(no subject)

36 hours after surgery

Omaha's surgeon had given her his personal cell phone number in case there were any complications. He didn't think there would be any. The newest generation of machines, he said, cost $10 million and the county could only afford one, so they shipped it around on a van from hospital to hospital, each one getting the machine on a daily basis. I got the impression that, other than for repair and transport, it was in use 16 hours a day, working on 6 to 8 patients a day. But, he said, the machine was so damned accurate and effective he doubted he'd ever have to open up a patient ever again.

Saturday, I got a call from the hospital. "We just wanted to see how Omaha was doing." I said I'd have to go find her, she was out in the garden getting the tools cleaned up and ready. "Oh, then I'll just mark down that she's fine."

We went to Kouryou-chan's school, where I did the gutters (yeah, yeah) and Omaha did the hedge trimming. It took about four hours. When we got home, Omaha was exhausted enough that she lay down and we both took a 90-minute nap. Then Omaha went out to a girls-night-out event with some other women from the neighborhood, and I took Kouryou-chan and Storm to the mall to hang out and do a little shopping.

Dinner was mall food, at least for me and the girls. I discovered that the mall burrito place at southcenter will substitute extra refried beans for rice, so I dropped the carb count a bit and upped the protein, which I count as a win.

Omaha was exhausted and hurting when she got home, but otherwise fine. She went to bed early.

Pasty slug Elf.

Sunday morning was gorgeous, so after a breakfast of pancakes we went out to the yard and cleared it of all winter's debris. I took care of the composting and the vegetable gardens while Omaha climbed up into the trees and cleaned off bushes and trimmed. Hard to believe that just last week, all week, she was in so much pain she couldn't move and so stoned she couldn't think.

There was just enough sun that I wanted a 20-minute vitamin-D cascade, so I took my shirt off and pitched and shoveled, and didn't feel all that cold at all. It was rather astounding. I so need to get physical more often. But we have a good 30 gallons of compost, I think, and Lisakit pointed out that I could get the second compost bin up and running if I wanted, I'd just have to dig a starter ring.

I made the girls egg salad sandwiches, but I had quinoa, bacon and salsa as a salad. It was tasty.

It's Bacon! B A C O N! What more do you need to know?

I went to Nutrition Data, a reasonably helpful (usually) calorie and protein counter for all kinds of foods. I typed in "bacon," and it said,

Please narrow your search. Do you mean: Breakfast Cereals, Legumes and Legume Products, Poultry Products, Pork Products, Sausages and Luncheon Meats, Soups, Sauces, and Gravies, Fats and Oils, Baby Foods, Fast Foods, generic, Foods from A&W, Foods from Arby's, Foods from Back Yard Burgers, Foods from Burger King, Foods from Carl's Jr., Foods from Chick-fil-A, Foods from Culver's, Foods from Dairy Queen, Foods from Del Taco, Foods from Domino's, Foods from Hardee's, Foods from Krystal, Foods from McDonald's, Foods from Papa John's, Foods from Papa Murphy's, Foods from Subway, Foods from Wendy's, Foods from White Castle, Foods from Wienerschnitzel, [more...]

It's bacon! BACON. B. A. C. O. N. The meat of the gods, you stupid machine. How much more "narrowing" do you need?

I love cross-linguistic humor...

This picture has been cracking me up ever since I saw it yesterday. Omaha didn't get it, and when I explained it she said, "Yeah, whatever." But I love it. I think the insights necessary to think, "It looks like he's breakdancing," make it a demotivational, come up with the way out-of-date "Stop! Hammertime," and then realize that not only would it be funnier in German, but that the viewer wouldn't even have to know German to get it, all point to a brilliant flash of insight.

( Another one: Comic OL )

I'm totally dressing as a pirate for Halloween in 2012

Radical Homosexual Pirates invade Tampa:

When the young men are sufficiently intoxicated, homosexuals dressed as pirates whisk them away to God knows where to take advantage of them sexually. There are even countless stories of any number of immoral sex act being performed by open homosexuals - some even in broad daylight during the event. Pro-family citizens and churches in Tampa are horrified and unfortunately VASTLY outnumbered and overwhelmed by the popularity of the event. One mother complained her three year old had witnessed a man performing oral sex on a Jack Sparrow look alike in her front yard. As long as the Radical Homosexuals run free in our streets, they will continue to spread their debauchery and corrupt our culture.

-- Eugene Delgaudio, Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, Florida Virigina.

[Edited for clarification.]