fat crying babies

You MUST go check this out. It's too adorable. Fat, Asian, crying babies -- what more could you ask for?
Babies team up with sumo wrestlers for crying game

Free Stuff! Update

4/28/07: Aquafresh White & Shine Berry Fresh toothpaste, 0.8 oz. Perfect for carry-on!
-A single Always sanitary pad with Clean wipe attached. Sorry if that's too personal or disgusting for you. You wouldn't believe the amount of packaging they used to wrap the thing. It was a box about three times bigger than it needed to be. If I had realized that, or the fact that it's rather embarrassing to say I requested a free sanitary pad in the mail, I probably wouldn't have ordered it...

4/26/07: Curel Targeted Therapy Fast-Absorbing Hand & Cuticle Cream and Deep-Penetrating Foot Cream The hand cream "noticeably softens hands and cuticles with just one use" and the foot cream creates "noticeably smoother, softer feet in just two nights." 0.25 fl oz / 7 mL each. Score!

4/23/07: Aveeno Positively Ageless Rejuvenating Serum and a coupon for $1.50 off an Aveeno facial care product. It retails for $19.99 for a 50mL bottle; I got 3mL free (that's worth $1.20)! After all, it's never too early to "visibly reduce signs of aging." And I love their face wash.

Lucky You

"Wow. That movie looks so bad. It has poker AND Debra Messing and I have no desire to see it."
-Eric, on seeing a preview for Lucky You

Free Stuff! Update

4/26/07: Curel Targeted Therapy Fast-Absorbing Hand & Cuticle Cream and Deep-Penetrating Foot Cream The hand cream "noticeably softens hands and cuticles with just one use" and the foot cream creates "noticeably smoother, softer feet in just two nights." 0.25 fl oz / 7 mL each. Score!




4/23/07: Aveeno Positively Ageless Rejuvenating Serum and a coupon for $1.50 off an Aveeno facial care product. It retails for $19.99 for a 50mL bottle; I got 3mL free (that's worth $1.20)! After all, it's never too early to "visibly reduce signs of aging." And I love their face wash.

Abortions

(Why so many posts over the last week? Because it's study week, of course.)

I have a stack of JAMAs piled up in our office. I haven't read them in months, but I can't bear to throw them away, either. It just seems so wasteful. I intend to figure out something to do with them, but that's last on my list of priorities right now. Anyway, last week I did pick one up and read the "A Piece of My Mind" feature. If I ever read anything in JAMA, it's that -- it's a reader-written essay on a topic of choice. They're always really well-written (a reminder that physicians are, on the whole, not only very intelligent but also well-rounded in life) and usually poignant. The one from this issue was particularly so. It was also relevant to the Supreme Court decision from last week. I don't have a good way of posting the full text, since it's a subscription service and I can't post a link to it, and I don't like the formatting of my blog a whole lot (the text column is too narrow, so it always looks like I'm writing a diatribe) but I don't have any better ideas, so here it is (at least I've provided the citation):

JAMA. Volume 297(13), 4 April 2007, p 1412
A Question of Faith [A Piece of My Mind]
Raghavan, Ramesh MD, PhD
Section Editor(s): Young, Roxanne K. Associate Editor. St Louis, Missouri

A 35-YEAR-OLD WOMAN PRESENTS IN AN EMERGENCY Department just as the day shift is coming on. She is in her 21st week of pregnancy and is carrying twins but is worried because she woke up with vague cramping sensations and noticed a bloody vaginal discharge. The ED attending performs a vaginal examination and determines that her cervix has dilated and that fetal membranes are bulging into the vaginal canal. The nurse straps a monitor to her abdomen, and all in the room stare at the screen pensively. The squiggly lines tell an ominous story—the uterus is contracting, and the fetuses, incapable of independent existence at this stage of their gestation, are slowly being expelled into the world.

