Obama loses election how?

Normally when Emily has a nightmare, she has an uncanny ability to recall specific events of her dream. Apparently after her voting experience yesterday, she had a disturbing vision in which Obama lost the election due to one of our friends...check out the video of her dream (isn't technology amazing these days)...

Yes. I. Can.

Today I took advantage of my civil liberty and voted. This actually took place accidentally, not intentionally. I had planned on voting next week at the early polling stations at the hospital. I even had the day of the week picked out for when I next worked. But, alas, this was not the case.

My overtime was cancelled at 11am so I had a day ahead of me with no real plans. I had some library books in my car that needed to be returned (yes, I make frequent use of my local free services) so thought I'd swing by and drop those off and pick up some new. As I rounded the corner of the main entrance my eyes saw the polling booths and tables set up, filled with other enthusiastic Americans.

As a side note, why is it a requirement to be over 70 to run the polling stations? I mean, here we are in a college town, located in the ped mall, in the heart of campus and the only individuals running the station are retired teachers and veterans. (I know because I asked...tactfully). As another side note, did you know that they are required by law to go over the ballot with the voter and provide non-biased information? True enough (I found this out when in my exuberance to get to my booth and told the nice lady that I knew what I was doing, for which I was interrupted and told that she HAD to explain the procedure because it was the law). Now, I don't know if its actual law, or the laws upheld by dedicated Iowan's who don't want to have Iowa subjected to a situation like Florida had. But hey, they take their job seriously, at one point I was fearful that if I didn't seal the envelope correctly I may be led away in handcuffs. (There was a cop voting 2 booths away...so it could have happened.) Oh, and does anyone else get a little nervous that they didn't entirely fill out the ballot fully and that maybe your vote won't count? Or that the damn bubble seems impossibly large and did I really get it filled correctly? These are serious concerns for serious voters. I hear you laughing at me but you just wait until you're in between the plastic walls of a make shift booth, pencil in hand, giant bubbles filling the page with names of judges and district attorneys you've never heard of but hope if you ever end up in your court you voted for the right one, and you just see if you don't have a feeling of apprehension. Did I mention that I had to use the handicap booth...there was a little anxiety here people!!!

So, I voted. And I have the pin to prove it. 3 minutes of social obligation and I've changed the world. If only...

New box to check on health history form...

Some of you may have already heard the news in the last week and a half that I was recently diagnosed with Melanoma skin cancer. Yes, you read it right. For those of you who don't know until now, sorry for not sharing earlier but we didn't want to worry more people than we had to. Unfortunately for those of you who do already know you probably found out when I was hysterical or nearly there. But, today I received good news...the melanoma was successfully removed! Now, some background storytelling...

Upon moving back to Iowa I started to notice an area on my back that would itch occasionally. I didn't think anything of it at first until finally I was conscious of the scratching and asked a coworker to take a look at what I was scratching. A mole. *little pink flag...not red because they said the mole looked fine* So, a few months go by and the mole still itched every now and again. Still seeking medical opinions of my coworkers to verify all is well...no change. Finally one day I thought, you know, it's been about 9 months since my last check, I should get in to the dermatologist. Now, I know most of you have probably never seen a derm doc before but I've had 4 moles biopsied in the past (all ok) but have a high likelihood of melanoma because my father died at 46 from it. So, I'm a worried wart and get in at least once a year if not every 6 months. The last time I had been in I had a biopsy and then excision of the site due to irregular fast growing cells (precancerous, but not cancer...confusing, I know). So my thoughts were, hey stupid, get to the doc when this itching thing continued.

Sorry for all the background, but here's more:

So, finally make it in, get a biopsy although both staff and resident agree the mole looks fine, just irritated, and I quote "doesn't look like melanoma so don't worry." So, I left and forgot about it. Until a week later (9/29) I get a call from the staff doc and he tells me I have melanoma. Of course shock sets in and my nursing knowledge flies out the window and I can't ask one single educated question before I thanked the doc then hung up. Then of course broke down. All I had heard was melanoma, most serious form of skin cancer, and needing surgery soon and the words kept circling in my head. My appointment was two weeks ago this Thursday to remove (hopefully) all the melanoma remaining. They took 1 cm on either side of the mole (an inch total in width) and cut 4 inches in length.

