Minnesota Cabin

Katie and I recently spent 4 days in a cabin near Nisswa, MN with Loren, Sally, Ben, Steph, Ellie and Ada. We had a great time meeting our newest niece Ada and getting lots of playtime with Ellie and catch-up time with the rest of the family! I never had the Minnesota lake and cabin experience prior to this, and it was everything that was promised. The cabin was on a small lake, with a dock and a small beach, as well as a campfire pit.


The sunsets were gorgeous!


While we were there we opened Ellie's birthday gifts. Aunt Katie made her this princess dress from scratch, and she sure seemed to appreciate it!


We also rented a pontoon boat on a bigger lake nearby, which allowed us to get out on the water to do some fishing and swimming, and Katie even took a shot at tubing.




We also shopped in downtown Nisswa during an arts and crafts fair, cooked lots of yummy meals at the cabin, played games, roasted marshmallows, and had an all-around great time!

MRI Results

I got the results of my MRI today, and what it boils down to is two significant findings:

1. Dislocation and relocation of the patella (kneecap) with an associated complete tear of the medial patellofemoral ligament (MPFL).

2. Grade I sprain of the MCL.

So, the good news is that the MCL, ACL and meniscus are all intact. The bad news is that the MPFL is completely torn. The MPFL is the ligament that keeps your kneecap from sliding too far towards the outside of your knee. My kneecap is not way out of place or anything, but it does feel like there's some instability in there.

I don't want to speculate any farther other than to say it's a fairly common injury and if surgery is required, it looks straightforward and with a very high rate of success and happiness post-op. However, I still have to consult with an orthopedic surgeon before I know what my next steps are, so I don't want to get ahead of myself.

The hope is that the knee will remain stable enough over the next few weeks to allow me to complete this busy time I have with work the next month or so, with two business trips, and then I will have plenty of time to correct the issue on a more long-term basis. I've been able to get back to work and get around with minimal trouble in the last week or so, and if it stays that way, this should be an ok plan. That's all for now, I'll post more info as it comes available.

The Knee is a Tricky Joint

On, June 21st, round about 8pm, I was on the ice doing a warmup drill with our goalie. I was standing still in front of him when a teammate sent a puck towards me but behind me and to the right. I twisted around to receive the pass. Funny thing is, my left foot decided not to follow me, I think because it was caught in a rut in the ice. So as I pushed off the inside of my left foot to propel myself to the right, my knee was faced with a choice.... and the choice it made was not good. I heard and felt several loud pops as the knee gave out, and down I went.

Now, the first thing you think when this happens is, "I know that's not a noise that my knee is supposed to make", as you lay on the ice looking upward. A few seconds later, you start to feel the pain, which actually is not that bad at this point. After laying there for a minute and gathering my wits about me, I had some teammates help me to the bench where I removed my equipment and assessed the situation. At the time, I knew something was wrong because my knee didn't really want to move, but from the outside it looked well, more or less like my other knee. I hobbled around the rink gathering up my stuff, and (very) slowly made it out to my car.

Being my left knee, driving was not really impaired, and I drove home and hopped into the house. By that point, the swelling had started. I never got to the "grapefruit sized" swelling that many people experience, but the inside of my knee was quite swollen and sore. I immediately started RICE therapy (rest, ice, compression, elevation) and actually slept comfortably that night.

The next morning was a different story. As I got out of bed, the knee -really- did not want to support any weight, and I hobbled to the restroom 10 feet away. It's a really strange feeling to have a joint and a limb that you are used to walking, running and skating around on be completely useless. I think my brain had a tough time reconciling this, as my body was then overcome with an intense wave of nausea, the worst I'd ever felt. Good times! Thankfully, that lasted only 2-3 minutes, but enough time to convince me that a trip to urgent care was in order.

After a lonnng wait at the urgent care center (not so urgent, I guess), the doc took a look. An xray showed no fracture, so he sent me home with an immobilization brace, a followup appt. in a week, and a promise to have someone contact me about physical therapy.

Over the next week I went back to work, and with the immobilization brace it was pretty easy to get around. After a few days, the swelling went down, and what remained was a lot of stiffness and tenderness on the inside of the knee, indicating an MCL (medial collateral ligament, runs along the inside of the knee) injury. Day by day I gained a little movement back but still did not develop any "trust" in the knee - it still feels like it might give out, especially when not bandaged.

