Back in the Saddle, again

It has been a long time between posts, I know. We went to Buffalo for Thanksgiving and then this week I had ear surgery. What? Ear surgery? Where did that come from, you may ask yourself. All in good time, all in good time.
We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. We stayed with my mother-in-law, Gretchen, and her house is extremely kid-friendly. My sister-in-law, Karen, and soon-to-be-brother-in-law, Ed, stayed there as well. It made for lots of laughing and funny voices. Below is a picture of Gretchen with the kids:

We were blessed to be able to spend time with my father-in-law, Yoshi, and step-mother-in-law, Mineko as well. The kids enjoyed our visit at their house so much that there was a lot of grumbling and complaining about having to leave. Overall, it was a great visit.

On Thursday my mom came down from Lancaster to take me to the hospital to have out-patient surgery on my right ear. You see, as a child I had many sets of tubes inserted in to my ears over the years to help with draining them when I would get an ear infection. They fall out over time. My last set was inserted when I was about 18. The tube in the left ear fell out as it was designed to.... while the one in my right ear fell in to my middle ear. It had been in there for 20 years. This summer I had a series of ear infections in my left ear which prompted me to find a new ENT (ear, nose and throat) Dr.
He was a bit alarmed to find the tube in my ear. He said it hadn't done any damage yet, but perhaps could do any number of unpleasant scenarios over time. So, out it came. The worst part of the whole thing was the intense vertigo I felt after coming out of the anesthesia... like walking on a ship in the middle of The Perfect Storm. Luckily, that went away after a 4 hour nap. Now all I have to do is wait for my eardrum to heal (2-3 weeks) while wearing an oh-so-stylish cotton ball in my outer ear.