Thanks for Local Farmers, Fathers-n-Law and Sustainable Oyster Beds

Only a small amount of marital strife as we prepped on Thanksgiving Eve. My spouse is picky about pie. He had a Grandmother who was the best pie-baker this side of the Pacific. I suggested adding a bit of ginger to the squash pie. He protested at first, until I mentioned that ginger was an anti-inflammatory food which may help prevent Alzheimer's. I could literally see the neurons perk up and pay attention. And I was free to add all the ginger I wanted. The next day, Thanksgiving, while preparing all the other pro-inflammatory foods we would feast upon that day, I heard a story on NPR about real traditional Thanksgiving foods and they said that the Pilgrims used spices, including ginger.
We had a few more local food items this year than last. Each year I hope it is more. The squash that went into the squash pie was grown by my father-n-law, aka retired wood cutter, plower of snow, fix-it-guy turned squash farmer. He also grew the monster pumpkins that contributed to Pumpkin Frenzy last month. We had cranberry sauce made with cranberries grown by a local farmer from whom we also often get eggs, and produce in the summer. The turkey was raised by a couple who live about twenty minutes away and do just a little part-time farming. The oysters in the Baked Oysters Parmesan (not pictured) are from an oyster farm in a tidal river just south east of our own river valley. The potatoes, while not exactly local, were likely from our region. Oh ya, and the onion in the stuffing was grown by our friend Charlie.

Llama, llama red pajama, Thanks for voting>>Barak Obama!!!

Cajun music speaks louder than words

I can hardly even talk about what is about to happen in a few weeks...(the election that should not be named)...but this song sums it up for me. Thanks mama CM from NO.
Check out the Oct 22nd post.
http://supercenter.blogspot.com

Pumpkin Frenzy

When Joan was asked how her husband managed to grow such big pumpkins she replied "throw a seed on a manuer pile."
This can only mean one thing....my favorite holiday is approaching...

