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Saturday, August 28, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
this is a test
This is a test of a sending an email to blogger as a blog post.
Vamos a ver que pasa.
JD
update: well it seems to work quite well =D
update: well it seems to work quite well =D
Dental saga update... day 14
Numbering from the day I got my first tooth pulled, this is day 14.
Today I saw the dentist (dr. daisy at bent tree). She said my #15 tooth might could be root canaled, but it has a very large filling already that is failing. Bottom line, she said if it was her tooth she'd get it pulled and replaced with an implant.
So...i'm going to get it pulled. I called dr fugler's office immediately upon leaving bent tree. They said I could go straight to surgery (since he had just seen me on Thursday and no consult needed). They had a 1030 monday am open, so i'm booked for my 2nd tooth extraction in what will be 17 days. Funness.
Meanwhile, old #15 is still throbbing in pain.
Today I saw the dentist (dr. daisy at bent tree). She said my #15 tooth might could be root canaled, but it has a very large filling already that is failing. Bottom line, she said if it was her tooth she'd get it pulled and replaced with an implant.
So...i'm going to get it pulled. I called dr fugler's office immediately upon leaving bent tree. They said I could go straight to surgery (since he had just seen me on Thursday and no consult needed). They had a 1030 monday am open, so i'm booked for my 2nd tooth extraction in what will be 17 days. Funness.
Meanwhile, old #15 is still throbbing in pain.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Dental saga continues....
Well, my dental saga is not over, far from it. My pain on the upper left side of my mouth has steadily been increasing. I phoned Dr Fugler office yesterday and they gave me some more hydrocodone, and an appt for today at 4. I had a followup for monday 31Aug but just couldnt wait. The last couple evenings the pain has really been bad, and this morning it was soooo bad I couldnt go to work.
So I saw Dr Fugler today. Good news: the extraction site is healing nicely, no dry socket or other problems that he could see. The Bad news: the pain is most likely coming from a previously filled cavity on my #15 molar (one behind the one that got pulled). He noted this / mentioned it to me as he finished up pulling #14 two weeks ago, as something I should have looked at within a month or so. However upon seeing it today, he said that is most likely the source of the pain, something about having the neighbor tooth removed allowed the old filling to shift or whatever, and now food etc is getting down into that cavity.
I called Bent Tree (my 2010 dentist, due to screwing up the insurance enrollment) and they have agreed to see me tomorrow at 11. They mentioned that in their file (from my visit on 15Jul, only time i've seen them) they had #15 marked for a crown. I'm a little leery and kind of leaning toward getting it pulled and putting an implant in there. We'll see what they say tomorrow.
Pain now is semi manageable (2.5 on a 0-10 scale) hopefully it will stay that way until tomorrow.
To be continued...
So I saw Dr Fugler today. Good news: the extraction site is healing nicely, no dry socket or other problems that he could see. The Bad news: the pain is most likely coming from a previously filled cavity on my #15 molar (one behind the one that got pulled). He noted this / mentioned it to me as he finished up pulling #14 two weeks ago, as something I should have looked at within a month or so. However upon seeing it today, he said that is most likely the source of the pain, something about having the neighbor tooth removed allowed the old filling to shift or whatever, and now food etc is getting down into that cavity.
I called Bent Tree (my 2010 dentist, due to screwing up the insurance enrollment) and they have agreed to see me tomorrow at 11. They mentioned that in their file (from my visit on 15Jul, only time i've seen them) they had #15 marked for a crown. I'm a little leery and kind of leaning toward getting it pulled and putting an implant in there. We'll see what they say tomorrow.
Pain now is semi manageable (2.5 on a 0-10 scale) hopefully it will stay that way until tomorrow.
To be continued...
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Trailers and garden tractors
We bought a 5x8 mesh trailer from tractor supply store yesterday for 699. We will use it for many things but the most immediate driver is to have a way to haul a riding lawn tractor out to our land. Which we don't have yet. That's the next project.
