It's Birthday Week!!!!

With the arrival of a birthday package from Jackie and a birthday card from my friend Matt, I officially declare it the start of Birthday Week!

A little history: There are several reasons why I decided to celebrate "Birthday Week" instead of just my birthday:

1) It's more fun that way :)

2) Growing up I always had to have a "fake" birthday day during the school year since my birthday was in the summer. Also, being so close to the 4th, there were times not everyone could come to my birthday parties because of family vacations, etc. so we would get to celebrate on another day.

3) When I worked random summer jobs in high school and college, people would always celebrate birthday type things with me throughout the week (again, because of the whole 4th thing) extending my birthday celebration

4) In grad school a bunch of us had birthdays within ~1 week of each other, and we would all pick a night and go out for our Annual Birthday Extravaganza (which usually consisted of just about our entire PT class being hungover the next day in class!) Why on earth did we always go out on week nights?!

ANYWAYS! In celebration of Birthday Week, I decided to post a couple of my favorite Bday cards from the past few years. Enjoy!

And now for my favorite...............

My basil plant

Last year I got my first basil plant. It was my first of any kind of plant.....well, I lied. I had a plant in Philly that my mom brought back from North Carolina. ANYWAYS. My basil plant was my first plant that we could actually eat what it was growing. But then we went home for 9 days in August and it died.

So this year I bought another one (Tom told me if I let this one die I'm not allowed to get another one ;) and so far it's doing pretty well. It's been flourishing and we've been eating a lot of pesto and tomato and basil soup. Email me (alb245@yahoo.com) if you have any good suggestions of additional things I can make with all of my basil! Otherwise I'm just going to make a bunch of pesto and freeze it.

P.S. Sorry all of my blogs lately are about food!

Second job and Sad blogs

I got to work today! At my second job! I had been cancelled 3 times in a row (and on the 3rd time I called to politely ask Why?!) So needless to say they didn't cancel me today. But I hadn't worked in 2 months! Which was a drastic change after working ~2x/month since January. So it took a little extra motivation to get back in the swing of things today. Anyways........

So if you haven't noticed I added a couple of blogs under a special "links" section on my website. I've been reading them for a while now, and I feel like I need to warn you that they are terribly sad and will probably make you cry (if you are anything like me) but definitely worth the read. And you will get addicted. They definitely put things into perspective!

P.S. I still haven't made anything with my jalepeno's!! :x Tomorrow is the day!

What to make with Jalapenos????

A coworker brought in a giant bag full of jalapeno peppers today. (Not my photo, I stole it from the internet. I'm too lazy to take a picture with my camera, hook it up to my computer, download it, and then upload it to here. Shhhhh. Don't tell the blogger gods).

Anyways.............I'm not quite sure what to do with them! I've found some yummy looking recipes on my favorite recipe site. Most likely it will be some kind of warm dip involving cream cheese, shredded cheddar cheese, possibly tomatoes, and possibly 1 or 2 other key ingredients.

I don't even think I like jalapenos but they look like they'll be fun to cook :) Wish me luck!

Best Dessert Ever

This is easily my new favorite summer dessert! Here's a link to the original recipe. I would definitely recommend doubling the oreos for the crust.

Baby shower # 6 (???) and some other fun stuff

Yesterday we went to yet another baby shower. Except this was one of the good ones (no games). It was a brunch shower so there was plenty of yummy food and some super strong coffee........of which I had too much of. I spent the rest of the day with the jitters and feeling like my heart was trying to jump out of my chest. NOT fun.

A couple of weeks ago was Tom's birthday. The weekend before his birthday I made him all kinds of yummy foods. A few of the highlights were:

1) Buffalo chicken wings

2) Bake Sale Lemon Bars

3) Homemade Tortilla chips





4) And a trifle we shared with some friends

Magic City Brewfest II

This weekend was the fabulous second annual Magic City Brewfest! As you all know, Tom and I love beer, so of course we were excited for a chance to sample hundreds of yummy beers. Usually, we arrive on time or slightly late to social events, but for the beer festival, we were 50 minutes early :) And thank goodness too because friends of ours waited in line for over an hour to get in (after the beer sampling had already begun!) With no further ado, Let the picture story telling begin!