Palin FYI

Subject: Dispatch from Wasilla
> >
> >
> > Below is an email letter from a Wasilla resident, Anne Kilkenny, who
> > summarized her thoughts on Barracuda Sarah for her friends. The email letter
> > went viral overnight and onto the web. She was interviewed on NPR's All
> > Things Considered this evening.
> >
> > ABOUT SARAH PALIN
> >
> > I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992.
> > Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a
> > first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her
> > father was my child's favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a
> > first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more
> > City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the
> > residents of the city.
> >
> > She is enormously popular; in every way she's like the most popular
> > girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and
> > won't vote for her can't quit smiling when talking about her because
> > she is a "babe".
> >
> > It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She
> > kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents
> > for seven months.
> >
> > She is "pro-life". She recently gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby.
> > There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.
> >
> > She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.
> >
> > She is savvy. She doesn't take positions; she just "puts things out
> > there" and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit.
> >
> > Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a
> > champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin's kind of job is highly
> > sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his
> > work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or
> > so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their
> > major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything
> > like that of native Alaskans.
> >
> > Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters.
> >
> > She's smart.
> >
> > Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000
> > (at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about
> > 670,000 residents.
> >
> > During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running
> > this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been
> > pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had
> > gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had
> > given rise to a recall campaign.
> >
> > Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a "fiscal conservative". During her 6
> > years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over
> > 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the
> > City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation
> > (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a
> > regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she
> > promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they
> > benefited residents.
> >
> > The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration
> > weren't enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed
> > money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it
> > with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage
> > the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said
> > she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a
> > new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a
> > multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece
> > of property that the City didn't even have clear title to, that was
> > still in litigation 7 yrs later--to the delight of the lawyers
> > involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the
> > community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it
> > would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that
> > could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.
> >
> > While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office
> > redecorated more than once.
> >
> > These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.
> >
> > As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus
> > in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will
> > make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she
> > proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.
> >
> > In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she
> > recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while
> > she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today's
> > surplus, borrow for needs.
> >
> > She's not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas
> > or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren't generated by
> > her or her staff. Ideas weren't evaluated on their merits, but on the
> > basis of who proposed them.
> >
> > While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected
> > City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from
> > the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents
> > rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's
> > attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew
> > her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the
> > Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.
> >
> > Sarah complained about the "old boy's club" when she first ran for
> > Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of "old boys". Palin
> > fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as
> > Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people,
> > creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally
> > grateful and fiercely loyal--loyal to the point of abusing their power
> > to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the
> > case of pressuring the State's top cop (see below).
> >
> > As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla's Police Chief because he "intimidated"
> > her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska's top
> > cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure
> > and she had every legal right to fire him, but it's pretty clear that
> > an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn't
> > fire her sister's ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation
> > for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen
> > contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she
> > later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to
> > replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded
> > for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew
> > her support.
> >
> > She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in
> > help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town
> > introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council
> > became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She
> > abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn't
> > like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.
> >
> > Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything
> > publicly about her.
> >
> > When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got
> > the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one
> > of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no
> > background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great
> > job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the
> > high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the
> > structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this
> > Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party)
> > engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some
> > undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all
> > her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and
> > garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a
> > gutsy fighter against the "old boys' club" when she dramatically quit,
> > exposing this man's ethics violations (for which he was fined).
> >
> > As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from
> > Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel
> > politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the "bridge to
> > nowhere" after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.
> >
> > As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget
> > guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing
> > projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative
> > action restored most of these projects--which had been vetoed simply
> > because she was not aware of their importance--but with the unobservant
> > she had gained a reputation as "anti-pork".
> >
> > She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party
> > leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated
> > them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a
> > fiscal conservative.
> >
> > Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah.
> > They call her "Sarah Barracuda" because of her unbridled ambition and
> > predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly
> > stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made
> > point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah's
> > mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and
> > experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.
> >
> > As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package
> > of legislation known as "AGIA" that forced the oil companies to march
> > to the beat of her drum.
> >
> > Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife
> > Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to
> > global warming. She campaigned "as a private citizen" against a state
> > initiaitive that would have either a) protected salmon streams from
> > pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the
> > state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State's
> > lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior's decision to list polar
> > bears as threatened species.
> >
> > McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a
> > heartbeat away from being President.
> >
> > There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more
> > knowledgeable and experienced than she.
> >
> > However, there's a lot of people who have underestimated her and are
> > regretting it.
> >
> >
> > CLAIM VS FACT
> > *"Hockey mom": true for a few years
> > *"PTA mom": true years ago when her first-born was in elementary
> > school, not since
> > *"NRA supporter": absolutely true
> > *social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill
> > that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships
> > (said she did this because it was unconsitutional).
> > *pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to
> > promote it.
> > *"Pro-life": mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby
> > BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life
> > legislation
> > *"Experienced": Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has
> > residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska.
> > No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on
> > supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city
> > administrator to run town of about 5,000.
> > *political maverick: not at all
> > *gutsy: absolutely!
> > *open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at
> > explaining actions.
> > *has a developed philosophy of public policy: no
> > *"a Greenie": no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores
> > and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.
> > *fiscal conservative: not by my definition!
> > *pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city
> > without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built
> > streets to early 20th century standards.
> > *pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on
> > residents
> > *pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city
> > government in Wasilla's history.
> > *pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union
> > doesn't make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim
> > that she is pro-labor/pro-union.
> >
> > WHY AM I WRITING THIS?
> >
> > First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed
> > voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting
> > programs in the schools. If you google my name (Anne Kilkenny +
> > Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local
> > government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.
> >
> > Secondly, I've always operated in the belief that "Bad things happen
> > when good people stay silent". Few people know as much as I do because
> > few have gone to as many City Council meetings.
> >
> > Third, I am just a housewife. I don't have a job she can bump me out
> > of. I don't belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no
> > fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will
> > cost me somehow in the future: that's life.
> >
> > Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100
> > or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah's
> > attempt at censorship.
> >
> > Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to
> > say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.
> >
> > CAVEATS
> > I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in
> > spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor)
> > from information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of
> > Wasilla, and I can't recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust
> > for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is impossible
> > for a private person to get any info out of City Hall--they are
> > swamped. So I can't verify my numbers.
> >
> > You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the
> > population of Wasilla, ranging from my "about 5,000", up to 9,000. The
> > day Palin's selection was announced a city official told me that the
> > current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was
> > 5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to
> > 2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90's.
> >
> > Anne Kilkenny
> >
> >

How to make an apple pie

The apples still grow even though the press is covered with dust.
Make friends with the frogs along the way.
Pick enough. Just enough.

Kid Music

I like to dance like a dork to this music with my kid.

