The Net Monkey

Title: Sunday Wine Night

Uploaded By: S.S.Poseidon

BRAINS!

I finally have some grown-up furniture here in my condo.

I asked Andy P. and Laura to model for me.

I had a great time at the Freezepop concert this past Friday. They put on a good show, with lots of high energy and cheesy synth-pop beats. I had the pleasure of being kept company by Andy and Laura who I think also had a good time.

Saturday was a family day, for the most part. It was my nephew Jake’s 17 birthday and the whole family got together for it. My sister and brother-in-law from Louisville even brought their parrot for the party.

After we sang “Happy Birthday!” and ate ice cream cake, I took Jake to Fry’s up on 96th Street to buy him a new keyboard and mouse for his new computer that we built a few weeks ago. This set was the replace the old, nasty set he had been using.

Saturday night was also a good time. After working a bunch in the afternoon, I met up with my friend Pete for some late dinner at the Old Point Tavern. After sharing a huge plate of nachos and downing a few mixed drinks, we did the obvious thing and went over to the homo bar — to drink some more, of course.

I ran into all kinds of people I knew. What I don’t remember, for sure, is the reason why I was in a face-slapping contest with my friend Carlos. Oh well!

The rest of my weekend was mostly work and sleep, which seem to cancel each other out, as far as I’m concerned.

I’ve started using Quicken Online.

Its one of those online financial aggregators that connects to the web sites of your accounts and pulls all the data together into one interface. The only other one I’ve tried is Mint, and it wasn’t capable of accessing my checking and savings accounts, but Quicken Online does it without any problem. They were even able to access my Health Savings Account, which left me surprisingly pleased.

It’s a recently launched tool, so I’m expecting some great improvements down the road. I hope they add support for more than just bank accounts and credit cards. I’d love to have my student loan and 401k accounts in there.

Tonight I started an electronic filing cabinet.

I got a Canon 4400F scanner for Christmas this past year. Not only does it allow me to take high quality scans of my old photos, but I can import regular documents directly into PDF documents.

So far I have imported all of my old tax documentation (forms W-2, 1099, etc.), as well as stuff I need to make a travel insurance claim for my delayed baggage during my trip in Italy. I like the idea of not dealing with FAX machines, and just using email.

Having electronic documentations means that I can rid myself of paper copies. As long as I have a backup of my data (and I do), I don’t have to worry about losing anything. If I need paper copies, I can simply use my printer.

Easy pie!

This morning when I got to work, I sat down at my desk and started feeling a bit of discomfort in my lower abdomen. I was bothered by this because about two years ago, I had laparoscopic surgery to have my appendix removed, and the doctor told me afterwards that he found a very small hernia. It wasn’t anything serious in there, and said that I should have it checked whenever I visit the doctor. The pain led me to think that something was up with the hernia since my pain seemed to be in the right location.

I immediately running through all the consequences in my head. I was first a bit angry that I might have yet another hospital visit. I’ve had two of them in the last two years: to have my appendix removed and an emergency room visit due to a worst-pain-ever kidney stone. I was like, “Oh, please! Not AGAIN!”

I knew that if I had surgery, I’d end up having to fork over a lot of money. Insurance will only cover so much. I would prefer to use the money elsewhere (such as paying down my debts), but it’s my health and it isn’t worth sacrificing. The other thing I dreaded was that I’d be out of the office for the rest of the week, at least. The idea sucked because I have a lot of shit to do, but it certainly isn’t that big of a deal. My boss is very understanding and would prefer that I heal.

So, you know what bothered me the most about possibly having hernia surgery?

Since someone would be coming into my condo to pick up things for me, including Bess, I was concerned about the slovenly display of candy wrappers on the table next to the sofa, the boxes of opened Christmas gifts on the living room floor, and the dirty kitchen from last night’s cooking fun. I actually considered stopping by my home before going to see the doctor in order to clean it up. God forbid someone like my father saw my messy home!

Anyway, the pain turned out not to be anything serious. You want to know what was wrong?

After about 30 minutes or so, I farted and suddenly felt a lot better.

Ugh!

On the way home tonight from massage therapy, I witnessed a pretty bad car accident at the intersection of US 31 and 116th Street in Carmel. Two people were carted away in ambulances, but one of them was sent all the way downtown to the trauma unit at Methodist.

Anyway, I think the woman who was hurt the worst was lucky. If it wasn’t for her airbags and her seatbelt (especially the seatbelt), she would have most likely suffered some major trauma to the head and possibly died right there.

