Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Next to the library in downtown Portland, ME there is an old red brick house which was once Henry Longfellow's. It turns out this famous poet lived in Portland for much of his life and even wrote about Portland in his poem "My Lost Youth" - just as uplifting as it sounds! I read through many of his works last night and my favorite was "The Arrow and the Song" which should bring a smile to your face. There are multiple sites dedicated to Longfellow and he was quite the guy. Interestingly, he graduated from Maine's first college, Bowdoin and he graduated with Nathanial Hawthorn.

Note in the picture above that Longfellow grew a huge sweet beard to cover the scars and burns he suffered trying to save his wife from a house fire.

Priorities.

Tonight we went to Flatbread for an incoming resident interview dinner. We've been to quite few of them now, and Claire knows exactly what to expect. So tonight as we were getting ready, she was goofing around and I told her she had to hurry, or we'd be late. She got very serious and said "Okay Mom, I'll get ready. I don't want to miss dessert." They really do have some amazing desserts. I'm glad to see my daughter has her priorities in line.

Break In

In 2006 Maine was ranked the second safest state in the nation and Portland Maine was named the sixth safest city. I have no idea what went into these rankings, but I do know that my car was broken into last night FOR THE SECOND TIME! As best I can tell these vicious criminals made off with approximately four-five CD's AND broke my $4 CD holder. As for the rest of the junk in my car, I am hoping someone will clean it out sooner rather than later. There are two interesting things that go along with this story.

1. My car was unlocked. In Milwaukee I had my car broken into and it cost me big bucks to replace the window which was used for entry, so now I leave my car open and a break in like todays only costs me about $10 (the CD's were all burned copies of a medical study aid which is so boring it could double as a sleep aid). Now I am not sure what to do. I haven't heard about any other car break-ins in the neighborhood. If I lock my doors like everyone else will my precious junk be protected? I don't think it is worth the risk of getting my window broken in.

2. The first time my car was broken into my neighbor Tim heard the burglers/punks/killer ninjas and pinned one against my car while his wife sang "Bad boyz, bad boyz, whatcha gonna doooo, whatcha gonna do when they come for you?" Eventually the police came and Sheila gave a statement. Wow. I'm not sure what I would do if I saw someone breaking into my car. I guess I will have to wait another couple weeks to find out - Ha Ha Ha

Make a Snowflake

This make-your-own snowflake site has sucked up too much of my time this morning. Its much cooler than the downloadable image here is.

Happy...

Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Black Friday, and Happy Birthday Nana!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. One of the other ED residents hosted Thanksgiving dinner last night, so we all went there and stuffed ourselves. Everything was fantastic.

Today Mike went back to work, and I went shopping. I slept in and went around 10am, so I missed the all-out craziness when the stores opened. Last night we drove past Best Buy around 4pm, and there were people waiting in the cold rain outside the doors. There must have been some great deals today. As for me, I was only shopping for myself. And I went grocery shopping. I think the Black Friday deal at the grocery store was that everyone else was at the mall, so the store was empty, which is a pretty good deal I think.

And lastly, Happy Birthday Teresa!

A Typical Wednesday

Its been brought to my attention that I'm just not posting as often as I used to. There could be a lot of reasons for that. Claire and I could be so darn busy that I simply don't have the time anymore. Or maybe Claire has figured out how to set up parental controls (after all, parental controls = control the parents, right?) on my computer so that the only websites I can go to now are pbskids.org and nickjr.com. Or maybe we haven't really been up to anything exciting, so things to blog about are few and far between.

Yeah, probably that last one. See for yourself.

Yesterday, I tried a new grocery store. We have two options as far as grocery stores go out here, Hannafords or Shaws. Up until now, I've always gone to Shaws. But then Hannaford started sending me these unbelievable coupons in the mail. Free bags of chocolate (they obviously know who does the grocery shopping). Free rotisserie chickens. Whole $10 off your total. So I tried it, and I liked it. Hannaford just has so many cool things. Like trees and 'wood' floors in the produce section. Like a huge floral section. I don't remember ever buying flowers from a grocery store, but Claire loves to run in and smell everything. Or like a bakery you can smell as soon as you walk in. Or like behind the delicatessen counter they have these big ovens (built to look like those domed stone pizza ovens) with big fires to roast chickens and whatever else. Or the seafood section where not only do they have the guy making sushi, but the entire section is tiled into this huge underwater mural. There are just so many cool things to look at. Its the kind of store that when I walk through, I'm not sure if I can afford to shop there. But then at the end, the total isn't any more than the average total at Shaws ever was. So there you go. Maybe its just something new, and therefore cooler, I haven't decided yet. But this is the kind of stuff I've been doing lately. Not all that exciting, really, but now there is a whole post all about it!

And a picture to offset the text. Its an old one, but when you do things like grocery shop during the day, there just aren't that many new pictures to use.