Letters

She does it on her own initiative which I think is simply perfect. I just want her to play and use her imagination and cast broad strokes of gloppy finger paint across the big paper on her easel from Santa, but if she wants to sit down and practice writing letters then I'm all for it. She has a natural interest in the shape of letters. She likes to look at the Waldorphy alphabet books I bought that present letters in works of art: using a painting of a mountain with two peaks to teach the letter M, a river with two forks and a connector stream to teach R, three witches on a broomstick to teach W. For a while she has been writing her name. The S is usually backwards and I used to not say anything about it because she received such joy from the accomplishment I didn't want to ruin the experience with a criticism. But now she has written the whole alphabet, several times, and even a three word sentence once, that I feel like I can be more honest. And so the other day when she told me that they all wrote their names at preschool the other day I asked, "Did you write the S backwards?"
"Yes, I wrote it backwards, wait..no, I wrote it the right way."
I remember writing my name for the first time. I remember sitting at our dining room table with the plastic gold tablecloth in our government house in the valley. I remember the way the letters looked on the sheet of white paper. Same size. Same boxy feel. Four letters. I remember what it felt like to put letters on paper.

Water

Swimming lessons has been a hit this year. Ms Perpetual Motion has conquered her fear of getting her face wet and plunges into the pool, the lake, the shower and the rain, nose first with glee. She graduated from the Pike class and is now an Eel. She wants to swim all the time, even on windy, sunny..yet chilly, early September days at the lake. Normally I would wimp out, requiring heat, deep heat, to go swimming in my old age, but I actually found the cold immersion convenient for keeping myself awake on post-call day so I could actually hang out with my kid.
I noticed at the beginning of the summer she was more content to hang out in the sand, sifting tiny pebbles, mixing sand-pie batter, creating muffin pan after muffin pan of delectable beachy delights. Catching frogs has also been a favorite pastime this summer. She has become quite adept at sneaking up on the green spotted creatures and deftly flicking her wrist and hence the net squarely down on their amphibian shoulders. But since the water-in-the-face feat has come and gone she has come back to the water as her primary source of play at the lake. She wants to swim with someone, preferably an adult who can also launch her into the air so she flops down in the water. She wants to tool around on the big floaty lounger. She swims underwater for a distance of three, four even five feet. She works her skinny fins hard to keep her button nose just above the surface and makes that gasping sound when she comes up out of the water after being completely under.
She was born in the water, surging out with the force of a mighty wave. Now, four years later she has found her welcoming water home again. She says she doesn't want to be astronaut. But I think this summer she has found an otherworld in the under, in and on water and is exploring it to it's fullest splash extent.

Circus

We went to the circus the other night. My favorite part was the Rolling Diamonds, roller skaters on a platform several feet up. T enjoyed the pigs of course, evidenced by our freezer full of pork. He also seemed to notice all the groady details of circus performance like when the performing goats humped a little before their number was over and like when the performing dogs enjoyed a little snack of goat droppings before their number was over. It was like I was at the circus with two kids, a little one who kept saying, "How does she do that?" or "How does he do that?" and a big junior high age one. The finale involved a little too much patriotism for my liking and I think we could have done without the National Anthem in the beginning especially since it seemed to put a girl four rows in front of us into a seizure. The clown medics were right on task though and no, their O2 tank did not shoot out confetti, it really had oxygen in it. Did you know that blue cotton candy turns poop green? I guess I am just as juvenile.





This one is for you weasel.

Spring Tonic

A few weeks ago I had my first dream about residency*. I was in the clinic with three other interns (first year residents) and every other resident in the practice was also in the clinic that day so it was really crowded. The senior residents were sort of enjoying a mild form of hazing by monopolizing the exam rooms with their patients and making it difficult for the interns to get their patients seen. My attending from third year med school rotations was there as well as a few other attendings I'd worked with in the past. They were directing us interns, trying to provide some guidance in the insanely busy clinic. One attending in particular who I have shared my med school mama musings and writings with in the past was even trying to protect us shivering lost little chicks and keep the disorderly senior residents in check. I don't remember details about the patients I saw in my dream but I know I did because the next thing I remember is writing my first prescription. I wrote a script for maple syrup.

*I matched at my first choice family practice residency. I start in June.

Happy Patriots Day

Well, I was living in the South at the time.

Only Once A Year

Happy Spring!!!


If you have rabbit ears that work better than ours you may have already seen this.

