NaBloPoMo Day 30--Done

Sunday on-call at the VA is usually a pretty quiet day. They don't have a real ER there, so not a lot of sick people show up. There are no clinics on the weekends, so docs can't send their patients to the hospital, and there are no weekend procedures, so the orthopedic surgeons can't dump their patients on our service ("yeah, I know he's got a broken hip, but I think he'd be better served on medicine." "what are his medical problems?" "he's 85, i'm sure he's got something").


Today was no exception. I actually got to leave work at 6 pm, since we don't stay overnight when we're on call at the VA. It was nice to have time to catch up on the boring but necessary aspects of life. Like laundry. But I also had time to catch up on my food blogs, bookmarking all the recipes I want to make in the coming weeks. And we finished our Christmas shopping last night (thank you Amazon!) so I pulled out all the wrapping paper and gift tags so I can start putting together the packages to send off to our various relatives.


I feel like it has been a ridiculously long time since I had a day off (it was Tuesday...). And you my dear readers have had a ridiculously long time without an interesting post about anything. We're both in luck. Wednesday, I get the day off. Finally. And today is the last day of nablopomo. I'll probably disappear for awhile, it's hard to post regularly when I'm on the wards, mostly because not a lot happens in my non-hospital life. So you all have a little break to look forward to. Thanks for putting up with this. I think I will not do it next year.

NaBloPoMo Day 29--Almost there!

It is a good thing this whole post everyday thing is almost over, because I am completely out of anything to say. So I give you another photo from the Tracy 1970's collection (except this might be Kate, I'm not sure...):
Nice hair Dad!

NaBloPoMo Day 28--Post-Thanksgiving Turkey Coma

I have nothing to say, but as there are only 2 days of this nablopononsense left, I must eke out something for your reading pleasure. So I leave you with this:

I had some crazy hair back in the day!

NaBloPoMo Day 27--Thanksgiving

After washing what seems like every dish in our house, twice, my hands feel like prunes. But for our first go at Thanksgiving, I think Adam and I did ok. Nothing turned out spectacularly but neither of us have any special family recipes to start from, so this was a Thanksgiving from scratch (except for the Silberfein apple pie, Adam is always very successful with that one). I tried to document the day through photos, but the lighting in our place is lousy, I hate using the flash on my camera, and without image stabilization... well, you end up with a lot of blurry food photos.

Adam was in charge of the turkey. Using his mom's patented self-basting technique, we ended up with this: Yes, it looks like it landed flat on it's back after falling from a great height, or perhaps someone who spent too long tanning on one side (which effectively it did, since we cooked it most of the time breast side down), but since we carved it all up in the kitchen, no one ever saw the unattractive turkey. The meat was tasty and moist though, and isn't that the point of a turkey? Who cares what it looks like?

Afterwards, I got to hack up the carcass with a cleaver (what does it say about me that my favorite part of thanksgiving day was the hacking up of the turkey carcass?) and it is now simmering away on the stove to provide me with large volumes of turkey broth.

We had a lovely evening with one of Adam's co-workers and his family. They have 3 kids under the age of 3, and were the most wonderfully well-behaved, polite children. It almost made me want to have kids. Almost. Dog first. Kids later.

NaBloPoMo Day 26--Traditions

Now don't get me wrong, with my last, oh woe is me post. I'm still excited about Thanksgiving. Adam's making the turkey and apple pie. I'm making a whole collection of other things, including the pumpkin bread that is baking right now. The fact that I have to work in the morning sucks, but it could suck worse. I could be one of the patients in the hospital and have to eat the VA's version of turkey. And as Adam has pointed out to me, as we get older, our memories of what holidays were in the past get harder and harder to recreate. And that is ok, we just need to start creating our own holiday traditions. We'll figure those out. For instance, Adam needs soup on Thanksgiving because that is something his family always had. I need cranberries made from scratch because one year long ago I realized those were ridiculously easy to make, and I decided to make them every year. At Christmas, Adam needs his blue sweatshirt and Christmas socks for Christmas morning. I need corn souffle for dinner (pronounced soo-full for those not familar with the traditional Tylee family dish) and cranberry nut bread with coffee for opening presents on Christmas morning. I need molasses sugar cookies and Russian tea cakes and oatmeal coconut crisps. I need mom to teach me how to make fudge (hi mom!). I'm sure we'll figure things out as we go along and come up with our own blend of the Tylee-Silberfein holiday traditions. As long as those traditions don't involve me regularly working on the holidays, it will be great.

