Pilgrims at Oak Ridge

1. I got up early this morning and swam at the Y. I'm not a big fan of getting up early. But I do like to swim early. Or at least I like the feeling of having swam early. Because I love eating a big breakfast, and it never tastes better than after a good swim. 2. I shopped yesterday. I'm constantly amazed at the advances in pancake technology. Not only does the premixed pancake mix now come pre-measured in a shakeable bottle so that active thought is reduced to a bare minimum. But yesterday I noticed that one can buy microwave pancakes. They are pre-made cakes that only require a short nuking, just in case the idea of having to add one ingredient to a bottle and shake was too daunting for you. 3. Now I'm drinking a delightful cup of joe, and jumping back into paper writing mode. Here I go...

I´m here safely and enjoying myself. And we do have some internet, which is nice. And I even got to talk to my husband today on the phone. I certainly praise God even for his little blessings. My dad has a description he uses for VIMM, or Volunteers in Medical Missions , the group I am here with, a group he has been involved with for many years. He says that the purpose is to provide a cup of cold water at the end of the road. And let me tell you...we were at the end of the road today. So near the end that I felt like I was in a toyota commercial, riding in the back of this 4X4 pickup, bouncing down this muddy, unpaved road in the rain. It was great. It took us about an hour and a half from the village we are staying in, which is also about an hour and a half down an unpaved road. But the people certainly were happy to see us, and I injected every arthritic joint I could find. Lots of vitamins and parasite medicine was given out, and we treated lots and lots of scabies . So much that ...

In just over 12 hours I will be on my way to Honduras for a medical missions trip. Like much of what I do, this was a bit of a last minute affair. At least my own preparation for it has been a bit of a last minute affair. Yesterday, another of the doctors that I work with casually asked me if I was taking malaria prophylaxis. Umm....errr....oops. I didn't even think about it. Glad someone else around me thought about what they learned in medical school and decided that maybe I should look into getting medicine. So my dear dad called me in some pills that I started yesterday. Today I am frantically looking through all those papers I got but didn't read, trying to make sure I know what all I'm supposed to bring. Sheets? Towels? I'm still not sure. So I'm off to do some more running around, finding a few snacks to take, and getting my suitcase packed. Hopefully my husband can provide some amusing blogs for this week, and I'm sure I'll have some photos to post ...

ESPN.com featured another article today about the dilemmas of Chad Ocho Cinco. I have to chuckle every time I see these articles. In case you have not followed the saga, let me get you up to speed. Last year the Cincinnati Bengals had a receiver named Chad Johnson. His jersey number was 85. Thanks to the number, his nickname became "Ocho Cinco" spanish for "Eight Five" (note: note Eighty Five, but Eight Five). While the nickname is mildly clever, and has a certain ring to it, it is irregular for a nickname to have twice as many syllables as the name it replaces. But I digress. Anyway, Chad wanted to wear his nickname on his jersey, but the league required that players wear their real name on their jerseys. So. Not to be out-witted, over the offseason Chad Johnson went to the Florida court system and legally changed his name to Chad Ocho Cinco. Aha! Those wide receivers aren't as dumb as they look! Now the league has said that he has to continue weari...

for 4 weeks when you get to work and realize you left the house, saw patients, and spoke with an attending without having brushed your hair. At least my teeth were clean.

I'm not really much into politics, so this will be a brief post. I have 2 thoughts. 1. A friend turned me onto this article . I wonder if people who plan to vote for Sen. Obama know how extreme he is on this issue. 2. One of my college professors had this remark on his blog... "The problem, of course, is that no one has the capacity to see the relative insignificance of the elections, except the poor. They know that they will be excluded no matter who sits in what chamber to cast votes. One can not have justice without just persons, and one cannot have just persons unless one begins with proper worship of the Triune God."

Tah-Dah!! Now that the appropriate mourning period for Junior has passed, we are proud to unveil his replacement. Its a Toyota Highlander, and is just an ever so slight upgrade over Junior. As in 17 years newer. He is, as yet, unnamed. So if you are hit with inspiration upon seeing his picture, we are open to suggestions. He has quite a few bells and whistles, but two stand out as my favorite. 1. A built in garage door opener in the sun visor. This is particularly great because when we bought our house it only came with one garage door opener, and I have been unable to find a replacement. So for the last year and a half any time I leave the house I back Junior out into the driveway then go back into the garage to shut the door and then run out and duck under the closing door while jumping over the little laser thingy, and happily drive away. Repeating the process in reverse when I get home. So needless to say, I am quite excited about having a garage door opener in the car...

