Bencredible

About 2 weeks ago I went in to urgent care to get looked at for what I thought was an ear infection. Doctor said that I had something called TMJ. Um, OK, whatever that is. I went to my normal Doctor and he said I had TMJ too, I should see a specialist. Cool.

Went to the specialist and found out that he was in a near fatal accident the day before. No one knows if he is going to make it. No jokes, nor would I intend for humor here. I sincerely hope he makes a full recovery as he is said to be one of the best in his field. My best goes to him and his family.

I feel like a jerk because I’m in a whole lot of pain and really need to get to a specialist, so I’ve made an appointment at another clinic for this Thursday. For once in my life I can honestly say that I can’t wait. I can’t remember the last time I have felt pain this bad, it’s horrible. I can barely chew meats, and trust me I’m no vegan. Liquid diet for me.

Actually, it hurts so much that I let Cariann give me Tylenol PM to help me sleep, and for those who know me know that I *hate* taking medication. It’s not a statement or anything, I just don’t like they way they make my body feel. I’ve not been able to get a good nights sleep in about 2 weeks now and my body is starting to wear down because of it which feels worse than the meds. Hopefully this new clinic will have whatever it is I need and I’ll be able to get back to my normal schedule. I’m excited about a few things going on at Technology Evangelist and really want to get some of that stuff back on track, which I can’t do when I’m dozing off and only able to concentrate on the pain.

For those wondering, yes I am writing this blog post while trying to ward off the sleeping effects of the Tylenol PM. The Tylenol is winning this particular battle. Heck, I have no idea what I’m writing anymore. It’s fun. Painful but fun.

LDG Victory Beer, originally uploaded by benjaminhigginbotham.

I won LDG today and decided to bring Cariann out for lunch and a drink to celebrate my victory. It took cunning, intellect and extreme sleuthiness to beat all of Minnesota at this game. I am proud to be the new reigning champ.

For those who have never seen this before, I bring you my dragon tattoo! I had an old line-art angel tattoo that the new dragon covers. It takes a minute to see the angel.

I felt that my skin was much to white and pasty, so I decided that a very large black ink dragon might help eliminate glare while at the beach.

Hmmm, seems I still have a little glare. Maybe I should get another one…

EDIT – You can now get a copy of this tattoo in this thread: http://www.bencredible.com/2008/05/20/my-dragon-tatto-now-available/

ToT – English Breakfast, originally uploaded by benjaminhigginbotham.

At Tillie’s Bean having a breakfast meeting with Ed. My Tea for today is the English Breakfast which needs a dash of sugar.

Twins game, originally uploaded by benjaminhigginbotham.

Family taking Light Rail to the Twins game. First time any of them have taken the Minneapolis Light Rail system. Dare I say the cleanest and one of the best mass-transit lines in the US. The only thing that could be better: PRT.

I did a few big behind-the-scenes upgrades to Bencredible.com earlier tonight. Many of the items you won’t notice, but a few you may. The site is now cached so that when I get Dugg over and over again I won’t take the server down. I also have a Flickr feed added to the navigation bar on the right. Want to Geocode posts? No problem, added that plugin too.

The big items to note here:
- I have added the Feedburner plugin so if we subscribed to the feed that is *not* a feedburner feed, you may want to update your subscription. The latest feed back be found by clicking any subscribe button or option on the site now.

- I have added a twitter plugin. I think I can tweet now when I blog, although that seems to be in a different authoring section. We’ll see. If you want to keep up to date with me on Twitter you may do so here: http://www.twitter.com/bhigginbotham

I hope everything works well. Should be fast, snappy and feature rich. Enjoy the upgrades!

Scientists have long believed that flamingos originated in the antarctic around the year 1922. Before then there were no sightings of any flamingos on record. The pink color of the flamingo is directly due to their diet of shrimp and salmon. Many see flamingos standing on one leg which is in large part a defensive maneuver to ward off their largest predator: the polar bear. While standing on one leg the flamingo will kung-fu kick the polar bear in the eye with their other leg. This maneuver is known as the polareyekungkickfubear defense.

When turning 55 years old you may be greeted with 55 pink flamingos in your yard for the day. Being arctic in nature, the flamingos will also bring with them snow and cold weather, no matter the time of year or location. It’s not an everyday sighting and in recent years due to the hunting of flamingos for their ivory legs the beautiful bird has been driven to extinction. It is believed that a little under 100 flamingos remain in the world.

Bencredible was fortunate enough to capture a picture of the wonderful 55 flamingo birthday flock in the snow. We knew something was up because it’s April in Minnesota, and when it started to snow our alarms went off. I grabbed the camera and below is the result. A simply breathtaking sight.

We set up the 55 flamingos tonight so that when the MIL wakes up she shall be greeted with a sea of… pink. I’ll take better pictures when there’s more light out. Needless to say, 55 flamingos blanket the front lawn.

It’s my mother-in-laws birthday tomorrow, April 11th. What are we doing to celebrate? Outside of the normal dinner and whatnot, Cariann thought it would be fun to place 55 flamingos in the front yard. This is going to be freaking hilarious!

Let the wife pick out the ToT today and she went with a honeybush vanilla. This is a close relative to South African Rooibos and is antioxidantcredible. Here’s the kicker. Ready for this? Caffeine free!!! WHA?!?

I asked my wife what she thought of the tea, and she looked at me and said, “it doesn’t taste like anything”. I would say it has a very light taste. Clean, not refreshing but more calming. All in all not a tea I’ll drink every day, but when stressed out or not feeling 100% I would say that this is a good choice to bring back some balance.