Inblognito

2007-01-23T20:38:00.000-05:00

And some photos

In various photos here, we have Sam chilling in his swing, which he thoroughly enjoys. In another, we have our "nanny" watching over him. And lastly, we have a snapshot of him tuckering out while watching football.

2007-01-22T11:33:00.000-05:00

Samuel James Hard

Samuel James Hard was born Friday, Jan 19, 2007 at 3:33pm, weighing in at 8# 3 oz. I know, I know, it took us a while to blog it, but we've been so excited (and busy) doing all this new stuff, that it took us a while. Here is a link to some pictures that the hosptal takes and put online. Honestly, the pictures that we've taken are much cuter and better, but I haven't had time to transfer them to the computer, etc yet. In the meantime, these will have to do. Notice in the first one that it appears he is throwing gang signs. Trust me, our pictures are much better and will be coming soon.
Later

2007-01-12T17:10:00.000-05:00

No News Yet

So far Heather has not delivered yet. The interminable wait continues. Car seat is in the car. Crib is decked out. Bassinet is decked out. Swing bouncer is sitting between the fireplace and TV. There's even been a comet for crying out loud. Nothing has convinced the baby to come on out.

-"If they get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers."

2006-11-28T17:41:00.000-05:00

Brian is Lazy

Very long time with no post. We are healthy and happy and awaiting Sam's arrival. He should be here in about six more weeks and we are finishing up the rest of the stuff that has to be done- car seat, crib mattress, washing his clothes- before he gets here.
As for pregnancy, I am doing well, I just have to choose between eating and breathing at times. He is now big enough that he could stay downstairs in the regular nursery if born today and not have to go into the NICU. He just would have to act like a big boy. He and the cat play daily rounds of patty-cake with each other, it would be more amusing if my belly wasn't in between them, but still cute.
Brian is busy at work. This week he is acting chief resident which means that he has minions and gets to make executive decisions until the real chiefs return.
Thanksgiving was. . . Strange. We went from not having anyone to having twelve people we barely know over for it. Long story, but a good time was had by all.
I found something called non-alcoholic wine. It is regular wine (in this case merlot) that has had the alcohol removed magically. It does not suck. I would still rather have real wine, but I think that the quality has something to do with the company that makes it rather than the grape. We will see if it is worthwhile enough to try again before I can have real wine.
Hope all is well with everybody else
Heather

2006-09-01T16:26:00.000-04:00

A Few More Hours Bite the Dust

Unborn baby continues to kick Heather's innards. She mumbled something about "quit having soccer and football on the TV".

Youtube is absolutely the best thing ever. As my schedule got better, I've had more time to exploit it. Gotta love that toilet-flushing cat. Better however, is using it to research college football footage. Found one yesterday called "Brodie's greatest hits" in which Alabama's former quarterback is sacked 11 times set to AC/DC.

2006-08-28T17:38:00.000-04:00

Reset Button

So I was reading in Wired that of the 12.7 million or so people registered on Blogger, roughly 10 million are either inactive or never got started. Well, I'm still here, just incredibly indifferent. Sploggers be gone.

Lexington has been in the news the last two days, what with the worst domestic airplane accident in years happening exactly 7 miles from our house. And, no, nobody that we know was anywhere near being on the plane, thankfully.

Heather is now past the halfway mark. The more that things like walking and bending over become difficult, the more I hear phrases like "You did this to me!"

And of course, no August entry would be complete without thinking ahead to next weekend and the real beginning of college football. The UK team irritated me last week when the whole team walked across the road during rush hour blocking traffic for 5 minutes. I mean, if they were good and people respected them, fine, just maybe, that might be fine. But these losers don't deserve a free pass to block traffic. I'm tempted to go watch Georgia beat them in person. But that might be too much, except our neighbors are rabid Georgia fans which would make it even more fun.

2006-07-01T19:58:00.000-04:00

Year 3

Today is the first day of the third year of residency. Things will be somewhat different. I will be on call half as much. Half of my time will be on nice little electives learning the nuances of things like reading EEGs and doing EMGs. I now have more experience than half the people in the hospital (lots of scared-looking interns in the hallways today).

Oh, and that baby thing. The date has been refined to mid-January. We are now taking reasonable suggestions on names. Apparently I am not allowed to choose Lando, Han, Chewy, JaMarcus, Bullitt, Tiberius, Trajan, Octavian, Titus, MoonUnit, Imrickjamesbitch, or a couple of others that I have suggested. Heather seems to have infinite veto power. I'm not sure what other names are left. We do know another expectant couple, one half of which is seriously pushing for Hans for theirs.

And don't get me started on the World Cup. Who would have predicted that the only Portuguese-speaking team in the semis would not be Brazil? Among many other things.

Apparently I have to go now. Something about supper.

2006-06-23T15:46:00.000-04:00

Update
Thanks everyone for your thought and prayers. I went to the doctor yesterday and found out that Brian and I were right about the due date. He or She will be due the middle of January, the 14th to be exact. The baby waved at me when Dr. Holt did the ultrasound. Other than that s/he is where s/he is supposed to be, with a beautiful head and a great, healthy heart. My morning sickness, for the most part, has subsided. Sadly, it took full on aversion therapy at the yearly crawfish boil for it to end. Let's just say I will never be able to eat the little buggers again, but I haven't been sick since.
Brian also pronounced me an incredibly cheap date since wine is no longer an option and chocolate doesn't taste, I don't know, right anymore. It is amazing how something so tiny can change your life so completely before it is even on this planet. I have this overwhelming knowledge that my body is no longer my own, and everything I do is controlled by a tiny bundle of cells that I can't feel yet and don't know if it is there but it exists. That is why can't call she or he "it" even though right now it is an "it" as those parts are barely developed and still look alike. I apologize for the s/he, I just can't figure out a better way to say it.
On other fronts, Lindy and Kicker are coming up this weekend and we are cleaning. Brian is very happy to become a senior resident in a few days and for his mini-vacation (today is New Year's Day- ain't comp time grand). I am still enjoying my part-time "fun job" at Michaels and the cats are sleeping in the newly purchased bassinet. I am not sure how the animals will react to a new creature in the home, we are predicting that the dog will love her, and the cats will hate her and blame the dog for her existence. Has anyone found a site of MP3's that are household sounds, like a baby crying?

2006-06-04T23:19:00.000-04:00

News: a somewhat loaded blog entry

So Brian finally gave me the password to post on the blog. Here is the bad news. After much soul searching I have decided that I am not going to be a pediatrician anymore. I might rejoin a residency somewhere once I Brian leaves, but I cannot do pediatric residency in Kentucky. I am still not sure what I am going to do now that I am "retired" but I am sure some of my time will be taken up by the much bigger news of this:
We are going to be parents.
I am due (according to the calendar, but not by our calculations) at the very end of December. So we will be having a snow baby. I am joining Claudia on the whole, good grief, what can I eat thing, but for those keeping score I have given up alcohol and the occasional stress induced cigarette. Morning sickness sucks, but it does mean that The Football, as Brian has dubbed it, is pumping out the hormones it needs to be healthy. I am busy knitting for it, and looking for deals on baby stuff where I can find them.
Our friends here have been extremely supportive, even if they are a bit weirded out by the news. We are the first in our little group here to have a baby, so it seems strange. Especially as I am no longer invited to go to the bars with our single friends, which I really did enjoy. So in short, we are scared but happy and will be in Lexington for the next two years and then hitting the road for parts unknown with a baby in tow.
Heather

2006-04-02T20:12:00.000-04:00

Spring has Sprung

Happy April. I had a nice day after awakening very, very late of digging in the yard. It's fun to move grass that is unwanted in one area to another area where it is needed. I mowed the yard for the first time this spring today too. Really tall grass that could have been mowed well before now. It was also the first time that I had mowed the grass since we got Emma. Apparently she is going to be one of those dogs who barks at the lawnmower while it runs. Hilarity. Most importantly I have finished the most difficult rotation that I have had all year and maybe now can relax a little more. Yo.

2006-03-12T20:20:00.000-05:00

Still working

I see that the movie about myotonic goats was perhaps only as entertaining to a few as I had hoped it would be for all.

I'm still amazed at how patient that I have been. Yes I have not even started the Battlestar finale yet. I was waiting to have both parts together, but now I'm being patient to wait on a 2-hour uninterrupted slot of time. Amazing

Work has been nice and busy this week. I just had my first day off in 2 weeks today. Loved it. Didn't do a damn thing and that was by design. Heather is sick now, as evidence by finding her semi-conscious unable to move the TV channel past KET (Kentucky's version of PBS), which had a fascinating documentary on some of the first settlers rafting their way down the Ohio River. Fascinating and scintillating at once.

I think it might be nearly spring. We now have three trees which are putting out leaf buds. That and it has been several days since there was frost on the windshield in the morning.

2006-02-24T17:22:00.000-05:00

And now for something different...

This little clip is for everyone's viewing pleasure. Give it time to download and be sure to watch the entire thing.

For the record, these goats have a disorder called myotonia. They get frightened, excited, etc and they get stiff. It lasts for a few seconds and then they bounce right up. Trust me, they're fine.

2006-02-19T08:53:00.000-05:00

Today's Observations

8 degrees is indeed noticeably colder than 30. Who knew?
Snow in moderate amounts is quite pretty.
Hospital scrubs are woefully inadequate in the said 8 degree scenario.
I don't own "longjohns".
Hmmm.....

2006-02-16T15:03:00.000-05:00

Craptastasia

That's my new made-up word to describe how my month is going. Every now and then I just get on a really busy assignment. February has sucked and March won't be much better. On the other hand, here's my current reading list:
Neurology in Clinical Practice
Collapse
The Complete Joy of Homebrewing
Modern Greek
Not quite as varied as my usual list. Why Greek? I'm counting on the Powerball to finance my purchase of a small Aegean island. Because that will happen. Here's an interesting website. Lalala.

2006-01-28T16:57:00.000-05:00

Almost Purple Haze

I have almost cloned Purple Haze. Wa-ha-ha. The picture here shows my very own raspberry wheat concoction. (I couldn't help but drink it down an inch or so before taking the picture). The glassware was courtesy of a Pazzo's pint night some time back (you get a free glass from whatever beer is on special), hence, when Abita Purple Haze was the special one night, we nabbed a pair of Abita glasses.