Done a fair bit of research. Am generally fond of the john deere brand from a reputation standpoint (and they have a local dealer, brookside equipment, who my father in law had good dealings with for a while now). All spring and summer have been eyeballing the JD's at Lowes. Now that we have the trailer, we went in to take a look at them (I would most likely not buy from them but its easier to look at them there). Was surprised most of their inventory was gone. The guy told us they had quit getting new ones in June and had been selling a lot all summer. It has been a wet summer (usually lack of moisture is the limitation on vegetation growth here in the summer) which may have played a factor in lots of people buying law tractors in an otherwise tough economy. Who knows.
In terms of internet research, consumer reports recommends the LA115 (1700 MSRP) or LA105 (1500 msrp) models. These are basically the lowest end consumer lawn tractors JD makes. The LA series goes up to 165 or more, and cost approaches 3000. As the scale goes up, the cuts get wider (42, 48, 54), the hp goes up (LA105/115 is 19.5 hp, top is around 26), and there is the "lawn" vs "garden" tractor thing I learned from the Lowe's guy yesterday. "Lawn" tractors have smaller wheels and less facility for attachments - they are just for mowing grass. "Garden" tractors tend to have bigger wheels and higher torque engines which can allow some attachments (eg like a tiller attachment). I believe given the fact that the mowing we need to do is not exactly "lawnesque", plus the fact that we may want to do some gardening with it, I need to go in the direction of the higer torque, larger wheeled garden tractor.
Ah well, no huge hurry here. Plan to visit the local JD dealer this week to see what I can learn there.
Done a fair bit of research. Am generally fond of the john deere brand from a reputation standpoint (and they have a local dealer, brookside equipment, who my father in law had good dealings with for a while now). All spring and summer have been eyeballing the JD's at Lowes. Now that we have the trailer, we went in to take a look at them (I would most likely not buy from them but its easier to look at them there). Was surprised most of their inventory was gone. The guy told us they had quit getting new ones in June and had been selling a lot all summer. It has been a wet summer (usually lack of moisture is the limitation on vegetation growth here in the summer) which may have played a factor in lots of people buying law tractors in an otherwise tough economy. Who knows.
In terms of internet research, consumer reports recommends the LA115 (1700 MSRP) or LA105 (1500 msrp) models. These are basically the lowest end consumer lawn tractors JD makes. The LA series goes up to 165 or more, and cost approaches 3000. As the scale goes up, the cuts get wider (42, 48, 54), the hp goes up (LA105/115 is 19.5 hp, top is around 26), and there is the "lawn" vs "garden" tractor thing I learned from the Lowe's guy yesterday. "Lawn" tractors have smaller wheels and less facility for attachments - they are just for mowing grass. "Garden" tractors tend to have bigger wheels and higher torque engines which can allow some attachments (eg like a tiller attachment). I believe given the fact that the mowing we need to do is not exactly "lawnesque", plus the fact that we may want to do some gardening with it, I need to go in the direction of the higer torque, larger wheeled garden tractor.
Ah well, no huge hurry here. Plan to visit the local JD dealer this week to see what I can learn there.
Refinance and closing costs and title insurance
We closed on a refinance of our existing home loan this past Friday. Basically what we are doing is the following:
We currently owe 88000 at 5.25 % for about 7 more years on our house, P+I = 1502 and change.
We currently owe 51000 at 7.75% for 11 more years for the land we bought at Oakwood shores. P+I = 590 and change.
We applied for a 144,000 at 3.75% for 10 years refinance of our home mortgage. P+I will be 1440 and change. We will receive about 51000 cash out, and use the proceeds to pay off the land loan. Our monthly payments will drop by almost 700 a month. Over the life of the loan we save a lot of interest (since both rates were a good bit higher).
Closing costs ended up being about 3700 (1% origination plus the real fees). This works out to 2.57% of the loan principle, which is pretty bad but could have been worse. We learned from the loan officer that Texas caps closing costs at 3% of principle, so we were pretty close. When we applied our "good friends" at the TDECU estimated our closing costs around 4200 (or 2.9%) but told us (Like it was a good thing) that the government caps them at 3%. Really pissed me off that this super friendly, hometown super sweet special deal banking institution (which it really was until the last few years) feels proud to gouge its customers RIGHT UP TO THE MANDATED STATE LIMIT. Argh. Well it wasn't quite as bad as all that, my ire reduced some when reviewing the HUD-1 closing statement against the GFE (side note: the first HUD1 they sent had an error, our cash out was 2000 less than expected. The TDECU and Stewart title had to do some fancy dancing to get that right on the night before the closing. Anyway...), some of the charges actually went down (they seemed to charge us actuals for things like the appraisal). So maybe they aren't so bad. Still, telling me it wouldnt get any worse because of the state cap didn't endear me to the TDECU any more.
