A very busy and exciting day is winding down. This morning, we all went to church, where I helped work on the pancake breakfast fund raiser. I worked hard. The cooking team made an important and devastating error - bacon was not ready. People were constantly coming into the church kitchen and asking 'where is the bacon?' Or they might say, 'more people want bacon!' Unfortunately, all the vegetarian "sausages" were ready early and people mistook them for real sausages. The vegetarians were SOL. All the meat eaters laughed at them and then rubbed ourselves all over with bacon grease.

After church, we stopped at home and got directions and supplies for the afternoon excursion. We went to the house of our friends, Megan, Joe, and Chloe Camp. Chloe got christened today (or is it a baptism) and their family had a party. Food was good. I only drank one beer, which made me not quite fun, yet not quite grumpy enough to leave the party early. It was fun to see everyone.

Tonight, we put both kids in the bath at the same time. Ben, as I might have mentioned earlier, LOVES taking a bath. I got a few good pictures of them in the bath. Jill removed Ben's diaper before he got into the bath, but, unfortunately, he had not quite finished topping the diaper off with the requisite amount of poop. The extra poop fell on the floor. I took a picture of it.

Yesterday, we went to the library and got new books for May to read at bed time, etc. She got a book about going to the dentist. May went to the dentist for the first time a few weeks ago and is now very interested in dental hygiene.

The temptation to abandon the blog is great as my exam approaches. As promised earlier, however, I will not blog about exam anxiety.

This morning, at breakfast, my daughter bit me on my shoulder - really hard. I got a bruise, and she got a three minute time out. She bit me yesterday on the other shoulder equally hard, and was nipping me all through breakfast, but just as I cut into my grapefruit, she scored a direct hit.

Benjamin is sick. He's got a double ear infection. He's been practicing kissing with me, so I got his cold (the cold primary to the ear infection).

Last night, I did some yoga, so I'm a little sore today, but my hernia doesn't hurt at all. Very successful.

Sadly, I have begun playing my video game again. For those of you who don't know it, I have struggled with an addiction to Ancient Domains of Mystery for the last several years. It is an incredibly difficult and complex game. It is an excellent adaptation of dungeons and dragons, has a large number of side-quests, characters, races, etc. Graphics are a little lacking: it's graphics are based upon the ASCII character set. That means a kobold appears as a green 'k' on the screen, dragons appear as a 'D' (different color D's for different color dragons, of course), and your character appears as an '@'. My current character is a level 19 archer with a blessed hatchet of devastation and the Iron Gauntlets of War.

Today we went to the St. Baldrick's festival in Collingswood. It's a St. Patrick's day fund raiser where the fire departments from all the neighboring towns collect pledges and then shave their heads. They also serve a lot of beer and food. My diet suffered fairly heavy damage today as I drank two glasses of beer, ate 4 cookies (three were pretty small, in my defence), and ate a meat ball sandwich with cheese and hot peppers.

When we got to the festival, I said, "ah, let May run around, she won't get in any trouble." The festival was in a one room ballroom with a second floor terrace over looking the space, so there was really no where to run. Jill let May go run, but sent me to look for her after about 10 minutes. I looked for 10 or 15 minutes and couldn't find her. Jill yelled at me a little and then went to find her right away. After that, I had to follow May around until we left, which neither of us enjoyed.

This week, Ben was playing in with one of his toys and Jill took him to eat some dinner. While feeding Ben, she looked into the living room and saw May squatting over his toy. May was wearing only her 'panties' (her word, not mine), and Jill called to her, "Honey, what are you doing over there?"

May answered, "Tinkling on Ben's toy."

A powerful metaphor that works on many levels.

Benjamin is pulling himself up on everything. This is especially challenging in the bathtub. He can't stand and he has no traction, so he's slipping and sliding everywhere. He falls again and again smashing his face into the walls, the faucet, and the floor. He usually doesn't cry a lot when he falls, but when he's in the tub, it's like he's wearing football pads; nothing can hurt him. It does frighten us a little though.

This week I'm studying histology of the kidney and renal physiology. There was a huge ice storm on Friday, and my sister is coming to visit next weekend.

It's very humid in philadelphia today. Running to catch the train was like running through a warm fog while wearing an electric blanket that was connected by a cordless extension cord.

Yesterday, May ate some baked beans - usually she is on a strict oatmeal-noodle diet, so this was a blog worthy event.

This morning, May dumped out all her toys and was upset when Ben scooted over to them and started banging them around. She began 'hugging' and 'taking care of' him: this means she wraps her arms around his face, pushes him to the ground, and sits on him. Oddly enough, he seems to enjoy it. Jill and I officially discourage this sort of behavior.

I was running out the door this morning and Jill didn't get a chance to take a shower.

I wore a cardigan sweater today. I love the cardigan as a fashion statement. It really says, "I dress like Mr. Rodgers and I don't care what you think about it." It's not something that is mildly un-stylish; it is a heinous fashion offense. Everyone, even my father, knows that cardigans went out of style in the late 50's/early 60's along with glee clubs, sock hops, and do-wop. Anyway, those of you who know me know that I'm totally comfortable leading the vanguard of style and perhaps after 40 years in remission, the cardigan sweater could be making a come back.

Today the weather is pretty mild. I will pack my vest and beanie into my backpack on the train ride home. I'm skipping my micro-anatomy lab to write this, but the labs are on-line, so I can do it later this afternoon or tonight.

In medical school there are many free lunch events available. Usually, they give away food to attract students to listen to a speaker who tries to recruit you into their specialty or con you into volunteering at their clinic. Today I went to a lecture about pediatric emergency medicine. A few weeks ago I went to a lecture on vascular surgery (ick).

Yesterday I had a big struggle getting my daughter to eat breakfast. She somehow got the idea in her head (probably a misunderstood comment from Jill) that some 'special rolls' were available for breakfast. When there were no cinnamon rolls or donuts to be found, she went on breakfast strike and would not eat. We battled it out for fifteen minutes or so until I managed to sit her down and get her to eat her bowl of frosted mini-wheats.

Benjamin was very well behaved yesterday. It was daylight savings time, so he took all his naps 1 hr later than usual. Lately, I've been staying home from church when Jill sings in the choir (she has to get there an hour early and we only have one car) so that Ben can get his nap. If Ben goes to church, he is too wild to sleep. Yesterday, Ben got a bath which is the highlight of his day. He kept trying to jump into the tub before the water was in there. He doesn't cry when he gets his hair washed like May does.

Today, Jill took May to get a haircut. Then, the girls went to the liquor store. I told Jill before she left, "get me some Miller Highlife: The Champagne of Beers."

She said, "doesn't that beer have a foul taste and give you gut rot?"

I said, "Have you ever tried it?"

"No...."

Tonight we drink The Champagne of Beers!

Be had a new oil burner put in the boiler this week, and I took an exam in Physiology and Microscopic Anatomy.

Ben is pulling himself up on the lip of the dishwasher, the edge of the bathtup, and the bottom stair.

May is working on using her potty, but she still shits in her underwear once or twice a week.

Those of you who know me well may be shocked to learn that tonight, for the third Saturday in a row, I will go jogging.

Hello.

Welcome to my new blog. Before I begin blogging in earnest, I feel like I need to do a blog mission statement. Maybe not.... How about a "do's and dont's" of this new blog?

Things you will not see on this blog:

1. Complaints about how tired I am
2. Pre/post exam anxiety
3. Things that I've eaten - unless it's something unusual

Things that you may continue to enjoy on my blog:

1. news of my children
2. transit news - who is on the train?
3. house news