The temperatures rose to a balmy 40 degrees today and we ventured outside for awhile. Eric made bubbles under the supervision of Christmas Moose.

I want to give my impression of two software tools that I have recently used: Mozilla Thunderbird – the open source mail client and Picard – the free MP3 tagger from Musicbrainz.

I have been a long time customer of Qualcom’s Eudora mail client for my home email accounts.  I started out on the Apple Macintosh and migrating to PCs.  I have convinced many of family members to use Eudora as well.  I have been at home using my laptop from work to answer email and browse the internet and using Dreamscape’s Webmail client was getting a little tiresome. I downloaded and installed Thunderbird (http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/).  The user interface is a lot like Eudora and the free mail client that comes with Ubuntu.  So far I like it a lot and it is free.  There are some recommended plugins – such as a calendar function – that I haven’t used yet, but I plan to try them as well.

I had a bunch of albums on CDs that I had burned that no longer retained their ID.  Whereas MusicBrainz tagger operated on a track by track basis Picard (http://musicbrainz.org/wd/PicardDownload) is an album oriented browser.  It uses a clustering algorithm to associate the tracks with candidate albums and then the user selects the album and the song titles and IDs are re-labelled.  I had a couple of failures, when it seemed to find a match but didn’t re-label the files  but overall it worked well.

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Overall this hip operation is a lot less painful and is recovering much faster than my previous one, considering that I was still in the hospital 9 days ago.

Yesterday I walked using just one crutch. I don’t go fast, but it is quieter and takes less space than the walker. I also crawled on our exercise bike and peddled for about 20 minutes to see how my hip would react. Since things seemed OK I did 30 minutes on the bike this morning and plan to do another 30 this afternoon, depending on how sore I am. It isn’t the load on the muscles, but more the degree of bending/flexing that the bike causes at this point.

A positive is that I can accommodate more sleeping positions and even managed to lay for 20 minutes on my right hip. This means I am not as stiff waking up in the morning, because I can move around a little.

Since I got my staples removed on Friday I can now shower – which is greatly preferably to washing up at the sink every day. I can’t reach below my knee on my right leg, so I still need help with my sock & sneaker on that side. I need to be careful about what pants I wear so I don’t irritate the incision. For most days when I am stuck at home, sweat pants are the preferred attire.

I finished listening to the 1st Harry Potter book. I can see why it is popular with young kids and pre-teens, but I doubt if I will read/listen to the rest of the series. Yesterday I read the book “Busting Vegas” by Ben Mezrich about the MIT Math kids that play Blackjack for a living. It is a good follow up to his 2003 book “Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions”. Now I am already searching for more to read.

Eric and I have been playing a lot of card games – mainly pitch and war which are both similar in Eric’s version. He gets to chose what cards he gets out of the deck and has quickly learned about face cards. Play begins with him asking me to go 1st and then him picking out a face card from his pile to ensure victory. I figure it is good for him as he is learning his numbers. He still gets his face cards mixed up and 6s, 9s, and 8s, but he recognizes the rest of the cards. He had a Eureka moment the other night when he recognized the college basketball players were wearing numbers on their jerseys like the numbers on his cards!

I usually wake up in the morning pretty stiff as I am limited in the sleeping positions I can accommodate. Upon arising I slide down to the dining room table to have some tea and read. Usually Eric is up about the same time I am and we both go through a slow wake up process. Eric, Kathryn and I have breakfast together.

Since I still have my staples in my incision and can’t get it wet (or infected) I wash up in the bathroom and get a little assistance from Kathryn to wash my hair, help get dressed and get my right sock and shoe on. Afterwards I do my exercises – which are getting better every day.

I have special seating arrangements in each of the rooms.  I need a high chair (usually created by extra pillows) so that my hip stays open and at less than 90 degree angle.  I also need to have a seat with arms to assist in getting in/out of the chair as I can’t depend solely on using my legs (as I can’t get bent over them yet).  I navigate around the main floor using my walker.  I use a cane to go up/down stairs and I use my crutches when I go to Physical Therapy.  I am hoping to shed the walker in next week or so.

I occupy my time by surfing the internet, reading magazines, watching TV or listening to one of the audio books that I .transferred to my IPod. Right now I am listening to the 1^st Harry Potter book. Prior to my surgery I recorded numerous shows on our DVR. Mainly I have watched shows from The History Channel (The Presidents, History’s Mysteries, and Modern Marvels); and horse training shows from RFD TV.

