So I've been on call this weekend (and still am, at least until tomorrow morning)--Saturday morning I just got slammed with calls, saw a bunch of patients in the office, and then got some more calls. But can't complain, because so far it's still been an absolutely awesome weekend. Friday night Mark cooked a new recipe for me--the night before, he said I had to pick a "region of the world" that I wanted a recipe from, and I picked Caribbean (why not?). When I got home from work on Friday, the house smelled AWESOME, and we ended up having this great steak infused with all these different flavors, and rice with stuff in it--all the tunes of steel band music he bought on iTunes. It was a blast. He also made some Sangria, which I couldn't partake TOO much of, but was just as good as any I've had in a restaurant. And yes, we know Sangria is Spanish, but whatever--it was good.
Like I said, Saturday morning was a crazy one for me with the phone ringing off the hook and going in to the office, but I was able to be back home by 12:30-1 or so and we decided to go to this chili cook-off going on downtown. What a blast! It was perfect chili weather, too--cloudy, with a good fall chill in the air, but not windy or obnoxious. People were bundled up, but everyone was smiling. I saw a bunch of patients from the office--I'm at the point now where I usually know if I've seen a kid before the office, and I usually can remember parents' faces, but names are a struggle. It's still pretty fun to see people you know, regardless. My favorite chili was one made with Guinness and Newcastle, with the county cattlewomen chili being a close second. There were about 24 different chilis there, and Mark and I were definitely full by the time it was all over. Great way to spend an afternoon!
We ended up hanging out at home for the rest of the day--got a great drunk-dial from BJ who was tailgating at the Ohio State game, and later on I talked for a bit with Missy--she signed with a psych practice back in Bismarck, ND last week, and DJ is decideding between the two ER's there which offer to take. Best part about Missy and DJ moving back to ND--they are just over an hour from the best taco pizza in the world in Hazen, ND. Mark still hasn't had a chance to indulge.
I don't have to work a ton this week, so Mark and I were thinking about going to talk with the realtor we know in town about housing. Other than that, we're enjoying seeing the snow-capped mountains (Mt. Werner is looking awesome) and wearing fleeces, as it is definitely fall here. After having no fall last year in Houston, I just couldn't be happier. Have a great week!
CNN.com - Officials, friends can't confirm Bin Laden death report - Sep 23, 2006
Sure, but $10 says they can confirm it right before midterms.
(OK, cynical post over)
I had to adjust the camera to catch Steve's TRUE nature.
Actually, we didn't take any pictures last weekend. Best to not remember. :)
OK, not that I'm busy doing anything but having a glass of wine and listening to music right now, but here's a bullet-list update.
- Great weekend in Oxford, Detox Sunday and Monday
- Got in WAY too late on Sunday night (technically, Monday morning). Road closed due to accident leading to 40-mile detour. Almost hit elk as big as our car at 80mph. That is no exaggeration. Then almost hit two deer. Thankfully, each near collision kept me awake long enough to get us home.
- Great time seeing BJ and JK (and Flanagan). We were totally hungover slugs, however.
- LEGO Star Wars II, which I bought for our trip, is awesome.
- There was snow on the mountain when we got home, and the heat has been on the last two days. However, it's supposed to warm up again.
OK, I think that's it for now. I'm feeling lazy.
Quick update for the quick post: that picture was taken Monday morning. Not by me, stolen from the Pilot
OK, I understand that there are some valid reasons for not being able to bring certain things on an airplane, but when we can't bring lip balm on the plane, but people can wear "Gel-filled bras" or bring "KY jelly" "To ensure [their] health and welfare"? (yes, those are quotes from the TSA website, emphasis added).
Give me a fucking break. Seriously. Taking off my shoes at the screening booth is silly enough, but what happens when someone strangles a flight attendant with their belt? We can't wear belts anymore? Where does it end?
We're just lucky they haven't banned iPods yet.
I realize that flying isn't a right, it's a privelege. But I'm not a criminal and neither is my wife. I don't appreciate being treated like one. I don't appreciate her being treated like one. This is absurd.
And who are we kidding? Honestly. If someone wanted to blow up a plane they could still do it. Not letting Suzie Sunshine bring her apple juice on the plane isn't HELPING YOUR WAR ON TERROR. The point of terrorism is to CREATE TERROR. That being the case, forget our representatives who still value Civil Liberties and a government of checks and balances "helping the terrorists" (Seriously, fuck you, Cheney) - the rest of you are the ones helping CREATE terror. Where the fuck is the 9/11 memorial? Why is there still a hole at Ground Zero? (what does that have to do with anything?)
Listening to me talk to my sister in New Zealand doesn't prevent terror - it's a waste of my tax money. Put the money where it matters. No, not in your wallet, or the special interest wallets. Use it the way it's intended to be used. TO HELP OUR FREAKING COUNTRY. You're not helping anything but the terrorists - because you're aiding in their mission of CREATING TERROR.