For full disclosure, my raspberry wheat recipe needs to cut back about half of the raspberries and needs maybe a little more wheat character before I can more closely approximate my goal. Also, it seems a little dark here, but I think some of that is the lighting in the picture.

2006-01-26T00:12:00.000-05:00

OK, OK, I'll start blogging again

I guess it's been a while, huh? My other most recent post (from November) had accumulated not 1, but 2, junk-reply-thingies. I suppose that that is a hint.

Ordinarily I would say that nothing has happened in the past two months, but for once that isn't completely true. Heather had a great birthday party last week, compliments of some of our friends that helped out to host. Our house is currently undergoing the "Restoration" and it has nothing to do with ending the rule of Oliver Cromwell. Christmas chaos and messiness happened to coincide with a murderous call schedule for both of us and the result was a house in complete disarray. Hence, there has been some urban, room-by-room, combat underway to make the place liveable and usable again.

Most excitingly, Heather got me a beer-brewing equipment set for Christmas. Oh, what a fun new hobby. I have been reading the ancient posts on Worts and All with great avidity. I've managed the following since starting, oh yes, on the afternoon of Christmas day, mere hours after present-opening:
Batch #1: Pale Ale: the ingredients of which came in the kit, and well, this one kinda sucks
Batch #2: Red Ale: got a kit at Liquor Barn and then scaled it down to my half-batch fermentor. Really, really good, and I'm not just saying that.
Batch #3: Raspberry Wheat (think Purple Haze): still in the bottle-carbonation phase. Can't wait
Batch #4: "Heather beer": Heather insisted on getting an herb flavoring called heather tips one day. I also had some leftover beer parts (amber extract, random caramunich grain, some random hops, I think Cascade). Still in the fermentor and I have NO IDEA how the hell this will taste. Hopefully delicious since it carries Heather's name.
Batch #5: I made two graduations today. Once, I got a full-size (5 gallon batch) fermentor finally after experimenting with the half-size. Second, I'm trying a lager. An actual lager yeast at lager temperature. The benefit (I suppose) of a Kentucky winter and the inefficiency of central heat is that our bonus room between the heated part of the house and the garage stays in the low 50's all winter. Patience here will definitely be the key. Hopefully all the other beer I've made will keep me occupied long enough to leave that stuff lagering long enough.

Anywho, I'm obviously very caught up with things.

2005-11-19T19:04:00.000-05:00

WAR DAMN EAGLE

So I guess we see what happens when the conference's best offense plays the conference's best defense. With 4 wins in a row, just think, none of Alabama's seniors will EVER be able to tell their kids and grandkids about the day they beat Auburn, because it never happened.
(This kind of hate for the other team is why people in Alabama really don't take those other "rivalries" seriously.) I will gladly review any references to mental illness in the comment section and laugh.

2005-11-06T12:15:00.000-05:00

Fun

So this was the weekend that Auburn came to town to play the venerable and feisty UKats. Friday night, downtown was covered up with Auburn fans, many of whom seemed a little sheepish at first. After all, most SEC hometowns aren't known for their friendliness to opposing teams' fans. And some are even downright criminals and animals (Gee, who is that?). Lexington however is a stark contrast. A waitress at our restaurant, speaking to a middle-aged Auburn couple, clearly stated "Have a good day tomorrow. I think you guys will win. We're pretty bad and I think I've heard that you guys are pretty good". And then at a music venue, at least 80% of the patrons were exhibiting AU paraphernalia. The performer stopped midway through his set and announced that he just hoped that UK kept it close for a half. This was a bizarre experience overall.

Oh the game, not even close. UK thought that there were several bad calls, but with the power of DVR and a rebroadcast last night, it just shows that losing teams tend to blame the refs. Come on, the third-string tailback had 164 rushing yards. This game was never in doubt, unless you listen to UK fans.

IN CONTRAST, did anyone see the end of the Vandy-Florida game? What the hell kind of celebration did he perform that warranted that flag? Sure, on slow motion, it looked like he started to do a little dance, but in realtime, it amounted to a 1-second subtle torso sway. Excessive celebration? Between Bobby Johnson and Mark Richt, the SEC officiating office will have an earful over that.

Yes, in case you can't tell, this weekend was devoted pretty much to nothing but football in my world.

2005-10-30T18:46:00.000-05:00

Electricity

After having cancelled our trip to the Keys, we had a much lower key vacation than planned, visiting some family and doing some other random things. We did get out to the Gorge while the leaves were still at peak. There will be pictures soon (maybe). We got to work on the house some and clean up a lot of areas that had become extremely messy in the wake of some busier than average months at the hospital that were back-to-back. After getting back from visiting some family, we took a day trip to Kentucky's capital, Frankfort (OK, daytrip is a strong word since it's 30 minutes away). There we took a tour of the Buffalo Trace distillery, which among some lesser brands as well, makes Blanton's bourbon. This now marks the 3rd 'still we've made it to on the Bourbon Trail. Alas, back to work tomorrow.

2005-10-19T17:30:00.000-04:00

Emma

Claudia and Jon have definitely taken the biggest step toward an actual family. We only this week got our first dog together. We now have an 11-month old mix from the Woodford County shelter. Yes, the same Woodford county as the bourbon, for anyone familiar. She is definitely a mix, but is reportedly mostly Catahoula leopard dog.

Guess where we were going on vacation? We were going to Key West. WERE. Stupid hurricane. Stupid late-season, biggest hurricane ever. Phooey. What kind of name is Wilma anyway? The funny thing is that one of the higher-ups in my department has been planning on a trip to a meeting there, so we had a discussion on what to do with airline credits. Not much this time of year, apparently. According to Travelocity, it's not too late to book a last-minute flight to beautiful Cleveland. Or maybe Moline, IL.

I just noticed the pile of books by my bed and thought this was a strange mix for my current reading projects:

Neuroradiology
House of Leaves
The Dobsonian Telescope
Diagnosis of Stupor and Coma
The Zombie Survival Guide
Insider's Guide to the Florida Keys (I guess that one's on hold in favor of: )
Seattle and the Pacific Northwest

2005-10-07T14:08:00.000-04:00

86-55=31

What are those numbers? The high temp for 2 days ago minus the high temp for today. It certainly feels like fall now. And it's raining. Or misting. Or trying to precipitate.

In my possession: tickets to the Auburn-Kentucky game, which I managed to obtain in the visiting team, ie Auburn, section. It should be fabtabulous, in 4 weeks.

2005-10-04T20:13:00.000-04:00

27

So apparently today is my birthday. 27 years ago today they buried a pope (John Paul I, maybe) and oh yeah, I was born. I only know about the pope thing because according to relatives in the waiting room, in the pre-cable era, that was the only thing on TV and it was nightmarishly boring, especially for non-catholics who couldn't really care less.

My wonderful wife, at my suggestion, has given me the gift of health, or at least potential closed head trauma, in the form of a bicycle. Our neigborhood exhibits a variety of riding environments from uphill to downhill to flat. Sidewalk, pavement, and grass. This is the first time since early high school that I have had a bicycle. I'm still remembering the whole gear-shifting thing and other basic elements of riding. Lance Armstrong's record is safe for now. We went yesterday to this little bikeshop between the university and downtown, where it seems that everyone was Dutch. If there is one thing I've learned about the Dutch and particularly Amsterdammers, they love their bikes. I now have one of the least expensive bikes in the store, but absolutely love it. I don't even realize how gimpy it probably is.

Another controversy is our upcoming vacation, the first in 7 months. I think tonight we finally decided on Key West over Santa Fe or the Pacific northwest. Talk about comparing apples and oranges. I think they key element of sitting on a beach with a fruity drink won out over Navajo trinkets and hiking the North Cascades. Really, anywhere is awesome and it doesn't matter.

2005-10-01T12:32:00.000-04:00

It lives

Perhaps I will try again to post today. I've finally completed the changes to the template to make it readable and have also reinsituted links. It's not that I'm slow, I just work on an incredibly slow timescale. So what's been going on?

The last 2 months have been 2 of the busiest that I will have this entire year (that is, until next April and then next July). This past month I was on Child Neurology. That is a lot of disabled little children. Great fun. I am now moving on to a cush elective month on Neuroradiology. Should be a lot of half days. And golf. There is now limited time before the grass goes away and there's no more golf until spring. Enough of work.

Football season has obviously started. Sure, Auburn lost the first game, but played with what appeared to be the intention of losing it. I'm not sure what part of the master plan that that fulfills. The running game has really come around since then (sure, against teams the best of which was the I-AA opponent WKU). Tonight's game against South Carolina will be very telling. I would also like to point out on a random note that if Vanderbilt beats MTSU tonight and a miserably awful Kentucky team later, they will be bowl eligible. Whew! Also, this is not meant as a direct attack, but merely an observation. The TV camera panning around LSU's stadium Monday night at the end of the game showing the complete stun on those fans' faces was some of the best TV I've seen in a while. You just can't script that kind of dejection.

Speaking of TV, there are some good shows out this year. We are now having weekly Lost gatherings which can only be hosted by people with TVs >27" and with DVR for instant replay and slow motion. The numbers were on that vial of medicine he took in the first episode. And the logo on the shark's tail is slightly different from the one all over the inside of the hatch in case no one noticed. Rome is absolutely beautiful to watch. I'm already a sucker for anything involving Roman history and the period surrounding the change from republic to autocracy is one of the most interesting. There are others as well, but those top the list by far. We're still catching up on the 1st season of Deadwood (see above comment about different timetable) though we've already seen the entire second season.

What else? We got to spend some quality time at the Gorge a few weeks ago. Beautiful place loaded with good trails at all skill levels. And no fences. Your last warning is often a sign at the beginning of a trail which says dangerous cliffs and illustrated by a stick figure halfway down a precipice with lines for air streamers around him indicating downward motion. Love it. If I have done this properly then there will be a picture of Half Moon Rock below, one of dozens if not hundreds of interesting formations (large and small) in the gorge..

I know that I post this every October and every April, but the Keeneland fall racing meet is beginning on Friday. It's just fun, OK.

Maybe I'll post more later if this doesn't fail and irritate me.

2005-09-08T21:04:00.000-04:00

Dammit I type for 15 minute for the first time in a month and f*cking blogger f*cking times out or some shit

Well I'm not retyping it over, so I guess I'll post again in another month or so

2005-08-11T19:05:00.000-04:00

He's kidding, right?

