Stats & trivia

I've always found statistics and trivia fascinating. As a kid growing up in central Ohio, I often found myself immersed a bit too long in the Vital Statistics and Sports sections of the Columbus Dispatch. When I didn't make the cut in my 6th grade class in parallel bars for an upcoming gymnastics meet, they asked me if I would help out as a scorekeeper.

As a teenager, my trusty clipboard was at my bedside ready to record or jot down the latest stats. This included the Top 10 Countdown from American Top 40 and volunteering to keep score at softball games when my team didn't play. When the Cincinnati Reds weren't on TV, I used to listen to the game on radio (with Marty Brennamen and Joe Nuxhall), keep my own box score and then look up the actual box score in next day's paper and to see how accurate I was. Or wasn't.

In high school, I was a huge fan of a local quiz show, "In The Know". It was the equivalent in the U.K. as "University Challenge" and in the U.S. as "College Bowl". All of the local high schools had teams. Lisa was a member of our high school team. I wanted so much to be on the team, but lacked the nerve to try out. I developed huge crushes on some of the geeky male stars, not because they were good looking, but at how fast and accurate these guys were with their answers. Last weekend, we saw "Starter for 10", a film about a first-year student's dream to make the University Challenge team, which is the main reason why we wanted to see this movie.

It didn't end there. When I first moved to San Francisco, I was a scorekeeper at Fourth of July tournaments for the church I played basketball with on Saturdays. I kept score and helped manage an Asian men's softball team. As a player, I was often given the scorebook to help keep score when the manager couldn't.

Keeping score and tracking statistics was my way of staying involved, especially after I couldn't make it as a participant. It's like taking notes in lecture, only that I'm retaining information that interests me. This is likely the reason why I have such an excellent memory.

Sneaker fetish

CAUTION: My sneaker obsession dates back to grade school, so ignore this entry if you consider sneakers just "another shoe".

Yesterday, my Nike Air 360's came in. As soon as I got them, I took them out of the box, laced them up and put them on. The fit wasn't as comfortable as my Nike Shox TL IV, but figured maybe they'd stretch a bit. After having them on for about 5 minutes, I went out to my car and put them in my gym bag. It was gym night and this would be an excellent opportunity to try out the shoes.

This was the first pair of running shoes I bought online without trying them on in a store first. Most higher end Nikes are made for wider feet and my fit was so comfortable with the Shox, I figured the Air 360's would fit the same way. Like most major online retailers, the shipment includes a return shipping label, so I figured I had nothing to lose. I was anxious to see how they'd feel once I got to the gym.

Once at the gym, I put the shoes on and took a quick look in the mirror to see how I looked. The shoes looked very cool, but as the evening progressed, that's all they were. I began the workout on the elliptical, which lasted about 20 minutes. Then proceeded to the rowing machine, another 12 minutes. Shoes felt fine. Not cushy comfy, but acceptable.

Now it was on to the real test, running on the treadmill. I ran the first mile feeling a bit of tightness in my right foot. I ran another 1/2 mile and now the tightness was irritating my instep. If I had run any more than my usual 2 miles (every once in awhile I'll run up to 3 miles), I would have gotten a nasty blister.

When I finished my workout, I knew immediately I had to return the shoes. Knowing this, I hurried my cooldown, changed, and headed to the Sports Authority store near work. The purple Shox I tried last October were still on display when I was there last week to buy waterproof spray. I figured my chances were good that my size was still available.

Because the Air 360's were a bust and I already had a pair of Shox in black, I should suck it up and buy the purple ones. They were now $50 less than any of the current colors and already knew they fit great. At worst, I'd buy the latest pair of Shox TL IV in white (dirt magnet). Most importantly, my feet would be happy. At that moment, I didn't have the patience to re-order shoes online. I knew exactly what I wanted.

Before I got to Sports Authority, I re-read my shipping label just to see if I could exchange my online order at the store. I couldn't. When I got to the store, they still had the purple in my size. I tried them on again, immediately took them off, put them back in the box and proceeded to the checkout counter. They're now in my gym bag ready for tomorrow night's workout.

I returned the Air 360's this morning. Learned my lesson about buying running shoes. Always try them on at a store first. Non-running shoes are usually not an issue because I buy them at REI or Nordstrom's, and they allow me to exchange or return them at a store if they don't fit.

