cafe's Baked Pork Chop Rice:

• The sauce was very creamy - it had a tomato soup taste to it. Definitely not typical for baked pork chop rice. It wasn't bad, but not what I had expected.
  
• Fried rice base w/ eggs and some mixed veggies. Like Sunday Bistro, there were sliced mushrooms thrown in.
  
• There were 4 pork chops and each were fried with very heavy batter. I would have preferred that it have less batter as once the sauce soaked in, it became very soggy.
  
• Lots of cheese.
• Overall texture was good - ratio of sauce to rice was just right as it was neither soggy nor dry.
  

On a scale of 1-5 (with 5 being the highest), I give JJ Cafe's Baked Pork Chop Rice a 3 rating. I'll probably return to see if they put their own twist on other classic dishes.

Drama Over....Hopefully

Well, the drama and angst is hopefully over.

The company announced a series of cost cuts, but none that involved any layoffs. The cost cutting involved:

• Hiring freeze
• Reduced vacation time
• No more sick days
• No raises
• No company 401k matching
• All travel & training expenses cut (unless authorized by senior management)
• Executive team pay cut
  

There's something to be said for working at a private, family-owned company. They went after everything they could to avoid layoffs. However, they did say that if things deteriorate and revenue continues to drop, the next step would be company-wide pay cuts.

They didn't mention anything after that, but one would have to conclude that if things got even worse than that, layoffs would be the final option. Let's hope it doesn't get to that.

Apologies for Being MIA

Just a quick note to let you know that I'll be back to posting in a few days.

I've been MIA as there's a fair amount of drama at work that has been taking up my time. Lots of talk about salary cuts, benefits reductions, etc. as the company is dealing with a decline in revenue which is leading to cost cutting and product direction/strategy changes.

As they say, "I'll be back."

Never Have the Government Involved in Your Business

I love this quote!

You never want to have the government involved in your business,” said Philip Orlando, who helps manage $410 billion as the New York-based chief equity strategist of Federated Investors Inc. . “They’re not businessmen; they’re bureaucrats. They don’t understand capitalism, they don’t understand the profit motive and they don’t understand the financial industry.

Mr. Orlando was taking about the possibility of the Feds taking control of Citigroup, but I'm pretty sure that it also holds true for the Feds owning 60% of GM. To further my fear of what's going to happen, simply read "The 31-Year-Old in Charge of Dismantling G.M."