So Tommy Tuberville has publicly stated that he thinks that this year's team is the most talented he has ever coached. Sure, someone in a coma for a year and unaware of last year's team might not do a double take on that statement. Really, he's serious. Nevermind that the entire backfield (and a cornerback) went in the first round of the NFL draft. He's serious. Jason Campbell was statistically, at least, the most accurate passer in school history. (Keep in mind that Auburn for most of its history was not even aware of the passing option.) He thinks that Brandon Cox is more accurate, although obviously less experienced at this point. Not to mention that he has an autoimmune neuromuscular ailment "under control". The other point is that last year there were 2 great backs, this year there are supposedly 4 (even if none are I quite the same caliber as Cadillac and Hummer (or whatever large vehicle represents Brown)). This will be an interesting season indeed. Not to mention the coaching changes. .... more later

Please, please, can someone share why for the last month there's the annoying blank space at the top of these posts?

2005-08-11T18:59:00.000-04:00

They're kidding, right?

So now the NCAA has proclaimed that 18 schools which use Native American-related mascot names cannot use those names in post-season playoffs. All of them, no exceptions. OK, sure, whatever that place was whose nickname was "Savages" might be a little off, but at least one, is actually endorsed by that band. (Yes, the Seminoles are actually a band of the Creek nation). Nevermind that there is still a large percentage of D-I athletes that never see a diploma (besides their agent's on the wall of an office). Nevermind that at some places, not to name Nebraska, Tennessee, Florida State, complete thugs populate the teams. If there is a group that does not approve of a mascot, or for some reason, actually takes offense at a mascot, here's a novel idea. DON'T SUPPORT THAT TEAM. You don't have to bitch and moan and make a fuss.

2005-07-24T20:32:00.000-04:00

Second Thoughts

Just when we were sure that we wanted to go to London this fall for our first foreign travel experience, another round of bombs went off. Hmm. Maybe this will just make the airfare go down even further. It remains to be seen where we actually end up going to. Not much else is going on here. The efforts of the past week have been focused on getting the house in "general order" as we are entertaining the idea of having a cleaning person come through every couple of weeks and do the real cleaning things that we by no means have time or energy for. After a year of residency it seems that this is going to be a necessity. And some of our friends with the exact same income are doing it, so it must not be that much, right?

Haven't finished Harry Potter yet. It's slow going when you can only read 30 pages at a time before passing out from exhaustion. Good so far though. I'll finish it eventually.

"It's the most happiest time of the year" or however that song goes. I seem to start singing it every year during the month or so before football season. I got to meet an Alabama fan at the hospital the other day. I took great pleasure in reminding him that Alabama is only the 4th best team in the state of Alabama, behind Auburn 1st team, Auburn's 2nd team, and Troy. (I think the reference to Auburn's 2nd team being better irked him the most). Some things remain traditional no matter where you are. Even better, a couple from Georgia moved in across the street from us. November will be fun indeed.

2005-07-12T21:01:00.000-04:00

Can't keep me down for I am Lazarus

Those are actually the words that my computer spit out tonight when it was reborn. As some may know, I had a recent run-in with a piece of crap PNY RAM chip. Apparently the lesson here is DO NOT BUY MEMORY FROM PNY. It's really good at corrupting core Windows files. Good thing I have the 120GB hard drive; this way it can support all of the parallel installations of XP that it now takes to have uncorrupted files and run it just like before. This really reminds of that plant that I had in college that after every break turned completely wilted and brown, but man, you could put half a cup of water in that thing and it would look great, or at least alive, in 30 minutes.

World travelers maybe?
So last week, Heather and I were at the bookstore perusing the travel section trying to decide where to go for our big vacation this fall. After some frustration, we finally settled on London. What happens the next day? Some shitheads fucking set off bombs. I think we can just look at this as a financial windfall. Get this: as of today, you can fly from Cincinnati to Paris to London for $150 less per person one-way that you can to simply take the direct flight from Cincinnati to Paris. That doesn't even make sense, but if it saves money, why argue with it? Air France, go figure. Though now we're having second thoughts about a European destination in late October; may not be the prettiest time. Or maybe it is; we really don't know. Any thoughts?

2005-06-28T21:55:00.000-04:00

There is a wind blowing

I have now completed 363 days of the intern year. I have exactly 30 hours remaining (6am tomorrow until Noon on Thursday). Around the hospital there have been groups of new incoming interns taking group tours with their respective departments. Fresh faces, as-of-yet unjaded by the process. Fresh faces who don't realize that they're in my parking spot (if I don't always park in the 3rd spot from the stairwell on the 2nd floor, I absolutely will not be able to find my car after a 30 hour sleepless shift.) The new people need to bugger off and park somewhere else. The coming year will be quite busy as well, but nothing like the previous one. I will never be on call more than 6 times in one month. I will get holidays. I will get vacation. My pager will go off much, much less. Even more so as my new interns learn what they're doing as the new year progresses. When my pager does go off, it will be for interesting things, such as emergencies in the ER and transfers from other hospitals where other people couldn't figure out what the hell was wrong with the patient, rather than "can so and so have a tylenol?" I have already become proficient and will become expert at doing something to people that no one wants done, ie, the spinal tap. Oh yes, and I will get a raise.

Other News
Heather and I took a walk around our neighborhood today. Thoroughly enjoyable. Once again, we really enjoy the part of town that we live in and we feel lucky to have found a subdivision in which the architectural style of every home is unique and interesting as opposed to the damn cookie-cutter suburban crap covering the rest of this town and most others as well. We also are appreciative that our neighborhood actually has trees and homeowners interested in at least some basic level of landscaping...

Speaking of which, I finally got to do some trimming of some of our backyard shrubbery the other day. Looks much better. The gladioli planted in the front back in April are finally starting to bloom now. I had forgotten that we had gotten several different colors of them. Should look cool in a few more days. I've also finally given up and decided that mulch is indeed the answer to weed and grass control in certain places and have started working in a few places. This fall should bring a few projects too, including moving some things around that just aren't in the right place anymore.

This is what happens when one goes weeks without posting.

2005-06-12T17:47:00.000-04:00

Abita and Croquet

You would never guess it, but mixing Abita and croquet goes quite nicely. Neurologists 3, Neurosurgeons 0 was the unofficial scorecount, but considering that everyone playing was intoxicated, the score may be skewed. Today was great in that I only worked 3 hours, which is great since I'm in a stretch of 22 days with 1 full day off in the middle.

Squirrels and chipmunks or flowers?

Oh the dilemma. Squirrels and chipmunks have decided that they like digging in the young hosta plants and the petunias. On the other hand, I actually enjoy watching the animals more than looking at the pretty flowers, so I don't fight back really.

2005-06-04T14:32:00.000-04:00

So busy

Halfway through my day off, I have slept in, mowed the yard, tended the roses, sprayed some weeds. More exciting updates to come. Taylor, why do you need German phrases? The're below, by the way.

2005-06-03T18:32:00.000-04:00

Nothing New

So, tomorrow is my first day off in 10 days. I have big plans. Sleep in. Maybe some laundry, maybe some dishes, maybe mow the yard. Big plans.

2005-05-23T22:33:00.000-04:00

Some amusing quotes from the hospital

"Anybody seen Garden State? Natalie Portman plays a really cute epileptic girl in that. I like it when hot actresses play women with disability, because it's so easy to imagine taking advantage"
---during dinner on call

"I don't give a shit if that guy sues. I've never met a lawyer impervious to a .223 round"

"Give me 5.5lbs of uranium and some other stuff and I can fix this place quick"
---one night near the end of call

"Is this the fuckhead on withdrawal from cocaine? Oh, my bad, that's the other fuckhead. This guy's the alcohol withdrawal. Yeah, he's a real fuckhead too."
---overheard on the phone on a call from a nurse

1st voice: "Psych thinks this lady is psychotic but doesn't want her in the psych unit because they're too busy." 2nd voice: "That's fine, she can be crazy at the house. Send her home"

I swear none of these came from me personally.

2005-05-22T20:27:00.000-04:00

Less than 100 hours

Of total work time. 8 days really. Joy.

Our roses are really blooming now. When I am home and awake during daylight I promise to get some pictures up. We have a peony blooming too, whatever that is.

I finally gave in and ordered a Dell Axim, just like Heather's. I think it might arrive tomorrow. Joy.

Just too tired to write much.

2005-05-12T19:49:00.000-04:00

Bright Spots

Not to make residency sound completely shitty. There are bright spots. Like those 4 days a month that we actually get off. I got to play some golf today. Shot an amazing 59 on 9 holes. That's actually an improvement from my last outing. And a bonus: we got to see a bunny rabbit. Warm fuzzy feeling. And on another note, I've devised a scheme wherein all the planter plants on our deck can now be watered by a dedicated hose snaked up through the deck steps from the faucet on the patio. I have this drive to make everything much simpler. Much, much simpler. Ooh, and before I forget, the roses are about to start blooming. I may even post pictures. If they look OK. Later

2005-05-04T15:47:00.000-04:00

What, a countdown? I would never start that 638 hours before the last internal medicine I ever have to do.

Sigh. Again. Sigh. Let's review internal medicine. People have bad hearts, they have belly pain, they have abscesses in strange places, they have bad kidneys. But alas, understanding and dealing with these problems is necessary before moving on to more interesting things, like cutting edge neurovascular interventions for stroke treatment or deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's. Just a few hundred more hours until I'm there.

Then there's my other countdown. Sometime in mid-July Auburn will start selling tickets to non-season-ticket-holders, meaning I can go online and get tickets for the AU-UK game in November, and more imporantly get to sit in the correct section. I'm definitely down to thinking about the important things in life at this point. I don't even know if I would be off that day, but I can make something happen if need be.

2005-04-25T19:38:00.000-04:00

Spring-ter

Hey, it's spring! No, wait, it's winter. Oh, hold on, no it's spring again. It freakin snowed Saturday night. Just a dusting. The air temperature only got down to about 33 and the ground didn't freeze at all. And it melted instantaneously. Good thing since it was snowing onto the freakin spring flower blooms. What the hell?!? There for two days it actually felt like winter again. Or it would have, except that I spent from 8am Sat until Noon on Sun in the hospital.

What else is going on? Oh yeah, that's right, Auburn put 4 first-round picks into the NFL draft. Holy shit. Four years ago, I would have never thought that Jason Campbell would still be starting QB, let alone a first-round draft pick. Kudos to him, he has really come a long way. Especially having a new offensive coordinator and new offense to learn every single year of his college career.

