I’ve been putting off sending in my 18-200 VR lens and this afternoon I finally got around to packing it up. BUT, before I packed it for shipping, I put it on my camera body to test it one last time. Amazingly, it worked! No VR problems, no funny noises. It was back to normal! Admittedly, it makes me a little uneasy because the problem might resurface, but since I know it has a 5 year warranty, I’m not too concerned. I’m just relieved I don’t have to send it in again. It’s nerve racking to wait for a lens that’s being shipped to a repair facility that doesn’t communicate with you.

You’re probably tired of reading about the husband’s ACL surgery but honestly it’s pretty much consumed our lives. Until he gets his stitches removed (we’re keeping our fingers crossed for this Friday), he can’t get his wounds wet. This presents a problem when it comes to bath-time. He also can’t put any weight on his left leg for a month and he has to keep it locked straight except when he’s doing his physical therapy.  That rules out standing (his right leg gets too tired) and rules out sitting at the edge of the tub or the bottom of the tub with his leg out.  I was also trying to find a solution that wouldn’t involve getting water all over the bathroom floor.  I went to the BigLots near our house and walked from aisle to aisle looking for a good solution. This is what I came up with:

Beach chairs were on sale for $12! The cashier asked me if I was going to the beach. Hah.

(The photo above was actually taken by my fully recovered VR lens!)

Oh, and of course, here are some post-op pictures of the husband’s knee:

I think it’s really impressive how small the incision is. They managed to trim the meniscus, put two stitches in the meniscus, get a graft from the hamstring, and drill a hole to attach the hamstring graft in his knee– all through the same hole.  I also like how they marked up the knee with lines, dots, and x’s like they were drawing up a football play.

The two holes on top of the knee are where they put the cameras in. Pretty cool, huh? Oh, and you can also see where they shaved his leg. It’s slowly growing back. I can’t stand it when men don’t have hairy legs.

There’s the husband after pre-op while waiting for the surgeon to get there.  They actually initiated the femoral & sciatic nerve block on him while he was still awake (which according to the anesthesiologist is unorthodox) and when he described the whole process to me, I was thoroughly disturbed.  They basically run electric currents through your muscles which make them twitch to identify them and then shoot them up with anesthetic.

The husband just glanced over at my computer screen and is protesting that I am robbing him of his dignity by posting the photo above.  Tough luck, babe.

Personally, I think he looks like he’s about to serve lasagna in a high school cafeteria with his shower cap (hairnet) and all.

We (I mean he) is doped up on his pain meds most of the day so we do a lot of sleeping.  I don’t really have a reason to be sleepy but I don’t seem to have any trouble falling asleep.

I was tempted to title this post “The Bee’s Knees.”

I’ve never broken a bone and my tonsils and appendix are intact (unlike Greg Oden) so that means I’ve never been to the hospital for any major repairs. Well, not unless you count my two bouts of bronchitis and also the time when I was an infant and I had a bad cold and they had to stick a needle into my forehead (according to my mom).

I have a ton of other things I wanted to post about today (Judy’s wedding weekend, Tim Donaghy, Michael Vick and 802.11n draft specs among other topics) but with the husband’s ACL surgery coming up on Thursday, it seems like an ACL post is most warranted.

About a month ago, after a much overdue MRI, the husband was diagnosed with a completely torn ACL and a partially torn meniscus. Not wanting to damage the meniscus any more than he already had, he stopped playing basketball and tennis cold turkey and started weighing his surgical options.

There are generally 3 surgical options to consider when reconstructing an ACL:

1. Patellar tendon graft — The patellar tendon is the structure on the front of your knee that connects the kneecap (patella) to the shin bone (tibia).  The patellar tendon averages between 25 to 30 mm in width. When a patellar tendon graft is taken, the central 1/3 of the patellar tendon is removed (about 9 or 10 mm) along with a block of bone at the sites of attachment on the kneecap and tibia.

• PROS
  • Longer history of successful results
  • Better stability, which may be preferable for serious athletes
  • Shorter rehab time
• CONS
  • Anterior knee pain, kneeling may be painful
  • Postoperative quadriceps weakness
  • Too tight a graft may also lead to arthritis in the long term

2. Hamstring tendon graft — The hamstring muscles are the group of muscles on the back of your thigh. When the hamstring tendons are used in ACL surgery, two of the tendons of these muscles are removed, and “bundled” together to create a new ACL.

