Anna's in pre-surgery

6:20am: We're at Evergreen; Anna's in pre-surgery right now, getting dressed, IVed, prepped for surgery, and all that. We got here at 5:26 for a 5:30 appointment after getting up at 4:15am; the reception desk wasn't quite open yet so we saw for a bit waiting for it to open. They eventually opened, did a blood draw, and then sent us over here. Surgery is scheduled for 7am.

7:30am: Anna's in surgery now. By this time she should be under and they should be actually doing stuff. They came and got me around 6:45 or so and I watched as the surgeon drew things on Anna's chest and large remaining b00b13 with a sharpie. It's supposed to go until noon or so. They suggested I go do something other than hang around here so I'll do something like that in a bit once it's brighter out.

They have TV in the waiting room. It's horrible. Watching the Today Show go on about how you should be buying stock and how you need to buy a house right now. And how the government needs to issue 4.8% mortgages to everyone and it would solve the housing crisis tomorrow.

11:43am: I went out to try to find some contact lens solution of the sort we like - they have some we can use in the pharmacy, but it's not the "no rub" kind Anna prefers - and while I was out I got an update that Anna's surgery is running long but is so far going fine - just taking on the long side of the range, rather than the short I'd thought was possible. (And maybe was. I'm sleepy, I'm not sure.) So we're looking at sometime after 1pm but before 2pm instead of 12:30 or so.

But I never found the store; the people who sent me off didn't know how to give directions at all and didn't even really try other than to say "not in the mall, near that old car wash that isn't there anymore" and point me in hopefully the right direction. I missed, sadly, by a block, because I got to the intersection where correct would have been off to the left, but looking off to the left, all you see are trees and it looks like it's turning residential. That's true, except for right around the next curve there's a new drugstore.

Foo.

I also finally got in some mandolin practice (despite cold and occasional drizzle) out in the courtyard below the windows in the waiting room. I wonder whether anyone could hear me? I doubt it as the windows are double-glazed and thick, but, and we're three stories up, but you never know.

12:02: I forgot to mention - before Anna went in to surgery the surgeon said Anna would definitely be here until Saturday, if not also through to Sunday. But Saturday at least.

13:20: Anna's been moved into recovery; surgeon says everything went fine and she's doing "great" but will take about 90 minutes to two hours to recover properly from anesthesia. They aren't taking me to the recovery room (unlike last time) but will come get me when it's time to go up to her actual hospital room. I noticed that pre-surgery was packed this morning so I speculate it's crowding in post-surgery keeping me in general waiting.

13:27: Surgeon came back again and said Anna will feel like a truck hit her for a few days (that's what all the painkillers are for) and that she'll probably feel it worst in her back. One of the reasons the surgery took so long is that pulling out the radiation-treated skin area was very difficult to excise - she'd formed a lot of scar tissue there in reaction to the radiation. The surgeon described it as "like cutting through concrete," but says that just meant more time spent than anything else.

16:01: Okay, so, catching up. Anna's in her room; I'm with her; I'll post contact data buy sry behind friendslock. She was in a lot of pain at first but that's under control now mostly. Lots of irritated shoulder, arm, and, obviously, back muscle; the back is where it's going to continue to hurt the most. I'm staying the night, as expected; it's another one of those rooms with the sleeping couch. Anna says "tell people hi" so I'm telling people hi on her behalf. In a bit we'll get her laptop up here and once she can stay awake long enough she'll probably pop online a bit, but no promises.

Here's an online petition that sends faxes to DC; also, a picoupdate.

Okay, so, as laputain has correctly noted here, the Bush administration and its Treasury and Fed have gone on a socialism-for-billionaires binge. Actual free-marketeers are organising street protests against the bailouts here, and there's a petition here that generates faxes to US Senators and Representatives against all this bullshit.

Minyanville asks whether capitalism as we know it is dead, and the Financial Times says yes, in fact, it is. Bloomberg talks about the jump in US debt risk following the AIG demi-nationalisation/bailout. Brad Setser at the CFR tracks flight from "risky US assets" and describes how nobody wants to hold risk (US 35-day T-bills got in some cases negative-interest bids yesterday) and while I can't back it I'm hearing rumours about a near-freezeup in LIBOR interbank lending.

Last night, as two nights ago, the Fed was unable to defend its 2% target rate, tho' at least the standard deviation was lower than Monday night. This despite central bank and soverign fund intervention that Brad (lots from him the last couple of days - tracking money is his forté) describes as breathtaking.

Still, for today, it made the markets happy; the Dow regained most of yesterday's decline, the NASDAQ essentially all of its; the S&P did nicely too. A variety of market-makers have decided to blame it all on short-sellers, with Britain moving to ban short-selling of financial-sector stocks. That doesn't usually work out well. There are also a fleet of investigations being set up; maybe they'll pass a regulation saying you can't sell stock unless it's gone up!

wait what? (don't ask/don't tell)

There is a report going around of Don't Ask--Don't Tell being thrown out by the military. People are going yay. I would be too, but, um... what about the Federal law?

Remember that there is a Federal law, still on the books as far as I know, passed by Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton in 1993, banning outright lesbian, gay, and bisexual people from military service, calling us "an unacceptable threat" to the armed forces. "Don't Ask/Don't Tell" was an implementation of that law which could be summarised as, "We acknowledge this legal ban but are simply not going to ask, and what we don't know won't hurt us. But if we find out, you're gone."

If this report is true, are they going to ignore this law? I am not aware in any way of it having been repealed. Have I missed something important here? Or is something else very, very important, and on the surface extremely bad, going on?