Sometimes we need to remember...

On the other hand...there are also a lot of basement cats as well.
I've been exposed today by two separate instances of businesses who have procedures that make it almost impossible to stop them from taking my money. The first is Balley Fitness and the next is AOL. Both companies do their payments by direct deduction. The problem is, when you are done with their services both make it impossible to stop the deductions. Imagine an online internet provider that does not allow you an method of terminating their services online.

Instead, in both cases you have to call them, wait excessively for someone to come on the line and stop taking your money. And of course the hours of operation for the businesses are more restrictive than banker's hours.

:(

Our usual Sunday morning breakfast place has recently changed ownership. While change is always unsettling, this morning brought unpleasant changes. We were surprised to find very few people there when we arrived. The group of motorcycle enthusiasts who normally gather every Sunday morning to share coffee, cigars (at the outdoor tables), and laughs were not there. The teacher who stops off after his morning trip to the gym and pops open his laptop to surf the net or work on the next week's lesson plans and his co-worker who brings her daughter in after her morning run, not there. An English family who has Sunday morning gatherings with their college age kids, not there.

Then I figured out why. There have been some substantial changes. The sidewalk and the iron tables outside the cafe have been declared "non-smoking" by the new owner. The wi-fi is no longer free. And the menu and prices have changed. the menue has been cut down and the prices have gone up.

Sigh* I guess we'll be trying out the local Dunkin Donuts.

For Family and Friends:
It's been a while since we sent grandparents a video and the email video isn't working. So these images are for friends and family. Z is now just a week away from 7 months.

"I love my jumperoo. Mom moved it to the kitchen today so she could make babyfood while I watched."

Michael Jackson

Almost everyone who has access to a television or radio now knows that Michael Jackson has died. Normally the death of such a mega-star would bring out an unmitigated outpouring of love and sorrow. And on television we are seeing that happen for Jackson. But what I keep hearing over and over again from those individuals being interviewed is a guilty remorse or a qualification of their sorrow. There seems to be almost a need to split Jackson into two different people to make it acceptable to mourn.

I understand this. No one wants to be seen as showing sympathy to the man who has been tagged in pop culture as Wacko Jacko. He’s been the subject of multiple law suits over the years and has done things to outrage, shock and distress people all over the world. There was the flat out weird behavior reported on in the late 80’s and early 90’s. He slept in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. He bought the skeleton of the Elephant Man. He and his chimp Bubbles made headlines for a long time. Then there was the devastation of the child molestation charges of which he was cleared. We can blame this on Jackon’s fame and money, but the legal reality is he was presumed innocent of charges and those charges were never proven. Then there was the plastic surgery that seemed to go to a level that rebirthed questions of Jackson’s sanity.

But I propose it is perfectly okay to mourn all of who Michael Jackson was. If the stories of his childhood that have come out from those around him, including his sister LaToya, are true, then our hearts should grieve for the little boy who never grew up and the man who faced our world in isolation, fearful of the people around him. It’s okay to feel sorry for Wacko Jacko, because we know there was great pain behind the making of that man. He suffered from battered child syndrome we know, and there are speculations he also suffered from anorexia nervosa and a mental disorder resulting from the pressures and abuse of his early life that affected his ability to adjust to change and to grow and mature as a normal adult should have. He had confirmed medical issues such as vitiligo, which goes beyond just effecting his skin pigment and can effect a suffers autoimune system and make it painful for them to be exposed to the sun when severe, and lupis which is usually fatal.

When pressed about the truth of the rumors, Jackson once told a reporter: “Why not just tell people I'm an alien from Mars. Tell them I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight. They'll believe anything you say, because you're a reporter. But if I, Michael Jackson, were to say, 'I'm an alien from Mars and I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight,' people would say, 'Oh, man, that Michael Jackson is nuts. He's cracked up. You can't believe a damn word that comes out of his mouth.’”

But if you need to separate them, then do so because the world owes its sympathy and mourning the Michael Jackson the artist. No one has changed and impacted music, film, dance and pop culture as much. Maybe not even Elvis. I know that’s an inflammatory comment, but I believe it’s true.

