Fun With Erin and Jill

This is my last week to spend with Erin and Jill before they go back to school next Tuesday.  I've truly enjoyed my time with them this summer.  Today we went to Slugger Museum and saw the special display there, Big Fields, Little Bricks, everything having to do with baseball, made from Legos.  Truly astonishing that all this could be made from Legos.  Miller Field had over 55,000 legos in it, it lit up, and retractable roof.  There would be signs up suggesting things you might want to look for in the ballpark, such as the tv crew, the American flag, etc.  Wrigley Field was another huge ballpark, and the ones I loved best were four portraits of ball players on the wall.  I remember Stan Musial and Derek Jeter, but forgot who the other 2 were.  But there were pictures of the ball players, and the lego portraits next to them, and the resemblance was amazing.  But my favorite were the four "statues, maybe 36 inches high, sitting up on a platform.  From a distance they looked like black cast iron but when you got up close you could tell they were all black Lego.  Each was a different baseball pose....one a player catching a fly ball, one sliding into base, one winding up to pitch, and the 4th swinging a bat.  Each of these had around 35,000 legos in it.  Each piece there told how long it took to make.  Truly fun to look at.  There was a Slugger bat made from Legos, and one interesting bat made from cardboard, which doesn't sound much, but it was if you'd see it.

After touring the Lego section, we got our Slugger Bats. The man getting our bats asked Erin and Jill if they'd like pink bats  Jill jumped on this, and she loves her pink bat.  But as soon as he left to get Erin a regular bat, she let it be known she was in kind of a huff that it was assumed a girl may want pink.  She asked me why pink was for girls, why couldn't boys wear pink, and why were just girls supposed to like pink. 

We then walked a few blocks looking for a restaurant that pleased all 3 of us, and having no  luck returned to the museum, caught a trolley and rode down to East Market Street where we ate lunch at Toast On Market.  They serve breakfast all day and we had breakfast for lunch.  Yummm.  We all liked it.  A few doors from there is Muth's Candy Shop, so we went in there and got a treat.  We then boarded the trolley and headed back to the museum.  A very enjoyable day with my 2 favorite girls.

Dental implants

Ah, yes, most of you blog about your fun and interesting times.  I'm blogging about my dental implants yesterday.  To each his own.  I already had one false tooth being held in by a bridge.  Then when I had a problem with another tooth and it had to be pulled, the entire bridge had to come out because a bridge connected all these teeth together.  So now, where these 2 missing teeth are, I had the 1st part of my implants yesterday.  Implants are surgically placed in, and fuse with the jawbone.  This way, the neighboring teeth are untouched.  The implant is a titanium post placed in the jawbone,  and over 2 to 4 months or so the implant will fuse with the jawbone and forms a base for the next parts of the implant, which will be above the gumline.  That will be the abutment, which holds the crown on, and the crown, or the tooth.  Bridges, like I had before, require cutting down neighboring teeth to get them in.  Implants are self sustaining since they fuse with the jawbone.  It also helps prevent bone loss, which can be a problem with bridgework.

So...yesterday, I had the first part done.   It took about 4 hours.  The first 45 minutes was sawing off the bridge that I had.    It had been reconnected  with temporary cement but was still a job to get off.   There was an incision made in my gum.  Precisely measured.   Holes drilled.  Implants inserted in the holes.  Gum tissue repositioned around implants and stitches placed.  I'm on an antibiotic, was given pain med, which I took and needed yesterday, but don't feel like I need today.  Need to eat soft diet for 48 hours or so, have stitches taken out next week, will have occasional appointments to see how healing is going and when the implant and bone have fused, will get the abutment and crown.  End of story.  And everyone lived happily after.