This morning I went back to my dentist to have the permanent crown seated.  They tried it on for size and fit.  It looked wonderful.  However, it may have too much space between it and its neighboring teeth.

What does that mean?  Food may tend to get packed down between the crown and its neighboring teeth, causing a less-than-ideal situation.  It could cause pain, decay, or other unpleasantness.

So today, they cemented the permanent crown in place with a more temporary glue.  In 2-4 weeks, after I've chewed lots of food on the new crown, I'll know better whether or not it's going to have the food packing problem.  If the problem exists, they'll put the temporary crown back in place and have porcelain added to the permanent crown.  If there's no problem, they'll re-seat the permanent crown with a different type of glue that won't ever let go.

Regardless, I'll be back in the dentist's chair at least once in the next month.  Ugh.

But at least they don't have to use novocaine.

For now, the title of this mouth-related post makes me giggle.

My notebook computer is dying.

The CD/DVD/Combo drive is dead.  It won't read anything at all.  One of the USB ports broke several months ago, and recently, the power connection has been getting looser and looser.  It's only a matter of time before it dies completely, leaving me notebook-less.  There are worse tragedies, sure... But I haven't been notebook-less for something like 10 years now.  I'm sure there would be serious withdrawal.

Then, at my son's request, I went outside to take a picture of the sunset on Mount Timpanogos and my camera wouldn't take a picture.  Nothing.  I'd try to take a picture and a very ambiguous 3-letter error message would appear.  In this case, it's fortunately not the camera that is bad, but the "digital film."  My nice 4GB UltraII SD card is dead.  DEAD.  I'ts not even that old.  I can't access it using my camera or either of my card readers.  I can't format it.  It does NOTHING.  Fortunately, SanDisk has a "limited lifetime warranty."  I called them and after jumping through a bunch of hoops (the tech had a script he had to finish before he could give me a RMA number), they decided that it needs to be replaced.  They even gave me a link to print a shipping label, so I don't even have to pay for shipping.  That's pretty nice.  But I'm camera-less for a week or so.  Again, there are worse things.

Speaking of which...

My old beater Saturn is dying.  Or maybe not.  I don't know yet.  I'm 99% sure that it's the alternator that is dying.  I'm taking it in tomorrow.  If it IS the alternator, it'll cost less than $400 to fix.  If it costs much more than that, I think that the Saturn will become a "Kidney Car," because it's getting to the point that it may not be worth putting more money into that car.  It is, after all, 15 model years old (come October) and has 150,000-ish miles on it.  It's not getting any prettier to look at and we have three cars and only two drivers, so it's not like we'd have a car payment if this car DID die.  Not to mention that it would be one less car to insure, so we'd save a bit of money there too.  I just don't know if I'm ready to give up this car and put more wear and tear on our newer cars.  Then again, it could be worse.

Maybe I'll talk about the tiny little *pop* I felt in my knee while playing racquetball last Friday in another post.  I think I've whined enough for today.

A couple of weeks ago, we all went to the dentist.  We really like our dentist, but I must like him more than anyone else in the family, because without fail, I'm the one that gets to go back and see him again.

Last Wednesday, I had to get a cavity filled and I needed a crown on another tooth on the same side.  It was NOT a fun morning.

I don't react too well to novocaine.  It takes much more than normal to get me numb in the first place, it seems to take longer for me to go numb than most other people, and then, when the novocaine has worked its way out of my system, I'm left with a huge headache.

I spent an hour and a half in the dentist's chair last Wednesday.  It sucked.

But over the weekend, I was dealing with additional problems.  I got a big canker sore above the temporary crown.  We're talking HUGE.  It's the largest canker sore I've ever had, by far.  Usually, a few swishes with mouthwash a couple of times a day takes care of these things, but I'm supposed to stay away from mouthwash until they seat the permanent crown, because something in the mouthwash (probably the alcohol) can make the temporary crown come out.

It was getting worse and worse and hurting more and more.  So finally, last night, I made a paste of baking soda and put it on the canker sore.

Ouch, ouch, and more ouch.

However, that seems to have worked, because my mouth is feeling a LOT better today.  Hopefully, the stupid sore will heal, I can get the permanent crown seated next week, and I can stay out of the dental chair for another six months.

Scouting came to the United States in 1910. In 1913, after a serious study, the LDS Church became the first church in the United States to adopt Scouting.

My own experience in the Boy Scouts of America has been dismal.  Dare I say abysmal?

As a young man in the LDS church, I was a Boy Scout.  Because Scouting was adopted as the "activity arm" of the Aaronic Priesthood in the United States, I was expected to go to a scout meeting every week.  These weekly meetings became unbearable for me at times.

I wasn't liked among the other young men my age.  I don't really know why.  Any reasons I can come up aren't valid because they're tainted by anger and bitterness caused by years of painful memories.  But it was certainly very clear that I was the low man on the totem pole.  The teasing and tormenting I endured when I went to "scouts" every week was both unrelenting and merciless.  I won't go into detail, because that's not really the point.  The point is that an experience that, if it went according to the idea, should have been uplifting and gratifying, instead was horrible and hellacious.  When I was a couple of merit badges shy of the rank of Life, I decided that instead of going to scouts every week, I would find something better to do with my time.  I would go where people respected me and accepted me for who I am.

