He DFO'd

Technical term, stands for "done fell out." An appropriate use for this phrase is anytime somebody "done fells out." For example "Timothy was drinking his normal daily pint of whiskey when he done fell out" (actual quote from today in hospital).

Other appropriate uses are when you have done something that you don't want your doctor to know about (i.e., some type of "street pharmaceutical). Often if DFO phrasing is used, the story doesn't quite fit. For example "I was just walking in my back yard when I done fell out." The real story probably involves ingestion of antifreeze or similar chemical not meant for human ingestion in search of a high.

Another tip: if you have a DFO-er, be highly suspicious of cocaine use. This is especially true if said DFO-er is from Augusta, GA. Apparently Augusta didn't get the memo about crack falling out of vogue and is so stuck in the mid-1990's. So, if you suspect cocaine use and they are denying it or saying it has been years, then ask again, telling them it is really important. They will come back saying they last used a couple months ago. Again, stress the importance of how imperative it is to know exactly the last time they used it. This is where things will get fuzzy and they will pretend like they are thinking and will say two weeks ago. At this point, you tell them it is extremely important and that the only reason you are repeatedly asking them this is because they need a life saving medication, but if they have done crack recently it will kill them. At this point their memory will come to and they will admit to doing the crack just prior to DFOing. I couldn't make this stuff up.

Paranoid schizo's and other fun stuff

Haven't blogged in a while, you know the story. I am now on neurology over at the VA (for the non-familiar, that is the veteran's hospital). I had a gentleman come in today with unsteadiness. He also happened to have the additional diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. His unsteadiness only occurs in the morning when he is getting out of bed and when he attempts to put on his underwear. Being the good history taker I try to be, I ask all the questions I can think of: Do you black out? Does the room spin? Do you drink alcohol? Have you had a change in medication? Has this happened before? You get the picture. As he isn't able to give me a straight answer, I finally ask him what in the world he thinks is causing his unsteadiness. He responds by telling me that it is the devil that enters his body every morning and causes him to be unsteady. He goes on to tell me how he figures the devil should leave him alone because he spends his days out in the backyard hanging out with Jesus and the Holy Ghost. Good for him.

Another quick story. I have another inpatient who suffers from multiple strokes and dementia. When I ask him every morning where he is, I never know what he is going to answer. Today when I asked, he told me that he was in jail, that Judy Johnson (name changed to protect poor Judy, if she exists) put him there, and that he wanted to go home. I told him that we were planning on letting him go home and you wouldn't believe how his face lighted up at that prospect. Poor guy. Yesterday when I was checking him for reflexes, he asked me in the most childish, sincere way you can imagine, "why are you hittin me?" Poor guy indeed.

So, how about that debate tonight? We're screwed.

Only cars in the parking lot

Well, surgery is done and true to form I hardly recorded any of it in my blog. So much for getting third year off to a good start. I do have a good excuse though: Surgery. I did general surgery here at MCG with the GI team. I was one of the first 4 cars in the parking lot every morning (5:00am): (literally, the first 4 cars - me and my 3 buddies also doing general surgery)

I usually didn't leave until 7:00-7:30pm. My first morning there, they gave me 6 patients (supposedly the max was 4) to go visit to learn all I could about them and them be able to present their story a half hour after I started - this is called pre-rounding. Keep in mind this was my first day and I had no idea what I was doing. I was able to at least meet my 6 patients, but when it came time to present them to the chief resident, I had no idea what to report. I'm pretty sure my presentation went something like: "Um, they're cool, no problems." Later in the day both interns (1st year residents, aka bottom of the bottom of the barrel - right above medical students) on our service pulled me aside to tell me that my presentations sucked - I emphatically let them know that I agreed with them, but I also let them know they had unrealistic expectations of me my first day. I'm a firm believer in being thrown into the water and I will learn how to swim, but don't be a punk about telling me how bad I am doing. Needless to say my second day was better and it was all uphill from there.

I did pull a couple weeks where I worked over 90 hours. Those were long.

Anyway, I am now on Radiology. We all refer to it as "radiholiday." I think I like it so much because I love not working. Literally, the doctors come in around 9:30am and as near as I can tell they are gone by 5:00p. And you know they are making decent money. Here is a picture of what me and my buddy Garrett did last Friday before work:

FISHING! Radiology as a potential career, here I come!