NaBloPoMo Day 25--Holidays

I have fond memories of the holidays from my childhood. I love the days where you get out of bed, stay in your PJ's for the entire morning, cooking and baking, with the smells of turkey and pumpkin pie filling the house. The last three years I've missed that. I think I've worked every holiday since I've been here. And even last year's Christmas, when my family was here and we had a big dinner with friends, which great, wasn't the same since I was at the hospital until noon. I didn't get to spend the morning in my PJ's, opening presents, eating cranberry bread, and drinking coffee. We're doing Thanksgiving on our own this year, and Christmas with Adam's brother (I think). I'm sure we'll have a great time but I miss the days of having the whole family gathered around the table. Being an adult is hard.

I'm going to watch Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving Special now. And put together my Thanksgiving Day Spreadsheet. How's that for holiday tradition?

NaBloPoMo Day 24--Progress

A few months ago I decided I needed to do something to get back into shape. So I started running. Very slowly. In fact, 2 months ago when I started, I was walking more than I was running. My route looked like this (you may have to move it around to get the full route to show up, I can't figure out how to make google maps look the way I want them to in my blog):


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Today I ran 5 miles. Still, interspersed with occasional walking, but I've made progress. In fact, I'm now having to double back and loop around in order to make my route long enough to get my entire run in. Here's what I did today:


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The best part of all of this is that I can actually tell a difference. I have muscles again, my clothes fit better. It's amazing. Excericse and eating less (and honestly, I'm not eating that much less--just no snacks and no seconds) really do lead to weight loss!

NaBloPoMo Day 23--ugh

One week to go... must not quit. But after being on call last night, rounding for what felt like forever this morning, not getting in a good nap once I got home and knowing I have to be up at 5:30 tomorrow to do it all over again, another short, pointless post. This nablopomo thing is probably doing more to drive away my readership than anything else!

But Adam wrote a nice post on our other blog (too many blogs! must consolidate!) about our fish. Enjoy: tracyandadam.wordpress.com

NaBloPoMo Day 22--the final stretch

Only one week more to go of my incessant blogging.

But today, nothing. I'm working overnight at the hospital. Enjoy your weekend!

NaBloPoMo Day 21--more dogs

For those wondering what exactly a Vizsla is, watch this:

http://animal.discovery.com/videos/dogs-101-vizsla.html

(thanks Aunt Terri!)

NaBloPoMo Day 20--dog vs child

As we start to think about the arrival of our pup (a boy), we have realized that we are going to have to make some adjustments. But as we were disussing our work schedules this evening, figuring out who would be around in the morning, whether either of us could come home at luch, who could get home in time to take Pup out in the evening, I began to wonder, is it easier to have a puppy or a child? They each have their good points, and in reality, the kid probably wins. After all, they will eventually be able to have conversations with you. And that's pretty cool. But then again, Adam has conversations with our fish, and swears the fish talks back.

The dog however, seems to have some distinct advantages over the kid. With a dog you can leave it in a crate/kennel during the day, they (eventually!) go to the bathroom outside, and you can generally leave a bowl of food on the floor for them so if they get hungry, they can just wander over to the bowl and eat as they please. Babies on the other hand, well, it's frowned upon to leave them home alone, especially if you were to leave them in a crate. They require a lot of assistance with the whole bathroom thing for many years. And at the beginning, they can't even get themselves from point a to point b, so fending for themselves on the food front is out of the question. So far the advantage seems to be going to the dog... Oh I'm sure babies have their good points (most of the babies I have met are very cute, and their parents *seem* to like them), but I think I'll start with the puppy. If I can't take care of something that is this independent, I think I might have trouble with parenthood.

NaBloPoMo Day 19--Puppies!

Sigh. Are you guys tired of this daily blogging yet? I am. The whole point of this blog is to write when I have something interesting (at least to me!) to say. Required daily blogging isn't quite the same. I know I could quit anytime and return to my usual sporadic posting, but hey, I've committed to this thing. I think I can make it the last 12 days.

Today, puppies. And probably frequently over the next 8 weeks as we get updates on the puppy. Bingo is the mom, she had 11 puppies last night. ELEVEN! That's a lot of puppies. We get to pick ours up on January 10th. We are still debating on names, so please leave your suggestions in the comments. For those who don't know, we are getting a Vizsla, which is a Hungarian pointer. Why? Because Adam saw one in a bar once and thought it was a great looking dog. Which they are. Even when they are wiggly eyeless puppies they are pretty darn cute.

