Sammy's cast, version 2.0

Monday was Sam's surgery to correct Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip (Tons of info here).

We had him in a cast once before, when he was 6 months old, which resulted in one of my favorite photos of all time:

and one of the internet's favorite videos of all time:



The cast didn't work entirely, nor did the two years of young-forrest Gump style leg brace that he's worn 60 hours a week since. It pretty much corrected his left hip, but his right hip still hadn't formed properly.

Our doctor (a recently retired Army Colonel), a wonderful pediatric surgeon, said now was the time to go ahead and do a surgical procedure to correct the hip once and for all. So, we brought Sam in at 5:30 Monday morning for the big procedure. Poor Sam didn't really understand what was going to happen to him- that's what bothered Rebekah and I the most. He was his usual chipper self, running jumping and having a blast in the OR waiting room. When he went into the prep room he fought and cried against the gas mask. No fun for Mom and Dad either.

The surgery took about 3.5 hours and we got to see him right as he was regaining consciousness. He was groggy and a little scared. His first reaction was to try to climb out of his cast- he had had an epidural so couldn't feel anything below his waist. It was tough to see him so agitated by the cast- he'll have to wear it for 4-6 weeks (the longer the better).

We got up to the room some time later and settled in to 24-48 hours of hospital stay. Nicholas showed up with Grandma and the family hung out and watched movies. Sammy had a few shots of painkiller as the epidural wore off, and his mood improved as the hours wore on. I caught up on a few movies with him on my lap: There Will Be Blood... Definitely, Maybe and Atonement, as well as the first half of Slumdog Millionaire.

He colored and watched some movies too... believe he got through Brother Bear, Ironman and several WonderPets episodes.

We decided to do without a wheelchair and just use our jogging stroller/bike trailer. Costco win.
When we got home Chris and Clarissa were there waiting for us with their new little puppy, Kona- big treat for Sammy!
Now it's just a challenge of keeping him clean and entertained for 4-6 weeks, and then him learning to walk, run and be a terror again.

Sammy's saying "thanks for all the prayers, kind words and love!"

Momentum Crit

Had a lot of fun racing the Momentum Crit on Sunday... the HACC did great and dominated from start to finish. I led the last lap and a half and gave my guys the final lead-out to set them up for the sprint. It was a lot of fun, and I'm really looking forward to the next three races in the series... pictures, courtesy of Grandma and Rebekah, linked below!

Thoughts I'm thinking.

Thought I'd do some free-flowing stream of consciousness writing for a bit here...

1) I'm sore in odd places here in the beginning of this Tri season. I did a lot of legs in the gym on Monday and a little upper body, and now two days later my legs feel super and my chest and arms feel like they've been beaten with a 7-Iron. Combined with a sore throat, swimmer's ear and massive heartburn, I'm in an oddly irritable mood. Sorry everyone.

2) I've discovered Michael Swaim. This dude is funny, like Will Ferrell or Ryan Reynolds with a good writer. Here's his latest, below. He's got a bunch more videos here and here, it's rather blue humor but his delivery is fan-tastic.


Tech Support from Those Aren't Muskets! on Vimeo.

3) I'm pretty happy with how Mr. Obama is shaping up to be a pres-o-dent. Regardless of your thoughts a few months ago, everyone seems excited and energized by the guy and he wants to tackle some tough problems right out of the gate- something that G-Dub hasn't been able to do for years. I especially like talk of elimination of Pork inserts in bills and putting social security in check. I'm curious to see what Panetta does at CIA- if he even gets in, but I've met Admiral Blair and think he'll be a great DNI, he's keeping the highly capable (if USAF-critical) Gates as SECDEF, and former Marine Commandant Jim Jones as Nat'l Security Advisor. All middle of the road guys who are unlikely, IMHO, to play politics too much. But since I try to avoid politics and religion on here... I'll shut up now.

4) The blogging Clark to my Lewis, Strap, posted his annual roundup of beer ratings. He grades on quality combined with price per ounce- so you get an idea of what beers are both good and cheap. The whole thing is here, check it out.

5) I joined facebook two weeks ago, and have become moderately proficient. Facebook has resulted in one dinner with two high school pals already, gobs of money and fame can't be far now.

6) on a barefoot trip out to the garbage can, i narrowly missed stepping on this guy:

Thinking to myself "hey, sure am glad I didn't step on that"... I continued. Then I almost stepped on this guy:


HOLY CRAP THAT IS A SCORPION. I've seen one before, over at Bellows on a field exercise in the Marines. We caught one scorpion and two big centipedes and pit them in a fight to the death. THE SCORPION WON (but died a few hours later).

Gotta admit I was disappointed to meet this guy in my driveway. I thought he was dead, poked him with a stick, and he skittered off.
7) New family policy: Shoes.

8) received this delightful annual account summary in the mail yesterday:


My IRA from my old job.. yowza. I guess everyone is getting these around now- condolences. Is that big negative number a deduction? Probably not.

9) I can read Failblog.org and best of craigslist all day long. Hours wasted here. It's my dream to be published there someday.

10) Bedtime.

Ode to my Bride...

We did some pre-grandma arrival housecleaning today, thought I'd share this one... I noticed a frightening pattern on the letter magnets on the fridge...


She does this naturally... some would say compulsively. It's nice to have an organized person in the house, but sometimes It's a little frightening.

Then again, Mrs. Dewey or Mrs. Linnaeus probably had the same fears. My wife is likely bound for greatness.

Reporting from the War Zone...