What we've been doing...

Busy weekend.
I was swamped last week: call on Tuesday, 24-hr moonlighting Wednesday, work and moonlighting Thursday, call Friday. No, I'm not kidding. Anyway, so after sleeping on Saturday we had the Wood kids for the afternoon which was a huge blessing and tons of fun. Picked up Dad and Sara from the airport, then dinner with them, then some time with my aunt, uncle, and cousin + wife.

Sunday was focused on re-organizing the house in the aftermath of furniture delivery. We are the owners of lots of new office furniture, and Ross now has a dresser/changing table. What a lucky kid! Now we're BOTH actually working at functional desks in the new and improved office. All the bookcases are in here now, and the dogs are resting on the floor. I know I'm crazy, but having this much organization and functionality is nigh unto perfect for me. It's weird how much stress this relieves. I am in heaven.

You're it

Here are the rules: List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether or not they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now. Post these instructions on your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.

Seven songs (in no particular order or preference or genre):
1. Aimee Mann - Voices Carry
2. Pink with Indigo Girls - Dear Mr. President
3. Corinne Bailey Rae - Put Your Records ON
4. Liz Phair - Closer to You (HOW CAN I CHOOSE WHICH SONG??)
5. Indigo Girls - new album Despite Our Differences (HOW CAN I CHOOSE WHICH SONG??)
6. Dixie Chicks - Easy Silence
7. David Gray, John Mayer, David Mead - all their albums put togther.

I had to have #7 in order to represent the other 50% of the species. Don't listen to a lot of guy stuff.

I don't know whom to tag. I'll have to think about it. I'm not much of a super-blogger (obviously).

Baby boy

These are the latest U/S images. We are doing great.
Mae got spayed yesterday and is puny and tired today. She was happy to be home - and not particularly mad at us thus far.

Celebrate Freedom

I love the ABR.... honest

Physics no more. I just want a "P" for pass.
It was pretty hard. I pretty much hated it. But actually, it could have been a lot worse. I think it is just one of those hoops you have to jump through. There were lots of concepts about producing images that I am glad I learned. The in-depth science of it all is just not my thing. I'm not into really into the technical applications of electronics and bits and bytes.

It was also some quality time with the other residents in my class, and I'm grateful for that. We went to dinner in Memphis the night before, then out to Beale Street for some R&R. It was better than being at the hotel! Let's just hope we all passed after a night on the town.

How Katy Blake became Ross

Okay, so I guess an explanation is due.

We weren't going to find out. It was a lot of fun that turned abruptly into misery. Then we had to know. This change occured soon after our second-trimester ultrasound, during whcih we were instructed to turn our heads and close our eyes about 50% of the time. So our doctor and ultrasound tech know it's a Ross, but we don't.

We go to work one evening to scan. I'm the ultrasonographer and the radiologist this night. We use an old scanner and try to get a peek. It was difficult, but I was pretty sure there was nothing there. I shouldn't have made a call. At one point, I thought I saw the tell-tale signs, but I couldn't reproduce it. The kid was moving all over the place. I naively called XX.

Erica calls the doctor the next day and tells her we saw girl. She agrees. She had briefly witnessed the anatomy and assumed that the radiologist (yours truly) knew what was going on.

We tell the family, publish to this here public forum, etc.

I run into the ultrasound tech a week later and tell her we "found out." She grins broadly, "It's a boy!!"

"WHAT?"

And that's the long and short of it. I am subsequently ribbed by all my co-residents - rightfully so, I must admit.

So the routine update - I've been studying. I have a long weekend off to prepare for Friday's board exam. I did a moonlighting shift Friday for 24 hrs. Helped with a funeral at church today and rested, now hanging out with the dogs and watching Hogs football.

Recent Netflix:





Best book ever:


You must read it and think about it.

At least I can admit when I'm WRONG

It's a boy.
Not a girl.
XY.
Not XX.
I am a horrible excuse for a radiologist.


Please disregard the former post and return any clothing items you may have bought.

Guess what??

