Finger Status

I saw the OT again today.  She was satisfied with the finger progress.  She punched some holes in the splint for ventilation.  I asked a few details about the rehabilitation process, and I found out the total time I'll need to wear the splint is eight weeks (assuming it heals right of course).  Six weeks with absolutely no bending, and then the next two weeks I'll still need to wear it all the time except when I'm doing my finger exercises. 

Did you know the pinky is the hardest finger to rehabilitate?  That's what she told me.  I suggested we just amputate so I wouldn't have to wear the splint, but she said "no".  It's also one of the most important fingers because it's used for gripping things.  Therefore, I'm still wearing the splint.  I'm getting used to it, and the thought of two extra weeks isn't even bumming me out.  Volleyball and softball will be over by then anyway.  Now I'm just hoping it heals right so eight weeks is all I need to wear the splint and no surgery is involved.

I went for a bicycle ride last night.  It worked OK, but I won't be doing any mountain biking with the splint on.  Only gentle road biking.  By the end of the ride my right arm and hand were pretty tired from having to grip the handlebars harder than normal.  Also, the bumpy roads didn't feel real good on the finger because there was too much vibration that was transferred to the damaged joint.  I did manage to find one left hand grip position that worked fairly well.  It's still on the list of things I will be doing in the future with the splint.  On the list to try:  kayaking.  Also, I got to thinking that maybe I could try racquetball.  I only need to grip the racquet in my right hand, so it seems like it might be do-able as long as I don't get too rambunctious with bouncing off walls and such.  I'll ask the doctor and OT next week.

I thought I had some more stuff for you, but that's all I can think of for now.  Later peeps.

Weekend Cache

It was a good weekend.  I went over to the state across the way where KarmX lives and hung out with her and Bex.  I think this time I will do a modified bullet/paragraph type of summary.  This means fewer but lengthier bullets.  Highlights of the weekend:

• Mood lifting.  I was a little bit owly last week because of learning the whole finger-in-a-splint-for-six-weeks thing.  Plus, I didn't get enough sleep for several nights in a row.  And, I had wasted the previous weekend doing nothing, which also makes me glum.  So this was a good change of pace to help me get out of the doldrums.  This week is looking up despite my finger being in a splint.  Related to this, I have concluded I will probably be a terrible old person as I get more and more grouchy when I'm not able to do the things I once used to do with gusto.  If you want to grow old graciously, you need to be gracious now.  I'm working on it.
• Fellowship.  I won't elaborate too much on this one since it seems like this one makes the list often and I've described it before.  But, I truly do appreciate it whether it's hiking along in silence (with a little musical soundtrack from me), having a discussion about massage techniques, or in SMM in a place I've never been before.
• Geocaching for the first time.  We found some caches.  In our first excursion, we were two for three.  However, we didn't find any on our second excursion of looking for geocaches because we were wimps and weren't willing to do extreme bushwacking while risking woodtick infestation and poison ivy exposure.  I can't say I'm really hooked on geocaching.  But, I haven't ruled it out of the "possibly a hobby" category yet.
• Playing Games.  Rummikub, Dutch Blitz, Ticket to Ride, and Settlers of Catan.  In an unusual twist, I pretty much came in dead last on every game we played.  Now I know how it feels to be a loser.  Well, not so much a loser as someone who is frequently humbled.  In the last month or so I've had a lot of that it seems like.  It must be part of my eternal growth plan.  Here's a tip:  watch out for KarmX.  She's a fierce competitor when it comes to games.
• Philosophical discussions.  Back in college I used to have these all the time in the student union, but now it's more rare.  Topics of conversation ranged from a small debate on genetically engineered plants to pride vs. stubbornness.
• Maturing.  I told this one to Bex and she laughed, so maybe it's only partially true.  But, in the last month I have bought (and used) a purse and learned a new hairstyle.  I'm ready to mentally enter my teens where I become obsessed with purses, doing my hair, and get boy crazy.  OK....maybe not.....maybe I'm only at the age of ten in my mind.

