So, I had PT again today. It went well, I can bend the knee to 120 degrees, which is basically a full range of motion! They didn't want to commit on me using a bike, so I need to ask the Dr. about that tomorrow.
I should utilizes this to keep track of my leg progress. If you're joining our program already in progress about 2 months ago I dislocated my left knee. I had it immobilized for 6 weeks and then, last week, started PT.
I've regained a decent range of motion on my leg. 1.5 weeks into PT I can bend more than 90 degrees. I've been doing quad sets, heel dig-ins, leg raises, calf exercizes, and some cross-over stretching. I hope to convince the trainer to let me do something that involves movement this week, the bike or elliptical. Also, with the trainer's blessing, I'm going to look into swimming.
I go back for more PT tomorrow and to the doctor on Thursday, so we'll see if I'm progressing on schedule.
For dinner tonight!
Chop 1 medium onion, saute in oil with Adobo or your own blend of salt, pepper, and garlic. Add 1 tomato, chopped, and about a quarter-cup of corn. Stir for 2 minutes, then add a pound of frozen fake meat crumbles. Add more oil as needed, and stir until the whole thing is thawed and browning. At this point add your can of premium Manwich. Turn the heat down to low and simmer until you're ready eat.
Spread on toasty buns and put some cheddar on there.
I'm sure there's nothing original here, but coming from a frozen dinner family I had to discover this myself.
Melt a stick of butter over medium-low in a small nonstick pan. Add 4-6 garlic cloves, minced or pressed. Let them simmer for a few minutes, then pour the mixture into a shallow saucer or bowl. Stick this in the fridge for at least 20 minutes, then spread on toast.
A very popular spinach salad around our house. Freely vary the proportions based on availability and number of diners.
Combine in your salad bowl:
Fresh spinach or baby spinach, washed and cut (if needed) to bite-sized peices.
1 apple, chopped.
1/2 cup frozen corn.
1 or 2 small tomatoes, chopped.
1 small onion, chopped.
Strong cheese, shredded or cubed, to taste. I use a strong blue or sharp cheddar, depending on what's around.
1/2 tablespoon sea salt.
Dress with a mixture of:
Balsamic vinegar, olive oil, fresh lemon juice, dijon mustard or (my preference) wasabi powder (just a pinch).
Toss. Give it at least 10 minutes and the corn will be thawed.
For dinner tonight:
4 large tomatoes, chopped
8-ish basil leaves, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
3-6 garlic cloves, chopped fine
1 cup veggie broth
8-10 large white mushrooms, sliced
Olive oil
1/2 cup Red wine
2 pks gnocchi
Mozzerella cheese, grated
In your large saucepan, saute the garlic and onions in olive oil for about five minutes on medium.
When soft and toasty, add the mushrooms and wine and cover (if possible) to steam the shrooms.
Let this go for five or 10 minutes, then add the chopped tomatoes and salt. Keep the cover on for a few minutes until it gets to simmering, then uncover and cook until the tomatoes turn to sauce - 20 minutes or so. You can leave this on low until your unpredictable guests arrive, then:
When you're going to start the pasta, add the basil to the sauce and continue to simmer. Boil gnocchi until cooked. Drain and rinse in cool water. In your large pot over medium heat, toast the pasta in hot olive oil for 3 to 5 minutes. Add the sauce and broth, and simmer under low until folks are ready to eat. Scoop the gnocchi with slotted spoon and top with mozzerella.
Goes will with spinach salad and garlic toast. And since you opened a bottle of wine for the sauce, you'd better finish it off too. I served five folks with no leftovers. I'd planned on four, for which it would've been plenty.
This weekend I should be at Notacon. In fact I should be leaving shortly.
Never trust your fellow drivers who pilot PT cruisers. They demonstrate impaired judgement.
Nevertheless, "Hung like a barnacle" doesn't roll off the tongue.
I miss TW.
I'm listening to the best pop album no one's heard, namely 'Shhhh!' by Chumbawamba.
I started PT for the knee today, it went well. I felt energized and mobile afterwards, although that might be more due to Sunday at the gym. Regardless, I have exercizes to do tonight. And every night.
Happy Sunday afternoon!
I went this afternoon to the Library's paperback book sale. For fifty cents each, among other things, I purchased Patrick Buchanan's Right from the Beginning and the first book of the Left Behind series. Better me than someone else...