On a positive note, during the process we were pleased to learn our house appraised for 265000. We had gotten the tax value down to around 241000 starting for the 2009 tax year. Given what's been going on in the housing market for the last 2 years, we were afraid it would have dropped to 210 or 220.
Talking to the lady at Stewart title (and griping about paying title insurance for the THIRD TIME on the same piece of property which was originally purchased from the builder. Still pissed. Like there's any damn risk to anybody from a title clarity standpoint. But I digress...) she told us about a requirement of the texas blah blah blah (regulatory agency which governs title insurance) that if we close a loan on our new land within 4 years of purchase, we get a 1500 rebate on the title policy, independent of which title company we use. We've been talking about building out there in the next year or two, and this puts somewhat of a carrot to do it within 4 years. Of course we bought the land over a year ago (July 2009) so only have a little less than 3 years to go. But that is within our planning window.
The loan should fund by next wednesday at which point I'll go pay off the land.
We currently owe 88000 at 5.25 % for about 7 more years on our house, P+I = 1502 and change.
We currently owe 51000 at 7.75% for 11 more years for the land we bought at Oakwood shores. P+I = 590 and change.
We applied for a 144,000 at 3.75% for 10 years refinance of our home mortgage. P+I will be 1440 and change. We will receive about 51000 cash out, and use the proceeds to pay off the land loan. Our monthly payments will drop by almost 700 a month. Over the life of the loan we save a lot of interest (since both rates were a good bit higher).
Closing costs ended up being about 3700 (1% origination plus the real fees). This works out to 2.57% of the loan principle, which is pretty bad but could have been worse. We learned from the loan officer that Texas caps closing costs at 3% of principle, so we were pretty close. When we applied our "good friends" at the TDECU estimated our closing costs around 4200 (or 2.9%) but told us (Like it was a good thing) that the government caps them at 3%. Really pissed me off that this super friendly, hometown super sweet special deal banking institution (which it really was until the last few years) feels proud to gouge its customers RIGHT UP TO THE MANDATED STATE LIMIT. Argh. Well it wasn't quite as bad as all that, my ire reduced some when reviewing the HUD-1 closing statement against the GFE (side note: the first HUD1 they sent had an error, our cash out was 2000 less than expected. The TDECU and Stewart title had to do some fancy dancing to get that right on the night before the closing. Anyway...), some of the charges actually went down (they seemed to charge us actuals for things like the appraisal). So maybe they aren't so bad. Still, telling me it wouldnt get any worse because of the state cap didn't endear me to the TDECU any more.
On a positive note, during the process we were pleased to learn our house appraised for 265000. We had gotten the tax value down to around 241000 starting for the 2009 tax year. Given what's been going on in the housing market for the last 2 years, we were afraid it would have dropped to 210 or 220.
Talking to the lady at Stewart title (and griping about paying title insurance for the THIRD TIME on the same piece of property which was originally purchased from the builder. Still pissed. Like there's any damn risk to anybody from a title clarity standpoint. But I digress...) she told us about a requirement of the texas blah blah blah (regulatory agency which governs title insurance) that if we close a loan on our new land within 4 years of purchase, we get a 1500 rebate on the title policy, independent of which title company we use. We've been talking about building out there in the next year or two, and this puts somewhat of a carrot to do it within 4 years. Of course we bought the land over a year ago (July 2009) so only have a little less than 3 years to go. But that is within our planning window.
The loan should fund by next wednesday at which point I'll go pay off the land.
Update on green mountain
This week I received an email from green mountain energy for my 100$ gift card. It was from giftcards.com or some such. Was disappointed they didn't offer an Amazon.com option. Got one from Dillards, valerie needs some back to school clothes.
