ASNN

lots and lots of blah blah

• Ilyana had the surgery we had been discussing pretty much since she was born. She was born with extra webbing between her thumb and pointer finger on her left hand, causing the two digits to effectively function as one. It also seemed to be bowing her first finger, which we thought would require multiple surgeries to correct.

  I took her in to see the surgeons at High Desert Medical Group, they checked it out and determined it was NOT orthopaedic, and we scheduled with the reconstructive surgeon there. Dr. Manning did a WONDERFUL job in the relatively quick surgery, and Ily is healing very nicely. She was on nothing more than Tylenol, regularly scheduled for five days after the surgery. She's out of the bandage and back at school, playing with friends, etc. Quality pix forthcoming (though not necessarily for the squeamish), and grainy photos in the interim.

• We just got back from Carlsbad, NM. We were there for a funeral in Vanessa's family, which was unfortunate, and Carlsbad itself was a thoroughly depressing place to be. (Run-down, kind of like everyone just gave up, not much to do.) But we made a great trip of it - the caverns were really cool, and the kids loved them. We took the road less traveled on the way back given that we had a three bedroom condo available in the high plains of Pinetop, Arizona, and that for $55. We actually took the "back route" (the 280 out of Springerville through the Apache reservation) and it was stellar. It was fairly late at night and we came face-to-face with a couple of large antelope along the way, once while nearly locking up our brakes. But it was gorgeous, and we plan to head back to Pinetop for a long weekend or somesuch.

• Speaking of our timeshare, we've got a one-week stay to burn at one of a few locations before 2007. The only exotic locations are Spain, Portugal, and Mexico - I'm leaning toward either the Spanish Riviera or central Mexico (Guanajuato/San Miguel de Allende area) for Vanessa and my first anniversary.

• I'd really like an electric guitar or a bass. The latter would actually be more useful, since our church is currently sans bass. The former would actually be sexier, since I'm trying to learn guitar to be able to play at church. And since we're moving more and more to all-electric... though I'd probably do a lot better with the bass just playing the root...

• Nessa's up at Emmaus right now. It sucks - I already miss her, and can't even talk to her. While I'm not quite helpless without her, I'm sure pretty lame.

• I have a billion things on my honeydo list for the weekend, and I'm blogging well past my bed time on Friday. I finally have a free weekend to mow our new lawn. Speaking of which, we're going to have to plant something in that wasteland we call our backyard.

• Keeping with the stream-of-consciousness motif, our puppy likes grass so we'll need to plant plenty of that in the backyard. What, you didn't know we got a puppy? See pictures of him at the aforelinked flickr.com URL. He's the cocker spaniel, not the greyhound(s). His name is Simon and he's a complete spaz. It's a lot to keep up with, especially in a new house, since he poops everywhere and chews everything, but he's so dang cute and amiable.

• Kung Fu Hustle starts in five minutes. Darn you free preview of Starz - I'll NEVER get to bed at this rate! On another preview of Starz channels - From Dusk Till Dawn. Which brings up the question: is Quentin Tarantino a genius or just a lucky hack? Movies like this sure make me think he's the latter...