The downside to having 4 players graduate and go in the 1st round is that it seems to leave the team a little dry on experience at key positions like QB, TB, other TB, CB. Huh, wonder what next year will be like.

Thanks to digital cable and free onDemand, we can start Deadwood at the very beginning of season 2 and catch up a show at a time whenever we have a chance. Unfortunately, we're so busy that we're only about 3/4 of the way through the first show of the season. We'll get there eventually.

2005-04-22T18:03:00.000-04:00

Cruel Sense of Humor

First off, let's just be honest about this, is it considered to be funny when patients forget to go their appointments in Memory Disorders Clinic? Just for a moment, come on, you know it is.

Apparently we need to seriously reconsider our strategy at the horse track. That is, the only time we ever win is when Heather picks one with a pretty name. Or that they jockey is wearing pretty colors. Or when Heather picks a horse with "pretty eyes". Apparently my in-depth analysis of class, speed, trainer, jockey, and prior performances means ABSOLUTELY nothing. That being said, last Saturday was a beautiful day at Keeneland and the Bluegrass Stakes was a great race. I thought that either Consolidator or Sun King would get it, but Bandini came out of nowhere. The Kentucky Derby will be very interesting this year. The rough thing about Keeneland though, is that on Saturdays, almost as many people show up as go to UK football games. Think about that for a moment. And another moment. Luckily our second and last trip during this season will come on Wednesday when things aren't nearly as crowded.

So, we were considering adding HBO to our cable for some time now, and seeing the comments about Deadwood from Jon and Claudia I think finally put us over the edge. Wow, damn good show. Not to mention all of the movies that we're catching up on.

2005-04-15T20:10:00.000-04:00

Victory at last

So, I obviously did not do well with my online bracket. However, apparently, with the exact same picks I won my bracket with some people at the hospital. And the stakes in that bracket were twice as high. Whoopie.

'Tis golf season again. Got to play golf for the first time in well over a year yesterday. Didn't actually do too badly. For me. 66 on nine holes. Would have been under 60 except for one particularly bad hole. I want to be back down into the 50's before winter again. Only lost about 3 balls also. As should be obvious, I have VERY modest goals when it comes to golf.

And one last victory: got our refund check from the state tax return today. Just gotta get the federal now. I hate lending the government money interest-free, but since this is the first time I've filed since 1998, I was a little rusty at estimating paycheck withholding.

2005-04-10T14:09:00.000-04:00

Comments may be delayed until irrelevancy by Blogger's being a pile of crap

That being said, I finally got some comments to go with pictures that were finally uploaded a few days ago.

I had some commentary on how the bracket turned out, but screw it; I've already typed it twice for Blogger to lose, so I guess we'll never know. Other than congrats to Jon.

Spring is in the air and plants are making their way into the ground.

Intern year continues to count down. Quicker some days than others.

Keeneland is in full effect and we have yet to have been, what with the whole working nonstop thing and all. Next weekend is looking mighty fine though.

2005-04-07T21:48:00.000-04:00

Here we take the requisite picture with one of the lions at the front door of George Vanderbilt's "country cottage", otherwise known as Biltmore Estate.

2005-04-07T21:44:00.000-04:00

Here we explore the Oconaluftee River of Haywood Co, NC on the pleasantly untraveled side of the Smokies.

2005-04-07T21:39:00.000-04:00

Clingman's Dome: the highest point in Tennessee and about 50 feet short of being the highest point in the Appalachians

2005-04-07T21:37:00.000-04:00

The Smoky Mountains really do look smoky.

2005-04-07T21:32:00.000-04:00

Heather and I also explored the headwaters of the Little River, seen here. The old homestead is just a few miles downriver.
\

2005-04-03T23:35:00.000-04:00

"Get three coffins ready"...
A few minutes and one insulted mule later...
"My mistake, four coffins"
-Joe in A Fistful of Dollars

Ah yes, yesterday was a cold, very very windy and wet day. Thus, a trip to Best Buy was born. Heather picked up a trilogy of Audrey Hepburn movies and we shared a season of Buffy. However, the Sergio Leone trilogy is all, all mine. A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly will make for hours and hours of entertainment. Tee hee. I have also discovered the art of the mai tai. Enough mai tai mix and grenadine can make 3 year old white rum that was cheap to begin with taste pretty good. 13 hours straight at the freakin' VA? No prob with a get-home mai-tai.

Have I mentioned my dislike for the VA? Vacation pictures to come, some time, I promise. As I am now back on inpatient general medicine wards and it is the first half of April, I've decided that taxes should be a priority in what little spare time that I have this week. Creative deduction time.

2005-03-25T18:45:00.000-05:00

Did I Mention Bears?

Read the post below and you'll read all about our vacation. Woo. More importantly, I forgot to mention that we saw wild black bears. Not in a state park. Not in a national park. About half a mile from the inn we stayed at. On the road. At night. Just hanging out by the side of the road. Being bears.

In the meantime, I have declared it to be spring. Thus, the weekly trips to Lowes as well as other lawn and garden places have begun. I rescreened the screen door going out to our deck today. An amazingly easy and inexpensive project. And very fulfilling as it as needed to be done for some time now. Bird feeder, hummingbird feeders. We're going to repaint the deck furniture. I spent some time hacking through the vines that somehow despite it being winter, managed to grow enough to obscure the roses we inherited with the property. Swept off the deck, as it still had sheddings from the cedar Christmas tree on it.

The problem we're going to have is the following: Today it got to 65 degrees or so. The highs for the next week are forecast for 55-70. The lows are forecast as no lower than 40. It's absolutely gorgeous weather but as soon as we plant something pretty it will turn cold and kill it, even though we are fast approaching the last feasible day of frost. So for now for the safety of potential plants and to be more economical, we are just putting up little doodads in the yard and planters to suggest where plants might go. Alas. Definitely not as fulfilling as the real thing, but I suppose better than killing stuff as soon as it is planted.

One more thing, I have no idea why in this post and the previous one, I have so many incomplete sentences and phrases thinly disguised as sentences by placing a period at the end of them. Anyway.

2005-03-25T18:18:00.000-05:00

There and Back Again

Vacation is awesome. Everybody should have one at least every now and then. We got to spend four wonderful days in a mountain inn above Asheville. Sure, you western people out there may not think of 3,000 feet as a real mountain, but that means something in the east. A lot of our time was spent doing nothing, which was the goal. But we also spent some time milling about downtown Asheville. What is it about mountain places that makes them a draw for hippies? Hippies all over the freakin' place. Whatever.

Of course, being Asheville, we had to spend a day at the Biltmore Estate. Ordinarily I'm not that into taking tours of other people's homes, but this thing really is impressive. Not only is the house huge (our house, which is not tiny, fits inside the "library"), but the guy owned everything within sight. Keep in mind that he could see Mt. Pisgah 19 miles away. Damn impressive. Capitalism rocks.

Unfortunately the Blue Ridge Parkway was mostly closed due to some recent landslides as well as the remnants of winter weather at the higher elevations. So seeing Mt. Mitchell up close was out of the question. But dammit, we weren't going to drive that area and have our only view of "big mountains" be from I-40, so we drove right through the middle and top of the Smokies on US 441 on the way back. Outstanding views and got some great pictures that hopefully will make it up soon. This was my first trip through that area and I was pleasantly surprised, probably because it is not peak season yet. I have always heard that it is a nightmare to drive that road because it is absolutely covered in tourists driving 20mph. And on the Tennessee side, between the state line and Gatlinburg that was largely the case. What was nice was the North Carolina side, between the park entrance and the state line. Much less crowded. We were able to get off the road and hike a trail or two and actually be the only two people around. Also got some nice pictures of that, that hopefully can make it up soon. Thanks to the modern technology of a bigger memory card, we were able to take hundreds of pictures of mountains, mountains in the distance, mountains with sky in the background, waterfalls, rocks in the waterfall, waterfalls in the shade, etc, etc, I think you get the point that we went overboard taking pictures of everything in sight. Multiple times in some cases, just in case the sun had changed 30 seconds later. Dangers of technology.

2005-03-16T15:10:00.000-05:00

Time Off

It's time for vacation. Boo-yah. Time to head with Heather for the mountains of Busch...or actually North Carolina. Peaceful time. Nice. Mountainside lodge. Nature. The good food and eclectic nature of Asheville minutes away. This vacation is long enough that I should also have plenty of time for another trip to Alabama.

So my bracket is in. One online courtesy of Okiejon and another identical one with the same picks at the hospital. I am officially the only person in the UK hospital who is picking UK to lose to Oklahoma. The people here are so blind to Kentucky's over-rated-ness.

2005-03-03T20:10:00.000-05:00

Blow

So now I'm doing my two weeks on heme/onc. Lovely. Success is not measured in cures, but in 6 month survival percentages. Really damned depressing. Beer and tequila can fix that though...speaking of...(on a completely different and light-hearted matter)

Something accomplished

I am only 26 and have now seen William Shatner in a restaurant. Just wanted to share. I just knew this was a good time to go to Margarita night at Rincón Mexicano. I swear that I am not making this up. Nor did I yell out "Why did you make the odd-numbered ones, why?" For the truly curious, apparently he likes horses (ie, to be in Kentucky on a random Thursday night).

2005-02-25T22:10:00.000-05:00

Fwah?

OK, I heard they were making a movie version of Dukes of Hazzard, but now I have photographic evidence, including Jessica Simpson as Daisy. Now I'm having internal conflict. At least she's from Texas and at least Johnny Knoxville is from, well, Knoxville.

2005-02-25T21:26:00.000-05:00

Pain is good, right?

What is up with this rash of everyone have dental problems? Being a trend follower, I thought I'd join in. Having already had my wisdom teeth removed about 10 years ago, I decided to go another route. Apparently I had an area in my mouth, that despite appropriate attention with brushing and flossing, was especially susceptible to cavity formation. Wait, let me rewind this story. Remember that I was taking the last stage of the medical licensure exam, which is 2 days? On the night between the two days I developed "the toothache" which kept me up all night. Luckily, I'm accustomed to holding real patients' fates in my hands with no sleep and with some sort of headache 75% of the time, so the patients on the test fared well.