The Chan Sisters

I've been spending a lot of time of Wikipedia reading countless biographies. While watching KQED's "The Josh Kornbluth Show" tonight, Josh interviews Asian-American playwright Philip Kan Gotanda. So I typed Mr. Gotanda's name into Wikipedia. While he has no biography details listed in Wikipedia, his name is among a list of prominent Japanese-Americans.

This led me to look up the list of prominent Chinese-Americans. Of course there's Connie Chung, Bruce Lee, and Yo-Yo Ma. Further down the list, I was surprised to see sisters I've only known as actors. What surprised me was to find their ethnicity is half-Chinese, half-Caucasian.

Their birthnames are Jennifer and Margaret Chan. We know them as Jennifer and Meg Tilly. Their father is Chinese-American and mother is Irish-Canadian. Tilly is their mother's maiden name. Neither Tilly has been in any recent films. Jennifer has recently been seen on the poker circuit, while Meg is no longer acting.

According to Wikipedia (accuracy not reliable), Jennifer has 2 cats named Corky and Violet. How cool. Corky and Violet were the lesbian lovers/heroines in the excellent Wachowski film, "Bound".

Ohio State alumni

Tonight, the men's basketball team of my alma mater, Ohio State, just scraped by Tennessee in the "Sweet 16" round of the NCAA tournament. Just as they were this past season in football, the Buckeyes were the top ranked team at the end of the regular season. I can't remember a time Ohio State ever being top ranked in both football and basketball in the same year.

At the time I was an Ohio State student, guys like Art Schlichter and John Frank were the huge football stars. In basketball, we had Clark Kellogg and Herbie Williams. Clark is now an analyst with CBS Sports. John went on to play for the San Francisco 49ers and is now a practicing ophthamologist in SF. As for Mr. Schlichter, he didn't do as well. He spent much of his post-college life behind bars for fraud and forgery. A real shame, because he had a very promising career in the NFL.

Getting back to the hoops tournament, Ohio State will face Memphis State this Saturday for the South regional final. If Ohio State wins, then they head to the Final Four. The last time Ohio State had a team this highly ranked was in 1961. Some of the players included John Havlicek, Jerry Lucas, Larry Siegfried and a reserve named Bob Knight.

image courtesy of The Ohio State University

system lock up

Last night I was in the middle of writing a blog posting about my latest beverage kick, metromint. But as I bent over my laptop to reach for a sip of my lemon mint flavored metromint, my laptop locked up on me. It was stuck on the page and absolutely nothing moved except the cursor on my mouse. Then as I was moving it to try to get my laptop working again, it landed in the area to page up and down, and then it too, got sucked into the vortex of doom.

I tried Control+Alt+Delete, powering off and closing the lid, which for my laptop usually will cause it to hibernate. Still no luck. I unplugged the battery knowing it would have to die due to lack of juice. Which is where I am now. I woke up this morning, found power off. I plugged back the battery into the power outlet, and everything came up as if nothing happened. I have no idea what I did to lock it up in the first place. I hope it doesn't happen again.

Now on to what I tried to write about last night!

Retirement account update

About 2 weeks ago, I met with Ester, my financial planner through Ameriprise. She was a former co-worker from Gymboree and I sought her services shortly after she became a financial planner. I had always wanted a financial planner, but was turned off my the cold calls I used to get at work from places such as Merrill Lynch and Smith Barney. I wanted a planner that I could be comfortable with, and Ester fits the (pardon the pun) bill perfectly.

Ester reviewed the numbers with me as to how much my account has progressed. I was rather surprised to see the amount I gained from the time the account was first established. But what really became the eye opener for me was to compare my balance from last year to this year. As I am now officially "middle-aged", it's comforting to see that my investments are doing well. I hope I can say that when I'm ready to retire.

Last May, I jotted down my current balances in my retirement accounts. I have 2 retirement accounts (regular and Roth IRA) and my 401K from work. I established the regular IRA as the account where I rollover 401K distributions whenever I changed jobs. I could kick myself for cashing out my 401K when I was with Charles Schwab in the late 80's. But being young and poor, I didn't know any better. Many of us at that age think of this as rent money. I ended up having to pay hefty penalty fees for the early cashout. If I knew then what I know now, it would be a big chunk of change on top of what is already there.