Michael Jackson had been making music and commanding attention for his seemingly unlimited talent since before I was born and he’s only 7 years older than me. I grew up watching the animated Jackson 5 Saturday Morning show. I remember playing the Off the Wall album (yes, this was in the days when we actually had albums) and dancing around with my young cousins Ben and Kevin while babysitting them. (I’m sure both are thankful there was no one about with a camera for these events as they tended to be dressed in their Batman pajamas at the time.) I remember Thriller as the first album my younger sister ever purchased for herself. I remember the guys in my high school with the modified Michael Jackson jackets. The moonwalk was the dance to do at high school dances. In the years that have passed his dance and singing styles have opened the door and are mirrored in the moves and music of many of today's popular artists.

So may his family, especially his children, feel the effects of the prayers and good wishes of those whose young lives their father touched.

Caste System anyone?

Professional groups can do a lot of good for their members, but they run the risk of making themselves irrelevant when they stick their head in the sand and refuse to realize times are changing. Many of our labor unions in this country have discovered this the hard way. The near collapse of the auto industry has made the UAW and other related unions realize they can’t just keep screaming for more because there comes a point when there is no more.

Before I get angry responses about the good of unions, let me say I agree. My dad is a member of the UAW and built cars for General Motors until he took early retirement just after the last recession so that someone younger than he, with a young family, could keep his job. My grandfather was a Teamster and drove a truck as long as his health would allow it. Unions are invaluable organizations when they truly have the good of the worker in mind and not just an out dated adversarial, us against them, approach.

Heaven knows I wish we had a teacher’s union down here in Georgia where it’s okay to treat teachers like crap while saying that we are professionals and don’t qualify for union rights. But that’s the subject of another blog.

Professional organizations can do a great deal of good for the people they serve. But when they start developing a caste system within the organization, that is just wrong. Lets get to my rant. The Romance Writers of America. It is time for me to pay my dues again. Now if I were paying my dues to my Georgia group I’d pony up that money in a heartbeat because it does useful things. They have great meetings, they have a wonderful conference each year that helps raise money for literacy. They are a top class group of people who have never made me feel less welcome because my work is epublished.

But not so the RWA. You see, epublished writers are the untouchables of the RWA caste system and if you listen the old guard they would have you believe it is for our own good. Last year the RWA passed a bylaw that excluded from recognition almost every epublisher. Why? Because most epublishers operate on a more sound business plan and do not pay advances. This doesn’t mean they don’t want to invest in the author or that they somehow respect them less. The advance moneys they dedicate to a new writer go into paying for covers, editing, formatting and sales. Writers earn royalties on their books based on what they have sold. Gee. You pay someone when their product actually sells? Makes sense to me. It allows epublishers to take risks on new authors and to give more books a chance.

But not to the RWA. An author is no longer recognized as published if their work is…published. At first the attempt was to group epublishers with vanity publishers. I have never paid a cent to have one of my books published and I have rejections to prove that it’s not a vanity publishing system. Their nonsense about it not being about epublishing and being about advances is ridiculous. I had hoped with the growing popularity of Amazon's ereader, that it would change.

I've made enough money on more than one of my titles to qualify under the "made more than a $1000 on a single title” clause. I used to keep close track and recently asked for a total from EC so I could see where I am. (I lost my old sales figures to a flashdrive that died.) That I qualify was going to make a difference in whether I re-upped with RWA.

Then I started thinking. Why would I want to give my money to a group of people who don't really want me as a part of their group, but who put the little clause in because they didn't want to lose the dues of so many? I guess my decision is made. I’m going to miss the local branch, but I’m not renewing.

If those epublished authors who remain involved with RWA are comfortable sitting at the children’s table, so be it.

Tuesday that feels like a Monday

My doctor's office called today. I was scheduled to have my surgery on the 25th. Note the "was". They had to reschedule...again. I was originally supposed to get the carpal tunnel release done on my right hand on the 18th of June. Then it was moved to the 25th. Now, the office calls this morning and the doctor has had an emergency and has to go out of town so it is now rescheduled again for the 2nd of July.

Irritating, yes. But it's more than that. For each time I've had to schedule the surgery I've had to make sure that I had someone to drive me. Okay, not hard. K, this is your job. But Z is on summer schedule at the sitter's wher he only goes half a day. Now for the second time we've had to rearrange that schedule on her so he would go full day. [paid in advance] Plus, because I won't be able to lift him or change his diapers for a week K has had to arrange to get off work 45 minutes early, foregoing a lunch, to pick him up before Ms. T. closes at 5:30. (Normally I would pick him up after school.)

