The Slammer (Alcatraz)

We finally did it, we went to Alcratraz! Thanks to Valerie, who organized the whole thing, we were able to have a fabulous time with some of Alex's classmates on the island. Since we've lived here, we kept saying we will go there, but of course, it hadn't happened.

I 'm pretty sure this was taken on the boat ride over. Not sure why Alex picked this picture to post (I had him pick the pics and I would do the write-up), but whatever. The ride was gorgeous to see the whole city on the way out, and we couldn't have asked for better weather.

Basically what every cell looked like in the prison. The audio tour was quite informative.

This main area where the prisoners were kept was called Broadway. At the end of the tour, the employees did a cell door demo to show how all the doors were opened and slammed at the same time; it was a creepy experience to imagine being locked in there.

The water tower on Alcatraz. Just a pretty photo that Alex took.


Krutav and Adarsh in front of the Indians Welcome sign. At the beginning, Alcatraz was used mostly for American Indians when the government would imprison them for ridiculously minor charges. Maybe these hooligans should've been there, too....

We had a great time; it was fun hanging out with the 3rd years, spouses & friends. It amazes me how close Alex's class is-we had a blast!

Happy Pioneer Day!

My mom, being the southern Utahn/DUP that she is, will be happy to see me remember that today is Pioneer Day. Occasionally when we were younger, we would be in Minersville visiting my grandparents and there was always a parade and other celebrations on this day. It never ceased to amaze me that the 24th of July seemed like a bigger deal than the 4th of July! And since us Washingtonians don't seem to have a "state" holiday, I thought it was neat they got one for their own. Although Nevada's state day is on Halloween, which is quite unique.
Anyway, Alex and I bought a scrumptious apple pie at Costco to celebrate...it looks exactly like this one and is one of the best apple pies I've ever had.

I need to eat pie more often...I forgot how delicious it is! Although this apple pie is divine, I think my favorite kind would have to be banana cream, or maybe blackberry or maybe pumpkin oh I can't decide...how about you??

The First Hike of Many (we hope)

Yesterday, Valerie, Alex and I went on a fantastic hike over in Marin around Tamalpais State Park. The hike was the Matt Davis/Steep Ravine Loop and it was one of the prettiest and enjoyable hikes I have ever taken! Thankfully, Alex was present, so good photos abound...
The hike was a bit over 7 miles, with some decent inclines and a lot of small bridges like this one. Every bridge we crossed included me saying something about how much I like walking over bridges. I think it's because that means there could be water streaming underneath, which I find quite exquisite.

Valerie and me on another bridge- I guess my cheesy smile helps express my bridge liking.

There were so many huge trees that had fallen over at one point, but this was the only one completely blocking the trail. It reminded me of the Redwoods & driving through a tree.

Us walking around Mt. Tam. This specific route didn't take us to the top. It was very pretty with the fog rolling in and out, although if the fog weren't there, we would've had an amazing view of Stinson Beach at this point. Perfect weather for hiking, though!

On the latter part of the hike, the Steep Ravine, was this 10 foot ladder that is apparently loved by locals.

Another photo of the natural beauty. We couldn't believe how lush this area was. Of course, the pictures don't do it justice, but believe me, it was gorgeous. Afterwards, we met up with Brian and had a delicious dinner at E&O Trading Co. in Larkspur. Oooh, that salmon and chicken was delectable! What a nice day, being the wife of a 3rd year isn't half bad so far-sure beats the first 2 years!

Not Impressed This Year

I just got back from the Anniversary Sale and I didn't have as much success as I had last year. Maybe Alex will consider this year a bigger success, but not me! The Nordy's at Union Square opened at 7am, so I headed out and made it there by 7:05 ( I got lucky and don't have a temp job today). The crowd wasn't bad at all, but it was picking up when I left around 8 or so. I recognized a Nordstrom brother as I was going up the escalator, so that was kind of cool. The only thing I ended up buying was this cardigan, and I'm not sure yet if I'm going to keep it. Below are a few things that I saw and liked, but couldn't convince myself to buy....

I really like this brand of diaper bags, Petunia Pickle Bottom. If I were pregnant, I would own it.

Love the buckle shoe and it's Juicy, which I love but can't afford:(

Another cute buckle shoe- tried it on and it hurt my heel just when standing...not a good sign.

Zella has super cute yoga clothes. I have enough workout pants right now, and these were too long anyway.

If you have kids, I did see a lot of cute clothes on sale. Maybe I just didn't really see anything I need right now. Oh well, there's always next year....

