I'm baaaaaack

After many 10 months of inactivity, I am reposting to this blog and putting in some pictures from the many events that have occurred over that time period. They are totally random and not in particular order but will be explained to the best of my ability. Happy viewing.

Family Canines

koah and sam

this dog is cool

good dog

sleeping beauty

Porsche 356 Speedster

Saw this car in a parking lot off of Carillon Point in Kirkland, WA and both Samantha and I fell in love with it. The real ones are incredibly expensive but replicas can be had for around 20,000. Hopefully we'll be able to land one of these when I get a real job, then I can feel like Dylan McKay or James Dean without the sideburns and the untimely death.


our future car

bluegrass (and northern california sensemilla)

We got mer-ried!

We just got married. Looks picture perfect. It would have been if our officiant would have showed up! Good times still had by all.

the knot is tied!

buddhism...us military style

Visiting NYC with the in-laws

This is from a recent visit to NYC with the in-laws. Lots of fun. They (Samantha, parents, and grandmother) went to see the Lion King. I didn't go because Samantha forgot to buy me a ticket. Oops. That's okay though, I hung in Times Square by myself. Too bad they got rid of all the peep shows and porn shops. Damn Giulani!

sam's grandmama

blow it out your arse

chrysler building from king kong's POV

G-Rated Bachelor Party Pictures

cousins jeff and jim

ryan and cody

cale and trev

Don't try this while driving...I'm a professional

unsafe driving

more unsafe driving

V is for Victory!

Welcome to Loo-ray Caverns

luray caverns

birthmark?

Rachael and Hope

These are my nieces Rachael and Hope. They are the cutest ever! Don't you agree?

me with rachael and hope

baby it's cold outside

jungle gym

Cherry Blossom Festival 2005

go thatta way


biking

Bearded Clam??

This sign for a fun run was encountered while attending a friend's wedding in the beautiful town of Port Townsend, WA. The same place where An Officer and a Gentleman was filmed. I don't know about you, but I thought this was funny.



bearded clam?

low rise jeans ain't for me

Newcastle Golf Club

By virtue of my brother's marriage at Newcastle a few months earlier, he was given two free golf passes to play at this premium course overlooking Seattle. The day was perfect, about 80 degrees, with few clouds in the sky. Since my brother doesn't play he graciously gave the passes to me. So, my father and I played this course and had good days overall. He had a birdie on a par 3 and I shot a solid 81 on a tough course we had never played before. Tough because it's all routed on a hillside, so if you're crooked you're looking for your ball 200 feet below the fairway you should be on.

A great day of golf just 3 days before my own wedding to Samantha.

A beautiful course that we will likely play again when I get a real job and (hopefully) move back to the area.



young surveying newcastle

me surveying newcastle

aim for the columbia tower

over the hazard

willing the chip to go in

Grey's Anatomy

A funny show, but once again I have to point out some inaccuracies:

a cordotomy (cutting out a piece of a vocal cord) is done by an otolaryngologist (ENT) surgeon, not a general surgeon.

a prostate biopsy and prostatectomy is done by a urologist, not a general surgeon.

a craniotomy is done by a brain surgeon, not a general surgeon.

The Bachelor Again

The Fonz sez, "Double thumbs up for the Bachelor."

After personal diatribes dealing with medicine (my fiancee says that I sound like a know it all. i warned you didn't, i?), I needed to relax with some fluff. The Bachelor is the cure to all my ills.

Our Bachelor has to choose a Final Four by the end of today's episode. He went out first with Kimberley, a swimsuit model from Canada. She has a face like a horse (think John Elway with fake boobs) but has huge bombs and isn't afraid to show them off... something that the Bachelor likes. Definitely a ho and very low class.

Kara is a single mom. As I alluded to before: single mom = elimination. I think that the writers must have made him keep her around in order to satiate all of the Murphy Brown's out there. Pretty sure that she's as good as gone but I'll eat crow if she wins the thing. Update: he just cancelled his solo date with her, "because he's too tired" but at least had the decency to send some flowers.

Well, as predicted he went on the solo date and dropped her, but I was definitely pulling for her after her behavior and what she had to say on the date. She definitely had class and seemed like a very sweet and genuine girl who was looking for the right guy. It was obvious that she really loved her daughter and I respect that. Don't mind all the stuff I said before.

After the rose ceremony Sara W. is my favorite to win it. Not only does she seem cool, but all of the other girls are attacking her because they are threatened. All I can say is playa haters.

Can't wait 'til the next episode.