So yet again, we have had to rearrange our schedule, the sitter's schedule and the schedule of the entire youth services dept. at K's library. Gee thanks, Doc, but I'd probably have more compassion if we hadn't had to reschedule the first time because you didn't follow protocol and set up things the way you were supposed to.

The Letter

The letter came today. This is the letter that all teachers dread. It is the letter with the schedule for preplanning. It is the letter that seems to say, "Ha ha ha, your summer will end one day and there is nothing you can do about it." And since I'm on leadership this year, I have to go back before everyone else. Ick!

New Favorite Show

I'm not a big television person and until just recently we didn't even have cable--it came as part of the phone, internet service we upgraded. However, I've recently discovered a show that I love for no reason I can possibly name. I guess it must be my guilty pleasure. The show is called Cake Boss (http://tlc.discovery.com/tv/cake-boss/cake-boss.html)and it is the reality tv story of a family owned bakery. Watching the creative process and the family dynamic of this show filmed at Carlos Bakery (www.carlosbakery.com) . The cakes this team of bakers makes are amazing.

And while the wedding cakes are phenomenal, last night I watched them make a zombie cake complete with red velvet cake for a zombie walk. This thing was as gross as the bachelorette cake was anatomically correct. They created a strip club complete with male strippers and everything on their cakes is edible. It is amazing.

Some People Need to Chill

This picture came from one of my favorite sites, www.ihasahotdog.com . I can always count on this site to cheer me up. Like the LOL cats' site, this one features pictures captioned by site members. Last night I got very excited because this picture popped up on page one of the site. You see, it's mine. Well, I captioned it. You have to caption the pics and people vote on them, then the most popular make the main page. I was thrilled.

Then I read the comments, or rather one comment. Super mommy left a comment about how this was terrible because no dog should ever be left alone with a baby because all dogs can become aggressive and attack babies and this was not funny and how dare anyone make it seem funny.

My response? Get over yourself, lady. Obviously the baby wasn't "left alone" with this dog. Who do you think took the picture? The camera fairy? Oh, I know, the dog figured out the timer option on the camera and snapped away himself. What a dumbass.

Secondly, only a fool leaves an infant alone with a dog. Yes, the motions and noises of an infant/toddler are very close "prey behavior" and even the most gentle and well trained dog can cause injuries to a baby. Even me, who loves my dogs to distraction, would never leave my son alone with them. Not even Wendell.

Third, just because a dog is big, as a mastiff is, doesn't make it a bully breed or a naturally more aggressive dog. I'd honestly be more apprehensive about a chihuahua than that Neapolitan mastiff. But I'd still not leave the baby alone. I raised a rottweiler. Rotties are one of the "bully breeds" that have strong personalities. We raised him to be submissive. He was low man on the totem pole and didn't even dare retrieve his tennis ball if it rolled too close to my 18lb. pug. She was queen and he knew it.

Finally, this site is not a dog training site. It is not a parental advice site. No one is getting their parenting or dog training information from I has a hotdog.com. The site is entertainment. It is funny, cute and supposed to make you smile. So take the super mommy stick out of your backside and lighten up. If you take such things so seriously, why are you on this site?

That leads me to the "Mothers that take themselves too seriously" topic which I'm not going to tackle today. I'm reading a rather controversial book right now about that topic and I absolutely agree with the writer that some people think they and their approach to parenting are one step removed from the ten commandments. We'll talk about that another time.

So take a chill pill folks. Somethings are not meant to be dissected, taken seriously or even considered beyond a brief chuckle. There is enough in life that we have to take seriously. Why are you adding to the pile?

blogging, blogging, blogging

My surgery was, obviously, postponed until the 25th. It's not something I'm nervous about, exactly. I'm not apprehensive about the surgery at all. I've had it done before, albeit over ten years ago. The most uncomfortable part of the surgery as I recall it was the blood pressure cuff they use to compress your arm as part of the anesthesia. They basically wrap a large rubber strap around your arm to squeeze out the blood, tighten the cuff and then give you an anesthetic to numb your arm. It wasn't a big deal the last time and took only a few minutes for the actual surgery to be done.

I'm more worried about afterwards. My SO does not do well when I'm sick or somehow incapacitated. It's like a personal affront. *Sigh*

Romanticon

I'm trying to figure out what to wear for Romanticon. I'm not a dressy-up kind of person. I'm more of a big old slouchy pants and a t-shirt that's seen better days kind of person. The mixer on Friday is a psychedelic theme. I'm thinking early 70's, late 60's hippie kind of thing and that just isn't in my wardrobe. I may actually have to buy clothes.

