[Fiona]...and His Name Shall be Frank

I have an obsession. I fall in love with cute, small, adorable, stuffed animals and then I buy them. Shrek knows I have the heart of a five year-old trapped within my soul. He has given up telling me no and merely shakes his head whenever I move in for the kill. Today we played hookey from life and went to a local mall wherein a Disney Store{sigh}is housed.

Disney Store equals magic cure for my soul. It has the essence of untarnished youth. The grand possibilities of life fill my head. I feel a sense of calm roll over my being. I know silly, right? Well remind me to never tell you how excited I get over going to the local hardware store, OK?

I like to walk through the store and see all the gimmicky cutesy stuff before I carefully move to my goal. The stuffed babies display. I see him from across the stacked tshirts stand. A penguin dressed in a Yeti suit. OMGosh the smile starts to rise on my face. There is only one, he is cute, small, adorable and soon to be mine :)


By the look on Shrek's face I know he will give in to my silly need. I bring my friend to the cashier. I am aglow as I chat with the clerk. "His name is Frank." I say as I place him on the checkout counter. This would be a good time to tell you that ALL of my stuffies are named Frank. I do not know why but it makes me smile.

[Shrek] Turns out the April Fool is Dr. Melinda Boone

For those that don't know who Dr. Melinda Boone is, she is the superintendent of Worcester Public Schools. Part of her job is to cancel school due to inclement weather.

In a statement released to media in late March last year about an incident where an autistic child was allegedly assaulted Boone said “Worcester public schools takes student safety very seriously and has taken immediate and appropriate action.”

It is snowing over an inch per hour, the roads are nearly impassible with accidents being reported all over the city, and several of the colleges in the city have closed for the day. But as of right now the public schools are open.

So much for caring about student safety.

[Shrek] Busy, Busy, Busy

After a couple of very busy weeks and weekends and not having time to make any posts, I'll make a quick drive-by post just to mention both Fiona and I are working on the second entry in our top five favorite authors list. Hopefully that will be ready some time this week.

Last weekend we went to TotalCon 25, or as Fiona calls it, "Geekfest" or "The Clan of the Unwashed". To me it's more of a reunion of a few friends than a game convention, although i do play a lot of Battletech while I'm there. This week it's three Worcester Sharks games in 48ish hours, and next weekend we're going to see Elton John at the DCU center.

This is one of those stretches of time where going to work is the most relaxing thing we do.

So, just to make sure this post is more than just a handful of lines, here's a few articles I found interesting over the past few weeks.

Sportsscientists.com takes a quick look at critical thinking.

Jeff Pearlman of CNN takes on an online hater in a great story about internet civility.

Slate usually has some good stuff, and if you're a grammar freak you'll love their look at the use of double spaces after periods in sentences. You'll note this blog uses single spaces. Or, maybe you won't.

If you're a Dr Who fan, and I am, this cheat sheet is pretty cool. If you're not into Dr Who, you should be. Just sayin'...

And finally, for those that like pictures of odd subjects, here's a look at some very cool staircases.

[Shrek] The Shot Heard Round These Parts

When people talk about the greatest shooters in basketball history lots of famous names pop up. Guys like Bill Sharman, Larry Bird, Chris Mullin, Rick Barry, George Gervin, Jerry West, and Michael Jordan litter everyone's list of "best ever". But not one of those guys has the nickname "The Shot". That's reserved for the guy that may be one of the greatest basketball shooters ever, Jack "The Shot" Foley.

Foley got the nickname "The Shot" while in high school at Assumption Prep after hitting several shot in a row, including one that was at such a bad angle he banked it off the side of the backboard and in. The next day the nickname was given in the local paper, and it stuck. In fact, to this day old-timers will still refer to him as "The Shot" or like it's his actual middle name.

"The Shot" went on the College of the Holy Cross, where in 1962 he was a Consensus Second Team All-American and averaged over 33 points per game that season. He was eventually drafted by the Boston Celtics, but after only a handful of game was traded to the New York Knicks. Foley left the NBA after his second season, once recounting "I went from sitting on the bench for the best team in the world to sitting on the bench for the worst. It wasn't hard to figure out I wasn't going to make it playing pro basketball."

Last night Foley had his jersey raised to the rafters of the Hart Center on the campus of Holy Cross, an honor that took far too long to happen.

My first introduction to Foley wasn't on a basketball court, it was in the 11th grade American History class Foley was teaching where I went to high school. Looking back on it the scene was kind of amusing, with most every other teacher wearing a suit and tie while Foley generally wore jeans and a flannel shirt (and work boots that looked to be size 15).

