New Year's Eve 2007

Just got back indoors from a nice walk through the woods. Took the camera, of course, and took about 30 pictures, most of which i deleted. Here is one that made the grade (actually cropped from a larger photo). it is tough to aim at a subject in total darkness......

New Idea for that Toyota Commercial

Have you seen the new Toyota ad, where owners are scheming new ways to justify getting a new car? One covers his with snow and lets the plow truck rip it in half.
Well....I had a better idea. What about flipping the truck on the side of the highway? You know, cartwheel style along the guardrails.....

As the season rolls along....

Thanksgiving has come and gone. I decorated the windows in the PACU with some larger versions of cartoons that I found on the web. Other staff members have taken it upon themselves, again, to edit my 'art'. so, once again, i am inclined NOT to do this again. the last time i tried this, it lasted for most of the summer. no art. i took pictures before i erased the cartoons, and here they are.
yay.

bleck

just ate some mostly-cooked turkey here at work. will mostly be ill later today. marvelous. dunno why, it just looked tempting.
so yes, i am at work on a saturday. covering a med/surg shift 0700-1500. booked the date BEFORE matt called and told T that he would be putting in the last bit of hardwood this weekend. ducky. i am here, m is gone, trying to score points with his girlfriend's mom, and z, b, and t are at the house. matt was (as predicted) LATE getting there (s'posed to be 0800. it was almost 0930 when he arrived). I wish that i could be a fly on the wall....i wonder what he is thinking, doing, etc. while he is at our house.
i just want it done. and of course, t has a TON of stuff that she would like to get done, but CAN"T because z and b will NOT give her a break.
dag-nabbit!

WHAT? Are they for real???

I heard a story on the WCAX news tonight that has sent me into such a tizzy that i JUST MIGHT go to their website and see if I can't post an editorial note....

There is a company from Burlington (who shall remain nameless since I believe that they have already received TOO MUCH mention from the CAX coverage) that is donating some HUGE amount of diapers to VT moms. The diapers have flaws in their cloth coverings, so the company won't sell them on the regular market.

At this point you are probably asking yourself why I would have a problem with this. Excellent question. Read on.....

The company will be distributing them at location X (again, to remain undisclosed) tomorrow morning for a few hours. Come on by and grab some diapers.

So?

Ok, call me CRAZY, but......doesn't it seem that the Moms (errr...KIDS) who would most benefit from the free diaper give away would be those kids with Moms on the LOWER END of the economic spectrum? You know, the ones who probably don't have a reliable means of transportation?

SO HOW THE HECK ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO GET TO THE LOCATION TO GET THE FREE DIAPERS????

It just doesn't make sense? I wonder why the philanthropic company didn't just distribute the diapers to neighborhood clinics throughout the state????

egads. Off to try some fish chowder.

justin update

yep, still alive and kicking. have been taking some photos, though not as many as i had imagined. check the links. i will look into posting links to the albums along the list on the right side of the page so that interested folks don't have to go and find the blog posting that initially referenced the albums. stay toooooned.

here at work tonight, covering a hole in the med/surg schedule. 1900-2300, and it is already almost 2000. can you guess how busy i am? yep. you win.

have decided to do the Christmas List thing this year. i have registered at Home Depot, and am also creating a list of items from mountaingear.com. I will post updates related to accessibility within the next 7-10 business days. LOL.....what i mean is I will do it soon.

alright, so then.....that's about it. going to spend some time searching the web now. I hope y'all have a great day.

peace, yo!
geno

oops. my bad.

British marine biologists have found what may be the oldest living animal — that is, until they killed it.

The team from Bangor University in Wales was dredging the waters north of Iceland as part of routine research when the unfortunate specimen, belonging to the clam species Arctica islandica, was hauled up from waters 250 feet deep.

Only after researchers cut through its shell, which made it more of an ex-clam, and counted its growth rings did they realize how old it had been — between 405 and 410 years old.

Another clam of the same species had been verified at 220 years old, and a third may have lived 374 years. But this most recent clam was the oldest yet.

"Its death is an unfortunate aspect of this work, but we hope to derive lots of information from it," postdoctoral scientist Al Wanamaker told London's Guardian newspaper. "For our work, it's a bonus, but it wasn't good for this particular animal."

==============
umm....OOOPS....

...of note...

as i was going through photos overnight, i noticed a strong similarity in these two pictures, and thought i would share them side by side (or @ least close to each other).

also interestingly, the photos were taken just about a year apart. the new one was last weekend, and the older one (younger Bryce) was taken on our way to a Halloween Festival for Cub Scouts last season. But that isn't the similarity....

