In other news

[annathepiper]

+0: Welcome ii2none59, fellow Russell Crowe fan and Kentuckian, into whom I bumped over on boxer_ferret's journal! She's even from Louisville, my birthplace. What a small Internet it is!

+1: I got my new passport finally. So yay, I can have it on hand next time solarbird and I head up to Canada.

+2: Last night, while I was making random nonsense noises at the bird, Zoe started making happy little noises back at me. She fluffed up her feathers. And she started sort of hop-dancing back and forth across her perch. It was incredibly cute, and almost made her look as though she were doing some kind of mating dance.

-3: This just in from my endoc: looks like I get to have surgery again. Oh goody. Basically we're looking at a situation of "surgery now" vs. "monitor for six months, at which point we'd still most likely be looking at surgery, plus solarbird's and my insurance will have changed and made it more difficult for us to afford the surgery anyway". Given these two options, we're going with "surgery now".

+4: But at least I don't have a rejection letter out of Luna yet.

Days without a rejection letter from Luna: 42
Days without a rejection letter from Nadia Cornier: 24
Tuesday miles: 2.0
Miles out of Hobbiton: 208.3
Miles to Rivendell: 249.7

Comments

[apel.livejournal.com]

Good luck with the surgery. Does the doctor think surgery will take care of the problem once and for all?

[annathepiper]

It should, yes. Since the issue is my thyroid in general being screwed up, we're looking at taking out what's left of it and putting me on synthetic thyroid hormone.

[firni.livejournal.com]

Surgery to remove the whole gland, or what? ARGH!

[annathepiper]

Well, what's left of it. I only have half a thyroid left. But yeah, we're looking at removal of the rest and putting me on synthetic thyroid hormone. Doable. Annoying, but doable.

[firni.livejournal.com]

Well, the pills are cheap and it's a once-a-day thing, so you've got THAT going for you.

My grandfather had Graves' disease, and they got rid of his thyroid by KILLING it with RADIATION. I still think of that and shiver.

Anyway. Surgery *again*. Bleah. I'm sorry, sweetie.

[annathepiper]

Yeah, everybody I know who's had a thyroid issue of any kind has assured me that the meds aren't a big deal. That part doesn't bug me so much. Just the "no, actually, we really wanted another huge medical expense just to make our summer more lively, THANK YOU, surgery sounds like FUN!" part of it all.

*snugs* Thanks, though.

[firni.livejournal.com]

Look at it this way: at least they won't be aiming SHARKS WITH FRIKKIN LASERS at your neck like they did my grandfather.

Hey, you think he made that part up?

[annathepiper]

WHOO HOO SHARKS!

That would, I daresay, make the entire procedure loads more exciting.

[ii2none59.livejournal.com]

+0: Welcome ii2none59, fellow Russell Crowe fan and Kentuckian, into whom I bumped over on boxer_ferret's journal! She's even from Louisville, my birthplace. What a small Internet it is!

Thanks for the welcome -- glad to be here...and you're right -- it's a small Internet!

[annathepiper]

Indeed, and glad to have you. :)

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Is that a composite icon, Aubrey on the cover of TIME? Or did that really happen? (I do so little with mainstream media these days it's not even funny...)

[ii2none59.livejournal.com]

It's from the cover of TIME, yes. I can't remember the issue date (sometime in November 2003), but one of the members of a Crowe group I'm in scanned the cover when it was released. I saved it to my hard drive and when I became an LJ member, I cropped it a bit so it would fit the LJ requirements.

But yes, it really did happen *g* I think it was one of our first really good looks of the good captain in his movie incarnation!

[annathepiper]

I never did buy me a copy of that. Drat. But I did give it a suitable ogle when a coworker of mine showed it to me--the same coworker who actually surprised me with an M&C poster hung up by my workstation, when I was on my last round of contracting with this team. :)

[ii2none59.livejournal.com]

It was a wonderful issue, and I keep thinking it's one of the few in which Russell has been on the cover. I'm not sure if I have an extra copy or not. I'll have to check my M&C drawers (yes, drawers LOL).

[annathepiper]

Heh! You top me with the M&C fan cred. ;) Me, I've just got the poster, the two-disc DVD box set (and I still need to watch the rest of the extras on that--I mean, the ones BESIDES the deleted scenes with the wet shirtless swimming Russell), the soundtrack, and five Aubrey-Maturin novels!

Oh yeah, and spazzkat bought me the book about the making of the movie. I need to finish reading that at some point, too.

So many books, so little time!

[ii2none59.livejournal.com]

I couldn't stop collecting stuff. LOL And some of my friends in England sent me material when it appeared in the news there, especially tying it in with Admiral Nelson.

It's one reason why I so want to go to England this October. It's the 200th anniversary of Trafalgar, the only sail on the Victory to survive the battle is on display and they seem to be using footage from M&C to accompany it. I often try to imagine Jack's reaction when the Surprise returned to England and they learn Nelson is dead, because I figure they didn't make it back until after the battle had been fought. True Nelson only spoke to him twice *g* but....*sigh* remember when Jack says that line regarding Nelson and the boat cloak? It chokes me up every single time.

The making of book is a lovely accompaniment to the movie, and yes, I need to finish watching the bonuses myself...BESIDES the deleted *clears throat* swimming scene. If *I* had been Peter Weir, that scene would have been SO in the movie! LOL Of course we POB fans know how Jack actually loved to swim *hehe* but I'd have taken whatever I could get!!!

[annathepiper]

I love that line about Nelson and the boat cloak, indeed! Hope you get to take that trip.

