Where is America?

There's a show on the Travel Channel called "5 Takes: USA." The premise is that 5 people from other countries travel the US, experiencing the nation, so to speak. I've not seen it, but I've seen the advertising, which asks for suggestions. That got me to thinking (watch out!):

Where would you send someone to see "America?" Or some regional subset? To visit Liberty Island and see "...your hungry, your poor...?" Perhaps Ellis Island and see the start that so many had on these shores? Maybe the Grand Canyon and see the majestic wonderment that this land holds? What about South of the Border to see the commercial kitsch that is Americana?

What do you think?

--Beav

What to do?

I've been couch-bound for several days now. Not too bad; I've got a satellite system and TiVo on the TV and a high-speed internet connection.

However, my wife is also home with me. Good news, as she is immensely helpful (and besides, I like being around her). But she is also competition for the TV, which means that half/most of the time, I'm stuck watching the crap...I mean quality programming that I don't normally watch and she does. Normally, I would go into the office or upstairs, but lately that's not as feasible an option. D'oh!

I've also come to find that the places I normally visit on the web don't take more than a couple hours, and I don't have the imagination to spontaneously come up with more places to go. I did find They Might Be Giants' home page today. And pages on Wikipedia where people discuss the meanings of lyrics.

So, help me out, everybody. Find some interesting places to visit.

--Beav (Where do I want to go today?)

Post-op

I'm back! Sorry to say, I didn't get to post while under anesthesia. I'm not sure I got funny, either; I was a little busy being nauseous. It turns out they didn't have to do anything to my meniscus. When they got in and took a look at it, there was no damaged tissue to repair. I am, by most accounts, better. I have a cooling radiator attached to the big hulking crap on my knee. Just hanging out on the couch; my bed's up a flight of stairs. While I think I could handle going up there, the idea of going up and down bothers me a bit.

But Percocet every 4 hours and Cephalexin (an antibiotic) every 6 keep me in a decent mood.

--Beav

This is it!

Well, here we go. The last post before cuttin' time. I report to admissions at the hospital at 6 in the morning. A little early for me, but eh. They'll be replacing my ACL with either a part of my hamstring, or failing that, the ACL from a dead guy. Also, they'll either repair my meniscus, or remove the messed up part of it entirely. Then, it's off the sleepy-time juice and onto pain meds. I'll convalesce at home for a month, then hobble back to work and rehab.

I'll try to post at least once while drugged. I am, according to my wife, quite amusing when stoned out of my gourd on anasthesia.

Catch you all on the flip side!

--Beav

Read My Lips: No Noodle Surgery

About a month ago, we took Tristan in to the hospital for something. In the check that they gave him, they noted that his fontanelle (soft spot) seemed to have closed. As most of you probably know, it's a bit early for that. If the cranial bones fuse too early, it sometimes doesn't leave enough room for the brain to grow, or the head grows misshapen. So, of course they set him up with a CT scan to take a look at how things were forming up.

The CT scan revealed that the metopic suture (runs up the middle of the forehead) and the anterior fontanelle had closed prematurely. This was a bit of a worry. When we talked to the neurosurgeon, she gave him a once over and it looks unlikely that he will require surgery. (Whew!) If it were going to cause problems, one would expect his forehead to be pointy in front; sort of pinched looking. It is not. He's every bit as handsome as his brother. So, we'll take another look-see in November, but the prognosis is good.

Yay!

--Beav (No need having two convalescing babies in the same house.)

Stop the world. I'm leaving.

Putting unrelated riders onto "must-pass" bills; putting their own bottom line or narrow viewpoint ahead of the interest of the nation; what do we pay these bozos for again?

Congress passed a port security bill on Friday. Attached to that bill was a provision outlawing all gambling (other than horse-racing and the lottery) over the internet. I must have missed the port-side terrorist threat that gambling incurs. Anyone care to explain? Heck, I missed the threat entirely. Why does it need to be illegal at all? What makes it different from live gambling (which is regulated by the States)?

Unfortunately for us all, there is the Law of Unintended Consequences. The Law of Unintended Consequences holds that almost all human actions have at least one unintended consequence. In other words, each cause has more than one effect, including unforeseen effects. Some of the consequences are listed in this blog entry.

That doesn't even include the effect of government meddling needlessly in its citizen's lives once again. We need less government, not more; more autonomy, not less. A great many individuals in this country are too stupid to come in out of the rain, but that does not mean the government needs to ban showers or walking under an open sky. The Constitution was written to establish that we need a government to handle some few matters that the people individually were not capable of, or were unsuited to, and everything else was left to The People. As far as I can tell, every single Founder tried their best to keep the government out of the everyday lives of the people. "As long as they're not hurting anyone else, let them do as they will," they might have said. What the Hell happened?!

--Beav

Shorts (As in Eat My)

Guess this means I'm a guy: My wife bought a dozen outfits for the baby on Friday. As she was getting them ready to put in the wash, she got a Sharpie and numbered them all so I could match numbers like some Geek Garanimals.

Please don't throw things: Last week, some friends at work and I went to a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch. Their main category is the soup, or Pho (It's quite yummy). This, of course, led some of us calling the others "No Phos" because they got rice dishes instead. It occured to me as I ate that I could probably find a recipe online to make it for myself. Though, it probably wouldn't be authentic, and likely my first outing wouldn't be of top-notch quality. It would be So-so faux Pho.

Is there a hurricane coming?: I went shopping today. Did you realize today's the 1st? I didn't. It was an absolute madhouse. In several aisles, I would be willing to swear people were looting.

--Beav