We're Baaack! (or are we)

Well, the long wait is over. The event I promised to elucidate back in April has now happened. Not 2 months later as I promised, but rather 6 months. Oh, yes this is a nicely aged blog entry. What is this thing that has brought me out of my blogging hibernation (to all the sceptics according to recent industry research all good bloggers hibernate in the summer, which is the winter for those in the know or in the Southern Hemisphere. Yeah, you know who you are). Anyways, back to the event that could be large enough to bring me, Stephen Daugird, out of blogging hibernation. What occurrence could cause me to get off my duff and take 30 seconds of my day to add another entry to the blog that the New York Times has never heard of, nor had they ever wanted it to enter into their minds to have heard of. What could this possibly be?

More six months from now. Oh, but how I jest.

In reality it is none other than the laboring and birthing (by my beautiful wife) of our third child and first baby girl! Raelle River Daugird. Born 9:56 pm on 10/22/08. Weighing in at 7 pounds 5 ounces and 19.5 inches long. She came into the world ready to eat, poop, and cuddle. And she has already grabbed the mic to give a shout out to her mom and dad for bringing her into the world.

What's in the Middle?

Well it has been a while. What have the four of us been up to of note? Well more on that later (sooner later, not two months from now later, I hope). For now a short post.

During my small group on sexual health, in between talking about how to ask patients a good sexual history (you know addressing the important areas of risk or bringing up common concerns) and arranging the blue flashcards with the twelve steps of how to properly use a condom on them (yes there are twelve, if you aren't doing them all ask your doctor how you might be at risk), people in my small group brought up this website.

I had never seen it before but it sounded as hilarious as it is. And so I now share it with you. Probably much belated since I am out of the cultural loop (as any man who owns a mini-van has to be by definition). Anyways, see if you spot yourself in any of these, you may just be more white than you thought. And I can honestly say this blog rings surprisingly true to most of the time. My favorite part is how it is written to give people tips on how to talk and relate to white people.

So if you are white, be careful. All of your secrets are out in the open for anyone to see.

Grace

Sitting down to dinner tongiht.
"Let's say grace before we eat. Dash would you like to pray for us?"
"No."
"I will."
Carlye chimes in.
She is about to start when Dash says
"No, I want to!"
"Jesus thank you for ketchup, thank you for fish sticks, thank you for tomatoes, no thank you for these." (this last part while pointing to the green beans on his plate...Carlye and I sneaking a peek at each other, trying not to laugh)

I heard that

My friend showed me this website the other day. Its all about posting random things overheard in not-so-private conversations in public places. It started out just in NY City, but now they have multiple categories so you too can submit your own. Nothing serious, usually just random snippets, one sided phone conversations, etc. Most are posted to make others laugh, which means a good number are vulgar (maybe I should have mentioned that before posting the link).

However, the whole idea of a website devoted to posting parts of overheard conversation, definitely struck me as something quintessential to life post-internet. It is hard to think of another forum that would allow random strangers to share funny and amusing bits of overheard conversations with other random strangers. It is probably a good insight, although an admittedly warped one, into the American psyche as well. Here is one that for some reason struck me as especially funny:

Beer store employee: Can I help you to your car with that?
Middle-aged customer: I'm a woman. I gave birth. I can carry a case of beer.

--Verona, Pennsylvania

And this one just for the Adlards:

Girl #1: Ugh, I hate Honda Elements. They're so ugly!
Girl #2: Yeah, but did you know that you could, like, fill the whole thing with water and it would still run perfectly?
Girl #1: Why would you want to do that?
Girl #2: I don't know... But you could!

--W 42nd & Broadway

Speechless

I saw this video today (not during class, rather during break between classes, because I never am distracted or bored during lectures and if you hear any different don't tell my mom who now gives lectures to nursing students and would bring the pain) and thought I need to share it with all my family and friends (or at least the small select few who read my blog, even with my poor performance of updating at present). So here it is folks, a homage to one of the greatest television shows of all time. Anyways, what a show! And it just gets funnier the more you watch it. (Also, there is some language in the song, but you can mute it). And yes, I own all three seasons on DVD, so anyone who wants to borrow them just let me know.

Wha Happened?

