Friday Night Special

/ lintqueen / 3 Comments

Tomorrow night — Friday the 18th — I’m planning on watching Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band — the one with the Bee Gees — which I finally got around to ordering from Amazon.  I loved this movie as a child (ok, pre-teen) and actually think that I wouldn’t love the Beatles as much as I do had I not been introduced to some of their more unusual songs via this movie.  Plus it’s a really fun movie.

I have a nice, large, lovely TV and big comfy sofas.  I would love company.  I’ll probably order pizza for dinner, and plan on starting the movie around 6:30 or seven.  Any takers?

Updates

/ lintqueen / 2 Comments

yowsa.  Apparently, it also understands how to do actions that are in the program window.  For example, I use Semagic to post my blog entries.  When I said “post entry”, it understood that I meant to post the entry to LiveJournal.

Okay, okay.  Enough being amazed by technology.

Knee updates:
the pain, for the most part, is much better.  I’m down to taking one OxyContin (time released version of oxycodone) at night, and lots and lots of ibuprofen during the day (which will help with the swelling, I’m told.)  I am doing my physical therapy, though honestly not as much as I probably should. (It hurts). Next week, I see Dr. Higgins again, and hopefully at that time he’ll clear me to unlock the leg brace, which might mean I’ll be able to drive again.

Other than the pain, the helplessness and trapped feeling that results from being unable to leave the house has been the worst part of this.  Most of the time, I’m really happy to be an extrovert, but times like this, I wish I could be happy just sitting at home “with time to myself”.  Again, counting my blessings, I really was out of it for the first week and a half (if you called me and I don’t remember it, don’t be offended… it’s because I’m not remembering anything from that time… sorry), so the passage of time wasn’t so excruciatingly slow then, but the last two weeks time has dripped by like molasses that’s been cooled in the fridge for several months.  All of this has been exacerbated by the fact that most of my normal craft pursuits are impossible in my limited mobility state.  The sewing machine — she is upstairs.  The stamps and paints and grommets and scissors — they are upstairs.  The beads, they are downstairs.  However, they are in a place where non-bendy leg space makes them inaccessible.  Oh so sad.  Plus, beads really need to be done over a desk or table or some other flatness, which my lap is not, so that they don’t all goes skittering away.

So that leaves me with knitting, which is well and good as I like knitting; however, I don’t yet have the mental stamina to tackle anything more complex than going round and round and round in a circle.  So I’m making a purse to be felted.  I had run out of black wool, but thankfully, my friend Kim is coming over tonight and bringing both Chinese food (yah!) and black wool.  And company.  Blessed, blessed company.

Dictation software

/ lintqueen / 3 Comments

As most of you know, I hate typing.  This is probably the single most important reason that I don’t update my blog very often.  All day, every day at work, I type, and by the end of the day I am just plain sick of it.

… and my fingers hurt (moan and whine)

So, this is a test.  I have bought Dragon Naturally Speaking Version 8.  I am attempting to to dictate this entry, though I’ve had to cheat twice.  I’m not sure yet how to make Dragon soft used to my parenthetical statements, as they seem to be confusing it.

That being said, for the most part, the bloody sucker seems to be working very very well.  Many moons ago, I had purchased a speech recognition software package, but it didn’t work at all.

I still have to talk more slowly than I would normally, but that’s not saying a lot since I’ve been told.  I speak to quickly anyway.  It’s probably not a bad thing for me to learn to enunciate and speak more slowly, at least when I want to.

Theoretically, this will get better the longer I go on as long as I’m patient with correcting it, which I will try to be.  At least it doesn’t sass me.  ;-)

Color me astonished.  It knows what I mean when I say quote “winky-face“

MetaMetaMetaMetaMetaMeta Meta

/ lintqueen / 2 Comments

Now look who’s cool… *I’m* blogging mckenzee blogging jason0x21 blogging Wonkette blogging CNN blogging Kos blogging Feingold’s blogging:

“‘joe klien’: now she’s reading us kos’s thoughts on feingold’s blogging”

Hot Potato! Hot Potato! Don’t drop it! (and link me :-)

Things I’ve learned

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  1. The keys to making a Wendy’s Mandarin Chicken Salad food:
    -drain the sucker. Take the lid, use it as a strainer thing, and dump out all the extraneous liquid that’s probably accumulated at the bottom.
    -use all the crunchies
    -don’t skimp on the dressing
    -don’t feel you have to eat all the chicken. Some of it will be odd, having sat in the liquid mentioned above.
  2. Getting *into* the shower when you are mobility-compromised is *NOT* the same from a physics perspective as getting *out* of the shower. Think this through before attempting same.
  3. Big metal leg braces *can* be modified to better fit your leg, even if your leg is not stick straight and five feet long (which is the athletic sort this brace seems designed to fit). The “sticks” (the metal uprights that run along the inside and outside of your leg) can be bent. The velcro bands can be cut, so that they can close around your ankles without overlapping for half again their length. Do these things before you wear the brace for a week and a half. You’ll be much happier.
  4. Get extra Ace-or-their-equivalent bandages. Your physical therapist probably has some on hand he’ll give you, if you ask nicely. It’s nice being able to alternate them through the wash.
  5. Flannel sheets, whilst nice under normal circumstances, are Not So Great when you’re sleeping in a biggum brace that almost guarantees that you’ll not flip once during the evening. Puddley flannel. Ick.
  6. Friends are *wonderful*. Friends that bring you treats are irreplaceable. Friends that’ll come over and keep you company when you’re all loopy on codeine are priceless. For everything else, there’s Mastercard.
  7. Irish Cream with cookie dough ice cream is the best thing EVAR!