Not sure what happened to the 3mo thing that the customer service had told me about. Oh well. Also still havent gotten a bill from green mountain yet. Tried to log in to my account and couldnt get in...but they should be sending a paper bill soon.
Not sure what happened to the 3mo thing that the customer service had told me about. Oh well. Also still havent gotten a bill from green mountain yet. Tried to log in to my account and couldnt get in...but they should be sending a paper bill soon.
Phlebitis after IV sedation
I'm having some pretty bad arm pain in my forearm extending from the back of my hand up toward my elbow. Its a burning sensation and there's some swelling and some slight redness visible. At first I thought it was a bruise, but I couldn't remember injuring it and it doesn't have the appearance of a bruise (the area of tenderness is probably 6-8 inches long by 2 inches wide...not small!). At one point I accused valerie (jokingly) of punching me in the arm in the middle of the night.
After some internet research, I believe I have phlebitis, as a result of the IV sedation I had on 13-Aug during my #14 tooth extraction procedure. Hopefuly it's the surface, or superficial variety (which is not uncommon after IV sedation) and will respond to ibuprofen, moist heat, elevation, exercise, and time. The IV site was on the back of my hand, and in the immediate area where the IV was, there's no pain. The pain starts about 1.5-2 inches "up" the back of my forearm toward my elbow. Its actually fairly unpleasant, so I'm hoping it gets better soon. Will mention to the oral surgeon on my followup visit next Monday 30Aug.
After some internet research, I believe I have phlebitis, as a result of the IV sedation I had on 13-Aug during my #14 tooth extraction procedure. Hopefuly it's the surface, or superficial variety (which is not uncommon after IV sedation) and will respond to ibuprofen, moist heat, elevation, exercise, and time. The IV site was on the back of my hand, and in the immediate area where the IV was, there's no pain. The pain starts about 1.5-2 inches "up" the back of my forearm toward my elbow. Its actually fairly unpleasant, so I'm hoping it gets better soon. Will mention to the oral surgeon on my followup visit next Monday 30Aug.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
cruise
we had a nice cruise Aug7-12 from New Orleans on the Carnival Triumph. We went to Progresso and Cozumel. Valerie, Theresa and I went. Andrea and Jacquelyn were in RI visiting Dana.
At Progresso, we left Theresa on the ship and took an excursion into Merida called "Salsa y Salsa" where we learned to make 3 different salsas and then learned to dance salsa. It was a lot of fun. Merida is quite historic (founded in 1540 or so on top of an ancient Mayan city). The salsas (technically only 2 since the 3rd was guacamole) were interesting, we got the recipes and will try them out.
In cozumel, we signed up for a beginner snorkel excursion. I picked this one because it was the only snorkel trip with a minimum age low enough for Theresa (6) to go. It was a taxi ride to a nearby beach where they had all the gear and gave a fairly extensive safety / training briefing before we got in the water. Theresa has never tried "for real" snorkeling before but she is a good pool swimmer; nevertheless, she struggled at first. One of the instructors (Julian) came over to see if he could help and he ended up basically giving her a 1:1 coaching and instruction for 15-20 minutes. Once she got the hang of not diving under water and filling her snorkel tube with salt water, she did great. As snorkeling goes, this was not the best. Fish were decent, with an ok variety and color (no clownfish), the coral/reef area was very sparse however. I'm sure cozumel offers some much nicer locations but the real point of this was to get some experience for theresa, and toward that end it far exceeded our expectations. Julian's help to theresa was amazing and we gave him a "personal" 15$ tip (which may have caused some tip drama among the other helpers). Oh well.
The at sea days were the typical gorge and relax of a Carnival cruise. Other major highlight on the ship was a magic show (Kevin and Caruso) which was extremely impressive and well done.
We are looking forward to the new Carnival Magic which should be based in Galveston come Fall 2011.
At Progresso, we left Theresa on the ship and took an excursion into Merida called "Salsa y Salsa" where we learned to make 3 different salsas and then learned to dance salsa. It was a lot of fun. Merida is quite historic (founded in 1540 or so on top of an ancient Mayan city). The salsas (technically only 2 since the 3rd was guacamole) were interesting, we got the recipes and will try them out.
