Moving on....

Margy had a WordPress project to do, so she moved the blog to http://YoungsInCornwall.Wordpress.com Follow us there now, including a post on our visit to Occupy Wall Street.

News from the Middlebury Open Fencing Tournament

In his first foil event of the season on Saturday, Zac finished a respectable 9th. But that was just a warm up for his main event. He went undefeated through his epee pool and seeded 1st into DEs. He beat Ben 15-12 in the round of 8 (with the motto "any touch against Ben is a good touch..."), which brought him up against a B-rated fencer with a fast, smooth fleche attack. In order to pre-empt this dangerous fleche, Zac kept the pace of the bout fast and furious, with relentless false attacks and remises, pushing his opponent into the warning zone time after time. His opponent was not prepared for this level of pressure and made errors which Zac was able to exploit. Zac had a narrow lead through most of the bout. When the score got to 14-11, Zac relaxed a little (keeping your intensity right through to the finish is a hard thing to do) while his opponent was emboldened by knowing it was now or never (as often happens at the end of a bout), and he made 3 quick attacks to tie the score at 14. However, Zac was somehow able to dodge his opponent's final attack and get his point on to score the winning touch. It was a physically and mentally exhausting bout, and Zac looked a little drained in the gold medal bout while his opponent was very sharp, so Zac didn't get his B this time around, but proved he can play with the big boys.

- Viveka Fox, Zac's coach

Margy broke her wrist

As if breaking my toe in December were just a warmup, I broke my wrist last Monday, walking in the icy streets of Boston with Meg. We were on our way to her roommate's favorite Italian restaurant in the North End and I fell down. Nothing spectacular -- I was stepping back out of the street, caught my heel on the curb, and went down into a dirty urban snowdrifts. If I hadn't put my hand out, I'd be fine.

After six hours in the Mass General ER, where Meg faithfully kept me company, I left with a reset broken bone, a CD of X-rays, the worst pain of my life, and a single Percocet. I took the bus home the next day, Jordan picked me up, and our friends Lindi and Jerry drove my stick-shift car home.

It turns out that when you break the wrist end off the thicker bone in your arm, and that little end cracks in half, they can stick a small titanium plate in your wrist to screw the pieces into. The surgery was last Friday. It went well and I have no cast, just a bloody line of steristrips that will fall off soon, and a plastic splint I can put on with vecro. Very space age.

Downsides: It hurts all the time unless I take tons of Ibuprofin and Tylenol and the occasional Percocet. Typing doesn't work yet. I can't pick up anything heavier than my clothes. I can hold a fork but can't angle it into my mouth. It's going to be a long haul.

Upside: I can report that a small piece of titanium in your arm does not set off the airport metal detector. We are in South Beach (Miami) for a long weekend of doing nothing. We had planned this short vacation weeks ago because Jordan has been working so hard, and the timing is perfect, since I'm not setting any productivity records at work, between typing one-handed and training the speech recognition software. Since I have no cast, I can even go swimming this afternoon!

Margy

Location:South Beach, FL