Still haven't quite shaken this bug...

Still haven't quite shaken this bug...  My fever is gone this morning (yay!), but some of the other symptoms are still with me.  The most noticeable, for me, is a near-complete absence of my ability to smell or taste.  I had tea and orange rolls (from Kneaders) this morning, and just about all I could taste was the sweetness.  Debbie tells me that both the scent and the taste of those rolls is very strongly orange, but I couldn't detect that at all...

In the morning our friend Lizzy H. and her 6 month old baby Lilly came over for a visit.  We've seen Lilly fairly often since her birth last September, and it's been a lot of fun to watch her developing.  She's now on the verge of crawling, and starting to babble and make noises in reaction to her environment.  Her vision has developed to the point where she can track and watch faces, and she seems to react to your expression and vocal tonality.  Yesterday, while her mom or grand mom was holding her, she was very curious about our old field spaniel Miki – who was also curious about her (unusual for him, as normally he doesn't want anything to do with kids).  It was fun to watch Lilly interacting with Miki, from both perspectives.

We had a doctor's appointment for Debbie yesterday, way up in North Logan.  She was there for two reasons: one was an occasional sharp pain she gets in her knee as she's recovering from her fall early this month, and the other was to see if anything could be done about the large bump on the outside of her left knee (the one most recently operated on).  On the pain, her doctor wants to wait a month to see if it just goes away, as it would if it was not any particular injury but just part of the recovery process.  On the bump, the doctor had not much good news.  He thinks it is likely a bursa caused by irritation of the IT band (a major ligament in the knee) from the two relatively recent surgeries on that knee.  It's a common side-effect of such surgery, he tells us, though it's most commonly seen on a different ligament in the knee.  There are two possible ways to get rid of it.  The first, which would be the one he'd recommend doing first, is a shot of cortisone straight into the bursa.  He doesn't want to do this, however, until the sharp pain problem is resolved.  The second way to get rid of the bursa is surgical removal, but he doesn't want to do that.  He didn't flat out refuse, but I suspect he might have if pressed.  I asked him why the reluctance, and got an explanation that I really liked: he doesn't do surgeries that don't have a functional goal.  This surgery would not increase her knee's ability, and would not resolve any pain – it would be purely cosmetic.  He doesn't believe taking the risk of a surgery for such a thing is a good idea.  Clearly he is ill-suited for a career in plastic surgery!  But I like that attitude in a surgeon...

After the doctor's appointment we headed to a nearby restaurant that we like: La Unica, with great Mexican food.  The owner of the restaurant has been running a few Mexican food trucks in Cache Valley for years, and they also have outstanding fare.  We've been visiting their trucks for three years now, and have gotten to know some of the family members in the process (the owner works with at least two daughters and two sons in the business).  As usual, we had a great meal (carnitas burrito for me, fish tacos for Debbie, mango drink for both).  As we were eating, the owner came over and asked if the red car in front was ours (we drove my Tesla Model X).  When I said yes, out came a stream of questions.  We learned that one of his sons (working there yesterday) had spotted it and was all excited about it.  One thing led to another, and on our way out all the family members working there came out to look at our car.  The first thing they wanted to see: the falcon wing doors, of course. :)  Four of them were ooohing and aaaahing at everything they saw, from the leathery smell of the interior to the giant screen on the center console.  One of the daughters, it turns out, loves her pickup truck – and when I told her of Telsla's plans for a pickup, she got real interested.  A lot of fun, that was. :)