Pilgrims at Oak Ridge

I just love these two pictures of Sam. And speaking of pictures, I spent my evening going through this huge bag of photos I had from high school and college. Some I threw away, and the rest I semi-organized into a big photo album!! Now I can actually look at the photos I have taken. If I were really good, I would have cropped them, included fun text and color schemes, and incorporated a well-thought design. But I figure I'm doing well just to get them into the album. Maybe someday I'll get them labeled. Now Jeff is going through his pictures so I can do the same thing for him. I may have to post a few choice items he's uncovered. If he'll let me.

Yesterday I was trying to help a guy at the bank who was really drunk. He couldn't remember his PIN number for his ATM card. He had obviously been drowning his sorrows, and his PIN number, in the bottle of Crown Royal that was sticking out of his pocket. So I took him over to the card encoding machine so he could choose a new PIN number. He kept insisting that he wanted 4-16-4-2 as his PIN number. I told him several times that he could only choose 4 numbers. But he was completely undaunted, he would just look at his fingers and count it off, "4-16-4-2, that's four numbers right?" Hmmm.

Sometimes I get a little behind on laundry. (actual, unretouched photo of our actual, untouched dirty clothes.)

It's a great time of year to be in Charleston:

Just a few choice tidbits from life at the bank lately... - Yesterday I was walking back to the bank after having walked home for lunch. I took a slightly different route (ashley to cannon to courtney). While approaching the intersection of Cannon and President street I saw a man on the other side of the street acting kinda weird. That's not too uncommon around here, so I minded my own business. But while waiting for the light to turn, so I could cross the street, I glanced back over at him. Now he was standing directly across the street from me, in an athletic pose, going through a karate chop routine with his hands, while staring intently at me. That's odd, I thought. I kept watching as he finished a fairly elaborate karate kid routine, never taking his eyes off me. And with a little flair at the finish, he he extended his pointer finger on his right hand, and slowly and deliberatly, while still staring at me, raised his finger to his nose and pushed his glasses up h...

Amputating a toe = very easy surgery. (Easy to do, that is, probably not as easy if it is your toe.)

The surgeon I'm working with now is mostly a vascular surgeon, which means he does lots of operations on people who have problems with their arteries or veins. For me, this means that suddenly I'm looking at lots and lots of feet. Many people with bad circulation have problems in their feet. I'm not exactly sure why this is, but lately it feels like all I'm doing is looking at feet. Usually, this is not a problem. I do not mind feet. But once you get bad circulation, your feet tend to get gross. And I mean gross. Suddenly, I do not like feet. At least, the feet that I'm spending time looking at and touching to find a pulse. Today was probably the worst. I had to look at this guy's feet who had a toe that was actually ROTTING, as in it was black and falling off. And then there was the smell. I think the only way to really appreciate the smell of gangrene is to smell it yourself. Thankfully, blogger hasn't invented a way to post scents, so you are safe. At t...

Of Aubrey opening her match day envelope

I knew being a doctor required filling out lots and lots of paperwork, but I didn't realize it would begin this soon. I got a big packet of stuff from Greenwood today, and it seemed like I had to sign my name no less than 400 times. I could have just signed away my first child, or given away my kidney, and I may not have noticed since there was so much to fill out. I also have to include a right thumbprint. Although apparently, if my right thumb were missing, I could also include my left thumbprint as long as I indicated it on the application. One exciting thing about getting this filled out quickly is that I'll actually get my signing bonus sooner. Yes, that's right, I'm getting a signing bonus. Like I'm some kind of professional athlete. (Mine is going to be slightly smaller than theirs tend to run.) I have to have a pre-employment physical with a urine drug screen. I was instructed to come to the appointment "with a full bladder." Seriously.

Aubrey = 299 Jeff = 271 Frankly, I'm just glad I didn't loose by a whole lot more, considering Aubrey was writing words like "ruminate," "rifampin," and "indole," which apparently is a byproduct of animal intestines used in perfumery. (?)

We got some interesting news from our nephew Jackson this week. But I'll let him tell you himself.... Needless to say, we are very excited.

That's what it looks like! And here is a small article in our local paper. Enjoy.

Just Kidding, its not really Idaho. Today is the big day. Today we found out were Aubrey matched in the big Match. Out of 140 students, Aubrey was about the 129th called. Here she is reading her letter... And she is announcing that we are going to Greenwood, SC !!!!! We are both very excited, Greenwood was our first choice of programs. June 18th will be her first day there, so we will move sometime before that. We can't wait. See how happy we look?

Only 18 hours until the Match! Jeff and I are quite excited. On Monday, we found out that we had actually matched somewhere, and tomorrow we find out where that somewhere is. Apparently, a record-setting 24 people from my class didn't match this year, forcing them to scramble into positions. It's too bad that is the record our class was able to set. Check back tomorrow for the official announcement! Until then, enjoy this . I never knew a dog could be so funny.

I think that somewhere, deep within me, I have a repressed culinary streak. Every so often I enjoy cooking. Baking mostly. In junior high I used to have the recipe for chocolate chip cookies memorized, I could do it in my sleep. Which was probably more because I loved cookies, than because I loved baking. Then in high school I used to get all kinds of brochures from culinary schools. Perhaps I missed my calling. Anyway. The urge has struck again recently, in the form of a desire to bake bread. Baking bread is satisfying. It makes you feel good. And it tastes really good too. So over the last couple of weeks I have made several batches of English Muffins. They are like bread, with just a few modifications at the end. And mmmmmm, are they good. When they are hot out of the toaster, and the butter just melts right down into them... whoa.

Since Jeff and I are leaving Charleston very soon, we are sending out the last call for anyone to come and visit us. Seriously, we love company. And if you needed any motivation, check out this article from the New York Times. Come on down, y'all!

We haven't put any recent photos of our nephews, and I thought I should remedy this since they are both getting cuter by the day. And a very cute video of Jackson:

Sorry for the lack of posting. I'm enjoying this new rotation, but it hasn't left me with tons of time. Although the schedule really isn't bad, especially for surgery. I go in at 7, and have been finishing around 4. And we are pretty busy during that whole time. I doubt there are any smokers amongst the four readers of this blog, but if there are, let me tell you: QUIT NOW. I've seen dead legs, amputated feet, and nasty aortas, all in people who smoke. It's not like I've been surprised by what I've seen, but I have definitely been reminded this week that smoking is BAD. So enjoy a few photos until I can post more. Here are the three photos I took in Texas with my camera phone. An orange tree!! I could actually touch an orange growing on a tree! Walking the bridge to Mexico. Standing on the actual border. I decided I kind of enjoy the look of the crappy, low quality camera phone images. They seem rustic. Maybe tomorrow I'll add some more good nephew photo...

Since I only have one more day before I have to start back to working (I'll be starting my surgery rotation on Monday), I decided I needed something to prove that I haven't totally wasted these two weeks off. (Because I definitely have not spent most of my days chilling watching various movies checked out from the library or watching episodes of Gilmore Girls. No. Not me.) Today was the day for a project. The other day I decided I wanted to bag to take to the gym that was smaller and cuter than the big sports bag I've been using. (Plus, that bag has the name of a residency on it that I didn't rank first, and I'm not sure I will be allowed to advertise other residency programs once I actually start my job.) So here is what I came up with: Cute and girly. And just the right size for a water bottle, magazine, headphones, and my long-sleeved t-shirt. Here is another view: And here is the inside, including an actual zippered pocket that I made. The pocket is also lined o...