It's strange being a patient, even for the dentist, at the place where you work. Luckily, I didn't draw a resident dentist, but actually got the head of the clinic. I'm not sure if that was dumb luck or if someone actually read the paperwork stating that my place of employment was up two flights of stairs and down the hall. It's nice though paying $0 for services, not even a co-pay. I've always heard that root canals are painful, but honestly, I hardly felt a thing. And it was nice that the guy explained that apparently my tooth had a second root system and some sort of gap that predisposed it to having problems. Strangely enough, that's fine, because I'd rather be an anatomical freak than unhygienic. They always said I's special. My pain is nowhere near the magnitude of Claudia's but I was humored when the guy instructed me on what "prescription-strength" ibuprofen meant, followed by, "oh yeah, you know that, nevermind, didn't mean to talk down".

Thus, between my lovely day, and the fact that Heather got no sleep last night and went to bed at 3pm and did not wake up for pizza and will likely sleep until tomorrow morning, one can understand my enthusiasm expressed in the post immediately below this one.

2005-02-25T21:11:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Hazzard County

I imagine that most readers of this do not watch the cable channel CMT very often and nor do we. However, this weekend is a Dukes of Hazzard Ride Again weekend. Time to fire up the DVR. Hot damn. And enjoy some tasty Abita. Liquor Barn now carries Bock, in addition to Amber, Purple Haze, and Turbodog. Life is good.

2005-02-22T14:56:00.000-05:00

Almost football season (optimistically forward-looking)

The nice thing about NCAA 2005 is that it's always college football season. I have ventured into dynasty mode and the Auburn Tigers are now 20-0 since I started, basically consisting of average wins of about 30-0. I graduated the unstoppable backfield of 2004 (Williams, Brown, Campbell) and replaced it with more of the same. In the interest of making the game slightly more challenging, I use only the highest level of difficulty and recruit only in-state players. Needless to say, I've got some of the worst tight ends and receivers around. But I am bringing back the wishbone. Once this becomes tiresome I've decided how to get a real challenge. Dynasty mode with Kentucky. Eww.

I really do have a job, I swear. There is only so much reading on CADASIL that once can do at one time. It's my current award holder for favorite acronym (Cerebral Autosomal Dominant Arteriopathy with Subcortical Infarcts and Leukoencephalopathy). Say that ten times fast.

2005-02-20T15:18:00.000-05:00

Winter of Discontent

I appear to be back in a blogging mindset. During February, I haven't been particularly busy as residency goes. Which means that I've been doing things besides sitting in front of a computer.

I am on my second "easy" rotation in a row, which means I have had plenty of time to study for "Step 3". The last and final installment of the exams required for medical licensure in the United States. Assuming that I pass and that the Kentucky State Medical Board (ie, some old men that meet in Frankfort every now and then) doesn't find something horribly wrong with my application, then I will be officially licensed to practice. I bet you didn't know that interns don't technically have a license. Nice to know, huh? It's actually quite exciting to be getting past this step as well.

So this exam that I'm taking this week is a 2-day test covering all aspects of medicine, including pediatrics, ob/gyn, surgery. Somewhat intimidating because it covers all fields, despite the fact that interns are already immersed in only their one field of specialization. That is, I have done only internal medicine and neurology for the past year and Heather has done only pediatrics for the past year, our test is identical. Lovely.

Luckily, it is almost entirely common sense. Or I should say, it seems like common sense after medical school and a year of residency.

What else is going on? Check this shit out. UK has been participating in a new drug study (as well as drug delivery system which is just as important) that can actually stop the progression of Parkinson's Disease, at least over the 2 year study period. Unfortunately the company Amgen pulled out of the trial because of cerebellar lesions that were of no known clinical significance in the non-human primate wing of the study.

2005-02-04T17:44:00.000-05:00

STILL HERE.

I drove both to work and home from work during daylight today. First time that that has happened in weeks, I think. In case one can't tell, I've been busy.
Rest now, blog later

2005-01-15T16:06:00.000-05:00

And another closeup.

2005-01-15T15:57:00.000-05:00

As I was setting up for the next shot, I caught a blur moving in front of the sun and took a quick shot before I had the camera lens centered over the telescope eyepiece. That results in the ugly coma effect seen here. More importantly, check out the airplane with jet contrails. Pure dumb luck.

2005-01-15T15:55:00.000-05:00

Back to wider angle and a brighter white balance setting. I need to remember to dim it on the wide angles and brighten on the closeups. But then, I'm still practicing.

2005-01-15T15:51:00.000-05:00

Closer view

2005-01-15T15:50:00.000-05:00

The sun and sunspots are always a nice, easy daytime target.

2005-01-10T21:34:00.000-05:00

Yeah, fuzzy, but it was a first try, awkward position, and cold. My technique can only improve, right? Read below for further explanation, if you don't recognize the planet Saturn, in a blurry photo taken by yours truly. Did I mention that it was a little cloudy?

2005-01-10T21:09:00.000-05:00

A New Addiction that has nothing to do with Meth

So I have a new project with NCAA 2005. Win all the rivalry trophies. Auburn's rivalries don't have trophies, since they pretty much just have old-fashioned hate behind them (ie, Alabama, Georgia, LSU), not any golden boots or paul bunyan's axe or anything. So I'm starting with the SEC rivalries that have actual trophies and branching out from there. I played as LSU and creamed both Tulane for the Tiger Rag and Arkansas for the golden boot. Amusing. LSU's offense is extremely balanced in that game. Can't run the option for shit, but everything else clicks well. I am amazed every time I play against Alabama at how good they are in the game, and not because of how they were on the field this year. They're a passing team in the game. It's still confusing, since during 2005, they would run for 300 yards a game and be lucky to complete 5 passes. Enough on that for the moment, since the game already takes enough of my attention...

Over Christmas I refound an old hobby from my youth: astronomy. The problem with Kentucky in winter is the nearly eternal cloud cover, so I may not get much actually seen until spring, though last night we had a really good view of Saturn. Also, with the advent of digital cameras which has happened since I was young, one can now hold a camera up to a telescope eyepiece and just take a picture of whatever the telescope is looking at. Got some cool pictures of Saturn last night. They're too blurry to put up right now, but when I perfect the technique of holding by stupid hands still in the cold, I plan on putting some pictures up, if I can make some good ones. Just when our neighbors had decided we were complete oddballs, I take a telescope onto our deck and aim it right over their living room during primetime TV.

Need to work on that hurricane recipe....Mardi Gras party either Feb 5 or 6...maybe...

2005-01-09T14:31:00.000-05:00

Oops.

I forgot I had a blog. Mostly. Really not much has been going on. Traveled to see both sets of parents before and after Christmas, since we were both working on Christmas day. Now we're both on rotations that involve a medium amount of work and time, when looked at in relation to other rotations. In the last week I've worked less than 60 hours. Woo-hoo.

Part of my Christmas was an X-box which included NCAA Football 2005. I am now able to dissect all sorts of scenarios, while enjoying football year round. But like any simulation, or whatever you'd call it, which is put out towards the beginning of a season, small inaccuracies abound. Not that I'm criticizing; quite the opposite. It's interesting to see things, like what Alabama could have been like with a 1st string QB. Damn good, is what. Or that without Al Borges, how mediocre once again, Auburn's offense would have been. The game's default is for Auburn to run the offense of Noel Mazzone from 2003, which was unimaginative and doomed to fail. The key is to select for Auburn the Indiana playbook (which of the options in the game best reflects the 2004 playbook) and substitute #23 in for #44 at FB. Much more like the actual offense this year. OK, so maybe 1-2 people reading this will know what I'm talking about.

Less than a month to Mardi Gras!! We are determined to have some sort of Mardi Gras party this year. How to make a hurricane....

It has been freakishly warm here. It's Jan 9 and I've seen snow twice. Not what I expected, but according to the crack team at NBC 18, this is not the usual Jan weather here. I'm sure freezing temps are on their way again.

2004-12-24T18:48:00.000-05:00

Pictures? Ice Storm? Right here.

Oh, and merry Christmas. Lots of ice. Everywhere. It rained all night. Then the temp went to less than 20. The water instantly froze. Well, plus there was sleet for a couple more hours, which froze where it landed. Pretty though. I hope the pictures worked...

2004-12-24T18:43:00.000-05:00

This shrub gives an illustration of how every single branch and twig is completely ensheathed in the ice. Pretty.

2004-12-24T18:40:00.000-05:00

Heather and I explored the backyard and generally acted like children. It's hard to tell, but the willow tree next to the back of the house was heavily weighted down with ice.

2004-12-24T18:38:00.000-05:00

Athena constantly begs to go outside. She got more than she bargained for today, freezing at the line where the roof of the back porch kept ice and sleet off of part of the deck.

2004-12-24T18:36:00.000-05:00

Trees of the backyard. The solid white is the driveway.

2004-12-24T18:26:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas

Yes, creative title, I know. Appletinis will do that. It's cold. I think the low tomorrow morning is, like, -4 or something. WTF. Everything got coated in a generally 1 inch layer of solid ice as of Thursday morning and it is still there because it hasn't crossed 32 degrees since then and won't until either Sunday or Monday. Wow.

Let's see if my pictures have come through...

2004-12-22T15:40:00.000-05:00

Snow? But it already snowed once this year.

Supposedly it will snow much tonight. Joy. Actually we had snow on the ground over the weekend, but it was the harmless, pretty kind. That melted. That did not become ice at a moment's notice. We are now the owners of a genuine snow shovel (used to move snow apparently), some kind of powdery stuff guaranteed to melt up to 2" of ice in 10 minutes (which I'm sure is safe), and something in a spray can called windshield de-icer. We realized that no matter how much ice is on the streets and how often the snow plow runs, our driveway is not included in those services and to boot, it goes uphill from our garage to the street. Woops. Should be interesting.

2004-12-12T19:53:00.000-05:00

Mmm, Mmm, Good

I'm currently sitting back relaxing after kicking off Christmas decorating. We went yesterday to a cut-it-yourself Christmas tree farm on the edge of town and picked out a nice pretty tree. After getting home, we realized that the trunk is quite crooked, but apparently it's center of gravity is unaffected and it appears straight in a stand. Then came on lights and ornaments.

Keep in mind, this was all with a nice fire burning in the fireplace and the eggnog and Woodford Reserve slowly being depleted. What good is eggnog without good bourbon? Seriously. Once warmed up with our bourbon-eggnog concoctions, we had to walk around our neighborhood checking out decorations. Fun times. It's definitely good to be a light rotation during December. That's all I have to say.

