Only 700 days until the start of the London Olympics!  Today I received and email stating that this fall the prices will be announced for all of the events and that they would go on sale next spring.  If you live in the UK or in Europe.  Dang.  Earlier I had signed up for the volunteer list which is why I keep getting their announcements.

Over to the US Olympic committee page I go, to see if they have anything about London yet.  Not much really. It’s actually rather poor in regards to London 2012 currently.  What they do have is the countdown (that’s where I go the 700 from) and you can also find a donor page that:

…includes exceptional seating at competitions, accredited transportation, fine dining and a reception at the USOC’s exclusive USA House. Meet remarkable athletes and USOC Leadership, tour historic London and share in the camaraderie of the Games!

all for only $150,ooo! But wait!  That’s for two.  All payable over the next 4 years.  OMG what a deal!  Sign me up.

Hold on.  Is there an affiliate link for that?

Alright, no more posting what my posting schedule is. From now on I’m going to just wing it. Every time I make plans for rolling a series of posts I end up needing morphine or it’s more easily prescribed cousin codeine in order to get back on my feet.

Thankfully this time it’s not anything major like a kidney, it was just a tooth that broke down the root that had to get pulled. Then didn’t want to heal.

It’s been a long miserable month.

I’ve learned that when I’m under the weather the last thing I want to do is be on the computer for any period of time. I really need to get a moleskin or something else to doodle with.

</whining>

Many people have commented on Twitter about their Facebook thumbnails dropping out and not displaying when they post a link on their wall.

This is my theory: it is the dynamic images that are causing it.

LinkWithin is just the first service that comes to mind.  The way LinkWithin works is every time someone visits your page, it has a copy of your post thumbnails on their server and they then send a set of links to your site. (Correct me if I’m wrong but that’s how I understand it)

Whenever that last change happened at Facebook, it is no longer waiting for the new set of images to come over from LinkWithin or from any other service for that matter.  You can tell right away when you post a link because it will say “0 of 0 photos”.  It may be getting filtered out just like it filters out ad images

But wait, you say “some of my links have photos on them”.  Take a look at the page that it being linked to and I’ll bet that it doesn’t have dynamic images on them.  Try this experiment:  Post a link of this page on your wall.  I bet it will display the thumbnail.  Now link to any post that has a LinkWithin (or any similar service) on it. If you have your LinkWithin at the top, Facebook seems never to add an image.   It does look like it helps if there are several pictures in your post before the LinkWithin plugin.  But more often then not, you won’t get a thumbnail to post.

Let me know your results.

Woo Hoo!  This weekend I finally booked my room for Travel Blog Exchange ’10.  After my kidney incident I drug my feet a bit not knowing whether or not I should go.  I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t.  I booked the airline ticket earlier in the week which only left finding a room.

It took me a couple days looking on Kayak and even on google maps for places that are close to NYU.  Most everything: rooms, flats, homeshares, had been taken already.  There still are hostels available but this is my first trip to New York City so I would rather get  a single room.  The hostel rooms that are available are almost the price of a normal room.  Then I thought of William Shatner.  I’ve had really good luck with getting nice rooms in the past, it was worth a shot.  After all I don’t know much about New York City anyway.

Thanks to the NYC Pass that’s included, there are a bunch of sites I simply must see.  It looks like most all of them should be close to a subway.  Friday’s going to be a day of running.  My grandma had a picture of the ship her dad came over on from Norway, so the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island are very high on my list.

Name Your Price, let’s give that a try.  Once you enter all of your information you get the ‘We’re negotiating your price screen”, while that’s running I’m always thinking – “Come on No Whammy, No Whammy!”  SCORE!  Wow that is a good deal.

The room I was given is in the Financial District.  That’s fine by me, I may be able to walk to Battery Park.  If your going and plan on seeing the statue Friday or staying downtown drop me a note or tweet me!

See you there!

Continued from: The Best Flight I Ever Missed Part 2

It’s not until I am giving Josh the details of my flight that he tells me it’s almost 4am. “Don’t call mom it’s to late,” I say. I know she has to get up early for my stepdads cancer treatment and I didn’t want her to worry. He didn’t listen which could be expected.