I guess that was still quite a few bullets.  Here are a couple pictures to help you visualize.

Bex bushwacking trying to find a micro geocache.

Some of the scenery we saw.

Trouble always comes in threes.

Gratitude Photojournal 2012, Week #30

Things I'm thankful for this week:

1.  Rain.

2.  Fresh blueberries.  This one is for you, Ananias.

3.  Fellowship with Friends.  This is the relax-in-the-grass-near-the-end-of-the-day portion of the hike we went on.  It's difficult to capture the rest of the fellowship in any place other than my heart and mind.

Lest We Forget

One of the weekends that I was home in June there was an event called "Lest We Forget" in town.  It's a weekend where people come in from all over to re-enact battles from WWII.  They've done it several times before, but I had never gone.  I decided I better go this year since some of the organizers are getting pretty old and may not be doing it much longer.  I learned some stuff about war and guns and renewed my appreciation for those who serve in our armed forces.  It's easy to forget the great price that has been paid for freedom and liberty when we sit in our armchairs at home and travel safely to and from work, school, church, etc.  Below are some pictures from the event.  I went and watched the beach landing battles, but they also had some other land battle simulations at the regional airport that I didn't see.

Air raids right before the troops landed on the beach.

Boots on the ground advancing.

More fighting.  They had a howitzer that really made a giant boom when they fired it.

Flame thrower demonstration.

Lowering the Japanese flag and raising the U.S. flag.

Freak Show

Inquiring mind(s) want to know, so I guess I will post the pictures of my finger while it was dislocated.  I believe you will be very disappointed at the lack of grotesqueness displayed in the pictures.  By the time I thought to take this picture, the finger had already swollen so that you couldn't see how deformed the knuckle looked.  But, I'm not holding my pinky bent like that because I wanted to.  It was stuck like that until the NP popped it back in.

I did try on the ball field to pop it back in myself, but no luck.  The occupational therapist told me NEVER do that as it can break something or make the injury worse.  Now I know for next time.  And hopefully there isn't a next time.  When I see the doctor next I'll try to get a picture of the X-ray.  Oh yeah, one other piece of scientific information is that it was a volar PIP dislocation (based on my internet research, what the doctor said, and my glimpse of my own X-ray).  According to the internet, these are extremely uncommon.  I always knew I was different and marched to the beat of my own drummer.  I can't even be "normal" when I dislocate my finger.

Finger 5 (pinky) dislocated on Left Hand at PIP joint (Proximal Inter Phalangeal).

With ball field dust still on my hand and finger dislocated.

Two days after dislocation - bruising and swelling.

Constant Companion

Today I saw the hand specialist and was not impressed when he told me I would need a splint for six weeks, and I couldn't take it off.  If I take it off to clean it, absolutely no movement of the joint, or the six weeks re-starts.  The central slip needs that long to heal.  *sigh*  I was on the verge of falling into a funk over no softball and volleyball as the peak part of the season and play-offs is upon us.  But, there is some consolation.  If it's not too unwieldly, I can give bicycling or kayaking a try still.  Swimming is allowed.  I have a feeling I will be frequenting the YMCA much more often.

The new splint is much better than the old one from the ER, that's for sure.  An OT made the splint.  I liked her because she explained why I needed to do stuff.  She didn't just say, "we need to get the swelling down."  She also told me why:  "Because after 2 or 3 weeks of constant swelling, then the molecular structure changes, and it's much harder to get the swelling to go down - it can take months after that."  Good to know.  If they had told me that at the ER, I would have been much more diligent about icing it like they told me too.  I also learned that I did the more "rare" case of dislocation that is also more difficult to recover from.  Hence the splint.  If the splint doesn't work, then I'm looking at surgery.  Thumbs down on that.  I guess I'll be meeting my deductible this year - probably whether I need surgery or not.

