Ankle Blog Fodder

I know it's past my self-imposed curfew, but I meant to write last night and ran out of time. Been busy today and here we are at 10:30 - a good hour past my curfew. Oh well...

So, I went to my orthopedic surgeon yesterday to check in after 1.5 years after the break/surgery. I just wanted an opinion on whether or not I should get the hardware removed from my ankle at some point. Would it help the swelling go down? Would it be less sore? Would I stop feeling like I was hitting metal when I would bump up against the ankle?

It was odd to get to the building and realize that there are actually stairs up to the office versus the elevator. That was my first "new thing" there - checking out the stairs - with both feet!

Next up - more x-rays. My right ankle has had more radiation than....well, something with a lot of radiation (remember, it's after my curfew). I hopped up on the table to get the picture taken and the x-ray technician said "don't get too comfortable, I need you standing." What??? Stand on it for a picture? Guess when I was there for all of my other x-rays it was pre-weight bearing on the old ankle. We did a few pics and then I waited for the doctor to come in to talk.

Good news is that everything looks great he said - nice and healed. He pushed and prodded around the ankle and then repeated several times that "given my young age, it would make sense to have the hardware removed." (yes, he has won me over with constantly referring to my young age - versus a bartender tonight who carded everyone I was with but me.)

The doctor said that removing the hardware would potentially help the swelling go down and just the overall feeling of the ankle. He then looked closer at the x-ray in comparison with the before the screws/ after the break picture and did say there was maybe a little sign of arthritis in one area of the break. He said of course that is very typical with bone breaks.

I asked how the recovery time is for this type of surgery. He said that I would be in my walking boot for about a week while the incisions heal, but that's about it. He suggested doing the surgery mid-week and then being back at work the following Monday. I'm going into the busy time at work now, so I'll probably wait until January to do the surgery. Just in case I don't heal quite as quickly as he says, I want to make sure I won't be having to be on my feet alot at work.

So, I checked with Steve after the appointment to get his perspective. One of the first things he said was that he was for it as it would provide good blog fodder. I had been complaining that I didn't have anything to write about lately. Guess in January I'll be back to my critiquing of The Price is Right! :)

Little Rain + Pond in Yard = Swamp Dog

Zed has taken a liking to exploring the pond in front of our yard. I think he gets thirsty and heads to the pond for relief. Before you think we're poor owners and don't provide water for the pooch, please know that one of Zed's tricks is to carry around the water dish (with water in it). He ends up splashing much of it out and we find the bowl randomly around the yard.

This is a picture of him last night after a visit. Note the mud streak down the head. He's normally such a cute dog.

Today I fell victim to the swamp dog. Beautiful morning, thought I'd walk to the mailbox to get yesterday's junk mail. Zed decided to greet me before I got too far. I returned sans mail, but with a muddy mark on my clean shorts, mud from a tail splashed across my leg and mud drips on the white socks/shoes. Ahh....puppies!

Feelin' the Need to Blog, but about what??

Sometimes I come to this page and think - I want to blog about something. But often times, nothing comes to mind. As I've mentioned in previous posts, blogging about work is not something I can (or should) do. Sadly that is where the interesting posts would come from.

So often this ends up being a diary/journal of my day or weeks (if I've been a little slow in maintaining the blog). After breaking my ankle I had good material. Around the time of getting Zed and the other dogs in the family there was more material. Just not much right now.

Steve is doing something on his computer that is making a repetitive noise that is more than a little annoying.

I'll keep thinking about where I might want to focus my blogging energy. Keep checking back - I may hit upon a winner of all winners in blogging material. You just never know......

By the way - it's after 9:30 and I know I shouldn't be posting. I did do spellcheck - that should be fine. If the post doesn't make sense, well that's another story.

The Dark Knight

We took in The Dark Knight over the weekend. Yes, we helped Warner Bros. (ever so slightly) hit their $300 million in 10 day record for this movie. I will have to say it was well worth the money we spent to see it. We got extra lucky in that the time we decided to go ended up being the movie shown in the "Monster Screen" theater. It's not an IMAX, but it is much larger than a regular movie screen.

It was a great movie and I would definitely recommend it. It's action packed and the 2.5 hours goes very fast. Heath Ledger is great as the Joker.

There is a very cool ride that Batman has - called the Bat Pod. Basically a motorcycle type contraption. They actually had the Bat Pod at work several months ago. My company has a lot of tie ins with the movie, so we saw the Bat Pod live and in person.

Go see it! 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Cookie Dough Fondue on a Stick

9 years after moving here, we went to our first county fair tonight. Great night for it. It was overcast which kept people away and it was Thursday - also kept people away. We started out by just checking out the sites and sounds of the fair. We then stopped at the 4-H Diner for a little dinner - bbq pork sandwich for me, hamburger for Steve.

We then visited the animal barns and the other exhibits. It was fun seeing all of the animals. I actually heard a cow mooing and a pig oinking - up close and personal. The rabbits were very cute. The chickens and other bird types were ok, but frankly birds freak me out a bit. And no, I've never seen the movie The Birds. Don't think I could see that movie at all!

We ended the evening with dessert. Cookie Dough Fondue on a Stick. 3 disks of chocolate chip cookie dough (chilled) on a stick. They then dipped it into either chocolate or butterscotch - we chose chocolate. They then poured either sprinkles or peanuts over the chocolate. We chose the sprinkles. It was very rich - it was pretty tasty though. Something different. Not sure I'll ever have that again - ever. It was still fun.

We're now back home and I am getting ready to enjoy a day off of work tomorrow. We might take in The Dark Knight - we'll see.

Blogging Curfew Is Messing Me Up!

So, I posted the last blog to which Steve pointed out I had misspelled absolutely. I then was trying to name this post and had to ask the question about is it "time is pushed up" when moving from say 10:30 to 10:00 as a bedtime. He quickly read through my question and said "I'm not going to help you write your blog post."

Therefore, the new title is above. I think I need to establish an earlier "blogtime". Past 9:30 and I make less sense.

If you were able to read and understand this post - congratulations!

Hot Child in the City

Took a quick trip to St. Louis for the annual family baseball outing this past weekend. 100 degrees yesterday after we left the Arch. That's a little too warm for my northern climate blood. Made today's 85 seem like a cold front.

The Cardinals won on Saturday when we went to the game. They were down 5-0 and came back and won it 6-5. I think Puljos was credited with all of the RBI's. Cards won yesterday as well, but we weren't at the game. As mentioned above, we were at the Arch. First we went to Grant's Farm. All of the times I had been to St. Louis and I never once had gone to Grant's Farm. Very cool to see and the Clydesdale Horses are absolutley huge!

Can you believe it's already July 21st? Where is this summer going??????