Kathryn Blake Braswell, EDD 1/15/07

Funny

Funny joke I just had to share:

Bill Clinton is placed against the wall and just before the order to shoot him is given, he yells, "Earthquake"! The firing squad falls into a panic and Bill Jumps over the wall and escapes in the confusion.

John Kerry is the second one placed against the wall. The squad is reassembled and John ponders what his old pal Bill has done. Before the order to shoot is given, John yells, "tornado"! Again the squad falls apart and Kerry slips over the wall thus making his escape.

The last person, George W. Bush, is placed against the wall. He is thinking, "I see the pattern here, just scream out a disaster and hop over the wall." As the firing squad is reassembled and the rifles raised in his direction, he smirks and yells, "Fire!"


Things are well with the Family Braswell. I am on my angio/interventional rotation and having a blast. I think I say that every time I switch rotations. Which means I have no idea what I want to do with my life, but I guess enjoying your job is a good problem to have. I talked to Erica Brooke tonight in Denver (we were both on our way home). She is in the throes of wedding planning and it was awesome to catch up.

More pictures again!!!

More ultrasound pictures at the HomePage Braswell. Here's the link again:
http://homepage.mac.com/leahbraswell/


Let me know what you think. We're still not looking down below - It's an ongoing challenge now to make it all the way to birthday. It's either XX or XY. Driving my dad crazy, which is about 90% of the fun at this point.

We picked up the crib today and will set it up one night this week. E's office is slowly becoming a nursery. I'll take pictures as we go.

Bottom of the 9th

So tonight is my very last lower level call. Our call tier is sort of complicated, but there are always two people on call overnight: a 1st-year resident and an upper level. My 1st year of call is winding down. The first-year wears the pager. Horror of all horrors and curse of all curses. That thing is on fire. Anyway, this is my last night with that bloody thing!!! Tomorrow, I'll be free of the pager and ER cell phone.

But.... now I'll be the upper level. Any decision in the middle of the night belongs to me. I have to answer to the mistakes made in the morning. There's no attending around at night when major decisions are made. Ahhh, responsibility. Perhaps I'll be wishing I could carry the pager soon. I'll be stressing over whether or not this kid has appendicitis and needs to go to the OR. I'll agonize and perseverate, but then it'll be morning and I can go home and sleep and all will really turn out OK. It always does.

Rites of passage.

Saturday

Another fairly lazy Saturday morning. I have been getting things done and hanging out with the dogs. E will be home soon. My desk is nearly clear of papers - it has been weeks. The laundry is all underway, dishes clean, list of tasks made. I've even been to Target. Even took Erica dinner at work last night.

Can you tell there's something looming? I am a creature of habits and patterns. High school, college, med school - any time something big is due, or a project needs working on, or I have PHYSICS BOARDS CREEPING UP ON ME --- these are the cleanest, most organized times of my life. Instead of studying, I clean. I work in the yard. I clean out my car. I e-mail long lost buddies. I work out. It is ridiculous.

I think I'll hire my mom. She is an organizing consultant and task-master extraordinaire. She would probably tell me to come home in the evening and spend 30 minutes on physics. THEN tackle the myriad other things. There will always be more mail.

It's always the bigger the project, the more I procrastinate. Do you know how much engineering is involved in putting a huge magnet into a shielded room, putting a patient in there, and turning that into a perfectly clear image of the beating heart and injured myocardium? I do. Oh well, like Nietschze said,......

So if you need a planner, rearranger, organizer, thrower-outer, prioritizer, hire my mom. And tell your friends. She can walk into a house and make it work better for you. Any and every room. Let me know if you have any prospective clients and I'll hook you up. Thanks for reading the shameless plug.

Disappointment

So, we finally made an offer on a house. We've been looking for a couple/few weeks now. There was a big one on McAdoo that was tops on the list. We saw it again yesterday but then decided against it. So on to a house nearby - this one on Gable. I had loved this house from the outside since before they put it on the market. Sometimes you can just tell. Anyway, we walked in and it was soooo obvious that this was the house for us. We made an offer. They called us this morning - no can do on the contingency part. [We are residents and can't agree to buy a house without a clause contingent on the close of our old house.]

