Overheard

Chandler Schneider: I don't like strawberry flavored drinks. Do you know why? Because they have strawberries in them.

Bye-bye Bartons

The Bartons had one last ice cream social with us before they left for Japan

This week the Bartons left Texas for a three-year stint of living in Japan. (I would love to go back to Japan, too, but the Army doesn't have any need for anesthesiologists in Japan.) Before they left Teressa put together one last get together and invited as many of the Bartons' friends as possible. We hope they have a fun time in Japan.


Blakely doesn't seem to mind Sam holding her at all. Of course, she probably gets mauled worse at home

Feeding the Deer

Sam thought all the animals were very exciting


The deer were happy to socialize as soon as they knew there was food involved


Broccoli was strangely popular amongst the deer


The geese and peafowl followed the food wherever it went

As part of our activities over the weekend, we took Uncle Andy to the Fort Sam Houston Quadrangle. It's a historic building on post with a large open center filled with an assortment of animals. These animals like people, especially if the people bring food. The geese and the peafowl in particular made a beeline for us as soon as they saw us enter. The geese are a bit on the aggressive side. One snatched Sam's personal stash of peanut butter crackers right out of his hand. Another nipped Spencer on his thumb in an attempt to take lettuce from his hand. (I don't think it was being malicious; I just think geese are not the most gentle of animals.) The deer were a little more shy. They hung back under a shade tree until we walked nearer and they could see that we had a wide assortment of food. Then they were more than happy to come get some lunch. As long as we were feeding them, the deer would get right up close and tolerate being petted. ( Sam thought this was quite fun.) But as soon as the food was gone the deer became more nonchalant and wandered back away.

I had thought we brought a lot of veggies with us, but the animals made quick work of it. The next time we go back, we may have to bring extra helpings.

Wanted: Team Mascot and Colors

We went down to register Mason and Spencer for fall soccer today. I have never played soccer, but I figured I could offer to be an assistant coach, because they're just 4 year olds after all. When we sat down to go through the sign-up sheet, the woman behind the table noted that I had offered to be an assistant coach and then asked me how I would feel about being a head coach instead. I explained that I had never played soccer and wouldn't really know what I was doing. She said they were really short on coaches, and besides, there was a workshop scheduled to go over rules and give practice tips. So here we are. I will be coaching a sport that I've never played in my life. I guess we'll all be learning as we go along. Besides, they're only 4 year olds. How hard can it be?

Our first item of business is to come up with a team name and a team color. This is very important because we can keep the same name and color next year. Any grand ideas?

The End of an Era

This is what my old Powerbook looks like (though with considerably more wear and tear)

About eight years ago, I purchased a titanium Apple Powerbook. The laptop was a work of art. My classmates frequently commented on how beautiful the machine was. And it was fast, at the time. It made our old Power Mac desktop seem like a dinosaur. And it opened up all sorts of capabilities that I had never experienced before. I started editing videos and then burning them to DVDs. Of course, there were a few shortcomings with the computer. When I purchased it, I upgraded to the larger 20 gigabyte hard drive. It didn't take long to run out of room once I started doing larger video projects. Then eventually our DVD burning software ceased to work and I had to hack iDVD (Apple's DVD-authoring software) to get it to recognize an external DVD burner. And of course, the older it got, the slower it seemed.

Eventually we finally made the decision to buy and new iMac for home use. The switch has been wonderful, but I still found myself using the Powerbook from time to time. I took the laptop with me when I went on away rotations so I could stay in touch by email, and occasionally Mason will want me to pull it out so we can connect the two computers and we can play Age of Empires II together.

At work I have grown increasingly frustrated with the computers that are provided to us. Most of the anesthesia department is outfitted with Lenovo Thinkpad netbooks. In spite of the fact that they are new, they are slow—very slow. The screens are so slow that everyone is provided with a dock and a larger monitor, so you can actually see what is going on. The netbooks are portable, but they don't have CD drives and we are not allowed to use flash drives to move documents around. As a staff anesthesiologist at a residency program, one of my duties is to give lectures to the residents. I have watched more than one staff struggle as they have tried to find a way to pull up their lectures, and the thought of preparing a Powerpoint lecture on that small, slow machine was almost more than I could bear. I finally decided I was going to do my presentations on my Powerbook. Even if it wasn't the fastest way of doing things, I figured at the very least that I could make sure that the presentation would work on my machine and then just hook it up to the projector. I had done this in the past and it had worked out fairly well.

When I was discussing my situation with Teressa last night she suddenly said, "Why don't you go order yourself a new laptop." Well, how can you argue with that? Besides, we had always planned to purchase a new laptop before I get deployed so we can talk over the Internet. I'm just buying it a little early. So I put in the order last night for a new 13-inch Macbook Pro with extra RAM (4 gigabytes) and an upgraded hard drive (320 gigabytes). Now I should have the capability to make great presentations, and do a few other fun things on the side.