In Which We Get Our First Sunburn of the Season

Ahh, behold the sun. 'Tis a beautiful thing. Today was church picnic day. Which means church outside, too. So now my shoulders are burnt, and my excuse is "I was in church" and I let all the old people and the babies have the spots in the shade. I shoulda volunteered for the choir today; they were in the gazebo.

Lunch was pretty good--brisket and chicken strips. This is yet another difference between Current Church and Old Church. Old Church, this would have been potluck. New Church, it's catered.

I'll share a little of what I found today:

Enjoy!

In Which We Learn that Easy Gifts Can be the Hardest

OK. Sometimes gift-giving is hard. Sometimes it's easy. And then there's the times when your gift set-up is SO perfect that you're stuck in the badlands.
Take for instance, the following (possibly) hypothetical situation. You're a knitter. Not a half-bad one, perhaps. And you're married to a knitter. A fantastic knitter. Like the kind of knitter who makes breathtaking shawls for his mother and yours for Mother's Day. (pretty cool, huh?) Now imagine that you've been married to said fabulous knitter for 6 years, 11 months, and 15 days. Done the math? That means our hypothetical knitter has 2 weeks and one day to come up with a fun, cool, funny 7th anniversary present. One that fits the theme of the year. You know..paper; cotton; leather; fruit & flowers; etc. 7th is copper and wool. Wool! How's that for a set up?! Only, that's where the problem comes in. The set-up is just too good. I can't buy him wool for his next project 'cause I don't know what he wants to knit next. And I can't very well ask him 'cause that would blow the whole surprise, wouldn't it? Hmm...dilema.

In Which Everything Turns Out OK After All

So, mom had surgery 2 weeks ago now. Everything went as planned. In fact, she has bounced back way better than I expected she would. Back home safe and sound; driving herself crazy with boredom since she can't go back to work yet....you know, the usual drill.
In knitting news, I've been knitting Jeanie (from Knitty) with some Cotton Fleece that I found hiding in the closet. Wonderful how sometimes the Stash Fairy smiles on you. On the other hand, there's this shawl that demands laceweight wool that keeps calling to me...the Mystery Shawl Siren is trhing to lure me in. Too bad my total cash on hand is $5 until payday. Don't think that'll get me a shawl's worth even on Knit Picks!
Also, new stitch markers from Birdy's Knits. Way cool. Camera not handy. Pics later, maybe.

In Which We See That Knowledge Can Be a Bad Thing

My sweet mom is having surgery tomorrow. I've cared for a lot of post-op patients. Most do just fine and go home in 3-4 days. But some don't. I've seen enough surgery patients go wrong in just about every way that you can imagine. And several ways that I couldn't imagine if I hadn't seen them. I'm just a little worried.
It doesn't help that she's having surgery at a teaching hospital. I'm worried about her being taken care of by residents. I know, that's silly. I'm a resident. But the more comfortable I am in my practice of medicine, the less comfortable I am with some of the other ways I see medicine practiced. If I had my way, I'd be at my mother's bedside at 5am every day to pounce on her early-morning resident to make sure she or he is doing things my way. But I can't. Because I have to be here making sure my first year residents are doing ok. Frustrating that work is getting in the way of my family responsibilities. Though in defense of work, they've been great aobut me skipping work. A week and a half ago, when mom got her cancer diagnosis, I left town in the middle of the day to be with her, and work just cancelled all my afternoon appointments for me. Now they're doing it for me again so I can sit with my father while mom's in surgery.
May God have mercy on our souls.

14 weeks, 6 days

Final countdown begins now. Less than 15 weeks to go until graduation. I know, I know. You're thinking I've already graduated. In fact, I have. Three times. This is the last one. I promise. Residency ends 30 June. Then I'll be finished with training. This one won't be nearly as big a celebration as the last one. We'll probably have a (small) party here at the house for friends and family. There's an official graduation dinner, but at $40 a head, turnout there will be limited to family, a few residents, and a few local docs. (Note: these plans have nothing to do with the way we residents want things done. It's the Way It's Always Been Done.) Ah, well. So it goes. 59 resident clinic half-days left.