Pneumonia

When I started feeling crappy a couple days ago, I didn't know what was wrong with me. In the last couple weeks, I had woken up three times in the middle of the night with the worst chills I have ever felt. It wasn't cold in the apartment; but it felt like it was about 30. I couldn't stop shivering, my teeth wouldn't stop chattering. The first couple times, I just assumed it was a freak thing, but after three times, I decided there was something up. Then, the day after the third chill, I felt terrible. Headache, back ache, shortness of breath, you name it. I had run the night before, and it was a little chilly. I assumed the problems with my breathing was related to that. After walking into my office from the parking lot, I was dying. It felt like I had run about five miles.

Pneumonia sounds like one of those diseases that should have been eliminated a hundred years ago. I can't name anyone that has had it. The only dealings I've had with it are all the times mom told me to put a coat on because it's cold and you'll catch pneumonia. Since it was like 70 for the past couple weeks, so apparently that old wives' tale is just that.

Anyway, I hit up the urgent care center and did some tests, had some x-rays, and got a few prescriptions. So I'm inhaling all kinds of funky stuff including the 'roids. (I'll make sure to do some extra pushups this week.) The doctor called what I have either bronchitis or walking pneumonia, which he called "not the real thing," but said it could progress to the real thing if I didn't take care of it. Hopefully this stuff will. We'll see.

I needed a photo for this post, and even though i know Doc had tuberculosis, it's what pneumonia reminds me of, and Tombstone is awesome.

Television

Now that the strike heard round the world is over, TV is in abundance. Katie and I had gotten in the habit of DVRing Jeopardy! and other random shows that one likes to watch, but should never DVR. Don't get me wrong; I love Jeopardy!, but it's kinda one of those shows you run into at 7:30 and stick with it. If you miss it, it's not the end of the world. However, I've found that even Jeopardy! can benefit from DVR treatment. Between skipping commercials and the interviews, you can bang out an episode in like 18 minutes. Basically in just over an hour, you can get through a whole week. It doesn't take a lot longer to watch a whole week of Lost or a whole week of Boston Legal. Jeopardy! contestants have become characters in my show. There was even a guy on last week from the Baseball Hall of Fame who I sort of knew.

Anyway—got sidetracked a little—the biggest problem with the end of the strike is the overabundance of shows now. Everything is back! Our record list is like 30 shows long, because of the old 10 or so good shows we watched, and the 20 or so flawed shows that we fell in love with even though they were undeserving. The last three or four days, I've pulled up the DVR for something to watch and it warns us that we are running out of space! We've felt guilty watching any live TV, and three live hours for a Cubs game is way too much to ask!

The weather is getting nicer. The urge to not watch television is strong. The writers' strike has pushed good TV further into the spring than normal (I think). So it's pretty much a race against time for us to keep up with the DVR until all the shows end for the summer. Then we may have to pare down the list or hope something gets cancelled (but it BETTER NOT be Eli Stone; I love that show). Here I am, writing a blog post about it in the bedroom instead of watching TV right now... in fact, the TV isn't even on. Surely Katie has some crappy shows recorded that she should be watching without me. I'll take TV Slavery for $1000, Alex.

Earthquake

A few days ago there was an earthquake here. The news declared it "major," which pretty much means they think they can scare someone with it. I never got a definite rating on it, but it was either 5.2 or 5.4. Apparently they couldn't decide. Even if it's 5.2, that sounds pretty bad to me. My only real comparison is the San Francisco earthquake in 1989 during the World Series, which was a 7.1 on the Richter Scale. Let's just say this one wasn't quite as bad as that one. I remember waking up at about 4 or 5 am and feeling a little shaking. Right after it happened, we decided it was an earthquake... and then we promptly went right back to bed.

Later on I found out that the Richter Scale is actually logarithmic. Now, it's been a long time since I have taken any trig or calc or whatever logarithms were in, but I do know that the difference between 5.2 and 7.1 is a lot bigger on a log scale than on a normal one. So it turns out 5.2 is no big deal, especially when it's 100 miles away. So just consider it a free math lesson courtesy of the New Madrid fault line.

Race for the Cure

Katie and I ran in the Komen Race for the Cure yesterday morning. We had been training fairly religiously to make sure we didn't have any trouble finishing. After all the great weather we had lately, of course it was cool and rainy for race day. I'm sure the real, seriously runners were happy as clams about it, but most of us weren't. However, we managed to have a good time, get our run in, and see A LOT of other people in the process (something like 40,000+). The course was a nice run around White River State Park, past the zoo, some local businesses, the new Lucas Oil Stadium, and Victory Field. We both finished with pretty slow times, and I'm secretly wondering if the course was a little long, but who knows. Nike+ told me I ran about 5.5k instead of 5, but it's usually off by a little. The most important thing is that Katie and I managed to raise almost $500 toward a cure for breast cancer, thanks to many of you guys who helped out our cause. Thanks guys!

