Animoto

Check out this little video clip I made using Animoto! You upload pictures and music and BAM a sweet little vid comes out! It's like magic!

This 30 second one is free but longer costs some moola. Anyhow, check it out.

This is Team Beat the Bete from 2007.

25 Days

In the never ending world of insurance crap we get to deal with, I just finally received my order for pump supplies. I placed this order on the 5th of January and it was on my porch when I got home last night.

Minimed has always been really good at helping me out whenever I call but my insurance is so flipping annoying. I am thankful I have it. I am happy I have some coverage and all that but it is just annoying.

When you have working in customer service and you pride yourself at taking care of your customers since they are the reason you get a paycheck, it is hard to swallow when you are not treated well. I am just glad I did not have to use the samples I had sent last week since I was freaking out that my supply was getting low.

I know that Minimed says to place your order when you open your last box of supplies BUT not every set works not to mention when the user yanks his set out when he is going to bed. DUH.

Anyhow, I have all my supplies now and all is good, for now.

You Tube Tuesday #57

I love music in all it's different forms and flavors. Here is something totally different. I would not have thought possible especially from such a young kid, but WOW! SHE ROCKS!

Enjoy!

A Much Needed Weekend

This weekend was just what the doctor ordered.

It started off great with a nice 3 pound loss at Weight Watchers Saturday morning. There is still a few pounds left that I gained a while back but at least I am heading in the right direction. Then during the day my wife and I were at a meeting for an up coming retreat that we have volunteered to work on. I have written about the Via de Cristo weekend before, some of you may know it as Cursillo, and it is always a powerful and uplifting time.

Once again I am on the music team which I love so I got to sing great songs and play drums all day practicing for the weekend in March. Then Saturday night the band I am in called Feed the Five (not the Hi-5’s) played our first “secular” gig. We played a local coffee shop in our neighborhood to a full house. It was great time. We played for 2 hours with a break in between for a Chai Tea and hugs from our friends.

What made the night over the top was when the two owners pulled us aside and said, “You guys probably don’t know this but you are an answered prayer. Since we opened this shop we have not been able to get to church. Thank you for coming and bringing “the Word” with you. You ministered to us tonight.” It was difficult to hold back tears as I heard what he said. This is exactly why we started this band. You are always blessed to be a blessing.

Then Sunday night the musical goodness continued. We were asked to provide music for a worship service at Chino Prison! It was such an amazing experience. They had to do background checks on each of us and we had to go through all the security checks to get in. Once we did we were escorted across the yard in pouring rain. It was wild to see the guard towers and the lights. It was a scene I will not forget.

When we got to the chapel we were greeted by the Chaplain. He was so welcoming and kind and immediately had three of the inmates help us unload our gear and set up. They were respectful, personable, and very appreciative.

The music we played has never been as well received as it was last night. These guys were singing so loud that I could hear them over our microphones. They had their hands up in the air praising and worshiping. Being a Lutheran, hand clapping is about as wild as we get to see but this was next level. These guys were really into it which made us more into it. We fed off the energy in the room and rocked for Jesus. Without a doubt we will do this again.

After the 2 hour service we packed up and left. It was still pouring so I was drenched by the time I got to the car. I was so full from that worship service that the drive home seemed like it took no time at all. This weekend really pulled me out a dark place I was headed to. I am thankful these days came when they did.

Although last night I had an awful Diabetes Nightmare. But that is a post for another blog. ;)

Weight Watchers Update

Loss - 3.0

Total lost - 32.0

Woot!

The One Word Meme

This Meme has been cruising around the OC so I thought I would jump aboard.

The rules are as follows, comment with one word to describe me. That's it! It's funny but in a way, I almost do not want to click on the Publish button....

Oh well, here is goes.

A Zero Carb Apple

Over the weekend I went out and purchased an Apple TV. Although you may be thinking that it is a waste of money and blah blah blah, I must tell you that I think the very opposite.

