Oh My Yum! Bete-Lukas

Valentines Day rocked. Joshie took me to Bete-Lukas on SE 50th just off of Division. He had never experienced Ethiopian food before. I had limited experience, but knew that I LOVED it. Anyway...what an awesome place! We were both so impressed with not only the food, but the coziness of the place (maybe 15 tables) the cleanliness (immaculate) the ambiance...oh and the service is genuinely 1st rate. I felt like we should have been spending a lot more than we did all said and done (Less than $50 for 2 people w/beer). This is a 4 star restaurant with 2 star pricing. You TOTALLY get your money's worth and more. The food you ask?? EFFING AMAZING. The Kategna (Warm Injera with Berbere and seasoned butter) were...for lack of a better word...DIVINE. Eggplant Tibs were especially tasty also. Please....everyone....GO TO THIS RESTAURANT! I promise you that you'll be thrilled. If you like slightly (or very) spicy, highly-aromatic food and you don't mind digging in with your hands (traditional!)....this is THE place to go. We both left with full tummies and nothing but positive thoughts for this place. We'll be going back soon...with friends, with family....by ourselves....I don't know if we'll ever be able to 'get enough' Bete-Lukas!

The Prodigy Are Back!!

I can't tell you how happy I am right now. I just listened to the new singles that were pre-released on iTunes for the upcoming album "Invaders Must Die" by The Prodigy. I've loved this band for as long as I can remember. They were cutting-edge, ahead of the curve in every respect to their contemperaries ...until the release of "Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned" in 2004. OK...maybe I'm just a jerk or snobby about music. I don't think so, but I've heard it from people in the past. Anyway...I was so disappointed with that album. It was executed well....it was technically interesting...but it just wasn't the caliber I expected from the band. Take me back to "The Experience", "Jilted Generation" and "Fat of the Land". Well....that's what they did with this new album. I'm hearing all the very best elements from those groundbreaking albums in every track. I feel like a new fan all over again. I loaded the songs onto my iPod and turned the volume all the way up (Thank you Skull Candy headphones....best 80 bucks I ever spent!). I'm thrilled. So a HUGE THANK YOU to Liam, Kieth and Maxim for coming to your senses and making yet another amazing album and restoring my faith in The Prodigy. Now all you guys need to do is play a show here in the Pacific Northwest....I'd love for you to come to Portland, but I'm flexible!! Just play the U.S. West Coast and I'll be there!!

Love it!

In response to Kory's Talented Jedi....
This was kinda fun (I laughed enough) and I just LOVE my name...it's perfect for me.
You, too, can build your superhero and find out what kind of powers you have!
http://www.cpbintegrated.com/theherofactory/

More Fun Times...

Guhhhh!! My mouth sucks! I got into the dentist today with no problems. Thankfully this time they were able to get me most of the way numb...I still felt more than I should have, but it wasn't agonzingly painful in a physical way. I didn't scream or anything this time. (My Dr. was thrilled) It was mildly psychologicaly torturous...all the nasty scraping/popping/drilling sounds combined with the super-gross smell of burning teeth. I can't get the smell of it out of my brain!

Problems? Yes!! It wouldn't be Classic Kelsey if it went perfectly smooth. He was able to start the root canal on my upper-right bicuspid, but as soon as he really got in there he hit the *Surprise!* abscess. It was horrible (I mean...nuhhh...buh..). He got in there, murdered whatever he needed to, ground some more tooth away and had to stop. He said he couldn't continue without jeopardizing my life and his practice if I died from blood poisoning. Stupid effing blood poisoning. Sooooo....I have a partially finished root canal and an icky gaping hole next to it. He had to go back into the area that just three days ago was home to my sad, rotten canine and...*massive shudder*....clean it out. He said some things that I never want to hear coming out of a Dr. or dentists mouth, ever again. "Whoa...oh gosh...that's bad.....*scrape, scrape...grind*....oh man....no, that's not good....yeah....not good at all". For real. That's what he said. Verbatim.

Anyway....I'm going back in on Friday to see how the infection is clearing, then, pending a positive report card, I will be scheduled to finish this procedure early next week. I've been warned that it will be painful for the next few days, and to expect blood and....other stuff. He put me on more strong meds for pain (hydromorphone) and a new ultra-high dose of Cleocin. I hate that crap. Clyndamycin makes my stomach hurt pretty bad. Whatever though, it's a means to an end. The end is getting closer and closer, and I'm SO cool with that. I've lived with dental pain for so long that I don't remember what it's like to be able to chew, or even talk to people without it hurting....so naturally, I'm excited to get this work done!

I can't wait to blog about fun stuff.....

I'm gonna listen to Dolly Parton now (9-5 and Odd Jobs) and go to a happy place.

Fun Times...

It's just after 7PM. I just got home from the dentist and pharmacy. I'm still shaking. I'm still sobbing on and off. I have to go back tomorrow for surgery, depending on where my pain level is at in the morning. He was only able to get the canine out today. None of the anesthesia worked. They used the maximum amount allowed, and...nothing. I was in so much pain by this afternoon (the narcotics wore off around 3:30, and the little help they provided was gone by 4) that they were unable to get me even to baseline. They got me to an '8'. That's after 8 amps of Novocaine, an entire box of topical Lidocaine, 800mg Ibuprofen and an injection of Numorphan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxymorphone ).

So I told him to take out the canine anyway...no matter how bad it hurt me. It hurt me. Beyond any pain I could have ever imagined, it hurt me. Apparently the entire practice was gathered around me looking horrified and pitiful towards me. They all stopped what they were doing to pull for me. I screamed and screamed and bawled my head off and screamed and screamed some more. (Think horror movie where someone is being disemboweled by an alien or something) I almost passed out and I guess they were starting to get worried that I was going to go into cardiac arrest or have a stroke, 'cause they wouldn't allow the second procedure no matter how much I was begging to "JUST GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD". Just thinking about it is making me tearful again. It was the single most horrifying, scary and painful experience that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy (if I had one). OMG. I can't even think of a way to tell any of you how traumatic it was. I'm STILL shaking....and it's taking me a while to type this because my nerves are shot and my vision is a little blurry.

I can't talk, so nobody try and call me for a day or two.

I'm sorry if this is graphic. None of it is exaggerated, I have plenty of witnesses. I think that's why I'm sharing it with you. It seems so unreal to me, and I need to do this to help substantiate the experience in my head and make it more real, so I can get over it. I'm still freaked out, but I begged the Dr. to continue. I couldn't live with that pain for another night. They were going to try and give me the Numorphan shot, the Novocaine and a bottle of pain meds to take home tonight and try to get me to baseline by morning, but I knew that it wouldn't work out that way....which is why I made the decision to just go ahead with the 1st extraction....relieve some of the pressure so we could continue without needing to max me out on the anesthesia. I'm afraid to go again tomorrow. It's the 1st time I've ever been afraid of the dentist. When I had my wisdom teeth pulled by Dr. Taylor 2 years ago, it was cake. It hurt afterward, but the pain meds took care of it....unlike this. What a nightmare. I'm still going...afraid or not...I want this taken care of so bad that I'm willing to put myself through almost anything to see it through.