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I found out last week that Reese had bilateral patellar luxation, grade II.  It means that his knees pop out of place.

After I got back from Austin, he was acting a little weird, sleeping a lot, not following like he normally does, and going off on his own to lay down.  I figured things would go back to normal after he had rested.  After a couple of days, things hadn’t changed much.  One day at lunch I tried to get him to jump up on my like he normally does.  He hesitated, but eventually he tried.  As soon as he did, he started hollering and moving around in a weird way.  He was obviously in a lot of pain.  I took him to the vet and they examined him and determined what was wrong.

From what the doctor said and what I’ve read, patellar luxation is a common defect in his breed.  It’s not unusual for symptoms to show at his age.  A girl that works in the vet’s office said that her 1-year-old had been recently diagnosed with the same thing.  He has grade II out of IV, so it’s not as bad as it could be.   The doctor prescribed medicine that should help with the pain and with the cartilage in his knees.  Eventually, he’s going to need surgery, which is $600 per knee.  After a couple of days on his medicine, he’s back to his normal hyper self.  I don’t let him jump on me, even though I can tell that he wants to.

This is him still groggy after they sedated him for his x-ray.

Well, LOST ended last night and it was very bittersweet. It started shortly the Summer 2004 Olympics, which wasn’t long after I first started blogging. I’ve watched it since the night of the premiere and I never stopped watching. I really enjoyed the time spent watching the show and interacting with the LOST community. We’ve all known for 3 years that this would be the last year and I’m glad they got to go out the way they wanted, but I still hated to see it end.  The finale was excellent and I am very satisfied. I don’t have complaints about the last few minutes that a lot of people do. I can’t wait to re-watch this series when the complete set comes out in August. I’m sure I’ll notice a lot more the 2nd time around.  24 is ending tonight, but I don’t feel nearly as bummed out about it as I do about LOST.

Here’s the first blog entry I wrote about LOST complete with grammatical mistakes. It’s from December 11, 2004.

Lost is definitely my favorite new TV show this season. Of all the new shows that I started watching this season (mostly NBC shows because of all that advertising during the Olympics), Lost is the only one that I still watch.

The show is about a group of plane crash survivors that are stranded on a deserted island. It’s a lot like 24 in that it’s really just one long story divided into many different episodes. Each episode spans approximately one day. I like the way that use flashbacks in each episode to give you background information on one of the characters. It may be hard to pick up on everything if you haven’t been watching since the beginning, but I urge you to give it a try anyway. It comes on Wednesday nights at 7 CST on ABC. The very first episode is being replayed this coming Wednesday.

It has several actors in in that I recognize from other places: Daniel Dae Kim (24), Dominic Monaghan (The Lord of the Rings), Terry O’Quinn (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Earth 2), Harold Perrineau (Oz, Matrix 2 & 3), and Ian Somerhalder (Smallville, Life as a House).

There have been rumors about a death on the show for a while now. This past Wednesday, I thought it had actually happened. Dominic Monaghan’s character was left hanging from a tree by some psycho and the doctor couldn’t bring him back. At this point I’m thinking to myself, “I should’ve know something was up when I saw him on The Late Late Show last night because I haven’t seen any of these people promoting this show before”. I was angry because they were killing off that poor little hobbit. Luckily the doctor went crazy, started back pounding on the hobbit’s chest, and was able to bring him back.

Go Doc!

In the near future, I need to find a new serial drama with a complex mythology to occupy my time.

This past weekend was a 4-day weekend and I took a trip to Austin to see Conan O’Brien and enjoy the city. It was a long drive, but I like long drives sometimes. Austin is now the farthest west I’ve even been in the United States.

Because of the weather and the lack of time I didn’t get to do as many touristy things as I wanted to. I mostly tried to go to restaurants and stores that I wouldn’t be able to go to in Starkville. I ate some very good food and spent way too much money shopping. I enjoyed driving around and getting a feel for the city. Thanks to my iPhone I never got lost. I love my iPhone! I saw lots of cool sites and attractive people. Austin has a very nice, very diverse population.