We have cable TV. Cable TV that we hardly use. Cable TV that we pay about 100 bucks a month for! We watch 4 shows religiously and the rest are just channel surfing kind of stuff. So the way that I see it, Apple TV will allow us to either cut down our cable bill or remove it completely.

ITunes sells TV shows by the season so as soon as a new episode is released it is downloaded into your Apple TV. Typically the cost for a season is 25 bucks. So If I watch 6 shows (lets just say) then that’s only 150 smackaroo’s for the entire season! Not to mention great video podcasts that are free.

I currently download the Ninja Warrior, Dog Whisperer, Walt Disney World, Food Science, and a Skate boarding video podcast. They are like little TV shows and they are automatically downloaded to my Apple TV when a new episode comes out. Not to mention the great Audio podcast like Trailer Talk (shameless plug), Diggnation, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, News from Lake Wobegon, and many more! I love it.

We can also listen to my entire iTunes music library from our television which his hooked up to the good stereo unlike my computer speakers It is great to allow guests the ability of looking through my music collection on the TV instead of sitting at my desk.

And did I mention Pictures? Oh wow, our pictures look amazing on our TV. Since my camera is digital (and yours probably is too) the pictures taken look fantastic on our wide screen HDTV.

I would really suggest checking out the Keynote Address that Steve Jobs from Apple did that announced the iTunes rentals and the update for Apple TV not to mention all the other cool stuff Apple has coming out. I should also mention that we have iPods and now the apple TV but all 4 of our computers are PC’s.

I think we are going to become an Apple family soon. Stay tuned.

Denied

Just for fun I called Minimed and checked into getting CGM to go along with my pump and as the title suggests I was denied.

I had a feeling this would happen. Just because I have Blue Shield which sounds like a company that protects it actually does not give a $#!^ about its patients, only money. Silly me. So now what to do? I guess I can sell stuff on eBay to afford CGM? I know my endo won’t do anything to help. He hardly knows me. Maybe I should see if Doctor “F-Bomb” with kick some insurance ass.

Odds are I will not have CGM for a long time. Oh well.

I am having a crappy day. Don’t mind me.

You Tube Tuesday #56

And to think, I had to wear parachute pants and play "Rock-it" on my ghetto blaster to do this except it was not nearly as fun. Go HAILEY GO!!!!

Enjoy.

Weight Watchers Update - Finally!!

The last time I weighed in at the old WW was the Saturday before Christmas. The meeting leader thought I quit which was not the case at all although, the scale probably thought the same thing.

Gain - 7.0 lbs

total lost - 29.0 lbs

Wow! I beat myself up all the way home. I was so angry but at the same time, I knew it. I have been pretty much been sticking to my low point breakfast and lunch BUT my dinners have been "double OC" (out of control) and I have become an unstoppable "Snackster"{ in the evenings.

Oh did I mention that I have not exercised religious since last year! :)

I am not giving up. Mainly because a few of my O.C. friends started Weight Watchers recently and we need to stick together. I know I can get back on track. Tune in next Saturday when I lose a grip of weight.

FYI - a grip means a lot. I know, I have a strange vocabulary.

A Gift For Me, From Me!

I love it when I come home and there are boxes on my desk!

Packaging peanuts drive me nuts but its cool to wet them in your hand and watch them disintegrate.

I have been wanting to get a custom skin for my pump for a while but all of the ones on Minimed's site seemed either too girly or more for little kids. I think all of you know that I am both girly and childish BUT believe me, I would have been beaten up by third graders if I used any of the skins I saw online.

Until now...

I was just surfing around the Minimed store and came across all these very cool skins! They have Sponge Bob, Mickey Mouse, Tinkerbell, Camo, NBA teams, and Baseball team skins! AWESOME!

This was my gift for my Blogaversary. It has been 2 years since I started this blog and I thought I should celebrate.

If there is no cure for Diabetes, I might as well make my pump "disappear!"

Times .10

If you have read my Blogabetes post today then this will just be review.

