Mattie’s in town for the weekend! We spent Thursday night watching cartoons, and Friday night on a game/movie night with friends. Today we’re having very different sorts of days, but I think we’re both having the time of our lives. Mattie’s off at a podcast convention, or “pod-con” to follow after the comicon naming scheme (“podca-con” if you care about syllable count). This convention is the whole point of her visit here, and I’m sure she’ll share all about it in her own AnderSync.

I, on the other hand, have spent my day watching The Office and eating orange chicken. Just showered at 3:30pm, and that only for the heck of it. There was an option to go on a YSA cruise/dance thing this evening, but that would’ve ended up taking like five hours of my already packed day. Opted instead to see about getting a small group of friends together to see Justice League this evening, but half-way hoped no one could come and I’d just end up seeing it on my own; haven’t done that in a while, but I’ve heard it’s awesome.

Thankfully no one took me up on the offer, since it now appears a friend I haven’t seen in a while is putting on a low-key game night tonight, so I’ll be going to do that instead, which I far prefer to spending the night on a packed rowdy boat with almost no-one I know. Sometimes I just have to let the hermit out.

I’ve skipped over quite a bit, so, photo essay time. First up, Thanksgiving!

Miscellaneous game nights / Ugly Christmas Sweater contests:

Mattie’s office tour yesterday:

Lighting up the Cross Kirkland Corridor last night: (an event put on in collaboration between Google and Kirkland)

Tomorrow evening I fly out for one last California work trip. I return Thursday morning; a week after that I fly back to Utah for Christmas / New Years, for a well-deserved break.

Oh, totally forgot about my injection procedure earlier this week. On Wednesday morning I went in to get some corticosteroid injected into my lower vertebrae, to relieve irritation of the nerve root caused by my slipped disc. An MRI revealed that the disc is still quite herniated, so my spinal specialist recommended the injection. I wasn’t allowed to drive myself back to my apartment after the procedure, so I had to arrange for one of my friends who’s currently unemployed (by choice) to come pick me up from the clinic. This presented a bit of a logistical issue, since I’d then need another ride to retrieve my car. I resolved it by just walking to the clinic that morning to begin with; it was only ~25 minutes.

I was presented with the option to receive sedative via IV. While the procedure itself was billed as quite pain-free, many understandably get squeamish over needles going into their spine. I was in that boat, and elected for the sedative. I was then given a laundry list of sedative-specific advice: I may experience amnesia, I should not care for anyone else, make legal decisions, or operate heavy machinery; it was highly recommended that I have someone with me all day to make sure I didn’t hurt myself, as I’d be loopy until the next morning.

At this I asked, “How painful did you say the procedure was?” With the assurance that the only pain would be from an initial local anesthetic injection, I opted out of the sedative. They still inserted a short IV attachment into the back of my hand, just in case there arose complications and the need to rapidly deliver drugs to my system, or in case I chickened out and re-opted for the sedative during the procedure.

A nurse led me to a room with a table and a large C-shaped X-ray machine. This made much more sense to me than the expensive X-ray table I’d envisioned in my head. One end of the X-ray device goes beneath the table, the other above my back, so the physician can get a live view of what’s going on in there.

More properly, the device is referred to as a “fluoroscope”. When I asked what made this device “fluor-ish”, neither the nurse, physician, or X-ray technician knew, only that it referred to the “live-view” functionality of the system, as opposed to having to get still-shots developed. I’ve since learned that the first iterations of this type of device got their live view functionality from a fluoride screen that interacts with X-rays shot through a patient’s body. Primitive by today’s standards, where we have image enhancers, cameras for recording, etc.

Before they laid me down on the table, the doctor asked to confirm which side was causing the most distress. I indicated my left side, as I’d been experiencing what I thought could have been neurological muscular weakness in my left calf muscle – ever since this all started I’ve needed to focus much harder on getting that ankle to support my entire weight, as opposed to my right ankle, when raised on the balls of my feet. However, I admitted that I’d never been able to be sure if it wasn’t some muscular atrophy thing. She had me demonstrate, then immediately nodded definitively, “Yep, that’s neurological.” Wish I would’ve thought to ask what signs she was looking for.

