General Update
May. 25th, 2015 11:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogI had a great day with the folks who came to Posi's party today. So much good food and socialization with Posi, Todd and Serin, my parents and brother, and Mallory. I started getting a headache in the early afternoon though, and by five it was bad enough to cause mild nausea despite a pain killer. Things were kind of breaking up anyway, and though it would have been nice to visit with Posi and Mallory a bit longer, I headed for Kenosha and took a nap. I'm feeling mostly better after a few hours of sleep, though I still feel the dull edge of head pain.
I haven't sat down and written for a while 'cause I've been busy. I met up with Erik on Thusday for a nice dinner of sushi followed by a thrift store trip. Friday was dinner with Lisa using a Groupon for Lao Sze Chuan. Oh, such good food! One of things we ordered was a dish called Chef's Special Dry Chili Chicken. It arrived liberally sprinkled with entire dried chili pepper pods and was *amazing*. The hot and sour soup was some of the best I've had (though I still prefer Whey Chai's in Racine). The orange chicken was wonderful orangey. Just great food. And a very pleasant evening with Lisa, too. It's nice to be close enough for casual visiting.
My schedule has been night-shifting (I have to work on that). I got up around noon on Saturday, just early enough to bike down to The Recyclery to work on my bike. I thought I was just going in for a new chain and cassette (the gears on the back wheel). Once that was done though, I tried to adjust the front derailleur and found play in the pedals. That led to disassembling the whole bottom bracket (the bearings and axle that connect the pedals). The cage holding bearings on one side had been completely ground away, and bearings spilled out everywhere as we took it apart. One tech said he'd never seen anything like that before. Another was not so surprised. *grins* Anyway, I hand-repacked new bearings into the assembly, then found that I couldn't put it back together. Maybe it was due to corroded threads, but one side wouldn't go in without cross-threading. By that time, they were closing down, and they didn't have the right tools to proceed anyway. So now my 16-year-old Giant is in an Evanston bike shop awaiting refacing of the bottom bracket threads. They're going to replace the old-style cup and cone bearings with a sealed cartridge too. Not user serviceable except as a unit, but easier to deal with and adjust. For my part, I remain awed by the simplicity and durability of the old cup and cone system. I love simple, elegant engineering solutions.
Once that was all done, I drove up to Posi's place for late-night hanging-out and party prep. Yay!
One last note: I ate a lot of spicy food at Lao Sze Chuan. Quite a lot. The chili chicken whose pods I put on the other dishes I ate, and significant amounts of hot mustard. Late that evening, I started having some UTI distress. I hadn't made this connection before, but I think when I eat enough really spicy foods, some of the capsaicin makes its way into my bladder and connected systems. This is really unfortunate because I *love* hot food, but I'm glad I made the connection because it might be the answer to why I've been having some of the discomfort I've been having. Maybe I should eat a (perish the thought) bland diet for a while and see what effect that has.
It's hard for me to imagine eating a bland diet. Seriously!
On Sunday, Danae and I went to an every-other-week board game meetup in Evanston that we've meant to check out for some time, but hadn't gotten to. We had a great time; there were lots of people and interesting games. One person remembered me from helping run the Gen Con games library with my dad back when it was in Milwaukee! I played Terra Mystica, which Danae had wanted to introduce me to, as well as a game of Empire Builder. Then, we brought a new acquaintance back to Danae's condo to play a game of Eldritch Horror that lasted until midnight when he decided he had to make the hour drive back home. I'd enjoy being social with him more; he used to have a farm in Indiana that I'd love to hear more stories about.
And then today was the party at Posi's, so that about covers it! Tomorrow I'm picking my dad up from school at the end of his day and we're going to the Jelly Belly store and other places.
I haven't sat down and written for a while 'cause I've been busy. I met up with Erik on Thusday for a nice dinner of sushi followed by a thrift store trip. Friday was dinner with Lisa using a Groupon for Lao Sze Chuan. Oh, such good food! One of things we ordered was a dish called Chef's Special Dry Chili Chicken. It arrived liberally sprinkled with entire dried chili pepper pods and was *amazing*. The hot and sour soup was some of the best I've had (though I still prefer Whey Chai's in Racine). The orange chicken was wonderful orangey. Just great food. And a very pleasant evening with Lisa, too. It's nice to be close enough for casual visiting.
My schedule has been night-shifting (I have to work on that). I got up around noon on Saturday, just early enough to bike down to The Recyclery to work on my bike. I thought I was just going in for a new chain and cassette (the gears on the back wheel). Once that was done though, I tried to adjust the front derailleur and found play in the pedals. That led to disassembling the whole bottom bracket (the bearings and axle that connect the pedals). The cage holding bearings on one side had been completely ground away, and bearings spilled out everywhere as we took it apart. One tech said he'd never seen anything like that before. Another was not so surprised. *grins* Anyway, I hand-repacked new bearings into the assembly, then found that I couldn't put it back together. Maybe it was due to corroded threads, but one side wouldn't go in without cross-threading. By that time, they were closing down, and they didn't have the right tools to proceed anyway. So now my 16-year-old Giant is in an Evanston bike shop awaiting refacing of the bottom bracket threads. They're going to replace the old-style cup and cone bearings with a sealed cartridge too. Not user serviceable except as a unit, but easier to deal with and adjust. For my part, I remain awed by the simplicity and durability of the old cup and cone system. I love simple, elegant engineering solutions.
Once that was all done, I drove up to Posi's place for late-night hanging-out and party prep. Yay!
One last note: I ate a lot of spicy food at Lao Sze Chuan. Quite a lot. The chili chicken whose pods I put on the other dishes I ate, and significant amounts of hot mustard. Late that evening, I started having some UTI distress. I hadn't made this connection before, but I think when I eat enough really spicy foods, some of the capsaicin makes its way into my bladder and connected systems. This is really unfortunate because I *love* hot food, but I'm glad I made the connection because it might be the answer to why I've been having some of the discomfort I've been having. Maybe I should eat a (perish the thought) bland diet for a while and see what effect that has.
It's hard for me to imagine eating a bland diet. Seriously!
On Sunday, Danae and I went to an every-other-week board game meetup in Evanston that we've meant to check out for some time, but hadn't gotten to. We had a great time; there were lots of people and interesting games. One person remembered me from helping run the Gen Con games library with my dad back when it was in Milwaukee! I played Terra Mystica, which Danae had wanted to introduce me to, as well as a game of Empire Builder. Then, we brought a new acquaintance back to Danae's condo to play a game of Eldritch Horror that lasted until midnight when he decided he had to make the hour drive back home. I'd enjoy being social with him more; he used to have a farm in Indiana that I'd love to hear more stories about.
And then today was the party at Posi's, so that about covers it! Tomorrow I'm picking my dad up from school at the end of his day and we're going to the Jelly Belly store and other places.