NaBloPoMo Day 18--Work

I'm at the VA hospital this month, and our call schedule there is a little different. Normally when we are on-call, we admit patients every 4th or 5th day. On those days we stay at the hospital overnight, get a few hours of sleep, work half of the next day, and come home and sleep the rest of that day. At the VA however, they have decided that the resident should not stay overnight (it's one of the creative ways they have of dealing with resident work hour limits). So today, I got to work at 7 am and left work at 10 pm. Because even though I don't spend the night, I still have to do all the work I would have done if I were spending the night. And even better! Tomorrow I go back to work in the morning, and instead of sleeping, I have to go to clinic in the afternoon! I'm not a big fan of this schedule. Thus, I'm too tired to write more. I'm going to eat my grilled cheese sandwich (which always makes me happy) and go to bed. But I will leave you with this:

PUPPIES! Our puppy was born today. We get to take him home in 8-10 weeks. I want to name him Milo. I don't know what Adam's name de jour is.

NaBloPoMo Day 17--the Olympic Coast

My first date with Adam was a hike along the Olympic Coast. It was a bold move on his part, "want to go camping this weekend?" But equally bold on my part for agreeing. We drove out to the coast, I learned he didn't like cherries, he learned I like Bon Jovi. And we spent the day hiking along one of the more unique trails you will find. We hiked the Ozette Loop. It started cloudy, but by the time we reached our campsite there was a beautiful sunset. And marshmallows. It must have gone ok though, since I'm still listening to Adam sing, and he's still letting me cook for him.

NaBloPoMo Day 16--Up Next

Rough day at work today, and 2 hour nap, making dinner and watching a movie with Adam. Thus no time for a real post today. So I give you photos of some of my favorite Seattle-area hikes:

Mt. Rainier

Mt. Baker, the south side

Mt. Baker, Skyline Divide

North Cascades, Sahale Glacier

the Olympic Coast

If time allows the next few days, I'll post more pics from these hikes. I miss the mountains. Although I don't miss camping in 30 degree weather, which is what we ended up doing on those two Mt. Baker hikes. We even got snowed on once. But still, I can't wait to be back in the Northwest. I just can't get used to this 80 degree weather in November.

NaBloPoMo Day 15--Post-Call Baking

I do have more past adventures to share, but now that I'm back to the painful work of inpatient medicine, I'm too tired. Last night started out fine, only a few admissions, things were quiet. But then it all got a little crazy. While I was interviewing a very nice man in the ED, they brought in another gentleman, who sat down and proceded to have a massive heart attack. My poor patient was a bit concerned, "do you need to go help them?" he asked. I looked over, and as anyone who has ever attended a code knows, there was a massive group of people surrounding the man--doing chest compressions, putting in lines, hooking up monitors, pushing meds. So no, I didn't need to help. I think the gentleman must have died 4 or 5 times, but they kept bringing him back and eventually got him to the cath lab. Last I heard, he survived the procedure and was awake and talking. My patient however, remains a mystery. A very nice man, but as you talk to him, you realize he's not making any sense. He's not answer questions correctly. He can't explain what is going on. And he got worse and worse while we were talking, eventually reaching a point where he would only speak Spanish and wouldn't follow commands. But this morning, he was back to his cheerful chatty self. Hopefully we'll figure out what is going on with him...

So with all that excitement, I only got a few hours sleep. Which means when I got home today, there was only one thing to do--bake a cake. We're having a pho party tonight (I'm not cooking pho, I'm leaving that to the Asians in the group). I am making the communal birthday cake (there were 2 b-days in our group this last week). I *love* baking. I enjoy it more than cooking, but I can't do it very often. I have a tendency to eat all of whatever I bake. Luckily there are occasions such as the pho party that allow me to bake for groups. And my friends are always so nice to compliment whatever I bake, no matter how poorly it turns out.

It's not pretty, in fact it looks as though it has been through an earthquake:

But I think I should get some credit for attempting a German chocolate cake from scratch! Here's hoping it tastes good.

NaBloPoMo Day 14--Back to Work

Today I start a new rotation, in-patient at the VA hospital. This is perhaps my least favorite hospital to work at. I love the patients, they are some of the most grateful, happy, compliant, and just nicest people. But the bureaucracy of the government... well, it all makes my job a little more difficult at times.

I'm on call tonight, and thanks to the government installed firewall on all VA computers, I do not think I'll be able to blog from there. So, this is it for today. I will leave you with a fun fact though. According to my "who's here" widget, the most common way for people who don't know me to end up reading my blog is through a google search for "quitting residency" which leads them to this. Unfortunately for them, I don't really think that is the information they are looking for. But if any of them make it to this page, hi! I know residency sucks. But it ends eventually, and then you can get a real job, and hopefully that won't suck!