And the author appreciation dinner. What exactly does one wear to that? I've seen pictures of the RT convention and the RWA conventions and the ladies were very dressed up, evening wear sort of thing. That definitely isn't in my wardrobe. *double sigh*

I did get the first of my promo items today. I'm buying things a little at a time. Instead of just "business cards" I've got magnets. I already have book marks that I had made a long time ago. I have two other things I'm planning on getting for give aways. I know that you have to balance output with expected return, but I have to admit, some of this is just me indulging the fantasy.

Romanticon isn't just for authors. It's being held in Ohio and is for anyone who loves romance and erotic romance. It's my virgin convention so it would be really nice to see a lot of people there. Its not just for published authors, readers and those aspiring to publication will find some very interesting workshops as well.

PETA

Now I am an animal lover. You can't come to this blog without realizing that. However, the whole "Obama killed a fly" outrage from PETA is ridiculous. I'm still hoping its a joke. I personally don't kill spiders. Spiders are useful and they kill and eat the icky bugs. But anything else in the insect and arachnid family (especially the ants, centipedes and scorpions) are fair game. I know they play a useful part in the circle of life, but they can stay out of my house.

High Crimes and Misdemeanors

Tonight I got a google alert on Elyssa Edwards. It wasn't a new review or a mention in a blog. It was a listing of a pirate site where my Jewels of Ursus books have been posted. I've already notified EC of this. It is a site I told them of previously that is apparently still active.

I am not someone who is often pirated, but this makes me angry. I think it's important not to let this sort of thing happen without saying something. So I did. I joined the site for the sole purpose of private messaging the person who posted the books.

This is the letter I sent.

Dear *insert user name*,

I am Elyssa Edwards. I joined this site solely to respond to your posting of my books. By listing my books on this site you are violating copyright laws. My writing is my passion and my job. It pays my bills, it helps me care for my young child, it is part and parcel of how I support my family. By "sharing" my books on this site you are breaking the law and stealing money out of my pocket.

We are not all JK Rowling or Michael Crichton who make large amounts of money off of movie rights and merchandising. Many of us don't make enough from our writing to quit our day jobs, though we might wish we could. Authors make only, on average, 5-7% off of each print book sold and 10-30% off of ebooks. We pay for a large portion of our own advertising and our own promotions.

I ask you to think carefully in the future before you post someone's books like this. This is not a victimless crime. In this, I am your victim.

Sincerely,
Elyssa Edwards

I'm disheartened to think that this probably won't make any difference at all.

Good news arrived for one of my friends. Jennifer Hudock, who is a brilliant writer, will have one of her stories featured in the Ladies of Horror anthology due out this summer. Yeah Jenn! If you'd like a taste of Jenn's talents check out her website. She's got samples of short stories there, poetry and will soon be podcasting a book of hers called The Goblin Market. If you like fantasy and stories of the fey, you have to check out this book. I've seen the versions of this story grow over the past couple of years and it has turned into an amazing story.

Dachshunds

I really didn’t have a topic to write on today so I thought I’d share with you my love of a particular breed of dog that I enjoy more than any single breed I’ve ever owned. The Dachshund.

Now a top ten dog breed in the United States, the dachshund was first bred in the 1600’s. It suffered in popularity in the US after WWI and wasn’t popularized again until the late 1970’s. The dog often marginalized as a “wiener dog” and made fun of for its odd proportions is actually not a companion dog or toy dog. It is a hunting dog.

Yes, a hunting dog. The dachshund was bred to fight badgers. Badgers are fierce and deadly little animals who rival wolverines for their tenacity and fight power. The dachshund was bred low and long so that it could follow the badger into its hole, flush it out and kill it.

The dachshund is a playful and friendly dog if socialized correctly. If not it can be a formidable watchdog, suspicious of strangers and its howl certainly can’t be easily disregarded. A good family dog, the dachshund is very aware of pack order and needs to be able to spend time with its master. The short hair needs very minimal grooming.

Our family includes a miniature dachshund named Wendell. He is very much my baby and usually looks at my SO as if he isn’t sure he is supposed to obey anything said by K. We were worried about Wendell with the baby, but now they are mates. Wendell scoots up to Z and touches his nose to his forehead or arm then darts away. Z will squeal with excitement and wave his arms and legs trying to reach Wendell.

