Saturday, July 22, 2006

random pics

from sam's birthday party...

sam's birthday cake, decorated by gr. see a video of sam blowing out his candles here. i like his facial expressions, and the fact that he sings along while we sing 'happy birthday' to him.

the kids had a pool party before cake and lunch were served. i took this picture of becca, and it reminds me of one of those test prints for photo printers that shows the detail and quality of the product...

i rushed home from lawrence to catch parley's band play at eastside tavern's battle of the bands. they lost. the place was crammed, and it was very very hot (as noted by kyle's sweaty self).

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

on the road

josh is currently on a 1 month long road trip, where he plans on visiting family members out west. he's finished the first two legs of the journey- texas and colorado, and is now headed up to washington. this is the first postcard i've received from him (i hope to get a few more before august).

Thursday, July 13, 2006

you dont know what you've got till it's gone

last wednesday my working world was slightly turned upside-down. our head nurse was called in to meet with dr. p. she wasnt in there long, and soon came out to resume her work. after a little while, she grabbed her purse and personal stuff from her desk, clocked out, and left. she didnt say anything to us about leaving, no goodbyes. after she left, dr. p called me into his office and gave me a resume of someone we recently interviewed. he told me that she'd be coming in tomorrow for an interview and that i needed to check her references. all of us in the office were pretty shocked. we didnt know if the nurse had quit, or if she'd been fired. dr. p didnt seem too fazed, and it seemed like he had plan executed fairly quickly. i just cant imagine what she couldve done to get fired...it made the possibility of someday loosing my job very palpable: if she could go, what's stopping him from canning me?

anyway, getting used to having a new rn has been pretty frustrating. dr. a is the busiest of all the doctors in the clinic, and i could tell that she was getting pretty stressed constaltly correcting a new person (she' s fairly particular about how clinic is run). also, this new rn doesnt seem to be catching on too quickly about the proper way to do things and what she's responsible for in the office (she's in her 50's, has been out of the nursing loop for a while, not too computer-savy, and doesnt seem to have much common sense in her). i keep reminding myself that she's only been here 4 days, and she doesnt have her predecesor to train her correctly. but i think the whole office has been a little cranky/on edge because things havent been running as smoothly lately. i was extremely content and comfortable with our office the way it was... and now i'm finding myself getting headaches by the end of the day and just feeling exhausted when i come home. i really hope that i start adjusting better soon.

and to add to my list of stresses, our fax machine stopped printing today. correction: the fax machine printed, but didnt actually put any ink on the page. so, the faxes were going through, but we couldnt see them. after cleaning the nozzles and calling tech support and calling numerous office suppliers in the area to see if they had the necessary parts and nearly tearing my hair out, i called dr. p and asked him what to do. he said to just tell his wife to pick up a new machine. problem solved. our new machine was put in around 4pm....nearly a whole day without faxes. (just fyi, the fax machine is pretty crucial to our office. from getting refill requests to getting lab and test results to faxing orders to the hospital...it's quite necessary).

sigh....at least tomorrow's friday.

Sunday, July 09, 2006

happy birthday, america!

a few pictures of my fourth of july weekend:



there are still a few more jackson landmarks i need to get my picture taken with...


josh and i went catfish fishing at his farm, and yet we both caught bass...


some pretty powerful pocket storms popped up around 1:00 on the 4th, drenching the entire town and pretty much putting a stop to any daytime festivities. i took a video of the rain, and josh tried to add some funny commentary. he tried to name-drop some family memebers, but i think joe's was the only one he remembered.

but that didnt stop the fireworks at night, even though it was drizzling a bit. the fireworks werent as good this year, though...and the finale was probably less than 30 seconds. lame.

afterwards, we had a little of our own pyrotechnic fun at josh's house. check out the video i took here.

Saturday, July 01, 2006

odds and ends

i dont have a lot of time, but i though i'd throw in some little stories to liven up the old blog...

* i got my oil changed the other day, and i asked the mechanic/tech where my oil leak was coming from. he said it was the rear gasket, to which i replied "hmm...they'll have to drop my transmission to fix that. it'll be pricey." he seemed very impressed by the fact that i knew this, and proceded to chat me up for the next 5 minutes. he told me that the part itself costs about $20, but the labor for dropping the transmission to get to it would be close to $400. he suggested i find a friend who knew cars to help me do it on my own. perhaps parley is up to this challenge.

* a few weeks ago josh and i were eating dinner at el torrero, one of the best mexican places i've been to. after we pay the check, he runs into this guy and they start talking about an upcoming charity dodgeball tournemant. after 5 minutes, they say their goodbyes, the man shakes my hand, and we're off. 'who was that?' i asked. 'oh, that was paul sander. he's the mayor.' wow, i met the mayor of jackson....

* said dodgeball tournemant is actually today at 12. i'm in charge of media, so i guess i'd better get up and get ready. groups are paying a $15 registration fee to benefit the cape area family resource center. i think the winner gets their 15 bucks back. but there are supposed to be raffle prizes, too.

welp, gotta go