Also, doctors need to institute a "think" time.  They tell you your diagnosis, then immediately ask if you have any questions.  I don't right then, but give me five minutes to think about how this will affect my life, and then I'll have a whole bunch.  By that time he's already gone from the room though.  Good thing the OT could answer some of my questions.

Here's a couple pictures to help demonstrate.  The splint is made of that thermal plastic stuff, and then there's a velcro strap to help keep tension on the clamshell splint so I can't bend that joint.

Anatomical illustration.

Splint for the next six weeks.  Yuck.

Gratitude Photojournal 2012, Week #29

Things I'm thankful for this week:

1.  Rain.  See the water stain and "water buckets"?  Rain this week was inevitable since they were re-doing the roof at work.  But it sure was needed for the crops, flowers, and grass.

2.  People who care.  They hung out with me in the ER waiting room.

 

3.  Sunday morning quiet.  Shared with Bex and a bunch of seagulls on the shore of Lake Huron.

Weekend in the Big City

Remember the month of June?   I'm still trying to summarize all the goings-on from then.  After one weekend of taking a break from travel, I was on the road again (after a Friday evening kayak).  This time it was to the home of the Willis Tower.  Here are the highlights:

1. Bacon for breakfast on Saturday
2. Metra train ride.....
3. .....to A Prairie Home Companion at Ravinia.  We had lawn seats so it was kind of like listening to the radio, but it's all about the experience and watching the people who brought fancy picnics and like to dance on the lawn.
4. Persian food for lunch.  They're big on fresh basil, grilled tomatoes, lamb, and lavash.  I looked it up - Persia is modern-day Iran.
5. Romanian food for supper.  Mmmmm.....stuffed cabbage rolls.
6. Precious fellowship - the same spirit in a different place than my "usual."
7. That Sunday was scheduled to have a big gay pride march.  We didn't see that, but the "Dyke March" on Saturday did go right past the apartment building of the friend where we were staying.
8. We wandered into a thrift store that is apparently run by some people who are part of the Pride movement.  How ironic they choose a name of something God hates.  They even had a book section labeled LGBTQ.  From the diversity network at work, I knew what the first four letters meant, but the Q had me stumped.  Yes, it stands for what you might be guessing:  Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer.  Honest!  That's what they call themselves, not me!
9. Speaking of that lifestyle, we also went into a shoe store.  "Bruce" brought me my shoes, and he was quite flaming.
10.  Tall ship sailing excursion on the Windy.
11. Helping to raise a sail on the tall ship.
12. A little education on lighthouses while on the tall ship.  Did you know that the light house I saw in Door County is built around a grand piano?
13. We also heard about a lighthouse keeper who had a tough job maintaining a lighthouse that consisted of two towers (and lights) about 150 feet apart with a catwalk between them (in Michigan City, IN I think).  During one particularly bad storm both lights were going out.  After the farther out tower light went out and she re-lit it, just as she returned to the tower that was closer to land, a giant wave came and swept the entire tower and the catwalk out to sea/lake.  She wrote, "I am upset because I just lit the damn thing."  We were told she was of the LGBT group.  Just FYI.
14. Like Weeds, I decided that I like to occasionally visit the big city, but I don't think I would like to live there and sit in traffic so much and drive around for many minutes looking for parking on a regular basis.
15. Favorite phrase of the weekend (said in jest):  "My life has been a stream of uninterrupted excellence."

Enjoying the Ravinia lawn:  Bex, Kix, Mex, Weeds.  Not pictured:  Sher.

Chicago Lighthouse

 

About to hoist a sail.

Avast, ye scurvy wastrels!  Keep hoisting!

Something tells me they didn't fly that rainbow flag back in the day.

Sher had this magazine with an ad on the back for the newest refrigerator I've been working on.  That's always fun to see.