On their shopping foray Kathryn & Eric bought a piggy bank for Eric to paint.  It took about 3 sessions of 20 minutes each for him to douse it with the colors he wanted, but it was good entertainment for him.

This shows the finished product.

Yesterday was a gorgeous day. I went outside on the deck for a couple of hours and sat in a chair in the sun while Eric made bubbles,

tried to jump rope,

shot baskets and played in his sand box.

I brushed the dog and got a lot of dead hair out of him.

We all crashed for a nap, Kathryn went on a walk with the dog while Eric and I did puzzles. At night Skip and Rhinda brought over a delicious pot roast dinner. The meat was tender and moist, the vegetables were firm and gravy was great. We all chowed down and followed it with vanilla ice cream with berry sauce. Then we watched SU win the Big East Tournament beating Pittsburgh to complete their improbable campaign of four close victories over Cincinnati, Connecticut, Georgetown and Pittsburgh.

Sunday morning Kathryn and Eric went to Walmart and BJs for provisions. We again crashed for a nap and upon arising Eric painted his new piggy bank and did some new 25 piece puzzles while Kathryn and Trey went for a walk through the fog and mist. Tomorrow I go for blood tests and began my Physical Therapy sessions.

I have met with * My orthopedic surgeon * The hospital who gave me a briefing and had me fill out a ton of paper work and drew blood * Red Cross to draw blood & store my blood in case things get really desperate * My primary care physician who drew blood and did an EKG to check me out to ensure I was healthy enough to operate on and who wanted an assessment from * My cardiac specialist who did an EKG and stress test Everyone gave a clean bill of health to proceed. I have packed my bag with clothes and books. I have my Ipod loaded with music and a couple of audiobooks. Since I will not be able to shower until the incision is closed I have purchase waterless shampoo and today got my hair cut to a buzz. We have rearranged the furniture in the living room and bedroom to better accommodate my walker. I have done what I can think of to make it easier for Kathryn – coordinate with the bank, shovel snow from everything that might need to be kept clear. Pretty much the only thing that didn’t get done was the installation of a side step bar for getting into my truck, but I have a plan B to try and get that done – it will just have to happen during the 1st couple weeks of my recuperation. And today our old washing machine broke down and K went out and got a new one, which won’t be installed until the 15th. Right now I am just trying to get to Tuesday without catching Eric’s cold or the intestinal bug that has been going around. Monday afternoon I call the hospital to see what time I am scheduled for. Tuesday is the operation, Tuesday night & Wednesday is ICU, Thursday I move to a regular unit and get up to move, Friday I try to walk a little with a walker, Saturday I show them that I can get up and down the stairs and hopefully will get to go home. The following week I start rehab, 6 weeks later I lose the crutches and return to work. It sounds so easy doesn’t it?

Eric demonstrates the escalator that he and I built from ascending pillows, stools and chairs.

I have met with
My orthopedic surgeon

• The hospital who gave me a briefing and had me fill out a ton of paper work and drew blood
• Red Cross to draw blood & store my blood in case things get really desperate
• My primary care physician who drew blood and did an EKG to check me out to ensure I was healthy enough to operate on and who wanted an assessment from
• My cardiac specialist who did an EKG and stress test

Everyone gave a clean bill of health to proceed.

I have packed my bag with clothes and books. I have my Ipod loaded with music and a couple of audiobooks. Since I will not be able to shower until the incision is closed I have purchase waterless shampoo and today got my hair cut to a buzz. We have rearranged the furniture in the living room and bedroom to better accommodate my walker. I have done what I can think of to make it easier for Kathryn – coordinate with the bank, shovel snow from everything that might need to be kept clear. Pretty much the only thing that didn’t get done was the installation of a side step bar for getting into my truck, but I have a plan B to try and get that done – it will just have to happen during the 1st couple weeks of my recuperation. And today our old washing machine broke down and K went out and got a new one, which won’t be installed until the 15th. Right now I am just trying to get to Tuesday without catching Eric’s cold or the intestinal bug that has been going around.

Monday afternoon I call the hospital to see what time I am scheduled for. Tuesday is the operation, Tuesday night & Wednesday is ICU, Thursday I move to a regular unit and get up to move, Friday I try to walk a little with a walker, Saturday I show them that I can get up and down the stairs and hopefully will get to go home. The following week I start rehab, 6 weeks later I lose the crutches and return to work. It sounds so easy doesn’t it?