But while compared to the other teachers Foley looked like a Yugo he taught like a Ferrari. That's because Foley didn't teach history--he lived it. He would dart from one side of the classroom to the other, telling the facts as quick stories, only stopping long enough to jot down a thing or two on the chalkboard. And everyone was mesmerized by it.

Foley also wasn't like other teachers in that the first few minutes of every class were devoted to current events. He'd say "history is happening now, too", and many times a whole class would be devoted to what happened the previous few days. The trick was he always connected what was happening at that time to the information he wanted to cover for the day.

I remember clear as day one girl (whose name I remember but won't post, who was very cute but as dumb as they come) mentioning on a Monday early in the school year that the previous week we didn't talk about history at all and focused only on current events. Foley just laughed at her and went around the room pointing at different people and asking the same question, "What's one historical thing you learned here last week". It took 16 people to get 15 different answers, to which Foley said "that averages three new things a day for last week. Seems like a productive week to me."

What a shocking concept: learning by discussion and having fun.

Lots of the female teachers didn't like Foley because he was a chauvinist, and he played it up to comical levels. He was the foil to my English Lit teacher, who was an ardent feminist that really didn't have a sense of humor. Foley once jokingly asked how I could have both of them in consecutive classes and not have my head explode. At least I think he was joking.

I did get to see Foley play basketball once, in a charity game that was teachers against the some of the students. Foley, who was 50-odd years old at the time, was the tallest teacher and as the tallest student playing I got to cover Foley. I made the mistake of stripping him of the ball before he could take his first shot, so Foley decided to teach me a lesson by schooling me on the court for 52 points. There were no three pointers back then, that was 26 baskets. On 29 shots. All from 15 feet or further away from the hoop. In a charity game.

On Monday in class when we talked about the game all he could focus on was the three he missed. That's why he's "The Shot" and those others aren't.

[Shrek & Fiona] Our Favorite Authors--Number 5

As we count down our top five favorite authors, Fiona fires first.

[Fiona]
I love the library where I grew up. The Whitinsville Social Library, a step into the past of golden days gone by. Beautiful structure with marble floors, wooden card catalogues, long wooden tables with oversized antique wooden chairs and stools. Hand carved archways, grandfather clock with spinning sun and moon faces to indicate the time of the day. I loved to watch and listen to that clock. In fact, I often went to this sanctuary to escape my dull life.

I first encountered Robert Cormier's books when I was in the seventh grade. I remember the moment clearly. I had gone to my town's library with some school friends to do research on some project. I got bored and went shopping in the stacks for something interesting to read. Right behind the circulation desk in the stacks somewhere in Dewey Decimal land of the 700s and 800s I found I Am The Cheese.

This book changed my life. I read it in one sitting. It made me rethink the way I looked at the so-called adults I was supposed to have a non-faltering faith in. I returned to the library the very next day.

I have read everything ever published by Robert Cormier. Only after I started reading his columnist work did I find out that he was from Leominster, Massachusetts. I often thought about writing to him and telling him how he changed my views on literature, life, people and how we treat each other. I regret that I never did write him. Robert Cormier died in 2000.

Published novels

Now and At the Hour (1960)
A Little Raw on Monday Mornings (1963)
Take Me Where the Good Times Are (1965)
The Chocolate War (1974) [very interesting take on fund-raising]
I Am the Cheese (1977) [My first read]
After the First Death (1979) [My all time favorite read]
The Bumblebee Flies Away (1983)
Beyond the Chocolate War (1985)
Fade (1988)
Other Bells for Us to Ring (1990)
We All Fall Down (1991)
Tunes for Bears to Dance to (1992)
In the Middle of the Night (1995)
Tenderness (1997)
Heroes (1998)
The Rag and Bone Shop (2001)

[Shrek]
Before I started reading Jacqueline Carey's books I generally didn't read books by female authors, although I don't recall any particular reason for not doing so. And I don't even recall why I picked up her first novel, Kushiel's Dart, off the stack of "remainder" mass-market paperbacks that BJ's Wholesale Club used to sell. The cover is one you would see on any run of the mill second tier science fantasy novel, and really isn't that eye catching. But for whatever reason I picked it up, and the blurb on the back sounded interesting. As I was making up my mind if I was going to buy it or not I noticed her second book, Kushiel's Chosen, was sitting atop of another stack of books. I threw caution to the wind and bought them both. Funny thing is I also ended up buying two books from Sara Douglass that day, and almost ten years later they are both still sitting in my ever-growing to read stack. Fiona has read them though, so it wasn't for naught.

