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.

60th post boo yah!

I thought I would post my current favorite internet video. If you don't think this is funny the first time, watch it again. then repeat. every time you watch it, it gets funnier. I recommend limiting your views of the video to 10x/day or you may not get anything else done.

Iran So Far Away: A Digital Short.

SNL - Iran So Far
Uploaded by Pfff

How To Build A Freakin Awesome Arbor For Under $130

Man, who has time to blog these days…seriously? I have so much to write about, but no time to do it. I have been making audio notes on my phone about things I want to write about. Maybe I'll get to them one day. Things like how Jesus passed me on the freeway coming home from Atlanta. Things like Fry-night with the Atlanta gang. Things like six flags and how I have totally forgotten how awkward teenagers are (and horny, for that matter)…Those things will have to wait.

This weekend, I (we) built an arbor in our backyard. We had been talking about making one for a while now. We were considering buying one already made from Lowe's for three hundred bucks. Luckily I was feeling ambitious and decided to build one from scratch.

With some rudimentary plans taken from various websites we set off to Lowes. 2 hours later and $130 poorer we left Lowe's with 2 bags of Quickcrete, a box of nails, a box of screws, a post-hole digger, and some wood: 4-4x4x10, 2-2x6x16, 2-1x6x10, and 2-2x4x10 (all pressure treated). I borrowed a screwdriver and jigsaw from a friend (thanks Will) and with the help of my hammer, table saw, and circular saw I was set.

So, the first hole was kind of a random one and the rest were also kind of eyeballed. It is really hard digging deep holes in this South Carolina clay (my forearms are killing me right now). Somehow in the end, the four poles ended up kind of straight and level and the thing actually looks like we put it in a good place in our back yard. I wouldn't recommend eyeballing it, especially when you are gonna use concrete to permanently put it in the ground, but it did work out for us.

Today, I laid down the top; cross beams and then the other crossbeams to go across the first cross beams (see picture). Then to finish it all off I put in a couple benches on the sides (again, see picture).

Basically, I think we got really lucky in eyeballing it. It kind of makes me want to build something else, but I doubt my next project would end up so good (ask Haley about past projects I have made – she'll never forget the original projector stand I made back in Utah).

Babysitting the kids

Babysitting the kids
Originally uploaded by Rob Egbert

Yeah, so Maria may not let me babysit her kids again anytime soon. Actually as I write this, Emma is wandering the house looking for her mom (in a surprisingly calm manner - knock on wood), Abby is watching Elmo, and John is in front of the computer playing a video game. I guess I can't criticize parents any more for letting technology raise their kids. It makes things so much easier.

I guess I have a long way to go before I am ready for kids of my own. Of course just being around Maria and Marc's kids fulfills any desire I may or may not have for hanging around children for the next couple years.

Navarre Sunrise

To start of my thanksgiving break, I decided to skip class and head down to Florida to spend some time with my sister and her kids while her husband, Marc, is over in Iraq. We are gonna head back up to Atlanta tomorrow to meet up with Haley and spend time with her family.

I was looking forward to doing a little fishing, but apparently there is a "red tide" right now down here in the gulf so I wasn't able to throw a line out. However, I was able to head out early this morning and snap off a couple pictures as the sun came up. Nothing like waking up at 5:00am while on vacation.

Workin It

fall colors
Originally uploaded by Rob Egbert

You ever feel like you study your life away? Neither do I. Though you'd probably think that I'd feel that way. Really, though, I probably don't study as much as I would work if I were working full time. It does suck when I have to study on weekends before a test, but for the most part med school isn't that bad. Pictured here are a handful of the books I would like to know inside and out before I take the boards this next summer.

In other news, today in class someone asked what the difference is between a "string sign" on barium enema of Crohn's disease and an Omphalocele. I fully realized that nobody who reads this blog will get why that is funny, but trust me, it is. Really funny. It was asked by the guy who always asks random, non-relevant questions. I'm pretty sure that today's question topped them all, though.

Another guy asked how it was possible to see through cancer with an X-ray. I was the only person around me who thought it was funny, which surprised me because isn't the answer obvious? Cancer isn't lead. It is like other bodily tissues. X-rays pass through all kinds of body tissues, why not cancer? You can see through cancer on X-ray the same way you can see through skin, muscle, organs. I mean, isn't that the point of x-rays? to see through things to get at what is underneath? Of course you can look through cancer.