So life goes on. This is a big lesson in not getting your hopes too high. And a lesson in humility. And all those other tough things. But immediately after I got off the phone (for the millionth time this morning) I looked at Erica and the world is all right again. Our little family is 100% intact. I feel better now that at least we have an answer.

Our first open house is today. I hope we get twenty offers and have to decide between them all. Ha. That'll show 'em.

Then we'll have all kinds of buying power.

News flash - E is thinking in terms of no fellowship at this point. Hooray! No three more years of night call. No three more years (plus a career) of stressful critical care and ethical dillemmas about dying babies. No more killing ourselves to stay afloat in the real world (i.e. any world outside of the hospital.) So hopefully we'll have a family member with a real salary next summer. I hope it works out. As you know, career decisions in this Braswell family have a way of.... well, let's just say they're fluid. It's just like anything else. No matter what happens, we'll be fine.

There's growing interest in Little Rock for getting a rowing club started. Don't worry, my name's already on the list. I hope and pray that it comes to fruition. I would LOVE to have a regular crew to row with!! They're talking about a boathouse on the NLR side of the river.

What else has been going on.... well, neck spasms for me. I have made a trip to the massage place. Hopefully more trips to follow. Job hazard of being a radiologist, I guess. I'm sure there are more interesting things to talk about, but I can't think of any right now. Oh well. E has one more week of nights, then back to days. Little Sport is doing well. There are more ultrasound pictures at www.homepage.mac.com/leahbraswell

My link function isn't working, so you'll have to copy and paste.

House

Consider yourself forewarned: we are thinking about moving "to town." It's an ongoing dream that rears its head every once in a while. Lately, it won't go away. Let us know if you know any houses in the Hall High area. We're willing to go up in price and make some sacrifices. Can you imagine an hour in the car every day with a newborn? Trips to daycare, errands, all that mess.

Anyway, we've been buzzing around the issue. Last night we went to dinner with surrogate 'rents Carol and Alan Mendel. Love 'em. Could write all day about them.

New photo website

Recent U/S

Pics from the most recent Ultrasound. Notice the perfect heart rate. This kid knows how to behave.

Memorial Day

Honor your fallen soldiers. And your on-call residents who thought it would be a great idea to take call Friday AND Sunday of a holiday weekend. With a new computer system in the radiology department that everyone in the hospital would have trouble with. With Riverfest dehydrated falling down drunks. With idiot boat and ATV and horse and car drivers. With two cases of carbon monoxide poisoning. Seen it all tonight, folks.

One cool case - bilateral renal abscesses with associated psoas abscess on the right. That's TB in my mind until proven otherwise. We'll see what it turns out to be. He's immunocompromised and has reason for TB. Could be anything, though.

I finally wised up and brought my computer to call. Hooked up the reading room computer speakers. iTunes hasn't stopped since about noon, and it's midnight. Awesome. U2 for traumas, Jack Johson for mellow routine studies.

Let's see, what's news on the homefront. Nobody wants to hear about work. Erica is entering the nausea phase, but today was not too bad I hear. She has stocked up on all things ginger. And we have fresh mint leaves to add to cool drinking water. Maybe this first trimester stuff will pass quickly. I can't believe we're 7 or so weeks already. My cousin Jayson and wife Jennifer had another baby yesterday. Harper Davis is number 3 for them. He needed a little nursery TLC last night but is doing great. We got to see him through the window last night. It was great to see all the family.

Tomorrow, we sleep. Then cookout with the Joheim's, then Meagan Tullos' graduation, then out for her big sister's 21st B-day celebration. I hope I can make it through all that!

On-call dietary today:
Starbucks coffee and cranberry orange scone
M&M's from the nuclear medicine stockpile
Wendy's baked potato and side salad
Nalgene water
Pizza s/p removal of pepperonis
Starbucks coffee (holiday schedule at the hospital means no Gourmet Bean coffee shop)

What a mess!