The rounds start at 6am where they give me more morphine-y type stuff. Some nurses give you good stuff and some give you stuff that doesn’t work at all. It’s easy to figure out which nurses are going to give you the not so good stuff because they are the ones that are crabby and ill tempered.

Drugs or no drugs I feel like shit.

The only meal of note was the breakfast or the first day. Wait. Come to think of it it was like the first day. Broth, cranberry juice, and Jello. Taking the lid off the first time, I distinctly remember thinking “ah geez, what the hell” In exactly the same manor that my dad did. I’m sure I had the same look of confused disgust.

OMG my flight!

My cell phone is now dead. Thankfully Josh had left me the Delta number. I call.

Discover my voice doesn’t work. When it does it sounds terribly weak.

After several “for ___ press#,” I get a person.

“Thank you Mr. Kimber would you like to check in for your flight?”

“No. I need to cancel because I’m in the hospital. I can give you my room number if that helps.”

She puts me on hold.

When she comes back she tells me she will forward this to their charity Wings of Hope (not exactly sure) who will verify that I am in hospital and refund my miles.

Awesome.

This first trip I had booked with frequent flier miles to save money. The round trip was only $80 in taxes I had to pay.

That was all the strength I had for the day. Not even enough to watch tv. Done.

Over the 3 days I was there I lost 15lbs.

Living in Minneapolis, Delta pretty much owns all of the gates so your left with few other choices. A lot of people are not happy with them over their frequent flier program. They could have had me do a ton of paperwork verifying I was actually in the hospital. Then they could have taken 3 to 180 days to redeposit. But they didn’t.

In the time since I’ve reevaluated which airline I would use as my primary. Cost wise it’s pretty much a wash. Using Chicago as my departure point is under $200 savings for flights but the connecting flight from Minneapolis is $200. I may have to change planes in Atlanta, but I woulda had to change airlines at Ohare.  Like my bags wouldn’t get lost doing that.

So I’m staying.  I couldn’t be happier with Delta right now.

Tomorrow: The Last Part (or have I mentioned I woulda been on the last flight from MSP to AMS before the volcano blew up?)

Continued from:  The Best Flight I ever Missed Part 1

So into my brothers SUV I go, feet on the dash. Fortunately he doesn’t mind or at least that’s what he says.

The emergency room is full as I get checked in. The pains down to about a 6-7 now. Although I’m still groaning with each breath.

After I’m checked the check-in lady gives directions to radiology which is upstairs, or course. While I’m walking I discover that I can’t stand up straight anymore. I’m doubled over leaning to my left side like a little old geezer. The doctors instructions in my right hand flap back and forth as it seems to help with the odd balance. I see myself in 50 years, except with suspenders.

Finally get to radiology and sit down. My brother Josh comes in and sits with me. It took awhile for him to find me after parking the car and calling mom.

Fortunately it was a short wait. The radiology lady calls my name and I’m let into the CAT scan room. Where you lay down and go in and out of a tube so they can get slices of your innerds.

By the time I leave I’m able to walk straight and I’m feeling pretty good. So much so I ask the radiologist, this wasn’t just gas was it, ’cause that would be embarrassing. She says the doctor will call me in a bit.

Alrighty then. Into the waiting room it is. As we wait I am mentally going through my to do list. Everything is ready I just need to pack it. Heck it’s only a week, all I really need is my daybag that has my camera in it, I can buy clothes if I have to. After about a half hour my brother notices everyone else gets their results in about 5 minutes. He asks the receptionist at the desk when we will be getting a call. Oh your still waiting? I’m told the phone on the wall will ring and I am to pick it up.

The doctor starts, “Well… something something… the person that reads these read them from home… something about it being hours and he was waiting for me to call…”

‘what did you find’

“It’s not a kidney stone” I think, cool I can go home. (Morphine’s finally kicked in.)

“We’re going to have to admit you” Crap.