Carey has written three connected trilogies set in the Terre D'Ange Universe, each one building on the series before it. The three trilogies focus on different characters, with Phèdre nò Delaunay being the protagonist in the first three books. As her story moves along Imriel de la Courcel, son of the biggest traitor in Terre D'Ange is introduced and his story becomes the basis of the second trilogy. The third trilogy is set in the future of Terre D'Ange, with Moirin of the Maghuinn Dhon, who is a descendant of the Queen of Terre D'Ange featured in the first six books. All the books, especially the first trilogy, have some mature content that may not be suitable for young readers, although nothing is extremely explicit and everything that happens truly plays a role in the story.

Many readers, myself included, were disappointed that Carey chose to jump ahead into the future with the Moirin trilogy.

Between the Phèdre and Imriel trilogies Carey released two book entitled Banewreaker and Godslayer, often refered to as The Sundering series. It's a story loose based on Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, only told from the viewpoint of "the bad guys". It's an interesting series that tells a tale that not everyone fighting for the side of "good" has honorable intentions, nor were all the bad guys truly "evil". Between the Imriel and Moirin series Carey released Santa Olivia, a standard futuresque story about an over oppressive government fighting a war.

Despite some formula in her stories I liked them all, so that gets her into my "top 5".

Published novels

Kushiel Universe series
Kushiel's Legacy series

Phèdre Trilogy series
1 Kushiel's Dart (June 2001)
2 Kushiel's Chosen (April 2002)
3 Kushiel's Avatar (April 2003)

Imriel Trilogy series
1 Kushiel's Scion (June 2006)
2 Kushiel's Justice (June, 2007)
3 Kushiel's Mercy (June, 2008)

Moirin Trilogy series
1 Naamah's Kiss (June, 2009)
2 Naamah’s Curse (June 2010)
3 Naamah’s Blessing (June 2011 release date)

The Sundering
1 Banewreaker (November 2004)
2 Godslayer (August 2005)

Santa Olivia
1 Santa Olivia (May 2009)
2 Saints Astray (October 2011 release date)

[Fiona]The Apple Never Falls Far From the Tree

I never believed that old saying.It annoys me when people throw it at you to describe a behavior they find unattractive. My response has always been a pat "yeah,well I saw where it landed, picked it up and threw it." Way to fight back,eh? I am slow on accepting truths, mostly because no one enjoys examining themselves too closely the dirt might show through. Why am I mentioning this now you might ask. The simple truth is I do not do well in storms. Any kind of storms. I blame my mother. I am a grownup who should be able to accept this flaw of mine and move on but I have been unsuccessful.

My mother had many fears. Growing up with her was a daily challenge. We were not allowed to watch much TV. I think it had too much visual stimulation for her. She couldn't stand to watch anything to do with medical information,news,a myriad of other events too numerous to list. All I can say is thank the Gods for public TV because we were allowed to watch all the Mr. Rogers, Electric Co.,ZOOM and Sesame Street we could handle in an afternoon.

My mother hated storms. I hate storms. See the connection? Positive experience in usually makes a healthy connection in one's mind and fear less of an issue.I am not afraid of storms I hate feeling trapped. Trapped like an animal I believe is how my mother used to explain it. I pace. I whine. I eat everything I can find or sneak. I drive dear Shrek crazy with my endless ranting over the most trivial crap. In truth I think I hate being held hostage in the house.

I am writing this as a way to try to come to terms with the never ending swath of snow storms this winter. I have been BSC (bat shit crazy)with angst. I feel I need to put this issue to rest once and for all. I am going to try to embrace my anxiety,accept my short comings and find busy work to keep my mind on other things while hoping for better weather. Be safe all my New England friends Spring is coming I just know it. ;)

[Shrek] A Not So Positive Post

I think all the snow is starting to irk me a little, so while I'm in a bad mood allow me to mention a few people that have raised my ire the last few days.

The douchebag driving the Pontiac Aztek who pulled out in front of Fiona and I Tuesday morning on the snow covered roads. Good thing you fishtailed in front of us because if you hadn't we would have plowed right into the back of you. I'm sure the Honda Accord in the oncoming lane that nearly drove into that snowbank was happy to see you too.

