bunchofgrapes

Elbow is coming along. I can't believe it's been two weeks since the surgery. Had my first physical therapy a week ago yesterday and got my sutures out a week ago today. Dr. told me he removed the bone spur that was causing a lot of issues, removed damaged tissue (debridement), and then drilled into the bone (microfracture) to increase the blood flow and create new cartilage. Even after two weeks there's still some pain and swelling but the pain is generally random instead of constant. I'm mostly taking Advil now but at night I'm taking 1/2 a Vicodin so I can sleep.

Getting comfortable in bed so I can fall asleep is probably the hardest. I still can't cut things, touch my right hand to my shoulder, the top of my head, or my mouth (have to eat left-handed, which has been a good thing) but I can shave my left armpit - yay! I'm not allowed to type for more than 5 minutes with my right hand, which is probably good because my arm gets tired and achy for anything longer than that so yes, I'm typing this post with my left hand. Lots of corrections to make. The hardest restriction though is that I can't lift anything heavier than a pen/pencil with my right hand. Yesterday's PT consisted of stretching my rotator cuff in my right shoulder because it hurt more than my elbow. I had this shoulder pain before surgery and it probably contributed to my elbow problems. So my fear is that after my elbow gets better, I'll be back at the doctor for my shoulder. It really is better today though. Yesterday I couldn't lift my right arm at all. Today I can but it still feels weak.

Boredom set in last week but luckily my friends and co-workers have helped. My manager and the business management team came by last Thursday for lunch. I really like our team so I was very happy to see them. Friday I had lunch with my former neighbor and that was a lot of fun. Saturday my parents took me to dinner and then we hit the outlet mall for tax-free shopping. Since I still can't cut things, my dad had to cut my meat for me at the German restaurant we went to. I felt like I was five. Yesterday after PT I met my manager for lunch and in between I had a long chat with a good friend and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea marathon, which was a hoot! Yep, I admit that I still have a major thing for Richard Basehart and watching those episodes made me want to write Voyage again. Except that I can't type (or write) at the moment. I feel like Burgess Meredith in the Twilight Zone episode, Time Enough At Last.

Speaking of Voyage, I have several fics that were hosted on a website that went away. I want to re-post them but I can't decide whether I should create a new pen name or use my CSI fic name. I'm leaning towards a new name so I can keep them separate but at the moment, I can't think of one. I have a website but I think I'd also like something that gets more traffic. Also, fan fic.net or An Archive of our Own? I'm kind of leaning towards AO3 because it's not so restrictive. Thoughts?

So 2011 definitely got off to an interesting start. Had a family issue yesterday morning/afternoon that, while bad for my youngest sister, made me feel pretty good as a big sister. Long story short, she was having a major anxiety attack and since I was the only one near her, my dad called me to help her. I wasn't raised with my half sisters (I was raised as an only child) so it's just within the last 10 years or so that I've really felt like a big sister. Knowing that I really did help my sister made me feel pretty freaking good! It also made me realize how alike we are and we agreed that we both need to get out of the house more.

The Capitals played the Penguins in the Winter Classic last night and much to the delight of Caps fans everywhere, we kicked Penguin butt. I have a lot of friends who were at the game and all of them have said it was awesome - even when Penguins fans threw beer on some of them after the game.

I am so not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. The part of the company I'm in used to shut down during the week between Christmas and New Year's. The part of the company I came from never did so the fact that I probably worked at most an hour on Wednesday was pretty awesome. There's always a price to pay though so I'm not looking forward to January. My business unit is reorganizing and I'll be the one coordinating it. Hmm, I'm thinking I'll just work from home tomorrow. And Tuesday. And Friday. That might make it a little less painful.