I was not impressed with the urgent care doc, and when no followup call about PT ever came, I cancelled my appointment with him and scheduled one with my regular UAB doc. Saw him on Friday, and he did another x-ray, which again turned up no fractures, but was interesting nonetheless cause my kneecap was out of place due to the swelling. The doc's comment was, "Hey, what's your kneecap doing way over there?" Just kinda interesting to see.

He ordered an MRI for me, which I completed this morning. As my first MRI, that was an interesting experience. It was easier since it was my knee and my head did not need to be in the tube. The noises were interesting, and LOUD... while laying completely still for 30 minutes I had lots of time to think about them, so I decided they broke down into three groups: sounds like machine guns, sounds like grinders, and sounds like futuristic laser weapons. Not sure why it needs to be so loud, but not really disturbing - the earplugs that were provided were a big help.

With the holiday, I won't have the results until sometime Wednesday, but what I suspect is at the very least, an MCL sprain. A sprain is when you stretch or tear one or more ligaments, and judging from the soreness right over my MCL, this seems like a likely outcome. The concern I have is that with the number of pops I heard, there may also be damage to the ACL and/or the meniscus. MCL injuries don't generally call for surgery, but ACLs often do, and meniscus injuries generally don't heal by themselves either, due to lack of bloodflow to the area. So, I'm not sure what's in store quite yet. The good news is that I can support weight and walk around with very little pain or discomfort, and the knee overall feels like it is becoming more stable. But, the knee is a tricky joint, and sometimes other ligaments or muscles can compensate for injuries.

In the meantime, I've also been fitted for a sports brace, which will allow me to ease myself back into hockey as the knee heals. I will wear it for at least the first year after the injury. I'm in no hurry to rush back, though. I'm looking forward to doing some PT to increase the strength and flexibility of the joint first. Right now, I'm just hoping to avoid surgery. I should know more later in the week.

Ada Mae Richards has arrived!

Katie and I are aunt and uncle once again, as Ada Mae Richards made her debut today for proud parents Ben and Stephanie, and big sis Eleanor!



Ada Mae Richards
7 lbs 6 oz
19 3/4 in
June 5th, 2006
1:33pm

Road Trip!

10:30am - "That show we watched last night about Big Bob Gibson's BBQ was good. They won all those BBQ awards. It looked tasty."
10:31am - "Yeah, we should take a trip up there someday and check it out."
10:40am - Katie and Fran are on the interstate headed toward Big Bob Gibson's BBQ in Decatur, AL!


We arrived at Alabama's mecca of BBQ just over an hour later...




12:30pm

Katie: "Maybe you didn't need the three meat sampler."
Fran: (Stuffing himself back into the car) "Oh yeah I did. That was awesome. Now roll me home."

That was the best BBQ I've had in a long time. One of the things Big Bob Gibson's is famous for is their white barbeque sauce (vinegar/mayo based), but I had no idea how good their red sauce was too. Everything I had was awesome. If you're ever passing Decatur, AL on I-65 in northern Alabama, you owe it to yourself to stop in for a meal. We'll be going back again soon. Check out their web site at http://www.bigbobgibsonbbq.com/

After the feast we headed over to nearby Huntsville to meet up with our friend Hari and hit the local mini golf course.


Folks, you can't teach this kind of talent and form...


After that it was back on the open road. See, we were due home at 6pm for.... that's right .... a BBQ at our friend's house.

Dana's Spring Visit

My sister popped in for a nice visit at the end of May. The goal for the trip was as much relaxation as possible, so we spent lots of time lounging on the deck and around the house, eating, reading and planting in the garden. Very relaxing. Dana even mowed our lawn, claiming that she missed doing that - not my idea of relaxing but she appeared to enjoy it (Dana, just so you know, any time you get another urge to mow the lawn, come on down...)

We did take a picnic over to Aldridge Gardens to enjoy the botanical park and check in on the hydrangeas right at the peak of their season. It was really hot that day, but we're doing our best to hide it...



Back at the house, we took the annual "here's the Fabrizio kids on the back patio with the flowers, so that mom has something new to put on her desk" photo shoot. Katie's zinnia patch is off to the right, and has become the star performer of the entire garden this summer!

