Meeting Dr. Boutros

Dr. Ayman Boutros, as far as I know, is no relation to Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former Secretary-General of the UN, and source of many a David Letterman Top Ten punch line. He is the medical director of The Eye Center and is locally famous for his Lasik radio commercials.
On Friday, I visited the Eye Center for a consultation and to check the place out. And lucky me, while filling out my paperwork, I looked up, and through the partially opened blinds, I saw a giant TV with a closed eye. Omigosh, he’s about to do Lasik on someone! I was repulsed, and yet I could not look away. The next thing I knew, the giant eye opened, and a red crosshairs appeared over the eye, and the doctor started poking. A few flashes later, the doctor was flipping the flap back down and smoothing it out with a brush. Crazy. Do I really want someone doing that to my eyes?
My name was called a short time later, and they took me back to do some exams, rough measuring of my cornea, and some other stuff. Everything looked good, so they took me back to the doctor’s office. The fine print of the forms I filled out told me that I could have an optional full exam at this point, but if I didn’t get Lasik through them, it would cost $100. Obviously, I’m still in information gathering mode, so I just talked to the doctor for a few minutes, and she explained the different options they now offer for Lasik, including Intralase and CustomVUE. Intralase is when they use the laser to cut the flap. It actually shoots a cold laser just beneath your eye’s surface, which creates a series of tiny air bubbles, thus creating the flap. CustomVUE creates a fully laser mapped picture of the eye, and can correct a greater range of vision problems. The big plus to this part of the procedure is that it can greatly reduce the occurrence of night vision problems like halos and starlight. Since Lisa has trouble driving at night, I may just have to get this as well.
Bottom line: Traditional Lasik with Intralase: $3250, CustomVUE Lasik with Intralase: $4200. If you use their financing or insurance, you lose the “discount” and pay an addition $400 and $600 respectively. The max I can put aside for Flexible Spending is $5000, so that pretty much uses up the allotment for the year.
Naturally, since Dr. Boutros had just finished a Lasik procedure, they used that opportunity to bring him in to talk to me, so I got to meet the celebrity. Nice guy, and like the rest of the staff, he gently nudged me toward getting the full exam soon so that they could make sure I was a good candidate for Lasik and they could get me started on the road to 20/20.
I liked the Eye Center. They never pressured me to make a decision on the spot, and understood that I was shopping around. They’re obviously confident that they have a good product that sells itself. At the same time, the waiting room was jam-packed, and they’re obviously a factory, churning out $4000 procedures efficiently all day.
I have appointments with TLC on Wednesday and Vision Quest on Friday. Flexible Spending decisions are due Monday, and kick in July 1.

Live and learn

From my vast experience in raising a shed from this weekend (I promise my next entry will have nothing to do with sheds!), some tips for you.
1. Don’t build a shed on a site covered in ivy. It’s not worth it. Build it somewhere else. Of the estimated 12 hours I spent on the shed this weekend, 7 were spent removing the 9×9 foot square of ivy for the site.
2. Get a nail gun. I wore gloves for the most part. Thankfully, my thumb is still intact thanks to that fact. But I still felt blisters coming on, and definitely felt the pain of whacking my thumb more times than I care to count. But a nail gun would have gotten the job done much quicker. And less painfully. Not to mention all the nails we bent while hammering. Then again, the included nails were probably just cheap. When re-finishing our basement, I copped out of getting a nail gun thinking I would never use it again and it wasn’t worth it. I did the same thing this time. Next time, I’m just getting the darn thing.
3. Do your best to square everything, but realize that you are not perfect, and the shed won’t be either. You can always fill gaps with caulk, “Great Stuff” or whatever afterwards. Just make sure the gaps aren’t too big.
4. Get help. There’s no way I could have done it on my own. Several times I needed help. Lifting the walls up onto the base. Holding the walls in place as I nailed them in. Many times I needed more than one person, so even having Lisa to try to help out would not have been enough.
5. If you don’t get a nail gun, get help from people who have used a hammer. My only “complaint”, and it’s not so much a complaint as a wish, is that the crew wasn’t the best with hammers. As I mentioned before, yes, the nails sucked. They sucked hardcore. Every one wanted to bend in the exact same place. But if you were good with a hammer and could pull a Daniel-san (remember the scene where Miyagi teaches him to whack the nail in with one swing?), you were good to go. Unfortunately, the crew’s main hammering technique was “tap tap tap” and I would end up done with my section before they were half done with theirs. It didn’t slow us down much though, and gave me a good chance to rest.
6. Have a place to put your beer. There was no good place to set your beer while working on the shed, and we had a couple of spills. My first priority should have been building a beer bottle holder to hang on the fence.
7. Get beer drinkers to help. I bought 2 6-packs prior to the party and almost everyone drank iced tea. Not that I mind having beer to drink, but still…
There are your lucky 7 tips on building a shed. As promised, the next entry will not be about sheds.