A few years ago (a little more than 6 years ago, actually), my son became a Cub Scout.  I went into my second round with the scouting program with an open mind.  I believed that the problem wasn't with the scouting program, but that it was with a particular implementation of the scouting program I had to deal with.

When I was asked to be Cubmaster, I was excited.  I thought I might actually be able to make a difference.  For a while, I felt that I was making a difference.

Then my son, a year older, moved into the Webelos program.  Unfortunately, his new leaders cared much more about the program than they did about the people involved and the entire experience went south.  I'd rather not go into details (it wouldn't help anyway), but suffice it to say that I was again left with a bad taste in my mouth about the scouting program.

I swore that I wouldn't be involved again the the scouting program.  I didn't want to be involved with a program that had failed me...twice.

Just before my older son turned 12 years old, we moved into a new neighborhood.  Part of the reason we moved was because we saw these same trends in the scouting implementation in the young mens program in the ward we lived it.  Before we bought our new home, we attended church and saw what seemed to be a very different program.  It was very different in a very good way.

The first big campout that my son attended was the perfect opportunity to get to know the leaders that would be working with both of my sons over the next several years.  I got to know these leaders and for the first time in my life, I saw an implementation of the scouting program that focused more on the boys than on the program.

That was 2 years ago, and since then, I've been involved with the Young Mens organization in my Ward.  I've been on several different campouts and other activities.  For the first time in my life, I see the scouting program for what it can be.

And that's a good thing, because...

I was made Scoutmaster today.  ME??  Scoutmaster?  Yikes!

On Pezao's blog, he had a list of books in The Big Read.  Apparently, it wasn't quite accurate, so I went to the actual site and edited this entry.

So with the new and improved updated list of 200 books, I bolded the books I've read and underlined those books I love. I'm not going to italicize those I intend to read because I wouldn't mind reading any or all of them. I'm also not going to put asterisks by the ones I've seen on stage or on film. I can't think of a single book I've read that I enjoyed more in a non-print version.

I realized that there are actually Dickens titles I haven't read. Most of the Road Dahl stuff I've read because he's one of my sons' favorite author. I read Goosebumps long ago to see if it would be too scary for my then-six-year-old. I also realized that some of the books I read in English classes and could probably enjoy them were I to read them again.

So my total comes to 64. Interestingly, I have read 10 of the first 11 books, 41 of the first 100 books, and only 23 of the last hundred books.

See the entire list after the jump!

We've been paying for a lot of stuff with our Visa card.  We pay it off every couple of weeks so we never get charged any interest.  The main reason:  we wanted to use the rewards program.

On our vacation, we finally used the reward.  For only five thousand points, we got a $100 travel voucher.

When we saw the charge appear on our credit card, we were quite surprised, actually.  Yes, a CHARGE.

What??

So we used fived thousand points and it COST us $100.  What a GREAT rewards program!

(It's been fixed now.  That's why I can laugh about it.)

I received the following email today:

Hi,

I apologize for the email but for the 2^nd time in 2 weeks someone has taken my lunch from the fridge in the second floor breakroom. It is/was rice & chicken in a clear Tupperware with a white lid.

If you find yourself in possession of such a now empty Tupperware, please return it to me and you owe me lunch.

I'd like to send the same email to the entire world... just slightly modified:

I apologize for the email, but someone has removed summer from 2008.  It was hot and dry, but was punctuated with vacations and holidays.

If you find yourself in possession of such a summer, please return it to me.  I want it back.

Seriously.  WHERE did the summer go?  My sons return to school on Monday.  MONDAY!!  I start teaching again the following week.

No more vacations to look forward to.  Other than Labor Day, I don't even have another holiday until Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving???

Never mind the summer.  Where has this YEAR gone?

Sometimes, heredity can deal a bad hand.

My older son has my knees.  That's NOT a good thing.  I took him to an orthopaedic surgeon today and apparently, he has some of the same problems in his knees that I have in mine.

Fortunately, his knee problems are still in early stages and we can address the problems by getting some custom (pronounced "expensive") orthotics made for him and he's going to do a month of physical therapy where they show him exercises that will help his knees out.  Hopefully, they won't get as bad as mine are for a good long time.

He COULD have gotten an excuse from his P.E. class this year as well, but he decided that he only wanted to be excused from doing lunges and squats and other deep knee bending exercises.

Of course, I can blame my father and his father for MY knee problems.

Yes, sometimes heredity can deal a bad hand.

I have never really liked soft water.  I mostly don't like the slick/slimy feeling that I get in a hotel shower that has water that is too soft.  I like the taste of hard water better than the taste of soft water.

I also understand the benefits of having soft water.  Finally, the needs we have for soft water have outweighed my aversion to the soft water.