2004-12-10T17:52:00.000-05:00

Tis the season for giving, so go to Liquor Barn

Apparently, Target has decided that the little old lady from the Salvation is no longer welcome. Well, they're still at Liquor Barn, reaffirming it as my favorite store in Lexington.

So UK got spanked in basketball by UNC. They are a bunch of freshmen, learning the ropes as they go after all. Next up: Indiana. Now, Indiana is not the powerhouse that is used to be, but I did read an interesting fact today: UK has beaten Indiana 9 of the last 10 times in both basketball and football. They must be the only poor suckers, who, when UK mouths off about basketball, they can't give the standard reply that UK's SEC opponents give of "Yeah, what about football?".

And lest I forget, because I won't, fuck the damn shitty ass BCS. Until there is a playoff system, I refuse to acknowledge any national champion. I look at this retroactively as well. We've never had a national champion. That term implies teams that play each other and defeat all legitimate challengers. There has been and will continue to be a consensus pick of who people think is the best team in the nation. That's fine. That's the way it's always been. But that has always been just an opinion. The BCS is nothing more than an artificial points system, which gives a false impression of one team being an absolute champion. What this system gives us is a points champion, not an on-the-field champion. And while this may be more scientific than the opinions of 60-something writers, some of whom are in markets where college football is on page 8 of the sports section and 60-something coaches, some of whom have a very vested interest in the rankings or even worse, personal grudges, it is artificial and can always be tinkered with and adjusted ad nauseam (see years 1998-2004). And it obviously will never be able to handle situations of more than 2 legitimate teams for a national championship. And it will never handle >8 teams worthy of the 4 most lucrative bowls. Actually, there probably are 8 or less teams this year in that category, it's just not the 8 that are playing. Thank you, Big East. As stated above, it gives the illusion of being both scientific and in agreement with the polls. What do pollsters know, really? I would be interested in knowing how many minutes of footage most pollsters have seen of Utah. Of Cal. Of Louisville. Hungry now, more later, maybe.

2004-12-02T18:22:00.000-05:00

The Fattening of America (including cats)

So we took our cats Bullitt and Athena to the vet the other day. Much has been made in the media in recent years about the expanding waist line of Americans, especially children. Apparently 13 pounds for small-framed cats is considered a bit much, even putting them at risk for what I call "little kitty-cat diabetes". Bad parenting on our part. It seems that they should be getting no more than 5/8 cup of cat food a day. Currently they are not amused, especially Bullitt, since they routinely get about 1 cup per day. And people keep asking us why we don't have plans for kids any time soon. At 70-80 hours of work, each, and not enough income to hire a nanny, little-kid diabetes would be the least of our concerns. I'm amazed that these cats haven't yet snuck off and joined a gang or a prostitution ring given the amount of attention that they get at home.

No BCS talk today. I've just resigned to the idea that USC will beat UCLA, Oklahoma will beat Colorado, and if Auburn beats Tennessee a second time, they will get stuck going to the Sugar Bowl and playing one of the many teams that landed a BCS bowl without even being ranked in the Top 10. Since its inception, the Sugar Bowl has always been the ultimate destination for SEC teams and now, thanks to the craptastic BCS, it is now a consolation prize. Need playoff now.

2004-11-28T22:06:00.000-05:00

20 Years in 38 seconds, or Heartbreak on Rocky Top

So close. Kentucky actually led Tennessee for most of a football game. UK hasn't beaten Tennessee since 1984. And then with 0:38 left, Tennessee got a winning touchdown. Alas. What was really sad was that on UK's ensuing :38 attempt to score again, the UK band kept playing the theme from Lord of the Rings. That whole underdog thing going on.

2004-11-27T13:15:00.000-05:00

Surprise

So our upper year resident made a bet with we two lowly interns at the beginning of last week, that if we got our patient list to 5 or less by 7pm on Thanksgiving, we could both have a 3 day weekend. This was a bet that we were not expected to win and the Vegas odds were actually about 50:1. But we made it happen and now I'm waking up from my second consecutive day of getting up at 11:00am. Definitely giving Thanks.

We had some flurries on Thursday morning, but they didn't get to the ground because it had already warmed up too much.

Big USC-Notre Dame game today. An Irish win would make the BCS look so more appealing. But at the root, would still not fix the problems inherent to the entire system. UK basketball has started up, destroying the first three opponents without a hitch. Ranked no.8 or so. Good for them.

It is now officially Christmas decorating season, now that the turkeys are gone. Have ambitious plans this year. Ambitious. That phrase makes Heather nervous when mixed with multicolored blinking lights. Can't imagine why.

2004-11-24T15:11:00.000-05:00

Productivity Galore

Got the chimney cleaned out today. Got a haircut. Washed the car myself. Consolidated enough student loans to shake a stick at. Rearranged a room in the house because our new sofa is coming today. Read some medical literature about a new anti-depressant that can help with diabetes-related neuropathic pain. ALL BY 3 IN THE AFTERNOON.

Yes, we medical residents can bitch about our long hours. But every now and then we do get days off just like everyone else. Sometimes even 5 in the same month. It's been a while since I've been this excited about getting chores done and just needed to share. Now I've gotta go figure out what my part in the putluck for Thanksgiving is, since those of us that are at the hospital tomorrow are all making stuff. The key is whether any of us will have time to sit down and eat it.

2004-11-22T16:32:00.000-05:00

Go IRISH!!!

I managed to make it 20-something years without saying that, nor did I think I ever would. Thank you, BCS, you pile of shit. No, seriously. I will actually watch the USC-Notre Dame and care who wins, which is definitely something I've never done before. So the BCS has made people care about games like that. At the same time, if that doesn't work out, there's always Iowa St (or possibly Colorado). Is someone going to finally win the North? UCLA has a winning record, right? Maybe that's the upset most people east of the Rockies are waiting for.

The real problem, as stated before, is that this is essentially a 1-game, 2-seeds playoff system with a rigid and faulty system for picking the 2 seeds. This system assumes that 2 teams are clearly going to stand above all others. If you erased all records, but kept intact a "memory" of how teams had done during the season, there are several teams who might be worthy of playing for the title, beyond the unbeatens. Texas. Many people would argue for Cal. Even Utah, who while unbeaten, no one takes seriously, but how does one know, until they're given a chance to earn their first loss? They'll probably demolish the Big East "champion" if that is the matchup.

An eight-game playoff would virtually be guaranteed to include all unbeatens, as well as almost all of the 1-loss teams of proven ability. No automatic conference tie-ins. If the Mountain West or WAC or C-USA (think BCS conference teams are lining up to put Louisville on their schedule?) have a representative, but the Big East or ACC get left out, then tough. Collegiate sports is cyclical in nature. Interestingly though: before the BCS Oklahoma, Auburn, and USC most likely would have gone to different bowls. Imagine the motions for a playoff system, if there were a year with tri-champions!

2004-11-22T16:25:00.000-05:00

It's not Monday at the VA without yelling at someone

I should have been home an hour and a half ago. Then someone in an office, who had not even seen a certain patient, decided they needed more social work, based on a nursing note written by someone that at any other hospital would be unemployed within a week. Fuck damnit. The natural state of a human being is not lying in a hospital bed waiting for nosocomial infections with multi-drug resistant bacteria...except at the VA. It is overwhelming satisfying however to threaten to transfer the patients to an actual hospital, since there is one about 100 yards away (UK Medical Center).

I don't mean to make it sound so horrible. It's actually usually worse. Luckily, over the course of my residency, only about 30% of my time is at the VA, the rest is at the real hospital.

2004-11-18T17:50:00.000-05:00

Good versus Evil

It's almost the 3rd Saturday of November. Almost 2:30. Auburn at Alabama. The most worrisome thing about the Iron Bowl is that whenever one team has high hopes and dreams and expectations, the other one almost always wins. The most disappointing thing about the game in the last couple of years, is that Alabama has not been carrying its weight. Lately they either suck or are on probation. But what can you expect from a place like that?

In all seriousness, should actually be a good game. Auburn's rushing defense against an offense that has nothing but rushing...and a 19th string QB. Of course, last week I really thought that UGA would be a good game as well. No matter what the team playing against Georgia is, I just can't get enough of seeing David Greene get sacked, because it is a relatively rare event.

The other aspect is the heart with which players from both Alabama and Auburn play. Especially considering that most years almost half the Auburn players are from the state of Georgia. Hatred can be learned in less than 4 years after all.

Alas, supper calls. More to come. Almost game day. This really was meant to have more lead in, but well, the VA has been busy this week.

2004-11-14T19:53:00.000-05:00

BCS?

Hmmm. I've been silent on this whole Auburn in the BCS thing until now, waiting to see how the Georgia game would turn out. Wow. Sure, Georgia's a little overrated, but they are the next best team in the conference this year. Tuberville has already suggested a 4 team playoff in the future. Sugar and Fiesta Bowls could feed their winners into the Orange (and of course rotate every year, as currently done). Albeit, these arguments have been made before, usually a few weeks before the end of the season, and before one of the extra teams gets beaten nexpectedly.

Auburn still has to beat Alabama and Tennessee, which is a long way from being a done deal. USC still has to beat Notre Dame. Seriously, the Irish have a chance, depending on whether the Notre Dame that beat Michigan and Tennessee shows up, or the one that lost to Pitt. Oh, and Oklahoma has to tough it out against Baylor and whichever creampuff gets stuck with "winning" the Big 12 North. Chuckle.

The unfortunate part is that the national championship system relies on temperamental voters and formulas to compare teams from different regions, that don't have much overlap. How many games were there this year between the SEC and Big 12? Only one that I can think of offhand. What about between the Pac 10 and the Big 12? Only two that I can think of. And only one that I know of between the Pac 10 and SEC. Bowl games have traditionally been the best way to compare conferences, because in most cases they're actually designed to create more or less even matchups. The simple heart of the matter is that most years, there can be multiple teams with roughly equal claims to play in a national championship game.

2004-11-11T19:45:00.000-05:00

OK, so it's been another extremely long interval between blog posts here. For the month of November I'm doing general internal medicine wards at the VA. Exciting. I've been spending my free time enjoying myself and enjoying autumn, but now it's raining.

Things that suck: multiple myeloma, hepatocellular carcinoma, pancreatic adenocarcinoma. These three types of cancer suck really a lot. I know that's a lot of technical info to absorb, but it's 100% true.

