Finally A Honda!!

All throughout my 4 years of dental school and even prior to that, I have always wanted to buy myself a Honda Accord. So now that I am a DR. I have fulfilled that dream! I deserve it don't I? I made it through dental school...I bought Emily her Mini (van) that she wanted...I'm a hard working resident that needs to get to work each day (in the ghetto)...So I looked high and LOW and found my dream car-A Honda Accord EX, CD-player, sun roof, power everything, Blue exterior and interior...

Oh yeah...did I forget to mention it's an '89 Honda? It cost $600 and increased my insurance by $20/year!!! (Yikes! These new cars!)

OK, so I'll have to wait another 10 or 20 years 'til I can get the "new" car. In the mean time, I'm just hoping this one lasts at least two more years...

Zoology 204

Q:What is this a picture of?



A: A Horseshoe Crab-Limulus polyphemus



I took the boys out on a walk this evening and went around the corner to our very own public beach. I had previously found this area on my morning jogs around the neighborhood. (It is a very pretty in the morning with the sun rising and the Herons, both white and great blue, out on the bay/marsh area...very nice despite the early hour). It runs along in front of some houses for about 100 yards and I wasn't sure if we were allowed on it. Then some residents came by and I asked them and it turns out there are no private beaches in this state. So we now have a very isolated, unknown beach around the corner from our house (with horseshoe crabs)!

Dentist by Day...

Well I may now have graduated from Dental School, and have a DDS, and passed the National Dental Board and the Western Regional Board, but am I a dentist? No not yet! After having completed a 3 week orientation in Brooklyn New York for Lutheran Medical Center, a Hospital that I will most likely never set foot in again, I am back in RI at the end of another week of orientation at St Joseph Hospital. Have I worked on a patient yet? No! But I have started a new career, for at least a week, as a Phlebotomist!!! No, I have no formal training in sticking needle in people's arms, but I guess all it takes to do it on patients is to first prove to the Phlebotomist working there that I can miss his own vein twice! It's actually pretty cool and I've become pretty good at it and haven't missed a vein since his.

Next week we actually start in the clinic!!! And on Friday I have my first patient in the Hospital OR where we work on the kids under general anesthesia. It is very nice being in Rhode Island again and knowing what happening at my own program. Its very exciting and I'm going to love it here and love pediatrics!!

By the way...So far I think SF has better New England Clam Chowder than New England (or at least than the hospital cafeteria).

Wanderings in NYC

It seemed that we would go out walking somewhere in the city and end up somewhere cool: like the top of the Empire State Building, Wall Street, my first tango lesson in Central Park, Balto, good sushi and Japanese food and fun playgrounds for the boys. We sure have had a fun time here, I go home tomorrow and am very excited to begin my residency and get going on our new
house!! Thanks for joining me on my trip to NYC!!!

Zion in the Midst of Babylon

I finally made it to the Manhattan temple tonight!!! It was very refreshing to be able to worship the Lord and be in such a peaceful and holy place. The building is very beautiful. There are whole walls with beautiful oil paintings on them, awesome stained glass and architecture. It is such a peaceful place and it felt good to be there again. I hadn't been to the temple for too long (even though I've been there for church the last few weeks. The Chapel is on the third floor and then the other floors are the temple.) Then I left and went out the doors and was almost literally blown back by the change from the temple to the busy streets of Broadway and Columbus!
(see Elder Stone's talk in the April 2006 General Conference: http://www.lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-602-29,00.html)

Amazing BODIES

My friends and I went to see "Bodies: The Exhibition." It was soo amazing. It is an exhibition of very beautifully, expertly, and artistically dissected cadavers. I'll admit that it is not for everyone. But for one who spent three months dissecting a cadaver myself, I was able to really appreciate the level of difficulty presented and also some of the names of the structures.


Aside from how well they dissected, it was so amazing to see the complexity how we were created. It was a strong testimony to me of the wisdom and power of God in our design. Mere chance could not and did not create us, but the hand of God designed us in such an amazing fashion. And every fashion was shown i.e. muslces, organs, nerves, bones, vessels.

One of the most amazing parts was the circulatory system. Somehow they injected a red and blue polymer into the arteries and veins respectively and then were able to display just those vessels. It was truly amazing to see the disbursement of blood vessels in each part of us (600 million miles worth, I think it said). Another great part was at the end where (and this maybe hard for some people) they had different stages of fetuses (not from abortions). It imparted the miracle, importance, and even holiness of life and birth. It was simply amazing!!!
Here is a link where you can see some pictures from it . . . http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10137337

A Pack of "Wolfes"

A while ago I found a random detective/mystery book (on tape) by Rex Stout. It features a genius detective, Nero Wolfe, and his faithful assistant, Archie Goodwin.

I really loved the book and discovered that there were a ton of others and most recently found some of the original Radio dramitizations from the '50s. They were fun to listen too and it turns out that mein Vater listened to them as a young lad! Anyways...In the stories they refer to Wolfe's Brownstone home in NYC and I wanted to find it while I was here. So when my eldest and I went to pick up our car from the NYPD impound lot (we were towed last weekend) we sought it out. It keeps dawning on me how many things take place in New York. It was really fun for me to see this place. (454 W 35th Street)


I don't know if you have ever seen the movie "Balto," but its one of my eldest's favorite ones to get at the Library. It starts out with a Grandmother showing her granddaughter a statue of a dog in Central Park...Then tells the story of Balto (He's the half dog/half wolf that saved the town of Nome, Alaska from Diptherea by fetching the antitoxin through blizzards and such.) So we also sought out this place. Max was in heaven climbing on the statue. There were a lot of other children whose trip to New York was complete as they finally tracked down Balto, one family said they had been searching for it for 2 hours.

For the DUBS

Luckily we were granted Tuesday the 4th off from the exciting hospital orientation (which hospital at which I wont be working). So we took a fun stroll through Central Park. Boy was it HOT and HUMID! I then sent "She Who Must Be Obeyed" off alone to go to the Guggenheim Museum and wander Manhattan (I thought she'd enjoy some time in the city without 2 kids and a stroller).

Meanwhile, the boys and I found a new playground in the park with a cool fountain to play and cool of in. All the playground have a different water disbursement method for the enjoyment of the little apples (get it...The little apples in the Big Apple)(Yes I know explaining humor makes it not funny, but sometimes its OK. By the way you should buy my brother's tapes on being funny, or check your local public library.)

Later in the evening I met "Most Gracious Adorable One" for dinner and desert at Serendipity, where they have the most amazing deserts (the hot fudge sundae came close to rivaling Ghirardelli's). It was most satisfactory. (That's famous Frrrroozen Hot Chocolate, too.)














We then went and enjoyed the fireworks from the east river over the Roosevelt Bridge.

Everyday has left us exhausted and drained, but it has been very fun and exciting.