Manic Monday

A morning spent in rushed boredom.





I spent the better portion of my morning at working doing patient intake. Of course it was crazy for a few reasons:
1. Quadruple booking-our receptionists have no concepts of how much time is actually spent with patients.
2. New patients galore-everyone wants to see a specialist at the beginning of the week & our receptionists have no idea how to schedule.
3. Ignorant follow up patients-they have no concept of how to be responsible in their own health planning.
True to Monday form, it was all coming in waves. Everyone was there at once or no one was there at all! I mean, why would people show up to the doctors appointment on time (or even early)? Monday also means that the physicians are ultra cranky from the start. I think each Monday I'll be putting a bottle of Midol on their desks!

Working in offices bites! I miss my hospital days so much! Unfortunately, hospitals in Pennsylvania pay significantly less than private offices. That's not saying much either! The commute back to New York or even into New Jersey wouldn't be worth the travel time with the way gas prices keep going up. Then there is the aggravation of pay taxes for working in one state while living in another. On a positive note, my cube world is situated right below a TV. Until I'm immersed in EEG's, I get to listen to CNN all day long. I'm getting really informed about politics while I play solitaire on my (work provided) laptop during the few slow downs that I have between patients.

Unlike my husband, I am registered to vote. I'm nagging Joe to get registered, because he sees no point in voting. I told him that because we are home owners he needs to register so that he can vote in the local elections. Those are the ones that will have a greater impact on our day to day lives. He agreed and will be registering at the first chance he gets.

Popped

Today we were supposed to have our BBQ with the family next door. As it turns out, the very pregnant wife, went into labor last night. I guess we'll be rescheduling the BBQ for the third time. It's cool though because the weather is starting to cloud up. For the time being Joe will be eating a lot of steaks, along with the sausage & almond rice dish that I made to complement the grilled meats. That boy's cholesterol is going to go through the roof with the food I cook for him. He's just happy because he still gets to play with his grill.

Check out flickr to see his skills with yard equipment... We got more gardening done today. I planted some shade loving plants in the upper portion of the tiered stone garden. We took the dirt out of the large wooden planters that sit in the front yard. I figured that soil was full of nutrients, so it would make a good, free top soil. We then took the emptied wooden planter & moved it toward the end of the driveway. Given the age, it made it to the destination before it slightly fell apart. We managed to put it back together, so now it will stay where it is for me to fill with flowers (probably daffodil bulbs) to mark our driveway. The second wooden planter should be on the other side of the drive way soon enough.

We also discovered today that Lily is really named Spicy & belongs to the neighbors in the blue house that are well acquainted with security. They were polite about the whole situation. I explained that for the past few weeks we thought that she was a stray, so we began feeding her & named her. According to the guy up the road, the cat frequently escapes (gee, i wonder why) & roams the woods. They were glad to know that if they can't find her that she's probably at our house & is safe. We did let the little girl & her father know that when we see the cat on our porch we'll return her.

Woodland Creatures

Last night before bed, we peered out on to the porch to check on Orion and Lily for one last time that night. Imagine our surprise when we saw a large (Sensei size) raccoon sitting in front of the cat food bowls. This not-so-little raccoon looked at us with a surprised little face at having been caught. After a few minutes of seeing us it scurried off. Joe & I kept running back & forth from the living room to the bedroom windows trying to watch where it would go. We closed up the porch & it came back after a few minutes, but couldn't get in, so it left for the night. We have now decided that we'll close off the enclosed porch for the night. We'll put the water dish out for the cats. Since Orion & Lily always return in the morning for breakfast, before they co out & play for the day. The grand plan will be that if we time it where both cats are on the porch before we go to bed, we'll close them in for the night with their food, water, & litter box.

So, then this morning I was headed off to work. I'm driving down Old Milford Road when an all black squirrel dashed out in front of my car. I slammed the brakes, skidded in a straight line & left a nice set of skid marks on the road. I avoided hitting the fuzzy little bastard, by the way.

Can you see how my day is going here?????

About 5 minutes later I'm riding down Route 209 passing by Fernwood, when all the traffic is at a dead stop. Well, I had to smile because all these squirrel squashing, SUV driving, road raging, NYC transplants were stopped in both directions so that a family of geese (mommy, daddy, & 4 babies) could cross the road & go into the pond. It was really cute to watch the whole thing.

So, thus are the joys of living in the woods. I wouldn't change it because I have missed it so much since leaving Warwick & Continental Road. Now if I could only get rid of some of the people up here....