Last night during lots of Wii gaming I had to change my set. I must have had a bad set or something because before I went to went to bed I had the scare of my life! I checked my BG and the little screen on my machine said “Hi.”

For a second I thought, “That is crazy I have never seen that. Weird. Oh wait! HIGH!” I freaked out. My heart beat was pounding in my head. I checked for ketones but came up clean. I washed my hands just to be sure and when I checked a second time, I was at 520. Dang.

At least I knew then what my BG was. I got so scared because “HI” means my machine cannot register my BG level. The only time I have ever had that show up on my screen was when I was DKA and ended up in ICU for 3 days. After watching my BG slowly drop down over the next hour I went to sleep.

It sucks to lay there thinking about what could have happened. What would Jasmine have done? What about the kids? It is late at night and everyone is in bed. It just sucks. Those were all of the last thoughts I had as I fell asleep.

Until I woke up kicking the blankets off of myself. Covered in sweat I grab my machine to check. 52. I have 4 glucose tabs and immediately thought of the name of this post.

Do any of you bloggers think about how you are going to blog a situation as it is happening? Is this some kind of sickness? I saw a T-shirt that said, “I am going to blog about this” and I think I should wear one. I can have a scary low and think, “What should I name this post!” Do you guys have that happen?

Anyhow, I love blogging but I would much rather focus on Movies instead of diabetes. At least I have major love for movies!

I hate diabetes.

Fears

I am scared of some strange things. Not the run and hide or scream kind of scared but more of the "I will not get near" "Do not get me near" "I do not think that is funny" "I refuse to participate" kind of scared.

Horses. They just freak me out. I have total respect for Horses in that I think they are beautiful and useful creatures. I like betting on them. I do not want to ride one or be anywhere near one. Their strength and power scare me. I have this vision in my head of getting on a horse, it bucking me off, and then stomping my face in the ground! No thanks.

Birds. I should say that only ones with sharp beaks that fly freak me out. LOL I know that sounds lame but ducks are cool. Here is the thing, a bird can fly up to you, peck out your eye, and then just fly away. It would be like nothing happened to the bird while I am scrambling around on the floor with only one good eye! If I get bit by a snake I can find it and kill it but a bird, it can just fly away and even poop on my if it wants too. Birds are scary.

Clowns. Clowns are just evil. They are scary. And this morning I saw an article on Yahoo's homepage that prompted this post. The picture on the home page is so flipping scary. 250 kids from 4-16 years in age were asked if they liked clowns. 250 said yes. HA! I am not alone!

Here is the thing, you never know what a clown is thinking. They can have a painted on smile while they are secretly plotting to kill you and everyone else at the party. I am not a fan.

Anyhow, I know this has nothing to do with Diabetes but I thought I would share my strangeness.

Do you fear any of this stuff? Are their any other things that you fear that others find funny or strange?

You Tube Tuesday #55

When this video started I did not think I was going to even watch it all the way until the end. But then I found that I really wanted to keep going. At the very end I found myself smiling from ear to ear and literally applauded.

I hope you like this clip and I would really love to hear what you thought of this.

Enjoy.

Christmas 2007 is Official Over

This weekend my family celebrated our Christmas together in Laughlin Nevada. If you are familiar with Las Vegas and Laundry mats then you can guess what Laughlin is like. It’s a very tiny, very simple casino town. It is right on the Colorado River across from Arizona and only 4 short hours from my home. My mother and sister from New Mexico are 8 hours away but seemed like a good place to meet up and hang out for the weekend.

And it was. We had a blast! When we got in Friday night we met up with my sisters and started the partying. My mom had spent the day gambling so she stayed in the room with the kids and my wife and I with my sisters hit the town. Now Laughlin is not a busiest city this time of year and especially at the hour we were out. After 10 at night the traffic in the town drops off considerably. Most of the tourists are elderly folk so the mornings are the busiest times which left the night wide open for our clan.