Yep, I'm Bored and I have a Confession

**I will preface this post by saying...it's a long one.  Be forewarned...I'm bored.  The amount of my boredom will correlate well to the length of the post.  Oh yeah, and the "confession" doesn't come until the end...so sit back, get yourself a drink or some popcorn or something, because you'll be here for a while (assuming someone out there in the Internet world is actually reading this). **

 

My favorite part about teaching school is that I get great vacations (you know, summers off, spring break, Christmas, all major holidays and a few of the minor ones).  Since rob has been in school for most of our married life, he has also had some summers off.  We have been able to take advantage of a lot of this time and do some great traveling (see www.egberttravels.blogspot.com).  This summer was no exception--we went one our wild tour across Mexico, then off to Jacksonville, NC for a family get together, and just recently got back from a weekend trip to Charleston, SC.  We had to squeeze all of those trips into a 3-week period between when Rob took step 1 of his boards and when he started up his surgery rotations in the hospital.  Well, as you may have surmised from the title of this post, Rob is back to work/school and I am not yet.  So I sit at home trying so hard not to spend money because a). we went on all of the trips mentioned previously, b). I have already surpassed my budget for buying school-related stuff and c). I am saving for one last trip to Charleston before school starts (Whoo-hoo for girls trips!!). 

Now if you have always had a job that keeps you busy year-round, you may not realize how expensive it is to not work.  First off, staying in the house all day gets a little old.  So right off the bat if you want to leave you have to factor in gas money.  Then you think to yourself, "Where should I go?"  My first thoughts are always shopping or eating.  Even if it is necessary, like grocery shopping, it still adds into the budget.  I also think about doing something outdoors, but it is so crazy hot and humid with pop-up thunderstorms threatening at any moment lately that that is really out of the question as well.  I've thought about joining a gym, but again, it costs money.  So I try to keep the shopping trips to a minimum.  Well that leaves me sitting at home.  While I could do something productive like clean or plan stuff for school, that usually doesn't happen.  So my other options are the computer, the tv, the kitchen, or a book. 

First off, the computer.  This is almost as expensive for me as going out shopping...possibly even more expensive.  I guess I realized this when I was booking a hotel online with the girls tonight and they were impressed that I have my credit card number memorized as well as the expiration and the security code.  I did not have that memorized before the summer started.  Online shopping is just so nice and convenient now that so many places offer free/cheap shipping.  In my defense though, most of the stuff I've ordered is for school and I will be reimbursed for it...most of it...

Secondly, the tv.  While I do have my dvr set to record Days of Our Lives everyday, I am not much for daytime television.  Mostly because I usually don't have time for it.  As I have had more daytime free time on my hands, I have come to see the dangers of the Food Network and HGTV.  I've always liked these channels, but it is a little too easy to get hooked from one show to the next.  They're all interesting enough to me that, if I don't have something else planned, I can easily waste away an entire afternoon and not even realize it!

Next, the kitchen.  I like to cook and bake. When I get bored, I make food--usually a dessert of some kind.  Now this can be a money thing again, but more pressing is the health issue.  I have a major sweet tooth and I could eat desserts all day.  Luckily, its been so hot that the thought of using any heat in the kitchen in the middle of the day is so unappealing that I have stopped spending my days baking.  But this leads to more boredom.

So that brings me to my last major choice for entertaining myself at home, which is reading.  And this is the part I am most ashamed of.  Now I know you're thinking, and no, I have not started reading trashing romance novels.  It's worse.  I started reading non-smutty, teenage vampire romance novels.  Yes, I've gotten hooked on the Twilight books.  I like to think of myself as having very cultured tastes in media.  I always read the reviews on movies (www.rottentomatoes.com) and books (www.amazon.com) before I watch/read them.  I try not to waste my time on "fluff."  But alas, I am counting down the days until the 4th book in the saga comes out.  And unfortunately for me, these books are super quick reads so it only takes me a couple days to get through them (not to mention I can hardly put them down).  So this will only satisfy my boredom for a few more days.  Well my sisters have been telling me to read these books for years now (or at least it seems like it) and I finally read them this summer.  I guess I can take solace in the fact that I got two of my other friends completely hooked on the books as well.  So at least now I have brought two other intelligent beings down to my same level of guilty pleasure.  So there's my confession.  I have succumbed to the boredom and tossed my pride out the window in favor of living in the fantasy world of vampires, werewolves (I am a big fan of Jacob), and the flutterings of a hormone-filled, teenage heart.

