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Jojo held a blues party on Thursday night. I got tired of sitting and watching everyone else dancing, so I gave it a shot. Blues dancing is all about leading the follow with downward body motions. My leading was nowhere near where I used to be, and I couldn't sink too low for fear of falling, but I got through it. That's the first time I've danced since April.

In the gym, I started using the treadmill and stairclimber about 2 weeks ago. I'm only able to walk on the treadmill, but I crank up the incline to really work my quads. I can only go for about two minutes on the stairclimber, mainly because I'm taking a lot of weight in my arms. That's still a huge improvement, because I tried the stairclimber back in September and couldn't even go one step without feeling like I was going to fall backward.

Getting sick

I'm getting sick with some sort of virus or flu. I can feel it starting it in my throat. I'm popping lots vitamin C pills, hopefully that will help. With all these medications I'm on, I don't know what else is safe to take.

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I can now stand up off my bed without using my arms to push myself up; only my legs. I can't do it consistently yet, but neither could I stand up consistently when I was first able to, using my arms, back in September.

I've been thinking. It took me about 5 months from the first symptom until I was treated. It has also been about 5 months of improvement since then, and I would say right now I'm physically at the point I was about 2 months before I started getting better.

I'm making an assumption of a linear rate of improvement and that I don't plateau, but at this rate it is taking about 2.5 months to recover for every month I got weaker, which leaves at least another 7 months to get back to 100%, around June 2007, which is one year from when I was admitted into the hospital.

Another one year milestone

Today marks one year since I moved into my apartment.

One Year

Last week marked one year since I started with my current company. Wow. The company has improved greatly since we were acquired earlier this year, and they're even flying the entire Vancouver and Whistler offices down to our California head office in January for a Christmas party (people have too many commitments in December to spend the weekend out of town).

There will be an auction at the party for things like LCD TVs, iPods, gift cards, trips, etc. We bid with auction bucks that we earn from October to December for good performance and winning various team building contests. Yesterday was a pumpkin carving contest. Unfortunately, I had to go for physio so I couldn't participate, but I've attached a video that one of my coworkers produced. Blogger won't let me embed a video in my post, so here is a direct link (there are a lot of Jackass fans in the office).

A new Rispin enters the family

Congratulations to Geoff and Cindi for their wedding yesterday. It was very well planned and turned out very well. The weather also could not have been better.

There was a moment during the wedding when Geoff was up at the front and the music starting playing for Cindi to enter, but there was a delay before she came in the room. We could see a nervous look on Geoff's face as he waited for her to enter the room and walk down the aisle.

These are some photos from yesterday. I will post more in my photo gallery when I get the chance to fix them up. The two children dancing are Cindi's nieces.