Randomness

--We had a lovely anniversary.  Very low key, which was perfectly fine with me.  Spent the whole day in our P.J.'s watching the Olympics.  Oh how I love the Olympics!  I wish I could watch them all day long.   Skiing, Luge and figure skating rank in my top three but I will watch whatever sport they are showing.  On Sunday I was having a cow when the athletes in the Biathlon kept missing their targets. Joe thought it was funny.

On Friday we went out to a lovely dinner with the gift certificates I won on the radio a while ago.  The certificates were for a local Hawaiian restaurant.  We had never been there before(because it was kind of pricey) and we were really looking forward to it.  We were looking forward to it so much that I printed out the menu from their website and we pored over it in the car on the way there deciding what we were going to eat.  We had a plan.  The gift certificates were for $100.  We knew we would never go back there so our goal was to spend the whole $100.  So in addition to planning what we wanted to eat we were adding up the prices of each item, making a budget so we would get as close to $100 without going over.

Can you say dorks?

Subsequently we ate ourselves into a food coma.  But the bill was $101.98.
Wanna know what we had?  No?  Too bad.  I'm going to tell you anyway.

We started with the braised pork rib appetizer.  Thanks Stacey for giving us a heads up on this one!  So.  Good.

We followed that with the "Sunrise at Heleakala"(say that three times fast) sushi roll.
It was a sushi roll with Tuna, Hamachi, Salmon, Avocado and  Asparagus Tempura,
with Dynamite Butter.  Of course we got ours without Avocado, since I am allergic.
Oh man, talk about yummy!

This was followed by the Lobster Bisque.  Again, seriously good.

Finally on to our entree's.

I got the Dynamite Crusted Salmon.  It came with:
Tempura Vegetables, Happy Rice, Drunken Nori Sake Sauce
The Salmon itself was good.  The rice was pretty good too. The drunken sauce(whatever that means) was O.K.  The tempura veggies were gross. I couldn't even eat them.  We couldn't even determine what vegetables they actually were!  Something white. Blech.

Joe got a "sampling of their three Classics in their traditional preparations"
Hibachi Grilled Salmon, Roy’s Original Blackened Island Ahi and  Hawaiian Style Misoyaki Butterfish.

His entree was out of this world.  If we should ever find ourselves back there I will order that.  The Misoyaki Butterfish was the best fish I have ever tasted.  So good.  I ate half of his entree in lieu of mine.

We ended our dinner with the chocolate souffle and vanilla ice cream.

 Like I said before.  Food.  Coma.

That was more than you ever wanted to know about what we ate on Friday night.  Sorry :)

--Chinese New Year also happened to fall on Valentine's Day this year.  Usually we do something to celebrate it and I even put up decorations but I just wasn't feeling it this year. I'm glad it's over.

--Speaking of winning things on the radio, two weeks ago I won a hundred Disney Dollars and qualified myself for a Disney cruise to the Bahamas.  Then I promised my co-worker I would try and win for her, and a week after that I did!!  Then because I will do anything to get out of working, I continued to call and try to win some for my other co-worker and I did that too! That's 3 wins in 2 weeks.  (I don't qualify to win anything at this particular station for 60 days, which is why I am winning stuff for co-workers). I'm thinking I should start playing the lottery.  Unless I have used up all of my luck winning stuff on the radio.  Heh.  My luck hasn't managed to extend to the big wins though, because none of us won the cruise.

--I have been having some dental work done at our (semi)local dental school.  Up until I was 34 years old I had no dental problems whatsoever.  Only one tiny cavity that my Dad filled for me.  I'm not sure what happened but in the last 5 years my entire mouth has deteriorated into one big mess.  I have five cavities and I need a root canal and then a crown.  I usually have my appointments on Wednesdays, since I don't have to work(during the day), and it takes me about an hour to get there.

Here's the thing about going to a dental school.  It is much cheaper, but it takes much longer to have the work done.  Much.  Longer.  I have been going since summer and I have only had 2 cavities filled. (I only go once a month).  They didn't even start on the cavities until a couple months ago and it has taken them  4 hours to do each one. Then they had to take one of them out and redo it because I was still having some sensitivity. Now we are finally getting around to the root canal and the crown.

I have just one word to describe the prep so far for these two procedures.  OUCH.

Now I know why people hate the dentist.  I suppose I am extremely lucky to have gone 39 years before understanding this.   At my last visit they did something to my tongue.  It was causing me a lot of pain and had some sores on the underside.  Have you ever had a sore tongue?  It sucks.  For three whole days I also spoke with a severe lisp.  Good times.  I know what  you are thinking.  I should go somewhere else.  But it is much less expensive and they are letting me make payments so I don't really have a choice.

Yesterday I had a "pulp-ectomy"(I can't even type that without getting chills.)  It has helped with the pain somewhat but I'm anxious to be done with the whole procedure.  Next Wednesday I will have the root canal.  I'm a little scared.  Tooth pain is no fun!

Lastly, today I met with my nephrologist.   I have been putting it off for a couple of months.  Sometimes I like to pretend I don't have kidney problems and if I don't go to the doctor and get the results of my labs, then I don't have to worry about it.  Can you say avoidance?  :)

Anyway, today Joe finally dragged me to my appointment.  The news is surprisingly good.  All of my test results were good.  The protein level in my urine remains stable.  It's not at zero(like a person with normal kidney function), but it isn't alarming either.  Kidney function is good. Cholesterol level is great!  The only thing he would like to see change is my weight.  Apparently I am underweight and he would like to see me put on 20 or so more pounds.

I just wanted to see if you were paying attention.  :)  Of course that's not what he said but I didn't hear most of it because I had my fingers in my ears and was chanting "I can't heeeeaar yooouuu", until Joe told me I was being rude and I stopped.  That's about all I have to say about that.

He told me that if we can keep things under control like they are then he doesn't anticipate that I will need a kidney transplant for at least another 15-20 years.  Of course both Joe and I are thrilled with this news.  Although we try not to dwell on the negative aspects of the type of kidney disease I have, that fear always in the back of our minds. Every 6 months or so we will hash it out, G00gling "kidney trasnplant" and getting all freaked out about it before deciding it might be better if we didn't think too much about that and shelve it until next time.  It is such a relief not to have to worry about it for the time being.  Such a relief.

I have to go to work so I suppose that's enough Randomness for now.