Winding down

Another late evening post. I'm trying my hardest to maintain focus and sanity with the whirlwind of events and tasks surrounding/swarming. I have this eternal weight on my shoulders about not studying enough. This physics test in September continues to loom, and I haven't done any real reading for it. But I did write the $900 check tonight, so the wheels are in motion. All downhill from here.

The good news is I know how to tell if a 16-day-old has malrotation of the bowel. Among other pediatric radiology topics.

The other good news is that I'm going to be a mom in January.
[If you're finding out this way, don't get mad. I've tried to call almost everyone.]

I don't know how to describe excitement. It's not in my vocabulary. There's nothing else to say. Miracles don't particularly lend themselves to concise statements. I keep having this weird reaction to Erica's first ultrasound pictures. I look at these things all the time, but it's so weird when it's my kiddo in there. I have checked everything I can possibly check over and over again, but I still get excited to think about what it really means.

It's already obvious how loving and caring our friends and family and church family are. A huge part of the fun in this whole journey we've started is sharing the excitement with the people we love. Thanks so much for all your phone calls just to check in. It says a lot when people are instantly happy and full of smiles when they find out. I think people who know gay people are not afraid to be supportive. That's just my take on it.

Dad said my grandmother was fine after her heart stopped and she required a ventilator for a while. Here's hoping a smooth recovery for the older generation.

Who knows? If this kid can heal some old sore wounds, I'm all for it.

It's nighttime

It's nighttime and so quiet except for a few crickets outside and I can hear E and Dory and Mae breathing in their respective dreamworlds and everyone is here in one room and everyone is in her own little comfy tucked in place and life is so good. I'll never forget this as long as I live.

Nothing else matters.

At last

I just uploaded these from the camera. They were taken on our camping trip just a week after bringing Mae home. I can't believe how much she's changed since then! These pictures make me realize how she's grown. She is really lovable, but also really playful. She loves to nip at heels - a born and bred herder (we knew what we were getting into). Dory is handling things so well and tolerating all the nipping and jumping. They're sleeping pretty well through the night. Both have shots this Friday. We can't keep them clean.

I have to admit I've never in my life seen a cuter puppy.

EHS

I had my England High School reunion "meet & greet" (how cute) Friday night. Not that I finished high school there, but they were nice enough to include me. What an event. I loved getting to see those people. Even though I haven't lived in England for 16 years (WOW!!), it really was like being around family. Isn't that weird? Not really family, but some other undefinable relationship. Anyway, it's the people I grew up with and spent ALL my time with. I was the girl in jeans then. I would have been the girl in that school who refused to go to prom. In fact, I skipped out on my own to go drink Rum and Cokes by the 20-oz styrofoam cup at Sewanee on a perfect spring weekend. But that's beside the point. The point is that I am still the girl in jeans who wouldn't go to a prom but who gets along with all the popular people, has a ball, and wouldn't trade my life and upbringing in a small town in Arkansas for forty million bucks.

To me, everyone had grown into carbon copies of their parents. I was doing all these double takes. They loved calling me Doctor - for about five minutes. Then everyone moved past that. We all had a lot to catch up on. One guy is an NFL star. One guy "maintains the estate and vehicles" for Jack Stephens. One girl is a massage therapist. A soldier stationed in Germany. A female LR cop. A classmate who works at the Pentagon - nobody knows what she does. Interior designer. PhD in something having to do with chemistry. Nurse, teacher, housewife, parent. Pretty amazing.

We may all talk about each other, grow apart, and change. But I do know that that group of people cares for each other and would hang together come hell or high water. They really impressed that upon me. I left there when I was a kid, but what a neat set of adults. See, it pays to be raised in a small town.

Thanks to E for letting me stay out late drinking beer with old friends.

Germane to a recent adventure

What is the best way to remove a tick?