And speaking of Tuesday morning, the meteorologists who called for "a dusting to an inch" that morning that turned into 3" to 5" made me wish I could screw up as often as they do and still keep my job.

Continuing on the subject of snow, I'd like give a shout out to how well the city of Worcester has cleared the roads after all this snow we had in the last 30 days or so. And by "how well" I mean "could you possibly have done a worse job?". A word of warning to people heading to the city, if you park at a meter and can't get to it to put money in the "parking enforcement officers" will still ticket you.

Even more on snow, why does the city of Worcester demand people shovel the sidewalks that abut their property (and for folks that live on Meadow Lane, sidewalks that used to abut their property) but the city doesn't clear crosswalks and handicap ramps from snow? There's also miles of unshoveled sidewalk abutted by city property.

I'd also like to mention that one of the biggest morons in morning talk radio, whose name I refuse to mention because he's such a jerk, got one of the nicest guys I have ever met fired and replaced him with someone that is nothing more than a parrot. I guess I should be a little happy for SW (full name withheld, but most will know who he is) because he no longer has to work for that train wreck of a station in WTAG, but being out of work in this economy does suck so I wish him well.

Here are a few things I've been reading the past week or so...

The new Governor of California Jerry Brown is cracking down on workers who have a state paid cell phone. Not exactly a huge cost savings, but every penny counts.

Speaking of debt, ever wonder how they come up with credit card numbers? It's a quick, interesting read.

As a music fan I found this very funny. No mention of greatest hits or live records, though.

The bowling alley here in Worcester has a rotary phone, so I found this an amusing little tale.

Regis Philbin, the King of morning TV, has announced his retirement. I can't recall the last time I watched his show, but whenever it was I recall thinking he was a little out of it and looked like he was being led around like a small child.

And to make sure I end on a positive note, here's an uplifting story about a Southwest Airlines pilot doing a good turn for folks that suffered a huge tragedy in their lives.

[Shrek] That slippery slope of winter weather

With snow and sleet falling from the sky soon to be followed by our personal favorite freezing rain, this looks like a good time to enjoy a second cup of coffee and post an update.

First off, thanks to everyone's e-mails and mentions of concern over my latest bout with A-fib. As my cardiologist predicted in one of my early January visits I converted to regular rhythm on my own (although it took a tad longer than he expected). I'm on new meds that should help prevent a recurrence, with the only draw back being no more alcohol for the foreseeable future. To be honest, it's an easy trade off.

Fiona and I had yesterday off, not for Martin Luther King Day specifically, but because we were laid off for the day. It happens every year on MLK Day, so it's not that big a deal and we sort of look forward to it. The funniest thing about it was many years ago in contract negotiations the union that we belong to asked for MLK Day to be one of our paid holidays. The company refused, and instead decided to give everyone an additional 8 hours or personal time. Since those negotiations the company has closed every MLK Day. Go figure...

With yesterday off we went out to breakfast, but I had to avoid my normal radio listening because WEEI was full of people angered by the Patriots loss to the hated New York Jets. I'm a believer that listeners that call into radio shows, no matter the topic, all fit into one of two categories; people that have no idea what they are talking about or who call to ball wash the hosts. I've seen very little evidence to the contrary.

The one positive thing about the game is it was never really close, so I was resigned to the loss early and was able to get an incredible amount of work done that I'd have usually done on Monday, allowing for me to get even more stuff accomplished. I celebrated getting so much done by not going to work because of the weather, sleeping late, and watching TV.

With tonight's Worcester Sharks/Portland Pirates game, already postponed once in late December due to the blizzard, being put off again until tomorrow I'll get to catch up on my DVR watching. We used to DVR a lot of shows, now it's down to a few and we catch many of those as they air anyway. Our rule of thumb is if we reach four episodes of a show on the DVR, we're really not watching it anymore and it's time to think about getting rid of it. Hawaii Five-O was one we bounced; The Mentalist is one we keep no matter how many back up.

[Shrek] A Little More On Plagiarism

Folks I've talked to the last few days will laugh (or cringe) that I'm still talking about this, but I'm still a bit peeved about the Union Leader ripping off a blogger. Our friend Josie pointed out something last Wednesday that really put things in perspective. She reminded me that not so long ago newspapers looked down their noses at bloggers as "inferior" and "without integrity" because there were no checks and balances that are involved in "real journalism". And now in a practice not limited to just this latest incident it's newspaper reporters stealing from bloggers and calling the content they steal their own.

So much for "integrity" and those checks and balances.

