vacation always goes by too quickly. even with a week in san diego, i am now able to see that it is quickly winding down. and, even on vacation, i didn't get everything done that i wanted to get done.

i burned out on harry potter, stuck now on #6. i'll finish it while im here, but some of the pleasure has been diminished by reading 1-5 nonstop in 2 weeks. especially when i tallied up the page count.

my kidney is also easing up, which is nice. ive spent a good deal of my time here on painkillers, which isn't as awful as it sounds. the real fun will be friday when i go to have the stent removed. there is supposed to be a string that gets pulled, taking it all out. except the string is mia, meaning i get some do-dad up my peehole to grab it and pull. that will be several minutes of pure pleasure, i am sure.

oh and for those who asked, i asked the doctor about sex before he operated. i got a very confused look and he tried to talk about orgasms awkwardly before deciding to use the word ejaculation. all while motioning with his hands how the 'force' might not be good for everything else down there. rachael turned red and i tried not to laugh.

afterwards, i realized that it probably isn't a normal question. but usually because people have stents out within 2 or 3 days, not a week. and seeing the way i felt in those 2 or 3 days, it makes sense. but now, i'm, uh, ready to have it out, please.

ok, back to chewing through harry potter 6.

so, at long last (again), i believe you have the choice of emailing the author of any post. it isn't perfect yet, but it's 85% of the way there. and functioning, which is the important part.

i'm down in san diego for the week, hanging with the roxy's family and trying to kick this kidney stone pain. its been not too terrible, due mainly to my prescription of percocet. though i did swim for quite a while today and have been slowly taking less of the painkillers — i bet 3 is my max today, compared to 4 yesterday and 4 on friday. seeing that i havent had any since 7.30 am, it seems a good sign.

while i am down here, i am going to try to spend at least an hour a day on the site; there are some pieces that are desperate for repair. that's one task, another is to finish reading harry potter. i decided to re-read them all before jumping into book 7. so for the past 2 weeks, i have been reading reading reading. i'm halfway done with 5 right now — which is also saying something, considering i started it right before bed last night and it weighs in at 850 pages. 425 pages in 18 hours isn't shabby.

yeah, that's about it for today. yay kidney aches and pains!

im in san diego now. im staying in what can only be called a mansion — 6 bedrooms, 2 dens, pool, hot tub, bar inside and out, with sand from the bay coming in the back gate. i walk off the concrete of the backyard and am on the sand of the bay. the owner stopped by and said that the house was worth around 8-10 million.

yeah, its going to be a good week. this is the vacation i wanted.

2.5 hours left of work. at this job. ive got one pretty major bug to squash. but the server is down for the moment.

most all of the office knows about the whole tie thing now. the engineers just shake their head; i believe that they are sorry to see me go over such absurdity. but i dont believe they blame me. many of them wore ties today, as a measure of solidarity. its been fun (and unusual) to see 6 or 8 ties around the office today. though the entire mess is, well, a mess, i hope that my managers get the point. jumping to stupid conclusions doesnt get you very far.

tomorrow i hop a plane for san diego for the week with roxys family. it will be the first vacation ive had in years. a true vacation, where i have an entire week with no worries and no real agenda. im delighted.

the goal is to get this site moved over to wordpress; read a couple of books; play some serious gameboy; watch some movies.

i should have email and ill have my cell phone, so you can find me if you want me. and i know i owe some big posts — in cluding a very late review of the sandiego comic con from 2 weeks ago.

now i get to look forward to the joy of flying tomorrow. really. im pissed i cant bring water on the plane. it borders on a health-risk.

im flying down to san diego this evening for the comic con. yes, yes, ive seen entourage. yes, yes, its much like that.

going has been a dream in my nerd brain since about 10th grade — i remember talking to tara golden sometime senior year about it. she had been. i was mucho jealous.

and then last year, i drug the roxy and we went. and it was glorious.

this year she has (wisely) opted out and i will be tagging along with the keren — though ill be having dinner with matt and kady one night and im sure ill see will (meyer, not carter) down there. and maybe, if im lucky, ill see some other peeps and maybe even go scubu diving. (though thats looking more unlikely by the day.)

are you going to be down there? let's meet up.

otherwise, i will return with pictures. and maybe some overpriced goods.

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it doesnt sound like a bad idea but never, ever, ever ever eat apple jacks and orange juice together. i had a small box of the cereal yesterday followed by a small tropicana oj. and the taste was like someone had poo-ed in my mouth. i know this sounds like a dare to try it, but seriously, it was one of the most foul combinations ive experienced in a long time. stay away.