Now, I have a very tight incision on my back that makes it a little hard to bend, turn, stretch, but am otherwise ok. And now that I know they got all the cancer cells I'm feeling pretty good about that too. I now have to go in every 3 months for a year then every 6 after that-if no more angry cells.

So, I'm sorry to keep nearly everyone out of the loop, but I wanted to hopefully deliver good news on the cancer front instead of just increasing the worries of all our readers. For those of you who did know, I am very thankful for all your prayers and concerns and love and support. I'm truly blessed to have caught this cancer very very very early before it had spread.

Election Prediction?..."My Friends"

If The University of Iowa's school of business' Iowa Electronic Markets (IEM) is as prophetic as it has been in the past, then it looks like Obama may be pulling away as the presumptive victor for the White House, as his shares have gone up to $.77 a share as of yesterday....and that's some news that most of us can rest easier with, considering the economic mess that seems to be brewing.

How 'bout Them Apples

This weekend Chris' parents came to town for all of us to catch up, and also for them to have their teeth worked on by Chris. After back-to-back appointments on friday, saturday found us all heading out to acquire produce for a "fall" feast. Thus we headed to a local apple orchard called Wilson's, which is just north of Iowa City by about 15 minutes.

After picking 5 buckets of Lura Red apples by hand off the trees and off the ground (only the good ones), we contemplated all the recipes one could incorporate these excellent tasting apples. What we settled on was apple sauce, and an apple pie to complement two great dinners over the course of the weekend.

Emily went all out and made what was deemed the best apple pie had by all, which was followed promptly by naps on the couch. Now, what to do with the 3 buckets of apples remaining...

Debate This!

With the first of the debates starting tonight (err, that's what I last heard anyway as of this afternoon), I found this column apropo...

"Song of the Day":

Sleepless in Seattle...err...Iowa City

I'm sleepy. Have I mentioned that I have to work night shifts now that I'm back at Iowa? Well, I may have or maybe have not. I'm too tired to care or look back on previous posts. Oh wait, I do remember saying it once or twice before. Oh the wonders of sleep deprivation. And how does one prepare for night shifts. Well, I start the day before. I try to sleep in late. This is usually no later than 9am. Try as I might, I can no longer sleep the day away like I used to in college. (Maybe this is a sign I'm finally a grown up...oh wait...that came while looking into life insurance and disability...) None the less, I sleep as late as possible. I get up, run errands, do laundry or, sometimes do nothing and just read. Then, in the afternoon I attempt a nap. Today, this was not possible. Sleep would not come. I shut the blackout shades, put the fan on and tried to lull myself to slumber by reading a book. To no avail. UGH. Therefore I am sleepy now at 1:30am and know that I have 6 hours to go. Now, when I get home despite my exhaustion, I will be unable to sleep because I drove the entire way home with the glorious sunrise blinding me. This poses a problem since I'll have spent the entire night indoors when I should normally be sleeping, then just as my body thinks it can't take anymore and wants to crash, I shock it with full-on sunshine. My brain doesn't know what to think... "why in the hell were you up all night when you should be sleeping? Whoa, wait, is that sun, guess it's time to rev up for the day..."

Eventually my exhaustion will overrule my brain and I'll fall asleep for about an hour before I wake up, toss and turn, fall back to sleep for another hour...and repeat. And what really rips is I have to do this all over again tomorrow night. So, as the night drags on I'm at least thankful that there have been no major crisis that have occurred to tax my exhausted brain. Although, you would be surprised how well I can perform under pressure. Now if only I can convince my patients it's time to sleep and not call me in for ice chips every 5 minutes...

