George Oscar Bluth III Franklin Egbert

From Odds and Ends

The current position in which Haley and I find ourselves is that we are not ready for children. We feel we are not ready for that level of responsibility (plus, some say I am a tad on the immature side - but seriously, DO fart jokes ever get old?). So, we decided to give it a practice run with a dog.

It is perhaps a miracle that little Gob has joined our family because this was the one issue that Haley and I have never agreed on. Adamantly against dog ownership, stemming from an attack from a "large, black dog" at a young age, Haley had laid down the law early on. We were not going to be a dog family. Haley and I often argued over this point, and as is the case with all Thorpe women, the man always loses. You see, losing is not an option for a Thorpe woman.

This summer brought many changes to the Rob and Haley Egbert family, as we moved to North Augusta, SC, bought a house, and I started medical school. This series of events led to me (Rob) being away for longer periods of time as I studied. Haley was stuck at home and found herself watching "Days of Our Lives" alone (not that I ever watched it with her :-). This led to a tinge of loneliness. Luckily I had been pressuring the idea dog ownership for some time now, slowly sowing the seeds of change. Then one day it happened: Haley remarked "I think I want a dog." I had been waiting for those words for years.

From Odds and Ends

And so the search began. Haley was instantly drawn to the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. It turned out that those dogs are as expensive as they sound. Luckily, we later found out that I was allergic to spaniels, with their high shedding and dander (this came after looking into some Springer Spaniels which gave me an asthma attack). So the search now focused hypoallergenic dogs that would allow me to breathe in my own house. After numerous google image searches, we decided that we may like the "Cockerpoo," which is a mix between a Cocker Spaniel and a Poodle. Yeah, It sounds like a wussy dog, but I assure you that after you do a google image search of your own, you will see that these dogs look better than their name suggests.

We finally found a breeder down in the sprawling metropolis of Millen, Georgia. We were able to choose between a couple different siblings and ended up choosing Gob. The name comes from our current infatuation with the largely unnoticed yet wildly entertaining "Arrested Development." If you have not had a chance to get into that show, we highly recommend it.

From Odds and Ends

Gob supposedly comes from a Cocker mother and a Poodle father (yeah, I know, the cocker should be on the boy and all poodles seem female…we hope Gob won't grow up too confused). However, we think Gob is part bear and part Chewbacca, though he is far too big of a whiner to play either role. He is a good dog, however being the puppy that he is, anything and everything is a toy. He has a very small attention span and enjoys making grunt sculptures and leaving them in random places in the kitchen when we least expect it. In fact, he went drilling for mud bunnies tonight when we went over to Garret and Hanna's house for New Year's. We were quite embarrassed as he coiled a steamer in the corner of their dining room, behind the table. The funny thing was that we were watching him constantly and he hadn't been out of our site for more than three seconds. Those barbarians must have been knocking at the gate for him to have gone so quickly.

Another favorite pastime of Gob's is to violate his stuffed elephant. Sure, he likes to pretend that he is merely chewing on it, but then out of the corner of our eye, we see him getting fresh with the little grey Dumbo. Yes, he has a long way to go, but we are excited to welcome into our lives. In efforts to share with you a little piece of the life of Gob, I put together the following video. I hope you enjoy it.

First Medical Advice

During finals, I went to a neurology interest group meeting to grab a bite of pizza. I actually enjoyed this one, as I learned a little bit about headaches. Incidentally, I also learned ten reasons to never had sex (but that will have to wait for another entry).

So, it turns out that all headaches are migraines. Well, not all of them, but pretty much every headache both I and you have ever had were migraines. That is, unless you have had a sub-arachnoid hemorrhage, a coital headaches (one of the reasons to not have sex), or a brain tumor (there may have been others). It turns out that basically all headaches from mild to severe are migraines. They come on by the same means and have the same symptoms, though some are more severe.

When you have a headache your stomach shuts down and digestions stops. This includes the pumps that make stomach acid, which is what digests the medicine that you take for migraines. So, if it seems as though your medicine does not work, or works slowly, it is because the medicine is not getting into your system. One way to get it in their faster is to crush the medicine and drink it with carbonated soda. Apparently that will get it into your system faster.

The other day, I had a headache. I tried the above advice that I am now giving and it seemed to get rid of my headache faster than normal.

Sylva

This past weekend, some fellow first-years invited us up a cabin in North Carolina. Just outside the small town of Sylva, it offered beautiful mountain scenery while relaxing on a huge porch. It was so nice to do nothing after a long semester of studying and taking tests. It was also a nice break for Haley, who has been stressed out with raising 20 or so dysfunctional children in fourth grade (I say "raise" because what Haley does is the closest thing to child rearing those children will ever see--most of them only have one parent, and usually it is a grandparent or uncle, who don't discipline the children). So, yeah, it was a nice break for her too.

The cabin was great. It is owned by Bob and Danielle Hosker's family and they were great hosts. We just sat around and talked for two days straight, with a little hiking, tree-climbing, game-playing, and movie watching (A River Runs Through It) in between. I wouldn't have minded spending a week up there, but other things were calling our name (like getting a dog). We are already talking about going back up there, maybe for a white-water rafting trip in the spring.