Over the next two days, the power of modern pharmaceuticals is unleashed in an attempt to quiet her uterus and save the twins. In reality, this attempt is focused on the twin who is fully contained in the uterus, since the one who is almost inside the vagina has no realistic chance of achieving viability. The efforts are valiant—these twins were conceived after 10 years of marriage—and the desire is strong to salvage as much of this pregnancy as possible.

The body, so often the final arbiter of the endeavors of men and women of medicine, has other plans. The fetal membranes continue to prolapse. The hospital's maternal-fetal medicine team and the woman's personal obstetrician discuss the situation with the woman and her husband. The membranes of one twin will likely rupture in the next few days, and he will be delivered. There is the possibility of undertaking a rescue cerclage—a procedure where the placenta of the delivered twin is retained in the uterus and the cervix is sutured closed. But this buys them a week or two on average before infection sets in, and the other twin also needs to be delivered. There is a slim chance at a best-case scenario—a twin born at the cusp of viability, a million-dollar baby who will spend months in neonatal intensive care and will have considerable neurodevelopmental problems should he survive.

The woman and her husband discuss this through the night and decide that they do not want to take on the certainty of a uterine infection for a slender chance of a periviable baby. It makes more sense to them to evacuate the uterus before infection sets in, preserve the uterine environment for a future attempt at pregnancy, and begin the process of grieving over the loss of the twins. They request their obstetricians to induce labor.

And at this point their personal decision-making runs afoul of their hospital's policies.

Inducing labor before membranes have ruptured, or before there is a maternal indication such as infection, is technically an elective abortion. This hospital, like most hospitals in the metropolitan area in which they live, has a strict no-elective-abortion policy, which forbids her obstetricians from rupturing her membranes and initiating labor. Women who want elective abortions go to Planned Parenthood; the ones who want to deliver full-term babies go to hospitals; and so the woman and her husband are told they cannot exercise that option at this hospital. The two of them, recent transplants from California used to a less faith-based practice of medicine, are shocked by this. Nobody wants this pregnancy more than they, they argue. The sole reason they are doing this is because the risks outweigh the benefits. Does the hospital require emergence of a frank infection before intervention is permissible? Is this in keeping with the highest standards of practice in modern obstetrics? Her obstetricians are sympathetic but helpless. Finally, they come up with a plan. The sole hospital that does not have such an abortion policy is a university teaching hospital several miles away. Telephone calls are made, a direct admission is arranged, and the woman's husband drives her to the teaching hospital, where labor is induced. The twins are delivered the next day. They are stillborn.

You might wonder, reading this vignette, how I happen to know so many details about this case, or even whether this is a fictional teaching case that so bedevils medical students. The unfortunate truth is that this is real life: I am the husband in this story.

But the greater tragedy here, to my mind, is the straitjacket that a religious worldview imposes on the complexity inherent within clinical medicine. Our world sometimes presents us with situations that cannot be simplistically categorized as pro-choice or pro-life, and other patients across the nation will be faced with decisions like the ones we made on that fateful day.

This is why hospital policies that originate in religion rather than in science can be unhealthy and unsafe. Personal religious beliefs can and should guide the lives of clinicians of faith. The extent to which they guide a clinician's professional life is the clinician's personal matter, and I hope that clinicians will choose specialties and practice settings that ensure that patients receive needed care regardless of the clinician's religious beliefs. However, the extent to which these beliefs guide hospital policy is a matter of concern to all of us, whether we are patients or clinicians. The extent to which the US medical establishment succeeds in circumscribing the circle of influence of religion-based medicine will determine the quality of health care that physicians can offer their patients. Clearly, irrespective of what religion each of us belongs to, this is the very least that our patients deserve.

Ramesh Raghavan, MD, PhD

St Louis, Missouri

A PIECE OF MY MIND (Young RK, ed)

Then my friend adspar pointed me to this post, which relates a similar story. I know it takes extra effort to click on that link, but please do so.

I don't think there are two better examples of why medicine needs to be kept between physicians and patients. The government shouldn't be making decisions about what procedures should or should not be performed, and neither should insurance companies.