Hanging Out w/ Dad + Ultimate Fighter Comments

This past Saturday I got to spend a fun weekend with my father. We basically just hung out and relaxed Saturday night, watching some of his new DVDs, soaking in the hot tub, and drinking beer. My dad had gotten DVDs of the old Abbot & Costello Show and Looney Tunes, and I still laughed a lot just watching all that again. I was a kid the last time I had seen any of that. Later that night we watched the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? It was a pretty weird movie, though pretty enjoyable. I'll have to watch it again. Sunday morning we got breakfast sandwiches, and just relaxed until I went home. It was great just spending time with him for a change.

Sunday I got to watch The Ultimate Fighter Finale from the night before. The first two fights went the distance, which surprised me considering who was fighting (Spencer Fisher usually gets a knockout, but he at least won the decision). Although another undercard fight had won the Fight of the Night award that is usually given out at every event, I felt the honors should've gone to the Diego Sanchez vs. Luigi Fioravanti fight. Diego dealt some punishment to Luigi, who took it and even answered back a couple of times. But Diego finally got in a good kick to the head followed by a swift knee to get the TKO (This finish should've gotten Knockout of the Night too). Amir Sadollah defeated CB Dolloway in the finals from The Ultimate Fighter show. Amir had beaten him on the show already, but after the other finalist got booted from the show, CB won another fight to get the spot. Thankfully Amir submitted CB with an armbar in the first round; same way he beat CB in their first fight, but two rounds later. The main event between Kendall Grove and Evan Tanner wasn't as exciting as expected, and though Kendall showed some great skill that earned him a decision win, Evan Tanner hasn't been as good as I've seen him before.

Well, I think that's enough for this blog. Hopefully this weekend I'll be taking my dad to the Texas Roadhouse restaurant I worked on for his birthday that passed by last week, and the following Saturday will be a big UFC pay-per-view that I hope I can go somewhere else to wacth rather than see it at home. So long everyone!

Joe

R.I.P. George Carlin

I thought I'd do a serious blog for a change to pay tribute to one of my personal favorite stand-up comedians of all time: George Carlin.
My favorite comedians are the ones who take the simplest ideas and simply blow them way out of proportion, and can make it sound hysterical. George Carlin was the best at doing that. Hearing him get angry over long lines at the bank, drivers with their blinker on constantly, and people with music on their answering machines got me laughing all the time. I've seen several of his HBO specials, and own a couple of his CDs that I will be listening to over the next few days as a personal tribute to him. Not once has he told one joke where I replied "That wasn't very good."
I also enjoyed some of his ideas for solving problems, although they were way out of left field, because some of them actually did make some sense. Putting a huge fence around the state of Kansas and putting all the country's criminals there to eliminate themselves still seems reasonable (although I think a state with some harsher terrain would help natural selection take its course), and got me laughing hard enough to cry. Not only did this kind of comedic approach become entertaining, but it also showed that there are those out there who understand what us middle-class people are like and go through.
So, I humbly honor George Carlin and his work. As far as I'm concerned, anybody who sounds as enraged and insane as he was is probably one of the most talented individuals to exist, and I am grateful for all the laughs he has gotten out of me. So long George, I promise the laughs won't stop.

Joe wrote this blog.

Weekend Review

We spent a little time in Warwick yesterday while Joe did some electrical work for my grandmother. He said is was the easiest house call he's ever had. We also got to catch up with Uncle Russell & Aunt Dolores. Everyone is doing well & Aunt Dolores even gave me a bunch of flower bulbs.

I can't believe how much Warwick changes in the time between visits. It's just so yuppie looking anymore! Oh, I even got pulled over in Pine Island by some baby faced rookie cop. He pulled me over for not having a license plate on the front of my car, only after he pulled me over did he realized that I'm from PA & we don't require a front plate in our state. According to Aunt Dolores all the cops in Warwick are baby faced rookies. All the guys we knew have retired or are about to retire.

Joe went to his parents house last night for a guys only BBQ with his Dad. He had a good time & even spent the night, because he had a beer too many. I just hung around our house & loafed. I was debating about rearranging all of the furniture, but then I couldn't decided how to do it. I think that will be one of those things that I have to think about all week before I actually do it. The living room will be the toughest because the TV is so big & heavy. Although, I have finally adjusted to the size of the living room set. It no longer looks squished together.

The muffler of Joe's truck is finally fixed! Now it doesn't sound like a Harley Davidson coming up the road. Our neighbor is a mechanic & he was nice enough to fix it for really cheap. We'll be having him & his family over next Sunday for a small BBQ. I guess it's time to clean the deck!