Working in a doctor's office , there are lots of people around who I'd like to give Christmas presents to, like the nurses who work on my pod, the secretaries who order us lunch everyday, our residency coordinator who fills out paperwork for us, etc. But I don't want to spend lots of money, because it starts to add up. This year I decided to make some Pear butter, which just sounded tastier to me than apple butter. Instead of orange zest and juice, I added lemon juice because that is what I had. I'm sure this would work great in a crock pot. I also don't have a food mill so I just used my blender. Pear Butter INGREDIENTS 4 pounds medium pears, quartered and cored 2 cups sugar 1 teaspoon grated orange zest 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/4 cup orange juice DIRECTIONS Place pears into a large pot over medium heat, and add just enough water to cover the bottom of the pot and keep them from sticking, about 1/2 cup. Cook until the pears are soft, about 30 minutes. Press pe...

I realized I haven't posted any recent crafty items, although I have done a bit of sewing here and there when I'm not stressed out at the hospital. (Incidentally, there are just 8 more days of this rotation for me, and the end cannot come fast enough.) For Austin and Elise 's wedding, I wanted to do something and contribute, so I asked Elise if I could make her some purses to use as bridesmaid's gifts. She was happy to let me exercise my creative brain and basically gave me free reign over what kind of bag to do. Of course, before I made all the bags for the bridesmaids, I had to come up with a pattern and do a test run so I wouldn't mess up the cute fabric she gave me. I dug around at my house and found some fabric lying around that I liked, and made a bag for myself to test the pattern. It's small, but not too small, and brown and blue with polka dots. There aren't too many other combinations I would like more. Sadly, I did not take pictures of the actual ...

Today was a momentous day. Along with the joy of our new car, which we got yesterday (pics to come...) comes the sadness of saying goodbye to our old car. (so far Aubrey is not as sad as she should be, I think she's in denial) Junior was my first car. I got him when I was sixteen. He was 8 years old and had 90,000 miles. That was 14 years and two months ago. He's been a good truck, although his comfort level has declined slightly in recent years. After 14 years its hard to recount all the memories I have made that Junior has been a part of, both good and bad. There have been many road trips, as well as several trips to the ditch, courtesy of Colorado ice. I tried to recount some memories last year . And some others two years ago . About three years ago I decided that I was going to stop spending money on repairing Junior. He was beginning to show his age, and I decided that I would just let problems go, and when they got too bad, I would know it was time to replace h...

Whoever thought of the idea to put used books for sale on Amazon was a genius. And someone whose hand I'd like to shake. Or fill with tasty goodies. I just ordered 6 hardback books for $26, which includes shipping. If it weren't for my desire to give mostly handmade gifts for Christmas this year, I think I could just about get everything I needed on amazon. With the exception of shopping for my husband and my brothers, who just wouldn't quite appreciate a cute animal or bag . And judging by how stressed out I've been lately, doing the handmade thing may not work this year, so Amazon, it may be up to you.... Incidentally, I did just discover I do not enjoy car shopping. The thought of having a new(er) car is nice, but the actuality of having to talk to the car salesmen and listen to their spiels absolutely makes me cringe. Why can't there be an Amazon for buying cars?

On Saturday Aubrey and I did a bit of car shopping. Its kind of fun, but kind of stressful and kind of obnoxious all at the same time. The most obnoxious part, of course, is dealing with the salesmen. I just had to laugh at how completely stereotypical they were. Most of them had mustache's, which I don't hold against them, but still. Here are a few of my favorite exchanges... Me (having been introduced to the sales manager): So Jason said you could work with us on the price, what can you do? Him: Well, I think we could probably take a little off. Me: How much is a little? Him: Well, ya know, like a little. Me: Do you have any used Toyota Highlanders? Salesman: Do you like 4runners? Me: No. Salesman: We got a really nice one over here. Me: Will you sell it to me for the price of a used Highlander? Salesman: You like Mitsubishi's? Salesman: Were running a sale this weekend. Me: Oh yeah? What kind of sale? Salesman: Ya know, we've just kinda lowered the...

How is it that I have gone my whole life without ever reading or knowing about Frederick Buechner until a few months ago?? Why did I not stumble onto him sooner? First I read Telling Secrets , which I just discovered via Amazon is the third volume of his autobiography. (Meaning I apparently need to get myself to the library and find the other two.) Incredible. Next I read Godric , probably is his most famous work and an incredible novel about the life of the (real) 12-century saint named Godric, a book I quickly added to my favorite-books-of-all-time list. Two days ago I started reading A Room Called Remember , which is a collection of sermons and essays that is hauntingly beautiful and, to use Jeff's word, sublime. A snippet from my favorite essay so far in the book: "By faith we understand, if we are to understand it at all, that the madness and lostness we see all around us and within us are not the last truth about the world but only the next to last truth. Madness and los...

Jayson Stark thinks so . And so do I.

It really says something about you as a person when you are so unpleasant to deal with that even the psychiatrists (!!) do not want to take care of you in the hospital. On the bright side, though, our unpleasant patient has now been discharged, raising our number of people discharged today to SEVEN! So now my list is down to SIX, which means for once in the last week, I'm not feeling overwhelmed. Of course, my team is on call tonight, so I could come in tomorrow with another 12 to see, but I'm smiling for now.