But don't worry.  I actually have to get to work on school stuff now (just a couple weeks till we start again!!!) so the boredom has probably already come to a peak.  Even though I complain, I know that once school starts again I will be dreaming of my carefree days of surfing the web, eating cookies, watching daytime television and reading books meant for pre-pubescent girls.

back to school

Just a super quick entry. I meant to be better with this thing, especially now that third year has started. Here is the short of it: I ended up doing good on the boards (note that i didn't say that I rocked them out - I have three close friends that all scored in the 95th or better percentile - you guys suck). I am currently on Plastic Surgery, but unfortunately I wrap that up tomorrow. It has been a really fun two weeks, even though I am quickly realizing how dumb I am when it comes to medicine (I don't know how to write notes in charts or round on patients, but when you are thrown into things, you learn really quick).

One quick story. I sewed on a 16-yr old girls nipple today after a breast reduction surgery. I couldn't believe they let me do it - after all, she'll probably want to use that thing some day. If I say so myself, though, I think it ended up looking nice. I was in the OR for two other surgeries today also and my legs are killing me. I'm gonna see if I can milk a leg massage out of Haley tonight...fingers crossed.

Haley in the garden

 
 
 
 

Garden update

With the boards coming up, no time to blog. I will however post an update on my garden. Enjoy the video.

Oh, the things I'll do for a T-shirt

Some buddies and I in med school have been working out at the school gym before class since this past August. Somewhere along the way, we started flirting with the idea of entering a local "adventure race" (yes, adventure racing is a real sport) called MedWAR (Medical Wilderness Adventure Race). After talking to people who had run the race last year, we decided to throw our hat into the ring and give it a go.

I'll spare the boring details leading up to the race, suffice it to say the only real training we did was short brisk runs before our workouts and a dry run last Saturday on a local trail.

Our team was made up of Will Potter, myself, Andrew Johnsen and Will Parker (L to R in picture). The race was to be around 15 miles and we were to work our way through various medical/survival oriented tasks in the barren wilderness over at Fort Gordon (Army base). We were told to show up with a wilderness survival/medical kit, a flashlight, water purifier, whistle, a canoe and a mountain bike.

at 11:00am, after orientation and safety briefings (something about poisonous snakes and some other animal that I can't remember because I wasn't really paying attention), they announced all the teams. Most of the teams had really cool names like "turn your head and cough," "gang-green," "toxic megacolon," and "bad prognosis." Because we were number 20 out of 27, we got to hear all these cool names go before us and I started to get really nervous as the announcement of our team name came up: "The Married Men." I definitely didn't come up with it and as they read our name off I am sure I was beet red from embarrassment that we didn't get a more clever name. However, we ended up getting the most arousing laughter and applause of any group (by a long shot) and my embarrassment melted away.

They then handed us our race packets and we headed a mile up a steep hill. At the top we were given the task to find a pigs foot under a tree and were to carry it with us throughout the remainder of the race. We then followed what we thought were accurate instuctions only to come back to the pigs-foot tree two miles later to find out we had done a huge time-wasting loop (luckly all 27 teams made the same mistake so nobody was disadvantaged, or rather we all were). We learned a valuable lesson on that first task - don't follow what everybody else is doing (something about the blind leading the blind). 

Back on track. We continue on, running 3 miles or so. Along the way we are tasked with various medical scenarios we have to complete (i.e. diabetic comas, burn victims, bear attacks, broken ankles, altitude sickness...you get the picture). About an hour or so into the race, we divide up into two runner and two canoers from our team. At this point there are probably 8 teams in front of us which we were okay with (our goal was to finish in the top half - or just not dead last). Luckily the canoe events were where we outshined everybody and an hour later we were in first place (the lead team was literally doing circles out in the middle of the lake as we passed them). I guess all those "post-test canoe/fishing trips" paid off.

Our first place lead only lasted a mile before the two muscle teams showed up and passed us. Those teams consisted of some hard core Navy firefighters who supposedly travel around the country doing these things and another local MCG team that made 3rd place last year. We were okay letting those two pass us, but we were determined to try to hold on to third place.