Conan O’Brien’s show was hilarious. His opening act was Reggie Watts, who I’m pretty sure walked past me on the street before the show. He’s freaking hysterical. Conan’s act was a combination of standup, songs, and skits from his TV show. Once again, freaking hysterical. His special guest for the night was a musician from Austin named Charlie Sexton that I had never heard of. At one point during the show, I laughed out loud so hard and so suddenly that I got this very sharp pain in my side. I couldn’t move for a few minutes. I thought I had literally busted a gut. That spot was hurting me for a few days. It would be just my luck to injure myself at a comedy show. This show was definitely worth it. Can’t wait to see Conan on TBS later this year.

Overall, I had a great time in Austin. I wish I could have stayed longer. It’s a great city and I’m sure I’ll want to go back one day. I’ll probably be traveling by plane that time. I kept forgetting to take my good camera with me, so all I have are a few crappy pics from Conan’s show taken with my iPhone. I put them on my Facebook page.

My latest food-based obsession is Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution on ABC.  Apparently, Jamie Oliver was The Naked Chef.  A few years ago, he started a campaign in Britain to bring healthy food to get rid of all the unhealthy food in the schools.  He’s had success over there and now he’s brought his campaign to America.  The TV show is set in Huntington, WV, which was named the unhealthiest city in the United States.

Yes, it’s a TV show and they are trying to make an entertaining show, but what the show did for me was make me want to eat better foods.  I’ve started eating more fresh food and not so much fast food.  I ordered his book, Jamie’s Food Revolution: Rediscover How to Cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals, and I’ve tried a few of the recipes.  I like the simple, delicious, and affordable part.  They need to be simple because unless it’s a weekend, I’m not going to want to spend a long time preparing meals.  Affordable is great as well.  I don’t want cooking at home to be a lot more expensive than going out to eat.  Delicious is a given.  The recipes I’ve tried so far have been delicious.   It’s fun eating foods prepared differently from the way I’m used to doing it.

Anyway, I’m enjoying the show and it’s motivated me to eat better.  There are 6 episodes and they were on Hulu the last time I checked.

This weekend I discovered that I had snakes under my place.  There a little brick step under the back door and that’s how they are getting under the building.  At first I thought it was just one. I saw it poking its head out once when I took the dog out.  But the next day I saw 2 and they had slithered out a pretty good distance away from their hiding place.  All I had on me was a pooper scooper.  I tried whacking at them with it, but it didn’t do any damage.  One quickly hid and the other climbed on the wall and waved its tail at me before running off to hide like a little bitch.  Damn, they were fast.  Later in the day I got some bricks and covered the opening to their hiding place.  I hope they’re not trapped inside.  I don’t know what kind they are, but there black and slim.  I did some googling and I think might be Southern Black Racers.  Hopefully, I won’t see them again.

A few weeks ago I watched Julie & Julia because I like Meryl Streep and I was catching up on some of this season’s award nominated movies. The movie did inspire me to start cooking better foods. Lately, I’ve been keeping it pretty simple. When I get a new place and get an over that I don’t think is going to kill me is a little more reliable, I hope to branch out some. Maybe I’ll buy Julia Child’s book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, so I can make her beef bourguignon. Either that or I’ll find a cookbook for single guys that don’t want to spend a lot of time preparing meals.

I’ve been a fan of Conan O’Brien since I was in high school.  When I used to stay up late at night, I watched him on a lot on Late Night.  Over time, I didn’t get to see him as much because I was going to bed earlier or doing other things.  When he took over The Tonight Show, I watched whenever he had someone on that I was interested in.  I was highly disappointed when The Tonight Show was given back to Leno.