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/play.shtml?mea=221774

Public Service Announcement to all Parents...don't bring your kid to the Emergency Room

Unless of course your kid turns blue, does not wake up, gushes blood, needs stitches, ingests poison (call poison control first 1-800-222-1222 or on the way), falls several feet, gets hurt 100 or more miles away from your home or does something else that causes your heart to stop. The ER is not a good place to doctor your kid for colds (viruses), influenza, ear infections or chronic low grade things that you could wait to see your regular doctor for. Because the stuff is there they will use it: x-rays, cat scans, other people who are good with needles to stick your kid and draw blood. Why expose your kid to radiation for a cold or flu? And beacuse ER docs are just trying to do a good job in the world of medicine with no follow-up they will defer to antibiotics more often than a family doc or pedi might because they have better contact with you. So your kid might not really need a bacteriacidal agent and still get one. One day down the road they may get a more serious infection and need an antibiotic and it may be harder to find one that works because so many organisms are developing sneaky, witty, dammblasted resistence that is faster than we are because we have overtreated with the magical cillins, mycins and sporins at our disposal. Really, we don't even have to write the scrips anymore, just push a few buttons. I'll just briefly mention the cost thingy. I see a lot of financial waste with kids being treated for really, really, really non-emergent things in the ER. And this is coming from a member of the Green Party and if there was a Socialist Party in this country I would sign up in a tenth of a heartbeat. Single-payer I believe in thou.
I want to reiterate that I am a student and this post has not been evaluated by the AOA or the AMA and nothing I say should be taken as sound medical advice or doctoring know-how.
But this is my opinion. Next time stop and think, do I really need to take my kid to the ER for this? And if you have the luxury of stopping and thinking about it maybe you could just as well wait for your doc's office to be open.

Drugs...Bad

The ER is the wildcard of medicine. You never know what the day will bring. Some days are slow and you see a few of the regulars: shortness of breath, fever, cough, low back pain, dental pain. Some days are busy and full of the kinds of ailments that are served much more efficiently and holistically in the primary care provider's office. Some days brings horror.
I recently witnessed my first cocaine overdose. Hyperthermia, hypertension, tachycardia: the sympathomymetic toxidrome, the awful truth of what can happen to what is essentially a kid. It was difficult to watch a person who is in leathers with dilated pupils, appearing scared and basically unresponsive but it is even more difficult to see their parent when they come in the room and know that it was the coke and wonder why it had to happen to their kid.
There was not a whole lot we could do for this person but we did everything we could. People who were on call at home came in to the hospital. Other ER patients had to wait. Medicines, hopeful antidotes, lined the counter and waited for their turn to be injected into the veins of a person who is not really with us anymore, and likely will not return. The overdose was strong, it antagonized many of the interventions. Finally a call was made to move the patient to a bigger institution. Maybe they could help.
As financially inefficient as it is I would rather have a day full of ear infections, colds and low back pain than a coke overdose. That is something the world could do without.

Feverish Snowstorm

It is possible that the flu made it's way into our home this weekend. Yesterday Ms Perpetual Motion spent pretty much all day on the couch: napping, watching a movie and the most amazing part, just lying still. I am calling the sickness that gave her a fever a flu because I think it must have been to stop my girl in her tracks. The virus that set up shop was so powerful that it kept Ms PM from even wanting to participate in making cookies, with white chocolate chips. That is one superbug.
As the snow blew outside, Iris and I cuddled on the couch wrapped up in our fish print Mexican blanket that we purchased two Christmases ago when I had the flu on the beach in San Carlos, Mexico. A few sips of broth, orange juice and water was about all I could get into her. She didn't even want a whole white chocolate chip cookie that I had to make by myself. Her lungs sounded clear, her heart was beating fast and her little lips were cherry red and dry. She coughed off and on, said her throat hurt when she woke up and had a few sniffles.
I remember her very first fever. It was around Valentine's Day when she was 9 months old and we had just returned from a trip to visit friends (with sick kids) up the coast. Back then I had the medicinal power of breastmilk. I held her all night, alternating between the rocking chair and the couch. I watched her like a hawk because I didn't know what else to do. She slept most of the night, off and on. I slept a little of it off and on. She seems to have inherited her Daddy's knack for going to sleep when sick and waking up better.
This morning brought requests for water and giddy chatter. She hopped right up out of bed and sauntered downstairs ready to dive into the day. By mid-day she was hurling herself into the snow outside and crawling into her snowcave that she dug out of the gargantuan snowbank in our driveway.
The superbug had left, disgusted by a peacefully sleeping child. I just hope he or she or it does not decide to return and re-institute torture of a tired mama who sees "flu" like symptoms in the ER all day.

Rorschach...I see a heart

Blog for Choice Day 2008

This is me and Ms PM getting ready to go to a pro-choice rally before "the hardest day," when Bush was re(retch)-elected.

