Orthodontist Update

I was intending to do a braces update after each appointment, but quickly determined it was too boring.

So here's the latest in bullet form:

• I've had braces on for 9 months now.
• I got elastics today. They aren't too bad but I can't open my mouth very wide.
• I asked the orthodontist if I was on track today (for the projected 24 months) and he said "oh no noooo no no no no." Meh!
• He had put a small gap between my front teeth for no apparent reason and he said he was closing it up now.
• He is using powerchains to close the gap. The powerchain is clear, which looks a little better, but I have to be careful with wine, curry, ketchup and mustard. They said if it gets ugly, to come in and they will change it out for me.

Edited to add:
OMG I can't yawn satisfactorily!

Near Miss

Ike completely missed Austin. The only thing I felt was some strong wind yesterday. I feel very lucky. Thanks for everyone checking on me.

Hurricane Ike is Making Me Very Nervous

Best map I've found so far

Interesting Fact

Between 1898 and 1904, a touchdown and a field goal in football were worth the same amount of points -- five.

Source: NFL

My New Favorite Firefox Add-On - Read it Later

This addon lets you mark pages that you want to read, but without having to create a bookmark for it (and then having to remove the bookmark, blah blah blah).

You just right-click on the page you want to read, and then choose "Read This Page Later" from the menu.



Then when you are ready to look at them, you click a little tiny book icon on the top right-hand side of your browser. Clicking on it produces a drop-down box with the list. When you're done reading a page, you click on a checkmark and it takes it off.



Don't judge me on anything on the list above - just did that as an example. My real pages are MUCH more exciting.

Product Review - Snap Capp

As most of you know, I drink a lot of Diet Cokes. I really prefer cans, because they are colder to begin with and seem to stay colder. But I also have a bad habit of having 1/4 or 1/2 full Diet Coke cans all over the place, so I generally buy the 16 oz bottles. So the other day, I bought this little thing when I was at a fake post office-type store. It was just on the counter next to the register.

It's a little piece of plastic with a lid that you snap onto a can. It keeps it from going flat and keeps it from spilling. I've used it probably 5 or 6 times since then, and it works really well. The seal is very tight on the can - in fact, the first time I tried to take it off, I launched it across my work cubicle.