Free Association Christmas Recap

Lots of cooking
Lots of cookies
Boston Holiday pops
Flight Delays
Homemade gifts
Slumdog Millionaire
Laughter
Wii Tetris Party
Music
Wine
Mixer stuck on Turbo
Pat's Game
Standing Rib Roast
Gingerbread Layer Cake
Sasso

Finished Product

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the eternally almost finished blanket has been finished and given to it's recipient who I knew would appreciate it. I am really very thrilled to be done with it and have the freedom to work on other projects! There's really only so much cabling a girl can do. I can't even believe I'm saying this, but I think I will make one for myself...at some point...just need to breathe a bit first. I was really happy with how it turned it out, I did not get a chance to complete the edging but it's not evident that something's missing if you didn't know the pattern. My mom is good with bows so she did the nice bow work you see.

Of All Days For The Gods To Screw With Me....

It's Saturday morning, I've got a list of things a mile long to get done before my mom arrives at Logan at 440p....bake the rest of the cookies, clean the rest of the house, get the guest room straightened out, try to finish the edging for the Burridge Lake Aran Blanket, shovel, go to the grocery store. Luckily, I have a wonderful and efficient husband who stepped up to bat when I got stranded at the grocery store for several hours when my car battery died.

We woke up to a wonderful winterscape that needed to be confined to neat piles next to either side of our driveway. After M and I accomplish this, I decided to venture out to the grocery store to try to beat the rest of the crowds and get back in time to accomplish the aforementioned list. When I went to start my car, I was met with some reluctance of the part of my batter. Figuring it was a fluke and was occurring because my car hadn't been driven and then was getting blasted by the storm, M jumped my car. Interstingly, it wasn't successful on the first jump and made a bunch of clicking noises that reminded me of a blown starter noise I have heard before on a long gone car of mine. Nonetheless, it started on the second jump, and I proceeded with caution to the store making sure that dear M had his phone on him while he continued shoveling.

Shopping happens, I return to the car and try to start, nothing. Not even the drruuuur drruuuur ruuuur of a battery trying to make things happen but not having enough hutzpah. I went back inside to call M and got his voicemail...I wait. I call back, same thing. I decide to call the dealership and luckily I'll be able to get in and get the battery changed...Thank god because I'm supposed to be taking my mom to a football game on Sunday. I call M again, same thing and then I started panicking picturing him lying face down in the snow from a random congenital heart condition he didn't know he had until this fateful storm. I decide to call AAA and am told it's a 90 minute wait...I keep trying to call M.

Finally, he calls me and it's apparent he hasn't gotten any of my messages by his calm, cool..."Hey, what's up?" What's up?? I've been stuck at the grocery store for an hour trying to call you every 5 minutes. Thanks to AT&T, our network was screwed up and he hadn't gotten any of the calls or messages and did not get them until about 7pm that night. He was calling because he was starting to get worried that it was taking too long.

He eventually came out and was able to jump me again at the store, take the groceries and go home, while I ventured to the dealership who thankfully got me in post haste to get that new battery.

Guess it's nature's way of telling me to slow it on down....in the end, my Mom's flight was delayed till after 8 and my husband took care of everything in my absence and all is good with the world.

Big Spike in Love for Google Labs!

I just learned about Google Trends from another blog. I'm in graph heaven!!! I love the people at Google Labs!

I have not done the reading on this yet but you can compare web traffic to various websites in a certain frame, look at the most searched for things, or do your own analyses!! OMG!

Yankee Swap, Kitty Funiture

Last week, my workplace held it's annual Yankee Swap where niceness is thrown out the window and rudeness is king. People get annoyed when you don't try to steal someone else's gifts. There are always some sure fire winners that get stolen repeatedly and are the most coveted. Your gift will be passed around if 1. It's in anyway inappropriate 2. It is alcohol or alcohol accoutrements 3. There is a possibility of getting rich aka. lotto tickets.

This year I regifted what I got last year, I thought this might get a laugh from the person who gave it last year but no one spoke up. To make sure it was a coveted item, I threw in a bottle of vodka. People liked it.

The pickings were kind of slim this year as far as something that I would actually want, I was even considering taking my own gift back because I had one of the higher numbers and was fairly confident that I wouldn't get it stolen away from me. In the end, I decided to steal from someone a gift that my colleague brought, an assortment of goodies from Trader Joe's.

In feline related news, M decided to get his carpentry on and make Boigie a new perch from abandoned wood at his parents house. I viewed this idea with some skepticism for a variety of reasons...he sometimes gets these grand ideas but the projects go unfinished (i.e. touching up the paint in the bedroom). I have also seen his previous forays into carpentry and it's not something that comes naturally to him, unless he was trying for a more esoteric and abstract take on a printer table. It's usually best, however, if any type of shelving unit does not slant 60 degrees. But alas, I was proven wrong! The perch is sturdy, wide enough for Boigie's massive berth and at the right height for him to look out of our bedroom window. He even went to lengths to put sisel on the posts so that Boigie can scratch there instead of our box spring. Boigie has given it 2 paws up after also regarding it with some skepticism initially. Perhaps he's heard tales of the printer table.

Party With Myself

This witty Onion article pretty much summarizes my take on parties of any kind:

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/lie_to_cover_surprise_party?utm_source=onion_rss_daily

Grass Fed Beef Burger

So we finally tried some meat from our farm share.

