Once again it seems like I've entered the realm of being an unidentifiable medical mystery.  I've been in and out of specialists and had more than half-a-dozen minor and major surgeries in the last ten years.  Sometimes things have gotten better, sometimes there's been no real change, and sometimes other things have been inflamed after procedures, medications, and dietary restrictions.  Currently, I'm having new abdominal problems - bladder issues, possibly dropped organs they said, possibly a potassium issue (Interstitial Cystitis), who knows?  So after having more than seven bladder infections in the last year, I've finally graduated to seeing specialists again.  Today's appointment was with a local Urology Clinic up in Tualatin.  The doctors were nice, the office easy enough to get to, but the answers just don't seem to be in grasp.  So while we're grasping at straws, I gave the okay to do a minor catherization technique which will allow them to scope and introduce potassium and see if anything shows up abnormal.  If it all comes back clear, and the thought is that it will, then I'll get bounced to the next specialist and so on until we can figure out what's acting up this time around.

In the meantime, while I wait for my "invasive" appointment on August 4th, they've given me some dietary restrictions that I need to try and follow.  Granted, the doc said that if I followed them exactly, there'd be nothing left as an available food.  But there are some things I can easily change in my diet, which I'm willing to try, and most of the things I'm already wary of.  And so onwards we go.

I am just *so* frustrated that I can't catch a break with my medical situation.  I'm even more frustrated that due to my medical stuff - of which I have no control over - that certain people deem me to be "not good enough" or a "liability".  Some days it feels like I just can't win.

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So I got in from another night at Scott's and was getting ready for bed and this HUGE spider was on the wall above my closet.  Thad walked up to the gate and was talking to me about a Church he wanted me to test drive and all I could so was stare doe-eyed at him and point at the giant, killer spider on the wall.  And so I listen to him talk and a few minutes later he notices that my attention isn't really on him at all and he asks me what's up.  And so I pointed and said there's this huge bug on the wall and it's staring at me, kill it!  And he leaned in over the gate and saw the spider and said, "No way, if it was in my room I'd be finding some other place to sleep but I'll go get the Raid for you."  Gah! 

So I'm waiting on the other side of the 10 foot room, as far away from the wall as I can get and after a minute or two he returns with the bug killer and tries to hand it to me.  After refusing to even get close enough to spray it, he gets up and sprays the evil, evil spider twice for me.  And then turns back to me and says that there's nothing to it.  And as I'm watching him and half watching the spider on the wall, it suddenly bounces off the wall and disappears.  I totally shrieked and jumped at least a foot in the air and told Thad to go find it.  And it couldn't be found. 

Run!! Spider!

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Scott and I finally made it to Silver Falls down past Silverton today.  Wow!  I think we ended up seeing four or five large waterfalls and a number of smaller falls, or dribbles as I called them.  It was amazing - and an awful lot of hiking.  Hiking in jeans just isn't the smartest idea I've had in a while.  It was a wonderful time though, I'm really happy that we finally made it down there.  He's been talking about it as long as I've known him and part of me was starting to think we'd never actually make it.  The trails are really interesting, steep in some parts, some switchbacks to go either up or down, and even a couple of places where the path actually goes underneath the falls!  Talk about way cool, I've never had the experience of doing something like that before.  All said, I think we probably hiked about five miles of trail in about three hours.  Surprisingly, while the day started out chilly (sweatshirt weather) and overcast, by the time we were halfway through the loop, the sun was shining and I was able to take off my hoodie and be comfortable in a tank top.  The weather really came through for us that way.

I got some amazing shots, here are a few of my favorites from the day.  The rest, as usual, are on Gallery here.

South Falls

Waterfall

Underneath, Looking Skyward

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I finally made it to the Portland Zoo!  My folks took me as their "guest" on their newly purchased member pass.  It was a blast.  The day started off beyond chilly - in jeans and a t-shirt we began wandering the paths feeling just this side of being truly comfortable outside.  It only started warming up once we were leaving.  The Zoo was pretty awesome though.  The only other Zoo I remember going to was the Detroit Zoo, which is one of the largest in the nation.  So at times, this one felt small.  We saw all sorts of nifty critters from Elephants to Penguins, Walruses to Parakeets, and all sorts of Monkey and Large Cat.  It was awesome.