A couple miles later (still less than half way through) we come up to a large swamp/pond area. We see the MCG team on the other side of the massive swamp soaking wet and are told that we must cross the swamp. At this point I am thinking of how insane that sounds. We are all aware that we have another 10+ miles to go and to completely soak ourselves would be brutal. Fortunately this was a race  and so we had little time to rationalize how ridiculous the situation was and we all ran into the water. As we trudged through the muddy water literally up to our necks and even over our heads for a couple feet (yeah, trying to doggy paddle while holding your water and supplies over your head can be tough) I started to realize how crazy this day was going to be. At one  point, Will Parker was directly in front of me and I see his his head dip down under, nothing but his hands holding that running pack out of the water as he trudges along the bottom of the swamp making it back up to slightly higher ground a couple feet later. It was awesome/hilarious. (enjoy the picture of my soaking shoes and socks - believe it or not, those socks were white when the day began).

A couple miles later we forgot one of our pass-codes (we had to keep a log of our codes we "earned" from completing the scenarios). For some unknown reason, I volunteered to run back for it. It ended up being longer away than I thought and thanks to that little mishap I got to tack on an extra mile to my day's total...Luckily we still had our third place safely secured though other teams were in sight.

While the third place was feeling great, all great things will come to an end. Around this time in the race, Andrew's lets were starting to cramp up and the whole teams was showing signs of wear. Then we come up to scenario where we send one person off on a bike. We decided to send Will (Parker) and the rest of our would complete the next task. The  only problem was that the next task was orienteering and Will was our designated orienteering expert. Yes, I am an Eagle scout and Yes I should know how to orienteer, but my skills were rusty. to make a long story short, We started to head off in the right direction, but got horrible lost along the way. We started second guessing ourselves and amidst the confusion, the light rain that had been hanging around turned to a nasty down pour. Luckly, Andrew was able to figure some stuff our and we made it to our next destination to meet up with Will. He ended up waiting about 45 minutes and our health 15 minute lead over the rest became a half our deficit.

The rest of the race ended up being straight endurance. At one point we came up on a huge clay pit that we had to make our way down. We had to jump two huge crevasses - definitely not for the faint of heart. Once we made it down to the bottom of the giant clay pit we had to suture up the pig's foot that we had been carrying with us the entire time (apparently it had a large laceration on the skin of the thing that we hadn't even noticed before). It ended up that we could have gotten away with putting compression bandage on the thing, but we honestly got out our suture kit and sewed that bad boy up. When that sucker heals, I honestly don't think that pig will even have a scar (assuming they are able to re-attach the foot to the pit). As we are leaving the clay pit the moderators of the scenario tell us we have about a half hour left...

By half hour, they really meant 3 miles running/walking/trudging through the swamp. I mean we were literally up to our knees (sometimes waist) in mud. I can't believe none of us lost any shoes in that muck. It smelled, didn't have a set trail (what swamp does?), and was still raining down on us (picture is of another team - they didn't get a pic of us). Every time we thought were were gonna leave the swamp, the orange ribbons that had been marking the trail all day (except the orienteering course) would lead us right back down into the thick of things.

Finally, after being soaked to the bone (well, somewhere along the way I had the sense to put on my gore-tex jacket from cabelas - I am now a firm believer in Gore-Tex) we make it back to the final pass code. With the pass code there was a bonus question - it was a snake and we had to guess how many vertebrae it had. We had earlier stumbled upon this bonus at the very beginning of the race and had guessed 60. When we came back on the question at the end, we were tired and didn't really care anymore about getting the bonus but we looked anyway. We went back and forth on our guess of how many vertebrae. I was holding the passbook and finally said that I was just going to add a "1" to the 60 we had put down to make it 160 because there was no way we were going to guess the right number anyway.

We then run into camp with all the energy we have left (which wasn't  much after running 17 miles, soaking wet). Although we ended up losing our 3rd place finish during the orienteering part of the race, we felt like rock stars as we entered the finish line, cheered on by the crowd of volunteers, racers, and organizers. We then quickly changed into dry clothes and ate a huge BBQ pork feast. I ate a huge plate of food, including two pork sandwiches, and I think the food was already digested by the time I got up for seconds. My body was hungry.

Unfortunately, at the awards ceremony they only mentioned the top 3 race teams (damn you orienteering!). We are still on hold as to what our final finish time was but are told that they will be posted on the website soon. Hopefully they will also have some pictures from the race up soon. Not all was lost at the awards ceremony, though. It ended up that the aforementioned snake had 158 vertebrae, making us the proud winners of a stuffed snake.  