Getting back to the last year versus this year comparison, my Ameriprise account balance today is about $1K less than what it was 10 months ago. This is excellent considering I withdrew $5K to pay closing costs for our condo purchase last July. My 401K balance has gained almost $10K, a gain of nearly $1K each month.

To me, enrolling in a 401K is a no-brainer. It's something that goes into an account every pay period. If you budget accordingly, then you won't miss the money. Plus, whatever is leftover in your pay is taxed anyway. I wouldn't have been able to do this without a financial planner. Yes, they're not cheap, but the best ones will make your money work for you.

I will never be Bill Gates or Larry Ellison, nor is this my wish. I just want enough to be comfortable.

--i

image courtesy of buyusa.gov

Daylight Savings, 3 weeks early

In San Francisco, the first day of daylight savings brought us a wonderful, sunny and warm day. It's currently in the low 70's and just about everyone is or has been outside. It was too warm to go the gym, so it was off to Costco to get new tires (the left front tire was getting dangerously bald) and a stroll through Golden Gate Park.

The installation wait was almost 3 hours. Generally, I don't spend more than an hour at Costco, but I made good use of the time. I went up and down the appliance and apparel sections several times. Ate samples of their albacore tuna and ham. Amazed at the number of people who stand in the middle of aisles without any clue that people can't go around them because the shopping carts are so huge.

I also ran into Fernando, Anna and Sean. Fernando is a former co-worker. He, his wife Anna and I are all longtime retail hacks. Fernando was with Sunglass Hut and Grain D'or and is now at Mervyn's. Anna worked at Old Navy, Discovery Channel, and an import distributor. She is now with Levi Strauss.

Since I knew I was going to be around awhile, I picked up a copy of Real Simple magazine. When I got to the checkout line, I also added a Polish sausage and soda (both for $1.50 plus refill) to my bill. I usually avoid getting any food because the lines are always so long. But this afternoon I had time. I got outside, planted my shopping cart in front of the cement ledges, pulled out my magazine and munched on my Polish until the time my car was ready.

Today flew by. It's just about 7 now and I'll be preparing a salad for dinner.

--

image courtesy of timebooth.com

Pointless observations

I went to Armadillo Willy's at the Bridgepointe Mall after my workout tonight. I tried to be good and ordered the turkey burger on a multi-grain bun. Balanced (?!?) it off with potato salad and iced tea. Noticed a family of 6 sat near the front and was finishing up their dinner. I know it sounds cruel, but my first thought was that the family parked themselves there because it was the shortest distance to walk to pick up the food. At least 3 of the family members were overweight and their idea of exercise is walking to their car in the parking lot.
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After leaving Willy's, I got on Highway 101 to head home. When I got near the 380-280 entrance, a car about 100 yards behind me had one front headlight out. The opposite and only working headlight was on high beam. Do you think driving on high beam really compensates for not replacing your burned out lamp?
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As they almost always do every night, Che and Jawa sit on the couch next to me while I'm on the laptop. Che often snores, and quite loudly. About 10 minutes ago, Jawa moved his face and pressed it against Che's. Che stopped snoring, for about 3 minutes. It appeared to me Jawa did this intentionally. Jawa then curled up his face into his chest, away from Che's face so the top of his head is now against Che's stomach. They're entwined now in a semi yin-yang position.
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This past Tuesday night, I switched from "Law & Order: SVU" to watch ABC's "To Iraq and Back", the story of former anchor Bob Woodruff's traumatic brain injury from an explosion in Iraq while on assignment and his long road to recovery.

I am always moved by these kinds of stories because of my own experience with a serious knee injury in 1991 due to a skiing accident. Even though my recovery seemed slow and painful (3 months on crutches, 2 months off work, 6 months physical therapy, no softball for a year), my injury was a walk in the park compared to Mr. Woodruff's. He is still undergoing therapy a year after the incident, and is not likely to work in the same capacity as he did previously. He was in a coma for 36 days and had part of his skull removed.

