Chineese New Year's Parade

One thing that happens as your children get older is that you slowly stop attending parades. From the small city sponsored parades made up mostly of boy scouts and girl scouts to the larger ones with elaborate floats, you just slowly loose interest as the amazed looks these things bestow on your child's face stops occuring.

One of the local parades we never attended in the past was the Chineese New's Years Parade that occures in China Town. For those who never been, China Town is North of down town LA near Dodger Staduim. The parade was schedule for last Saturday and the weather forecasts for for sunny skys, light wind and temps in the low 70's -- perfect parade weather!

So Tania, Crystal, Cory and I went down to China town to check it out. I put the shades on and saved a spot on the parade route while everyone went shopping and hunted for some good Chineese take out for me eat while I enjoyed the sights.

You go to the Pasadena Rose parade for the floats, but the Chineese New Years parade is all about the dragons and they didn't dissapoint this year. Now don't get me wrong, this parade is small time compare to the Rose parade, but it is worth the trip and the crowds are no where near the parade celebrating the American New Years parade.

The dragons come is all colors and sizes. If you ever decide to go try to remember to sit in front of the First National Bank. It has a balocony on the second floor. I don't know who was up their but they had their own dragon costume and all the dragon in the parade stopped in front of the building to do a dance at the dragon on the balcony, who dance back at them in return.

As with most parades, where were a lot of bands to listen to and adorable kids to look at. There were also a lot of martail arts demostrations. If you haven't been to our own China Town here in Los Angeles, this is a perfect way to make a day of it. The Chineese calendar is a lunar calendar so their New Years is usually a few weeks after ours. Let Tania and I know if this sounds fun to you, we would love to be your guides.

Acai Berry

Has any heard of the acai berry?

I guess Operah Winfrey drinks it and talked about it on her show.

Has anyone tired it?
I have a friend who used to work with me at JDPA. She became a full time mom after having her second child but is still friends with many of us at work. She now sells Monavie which is a juice made primarily of the acai berry. She has tried to get me to try it but I have always ignored her.

One of Tania’s doctors is having take super doses of vitamins. The doctor also wanted her to start drinking acai berry juice twice a day. I thought if a doctor is telling Tania to take it maybe I should look into this a little more.

The acai berry comes from the acai Palm tree which is a tall and slender and grows in South American (Brazil). The acai berry is a dense source of anthocyanins and has the highest amount of antioxidant properties, is higher than any other edible berry on the planet. I guess this makes it good for you? If you go online you will see a lot claims of what it can help from weight loss to depression to muscle aches and joint pain.

Unfortunately, the juice doesn’t come cheap. It cost anywhere between $18 - $45 a bottle. The cheaper brands contain mostly water, while the more expensive brands contain more acai berry juice than any other ingredient. Costco sells an it at $18, but it is mostly water.

We bought a bottle at a vitamin store. It taste like medicine and is very gritty. I also called my friend and she brought over a couple of bottles of the Monavie brand that she sells. It is about $40 a bottle but she gave me a couple for free to try. The Monavie brand taste much better is suppose to have a lot more things in it to make it better.

Tania and I are both going to try it out. We’ll let you know what we think.

Back to the Grind

Well, I am finally back at work. I was really starting to get board staying at home so it's nice to be able to put my mind back to use again. However, sitting at a desk all day isn't the best for a bad back. Overall, I am doing okay, but this has helped me realize how much further I have to go before I am fully recovered. While my leg pains are much better, my lower back hurts more know than it did before the surgery. Patients, patients, patients.