A Masterful Performance

Kudos to Tiger on his 4th Masters' title and 9th overall Major victory. You just knew that he would make that last putt right when he stood over it. More amazing was his chip on the 16th. Without it, he would have been in trouble. Instead he gave his fistpump on the first playoff hole. I wish he would have done a Mickelson Leap. I bet Tiger could outjump Phil's vertical. Phil's gynecomastia (manboobs) hold him down.

I was particulary impressed with Chris "The Claw" DiMarco who was tough as nails coming down the stretch. He made Tiger earn it. He also has the mental makeup that might garner him a Major sometime soon. Could he be the next BPNTWAM or Best Player Never To Win A Major? We shall see.

Can't wait until next years Masters already as the last two have been classic nailbiters.

Another Medical TV Show

Well, the Gods of TV have put out yet another medical TV show to compete with the likes of ER (NBC), Scrubs (NBC), House (FOX), and a few others that didn't make the cut. This one is intriguing to me because it is about surgical interns and is set in Seattle. Because I am from Seattle and did a surgery internship I couldn't help to be curious about the show.

I saw the first episode and there were some glaring inaccuracies as there are with all of the medical shows:

1) All of the interns were on call for the first 48 hours. first of all, OSHA rules put into effect a couple of years ago mandate an 80 hour workweek limit and no more than 30 hours at a time. What was funny was that all of the interns on the same service were on call at the same time. Laypeople may or many not know this, but the whole point of "taking call" is so that not everyone on the service has to be in the hospital at the same time on the same night. You rotate call so the others on the service can sleep at home.

2) Surgeons don't wear their stethoscopes around their necks. We put them in our pockets. Only people in the ER or Internal Medicine-based specialities do that. ER was a particular bad offender as they always showed the stereotypical surgeon prick Rocket Romano wearing a gold-plated one. Actually, I know plenty of surgeons who don't carry stethoscopes.

3) Patrick Dempsey is no surgeon. I hate to go on stereotypes, but let's just say that he looks like a thinker and not a doer. We surgeons, being narcissistic to a degree, like to think of ourselves as men (and women) of action or people that appreciate instant gratification. The internists (aka Internal Medicine-based specialties) like to pontificate or what we call "mentally masturbate." No offense.

4) General Surgeons do not perform Brain Surgery. In the first episode, Patrick Dempsey's character, a general surgeon, performs brain surgery on a young girl with a Subarachnoid Hemorrhage. First of all, General Surgeons typically operate on the abdomen and its contents. If there are injuries injuries to the thorax (chest) then they get a CardioThoracic Surgeon involved. If there are injuries to the brain and its contents then they get Neurosurgery involved. That's the beauty of subspecialization.

5) Why doesn't anyone wear eye protection. Having bleeding patients around you and no eye protection is pretty dangerous because you don't know what people have. Hep C, Hep B, and HIV are all real and out there.

That said, the show is kind of entertaining and perhaps a positive (albeit distorted) view of medicine for the viewing audience. It shows that we work our asses off, get abused on a daily basis, and take good care of patients at the same time.

I still think that Scrubs is the best because if you can't make a show with some accuracy, at least make it funny.

We've got a bleeder!

Love that line from Something About Mary.

Well, I'm here on another fine night in the hospital. In order to protect the name of the hospital and keep my job I will refer to it in code. I work at John Hawkins Hospital in Bodymore, Murderland.

Call nights in the hospital are quite variable here on the Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery Service (doctors of the head holes). Sometimes busy and sometimes not, but there's usually one thing or patient that will keep you up. Tonight we have someone coming in who has a postoperative complication. The thing is, the patient didn't get their operation here. As an academic institution we often get "dumped" on with patients whose own doctors are too busy or unavailable to take care of them. People know that there are residents at John Hawkins and other academic institutions who are available at God-awful hours of the night and morning who will do the right thing and take care of sick patients.

I will be bold and self-serving and say that Residents are the most underpaid and underappreciated healthcare workers. We make less per hour than the janitors, go to school and residency for literally decades, and come out with ever-decreasing salaries. Without Residents, we wouldn't have academic institutions, without academic institutions we wouldn't have medical and surgical advances, and without advances we'd still be bloodletting and using leeches and maggots. Oops, I guess we are still using leeches and maggots. You get the point though.

And whoever perpetuated the myth that doctors are rich? This person or these people should be shot. Do you think that in their 8th year out of college that lawyers and bankers are still making 35 to 40000 dollars a year? Didn't think so.

Next time you or your loved one is in an academic hospital that trains residents, just notice how much that Resident is there and thank him or her.