I caught tonight while at the gym Bob & Lee Woodruff's interview on CNN with Larry King. I spent an extra 10 minutes on the elliptical and 10 minutes cooldown so I could catch as much of the interview (closed captioned) as possible. Another reason to stick around was seeing Bob's brother Dave being interviewed on camera. Dave Woodruff is one handsome dude.
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OK, my pointless rambling must now end. It's nearing midnight and I still have to shower and brush my teeth to get ready for work in the morning. Nighty-night.

Chinese New Year Parade - San Francisco

On Saturday, March 2 at 6 p.m., San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose FOX affiliate KTVU (channel 2) will broadcast live SF's Chinese New Year parade.

This year will be viewed much more closely than in years past. My friend and former co-worker Sherri (from Gymboree) will have her son Christopher performing as a part of the Lion dance from the Tat Wong Kung Fu Academy.

As Sherri has e-mailed to her family and friends, "Unless the line formation changes, Christopher will be the 2nd little piggy (nose, tails, ears and all!), from the left in the 2nd row."

Or, as the famous nursery rhyme reads, Christopher would be the piggy that stayed at home. In reality, that piggy is Sherri's daughter Lauren, who is anxiously waiting until she's old enough to perform in the parade as well.

Good luck and best wishes on your performance Saturday, Christopher.

Jong Mea Restaurant

menu image copyrighted and licensed by WorthPoint

Today after a 3-month hiatus, our department held a potluck lunch. The theme was Chinese, in honor of Chinese New Year. I was among the very few who actually prepared a dish (tofu with meat sauce, or in Cantonese, Ma Po Dow-Fu). The dish itself is amazingly simple to prepare. It only took about 10 minutes to make it. Most of the remaining food was brought in from Marina, a Chinese market in San Mateo.

During lunch, while in discussion about the history of Chinese food in the United States, it led to a conversation about my family's restaurant, Jong Mea. My parents tell me the translation of Jong Mea means "China & America". But I've been told it can also be translated as "Midwest". Regardless, both translations fit to a tee, and knowing my grandfather (the founder), this was intentional. Jong Mea opened in 1951, one of the first Chinese restaurants in Columbus.

We had locations in Mansfield and Columbus, Ohio (my birthplace), and Indianapolis, Indiana. There was another location in Houston, Texas that I knew very little about, probably because it was sold off in the mid 60's. My parents managed the Columbus location in the mid 70's to mid 80's. My aunt and uncle then took over the Columbus location until it closed in the mid 90's. My parents opened a 2nd Columbus location for a short time, then took over the Indianapolis location until it closed in 1998. My great uncle's family managed the Mansfield location until it closed, which I think was in the late 80's.

At the height of business in the 60's and early 70's, the Columbus location had on weekends, 7 waiters, 3 bus boys and 3 assistant managers (answered phones, seated customers, processed take out). We opened from 4 p.m. to 4 a.m. Lines used to snake around the corner with a 30 to 60 minute wait.

I worked as a cashier on weekends during my last 2 years in high school in the late 70's. Although I hated the work, it gave me invaluable experience that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. Because my parents worked long hours, I learned to become self-sufficient at home. By the age of 10, I already knew how to do laundry and cook a simple meal.

When the restaurant was closed, we had wonderful parties at Thanksgiving and Christmas. There were also weeknight dinners with my grandparents and their friends. My dad often prepared the meals for these occasions. I found this to be a bit surprising because he didn't cook much at home until my siblings and I were teenagers.

UPDATE: My September 2007 blog entry has a picture showing the front of the restaurant. It was taken in June, 1982, when my sister Cindy and I graduated from The Ohio State University.

Outside our window

We saw this outside our window yesterday afternoon...

Nice sight after the deluge of rain. Sorely needed and could use some more. My sinuses are thankful.

Whole Foods Market

As a lover of food, I am a huge fan of the gourmet food markets. There's a ton to choose from in the SF Bay Area, and sometimes one get can dizzy just trying to decide. One of my favorites is Whole Foods Market, headquartered in Austin, TX.

I think of Whole Foods as the Nordstrom's of food markets. I visit the San Mateo location near work at least once a week. Their best feature is the food bar. There are so many choices which include pizza, rotisserie chicken, sushi, olives, salad, soup and ethnic entrees. Their meat and seafood selection are among the freshest and prettiest I've ever seen.

