...identical cousins (c'mon everybody, sing along)...
Viva la seventies...
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Because they're cousins...
...identical cousins (c'mon everybody, sing along)...
Viva la seventies...
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Bursting With Pride...and mucus
Well, she did it. Stephanie made the varsity soccer team as a freshman - the only freshman, at that. This soccer program is consistently the #1 in town, and ranked pretty well statewide - and we couldn't be more proud of her.
As for the mucus part, well, there's a virus kicking my butt and I actually called in sick last night, instead of sucking it up and saving sick days for sick kids like I usually do. (yawn) Okay, back to bed.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Tuesday Potpourri
Oh, jeez. You know that if I haven't posted for a while, the next offering is bound to be eclectic. I have no real predetermined plan for this post, except that it's going to include food, funny motivational posters, a little rant about work, a plug about my kids, and probably an iPhone app review or two. Yup. Eclectic.
Now then. I made something for dinner tonight that the kids really enjoyed, and I remember enjoying in another life...so I feel compelled to share the recipe, for anybody who might feel like trying it.
Chicken Pastry Puffs
Start with 2 loaves worth of frozen bread dough or rolls or homemade dough. Chop up about a pound of cooked chicken - I use a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store - and mix the chopped chicken together with 8 oz of softened cream cheese, a half-stick of butter, melted, 1/2 cup of chopped celery and 1/2 cup of chopped green onions.
Flatten out a roll (or a roll-size ball of bread dough), place a tablespoon or so of chicken mixture on the center, and gather up the edges to seal the whole thing into a ball. Roll each ball in melted butter, then roll again in dry stuffing mix (like Stove Top). Bake at 375 for 20 minutes. Serve with chicken gravy, which consists of a can of cream of chicken soup and a cup of chicken broth. This recipe makes about 18 or so puffs; two puffs are all I can eat in a single sitting.
Moving on.
Some funny, I-know-I'm-going-to-hell-but-at-least-I'll-be-in-good-company motivational posters. I did not make these, I cannot claim even a touch of responsibility for them - but I do think they're bust-a-gut hilarious.
Nothing like a little grown-up humor.
I was gonna post a whole entire diatribe about physicians who opt for sending their patients to the hospital by way of the ER instead of direct-admitting them. I was gonna go off, because the whole practice irritates me some days and infuriates me other days, and is inconvenient for the patient every damn time. For those non-medical folks out there, a direct admit is when a doctor sends a patient to the hospital when he/she knows the patient needs to stay, but they send with that patient a set of orders and all the information the registration people need to get that patient bedded down upstairs. It's the responsible thing to do.
Instead, what happens far more often is that a community physician will send a patient, even sometimes as an ambulance transfer, without wanting to do the legwork, and so they tell the patient that they'll be "stopping in the ER." Like the ER is just a stoplight along the way, a rest area on the big medical freeway. And it don't work that way. You see, once a patient hits the ER they can pretty much plan on being there for a minimum of three to four hours, unless they have something wrong enough with them that they need to be whisked away to the cath lab or the OR - and in that case, community docs, I won't bust your balls about not having orders written. Fair enough. But if that patient comes without orders, without somebody else's written direction of what they want done with the patient, we in the ER have to start from scratch. Which means labs, xrays, CT's, whatever it takes to get a baseline idea of what is wrong. Then the admission process can be painful, between phone calls and bed requests and so forth. Whereas, if that community physician had just made one simple phone call and written down a rudimentary set of admission orders, that patient would be upstairs and comfy instead of in the ER on an uncomfortable gurney listening to the smelly drunk next door ramble about what a champion prizefighter he used to be.
Yup, I was gonna rant about that even longer. But uber-blogger Nurse K over at Crass-Pollination has done so quite well. Go check her out. She's one of my favorite nurse bloggers, because she absolutely tells it like it is.
And now for the kid part. We have pretty gosh-darn amazing kids.
Steph is in the midst of varsity soccer tryouts - as a freshman - and she'll probably make it, she's that good. Maddie is excited for upcoming volleyball tryouts and the soccer season too - and of the three girls, she's the sensitive one, the one who offers to help cook and the one who tries to make peace and make things okay when they ain't. And Hayley is doing a great job in choir and in her Destination Imagination group - and she just last week took second place among the fourth graders at her school's science fair. The boys are boys, both little fireballs with uncanny expertises... Kyle's is words and states, Gabe's is Star Wars, and both of them are just full of snuggles and kisses and sweet words and hugs (and methane, but they both get that from their dads, who are superlative in that regard). They're all such good kids. I feel pretty lucky.
And who wouldn't feel lucky, getting to come home to Mr. April from the Sexy Men of EMS calendar?? (Okay, so it's not a real calendar - but I spose it could be.)
And I'm tired of typing for now. Y'all will have to wait till next time for the iPhone app reviews. I know, bated breath, and all...
Now then. I made something for dinner tonight that the kids really enjoyed, and I remember enjoying in another life...so I feel compelled to share the recipe, for anybody who might feel like trying it.
