I'm leaving!!!!

Tomorrow I am getting on a jet plane and going somewhere the seasons change. It is a town of beans, a town of cream pie, and a town who's socks always seem to be red. A town that looks nothing like my picture above. Any guesses?

have you cleaned your ears out lately?

Dearest Readers,

Please click here . You will be so happy that you did. Or truthfully, I will be happy that you did. You may also note this was done with no Media Training and with no recent hair cuts.

We are still offline, I am not pleased with our phone and internet provider. I will emerge again soon.

Love,
me

call of the wild

I am not an adventurer (or at least one that enjoys adventuring in the great outdoors). The other people I live with are. Although it doesn't really seem so in this particular picture. They were hungry when this was taken. I now think it is very funny, at the time well not so much.

When Nate was little and would bug his mom while she was making dinner she would have him write reports to keep her out of her hair. These reports would always be about Birds of Prey. He was going to be an Ornithologist (or a Tree Surgeon). I suppose Otolaryngology is close - its a long "O" word that no one really knows and he is a surgeon - but one of people, not trees.

Since moving here to our desert oasis we have seen SO MANY BIRDS! So many in fact that we don't have a particular place the binoculars belong. They are just out ALL THE TIME. We have even had emergency runs for the binoculars when say a curved bill thrasher is hoping around the saguaro or something majorly exciting like that.

Today they (the Adventurers) were practicing various bird calls towards the end of dinner. I finally excused them all and sent them on an excursion. They are now bird spotting down the street at the lake (because really with the kids you aren't "watching" the birds, you more or less spot them as they fly away) (the Jr. Adventurers aren't necessarily quiet as they approach the wildlife and for some reason the birds seem to fly away in haste).

While they are gone, I believe I am going to sneak one of Grace's Lindt truffles her Primary teacher gave them on Sunday. She really won't notice and let's be serious - she cannot appreciate a good truffle just yet. Perhaps when she is more settled in her bird watching and calling hobby I might introduce her to the beauty of good chocolate (I think I'll save The Beauty of Fine Chocolate until she's older).

it has begun, or it has resumed

The last few months have been incredible. One of the incredible things has been the lack of Call. However, last night was his third Call night. Since he had no hospital or practice communications during his first two nights - I knew we were in for it.

Sure enough, 40 minutes after going to bed the Call came. And it was a true throw-on-your-scrubs-don't-even-attempt-to-comb-your-hair-and-just-get-out-of-the-door emergency. He was gone for 2 1/2 hours (not so bad, really). Forty-five minutes later another Call comes. This time (thanks to fabulous technology - CAT scan downloaded at home) he didn't have to go in, he did however do a 30-plus minute over-the-phone consult. At 3:15 a.m.

We've been training for this for at least a decade. Two months off is certainly not enough to throw us off our game; it is long enough to allow me to have hope that one eventful Call night will be far and few between.

Author's Note: Call can be so disruptive to regular life I've decided it deserves a capital C. Thanks for allowing my crazy punctuation and capitalization, it makes me happy.

extortion or bribery? doesn't matter, i guess

There is a young man who refuses to partake of any vegetable or fruit (unless it is the juice of an apple). To ensure he takes a vitamin I have decided to offer a chocolate chip cookie as reward. This will occur on a daily basis.

I am totally okay with this course of action.

somewhere

(To be sung to the familiar tune: Somewhere over the Rainbow, Judy Garland style)

(Melody)
Somewhere over (or perhaps under) the rainbow
The wind is cool.
One's a/c unit works
And so does someone's pool.

Not here, in Arizona
Skies are hot.
My a/c works but the ceiling rains
Really quite a lot.

(Bridge)
Someday my pool man will come
And with him he will bring the parts required
To fix my pool vac and then
The gunk and junk will meet their end.

(Melody)
Somewhere out there I know the
Pina Coladas come
With pink umbrella adornments
And plenty of shade from the sun.

(Author's note: you may infer that I am hot, this leads to unfortunate alternate song lyrics. Please don't judge.)