Relocation

Mom, Sean, the kids, Joe & I all went to Aunt Debbie's house last night for a farewell pizza party. It was just a small gathering so that we could all say goodbye.

Aunt Debbie & Corrinth are leaving next Wednesday for South Carolina. Christopher will be staying here to work & go to college. Lisa is out in LA at the moment, but she'll be going back to New Hampshire for college when her internship is over. I know that this will be a big adjustment for everyone. It was surreal yesterday to hug them goodbye & know that they won't be coming to all of the family gatherings that we normally have. It's been strange over the past few months to visit & not see Uncle Ronny there working on something or to just be able to call & talk to him. I still have that with Aunt Debby, though. I call for something small & we stay on the phone for about an hour. The new house has a pier that goes out into the canal. I know that is something Uncle Ronny would have loved to have. Since Uncle Ronny passed away, Aunt Debby has wanted to move. I know that she would like to be closer to her mom, and I think, to have some completion to the dream that her & Uncle Ronny had of moving to South Carolina once the kids were grown (or mostly grown).

You never think about how much things will change when you loose the person that you have built your life with.

Gatherings

The Rizzo Family BBQ was a lot of fun, as it always is. I just feel bad because I really can't remember the names of some of the people that I see there every year. Joe spent the majority of the time playing in the pool with the kids. He also went for a ride on the zip line that Uncle Rod & Aunt Melda have in the back yard. That was pretty funny. I'll get pictures of that up soon. They also have a beautiful stream running though their back yard, so I brought Sugar down to check that out. Well, she likes water. She wanted to play in the stream the majority of the time we were there. I think that she was trying to catch all the little fish! We tried to put her in the pool, but that was water she didn't like.

After that, we headed out to Opa's. By the time we got there, everyone was starting to clear out. They ate earlier than planned because the yard work got done sooner than planned. It was nice to see everyone. Sugar got to roam around the house. She dropped a "sugar bomb" in the family room that has all the dead, stuffed animals.

To respond to Sean's comment on my last entry, I know that I save a lot of money on film & developing using the digital camera, which is why I'll use it for time when we're goofing off with friends & family. I'll still shoot on film for the pictures that need to be composed. (the stuff that makes my photography skills what they are). I still stand by the fact that digital allows any moron to take a pretty pictures. (sorry, mom) It's also nice to have for those times when I don't have any quality film on hand. But yes, it does take really good pictures. I also rigged it to quadruple the zoom capability. heeheehee

Sitting

My furniture came today!!!!! At 10:50am, the couch & love seat arrived. Thankfully it all fit, because I never measured when we bought the stuff! I just didn't realize how big it all looks in the room. The living room looked so barren with only the old love seat & rocking chair. I'm having a hard time adjusting to the size of the room with real big stuff in it. It's probably going to get rearranged a bunch of times before I'm totally sure where I want it all set.

At the same time that all got here, Joe's Aunt Doris & his cousin, Sophia arrived for a short visit. This is the first time Aunt Doris has seen out new house. We haven't seen her or Sophia since the holidays, just after we purchased the house. As you may remember Sophia was our flower girl at the wedding. Aunt Doris is the lady that everyone was mistaking for Joe's mom at our engagement party in June of last year. We'll be seeing all of Joe's family tomorrow when we go to the Rizzo BBQ & then head over to his Opa's house.

I also uploaded the first set of pictures that I took with my new digital camera. You can even see Joe & I loafing on the new furniture. Now that things have calmed down, he's gone out to run some errands before he gets his muffler fixed this afternoon. I should go for now because I hear the not so distant sound of thunder.

Lights...Camera...

I finally got my new camera. It's pretty cool. I used it to take a few pictures this afternoon while we planted the lilac trees mom gave us. I'll be using it over the weekend at the BBQ we're going to on Sunday. I'll still bring all my regular gear, of course.

I also found the deer who has been eating up my front garden. Our little stray kitty, Orion, was trying to scare it off. That was kinda cute. When I brought the puppy outside, the deer just seemed mesmerized by her.

I also posted some pictures mom sent me of her incision. It's pretty nifty looking! She's healing a bit slower now. She had an allergic reaction to the surgical tape, so her neck puffed up even more than it normally would. She'll be fine though.