Shed pictures

And here’s the shed pictures I promised.

Profile view.

The cavernous inside. Ellie likes climbing up the little step and back down.

Our fearless crew. They stayed until 7pm to finish the job. What a bunch of troopers! Thanks again!

Shed pictures

And here’s the shed pictures I promised.

Profile view.

The cavernous inside. Ellie likes climbing up the little step and back down.

Our fearless crew. They stayed until 7pm to finish the job. What a bunch of troopers! Thanks again!

The raising of the shed

Ouch. That’s how I feel this morning after a weekend of shed raising. Well, yesterday was the shed raising, the rest of the weekend was clearing the ivy so that the shed would have somewhere to fit.
We spent most of Saturday starting to clear the ivy. There’s no good way to do this, at least not that I’ve found. The method to my madness was to cut through the top layer of vines, and pull what I could up off the top. Then came the fun part. The deeply entrenched vines and root system. I found that using the shovel (we have one with a flat edge which helped) to dig a line helped to cut some of the deeper roots, and then it was just a matter of pulling them up. No small matter, mind you. Lisa tried valiantly to help, but Ellie was having none of that, so I ended up doing most of it myself. Somewhere around 3pm (after starting fairly early in the morning), I quit for the day. About 3/4 of the site was cleared.
Sunday was more of the same. This time I managed to finish the job off early in the afternoon, and we headed out to Viva Vienna, the town’s Memorial Day fair, for some fun and games. Ellie had a good time on the merry-go-round, and then we sat down to eat our snowcone and funnel cake, and she saw the giant slide. “Side, side!” she implored. Luckily, we were allowed to slide down with her in our laps, and man, did she love that! Unfortunately, she also wanted to climb back up the slide, like she does at the playground (she holds your hand and climbs up as far as she can, then falls and lies on her belly and slides down like that). And she most definitely did not want to wait in line again! We ended up having one of us wait in line a few spots behind the other so that when she got off she could go back up again in short order. She was pretty ticked when we ran out of tickets though.
Yesterday was the big shed raising day. I had been hoping to get an early start, but no one showed up until 12:30 (for the noon cookout). Eventually we got enough people out to start working. We got the walls put together before some people had to leave. Good helper and hammerer Matt had to leave after we got the walls up and the rafters nailed in, which left the hardy crew of super helpers to get the siding and roof sheathing on. There’s a few cracks here and there where things just did not quite want to go together right (I can’t tell you how many times I said “Good enough” yesterday). But it’s sturdy and it ain’t falling over. I even climbed up onto the roof to prove it. I took some pictures that I will put up later today. We still have to put on shingles, doors, and paint, but all in all, a good weekend’s work.
And boy, am I feeling it today. Ouch.

