Oh, and flowers!

Early in the morning on Valentine's day, I leaped out of bed to discover that my alarm hadn't gone off and that I was supposed to in the car driving to an 8 am class at that very moment.

Some reflex arc allowed me to assemble underwear, socks, jeans, wooly top in the appropriate order on my body, and I was saying a quick goodbye to John when he suggested I look in the kitchen by the coffee maker.

I went out to the kitchen and thus commenced much squealing and cooing and other noises I don't usually make. A dozen of the most beautiful long-stemmed roses I have ever seen, and the only ones I have ever received.

As much as I eschew Valentine's Day as a Hallmark holiday, I was utterly floored and moved, and floated through the day hoping someone would ask me what I got for Valentine's Day.

Could John be the classiest human being alive? Very possibly.

(More photos by this classy fellow.)

To a Magnificent Meniscus

This is the view from a tiny camera inside my mom's knee. She tore her meniscus -- the padding between her femur (upper leg bone) and her tibia (lower leg bone) -- a while back, and you better believe it hurt like heck.

She's been pretty much immobilized since winter break, when I got to go bug the orthopedist with her. We looked at some MRIs, twisted her knee around a bit and said, yep, that's a torn meniscus.

So props to her for sticking it out through a six-week wait for surgery, and more props to my dad for running around the house getting things for her.

What you're looking at is a lovely, smoothed out meniscus, with all the nasty frayed parts clipped away. She should be up and climbing stairs in a few weeks!

So yay Mom, yay Dad, and yay technology for making teeny tiny cameras and teeny tiny scissors.