Ain't No Party Like a Snoop Dogg Party 'Cuz a Snoop Dogg Party Don't Stop

We had a fun time tonight at Snoop/311. Funny thing--we were sitting there thinking that probably someone or some people we knew had to be at the concert. Would it be Jenny and Aaron or some other motorcycle friends? Someone from work? Between Snoop and 311, we realized that we were sitting next to a girl who works at the temple with us. Uh, small world!

Things like this are fun to go to with Rowdy, and kind of eye-opening to see some of the real wild child side of him, the remnants of a misspent youth and young adulthood. Rowdy knows the words to all the Snoop Dogg songs from back in the day. I knew some of the 311 lyrics. It was, like, gee, this is a song from med school!

Where I Am; Where I'm Going

Today started a month of having a medical student with me at work. I love teaching, love radiology, love encouraging the rising generation. But having been in her shoes, I realize that it's incredibly boring to sit next to someone while they're reading CTs, plain films, ultrasound.... Hopefully, I can slow down enough to teach her something useful and sway her to the best. specialty. ever.

Rowdy and I have been taking Spanish for the last six weeks. I am hoping someday to be able to communicate in a meaningful way with my Spanish-speaking patients. Usually, I understand enough to know if my translator is telling the patient what I want them to know and to understand the patient's answers. It just makes a huge difference to be able to speak to someone in their own language. I'm going to keep taking classes for as long as necessary to become at least facile with the language. Oh, and I'm also hoping to take a beginning Swedish class this next term, too.

I'm still working on running, but I took what amounted to at least a month off in April/May. Ugh. Just keep moving!!

Music, music, music! We're going to Snoop Dogg/311 on Friday night, and Jack Johnson in August. We saw Snoop a couple of years ago at Street Scene. Dude puts on a good show. I expect that, at both concerts, we will be the only people not smoking out. Contact high is a myth.

J, K and M are visiting us for a week in July. As they get older, their schedules get more and more packed. J is working, K is at high-adventure camp this week, M has camp in August. I'm glad that we were able to have them for a whole month two years ago. Those days will probably never come again.

R has entered a jiujitsu tournament which is coming up in July (the kids will be able to go, too). It's fun to see him get so fit so fast, after being in the hospital for two whole weeks just four months ago. He went from scrawny to ripped in, like, a month.

On September 7, 2008, I will officially be a partner in my group. Most likely. It's about time, because exactly one week later, I'll be FORTY-FOUR YEARS OLD. Sheesh. Am I a late bloomer or what?

Veggie Tales

Rowdy and I read In Defense of Food while we were on vacation and became intrigued by community sponsored agriculture. In CSA, the consumer buys a share in a local farm, receiving a weekly delivery of produce as a dividend. Becoming a part of CSA is not for the budget-conscious. It would be much cheaper just to buy our produce at the local grocery store, be we feel good supporting a local farm.

So, last Thursday, we got our first delivery from Seabreeze Farm. We received a beautiful bouquet of flowers, zucchini, cucumbers, radishes, green onions, tatsoi (a dark leafy green), a mixed salad with edible flowers, red potatoes, grapes, fuji apples, a grapefruit, an avocado, oranges, peaches, mulberries, and four farm-fresh eggs. By and large, the produce is delicious. Sadly, the peaches weren't good, but the oranges were lovely, all juicy and sweet. I took radishes to work as a snack. They weren't too bitter and were very refreshing. We had dinner plans Thursday and tonight, but on Friday, I made chicken salad with grapes and apples, then put it in a wrap with tatsoi. Tomorrow, we're having mulberries on waffles for breakfast, salad and red potatoes at lunch, and more salad, zucchini and chicken for dinner.


c731b6e05

Sisterly Pride

Check out my link to Big Picture Big Sound. My sister, Karen, is a movie critic for them now, most recently reviewing The Incredible Hulk. She's a great writer! Of course, all of her reviews are well-reasoned and insightful.

Western Adventure--Hill Country Edition

WARNING! YOU WILL BECOME INCREDIBLY HUNGRY WHILE READING THIS POST!