WI Trip

Remember when I went to Brazil?  Well, I returned to the airport in Chicago on late Friday morning after an overnight flight, and the driver from work took me home while I took a nap.  I unpacked my suitcase, showered, checked my work e-mail, took a nap, and then it was on to my next venture to the cheesy state for the weekend.  The weekend was spent with Widdle Brudda, his family, and the 'Rents.  Here are the highlights:

1. Breaking out the old "mixed CDs" and hearing some vintage Sawyer Brown and Pam Tillis.
2. Sat on the interstate for 1.5 hours in construction late at night, and it wasn't even in Chicago.  I thought that intersection by MKE was done, but I guess not.
3. Trampoline jumping with the nieces:  Jumping game, follow the leader, zoo, and popcorn were played.
4. Brudda and I worked on siding their doghouse.
5. We played a little bit of school, but not so much that it was unbearable.
6. Helped with some landscaping.
7. The good feeling of driving my own car after 10 days of riding with others.
8. Like most of the summer has been, it was hot, so the Icees were broken out.  Even a 19 month old knows how to properly eat an Icee.
9. Anyways......we went and watched Ronnie anyways filet some fish he caught that day.
10. Special hugs from my nieces and seeing the rest of my family members.
11. The youngest niece is starting to talk.  One of her favorites is "uh-oh".  (V-E-R-N)

Here are some pics of the weekend.  I need to start taking more pictures of Widdle Brudda.

Wasn't I here today once before?

A couple of Crazies.

Peanut Butter is going to be living in style.

The 'Rents and two of the nieces.

Peanut Butter, Beanie, and Lenny.  All appendages are fair game.

Guess what I've been eating!

One of my nieces took this one.  It makes me smile.

Emergency Visit

My favorite quote from one of the lab supervisors at work today:  "Ed, you overly anal young man.  That's why I love him."  Yes folks, that's a compliment.  Young Ed (He's probably in his 20's) works the second shift, and we were trying to determine what testing he had done on his shift.  Ed's copious notes were very helpful for doing that.  Do you think his parents doomed him to being anal by naming him Ed?  Are his parents anal themselves?  Or did they have a premonition about what his personality would be?

Yesterday I spent about 2.5 hours in the ER for my dislocated finger - and I was on the fast track.  I achieved dislocation playing softball while sliding into third base.  To add insult to injury (literally), I was called out despite my impressive slide.  But, back to the ER.  I was treated by a nurse practitioner.  I wonder if those will become more or less common as Obamacare takes effect.  I was surprised at the number of people I interacted with.  It's been a while since I had to go to an ER.  The last time was in college when I was stupidly playing with knives.

Anyway, there was a lady at the triage sign-in desk.  They put a bracelet on, and then you go wait.  They eventually call you in and take your vital signs (and put me on the fast track).  I think her name was Sandy.  Return to the room designated for waiting.  Then they call you back to your exam room.  Wait a little, and a nurse comes to get a few more details and your story.  Her name was Allison I think.  The NP (his name was Windsor) may have stopped by then just to look so he could order an X-ray.  After a while a lady X-ray tech comes to take me to the X-ray department.  They do their thing, and then Dave (a different tech) shows me back to my room.  During this waiting lull, a registration lady comes in and gets my insurance, address and telephone info, etc.  After a while the NP comes in.  He says it's dislocated and explains the relocation procedure.  He shoots me up, then leaves while he waits for the numbness to set in.  Windsor eventually comes back and pops it in.  It sounded like someone doing a big, satisfying knuckle crack.  Then it's more waiting and back to the X-ray room, but it's a different tech and a different room.  More waiting until Windsor comes in, says the X-ray looks good, and he's referring me to the hand specialist for follow-up.  After a bit Allison comes in, "buddy wraps" the finger, puts a splint on, and gives me some paper info and stuff to sign.  Then I'm free to go after I stop by the discharge desk and pay my $150 co-pay for visiting the emergency room, and they cut the bracelet off.

I shudder to think how much worse this will be once you add even more bureaucracy because the government is trying to control more of the healthcare industry.  Yikes.  Choose wisely in November please.