Sloss Furnaces...Home to the Brewfest...and also some other historical stuff

They (finally) opened the gates! Run! Get Beer!

Brewfest

Birmingham has a brewery?! WHAT? When was someone planning on telling me this???

Me and Thomas enjoying our beers

Beer tents

Our beer sampling glasses

I ate alligator! I think that officially qualifies me as a "Southerner!" The bottom things are alligator tail. Tasted like chicken! I actually would have thought they were chicken if I didn't hear the guy serving them say what they were! And of course, there is a yummy fried green tomato above the alligator tails!

View of some of the beer tents from across the water spraying things.

View at night

Chinnys!

I haven't blogged about the chinchillas in a while. They're good. They're the same. They eat, tear cardboard off of their "house" and take dust baths. Once and a while we let them come out and play ;) Here's a couple pics.

Here's one of the chubster's sitting on the other one's head.

Here's another view. They definitely eat well :)

Saturday Morning Soccer

One of the main reasons Tom and I moved to a different apartment a little over a year ago was the view. In our first apartment, we looked out on the parking lot and another apartment building ~30 feet away. Now we look out on a field and more land and in the very far distance, a church.

Earlier this spring construction crews started working on the field across from us and we (okay, mainly I) became very nervous that something ugly and annoying was going to be built right across from us. Much to our delight, they were making a soccer field. Every Saturday morning and sometimes in the evenings during the week there are kids out there playing soccer. It's been nice to sit on the balcony, sip some coffee, and enjoy some kids running in circles around a ball (or doing cartwheels like I used to do ;).

$60 for $20

And "people" are saying that grocery costs are on the rise. Pssshhhhhhhhhhhh. Whatever. I feel the need to blog about this because I think it's a PR (personal record). Today Tom and I went to Publix for our weekly grocery shopping trip. My total spent was $22.72 (including $2.97 worth of taxes) and my total saved was $37.34. So we got $60.06 worth of groceries for $22.72 (technically $19.75 before taxes). Weeeeeeeeee Go Me! :)

Someday I'll let you in on all of my secrets O:)

Yay for Tom!!!

Tom just found out yesterday that his thesis project has been recommended for funding by the Department of Defense for Breast Cancer Research! It is essentially a predoctoral fellowship that he applied for a couple of months ago and he got it! I'm so proud of him :D

Destin 2008. Best. Vacation. Ever

Well, maybe not ever. I don't think anything can compare to our honeymoon (You can't really beat an all-inclusive resort in Mexico). But it was still a very relaxing vacation and we had a good time. We left Friday morning and drove the 4 1/2 hours to the gulf coast. We passed a giant peach along the way.



For lunch we stopped at Bates House of Turkey and enjoyed some yummy hickory-smoked free range turkey sandwiches.



We finally got to Destin Friday afternoon, checked into our hotel, and headed down to the beach for a little while. After the beach we went to our complimentary "Manager's Reception" aka "free happy hour" at our hotel. Then we went out to dinner at Pompano Joe's. We ended up going out a little later for dinner so we didn't have to wait at all, and we even got to sit on this tiny little deck right on the beach!


Saturday we spent the whole day at the beach. We were under a beach umbrella all day but somehow I managed to get burnt and I looked like a strawberry swirl popsicle for the rest of the trip. Saturday night we went to The Back Porch for dinner. The food was really good and it was another restaurant that was right on the beach.



Sunday we tried to go to the beach, but the double red flag was up which means No Swimming. Some guy came by on a 4 wheeler and said if you even touch your toes in the water you can get a $250 fine. I guess the undertow and the water was just really bad from all of the storms on Saturday. So instead we spent the afternoon lounging at the pool. Sunday night we went out to dinner at The Crab Trap. Here's a pic of us before dinner.