Although the race was grueling, it was one of the coolest things I have done in a long time. How sad is it that I spend a good hour today looking up trail running shoes and hydration packs? MedWAR 2009, here we come!

Part II

This blog represents part 2 of my 834 part series of "Rob's do it yourself/make junk in your backyard/garden so it looks nicer" series. If you remember back to part 1 of this series, I made an Arbor for under 130 bones. You'll be happy to know that the arbor managed to survive a brutal Augusta winter complete with sub-60 degree temperatures and no fewer than 10 inches of rain. It has been rough, but my handi-manship skills have proved themselves once again.

In this series I will demonstrate how to create a compost pile for less than 2 bucks. Of course you could build a compost pile for free by simply piling up your lawnmower waste or leaf waste and let it sit there for a year. Or, if you want to turn those same materials into black gold in a much shorter amount of time you build a compost box.

First: get some wood. Of course you could go out and buy expensive wood from home depot, or you could do what I did and jack some palates from local businesses/construction sites (I recommend asking first, but to each his own). While you are coasting from construction site to construction site, if they have any of those fence post thingers (I really don't know what they are, but they are long metal things that are really sturdy and I saw them at all the construction sites I went to - you are gonna need 4 of those, preferably 5 feet long each - see picture below) Cost: free.

Next, jack your neighbors leaves that he bagged up so nicely for the trash man. He may give you a strange look when you pull up to his driveway after dark and start throwing all his leaf bags in the back of your truck, so be prepared for that. Next, call around to local stables and ask if you can have their horse crap. Surprisingly, everyone I called got back with me the next day and told me "h3ll, you can have all the horse sh!t you want" (I'm taking artistic license on that one).

Now, take the backs off three of the palates. next, attach the palates in a way to make a three sided box without a top, bottom, or one side (I found nails work well). Next, drive in those long metal things near the two open sides to sturdy the box - see picture above (you're gonna pile a lot of crap and leaves into this and don't want it falling open). Next, drive the two remaining metal things into the open end in such a way as to be able to slide the remaining palate right into place to form the last wall to the box. If none of this makes sense, look at the pictures. I recommend cutting the palate that you are gonna slide in half so you can start filling it up then slide on half the palate, fill up some more and then finally slide on the rest of the palate to keep everything stable.

Now that you have a eyesore that the neighbors will be talking about for years to come, it is time to fill it up. layer a bag of leaves with about 4 or 5 shovels full of horse manure and then repeat the process until you reach the top of the box, being sure to hose things down as you go along (apparently microbes need water to break all that junk down). Also, the reason this thing cost me a couple bucks was because the Internet recommended that I add lime to my pile - so I layered that in. Finally, after it is piled up, wet and limed, cover with some trash bags or a tarp and let it sit for a week or two. After that, you need to turn the pile to allow air in. Of course if you don't want to turn the pile, do what I do: take one of those long, heavy steel things and drive it into the pile in a couple different places to allow air in.

Well, this about wraps it up for part 2 of my 834 part series of "Rob's do it yourself/make junk in your backyard/garden so it looks nicer" series. I hope you have enjoyed these pearls of wisdom. Remember, whenever you are undertaking a project like this to be creative and cheap - your neighbors will appreciate your ingenuity. 

Reading In Bed

Here's a nice pic of Haley reading in bed. Please note the joy she is experiencing as she reads a book about outer space. When you are done being amused at her amusement, please turn your attention to the portrait of our dog, Gob, in the background.

Haley's New Camera

 
So, I got Haley a new camera for v-day (valentine's day, not to be confused with Vagina monologues day, also referred to as V-day). Unfortunately, the first one that was scheduled to arrive the day before v-day was stolen from UPS before it ever made it to our doorstep. Then newegg, who is normally incredibly efficient at shipping things out in a timely manner, didn't mail a new one out until Monday (after contacting them 3 times). To make a long story short, we now have the camera and it is cool. We went with the Canon SD1000 which is smaller than a pack of cigarettes. Here is a test shot of Haley cooking tonight.