And now, yes, I am watching Nascar.
Marshall and I went to the West Side Market today. It was good times, I got some cheese, bread, green onions. Didn't need so much this time, but the weather was fantastic.
I also finally sent the art package off to TV.
We did hit up the library. We borrowed two videos: Winged Migration and Mullholland Drive, I picked up two Gilbert and Sullivan CDs (including the Pirates of Penzance!), and an Iain M Banks scifi. We'll see if I get into that. The beginning was a little cheesy.
Speaking of cheese, inside I'll tell you about our dinner!
So Marshall came over this evening and we divided the spoils from the Market. For dinner we made salsa (5 chopped tomatos, one half a red onion, juice of a lime or two, some cilantro, garlic, salt, pepper), a fantastic salad (spinach, apples, gorgonzola, and Marshall taught me how to candy walnuts!), and a Tortilla Espan~a.
Although I've watched TW make tortilla before, this was the first time I'd had a hand in cooking it myself. It turned out quite well. In brief: 4 potatos, boiled for 20 minutes or so, then sliced. Combine with one small onion, chopped, and saute in olive oil until the potatos are cooked through. Add this to a bowl with your 5 eggs, beaten, and let stand for 10 or 15 minutes. Pour this mixture into a hot oiled skillet, cook until the bottom is just browning, then use a plate to flip and cook the other side. You should've added some salt and pepper as well.
The tortilla turned out very well for us, we then got all kinds of crazy and ate it with salsa and sour cream. Not traditional, but tasty as hell.
I miss TW, who's in Boston. I'm also a little bit jealous, since I'm stuck here to chill in Cleveland. Tomorrow will be a good day, however, early morning gym date with DWAN, then breakfast with a whole crew, and then the apple store and library paperback sale.
We saw the Indians beat the Tigers tonight; we had $12 bleacher seats.
Got home in time to catch the end of the Red Sox game, 1 out in the top of the 9th. Johnny Damon looks like a goddamn sasquatch.
Tomorrow I'd like to go to the library. What should I pick up?
WELL. I can finally begin bending the knee. As part of physical therapy, at least.
How long is PT? Good question. Two factors at play:
First, how quickly I can learn exercizes. The quicker I pick up new movements, the less time I have to spend with the PT-ers.
Second, how quickly I advance. If I heal and regain mobility quickly, I have to see them more often to progress to new things.
I'm supposed to still wear the brace while walking. Yuck.
Still, I'm glad to be progressing!
The slashdot-linked review of The Confusion really brought out the haters of Quicksilver, the preceeding book in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle trilogy.
I appear to be a somewhat atypical Stephenson reader. I've read Zodiac, Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, and Quicksilver. Of those I thought Snow Crash was the weakest - many readers seem to think that was his pinnacle. I enjoyed the pulpy Cryptonomicon; I thought Quicksilver was a great book.
So, I'm running up a quick list of what's good about Quicksilver. Be clear that I don't own the book, I returned the library's copy 6 months ago, and I have a poor memory. Mild spoilers inside.
- How about Papa Waterhouse? The guy has most of his facial features removed but lives on for years, successfully, to go on and die in a glorious explosion?
- And more gross outs: Newton coming to understand lenses by sticking a rod into his socket and changing the shape of his eye; The live dog dissections; the ever-present 'Barber-Surgeons' with their quick amputations.
- I found the opening scene, in Boston, to be captivating. I know I'm a sucker for anything set in that city, but I loved the description, the revealing of characters, Daniel's internal dialog (like his risk assessment of when to reveal his weapons), and the goofy Harvard boys.
- So many of the characters had interesting backstories. How about the Shaftoe boy's childhood occupation of execution acceleration? How about 'Half-cocked'?
- One more aside that sticks in my head - when Jack realizes that farrier and the french for horseshoe share a common root, meaning that somehow english and England had been influenced by french and the French.
And on a grander scale, he accomplishes two literary feats: first, the slow merging of two stories that start out totally separate; second, the illustration of commonalities between his characters of several hundred years ago and his modern readers.
A common complaint of the book seems to be its length. So what? It could be shorter, but nearly any fiction can be abridged. Its length allows it to, as I stated above, slowly merge two seperate stories, develop at least 5 main characters (so far), and cover at least 50 years.