• PROS
  • Less anterior knee pain
  • Initial postoperative period is often easier and more comfortable with this graft choice
  • Less initial quadriceps atrophy
• CONS
  • Postoperative hamstring weakness

3. Allograft — Donor tissue is taken from a cadaver.  This option is most commonly used in lower demand patients, or patients who are undergoing revision ACL surgery (when an ACL reconstruction fails).

• PROS
  • Recovery from surgery is usually easier, faster and less painful
• CONS
  • The process of graft preparation (freeze-drying), kills the living cells, and decreases the strength of the tissue
  • Possible disease transmission
  • The creepy factor

We’ve decided to go with option #2, the hamstring tendon graft. While it may take a bit longer to rehabilitate, the ability to kneel without pain is pretty important to him. The doctor is also performing a partial meniscectomy which means he is trimming/smoothing the torn meniscus.

The surgery is scheduled for this Thursday and I’m nervous as heck but he’s cool as a cucumber.

So now you know.

REFERENCES:

Mayo Clinic - ACL

Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Graft Options by F. Lincoln Avery, M.D.

ACL Graft Choice by Jonathan Cluett, M.D.

I blogged about Endless a while back.  Well, Amazon’s up to it again.  They’ve started a new website called “Askville” where anyone can post a question and the community does their best to answer it.  Each member of the community is awarded “quest coins” whenever they participate in the process (posting/answering) and it’s still a mystery as to what the quest coins will be used for.  Eventually when you answer enough questions, you reach “Level 1″ and you are then able to purchase “superpowers.”  It’s all very mysterious.  The only thing that Amazon has said is that the quest coins will be used in “Questville” and has given no further details.  Many members are speculating that quest coins will be used for getting Amazon products or services but that just sounds too good to be true.

If it’s true, I’m definitely going to use the quest coins to get a Amazon Prime membership!

I’ll admit it was kind of exciting reading the text message updates from the WWDC.  Even the husband is sold on the iPhone.

I’m still debating when to buy my Macbook but I already picked out a laptop bag from Incase:

Am I the only one that thinks it’s weird that all of the Leopard OSX advertising looks like the X-Men movie advertising?  It’s pretty unoriginal.

I have MacRumors.com pulled up in firefox this morning in anticipation of the WWDC 2007 Keynote presentation.

I’m exhausted from a fun-filled weekend.

And for your entertainment, here’s a link to 2007’s Top Ten NBA dunks, assists, plays, buzzer beaters, etc.

Apple’s Leopard OSX is delayed for four more months.

Looks like I won’t be buying a Macbook for at least four more months.

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Yesterday, I told all three of my managers that I was leaving the company at the beginning of July to go back to school full-time and work towards earning a Master’s in Social Work.

They were floored.

And thus begins a new chapter in my life.

I have finally finished sorting through all of my Italy trip pictures and here is the final set:

Cinque Terre.

Here is Vernazza, the sleepy little fishing town we stayed in:

This is off topic but a coworker of mine brought up Alibi Network today during lunch. Apparently it’s a company that helps people lie, cheat on their spouses, etc. So wrong, but so brilliant! What a money-maker! Check it out.

That’s IS as in Image Stabilization, not the verb of being.

It’s the husband’s early birthday present and it has rave reviews.  We’ll finally be a photo snapping duo.

Read the specs here.

I’ll be sure to post some of the husband’s photos from his upcoming business trip to Shanghai.  I’m sure there will be plenty.

This past weekend was pretty packed.

The husband had a poker night with the fellas on Friday so I was kicked out of the house. No girls allowed. That sort of thing.

Judy and Lawrence were in town so I met up with them and Judy’s mom for dinner. With 2 more hours to kill before the poker night would be over, I drove over to River Oaks Theatre to see what was playing. Luckily, The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen) was starting in half an hour so I bought tickets and waited in their lounge upstairs. While I was waiting I was studying Ken Rockwell’s D200 User Guide that I had printed out which has a lot of great tips and explanations.

The Lives of Others was one of the most expertly crafted movies I have ever seen. I haven’t seen that many movies so I don’t think it means much coming from me, but even today I get chills thinking about it. The backdrop is East Germany before the Berlin wall came down. The movie depicts the horror of living under the tyranny of the Communist government. The depiction is so profound that you shudder when the actors shudder, you cry when the actors cry, and you hold your breath when the actors hold their breath. The movie has a beautifully written screenplay that explores the dark and fascinating world of the Stasi, East Germany’s secret police. Despite the heavy historical and social overtones, the movie is really a love story. It’s not your conventional boy meets girl love story. While there is a plotline about the love between a man and a woman, it is also about the love for one’s country, for one’s power, and for one’s livelihood.