In other news, did anybody else watch American Idol tonight and get left with the thought "ambiguous gender?" There were no fewer (and maybe more) than 3 dudes who I could have swore were females. Granted they sounded male, but all I could think of was that dude from youtube known for his ambiguity and as a staunch defender of Britney's honor. As intolerant as it may sound, I liked it better when we weren't bombarded by transgender people. Call me old fashioned, but I like it better when men act and look like men and women act and look like women.

Farming

Now that it's been in the upper 60's for a month and a half I decided a couple weekends ago to get the garden started up again. After hours of "researching" through google I came up with planting outside in raised rows. The past two weekend I (with Haley's help) have been preparing our backyard - including digging out more giant roots - I have the sore back to prove it). Additionally, I have quite the germinating setup going on in our office. If you can tell from the picture, I have two suspended fluorescent lights over a number of small peat pots with everything from tomatoes to peppers to black-eyed susan vines, to any herb you can thing of. The strange thing on the outside is one of those $2 reflective heating emergency blankets that you can buy in the camping section at Walmart. It does a great job at keeping the plants around 80 degrees in spite of the inside temperature of our house (thermostat currently set at 62 - though our house is around 72 due to the warm weather as of late).

I'll try to keep the blog updated with our garden progress. I am expecting big things to come out of the garden this year. Oh, and note the brilliant blossoming of our Peach tree. That thing has been blooming for two weeks now.

Multitasking

I don't know if any of you out there are like me where you will have a really good idea about something you want to blog about but then you forget it. I blame it on stuffing my head full of medical stuff that everything else slips out the back door. I've been trying to slowly make my way back into my blog here for a while, but life gets busy.

Anyway, even though I wasn't able to figure out what I was going to blog about I'll talk about Haley's computer. I recently upgraded her (yeah, the computer is female) to a total of 6gb of RAM, up from 2gb. That may seem excessive, but I'll tell you, if you do any kind of intense computing it is really nice. Right now I am popping this blog out, listening to music, updating my other website to Dreamweaver, editing photos to put on this blog, and I have a couple other programs open and my computer doesn't lag in the least. I am currently using up 70% of my RAM at 4278mb. I don't know how we ever got along with 2gb.

All this blogging reminded me of my original blog that I was gonna post. Here it is:

NEWEGG.COM: awesome company. I built Haley's entire computer from parts ordered through them (as well as hundreds of dollars of other miscellaneous computer upgrades through the years). They usually having things out the door and in your mailbox in 3 days. Not only is their service great, but they have competitive, if not the lowest, prices around. So, for Valentine's day I decided I was gonna buy Haley a new camera. She is getting more and more into blogging these days (haleystwocents.blogspot.com) and I figured she'd like to have pictures of her own to go on her blog. Also, with our frequent travels, I figure she may like to join in the photo fun (PS, we are heading back to Mexico this summer after the boards).

Anyway, back to my Newegg story. I order the camera on tuesday from them with a scheduled delivery day of Thursday. Then on Thursday, I get home from school and see a small box on the doorstep of our house. I pick it up and it is much lighter than I expected. I open it to find out they sent the memory card I ordered in a separate box. However, There is no camera or camera box in sight. I then go and check on the tracking number and am presented with the following: 02/14/2008 7:11 A.M. MERCHANDISE IS MISSING. UPS WILL NOTIFY THE SENDER WITH ADDITIONAL DETAILS. / ALL MERCHANDISE MISSING, EMPTY CARTON WAS DISCARDED. UPS WILL NOTIFY THE SENDER WITH DETAILS OF THE DAMAGE. I then contact Newegg (via online chat - their preferred method) and made them aware of the problem. I explain it was for valentines day and that I would appreciate it if they would overnight me another one. The guy on the other end said he would try but no guarantee. He also said he would email me to keep me updated.

Long story short, they didn't do anything else yesterday besides listen to me complain about how this was putting a hurt on my V-day plans. Today I did what I should have done yesterday - called them. After explaining the problem they are overnighting me a new one.

I don't know what the moral of this story is. Maybe it's that if you work for UPS you have access to cheap valentine's day presents for your girlfriend at the expense of another dudes plans to impress his own girlfriend (wife).

Oh, and the picture is one from this last Christmas on the beach in Navarre Fl, where my sister, Maria, lives.

countdown to step 1 of the boards

Just signed up. Here's the damage.

Coming Home

My BIL (brother in law) Marc got home from a deployment to Iraq yesterday. Apparently they made the local news.