Their mission isn't to blow up buildings. It's the aftermath. It's the FEAR they create by the act of blowing shit up. It's YOUR reactions to their blowing shit up. YOU'RE DOING EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANT, MORONS.
Sorry. Every now and then I have to release the pent-up frustration I have with our freaking government. They can really piss me off.
Overall, I'm a very happy person.
Maybe we should leave for the airport early today. Something tells me I'm going to be subjected to a "random" screening.
So, after nearly pulling my hair out for the past two days, I finally found out that I passed my Sports Medicine Boards. My Family Practice colleagues knew their scores 2 days ago, but the American Board of Pediatrics had "a difficult time processing the datafile" into their software. Thank God someone finally got it done, and yea!! Unlike when I took my Pediatrics Boards, I sure didn't walk out of the Sports Med Board feeling comfortable with how I did. Something to do with trying to figure out exercise regimens for 70-somethings post hip replacement. Not so much my area.
But Awesome!! I'm really pumped. And now, officially, I don't have to take another test until I need to recert Peds Boards in another 6 years. Sports Med re-ups in 10 years, so I have some time. Mark and I ran over to the office to let them know--Sheila and Cindy were over there this afternoon, and both of those guys have been asking me if I knew yet, just because they knew I was stressed out about it.
So I'm going to celebrate by drinking beer and doing laundry, since after all, Mark and I are leaving for the 10 year at Miami tomorrow. Yea!!!
OK, now that I've got my first brew down (only thing left to do is wait and drink it), I'm moving on to another "project" at home.
I'm frantically (ok, maybe not all that frantically) looking for some pictures of the old chest our TV used to sit on because my new project involves basically taking it apart, de-stinkifying it (it's 99 years old if the label on the inside is to be trusted - it smells like my grandmother's basement), reinforcing it, and putting it back together. Except instead of opening on the top, it will be kind of a "hidden" door that opens down from the front. Hard to describe in words.
Anyway, yesterday I started this little project (shouldn't take more than, say, a week?, if I dedicate enough time to it), and today the front panel is off and I'm 50% done taking the front of the top (old) door off. These will be attached to each other and serve as the new door.
I've already planned out the framing on the inside and just have to buy some wood (then cut and assemble it, natch). Then it's time to buy an IR repeater and probably a fan or two to vent the heat out the back, and we're done. I also measured to verify that the components that matter most will also fit inside (those being the Satellite box, TiVo, DVD and amp - who needs a VCR or CD player anymore anyway?), and we look good to go.
Because the "ancient mildew" smell is so incredibly potent, I decided on a strip/sand/bleach/lacquer method of destinkifying. Waiting for the layers of lacquer to dry will probably take the most time of anything in this project. Well, that, and trying to figure out how to attach the new door in a way that doesn't immediately identify it as a door. We'll see.
Anyway, if I find a picture of the old thing, I'll be sure to add it to this post.
I'm not going to post about how the 5-year anniversary of 9-11 felt, or any jazz like that. To be honest, I haven't been thinking about it much. But I thought that my brother's friend's photoset on Flickr bears posting, so here it is.
Really, some incredible photos from Monday night. Go check them out.
Click on the image to your right, and it should take you to the Picasaweb album of my bottling day pictures.
First off, let me start by saying that I couldn't have done it without Dana's help (obviously, taking the pictures) - she helped hold things while I did other stuff, and was indispensible in handing me sterile bottle caps and capping the bottles after I did the hard work of letting gravity fill them.
I think you can also see that there was some spillage in some of the pictures. But that turned out to be OK as there was more than enough beer to fill up all the bottles I had prepared. Good thing I sterilized extra caps as well - we had a few problems in that arena too.
Anyway, the guidelines say the beer should be done and drinkable within about 14 days. Of course, I might have to sample some before then. :)
So, D and I have picked out a nice long hike for Saturday morning (it may rain, so we might cut it short, we'll see) from the book my parents got us as a housewarming gift when they were here (which has turned out to be an awesome reference, so thanks again). After that, I'm sure we'll chillax at home.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Tonight should be bottling night, the critical juncture at which I remove the beer from the fermenter, spike it with some sugar and put it in some bottles (as Hutch can attest, we have many, many beer bottles which have been saved from the recycling bin due to my new hobby). After the bottles are closed up, the sugar I put in the beer will be another source of food for the yeast in the beer, which causes the carbonation. Apparently the beer will taste pretty much like it will when it's done, but will be flat (and warm). After it's conditioned in the bottle for a period of time, it's drinking time!
So since I aim to do that tonight, we might have another brew day tomorrow after the hike (since the fermenter will be open again). And maybe at some point I'll take the time to document that brewing process for you all as well.
Sunday I hope to go on a ride in the morning. I think my left hand is healed up enough to take the pressure, and my arm shouldn't bother me at all (knock on wood). It's getting cooler here now as well, so it might provide me a good opportunity to bust out some of my colder-weather cycling gear too.