I love my pets, but Wendell is a special little guy. My little “bug dog”, so called because he tends to scoot backward when he’s excited like certain types of beetles, is my buddy. He sleeps with momma, rocks in the rocking chair with momma and Z, sits with me and basically acts as my shadow. I couldn’t ask for a better companion.

good news and bad news

It's one of those good news-bad news sort of days. The good news is I expected the bad news and was actually resigned to it.


I saw the hand doctor today and, in what was the quickest exam I've ever had, scheduled the carpal tunnel release surgery. I have to admit to being less than impressed with Doctor Hottie. I don't think he looked at my hand other than to show me where the scar would be.

The SO was upset because it was explained that for a week I wouldn't be able to use my right hand. That means no lifting, changing or taking care of the munchkin. I can hold him, rock him, and love on him, but baths, diapers, toting and a lugging about were no-nos. Poor baby. It means getting off work a bit early for a few days.

I have no qualms about this because the SO's boss took off early for two weeks recently because his wife couldn't get off work at the regular time to pick their boys up. Z will have to be at Ms. T's until K gets off work each day.

So, surgery on the hand on June 18th and I'm still waiting to hear about the MRI for my knee, but it is feeling better.

* * *

I have a book recommendation that is just for fun. If you haven't peeked at "Crazy English" by Richard Lederer, you should give it a try. The book looks at the inconsistencies and the quirks in the English language in a fun and humorous way. I'm hoping to use pieces of it to inspire my students next year. I'll be getting a population I don't normally teach. The district has declared everyone will take reading and I get a lot of "I know how to read" resistance from some of the upper level kids.

* * *

I've been editing and trying to finish a story I'm working on that has a working title of "Sweetheart Tree". I have the story mapped out but I'm coming to realize it is in serious need of a different title. This one is too cutesie. I need something sexier. I've never been great at titles and this is just proof of that.

An Open Letter to My Favorite Writer

Having just finished reading a short story by one of my favorite authors, I find myself in need of making a specific request.

Let me begin by saying I know how hard it is to do all that we may want to do with a character in a short. I’ve never been good at the short story. I always go over, so I understand the difficulty of the word limit constraint. However, please do not stretch our credulity just to meet your word limit. Please do not short shaft our favorite characters to meet your mark.

As I said, I just finished reading a short that was part of an anthology. The writer of this short is one whose work I love. Her characters are so wonderfully drawn that they stand as my favorite heroes and heroines. In fact, my son’s middle name was derived from the name of one of her characters whom both my SO and I connected with strongly. I had put off the short I just read because my SO had shrugged and said it wasn’t that great. And since it was “the story” for my absolute favorite of her characters (a side character who absolutely stole my heart) I was worried about reading it.

While it was humorous at times and I enjoyed seeing the glimpses of the other characters I like, it was a disappointment. The story was forced and rushed. You cannot transform your heroine from someone who hates, loathes and is repulsed by the very nature and existence of the hero (in fact she actually once tried to kill him she found him so horrible) to loving him, wanting to sleep with him, become his life bound mate and willing to die for him in less than 12 hours. There wasn’t even a catalytic event strong enough to overcome her feelings, feelings she’d harbored for over 400 years and were rooted in watching his people, in her perspective, tear her family to pieces. A few minutes of “family” warm fuzzies, being shown basic courtesy by those she didn’t expect courtesy from, and tolerance on his part do not make for a believable 180 degree transformation in a matter of a couple of hours. The plot was basically good, but it needed much more than a couple of hours to manifest the change.

I know this particular writer tries to always give her readers the best. She’s notorious for pushing back release dates because things just aren’t ready yet. I probably wouldn’t have been so disappointed if this weren’t my favorite hero, but as to his heroine I have to say, the story didn’t sell me. She’s weak, whiney, immature and not worthy.

Sad & Happy

My ereader has died. I'm going to have to get a new one, but it's just not in the budget right now. So I'm going to be limited to reading on my laptop right now. Bummer.

I finished my book I was reading. It's not an ebook or a romance but it was excellent. My students got me hooked on Percy Jackson books a couple of years ago and I just fnished the last book. Percy Jackson is a young boy whose life is not exactly normal. The series begins when he's eleven years old and ends when he is sixteen. Percy has spent his young life being kicked out of school after school. It's not bad enough he suffers from ADHD and Dyslexia, but he has a crappy step-father, doesn't know who his real dad is and, to top it off, strange things always seem to happen when he's around.