This afternoon I visited for the first time the South of Market location on 4th and Harrison with the primary intention to buy swordfish for our anniversary dinner. I ended up circling like a vulture (I had just come from the gym and hadn't eaten all day) the food bar at least 6 times because there was Asian, Indian, comfort food all featured. The San Mateo location only features 1 of these 3 on a rotational basis.

Prices are a bit steep, but well worth it. If I lived nearby, I would find myself visiting there nearly every night. Screw the restaurants.

extended family tree

As mentioned in my blog entry on January 15, I've been catching up with my cousin Kit. She is the youngest daughter in my aunt's family (Mom's sister). It's been probably 12 years since I last saw her, which was her wedding in Chicago to her husband Shannon. We've probably caught up those 12 years in e-mails this past week.

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Also this past week, I was floored to get an e-mail from Kit's brother Ming. I've been exchanging e-mails with him all week as well. For many years Ming and my brother Sherman were close, but drifted apart the past few years. I'm hoping that will change over the next few months, but we'll see.

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The biggest changes in my cousins' lives are marriage and children. All of them are married, two of them childless, one of them officially separated. The above picture are all offspring of Kit's twin sisters, Ping and Ting. With 2 from Kit and Shannon, 3 from Ting and David, and 2 from Ping and Steve, totals 7 children. Kit's children are not in the picture.

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I won't tell you who's who's because I'm still not exactly sure myself. I had to get a quick synopsis from Kit. Fortunately, I've already memorized the their kids' names and know which belong to whom. I'm glad they're still young enough that they're not married and have children yet. Then I'll really be confused.

cracked windshield

It must have happened Monday night. On my way home from work, a rock hit my windshield and caused a slight crack. Because it was evening, I didn't notice the crack until Tuesday morning. I've heard debris hit my windshield many times in all my years of driving (knock wood), but this is the first time I've ever seen damage.

The actual damage was only about an inch long, slightly right of center, and about 2 inches from the bottom of the windshield. I really wanted to get it fixed, but thought it'd be such a pain. I thought I'd have to file a claim, get estimates, and then pay my comprehensive deductible. The only saving grace was that I wouldn't have to rent a crappy car to wait for completion of the repair.

I found out otherwise in a casual chat with my co-worker Jodi yesterday. I was coming back from lunch and saw her at the table eating her midday meal. Her husband Dante works nearby and they usually carpool together. Last Friday, their Saab died in the parking lot and it seemed like half of her department (Customer Service) hung out with them to make sure they got home OK.

I asked Jodi if they found out what caused their car to die. This led me to describe my windshield mishap and she advised me to call my insurance carrier immediately. They experienced the same incident and their insurance company had the windshield fixed without having to replace it. For FREE. I never knew about this kind of service.

Immediately upon returning to my desk, I called CSAA. They had an option on their menu for glass repair. Wow, major cool. I spent the next 10-15 minutes giving the vitals to the service representative. She gave me the option to have the car serviced that day or the next, and whether I wanted the repair to be done at home or work, or at their facility. Gee whiz. I chose to have the repair done at work. She scheduled me for the 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. block and apologized it couldn't be sooner. Wednesdays are usually my late nights, so it wasn't inconvenient at all.

The repair guy from Safelite arrived at about 12:45 p.m. today. It took me about 5 minutes to show him the where the crack was and sign the paperwork. The job itself is only about 30 minutes. Repair work of this kind will yield best results when the damage is minimal (no more than 6 inches) and reported immediately. The warranty is good for the lifetime of the car.

Compared to the body shop/repair experience I had in 1995 after my 8 month old Acura Integra was broadsided in an accident, this was a walk in the park. I wish all service experiences were this easy!

One last shameless plug. Safelite's headquarters are located in my birthplace city, Columbus, Ohio.

Severance package cut

My morning routine at work includes reading a daily e-mail newsletter from the National Retail Federation. Today, it featured an MSNBC article stating that Sharper Image founder and former CEO Richard Thalheimer had his severance pay cut by approximately $3 million.

As mentioned in previous blogs, I did 2 stints at The Sharper Image, nearly 4 years each, from 1983 to 1987 and again in 1989 to 1993. It was my first full time job in my newly adopted city, so I will always have a soft spot for the company. Salary and benefits for a lowly rank-and-file person like me really sucked, so for me to hear Richard's severance package being cut got my undivided attention.