In cozumel, we signed up for a beginner snorkel excursion. I picked this one because it was the only snorkel trip with a minimum age low enough for Theresa (6) to go. It was a taxi ride to a nearby beach where they had all the gear and gave a fairly extensive safety / training briefing before we got in the water. Theresa has never tried "for real" snorkeling before but she is a good pool swimmer; nevertheless, she struggled at first. One of the instructors (Julian) came over to see if he could help and he ended up basically giving her a 1:1 coaching and instruction for 15-20 minutes. Once she got the hang of not diving under water and filling her snorkel tube with salt water, she did great. As snorkeling goes, this was not the best. Fish were decent, with an ok variety and color (no clownfish), the coral/reef area was very sparse however. I'm sure cozumel offers some much nicer locations but the real point of this was to get some experience for theresa, and toward that end it far exceeded our expectations. Julian's help to theresa was amazing and we gave him a "personal" 15$ tip (which may have caused some tip drama among the other helpers). Oh well.
The at sea days were the typical gorge and relax of a Carnival cruise. Other major highlight on the ship was a magic show (Kevin and Caruso) which was extremely impressive and well done.
We are looking forward to the new Carnival Magic which should be based in Galveston come Fall 2011.
extraction
Got my #14 molar pulled yesterday. It was infected internally and there was nothing else to be done. Over the last week (while on a cruise) I've been popping vicodin like candy and the pain of the infected tooth was barely manageable.
Less than 24 hrs after the surgery i'm basically pain free other than a little tenderness (haven't taken a pain pill since 14 hrs ago, last night at 9pm). Have a big hole in the upper right side of my mouth. Am eating soft foods (apple sauce, pudding, even had some scrambled eggs just now).
Followup apt Monday Aug 30th at 1pm to see how things are healing.
Not sure what's next. Options are
1. do nothing, have a blank spot. its far enough back not to be a cosmetic issue, but it will probably be missed from a chewing standpoint long term. Will have to see.
2. get a bridge. this involves drilling down/crowning the adjacent teeth and making a 3 piece "crown" that crowns the two real teeth with a bridge between. This is the 'officially recognized' (ie what my current insurance will pay for) treatment. I'm fundamentally opposed to destroying 2 healthy teeth and creating a flossing nightmare. Will choose #1 before I go this way.
3. get an implant. this is the "cadillac" solution and not paid for by dental insurance. strangely, the oral surgeon (Dr Richard Fugler in Lake Jackson, who so far I've been quite impressed with) and his staff inform me that my medical insurance will cover the placement of the implant screw (this is the "surgical" procecdure). Then a regular dentist basically does a normal crown, which might be covered by the dental ins. Not sure of all that. But you cant get the implant done for min 4 months (so mid Dec earliest). So I have some time to decide what I want to do.
Decisions, decisions.
Less than 24 hrs after the surgery i'm basically pain free other than a little tenderness (haven't taken a pain pill since 14 hrs ago, last night at 9pm). Have a big hole in the upper right side of my mouth. Am eating soft foods (apple sauce, pudding, even had some scrambled eggs just now).
Followup apt Monday Aug 30th at 1pm to see how things are healing.
Not sure what's next. Options are
1. do nothing, have a blank spot. its far enough back not to be a cosmetic issue, but it will probably be missed from a chewing standpoint long term. Will have to see.
2. get a bridge. this involves drilling down/crowning the adjacent teeth and making a 3 piece "crown" that crowns the two real teeth with a bridge between. This is the 'officially recognized' (ie what my current insurance will pay for) treatment. I'm fundamentally opposed to destroying 2 healthy teeth and creating a flossing nightmare. Will choose #1 before I go this way.
3. get an implant. this is the "cadillac" solution and not paid for by dental insurance. strangely, the oral surgeon (Dr Richard Fugler in Lake Jackson, who so far I've been quite impressed with) and his staff inform me that my medical insurance will cover the placement of the implant screw (this is the "surgical" procecdure). Then a regular dentist basically does a normal crown, which might be covered by the dental ins. Not sure of all that. But you cant get the implant done for min 4 months (so mid Dec earliest). So I have some time to decide what I want to do.
Decisions, decisions.
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