YIKES! (oh, it is just Mike...)

Mike went to a halloween party tonight, and came back like this:

so i snapped a few pics of the downstairs, in the middle of being painted and stuff redistributed. yay!


very colorful. can't wait to piece it all back together!
way to go, TRACEY!!!!! :D

Maize Maze

ok, so it probably ISN'T technically MAIZE, but it works in the title. TMZBNME plus Krissy, Tyler, and Cameron went to the Vermont Corn Maze (www.vermontcornmaze.com) in North Danville this past Sunday. The weather could not have been better, and we had a wonderful time. Admittedly it was frustrating at times, but then again, shouldn't it be??

Here is a (backward) picture that I took of a picture hanging on the wall at the END of the maze. The little white lines are bridges (3). The start and finish are at opposite ends up top, so it LOOKS LIKE you can just scoot through. This is not the case, as these are actually part of the "Emergency Exit" route. Very much fun, and I truthfully cannot wait until next year to try it again. Each year is different!

Some housekeeping items

1) I apologize for not being able to answer my cell lately. Work is cracking down on cell phone use in the facility. I am able to sneak in some text messages, so this is probably the quickest way for me to be reached.

2) I am healthy. At least physically. Mentally...well...I am hanging in there. My 'bad' season is just around the corner, but I am determined to make it through this year with as little collateral damage as possible.

3) I will be trying to update this blog more frequently.

4) The family is well. Zach has recovered from the clavicle fx, Mike is doing well in school (Advanced Bio is giving him a run for his money!), Bryce is into just about everything, and Tracey (saving the best for last) is hanging in there, but getting increasingly frustrated with the SLOW progress with the hardwood floor project.

I uploaded some photos that I have taken with my cell phone. They can be viewed by (arregedry) (allegedly) following this link. (The picture is a link. Go ahead, click on it......)

Miscellaneous From Phone

Here, too, is an album of our family. Stay tooooned for an actual site which T and I will use to post pictures from our camera.

A few pix of the Family

Ok, Ok. and some MORE photos, taken over the past 4 years, of outdoor things. i really enjoy taking photos in nature, both with people and without. can't wait to get the opportunities to use the new camera!

boutdrz

new toy

Tracey (and I) got a new camera for her (and my) birthday(s). so of course we have been going nuts taking pictures. here are some. more to follow, and they will include other members of the family.

Signs of the times

This was plucked from another site that i watch...
www.mazurland.typepad.com, hosted by one of our Docs and his brothers/friends.
(try to resist the temptation to scroll to the end. the impact will be much better if you read the story in order.)

Last week I purchased a burger at Burger King for $1.58. The counter girl took my $2 and I was digging for my change when I pulled 8 cents from my pocket and gave it to her. She stood there, holding the nickel and 3 pennies, while looking at the screen on her register. I sensed her discomfort and tried to tell her to just give me two quarters, but she hailed the manager for help. While he tried to explain the transaction to her, she stood there and cried. Why do I tell you this?

Because of the evolution in teaching math since the 1950s:

1. Teaching Math In 1950s

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit ?

2. Teaching Math In 1960s

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100 His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?

3. Teaching Math In 1970s

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80. Did he make a profit?

4. Teaching Math In 1980s

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.

5. Teaching Math In 1990s

A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the preservation of our woodlands. He does this so he can make a profit of $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? (There are no wrong answers, and if you feel like crying, it's ok. )

6. Teaching Math In 2007

Un hachero vende una carretada de maderapara $100. El costo de la producciones es $80. Cuanto dinero ha hecho?

too fast, too furious

the days are getting shorter, at least the daylight portion. many, many things happening, and i am sorry that i have not been able to keep up with all of them here online. i may have some time within the next few days to catch up, but here is what we worked on yesterday.
this is just a test model, based on memory of having seen one at a friend's house last weekend.

Zach's Follow up

Weeellll.....it doesn't APPEAR to be getting better, but i am justa nurse, and he is the ORTHOPOD..so....i will yield to his expertice(~se??)
here it is, then, for you to see. not as good as the last films, because this shot was taken from the computer screen, rather than from our living room window.
reminder that it is reversed.

VINS field trip (09/14/07)

Today i was fortunate to be able to chaperone Zach's class trip to VINS Vermont Institute of Natural Science. It was pretty cool. We walked along the nature trail, saw different trees, plants, and habitats. Took a good look at a tree that had been struck by lightening many years ago, and looked down on a vernal pool.
We ate lunch after watching a presentation about wetlands, and then got to see some raptors fly around before we walked through the gorge on our way to Marshland Pond.
Very cool. Fantastic weather for it.
Pix....