Here are the differences we noticed:

Much more dense, less air pockets than regular ground beef
Had a hint of slight gaminess that I taste with lamb (didn't notice it a few bites in)

Next up:
Maple Cured Ham Steak

Complete PE-Mission Complete

Overall, this semester is one of the easiest I've had by far, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm ecstatic to not have this Complete PE exam hanging over my head anymore! My lab partner and I did it last night after much delay. Initially we were booked to go a week ago but my lab partner wanted more time. We rescheduled for yesterday and that was a horrible back up putting us into the exam about 2 hours later than scheduled.



I forgot a few things but nothing monumental, they were all things that I knew I still had to do before I moved on but then just moved on without doing them. She said I did very well and my technique was good so I was happy with that.

Incidentally, I ran into someone I previously took a class with who's finishing her second clinical and she described it one word: Horrible.

Let's see what awaits....

Holiday Fun and Meat Farm Pick Up

This weekend was full of holiday activities. We baked, who am I kidding, I baked cookies with A while S and M drank beer and half heartedly chased E out of the kitchen, not before he could get into a giant canister of flour or drop the molasses jar on the ground as we stood around and watched it's slow creep across the kitchen floor. I made sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and oatmeal cherry cookies. I made half and froze the other half so that my family can have fresh cookies when they arrive. I still intend to make Special K bars, and no M, those are not ketamine bars. I'm also making Vanilla Snow Angels and Ginger Crinkle cookies. When? God know...I guess this coming weekend.

I'm also midway through planning the various menus for Christmas meals. My father in law was not able to come down at all, but my mother in law will be here for a few days when my family is here but then she's going home on Christmas Eve. This means there have to be 2 meals. I'm going to do appetizers for one of them and then we'll have a meal on Christmas. We're writing down some ideas for apps and side dishes and I still need to come up with a dessert for the main meal.

Anyhoo, as you can see we also got our Christmas tree and decorated that while watching Elf and drinking delicious Gingerbread Egg Nog. Here are some selected pictures for your viewing pleasure:





























In farm share news, we picked up our first month's supply. It was really cool, they pull into a parking lot at a community farm with their white van. You come and look for a cooler with your name on it, you return your cooler from last month. You have the option to purchase fresh eggs on a first come first serve basis. We got home and this was some of our booty in the cooler (see pics). In addition, we got lamp chops, pork chops, sweet italian sausage, a steak, a ham steak, 2 lbs of ground beef, and a chicken. I'm impressed so far....we'll see how it tastes. She did tell us that cooking times were much less because the meat was much leaner and muscle takes less to cook than fat, a somewhat disturbing fact, but we're glad to know it!

Fit is Go!

Tomorrow starts the beginning of health and fitness program at work. It's pitched as a competition between departments with the prize of bragging rights for losing the most weight of any team participating. There are about 20 people from my department participating. I'm actually excited to get started, I need the added motivation and occasional taunting by my colleagues.

The program includes free weekly meetings with a personal trainer, 3 free healthy meals from the cafeteria per week, 2 free nutrition sessions, and free access to the gym affiliated with work for the duration of the 10 week program.

Tomorrow is the day of reckoning, the baseline assessments which include: Lipid profile, weight, BMI, body fat percentage, C Reactive protein ( it's all the hype these days thanks to the Jupiter
Trial). In addition, we were to do a 4 day food log on 4 average days so they know the areas that we need to work on. I am also looking to this time period as a time when I can kick my addiction to the caffeine. It's interfering with how much water I drink, I stopped eating breakfast because the caffeine curbed my appetite, just badness all around. I'm in a quandary though, because if I don't drink it I get awful caffeine headaches.

Wish me luck!

Inflammatory Drivel

I found this blog from another blog I read....read on for reasons that NPs and MDs don't have a happy coexistence! It's truly inflammatory and I had to stop reading it. The ignorance is amazing. The author is an MD who doesn't think NPs are qualified clinicians because the course and type of education is different between the 2, at one point he even calls NP education a joke. Clearly, he's not going to get a reasonable discussion out of this when his viewpoints are so offensive and he's on attack mode. Obviously, I think there is a need for NPs primarily in primary care...heck...the lure of the almight buck has driven the majority of med school graduates towards jobs in specialties rather than primary care has opened the door for NPs. Interestingly, MDs have opened the door for advanced level nursing a couple times throughout our health care history. Nurse Anesthetists also exist for this reason. Now that they have, there is a fear that we will take jobs from them because we can do it for a cheaper rate which is favored by insurance companies and the level and quality of care is often favored by patients. Read on if you dare.



http://thehappyhospitalist.blogspot.com/2008/12/is-there-room-for-dr-nurse.html

108/111

Last night I practiced the Complete PE on M without using my cheat sheets which have been rearranged about a million times by now, although this time I think the flow is just right for me. Out of 111 items, I only forgot to palpate the glenhumeral joint during internal and external rotation of the shoulder, estimate the jugular venous distention and check for jugular venous regurgitation when palpating the liver. Not bad! I should be ready for the exam on Tuesday.

I also went online to take my last exam which was supposed to be yesterday and of course it wasn't there. I had found and marked all kinds of information in the notes and in the books and was all set to go, logged on, and nothing. Hopefully tonight I can get that out of the way.

I also keep checking the summer course catalog for the Health Policy/Ethics course that's allegedly going to be offered online, but it's still not listed. We'll see....at least I know about the university at this point to not drop that course for Fall until I see it for Summer.