Craig Ferguson

Craig Ferguson (center) opening his show with a weird musical intro…

On Tuesday, Dawn and I went to Taft Theater in Cincinnati to see Craig Ferguson.  He is the silly Scottish comedian who hosts CBS’s Late Late Show following David Letterman.  His silly wit has made Dawn fond of him, so I thought it would be cool for us to go see him do his show (even if it cost us $115 for 2 tickets).

I just assumed that we were going to be seeing his taping of Late Late Show… it turned out that this was his stand-up show preceded by a stand-up by another comedian whose name escapes me.

While I was a bit disappointed that this was not the recording of the show, we were still thoroughly entertained.  We’ll do our homework next time BEFORE we arrive at the venue…

Anyway, this was a nice ‘different’ night out for us.  Since we live much closer to a civilization now (since we moved from Vincennes, IN), I hope to have more nights like this in the future.

CPAP Machine

“Continuous Positive Airway Pressure” machine is a device that my sleep doctor prescribed for my moderate sleep apnea condition.  According to the sleep study results, my brain wakes up about 24 times/hour during the night causing me to be fatigued in the morning.

I drove an hour to participate in an orientation in using the machine on Monday.  It’s pretty simple to use, really.  The device consists of CPAP and a detachable humidifier.  The machine and the nasal “pillow” are connected with an air hose.  You put the water in the humidifier, put the nasal pillow on your face, then turn it on.  That’s it.

Left: CPAP machine   Right: Nose Pillow Close-up

I also have to wear a chin strap because I sleep with my mouth open, apparently, and CPAP doesn’t work effectively with your mouth open.

Hachi fully equipped.  I look like an elephant with a toothache…

The theory is that the air pressure sent through my nose should keep the airway open allowing my brain to continue to sleep throughout the night.

I have tried it for a few nights now, but I haven’t felt a big difference.  They said it would take up to a month for people to get used to sleeping with the damn thing on your face.   I think it would take at least that long for Dawn to get used to seeing me with that thing on me…

Oh, well… we’ll see how it goes…

Anniversary #2!

Of course, Dawn brought a camera to the restaurant like a good Japanese wife.

Yay! We successfully (?) completed our 2nd year as a wife and a husband!

I took a week off from work to celebrate this monumental milestone (‘Cotton’ Anniversary, if you care).  We originally discussed going somewhere, but I painfully learned that you shouldn’t really hunt for the ‘last minute’ vacation deal at the last minute literally…  So we came up with an alternate local plan.

• Monday (Anniversary Day): Dinner at Mitchell’s Fish Market Restaurant (Newport, KY)
• Tuesday: Craig Ferguson’s Late Late Show in Cincinnati
• Thursday: Kings Island Amusement Park
• Friday: Japanese Festival at Krohn Conservatory in Cincy.
• Saturday: Cirque du Soleil’s Alegria at Highland Heights, KY

Rest of the week is to be used for relaxing…

So we had a wonderful dinner at Mitchell’s for our anniversary.  The restaurant has become our new favorite in the recent months as it is one of the very few good seafood place around here.

Bad news: Kings Island is not open on Thursday… (much to Dawn’s disppointment.  She is about to cry…) we may have to postpone to Friday or a later time…

Anyway, a Happy Anniversary, Dawn!  There will be many more to come :-)  I love you!  Mwah!

Mole Attack

The latest creation of our backyard nemesis

We started getting these dirt mounds in our backyard this winter.  Despite our original belief, these were not made by the neighbor kids, but by a creature called a mole.

Dawn and I have no experience dealing with moles, and we pretty much watched our yard being buried in these mounds for a while now.

Today, I stuck a garden hose in the hole and blasted water into it for 10-20 min.  I fancied a thought of water spewing like geysers from all the holes it has created, but that didn’t happen.  The hole continued to take water like it had no bottom.  I have no idea how moles make their burrows, but I have a feeling that it is a vast network of underground tunnels…

I doubt that I drowned our mole in our attempt to fight back, and I guess I will continue to fight this little sucker this summer…

Easter Sunday

Weeping Cherry in front of our house

Noah & Dawn at Easter Dinner Table

The hunt is on… for the fake eggs…

These are robin eggs… not Easter bunny’s…

Johnny, Dawn, Kevin & Noah in egg reconciliation process. Is that all of them?

Sleep Study

I snore. Since I’m sleeping when I do it, I have no awareness of it, but Dawn swears to it, so I must. I have gone through a couple of sleep studies when we lived in Indiana, and they diagnosed me with mild sleep apnea. Despite Dawn’s strong urging, I never pursued any treatment like CPAP, because I thought I would never be able to sleep with a ginormous mask over my face all night.

Well, recently, my fatigue has been pretty severe during the daytime, and after consulting with our doctor, she ordered me to go through another sleep study.

I have talked to a few people who have CPAP now (turns out that MANY people do…), and they all said it was a “life-changing” decision. So, of course, now I’m excited about getting on this bandwagon.

At 8:30pm on 4/3, I admitted myself at St. Elizabeth Sleep Disorder Center in Edgewood, KY, for the sleep study. You get your own private bedroom equipped with your own shower bathroom and a TV. The bed is the Sleep Number bed for your comfort. You get free WiFi, too.

Left: Sleep study bedroom. Right: Infrared surveillance camera on ceiling

I was thinking/hoping that this would be a comfortable one-night stay with all of these amenities. Then my technician Suzanne attached bunch of nodes all over my body.

Cyborg Hachi

Bunch of nodes on my head, a few on my chest and my legs. So many cables were bundled behind my neck like a ponytail. Still, I thought I would be able to get used it pretty quick. Of course, as I told Suzanne that I’m ready to go to sleep, she came in with a chest band, a belly band, and tube to sit in your nostrils and in front of your mouth, all of which to detect your breathing…

I lied down in the dark trying hard to fall asleep, but I just couldn’t. It usually takes a few minutes or seconds for me to fall asleep at home, so it felt very awkward after a while. The tubes in my nose felt increasingly uncomfortable. Then I’m thinking, “I gotta pee…” I hated myself for not peeing before she hooked me all up, but I really didn’t have to, then…

Feeling childish, I pressed the call button, so she can unhook all the cables that she connected a several minutes earlier.

Apparently, I did fall a sleep at some point, but I did not feel rested at ALL when she woke me up at 6:45am. She said she got enough data to make an analysis, but I don’t know how you can get any good data from anybody if everybody has to go to sleep feeling like I did. Maybe that’s why there are so many diagnoses for sleep disorders…