Pilgrims at Oak Ridge

In case you didn't catch it the first twelve times I mentioned it, I'm now completely done with internal medicine for my intern year. When my alarm clock sounded this morning, though, I was extremely confused. Apparently my body thought that since I was done with medicine it meant that I didn't need to come back to work today. It took me several full minutes before I realized that I hadn't made a mistake in setting my alarm the night previously, and that I did, in fact, have to get out of bed at the suddenly painful hour of 6:00, err...6:15, or maybe 6:25. Sometimes I hate my alarm.

Jeff and I certainly tried to make the most of my weekend off. We drove up to Greenville in the early afternoon to go and sit at Falls Park and enjoy the beautiful sunny weather and try to finish reading Prince Caspian before seeing the movie. We saw approximately 15 brides there getting pictures taken, along with a funny dog who frantically swam back and forth in the river chasing a duck who would either fly away from him and then land out of his reach, or swim underwater and pop up a little ways away. After taking some time to walk through the park, we walked up to a little place called The Lazy Goat , a very hip, cool tapas restaurant where you can get dishes garnished with things like "pistachio dust" and "gently muddled limes." Our dinner was, of course, delicious, and consisted of several small dishes that we shared. Here is what one of our dishes looked like: After dinner it was on to watch some baseball . Baseball has had a special place in my heart ever s...

I got out of bed this morning at 9:15. Normally by this time I would have gone running, eaten breakfast, seen 6 or 7 patients, written notes, heard a lecture, and started doing the work I needed to do a couple of discharges. This morning, I rolled out of bed, munched on some fruity cheerios (my new favorite cereal) and gradually worked up enough will power to go on a little jog with the dog. I love weekends off. Only 5 weeks until the new interns start. (It's not like I'm counting down the days or anything.) And I have just one, single, solitary medicine call left for the year. I still have several OB/peds calls next month, but after Monday there is no more getting up at 4:30 to admit someone who used drugs and then had chest pain. (At least until I'm an upper level.) It's hard to believe almost a year has gone by since I had my first day as a doctor.

The garden at Jeff and Aubrey Tell's house continues to grow and is exploding well beyond its designed limits. For the last week neighbors have been gawking and wondering why the garden owners tried to cram so many plants into so small a garden. They say the Tells have typically been model neighbors, quiet and reserved, no one would have expected them to overplant their garden. The Tells never claimed to have green thumbs. But recent events have left stunned neighbors wondering whether they have any thumbs at all. At the beginning of the season the Tells prepared a four by eight plot of ground for a new garden. They were excited about the possibilities of growing food right in their own backyard. In their novice enthusiasm, they decided it would be a good idea to plant a row of carrots, a row of lettuce, two rows of spinach, a basil plant, six bell pepper plants, eleven tomato plants, four squash vines and five cantaloupe vines in their humble plot of dirt. Tell maintains that when...

It's been a while since I've had a good idea to share with the wider blog world. Mostly because I've come home every day over this last week and a half completely exhausted from taking care of my patients, trying to send some of them home, and admitting new ones. But today, oh glorious Wednesday, is my day off!! So now I can sit outside on our back porch (thanks to the magic of wireless) and enjoy the beautiful sun and my coffee and remember that I actually do have a good idea or two. Jeff and I always keep a jar or two of ready-made pesto in the pantry. Many a night's dinner have been saved because of this little jar. Obviously, pesto is great to use to make pasta. Boil some water, open the jar, and presto.... yummy, very quick dinner. But it also has many other uses: 1. Salad dressing. Some spinach, nuts, cheese and tomatoes, and a little pesto mixed in...and presto... a yummy, interesting salad - my mother-in-law found this recipe when she was at my house recently, s...

So last night one of my elders called me up to ask if I wanted to pick up hay with him today. I figured that was probably farm-speak for some fun easy task that he wanted to give me the pleasure of accompanying him on. Nope. He meant picking up hay. We spent the morning out in his back field picking up about 200 square bales (they're called square, but they're really rectangular. I didn't correct him on this.) of rye and fescue. We had to get it into the barn because its supposed to rain this afternoon. It was hard work, and now my legs itch. I'm glad I did it though. Perry was very grateful, and he bought me lunch, and it reminded me why I like office work.

