Improvements

Moonlight Scotch Broom plants were on sale at the local nursery and, since there was one on the property when I got it (way overgrown, but did not make the move from the patio area to the side yard) I thought it might be nice to have a new one -- in the side yard, as originally intended.
The hole digging went much more smoothly than I expected, so now I'm enjoying one of my birthday presents (bought with a gift card): Family Guy: Star Wars Trilogy. I'm not generally a Family Guy fan* but it is really good (especially the first one, Blue Harvest).  I highly recommend it to any Star Wars fan.  (And for any of my friends, you're welcome to borrow mine.  :)

*I once dated a guy who disliked South Park because of Cartman, but loved Family Guy. I, on the other hand, dislike Family Guy because of Peter, but love South Park. The humor of this was not lost on me, as both are extremely similar, boorish and unpleasant. 

Me and Work

Last weekend, I did an experiment about working first, then playing later. It worked in the sense that I got lots done (and needed to). It also confirmed for me that my internal rhythm does not suit that particular saying. I worked the entire weekend and did not actually get any "play" because of several factors:
- If I am "on a roll" and getting somewhere on my neverending to-do list, I won't stop because of some arbitrary stopping point. This is why I work late during the week and why I rarely go into work early. My most productive time is in the afternoon, so it's hard for me to stop working during that time.
- I have a strong habit of needing to "finish" a task before I stop. This often manifests as needing to finish the chapter or a scene before putting a good book down, finishing a knitting row or sequence before putting knitting down, finishing a task at work before stopping for the day, etc.
This, paired with my morning attention patterns:
- I'm often late for work because I get distracted and start emptying the dishwasher (which, of course has to be finished before I leave), reading an article in a magazine, taking out the trash, etc.
- The above distraction at work as well makes it difficult to get a lot accomplished in the morning. I'm checking my email, catching up on what I missed online at the end of the day before, etc. (I rarely get online in the evenings anymore. It really screws with my bedtime.)

The conclusion is, I'm not going to feel guilty anymore that I play first and work later. Life is too short to fight your inner nature, and as long as I get stuff accomplished sometime and it doesn't negatively affect others, who cares when I get it done?

A Case for a Hermitage

1. When you are a hermit, no one comes to your house, so they don't see the cat hair on the couch or the drips of spaghetti sauce on the stove top or the crumbs on the counter and think "TSK. Doesn't she ever tidy this place?"

2. When you are a hermit, you don't see anyone, so they don't look at your clothes and your hair and think "TSK. There's a stain on the collar of his shirt. And his hair is much too long. Would it kill him to get a haircut?"

3. When you are a hermit, you don't interact with anyone, so you don't have to be afraid of accidentally offending someone or hurting someone's feelings, as if you were some sort of lumbering cave troll who backs into someone's favorite heirloom vase and sends it tumbling to its doom.

4. When you are a hermit, you don't tell anyone what you do, so you can spend your time as you really honestly like. If you feel gardening that day, you can spend the whole day covered in dirt. If you feel like sitting in the sun reading a book, you can do that without someone thinking, "What a lazy bum. Doesn't she know there is grass to be mown, weeds to be pulled, leaves to be raked and plants to be watered?"

When you are a hermit, you are insulated from judgment. Sure, the people in the town 40 miles away, where you go to get supplies think, "Strange old duck. Half the marbles have rolled away," but they only think that on the day you go into town, every 3 months or so. And the rest of the time, you're free to be yourself.

More Hobbity Goodness

I swear, this is not going to become a Hobbit Blog. Eventually, when my knee is better, we'll get back to pictures of tasty food, camping trips, maps of motorcycling trips, etc. But for now, I'm (quite literally) sick and tired and will post a cool link instead of saying something pithy.

Hey, look at this cool link for some beautiful Russian illustrations of The Hobbit! I love the furry legs on Bilbo and Smaug is gorgeous. I'm pretty sure the dwarves would object to being depicted like something out of Snow White, but the simplicity of the drawings is lovely.

Hobbity Goodness

Filming has begun on The Hobbit! SQUEEEEE!!