On a more positive note, here's some of the things I've been reading the past few days...

If you think you don't like taxes check out these angry witches casting spells to protest taxation in Romania. If that turns out to be successful their next spells should be to make the fast food we buy look like the pictures in the ads.

Those of you with kids or grand-kids (or maybe knowing some will be in your future) should check out the tape trick. An ingenious idea if you ask me. Also of interest is definitive proof that the study that linked vaccines with autism is totally fake.

I was sent this link by some friends from down under of pictures of massive flooding in Australia.

And lastly, if you're a hockey fan you need to check out this Puck Daddy post for something I'll bet none of us have ever seen before.

[Shrek] Go get 'em Joe!

There is nothing worse to a writer than to see your work stolen by someone else.

Now I'm not talking about someone "borrowing" your words and then giving you credit, because there isn't much cooler than that. I'm talking about people just out and out stealing your words and then claiming they are their own. It's happened to me on the hockey and sports blogs I contribute to, and I've had message board posts "stolen" and added to newspaper/blog stories without credit being given.

Each time it's happened I've gone after the people responsible to get the credit I felt I deserved. The vast majority of time it just takes one e-mail and all is resolved, but occasionally it takes what would seem to be more effort than it's worth. But I do it anyway.

Now I don't know who "Joe" is, other than he's the writer that owns a site called Backyard-Hockey.com. It's a nice little site with lots of good stories that he obviously takes a lot of time preparing, and I read it whenever there's a new post.

So I was pretty disgusted when there was a post on backyard-hockey saying the Manchester Union Leader plagiarized one of backyard-hockey's stories. Now it did turn out that one e-mail set everything mostly straight, but it still amazes me that someone could be dumb enough to take content from a niche site and think that anyone interested in reading the information wouldn't recognize the information as coming from a blog dedicated to that topic. It also amazes me they offered no apology.

So, on behalf of the Union Leader, allow me to apologize to Joe...I'm sorry there are lazy writers that try to steal the content and hard work of others, and I'm sorry that what was once a proud newspaper but is now a shell of its former self couldn't say the words "we apologize" to you.

[Shrek] What's interesting this week? (1/3)

On the promise of posting more even if I have very little to say, here's some stuff I've read over the past few days folks might find interesting.

From Discovery.com there's an interesting posting about active black holes and how they were at least 100 times more common 10 billion years ago. So what happened to these once ravenous monsters? Click the link and find out.

Triplepundit.com asks "Does “100% Recycled” Mean Anything?", and their "Yes. Sort of." answer was pretty informative.

After the huge blizzard last weekend dumped huge amounts of snow here in the northeast this story from Tywkiwdbi has some great pictures of a REALLY deep snowfall.

Speaking of the blizzard, Newsday has a great look at the journey of sportscaster Kenny Albert from St. Louis where he was calling the NFL game for FOX to the Big Apple where he did the play by play of the New York Rangers game for MSG.

And one final note, Fiona and I are working up a series of posts where we'll reveal our top five favorite authors. Watch in the next few days for our posts about our #5 choices, and the future installments as we count down to our top favorites.

[Shrek] My 2010 reading list

Lamentation (Ken Scholes) ...421
U is for Undertow (Sue Grafton) ...403
Black Ops (WEB Griffin) ...784
The Last Templar (Raymond Khoury) ...532
The Killing Hands (P.D. Martin) ...392
The Sanctuary (Raymond Khoury) ...629
The Breach (Patrick Lee) ...376
Innocent Mage (Karen Miller) ...652
Awakened Mage (Karen Miller) ...714
Monster Hunter International (Larry Correia) ...726
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larsson) ...600
The Sign (Raymond Khoury) ...565
The Apostle (Brad Thor) ...532
The Accidental Sorcerer (K.E. Mills) ...551
Witches Incorporated (K.E. Mills) ...562
The Girl Who Played With Fire (Steig Larsson) ...642
Marine One (James W. Huston) ...513
Book Of Souls (Glenn Cooper) ...372
Naamah's Kiss (Jacqueline Carey) ...784
The Ezekiel Option (Joel Rosenberg) ...415
The Sculptor (Gregory Funaro) ...385
When Boston Won The World Series (Bob Ryan) ...192
Shadow Magic (Jaida Jones & Danielle Bennett) ...440
Wizard Squared (K.E. Mills) ...549
Zero Minus Ten (Raymond Benson) ...272
The Facts of Death (Raymond Benson) ...290
High Time To Kill (Raymond Benson) ...304
Doubleshot (Raymond Benson) ...304
Never Dream Of Dying (Raymond Benson) ...320
The Man With The Red Tattoo (Raymond Benson) ...289
Devil May Care (Sebastian Faulks) ...278
Red Sox Rule (Michael Holley) ...207
Dynasty (Tony Massarotti) ...299
Pursuit Of Honor (Vince Flynn) ...517
The King's Bastard (Rowena Cory Daniels) ...640
The Uncrowned King (Rowena Cory Daniels) ...396
The Usurper (Rowena Cory Daniels) ...489
The Professional (Robert Parker) ...332
Early Warning (Michael Walsh) ...391
Monster Hunter Vendetta (Larry Correia) ...647
The Last Pope (Luis Miguel Rocha) ...310
City Of The Sun (David Levien) ...439
Where The Dead Lay (David Levien) ...402
The Amber Room (Steve Berry) ...390
The Romanov Prophecy (Steve Berry) ...387
The Third Secret (Steve Berry) ...376
Dead Or Alive (Tom Clancy) ...950