Saturday morning we went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science for the Imperial Rome exhibit. The exhibit was fairly small with a handful of neat artifacts that made the visit worthwhile. In general I think HMNS has a lot of catching up to do to as far as staying on par with the Houston Museum of Fine Art.

After that, we were off to the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo.

The weather was pretty perfect for a day at the Rodeo. It was hot but in a satisfying way. The way that makes an icy lemonade more delicious. Even if it costs $4.50.

I had a fried Twinkie and tried fried Coke. I’ll pass on the fried Coke next time. We also ate brisket and sausage. I later had peach cobbler and ice cream as well as a corn dog. It was kind of a gluttonous day.

We hit the petting zoo and wandered around the booths. We also watched a demonstration where they hooked up a cow to a machine that milked it. It was pretty disgusting. The way the milk was spraying out into the container in steady pulses was pretty graphic. I really could have done without seeing that. One of the best booths was for indoor/outdoor above ground jacuzzis. I’d love to get one if I ever get a backyard.

We left the Rodeo after we watched the actual Rodeo events (I love the Calf Scramble!) and went home to get cleaned up. Next stop was Yellow Magazine’s 2nd Anniversary party. We were there for the free drinks and food but actually had a pretty good time there. I ran into a good buddy of mine from high school that I hadn’t seen in about six years and it was a real trip just to talk to him. There were about three hundred people at the party and the husband was one of three raffle winners!

After we left the party we were still hungry so we went to Magnolia Bar & Grill for some crawfish. The crawfish were really fresh but not the best I’ve had. It might be because the season has just started and the crawfish aren’t as big yet. It was extra spicy though– just the way I like it.

Yesterday we caught the late showing of Frank Miller’s 300. It was visually arresting, as expected. I love how it blurs the lines between reality and and CG graphics. Like Sin City, it’s a movie I can put on mute and still love every second of it. The plot is pretty thin and basic. I don’t think any of the characters were terribly endearing. Admirable, but not endearing. I’d buy the DVD, but I don’t think I’d put it on my short list of favorite movies.

Let’s hope my life stops being so trivial soon.

My first prime lens, the 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor:

I used Google checkout so I could get the $10 off. Seems like a pretty good system. I’d use Google checkout again.  The only downside is that it seems to slow down the process since it’s an extra step for Google to communicate with the vendor.

I’m pretty excited about the lens. I only have a zoom lens so this will be a totally different shooting experience. This lens in particular is supposed to have superior glass and is extremely fast so I’ll be able to take even more photos in the dark.

Now if only I could find more time in my week to take photos.

Judy has been hounding me to make the switch.  The Mac switch.  And to be quite honest, I’ve been ready to make the switch for quite some time now, it’s just that I haven’t had the need to buy a new computer.

If I end up going back to school, I think I’ll go ahead and make the switch.  But now I have a ton of questions.  MacBook or MacBook Pro?  If MacBook, white or black?  I spent a few minutes this morning reading about Mini DV to DV adapters and the difference between DV-I and DV-D.  I think it would be a showstopper if I was not able to hook it up to my Sony X-Brite monitor.

I think it’s really odd that Apple hasn’t come out with docking stations.  Is there a reason for this?

Another consideration is that I watched the Leopard OS X sneak peek this morning and I definitely want to wait for it to be released.

Here are some more pictures from Austin.

I finally got a lightbox plugin to work!

Click on the first thumbnail to activate the lightbox. After that, you can hover on the upper right hand side of the photo to see a “NEXT” tab. Click on the tab to move onto the next photo. If you hover on the upper left hand side of the photo you will see a “PREV” tab. Guess what that does. Alternatively, you can press “n” or “p” to navigate through the set.

This is a huge technological leap forward for sockparade.

I donated blood today in the basement of my office building. They pricked both of my middle fingers. The first prick gave inconclusive evidence of whether or not there was enough iron in my blood and the second prick let me pass by a few tenths of a point. My coworker thought I was giving her the double bird when I showed her my bandaged fingers.

I can’t wait to finally find out my blood type tomorrow. I feel silly for not knowing it.

I am terrified of needles. I actually have a pretty high pain tolerance, but seeing metal piercing bodily flesh is too much for me. I refused to look at the needle they use to drain my blood.