Loren and Sally's Spring Visit

Loren and Sally drove all the way from Arizona for a visit and a delivery in April. They brought all of Katie's childhood stuff and a treasure trove of great tools for the workshop! We had a great visit while they were out here.

Here's a nice shot on the deck in front of the sweet gum tree.



Sally opened birthday gifts while she was here.


Sally also spent lots and lots of time looking out into the greenness of the Alabama spring. She doesn't get treated to this much green out in the Arizona desert, so I think this was a highlight for her.


During the birthday gift ceremony, we got sidetracked trying to teach Sally how to do the "floating hot dog" trick. We're still waiting to hear if she has seen it yet! (Sepia for dramatic effect....ok, I was just playing with settings on the camera)


This watermelon got shockingly high ratings on the RWS (Richards Watermelon Scale). I believe I heard some scores in the 9's! This early in the season, that's big news!


And so another wonderful visit came to an end. We're meeting up next month in a cabin in northern MN for the next Richards family gathering, where the newest member, Ada, will get to meet her Aunt Katie and Uncle Fran! (Of course Ada wasn't born yet at the time of this visit, so this is a giveaway that it took us a while to make this blog post!)

Changing Birds

My new hobby is bird watching. We are fortunate to have a great environment for the birds- lots of trees, a running creek, and an endless supply of birdseed. It has been fun to see how the birds have changed over the past month. All of the birds have started to change from their drab winter feathers into their bright feathers that are attractive to mates.

Here is a picture of a male goldfinch. He's so bright! Just a month ago, the finches looked so different (see the backyard birdcount post for a comparison).


I was sitting outside today on the deck. I didn't think the birds would come to the feeders with me sitting so close, but they got used to me being there in about 3 minutes. Here is a shot of a Carolina chickadee, our most frequent feeder visitor.



We were very lucky to see a female Eastern bluebird today! They are rare in neighborhoods and quite shy. We looked into what it takes to keep them around- it's very complicated. You need to provide them with housing and at least 100 mealworms a day. But the rewards sound like they are worth it! They will become so tame that they will eat out of your hand! We are looking into putting out some bluebird houses.

It's been so much fun watching the birds! We even got Fran's mom hooked on the birding when she was here.

Mom's Visit

Fran's mom came for a visit last week! After picking her up at the Atlanta airport and spending the afternoon in Decatur shopping at the farmer's market and walking around downtown, we enjoyed a relaxing and leisurely-paced week in Birmingham. The weather cooperated with highs near 80 (unlike the low 50s of this week!) and mom got some quality time with the garden and the birds. We also did lots and lots of cooking, leading up to the highlight of the week, the meatball feast! Our friends joined us and laura set the new record, eating 5 meatballs with dinner.

Here's a photo of one of our "latte moments" - mom got hooked on Fran's lattes from the latte maker ($5 garage sale find, go Katie!)...



Since mom left, Fran has caught, recovered from, and recaught a cold, Katie has been hard at work studying for the licensing exam, the tulips have started to bloom and the weather has returned to winter! March is in like a lamb and out like a lion this year, apparently.

More Scenes of a Birmingham Spring

Just some more pictures taken around the yard this week...

Hyacinths

Magnolia

Magnolia II

Through the Pear Tree

Pear Blossoms

Katie's Birthday

Friday was Katie's birthday and as the day drew closer the presents kept rolling in (giant dog slippers making a cameo here too!)...


On the actual day, we opted for a low-key celebration, a dinner out followed by a massive present opening session and cake. Here are some photos of us opening some of the presents. Too many presents to show here, these are just a sampling!

Katie showing off a new necklace from Loren and Sally (which she wore to work this morning so I think she really likes it!)



Someone was really thinking of Katie when they made this mouse pad. Baby orangutans?? Can't go wrong there. Another thoughtful and fun gift from Loren and Sally.

Barbara sent her a lavendar planting kit, so that Katie can grow her own lavendar plant. Lavendar is one of her favorite plants and smells. She also sent lavendar soap and a nice pair of slippers that are definitely Katie's style.


Here Katie is showing of the Lovely lotion that Dana sent. Lovely is one of Katie's new favorites....