We hit a Casino called The Pioneer. This is my favorite place to gamble period. Even as compared to the casinos in Vegas, the Pioneer in Laughlin always has my vote. It is not because they have the best drinks, or the best restaurants. It isn’t due to their fancy decorations or the view of the river. The one reason I love the Pioneer is the people. Every dealer, pit boss, stick man, waitress, and even the security guards are all nice. They just have this laid back and friendly attitude which I find addicting. I love feeling welcomed and I can’t imagine anyone who wouldn’t.

One thing you usually lose at big casinos is the friendly dealers. Dealers that let you know if you are making a lousy bet and that are willing to teach you a little table lingo so you sound as cool as the dude who just dropped 2 C-notes on the table to buy in. I love that about the Pioneer.

We played roulette for hours and had a blast. I was doing really well and a few times I even called out the numbers before they hit! The dealer was really impressed and I told her, “Sometimes I am magic!” That was the line I used each time I won anything all weekend.

Now I didn’t win enough to afford the CGMS I want to get but maybe we need to plan an OC trip to Laughlin. Then all of us can win money to pay for all the Diabetes junk we have to buy! That would be cool. Saturday morning we did our Christmas gift exchange up in my mom’s hotel room. The kids had a blast opening gifts as usual. I think they forgot about Christmas so this was a cool extension of the Christmasy goodness all kids love.

My gift was from my sister this year and she decided to have a little fun. I was hoping to get drunk enough to hit the casino floor in this thing but I never got that crazy.

Hey, maybe I can deliver some Cheesy Tots to Scott!

Anyhow, we had a great time and are probably going to make this an after Christmas tradition for years to come.

This is the Last Time

Honestly. I am going out of town so I cannot go to weigh in tomorrow. I have been good about counting my points and exercising when I can.

Two weeks ago I was enjoying a morning filled with sleep as my gift for the year end. Then last weekend I was so sick all I did was sleep. And now there is this week.

We are off to Laughlin Nevada to enjoy our final Christmas Party of the season. My mother was not able to join us for our Christmas gift exchange so we decided to do it in Laughlin. My sister, her family, and my mom drove in from New Mexico and we are all heading out there as soon as we get off of work. I am so excited to see the family but I am especially excited about seeing the Craps table.

Oh how I missed the little dice and pretty colored chips. I love craps. I find most people think craps is too confusing which is a bummer because it is so much fun.

Anyhow, next week I will have a Weight Watcher update and we can see how I did after the holidays and without weighing in for so long. Have a great weekend!

Feeling Over the Hill

I am Old. Old I am.

Last night we attended an Open House event at our local high school for our 8th grader who will be a freshman next year. High flipping school!

Since I have been out of high school, all I hear about is how schools do not offer any options for kids. Money is so tight that things like the Fine Arts, Sports, and other electives are being cut left and right. When I look back on my High School career I have to give Music the reason why I even graduated. I was not a big fan of school but Band made me come each day and I had to get good grades if I wanted to perform which was what I loved. Not to mention the family that band became for me. I spent 4 years with these people and we would travel together, rehearse together, and hang out together. Hell, I married one of them!

Anyhow, I know my son is in and likes band but I did not know what else he would be interested in or what options were available to him. Here is a list of what is available to him and any high school kid that attends this school, Fine arts which include Band, Orchestra, Jazz Band, Marching Band, 3 levels of Choir, Guitar, Ukulele, Drama, and Dance. Sports, like Football, Wrestling, Basketball, Cross Country, Track and Field, Tennis, Golf, Water Polo, Soccer, and Baseball. Marketing and Business Academy for those kids who are interested in pursuing a career in the Marketing field or want to prepare for Business careers in the future. An Agriculture program which participated in FFA competitions and prepares kids for a future in agriculture if that is there interest. A Program that focuses on Forensics, Fire and Police academies for students interested in those careers and apparently the course final is like a mock episode of CSI. The AVID program that focuses on organizational skills and preparedness for College is available. The Heritage of the Americans Magnet Program which is another course that focuses the students on College life and prepares them for success and tons of AP classes that offer College credits during their high school career and will not only jump start their time in college but save mom and dad lots of money.