Movie Review

I finally went to the movie theater for the first time in a very long time. I was a big movie fanatic, but lately it's been hard to find a mere 2 hours just to sit and watch a movie quietly, and thoroughly enjoy it. Now that I have finally seen a movie, I feel a renewed appreciation for film, so I've decided to write a short review of the movie I saw tonight:

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL


Just to give a brief rundown of the story (without spoilers of course), we see an older Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) being forced to help out a group of Russian communists led by Dr. Spalco (Cate Blanchette). What he is forced to help them find leads to a series of events surrounding the legend of the crystal skull (no duh), an artifact with the ability to grant unimaginable power. As is usual fashion, this adventure takes Indy and a few partners (Shia LeBouf and Karen Allen returning as her character from Raiders of the Lost Ark) around the world, and includes plenty of action, Indy wit, and old-fashioned fisticuffs.

I truly believe that fans of the older movies will enjoy this movie, and even casual movie-goers would get a kick out of it. Minus newer special effects, the movie has the feel of the older Indiana Jones movies; which is good in that they don't detract from what made the first movies fun in the first place. Standout performances go to Harrison Ford of course, as well as Cate Blanchette. Ford still has that action bravado that made him famous, despite the showing of his old age. And Blanchette was very appealing as the femme fatal villain, keeping very convincing in her role. As for the movie's pace, it very rarely slows down, and keeps the action going without over-doing it.

The only negative things I can say about the movie is that it gets unrealistic at times with some action sequences, and the truth of the crystal skull legend they reveal is way beyond what you would expect of an Indiana Jones movie. But then again, movies aren't meant to be realistic, even if they try.

So I guess I should give this movie a grade or a score or something, right? I don't want to do thumbs up or down, no stars, so school grades; I'll just do a score out of 10 so I can be more flexible to those who even take my opinion seriously. So for the movie Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the score is:......................8.5 out of 10. Only having a few small faults, I would definitely recommend this movie, and I honestly feel that the movie belongs as a part of the Indiana Jones story.

Hopefully down the road I'll get to do this again, as I usually find some good movies that get my interest. Any responses and comments are welcome of course. Good night everybody!

My turn to speak!

This is Joe here! Just thought I'd try out this blogging thing. I'll probably talk about some stuff on here nobody is interested in; but hey, it's my blog this time.

I've been doing my best to stay cool during the climb in temperatures over the last few days. My "man cave" stays cool all the time, so I try to hang out down there when I can. I should be working on putting that room in order, but instead I just watch TV or play a video game.

Right now I want to find a place to got to when I want to watch a UFC pay-per-view. We get them at the house, but it's hard to get other people over to come and watch it because of the late time that it's on. Also, I seem to be the only one serious about watching them. If you saw me watching a UFC event, you'd probably see me trying to coach the fighters on what to do, even though it's obvious they can't hear me. And I think some of my pointers are good ones too. Thanks to some of my training and just from watching enough UFC, I've picked up quite a bit on what works in their line of fighting.

Well, I think that's good for now. If this gets a good response, maybe I'll try this more often. But right now, it's dinner time. Good night!

Recovery

My mom had had her anterior cervical discectomy with fushion yesterday. For those of you who have no idea what that means, I'll explain it as best I can in non-medical terms. Anterior cervical discectomy with fusion is an operation that relieves the pressure placed on nerves/the spinal cord by a herniated disc. Through a small incision near the front of the neck the surgeon removes the intervertebral disc to get to the compressed neural structures, then relieves the pressure by removing the source of the compression, and a bone graft is placed between the adjacent vertebrae. Mom's surgeon expected it to take 1.5 hours, but it took 2.5 instead. I spoke to her yesterday after surgery and this morning before she was to be discharged. She's now recovering at home.

I found out yesterday that my new digital camera has shipped from the store & should be to me very soon. I can't wait. I really was disappointed when I thought I wouldn't have it to play with during my parents annual July 4th bash.

We've also finally got our dates picked out to go to LA for New Years. It will be Joe's first trip to the West Coast. I think he'll have fun. I know that my nana is looking forward to meeting him for the first time. Also, the rest of my family out there is looking forward to seeing him again.

Super Sale

It seems as though Orion has now figured out that our house is home & has adopted us. Each morning & each night he comes home to sleep on either one of the porches. I think he prefers the enclosed one because it's the most protected.

Last night I found an awesome chat set on lowes.com, of course it was on super sale (over 50% off) in the stores. So this morning before work I called every store in the tri-state area & it was sold out at each one! I guess it's just not our time to get the patio set. I know we should wait until the end of the season when everything goes on super sale, but I want one now.