Side note, I also really wish I’d asked the doctor about her uniform/outfit; she looked like she could’ve come out of an operating room 50 years in the future. I think the effect was basically from the fitted X-ray-proof gown, but it was still cool.

Anyways, the doctor then took a pen and marked my left side, just for safety – wouldn’t want to accidentally get things switched up once it was time to actually do the thing. They laid me face-down on the table, positioned the fluoroscope, then started with the anesthetic. That was the only pain I felt, and it was indeed brief.

The next step was to insert a longer needle and deliver some contrast dye, which is not meant to interact with any of the tissue, merely the X-rays passing through, giving the doctor an idea of where things lie, where the steroid would flow once delivered, etc.

Finally, the steroid was injected. The doctor said I’d feel a bit of pressure, and as much as I hate the term for its generality, it’s the best description of the sensation; another term might be “internal swelling”. Apparently this is caused by the medication “pooling”, before dispersing into the epidural space of the spine. I could tell there was some nerve stuff going on, since I could also feel this pressure in the back of my thigh, nowhere near the operating site.

About ten minutes after the procedure began, it was over. The doctor said I earned a “gold star.” I was rolled over onto a gurney and wheeled into a recovery area, while my ride was called. They’d forbidden food or drink for six hours prior to the operation (part of why I wanted to do it in the morning), so they offered me food and drink while I waited. Before discharging me they had me carefully walk around the floor for a bit to evaluate my lower motor control. I could feel some tingling, and I wasn’t super steady on my feet, but I definitely was far more able to get around than the nurse seemed to think. Coulda totally driven myself home afterwards, but I understand the need to protect against lawsuits from irresponsible patients.

Spent the rest of the day in my apartment, alternatively working remotely and watching Netflix. A good day overall. The procedure is billed as taking around five days to come into effect, so we’ll see how well I feel in the next few days.

Well it’s been a busy few weeks. Took a surprise trip down to Utah for a long weekend earlier this month, and just got back from a long work trip to California. Mom and Aunt Lisa joined me down there and we had a ball.

But first, the evening I wrote last I attended (and helped a bit to run) a Harry Potter-themed Halloween dance.

For my birthday I got some lovely gifts from home, and a typewriter!

It arrived a bit broken, but there’s a service center about 50 miles away, might see what they can do with it.

But yes, the Utah trip. Was awesome. Managed to keep it a secret from the siblings for the entire time it was being planned.

So I’m in a dinner group now, we meet on Wednesdays. Last week we met at a house during a power outage. Didn’t let it rain on our parade, lit up the place with flashlights and powered the smoker off a car battery. When the power turned on half-way through the meal we kept all the lights off, to maintain the ambience.

Work’s been kind of crazy. 10, 12-hour days aren’t uncommon. End of this month things should start getting back to normal. But since I’ve been working such crazy hours, I didn’t feel guilty about spending some time with Mom and Aunt Lisa on my work trip to California.

Got back late last night. Thankfully I’d taken time to make my bed and clean up before heading out earlier in the week.

Headed out to church this morning and came across this lovely surprise:

Guess it’s the start of some tradition in the ward, got “clammed”. I suppose I’ll have to pass it on now to some unsuspecting victim.

Can’t wait to head back for Thanksgiving later this week!

The big thing of the last couple weeks was a highly productive work trip down to HQ, in Mountain View, California. I had a few reservations about going, since this was gonna be the same exact trip I’d attempted two months ago during which my back went completely insane.

The flight down on Monday morning was pretty uneventful, with some but not much discomfort. Met a fellow LDS Googler flying down for a completely different reason, small world.

First thing I thought when I arrived was, it’s way too sunny down here. Stockholm syndrome from Washington weather perhaps?

Another thing I thought was, good criminey this company is massive. You really don’t get a good feel for Google’s size from Kirkland’s modest satellite office.

And I had only seen a small corner of Google’s operations in the Mountain View area.

While the primary purpose of my visit was to meet with one person, it turns out that every other team I was currently supporting was based in the same small cluster of buildings, so I quickly filled up my calendar with appointments. The two buildings I primarily met people in were about eight minutes apart by bike – the primary short-distance mode of travel at Google HQ. And I was extremely gratified to find that I could ride these bikes without any fuss at all – the first time I’d gotten behind handlebars in about three months!