NYT Health Articles

I think a lot about how I'm going to practice medicine. I'm very enamored with "ideal" medicine -- money isn't an issue, patient visits last as long as they need to, everyone's needs are addressed and met, and everyone is happy. If primary care worked that way, I think I'd like it. As it is, I can't help but think I'm going to end up a hospital-based physician (hospitalist, ID, ER, ICU) or a specialist, because primary care, though noble and calling to me, sucks. I know, I know: "You can be the good one!" I've been told (about both surgery AND primary care, actually), but it's really difficult to imagine. Anyway, here are some NY Times articles to ponder.

At Trial, Pain Has a Witness
A pain management physician from Northern Virginia is on trial for prescribing opioids to patients who were using them illegally or diverting them. This is a tough issue; pain is a completely subjective sensation, and lots of people are in serious pain. If you have a policy to not prescribe opioids at all, like the witness Dr. Hamill-Ruth, you're not going to address the needs of your patients. If you over-prescribe, like the defendent Dr. Hurwitz, some patients are going to take advantage of you.

Treating the Awkward Years
*Side note: I still think, 16 years after losing a spelling bee on the word "awkward" (spelled it without the second w) that the word "awkward" looks really awkward. What's funnier is the girl who went after me, who had to spell it correctly to advance: she spelled it wrong, the exact same way I did. Idiot.
It's well-known among medical professionals that children are not simply small adults, and now we learn that adolescents are not large children. Adolescent medicine is apparently very needed but underserved. This article makes it sound so nice; when I read it, I think, "Yeah, I could do that. It would be great to work with teens to make sure they transition well between childhood and adulthood." Then I think about MY adolescence, and I'm not sure if I could stand talking to someone like me.

DNA decoded

Found this personality quiz via a friend. I'm a touchy-feely easy rider out to conquer the world -- told you it was true!

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Free Stuff!

A couple weeks ago, I was watching TV and saw a commercial for a new product (shampoo, I think?) that advertised a free sample promotion. I was just sitting on the couch with my computer on my lap, bored, so I went to the website, requested my sample, and then decided to Google "free sample" to see what else I could get. The answer: TONS of stuff. So I did. The first sample came today. I'm going to update this list as more things arrive in the mail, because 1) free things are awesome; 2) real mail is awesome. If the sample request is still active, I'll try to post the link, but most offers are brief (While Supplies Last!), so go find some of your own. (Note, if you do this, beware the offers that want you to fill out pages and pages of survey questions first. Don't bother. Just stick with the manufacturers' offers.)




4/23/07: Aveeno Positively Ageless Rejuvenating Serum and a coupon for $1.50 off an Aveeno facial care product. It retails for $19.99 for a 50mL bottle; I got 3mL free (that's worth $1.20)! After all, it's never too early to "visibly reduce signs of aging." And I love their face wash.

Depressing

My friend Pickle re-posted this PostSecret on her blog. She felt hurt. I felt disgusted. I don't want to talk about it any more right now.

It's Friday and I'm not studying... big surprise

Best compliments I've received:
"You're the girl we most like to hang out with." -- Three guys I had dinner with last night.

"You guys are a good 'public couple'." (As in, not overly PDA-ish and gross, nor weird about being a couple / the only couple in the group.) -- Same three guys I had dinner with last night.

Awesome!


And a recently-discovered-but-oh-so-true McSweeney's List for your/my amusement:

The Only "Cute Couple" Halloween Costumes My Boyfriend And I Will Be Able To Use In Our Lifetimes, Because I am 5'2" And He Is 6'7", by Susan Howson

• James/giant peach
• Frodo/Gandalf
• Richard Dreyfuss/Jaws
• A totally sweet metal guitarist/stack of amps
• A bar graph

Watch for Eric and me in October as the response to "What would you do if you won a million dollars?" survey, with me as the red I'd-give-it-to-charity bar and him as the blue I'd-keep-it bar.

