Friday, November 28, 2008

Christmas tree!

I managed to get my tree up tonight, with no CATastrophes...hahah, oh I'm so clever :)

First, Tux thought the box was the best part:



[Isn't he just adorable?]

Then I finished decorating:

And yep, can you see him? I put the ornament box away, and came back to this:


Three of my favorite things! Gymnastics, Christmas, and Mr. Tux [see the reflection of the lights--kinda creepy, kinda cool]!!

I'm headed to the farm for Thanksgiving tomorrow. Hopefully Tux will behave himself with the tree and I won't come home on Sunday to...I don't even want to think about it!!!

peace and love,
m

mmm, chocolate!

I have discovered a new pie that is super easy to make, super delicious, and can be varied any way your heart desires! It got thumbs-up at the Glader Thanksgiving celebration. Unfortunately I cannot bring it to the Ziegler celebration because I have to work today. I should be a school nurse ;)

Triple Mud Pie
1 Oreo pie crust

1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
3 squares semi-sweet chocolate, melted

2 packages instant chocolate pudding
2 cups milk
1 8 ounce tub Cool Whip, divided in half

chopped pecans, M&Ms, mini marshmallows, chocolate chips...anything you want!

Mix the sweetened condensed milk and melted chocolate together; spread on crust. Sprinkle with nuts, candies, marshmallows, etc.

Whisk instant pudding and 2 cups milk for 2 minutes. Spoon a little more than 1/2 of pudding into crust.

Mix 1/2 tub of Cool Whip into remaining pudding; spread on top of pudding layer. Top with remaining Cool Whip and decorate with nuts, candies, marshmallows, etc.

Chill for at least 2 hours to allow to set. Serve and bask in the compliments!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

life changes

Here's the deal: I have made some big life changes, and still have more in store [+1 for the rhyme, +2 for spelling 'rhyme' right on the first try]. However, today is not going to be the first day for the rest of my changes, because I am omnipotent and know I will be at work until 11 pm tonight. Okay, I'm not omnipotent, but I'm on end-of-shift call and I got a sneak peak at today's schedule yesterday [did you follow that?]. And it's BUSY. Hectic would be a better word. And that's not even with all the add-ons I'm sure we'll get. My hope is that I get put in a big case and won't have to bounce from room to room, getting people out and finishing the cases. When that happens, I don't know which room I'm in by the end of the night. There have been times when I have taken over and finished 4 rooms in a night because I finish one, take the patient to recovery, then go to another room, finish the case, drop the patient off, and so on and on and on...

But the point of this quasi-rant? I just want to put up my [sadly fake] Christmas tree, and I can't because I'm not going to get home until late, when I will just fall into bed and pass out!

Okay, done complaining. Must get ready for loooooooong day at work. I think that means a new pair of contacts :)

peace and love,
m

Monday, November 10, 2008

what a day

Approximately 12 miles away in Franklin, Bob is also getting drunk. See, this was our pact: we had a complete clusterf*ck of a case today [robotic laparoscopic partial nephrectomy], so we decided to get drunk together tonight, long-distance style.

Wowowowow. It was crazy today. My assignment was to give a lunch to one person and then staff OR 5. Well, the nurse I gave a lunch to took 45 minutes instead of 30, so then I had to rush to get this robotic laparoscopic partial nephrectomy set up. And seeing as we've only done 1 of these before, it took a loooooooonnnnnnnng time to set up...let's just say that we weren't 100% sure of what we needed. Surprisingly, we were only 15 minutes late. I'm not going to complain anymore though. You already know what the case was like [see 1st paragraph]. The surgeon had 2 nurses [Bob and me] running constantly for 4 hours.

Alrighty, after finally finishing that case, I grabbed some water and a bathroom break, then helped set up a room for an emergency AAA resection [this is scary, think about it: the biggest artery in your body being a potential heatbeat away from rupturing]. Then I started setting up a room for a laparoscopic cholecystectomy [gallbladder]. I got the medications from pharmacy and noticed that the patient had an allergy to latex, so I ran into the room screaming, "DON'T OPEN ANYTHING!!!!!!" Now this would have been good if anyone except the X-RAY techs had been in the room...they just laughed at me and promised not to open anything :) Hahahaha...okay. So then I called the front desk and talked to the team leader, asked if he knew anything about a latex allergy, he said no...then he ran over to holding, talked to the patient, and confirmed that she was indeed, allergic to latex. Stupid floor nurses, they don't know anything [apologies to any floor nurses reading who actually know anything about their patients]. And the room we were setting up in had not been latex-free for enough hours, so we had to move from the 2nd smallest room in the OR to the damn tiniest room ever...OR 14. Not only does it have a drain in the middle of the floor that makes it really hard to level the bed, it is absolutely microscopic. And to fit 2 towers for a laparoscopic case, X-RAY's C-arm and tower, and all the other stuff, well, let's just say, it's a tight fit. Oh, is this a good time to mention that I stayed half an hour late to set this up, because there was no one else to do it?

So there you go, that is why Bob and I are drinking, long-distance style, tonight.

Peace and love,
M

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

exclamation points

I am so excited!

GO OBAMA!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!