Myself and the guy from work who gave me a ride to the hospital had an interesting conversation with the hospital cleaning guy about civil war era cannon balls.  The cleaning guy happened to be cleaning in the waiting room while we were discussing civil war era medical techniques (inspired by my recent visit to Fort Mackinac).  Some cannonballs were filled with gunpowder, some with buckshot, and sometimes they would even shoot a chain out with the cannonball.

That's about it for now folks.  This splint somewhat hampers my typing, so I'm probably at half speed with that.  I really hope the hand specialist says I can play volleyball and softball as long as the finger stays "buddy wrapped" without a splint.  I'm debating whether to post pictures.  I don't have any gruesome looking ones from before the swelling started, so it might be kind of boring.  Peace out, man.

Pulling the Shades

It's a sad day.  Two great authors died today.

Stephen Covey, author of "7 Habits of Highly Effective People", died today.  I have actually read that book and would highly recommend it.  In fact, I recently purchased and started reading "The 8th Habit".  I first learned about the "7 Habits" at a two week leadership training seminar I went to one summer while in high school.  One of the speakers at the training was the founder of Fedex, and he recommended the book, so I dusted off my piggy bank and splurged on the book.  It's very practical and life applicable.  The Fedex guy also made real the world of treating people right and that they will always remember how you made them feel much more than what you said.  I remember very clearly him bringing in his "warm fuzzy" and "cold prickle" as a physical and visual demonstration.  Which one do you give people when you interact with them?

It's also a sad day because Donald J. Sobol, author of the "Encyclopedia Brown" series of books, has died.  These books also had childhood significance.  I've always loved a good mystery and detective story, and what could be better than trying to see if you have your wits about you as much as that boy detective and his friend Sally Kimball?  Who wouldn't like a girl who could easily beat up a guy named Bugs Meany?  This was just the beginning of my nerdy streak and passion for solving problems and liking more adult detective books and TV shows.  In fact, the last time I was home to Mom and Dad's I read a few of the mysteries, and it was still a challenge to solve some of the cases.


My new shades came today.  I purchased them a couple weeks ago at a fine eye care place in the cheesy state, so they came in the mail.  If I were going to be very comprehensive, I would take a picture of my old prescription sunglasses that I got while in China, but I'm not feeling up to it tonight.  So you're stuck with just this gem below (cell phone cameras aren't the best).  You can't really tell what color they are, so I will tell you that they're a dark purplish-maroon color with very little bling on the side bows.  Hopefully they don't squeeze my head and give me a headache as much as my old ones.

That's all today kids.  I need to get to bed!

Gratitude Photojournal 2012, Week #28

Things I'm thankful for this week:

1.  Good Friends.  Not pictured:  Jax.

2.  Nature's Beauty

3.  Man's Inventions

Gratitude Photojournal 2012, Week #27

Things I'm thankful for this week:

1.  Delicious breakfast (more than once this week).

2.  Friends Newer and Older (Can you guess which is which?  And no, they weren't exhibits at the zoo.)

3.  Liberty

P.S.  I had so many things to be thankful for this week, it was difficult to choose!

Miscellaneous Stuff and Things

Here's some more random stuff that has come to mind over the last week.  Tomorrow I need to continue with my travel chronicling because pretty soon I'll be way behind and won't remember anything.  Tomorrow I think I'll summarize the weekend trip to the cheesy state.