We ended our trip in Austin, TX, with my mom and dad and sister, Dayna. Any trip to Mom and Dad's includes great food. We had sandwiches at Texas French Bread. Try the chicken salad. Dinner out the first night was at Eastside Cafe. They have their own garden, so the ingredients are amazingly fresh and flavorful. Their chicken, artichoke and mushroom soup is to die for! My mom bought me their soup cookbook, so I can try to reproduce it at home.

We spent time on Saturday in Fredricksburg, just walking through the shops. The Texas Hill Country is quite picturesque. We drove through what seemed like quite a bit of it on our way to a fantastic trattoria.



About 25 miles outside of Austin is Trattoria Lisina.

Yum, yum, yum!!!


Look at these happy faces!
You must go there and to Eastside Cafe. Take my car.

Mt. Western Adventure

What's cuter than a box of puppies? A pen of bear cubs at Babyland in Bear Country, USA! Bear Country is a drive-through wildlife park in the Black Hills of South Dakota, on the way to Mt. Rushmore.


Mt. Rushmore is just as majestic as I had imagined it would be.



We had weather extremes there, from overcast to thunderstorms to hail to sunny and warm to a downpour within one hour.

Rapid City, well, no offense but it's not the most happening city I've ever been to. We noticed a weird quirk in waiters and waitresses there. Several times during meals at two different restaurants, the waiter or waitress asked us, "How's your dinner? Is the food still okay?" Is there something about Rapid City that causes food to suddenly go bad in the middle of a meal? We didn't experience that, but it seemed to be such a concern that we wondered.

Close Encounters of the Western Adventure Kind

It's just a four-hour drive along picturesque byways from Cheyenne to Devil's Tower. I'm surprised at how many people have never heard of Devil's Tower National Monument and haven't seen or don't remember Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Anyway, it's a fascinating natural formation that possibly was the center of a volcano. It looks like someone dropped a cylinder of clay in the forest and then ran a fork down its sides. The air was fresh and clean and piney. It was definitely worth the detour on our way to Mt. Rushmore. We did not eat here.

Our Western Adventure, Part 2

This section of our vacation narrative could be subtitled "Baby Bonanza". Newbie Brock was concerned soley with sleeping and eating, as all four-day-olds are. Three-month-old Jetrin has the sunniest personality of anyone I know. He was so easy to make laugh and smile. I hope that he stays that way forever. Bradlee, at almost two years, was very shy at first, but Uncle Rowdy has a knack for breaking the ice. Jaiden and Thaiya were as fun as ever. We played Wii with Jaiden for way too many hours. I quickly developed "Wii elbow". In case you have never played Wii, real athletic skill has nothing to do with how well one will fare at playing their sports games. That's why I was second only to Tyler in baseball. In real life, I couldn't hit a ball with a bat to save my life. I really thought that we had taken more pictures in Cheyenne, but I guess not. Here's a picture of Jamie, Rowdy and Jetrin: Here's a short video of me making Jetrin laugh, because babies' laughter always makes the day brighter:

Our Western Adventure Part 1

Rowdy and I started our adventure in Salt Lake, visiting Jordo, Kilo and Max-o as well as Terry. I had been looking so forward to relaxing by the pool in the sun. Unfortunately, Saturday dawned grey and chilly. The weather cleared enough by the afternoon and early evening, and we were able to enjoy the pool for several hours.



We went to see the new Indiana Jones movie in the afternoon. I have to say that I enjoyed it more than Iron Man. I think that one of the best touches was Karen Allen reprising her role as Marion Ravenwood, looking every bit of 50+, but still fantastic. Shia LeBoeuf even managed to turn his trademark, "Nononononono," into "Gogogogogo" or "Mommommommommom."

We stopped by Harmon's for the obligatory loading-up on Nalley's Thick Chili. We ended up paying an extra $70 when all was said and done to bring it home. But such is Rowdy's love of Nalley's chili, and it is not sold in San Diego stores.



Early on Monday morning, Rowdy, Terry and I set off for Cheyenne, Wyoming. The poor-weather theme continued, with rain our entire 6.5 hour trip. Even more exciting was the thick fog between Laramie and Cheyenne with less than 1/4 tank of gas. We made it safe and sound, however.