Chicken Pastry Puffs
Start with 2 loaves worth of frozen bread dough or rolls or homemade dough. Chop up about a pound of cooked chicken - I use a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store - and mix the chopped chicken together with 8 oz of softened cream cheese, a half-stick of butter, melted, 1/2 cup of chopped celery and 1/2 cup of chopped green onions.
Flatten out a roll (or a roll-size ball of bread dough), place a tablespoon or so of chicken mixture on the center, and gather up the edges to seal the whole thing into a ball. Roll each ball in melted butter, then roll again in dry stuffing mix (like Stove Top). Bake at 375 for 20 minutes. Serve with chicken gravy, which consists of a can of cream of chicken soup and a cup of chicken broth. This recipe makes about 18 or so puffs; two puffs are all I can eat in a single sitting.
Moving on.
Some funny, I-know-I'm-going-to-hell-but-at-least-I'll-be-in-good-company motivational posters. I did not make these, I cannot claim even a touch of responsibility for them - but I do think they're bust-a-gut hilarious.
Nothing like a little grown-up humor.
I was gonna post a whole entire diatribe about physicians who opt for sending their patients to the hospital by way of the ER instead of direct-admitting them. I was gonna go off, because the whole practice irritates me some days and infuriates me other days, and is inconvenient for the patient every damn time. For those non-medical folks out there, a direct admit is when a doctor sends a patient to the hospital when he/she knows the patient needs to stay, but they send with that patient a set of orders and all the information the registration people need to get that patient bedded down upstairs. It's the responsible thing to do.
Instead, what happens far more often is that a community physician will send a patient, even sometimes as an ambulance transfer, without wanting to do the legwork, and so they tell the patient that they'll be "stopping in the ER." Like the ER is just a stoplight along the way, a rest area on the big medical freeway. And it don't work that way. You see, once a patient hits the ER they can pretty much plan on being there for a minimum of three to four hours, unless they have something wrong enough with them that they need to be whisked away to the cath lab or the OR - and in that case, community docs, I won't bust your balls about not having orders written. Fair enough. But if that patient comes without orders, without somebody else's written direction of what they want done with the patient, we in the ER have to start from scratch. Which means labs, xrays, CT's, whatever it takes to get a baseline idea of what is wrong. Then the admission process can be painful, between phone calls and bed requests and so forth. Whereas, if that community physician had just made one simple phone call and written down a rudimentary set of admission orders, that patient would be upstairs and comfy instead of in the ER on an uncomfortable gurney listening to the smelly drunk next door ramble about what a champion prizefighter he used to be.
Yup, I was gonna rant about that even longer. But uber-blogger Nurse K over at Crass-Pollination has done so quite well. Go check her out. She's one of my favorite nurse bloggers, because she absolutely tells it like it is.
And now for the kid part. We have pretty gosh-darn amazing kids.
Steph is in the midst of varsity soccer tryouts - as a freshman - and she'll probably make it, she's that good. Maddie is excited for upcoming volleyball tryouts and the soccer season too - and of the three girls, she's the sensitive one, the one who offers to help cook and the one who tries to make peace and make things okay when they ain't. And Hayley is doing a great job in choir and in her Destination Imagination group - and she just last week took second place among the fourth graders at her school's science fair. The boys are boys, both little fireballs with uncanny expertises... Kyle's is words and states, Gabe's is Star Wars, and both of them are just full of snuggles and kisses and sweet words and hugs (and methane, but they both get that from their dads, who are superlative in that regard). They're all such good kids. I feel pretty lucky.And who wouldn't feel lucky, getting to come home to Mr. April from the Sexy Men of EMS calendar?? (Okay, so it's not a real calendar - but I spose it could be.)
And I'm tired of typing for now. Y'all will have to wait till next time for the iPhone app reviews. I know, bated breath, and all...
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
#587
...on eDrugSearch.com's Global Ranking of Top English-Language Health Blogs.
Whatev.
Makes me wish I was more of a healthcare blogger somedays.
Which makes me think, go on over to Head Nurse and see what Jo has to say about being a nurse and a blogger. I completely agree.
Whatev.
Makes me wish I was more of a healthcare blogger somedays.
Which makes me think, go on over to Head Nurse and see what Jo has to say about being a nurse and a blogger. I completely agree.
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Break a Leg
...or whatever you say in the creative world when somebody sticks their neck out to start a new endeavor.
A good friend of mine has recently launched a photography business, and if he's half as good at snapping pictures as he is creating them with words, he'll be a success.
Go ahead, go visit Box Five Photography and say "awwwww..." about his precious new daughter.
Good luck, T. And congratulations.
A good friend of mine has recently launched a photography business, and if he's half as good at snapping pictures as he is creating them with words, he'll be a success.
Go ahead, go visit Box Five Photography and say "awwwww..." about his precious new daughter.
Good luck, T. And congratulations.
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