• My two week trip to ND, Brazil, and WI really took a toll on my fitness level.  I have this little tracker app that I use, and before I left I was doing really good and had a fitness level of 6 (normally it's around 5).  By the time I got back, I was down to 4.  :-(
• Now I'm at about a 0 level of fitness because my phone got all messed up when some kind of operating system upgrade went terribly wrong on Saturday.  It was majorly locked up (removing the battery didn't help), so I had to take it into the store to have the factory settings put back into it.  That means I lost all my exercise logger info and contact info.
• Last Thursday I went to the Y for the first time in a month.  That felt really good to exercise like a crazy person on the stair stepper for 45 minutes.  A brisk walk just isn't the same as doing that.
• Today I marinated pork tenderloin chops and then cooked them on the grill tonight.  They were deeee-licious.  A whole tenderloin is kind of ridiculous for me to purchase for myself, but $1.99/lb for meat like that can't be passed up.
• I recently acquired a pair of binoculars.  But, I keep forgetting that I own them, so I missed a golden opportunity to use them on Saturday at the "Lest We Forget" demonstration.
• How about that health care ruling by the Supreme Court? Some interesting info I gleaned from Yahoo! news: "Though the sweeping, 1,000-page plus law passed more than two years ago, much of it will not go into effect until 2014. That's when states will have to set up their own health insurance exchanges, payroll taxes will go up on higher-income workers, and Americans will have to buy health insurance (for many, with a government subsidy) or pay a penalty of 1 percent of their income to the IRS. (The penalty increases to 2.5 percent by 2016.) Employers who have more than 50 employees and don't offer insurance will also begin to face a penalty. Insurers will no longer be able to turn away people with preexisting conditions, or charge people higher premiums based on their gender or health. In August, health care plans will have to offer preventative services--including birth control--at no extra cost to customers." Interesting......I think that means that everybody's insurance premiums will increase because insurance companies have to get their money from somewhere to pay for all the people (and things) they're mandated to cover now. Since they can't cherry pick the high risk people anymore, that means everybody gets to help by paying more. If they can't raise their premiums, then they'll probably eventually go out of business. That's up to you to decide if you think the people who passed the law meant that to be a side effect or not. And, who do you think will be funding that government subsidy for those who need a subsidy to buy health insurance? For those of you who work for an employer that has more than 50 employees, do you really think the company is going to take that penalty? What if the penalty is less than what a health insurance plan would cost? Are they going to decrease your wages to help pay for that insurance plan they're required to fund? Are they going to find the cheapest and lamest plan around to meet the letter of the law? One other alternative would be they find a loophole in the law that they can use - or get some special exemption from the government. I hear there's a lot of those being handed out.
  
  OK, that's enough politics. Have good night, and happy Tuesday!

Gratitude Photojournal 2012, Week #26

Things I'm thankful for this week:

1.  Blue skies

2.  Friends

3.  Freedom

Brazil trip

After the Memorial day trip to ND, I unpacked my suitcase and re-packed it to leave for Brazil the next day.  You see, I had my Brazilian work visa for a potential travel trip scheduled some time that summer, and work decided they needed someone to review a design ASAP.  Since I was the one with the visa, off I went.  Don't get me wrong - it was a fun trip.  But, traveling by yourself for work in a foreign country where you don't know the language doesn't necessarily mean you get to see all the hot tourist spots.  Highlights of the trip are below.  My apologies that it became almost book-like.  What happened to my really concise bullet points from back in the day?

