Physical therapy is turning out to be downright fun. Much less painful than it used to be, great people, and now I have a study buddy for my certification test! Even more, we made plans for an at-home CPR-certification pizza-party-class led by the dad of one of the therapists. Just excellent.

Getting ready for the CSI:Miami set tomorrow. We photographed the regular CSI set last year and it turned out just fine, but it's still a bit nervewracking ... what if the pictures look awful? What if I screw up? What if I act like a dope when I'm introduced to the actors?

I'll just have to hide behind Tony, I guess.

Met with the contractor tonight. He is great, but I keep ending up feeling like a dope when I tell him our ideas. When he saw the floor tile we picked, for example, he said "Oh, no no no no, not that one, oh no, mosaic is verrrrry difficult." So now we have to balance our ideas with his suggestions and make a final plan.

We also have to buy a bathtub. Apparantly, plastic is junk, fiberglass is foolish, and cast iron is extremely heavy and horrible to install but will last forever. Literally.

Shopping can wait, though. We're flying to LA on Wednesday so I can photograph the CSI:Maimi set for the game. VERY cool.

We really need a vacation.

I mean, things are good -- CSI released, and my book is due out in just four more weeks -- just so busy that it's long past time for us to lie in some deck chairs and do nothing for a while.

But not today. Our first contractor meeting is Monday night, so after our gym time this morning we have to scuttle over to the tile shop and try to figure out what we're doing. How do you really know which fixture is better than another? Should shower head nozzles be metal or rubber? And who would have guessed that you had to learn so much just to buy a few feet of tile? Unbelievable that one snapped-off shower knob led to all this havoc.

The Game Developer Conference is this week, which means that Tony is off to San Jose every morning for meetings and lunches galore. It's less about the expo and lectures this time than it is a convenient place to meet with lots of developers who would normally be in different states or countries.

I'm not going. Instead, I have physical therapy and studying for my certification exam. Thirteen weeks or bust!

(Physical therapy is improving, by the way. For example, now instead of just using the horrid machine to exercise the ankle, I get to stand on a superfun spin plate while I use the horrid machine. And if I'm very, very good I'll get to graduate to the mini-trampoline sometime soon.)

CSI: Dark Motives (that's CSI 2) launched today!

In stores now!

In all the excitement on Monday, I forgot to mention our weekend. I photographed a wedding! Our friend Steve and I did all the photography, while Tony wrangled the camera bags, lenses, flashes, filters, memory cards and memory card storage.

It was grueling, terrifying, and overall a grand time. The pictures came out awesome. Now we want to do another one.

Or maybe a few more.

Had my first physical therapy appointment this morning. Wow.

First, massage. HARD. Grip-the-edges-of-the-table-and-try-to-grin hard. Then exercises. Lots. Then stretching. Not much (I'm really flexible). Then ultrasound -- they spread some medical slime all over my shin and rubbed it around with an ultrasound wand. THEN came the...

...electrodes.

Electrodes being placed all over my shin and calf. "What are you going to do with those," I ask. "Don't worry," she says. "I'm going to put a giant bag of ice on your leg and it will numb it right up."

Uh huh. So they turn on the electricity, thump-thump-thump, until it feels like spiders are dancing all over my leg, and then offer me a magazine. The ice does not make my leg numb. Twenty minutes of that, and I am sent home. Until Thursday. Wow.

Ahhhh.

Finally got the x-ray results: no break. Now, instead of a cast, I get six weeks of physical therapy. I already met my therapist and she's an absolute blast. Even better, she says that since the bone is okay I can go ahead and start walking again this weekend.

AND CSI 2 shipped on time. All game development cycles have dramatic finales -- it's the nature of the beast -- but Tony has a way of pulling that last-minute rabbit from his hat every time. Yay, Tony.

AND we're having a March heat wave. It's absolute heaven out there.

Ahhhh.

Tony has been in Montreal all week, attending meetings and lunches galore. Meanwhile, he's keeping one frantic eye on the States, watching CSI 2 trip and stumble toward its final deadline. (That was a few hours ago, but since I haven't heard from Tony so I don't know how it all ended up.) As always, it will be (was?) a photo finish, with last-minute crashes to resolve and a take-no-prisoners deadline with the duplicator.

Less excitement at home. Finished the taxes, though. Other than that, just a lot of studying and pecking away at the new manuscript.

STILL no report from my doctor.

Waiting till Monday for the x-ray results is a lot more fun than anticipated.

"Do you really want me to carry groceries when I might have a BROKEN LEG?"

"Do you really think I should go downstairs for my own snack on a BROKEN LEG?"

"Do you really expect me to finish the taxes with a BROKEN LEG?"

Good news and bad news.

Good: we met two AWESOME contractors, both of whom are sending us bids. Feeling great about that situation.

Bad: my shin problem from last summer is acting up again -- a dull pain on the side of the bone, accompanied by a purple splotch under the skin. Doctor thinks it may be a complete stress fracture, meaning a fracture that goes all the way through the bone. Not only is this difficult to treat, but it is gross. Had many x-rays today; tune in Monday for the results.

(I guess the bright spot is that I can brag about walking around on a broken leg for seven months, but really... it's gross.)

It started as such a small thing. The handle on the shower broke off. We called a plumber to put it back on.

"Ha ha ha," says the plumber.

"Oh no," say Rhonda and Tony.

"Ha ha ha," says the plumber again. "Not so easy. It's broken off way inside the wall. You'll have to pull out this entire shower unit to get into the wall to replace the fixture. You'll need a plumber and a drywall guy and a tile guy and a..."

So we're interviewing a contractor tonight. Lucky for us it's a very small bathroom.