A stitch in time

I consider myself a relatively reasonable person, but I've come to notice I have a tendency to get ticked off about something and assault Chad the second he walks in the door from work. My tirades are usually about the dog, I admit, but sometimes about our house (messy), our spending (too high), my job (stressful!) or our dinner (too late). The good news is that apparently I'm not alone -- other people do this, too!

Of course, I didn't really pay attention to all of this until I was reading something about Dr. Phil's "four-minute rule." The first four minutes of your conversation set the tone for the rest of the evening, he says--which is so true--and how you act in those four minutes can literally be the benchmark for the rest of your night. (For those of you who think I'm being sexist, this absolutely positively goes both ways!) Still, I've been really making a mental note on this for the last few weeks and I've started to notice how much of a difference it's made.

So when I came home from work tonight and saw that Lucy had taken a roll of toilet paper out of the bathroom and made a nest with it, just like last week, because we had forgotten to shut the door -- again -- I waited until Chad had been home for 4 minutes and 1 second to point it out. And even then I was nice about it. But it was still his turn to clean it up.

Spooky

In one word, "spooky" describes our Halloween estimates for this year. So much for this being the fun holiday to talk about!

D-Day

Today is the day Chad heads to the orthopedic surgeon to figure out what's wrong with his knee. I'll update this post this afternoon when I know more. Hoping it's not anything major but that if he does need surgery that it can be done quickly with minimal recovery time.

Update from the doc...

Chad completely tore his ACL and partially tore his meniscus. He's going to try to schedule surgery the first week of November, but has to go to physical therapy beforehand to repair it enough so that he can actually have the surgery. (In other words, it is totally screwed up.)

On the plus side -- and there are some plus's here -- this is the same surgery the surgeon had himself, so at least he knows how this works. And, like he told Chad, he now has something in common with Tom Brady, who did the exact same thing last year. The surgeon is confident that if Chad spends 4-6 months rehabbing it, he'll be able to play sports just as actively again. So, some not-so-good news all around but it could be a lot worse. I think Chad's just happy to have a game plan.

Now I have to spend the next month stocking up on movies and board games, practice looking at gross things without fainting, and try to figure out our health insurance to make sure this isn't going to cost an arm and a leg. Or, in this case, a knee.

Cheater, cheater pumpkin-eater

So I've been cheating on my blog. All week. I feel kind of bad about it, but I literally cannot write any more and something had to give.

If you want to see where I have been blogging, you can view my posts on the Shop.org blog.

I'm looking forward to leaving Las Vegas tomorrow morning but, until then, I've got to get back to work!

Sticks and stones

I've mentioned before that, for a lab, Lucy really hates to swim. But a few weeks ago, when we went to Teddy Roosevelt Island on Labor Day, Chad launched a stick a little too far out in the river and Lucy just swam right out to get it.

Earlier this weekend, she repeated her performance fetching sticks and balls at the dog park in Shirlington.

Common scents

Remember the perfume sampler set that Rachel gave me for Christmas? I thought it was the best gift ever. But here it is September and I still haven't made up my mind on which one of the eight perfumes I like most.

I thought I had narrowed it down to two different scents but tonight, on our way to dinner, I threw on a new perfume to try something different. As I was waiting, I realized how much I liked it. Perhaps this will be the one I get in the full-sized bottle...but, hmm...I really do like the other two...

Rachel should have known better than to punt this decision to me. I'm almost as bad at them as she is!

Keeping house

I am fascinated by an email that was sent from someone in our neighborhood. (I've written before about the bizarre postings and insight this listserve of several thousand homes brings me.)

HOUSEKEEPER WANTED

Housekeeper wanted for busy professional couple in Old Town Alexandria. No kids, one small dog.

Ideal candidate would be available 2-3 times per week for thorough cleaning of 3BR 2.5BA home on 3 floors, loading & unloading of dishwasher, watering plants & cleaning patio area, doing all laundry & ironing. Someone energetic, reliable & legal with own transportation is essential.

