Finally

Today is the day. I am taking theWife to the hospital late this morning, so that she can have her knee operated on. Does it sound like I'm relieved that it's finally going to happen? I am.

Seven months, and 2,600 miles, ago, I was at work going about my normal daily routines when my phone rang. Expecting to hear theWife's voice on the other end, I answered the call. theWife's voice was not on the phone, however, it was an employee of hers. She told me that theWife was hurt and needed to go to the hospital. I rushed over to her work.

It turned out that theWife was coming down a ladder and missed the last step. She landed on her knee and has been dealing with the pain, doctors, physical therapy and workman's comp ever since. Had her boss not been such a stress monger and been able to handle a couple of people being in their store, he wouldn't have needed to yell for her help while she was getting up on the ladder to get at a heavy piece of stock. But, that's why they make workman's comp.

For the next few months, doctor's continually checked theWife's knee and continually recommended an MRI be done. Workman's comp had other ideas however. They denied the MRI each time and replied that physical therapy would be all she needed. It took us moving 2,600 miles away and getting a new doctor, before workman's comp finally approved of theWife getting an MRI. But the fun didn't end there, no sir.

The first doctor that read her MRI told her that the only thing they could do was pain management and physical therapy. He then said that he didn't like to take on long term cases, which is what theWife's would be. I think it more likely that the jerk didn't want to have to deal with an out-of-state workman's comp case.

The next doctor read the MRI, the very same MRI, and came to the conclusion that there is a tear in theWife's cartiledge surrounding her knee. This was good news. It doesn't sound like good news, but it was. It was fixable. Then he suggested arthroscopic knee surgery, an outpatient proceedure with about a 6 week recovery time. This sounded much better than years and years of pain management and physical therapy, don't you think?

Thankfully workman's comp approved the surgery and we will be going in later this morning for theWife to have the operation she has needed for the last seven months. Rehab can then begin and with any luck, theWife will be out on the slopes with us in no time.

Daily Links:
Copy Goes Here, it's a movie...get it?
Argh, why didn't we be having this technology in our days, argh.
Have you ever watched something and then thought to yourself that was a waste of time...

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• Family
• Health

Trick or Treat

I realize it may be past the trick-or-treat season, but with so many other things going on in my head right now, a real composition simply can not worm it's way through my head to make it onto this blog. Besides, this is too funny not to post, even if I'm a week late with it:



Daily Links:
Did you know there's physics involved with cow tipping?
Play Risk using google maps!!

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• Humor
• Video

Put-In-Bay

Saturday, theWife and I took theKids to Put-In-Bay, which in case your not from around this area is an island in Lake Erie. I had never been there myself, so I was expecting a tourist trap. What we found out, on the contrary, was that almost all of the stores and restaurants had closed up for the season. This meant that all of the normal tourist traffic also did not show up. They all missed a beatiful day.

Having the whole island to ourselves, pretty much, meant that we got to see the whole island. We rented a 6-passenger golf cart for the day, and cruised (if you can call the golf cart cruising, although being passed by a local on a bicycle was pretty embarassing) around all day long. Highlights of the day, included walking around a Peace Memorial, skipping rocks on the Islands rocky beaches and eating our packed lunch without being rushed for our table. Their was a winery there too, but I would definitely not call our visit there a highlight.

Of course, we took the camera along with us. Check out the whole set of our day, or view some of my favorite scenery shots we took in:






Daily Links:
Just what every town needs, some rich schmo who wants wifi wherever he goes in the town.
According to this, 114 cups of coffee would kill me. Maybe I should switch to chai tea, at least that would take 378 cups.
Anyone else think George Lucas may have been inspired by these when he created AT-AT's.
Send an e-mail to yourself, 20 years from now.

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• Pictures
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• Places
• Travel

Wall Street for Kids

theWife and I were talking as we were driving, and I was recounting some of the events of that morning. I had noticed theBoys, theElderSon and theMiddleChild, were watching TV before they had finished getting ready for school. That they were watching TV did not surprise me. That they were doing it before they were completely ready did not surprise me either. What did surprise me was what they were watching. I would have expected a hunting or fishing program to be on, but what I found them watching was neither. It was the local morning news show.

I was not only surprised, I was impressed. Here were theBoys catching up on local news and events. Sure they weren't ready yet, but hey, they were watching the news. theWife, however, was not surprised. She then explained to me what they were doing and the two words she spoke to me struck a recognition in my mind. A memory long forgotten, since the days when I myself would wake up and get ready for school. Two words that kids dream of in the early morning hours, before having to run off and catch their bus.

School closings.