Going Green

Proof that small changes in attitude can have a big impact, this past week The College of Dentistry had a Go Green campaign spearheaded by a colleague/friend of mine to reduce medical/dental waste...you can read about it here as well as watch the video below.

"Song of the Day":

Pale over Palin

True to form, I've been a little lazy with the blog lately. Mainly because I've simply spent all my time working and secondly, I have little that interests me right now. But I digress..

Something has me a little fired up. Palin. Now, it's obvious that I'm a liberal democrat. I believe in global warming, higher taxes for the rich, better foreign policy, blah blah blah. You know the spiel. So my comments may not come as a surprise regarding the republican VP candidate Palin. Now, besides being a democrat, I'm a woman (well, that's obvious), white and middle class. I may one day be categorized as a white suburban mom. So, given these obvious "statistics" I am outraged with other white, middle class suburban woman and this swing towards McCain/Palin. Now, I know that the woman in our country have fought for equal rights for woman in the work force and have fought for the right to leave their children at home and work in a "man's world." I am thankful for those protests and for the choice to stay at home with my children or go to work to make an equal wage to a man. Go She-rah hear me roar!

However, our current generation of new mothers/soon to be mothers no longer have to prove that we can make it in a man's world. We've fought and won the right to work and not be forced to stay at home. And therein lays my issue with Palin. What mother, with a new infant...let me rephrase that...handicapped infant...would CHOOSE to run for one of the most stressful jobs in our country and therefore leave the care and raising of her baby to another? (I hear the boos and hisses from those of you who support her decision to fight for woman's rights and lead a career in government.) I know I sound like a sexist man or a kept woman but in fact, I'm a woman who loves to work, loves my freedom, but I would hands down ANY day make the choice to stay at home and raise my children myself if financially able. Especially a child with Down Syndrome or any handicap for that fact. So for that fact alone I'm upset with her choice to run as VP.

Secondly, my liberal views on global warming and wanting to leave the world in a better place than I found it is very strong. One of my strongest beefs with the Republican Party as a whole is their belief that global warming is not caused by our treatment of the earth. Now, I'm not a scientist, but you've got to figure that with the industrialization of our world, we're probably not doing the best for mother earth. So, this leads to my second bone of contention with Palin. As Alaska's governor, she allowed (along with the Bush administration) the drilling for oil in our nation's wild life refuges. Oh, and did I mention that she doesn't believe that polar bears are going extinct? I mean, according to republicans, the ice caps aren't melting because of global warming and therefore polar bears aren't dying out. . (Let's just ignore the obvious here and keep raping the world for our own human benefit.) What's at stake here? I guess as long as we have our SUV's in our driveway full of gas refined from our nations wildlife sanctuaries, outside our McMansions filled with crap we don't need, next to our neighbor who bought a house he can't afford and now is being bailed out by the government, we can be happy that we achieved the American dream. (A run-on sentence, I know) After all, bigger is better, the more you spend the better you look, the better you look to others the more self esteem you have for yourself for which you can sit back and gloat..."I got this here with my tax refund check."

Enough already...I'm all riled up now...

McCain on Palin

An interesting interview with John McCain...

Our New Gig?

Last weekend we headed to the west coast to check out a practice and a place in which to relocate. The town is Gig Harbor, the state is Washington, and our general consensus is that barring any extenuating circumstances, this is where you'll most likely find us this time next year. As the year progresses, we'll certainly post any updates as they happen.

Gig Harbor is about 40 minutes from Seattle, and 10 minutes outside of Tacoma via the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Other points of interest readily available from Gig Harbor include Mount Rainier National Park (1.5 hour drive), Olympic National Park/Pacific Coast (2 hour drive), and Portland, Oregon (2.5 hour drive).

View Larger Map

The first two days of our trip were spent visiting a practice and getting to know the immediate area. Since the Narrows Bridge has opened, growth seems to be making its way into Gig Harbor, which as of the recent census had nearly 7,000 people. In time for Emily's arrival, and to meet anticipated growth in the area, there is a new hospital being built in Gig Harbor that will be opening in 2009.