OK, that’s it for now.

More updates.

DANG my KNEE HURTS!!! Went to physio today and stiches were taken out (cried like a little baby girl, I did). Plus did lots of bendy things with my knee that made awful noises and felt worse.

This is going to be a long six weeks (the duration of time I’ll be strapped in this damn brace).

And on knon-knee matters:
I saw something in a movie tonight (the original Thomas Crown Affair, which, unfortunately was one of those movies that move too slowly and bore me, so I didn’t finish it… or maybe that’s just the codeine talking) that made me notice something that used to be commonplace in my life that’s now vanished completely: calling a telephone number to find out the correct time. I used to phone the local time line at least once a month to make sure all my clocks were right, and I’ve not done that in at least 7 years now. Odd.

/ lintqueen / 3 Comments

Status update

/ lintqueen / 8 Comments

Knee surgery was more complicated than expected…as it turns out I had a “bucket handle” tear in my meniscus, which also needed to be fixed (or it would probably cause arthritis later). The surgery ended up taking until almost 4pm, instead of being done at noon.

The good news is that the meniscus will heal better in conjunction with the ACL replacement than it would alone (due to the …ew…blood that’s floating around, helping it to heal). And it probably would have needed surgery eventually anyway, so i guess it’s just as well.

That being said, I’m a lot more “banged up” than I expected — my knee is really swollen and hurts like the dickens. Thank heavens for codeine. I’m a little freaked out by the whole thing, as the leg brace that I have to wear is probably a few pounds and is making it *really* difficult to do things (like stand up :-( as it throws my balance off. Recovery time is longer with the meniscus repair too, so I don’t really know yet how long I’ll be out of commission.

The codeine has made me a little loopy too… I don’t remember a lot of what happened (which is probably good), but I’m also not good for much.

Lots of worries here… but I’m trying not to panic. I *will* get better…just not sure how quickly.

Coinkydink?

/ lintqueen / 4 Comments

This weekend I was more than a little antsy about the surgery…every time I thought of it I got the willies and became wonky and/or sad.  Sometime Sunday morning, working under the assumption that “expectation setting” was often a useful thing, I told Jeff that I would need “treats”* during my post-surgery recovery.  He acknowledged and said he’d thought of that already (yah!).

Last night was the worst night I’ve had in a while.  Had a devil of a time falling to sleep — flipping and flopping and worrying about my knee for hours.  Eventually I went to sleep, but when I awoke this morning I was still feeling ookie and strange.  When Jeff asked how I was, I told him that I felt a bit “off” but that I’d had a good dream involving a label-maker (I think, in my still-sleepy haze I may even have mimed the turning of the little wheel and squeezing of the little the handle to make it clear what I was referring to).

This label-making dream set off the OCD demon and so this morning I began to search for a label maker…I’d looked on eBay and was in the process of investigating Staples, since I knew Jeff had to go there anyway this week to return a mousie, when I found a nice little (new-fashioned, electronic) label-maker at a good price.  I emailed Jeff the URL and asked him if he thought it was a good label maker.

He then came into my room, carrying the label-maker.  Which he’d bought for me *yesterday*.  Before I told him I’d need “treats”.  Before I had my dream about label-makers.  Before I remembered my dream about label-makers (I don’t usually remember my dreams).  Before I even told Jeff my dream about label-makers (I don’t normally tell Jeff the dreams I do remember).

Freaky.

Nice label-maker, too!

* treats = small presents, toys, tasty food, ice cream… you know — the good stuff

Music

/ lintqueen / 3 Comments

The music meme thingy, via sarah_ovenall

1. Total amount of music files on your computer?

oh boy. Will have to confirm with iTunes at home, but I know it’s 8000+ tracks. Edited to add: 8932 songs (more frightening yet: almost 100% of that is legitimate music I own! I’m such a dork that when everyone was Napstering, I was only downloading songs I already owned, so I wouldn’t have to rip them…there are a few things that I downloaded and never bought, but probably less than 100 songs total).