News of note

• Justices uphold ban on abortion procedure

Not good news. I've been against this ban for a long, long time, but yesterday I formed a more solid basis for my opinion. Abortions are legal during the time frame in which intact D&Xs are performed; that has not changed. But this law, and now the court, are telling physicians which specific procedures they can and cannot do. On Talk of the Nation Wednesday, Neal Conan talked to David Savage, Supreme Court correspondent for the Los Angeles Times about this issue:

Savage, at one point, paraphrases Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dissent: “[Ginsburg said] medical experts said in the trial in this case that for some women, this will force them to undergo riskier surgery and the government should not be able to do that. These are legal abortions, she stressed – prior to the end of the sixth month, they’re legal abortions – why shouldn’t doctors be able to do the abortions in the way the doctors believe is safer?

Neal Conan points to the majority opinion, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, and reads: “Physicians are not entitled to ignore regulations that direct them to use reasonable alternative procedures."

Savage: “Yes, Kennedy was quite blunt. Even though he acknowledged that a fair number of medical experts say that there could be significant health risks here, nonetheless, since there is another way to do the abortion, you must use that other way.

“Which reminded me [of a scenario], if men were told, ‘By the way, you might have prostate cancer, and doctors could either do the surgery to remove your prostate or do radiation, and we’ve decided radiation is what we prefer, so you can’t do the surgery.’ A lot of men would say, ‘Well wait a minute, I heard that surgery is the better procedure.’ This decision basically says, ‘Yes but there’s another good procedure and you should use the other good procedure, not this surgery.’”

I think that's a good analogy. It's still an abortion, no matter which way you look at it. The outcome is the same, and the process is not any different, no matter what you try to say. I know some would use that last sentence as reason to outlaw all abortions, but I use it to support the use of all legitimate medical abortions, regardless of the procedure.

• U.S. OKs 1st bird flu vaccine for humansGood news, not that it's going to do any good. Bleh.
  

• 31-cent scoop night at Basin-Robbins! May 2, 5-10 pm. Yay!

Virginia Tech (long)

I think everyone is undergoing a similar set of emotions and reactions to the shootings at Virginia Tech. I've pretty much been unable to get anything done the last two days, sitting instead at my desk with the computer constantly refreshing CNN.com and the radio on NPR. Yesterday, Neal Conan did a live broadcast on Talk of the Nation of news updates, talking with students, faculty, and others at VT who had been affected. One man was a janitor in the classroom building where most of the shootings happened who had been shot at by the shooter as he came upon the scene. Neal Conan asked him to describe the shooter, and the janitor responded that the shooter looked "like a foreigner." At that point, there had already been a report that the shooter might be Asian, so Conan asked if that was what the janitor meant. "Yeah, Asian. Foreign." he responded. I winced.

When I read the first stories this morning that identified the shooter as an Asian student from VT, I winced again, and when I saw the first picture of Seung-Hui Cho, I was very worried. And I'm not the only one. Upon hearing about the various Facebook groups that had been started in response to the shootings, I went to check them out. "A tribute to all those at VT," "[Blank] University supports VT," and others with similar names were joined by "Fighting Asian backlash (VT)," and "Now I feel uncomfortable in public (VT)". NPR interviewed a Korean-American man in New York City today who said his daughter requested a car ride to school this morning (rather than having to take the bus) once she found out the shooter was Korean. And on The World earlier this hour, Lisa Mullins interviewed Dae Young Kim, an assistant professor of sociology and Asian-American studies at UMD (Go Terps! We have an awesome Asian-American studies program.), who expressed similar fears. Listen here.

