*ha!

this always makes me laugh- thought i'd share

whipersnapper

find me :)

You're my Sally

Amy got me a nice gift the other night. She knows how much I like The Nightmare Before Christmas characters and the Jack and Sally love story, so she bought me a set of blank cards with Jack and Sally’s portraits on them. They came in a cool black velvet box too. I love her!

Thanks for getting the house ready for our families’ visits 2 weekends in a row, Luv Bug <3

You're my Sally :)

tied (and bolted) together

I went to the Doc yesterday. He un-splinted the hand and took a look. To my surprise he said that my skin was elastic/loose enough that he only had to make one incision! Unfortunately the hand is swollen like a bruise-green and yellow pitcher's mitt. Today one of our students woke up, opened his eyes and saw my fingers sticking out of my splint and said "Dude! why is your hand that funky color?!" Amy and I explained to him surgery, iodine and bruising due to blood pooling. Also, the tendons are so sore and stiff that I have about 10degrees of flexibility. :( My 1st rehabilitation therapy is Friday morning at 8:00 am.
The doc showed me the x-rays and explained that he used 2 differently shaped titanium plates with bolts and also showed me that he bound the bones together with a wire. I told Amy that my Dr. must have grown up in the country because he used bailing wire to fix me up... I guess there was no need for duct tape today.

In other news: on Monday, perplexingly, all the student's seminary materials were missing. We scrambled a bit looking for them and asked the bishop if he knew anything about it but continued on with the lesson as planned (using scriptures from the library). Long story short, we got a call from a nearly-apologetic (caught) student saying that the books would be returned by class time the next day. The next day he actually apologized and everything was dandy.

1st day back at work

Amy was smart and suggested I take pain pills alternately every few hours (instead of trying not to take any and waiting till it hurt too much to stand.)

So i took an Ibuprofen and hydro-codeine alternately every few hours. it worked great till i decided to take the codeine just before work and spent the whole day trying to stay awake... not very productive... in fact it's only 4pm now.
woozy-dizzy me- back to work... zzzz

wish me luck!

surgery is at 5:30am to 9/10:00am (release time) at O'Connor Medical Center.
I already wrote "NO!" on the top of my right hand so they don't cut into the good one. :)
thanks for the well-wishes, AW

Re: Family, yah... i got a boo boo,

hi all, Cindy asked for more details. I'm pretty slow at typing, but... this excuse doesn't help.
I either landed on it and smashed my hand with a wrist-guard OR i just wrenched my fingers back...
I've a plaster splint and I'll hear from the dr. office today as to when surgery is scheduled.
i hear 4-6 weeks to heal. I'll have metal plates in the middle of my hand on my 2 middle (middle and ring) finger's metacarpals (that's right where spider man presses for his web to spin.) thanks for the concern, AW

wolverine-me!

i get 2 plates a lot like this. surprisingly, I will be able to move my fingers nearly immediately after the surgery (next week).
(Amy said i was going to be like wolverine and REALLY like the man of steel)

"This healing ability enabled the supersoldier program Weapon X to bond the near indestructible metal alloy adamantium to his skeleton and claws."

Ctrl + Z

7:45 last night past dusk. I tried to get a 1/2 hour in at the skate park before it closed. I was having a really fun session until i tried a front-side rail-slide on a slickening-from-the-evening-dew rail. with my fingers all twisted around i knew they were at least out of socket so i tried to re-set them. That didn't do much good as you can see from the x-ray. hint- i told the doc that "I broke 1 or 2 metacarpals"
(look at numbers 3 & 4 at mid-hand)

I called Amy at work and she came to my rescue as soon as she could. Then the elders- they met us at our place before we went to the hospital and gave me a blessing. I asked the new elder to give it and he's Tongan just learning English- it was testimony building. Amy's been taking great care of me even while being sick. I hope all works out well. ouch

yes, i was wearing ALL my pads. :)

1/2 year anniversary July 4 2008

This is the Shadowbrook Restaurant. We found it highly appropriate since our engagement celebration night dinner (and our 1st beach night date) were at the Crow's Nest restaurant which is owned by the same people. The Crow's nest will always be "our" restaurant, but this place was extremely charming as well. I'm sure IT claims the heart of many couples as well.

The Shadowbrook has an amazing atmosphere best enjoyed in the evening. It has a trolley that descends to the restaurant through a steep, multi-tiered garden. There are dining areas overlooking the creek and patio and the decor is like what I might describe as "European mountain-lodge". I recommend it highly, but be sure to go at night when it's a-sparkle with romance.

salamanders vs newts

Saturday, July 12, 2008,

Here is one of the Salamanders that Amy found on our 10 mile hike through Big Basin waterfalls ( it was her idea actually :D ). They were rough brown on top and smooth bright orange on bottom. I think it's pretty cute that she calls them lizards then geckos then finally salamanders. I got to wondering if I was also calling it the wrong name so I looked it up...

Surprisingly, there is no really meaningful difference. The distinction is more historic than scientific. Newts are a subgroup of salamanders. All newts are salamanders, but not all salamanders are newts. The following are the things that distinguish newts from salamanders.

• A salamander is called a "newt" if it belongs to one of the following genera: Cynops, Echinotriton, Euproctus, Neurergus, Notophthalmus, Pachytriton, Paramesotriton, Pleurodeles, Taricha, Triturus, or Tylototriton.
• Newts generally spend more of their adult lives in the water than salamanders. However, there are exceptions (terrestrial newts and aquatic salamanders).
• Newts generally have more distinctive differences between the sexes and a more complex aquatic courtship. Again, there are exceptions.

Amy's being a tree spirit here