When I heard recently that Conan might be going on tour, I knew I wanted to go if it came anywhere nearby.  Yesterday, the tour dates were announced.  It took a few minutes to get on the site because of all the traffic, but once I got in I knew that I would either go to Atlanta, Manchester (TN), Dallas, or Austin.  I’ve been to Atlanta recently and I’ll be going again soon.  The Tennessee show is during Bonnaroo.  When I go to Bonnaroo for the first time, I want to stay for the entire festival and it seems like I should’ve already started planning for Bonnaroo if I were going there.  Also, both of those shows are in June and I wanted to go sooner.  I ended up picking Austin over Dallas because I still want to see Austin and I didn’t get to go last year like I wanted to.  It would take something major to stop me this time.  It’s on May 14 and I hope nothing at work comes up in that short of a time.  The tickets are paid for and the hotel room is booked.  I’ll finally get to see Texas for the first time.

I haven’t read much over the past few months. I blame it mostly on The Wire, Doctor Who, and Torchwood. Here’s my list for 2010. I know I won’t finish them all this year, so this is probably more of a 2010-2011 list. The one I’m working on now is at the top of the list.

• Joe Abercrombie, The Blade Itself
• Joe Abercrombie, Before They Are Hanged
• Joe Abercrombie, Last Argument of Kings
• Serenity Found, Jane Espenson
• The Law of Nines, Terry Goodkind
• The Associate, John Grisham
• The Fourth Hand, John Irving
• The Stormcaller, Tom Lloyd
• The Day Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• The Twilight Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• The Final Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• Busted Flush, George R.R. Martin
• Suicide Kings, George R.R. Martin
• The Final Crusade, Chaite Naasiri
• The Darker Mask, George Phillips
• The Final Empire, Brandon Sanderson
• The Well of Ascension, Brandon Sanderson
• The Hero of Ages, Brandon Sanderson
• The Gathering Storm, Brandon Sanderson
• Towers of Midnight, Brandon Sanderson
• Titus Andronicus, William Shakespeare
• The Dragonbone Chair, Tad Williams
• Stone of Farewell, Tad Williams
• To Green Angel Tower, Tad Williams

Just a little something because I haven’t written in a while.

Over the past couple of months I’ve been watching an HBO show called The Wire. I tried to watch the first episode twice when it first came on back in 2002, but I got bored early on. I heard so many people say good things about it over the years that I knew I would give it another try someday and stick with it. I’m glad I did. It’s one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.

The Wire is a crime drama set in Baltimore. Each of the 5 seasons focuses on 1 aspect (the drug trade, the educational system, the media, etc.) of Baltimore, but there are characters and storylines that carry over from season to season. I don’t know how many nights I stayed up way too late watching episodes. I kind of want to go back and watch it again. The only small complaint is that they use some non-professional actors. Some were real policemen, politicians, etc. I cringed a little sometimes when they were on screen because it can take you out of the scene a little.

There is plenty to like about The Wire. The writing. The realism. The fascinating detective work. The funny moments. If you get a chance, you should watch it.

2009 was a pretty good year.   It was much better than 2008, which was a shitty year for me.  I’m hoping for even better in 2010.  The only complaint about 2009 was that work got a little too crazy at times mostly due to outside factors.  I’m not going to complain too much, because crazy is better than boring.

I’ve probably given more to charity this year than all previous years combined.  I have given to:  Autism Speaks, The American Red Cross, The Humane Society, and The Andy Roddick Foundation.

I didn’t get a lot of electronic gadgets this year.  The biggest one I got was an iPhone.  It is the best gadget ever. 

The place I’m living in now was supposed to be short-term.  I should be out of here when my lease runs out in July.  I don’t like the place.  I don’t like the neighborhood.  I don’t like not having a fenced yard.  I’m going to start looking for something soon.

The decade is also ending tonight.  This decade I’ve had the best times of my life and the worst times of my life.  Of course, I’m looking to make things better in the next decade.

Right now I’m enjoying another quiet New Year’s Eve at home with the dog.  I’m finishing my Lord of the Rings re-watch today as is tradition.  I used to watch the New Year’s Eve stuff on TV, but not anymore.  Who knows what I’ll be doing tonight.  Maybe next year I’ll go out somewhere.