Most of Fran's gifts had a theme this year which reflects Katie's new hobby of bird watching. For the past few weeks I've often found Katie mesmerised at the kitchen door watching the birds in the backyard (which I admit is quite addictive, as we have over a dozen species visiting our deck feeders, sometimes 15 at a time!) Any self-respecting bird watcher needs to be properly equipped, so I got her all the essentials...


And finally, the gift that I was most excited about, which requires a bit of back story... back in college, Katie and I were road-tripping from St. Louis to Chicago for the weekend. At a gas and snack stop, Katie asked for some money to go in and get some food and drinks. When she came back she held out her hand to mine and dropped the change...including a GIANT penny which she bought in the store. Given her love for all things out of scale, she just couldn't resist buying it. It was so random and funny we still talk about it to this day.

Many times since that day she has stated that her biggest regret in life is that she didn't buy the entire set of change when she had the chance. So this year, for her birthday, through the magic of Ebay I was able to complete the set! She opened it and looked at them for a while in silence...and then just said "It's over. All of my life's goals are met. What am I going to do now?" It was very much like the scene in The Princess Bride when Enigo is wondering what to do with his life now that he has avenged his father's death at the hands of the Six Fingered Man.

As you can see from the picture, Katie is quite excited about having the complete set...


A very fun birthday present opening session. Since Friday, Katie has spent lots of time using all of her gifts. Thanks to everyone for sending such nice things, and a big Happy Birthday to Katie!

UAB Upsets #3 Memphis in Bartow Arena

The game everyone at UAB had been circling on the calendar for months finally arrived Thursday night at Bartow Arena, when the #3 ranked Memphis Tigers came to town. Earlier in the season UAB played Memphis tough in Memphis but ended up losing in the end. Memphis was undefeated in Conference USA play coming into the game and was trying to secure a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament, while UAB was trying to add the one quality win that would hopefully secure their own invitation to the tourney.

The game had been sold out for weeks; luckily I remembered to get tickets online while we were on a trip to Boston a month ago. Game night arrived and the atmosphere was lively thanks to live blues music being played outside amidst the smell of BBQ and the buzz inside the arena due to the capacity crowd of 8,500, the anticipation of the big matchup and the presence of the ESPN2 crew for the nationally televised game.

Off of the opening tipoff Squeaky Johnson buried a 3 and the crowd exploded, the beginning of a very tense night. The game was back and forth until Memphis opened a 33-23 lead and UAB was forced to call a timeout. UAB then went on a 23-7 run to enter halftime with a 46-40 lead. The lead was quickly erased by Memphis at the beginning of the 2nd half, and then it was back and forth from there until Memphis went horribly cold, with UAB holding them scoreless for nearly 8 minutes. However, UAB's poor free throw shooting meant that they could not pull away from Memphis during their drought. Finally, as time was running out with UAB clinging to a slim lead, Memphis was forced to start fouling, and the free throw shooting of UAB got back on track just in time. Hitting several clutch free throws down the stretch, UAB held off Memphis through an excruciating last 1:00 where Memphis hit two 3 pointers only to see UAB hit their free throws at the other end. As time expired, UAB had an 80-74 victory, Bartow erupted and the student section flooded the court!


The 500+ loud, obnoxious, blue-clad, nonsensical-cheer-cheering Memphis fans sat in stunned silence, many not even able to rise from their seats for the long trip back to Memphis. The big win should be enough to get UAB the invitation to the NCAA tournament while the stage is now set for an excellent Conference USA tourney where Memphis and UAB will be the #1 and #2 seeds next weekend.

Spring Has Sprung!

After an extremely warm January followed by a return-to-winter February, spring appears to have taken full hold of the Birmingham area now. Our tulips, hyacinths and crocuses are shooting up, the magnolia has been in bloom for a few weeks now, and the pear trees are covered in flowers. The birds are hitting the feeders in record numbers and getting a lot more active too.

Last week we had several consecutive days of rain, so the creeks in the backyard were in full flow. Here is Fabrizio Falls. This is a series of small drops that totals about 12-15' on the side creek in the back yard.


Here is Katie sitting alongside "Upper Fabrizio Falls". :-)



A view downstream of Ivy Creek.


And here is the magnolia tree buds, from a couple of weeks back.