Boston

We spent this weekend in Boston, and we had a great time. Saturday was a fantastic day, mostly sunny and warm. It was a day of very fortunate mistakes for us. First, we completely stumbled upon our hotel by chance. We were just driving around thinking we'd figure out where we were eventually, and then get to the Museum of Science, when the hotel turned up right in front of us. So we dropped off our bags, got directions, and after a series of missed and wrong turns, wound up, accidentally, at Quincy Market. We stopped and took advantage of the mistake and the great weather. Just as we got there, the Veteran's Day Parade started as if it was waiting for us.















































After Quincy Market, we made it to the Museum of Science, and it reminded me a lot of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. I loved it. And after that, it was back to the hotel (somehow it was more difficult to find when we actually wanted to) and to the pool. This was the hallway/sky walk from the hotel to the pool. I kind of expected the Cowardly Lion to run past us and leap through the glass.



















Sunday rained all day, perfect weather for the Children's Museum of Boston, which is by far the coolest children's museum I've ever been to. It was amazing, to say the least. We all had a great time, and I don't think we even came close to seeing half of the exhibits.





























































I'm sure we'll be doing this again soon.

the portland headlight

Today we had a weather alert for "over-splashing and flooding at high tide". Tides right now are higher and lower than usual because of "astronomical effects", and the ocean was rough by coincidence. The result was 9-12 foot waves crashing onto the shore. And on a beautiful day like today, I thought it would be a great idea to visit the Portland Headlight at high tide this afternoon and check it out.















































It was amazing. The waves pounded the rocks and made everything hazy and soft looking, as you can see in the second and third pictures. It was beautiful, and definitely not like any other time I've been to the Headlight.

I Voted Today.

Stickers all around.

Wow! What a lack of posts!

Its been almost a month! We've been having a great time. Jim was in town for a few days and then Claire and I were in Wisconsin for about ten days. We got to spend time in Green Bay, Sun Prairie and Waukesha. We started out in Green Bay. I mostly relaxed, but Claire worked. She helped mow the lawn and tried to teach my mom how to play computer games.




































We visited Elissa, Jalyn and Mason for lunch one day.














And then we spent Halloween and a few days after in Sun Prairie. Claire stuck with her first decision and went as a doctor, but she didn't want anything to do with the doctor pants (been reading Eric's blog, maybe?). Halloween night was cold enough that when all was said and done, you couldn't even tell she had a costume on. She got a good amount of candy, but in the end she just wanted to help Bapa hand out candy to the other trick-or-treaters, which lasted until the first monster rang the doorbell.



















It was really great to see everyone and good to be home. And now that the trip is over, its also good to be home. There are of course more pictures on Flickr, if you are interested.

Happy Feet

Meghan and Jason got me a pedicure gift certificate for my birthday. Today Meghan and I went to cash it in. I've never had a pedicure before, so lets just say...it was fantastic. There was a big comfy recliner, there was wine, and there was a foot/leg massage. Wonderful. By the end, I didn't care if they painted my toes or not, the massage with all the different lotions and exfoliaters was definitely the best part. My feet are definitely happy.

Girls' Night.

When Mike is on call, I try to do something fun with Claire. This past call night we decided to get a doughnut for Claire and a hot chocolate for me and watch Mary Poppins (which she loved). Claire sang the entire time we waited in line for our treats: "Supercalifragilisticexpiali - DOUGHNUTS!!" She had everyone in line with us laughing. And when we got home she said, "Mom, I'm having such a wonderful time today!" Its amazing how happy a doughnut can make a 3 year old.

My Hamster

Saturday we took some time to check out the Children's Museum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. We also spent some time at Prescott Park, which was beautiful. There was actually a wedding party having pictures taken when we showed up, and if you look carefully you can see the groom inside the circle of the fountain below. I believe we will be in the background of many of their pictures, so fair is fair. Besides the flowers and fountains, there was a great view of a bridge. Portsmouth seemed to have quite a few really cool bridges.













































The Children's Museum was really fun too. My favorite exhibit was 'Mind Games'. You strap electrodes to your forehead and compete to see who can be more relaxed. Its gauged by a ball inside of a tube on a table. The ball rolls toward whoever is more relaxed. You can watch what your brain waves are doing on the screen above the table. Claire and Mike competed first, and as you can see, Mike took it very seriously and meditated to be more relaxed. Claire was more interested in what she could play with next. Interestingly enough, Claire was the more relaxed one, winning very quickly. When Mike and I tried it out, it took much longer, and in the end, he proved himself to be more relaxed than me. He didn't even gloat. Or do a victory dance.














They also had a huge Pin Impression board. We played with that for a while. Mike and I more so than Claire. I kind of want one for the basement.




























All in all, it was fun to go to a different museum and see different stuff. On the way home we asked Claire which children's museum she liked better, the one in Maine or the one in New Hampshire. She answered that she liked My Hamster better. And finally, this is a tree in our back yard. The colors are just so bright, its really unbelievable.

