Photorefractive Keratectomy

Sounds scary, doesn't it? Well...it is a little bit. Photorefractive Keratectomy is more commonly known as PRK. It's somewhat lesser-known laser eye surgery than LASIK. Why am I talking about this? Because I'm getting it! Whoo-hoo! 80% of patients end up with 20/20 vision and approx 97% end up with 20/40 or better (which is good enough to drive without corrective lenses). Since right now I cannot see the alarm clock on the nightstand next to me, the prospect of seeing that well is pretty astounding. My surgery is scheduled for August 6th and thankfully my parents will be here to drive me home from the hospital (so Kevin won't have to take off work). My opthamologist (who is crazy, BTW) assured me that he would provide me with enough Percoset to sleep for two days after the surgery, which sounds fun. The recovery is supposed to be slightly more difficult with PRK than LASIK, but I'm super tough so it shouldn't be a problem [read: I have a low pain tolerance and will probably whine in the only minutes that I'm not sleeping].

Michael Savage...

...is an idiot. I've never heard of him before today. He didn't make a great first impression.

Bailey

We've decided to go with Bailey for our dog's name. She's fitting in very well already, as we both share a passion for Sunday afternoon naps (note that her favorite place to sleep is on the Scooby Doo towel on the ottoman):

The only problem is that she's not eating much. And, she will not eat out of her bowl at all, only out of our hands (a habit we will be breaking very soon!). See video here

.

New family member

Well, it's official...we got a dog! Whoo hoo! Tentatively named Missy (from her previous owners), she is a German Shepherd mix we got from the Tacoma Humane Society. She's four years old, house trained, and pretty chill so far. If you have name ideas, send them our way. So far we have considered Bailey, Maggie, Sasha, and Foxy. We're not sure if 4-year-olds can get new names, but Missy isn't really doing it for us.

West Seattle Fair

Last week we sort of celebrated Josh's birthday with a trip to the West Seattle Fair. I think they used the term "fair" loosely and it should have been "chance for Seattle vendors to sell their crap." If there are no funnel cakes, it's not a fair. That's all I'm saying. Anyway, happy birthday to Josh (on the 24th).

Dearth of Posting and the Dark Knight

Going through another streak of not many posts. This can be attributed to several sources: 1) We lead exceptionally boring lives, 2) ...well, no, it's mostly just the one. I guess I haven't spent as much time scouring the internet for funny videos or anything lately. I do want to steal a post from Rich (stolen from another source) about the correct way to hang toilet paper. I feel pretty passionately about this (as some of you know since I've been to your house and changed the way the TP was placed), and I'm excited that someone has finally articulated my argument for me. I usually just say, "Because it's just not right otherwise." This argument is probably better reasoned than my dissertation. Oh well.

On another note, we went to see The Dark Knight last night. (This is mildly shocking in and of itself since Kevin and I pretty much don't go to movies until they reach the dollar theater.) It was...great. Intense, but great. Exceeded my expectations. Mental illness at its finest. I did see a few people there with their small children. Now, I understand that the rating system is just soooo confusing [note: sarcasm] and many people probably assumed that R meant "Regardless of your child's age, this movie is for them!" but in reality...not so much. It was truly upsetting to see so many kids there. On a more positive note, I've been a fan of Aaron Eckhart since Thank You for Smoking, and he did not disappoint here. Most of the buzz is about Heath Ledger's performance, which is another layer of creepy given his death since the movie was filmed. My review: go see it (but get a babysitter!).


UPDATE: Rich informed me the movie was rated PG-13. Hmmm. Still, those kids were like 6. And I was still a little bit scared. Also, Jenny (with whom we saw the movie) linked me to a good review here.

Man Sues Publisher because Bible Translation Caused "Emotional Pain and Mental Instability"

Really? I mean...seriously? The judge would not even appoint the man an attorney because the case is so ridiculous. Now that it's getting press I'll be surprised if this guy doesn't receive some pro bono work from some publicity-hungry lawyer (ahem, ACLU, are you reading this?).

Buelow Wedding

The main reason we went to Iowa last week was to celebrate with my family at my cousin Jill's wedding. It was a great wedding and reception (with a party in between those as well!). We ate, drank, danced, and spent time with each other - what more can you ask for?? Congrats Jill & Thad! (Hope you avoid the wildfires on your honeymoon!)

Graduation Party

My parents hosted a small gathering at their place to celebrate my graduation. As you can see from the pics, a good time was had by all. Thanks, Mom & Dad (and everyone else who came to help celebrate)!

Some photos from Iowa

Sorry for the absence of posts lately. We've been too busy living it up in Iowa. I've got lots of pictures to post (including from my cousin Jill's wedding), but I'll start with just some of the random ones. Some are from Grandma Jecklin's 80th birthday party, many are from the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium (which we went to for free thanks to Nate), some from Kevin's bball games at Rich's house, and then just a few other random ones. Enjoy!

An accident waiting to happen

Who thought this was a good idea? Apparently it's a promotion for Eddie Murphy's latest, Meet Dave (which looks awful, BTW).

I wish the Supreme Court worked like this...

Funniest Onion News Network story I've seen in awhile. (Be careful - rated R for language.) Oh, and after you watch it once, watch it again to read the headlines across the bottom. Too funny.



BTW, we watched The Onion Movie over the weekend. It was...eh. Definitely some funny parts but it was sort of like watching a bunch of the podcasts all at once. Not a lot of "plot," if you will. Worth watching just for the interview with the teen pop star. That's all I'm gonna say. No spoilers here.

All have fallen short...