We had our first frost on Tuesday morning. It got to 31 degrees and stayed there for 3 hours. It hasn't frosted again since, but I hear that it may even start snowing within a month or so. We should answer some important questions before that point, like how deep does snow have to be before it becomes necessary to shovel it out of the driveway?

By Thanksgiving we should have had our fireplace inspected, which means we can build a decorative fire on the night after Thanksgiving, since we're both working on the actual holiday. I can't wait to get a fire going.

People here are really getting excited about basketball season. We may have to learn the rules and see a game on TV or something, since apparently UK basketball tickets are much harder to come by than the football tickets. Oh, and Ashley Judd is at almost every single home game, which doesn't hurt attendance either.

I feel bad that we haven't been contributing to the recipe blog, but quite frankly we haven't even been cooking lately. Hopefully soon, maybe we'll start. Perhaps our specialty will be wine selections. Drinking alcohol is definitely something we have time and/or stress levels high enough for. Smoking Loon chardonnay is a good starting point.

2004-10-28T18:31:00.000-04:00

Still Here

Wow, this is just the third entry during this entire month. Of course, that could be because I've spent most of the month working out of town, of which tomorrow will be the last day of driving back and forth and spending every other weeknight on call.

The leaves have all changed their colors and most have fallen or are falling. So now we have a front yard covered in golden yellow, a backyard covered in purply color, and the rest of it covered with pine needles. It feels like fall. And almost everyone on our street has pumpkins or other decoration sitting out front. During our four years in Kentucky, I think this may well be our favorite time of year when it's all said and done. Either this or right after a light snow.

Speaking of snow and such, we got a load of firewood today. It took absolutely no effort. A nice old guy knocked on the door Tuesday and asked if we needed some. I said sure and he brought it today and we unloaded it into the backyard. Firewood is too inefficient to use as a primary energy source, but it sure is pretty on special days, like Dec 26. Since Heather and I will both be working on Christmas day. Ah, the joys of residency.

What else is going on? Auburn kicked Kentucky's ass in football. Not surprising. During the game I felt bad for UK, because Auburn played incredibly sloppy ball and won by 32. However, UK's coach Rich Brooks (whom I never that would outlast Ron Zook, but hey...) made an incredible ass of himself after the game, managing to insult both Auburn and his own team. Asshole. It's not unheard of in the SEC to say things about the other team, but publicly degrading individual players on TV after the game, before even chewing them out in the locker room is just not cool. They're still kids primarily in school for an education, at least in theory. So next year when Auburn comes to Lexington, I just hope I have Saturday off. Enough about that.

Next up... general medicine wards at the VA. Next month, all month. At least I'll get to spend some time at home. Maybe build a fire in the fireplace without burning the house down.

2004-10-14T16:29:00.000-04:00

Jesus of Suburbia

Yes, long time, no blog. And I doubt anyone noticed. Where have I been? Spending too much damn time in Morehead, KY, a charming little town in the hills/mountains with 4 stoplights, 2 of which are at the interstate exit. My time there is now half-way gone. Oh well. It is nice to have weekends off though.

Anyone in the know can tell that I've been listening to too much Green Day from this title.

Wal-Mart has a lot of detractors, but it is an awesome place. Where else could I buy two propane bottles, a chisel set, and a package of ground beef? And not get funny looks or comments on that bizarre combination of products?

Fall has finally hit central Kentucky. This week almost every tree in our neighborhood changed into one pretty color or another. And the high today barely got over 60. I know Richard, you probably won't see 60 again for months.

So Keeneland is 1/3 of the way through the Fall Racing Meet. My parents came up last weekend for my birthday and to see their first horse races. Freak occurrence: my dad mentioned to a business contact that he was coming to Lexington for Keeneland and the guy invited us up to the owners' room to watch his horse run in the 3rd race of the day. That was unexpected, but very very cool. There we are betting a few dollars randomly on horses we know nothing about, while this guy bets a hundred at a time. Not to mention, if his horse had won its race, he would have made $25,000 in less than 2 minutes. It was an interesting perspective. The best thing though was going down while the trainer saddled the horse and gave the jockey advice. Very cool experience. It was like being in the movie Seabiscuit for 3 hours. The general admission seats will never feel the same again.

2004-10-03T18:38:00.000-04:00

Another week in the SEC

During the second quarter of the Auburn-Tennessee game, from high up in the stands of Neyland Stadium, something happened that I didn't realize could ever happen, especially in the 2nd quarter. Fans visiting for the opposing team could be heard. Period. On national TV. Could be heard clearly chanting for the visiting team. No incessant jet-engine-level pro-UT noise from the 109,000 or so wearing hunter's orange. No band playing freakin' Rocky Top 41 feakin' times a game. The win was impressive enough, but I am much more impressed by the alternating silence followed by Auburn chants followed by more silence coming from Neyland.

And what the hell happened to LSU? I really thought that Georgia was overrated and LSU would beat them soundly. Once again, what the hell?

It appears that the SEC is moving away from the parity among teams which has been the norm for the last couple of years. The league seems to be moving back towards having 4-5 teams at the top who dominate all the others, rather than the anybody can beat anybody enviroment that has made the conference more exciting, but has really screwed with getting any number of teams ranked highly. Two to three years ago, there were some bad teams, but that was largely limited to UK and Vandy. The other 10 were at least competitive against each other on any given day, so to speak. Now the suck list has grown to include Mississippi St, Ole Miss, and Alabama. Arkansas and South Carolina remain in limbo. Even if USC is #25 now, the still have to play UT and UF. At Arkansas, everything depends on Matt Jones, affectionately known as "Big Lanky" or "How many years has he been there?". As usual they will continue to be a wildcard and could quite possibly beat Auburn or LSU.

On the other hand, even suck teams can have a good time. We hung out with people tailgating for the UK-Ohio game. Cooking out and drinking beer and bourbon are the same everywhere. But there is this thing called corn-hole. It's like horseshoes, but you throw bean bags onto a sloped piece of wood with a hole in it. 3 points for the hole, and 1 for landing it successfully on the sloped piece of wood. We even went to the 1st half the UK-Ohio game. They get very excited about 1st downs, there is a cheer for it even. And booing the coach's poor play-calling is an artform. And leaving at halftime. We left at halftime, with many of the fans, when we realized Kentucky was trailing at halftime to Ohio, and did hang on to lose 28-16. Sad.

2004-09-30T09:19:00.000-04:00

And One More

So, my intern year schedule started out with an easy month and then three consecutive months of overnight call. Two of those three are now gone. I'm still unsure what this coming month in a town of 8,000 in the middle of eastern Kentucky is going to be like. Yesterday I heard a version that made it sound like a pretty good time, all things considered, other than being away from home.

I haven't had any clever or interesting stories from the medical world lately. The ICU and CCU aren't necessarily clever and happy. However, the other day we were admitting a guy and we asked him who his usual cardiologist was. He replied with the phrase "Who shot Lincoln?". Normally at the VA, that means that the patient is crazy and everything they say after that should be ignored. However, after a split second, I realized that we had an attending somewhere at UK named Booth.

And finally, please follow this link to the Glasgow Gomer Scale, a takeoff from the Glasgoq Coma Scale. This list is so incredibly wrong, but dead on. I've seen many of these things for real.

2004-09-23T17:52:00.000-04:00

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

College football is going strong now. Of course, this weekend there are no games of note. I think that the most entertaining game of all might be Alabama-Arkansas, and I don't even like either team. Alas, I will have more time for the important things in life.

I am no beginning my last week in the ICU's at the VA. Finally. Actually, the second half of the month on Cardiology and CCU has not been bad at all. Patients with problems that can be addressed and fixed. Much nicer situation than the hopeless patients in the other unit.

Oct 1 I begin my month-long rotation at a small-town hospital in eastern Kentucky. I'm really not sure what to expect from it. Supposedly I will have weekends off, which I have not had since July. That will make almost any level of work/abuse during the week worth it.

October 8-30 also coincides with the fall racing meet at Keeneland. It's an awesome atmosphere. The weather's just right and limiting live racing to two 3-week periods a year makes everyone get that much more into it. I've been trying to learn a little more about horse racing, both the actual racing aspects as well as the wagering aspects, so that I'm picking horses based on more than just "Wow, I like that name. That's clever". Unfortunately, we probably won't make it to Founders Day, where everyone comes to the track wearing 1930's garb. It really does look like Seabiscuit.

I'm also looking forward to the leaves changing color soon, although that will herald colder temperatures of course. I haven't lived somewhere that the leaves change color in fall in 11 years. And Heather has never lived where leaves truly change color. I mean, we saw the leaves last fall, but this year, they are our leaves on our trees in our yard.

2004-09-19T16:16:00.000-04:00

OK, I don't mean to dwell on this, but it is officially freaky now. At the grocery store today, I saw exactly one UK tee shirt and one Auburn cap. That is a 1:1 ratio. Bizarre, but comforting.

2004-09-19T11:05:00.000-04:00

What a day for football

Not only did Auburn come back and defeat LSU, but UT and Florida gave a heck of a game as well. After Auburn's win over the faux-tigers (notice it rhymes with geaux) we went out to our favorite beer and pizza joint on the edge of UK's campus, Pazzo's. If anyone reading this is familiar with Mellow Mushroom, which is a pizza/beer chain located in almost every SEC city (except Arkansas and the Mississippi's), Pazzo's is similar. Rumor had it that the former manager of the Auburn location of Mell packed up and came to Lexington about 6 years ago. We've noticed that the style of pizza is very similar. Last night we walked in and the manager and some of the staff were all wearing Auburn tee-shirts. Keep in mind, that this was during UK's home opener being played about a mile away. Not only that, but while we were looking up at the Tennessee game, our waitress asked us if had watched that good Auburn game on earlier. Didn't even mention the opponent.

This was cool, maybe someone has had this before. I tried a "Smoothie" last night. It's a blend, along the idea of a Black and Tan, but it is Guinness and Woodchuck. Yummy indeed.

Also interesting is that in the morning we had gone to the farmer's market and saw someone there wearing an Auburn sweatshirt. I'm not sure why there is such a presence here. One must realize, it's not like we were seeing shirts from schools all over. No Ohio State. No Tennessee. No West Virginia. All UK and an occasional Auburn shirt. Very bizarre. I think after that game a few years ago though, UK tries not to think about LSU too much.

Oh and by the way, UK beat Indiana 51-32. Go Kats.