The touchy feely part of me thinks this action is a bit harsh because Richard founded The Sharper Image. He's got terrible management skills and is far a from a person of the people, but the company wouldn't have gotten its start without him.

In contrast, the professional and former employee side of me thinks this is a well-deserved action. The salary gap between rank-and-file and executives has only widened over the years. This "we're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore" attitude is long overdue. A company sinks or swims with its CEO, and if it sinks, so should his or her severance package.

short week, long days

Today ended the first week of work for 2007. This past holiday season was the busiest for me in many years. After taking 2 days off to go to San Diego, I knew I would return to work busy, but not at the volume I experienced this past week. We had a system crash this afternoon for about 90 minutes, which didn't help.

On Tuesday, I left the office at 8:45 pm. On Wednesday, 9:45 pm. Che and Jawa have noticed my late arrivals home. Once I did get home, they both climbed on my chest, curled around my arm, or sat on my lap as if to say, "Where the hell have you been?"

Right now, Che is sitting on the end table next to the couch, looking over my shoulder. He wants to sit with me. He has already this evening climbed on my lap and chest on 2 separate occasions. I know he's wondering when I'll be off the damn laptop. If the boys had it their way, they'd walk over the keyboard and block the screen, which they did manage to do Tuesday night.

The long work hours will continue for a few more weeks (or so I hope). I looked at my vacation hours again and I'm only 7 from maxing out. I plan to go in tomorrow just to catch up on work I couldn't get to or haven't touched. And I'm only doing this so the work on Monday will seem a bit more manageable.

Run of the mouth Rosie

This past week, Rosie O'Donnell received a heap of criticism for mocking spoken Chinese. She first provided a partial apology because she didn't think what she said was offensive. Today, she issues a full apology but warns she may do it again. A few weeks earlier, O'Donnell found offensive a remark Kelly Ripa (of daytime's "Live with Regis and Kelly") made after guest host Clay Aiken covered her mouth with his hand during a show taping.

O'Donnell said that as a lesbian, Ripa's response ("I don't know where that hand has been!") implied Aiken lived a certain lifestyle. Ripa said it wasn't that way at all, but only concern that she might catch a cold or flu. O'Donnell then realized she misunderstood Ripa, and said as a parent of young children, hands get dirty and full of germs. O'Donnell and Ripa kiss and make up. End of story.

What I find hypocritical about O'Donnell is that she gets all bothered about an alleged comment about a certain lifestyle, but doesn't think that her mocking spoken Chinese was offensive. As a double minority (gay female), O'Donnell should be acutely aware that both actions are bothersome.

A primary reason why I live in San Francisco is that minorities (gay, Asian, Latino) are the majority. But, as I said before, I'll get over it. So should you.

13 more days

I just got home about a half-hour ago. It's only Tuesday and it's already the week from hell. I skipped my gym visit (I'll try again tomorrow). Without boring you with too many details, all of us at the office are feeling the holiday crunch. Tomorrow afternoon is our holiday cocktail party, which I said I might attend. With the deadlines I need to meet tomorrow, I probably won't go.

I didn't go to last year's party either. While I enjoy our monthly department potlucks, company parties have never been particularly fun for me. I appreciate that companies do this to recognize and reward employees, but I find most of them superficial and boring. I've attended some rather extravagant office holiday parties. My first holiday party I attended in San Francisco was hosted by The Sharper Image.

The party was held at The Fairmont. Huge ballroom, tasty food, sloshed attendees. One of them, a telemarketing rep (name withheld) partied to the fullest extent. To the extent he doesn't remember what he did at the party. He only remembers the next day, trying to get home without shoes and socks. While he no longer lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, his story became legend.

My favorite office holiday party was when I was with Gymboree. It was held at The Exploratorium. We had the place to ourselves, ate tons of great food, and got to play with the exhibits. There was a really cool simulation of riding a luge. I had the best time throwing baseballs in my black dress (heels tossed off to the side) to get the speed devices to measure how fast we were throwing. Out of fear in ripping my dress, I didn't throw faster than 45 miles an hour.

