Great Health News!

I've been on medication for High Blood Pressure and High Cholesterol for many years. I just had my 50 year check-up and got some very good news. My doc told me to stop taking both medications!

My blood pressure was 100 / 60 (actually a bit low.) My cholesterol was 188 (down from 271 in February 2000.)

I attribute this to four things:

1. Losing almost 50 pounds
2. Getting about 90 minutes of aerobic exercise 4 times a week
3. Leaving my high-stress job in the dot com world
4. Quit smoking

In addition, my PSA (prostrate-specific antigens) were normal. Very good news for someone who has lost everyone in my immediate family to cancer.

Hooray! Now if I can just avoid getting hit by a bus or something!

Trip to Palm Springs in our Future

Looks like Rob and I will be heading to Palm Springs again in the very near future. We plan to stay at The Hacienda. A little golf, a little hiking, a lot of time in the sun by the pool . . . all in all a great vacation! Hope to run into our friends from Seattle, Ron and Mike.

You can learn more about our prior Palm Springs adventures here.

Magazines For Every Niche!

Note to Stephen Colbert - it's a completely different type of bear!

Knitting - Clog-a-thon

The boys at MenWhoKnit have a great project. We're knitting CLOGS!

I've ordered the pattern. I'm planning to use some of the Rowan Magpie yarn that I've been accumulating during the past few months. It's a great project because it involves two things that I've wanted to try:

1) Felting

2) Knitting with two strands of yarn

Should be a load of fun. I can't wait to start!

Robbery!

I feel so violated!

My house was broken into last week while I was at the gym. They took off with electronics, jewelry and a bottle of cologne (at least they'll smell good while they rot in jail . . . I hope!) Unfortunately, they also ran off with my partner's truck keys. When he went to get in his truck the next morning IT WAS GONE! Fortunately, the State Patrol recovered the truck after an aborted high-speed chase and damage to the front bumper. They didn't catch the bums. Fortunately, in their haste to get away they left a TON of fingerprints in the truck (the white truck looked two-toned after the cops got done "taking prints" with their black graphite.)

The night of the burglary I received a call from a neighbor. He found a bunch of my credit and frequent flyer cards beside his garage. Rob and I walked up the alley and checked in garbage cans and recycling bins. We ended up finding a lockbox that they took from our house in the carport of another neighbor (unfortunately, they managed to open it and remove a ring that my father gave me and my social security card.)

My thoughts:

1. My next purchase will be an alarm system
2. None of my partner's stuff is covered by my homeowner's insurance policy. He didn't have renter's insurance so we're "just out of luck." This should be a warning to all of you who are "living in sin" (gay or straight) or just housemates . . . call your insurance agent IMMEDIATELY!
3. It's been really hard to be away from the house. I keep having these visions of them returning and taking more stuff
4. Fortunately, the cats were fine (although we're wishing they had morphed into cougars or mountain lions.) At least the jerks didn't harm them or leave the doors wide open so they could get outside.
5. I'm going to be spending the rest of the summer making an inventory of everything of value in the house. In order to get reimbursed by State Farm I need to have proof that I actually owned the thing. When I told my agent that they had stolen a watch he told me to start looking for pictures of me wearing the watch (or to find two or three friends that remember me wearing it.)
6. Just to be safe, I put a fraud alert on my own credit report. I also signed up for a credit monitoring service.
7. I haven't slept well in a week. I keep thinking about:

• different ways to catch the bastards
• things I would say/do to them
• what would have happened if I'd come home and caught them in the act
• feeling guilty because my policy didn't cover my partner
• what information was on my laptop that they stole that they could use to make my life a living hell
• what else they took that we haven't already identified

And, if you sons-of-bitches that did this just happen to be reading this . . . I believe in balance in the universe - karma, if you will. Good luck!