After mentioning to Amanda the other day that someone had contacted me about my upcoming high school reunion (happening next year I presume), she said:
“Your 20th high school reunion? OMG you are so old!!!!111!!1!!”
What a loving spouse is she. I would like to point out that when we first met we were actually in the same decade in age, and that will soon happen again.
Thinking back to that time, I suddenly recall her saying as we were checking out at the grocery store:
“Is our relationship ready to link our Tops Bonus Cards? I think not.”
I’m glad we got past that point. Although I don’t think we ever did link our cards.

Amanda was angry at piglet because the little one started kneading her bladder this morning before 5am in order to wake her up. The point being that Amanda would then succumb to piglet’s piteous cries and feed the starving one.
Amanda was bitter, though, and did not give little piglet any satisfaction. She was more bitter when she could not get back to sleep. I ended up feeding the crying one a couple hours later. I speculated that her hunt failed yesterday and she needed to ingest more calories now that the weather is cooler; curiously, she has not been eating much, and we think she is supplementing her diet with unfortunate creatures caught outside.
One might think that the little one was “accidentally” pawing Amanda this morning while trying to ward off the early morning chill, but we are wise to wily one’s tricks.
I reminded Amanda she would be able to eat at Chipotle for lunch since she would be up at Roosevelt today, and she brightened up immediately.

Saturday, Amanda had peds clinic in the morning, but oddly no one was scheduled. Since they don’t take walk-ins on Saturday, she caught up a bit on work and then came home early. We stopped by City People’s garden store, and I got another bird feeder that hopefully with encourage more chickadee and finch friends rather than swarms of sparrows.
Amanda used some beets I had cooked a while ago in a chocolate desert thing. Mandy and Bryan came over to partake.
Sunday, after grocery shopping with Mandy, Amanda wanted to go apple picking and running through a corn maze. Unfortunately, the weather was really crappy, so we just checked the place out (in Redmond) for future reference. We stopped by University Village on the way back to idly browse books.
We saw This Film is Not Yet Rated, a documentary on the MPAA and how films in the US get rated. It was interesting, although it did not present a unified thesis but rather many people’s views on ratings and the MPAA.
We also saw Tears of the Black Tiger, a Thai Western of all things. Karl had recommended it earlier.
I eventually decided to give the bird feeder a break as the sparrows are freaking ravenous monsters. I also do not want to give them any ideas with regards to using our house for bird condominiums. The new bird feeder does function better as the sparrows can’t rake mass quantities of seed out and onto the ground, thus leaving he chickadees and finches something to eat (who do not like eating on the ground). I still must consider what to do with the bird friends.
Amanda has finally admitted she looks different due to the progeny (as opposed to her clothes simply not fitting). She is sad that none of her old clothes fit anymore.
Amanda wrote a new weblog entry today. Woot.

In reference to my previous entry mentioning how I did not write about Amanda’s old root canal, I found that my entry about Dave and Tahirih’s wedding indirectly references more Amanda dental work. And this entry alludes to unspecified craziness.
Basically, in May 2004 Amanda had seen a dentist in Buffalo for a random checkup and allegedly had a couple of cavities which were filled. She started having massive pain and went back, and the dentist then did something to one of the fillings. Amanda still had massive pain, but still refused to not go on her medical shifts and instead seek help which I found crazy. She was just a med student, but so it didn’t freakin’ matter if she was not there; it seemed to me that massive dental pain barely kept in check by prescription narcotics was more important.
Anyways, Amanda eventually realized that she really really had to deal with the tooth issue, but of course refused to go back to the original dentist. Unfortunately, she realized this right before Memorial Day Weekend* when of course everyone was not going to be around (another reason I found it nuts why she did not want to try to see someone earlier). And of course, if you do not have an existing relationship with a dentist, it is highly unlikely they will see you. I started calling every dentist in the Buffalo area, and they would either not see her or were simply not around. I believe Erika ended up taking her to the Children’s Hospital ER because she knew someone there could do something. I think there was a dental emergency resident/student there.
She only got more drugs since they aren’t really set up to do anything, but the student/resident was able to set up an emergency appointment with a dentist in Kenmore who was associated with the dental school. Nothing like medical connections and networking.
So Amanda saw the dentist, whose name I have forgotten, and she definitely had to get an emergency root canal, of which the dentist did the first steps and put in a temporary filling. What a great guy.
We hypothesized that the original dentist who put in the first two fillings fucked up and hit the root on one tooth. I found it shocking that on her follow-up visit when the original dentist redid the wrong filling as well; Amanda had the root canal on another tooth. For all we know she did not even have cavities as she never had dental problems before and he was just fucking around, but of course it seems like there is no way to really know. Our savior dentist was very circumspect and would not really comment on what he really though about the previous dentist’s work or motivations.
Anyways, now Amanda has a crown, and we all know the importance of having a relationship with a good dentist. And not ignoring your own health to go to work.
* Or maybe the fourth of July weekend? It’s unclear reading my old weblog entries.

We went to Eve and Karl’s housewarming party last Saturday. Of course, we had been there many times before, so we did not need the tour. Poor Satchel was relegated to the master closet / bathroom, but he did greet me when I visited.
Tuesday, I finally went to the dentist for the first time in Seattle; Amanda had already been twice. It would not do to have a dental emergency and not have an existing relationship with a dentist like when Amanda had to get a root canal after seeing a quark dentist*. The office was on top of a building in downtown, which was nice, but the coolest thing was the dentist’s cat Sumi wanders all about the offices. Apparently, she stays there all the time except for long weekends or vacations. So, I presume if one is allergic to cats, one would choose another dentist. I also presume she is not allowed wherever “serious” dental work is being done; I did see her run through the room where my teeth cleaning was occurring. Perhaps she was just being disobedient.
Now my teeth are outrageously clean. The cleaning itself was not as bad as I thought it would be after over two years. I only talked to the dentist himself (who seemed pretty cool) for a few minutes; he said I probably will never have to talk with him since I have “great teeth”. I guess after 36 years one’s dental future is pretty easy to predict. Actually having the dentist see you during routine cleanings costs more, and although he said my insurance covers it there probably isn’t normally a need for it unless the hygienist spots something. I appreciate such a global awareness of not wasting health dollars, although it seems only the insurance company directly benefits. Society’s and our benefits seem more indirect.
Yesterday (Thursday), we had dinner with Eve and Karl at Tutta Bella in Columbia City. I finally got to ride in Eve’s new hybrid Civic.
I still have not gotten called back by the home sleep testing people in the stated time after my last appointment. I will have to hassle them. Perhaps they are trying to see who is really really serious about their sleep problems.
* I tried looking for a link in my weblog for all of that unpleasantness, but apparently I never wrote about it. Odd. Perhaps I will keep looking.