Recent research indicates that some traditional methods of tick removal are ineffective and may even be dangerous. Medically acceptable procedures for tick removal are as follows: grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible with a pair of tweezers and apply an even, upward pulling force. If tweezers are unavailable and fingers must be used, they should be protected by disposable rubber gloves or, at least, facial tissue. Do not jerk or twist the tick; this action might tear the head and mouth parts from the tick's body and expose the feeding wound to the tick's body fluids.
Removed ticks should be saved in a vial or jar labeled with the date and location. This information will aid the physician in the diagnosis of spotted fever or Lyme disease should an illness develop.

Hey from us

Mayday

I am on information overload. Does this happen to anyone else? I think I'll invest in one of those centering weekends, where you pay to go sit on a hill by yourself and have some quiet time. Thing is, life isn't even that busy these days. But between studying, working, and trying to read, I can't keep up. Here's what comes across my radar in a normal day:

Mail
E-mail
Check the blogs
Runner's World
New Yorker
Pediatric Radiology: The Requisites
Online peds modules (way behind)
iTunes
More e-mail
Bills, online and otherwise
Car tag renewals
Malpractice insurance
Erica's progesterone and various other levels
Church media organizing
Church everything else
The Rep
Filing all of the above into the appropriate places
The dogs and their food, bathroom, medications

The list goes on an on. I guess these are just the hazards of being alive in the year 2006. Anyway, so an update is again in order. Still trying to get pregnant. Still loving our jobs, house, life, dogs, friends, family (at least half of it), church, and all the other wonderful things in life. I'm enjoying radiology at Children's, although we had vacation last week and caught up around the house. Quick camping trip to Petit Jean with buddies a weekend ago. New dog. You name it, we're living it!

It's been three years since Bush declared a victory in Iraq. Our work was done, apparently. Should we even tell him "Told ya so"??

I'll be working on recent pictures from camping, new puppy, etc. Mae needs to be publicized. And I've been reminded that I never posted pictures from the ceremony we had at our house. Hello?! What was I thinking? They're not even on my computer yet, so I'll be working on that soon. Promise. After I accomplish my daily list of information overload tasks.

Ripley's

Believe it or not...
I'm posting.

We had an awesome trip to Florida!! Pics are posted on my Yahoo! photos page. See the my photos link over there on the right-hand side of this page. Then click on Disney World and prepare to be amazed. And overwhelmed! There are like 130-something of them. Have fun with that....

It's the modern version of subjecting friends and family to slide shows of their 18-day-long road trip across the MidWest. Boring if you weren't there, probably. Oh well we had the time of our lives. If you've been there, you understand the magic that place entails.

Back to the real world. We are doing great. Enjoying our house and rearranged office/extra room space. Dory is glad to have us home, but had a great time with Uncle Will. Everyone is tired of the cold weather. My running routine sucks. I'm so mad at myself and hate that I'm not a perfect allstar athlete committment-savvy runner.

Erica is reinventing her organizational life with Franklin Covey. Lest you be deceived and think this is an expensive DayRunner... let me help you out. It's a life-altering system of defining your goals, values, and mission statement. Only as a side effect do you actually get things done and accomplish all your goals in life! Oh, and it comes in real leather. Seriously, I'm proud of her taking charge of her hectic crazy resident overworked life. She is really interested in a NICU fellowship after she finishes residency next July.

I still have no clue which fellowship(s) I'll pursue. I love too many things. Time will tell.

I could write a while and catch you up a little better, but it's time to head to the bedroom and settle in time for ER. For all you American Idol fans out there, I can't stand your show. Just kidding. I think it's pretty funny, but the 10 minutes I've seen don't deserve all the stupid radio air time on my way into work. Thank goodness for iPods so I don't have to listen to that stuff ad nauseum...

Implode

They're about to implode the old student dorm here at the med center. When I say about to, I mean in about 90 minutes. This place is on a lockdown. I came early to start my 1/2-call. The streets are icy, the implosion is the news of the day, and everyone is totally wacko. The other resident called and said she wouldn't come until after the lockdown is lifted (11 AM or so), so I have an upper-level here with me who has already worked 24 solid hours! The techs are all here, even though there aren't a lot of cases. And I have no attending. I guess we won't see him until after this mess. What a weird day! I'll let you know how it goes, here in survival mode.

