OMMFG, the most hilarious thing I've ever heard. No fucking kidding.

My wisdom teeth are out, and the experience wasn't all that horrible. It sure went quickly--my appointment was at 8:00 this morning, and I was back home by 8:40. I'm still oozing a little blood, and the drugs are enough to keep the pain completely away. I haven't eaten anything today, and I've drank only a little water, all because I'm afraid I'm going to knock loose the blood clots that have formed in the tooth sockets. I didn't work today, though I probably could have without any problems, but it was nice to sit around and relax all day--something I rarely get to do even on weekends.

Our camping trip this weekend was great, and thanks to a nice thunderstorm that rolled through yesterday evening, we were able to come home a little early. When I'm pulling the trailer with my truck and it's hot outside, the truck tends to overheat pretty badly. We'd planned on coming home early this morning, which would have sucked having to get up that early only to go to work when I got home, but the rain cooled things off considerably and we were able to make it home at around 6:00 yesterday evening without overheating.

The highlight of my trip, oddly enough, was getting caught in the rain during a hike with Michael. We had driven up near the campground at Old Folks Flat to look for a geocache, and after hiking up the mountain for about 20 minutes, it started raining lightly. After another 10 minutes or so, we had found the cache and I was writing in the logbook when it started coming down really hard. I hurried and shoved the contents back into the cache container and we headed back down the mountain. I was surprised that Michael was actually having fun hiking in the cold rain, so when we got back down the the road, we just walked along the creek for awhile, looking at all the small trout swimming around in the slow-moving areas.

We're planning on another camping trip in two weeks, and probably almost every weekened after that until winter sets in. Last year we didn't go camping nearly enough, mostly because it wasn't fun (or fair) bringing a newborn baby along in the dreadful heat. Now that Bradley's old enough to enjoy himself, we want to get our money's worth out of having to register the trailer and the truck--if it weren't for going camping, I could do without that damned piece of shit truck (although I hope to remedy that problem soon).

The dentist said he couldn't yank my teeth out until the infection has gone away, so I've got an appointment next week to get it taken care of. I'm not as nervous now as I was before, especially since he said that, judging by the x-rays, it should be a piece of cake. I also got a new, stronger prescription for Percocet, enough to last me until the antibiotic really kicks in and gets rid of this painful swelling. I just hope this is all worth it--the tooth fairy had better make an appearance.

So, I've been taking a narcotic drug all weekend, and its effectiveness is starting to wane. My gums and inner cheek are so swollen that I can't chew anything, not even the softest of foods. Traci called the dentist for me (her family is apparently friends with him) and he called in a prescription for some antibiotics, and told me to call his office first thing tomorrow and they'll squeeze me in sometime. I'm really dreading having teeth yanked out of my mouth with pliers, but not being able to eat is wearing on me more than the pain.

I've lost about ten pounds since Wednesday, which is when this first started, and I doubt I'll be able to eat much for a few days after I get the teeth pulled. I'm not sure how this'll affect my plans for camping this weekend, but it's already delayed all the getting ready I'd planned on doing this weekend. I hope the dentist gives me some strong pain killers, 'cause I've already been putting up with this crap for too long, but I don't know if it'll be wise to pull my trailer to Huntington Canyon while I'm under the influence. I guess I don't really care what happens, as long as my mouth gets fixed. That probably doesn't sound too nice as far as Traci's family reunion goes, but nothing is more important to me right now than my health.

I decided that I didn't want to wait two weeks to build the kids' playset, so I'm taking some time off work in order to get started on it. Today, I prepared the ground and measured and marked most of the lumber, and tomorrow morning I'll finish marking the lumber and actually start cutting it. If I feel up to it Saturday, I'll actually put it all together, though I'm not sure I'll have time to do much before heading up to Provo. Sunday, I'm going hiking and geocaching on Billie's Mountain, possibly on the Thistle slide, and in a few other places along US-6. I'm looking forward to accomplishing some things this weekend while still getting to play a bit too.

One of my wisdom teeth is really bothering me (yet again), and I'm actually considering getting both of them removed. Three months ago it was the right side, and this time it's the left. I had a hard time sleeping last night because of it, and today I can't eat much except for soft foods. I still have some Percocet left over from my back pain a couple of months ago, and it's helping well enough that I can't feel the pain when I'm not moving my jaw. When I do move my jaw, however, the stiffness and pain is still there and as bad as ever. I'm just glad that the Percocet didn't cause me to react like I did when I took a Lortab once for a severe earache--that's the only reason I didn't take any for my back pain, because I more worried about the drugs than I was the pain, but this time the pain won out.

Man, auto manufacturers sure to have some nifty scams going these days. When we bought the Taurus, it only came with one key and one keyless entry remote. Since the car uses Ford's stupid-ass "Passive Anti-Theft System," I had to get a PATS key made at the dealer, which cost me $60 ($25 just for the key, and $35 to get it programmed to my vehicle). That's right, $60 for a part you used to be able to get made at Wal-Mart for $0.88. A new keyless entry remote is $65, so I'll have to wait until I get paid next month before I can afford one. Completely ridiculous.

Yeow...that's gotta hurt.

Traci and I figured that since the kids are the reason we got so much money back on our tax return, we'd spend the last of the money we had left from it on them. Today I went up to Home Depot in Provo and bought $1,000 worth of lumber and accessories to build this playset. I was there for about 3.5 hours pricing all the lumber and parts, loading it onto a cart, checking out, unloading it onto the ground in the parking lot, and loading it back onto my trailer and securing it. I probably had more than ½ a ton on the trailer, and it was definitely noticeable as I towed it behind the Mazda--usually you can't even tell it's there.

I won't have time to build it during the next two weeks, but after that I'll have plenty of time to do it. It'll probably take me an entire weekend to complete. We settled for design A, which was the most we could afford for now, but next spring I might add the big tube slide and definitely a huge climbing wall. I'm not going to bother with their puny climbing wall--I'm going for something at least 8' tall with probably 30 of these handholds.

Anyway, I've got to clear an area in my back yard and level it out, then bring in a couple truckloads of pea gravel (I have no idea how much that's gonna cost, though), and I'll be all ready to build. This weekend, however, I'll be finishing up some work on my camping trailer so we can go to Traci's family reunion in two weeks. Next weekend is a company barbeque in Provo Canyon on Saturday, and Sunday I think I'd like to just be lazy and do nothing, but I'll probably still be doing last-minute things for the camping trip. Anyway, blah blah blah, I'm just rambling now and I'm ready for bed (today has been exhausting), so 'night.

Ok, here are some better pictures:

I'm still trying to get used to driving an automatic (I've never owned one before). Almost every time I pull away from a stop sign I reach for the gear shifter to pull second gear, but I grab nothing but air. Just driving a car is hard to get used to since I haven't owned one for a couple of years. It's nice having something I can take on long trips and not have to worry about breaking down, and since it's fully loaded, it won't be so tiring with A/C and cruise (which I've also never had in a vehicle [not that worked, anyway]).

Oooohhhh yeahhhhhh:

That'll have to suffice until I can take some decent pictures. =)

Is there anyone out there that can hook a brotha up with the last two episodes of SG-1 (The Lost City parts 1 and 2)? I'm desperate to see them before the new season starts, and SciFi has been really flaky about showing them since they first aired. I'm just too retarded to figure out how to steal them by myself.

P.S. If anybody needs a Carfax report, send me the VIN. I paid for 30 days of unlimited reports, and have 28 days left on my account.

Update: Thanks Ty. I owe you one (I think that makes 20 or 30 total now). =)