See you guys tomorrow.

NaBloPoMo Day 13--Nothing

It's my birthday so I'm declaring it a day off from blogging. But by blogging about not blogging, I'm still NaBloPoMo'ing. Tricky, isn't it?

NaBloPoMo Day 12--UNESCO

As I was writing about the Slovenian caves yesterday I wondered, how many UNESCO world heritage sites are there anyway? Is it really that big of a deal? (there are 878 and yes, I think so). And then, similar to the Tylee battle of who will be the first to visit all 50 states, I began to wonder, how many UNESCO world heritage sites have I been to? The answer...

1. Salzburg, on my first visit to Austria
2. the palace and gardens of Schoenbrunn, during my adventure in Vienna
3. historic center of Vienna, of which I saw more than most tourists (see above)
4. Watertown Glacier National Park (see NaBloPoMo Day 9)
5. Luebeck, in northern Germany. I lived here for a month during a high school exchange program.
6. the palaces of Potsdam, which I visited during above mentioned summer exchange.
7. historic center of Rome. Ah, Rome. I did love that city.
8. Vatican City. Did you know they have a statue in the Vatican City Museum that looks just like Bill Clinton? Seriously. I wish I had taken a picture.
9. the Maya site of Copan in Honduras, with it's lovely ruins and such a nice little town
10. historic center of Florence, which I did not enjoy so much
11. the city of Cuzco, in Peru
12. Machu Picchu!
13. the Skocjan caves in Slovenia, of course
14. Yellowstone National Park
15. Olympic National Park, site of Adam and my first date
16. Redwoods National Park, home of the Paul Bunyon and Babe of my childhood

Only 862 to go!

NaBloPoMo Day 11--Slovenia

I don't remember why we decided to go to Slovenia. My friend and I were planning a post-medical school graduation trip to visit my mom in Austria. I imagine we looked at a map of where my mom lived, picked the country we knew least about and decided to go there. And such a good decision it was.

A few fun facts about Slovenia:
-- It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria on the north, Croatia on the south and Hungary to the east
-- They declared independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991
-- Slovenia became a member of the EU in 2004 and introduced the Euro in 2007
-- There is one inch of sea coast for every inhabitant (I don't think you actually get to own your one inch of sea coast though)

I encourage anyone planning a trip to that part of the world to spend a few days in Slovenia (a few days is all you need). And to make your trip even easier, I shall provide you with 10 things to do when you visit Slovenia:
1. Visit Bled, a beautiful lake resort town.

2. Eat kremna rezina (cream cake). A Slovenia speciality and so yummy.

3. Walk to the Vintgar Gorge. It's about an hour long walk, but through beautiful countryside.

4. Rent a car. It's really the only way to see all there is to see in Slovenia as the trains are not going to get you to many places. And the roads are great.
5. Drive through the Julian Alps. This is where Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms" was based.

6. Stay on a farm and make some Slovenian friends, like these guys who shared their beer and prosciutto with us.

7. Visit the Predjama castle, near Postonja. You can visit the torture chamber and re-create scenes where you put your friends on the stretcher.

8. The caves! The most amazing place I have ever been. Think Goonies, but without the pirate ship. There are two big cave systems: the Postonja caves, which repordedly have moving sidewalks and trams, and the Skocjan caves, which are a UNESCO world heritage site, and the ones we went to.

9. Eat seafood in Piran

10. Spend a day in Ljubljana, the capital. But skip the castle. Worst castle in all of Slovenia.

NaBloPoMo Day 10--My Favorite Place in the World

Now this was not a terribly competitive contest, as I have not traveled extensively outside the U.S., but this was one of the most beautiful, enjoyable, funnest trips I've been on. Today, just the pictures. Tomorrow, I will tell you the high points, so you too can visit this beautiful place.

NaBloPoMo Day 9--Glacier

My last stay in WWAMI-land was 6 weeks in Great Falls, MT. When it came time to head back to Seattle, it would have been easy to head south to I-90 and cruise along that all the way home, but no. After discovering my love of the road trip, I could not bring myself to take the direct route. Besides, the road through Glacier National Park had opened up a few weeks ago and this was my chance to check it out. So I drove north, and took a very leisurely drive through the park. Nothing much else to say about Glacier really, I didn't get out of the car and hike at all, just drove from viewpoint to viewpoint. It was all quite beautiful, like so much of the west is. Here are some photographic highlights to encourage you all to get out and explore the west.