"On the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we asked pro-choice bloggers to join us for Blog for Choice Day!
Blog for Choice Day provided us with an opportunity to raise the profile of reproductive rights in the blogosphere and the media, while celebrating Roe's 35th anniversary. Plus, it was a great way to let your readers and the mainstream media know that a woman's right to choose is a core progressive value that must be protected.
This year's topic: tell us, and your readers, why it's important to vote pro-choice".

Blog for choice day is past but I'm assured it is acceptable to post this late. This has always been an important topic to me. Being pro-choice is something that has always felt normal and natural to me. I consider myself pro-choice in the whole realm of women's reproductive health. This includes whether or not to continue a pregnancy, how to continue a pregnancy and plan for birth, having a full range of accessible birth control options and support around infertility treatment. I don't have a lot of stories to tell that would convince anyone to vote pro-choice. I just know in my heart that it is the right and moral thing to do.
My experience with access to abortion services has always been positive. I don't have a personal memory that extends far back enough to pre-RvW. Since college I have always lived in towns or regions where abortion services were available, safe and supported. A few years ago I did a half-day preceptorship with an older doctor at Family Planning. He told me about his first years in residency and how he remembered coming in to the hospital on Monday mornings and seeing the ward filled with women who had sought out "back-alley" abortions over the weekend and had come into the hospital with infection or hemorrhaging. This is something we do not want to go back to. Voting pro-choice is crucial because any limitations to access can put women in situations where they may try to seek out dangerous options. Forcing someone to raise an unwanted child can lead to a whole other batch of misery and suffering. And I cannot imagine the unmeasurable pain of being forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term and giving the baby up for adoption. Nobody deserves that kind of torture. We should not have to keep fighting so hard for the right to choose. But we will.

Weekend Creations

Soon to be "Closing Ale."




Can you guess what this is? For details look up the January/February 2008 issue of National Geographic Little Kids. That issue also has some pix of adorable Inuit kids and some great white animals I want to see before I die or they become extinct.




The Astronaut



The Sun Ice Block

I also made a chicken soup but thought I would spare my vegetarian friends.

The Closing

The house in the picture above no longer belongs to us. Yesterday we closed the sale. When the noon bell rang at the end of being on call I drove down to our state's metropolitan center, met Sugar Daddy, Ms Perpetual Motion and father-n-law and we all met with the title co lawyer, real estate agents and buyers. We signed our name a thousand times, listened to a bunch of mumbo-jumbo mortgage/state law/fed law/realty stuff (remember I was post call and still had EKG criteria for left ventricular hypertrophy, atrial flutter and supraventricular tachycardia pin-balling around the inside of my head; another rotation done) and got our check which we put promptly into father-n-law's hands so he could get to the bank and be able to sleep that night. It is a relief to have the house sold in this depressing housing market, however, I will always miss that house which was built, every stick, by Sugar Daddy. Ms Perpetual Motion was born in that house and to my heart's delight she proudly let everybody know that during the closing yesterday. We only lived there for a few years but those years hold some of the best memories of my life. When my grandmother died she left me the money which we used to buy the lot. My dad and my father-n-law helped Sugar Daddy build the house. Our cousin did the electrical work. Ms PM was born there. We had her first Christmas there with all of my family. Sugar Daddy got two deer the first year we lived there and I completed the first two years of medical school while there. We also made about 20 gallons of maple syrup while living there. I guess carpenters and builders always build houses and live in them for a while and then move out. I've lived in a lot of houses during my life and that one was the most beautiful, the warmest and the sunniest.

Goodbye Star Hill House

Salad

I know something like salad should not influence my life course but there is just no way I can do residency/three years of my life (at least) in a place where I cannot stand the food. There has to at least be a tolerable salad bar.
Problems with the salad bar where I am currently rotating:
1)Can't stand the salad dressings...especially the one that is supposed to be an italian dressing but is a strange gel-like consistency instead of good old olive oil and vinegar consistency.
2)No reliable daily source of beans. I like to have kidney beans or garbanzo beans in my salad. You know when the salad is the meal it is nice to have some protein. This bar sometimes has a sort of three bean salad and I have nothing against vinegary green beans but I prefer the kidneys or chicks.
3)Lacking sunflower seeds. I see sunflower seeds as a huge asset to a salad and this place never has them. Huge oversight by caf administration.
4)Unrelated directly to salad bar but a factor none-the-less: not enough veggie options overall. I am not a vegetarian but I just cannot bring myself to eat the meat served in the cafeteria. And so I look for seafood (rare) options or veggie and they seem to be difficult to come by. Green bean casserole, stuffing and deep fried varieties of potatoes are regulars but nice steamed broccoli or green beans are only occasional and the dark leafy greens are even less frequent. I thought...oh never mind...I was going to say I thought hospitals were supposed to have something to do with promoting health. Silly me.