Watching S1 of CSI on Spike. Early Brass/Catherine flirtiness in Pledging Mr.Johnson is excellent. Brass with longer hair is also excellent. Like how he's generally not sporting a tie back then too. I miss the old Brass. One interesting thing that was mentioned on the Paleyfest DVD is that BP says his hair was white all the way back in 2001 however, Les Moonves wouldn't let him on TV with white hair so he had to color it.

And speaking of Brass, have done a lot of writing over the past week. Like maybe 10 pages on a Brass/Annie fic. Still don't have an ending yet so that's not good. Starting to make me feel like I'm plodding in quicksand.

2009 was a horrible year for me so I'm holding the door open and tapping my foot. Bye already. Get the hell out!

Anyway, what better way than to end the year with a bunch of rambling comments and observations.

( New Year's Eve )

( Slight Ramble on the last original CSI episode, Better Off Dead )

And finally,
Happy Birthday velocityofsound

The banner is so pretty, I couldn't resist. A huge thank you to everyone who nominated my fic!

I'm taking the holiday today. So far no fires to put out so I just might make it. I have to take time off otherwise I'm going to start losing vacation hours. I could take off every Monday from now until the end of the year and still have hours left over. Sad but true.

( Read On )

Oh, and before I forget, thank you inamberclad for the very sweet virtual gift!

Watching CSI a day late isn't nearly as fun as watching it when it airs. But the sister was in town and last night was the first chance all week I've had to see her. Work is sucking the life out of me right now. Another week to go and I'll get a little breathing room. Can't complain too much because I do love the massive pricing exercise I'm doing right now but we're on a very compressed schedule, I'm the Subject Matter Expert for the database we're using, and there are a lot of new people using it. They are very clingy people.

( This week on CSI, Pushing Daisies and my whine about writing )

So if there's any good to be had from my intermittent Internet outage and not caring one bit about the new Harry Potter book, it's that my muse has been keeping me company. Like sleepovers and s'mores, company.

I just finished a short Brass/Sofia fic that is sort of a sequel to Playing the Hero but not the sequel. Actually, it's what I like to call a "bridge" because it connects the first fic with a longer one that's currently the object of all my attention. This second fic will be my entry in the brasslove vacation ficathon and it's a long one. So far I'm thinking it'll top out at 20 pages, maybe more.

I didn't intend to have both these fics going up so close together or for my ficathon fic to be a continuation of "Playing the Hero" but it all just sort of came together that way and it solved the problem of getting a continuation written.

Oh, and in the category of major impulse buy, I bought a PSP on Friday. I had over $100 in expiring Reward Zone coupons and had to use them quickly so that was my purchase. I really wanted the Bose noise canceling headphones but Best Buy doesn't carry them. Other options were a GPS or Satellite Radio but I couldn't make up my mind. I figure I can use the PSP on the long flight to Portland. I'm trying really hard not to take the baby laptop but I'm afraid if I don't, my muse will go on a separate vacation and won't return until sometime in October. She's flighty like that.

Tucker has another nickname: Poo Poo Kitty. It was the nickname of my first long-haired kitten, Basil, and after this morning, it's Tuck's too.

( cut for disgusting poo story )

Apparently my inability to name pets has carried over to fics. I've got this Brass/Sofia fic just about ready to post but for the life of me I cannot think of a name for it. FWIW, I have always been title-challenged. I think not having a title has been one of the many reasons why I haven't been all that enthusiastic about this fic. Normally, I'd be excited about getting something posted.

Ever finish writing a fic and then have the dilemma of what to start next? Well, that's me.

I have a handful of WIPs that I really want to finish but I can't decide what to write next. So far I've been at the mercy of my muse--whatever it wants to write, I've been working on. However, my muse has been all over the place and unless I can concentrate on one fic, I'll never get anything done. The good thing is that I have endings written for at least two of the fics. One thing I realized a while back is that if I don't have the ending written, I'll never finish the fic. Strange, huh?

Anyway, why is this even important? Because inamberclad and I set a deadline of April 5th to finish a fic. And I hate to miss a deadline.