Elephant

Tiger

Pretty Bird

Then the other thing we were able to do while at the Zoo was see the "Dinosaurs 2008" exhibit.  Essentially they had maybe 20 or so aniamatronic dinosaurs along a path that for a few extra dollars you could go walk through.  It was one of the things I had really wanted to do, and it was fun too.  Although, like the kids, my favorite was the gigantic T-Rex that sort of moved and roared at the kids.  It was also a good time.  I have a nifty dino window cling to put on my car, I just need to find a real window to put it on. :D

T-Rex

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I tagged along with the CTA boys to the midnight showing of the latest Batman movie last night.  Apparently D had heard, or in the past visited, guess I'm unclear about that one, a theater up in Vancouver called Cinetopia.  Tickets are a bit pricey, some $16 but in exchange for a higher ticket cost they do two main things: 1.  changing the seating arrangement so that you're in huge comfortable leather chairs with foot rests and 2. making the showing teeny-bopper free with an 21 and over crowd only, thus allowing us to order beer and "restaurant-style" food for a price.  So it ended up being an expensive movie night, but totally worth it for the movie.

Batman: The Dark Knight was an amazing movie.  The entire movie they never pulled a punch, it was always edge-of-the-seat action sequences and a constant jumping from one climatic scene to the next.  At over two hours, I never thought it would keep my interest throughout - I'm not the worlds largest Batman fan.  But it was fun, and totally worth seeing.  I also think the hype about Heath Ledger was actually, for once, not over-rated - he did an outstanding job at the Joker and it's too bad he won't be around for other films after a performance like that.  If you get a chance, totally go see this one.  It's that good.

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clipped from www.opendrive.com OpenDrive Online Disk is syncing, storing, and sharing, right from your desktop OpenDrive is a remote drive for your computer, that allows you to store, share or back up files from your computer on the Internet. You can store anything and share it with anyone, right from your desktop. Start storing and sharing today. Sign Up and Download Our Most Current Version Below Just like your current hard drive Except with a whole lot of other features. You’re able to drag file to OpenDrive then grab the sharing link and send away! Powerful Syncing Select the files and folders to sync with OpenDrive and changes instantly appear anywhere, even on the net! Read More.... Sign Up for our 1gb free public beta.

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Sweet! I am the only person in the movie theater to see Wanted.

[EDIT]  That was fun!  I can see why Thad wouldn't want to go, there was absolutely nothing serious throughout the flick.  But it was fun.  Entertaining.  Which was the entire reason I wanted to get out tonight anyways.  This one would be fun with drunken movie night. [/EDIT]

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(2:49:26 PM) Cabby: Legos suck.
(2:52:40 PM) Scotty (Gtalk): ?
(2:52:42 PM) Scotty (Gtalk): no they don't
(2:59:21 PM) Cabby: mine did :(
(2:59:28 PM) Scotty (Gtalk): what happened?
(3:00:00 PM) Cabby: It took me three and a half Chuck episodes to put it together because they'd show two of the exact same image and I couldn't see what changed
(3:01:18 PM) Scotty (Gtalk): :-)
(3:01:29 PM) Cabby: Pfft. :( It was frustrating!
(3:01:31 PM) Cabby: evil legos
(3:01:36 PM) Scotty (Gtalk): Sowwy

Lego

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clipped from www.flickr.com

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clipped from gizmodo.com Zombie Garden Sculpture Keeps Those Damn Kids Off Your Lawn, Might Eat Their Brains Design Toscano wants you to "expect the extraordinary from your home and garden," and that includes the walking dead. Take this 13-lb. resin undead garden zombie, for example. Designed by British artist Alan Dickinson, it's a life-sized resin sculpture that would be a terrifying addition to any lawn, garden or personal graveyard. For about $90, Toscano will ship this guy to you in three macabre pieces. When assembled, they'll cover a 31½"x19½"x8" stretch of earth. That is, until the day he and his buddies claw their way completely to the surface, eat our brains, and take over the planet. Then they'll be everywhere, doing their zombie gardening with a silent stoicism, and you'll be the garden gnome. [Design Toscano via Boing Boing Gadgets]

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