Total pages: 21,986

[Shrek] So where have we been? (part 2)

Part one can be found here.

So off the the cardiologist's office we go, and after a couple more tests I'm presented with three options.

The first was to do nothing and hope it goes away on its own (which is can and does often do). Despite this being mostly a non-issue most of the time doing nothing didn't seem to me to be the best option.

The second was to undergo a transesophageal echocardiogram, where they would put a tube down my throat to check for blood clots on the back side of my heart, and them if that turned up clear undergo an electrical cardioversion. If you've ever seen a TV medical drama you've seen them perform an electrical cardioversion when they shock someone with the paddles.

The third option was to take blood thinners for a few weeks, and then undergo the electrical cardioversion.

Tube down my throat? Pass. I took option three.

Back home we went, and I spent the weekend getting used to having A-fib in preparation of going back to work Monday. I figured fatigue was going to be my biggest issue, so I did what I could to see how far I could push it before I had to stop and rest. By Sunday night I figured I was good to go, and went off to bed. But my heart had other ideas, and I was up most of the night. Well, so much for being a chicken. Looked like the tube for me.

So back to Dr Maki's office Monday morning, and we schedule the procedure for later in the week that will be performed by a different member of their practice. It was at the University campus of UMass/Memorial, which was good for me because my mother works at the Memorial campus so that would be one less thing to worry about. I was told it would be early in the day, but they wouldn't know the exact time until they called the day before. well, a teenager must do the scheduling at UMass because I was told to be there for Noon, and only a teenager would call noon "early". I arrived at Noon as instructed, and not being a patient person when I was still waiting at 3pm I was a little less than thrilled. I told them they had until 3:30 and then I was out of there, and amazingly enough at exactly 3:30 they took me into the procedure room.

They prep me for the transesophageal echocardiogram, and explain to me that with the sedation I'll be getting everything will be easy and it will be over before I knew it. That's easy to say when you aren't the one having a tube shoved down your throat. Although when it was over they turned out to be right. The procedure was to be done by a "fellow", which is a doctor that's gone through all his training and is a full fledged "MD", but is now beginning additional training in a specialty. I don't recall his name, but I do remember he was a nice guy.

As I'm laying on the table, laying at sort of a 30 degree angle so my right side is higher than my left side they begin by giving me a sedative. "Give him 1 to 25" is what I think the doctor said, and we chatted for a short while about, of all thing, the Red Sox and WEEI (the sports talk radio station in Boston). All of the sudden he asks me "what were we just talking about?", and I reply what we were talking about. He looked at the nurse and said "give him another 1 to 25"...

...and that's the last thing I remember until about two hours later when I suddenly realized I was back in my room talking to Fiona.

It turns out the sedation I was under is refereed to as "conscious sedation", which apparently numbs my brain so I have no memory of the transesophageal echocardiogram because they need me conscious and able to follow instructions while the procedure is going on. When they do the electrical cardioversion the patient is given enough regular anesthesia to knock them out for a couple of minutes. From there I was good to go.

Except (and isn't there always an "except"?) once you have had A-fib it can return, and mine has a couple of times. Each time it's gone away with 10-12 hours...except (there's that word again) for the this time, which is at about 36 hours and counting. Knock on wood so far everything is OK, so if it doesn't clear by Monday I guess I'm calling the doctor again.

Now that that long story is over, hopefully there will be more frequent posting, even if it's just quick posts containing some interesting links we've come across.