The Police State of St. Paul

The last time I saw this many police on the streets of a city, I was in Beijing.  I feel like I’m walking around Embassy Row in Beijing.  If the police had green uniforms on, I’d swear I was back in China.
 
The number of police around are freaking some people out.  Others are cool about it.  It surprises me, but after the mess on Monday, I suppose it can’t be helped.
 
I have lots of photos to post, I just need the time to post them.

Email Chain Turned Meme

Decided to turn Shirley’s email into a meme. It seemed to fit.

Four
A) Four places that I go to over and over: J&S (the local coffee shop), work, Lunds (grocery store), Korte’s (another grocery store)

B) Four people who e-mail me (regularly): Linda, Linda, Shirley, Denice

C) Four of my favorite places to eat: Our back deck, Da Vinci, La Familia, Beijing (yes, the entire city)

D) Four places I would rather be right now: Beijing, Appleton, Roseville Archivers, Chicago.

E) Four people I think will use this meme: I have no clue. I live in the stone ages — I don’t have a tracker on this blog. I only know someone reads this when they leave a comment!

F) Four TV shows I watch over and over: Arthur, When Weather Changed History, What Not To Wear, and The Simpsons.

What I Need …

With a tip o’ the hat to OmegaMom, who had this meme on her blog:

In Google, I typed my first name followed by the word “needs”. I then was to report the top 10 hits for “Carol Anne needs __________.”

As you can see below, I must not need much. Because I couldn’t even get 10 hits on the phrase.

In order:
Carol Anne needs 2 hurry up and pass her driving test.
Carol Anne needs the beach … NOW!
Carol Anne needs to do her homework.
Carol Anne needs an outlet.
Carol Anne needs your help.
Carol Anne needs our support right now.

My comments:
Carol Anne needs 2 hurry up and pass her driving test. I think my father uttered the first phrase shortly after I flunked my first driving test. That was back in… 1976.
Carol Anne needs the beach … NOW! I need the beach like I need another hole in my head. I’m not the beach type.
Carol Anne needs to do her homework. I haven’t had “homework” since I got out of grad school. But perhaps I need to do my other “homework”. Gotta Swiffer?
Carol Anne needs an outlet. I agree with this one. I have so much electrical stuff, I’m always running out of places to plug stuff in. More outlets, please!
Carol Anne needs your help. Remember the comment about “homework”? I could use some help with that… NOW!
Carol Anne needs our support right now. Please send 10s, 20s, 50s, 100s. All proceeds go toward the Second Bathroom Plumbing Fund. I have 8% of the plumbing bill saved so far!

That, in a nutshell, is what I need. What do you need?

On Weight, Exercise, and Mobility

Not a lot going on in the past month, except that I had foot surgery again, at the end of June. Same song, different foot. It is healing well, just in the swelling and weather-change-pain stage.

In two weeks, I go back to the doctor, and I hope to get the all clear to get out of the funky boot (which I don’t wear on weekends, because I’m stubborn), and start walking and biking. I’ve only got until mid-October for decent outdoor weather.

In the meantime, I’ve done OK with the weight thing — at least I haven’t added on. I lost a bunch after surgery, but it came back on as soon as I went back to work. It was the strangest thing — I could feel myself getting bigger over the course of a couple days. It was like an alien invading my body.

Now I just know it’s true what they say: stress messes up your metabolism. So does a lack of sleep. I’ve had both since going back to work. I know exercise will help with the metabolism part, but I can’t do anything except lift arm weights for now. Even walking a distance is out, per the Dr.

I didn’t recall missing my mobility so much last time I had this surgery. Maybe that’s because it was winter and I couldn’t really be mobile outside. A post-surgical boot and ice do not mix.

Last time, I could still drive as long as I could handle the bouncing in the potholes. This time, it’s my braking/accelerator foot, and it’s painful just to stop hard. After 5 weeks, it’s getting better, but I won’t drive on the highway because I don’t trust myself to be able to stomp on the break at 60 mph if I need to. 30 mph is about my limit.

It will all come along. I’m making excellent progress, healing well. It just stinks to have limited mobility. At least it’s only temporary.

In Need of a Mind Meld

Every other day, I write a blog post. It never winds up here because I write it in my mind, away from the computer. By the time I can get to the computer to blog — poof! it’s gone.

A Vulcan mind meld would make blogging so much easier.

I’m tempted to use my cell phone and do a video blog entry. But do you really want to see a tiny video image of me, blathering on? Maybe I should try it and watch the comments roll in.

Overheard

Some RBOE* from the last 36 hours:
— Managed care vs. hurting patient. All that was needed was a referral to another provider in a possibly emergency medical condition. After hearing what happened, why was it so hard to say”just go — now”?
— rookie insurance agent giving a sales pitch to a peer. The major portion of which was this: “Did I scare you yet?” At least it wasn’t an agent from my company.
— A non-tech person trying to get tech support from a geek parent via cell phone. The geek struck out.
— Tales of weekend vermin discoveries that make our mouse woes pale in comparison.

* random bullets of eavesdropping