And Then There Were Three

So you may have noticed that, on the little sidebar to the right, there are now three contributors to The Chronicle. I've encouraged my only (and I wouldn't have it any other way despite what I said back when I was eight) sister Jen and (one of) my younger brother(s) Burt to post on the blog in an effort to keep us informed, up-to-date on and, most importantly, entertained by what's going on in their neck of the woods. Jen is up in Columbus, Ohio, and Burt is over in New Orleans. Both have bent to my will by failing to defeat strong-arm tactics and accepted my invite as contributing authors. That doesn't necessarily mean they will post anything as I think their basic reaction may have been something along the lines of What? Do what? Yeah, okay. Whatever. Just stop sending me the emails already! Unlike yours truly, these two actually have social skills and boundless talent so, if they do decide to post, my own shortcomings and obvious lack of being awarded "the good genes" will become even more glaring... why did I do this again? Oh yeah! They rock! You'll see. Give 'em some love, kay?

Also, the lovely young Yankee who writes the blog BaRou Is the New Bklyn listed over there in my favorites has gotten engaged and is trying to win a $5,000 photography package being awarded to a couple who is planning a "green" wedding. Although I do not know her personally, I enjoy reading her posts, and also I feel really badly about the fact that she has to live in Baton Rouge. Don't you? Help the chick out and vote for her and her fiance, Tom. Follow the link: http://vraiphoto.blogspot.com/ Bam! Good deed for the day taken care of. I'm sure an angel just got its wings. UPDATE: They won! Hurrah for them. They're just so cute, aren't they?

Behold!

So I am very pathetic. Yes, I Tivoed four shows on ESPN that were broadcast at the same time as yesterday when I saw that Verizon commercial I mentioned. Then, when I was done with school work, I went back and fast forwarded to each set of commercials and, lo and behold, on the third show (The Best of Mike and Mike), I was all JACKPOT, baby! Then I burned the show to DVD, then I transferred it to my computer and edited out just the commercial, then I uploaded it to YouTube, probably violating all sorts of copyright and terms of use issues, and I'm sure I'll be contacted by YouTube and/or Verizon's lawyers in short order threatening me with all sorts of ginormous fines and some nice vacation time in the big house, so enjoy it while you can.


It's me, right? Sooooooooooooooooo me! Ha!

I Got Nuttin'

So, wow. Despite the fact that I haven't posted anything new in almost two weeks, my life has so completely been overtaken by school that I really have nothing of interest for you. Huh. I think I just might suck. Well, be that as it may, here's a little sumpin', sumpin' for ya anyway.

This week while walking on the treadmill at the gym, I came across two nuggets of note:
1. I saw a commercial for Verizon featuring ESPN Mobile that almost made me fall off of the treadmill because I was laughing so hard. I have scoured the web trying to find it to no avail. It features a woman at a baby shower, and SHE IS ME! I swear. It was awesome. Best commercial EVER! I'll keep looking for it.
2. I read the article "The Smithsonian Life List: 28 Places to See Before You Die" in Smithsonian magazine. Guess how many I've been to? One. Yep. One. And I can thank my mom for bringing me there, or I might not have seen that one either. Beneath the online version of the article, there are lots of people in the comments section who are like Oh, I've been to 21 of the 28 or Oh, I've been to 14 of the 28. Whatever. Bastards.

Beyond the regular trips to the gym, I've just been doing school work. We did have one social occasion type thing in there. We had Clelie and Greg over for the SuperBowl and did a whole Thanksgiving in February thing. Alex fried the work turkey (every year at Thanksgiving he gets a turkey from work to thank him for his slave labor) and I made green bean casserole, cornbread dressing, and a Hershey pie. I had grand plans to photograph and blog about the whole thing. Yeah. That obviously didn't happen. Oh well. We did have a good time watching the game. How 'bout them Giants, huh? They were giant killers! (Ha! I made a funny.) The other big event of the game was the text messaging marathon Seth and I had. I'm not a big text messager, but it was fun to talk trash for two hours. Seth was pulling for the Pats. He claimed he was conflicted over who to root for since he's lived in both Connecticut and NYC. He chose poorly, didn't he? Anyway, best SuperBowl in years.

Mardi Gras came and went, and we did nuttin'. I have been feeling low with a cold that I can't seem to completely kick which, apparently, has now spread to my ears, and I can't hear anything. Good times, good times.

On the Prudhomme front, I guess I can let the cat out of the bag officially since BDaigle and Sista have announced it on their MySpace pages. We're having a baby! Er, THEY'RE having a baby! Due date is early September. And they're going the fun route and not finding out the gender until delivery. I love that. Also, the mayor's stent procedure turned out fine. He's feeling okay and recovering. Here's an email he sent out to everyone regarding his various health procedures over the past few weeks:

To avoid rumors, etc of my health status, I thought perhaps I would let you hear it from the "horse's mouth".

Here is the boring chronology of medical events that have taken place:

• 16 Jan, checked in at LGMC. That same morning I received a pacemaker. This was to boost my heart beat, which was strong enough, but not rapid enough. The procedure was a success. No side effects or unusual happenings like receiving clear channel radio stations.
• 17 Jan, an arteriogram was performed to determine if a by pass that was performed 15 years ago was still in good shape. Good new...it was. Bad news...an artery was found with 75-80% blockage, and would necessitate the insertion of a stent to fully unblock it.
• 30 Jan checked in at LGMC. The stent procedure began around 1 p.m.. The entry was to be from the left femoral artery. Things go awry. The artery is shaped in such a fashion that the stent cannot be placed at the blockage site. They go in through the right femoral artery, which was the site of the arteriogram procedure, and which they wanted to avoid. Stent finally in place around 4:30 p.m..
• Return to the room. Whatever they used to deaden the insertion sites has worn off. I feel like I have been in a bar room brawl where low blows are the blows of choice. Take some pain medication that does not totally agree with me, but helps.
• Instead of an outpatient procedure, I am coerced into remaining overnight in the event that bleeding from the artery sites would occur. No occurrence. Disposition/mood is not the best. Matches that of a bear with a thorn in its paw! Gwen, my angel through all of this, is doing her best to show me the bright side of this event. Succeeds to an extent.
• Come home 1 Feb. All is not bad. I missed the Cajun-Mid TN game. For that I am extremely thankful. Hopefully, this ends my visits to LGMC, which I must say that if you must be hospitalized it is the place to go. All of the staff is friendly and accommodating. Food, if you have an appetite is pretty good. Not to Krewe de Chew standards, but still pretty good.

Final synopsis is that I am going to do my darndest to keep my cholesterol level low to prevent having these procedures again; LGMC is a good hospital; Doctors are to be enjoyed at social events only, although I must say that Dr. Mounir is a pleasant person, but once he begins a procedure he is like a predator....onward till it is completed; I am progressing and feeling better and a stronger each passing day.

And that's it. I can't promise you, my fave peeps, that I'll be updating more frequently. I don't know what possessed me to register for four classes this semester, but I may have signed my own death warrant with that decision. Pray for me. But, hey, you guys have a grrrrreeeaaaat weekend!