So I flew in Monday morning, arrived on campus that afternoon, not much time to do more than meet-and-greet, get assigned a temporary desk, learn where meals are taken, etc. The next two days were a flurry of meetings – some arranged in different buildings back-to-back – meet in one building at 1pm, bike to another building at 2, bike back to the first building at 3, etc.

Other days were more relaxed. While my regular meetings were taken in a relatively remote corner of campus, I did take Thursday morning and walk around main main campus. Partly because I planned to do it anyways, but also because I’d spotted a poster advertising an earthquake simulator, part of some emergency preparedness outfit advertising their wares.

I’ve had several people ask if I’d ever been on “the slide,” which Google’s known to have in one of their offices. I always had to say no, I’d never stumbled across it. Until now.

That light fixture in the background deserves its own photo segment.

Friday was a good day. A team I support manages a hardware lab, so I got to go tour that. No pics unfortunately.

That afternoon I had possibly the best meeting of the whole trip – a ton of work I thought needed doing turned out to be unnecessary, all taken off my plate.

Took one last night tour through main campus.

Saturday morning I flew back. Had a few good omens – my favorite Enya track came up on Pandora right off, and I hit not a single red light on the way to the airport. Overall it was an immensely successful trip, so, huzzah to that.

That afternoon while I was just chilling, the missionaries knocked on my door. I hadn’t seen this pair before, and invited them in. Odd, they usually let me know before they come, since they only drop by when they have an agenda.

“Sorry, you said your name was, Jeff?” At that the wheels started turning. Wait, you should already know my name, since you’re here to get me to invite friends to stuff, right? Unless…

“Are you two… tracting?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh. Well, then, this is awkward.”

I had to explain to them that I was not in fact a golden investigator, inviting missionaries in without a second thought, rearin’ to receive the Gospel. I offered to have them by for as long as they wanted, but they had doors to knock, and off they went.

That evening was a halloween party at a friend’s house. I’d had grand ambitions to do myself up as a psycho axe-murderer, but had precisely no time to do any of the necessary prep, so I adopted a more attainable guise.

That night, and early the next morning, I spent prepping for an Elders Quorum lesson on the godhead. Lots of neat stuff in History of the Church volumes, old sermons by Joseph Smith on the subject. Lemme tell you, they really don’t write general conference addresses like they used to.

Ended up preparing way too much material – just so many money quotes and mic-drop moments. Oh well, next time I have to teach on that subject I can use the rest of it.

And, there will be a next time. The week prior I kind of got my marching orders as far as Church service is concerned. Got a calling to teach Elder’s Quorum once a month, and our home teaching assignments got revamped on top of that – went from three people in one home to seven people in seven homes. Boy howdy.

This last week’s theme is, Get More Sleep. Been getting off work at hours ranging from 8pm to 1am. And when I do get off work “early,” there’s other things that get in the way of a good night’s rest. On Monday I was just nodding off at 12:30am when a friend I’d been texting let me know that her roommate hadn’t picked her up at the airport like she’d arranged, and I was the only one she knew that was still awake, and would there be any way I might be able to pick her up.

I enjoyed a final few minutes of bed rest, while it took me what felt like forever to type out the words “You got it,” part of my sleep-addled brain trying to present some reason why I couldn’t make it. She lived in north Seattle, so it was 2:30am by the time I managed to nod off.

On Wednesday I’d signed up to do a dinner night with some friends. I had a frozen lasagna, but I’d need to get off work at 3:30 to get that prepped in time, and I didn’t have anything else to go with it. Ended up cheating a bit and having the group over to my office. Did a fun tour afterwards.

Friday was a fun day. To celebrate a few promotions on the team, our manager had us all go out to a nearby brewery. He made sure to bring Fresca and other non-alcoholic drinks as well.

That night I had friends over for games, cake, and a movie.

This morning I went out to look at places. Found a rather expensive condo that has some nice features, but the decor is wacky, looks like a Russian mob boss lived there.

The weather’s been getting cold, and there was some weird fog this morning. All burned off now of course, but it took till like noon for it all to go away. It was so thick I could see it rolling down the street from a hundred feet away.