Percy discovers that he is actually the son of Poseidon who has taken an oath with Zeus and Hades not to have anymore half-blood (demigod) children. Needless to say this does not endear Percy to the other Olympians. From being accused of being a Lightening Thief, to battling a Sea of Monsters, to trying to defeat the Titan's Curse, which leads him to the Battle of the Labrynth, Percy finds himself protecting The Last Olympian and trying to turn back an army of Titans bend on destroying Olympus and Western Civilization.

Now I knew that Disney had purchased Hyperion and was starting to get involved with this story, I didn't realize the movie for the first book has been cast and is underway. In addition to the kids, who are played by basically unknowns, there is quite a cast of characters playing the gods. Pierce Bronsnan is playing Chiron the hero training centaur. Kevin McKidd, Sean Bean, Rosario Dawson, Steven Coogan, and others are playing the gods. Uma Thurman is playing Medusa. It sounds like they are giving this the budget it deserves and with Chris Columbus directing it should be amazing.

This Will Teach Me to Whine.

As I said above, this will teach me to whine. I was griping yesterday about my hand and the potential for surgery. What I didn't mention was that I was having some aches in my knees and was off to see my dr. about them.

Ya' heard of Murphy's Law? As I'm stepping up to get on the exam table I feel this pop in my left knee and unashamedly screamed. My Dr. sent me immediately to an ortho who tortured me a bit before announcing that I have torn the tendon in the front of my knee. How bad we won't know until I have an MRI. If it's too bad, again, here is the potential for surgery.

Did I mention I don't do MRI's well? I'm not a petite little flower and they are very uncomfortable. Even the open ones.

Remeber Murphy? Of course I was at the dr. with Z when it happened. But a quick call to the SO and my sweets came running to the rescue. Z is currently over seeing their joint trip to the pharmacy to fill my prescriptions. I can't wait for the pain pills. This hurts !!!

I'm off to limp upstairs and wait. I have been warned that removing the immobilizer and straining the tendon could result in a complete severing and that will be a lot less pleasant than what I'm experiencing now.

Oh, and I found someone pirating my 3 Jewels of Ursus books. I've contacted Ellora's and let them know. Anny Cook said it better than I ever could here recently, but folks downloading or sharing ebooks is stealing.You are taking the food out of Z's little mouth...okay, maybe not, but it's just wrong! This is a career, a job, a livelihood, folks. Would you think it was okay to eat at a restaurant and not pay? How would you feel if someone docking you for the time you had worked and thus taking money out of your paycheck you had earned? It's just rude.

School's Out

School is officially out for the year. No teacher or student would ever have the audacity to tell you they were sorry for this event, but this has been a good year. My students this year were overall a good group.

Z is with his sitter today so I can have one day to sleep late and relax before it’s Z and momma time all summer. I decided to use it to go to the movie and see Angels and Demons. It was fair. I might have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t reread the book again so recently. There were several changes from the book, which I’m generally cool with as long as the changes make sense and don’t eliminate key elements of the story. *cough*HarryPotter*cough*

As for Z, he’ll be going to his wonderful Ms. T. for a few hours two or three days a week. It’s mostly because we don’t want to have him have to go through the “trauma” of starting over with his sitter in August. Tomorrow, however, we will be going to our first “Baby Time” of summer reading at the library where my SO works.

Whining

I have finally had to give in. Eleven years ago I had carpal tunnel surgery on my left hand. I’ve never regretted it and the doctor said I’d have to have the right hand done eventually. Being right handed, teaching and writing for a living, I put it off. And off. And off.

No more. I’m having to wear the brace day and night. It makes writing nearly impossible. I don’t like the idea of surgery. Still, my right hand has gotten to the point where it is numb/sore more than 70% and I can’t work on the computer for more than a few minutes at a time even with the brace.

So, I finally broke down and made the doctor’s appointment. You see, I moved after having the first one done or probably would have had this one done sooner. But so much can go wrong, and I’ve seen a lot of people who have had the surgery and had horror stories. I couldn’t have been happier with my original doctor.

I have to admit, I checked out the website for the Dr. and wow. Major cutie. Needless to say, the SO has decided to accompany me on the trip. Spoil-sport.