danielspils.com

I try to pay less than $200 for cheap guitars, but this one was around $220 because it’s a proper American made Fender Stratocaster w/ a fancy pickup and hardware. I think it would retail used for about $700? But this looks like a shop project for the last owner. It appears s/he tried to sand off the finish, got into trouble when they started gouging the wood and then applied some bondo to build it back up. The net result is a fugly guitar with bondo, but in great working condition. Sounds great, though.

I kind of like the messed up bondo job so I’m leaving it as is. I believe it’s of the late 90s or early 00s. Anyone know how to tell?

That’s what I learned yesterday making a couple loaves of banana bread with my mom (she’s visiting). If you toast good walnuts just right and chop them up a bit (I don’t like them too big in the bread), they taste wonderful.

I used the Cook’s Illustrated recipe and it worked nicely.

I’m boarding an early flight tomorrow for Anchorage. I plan to head down to Alyeska the following day for 3 days of skiing with my brother and his family. I can hardly wait. I understand there is a lot of new snow and the weather is warm. Glorious skiing awaits.

Before this week I’d never been to a chiropractor and quite frankly I felt there was a strong likliehood it was a bunch of bullshit. But late last week I pinched a nerve in my neck, it got all tight and was hard to sleep comfortably. I’ve had worse in the past, but my days were filled with robotic full-torso head turning when people called my name. I bumped into a chiropractor while at the gym and he said “come on down, I’ll have you in and out in 15 minutes”. Well, it took about 45 with paperwork but I had my first neck-cracking session two days ago with an x-ray followed yesterday by an x-ray review and 2nd neck cracking. The popping of the joints , particularly the neck, freaked me out. But I exhaled and let him do his thing.

So, I have to say that it worked. I wanted to be a disbeliever (and I don’t know that I’m a convert) but it really did seem to alleviate the pinching altogether. It’s a bit tender as the area of my left shoulder was pretty well seized up and it may take a couple days to come down. But the pinching is effectively gone and everything feels loosened up. Is this coincidence (would my body have arrived here on it’s own these past 3 days) or did it really work? It feels like the adjustments really did the trick but I don’t fully understand what’s going on.

This wikipedia article is an interesting read on the history of chiropractic care. I didn’t realize until reading it that it’s largely a Canadian/US form of health care. I’m thankful I’m out of pain and the gent I went to is suggesting 2 months of adjustments to fully address the curve of my neck (I’ll give him credit for a low pressure pitch). I’m probably like most people—the pain is gone and I’m fine going about my business without further adjustments but who knows.

Has anybody had any good or bad experiences with chiropractic care in the past? Is it a bunch of hooey or do you think it’s the real deal? Has anyone done a full set of adjustments like the 2 months I’m being offered?

It took me a week in my spare time to piece it all together. My music reading skills are poor at best so I learned it by ear which was made easy by this wonderful website. I decoded the notes on that little mp3 many times over. It was like working a crossword or Scrabble word combo.

Robot Laurel called my bluff on this one and we drove early this morning to Snoqualmie pass and went on a nice climb up the mountain on skis. Eventually we had to come down which was interesting on rental skis. My legs are tingly and devastated from all the snowplowing down.

A beautiful winter day.

Thought I’d pass along a link to Bald Girls Do Lunch, a non-profit for women with alopecia based in the NY area.

Bald Girls Do Lunch provides new and valuable opportunities for women with alopecia areata – an auto-immune skin condition which causes the partial or total loss of hair on the scalp, brows, lashes and body. We are a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving the self-confidence of women who share the challenges of this condition.

Go BGDL!

Like most folks I started using a Sonicare toothbrush at the behest of my dentist. Actually, three seperate dentists over the years asked me to use it. And sure enough, less plaque on my teeth come cleaning time. However, over time my dentist began telling me that my gums were receding faster than made sense. I have clean teeth and floss twice daily. So, I was told to focus brushing the gums to stimulate the tissue. Long story short, I underwent a tissue transplant to replace my gums below my lower front teeth. Not a trivial thing.

The oral surgeon who performed the procedure said that 80% of his clients have receded gums from Sonicare. The other 20% is split between older patients and those that have chewed tobacco. The moral of this story: Beware The Sonicare!