After investigating the Tacoma/Gig Harbor area for two days we decided to venture north to Mukilteo and then back to downtown Seattle, where we headed to Pike Street Market. Luckily, the weather was beautiful with highs in the upper 70's and clear, allowing some nice views of Mt. Rainier.

Unfortunately (depending on who you ask) Chris didn't have many opportunities to take photos while in the area, but below are some sub-par photos of a few areas we drove through. Even though we had 3 full days there, the time seemed to fly, and before we knew it, we were headed back to Iowa.

Weekend Jaunts

Fortunately or unfortunately, the last few weekends have found us away from Iowa City, and thus we've been unable to update the blog in any substantiative way. Not that we haven't been having fun though since being back in the midwest...so here's a catch up on what we've been up to...

The weekend before labor day found us heading east to Davenport for a double-header of get togethers with friends. Earlier in the afternoon we caught up with Eric and Verutzka Haugen to celebrate Eric's birthday. Eric and Verutzka were old dental classmates of Chris', and Verutzka is currently working in a clinic in Davenport while awaiting Eric's completion of his education. Its anyone's guess where the pair will end up after Eric finishes school, at this point Louisville and Atlanta seem to be hot contenders, they just know that it will not be Davenport. After catching up over lunch at Granite City, we decided to take a tour of Davenport, as neither of us had really every been "in Davenport". It just so happened that we were able to catch an antique tractor parade that is held annually in the city. The highlight for Emily was the turn of the century clothing washer that was powered by a small gas engine that certainly would fail any state's auto-emission standards. Lets just say we're thankful for today's modern amenities, sans choking smoke.

Davenport Antique Tractor Parade - 2007

Sad that our parade experience and Davenport tour would have to be cut short, it was time for us to depart Eric and Verutzka's to catch up with another friend of ours, Sara Engelmann. Sara was in town from Raleigh, NC visiting family and attending her brother-in-law's B-day BBQ, so we decided to swing by and catch up with her, as well as finally meet her boyfriend Anthony. After some eats, it was time for some backyard ladder-golf...and of course the guys killed the girls in each round without challenge. We wish Sara well in her job search in Indianapolis.

Chris & Anthony, holding their blue-balls

The next day found us heading west to Des Moines to celebrate Barry's birthday and catch up with the rest of Emily's family. Since we hadn't seen much of Emily's family since before our move to Texas, it was good to see most of her distant family. The weather couldn't have been nicer for both days.

On Labor Day weekend we headed back to Chicago to relax with Chris' family. While nothing too exciting happened, the real story of the weekend centered around us feeding a peg-legged goose that Chris' dad has befriended, and hence named "Web". Every morning for the past few weeks, Rick has been visiting Web to feed him stale bread and give the guy (yes, anthropomorphizing the goose now) a pep talk, as the other geese in the park actively shun him. Is this an evolutionary behavior that the geese exhibit, shunning "the less fit", or are geese really this mean?...concepts to ponder... We also had a chance to enjoy some outdoor time down by Lake Michigan and soak up what little sun would be left before fall begins.

Speaking of which, this whole fall thing seems to be happening a lot sooner than we remember it happening. Now granted, we were in a warmer climate for the past year, but neither of us seem to remember having weather this cold during the first week of September. We can only hope that a strong indian summer trend will prevail.

The next weekend we were off to Gig Harbor, WA to scout out a potential dental practice, and a place to possibly call home in the future...

"Song of the day":

Roses Are Red...

A 12 second exposure of the most attractive rose of the dozen I bought for Emily last night...

"Song of the day":

The Lone Tree

With some excitement due to a new tripod purchase, and Emily working the weekend, I decided to head out east of Iowa City into the area around West Branch and see how well the D200 could perform IR photography...its definitely not as good as my old D70, as it takes ~30 sec. exposures to get any appreciable signal strength. This results in some blurring of foliage due to even a slight breeze, below was one of the better results...

"Song of the day":