Nailed!

So the wife stepped on a nail, or possibly a long pin, Friday afternoon. As if that wasn't bad enough when she jerked her foot back the 'foreign object' broke off inside her foot. So we take her to our local INOVA hospital just up the street (it's where we spent Thanksgiving & the day after Christmas last year) and they admit her. The podiatrist on call looks at her foot, makes a small cut and attempts to take out the sliver of metal but, sadly, fails. Chances of us making it to the operating room (OR) on Friday are nil and Saturday isn't much better. We are told that we 'might' be able to make it in after 5pm, but to be sure the wife should not eat anything after midnight, ' just in case we get bumped up'. This isn't such a great idea since the wife typically can't handle pills, especially pain-killers on an empty stomach. Our only other option is to wait until Tuesday! Not gonna happen!
Instead, after some consultation with her uncle in PA - also a podiatrist but with his own practice & hospital - we go to sleep knowing our next plan of action: wake up at 4:30 am on Saturday to slip under the crush of Labor Day weekend traffic and drive to Allentown PA. For the second time in my life I made a road trip in which the sun came up well after we'd begun our trip. After admitting wife to the OR in Allentown, wife's uncle was successful in removing this troublesome chunk of metal from her foot.

It's a great weekend to celebrate Labor Day - the wife's foot is saved, we're surrounded by family, and I watched two episodes of a great HBO series (Real Time with Bill Maher) and a great movie (The Station Agent) along with a good movie (School of Rock). I also got comp'd into my cousin-in-laws concert in a loft. Ah, hardcore music, reminds me of my sophomore year of college.