I am by no means smarter than your average med school student. But sometimes when I listen to other people's questions in class my ego gets boosted ever so slightly.

Gob with the sneak attack

DSC_0621
Originally uploaded by Rob Egbert

Gob's new favorite way to try and eat our food. he is quite the crackhead. (PS, haley didn't give in).

Really?

Wow. This story is amazing. What is wrong with us? We want to hear about people's little domestic spats? This is the most mundane story in the world about a dad who is mad at a mom because he doesn't think she disciplines the children very well. Why would that make national news? Why does anyone care about this story?

I can't believe this is a story worth writing up and I can't believe that I have now blogged about it.

Gob vs. Snake

snake - ai
Originally uploaded by Rob Egbert

After rocking my test on monday (see previous entry) I took Gob out hiking in Modoc, SC. After we had been hiking for just under an hour, job was slightly ahead of me wandering back and forth along the trail. All of the sudden, I see little Gobby fly about 6 feet into the air, apparently scared to death. Apparently, this little guy had taken a lunge at him (pretty sure it bit him). I then took a half dozen pictures of him while Gob barked and barked and barked. The snake was less than intimidated. As we walked back to the car, I kept a tight eye on Gob, looking for signs of poison (I am far from proficient in identifying snakes). He seemed fine, if not a little shooken up from having the crap scared out of him. I later found out it was the "black rat snake," quite harmless. Sure made the hike interesting though.

Whoop whoop (cop siren)

MCG Buildings-6ai
Originally uploaded by Rob Egbert

Haley asked me to take some pictures for the cover of the MCG telephone directory (yeah, the major one that gets sent out to thousands of people). Excited to get my photography out there, I jumped on opportunity. I wanted to get a really good shot of some of the buildings on campus and decided to go out early to get either a night shot or early morning sunrise shot. So, picture me standing out on the corner of the "busiest" intersection on campus: Where Laney Walker Blvd. meets 13th street. It is 6:00am and I have my tripod pointed at the MCG cancer center (pictured here) and begin taking pictures. Not three shots later, a black and white came screetching across 4 lanes of traffic (well, more like 4 lanes, no traffic - it is really early), flying onto the curb in front of me. Of course I smell some harassment coming on, but continue to take pictures. The cop gets out of his car, I explain what I am doing, he asks for some ID (which of course I didn't need because it is lawful for anybody, let alone a student of the institution to take a picture). I show him my ID and it should be over, right? Well, he then proceeds to call it in, then call every other cop on duty, then the local chief on duty, and then the head chief that wasn't on duty. I then point out to him that anybody can take a picture of anything in public at any time and that he was, in my mind, harassing me. He then said something about security and a post-9/11 world. I let him know that I understood, but by showing him my ID, I should be good (even without an ID, I should be good). He then proceeded to ask me questions for a half hour. Yes, a half hour. Interspersed in this half hour, they guy repeatedly made phone calls asking people what he should do with "this kid." I was very tempted to just walk away at this time, knowing full well that I had every right to do so. Better yet, I should have continued to take pictures and ignore him - but I didn't want to provoke him. Oh, and officer Barbara (yeah, real name, and yeah, it was a dude) wasn't the brightest star out that morning. He had to repeatedly ask me what group I was taking the picture for, even when he had it written down in front of him. He had previously asked me the same question 3 times. I ended up having to make a couple phone calls on my own in order to get a name of some faculty on campus who would back me up. This guy was an idiot. When he was finally satisfied, he left me with a parting message "hey, buddy, at the end of the day I got a job to do just like you." Thanks, officer Barbara, for that deep thought. You still harassed me for a half hour over nothing.

I really think it may have had something to do with my slightly darker skin. I wanted to tell him that I descended from the same Northern European ancestry that he did, but I didn't want to push my luck.

p.s. this isn't the picture we are using, but it is my favorite.

perspective

stars
Originally uploaded by Rob Egbert

haley and I went to look at stars the other night. sometimes, after you've been studying for about 10 or 11 days straight, it is nice to pull your head out of your dark tunnel and look up. At the end of the day, studying and test taking don't really matter. Oh, and by the way, I rocked that test in to the middle of next week.