Bad Computer

Alex and I are back in SF now; we got back Saturday night. It was quite a fun drive and I have photos to share from the Oregon Coast and such, but my computer has been losing it. I brought it in to the Geek Squad for a diagnosis and apparently one of my sticks of RAM was bad, so it messed up the operating system. Thankfully, I spoke to one of Alex's classmates before the geeks went any further and charged me way too much to fix. So, once we get the new stick of RAM in the mail, it should be good to go. Too bad I lost everything on my hard drive-boo! I guess all my itunes will just stay put in ipod land that will never be updated....sad. Oh and I guess I will miss the photos I kept meaning to back up....oops.

Fun Fondue

For my Mom's birthday, she picked The Melting Pot in Bellevue for dinner, and it was sooo delicious and fun! Since Nick was at Scout Camp and Andrea & Laura are gone, it was just the 5 of us. First, we had to choose which cheese fondues to get. Everyone decided on the Carribbean fondue and the Fiesta fondue. The waitress came and added all the ingredients at the table, turned on the burners and let the magic happen. For dipping, we got veggies, apple chunks, breads and chips.

This is the Carribbean one. I wasn't that interested in this part of the meal at first since cheese isn't my thing, but thankfully, Alex talked me into tasting them. The Mexican one wasn't for me, but I actually really liked the Carribbean one.

Just for proof, I had Alex take a photo of me eating the cheese. Next was the main course. We had a pot with broth and another pot with oil for frying. Bobby and Alex had a bit too much fun with the batters and frying all the food! I wish I had a picture. The fried salmon was interesting. Also cooked were chicken, sirloin, shrimp, cajun flavored beef and veggies.

Here are my parents with all the desserts. We got 2 chocolate fondues that were delectable, one with milk chocolate & peanut butter, the other dark chocolate with Oreo's and marshmallow cream. For dipping, we had rice krispie treats, cheesecake, pound cake, brownies, strawberries, bananas & marshmallows. It was way too good, I need to go back and try more....

Overall, we loved it. Although it is quite pricey, it's more than just a dinner since it takes over 2 hours and it is so much fun! Next time I want to try the caramel banana fondue....

Is it worth it?

I don't even know where to begin with this next guy. Okay, how about the beginning. Well, that's probably too far back, I'll start when we met this guy. First of all, I don't think I can show many pictures of this guy because they are too... well let's just say Heather can't check her own blog for a while. Anyway, he comes in to the ER pretty much unrecognizable because... He was caught cheating and I don't mean at Mah Jong. The story goes that the dude was actually still in bed asleep when the husband comes in and takes a baseball bat to the guy's head. I've only seen accidents like this occur when someone goes through a windshield. So virtually every bone in the skull is broken in some manner. Both jaws, eyes, cheeks, nose and skull. The surgery lasted over 14 hours. (I am glad I gave the camera to another guy to take pictures for me as I was not about to stand up for 14 hours simply observing, smart move.)

I thought this may be the best way to show a picture. This is actually the guy's skull. That hole at the top of it is where his frontal sinus is, and yes, that is his brain that you can barely see in there. I mean you can see how complex just this part was. The guy got over 104 screws put into his head. When this many fractures are involved it's called a "panfacial" case. I don't think it means this is what you get when someone hits your face with a pan, but that the fractures "pan" the entire skull. So, descriptively, in order to access some of the bones and to make it so this guy can go out into public again, you can't just go cutting in the forehead or in the cheeks, so you expose the fractures another way so that the scar is hidden in your hair. It's called a coronal flap and it's really awesome to watch. I'll spare you the details but basically you cut the scalp and pull it down over the eyes ewwwwww! Ok, sorry, but I had to put it out there in case anyone is considering cheating with someone married to a MLB player. If anyone thinks they need to see more, just lemme know.

Back for more

Okay, so let's talk about people and their stupidity. Sure, I'm all for having a good time and going out for fun with some friends. I've definitely seen some of the benefits of not getting wasted around people I know and even those I don't know (you decide which is worse)

Exhibit A: Last June 2007, a 21 year old female on the back of her boyfriend's motorcycle. The boyfriend is driving drunk when at 65mph he collides with a tree sending the girlfriend over the top and into said tree. Guess which one of these was wearing a helmet. If you guessed neither, you get a gold star. The girlfriend messes up her face so badly they end up taking out most of her teeth in the upper jaw and almost the whole lower jaw (including the bone). She goes to the OR for surgery when as they begin they have to cancel it due to the inordinate amount of lice crawling from her scalp into the sterile field. Yucky! So, it is now 1 year later and she ended up shaving her head for surgery and all is well. She is at the clinic for a follow-up when I get to examine her healing site. What do I see crawl up from under her blouse to her neck and back down? A baby cockroach. I have seen it all folks. What's worse is she asks me if I am single. I reach for the other pair of gloves....

Exhibit B: It is 1:00 a.m. and this dude stumbles in (drunk) to the ER. He claims there is some discomfort next to his nose and he wants it looked at. He doesn't remember what happened to him (ah, the wonderful effects of alcohol) but he's pretty sure it's not good. They take him in to be x-rayed (sic)...