1. An empty seat next to me on the red-eye to Sao Paulo.  At least I was able to get a couple hours of sleep since I went to work the morning I arrived after stopping by the hotel to take a shower.  I didn't ask, but I doubted work was willing to shell out $5000 for business class.
2. The food.  Some things were common with what we have here, but some things were different.  Popular things to eat and drink there include:  rice, beans, green salad with oil and vinegar, potato salad, pork rinds/cracklin', deep fried cornmeal cubes, yucca root, grilled pineapple with cinnamon, bananas, papaya ice cream, chicken hearts, palm hearts, guarana, caipirinha, fish, lamb, pork, beef, pizza, chocolate lasagna, and other things I can't remember.
3. German heritage.  Lots of people in Joinville (where I spent most of my time) have German heritage, which explains the potato salad and green salad with oil and vinegar.  Besides the main language of Portuguese, many people there speak German, and lots of the architecture has a German flavor.  The other large ethnic group in Brazil are Japanese Brazilians.  I'm told the Germans and Japanese immigrated after WWII.
4. Brothers and sisters (through Christ).  In a previous post I posted one picture of some of the ones I met, and I'll post another one in the picture portion of this post.  I had the privilege of a Sunday morning meeting, Sunday afternoon GM, and a BS on Wednesday evening.  Not many spoke English, so we did the whole translation thing.  I heard a couple stories about Uncle Henry.  One of the woikas told me that she'd never forget the last letter she got from him.  He had no way of knowing her struggle, but what he wrote in that letter was great encouragement.  He told her he had been a woika for 60 years, and his only regret was he didn't put more into it.  I'm thankful for faithful examples, but I realize we're all still responsible for our own personal relationship with God.
5. Lessons in trust.  All the hired drivers didn't know English.  When you arrive at the airport, you trust your co-workers made arrangements for there to be a driver.  You trust that your co-workers arranged for you to stay in a nice hotel.  You trust that the person holding the sign with the name of your company is the appointed driver.  You trust the driver to take you to the correct place.  You trust co-workers and friends will be at your hotel at the appointed time to pick you up for whatever evening/weekend activities are occurring.  I actually didn't find it too hard to extend all that trust, and I learned I need to have even more trust than that in Him for my soul.
6. Brazilian BBQ.  Yes, it's as good as they say it is.  No fancy sauces for these people - just some salt and meat.  The most common things I had were pork sausages, beef, and pork.  I had a little bit of lamb one night.  A proper BBQ uses charcoal or wood.  If you go to a churrascaria, they bring out all kinds of meat on giant skewers and cut off a piece for you if you want it.  The Brazilian favorite is picanha, which is a rump steak beef cut.  I had some good pork and beef ribs, tenderloin, bacon-wrapped filet mignon medallions, and much more.  Chicken hearts seem to be a popular appetizer there.  They keep bringing meat by until you're too stuffed to move.  I also went to a pizza place that had applied a similar concept.  They brought all kinds of pizza and pasta dishes by your table until you were full.  They do a lot of hard boiled eggs on their pizza.  I had a pizza flavor with corn at one point too.  They also know how to do dessert pizza with all kinds of fruit including bananas and strawberries, and several variations of chocolate pizza.  They put cheese on all the dessert pizzas, often with sweetened condensed milk and fruit.
7. Face-to-face with co-workers.  I finally was able to meet in person some engineers that I've worked with for more than a year or two by phone, e-mail, and instant message.
8. Brazilian greeting.  At work when they know you're American they give you a normal handshake, but in social situations the customary greeting of a hug and a kiss on the cheek is pretty standard.  It takes me a bit to get used to strangers invading your personal bubble and kissing guys you work with.
9. Hotel amenities (and lack of).  The waiter named Ricky at the hotel restaurant became familiar with my face.  They had some good stuff there - filet mignon, salmon, caramelized bananas, and fruit flambe.  There was also an included breakfast that had lots of pastries, fruits (fresh papaya was popular), cold cereal, toast, scrambled eggs, toast, bacon (cut in small bits, not strips), pepperoni sausage, several kinds of juice, cold cut meats, cheeses, granola, etc.  The only thing they didn't have was an exercise room.  By the end of the trip I was really craving some exercise because I wasn't willing to pay $18 to go to the high-falutin' health club in the adjoining mall.  A brisk walk just isn't the same as doing some serious exercise.
10. Estimated age.  At least three people asked me my age, and when I told them they were all surprised.  They had guessed my age to be 24-26 years old.  There is nothing wrong with that most of the time unless I'm trying to seem very old and responsible.
11. Things I threw away.  Socks:  6 pairs.  Shoes:  1 pair.  Underwear:  6 pairs (Why does underwear come in pairs when it's one article of clothing?).  Yes, they were all very holey or worn out.  This made room in my suitcase for souvenirs.
12. Engineer wives.  My co-workers there were married to ladies with an interesting variety of careers:  high school chemistry teacher, economist, civil engineer, and electrical engineer were some of the memorable ones.
13. Juice bar.  We went to one in Rio Claro and had some delicious smoothies.  If I remember correctly, I tried the acai berry smoothie.
14. Small zoo / animal park.  I got to see some interesting Brazilian animals.  One animal in particular didn't look like anything I had ever seen before.  It looked like a cross between a giant groundhog and a donkey or something.  I didn't try it, but I'm told that animal makes for good eating.
15. Motorcycles.  Driving one in Brazil isn't for the faint of heart.  Most of them drive on the dotted white line between lanes of car traffic, so you'd need to have your reflexes on high alert.
16. Shoe dilemma.  It's the same there as it is in the U.S. The stores only carry one or two styles in my shoe size.  I looked at some boots, but decided in the end not to get them.  Since it's winter there now (in the Southern Hemisphere), they didn't have their good sandal selection available.
17. Living dangerously.  I had some homemade potato salad that was really good.  I watched the ladies prepare it, and they made homemade sauce for it that included crushing the yolks of hard-boiled eggs, adding oil, vinegar, and maybe a few spices.  I though it looked like it would be pretty safe to eat.  I didn't find out until later, but apparently when my attention was wandering she had also put a raw egg yolk into the mixture.  I didn't get sick from that.  However, I did get sick one day.  I'm not exactly sure what the culprit was.  It could have been a place at the mall where I ate lunch (a buffet where you pay by the kilo), or it could have been some birthday cake somebody brought in for an afternoon snack.
18. Hospitality.  Compared to other countries, Americans don't have very good hospitality manners.  All the Brazilians were very gracious and gave me rides to places, invited me to dinner, etc.
19. Tetris marathon.  I couldn't sleep on the red-eye home.  My legs were too restless, so I settled for many games of tetris on the TV console thing.
20. Glimpes of the U.S.  On the return trip home the shores of Lake Michigan near Chicago looked just as beautiful as the beaches of Miami.  I saw them both from the airplane.  Did you know Miami is like right on the ocean?
21. Tourist location learning.  I learned Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro aren't the good tourist places to go.  My co-workers recommended Florianopolis and some waterfalls called Foz de Iguaçu.
22. The Amazon.  All of the Brazilians I asked about the Amazon said they'd never been there, and most of them weren't all that interested in going to it.  I don't know if that was some kind of southern Brazil snobbery or if most Brazilians don't have much interest in it.  I did not go to the Amazon on this trip.
23. Estimated nationality.  One hired driver guessed me to be Slovak or American.  I've never been pegged as Slovak before.
24. Being humbled.  I met with some motor control experts I'll be working with, and I learned that I don't know very much about electric motors and motor control.  That's what makes the job fun and challenging though.
25. Motion sensitive lights.  Sometimes it was creepy to have to step out of the elevator into a dark hotel hallway for 2 or 3 steps before the motion sensitive lights would turn on.  It also seemed customary to have to use your room key to keep the lights turned on in the hotel room.