"When I first heard the suspect was an Asian, I was concerned, as an Asian-American, I was very concerned [about] who the suspect was. ... When I heard he was Korean, then again, I was very, very worried. ...[Mullins asks why he was worried.] In terms of the negative publicity [for] the Korean-American community as well as the Asian-American community, especially the level of hate mail and hate violence that could also be triggered as a result of a tragedy such as this one. ... [Mullins asks why he thinks this is a possibility, and who he is worried will generate the hate mail.] It's the general public, because the Korean-American community as well as the Asian-American community is generally concerned about their image in American society, in terms of how they are portrayed... The Korean-American community has been trying to portray themselves as hard-working immigrants that are coming to the U.S., work hard, and achieve the American dream, that they are contributing to American society. And when you have the situation where you have a 1.5-generation Korean-American, or an Asian-American, that commits such a heinous crime, that's going to cast a negative light about these immigrants and their role and position in American society."

Kim went on to talk about how Asian-Americans are the "model minority," and 1.5-generation Asian-Americans (1.5-generation refers to those who were born overseas but came to the U.S. before the age of about 12) often feel tremendous pressure to perform, achieve, and succeed, in part to validate their parents' struggles to bring them to this country, but many are most likely not taking advantage of counseling services offered by their schools, moreso than their non-Asian counterparts. Mullins didn't delve into that issue, but my two cents to explain that thought are that mental health issues are very highly stigmatized in many Asian cultures, even among 2nd- and third-generation immigrant families, so even if a troubled teen recognized he or she had problems, it is highly unlikely that he or she would seek help or counseling.

The idea of the "model minority" is echoed in medicine. It's well-known that we need more minority physicians, and medical schools have committed to making medical education more accessible to under-represented minorities. But Asians are by no means under-represented; in fact, many refer to Asians in medicine as over-represented minorities, and postulate that while in most of society, white men hold the least advantage in terms of getting ahead, being an Asian college senior might be the worst thing going for someone trying to get into medical school (unless you happen to be an out-of-stater applying somewhere random -- like, say, Kentucky). But since the admissions process recently opened the possibility of marking multiple race boxes and I already got admitted, I'll leave that discussion for another day.

Of course, I don't think -- and no one should -- that this guy did what he did because he was Asian. New immigrants from many parts of the world have trouble adjusting to the United States (there was a similarly tragic, though smaller-scale, event here in Louisville in the last year), and people who have been in the United States for decades still have problems. And plenty of teenagers, regardless of race or ethnicity, have issues that could lead them to depression or violence, although thankfully most people seem to make it through life OK. But being that this country is what it is, there's a very real risk that there will be a backlash, because in America, we still identify people by their skin color. Not even by their actual facial features -- because I can tell who's Chinese and who's Korean and who's Indian and who's Pakistani, even though a lot of people can't -- but by their skin color. That's why Middle Eastern-Americans still face problems today, and that's why I stick out just a little bit (but no one's sure why :) wherever I go. Why else do I worry that there will be hate mail? Because people in this country like to send hate mail, even if it's not warranted. I mean, the Rutgers women's basketball team received hate mail during the Don Imus event, and they didn't even do anything! Imus's wife had to tell the public to send hate mail to her husband, not the team! So I think I have a justified worry that hate mail will be generated.

The other reason I worry is because if and when the hate crimes occur, there won't be a strong voice to stick up for the community. The Asian m.o., for the most part, is to work hard and succeed, maintain a strong private life, maintain a humble public life without promoting yourself too much, and not get involved in public issues. When Don Imus makes offensive remarks that are deemed racist (I say his remarks were at least an equal part sexist), against the black community, everyone (rightfully) gets up in arms, and leaders in the black community speak out loudly, and sponsors pull their funding and Don Imus gets fired (the ideal outcome, although I will say that outcome was not expected by many). But Asians don't have a strong voice, because efforts to organize Asian-Americans as a whole, or Asian sub-cultures individually, are still in their infancy, which makes the population as a whole think it's OK to say inappropriate things, since there's no fear of backlash. (Oh yeah, and I think there's a certain sense that there don't need to be efforts to organize the community, because, hey, they're all rich doctors and engineers, so they can take care of themselves, right?)