If you or someone you know might be interested, please email me directly. Many thanks.

My questions -- and you can tell I've given this a considerable amount of thought: How much mess could a couple with a small dog and no kids possibly make? What do these people do for a living? Who are they? How on earth much money do you have to make to pay someone to come to your house three times a week to do chores? No matter how much money you have, isn't that really just overkill? It's all very fascinating.

I can't say that my life with a twice-weekly cleaner/launderer/ironer/gardener, etc. wouldn't be easier, I suppose, but I don't know that we make nearly enough mess to warrant that. Or money.

Good news, bad news

From the doctor...

Good news: Chad can get off the crutches. (Yes, that was a gigantic waste of $40 for one day of use.) X-rays show nothing is broken.

Bad news: The doc thinks we may be dealing with an ACL injury. "No softball, no football, no basketball...but you can ride a bike..." The irony that Chad hates bike riding does not escape me.

I have no idea what level of severity we're talking about until MRI results come back and Chad goes to the orthopedic surgeon in 10 days. Until then, he'll likely be hobbling around.

My favorite line in the Wikipedia entry about ACLs: "Surgical options may be used...if the patient is unable to refrain from participating in high-risk activities ever again."

Unable to participate in high-risk activities? Ummm, yes, I'm pretty sure that describes Chad.

A little prayer

Dear God,

Please give me the patience to deal with my husband, who the doctor has put on crutches at least until his MRI tomorrow morning. You know as well as I do that Chad doesn't do well when asked to sit still.

Oh, and please heal Chad's knee quickly. (Can you maybe make the results tomorrow be a sprain instead of a tear? That would be super.)

While I'd love to have Chad at home more nights, I don't really want to know what it's like to have to go an entire season with him unable to play softball or football. He might make me take up arm-wrestling or something to get his competitive fix and, well, that just wouldn't be a good deal for any of us.

Amen.

Famous last words

"Why hasn't the game started? It has to be 5:00 by now," said one of the wives at the first Galloping Ghosts football game of the season.

"It's only 4:50," said another, checking her watch. "It just feels like 5:00 because we've already been here for an hour."

"Well," I said, "Getting here early gives Chad time to warm up, so I guess that's worth it if it will keep him from getting hurt." (Besides, it was a nice night. If it was raining or cold, I would have been less tolerant.)

And on the second play of the game, Chad stopped, spun...and did something to his knee. It took him out of the game completely, and Chad never leaves the game completely. (We have no idea what's wrong, exactly, but if it's still bad on Tuesday, he promised he'd get it checked out.)

About 45 minutes later, Nick took a knee to the face. Rumor has it he's looking pretty splendid, too.

Travel tales

I am still going through the 400 or so photos from our trip in their entirety, but you may have to settle for about 80 of them for awhile. So until I caption the gazillion photos we took (I mean, really, how many pictures did we have to take of the Mona Lisa?), here's a little compilation of our time in France through the videos we took.

Fughgetaboutit

Ok, loyal and faithful readers. I have not forgotten about you.

I haven't forgotten to tell you all about our wonderful trip to Paris (and share pictures). Or discuss my first few crushingly-busy days back at work. Or the fact that Chad has played four softball games since we've returned. Or that somehow in the midst of keeping Lucy while we were gone, Janice and Nick taught her to stop jumping on people when they came in the door (fingers' crossed...but I do sense a pattern). Or that I have a bunch of things (Ellen to American Idol! Michelle Obama's dress!) that I just plain want to write about.

But please wait until this weekend. I almost have my thoughts together, though my mind is still somewhere very far away...

Aw, shucks

It's Labor Day.

Summer is over. Vacation is over. Bummer.

On the plus side, we celebrated the end of a fun summer tonight with filets on the grill, corn on the cob, and a nice bottle of wine.

We had a wonderful time on vacation. More on that later, when I've had time to get over my funk from having to go back to the real world tomorrow.