Anyway, I wish I had some photos for you, but I was a little busy and cameras don't tend to agree with rain, so you get an old one from a Google Image Search.

Movie Review Tuesday

Katie and I got back on the movie kick lately, so here's a couple more reviews:

1) Grosse Point Blank

Yeah, I don't know. Katie has some secret love affair with this movie or something. So, we rented and watched it. I was a bit distracted, and it didn't help that the DVD, which I assume pressed in late '97 or early '98 wasn't enhanced for widescreen televisions. So we got to watch it with black bars all the way around it. Nothing like a 30" picture on a 50" TV to get on your good side.

Nevertheless, the movie had some moments. John Cusack was very funny, and it was pretty classic to see some of the reasonably big-time people in some small-time roles. Now that I'm sitting here typing, I really don't remember much of anything distinctive from this movie, other than Cusack constantly telling everyone he was a professional killer, and no one believing him.

My rating: 2/4 stars.

2) The Bourne Ultimatum

I'm sure most people have at least seen one of the three movies in this series. This one doesn't deviate from the formula. Matt Damon is pretty solid. The government is as dirty as ever. There's a lot of flashbacks to Bourne's past. There's also plenty of hand-to-hand combat that would have Lennox Lewis telling you he couldn't handle it. There's a reason boxers have gloves. There's also plenty of explosions and car chases. As far as I knew, going into this movie, this was supposed to be the last one. That's about all I knew. The movie ended up finishing pretty well; I don't want to give away what happens, but it was pretty intense. I thought it was going to be an open-to-interpretation ending, but in the end, we find out what happens. But you'll have to watch if you wanna know.

I'd give this one 3½ out of 4 stars.

Indianapolis Indians

Katie and I, and my mom and dad went to Victory Field last night to see the Indians home opener against the Norfolk Tides. The Indians held their annual opening day "60 Degree Guarantee," but alas, the gametime temperature was only 59 degrees. So every one of the 12,073 fans in attendance can use their ticket stub to get into any other home game during April. That's a pretty sweet deal that will save us $18 sometime later this month.

The Indians played pretty well, winning 9-3. They were ahead 6-0 going into the top of the seventh, when the starter, Luis Munoz, started to tire out. He gave up three in the seventh to cut the lead to 6-3 before being pulled. The Indians answered with three more runs in the bottom of the eighth against former big leaguer Esteban Yan to seal the deal. After the game, there was a really nice fireworks show, which they apparently do every Friday night after the game. We had to wait a little while for them to set everything up on the outfield grass, but it was worth the wait. I don't know the details of who put the show on, but it was very impressive. The Tribe moved to 6-3 overall, a half-game behind Toledo for the West Division lead in the International League.

I took a few pictures, but none of them are any good. Dusk was not friendly to my camera, and I'm not to the point where I feel like carrying around a tripod all the time yet. I just need a new lens instead... :)

Lucas Oil Stadium

We've all seen the behemoth rising over the skyline southwest of downtown that will become the new home of the Indianapolis Colts, among other things. Bigger, better, and newer than the RCA Dome. Today, I received an email with some great photographs taken by someone on the construction crew. So, I thought I'd post them up here for all to see.

As you can see, this place is gonna be really nice. I love how the skyline looks when the end glass is opened up, and the horseshoe shaped bar in the Quarterback Club is a real nice touch. For those of you who can't wait to see it in action, the first game in the building will be a preseason game sometime in August. The regular season is already officially sold out. So you'll have to head over to StubHub if you want to check on those.

Downtown Canal Walk

Indianapolis Skyline over the Canal Walk, originally uploaded by scott_allen13.

This past weekend was beautiful, so we spent the whole time outside. After a long jog through Eagle Creek Park, we cleaned up and headed over to the Canal Walk for some people watching and photography. The nice weather has me itching to get out the camera. It's just too bad there's no leaves on the trees yet.

So a few hours and four sore calves later, we came out with this batch of photos and a little bit higher level of physical fitness. Enjoy the shots.

Children's Museum

Dinosaurs, originally uploaded by scott_allen13.

I spent a day at the Children's Museum over the weekend a couple weeks ago and took some pictures. I thought I'd show off the ones that are worth looking at.

FYI: The photo links to the complete set of images.

Texas Roadhouse

Katie and I just got back from Texas Roadhouse on Michigan Road. I don't ever fawn over food, but this was the best meal I've had in a long, long time. I had a ribeye with a baked sweet potato and a caesar salad, all of which were excellent. I also had two Captain & Cokes that were quite well made. Katie had the prime rib, which she also said was very good. Anyway, I don't really even have any jokes for this one. It was just tasty. I'll probably go back sooner than later.