We stayed at my dad's last night. Dory could not rest in a strange place. But the weekend has been good. E and I switched rooms - she gave me the guest bedroom as my NEW OFFICE! She was just excited as I was. More on the house/home plans soon...

Sad

This is so sad....I didn't even know it was the Olympics until we were at a restaurant Friday night and saw the opening ceremonies. Does that say anything to anyone else? No wonder I feel like a chicken with her head cut off all the time - I AM!!

Great times lately with family and friends. My precious cousins were so fun to see on Friday. (And my mom, aunt, and uncle!!) Dad and Sara took me to dinner tonight. Erica started 2 weeks of nights, so there went Valentine's. Plus I'm on call. Oh well.

Zac, a fellow resident, is supposedly at the hospital with wife and (hopefully) new baby right about now. I can't wait to hear about it. Everyone is having babies. It's like a population explosion in LR among our friends. Shahked is now a month old and I can't even believe it. Sigh.

Yeah, I know

It's been forever...again. Even I am missing my blog. I just get so caught up in the day-to-day. Priorities do change as the first year drags along. I am learning so much and working so much and playing so much and visiting with friends so much...

We babysat our friend Shahked last night, who is three weeks old. She got mad every time she wasn't held facedown. It was almost funny to see her scream that hard. Is that twisted or what? I am so sick for saying that. Everything she does is phenomenal to me. E is teaching me all about this stuff.

We've continued our Wed. night dinners with the Joheims. Got to see the cousins this week as well - for Erin's birthday. Imagine a vegetarian eating at Doe's... I did have a bite of tamale, though.

CT rotation is still going well. I am still liking radiology more and more as I get more comfortable on call and at work.

We are talking about rotating our extra rooms. It will give us a chance to freshen up the office. It needs an organizational overhaul. One of the goals/side effects is better study space for me. Lord knows I neeeeeed to study. We have physics boards in September, and this residency is all about studying like a marathoner all four years.

The guy at Starbuck's knows my name. He says regulars should come inside rather than drive thru!

I'll continue to promise to try to attempt to post regularly!!

Saturday at the U

I'm up at work today, but it's only for applicant interviews. I am leading the tour. How nice to be here and not be stressed out!

The hugest news is that we are PUMPED about our trip to WDW. The flights were $10 thanks to frequent flier miles!! We're staying at the Wilderness Lodge for the five nights, and I can't wait. March 8th is our ceremony date. Lots of details to work out before then.

The second hugest news is that I finally got off my you-know-what yesterday after work and went for a run. For some reason, I have had a huge block about running ever since the beginning of interventional rotation. It's been forever. The longest break I've ever taken since I began running a few years ago. I am painfully out of shape. It hurt. But I'm so glad I went. Maybe this is the start of a new routine. I'm tired of hearing my excuses.

Life has been routine. We are missing our buddies vacationing in Florida. Lots of things are going on at church. I've taken on a lot of responsibility with the media production and continuing to help at Community Breakfast. Plus more reading and homework for work. I started CT rotation this week, and it's really important to learn as much as I can on this one.

I had this dream last night involving hanging out at the lake. We had like two or three ski boats and toys galore. E and Dory and me and kiddos jumping in the water and playing like crazy. Doesn't get any better than that, until you have to wake up.

Boring

I think I must just be a boring person; I haven't had much to talk about lately. Not much has happened, really. I have been lackadaisical this weekend. I'm so sick of being on call. I won't bore (see, there's that word again) you with complaints. I even get tired of hearing them.

The L Word has resumed for a third season. That's good news! Tonight's episode will no doubt be riveting. The book of Daniel is barely playing in Little Rock - how scandalous. I have last week's episode on TiVo since I was hanging out in the reading room, dictating 5,000 plain films, at that time.