This brings up the other thing I hate about soft water:  I hate the whole process of having someone come to my house and test the water to discover its hardness.  I hate having them try to sell me whole home filtering systems, furnace air sanitizers, and other such things to go along with my soft water.  I hate having to make an appointment with a company representative who will show up late, track dirt in on my carpet, complain that I've picked an inconvenient location for the water softener, and stay longer than expected, grumbling and sweating the whole time.  And don't even get me STARTED on the infamous plumber bum.

So I took matters into my own hands.

First, I looked up the hardness of my water online.  Municipal water supplies are tested on a regular basis and the hardness of the water in grains per gallon is a statistic that should be publicly available.  It turns out that the water at our old house in the "Mud Hole" neighborhood has a hardness of 17.5 grains per gallon and the water at our new house has a hardness of 28.7 grains per gallon.  We're dealing with water that is 64% harder than we used to.  Maybe THAT'S why I was finally ready to get a water softener.

With this information, I was able to find a water heater that would meet the needs of my household.  Such a water heater was for sale at Costco!  Neato!

Yesterday, I bought it.  I spent some time researching the parts and tools I would need to install it, and found out that it would take a $150 crimping tool to do the plumbing part of the job.  I figured it would be worth $200 in parts to do it myself rather than paying someone else $200 to do it for me because in the end, I would at least have the crimping tool.

This morning, I went to my friendly neighborhood Home Depot and found out that I could RENT the tool for only about $8.  About 4 hours later, I had the softener installed EXACTLY where I wanted it installed and it was running its first recharge cycle.

The cold water in my house is now soft and the hot water will be soft soon.  I can control the hardness/softness myself anytime I like, and I did it all on MY terms.

Nice.

I saw this on both Miss Giggles' blog and Amanda's Blog, so I thought I'd give it a whirl here.

A is for age: I’m 38 and will be for another 23 days.  I can't believe I'm almost 40.  I'm MIDDLE AGED people!  I haven't even had a midlife crisis and bought a hummer or something like that.

B is for burger of choice: Grilled on my deck.  Lately I've been adding Lea & Perrins steak sauce, mayonnaise, pickles, lettuce, and tomato.  And don't forget to toast the bun so it doesn't go soggy!

C is for the car I drive: Around town, I drive a 1994 Saturn SL2.  It's as old as my older son, but it still runs VERY well.  Other than that, I'm usually in a 2004 Subaru Forester

D is for your dog’s name: I loathe dogs.

E is for essential item you use every day: My imagination.

F is for favorite TV show at the moment: The "So You Think You Can Dance" finale is tonight/tomorrow!  I still love The X-Files.

G is for favorite game: We've been playing quite a bit of Rumikub in our family.

H is for home state: Utah.  I lived in Billings, MT for 18 years, in The Netherlands and Belgium for a couple of years, in Idaho for a year and a half, but I've been living in Utah for the last 17 years.  In another year or so, I'll have lived here in Utah County for longer than anywhere else.

I is for instruments you play: I started out on the piano, but I never really got good at it because I took up clarinet.  It paid for half of my first couple of years of college.  I currently still play the clarinet and even have a clarinet student.  I also learned how to "fake" on the piano, so I like doing that.  I love to sing.  I started playing the guitar in January and am having a blast, and I even play a bit of the harmonica.  Back at Ricks College, when I was dating my oboe-playing wife, I tried the oboe, but always sounded like Bruce the duck.

J is for favorite juice: Orange juice.

K is for whose bum you’d like to kick: My own, usually.

L is for last restaurant at which you ate: I ate at McDonald's in Kanab, UT on my way home from Lake Powell.

M is for your favorite Muppet: Animal!  Or Beaker?  Or the Swedish Chef?  I love most of them.  I still remember sitting on a train in The Netherlands when I heard that Jim Henson died, and I cried.

N is for number of piercings: I have a little piece of a thorn from Lake Powell that just won't come out of my left middle finger.  Other than that, none.

O is for overnight hospital stays: I had a laparascopic cholesystectomy in 1988 and had to stay the night because my temperature was elevated.  (That's a gall bladder removal operation)

P is for people you were with today: My wife left for work before I woke up this morning, and my sons were asleep when I left for work.  So far today, I've interacted with a few co-workers.  However, tonight, I'll spend some fun time with my family.

Q is for what you do with your quiet time: I've been a complete bookworm lately.  I also pick up my guitar when I have a few minutes with nothing else to do.

R is for biggest regret: I wish I had continued with my education when I didn't have a big mortgage and kids and other things that make it nearly impossible to go back to school right now.

S is for status: Happily married, gainfully employed, and generally satisfied with life.

T is for time you woke up today: 7am

U is for what you consider unique about yourself: My twisted and wacky sense of humor.

V is for vegetable you love:Tomatoes, fresh from the garden.  I also love fresh bell peppers.

W is for worst habit: Spending too much time doing silly memes like this one.

X is for x-rays you’ve had: When I was a child, I had an ankle x-ray.  In the Missionary Training Center, I had an x-ray for a cracked rib.  Since then, I've had x-rays of an ankle, both knees, and my right shoulder.  I've also had ultrasounds of my right foot (plantar fasciitis) and my now-non-existent gall bladder.

Y is for yummy food you ate today: Hmmm.  I haven't eaten yet today.

Z is for zodiac:Virgo