My first thought was why would they be watching the news for school closings now, it's not even close to being time to snow here yet (really, it's not...shutup). theWife then told me that just about every day, one or more schools were closed because of electrical problems or flooding and they would announce it on the news by way of ticker tape, the same way they do when schools are closed for snow.

Then I truly remembered. Like little Wall Street brokers, on a snowy day, millions of kids sit there in front of their TVs, eyes glued to the bottom of the screen, watching for their school name to appear in the ticker tape of schools who were closing that day. The suburb I grew up in started with a "W", so you can imagine how long I would have to wait to see if my school would be closed that day. The whole time talking to the TV, willing my school name to appear, emphatically telling the newscasters who ran the ticker tape that it would not be safe for busses to be out in this weather.

Then my school name would appear, and like millions of other kids, I would do a victory dance, head back to bed and mentally plan where I would go sledding that day before falling back to sleep. Not once did I ever give thought to the irony that was arguing that roads were unsafe one minute to planning my day's journey on the road the next.

Then theWife brought up a point that brought me back out of my nostalgia. She told me that theKids wouldn't need to do that anymore, they could just look it up on the internet. This thought never occured to me. I could not believe that I had not thought of the internet as their source for school closing information. They would be missing out on a time-tested ritual as old as TV news itself because of something I have always been a proponent of. Any question that they ever have asked that I have not known the answer to (yes, both of them) I have told them to look it up online. Now it appears that they could miss out on something special because of my constant advice. How sad.

We have decided however, to keep theKids in the dark just this once. We will not tell them about finding school closings online. Think of all the fun they would miss out on.

Daily Links:
Hey, you...want to be happy? Start throwing things away. I'm going to start right this min...
These are the people in Arnold's neighborhood.
Ready for war? Let's see. Weapon...check. Side-arm...check. k-bar knife...check. Silly-string...check?

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• AboutMe
• Nostalgia
• Family
• Kids

Strange Animal Behavior

Our youngest cat has a strange habit. Whenever he has been petted, he likes to continue that pleasurable feeling by suckling on himself. He has even been known to follow theWife around the house, pawing at her, until she picks him up and cradles him so that he can do this.

Our theory is that this is what happens when a kitten is taken away from it's mother too young. From here on out, he will be referred to as "theSuckler".



Daily Links:
These guys got $400 in donations to buy and destroy an iPod. They should have just gotten a free one.
Yahoo! has finally let developers have at it's maps to develop some neat apps. Here's one that let's you map out upcoming events. Very cool.

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• Pets
• HomeMovie
• Humor

I Don't Need No Stinkin Alarms

Who needs alarms? I have the best alarm clock in the world. It's called theDog, who actually should be referred to as thePuppy, but just so's we don't have to change things later on, we'll stick to theDog. A puppy's bladder is only so big, so when one has to go, one has to go.

I took the day off (story another time), so I set the alarm for an hour later than usual. What I forgot to do was tell theDog. At 5:00 AM on the dot theDog woke us up in his usual way of jumping around the bathroom, letting us know it was time for him to go. But he was not satisfied with just going out, no sir. He needed breakfast. theDog wasn't alone either. By the time I brought theDog back in and started to feed him, we were joined by all three cats looking for their breakfast as well. Routines are strange things aren't they? Once started, they're pretty hard to just take a break from.

Daily Links:
Just how much thujone is there in absinthe anyway?
That's all we need, is a burping, crying, ticklish garbage can.

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• UncommonlySenseless
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• Pets

Building a Better (and less expensive) Cat Tree

When theWife and theDaughter picked out theKittens, we went to the store to pick up necessary kitten items and we bought a cat tree. It was cheap, but the cat's didn't seem to mind. They constantly played on it, even if it would fall over while they tried to climb to the top because it was pretty cheap. TheWife, however, kept an eye and ear to the blacktop, looking for a better solution for her babies.

After looking at the local pet stores, we found that cat trees are very expensive, and usually made pretty cheaply for the stores. theWife did not get discouraged though, she simply moved her search online.

There she found a multitude of better cat trees. Of course, even without taken shipping into consideration, they are very expensive. The ones we liked run $300. Sure it is extremely cool looking and appears to be much sturdier than the store bought versions, but $300 is $300 and definitely more than we wanted to spend on a cat tree. theWife was not quite ready to give up though.

Due to our recent successes with another project and the use of power tools, we decided that it would be much more economical and fun to build our own, better, cat tree. With that decided, theWife procured the materials during the week and we got a start on it last weekend. We're currently halfway through it, what do you think so far?




Daily Links:
Sign my map
I wonder if these guys knew they would end up on the net.
Some guys are too talented to be part of the mainstream.

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