I just want to party all the time.......

Because it's just SO MUCH FUN!!!  They came. They ate. They laughed.  And in the end I wasn't left with a ginormous amount of leftovers so I consider the whole thing a great success.  I can't wait until the next gathering of the Hennies.  Thanks girls.....for making it such a great evening.  I loved eating and laughing with you all!!

Hen Partay.......take 4!!

It's the Hennies!

I don't know how it all got started.  I think Karen was bragging about how good her short ribs were and we decided that she had to prove it by throwing a dinner party where she would cook food for us.  No boys allowed - hence the hen reference.  I think Anna made it official with the glass hen which would then become the mascot for our informal dinner group.

I figured I'd volunteer for the next dinner get-together (it's the 4th one?). My thinking was cunning actually. I knew mom was going to be in town and since she can cook and I can't it would be the perfect time to have a party with food.  I'm also thinking that if I don't do it before January there's never going to be a dinner party at my house once school starts!

So the next Hen meet is tomorrow evening and I think I'm completely worn out running around trying to make sure I have all the stuff I need for this fest.  Today we still have shopping to do and food prep later on this afternoon. The house is still not done (stairs are incomplete due to Kev's recent bike incident) but who needs to go upstairs anyways??

I found out that I don't have enough chairs for everyone who's coming so will have to rectify that sometime today.  Eeeeek....the more I think about it the more there is to do!!

Well, wish me luck! Hopefully the food is good but I'd settle for lots of laughter and conversation. Worst case scenario........we order pizza!!

Flu shot....should you or shouldn't you?

I never used to get the flu shot.  Up until last year I had never gotten the flu shot.  That is.....until I worked with my first patient who had H1N1 who was deathly ill.  This was a young, previously healthy individual with no significant medical history who, all of a sudden, was struck down by this crazy flu strain.  It didn't take much to convince me to get the flu shot after that.  Last year it seemed like everywhere I looked someone was really, really sick after getting H1N1. Mind you, I do work in a critical care setting so it would be normal for me to see really sick people but the number of illnesses attributed to the flu were distinctly out of proportion compared to the norm.

So, this year, the minute flu shots were offered I got mine.  That was 4 days ago.  I am officially sick.  I guess it's a small price to pay to protect against possible greater illness but this really sucks. My sinuses are clogged. My eardrums feel like they're about to burst and I'm sure my patients will be thrilled that I'm coughing and hacking all over them at work tomorrow.

Nevermind that this week is the one week where I'm scheduled to work 5 days in a row and that my mother is arriving next Saturday and I have no energy to do anything other than veg in front of my computer and blog about how yucky I feel.

It's going to be a splendid week.  Yeah.

Best of intentions...

You know what they say about the best of intentions....like I always intend to update this blog on a regular basis but it winds up never happening because I just have too much other stuff going on. Also, I don't have that much to say on a regular basis and I'm sure you have no desire to read about the goings-on in my daily, hum-drum life!

I did want to come on here today to just post a quick note about an incident that happened to TheDude earlier this week and some lessons that I've learned and would like to pass on as a consequence of the incident.

On Tuesday afternoon TheDude went for a bicycle ride. He does a loop that is about 10miles long and is mostly on a trail with very minimal road time and when he is on a road section he stays on the sidewalks. Long story very short....he wound up in the hospital with a pretty bad head injury - loss of consciousness, amnesia, and a multitude of scrapes and cuts - some of which required suturing.  Luckily he eventually regained consciousness and was able to tell them his name (which he did not know on arrival to the hospital!) and where he lived.  That is how the cops found their way to my front door.

Lesson 1: Always wear your helmet.  I hate to even think how much worse his injuries could have been had he not been wearing his helmet

Lesson 2: Always carry ID with you even if you're only stepping out for a minute. He did not have any ID on him and I don't know how they would have found me had he not remembered his address.

Lesson 3: If at all possible try to go out with a friend. Just about everything is safer when you've got someone with you.

Lesson 4: If you should ever see someone in need of assistance - no matter the circumstance - please do not simply turn a blind eye and drive on.  I am so thankful that the people who found Kev were not the type to just turn a blind eye so....C.S. and no-name bicycle guy..... I'm thanking you from the bottom of my heart!

A big shout out to the Apex EMS and the folks at DUMC who took care of my hubster. Even though he doesn't remember any of you or any of the events leading up to his hospitalization I know he is truly grateful for everything you did for him.