We're in the midst of a heat wave. I love all this hot weather, but Joe is hiding down in the "man cave" from the time he gets home. He can't wait for it to cool down about mid-week.
The puppy will only drink her water when we put lots of ice cubes in it, or a freezer pack below the water dish to keep it cool. The cats are handling the heat very well & actually seem to enjoy hanging out in the sunshine. Our cats are tanning, how funny is that?

Snafoo

So, I thought the furniture was coming today. There was a little snafoo. By the time I made the change to get it delivered today, the trucks were too full to make the delivery to our house. Someone at the warehouse forgot to let the store know to let me know. Oopsie
No big deal though, it will all be here next Saturday. For being so understanding about the situation, I get a discount on anything the next time I go shopping at Saw Mill Furniture. I thought that was nice of them.
See, I told you all everything I want is on order!

On Order

Why does everything I want need to be ordered? Joe went to the store yesterday to get my new camera, but they don't have it. Apparently, it's not available yet in stores. So we went online. Of course it's not available there either, so we had to pre-order it. It should be here in 2-6 weeks. I mean, WTF? Ok, ok, I know it's one of the latest Canon powershots, so I'm willing to wait. I could've gotten another one, but I really like my Canon cameras. The one I really wanted is still about $5000, & since we can think of better ways to use that money, this one will be nice when I get it.

Animal Attraction

I watched 2 bucks, one large, on baby eat the marigolds right out of the planters on my back deck. I actually said "Could you please stop eating my flowers?". The older of the two continued to eat but, the baby one stopped. At this point the puppy was dancing around my legs so I picked her up so that she could see there deer. Well, the little baby one was fascinated by the puppy. It kept trying to get closer to our window to see Sugar! So as the deer left the yard, I brought the puppy around to all the windows to watch the deer leave. The cats are fine with the deer, besides, squirrels are more their interest. Eclipse was watching a tiny baby squirrel forage for nuts in my wooden flower pots the other day. It was cute. Sensei just lops himself in a window & watches the world pass by. Occasionally there is a woodpecker or blue jay that gets his attention.

Also, we have a little light orange kitty that hangs around our deck & back yard now. We've named him Orion, because he looks like the cat from MIB. He's incredibly friendly & seems to just love having some human contact. There is a second darker orange kitty that also hangs around, I've named him OJ. Think what you will of that one, but it is named after the liquid breakfast drink! Then the other day we've discovered one that's brown with black stripes. No name on that one yet, but it hangs out under the neighbors deck. One of our other neighbors told us that there are hundreds of wild cats in this area.............

Mellow

Yesterday was my birthday. Birthday's have lost the flair that they had when I was a kid. Now it's just another day. All in all it was pretty low key because we had the party during the BBQ. Joe gave me a card & got me bread sticks from Domino's for dinner. He's giving me some money to buy myself something this weekend. I'm thinking that I'll get something cute & girlie. Also this weekend our new furniture will be delivered. It's getting here a week early, so I'm pretty excited about that.

We finally got Joe new truck tires, but the place we went to is horrible. The actual cost for 2 tires was double the what they told us it would be! So, we've learned to never use them. The really messed up part is that they were recommended to us as a good local place to go.

Ok, I just got done talking to Joe about my birthday present. Instead of giving me cash , he's going to get me a new digital camera. That's right, I'm breaking down & asking for one. Believe me, I'll still an manual SLR girl at heart & will use those cameras for the pro pictures that I take. I will never trade those because that's how real a photographer develop their skills, plus they're a lot more durable. The digital will just be nice to have for the times we get together & goof off with friends...

Lilac

I got the lilac bushes planted in the front yard, with blue bonnets between them & the sides of the garden are flanked by lambs ears. The front garden is finished for the time being. I even put in a slate stone border around it. Once things start to grow & fill in the spaces it will look very, very pretty. Joe turned over the dirt in the side garden, so perhaps next weekend we can take that one on.

Sometimes it feels like we won't get everything done that we want to. We got the leak under the sink fixed this weekend. It was a slow leak when we moved in & gradually got worse over the past few months until I couldn't take it anymore. I work with a guy who used to be a union plumber, so he did it right & for a good price. I'm trying to convince him to help us do the furnace soon. But, he's willing to help us put in the extra bathroom. We intended to paint the shed this weekend, but the weather didn't cooperate. The modified date is next weekend. I wonder how many more times I'll be writing that?

Mom let me know that all but one of the little spruce trees that were sent to her house have died. I guess they were doing well, but then just died overnight. Of course, we have some more mature ones that we can give her.

I've finally completed uploading all the wedding pictures that we want to share.