New Plates

wow...must be sleep dep combined with inspiration and the bubbling sounds coming from Freddy's tank.

We, of course, got new plates for the vehicles. Took us a while, but here they are!

Sally Struthers

Remember her? Sit-Com fame, then went on to peddle classes late at night during the birth of the info-mercial?
I musta dozed off in front of them one too many times, becuase I just fixed our TV/VCR last night. Well...FIXED, if you consider that it now functions as a TV, but the VCR component is non-funtional. S'ok, though, right? Maybe I only dozed off during PART of the commercial. The whole thing started like this:

As I was getting ready to leave the hospital last night http://www.alicepeckday.org/, the med-surge nurse who I'd just been talking to told me that I had a phone call, and "it sounds like a kid." hmmmmm...
"Hello?"
"Hi, Gene. I wanted to call you to tell you that the tv downstairs is broken."
"Broken? How did that happen? Is everyone ok?" (you can NEVER be sure.....)
"It turns itself off right after you turn it on. The screen says 'eject', but there is no tape in there, and then it shuts off."
"Ok, well, I will take a look at it. Can you tell mom that I am leaving now?"
"yep."
"Ok, thanks! Love you, sleep tight!"
"K'bye."
::click::

HUH? it was working just fine 4 hours ago. When it rains......

So i got home to find T in a mood. She was getting another headache, her belly was bothering her again, and she had JUST managed to put her shadow (Z) to bed. Oh, and the tv/vcr was dead. Just like the computer monitor. Two items in one day. What, pray tell, will be the third??

Armed with my left-over bowl of salad (I got paged just as I was turning the steak on the grill), I went to see what the damage was. T showed me a piece of clear plastic that Z had found INSIDE the slot where the vcr tape usually goes. Great. Well, looks like we may have solved the problem. Now how do we fix it?????
Sally? Need a little help here!
Against my better judgement, I took the back off of the unit. I don't know what it is that I expected to find. Or more to the point, I had an idea, but NOT what I would do once I saw the guts of this thing. Ok, the back is off, screws are counted and in a pile off to the side. Let's dig deeper. Surprisingly, the VCR part comes out VERY easily. And so did another piece. Fell out right into my lap.

At this point, T came down stairs, muttered, "oh my goodness" as she walked by, and then disappeared back upstairs.

Ten minutes, some SUPER GLUE, and 4 pieces of duct-tape later, I put it all back together, and turned it on.

Sally would be proud. Or at least smiling. The TV works, as do video games. The VCR, however....well...get the jelly, cause the VCR is TOAST.

For future reference, here is what the innerds look like....

Abu and Iago

These two have come to live with us, I have found out. Abu, formerly known as B, has taken to becoming a monkey. As in monkey-see-monkey-do. Z, on the other hand, has taken to repeating what other people have just said.
So the other night, Thurs, T was on the couch reading about some kid who goes to a special school, wears a hoodie that makes him invisible, has strange friends, and fights all manner of make believe creatures. I was on the floor in the living room playing with B (our own real life creature), who was, as we were about to find out, beginning his transformation into Abu. I said to B, "where's your belly?". He lifted up his shirt and patted his belly. (COOL!) So then i gave him a zerbert or raspberry on his belly. He found this to be wonderfully entertaining, and ran around the island in the kitchen, squealing with delight the whole way. T looked over the top of her book to see what all the rukus was about.
So I asked again, got the same results, did the same zerbert, and ZOOM!, off he went, around the island.
T said, "what is he doing?"
"victory lap", i replied.
laughter all around.
so i snuggled B, and said, "where's daddy's belly?"
::::insert sound of crickets::::
hmmm....
"B, where is MOMMY's belly" (the book was hiding it....)
so off he scampers and climbs up onto the couch. T lifts the book, B slides in underneath, lifts T's shirt, and pats her belly! So i went over and gave T a zerbert. (No victory lap. :( ) So then B/Abu tried to give Mom a zerbert....except that he hasn't QUITE gotten the concept....so she got covered in slobber. Abu thinks that this is WILDY hysterical, laughs, gets off of the couch, and runs over to me where we laugh and roll around on the floor.
Not wanting to take away from all of this learning, I asked B where Mommy's belly was again.
Same performance. Sweeeeeeeeet.
This time, thought, T says that she is going to need a bath now. So i grabbed a tissue and went over and wiped her belly while B held up the shirt. He thought this, too, was funny, and grabbed the tissue from me and finished the job. Then he blew his nose in the tissue before he dropped it onto the floor. Laughter all around again as we realized that B has become Abu.