That's probably way more than you wanted or needed to know about the trip.  Here are the visuals from the trip.

Countryside near Rio Claro.  I think the field on the right is sugar cane.

At a churrascaria - chicken hearts, Guarana, and a guide to meat cuts.

One of my project leaders (Sidney) and his son Theo.

Lunch at the yacht club.  Fish, mushrooms, white asparagus, rice, potatoes, potato salad....plus a few other things.  The glass with the stir stick is a caipirinha (limes, cane sugar, and Brazilian rum made from sugar cane mixed together).

 

An example of the German architecture in Joinville.

Bruno and his wife Bruna.  Bruno is a software engineer I work with.

Home made Brazilian BBQ pit.

I couldn't decide if the shower head thing was supposed to be a foot washer or bidet or both.  There was one in both hotels I stayed at.

Serious bug bites.  They weren't mosquitoes.  They were some other kind of bug you didn't feel until after they bit you and they drew blood.

Me at a celebration for a new product lunch with a bunch of engineers (some I work with, some I don't).

A few of the people I was in Wednesday BS with.  This family spoke German and Portuguese.

Street-side exercise area.

 

The pair of shoes I left there.  The outsides still were good, but the inside foot bed was starting to come apart.  They really like their laminate hardwood floors in Brazil.

A view of the city of Joinville when it wasn't raining.