This month, I will be studying in the emergency room of Albert Einstein hospital in north Philly. I started off the month well, by showing up for a series of lectures that was cancelled. I will instead use this time to update you on the business of my children.

The big news: I have no news about my residency to report. For those of you who follow me on facebook, I will report promptly on Mar. 18th the results of the match. I interviewed at 7 places in the midwest and 2 in Philly. We'll see...

I just came of a month of GI medicine, which was fun. The fellow I was 'working' with was so nice to me, and was constantly apologizing for the hideous hours we were working. Finally I had to tell her at the end of the month, "I feel about this rotation the same way I feel about medical school: I had to wake up early and read a lot, but I learned a lot. If I had to do it all over again, I probably would." When conveying my feelings to another student, Colin, we agreed that if I had to do four more years of med school right now, we would probably not do that, but if able to travel back in time to four years ago, and pressed to make the decision to matriculate again, I probably would.

May is doing well in school and is learning a lot about penguins and math. She did something very naughty last weekend and walked all the way to the library by herself. The library is about four blocks away and she had to cross several streets to get there. Nothing happened to her and she is safe and well, but it was an important lesson to us both. Because she's a smart kid, she can do more than the average six year old, but doesn't understand the danger involved in the world; intellegent but not wise.

When I was on GI, I scored a cigar from one of my attendings. His friend, the radiologist, gave it to him after reading some CT's for us. I was given the cigar because I promised to smoke it on match day. Ben was jumping around in the kitchen the other day and saw the cigar in the freezer. He said, "Dad, what's that?" as he jumped and tried to grab it from it's resting place beside the orange juice concentrate.

"That's a disgusting habit." I told him.

Ben also asked me the other day, "What's inside of you that makes you hard?"

"Bones are the hardest part of your insides." I replied.

"I have bones in my arms, legs, and tummy." He told me.