some very funny stories

here is another blogger site worth checking out. very funny, written by a mother of 6 (six) kids. we only have 3, but i can still relate....
http://www.mom2my6pack.blogspot.com/

sticks and stones.....

and EARTH. yep. forgot about that one. Zach was out back yesterday, playing with one of the daycare kids, when they collided and fell. Zach's shoulder was introduced to the ground, and subsequently Zach was introduced to some of my co-workers in the Emergency Room and the Radiology Department.
Poor little bugger can't play football this year, which he has been waiting to play since last season. Ugh.
Here are the films.....

MIA

so...if you are taking note...you MIGHT have noticed that there are almost NO pictures of mike.
he hides.
and thinks.
and ponders.
and helps friends.
and helps Mom.
He is good. Better than that, actually, but i don't get to see him very often.
boooo.
mebbe that will change soon.
yay!

Intense

less than 30 seconds after pulling up to watch Zach's football practice, i was able to snap this photo of Bryce.

v-a-c-a-tion!!!

we went many places on our vacation this year, including Aunt Weeb's Fresh Air Poultry Farm, Baltimore, Annapolis, and Sandy Point State Park. Here, for now, is a picture of Zachary enjoying his birthday present from Uncle Colby and "Aunt" Boo... yep....TRAPEZE SCHOOL. check our their site at Baltimore Trapeze School

knot board, not not bored.

LT and others made this knot board. no, they were not bored. get it?

Wall Crawler

Zach and I recently took advantage of a dreary day to go to the wall (www.vermontrocks.com) and challenge the law of gravity.

6 Flag's New England

One of our family's traditions is going to 6 Flag's New England for Mike's Birthday. This year we were without Zach AND Bryce, which just left Tracey, Mike, Sara, and I. While it was unsettlingly odd not to have the little ones, it DID allow for Tracey and I to go on some rides. We went rafting in the waterpark, rafting out of the waterpark, and she rode the BATMAN roller coaster......pic included (no purchase necessary!)

Ballooooooon!

So coupla daze ago i noticed that a hot air balloon was headed straight for the house! I gathered the fam (minus mike :( ) and we went up the street to watch it land. very cool. this has happened before, and has actually happened since. last night one landed in a field near the house, but we didn't go see it this time.

Mt. Cube

Thanks (again) to Tracey's good graces, I was able to assault Mt. Cube (2901') on 23 JUL. Got off to a bit of a late start, but it all worked out just fine. After confirming the trail head, I got ready and headed off. I decided to go with more than just a camelbak this time. I got some Tibetan Prayer Flags for Christmas (again, THANKS TRACEY!!! :) ) so I wanted to fly them at the peak. The plan is to do this from every "summit". Anyway, I used my backpack to carry the water bladder, the flags, a first aid kit, camera, jacket....hmmm....i think that's all. the pack probably weighed only about 15 pounds. i try to learn something new each time i go out, and this time i learned that COTTON is BAD. or at least i RE_LEARNED that cotton is bad. i wore a regular t-shirt instead of my underarmor shirt. dumb. needless to say it was completely soaked at the top, and i came down shirtless. not the most comfortable thing to do, but my hairy back probably helped let the pack slip around instead of pull my skin off. LOL.....(too much information???)
the giude book lists the round trip at 6.6 miles, and a trip time of 4.5 hours. my trip took me 2 hours and 15 minutes!! wahooooo~! on to the next. perhaps Mousillauk, or something like that. maybe Camel's Hump again. dunno. i have a week to figure it out. here are some pictures!

Geno's Travels!

found this 'neat' item while surfing from the ER...SLOOOOWWW Night. A busy night in the ER beats a slow night at the nursing home...hands down!!!

Missed one picture

The super-cell or whatever it was briefly touched down in our back yard (but NOT the front) to say HI!...this was the damage.....

Obligatory Photos

Yes, and....

Unofficial News

TWISTER STRIKES HARTFORD, VT
At approximately 1500 hrs today, a twister of sorts descended on our little hamlet. Trees were ripped down, power disrupted, and lives changed forever....ok, ok, maybe not THAT dramatic, but here are some pictures anyway.

photos, no stories

pix here, stories to follow. ask me about a ladder, a hose, and a pool sometime!

enjoy.