I got to see my cousin Will this weekend. He has agreed to housesit for our WDW trip in March. I'm going to take him up on the offer to do some odd jobs around the house. Stuff I would probably love to do if I had free time to do them. He is getting over the flu and feeling better.

Lots of church stuff. We fed about 200 at Community Breakfast today. I washed plates like a madwoman! Lots of lotion for me today. We had a meeting after church about the Methodist Foundation for Social Action. Basically a liberal group within the church that wants to preserve doctrinal flexibility, inclusiveness, and justice. Very forward-thinking and progressive. If we don't do something, the church as we know it will disappear. Our foundation depends on open minds, hearts, and doors. I learned that there are giant corporations with people who are NON-Methodists (but part of the religious right) who are pumping dollars and manpower into our church. They run political warrooms. They want appointees to our delegations in order to change our Book of Discipline to reflect their values. It's all about exclusivity in membership. If they kick out all the people who don't look, talk, and act just like they do, then there won't be much left worth coming back to. I am so frustrated by this. My theory is: you can't be inclusive "some of the time." That doesn't count. You can't claim open doors and bar those doors to gay people (just ONE of the many examples - I just happen to take that one most personally).

As I stood there, I was reminded that change in our country is all about meetings in little rooms, with folding tables and chairs, a pot of coffee, a sign-up sheet, and a group of people who insist on what's good and right. I would have fit in so well as a hippy in the 60's. I never knew that I was a social activist waiting to happen. Powerful stuff. Rage against the machine.

Happy birthday MLK. Thanks.

2006

Welcome to the New Year. New year, same old blog.

The holidays were upon us, then made a casual exit. The tree is down and in the yard waiting for the big truck. Erica worked seven nights in a row in the PICU, so I saw her on occasion. She made it to Christmas Eve service but missed Christmas celebrations with both sides of my family and hers as well. All in all, it was a great Christmas nonetheless. We didn't give or get too much. Our biggest gifts were to the church and Heifer Project - all is well with that.

We went to New Year's Eve at the Peabody Hotel, an event preceded by fancy dinner at our house with Jessica and Meredith, who were Sydney-less. What a nice night! The Peabody was a blast, but way too crowded. Ran into several people we know. Then a cab ride to their house, during which our cabbie was subjected to lots of talk about LH surges, ovulation prediction kits, frozen sperm, etc. Both families going through fertility attempts! He laughed good-naturedly. I got up early to head in for another 24-hour nightmare known as call.

Menu:
Shrimp pasta
Broccoli
Green salad with almonds and fresh raspberries
Brie and jam toasts
Cranberry chutney/cream cheese/crackers
Champagne fruity drinks
Espresso/Au laits
Amaretto Cake

Pretty impressive, huh? The decorations were still up, and I totally FORGOT to take pictures.

I have had a LOT of call lately. For some reason, they were all jammed together at the end of December. So now I'm recovering and getting things done around the house. We also went to Beauty and the Beast at the Rep, which was the BEST show I've seen there.

Erica woke me up this morning screaming my name from the front door. I stumbled out there in my PJ's to see a house (across the street and down three) totally engulfed in flames. We were in total shock. The fire trucks were already there and spraying from atop the big ladder on top of the truck. Firemen everywhere, sirens, lights, people outside watching. I at one point mentioned my camera, but it was way too weird for that. There are only bricks left. We watched them tear down the garage door as everything was still burning, and there weren't any cars. It was surreal to watch the three firemen go inside with oxygen tanks as there were still flames burning. I'm still hoping no one was home, but there is no news that I've heard about it. Katy called me from Fayetteville to say that it was on katv.com. Apparently it started burning a little after five, but we didn't go out until 6. It seemed to be at its pinnacle when we got there, because we watched almost an hour as it died down. All day today, there have been cars driving on the street. The trucks were still there when I went to the dentist at 11. I guess Erica was able to leave okay around 8 to go to work.

Anyway, that's the exciting news. I'm off to my local law enforcement agency for fingerprints (one of the joys of medical license application). I guess it's good that licensed physicians can't be criminals. Right?