Well, if you are one of the four people who read this, you may have noticed I haven't updated my blog for well, over a month. So as my good friend Inigo Montoya would say, Let me splain, no there is no time, let me sum up. Since last I wrote we have had four Christmases (one with Carlye and I and the boys, one with the Clarks, one with the Daugirds, and one with Adlards prior to their trip to South Africa). If that sounds like a lot of celebrating, not to worry, we still have one more Christmas left this weekend with our friends the Spencers. I got a few weeks off of school, which is always nice.

We spent a lot of time with the boys and doing outings. We even got to go here, since we received a much appreciated membership as Christmas gift. (note the story about the new calf, when we were there we saw a sign notifying us that their cow had just died, needless to say we did not read this out for the boys). Anyways, we had to go home a bit early because I was feeling a bit woosy and we spent the last week of vacation passing a nasty GI bug from family member to family member (except for Dash who somehow managed to avoid it completely). The best day was probably when Carlye and I were both sick at the same time. I think it was spent with me lying on the couch while Moses and Eli watched movies and cartoons, while Carlye lay upstairs in bed trying not to vomit. But not to worry, we all recovered just in time for me to go back to school and I was the only one who managed to get a bronchitis the entire next week (lots of coughing, lots of green mucous, thank you inventor of the Z-Pack). Ah yes Z Pack besides all viral, fungal, and most bacterial (not to mention mycobacterial), what infections can't you cure? Well you did a number on mine and for that I now immortalize you in my blog.



Anywho, we are now all healthy and if my sum up gave you the wrong impression (which it probably did) we had a wonderful and restful holiday. Now back to classes here. Ah yes the Medical Biomolecular Research Building and its wonderful lecture halls. We med students like to call it the MBRB, pretty creative, I know. Yes, just like the pop hit I will forever be in the MBRB...er...india arie. At least until May. Last semester of full-time didactic medical education, score! Don't worry I am sure they will still try to slip it in somehow during our clinical rotations the next two years. Alright, if I keep writing I will run out of things to put in my next blog, which hopefully will be in another month or so.

A Day in the Life

Today was the first Monday of Winter Holiday and we celebrated by taking Moses to the doctor for his six month check up. He got three shots and Eli and I both ended up getting one flu shot each as well (Carlye already got hers and was the only one who left the clinic without a sore appendage). Moses spent most of the day eating and sleeping and laughing. Eli spent most of the day cracking me and Carlye up.

Moses loves to feed himself toasted oats (Cheerio's) after lunch and dinner. He goes through them pretty quickly and so when he runs out Carlye will ask him if he wants more "Os" while making the handsign for the letter O (she is into the baby sign language). So today at lunch when Moses ran out of Cheerios Eli asked his brother if he wanted more "Hos". "Hey brother you want more Hos? You want Hos? Need more Hos? You need Hos? Hey, you need Hos?" Between suppressed laughter Carlye and I look at each other and I ask her why she is raising our son to be so disrespectful to women.

Later Moses is napping. Eli loads up a small paper bag with toys and library books, gets up and says "I going to work, I going to my office." When I ask him what he does for work he repsponds "Rescue pilot. I need to go fly my airplane." I then ask him if the bag he is carrying is his briefcase and he says "No, it's presents." At this point he gets distracted from rescuing people and proceeds to hand out presents to Carlye and I. He gives me a dinosaur (which looks surprisingly like a book) and when Carlye asks for one to he tells her, "No mommy, you've been bad." I try not to look Carlye in the eyes because I am already laughing too loudly to discourage such behavior from my son.

After dinner I put Moses into a clean diaper and pajamas. Earlier Eli had all of the throw pillows on the floor. I take one and lay down on the couch with Moses starting to fall asleep on my chest. Eli comes over to play and after about ten minutes he suddenly realizes I have one of the eight pillows he was playing with before dinner (but not since). He looks at me and asks for his pillow back. I point out that he has seven more to play with on the floor including one that is identical to the one I am laying on. Needless to say, this line of rational and clear-headed reasoning does not work on a two year old. He proceeds to tell me that the pillow I have is for him, the one identical to it is for his stuffed bear and the other six he needed as well (although no explanation for why he needed these was given). I think Carlye was the one laughing at me this time. But I somehow managed to keep my pillow instead of having to give it up for Eli's stuffed bear.