Fortunately, she lived.

Now that I’m finally home, I need to eat some dinner, drink plenty of water, and get my shit packed for my two week vacation.

Woohoo!

The open house was today, but no one came.

(( frown ))

Lots of little things to update here.

After having spent the last two years on the 7th floor at work, we’ve moved up to the 9th floor of the building in to some newly renovated space. Our team went into a room that we’ve now dubbed The Cave since we like to keep the lights off. I like it a lot more than before now that I don’t have to worry about people creeping up behind and scaring the crap out of me when they need to talk. It’s also a lot quieter.

The condo is still on the market. I had a chat with my agent this past week, and we decided to have an open house tomorrow (Sunday) between 2:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon. I hope she got some agents and brokers to come see it.

My listing contract ends in a month. I’m concerned with things, but I know that the market is bad. There’s a girth of listings here in Indianapolis and it’s not as easy to secure financing, but I’ve been told that condos sell in the winter, so I might extend, but I haven’t made up my mind yet.

My friend Tony is finally putting on a production of his one-man show entitled Lies My Parents Told Me. It starts September 7 at The Alley Theatre here in Indianapolis. I’ll post some more details in the next week or so.

That’s about it for now. I’ve got to work on cleaning up the house so that it looks perfect for tomorrow’s open house.

I had an HIV test today and I’m negative. No, I had no reason to be concerned, other than the fact that it has been a year since my last test and I wanted to update my status. That’s all for now.

My kidney stone passed this morning with little fanfare. I have collected it so that I can take it to the hospital for analysis. I hope it isn’t a symptom of anything serious.

You want to see it? OK.

I apologize to those of you who think it is gross, but there you go.

As I wrote in my previous article tonight, my grandmother died today. I got that news this morning at about 6:30 AM when my mother called.

After speaking to Mom, I tried to get more sleep because I had been up late the night before, but I kept having this pain in my lower abdomen. A bit of time afterwards, I had go to the bathroom, but my urine was brown. Of course, I dismissed it as the result of the Indian food I had the previous evening.

I finally got some more sleep, but I woke up later with a lot of pain. I started throwing up. So, I called my physician and was redirected to another office who had a nurse that said I should go to the emergency room.

I went to Westview Hospital, which was recommended by a co-worker. It’s a private osteopathic hospital. Since it isn’t one of the big hospitals here in town, they were able to get me into a room and in front of a doctor within an hour. I recommend Westview to anyone, as long as your insurance covers it.

To make a long story short, I have a kidney stone coming from my right kidney. The recommendation is for me to simply pass the stone by pushing liquids through my system, but I’m to call a urologist in the morning on Monday if it still hasn’t passed. I just hope this ends in the next day.

I’m on hydrocodone (vicodin) right now, which is working wonders for the pain. I don’t feel any discomfort at all, but I’m sure drowsy.

I was so very happy to have my sister and dad show up at the hospital to see me. They were very helpful in driving me home and picking up my car for me (since I drove myself to the hospital). It’s sure nice to have family!

How is everyone this weekend?

Yesterday I saw RHYTHMS at the Phoenix Theatre with Tony, Jason, and Adam. The performance was excellent, and I especially loved the storytelling style of the show. Unfortunately, it’s only here in Indianapolis this weekend, with the last performance starting in just a few hours. If this show comes to your town, I highly recommend seeing it.

After the show, Tony, Jason, and I went to the 501 for a while. Greg and Carlos showed up, as well as some other folks I haven’t seen in a long time (Doug, Eric, et al.). It was good seeing everyone.

Sometime after Tony and Jason went home, I went out with Greg and Carlos to Steak n’ Shake at 56th and Keystone. Mmm! Nothing like some heavy burger and fries action after a night of drinking.

I have a condo association meeting tonight. I think we’re going to discuss all of the plans for the retaining wall in the parking lot, as well as landscaping. I’m worried that we’re going to do a big assessment on ourselves to pay for the repair, but we relaly need it so I think we should just bite the bullet and do it. It’ll save us pain down the road.

Lastly, I’m becoming quite addicted to Twitter. If you’re impatient and have a short attention span (like me), you’ll enjoy it, too.

After selling my home in Fall Creek Place, I have every intention of returning to renting, at least for a while. Little did I know that it might actually make a lot of good financial sense.

According to an article from the New York Times, it is probably wiser to rent and put all of the extra costs of owning into other investments, at least in the current market climate.

Article: A Word of Advice During a Housing Slump: Rent

(Found via Consumerist.)