Never Think Never

Something I never thought I would do is purchase a piece of exercise equipment for my personal home use...until this winter. I could have used this machinery last winter but I was way too overwhelmed with third year rotations that I didn't even think about it. I like to think that I would just get outside and go for walks and hikes and x-country ski but the reality is now that I am not an early riser and so it is enough to just get up in time to do what I have to do: get dressed, get coffee, take Ms Perpetual Motion to preschool or at least help get her dressed, brushed and braided. Despite her name, Ms PM is a slow-mover in the mornings, just like her mama. Lately I have not even been able to help with any of that because I have rise at 4:30 and be on the road by 5 to get to the rotation on time. (And when that is the case it is really annoying when people can't get to sign-out on time, morning or PM. Rag for another post.) And since I don't get home till well after dark, an evening walk is out of the question unless it is a nighttime urban sledding night. And that usually just occurs on pristine snowy nights. So when father-n-law called and told me about the elliptical trainer available at reduced cost at local moderate-sized-box-store and said it would be a holiday gift I went forth and acquired. It is nice to have an opportunity to sweat other than when presenting a case to my attending or senior resident. The key to home exercise equipment is a good stash of music. I'd like to put a call out to Country Mouse and Weasel, my most musical friends, for a get-movin mix if you have time or inclination. And I'll treat you to a couple pints at our local establishment where Sugar Daddy wishes he got to spend more time; and a bowl of organic mush of some sort or another for Newtie.

The Better Part of Valor

I have not been terribly inspired to write much lately. Mighten' be because of the heavy work schedule lately. But I am trying to get back into the groove because writing helps me think and I have a lot of things to think about. I'm in the middle of a super learning rotation now. I'm seeing a heavy volume of really sick people in the hospital. And I am realizing that I am not always very astute at recognizing sickness. I am much better at recognizing health. Fortunately I have been surrounded by many, many healthy people in my life. I've lived in communities where people challenged themselves artistically, musically and academically. I know a lot of people who are very physically active and folks who have traveled to many different countries and enriched their lives with acquaintances from all over the planet. But recently I missed a guy who turned out to be quite sick. I went through the night wondering a little why this guy was admitted only to find out the next morning that he was septic. He just did not look very ill to me. Presentation clinically and his labs could have represented a viral bronchitis. CXR was unremarkable. The guy was joking and smiling. But he was sweating and that should have made more of an impression on me. I've dealt with fever more in kids than with adults and I think fever is often over treated in kids but I'm learning that fever can mean different things in adults. My nature to be non-interventionist probably contributes to my difficulty in recognizing real sickness. Fortunately there were a lot of other people besides me who looked at this guy and their suspicions were higher and riding along the better part of valor.

The Match??

This is very magical to me, it is not just meaningful, not just medicinal.

The Match?

New Hampshire is nothing.

Arts and Crafts and Sleep Deprivation

I don't mind living in a house where there are no carpets. So when water spills from the child's tea set or the geriatric cat pukes or the geriatric dog has an accident in the middle of the night leaving generous sized "hershey's kisses" on the floor for us to find in the morning at 4:30 am when I have to get up to get to the current rotation by 6am, clean-up is easier than it would be with carpet. Everyone is entitled to and proud of their creations.
I don't mind drips of fingerpaint on the floor because I only buy washable, water soluble paint so we have had very few tragedies despite the amount of painting we do around here.
I don't mind little hands covered in Elmer's glue covered in short grain white rice (even though the original idea was that the rice be glued to paper) because ultimately it washes off and probably provides a satisfactory sensory experience.
And then I don't mind that the rice project turns into a "cooking" project and one certain corner of the "kitchen" is scattered with dry rice and little puddles of water.
I actually like the mess. I like that things are being tried and tested. I enjoy a certain amount of chaos and clutter. Milk crates and cardboard boxes have always been a part of our home furnishings. Makeshift pantry shelves in a corner, closet or half-bath fill a purpose. Piles of laundry get a little tiresome but they always seem to shrink eventually like a bug bite.
The rainbow-speckled, multi-colored characters in Ms Perpetual Motion's new coloring book make the mess a perfect gallery in which to display all of our creative endeavours. I just wish I could get a little more sleep so I wasn't so tired during the daily art shows.