Uninspired

I’ve been really uninspired as far as writing lately. I mean, all this controversy over Newsweek and Koran abuse, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, filibuster deals, and I’ve written nary a word on any of them (well, except for mentioning that Tom and Katie are starring in upcoming summer movies). Maybe a three-day Memorial Day weekend will do me some good.
We’ve got lots of fun planned for the weekend. At some point, I will be riding my bike! It’s been raining almost all week here in Washington, so I didn’t get a chance to ride it to work. Today would have been perfect, but I’m going to the Eye Center at 1:30pm for my first Lasik consultation. So tomorrow or Sunday, I’ll be putting together the bike trailer so Ellie can ride with us, and we’ll go for a ride around town.
I also have to prep the site for the shed. That means clearing out the ivy (ugh) and hopefully getting the floor put together and level. Then when people arrive for our cookout on Monday, we can put up the walls and the roof.
Busy weekend. Hopefully I won’t be too dead tired on Tuesday!

Uninspired

I’ve been really uninspired as far as writing lately. I mean, all this controversy over Newsweek and Koran abuse, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, filibuster deals, and I’ve written nary a word on any of them (well, except for mentioning that Tom and Katie are starring in upcoming summer movies). Maybe a three-day Memorial Day weekend will do me some good.
We’ve got lots of fun planned for the weekend. At some point, I will be riding my bike! It’s been raining almost all week here in Washington, so I didn’t get a chance to ride it to work. Today would have been perfect, but I’m going to the Eye Center at 1:30pm for my first Lasik consultation. So tomorrow or Sunday, I’ll be putting together the bike trailer so Ellie can ride with us, and we’ll go for a ride around town.
I also have to prep the site for the shed. That means clearing out the ivy (ugh) and hopefully getting the floor put together and level. Then when people arrive for our cookout on Monday, we can put up the walls and the roof.
Busy weekend. Hopefully I won’t be too dead tired on Tuesday!

Baseball prediction review

On Mike & Mike in the Morning on ESPN Radio today, they were discussing who was in and out of the playoff race (already!), as a way of speculating who might get traded. So I figured it would be a good time to go back and check in on my own predictions.

AL East: Yankees. Adding Carl Pavano, Jaret Wright and Randy Johnson, if they all stay healthy, knock on wood, is key. The biggest thing missing was solid starting pitching, and this should give it to them.
The Yanks are finally on their way back up the standings, but Baltimore is the surprising team. We knew they would be improved on offense, but their pitching has been above par. But now with Javy Lopez and Erik Bedard on the DL, they will be challenged.
AL Central: Minnesota Twins. Don’t see much of a challenge to the Twins yet.
Except for those White Sox! The South Siders have the best record in the majors right now and a 5.5 game lead in the Central.
AL West: Anaheim/Los Angeles/whatever they’re called Angels. Strong lineup will be helped on the defensive side by the additions of Steve Finley and Orlando Cabrera. The closer spot is a question of whether Francisco Rodriguez can handle the job. Trust me, he can. Dude has some nasty stuff, as the Yanks found out a couple of years ago in the playoffs.
The Angels are tied with Texas in the West. Finally, I got something right!
AL Wild card: Boston. Gotta beat the Yanks for the division, but otherwise, one of the best teams in the league still.
Thanks to the surprising White Sox, the Twins are in Wild Card position right now, but Texas, Anaheim, New York, Toronto and Boston are all right there.
NL East: Braves. No one in the division looks like they can provide a challenge.
The Braves are tied with Florida right now, on the strength of the arms of Dontrelle Willis and Josh Beckett. The Nats and the Mets are trying to hang tough, but will fall by the wayside eventually.
NL Central: St. Louis. Possibly the toughest division in baseball, I give the edge to the Cards for their experience.
Thanks to utter collapses by the Astros and Cubs, the Cardinals are running away with the division already.
NL West: San Diego Padres. With Barry Bonds out for who knows how long, the division opens up.
Thanks to Peter Gammons for tipping me off to this one. This is an extremely close division. Arizona is surprising everyone after a 55 win season, just out of first place. The Dodgers are right there, as expected. And in spite of injuries to Jason Schmidt (who is coming back this weekend) and Barry Bonds, the Giants are only 4 games out.
NL Wild Card: Houston Astros. If the starting pitching stays healthy.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. Roger Clemens gets traded by the deadline.
World Series prediction: Yankees over the Braves. The Braves are going to be really good this year, mark my words. Andruw Jones is ready for an MVP type year. Tim Hudson was a huge acquisition, in addition to getting Danny Kolb so that they could move John Smoltz back to starter.
Andruw Jones has struggled early on, and Danny Kolb is no longer the closer. Welcome to the Dauernheim curse boys.
Obligatory home town team prediction: The Nats will win somewhere between 55-60 games. I have a hard time predicting any better, because they’re in a division with the Braves, Mets, and Marlins. But they’ll still draw about 2.5 million.
The Nats already have 24 wins, but they’re in a mini-slump right now. They had been winning a lot of one and two run games, but lately they’ve been losing them. They’re on pace to draw somewhere in the 2.5 million range, I believe.