When I heard Martin Freeman had been selected to play Bilbo, it seemed the perfect choice.

The director, Peter Jackson, said Freeman was born to play the role. "He is intelligent, funny, surprising and brave, exactly like Bilbo, and I feel incredibly proud to be able to announce that he is our Hobbit."

It thrills me silly to think that they have made such a good start. (Granted, they've been having other troubles up to this point.) A good start on the translation of the story is what I mean.

I'm not sure how much I'm going to follow the production. I love knowing how movies are made, but I usually see that stuff after I watch the movie. Here are a couple spots to follow the news:
The Hobbit (movie) website
The One Ring dot Net

And finally, for your entertainment, click here for an interesting comparison of production promotion photos from the LotR movies and the Hobbit movies. Taken a decade apart. :)

SQUEEE!

Surgery Update

Well, that wasn't a particularly successful "thread." It turned out that feeling crappy and having to lounge far enough back that my knee is above my heart is a pretty good deterrent for getting online.
Here's the update:
It's almost two weeks after the surgery. I initially had a bad reaction to Percoset and was switched to Vicodin, but even the milder side effects of that were intolerable to me. A week after surgery I ditched the pain meds in favor of ice and Tylenol. I'd resort to a drink if it were a particularly hard day.
I've been doing PT for the last 9 days. It took me a bit to figure out how to work in 3 one-hour (45 min. exercising, 15 min. icing) PT workouts into my schedule, but I think I've managed it. I just got back from my second PT appointment and while I've got good range of motion, I've got to continue to work on it and I've got to concentrate on maintaining a good, natural heel-toe motion when walking. Tough to do with a brace and a crutch, but I'll work on it.
I slept all the way through the night last night... Yippee! Actually, yesterday was a good day. I worked from home (went in to work the day before) and had my knee iced and elevated most of the day. The swelling had gone down considerably and I was in less pain.
Today, not so great, as I am out and about and not being able to be as diligent, but... oh well.

I'll update this post later after my appointment with the surgeon in about an hour...

Surgery Thread

This story will be told in installations, as I am too tired for long term computer use today.

Yesterday afternoon, I had my first real surgery, with IVs and anesthesia and whatnot. It was surgery to replace my ruptured ACL and to trim back torn pieces of my miniscus.
The process went very smoothly and all the nurses and doctors were funny and professional at the same time. I wasn't hungry all morning, since I had stuffed myself with pad thai the night before. When they took me into the surgery room, I lay down on the bed and they laid wonderfully warm blankets on me. The anesthesiologist (a very funny guy who also volunteers to help poor children in Guatemala) started applying sensors to my body and said something about me feeling a sensation when the anesthesia starting to enter my bloodstream, and then... nothing. I woke up from what seemed like a deep sleep (I think I even had weird dreams) in a strange room. Oh, yeah, I thought, I had surgery today. It was the recovery room, of course. I have to admit, it feels very weird to think of being unconscious and people doing thins to me and my body without my direct knowledge.
From what I hear, I was very pale coming out of surgery, but my color gradually returned as the time progressed. My mum was able to come in and sit with me both in pre-op and in the recovery room. Stacey also came by and helped by keeping my mum company and then helping us by leading the way back home. (Thank you, dear Stacey!)
So far, I've done a lot of sleeping and taking pain pills on a schedule. Mum made a yummy barley, mushroom, and parsnip soup and plying me with yummy eats like sauteed Portabella mushrooms on toast. I've been drinking water pretty constantly (I was going to the bathroom every 3 hours last night) and have been getting handier with the crutches.
So, every side effect but one have been minimized. I'm not nauseous and the pain is well managed, but I get tired very easily. In fact, I feel another nap coming on.

Later, a description of how I got the injury, what the surgeon did and how she fixed it.

Thank you, everyone, for your help and support!

Double Take

Here's an interesting website for the graphic designers in my acquaintance:

Copycat Covers

Not only similar covers -- nearly identical ones! Tells me there are too many books being published or two many artists not being hired.