Memories from the Old Neighborhood

I just connected to two new friends via Facebook. Andrea Hansen and Mary Gallo. Andrea found me first. I am not sure how. For half of my brothers and sisters, childhood memories reside in Morgan Hill but for Cathy and I 6397 Mt Ripley Drive, Cypress CA will be and address forever engraved in the memory banks. While I was never really “friends” with either of Andrea or Mary (after all there were girls) hearing from them really brought back some old memories. Memories I whose connections I would have thought had withered away long ago.
Even though Andrea lived right next door and we were the same age we never talked much to each other. It’s not that we didn’t like each other, I just don’t think we thought much about each other one way or the other. This was how it was from grade school to high school. We talked to each other like you do with someone you see in church every Sunday for the past ten years but never really spend time with.
There were a group of us that lived within four houses to the left and right that always hung out and played together. Andrea never participated much. I always assumed she thought herself a little better than the rest of us, but being a dumb kid it didn’t dawn on me until I was much older that both of parents worked and she was allowed to go outside of the house (or let friends in) until her parents got home.
For those of you who can remember the Cypress house. You likely can remember the Hansen’s dogs. They were very into dog shows and also had three or more pugs. Pugs are funny dogs. While most dogs have barks that are loud and alarming, pug barks also sound more like laughing than yelling. Their dogs used to always chase there own tails. Based on Andrea's Facebook page, it looks like she is into the dog show thing herself, but her dogs are much bigger than pugs (not sure what they are). She lives somewhere in the Pheonix area.
Mr. Hansen used to spend many nights sitting in his garage with the door open. He would sit in a folding beach chair drinking beer and watch us kids play street play, hide & seek, etc. He always looked a little intimidating. When I was young, I thought he didn’t trust the neighborhood kids and was keeping his eyes on us. As I got older and had built up a resume of conversations with him, I realized he just enjoyed watching kids play more than watching the junk on TV. No one thought much of the safety of kids playing out in the streets back in those days, but it was probably helpful to have a parent watching over us like that. I know it did help cut down the fights between the kids.
Memories...

Fantany Football

Here is how I faired in fantasy football this year.

1. JDPA 2008 – This was the largest league I was in, 14 teams. We had a draft day so you pick your own players. I was lucky enough to get the second pick. You play against one team every week and the team with the most points gets the win. Even though I ended the year with the most points; 102 points more than the second place point team I spent most of the year between 6th and 4th place. Every time a team played me they ended up having their best week ever and so while I was consistently scoring high points, I kept loosing. I just barely made the playoffs. I got the last seed. However, the playoffs were good for me and I ended up winning – I’m #1! I really rode San Diego in this league. I had Philip Rivers and LaDanian Tomlinson. Tomlinson was killing me the first half of the year, but he was what won me the playoffs so I can’t complain. My other running back was DeAngelo Williams – very strong player. My stand out WR were Derrick Manson and Steve Smith.

2. JDPA 2008-2009 – 8 teams. I also ended the year with the most points in this league – 60 more than second, but it seemed everyone had their best week whenever they played me. Most of the people in this league work under me so they all loved that I had the most points but still couldn't win. I barely made the play offs and the play offs went like the rest of the year; I ended in 4th place. Kurt Warner (QB from AR), Jason Witten.(TE from Dallas), Gore (RB from FS), and Calvin Johnson (WR from Detroit) got me consistent points and carried me most of the year. All solid scorers and all people I picked up in later in the rounds. I was the first person to pick up a TE, I wanted to make sure I got Witten on at least one of my teams. What really helped him in this league is that picked up a lot of running backs throughout the year – Moore (Pit), Morris (NE), Thomas (NE).

3. The League (another work league – it was put together at the last minute and they were begging for people to join) – it 6 teams. I was at the bottom – very last place - the entire first half of the year, but I started coming alive late in the year and made the play offs and ended in 4th place. I picked Tom Brady with my first pick and that killed me. Especially since someone else beat me to the bunch in picking up Cassle. I also had too many Indy players – Peyton Manning, Joseph Addai. Manning was so up and down the first half of the year, he was killing me. I also had Randy Moss and after Brady went down, it took a while for Cassel to figure out he should throw him ball. He eventually ended up with 11 TD’s so I can’t complain touch, he is the one who helped me make the push to the play offs the last half of the year.

4. The last league I was in wss the Witteh Family, however, I was the only Witten in this league. This is the one Aaron and Rachel tried to get everyone to join in but in the usual Witten style everyone tried to join too late. In this league there is a salary cap so you can change your players every week, you just have to stay under the cap. You don’t play teams head to head, it is purely based on points and of course this is the team that I did the worst one in terms of points. This was by far my worse performance. Rachel kicked my but. I kept zigging when I should have zagged. I figured Cassel was going to be a good replacement for Brady; after all, NE is a great team and you could pick Cassel up for very little money. So I played him and he really sucked his first few games so I dropped him right when he started kicking some serious butt. Three games in a row. So I picked him back up again, only to have him throw more interceptions than TD’s. I dropped him again when he started playing good again. Since I had LaDanian Tomlinson in one of my other leagues I thought I would go with him here also. For you football fans, you all know Tomlinson had a very bad performance the first half of the year. So I spent a lot of money for someone not scoring very many points. So of course about the same time I gave up on him is when he finally started playing good.

One thing I learned – four fantasy teams is too many. It was way to hard to remember who was one my team and worst of all every single week I would be playing a few players on my team in one league but also be playing against those same exact players in another league because they were on my opponents team. Without any local team to root for, fantasy football makes football fun to watch again, but it is hard to root for and against the same players.