We've been in the 70s this week and Katie has been planting her pots full of the tulip bulbs I brought back from Amsterdam. Looking forward to more warm weather!

Great Backyard Bird Count 2006

This morning Katie and I participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count which required us to watch the birds in our backyard for 45 minutes and try to identify all of the species that were visiting us. You count how many of each species that you can see at one time (so you don't count the same bird over and over again). This is our second year participating and we were much better at the identification this year! We identified 12 separate species, and only had one which we couldn't figure out. The most common was the American Goldfinch (14 at once!)

It was hard to photo the feeders because the birds are moving a lot and the weather was rainy, but here are some decent shots of two of our feeders...


In the first shot, we have the goldfinches gathering at their favorite feeder, filled with thistle.


Here we have a finch and a brown-headed nuthatch (the top bird), which is our smallest visitor...very cute!


Some of the other species we have include cardinals, jays, doves, titmice, wrens, chickadees, juncos, house finches, crows, and Fran's pride of the morning: the newly identified yellow-rumped warbler!

Thanksgiving in February!

Shortly after Thanksgiving we had some technical difficulties and then we never got back to getting those pics online. Since it was such a fun trip we wanted to blog about it, even if it's now February!

We went to Arizona to have Thanksgiving with the Loren and Sally, and Ben, Stephanie and Eleanor came down from Minnesota. Lynette and Ross came up from their Arizona home too!



After another typically scrumptious Richards Thanksgiving dinner, Eleanor rocked out in her pink cadillac...



The next day we visited Loren and Sally's friend's farm, where Ellie got a kick out of playing with the horses!



On Saturday, we took a trip up to the Grand Canyon. What amazing panoramas! It's not easy to capture it in a picture. It is easy to capture the Richards clan, though... (although Eleanor was working out an eye issue apparently!)



It was quite a bit colder up at the canyon than it was in Prescott, so we all bundled up, including giraffe.



Finally, on a very blustery Sunday morning, we went to the burro rescue ranch and helped feed the animals. Ellie got along quite well with them!



What a fun trip it was - we did lots more too (like the fun restaurant / cabaret in Flagstaff and a very tasty tapas dinner in downtown Prescott, and Katie and I got to catch up with an old high school friend of hers down in Phoenix) and really packed a lot into four days. Looking forward to our next Richards get-together, at a cabin in northern MN in July!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! We caught this picture of the Valentine's Day tulips I got for Katie in the morning sun in our family room.

Just a Quick Hello

Wanted to say hello and sorry for the lack of updates. We've had a bit of difficulty with our digital camera's battery, so we were not able to get many pictures of our recent trip to Boston. Katie was attending and presenting a poster at the International Neuropsychological Society conference, and I tagged along to visit friends and hang out in Boston. We also found time to take a side trip down to Hartford to visit Dan and Michelle (thanks for driving to get us!). While there we toured Mark Twain's house and ate at some really good restaurants while also checking out their new house and getting acquainted with the dogs. All in all a fun weekend getaway!

Merry Christmas!

Katie and I celebrated Christmas a little bit early since we're getting ready to travel to Virginia to spend the holiday with my family. So yesterday was our own Christmas, and we also had a truly 21st century holiday by videoconferencing with Loren and Sally out in Arizona as we opened our presents from them. It was really fun and worked very well. Hope everyone is having a happy holiday season!

San Diego and the Electronics Mecca

I am in San Diego this week attending The Usenix LISA 2005 systems administration conference. While here, I was able to make my first visit to a Fry's Electronics. I had heard about this legendary store that is only on the west coast. Back in the .com days, Fry's built a reputation as THE place to go for serious electronics geeks.

I was not prepared. It's the size of a Costco and has nothing but electronics. Every conceivable electronics part you could want, they have it. They had an entire aisle with nothing but motherboards - a hundred of them. A computer game section bigger than the frozen food section at your local grocery store. Every caffinated product imaginable (including gum), the centerpiece of which was an entire wall of refrigerators full of various caffeinated drinks. You want a keyboard specially made just to play Call of Duty? They've got it. The piece de resistance? 55 (not a typo) checkout lanes!

If you ever get the chance to visit one of these stores, it's a definite must. I've never seen anything like it, not in the northeast, not in the midwest, not in FL and certainly not in AL. I guess I'll just have to stick with newegg.com for now.