As for memorable customer meltdowns, at Sharper I once had a customer who ended up calling the president's office (before PC's and online tracking) because he wouldn't accept my answer that his package was "in transit" the day it was being delivered. Another customer put her son on the phone and forced my co-worker to tell him his present wasn't arriving on time for Christmas.

What never ceases to amaze me is the amount of pressure people put on themselves during the holidays. Especially when they struggle to deliver gifts on time. My attitude to all of this is "SO FUCKING WHAT". If it's that important to get gifts to your loved ones on time, then you've got a seriously shallow view of relationships. If your recipients place so much importance on getting his/her gifts on time, then it's time to re-examine the relationship.

You don't deserve this kind of hell. Neither do the folks who have to listen to you bitch and whine about it either.

parking violation

This afternoon as I was leaving USF's Koret Center, I found a parking ticket attached to my windshield. Guilty as charged, I've been parking in the lot without a permit for at least 2 years. They never enforced the rules, so I kept parking there. I already knew the violation fee, but seeing I owe a whopping $50 to a nearly empty university parking lot during the holiday season only pissed me off more.

It would seem with USF's recent sale with passes (buy 15 get 5 free, buy 30 get 10 free) and my parking ticket, they are needing additional revenue (most universities do). The rec pass sale is usually during the summer months and for the first time since I used the gym, they had a winter sale. I bought the 30-10 deal last week.

If USF is indeed being more aggressive in collecting revenue, I think there are much friendlier ways of doing it. First, they should change their rule on not issuing parking permits (for a fee) to lowly rec pass holders like me. Second, charge fees to all visitors to park in the lot. This is a potential cash cow because they have non-university activities going on all the time. They already have rec center staff for check-in and to process payments. To add parking fee collection to their duties would not be a big deal.

As a result of this ticket, I am thinking long and hard about whether or not I'll renew my rec pass. I've also grown a bit tired of the suburban yokels at the gym I use after work, so perhaps it's time for me to explore new gyms.

allergy meds

Last night after leaving the gym, I went to Walgreens' to pickup my prescription nasal spray. For the past 10 years or so, I've been on allergy medication year round. As I've gotten older, so have the number of medications I have to take.

At first, it was Chlor-Trimeton. It often made me sleepy and thirsty, but it worked. Then, Claritin-D because it didn't make me drowsy. After that, Zyrtec. Most health insurance carriers stopped discounting Claritin and Zyrtec in the late 90's, and buying it over the counter got expensive. I switched to my current medication of Sudafed Plus (or the generic version). I added Rhinocort, my nasal spray, about 6 years ago, and became a regular user of Advair (for asthma) last year.

Gradually, it became harder to buy Sudafed in bulk supply because of the increased illegal manufacturing of methamphetamines from one of its key ingredients, pseudoephedrine. Just this past September, the FDA required all medications containing pseudophedrine to be taken off store counters. They could only be sold in limited supply at the pharmacy counter.

Screw that. Too much of a hassle. So I began buying the new formula of Sudafed Plus, now called Sudafed Plus PE (no pseudoephedrine). Within a week, I found the PE versions weren't working as effectively. Two weeks ago, I tried loratradine (generic version of Claritin) in place of Sudafed Plus PE and nothing improved. My tried and true combo for sneezing and runny nose has been original formula Sudafed Plus and Rhinocort.

I was still in denial despite the constant runny nose and increased tissue use. It wasn't until this week that my eyes looked redder than usual, (even after allergy eye drops) and irritation with my contact lenses that I have to go back to the original formula of Sudafed Plus.

So when I went to pick up Rhinocort, I also asked for Wal-phed, Walgreen's generic version of Sudafed Plus. I asked for 2 boxes of 48, but the pharmacist was only permitted to sell me a single box. Damn. I was required to show my drivers license and they entered it into their database to record the purchase date. I take 2 a day, so this will only last me a little over 3 weeks. Federal laws won't let me renew a supply in less than 30 days.

I took a dose when I got home and within an hour, I noticed the difference. No more runny nose and watery eyes. A wonderful relief, but know I am no longer a drug-free spring chicken. My parents and relatives at their age try to top each other on how many pills they have to take. I'm not far behind.

I missed you, pseudoephedrine. Thank you for making me feel better.