John and I headed into Manhattan yesterday to meet with his back surgeon to discuss his surgery in October. It went well, but the surgery is a lot more complicated than we both originally thought. Basically, they are going in thru his side, removing the disc at L4/L5, putting in a metal cage where the disc was with some of his bone, some cadaver bone (ewwwww) and maybe some demineralized bone, and hope it fuses. Then theres the 5 day hospital stay at The Hospital for Joint Diseases in Manhattan, 4 weeks (omg) recovery at home, and the full recovery which is from 6 months to one year post surgery. He also said that while the level of pain will decrease, he can’t say how much. And that you won’t know the full level of success of the surgery until that 6mo-1yr mark. All the doctors John has seen are all in agreement that he must get the surgery, so I guess this is as good as it’s going to get. This doctor is world-renouned and does far more complicated surgeries than this, so we feel comfortable with him and his prognosis. So not really bad news, just not really good news either. I am hoping that the doctor is overstating things so that patients will be pleasantly surprised by how good they feel. Doubt it, but hoping anyway.

While we were at the dr’s office, he had John head over to the radiologists just to get an updated set of films before the surgery. Do you know who I saw in there? Dr. Abby Lockheart (aka Maura Tierney) from ER! No, not as a doctor, as a patient. She didn’t make any eyecontact but it was so totally her- I even heard her speak to a receptionist and it was the same voice from TV. So there’s my celebrity NYC sighting for the day.

Lastly, something for sale. We went up to B&H photo after the doctors appointment (but before going all the way down to Chinatown to pick up some deliciousness from The Peking Duck House to take home) where I bought a brand new Canon 24-70mm 2.8/f L lens. I had purchased this lens once before but ended up returning it and getting the 24L fixed instead. It is a VERY heavy, large lens and I just wasn’t loving it. But since that time I have found so many occassions that I need a zoom lens (since all of my lenses are fixed 24L, 50mm, and 85mm) and constantly switching out lenses in the middle of a shoot is often problematic. So now that I have two 5D’s, I figure I can have the 24-70 on one, and my favorite, favorite 50mm on the other (or the close second favorite 85mm on the other). I tried out some telephoto zoom lenses while there as well, but I don’t really need those at this time. Eventually, but not now. Now that I have the 24-70L, the 24mm L fixed kinda becomes repetative. 

So…now that you know the lens history, I am offering my Canon 24mm 1.4/f L lens for sale. It is in pristine condition, in the original box, with all of it’s accessories (lens cap, lens hood, lens end cap, padded bag) and it even has the original warranty card in there too. I am offering it for $875.00 including insured shipping  (it currently sells for $1170.00 plus tax). If you are interested or know anyone who is, please send me an email at bbeyrer1@optonline.net. Thanks!

Here is a link to the description at B & H and here is a picture:

(okay, I know you all know that awesome Staples commercial with the kids standing and staring in dismay at the wall of school supplies while the dad whizzzzzzes by on the shopping cart with the song "the most wonderful time of the year" playing in the background. Seriously, one of my all time favorite commercials. EVER. I crack up just thinking about it.)

Well, Jack & Patrick started their first day of 4TH GRADE (holy crap) today. They had a great day, loved their teachers (Patrick has the same teacher he had for Kindergarten) and were both so happy to see their friends. They got great kids in their classes, so that’s always a big indicator of how the year will go. Looks good so far.

I’ve been busy filling out paperwork, writing checks, and getting organized all for the first day of school. Everything seemed to run smoothly this morning here at home (although I had to wake everyone including Timmy up at 8am. I did NOT like setting the alarm clock. Nope. Not at all.) The boys were sporting new backpacks, new lunchboxes, and new clothes for their first day. Nice to see everyone and everthing all clean and shiny for the start of a hopefull clean and shiny school year.

Timmy had his first day back at OT and PT and he loved seeing his ‘teachers’ there. He totally konked out for about an hour nap- the poor kid was exhausted between me waking him up and going back to therapy. Wait til school starts for him next week, plus the PT and OT 2x a week. I think the nap may be making a brief return until he gets used to his busy schedule again.

The boys said they had a "great day" back at school. Looking forward to a fun 4th grade year! I can’t wait to see what they learn and how they grow. God, they’re big, huh?

Summer is all done. It went way too fast (especially since I worked almost every weekend this summer so I missed a lot of beach time).

We had a great weekend- went out east on Saturday to Greenport (Coronet for lunch and yummy chocolate milkshakes which the boys demolished in 3 seconds flat and even Timmy liked, the duck store, the carousel) and then to the outlets in Riverhead for some boys clothes and shoes. Sunday and Monday at the beach where the weather was perfection but the flies were miserable. We stuck it out and stayed down there (and got eaten alive) but we had to suck the last seconds out of the summer.

Last before school pictures of the boys. We took a little fieldtrip to planting fields for some shots there. Can’t show you all of them as some might be xmas card material. Hope everyone had a great end of summer. Now it’s back to working every weekend for me until Christmas!