And yeah, when I learned that the Wet Shirtless Jack scene was not actually in the movie, I was heard to lament, "But, but, PETER! You've got RUSSELL CROWE in this movie! Do you have no concept of the female half of his target audience?" ;)

(Though, okay, yeah, fine, intellectually I can understand why that bit wasn't in the movie--it didn't add too terribly much in terms of story or pacing, so I'm not surprised that it hit the cutting room floor.)

[ii2none59.livejournal.com]

I wonder if they even realized there WAS a female target audience!!! I hate that it's assumed that women don't like this sort of thing, when I'd have rather a boyfriend of mine took me to see M&C over some romantic comedy anyway!

But it's not like it would have been something out of context or out of character for Jack. One of the things we love in the book is that he swims like a fish (okay...he swims naked but anyway....*bg*), so having the swimming scene would have worked. Oh well...*sigh*

[annathepiper]

Oh yeah, I'd take M&C over a romantic comedy any day of the week.

Unless the romantic comedy had Russell in it, maybe. Ahem. Er!

Anyway, sure, it's totally IC of Jack, but what I was trying to say is that even though it might be IC of him, that one bit of scene didn't necessarily add anything to the story we're presented in the film--because when Jack comes back up onto the ship, he's got those lines with Killick about Hollom, and how the crew is being leery about him. We get plenty of that elsewhere in the film, so it doesn't necessarily add anything to have that moment in there too.

Even if all us female fans of M&C are sighing over the lack of wet shirtless Russell. ;)

[ii2none59.livejournal.com]

Oh that scene would have added NOTHING to the overall movie.

But a wet shirtless Russell as Jack Aubrey, my second favorite of all his characters, would have been an *trying to think of something viable*....an...artistic...addition to what was already a brilliantly executed motion picture *hoping that sounds good LOL*

[annathepiper]

*chortle* "Artistic value"! Hey, I'll help you stick to that story! ;)

[ii2none59.livejournal.com]

Artistic value is what they ALL say. And yes, I stick to that explanation -- you'll never get me to change it! LOL

[annathepiper]

Mr. Crowe was indeed on the cover of Time. I didn't buy the issue, but I saw it courtesy of a coworker of mine--the same one who gave me my big ol' Master and Commander collage poster to hang by my workstation when I was on my last contract.

[cafiorello.livejournal.com]

Hope it goes well!
Cathy

[annathepiper]

Thanks! We're going to try to get the same surgeon who did my procedure last year, so I should be in good hands. She was an excellent surgeon, and the whole thing went fairly well. I expect it'll be the same this time around. The only real annoyance will be the time and money that'll have to go into it.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I hear what you're saying. I was tottering around in a few hours, and back to near-normal in a week or so... who's your surgeon and where does she work? If you can't get her back I can recommend you someone from my neck (ahem) of the woods...

[annathepiper]

Her name is Kathleen Stickney, and she works out of the Polyclinic. So does my endoc, for that matter--Maureen Marshall. Dara and I have wound up going there a lot for our medical needs, the last few years.

[ii2none59.livejournal.com]

-3: This just in from my endoc: looks like I get to have surgery again. Oh goody. Basically we're looking at a situation of "surgery now" vs. "monitor for six months, at which point we'd still most likely be looking at surgery, plus solarbird's and my insurance will have changed and made it more difficult for us to afford the surgery anyway". Given these two options, we're going with "surgery now".

I didn't get to comment on this first time out since I'm still a newby on your LJ, but wanted to wish you all the best in your surgery.

[annathepiper]

Thank you much!

[poetry-lady.livejournal.com]

Good luck with the surgery. Sounds like you're in compotent hands, so that's always a plus.

[annathepiper]

Thank you very much. :) Yeah, it'll at least be reassuring that we'll be shooting for the same doctor as last year. I liked her.

[firni.livejournal.com]

Now now, don't shoot the doctor. Bad things can happen if you do that.

;)

[annathepiper]

Ah, but it's solarbird who gets violent under anesthesia, not me!

(Just ask her to tell you about the time she almost punched her dentist.)

[cafiorello.livejournal.com]

Ha ha! I was kicking my dentist's *nurse*--why he had her trying to hold me down, I don't know....
Cathy

[annathepiper]

Hee! At least in Dara's case, they hadn't quite knocked her out all the way, so she was just conscious enough to register 'HEY SOMEBODY'S TRYING TO GET INTO MY MOUTH' and to take defensive measures. ;)

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Well, it's good to get it over with... the thyroid is, I swear, one of the most poorly designed body parts EVER. It's always doing crap like that.

***hugs***

[annathepiper]

*hugs back* Thanks! Yeah, I said to the doctor on the phone that it sounded like to me that I was going to wind up having surgery regardless, and she said, "Well yes, actually, I pretty much expect that at some point I will be recommending you have surgery."

So. It'll be funny if it winds up being on the same day as last year's.

[seimaisin.livejournal.com]

{{{hugs}}} I'll be thinking about you. Here's hoping that this surgery does the trick!

[annathepiper]

*hugs back* Thanks, hon!

[kitchengrrl.livejournal.com]

Crap. I'm sorry, Anna. Medical expenses suck. I hope you get the surgeon you want and that everything goes smoothly. *hugs*

[annathepiper]

*hugs back* Thanks!

Thyroidal

[(Anonymous)]

I suppose it's best just to get rid of the problem once and for all..that's the way I would do it. I hope all goes well for you..You need passports to get into Canada? Iwas under the impression you didn't need a passport for to get into Canada or Mexico..Scott

Re: Thyroidal

[annathepiper]

Right now, you don't. Driver's license + copy of birth certificate were enough to get me in and out of Canada when jessicac, mamishka, and I went up to Vancouver a few weeks back to see Serenity. However, I am given to understand that as of next year the regulations will be changing, at which time you will indeed need a passport.

And thanks for the well-wishes. :)