Leandra's Doctor Visit

At 14 weeks into the pregnancy, Leandra finally had her first visit with her regular doctor today. Everything looks good...actually it sounds good.

We were led to believe that we would be having an ultrasound today, but that wasn't in the plans. At least it wasn't an imaging ultrasound. The doctor worked around Leandra's belly looking for a heartbeat. It took awhile, but she found it. So if ultrasounds contain audio, then I guess we did have an ultrasound.

So the good news is that everything is going well; the bad news is that we have no pictures. Anyone who thought they would be seeing pics...sorry.

On a couple of side notes:

• For those of who you have known Leandra, she has been given a nice "chest" which tends to get bigger with pregnancy. We were laughing quite a bit when the gown she had put on was not containing her very well.
  
• We got this nice folder with all of the services provided at the hospital for mothers and newborns. It's dressed up very nice and all I could see was $$$$. You virtually get a suite. I'm sure this is the current trend and it gives hospitals a means of jacking their rates. I just want to know how much all of the services are (which is mentioned nowhere) and if the massage is covered by insurance.
• For anyone who has accidenally "butt-dialed" someone, Leandra somehow "butt-dialed" Pandora. As the nurse was talking to us, I kept looing around trying to figure where a Boston song was coming from, only to realize it was coming from her pants.
  

Unplanned Meeting with an Indiana State Trooper

On Friday night, I was heading home from Indianapolis after the Fraternity Communications Association (FCA) mid-year conference. I left at 5:00 pm and headed south in I-65 towards Louisville in my rental car.

I wasn't exactly sure where I was at the time because the sun had gone down. I had set the cruise control at about 74 mph as that was the the flow of traffic at the time, even though a number of cars had been easily flying by me.

I was in the passing lane when I suddenly noticed a set of headlights turn on in the median and a car turn out onto the interstate. I figured it to be a police car, but I didn't think he was coming for me. I was only going about 5 mph over. I was wrong. He pulled up behind and I moved over to the shoulder.

The trooper pulled up behind me and I started to get ready all of the necessary information. He came up on the passenger side and asked me if I knew why I was pulled over. I said that I figured I was going too fast for him. He told me that my driver's side headlight was out. He asked for my license and registration. I gave him my license and offered my car rental agreement. He only took my license.

While he goes back to his vehicle, I start peeking over to see if the headlight is actually out. It looked like it was working, but I couldn't tell because of the "blinder" light that the officer had shining from his driver's side.

So he comes back and gives me a warning. A WARNING!

So I take it and drive off. As I am driving off, I get behind a car and see in the reflection off of its rear fender that I have two working lights. I pulled off at the next rest stop and checked my headlights...both working.

I don't have a problem with being pulled over for something like this. But here are my issues:

• It was a car rental. Why give me a warning? Its not even my car.
• If he took the rental agreement and saw that it was due in three hours, he would have noticed I was heading home to return the car.
• Why didn't he check the front of the car to make sure he got the right guy? It was dark, how can he know that I was the one he was looking for? He could have easily walked to the front of the car to make sure that one of the headlights was out.
  

Instead, he gave me a warning for a headlight that wasn't out on a car that wasn't mine wasting ten minutes of my time. I'm not saying he would have found the right car, but he could have been back on the road looking for the next person to pull over.

Is this Ripping Off?

So I was driving to Indianapolis, Ind. for a conference and I heard an interesting story on the radio. Apparently, there are some people out there who are claiming that "Need You Now" by Lady Antebellum is a rip-off of "Eye in the Sky" by the Alan Parsons Project.

Now I am familiar with both songs, but I have a hard time believing that there it is a rip-off. There is almost a 30-year span of time between the two songs being released ("Eye in the Sky" - 1982; "Need You Now" - 2010). The chord progressions are the same, but you can't copyright progression. There are only a finite amount of progressions that work well in pop music...or any music for that matter. If that is the only method of questioning the legitimacy of a song, then there has been A LOT of ripping off. Just think of how much royalty money the creator of V-I progression would have received over the centuries.

So if there were a lawsuit and you were on the jury, what would you say? Here is a video comparing the songs. Two things of note:

• "Need You Now" had a change in tempo and key to match "Eye in the Sky."
• This video was not made by me. I'm not taking credit for it in any way, shape or form.

Last Century of the Year

I am happy to say that I completed my 10th century of the year. We had about 11 people who started out on the ride. Two were only doing about 50 miles, but everyone else had plans to get in 100 miles.

We started out around 8:00 am. The biggest issue with riding this late in the season is temperature change. Today, it was noticeable. When we left, the temperature was in the high 40's. By 11:00, it was in the mid-70's. Not that big of a deal, except determining the right clothing to wear. I opted to wear full leggings today...no shorts...thinking that it would be OK to keep my legs warm and avoid them stiffening when we make a stop . I wore a regular short-sleeved jersey, not being too concerned with the upper body gettting cold. I did bring two sets of gloves; one set of full fingered gloves and another pair wih the fingers cut off.

The day was perfect. Very minor breeze from the southeast, sunny with no clouds, perfect temperature...you couldn't ask for anything more. Starting at Crossroads Church, we rode about 30 miles to our first rest stop at a gas station in Haubstadt. Our second stop was for lunch at a Subway in Wadesville at mile 53. Our last rest stop was a gas station in Evansville at mile 80.

About 20 miles into the ride, I crossed the 16,000 mile mark on my bike. The odometer is still carrying the original battery that I the computer came with. It is due for a new battery very soon. So it's taken me 3.5 years to compile that mileage. I'm very happy.

Outside of a small stretch of rolling hills, I felt pretty strong throughout the ride. Considering I haven't put on a lot of miles this fall and I'm just getting over some sort of illness, I was worried about falling apart halfway through the ride. I finished the day with a 16.4 mph average (which is VERY good for me).

This is the most of centuries I've completed in a year. I met my goal for the year. Pretty happy.

My Problem with Penicillin

For about the last two weeks, I've been sick which is pretty odd for me because I don't get sick easily. I think some of it has to do with going to the gym, and eating decent food; some of it has to do with the old "teacher mentality" that you go into work no matter what. It took my wisdom tooth being pulled to figure out the best way for me to get miserably sick is to overdose on penicillin.

I'm not allergic to penicillin, although I can't say how many times it has been prescribed to me for whatever reasons in the past. When I was experiencing my first bout of pain with my wisdom tooth, my dentist gave me a prescription for a painkiller and penicillin. After I had it pulled (a little over a week later), that dentist gave me the same prescription. The day after the procedure, I had a business trip to Columbus, Ohio (see prior posting) and grabbed what I thought was a one of each bottle.

I went the whole weekend taking one pill from each bottle, not realizing that I was doubling up on the penicillin. It wasn't until I arrived home on Sunday afternoon that I noticed what I had done, but by that time the damage was done. I came down with something fierce.

I ended up taking Monday off and forcing myself into work on Tuesday, but only because I had another trip planned for Wednesday-Friday to Wisconsin. I made it through the weekend (thank you to Dayquil and Nyquil), but ended up missing work for half on Monday and all of Tuesday.

I tried going to Boot Camp this last week and really paid the price. I also tried riding into work one day and that didn't do me much good either. I'm starting to feel better now as I believe the worst has finally passed.

The moral of the story? 1.) Read the labels before popping pills; and 2.) take the prescribed amount or bad things will happen.