And one more thing: I've got that great new workbench, time to put it to use (for something other than bike maintenance, though it has been handy in that arena). I want to build a small little shelf for our recycling bins so I can stack one on top of the other but still have them be accessible, but they take up have the space.
Crap. I just realized I have to figure out where I'm going to keep all the conditioning beer. Hmmm. We don't have any guests planned anytime soon. Maybe the guest room..
(Also, I'm totally swamped at work which is a huge bummer lately, but I have time to write this as I'm chaning permissions on a huge folder and it takes a long time for Windoze to do that).
But, there's plenty else I could be doing, so sayonara for now. Have a great weekend, everyone.
Well, to be honest, 31 never felt so good. Yesterday was a great day--a nurse from the clinic and I drove out to Craig, where I had a full day of patients, and as a present to me, none had crazy or wacked-out parents. Got home, had a beer, and then Mark and I went out to a new restaurant, Three Peaks Grill, where the food was awesome. It's crazy around SBS right now--a lot of the tourist have left, and in this huge restaurant, that you know is packed once the mountain opens, there must've been only 5 or 6 tables. Not that we minded one bit....afterwards we went over to another new place for a cocktail, and then called it a night and were in bed by 10:30. I am an old lady, after all.
And these snowshoes are the ones I got as a birthday present from Mark--the sweet part is that they were half-off at REI, and I also still had a small dividend I hadn't use yet, and a gift certificate that I hadn't used yet, so we pretty much got them at 1/4 of their regular price. Awesome! I can't wait to start using them--only about 2 more months until the snow comes!
And tonight Sheila and Lisa arranged a girls night at this place in town with awesome mojitos. Can't wait! Should be a good bunch of people coming, and I only wish Keri could be there to get her bra stuck on a table. I went on a hike today with Lisa and Primo (I'm off until next Monday), and Lisa's friend Blair joined us--we just went up Emerald Mountain, which is just on the other side of the valley from the ski mountain, and I finally got to see all the crazy trails and stuff they have up there. I guess in the winter there are tons of x-country ski trails, and more than enough places to use my awesome new snowshoes. Yea!
Note: I did not take this picture. I have not yet bothered uploading the awesome ones that Hutch took this weekend.
So as luck would have it I ended up having to work all day Friday because of a stupid problem at work (that was, incidentally, entirely my fault). Sigh. But we were really busy this weekend. I'll let Hutch give all the details (since he never posts), but here's an outline:
-Fish Creek Falls hike
-Devil's Causeway hike
-major drinking
-mountain biking
-trip to the ER (me)
-more mountain biking (Dana and Hutch)
-MAJOR drinking self-medication
-greasy breakfast
-Steamboat Lake hike
-Hahn's Peak Lake hike
-offroading in new car
OK, at least I can fill in the blanks on the ER visit. I have a big hole in my left hand and a big gash in my left forearm (along with various scrapes and bruises between) from a header I took off the mountain bike on our first run down the mountain. Tried to get up right away, before I could feel it (and sent Dana and Hutch down so they weren't hovering and I could wipe the dirt off my bruised pride), but the chain was turned 90 degrees and stuck between the little chainring and the bottom bracket - a feat I'm not sure how I accomplished. About five or ten minutes after I struggled with it (and got blood all over the bike - cool!), they came walking their bikes back up the trail and Hutch was able to un-stick the chain. But since it was bent sideways we couldn't get it back on, so I started to coast down (which is a very interesting and probably extremely dangerous way to do things on a mountain). Braking was a bit of a challenge due to the hole in my hand, but the injuries didn't bug me too much until after we finally got down to the bottom (it was a five mile trail and the wreck probably happened at mile 1.5). Found a first-aid dude (off-duty paramedic) who helped me clean the wounds and told me to go to the ER where they could clean it well and stitch me up, so we had some lunch and they dropped me off at the ER.
Really, the pain isn't that bad (the hand is no longer wrapped up, the arm is still), and if you're really interested there are some pictures I took yesterday when cleaning it for the first time post-ER. But some of them are kind of gross, so you may not want to look. The worst pain was rinsing out the arm yesterday (not soaping it up, surprisingly).
Anyway, I'm fine and we had a blast this weekend. I am also, however, sore. So today will be a nice rest day for me. Hutch won't get home until about 3 this afternoon and then has class, so expect him to use that as his excuse for not posting for a couple weeks.
--
In other news, our adventures this weekend revealed to me what Dana's birthday present should be. She had a blast mountain biking (was like a kid at Christmas) and was talking about taking her green bike (no suspension) down the mountain until we get proper bikes next year. Well, I basically told her no as the threads on her steerer tube are mostly stripped (which I realized when I took the bike apart and put it back together), so this week we're going to head to the bike shop and ask them about getting a nice fork for her old POS bike as a temporary measure. That is, if they think that's a reasonable thing to do. (and for all you who are curious, her birthday is Wednesday. Which is tomorrow.)
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