“It looks like you’ve had a blood clot in your kidney and part of it died”

shit

We go back down to the ER and get a number. After about 20 minutes the pain starts creeping back. Josh goes up and asks at the ER desk how long the wait is, and tells them we were just at radiology and they told us to come down here to get admitted. The guy Josh had been talking to said that there was about a 2 hour line and that I would have to wait. Thankfully a lady doctor over heard them and said “no you need to send him back right now”.

Straight back I go. Where I end up in a bed. After about 20 minutes the pains approaching 5-6 again so the orderly gives me more morphine. Which has no affect.

The lady doctor comes back and sees my discomfort. She looks at what I was given. ” He gave you some morphine?” Ya, I say. “I’ll give you something, don’t you worry”, she winks.

I love her now.

The rest of the night is sort of a blur between trying to rest, people giving me shots or taking blood tests and finally getting settled in a room.

Before Josh leaves I give him all of the details I can think of for my flight and ask him to call Delta in the morning, because now I’m definitely missing my flight. Not sure I’m going to be able to. I’m wiped out.

Tomorrow: Part 3 ( or I <heart> Delta)

Continued from Not the start I had been hoping for:

At work I was wrapping up what I could and was trying to mentally pack everything I had laid out on my bed. I was debating whether of not I really needed to bring each item or not. When I got this pain in my stomach. It was a real quick sharp ‘ohh something didn’t agree with me’ pain and didn’t think much of it.

It just kept getting worse. Walking around seemed to help a bit but even that didn’t help after a while. Maybe it was just gas. So I went to the bathroom. Nope not gas or constipation. Because pressing on my stomach like the doctor does at an exam there was nothing in there.

It was about an hour of this walking, going back on forth to the bathroom and sitting and whinning my tummy hurt. I’m sure everyone was thinking ya right, the day before your vacation and you need to go home early. Someone suggested that I go to the store and and get some Pepto. That sounded reasonable, I would come right back. Fortunately there’s a store close by. I went in and go the tablet form, since after all I may need them for my trip. Paid for it in a cold sweat, when to my car, popped them open and crunched one down.

Almost instantly made it worse.

Turns out the tablet form of Pepto is mostly a diuretic. I get back to the parking lot and walk around briskly for a hour or so before I realize I had better go home.I had better at least let them know I won’t be coming back to work.

After I drive home and change.  I try laying down on the bed, one the couch, on the floor. Nothing. The pains now at the point of not being able to drive. I’ll have to have someone bring me in, so I call a friend.

Walking into Urgent Care at the clinic, I’m fourth or fifth in line for the triage nurse. The lobby is full, but I am moaning the most. Finally it’s my turn. “From 1 to 10 whats my pain at?” 6 or 7. She asks me if my color always looks this bad. Ahhhh, no. She gets a wheelchair sends me straight back to an exam room.

In the room the doctor sees me and asks if I have ever had a kidney stone before. Nope. He’s going to send in a nurse with a shot that will help pass it. While I wait for her I put on the gown and call my brother. “You better come down” I tell him.

The pain is increasing with each breath. Not real sure how long it was between the shot and when the doctor came back in. He had me get on the table so he could feel my stomach. I couldn’t really lay down and getting up I tell him I’m very nauseous.

He grabs a ring punches his fist trough it, instant barf bag. Well that’s cool, why don’t planes have that I think as I dry heave into it.

The doctor leaves. I’m still on the table. I better get down or I’ll get hurt when I pass out. I sit on the little pull out stool.

Pains at a 10 now.

At some point they had taken on blood pressure and it was something like 190 over 174. Thats bad.  It keeps rising but it may be because I’m in a lot of pain.

My brother comes in.

Eyes not really focusing anymore.

Nurse comes in and says she has morphine, can I get up.

No

I scoot my ass cheek over so she can give me the shot.

I hope this works because I’m in trouble here.

(side not: My brothers and I had taken care of my dad after he had a stroke in ’93 that left him paralyzed on one side and had difficulty speaking)

I wonder if this is what it was like for dad.

