Fresh, Hot Wastes of Time

Hip dysplasia update:

Wait, maybe I should start at the beginning. When DD#2 was born, she was a whopping 9lbs11oz. At her one week checkup, the pediatrician was concerned because her right hip clunked. He sent us to a pediatric orthopedist who did a sonogram of her hips and said that her right hip had congenital hip dysplasia. He sold us this thing called a Pavlik harness, which makes babies look like little spiders. Hub and I were really dubious about the whole thing, since it seemed like a good way for the doctor to make money selling x-rays and harnesses. We were pretty lax about putting her into her contraption, especially since it made it really hard to breastfeed.

Came her orthopedic checkup a couple of months later and the doc said that her hip was still out of whack, but he was willing to let us not use the contraption for a while and see what happened. Well, it didn’t get any better and now she was too big for the Pavlik thing, so we had to get her a Rhino brace. So we’ve had her in it at night for the last 6 weeks and now her hip is almost completely better. The left one is at an angle of 30° and the right is at 29°. The doc said we can keep her out of it if we want, but we’ll most likely put it on at night for another couple of weeks, just so something doesn’t rear its ugly head down the road and she has to have surgery when she’s 12 or something.

Real estate update:

They countered our counter offer, so we countered their counter to our counter. Clear? It’s just like playing tennis. Or something.

I get nervous when things go too well. I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Besides the fact that I keep getting outbid on eBay.

My husband woke me up this morning with the news that our lot, which has been on the market for a year and a half, has an offer on it. The first offer we’ve gotten. Then a friend asks me if I want to test some software. I can’t go into detail about it, but it’s really exciting for me.

I think I should just go to bed now, so I can quit while I’m ahead.

At this point I feel it’s important to mention that the beginning of Lion King brings me to tears. I don’t know why, I don’t know how, but every time I watch it I cry. And I’m not talking about a polite little tear slipping out, I’m talking about choking sobs and running nose, just one step below Russell Crowe in Gladiator. Hub thinks it’s terribly amusing and sits and watches me for the entertainment value. Bastard.

Man, I stood in line for hours today.

First was the whole post office thing. Then I showed up for the booksigning at about 6:30 only to be told that they sold out of books. I decided that I wasn’t going to stand in line forever just to get a signed bookplate, so I was just about to leave when I ran into Alton Brown himself. He seemed a little miffed that the store had run out of books. At that point I decided, in for a dime, in for a dollar, so I raced to another bookstore a few miles away to pick up 2 books, one for me and one for my friend. They only had one. Oy. I bought it, mentally debated whether to go back to bookstore #1 again and hear the talk and stand in line, and the masochist inside said to go back, which I did.

Stupidly, I had not taken a number when I went to bookstore #1 the first time. Well, perhaps not so stupidly, since the number droid downstairs told me I didn’t need one. I picked one up – E77. Alton Brown talked for about an hour, then they started calling people in groups to stand in line. Starting with C25. Which meant there were 250 numbers in front of mine. And being the nice guy that he is, Alton signed anything and everything people brought up (including an Emeril cookbook which he signed as “Emeril – BAM!”) and posed for pictures and stuff.

2 hours later I got up to the table. I told him that I didn’t want a picture since I didn’t bring a camera, but I asked him to please talk to my husband on the phone

(pause blogging at this point to have a heart attack when we discover that the 9 month old has climbed an entire flight of stairs and is roaming around the dining room, within the 10 second space that we didn’t have an eye on her, pant pant)

and thank him for babysitting. He said to get hub on the phone, so I called and it rang and rang and I figured hub was helping #1 daughter go potty, but he eventually answered and I said hey, hold on a second (while nice Alton Brown was smiling expectantly, waiting to talk on the phone, and the line people were getting disgruntled).

His response was no, I can’t talk, I’m on the other line with my mother.

Exasperation. I said no, hold on a second! and handed off the phone. Hub and Alton chit-chatted for 5 minutes or so, with Alton chastising him for letting the girls stay up so late. And he really dug my phone. And he’s the second celeb who told me that I have a beautiful name.

As an interesting sidenote, there were these total geeks sitting behind me who were loudly and ostentatiously discussing how they were logging on to the internet on their cell phones. I thought to myself, ooooohh, a dick size contest! and whipped out my i300 and proceeded to log on to AOL Instant Messenger and chat with hub. At which point said geeks became silent with awe and slunk away.

I rule.

I find it interesting that I’ve gotten 2 hits today from Texas government domains looking for James Avery charm bracelets. Does this mean that Texas state employees are going to be issued jewelry now? Enquiring minds want to know.

I waited today at the post office to mail a letter. When I got there, they were serving #35. My number was 54. I gave up in disgust when they were only at number 40 after 45 minutes. I gave my ticket to a man who had just come in and was number 74. That was my good deed for the day.

I’m heading to the Alton Brown booksigning at BookPeople tonight. Yes, I’m a geek. Did you doubt it for an instant?

Potty update: woke up from bedtime dry. We are all quite thrilled with her progress.

Ok, look. I guess I’d call myself generally conservative but mostly a libertarian. I don’t feel that the government has any business meddling in my body, my mind, or my private property. If pressed on voting Democrat vs. Republican, I can usually be counted on to vote with the GOP since I’m a strong supporter of Second Amendment rights.

However, it’s stories like these that make me want to buy my own little island and flip everyone else the bird.

FWIW, we were at a restaurant seated next to Sen. Wentworth once. Nobody could get service from the waitstaff for some damn reason, but instead of pulling rank or getting loud, Sen. Wentworth ran up to the counter and helped himself to more iced tea and chips. Compare this to the time we had brunch in the same restaurant as Ann Richards, completely across the room from her, and she was so damned loud it was like she was right next to us. Class versus none.

I just shaved my husband’s head with a #2 comb. He sure has come a long way from the guy he was when we first met, with hair down to his backside.

Keep track of journalist partisanship for the NYTimes, Wall St. Journal, and Washington Post.
Is anyone else but Mike Tyson happy he’s still alive after getting pummeled by Lewis?
Another reason to be glad not to be Australian.