Maybe all the dislike will mean fewer people will be in line ahead of me to borrow The Confusion at the library....
This is the best sentence I've ever written ('it' refers to Kazaa...):
In addition to copyright concerns and lawsuit liabilities, it is a common virus vector.
And how could I forget? On Sunday we made the famous, traditional, IRON TAIL EGG.
First, this morning, as I was still sleeping, I recall hearing what seemed like a very lengthy report on the NPR about the Indians, if any, who lived in the greater-Cleveland-area when the first white settlers came. I believe this report was accompanied by some awful flute music. It was relevant today because it's OPENING DAY.
Second, on the drive in to work the GAS LIGHT came on. I hate that! I have a pathological aversion to getting anywhere below a quarter tank, in fact. But I have a second aversion to buying gas on the weekend - it seems to be more expensive. I often seem to be running low by Friday, so I eek through the weekend and am well below the preferred quarter-tank on Monday morning. And then when I did fill up this morning, it was $25 for a tank of gas! How do those with less fuel effectient cars even afford it?
How can I even begin to tell you about my weekend? Start at the beginning, I suppose.
We found out on Friday that Matt Allen is, in fact, faking the funk. With his sudden absence in our life, we managed to go to the gym (arms and chest, of course, because I'm still WEARING THE BRACE), blow a Benjamin at the grocery, and then get to the Case Film Society to see American Splendor.
The movie was fantastic. As it tells the story of a Cleveland-based comic book author, as we were walking back to the car TW asked me if I thought we would look back on our "youthful days in Cleveland" with fondness. I'm glad to be here because here is where TW is, but other than that, not likely.
On the subject of The Wife, on Sunday we learned that a return to Boston when she's done with this part of schooling is getting a little more likely. Folks there who may be in a position to decide such things are interested in pulling her back.
Anyhows, the movie reminded me of all the great comics TV would draw back circa high-school-era. I know that free time to be creative is at a premium for him these days, but I wanted to make sure he had the tools to create if the mood struck him. So, and at this point I'm giving up on chronology, Saturday afternoon we ducked into an art supply store, where-in I picked up a nice pencil, sketch pad, and some inking pens. Those items are in a Priority Mail pack right now waiting to be dropped off at the Menner Post Office.
Coming out of the art shop we saw Rockie, on his way to drink.
Most of Saturday, before hitting up the art shop, was spent at the sunny County Library out on Mayfield, studying in the infrequently-trafficked Audio Book Room.
But the real fun was Sunday! We slept in, TW made eggs, then we hit up the Shaker Lakes Nature Center for a walk. Among the critters spotted were many squirrels and a red-winged blackbird. After our walk, we went to a Brunch at a classmate's of TW's house. Being the drunks we are we brought mimosa makings. No one else had done this, we were the only people organized enough to have purchased their booze before Sunday. We met a friend of the classmate's who had a fantastically annoying predilection to misusing words that sound similar - she mentioned that someone was "getting a lot of slack" when she meant "flack", for example.
After a polite hour at the brunch we returned home to gear up for EGG DYING. DWAN, the Furn, and later Gwyn came over. A dozen eggs were dyed. PAAS, those cheap bastards, no longer include the white crayon in the EGG DYING KIT.
After we finally ran the last of the houseguests out Sunday evening, we settled into the living room, watching Butch Cassidy while I worked on a paper. As we were preparing for bed I was surprised to realize that Tom Selleck, Robert Redford, and Burt Reynolds are all different people. They'd all blurred into one mustache in my mind.
News from AMBIA INDIANA! I spoke with my father yesterday, where he told me NOT ONE BUT TWO exciting things that happened in his town (population 300). First, a pack of WILD COYOTES had come through, terrorizing the town. In the words of Dad, "and their howl chills you right to the bone." Creepy, pops. And, secondly, the house across the street from his was (intentionally) burned down. It was used as a training exercise for the local Fire Department. He sat on his porch with a cup of coffee to watch.
Media consumed! This weekend, in addition to American Splendor, we watched Princess Mononoke and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (THAT is where Redford got all his cash?!) and I read the first third of our Book Club Book, Oryx and Crake.
Wouldn't it be nice if the political parties could trade members like baseball teams? Not neccessarily asking the politicians first.. The Democrats could trade Leiberman to the Republicans for McCain and a southern representative to be named later.