NaBloPoMo Day 8--Road Trip to Julian

Since the honeymoon, Adam and I started a new blog to post about our joint adventures. It seemed silly for both of us to write about the same thing, and post the same pictures on seperate blogs (is this what marriage means these days? you combine blogs?)

Thus, our short adventure in Julian is on that blog. I think I will eventually migrate my personal blog over there as well, I just have to figure out how best to do that.

Tomorrow, there will be something else here. Glacier if I get around to blogging early enough. Something less time consuming if I don't get around to it until late.

NaBloPoMo Day 7--Too Tired for Glacier

Today's plan was to tell you about my final road trip of my WWAMI adventure, the drive through Glacier National Park. But I am le tired, so perhaps later this weekend?

Tomorrow Adam and I are taking a little road trip of our own to Julian, where we will go hiking and eat apple pie. Then some friends are coming over for a night of board games and cake. I had to bribe them all with cake. I can't say I blame them. If someone asked you if you wanted to spend your Saturday night playing board games, would you do it if there weren't any cake?

You may notice the latest addition to my blog, the widget to your right. Now I can spy on you all and tell who has been reading my blog. Kind of. It doesn't really tell me who you are, just where you came from. I had been using google analytics, but I always forget to check it. It's nice to know people love me.

So stay tuned for this weekends adventure. I'm hoping to find real fall in Julian, instead of this half-assed fall San Diego is trying to pull-off.

NaBloPoMo Day 6--Yellowstone

Yellowstone National Park is an amazing place. It can be enjoyed by anyone, whether you are the type of person who wants to enjoy the views from your car, or you want to do some backcountry hiking. The animals are everywhere: buffalo, elk, bears. And it's all a little scary if you think about the fact that you are on top of a caldera.

I went to Yellowstone twice while living out in Wyoming/Montana. Once was just a drive through on my way from Buffalo to Great Falls. The other time was a weekend trip from Great Falls, which included a short hike into the backcountry. It's amazing how different the park is if you get off the roads and away from the parking lots. We didn't see a single other person during our hike, and came upon all kind of geysers and hot springs. Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures during these adventures and the ones I did take aren't very good.

But take my word for it, Yellowstone is amazing. You should go.

NaBloPoMo Day 5--Wyoming

I think fall arrived today. How does one tell when fall arrives in So. California where the trees never lose their leaves and frost is unheard of? As best I can tell, three things herald the coming of fall: it is dark when I go running after work, the temperature does not get above 75, and Peet's has eggnog lattes. Based on those criteria, it is now fall.

So now we move on to the next stop on my tour of the west during the fall/winter/spring of 2003-2004. After Alaska, I spent 3 months living in Wyoming. A vast beautiful state, where I more fully developed the art of road tripping.

After spending the first 6 weeks in Sheridan, WY living in old officers' housing at the VA hospital, I moved on to Buffalo, WY. It was while in Buffalo that my friend, who was living in equally exciting Havre, MT at the time, came down for what I still think of as the ultimate road trip.

I must have had a 3-day weekend, because I seem to recall this being a 3-day event. But who knows, it all blurs together after this many years. Regardless, we started in Buffalo one lovely spring day, and decided to go to Mt. Rushmore--about 3 1/2 hours away. And I got to check a new state off my list.

On the way home, never ones to take the direct route, we swung by Deadwood, SD to partake in some blackjack and a prime rib buffet. Many hours (and miles) later we returned home.

The next day, we decided to drive over the mountains to a little town for lunch. Here is what we planned to do (60 miles each way):

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Here is what we actually did (nearly 400 miles round trip):

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It was a very lovely drive: It started off innocently enough."Thermopolis! That sounds funny, let's go." We had A&W root beer floats there (did I mention this friend was the enabler from Alaska?). Then we saw the sign for the Sierra Trading Post Outlet Store in Cody. "Let's go shopping!" Our final goal was to get to Sheridan before 9 pm so we could get ourselves a tasty steak dinner. Rather than go back the way we came, we chose to make a loop, crossing the mountains on Hwy 14. This pass is at 9000 ft. We got stuck in a snow storm--in May. But eventually we made it down, safely got our steak dinner and once again, back to Buffalo. The next day we had brunch at a local hotel. Because is was Easter and that is what people do on Easter. One of the best road trip weekends ever.

Tomorrow... Yellowstone. One of my favorite places in the whole country.