She had the operation, everything seemed ok, she came home a few days later after enough recovery. Something like a week later, she had to go into the hospital again, after the wound/incision kept leaking and looked to be infected. They discovered that she had indeed developed an infection . . . a deep one, right to the bone. Doctor said it was a 1% chance or something like that, what can you do? So they had another operation, this one to take out the replacement hip, they flushed out the whole area really well, and they put in a temporary hip with all kinds of bad-bacteria fighting soldiers in there. She had a rougher time of it after that, but still tried to keep her spirits up, eventualy spending most of the next month and a half in an extended care recovery centre.

They did a check last Friday, and determined that the infection was gone - so she was released, until the scheduled surgery for early next week, I believe. For the second replacement hip, third hip if your counting the bacteria fighting hip, and fourth if you count all hips including the one she was born with.

She was in remarkably relieved spirits, when surrounded by family last weekend and we all toasted her being back home.

Hopefully, next hip is a keeper.

. . . . .

I am loving the wife.
She has really helped in the finances department, where she keeps track of all the numbers. I mean, I'm great with faces; names, not so much, but I get by; but numbers I lack a memory of. She always remembers what bill was paid when, how much this cost, what I spent on that, etc, and frankly it baffles me. Having been an old skool bachelor for so long, it has taken me a while to appreciate her needling me to stay on top of what I spend, but . . . really, she's just looking out for us. We are starting to settle into a good, responsible budget, without it being to constraining financially. And we eat delicious home-cooked meals every day, not one meal comes from a can or frozen package . . . unless you're talking about the whole frozen salmon in the freezer.

And this brings me to my point, I think; that I have come to the realisation (well, revisited realisation, but anyways) that eating healthy (for me), naturally leads to saving money. It's pretty awesome, actualy. For instance - even the rabbit that we both made for the first time a couple of weeks ago and have made twice since . . . it took time to find a store that carried it, but I found it in the expensive grocery store that is actually the closest to us. Heck, I hadn't had rabbit in years, and the wife said she knew how to make it in a stew, so I was game to try. I cringed when I saw it was twenty dollars, but YJ assured me it was a pretty good price surprisingly, and we made a big stew. That stew translated into about 5 lunches for me, about 3 lunches for her, and about 5 dinners for me and her. Even adding in the cost of carrots, onions, garlic, soy sauce - it's not very much per meal at all. And it is the most damned delicious thing ever on a cold day, my friends.

Yeah, we go to a butcher for more expensive, cleaner meats, and it ends up about twice the price of regular ground beef and pork. But that extra cost is all made up and more by the homemade cooking. And it's a lifestyle thing . . . we often find ourselves both in the kitchen cooking together . . . I'll be sipping on red wine, chopping garlic, while she's chatting about her day and washing veggies. It's not a chore for me at all. I know what some of you are thinking - wait 'till you have kids. Well, we'll just have to see about that . . . until then, I am quite content, and feeling great.

. . . . .

I had a third thing, something that would have tied in with a third hockey reference of 'offside' . . . or perhaps it was 'face-off'. Either way, can't remember, so that's all.

Vote in the POLL, stationed on the RIGHT.