Next year, we got to get the Witten league organized early to get more teams. I think there are a few more football fans than just Aaron, Rachel and I.

Wacht for Side Effects

After my set back on the back surgery, my doctor prescribed me a muscle relaxer called Flexeril. I was supposed to take it every six hours. My stomach was a little upset before I started the new medication so I was hoping it wasn't going to give me a stomach ache. Little did I know that a sore stomach was the least of my worries. My pain level was off the charts. I was taking this Flexeral along with 6 - 10 Norco a day (Norco is a stronger version of Vicodine).

I wasn't sure if it was the pain or the stomach ache, but I completely lost my appetite. I had absolutely no interest in food. If Crystal and Tania didn't keep bugging me to eat I don't think I would have eaten anything. After about three or four bites of anything I felt bloated. I thought maybe a had a mild flu or something because my stomach hurt a little and I was also running a mild tempurture. I also had a VERY dry mouth. No matter how much water I drank, a few minutes more I dry mouth again. Another thing I started noticing was that my urine was very dark. You know how it turn bright yellow when you take a lot of vitamins? It was like that, but even darker.

All of this happen kind of slowly over a three day period. I also was getting bad head aches. But weirdest of all was that my skin was getting very sensitive. Kind of like pins and needles. If some one grabbed me, it would be no problem, but if they stroked very softly it would hurt. It was very bothersome to take my clothes off and on. Then I started noticing that my skin look kind of yellow. I began thinking that maybe I was taking too many pills - working the liver over time or something.

I decided to look up Flexeril on the Internet and this is what I found:
(NOTE cyclobenzprine is the active ingredient of Flexeril)

What are the possible side effects of cyclobenzaprine?
Get emergency medical help if you have any of these signs of an allergic reaction: hives; difficulty breathing; swelling of your face, lips, tongue, or throat.

Stop using cyclobenzaprine and call your doctor at once if you have any of these serious side effects:

fast, pounding, or uneven heartbeats; chest pain or heavy feeling, pain spreading to the arm or shoulder, nausea, sweating, general ill feeling; sudden numbness or weakness, especially on one side of the body; sudden headache, confusion, problems with vision, speech, or balance; feeling light-headed, fainting; confusion,weakness, lack of coordination; nausea, stomach pain, low fever, loss of appetite, dark urine, clay-colored stools, jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes); seizure (convulsions); unusual thoughts or behavior, hallucinations (seeing things); or
easy bruising or bleeding, unusual weakness.

Less serious side effects may include:

dry mouth or throat; blurred vision; drowsiness, dizziness, tired feeling;
loss of appetite, stomach pain, nausea; diarrhea, constipation, gas; or
muscle weakness.

This is not a complete list of side effects and others may occur. Tell your doctor about any unusual or bothersome side effect.

Looking back, I also recall that my vision was pretty blurry when ready (I'm getting old so this is not unusaul, but it was worse than normal). Also when I drifted in and out of naps I had was vidid dreams. Putting it all together, I had quite a few of the symptoms on the "stop taking this drug and call your doctor at once". Of course, being the idiot that I am I just stop taking the Flexeril to see what would happen. And most of the symptoms demished. Then I started taking it again (pain is a big motivator) and sure enough the symptoms came back.

Well that was enough proof for me. I called the doctor, but he was in surgery. He called later that day and said to STOP TAKING THE DRUG. He faxed in a prescription for Valium. NOTE: One of my criteria for cool doctors is that they will renew prescriptions over the phone or call the pharamacy themsleves when ordering new ones for you - every conveinent.

Valium is tyipically subsribed for pain, but I have my Vicodine and Norco for that, the Valium is to help the muscles relax (as oppsed to just blocking pain). However, when Tanai picked up the Valium the pharmacist wasn't going to fill it. She said, the directions said "take every six hours has needed for pain" and Valium isn't a pain medication. Good thing Tania is a nurse. She told the pharmasist that maybe the doctor wanted something to help me relax. This seemed to pacify her because she decided to a head and fill the prescription without talking to the doctor.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Read the side effects of the drugs you take!

I thought I had the flu and I didn't put all these different symptoms together. User beware.

Christmas Cards

While I enjoy receiving Christmas cards from everybody, I am terrible at sending them out. I don't we have sent out cards for nearly ten years. I think part of the reason is that Tania has never been into the Christmas card thing. Both her parents were only children, so I don't think they were the Christmas card type - just too few for the effort.

So for those who sent me a card and are waiting for reciprocation, here you go:


Merry Christmas to all!