So for those who watch ER or Gray's anatomy regularly I don't have to belabor this explanation. But for the few of you who have never had to interpret CT scans allow me. Imagine taking a slice parallel to the floor right through your head. The top of this picture is the nose. The bottom is your brain. Get the picture? Yes, that is in fact a knife sticking into the guy's face, going through the sinus into the skull. It was broken off at the handle and annoying this guy when he looked in the mirror. So he walks in and we take him to the OR. We pull the knife out and miraculously the knife never touched a major artery or nerve. So... he is going to leave the hospital with nothing but a band-aid over his nose. The guy who shoved this into his face is going to be really upset when he sees him again.

So the moral of the story is... it doesn't matter who you drink with, enemy or lover, you're going to end up on my blog.

Dallas and Me (not Krommenhoek)

Heather told me that I should post something new to the blog since I am all done with my externship. I can only tell you that most of the pictures are too graphic for many young viewers and so I can't show you the more interesting parts of the experience. So then I thought I would just talk about the externship, but that wouldn't work either since many of the details are too graphic for young listeners. So, in desperation to keep my wife happy and update the blog I'll have to ask you to cover your young one's eyes and ears and brace yourselves...

Okay, but seriously... I'll talk about a few of the things I saw. Let me start by telling you... America's got problems. There are so many disguisting people out there and I probably met 90% of them in a week's work, then they all referred their relatives to meet me as well. I think I washed my hands 6.3 million times and got so good at it I still go through the motions as I sleep. Double-gloving should never be considered a special precaution but a standard of practice. I think that one should question the status of America and it's "goal" to be a leader of nations when as I was navigating the halls of the hospital I turned a corner to see...

That's right folks, the Golden Arches are everywhere. I can't think of a more inspiring sight than shuffling around the hospital attached to an i.v. drip with your backside exposed to the world and sauntering up to the register to order a nice juicy 100% beef Big Mac. We can go no lower. I only write this because I saw it happen, but I couldn't get the camera out in time. I did laugh though with my other extern-mates. For all the ladies out there (and guys) who are thinking of getting plastic surgery later in life or for just a "touch-up" you may want to consider the process.

No... he's not dead and they didn't paint his face to look like a clown either. They do mark your face up before they put you under and then once you're good and paralyzed... It's slicing time! They let everyone in on the action. I even got to do some cutting... that is refreshing to know that some dental student who really loves oral surgery and has taken out many teeth but has no business cutting on your face is out there. Luckily, it was only his eyebrows and not something more prominent like his chin. Is anyone still reading this?

Okay, this is the last piece that I will talk about unless I get a comment asking for more because believe me... I GOT more! This is a picture of an ear,... but not just any ear. This ear has a story behind it. As many of you may know, I went to Parkland Memorial Hospital for my last externship in Oral Surgery. This is a very well known hospital in the Health Career department and maybe some have heard that this was the hospital where JFK was taken when he was shot...

They like to pride themselves on being the hospital that received him, but let's face it... they lost him here. Okay, enough history. Back to me. So, this is the county hospital and a fairly reputable one as I was saying. Apparently all the inmates from Dallas County Jail come here when they get a booboo, too. So this guy says he was minding his own business "in jail" when he dropped something on the floor and bent over to pick it up. He stood up and hit his head on an unspecified object, slicing his right ear. Whatever dude, I've heard it all. I ended up attending this guy and may I add it is quite intimidating working on a prisoner. I walked up to this guy who is in wrist and ankle chains. He's in a "holding cell" with other riff raff surrounded by armed security guards next to the ER. I walk in there acting like I know what I'm doing and look at the guys ear. "Yup, it's cut and it'll need stitches," I muster up. I leave the room to change my underwear and proceed to gather the necessary materials to sew this guy up. Well, we ended up getting our own private room where the inmate shuffles onto the hospital bed. He answers every question I ask with " Yes, sir" or "No, sir" which completely freaks me out. All I can think about is how this guy is going to react when I give him a shot and start sticking a needle in his ear. Unfortunately, there was no anesthetic with epinephrine in it (lay terms, it wears off really quickly) so, let's sum up what is going on here. I'm in a room with a guy in black and white stripes who has handcuffs and leg cuffs and bleeding from his ear. The security guard is in the corner who I am hoping he is actually watching every move this guy makes. I've never sewn up an ear before but, hey it's probably a lot like doing needlepoint, which I have also never done. So, after injecting this guy a few times, he's shaking from all the pain that I am causing him. Believe me that my life was flashing before my eyes. I was sure he was going to use a part of my body he ripped off to undo his cuffs and rampage through the hospital. It was all my fault. That never happened of course and I would like to point out that I think I did a pretty good job. He was grateful and I was grateful to be alive. The end. Let me know if you want to hear more.