pear-shaped update

Richard had his knee put back together yesterday and is at home resting relatively comfortably thanks to the help of some heavy-duty pharmaceuticals (Matthew Perry, if you're reading this, we can hook you up. That joke is old, right?) and this crazy mini-cooler with tubing that pumps ice water up under his knee immobilizer (it will be great for beer later). The doctor cleared him to fly to England on Friday, and put him on injections of a blood thinner called Lovenox to try to prevent any clots. He is now making lots of phone calls to various vacation-related places -- hotel for a first floor room, airline for some kind of seat where he can stretch out his leg, doctor for the prescription for a wheelchair. When we get back, I will have the shoulders of Gwen Stefani from pushing his ass all over England.

So....the last-minute preparations are underway, and with any luck, a meteor will not fall out of the sky onto our house between now and Friday evening. Think good thoughts for us, please.

pear-shaped

I am really starting to think the universe is out to get my family. Since January 5th, things have gone pear-shaped, to use my friend Lindsay's excellent expression. First, my aunt died unexpectedly, and this brought with it a whole host of family drama, which I won't go into detail about, but which continues to spiral. This past week (while I was at my first-ever therapy appointment, thank you very much), Lucy had a skating accident -- her fingers were run over by the freshly-sharpened blades of her 14-year old skating partner. We spent 5 hours in the emergency room at AI, and Lucy got 8 stitches. But, you know, it was all ok because we were looking forward to our vacation -- a 2-week trip to England starting on Friday, March 14th.

Cue Saturday. Richard goes down to the basement to clean out the dog pen. The basement floor is wet because it has been pouring rain all day. Richard's croc-clad foot slips out from under him and he pile-drives his knee straight down onto the cement floor. Ambulance is called, we go to Wilmington Hospital (where we received fabulous and attentive treatment, seriously), and it turns out that Richard has broken his kneecap into three pieces
(we are calling it a dinner plate fracture TM). He is now in a knee-immobilizer, and is scheduled to see the orthopedic surgeon to make a plan to put the pieces back together. He is really being a good sport about the whole thing --much more than I am. We are just hoping against hope that he will be cleared to fly on Friday. Word on the street is that Virgin airlines will upgrade us if we can fly -- fingers crossed, dear readers.

I think it will all work out though because this morning, I saw a sign. Not the Virgin Mary in a stick of butter, mind you, or Jesus in a potato -- but for an atheist like myself, even better -- a smily face on a plate. It's a good sign, right?

"Once," sweded

I loved the movie "Once" and was so excited that Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova won the Best Song Oscar, but this "sweded" version of the trailer is pretty funny. It's no "30-second movie with bunnies," but amusing nonetheless.

West Philly Saturday

West Philly Saturday
Originally uploaded by kjerstieb

whoopie pies from the clark park farmers market are the best. this week i had to be a good mom and give mine to lucy after she dropped hers on the ground. in spite of the invocation of the 5-second rule, it was inedible.

richard

richard is hungry
Originally uploaded by kjerstieb

look how handsome richard is. taken today at dock street brewery in west phila.