This is just the migraine from hell! Or, rather, Migraine the 13th, the return of the pain. After being awake for all of two hours, it comes back. Back to bed I go.

Ben and Lisa came over this evening to take care of me. They brought dinner for Kris and me. Lisa rubbed my head. It was nice. We watched the end of game four of the American League Championship Series between the Boston Red Sox and the, blah, NYY.

During the evening, Lisa suggested a possible link between the migraines and the intestinal tract. In particular, my head was hurting much, but the area between my thumb and forefinger, an area linked to lower GI tract in eastern medicine, was quite tense. Of course, most of me was tense. I've tried to link my recent migraines to sleep, but now I'm wondering if I'm looking in the wrong place. Keeping track of diet will help me see if there is a link between the lower GI tract and the migraines. We'll see.

So, how necessary are toenails?

There's the theory that nails exist to protect the tip of the toe/finger. However, this seems to be a circular argument: the tips are sensitive because we have nails - the nails make the area underneath them senisitive because they protect the area. After I lost a nail (pick the various times I lost one or more), after the nail fell off, the area under it wasn't sensitive.

There's another argument that they are just evolutionary leftovers: the equivalent of claws and hooves. Fingernails are a different issue: they are useful for picking up items, scratching, etc.: they are small, built-in tools.

Toenails? Well, they are just leftovers.

I'm considering having my big toenails removed. I'm pretty much stuck in the cycle of jam my toenails playing ultimate, lose said toenails, grow toenails back, jam them playing ultimate. The jamming part is incredibly painful. I've taken to keeping a safety pin in my ultimate bag so that I can break the blood blister under the nail that inevitably forms.

There are surgeries that will remove them permanently. I'm seriously considering them. I'm tired of jamming my toenails. I'm tired of having to stop playing ultimate in order to inflict horrible pain on myself. Too much bother. Bah.

Well, I managed to work an hour and a half before getting today's migraine. Now there's excitement for you.

Speculation at this moment: bad posture, CRT radiation, other radiation (cell tower, wi-fi, etc.), pregnancy, oversleep, insufficient air supply when sleeping, chocolate (yeah, I had some last night), tylenol withdrawal (is this possible?), reaction to supplements.

I'll be keeping a food / sleep / activity journal to track this down. This is definitely a crappy start to my exercise plan.

Kris and I went to Pixar to see The Incredibles with Christian, Lauren, Bobby and Ameeta. Christian and Lauren work at Pixar. Christian worked on The Incredibles specifically (2 credits!). Lauren is working on the next movie, Cars, which is due out next year.

I liked the movie a lot. Kris and I talked about it as we were driving home. We both agree that Pixar continues to make movies with a story, and that's what differentiates the movies from other CG films.

I have yet to see Shrek 2. I should see that sooner than later. Maybe on DVD.

After talking to Lauren before the movie, I really miss the movie industry. It might be time to head back.

Update: Kris commented, "You hated the movie industry." He's right, I did. But it was pretty cool to make pretty pictures. If you ignore the long hours, the politics, the crappy pay and the insane deadlines, it was a good job.

Well, today makes an even dozen. Number 12 started at 10 this morning. I had been up for all of one half an hour when I looked at Bella and couldn't see all of her face. I could see her eyes, but nothing else.

I went to bed at midnight last night, woke up at 8 this morning, arose from bed for a bit, went back to snuggle Kris and slept again until 9:30. The extra sleep is similar to last Tuesday's migraine, in that I slept more than normal (I had slept 15 hours on Monday night in recuperating from food poisoning that day).

So, I'm thinking diet, supplements or sleep. It has to be something. Two times in one week is two times too many. Six in 4 weeks is insane.

What the hell is going on here?

Okay, so I had food poisoning on Monday, the 11th, and slept from about 5:30 Monday evening until 8:30 Tuesday morning, but with a fever of 101° (my usual temperature is 97.6°) that seemed prudent. The fever broke at 1:30 or so, with the help of a couple tylenol. The cause was probably the airport chicken caesar salad.

Before that, however, I had been very, very careful to get enough sleep, but not too much. Sure I exercised hard, but slept well. And I ate very carefully. And as much as I could stomach during the tournament, which I almost rarely do. What is going on? I shouldn't be having a migraine when I'm taking care of myself.

Possible causes:

• Monitors: I started using a CRT monitor again.
• Poor posture: my posture at my desk is awful
• Lack of Magnesium: I stopped taking the supplement before the tournament because of the adverse effect is has on my bowel movements (and anyone elses: think Milk of Magnesium)
• Too much sleep: from the food poisoning
• Lack of blood thinners: I had stopped taking them in Utah and hadn't resumed
• Accidental ingestion of aspartame: I don't know where this would have come from, but I could have ingested some at some point over the last two days

At least it was a mild one. Two Tylenol plus a good night's sleep and I have only a lingering headache? I'll take it.