Look at what I won! I was quite excited, and not just a little caught off guard to win an award in Hebrew! And it came with a cash prize!! After all these years, doing my homework finally paid off! Although now I feel like I ought to start studying Hebrew even more so I can live up to my award. In other school news. Its over! Hooray. Not totally, just for the semester, but still I am rejoicing. In my current program 2 classes is considered full time. And with good reason, each class assigns a bazillion pages of reading (give or take). I went for the gusto and took three classes this semester, then at the end of March started preaching regularly at a local church. So the last month and a half of the semester was quite full, and I'm glad to have a break.

These last couple of days have, for a variety of reasons, been really tough for me. I've been exhausted, worn-out, and occasionally even tired of being a doctor. This year has been both great and one of the toughest of my life. Intern year definitely stretches you and challenges you a thousand different ways every day, and this week more so than others I have definitely realized that I cannot do it alone. I spent most of yesterday near tears all day after starting the day by being treated like a total peon by one of our consulting doctors. As I was getting to the end of the day, the Lord brought a verse to my mind, "This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it." I can't say that I was rejoicing after that, but I can say that it made me feel better. When I got home from work today around 10:30, and the sun was shining in the bright blue sky, I was reminded of another verse. From Lamentations 3 22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceas...

Cub's second basemen Mark DeRosa has a blog . In other cub news, Greg Maddux will be pitching against the Cubs at Wrigley Field today, that's kind of sad. And Jim Edmonds, who last week was a Padre, will be playing for the cubs today, against the Padres. Go Cubs.

A week or so ago, we enjoyed watching the criterium race here in Uptown, Greenwood. I learned that when you bike really fast, and then fall, you might actually lose your britches. (Or at least nearly so.) But it was a beautiful evening in Greenwood, and I found a place to stand where it almost felt like they were going to run right into you. Which, for some reason is more appealing that it sounds. Seeing these guys race by made me want to be a faster biker. Sigh. Maybe when I'm working less than 60-80 hours/week I can find more time to train. Until then, though, I'll just be happy poking along.

This was 3 weeks ago..... This is today..... BTW, This mornings post on SC geography was the 500th post on our blog!

I'm not sure there is another state where someone could move from the community of "Opossum Kingdom" to one called "Rabbit Stew." But here in good, old SC it has been done. Any other good town names y'all know of?

Would you see a sign posted saying "Do NOT send fallopian tubes through the tube system." Good advice for us all. And sorry for the relative lack of posting these last few weeks, in between me starting medicine, Jeff trying to get all his papers written as well as preach every Sunday, and our much-anticipated upcoming visit by Mom and Dad Tell, we've been a little busy with work and tidying up. More to come later.

Aubrey and I's computer has developed a number of quirks over the years. Technically, it is a laptop, but the screen broke a few years ago, so we have it hooked up to an external monitor, and it functions like a desktop now. Lately it has developed a new habit of randomly turning itself off. It usually only does this when I'm working on a paper, or when Aubrey and I are trying to watch the latest episode of The Office online. This quirk is particularly unacceptable. I had designated this morning to be "revise and edit papers" morning, but the computer has already shut down on me five times. I now hit "ctrl-s" after nearly every word I type. So we are thinking it might be time to buy a new computer. Two questions face us now. Laptop or desktop? And the even bigger issue... Mac or PC? We hear Macs are pretty nice, but they do cost a few extra shekels. Are they worth it? Please comment and tell us what to do....

Here he is... a newly-minted B.S, with both his soon-to-be-wife and my parents. I decided that watching graduation projected on a screen was not that bad. I didn't feel guilty when I whipped out the novel I was reading and tuned out some of the names. And I did get a good view of him walking across the stage. On another note, I'm back on my last month of internal medicine. I had forgotten how bad being on call can make you feel. I didn't even have a particularly bad call, but still managed to feel a little like I got hit by a train the next day. Just 13 or so more calls until second year!

Here are my latest projects, a few presents for Jack's birthday. This bunting was inspired by several I had seen on various crafty blogs, most notably this one , where there is a tutorial. I like the idea of a decoration that can be used for celebrations for a long time. Now I want one for our house. Here is a crayon pouch, another item that has been floating around blog-dom for a while. The tutorial can be found here , with a very nice pdf file pattern. I modified it a little so that I could applique the car onto the back. If anyone else has any good patterns or tutorials they use for boy presents, please let me know because I am quickly running out of good ideas. Boys are just a little harder to sew for. I just started my very last block of medicine for my intern year. Only 14 more calls until intern year is officially over!!