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Wednesday, April 15, 2009

 
5:35 PM: inside and out [#] [0]

* another baby report: jalex had a baby boy apr13! we stopped by today to visit. the naming ceremony is saturday.

* april is the month to start biking again! on one of the first beautiful days (i saw a sundog!), i biked down the springwater corridor trail and thought i was really out of shape because it seemed like i was going so slow. on my way back i passed someone on a bench who called out "you're back tire's flat, ma'am!" and so it was. i walked her home and took her to the bike gallery the next day -- but when i got her back, she was missing two gears! so i returned her to the bike gallery and they got it right the second time. despite the chainguard, rose caught another pair on my pants on the chain, so I'm going to have to start tucking my right pant leg into my sock. in warmer weather, i can go back to wearing just skirts! on my way home from the trillium board meeting, i got caught in the rain: i discovered my raincoat is only semi-rainproof. :)

* ohsu's osce was a blast! i cried when one doctor insisted on putting me in a position that "hurt" me, and another doctor surprised me by asking me detailed questions about my sex life that i had to create answers to on the spot. but overall i had a great time. it's fun to see the various ranges and styles of doctors-to-be and makes me feel good to be contributing to the next generation.

* i attended another opsfest playgroup. it's a neat format where mistakes are funny, not frowned on. i do angry shakespeare really well, but soliloquies need some work. i'll know more about what performances i'll be involved with at the end of the month.

* hooping class is going well: we were hooping blindfolded and learned elbow hooping! (not at the same time)

* michaelmas turned 47 last week. he spent it quietly at home watching the dr. who easter special. on tuesday i took him out to dinner, and afterwards we had an ice cream cone and watched the maltese falcon.

* mph had a birthday, too. i dropped off the birthday card sven made for him, and he showed me his kindle (much nicer than i would have guessed from the pictures). ben gave me a tootsie roll pop & a bracelet. :)

* sven & i watched "the invasion," the best part of which was that it didn't contain a monster that roars before it attacks you (this is one of my least favorite scifi movie tropes).

* we like to celebrate easter even though we're not religious. i like dying and hiding eggs and we eat egg salad and shepherd's pie. but this year we realized it sure is a lot of cooking for a holiday we don’t really celebrate! :)

* we helped mph's family move to their new house in lents. i brought a yoyo, hoops, bubbles, kite and a soccer ball to distract ben during the move but we played "rescue ben & verl before they fall off futon mountain" and "zombie blueberry" instead. afterwards, mph took us all to izzie's.

* trixie got a flat tire on the way to help mph move, though, so i changed my tire on the freeway by myself! a woman stopped who wanted me to wait for someone to help, and then a man stopped to divert traffic around my head. thanks, linda & mark!

* my taxes are finally done. thanks to the stimulus package, my tax person waved her hands and amended a previous tax return to get me some money back. bless her!

Monday, April 06, 2009

 
11:38 AM: monday's child is fair of face [#] [0]

i'm so glad april's here: i really needed a dose of sunshine. april is also national poetry month! & national grilled cheese sandwich month. with that in mind, here's something completely different:

* michaelmas & i have finished the first season of heroes. he's not inclined to watch the second or third season, so we'll probably finish the veronica mars series or go back to lost.

* i finally got a chance to go to the hawthorne food carts, which are usually only open w-sa after 8 p.m. i had poutine once in canada so i wanted to try it here, and they had a vegetarian version, which warmed my heart. pretty good, though i liked the canadian version better. also a nice crepe cart. (speaking of which, michaelmas & i noticed the crepe place on 23rd that was always randomly open is now gone. unsurprising, but still sad.)

* now that april is here, i am compelled to do more biking. i'm trying to tackle the hills around here, because 136th scares me. so i'm practicing on what i call the "starwatching hill," a former horse pasture that has been a development in limbo for over a year now. no traffic, beautiful views, very steep hill. i noticed bike gallery is finally carrying an electric bike option: the a2b, which is disappointingly ugly, or i'd be considering it.

* every ohsu job has been interesting, but this one is particularly so because it's more than a week of it, roughly 8 a day. also, i'm responsible for evaluating them. these are first-year med students and this is their final exam -- and so even though they're not supposed to be perfect, it's still intriguing to see the range of approaches, manner and competence. this is especially awkward because it involves a chest exam, and asking me to lower my gown and reaching inside my bra is obviously not something they've practiced much. :)

* i took a huge load of clothes back to savvy plus, my original introduction to the world of stores that featured nice clothes that fit me, and only got $8. most of the clothing was stuff i had bought there! so that was ... disappointing. now i'm wishing i had brought them to fat fancy instead.

* i taught "starting a creative business" at the gresham library on saturday. a small but enthusiastic group. i really love that class: it's the one i feel is most well timed, well-paced, engaging and encouraging.

* i'm slowly working on gardening: all the garden boxes have been cleared and i've started seeds inside. i probably should have started the seeds last month because i'd have lettuce by now if i had. but the radish sprouts were immediately entertaining and it looks like the corn and pumpkin seeds are gonna burst out of their little pods and destroy tokyo soon. i'm trying a method called "square foot gardening" and sven made me a collapsible grid to put in the boxes he made several years ago. i really missed gardening last year, so i hope it's better this year.

* i finally received an invoice from the lawyer for my mom's estate and paid it. it's a remarkable amount of money for what amounts to less about an hour and a half of time.

* my current snapshot song is lily allen's "the fear": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F-lqOrRcIY