2. The last CD you bought was…

Hrm…two at almost the same time: (1) Marshall Crenshaw, Marshall Crenshaw (I saw him a few months ago at the Pour House in Raleigh, and realized how desperately I needed to have the song “Someday, Someway” (but I had to wait until I “needed” something else to order it ;-) and Spinning Jennies, Stratosphere

3. What was the last song you listened to before reading this message?

Wellllll, if the song in my head counts it’s “Someday, Someway”. If the last song I sang counts, it’s Norah Jones, “Lonestar”. If it’s the last song I actually heard playing on an external device it’s Mark Erelli, “Why Should I Cry Over You” (he’s playing the Six String Cafe on this Saturday, BTW)

4. Write down five songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you.

  • “Let it Be”, The Beatles — this one is the easy one ’cause it’s a constant

The others are tougher, as I tend to get obsessive about songs for a period of months… my current ones (based on iTunes playcounts — I gotta be fair) are:

  • “Honey & the Moon”, Joseph Arthur
  • “All I Want”, Karin Allyson (a cover of a Joni Mitchell tune)
  • “Mr. Harris”, Aimee Mann
  • “Lean on Me”, Beth Orton (not a cover of a Bill Withers tune)

I could throw out the immediacy data and attempt to create the “five greatest of all time” — but that would be a lot harder. ;-)

5. What 3 people are you going to pass this baton to and why?
How about ovrclokd, Sarah of navelgazer.com and Kate, the Self Taught Girl just because they seem to represent a fair spread of folks.

/ lintqueen / 5 Comments

I’ve been dreading posting to LJ, ’cause I’m, well, honestly, a bit compulsive and obsessive (I know, all you guys that know me are shaking your heads in astonishment now) and there’s so much that I’ve not commented on, it now seems like a thoroughly daunting process to even *try* to catch things up with any degree of clarity, consistency or completeness.

I suppose I should just give up my anal-retentive desire to have a *complete* update and just start talking again, eh?

Christmas was lovely. Michigan was cold and remote, but beautiful. There are many tractor dealerships there. Jeff’s family is tres normal, which is pretty nifty. Our visit with Paul and Kate (outside London) was wonderful. I had my first real Christmas pudding, complete with booze and flames! The dollar being so low compared to the pound made After Christmas 50% Off Sales nearly meaningless. Huff the hedgehog was even cuter in person than he is in photos. I think I’m only a little allergic to him (but that might still be too much). Department stores in England have *fabric* and *yarn* and *notions*. London was cold and windy, but fun. Harrods still does a great tea and if you try to eat all the wee sandwiches and pastries you will not want dinner until waaaaaay too late to get dinner (say 10pm). Wagamama is the best noodle place ever. Plum wine mixed with fizzy water makes something vaguely cider-like. Germans celebrate New Years in a very raucous fashion. Fireworks (even the biggish ones) are apparently completely legal there. Even if you take a regional jet like Ryanair between London and Germany, you still need to remember that you’re crossing borders and you’ll have to do the whole customs thing (no, I wasn’t smuggling or anything, it was just a lot more rigmarole than I was expecting for an hour long flight). I took some pictures (which aren’t adequately labeled. Sorry).

(ok whew.)

The biggest thing on the horizon is that I have to have knee surgery (ACL reconstruction) on the 22nd, as my knee went “flippy” twice over the holidays (this is twice more *after* the original injury on 12/2). I am more than a little ookie about this, but honestly, I’d rather get this over with (pay for the pain up front, as it were) than continue to have my knee give out (“pivot shift” is the technical term for the badness) while doing completely normal activities like shifting position while sitting (I kid you not). Ick.

The good news is that my doctor, Dr. Higgins, seems to be very well-regarded in his field. And I trust him (which is worth a great deal in and of itself). I’m getting an allograph (contrast: autograph, from one’s own tissue), which means I’ll get a dead guy’s knee bits. Sorta ookie about that too (which is funny, since I am an organ donor!). Though it’s outpatient surgery, they want to keep me overnight for observation — and apparently as long as I don’t stay more than 23 hours it’s still outpatient! Odd. I go over to the hospital on Thursday for my “workup” (which sounds like something the mafia would do to me …) . (It’s a good sign that he travels with the Duke basketball team, right? They wouldn’t trust those knees to just anyone…)

Things are further complicated by the fact that the movers *were* scheduled to come the 15th-17th to load Jeff’s stuff on the truck, after which it was going on a merry journey of time-killing while he looks for his pied-a-terre in NY. Apparently the stuff can live on the truck for up to a month with no charge (and, in doing so, probably see more of the country than I have!), which is a very good thing, as he hasn’t even looked at places yet.

With my surgery now scheduled for next week (and they couldn’t do it this week), Jeff had to scramble to see if the movers could switch their pick-up to the week of the 21st. Of course the only day they had open was the 22nd, so we’re hoping the timing of the surgery itself and the desire of the moving dudes to come get his stuff don’t directly conflict. We’ll work it out one way or another, because if nothing else I can drive myself *to* the hospital…it’s just driving home on Wed. that will be out of the question.

And this weekend we went up to Maryland to go to Jeff’s friend Carolyn’s daughter Charlotte’s First Birthday Party. Then, on Sunday, we IKEA’d. All very good, if a bit exhausting, and it was a good distraction from the urgently logistical mess we’re in at the moment.

Not thinking about my knee. Ew.