When NJ101.5 DJs mocked Jun Choi, a Korean-American running for mayor of Edison, NJ, in 2005, they did manage to stir some waters, but not the big ones. After referring to all Asians as "Chinese," saying that Asian-Americans (citizens, with the right to vote) were NOT American, and saying "ching chong" on the air, some people got pissed. Other people called in to agree with them. Despite requests for The Jersey Guys to be fired and for sponsors to pull their funding (including requests by me), all that happened was that they were forced to apologize on air and undergo sensitivity training. Oh yeah, and Choi won his election, which is a good thing, too. But the bottom line is that pretty much the only minority group in this country that is organized enough to create change as a bloc is the black community, and even they aren't strong enough to create all the change they would like. So how is the Hispanic or Asian-American community supposed to defend itself? (Oh yeah, I'd like to say that now my only reason to ever listen to 101.5 when I'm in NJ is for the 24-hour traffic reports.)

The bigger issue, one that comes up over and over and over again, and is not limited to this event, is that race has to stop being a defining characteristic, or a reason for people to do things. When an illegal Mexican immigrant kills two girls in Virginia Beach, Va., because he is drunk, it's because he's drunk, not because he's Mexican, OK, Bill O'Reilly? (Go Google it yourself). When a Korean guy shoots people at Virginia Tech, it's because he has serious mental and social issues, not because he's Korean. The person who started the Facebook group "F*** the dude that shot up VT" understands that; the person who started the group "F*** that Asian kid that shot up VT" doesn't.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And since today is the tax filing deadline, I thought this commentary was fairly interesting as well. Taxes should really have nothing to do with marital status, I've decided, and Martha Burk, Money Editor for Ms. magazine, agrees.

End of an era?

I have spent 20 of my 26 years regularly attending lectures*, sitting in classrooms and lecture halls for some amount of time between the hours of 8 am and 5 pm. Would you believe I'm finally done? Yesterday was our last day of lecture; on Monday and Tuesday I have a couple group things to go to school for, but yesterday was the last time I will have sat in an auditorium for a lecture as part of a lecture-based curriculum.** It seems too good to be true! I can now look forward to sleepless shifts and standing for hours on end, as opposed to sitting in the same seat for 8 hours in a row trying not to fall asleep. Hooray for me!

To get to that point, I just need to pass finals, study full-time for 5 weeks straight (ugh, more sitting at a desk for 8 hours at a time), and take the worst test yet in my standardized test-taking career.*** I'm not really looking forward so much to that part, but June 18 (3rd year orientation) will be here soon enough!

* I'm not counting kindergarten, because even though I went to an intensive-prep Montessori kindergarten, we didn't sit in chairs facing a chalkboard. So grades 1-12, 4 years of undergrad, 2 years of grad school, and the first 2 years of med school = 20. Crazy!
** I will still have lectures to attend over the next two years, and many years more after that, but they will be parenthetically placed in a schedule of wards and rounding, instead of the focus of the curriculum.
*** Of course, each successive standardized test is the worst of my career. SATs for college, MCAT for med school, now Step 1 of the USMLE for residency. Next it will be Step 2 (OK, that one hopefully won't be so bad, as long as Step 1 goes well enough), and Step 3 to get into fellowships. I really am a glutton for punishment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In other era-ending news, Prince William has broken up with his girlfriend, Kate Middleton. I have to confess that this is happy news for me, as I have harbored a longtime fantasy of becoming a princess. Now if only I can figure out how to meet the guy...

Great articles

Pearls Before Breakfast, by Gene Weingarten
In a Washington Post Magazine masterpiece, one of my favorite Post-ers explores what would happen if a world-renowned violinist set up shop in a Metro station. Recognition, a crowd, and a violin case full of money? Read it and find out! Not only was the piece very well written, but it really made me miss playing flute. The problem is, I only really like playing in orchestras, and there just isn't an equivalent to the Roxborough Chamber Symphony Orchestra here in Louisville :)