Whew! My wife and I were so impressed. They had a panel of kids talking about all the programs that each of them was in and how their school really allows them to check out different programs so they can find their niche and focus on that when they head off to college. This is something that my wife and I did not have at all.

When we got home we sat down with George and asked him what he thought about the whole night. He was very excited that he could be in band and cross country. He was worried that he would have to choose but he saw that with some time management he could pull it off. He said he was inspired by the other kids to try some new things and really wants to get into some AP courses. The thing that really excited him was AP classes in Music Composition. He wants to learn more about music theory and composition what is very exciting. He had a lot to talk about and was up long past his bed time but it was well worth it. It is funny how we learn more about our kids each day or at least when we do when we listen to them. It is so easy to want to talk and talk to your kids but listening is when your eyes are opened to the adult your child wants to become.

It’s our job to help get them there and it’s the best job ever.

The Full Tank

Is it just me or do you feel like you can take on the world when you have a battery and a set change on the same day? Of course this is an insulin pumpers question but if not I am sure you can relate.

Doesn’t your car feel like it runs better when the tank is full? Doesn’t the first glass of milk from a new gallon taste the best? Well for some reason when I look at my pump screen and see a full reservoir and a full battery indicator I feel like I can take on any carb you can throw at me!

It was actually an eventful morning because of all this crap but I wrote that story on Blogabetes post. You can check that out there if you want. The link on the right will get you to it easily.

In fact, I want to mention something about Blogabetes. Although I write on that site, I hope none of you think I will stop or write less here because of dLife. That is not the case. I would never have been considered for that project had it not been for The B.A.D. blog and all of you!

Plus, I cannot drop an “F-Bomb” there but I can here! HA HA!

You Tube Tuesday #54

These are the worst examples I have ever seen! One ninja star to the front tire and this would have been over. And I am not even going to menti0n the colored skates! Wow!

How Not to Succeed as a Ninja.

You know you're sick when...

...for the last two days you have been woken up by the Auto Shut Off alarm on your insulin pump!


Thats right my friends. I have entered a cough syrup comatose like sleep for the pat few nights and have slept until my 15 hour auto shut off alarm on my pump has gone off.

The first time I heard the beeps I freaked out since I had never heard "Master P" make that frantic noise before. When I looked at the screen I started laughing thinking about how sick I really am. This morning when it happened I started laughing before I even saw the screen because I just knew. The only bummer was that I missed the Weight Watchers meeting. Ah well.

I have to be one of the few this has happened to but it is nice to know the little safety alarm thing works. I am feeling better although my chest and back ache a lot. My cough is not nearly as awful as it was. I am just feeling the aftermath of all the coughing attacks I had over the past few days.

I know most of the OC was sick so I hope all of you are feeling better too.

Sick of Sick

So I have spent the whole holiday weekend sick. Coughing, Sneezing, Runny Nose, Chills, Aches, and Pains are enough to make me want to stay in bed. But how do I do that on a 4 day holiday weekend? All weekend long I pushed myself through being sick and ignored my body. I visited friends and family and did not let the cold get me down.

And here I am at work feeling like total crap. I have no one to blame but myself but it was just too great of a weekend not to have some fun even if I was under the weather. Not to mention it was about 80 degrees outside on New Years Eve with perfectly blue skies. And I mean real blue not the brown/blue us Los Angelinos are used to. I had to play some disc golf and hang out with friends.

My BG has been high too which I am sure you all guessed. I just keep checking and bolusing to bring it back down. Well, anyhow it was a great weekend despite the coughing and such. I can sleep this weekend I hope.

Unless of course the weather good!

You Tube Tuesday #53

I was debating continuing YTT's into 2008 or killing it. I decided to post this one and wait to hear what you guys think. Please comment and let me know.

This is a cool little flick I found and it looks real enough to me. I hope you dig it.