Looking at the Leaves

Yesterday we took a trip up to Lake Sebago State Park. It was an amazing day and we wanted to see some fall color, but we weren't sure where to go. The only tip we got was to stay away from Conway, NH. Its a beautiful spot, but its also no secret. Friends of ours who tried to get out there this weekend ran into standstill traffic and had to turn around. Acadia would be great, but its a little bit far for a day trip. Same thing with Burlington, VT. So I just looked at the map, figured we'd have to go north for peak color (its not quite peak here in Portland), and figured Lake Sebago would be perfect. And it was. Except for two things. First, I didn't get the best directions and it took us forever to get there. And back. Mike spent most of the trip looking at me like this:










Second, and probably the reason why it wasn't very busy, most of the trees in Lake Sebago State Park are pine trees.














But it was really pretty anyway. We sat on the beach and walked the trails. And we did see a little bit of color between all the pines.

I love Fall.

Its by far my favorite time of year.













Claire and I have been pretty busy lately. Its definitely a pleasant busy, though, as opposed to the crazy nutball busy so many people seem to be lately. We have a lot of stuff going on between two library story times, playgroup, and taking care of another resident's son. And now that we have the Children's Museum Membership, its almost as if we've taken up a second residence there. It really is a great place, we go two or three times a week to take part in activities. Claire absolutely loves it.

































I haven't posted in a while, and its completely because there isn't any internet access at the Children's Museum.

Finally.

I finally got my sticker. Turns out that in Maine, you have to have your car inspected yearly. And it turns out that if you don't, you can get a $200 ticket. I didn't find that out personally, but I've heard enough "I know someone who..." stories to believe it. So I finally got my car in, and it passed (whew). I'm kind of curious as to what they inspected. I asked, and got a general answer about emissions and fluid leaks. I don't really understand how the program works. I get the idea is to make sure cars are road-worthy, and I think its a good one. And obviously it does work, since its been in place since 1999. But just about any garage is able to do an inspection, and its common knowledge that some places pass cars more easily than others. What stops a mechanic from finding a 'problem' that he can charge you to fix? Sure you can get a second inspection somewhere else, but pass or fail, just getting the inspection costs about $20. Seems like you could really get stuck, if you had an older car and not a whole lot of money. I'm also curious as to if, because of vehicle inspections, there are fewer broken down cars on the road, or fewer accidents due to the car malfunctioning.

In any case, I'm set until next year.

It's MY Birthday!

When Claire woke up today, she was a little concerned she didn't have a birthday present for me, and we had the following conversation:
"Mom (tap on the shoulder). Its your birthday today, but I don't have a birthday present to give you."
"Thats okay Claire."
"Maybe we can go to the toy store...and you can buy ME a present instead!"

We never did make it to the toy store, but we did have to go to the mall to pick up some longer jeans for Claire. While we were there, I saw Bath and Body Works was having a great sale, so we stopped to get some hand soap. Claire walked around the store, looking at everything, and then finally came running up to me.
"Mom! I found the perfect thing for your birthday!"
"Really? What is it?"
"Look!" taking it out from behind her back. "Will you buy it for your birthday?"














Of course.

Its that time of year again.

Today Claire and I met some friends at an apple orchard for a few hours. We spent some time picking apples, but mostly Claire and her friend Ava ran through the long grass and laughed when they got tripped up and fell over. It was the perfect fall day.










































And after, we went Halloween costume shopping. I hadn't really asked Claire what she wanted to be until today. I had no idea what she would come up with.

"Alright Claire, what do you want to be for Halloween?"

"Hm.... I want to be... Like my DADDY!"

And as luck would have it, we found just the thing. And in her size too!















And also, Happy Birthday Jim! Hope you had a great day and felt all the birthday wishes we were sending your way. I think Claire sang "Happy Birthday" about 27 times, and wore her green party dress for the occasion.

Retreat at Rangeley

This past weekend was the annual retreat for the emergency medicine department in Rangeley, ME. We had a great time, to say the least. The weather was perfect. Beautiful sunny days ended with amazing sunsets and the night sky was full of stars. Let me tell you, life as a resident sure can be difficult, and here is the proof:

First off, the drive up was beautiful. I don't think the fall colors were out in full yet, but it was still amazing. There were a few scenic overlook areas. This picture was taken near the Appalachian Trail at Saddleback Mountain.














We stopped to do some apple picking on the way to the camp. (Camp is New England lingo for 'cabin', but that isn't accurate either. I believe a 'cabin' in New England is what someone from Wisconsin would call a 'summer home'.) Apparently, as far as apples are concerned, this season has been really hard on orchards and harvests just aren't like they usually are. We still enjoyed it.

























And when we got to the camp we spent our time relaxing until we had to come back home.