I feel great. It’s good to know that I have enough iron in my blood and tomorrow I’ll also be able to check my cholesterol level on their website. It serves a dual purpose, donate blood and get a blood test at the same time.

They make you answer a questionnaire before they take your blood. They ask you all sorts of questions about your life. Especially your sex life. Some of the questions really surprised me. Not that the questions made me blush but I was surprised at the kinds of things that might disqualify you from donating blood. I suppose they have to take the highest precaution against putting tainted blood in their blood banks. Apparently they used to ask these questions verbally but they wised up and started letting people answer on a computer.

I heard that donating blood is good for your health and I was looking up information about this and ran across this website of facts. I couldn’t find anything concrete about it being good for your body except for things like this. Sounds pretty archaic. Bloodletting and all.

Part of the instructions they gave us was to eat a hearty meal after you donate. I just got back from a company party at “Taste of Texas” where I almost finished a 16 oz. rib-eye steak, a square of jalapeno cornbread, a half of a cheese dinner roll, and a build your own ice cream sundae. I might have taken the suggestion of a “hearty meal” too far.

A new search engine: snap.com. Woopdedoo.

The reason why I’m excited is because they offer a free service to bloggers. Now that I’ve installed it, any time you hover over an external link a “snap.com” preview pops up. There’s a snazzy, easy-to-use wordpress plugin here.

Go ahead, test it out. I’ll even give you a few links to play with.

CNN
Apple Movie Trailers
All recipes

I think it works on a cache-basis because if no one’s used snap.com to preview a particular website, snap.com puts it in a queue and in a few hours or days, it’ll show up. Neat, huh? It’s nice because you get to see where you’re going before you click and go.

Edit: Per Erik Wingren, it only takes less than a minute for the preview to show up. And once you’ve previewed that page, it’ll be available for anyone who comes behind you and tries to preview that page.

I’ve never wanted to go to a party so badly.  And I writing this with the full knowledge that many of you will immediately label me once and for all, a geek.  The “Save the Internet Coalition” is having a party in Memphis, TN on January 11 at the Gibson Guitar Factory.

The party kicks off the National Conference for Media Reform which I also want to attend.  Too bad it’s in Memphis and too bad I don’t have the luxury of taking vacation days for it.  I don’t know how many people are aware of the pressing issue and I wish more would educate themselves about it.  When I first saw a banner that said “Save the Internet” I was confused.  Why did the internet need saving?  Click here to read a quick overview of the situation and how you can get involved.

On a side note, I am purchasing a SB-600 AF Speedlight tonight.  Merry Christmas to me times three.  I have a benevolent husband.  I was convinced to get the 600 instead of the 800 after reading this Ken Rockwell article.  I miss taking pictures.  As soon as this week is over, I’m going to get back into shooting mode. The server is down at work, which is why I have time to write this post.  It’ll be back up any minute now so I better wrap things up.

Oh and one more thing.  I wanted to comment on the Nuggets vs. Knicks brawl.  Not that I condone fighting or anything like that, but I just wanted to say that I think it was really pansy and childish of the Knicks to say that they were being humiliated by the reverse dunks and the general domination towards the end of the game.  Listening to the post-game interviews sounded a lot like listening to third-graders tattle-tale about who’s been secreting eating their Elmer’s glue or who cut in line to go to the bathroom.  Give me a freaking break.

And when one of your teammate’s is flagrantly fouled, you have to take a strong stance.  Maybe not a thrown punch (because a 15 game suspension really hurts your team) but as a team leader, you have to react strongly.  Or else you get known as the team that has no bruisers and no heart.  And that’s all I have to say about that.  I’m interested to see how Iverson and Melo will play together.

Man, I’m hungry.

And when I say tailgating, I am referring to the people who follow too closely behind the car in front of them, not the pre-football game celebratory activities held in parking lots.

On NPR this morning they had a news story about how Oregon Police Departments were adopting the use of a laser that can measure how closely a car is following the car in front of them. They are slapping $200+ fines on those who tailgate in hopes of making highways safer. Arizona, New Mexico, and Tennessee have also started using these lasers. It seems like a good idea but I can see a lot of controversy over when it’s “fair” or not. For example, in slower traffic, you should be allowed to follow closer than you would in high speed traffic. So not only do you have to pinpoint the distance between cars, you also need to read the speed of the cars. And when someone slams on their brakes, it’s hard to maintain the appropriate distance. So do they take that into consideration?

Read the Oregon news story here.