Lists

I got this in a fortune cookie yesterday:
"People who want to appear clever rely on memory. People who want to get things done make lists."

I'm lost without lists. Especially when it comes to packing. I get a lot of mileage out of packing lists for backpacking and bike races. I guess that means I like to get shit done.

Browns Lake

Christine and I got out for our first backpacking trip together in a long time. Looking through my old photos, I think our last trip may have been the Grand Canyon in October 2007. Wow. After that, Christine’s hip was beat up pretty good and she had hip surgery almost a year ago.

Ants - part 2

I'm pleased to report that I returned home yesterday and found no ants inside. There were some more amassing in the garage though, coming up through the cracks between concrete slabs. There weren't too many though. I hosed out them out and then went out and bought some ant killer and some concrete caulk to seal up the cracks. This morning, I was ant free. I think the invasion of 2009 is over, but I'll keep my troops at the ready for a while.

Ants!

I went out to the garage this morning to feed to dogs and found a couple dozen ants feeding on a piece of dog food that had landed on floor. I'm not a fan of having ants in my house so I opened the garage door to throw this nugget of food out and sweep out the ants. I think that was part of the ants' plan, because they had amassed an ARMY of ants along the garage door. An amazing sight.

They started crawling into the garage so I grabbed a broom to sweep them out. It was clear I needed to do something more drastic though, so I grabbed some bug killer and started spraying the cracks in the pavement they were coming out of. About this time, I realized that ants were crawling on the garage door. The garage door that was now above my head. Yes, ants were now attacking me from above too. (Have you started itching and scratching at phantom ants yet?)

I eventually finished what I could of my ant assault and went inside to eat my breakfast. It appears that some ants had hitched a ride and were following me inside the house. I found more crawling on me and the floor. I divided my breakfast time between squishing ants and trying not to eat cereal. After eating, I just had to take a shower to make sure there were no more on me. Good thing, because I found a few more hanging out on my jeans.

I've got my fingers crossed that I don't find any more of the little bastards when I go home tonight.

Glenwood Springs

Glenwood Springs

Christine and I spent last weekend in Glenwood Springs for some racing and hanging out and we had a great time.

LASIK - 4.5 months later

I went in a couple days ago for my latest eye checkup. At this point, they say the healing is done and the vision I have now is what I get. So how good is it? I can easily read the 20/20 line and most of the 20/15 line on the Snellen chart. Compared to what I was before surgery (probably 20/500 or worse), I'm pretty damn happy.

Feet

Foot Xray
Originally uploaded by ryan_l

It's sort of funny when the doctor pulls up your xray record and finds xrays for a few body parts but not the one in question. He had shots of a hand, shoulder, and clavicle, but no foot.

I've been having a foot issue since last summer and I'm finally getting around to heading back to the doctor. The issue is that the bones in my feet spread out quite a bit and this causes me to get a callous on the outside of my foot. It's not the most painful thing in the world, but it keeps me from wearing super stylish Italian shoes. (And forget about those high heels I've always wanted.)

In the xray photo, he measured the angle between my 4th and 5th toes. It's around 10 degrees, and 5 degrees is normal. Also, the other two lines in the picture should line up in a straight line, but they clearly don't. For now, he's trying to correct the problem with a shoe insert. If that doesn't work, I'm going to tell him to chop the whole thing off. Feet are so overrated.

Toledo trip

I'm waiting at the Detroit airport with Christine for our flight home after a short trip to Toledo.