So, every once in awhile I do something that reminds me that I seriously lack maturity. I did something on Friday that is incredibly embarrassing, so what is there to do besides publicly chronicle my episode? Here's how the whole thing started...I woke up at 3:55 a.m. on Friday (a vacation day from work) to take my friend Krystal to the airport. What should have been 30 minutes round trip turned into an hour due to road construction and a poorly marked detour. I was feeling a little frustrated as I drove home. Then I got home...and someone was parked in my spot! Ugh. Then, I chose to handle the situation by writing a letter and sticking it on the windshield of the car that was parked in my spot. It read as follows:

To whom it may concern: You are parked in a reserved spot - to be accurate, in my reserved spot. I did not appreciate having to find an alternate spot at 5 a.m. Though I could have called to have your Honda towed, I did not. Please be mindful next time. Hope you have a great Friday. Katie

Just a little sarcastic (to say the least). I fell asleep immediately after placing the note. By the time I woke up at 7, I was already starting to regret the note. Perhaps I overreacted a little. Then when I left later in the morning, I saw the car parked in a different spot in the carport. Oh great, now the note-reader is someone who lives in my building and knows where I park. Cue blushing face. This could go one of two ways: 1) They were angry about my note and our car was going to be keyed in no time, or 2) They are nice people and did not deserve a snarky note at 5 in the morning. Turns out it was the latter. The icing on the cake was the return note (directly reproduced for your reading pleasure) that was on our car this morning:

To whom it may concern (that wrote this). Please except my appology for parking in your space yesterday! You are toally in the right to give me this not & I was totally in the wrong [underlined twice]! Thank you for not having my car towed. I will not park in the reserved parking again (except my sons space). I was picking up my grandaughter & because she wasn't ready to go, it ended up taking longer than planned. Im sorry. It wont happen again. Thank you for showing grace to me!

Ouch. She thanked me for showing grace, but I think it's clear that I'm the one who needs it...all day, every day (especially because a huge part of me wanted to edit her note for spelling and punctuation errors...seriously, I'm a terrible person).

The Bridge

Two weeks ago we had a two-day seminar on treating and managing suicidal behavior. Yes, it was as uplifting as it sounds. David Rudd, who taught the training, recommended a movie entitled The Bridge (see also here). It's a documentary about individuals who commit suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge (the most popular location for committing suicide in the United States). The filmmakers had some stationary cameras set up as well as the more-controversial manned cameras (that raises questions about whether or not filmmakers should have intervened).

I've been trying for awhile to formulate thoughts about my reaction to the film in order to write this blog. And then I realized that my inability to speak coherently about it is a very natural reaction - what the heck are you supposed to say after watching someone commit suicide? There were several scenes in the movie (some far away, some zoomed in) where you are actually watching a real person kill himself. That's just screwed up.

The movie goes back and forth from footage of people on the ledge of the bridge to interviews with friends and families of the "successful" jumpers. There were two interesting parts for me in the movie. The first was a series of interviews with one set of parents who essentially gave their son their blessing to jump. The father attempted some sort of argument that his decision to tell his son it was ok to commit suicide was a reflection of just how much he loved his son rather than how little (because he wanted to give him freedom to "be at peace"). I'm not buying it. The second interesting part was the interview with a man, Kevin Hines, who survived his jump off the bridge. Hines had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder (a diagnosis associated with high risk levels for suicidal behavior). I don't remember his exact quote, but he basically said that he immediately after he let go he realized he did not want to die. Heck of a time for that insight, huh? At any rate, he did survive with some crushed vertebrae and a newfound appreciation of life (the movie hinted at the idea that the man experienced some sort of religious conversion). See an interview with Kevin Hines here, where he also discusses how ridiculous it is that San Francisco has not added a fence to the bridge (which would easily reduce the number of suicides each year...most likely to zero).

Conclusion: I don't recommend watching this movie. There has to be better ways of understanding the effects on families of completed suicides without subjecting yourself to the gut-wrenching footage.

Abstinence pants?

Of all the things that might help someone wait to have sex, I'm guessing plastering "True Love Waits" across your butt isn't one of them. Just a thought, K-Mart. Also, you might want more security than a drawstring. I'm just saying...

Update 6/14: Apparently the link is no longer working at K-Mart. Try this one.

Update 6/22: Just read this quote from Conan O'Brien in Entertainment Weekly:

Kmart has started selling sweatpants that promote chastity that have the words "True Love Waits" written on them. The real reason they work is because no one wants to have sex with anyone who wears sweatpants from Kmart.

So true!

New car!

Well, since the death of the Yaris, we've been getting by with one car - until today! We just bought a 2006 Chevrolet Aveo, which actually looks a little Yaris-esque (but with 5 doors instead of 3).

Here's another picture (although ours is silver):

Kevin still plans to take the bus to work, but now we have options in case we both want to go somewhere at the same time. Revolutionary!

Simpsons

Almost all of the opening couch scenes from 19 seasons of The Simpsons in about 5 minutes. Fun.

This makes me happy

Except my graph would also need an entry for incorrect use of their/there/they're and one for the use of the non-word "irregardless."

California Graduation Trip - Part 3

Alright, last California post. There wasn't a whole lot of time for post-graduation celebration since we all flew out on Sunday morning. However, we did manage to squeeze in one last breakfast with the Weavers. We headed down to Huntington Beach for a couple of hours (just long enough for me to get my first sunburn of the season) so that Grandma could see the ocean and Grandpa could watch the surfers. We ended the trip with one fine, fine dinner at Claim Jumper followed (of course) by some 6-handed euchre. I love my family.