My wife had her lumpectomy this morning.  We had to be at the hospital by 6:00, and I think we were ten or fifteen minutes early.  She was given a room in pre-op.  After some waiting, they sent her to radiology to have some type of dye injected into the lymph nodes.  I asked if she was going to glow in the dark.  That would be an interesting side job, being a living night light to a child in a wealthy family, don’t you think?

Shortly after she got back, the anesthesiologist came in, went over some things, and they wheeled her out.  I went down to the waiting room and hung out with my in-laws.  There was one scary moment, and it was only a moment, when I got a call from the operating room.  They were simply calling to let me know things were going well.  Once I realized there wasn’t a problem, I appreciated the update.

The surgeon removed the tumor and the three lymph nodes closest to it.  The whole thing took a little over an hour an a half.  We were home by 2:00.  My wife is doing well, and so far hasn’t experienced much pain.  They told her that will change tomorrow.

My wife and I would like to thank everyone for their concern, well-wishes, thoughts, and prayers.

Happy New Year, everyone!

People tell me I should be making resolutions.

Why?  Aren’t most resolutions broken within days/hours/minutes?  Why would I want to set myself up for failure?

Still, in the interest of going along with the herd, here are a few of my resolutions.

1.  I resolve to write more this year.  I resolve to finish what I write, including projects that have been back-burnered and new projects.
2. I resolve to put something up for sale before the year is over.  In other words, I resolve to start self-publishing.
3. I resolve to read more.  I resolve to read what I want when I want.
4. I resolve to not read only works by women/gays/left-handed redheaded stepchildren/[insert group du jour here].  I resolve to not read books based solely on the author’s gender/skin color/plumbing/ethnicity/mental illness/sociopolitical agenda, no matter how critically acclaimed the book/story/screed/ransom note is.  OTOH, I may not read anything by any of these if some nag starts lecturing me on why I should based solely on the reasons listed above.
5. I resolve to read what I want when I want and resolve to choose my reading material based solely on story.

I think that about covers it.  Oh, wait, I left one thing out.

I resolve to try to be less cranky.

In past years I’ve ended the year with a recap of what I thought were the best books of the year and possibly a summary of any key events.

This past year family and work responsibilities prevented me from reading as much as I usually do.  On top of that, much of what I did read was older stuff.  There wasn’t a lot of new work that appealed to me.  A good portion of what did is still in my TBR pile.

So this year, I’m going to reverse things.  I’ll let you tell me what I should have read.  Please list any works, short or long, in the comments that you think stood out or were required reading.