In more depressing news, a state-of-the-art creationism museum is opening up right here in Kentucky, just a little over an hour away. I don't even have anything to say about this, except I know I was talking to someone at school about this the other day and now I can't remember who and it's driving me nuts. My first instinct is to not go to this "museum"; my second is to go just out of morbid curiosity (that's why I love medical museums so much, too). But I'm pretty sure that if I do see a replica of Noah's ark with dinosaurs on board, I might start screaming. Or laughing. But probably screaming. Argh, I can't even think about it anymore right now or I'll break something in frustration. Along the same lines, someone recommended the HBO documentary "Friends of God: A Road Trip with Alexandra Pelosi" to me, and I would like to see it, but I think I missed it on HBO so I'll have to wait for the DVD release. I really hate this country sometimes.

food and tv

I saw Team America World Police for the first time this week, at the insistent urging of my friend David. Despite my strong suspicion that I would find it disgusting and offensive, I actually laughed throughout the whole thing. If you are at all easily offended by anything, definitely don't watch it. Otherwise, prepare to laugh in horror.

I'm about to watch The Sound of Music for the first time in forever, having DVRed it last night. Although I know the movie -- plot, characters, songs, scenes -- it's quite possible that I may not have ever seen it all the way through, so I'm going to remedy that today.

We also got caught up on last week's Planet Earth episodes, and are looking forward to tonight's episodes, but we may -- MAY -- go to a Bats game instead. It's going to be freezing, but Eric wants to see some pitcher who's supposed to be good, and I don't pass up opportunities to have a stadium hot dog with sauerkraut and ketchup. Plus, Eric's work gets season tickets, so we get to go for free.

Friday afternoon my ICC mentor took our team to Primo for lunch. All the food was good, but it just wasn't that impressive for lunch -- a rather limited menu, slightly high prices with smallish portions -- I can't wait to go back for dinner again, but I don't think I'll be going for lunch again any time soon. See my review on Louisville HotBytes here.

Friday night we got wings and beer at BW3s, then ended up back there again last night to meet some friends. But for an early dinner last night we went to Flabby's Schnitzelburg for their amazing fried chicken. I had never been, and now I'm definitely looking forward to going back. In addition to fried chicken, which they only serve on weekends after 5 pm, they have German dinners, chicken and dumplings, and lots of tasty-sounding stuff, all in a local tavern atmosphere. Yum!

Last week I bought a chuck roast because it was on sale and I had a coupon that gave me 10% off at the grocery store if I bought $30 of meat. It's been sitting in the fridge for a few days, because while I definitely intend to make a pot roast, I never remember it until it's practically dinner time and I'm too hungry to wait 3 hours for a slow roast. So I think today's the day -- unless we end up going to that baseball game, in which case tomorrow's the day...

Happy Public Health Week!

In commemoration of this important week, please remember to wash your hands, disinfect cutting boards after exposure to raw meat, and take your TB meds.

I would also like to point out that my message has been heard, and someone more important than me has had the intelligence to say it so that more people can hear it:

"Providing the HPV vaccine doesn't promote sexual promiscuity any more than providing the Hepatitis B vaccine promotes drug use." -- Rick Perry, Governor, Texas, in a Feb. 5 statement announcing his executive order to make the HPV vaccine mandatory.

Thank you! That's just what I've been trying to tell people all these past weeks!

And in other public health news, former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson (2001-2005) has announced that he is running for president. I don't particularly like him very much. He has a good record with HHS on bioterrorism preparedness efforts, but he also helped create the stem cell research ban for Bush and he helped with the ridiculously crazy Medicare Drug Act. His campaign website reveals that he is aware that too many people don't have health insurance, but I don't like his proposed solution: have states organize pools of uninsured families to create better bargaining. It's a step in the right direction, and I suppose it's better than nothing, but it's not the best idea out there. Still, it's nice to see politicians with actual healthcare experience entering the race. A physician would be better, but Tommy Thompson is better than nothing, especially since he's a Republican ;)

Abingdon

It's nice to go somewhere for the weekend and completely forget about anything and everything you have to do. Then it sucks arriving back in reality, but at least I hadn't fallen too far behind by the time I woke up this morning.

Photos here.