Now for me, morphine is not like in the movies. You see the scenes where someones been shot and in excruciating pain, the doctor or medic gives them a shot and in mere seconds the patient is all calm and sometimes feeling comfortable. Not me. Morphine takes like a half hour to kick in.

It did help a TON though. They get a wheelchair for me after I got dressed.

Did they think I would be able to make my flight in the morning?

Ahhh, No.

I was alright with that, as long as there was more morphine.

Tomorrow: Part 2 (if only it had been a stone)

Well this hasn’t been the start I had planned on.  I had planned on April being my month.  It was the month I was going to make my big start or at least get the ball rolling. A flight to Amsterdam where I would spend a couple days then the train to Paris with a side trip to Versailles. It was going to be great, my first solo trip. A test run if you will. There was a list of 75 topics I could write about, which were more like 75 things I wanted to see or do.

My flight was to leave a week after the first anniversary of my dad passing.  He would have thought it was great. Many times he had said ‘you should, you should’.

Being a complete noob at travel writing this was what I had thought I needed to do to get started. It’s a bit overwhelming. I tell ya, I don’t know how many travel writers do it. Great articles, nice websites, commenting on others websites, twitter, podcasts. When do you have time to travel?

I was going to do the best I could and hope it came to me along the way. Which is still kinda my plan.

First I spent a good week fretting over which bag should I buy only to realize I really hated all of them so I was just going to use the one I already had.   I booked the ticket with my frequent flier miles I had been hording for years, ching!  And I had managed to get 8 days off burning NO vacation time, CHA ching!   Nice, hey I like this! I should do this more often.  Maybe this is how everyone does it.

Hostels and hotels had been booked.   There were plans for tours and museums.  Absinthe and Amstel in Amsterdam, wine in Paris, it was going to be awesome.  Oh and if it rained that wouldn’t matter, then I could get some cool dreary black and white photos.  The last thing on my list was to get a Paris Pass and to buy travel insurance.  Which I would do after work.

Tomorrow: The Best Flight I ever Missed (or an Ode to Morphine)

I love planes.  I like the sound they make flying over my condo when they are taking power off before landing, it’s always the slow spool down sound that you can mimic by drawing air in slowing instead of whistling.  I like how planes look sleek with the menacingly powerful engines hanging from the wings.   I like the inside of planes, not just where you sit but the cargo areas as well, how you have to squat to stack bags in the heat.  I like the sound of DC10’s third engine.  It just has a different arng-anrg-arng sound to it.  I like to watch the choreography of a plane coming in and the ground crew converging on it like a pit crew at an Indie or Nascar race.  Bag converyers, fuel guy, bag carts all arrive, bags flow off, carts drive away, converyors back away,  and finally food truck takes away the old trays and brings fresh.  I like the smell of jetfuel.  I like how in the winter, if you stand in the Power Units exhaust, it warms you up.  I know I’m going to hell, I should probably buy some offsets.  I like the feeble amount of peanuts you get, and if you really admit it to yourself you are desperate for another bag.  Partly because what they give you is just enough to remember that -hey you like peanuts- and partly for the flight attendants recognition that you ARE someone special and you DO deserve more. If given a second bag it is simply NOT possible NOT to look around to see if others have noticed that the obviously brilliant flight attendant has bestowed upon you the coveted second bag because you’re a somebody and they just don’t know yet.  It’s like not closing your eyes when you sneeze. Next time you get a second bag, your going to look. I like the little blankies and pillows they give you, except when you have to pay for them – come on homeless people don’t want to use them.  I like the food, I’ll try to eat all of it, really.  I wonder if we look like penguins or baby chicks waiting to be fed to the flight attendants? I like the windows that I can’t sit by because I will look out them the entire time.

I like the idea of planes. How you can basically get in a flying bus and be in a completely new place in a couple hours.   Somewhere that had my grandparents gone there it would have taken a month and had their parents gone it would not only have been the journey of their lifetime but probably was a one way trip.

photo credit: Simon_sees