I don't think this guy got very good grades in Reading Comprehension.
You won't be surprised ot hear that I have a bit of a Left Behind fetish. Certainly not enough to buy (or even read) the books, although I did flip through the first half of the first one at the library.
From an article in today's NY Times comes this quotation from the most recent (and supposedly final) apocalyptic installment:
"Men and women soldiers and horses seemed to explode where they stood," Dr. LaHaye and Mr. Jenkins write. "It was as if the very words of the Lord had superheated their blood, causing it to burst through their veins and skin.'' The authors add, "Even as they struggled, their own flesh dissolved, their eyes melted and their tongues disintegrated."
Now, that shit is tight! I should go read these books. They seem like good, slow sex. After hours and hours of buildups, false starts, sticky pages, finally comes relief! In the form of Our Lord Jesus rending flesh from bone with his fiery microwave words.
I need to go to the bathroom. Excuse me.
Took the Furn to McNutties last night! Cheap sandwiches and beer, and more tales of her life!
Linkage:
I received notification this morning that Chad and Misty have put new efforts into their chronicles of Manilla. Fantastic! They're great folks and take lots of pictures.
I'm going to be volunteering to help Billford at Not-a-Con. I'm not convinced that the conference will be all that, but I'm getting in for free.
Between 'contractor' and 'mercenary'?
Oh well, this administration redefined 'casualty'. Whattaya expect?
Weekend!
Media consumed:
First two Foundation novels. The first was quite well done, the second was 'OK' but the longest segment - 'The Mule' - was too predictable. Regardless, it was great to read pulpy sci-fi!
The Count of Monte Christo with Richard Chamberlain from 1975. Movie was pretty cheesy (as to be expected) but they did a great job converting such a long book into a short film. The only thing that really disappointed me was that the movie closed without Le Comte instructing the young lovers that they could "Wait - and Hope".
I began (per Asimov's suggestion) reading Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - hurrah for free books! This might be too ambitious a project, we shall see.
Also, if someone has a copy of the full Lives of the Saints I'd be happy to take it off your hands.
Addendum: We also watched Goldfinger. How could I forget?
I love Brussel Sprouts. We call them 'Personal Cabbages'.
My favorite way to prepare them:
Boil as per the Joy of Cooking, although I always have to cook them at least 50% longer for them to be tender. Top with The Sauce: Take melted butter (1/4c per 5 sprouts), combine with garlic powder and sriracha hot sauce to taste - I use at least a half tablespoon of the sauce. The nutty taste of the sprouts marries well to the bite of the hot sauce, or something.
Yum.
What the hell? SNOW. Our poor daffodils.
Last night we retrieved the Furn, with her brother-in-law, from the airport (back from Thailand by way of the endless beer of the Ambassador's club in Tokyo, with the beer pouring machine that doesn't foam too much, but also breaks your glass if you use it wrong, which should probably be your signal to stop drinking the free endless beer, this means you, Giovanni). So with the little-Furn in tow we went to Don Pablos, no waiting for the smoking section. Today my clothes smell awful, like a homeless marathon runner wore them, from the Don Pablos. Oh well.
Don also smacked me over the head with the 'tall' beers, two Dos Equis (quattro equis?) and I was very happy. For some reason they put a slice of lime in the Dos Equis. Un-called-for. Citrus doesn't go in amber beers. Don't you agree?
This morning, we were up early, went to the gym and the Inn for breakfast with Dwan. The Inn was less crowded that usual, viva la daylight savings.
Now, TW is back in bed with a cold, and I'm going to clean my desk.
GO SOX.
Well, two more weeks with the brace. Suckage. Apparently until I can move it without pain, it isn't healed. Back to leg exercizes.
Wednesday night was Book Club. It went very well. I wasn't too pleased with my lasagna but the discussion more than made up for it. Our next book might be Atwood's Oryx and Crake. But, in the meantime, I picked up Foundation at the library and am enjoying its pulpy sci-fi-ness.
I think I'm getting a Working Abroad bug after talking to friends scattered about the Pacific Rim. In 2 years TW will be between programs, we could theoretically take a year then and she could probably find some health research to do wherever we ended up. Ideas?
Of course the long-term plan is to return to Boston.
Back to my IDS setups.