2004-09-18T18:50:00.000-04:00

WAR EAGLE!!!

Why do they call them special teams? Because they're special! That's why.

LSU has lived by the missed extra point and now has come full circle and died by it.
10-9. Auburn has finished what Oregon State started. I know LSU fans with their TiVo's will show replays of the missed (Auburn's that is) extra point and scream that there was no personal foul. Well, that is from that camera distance and that camera angle. So shut the hell up.

Happy 50th Tuberville!

2004-09-10T21:25:00.000-04:00

Kill 'em All
from Heather

Brian told me I had to share about my newborn experience, so here it goes.
I was on newborn nursery call last Sunday. My job there was to show up to any deliveries that were scary for the ob/gyns and take care of the infants. While I was there a poor pregnant woman who was carrying triplets walked into triage. She was in labor. This would be normal except instead of the usual 40 weeks she was only 22 weeks along. At UK we do not attempt to save below 24 weeks and the infant also has to be at least one pound or so (500 grams). Triplets are not going to be that big. I did what any frightened intern would do and discussed these fetuses (it is easier for me to call them that) with my attending. He then told me to wrap them up, keep them warm so they would use up all of their energy reserves and die faster. He then said if they appeared to be in any kind of respiratory distress to get the nurses to place an IV and load them with morphine until they are gone.
Yes, people, I was told to kill babies. I know that the outcome for these little ones are not great. They have a 50% mortality and a 100% chance of significant morbidity at 24 weeks, which they are no where near. I am having big issues with this because it was the first time I got to play God. If this mother were to drive one hour to the west (Louisville) or one and a half hours to the north (Cincinnati) she would have had children in the NICU. Why am I the one who gets to hold these babies until they die? Actually, it would be the mom, not me, but I am the one who tells her.
As a postscript, as of yesterday the mother had not delivered. Her infants are now twenty-three weeks along, and are therefore "viable". I have to look and see where she is. I hope all will be well with this mother.

2004-09-10T10:52:00.000-04:00

Congratulations Troy

Four years after entering Division I-A play, Troy has hosted a ranked team from a major conference and won on its home field. Way to go. Big 12 really not impressive.

Conjugate, roving eye movements = "the hosed sign"

Five IV poles decked out with 4 bags each of fluids and medicines = bad and is actually predictive of death within 24 hours.

2004-09-06T13:26:00.000-04:00

And so it begins

College football season opened for real this weekend, sort of. The only game between Top 25 teams got postponed for obvious reasons. Most of the SEC teams looked decent with Kentucky, Ole Miss, and LSU being the notable exceptions. Kentucky's excuse? Probation and most of their attention cast to an indoor sport. Ole Miss? Their team plays on Sundays now, that is, EliMae. LSU? I don't think LSU is bad this year or anything, they quite simply didn't appear to have their shit together. As I was on call on Saturday, I didn't get to absorb myself into the spirit as much as usual (and limited to network TV offerings), so I didn't pay much attention to non-SEC goings-on.

The thing that excites me the most about Auburn's victory over token opponent Louisiana-Monroe had nothing to do with defeating a Sun Belt Conference opponent. It had more to do with the fact that someone besides Jason Campbell can play QB. The guy that was destined to replace him two years ago, but had serious health problems, played some in Saturday's game and did alright. At least he's an alternative now, since one never knows which Jason Campbell might show up for any particular game.

What's the difference between a bullet and a VA nurse? A bullet only kills one patient at a time and you can only fire a bullet once.

2004-08-29T19:09:00.000-04:00

What do Alaska and Ethiopia have in common?

Nothing like a nice slow day to make life a little easier. Less than 3 hours at the hospital today, although 20 minutes of that was getting an earful on the phone from a lady, who although she hasn't seen her husband in days, and knows nothing about medicine, wanted to dictate to us what medication to use because someone she knows had advised her that way. Irritating.

I did manage to change out one of the light fixtures in our house though. Despite the overall attractiveness of our house, we inherited some quite tacky light fixtures. One down, many to go. And topped off the evening with enchiladas at Rincón. And it was mariachi night. Loud band, small building. Luckily we got to enjoy it before they circled around right on top of us.

Last night the Neurology Dept hosted the "welcome new interns party" at an attending's house. Most departments do that sort of thing in June, before we all get busy. Last night only 2/3 of us could be there since we're all working now. The cool thing about this party is that since the origins of the residents and attendings are so varied, the rule is that everyone has to bring something to eat representative of their homeland or ethnic origin. All kinds of good food representing every inhabited continent except Australia. Heather and I represented Alabama/Georgia (since everyone here seems to get the two states confused) by bringing homemade peach cobbler. Damn fine cooking on Heather's part. All I contributed was peeling half of the peaches.

2004-08-28T14:19:00.000-04:00

Taylor, the secret package was received. The packaging material stating "Handle with Care" was a nice touch. We might actually need that thing within the next month, although it got above 90 degrees for the first time this summer yesterday. Weird.

College football finally starts, sort of, tonight. Go Hokies. Or at least, don't go Trojans. UK is gearing up for another awesome season. The one conference win might be in jeopardy though, as the newspaper pointed out that Vanderbilt has 11 returning starters on offense.

Tangential to the football season, as I was driving by Commonwealth Stadium the other day, I observed an actual high speed car chase involving a stolen car and three chasing police cars. It was exciting enough to keep me from falling asleep on the way home. Ah, residency.

2004-08-27T19:34:00.000-04:00

So I was weedeating the other day with the weedeater on the back 40, as I refer to the slightly overgrown area next to our back fence and guess what I discovered? A woodpile! We are now the proud owners of 8 sticks of prime firewood. Ready for winter are we!

So I was just curious and checked out Al-Jazeera's website, which I refuse to place a link to. What I realized is that it's not just that they have an agenda, it's that they have absolutely no idea how to be journalists. I realize that that is secondary to the hateful agenda, but it makes them extra dumb, to use a technical term. More to come, as I have to go greet company now

2004-08-23T20:10:00.000-04:00

What does it mean for our Roomba to have a layer of dust on top?

I can't believe in my long post I just left, I forgot to mention the prime achievement of the last 2 weeks. I am now the proud owner of a weedeater. Gas. Few things are cheerier than the loud hum/purr of a 2-cycle engine whacking some weeds. Awesome.

2004-08-23T19:48:00.000-04:00

Yes, yes, I know. Once again, a really long time without a blog entry. Not that they're that interesting anyway. So one thing about in-patient neurology has really sunk in during this month. I have sent far more patients to rehab facilities, nursing homes, and hospice (home to die) than I have straight home. The numbers are almost overwhelming, except that it's not unexpected.

On a slightly unrelated note, I dealt with a guy who was a little crazy the other night at the VA who asked me where the VA found its doctors and just how long I had been a "government yes-man". Needless to say this guy was a little nuts. I explained to him that my homeland had been overrun by US war criminals (murder and rape of civilians, wanton destruction of private property, etc) 139 years ago and that I sure as hell wasn't a yes-man to "his government". Some things just find their way out at 2am. Somehow, this tirade actually calmed him down and I didn't get any more calls about this guy the rest of the night. I will definitely keep this one in my back pocket.

The UK undergrads moved back onto campus this past weekend, as classes begin on Wednesday. The sudden addition of 15-20,000 people to a city of 300,000 within a few days (since most UK students are not necessarily from Lexington and it seems that most don't stay for summer) can make things more crowded than one realizes.

And UK's first football game is in less than 2 weeks against Louisville. I'm not excited. More importantly, Auburn's first game is in less than 2 weeks against powerhouse Louisiana-Monroe. I can't get that excited about that one either. But then the preseason will end and SEC play will start. By then I'll be 11 days into my ICU/CCU rotation and hopefully will figure out how to get internet radio in the VA.

Now that summer is over, we found a patio umbrella. For $10. Amazing. It even came pre-wired with Christmas tree lights along the ribs. $10. It was the last patio umbrella at Meijer. We win. So this is a long random post, but then I haven't posted in 12 days. Been a little busy. But I don't think I've breached the 80 hour limit since the first week, which is a good sign.

2004-08-17T20:03:00.000-04:00

Warning: Depressing news ahead
From Heather:

Residency is getting better and better. I am halfway through my month of genetics and now everyone I see has some kind of disorder. I had a kid last week who came in for an ear check and now has a brain tumor which is probably inoperatable. So my week pretty much sucks right now. I guess it could be worse, I could be doing neurology :)
I did see my first "real" patient today for her two month check. She is doing great. She is an Alabama girl herself. Her mother grew up about thirty miles from where I grew up in Alabama. Her mom actually graduated from high school with my little brother's roommate. Small world, huh.
Brian is on call tonight. He is so happy to be doing neurology, but he is working really hard. The cats miss him, as do I. But I am finally realizing that I am not the only one who feels overwhelmed or alone or whatever all this stress of being a doctor for real is like. It has taken me some time to figure it all out. It helps to have a co-intern whose husband is a surgeon. He really is never at home. What eighty hour rule?
The paycheck doesn't hurt either. I got a bunch of new clothes last weekend and I am a happier person now. It never hurts to look good.
Sorry about the depressing entry, we have been slammed by a bunch of really heartbreaking stuff right now and I am trying to just deal with it all and find good in day to day stuff. It is so frustrating to sit there and tell a parent that we think your kid might have some horrible disease but we can't test for it and they should follow up with us in six months. Or worse asking a set of parents if they could be related to one another while there child is being removed from life support. Good times. Most of kids in clinic are healthy and doing well though so it will be fine.

2004-08-11T18:15:00.000-04:00

Is it a llama or an alpaca? Git'R Done!!!

So I was doing my third spinal tap in two nights. On a federal prisoner. Nice guy. During a humorous turn of events, while I had a 6 inch spinal needle wedged into this guy's back, he and one of his three guards begin a discussion about this animal that was on the TV. One guard said it was "that thing like a camel, but not a camel". To which another guy said, "Oh, a llama." Then the patient, the guy with a 6-inch needle in his back, blurts out, "No it's more like a furry, colored-sheep." Someone finally decided it must be an alpaca. I must say I was impressed.

Then one of the guards randomly blurted out "Git 'r done!" about the time I was pulling the needle out. That was entertaining. I must admit I have a special place in my heart for the humor of Larry the Cable Guy. Good stuff. Wherever the hell he is from. Can't quite place that dialect.