The Way Too Early Fantasy Football Draft Preview

I just got an email from one of the fantasy football websites I read with a preview of their rankings for this year. Naturally, it’s May, and way too early to be talking about such things, but since I haven’t come up with anything better today, here we go.
QBs:
1. Peyton Manning
2. Donovan McNabb
3. Daunte Culpepper
4. Trent Green
5. Kerry Collins
6. Jake Plummer
7. Matt Hasselbeck
8. Carson Palmer
9. Marc Bulger
10. Jake Delhomme

I don’t have any qualms with the top 3, but I guess after that, things get crazy. Trent Green still has zero WRs (unless you count the unfortunately named Craphonso Thorpe. p.s. Good luck in the Black Hole in Oakland Craphonso!). At least Kerry Collins added Randy Moss to Jerry Porter.

RBs:
1. LaDainian Tomlinson
2. Deuce McAllister
3. Kevin Jones
4. Shaun Alexander
5. Clinton Portis
6. Domanick Davis
7. Edgerrin James
8. Priest Holmes
9. Rudi Johnson
10. Willis McGahee
11. LaMont Jordan
12. Tiki Barber
13. Corey Dillon
14. Curtis Martin
15. Julius Jones
16. Brian Westbrook
17. Ahman Green
18. Jamal Lewis
19. Steven Jackson
20. Tatum Bell

Last time I checked, Kevin Jones still played for Detroit and Domanick Davis still plays for Houston. LaMont Jordan has never been a starter. How do you put Ahman Green and Jamal Lewis so low?

WRs:
1. Terrell Owens
2. Torry Holt
3. Randy Moss
4. Chad Johnson
5. Javon Walker
6. Marvin Harrison
7. Andre Johnson
8. Joe Horn
9. Hines Ward
10. Darrell Jackson

I don’t have much of a beef with this list, except I might have put Marvin Harrison higher. But Peyton has shown a tendency to throw to his other WRs lately, so maybe 6 is about right.

So like I said, it’s way too early to be plotting your fantasy football draft strategy, but it’s never to early to mock someone else’s picks!

Ken gets Ruttered!

Brad Rutter demolished the competition in the final game of the three day match to determine the Ultimate Jeopardy Champion. Right from the start, Brad was quicker on the buzzer than Ken, and you could see that Ken was getting frustrated. Literally. He was wincing every time Alex said, “Brad?” And between the two of them, Jerome was lucky he got in at all.
After the Double Jeopardy round, it was all over, unless Brad pulled a “Claven”, which of course he didn’t. With more than double Ken’s score, and a large lead coming into the game, Brad Rutter was a lock. And just to pour salt in Ken’s wounds, Ken got Final Jeopardy wrong, and Brad got it right.
Congratulations to Brad Rutter, Ultimate Jeopardy Champion!
Oh, and Final Jeopardy (20th Century Americans): “These names of 2 original Mercury astronauts, who orbited earth in May 1962 & May 1963, are also occupations.”