On Monday we woke up and went to Bad Ass Coffee. A coffee chain from Hawaii. It was pretty good. Then we swung by the outlets before we headed home. All in all it was a good trip. Of course the beach looked the prettiest on our last day there. Here are some pics of the gulf on Monday.










Click here to see the rest of our pictures. Scroll to the bottom for "Destin 2008."

To Kill a Mockingbird

So if you're anything like me, you haven't read or thought about this book since high school. But boy do I have a story for you!

My friend Connie, (who is also my boss) has lived in Alabama her whole life. Her parents are from Alabama, and very Southern. Her dad is a minister, and he is doing some traveling work in Monroeville, AL. Her parents have been staying there for a few weeks, while he preaches there. Recently Connie and her sister went down to visit them for a weekend.

For those of you who don't know, Monroeville, AL is home to Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, and her friend Truman Capote. Now, I don't know if you're aware (I wasn't, until hearing this story from Connie) but there is A LOT of controversy over whether Harper Lee actually wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. A lot of people theorize that Truman Capote actually wrote it. Apparently there have been books written over this controversy and discussions as to who the true author is.

Regardless, Monroeville, AL is still home to Harper Lee, and every year there is a To Kill a Mockingbird Re-enactment in front of the Monroeville courthouse that then moves into the courthouse. My friend Connie went to this and said it was really good, a lot of the same people have been playing the same parts for years, apparently.

So I should mention that Connie's parents had befriended an older couple from Monroeville while they were there (I think they were actually staying in their guest house). Ms. Timp and Carl Ray. (VERY southern). WELL, it turns out that Ms. Timp knows Harper (who I will now refer to as "Nelle," because that's what Ms. Timp knows her as) from way back. Apparently Nelle used to play with Ms. Timp and her sisters growing up, Nelle would always be over at their house, according to Ms. Timp.

So Sunday for brunch Connie and her sister, her nephew (who's 12), her parents, and Ms. Timp and Carl Ray all went to this little old country restaurant for some good southern home-cooking in Monroeville. While they were there eating, Ms. Timp started going on about how Nelle used to come to this restaurant and also how it happened to be Nelle's (82nd) birthday that weekend. But Nelle has been in an "assisted living facility" for a couple years now. Connie and her sister and nephew were joking and asking Ms. Timp if she thought Nelle would come to the restaurant and Ms. Timp was saying that Nelle had been acting very strangely the past several years and would most likely NOT be going out to eat, even if it was her birthday.

Well, Connie and her sister noticed a little round table in the back of the restaurant, that was full of people. Ms. Timp looked over and recognized Nelle's sister (I think this is when she mentioned that it was Nelle's birthday). So a little bit later, Connie looked over at the table again and they noticed this little old lady in a wheelchair at the table with her back facing the rest of the restaurant. They pointed her out to Ms. Timp and she was like "Oh, it's Nelle!" So Connie and her family tried to convince Ms. Timp to go over and say HI but Ms. Timp said that Nelle hasn't been very nice lately. She wasn't going to go over but Connie's nephew convinced her to go and take him with her (and trust me, from what I've learned so far, it takes a lot to convince a southern woman to do something once her mind is made up!). So Ms. Timp and Connie's pre-teen nephew went over and said hi to "Nelle" aka Harper Lee. Then they came back. Apparently Nelle didn't have too much to say. Connie said she couldn't believe all this was happening. Her nephew shook her hand and Ms. Timp said "Hi" and "Happy Birthday" but that was about it. Nelle wasn't one for small talk.

So Ms. Timp continued to tell stories after they had met Nelle. She was talking about her 80 year-old older sister and how she needs to retire. Connie asked Ms. Timp what her sister did for a living and Ms. Timp replied "She's the mayor!" and Connie said "I'm sorry Ms. Timp, the mayor of what?" and Ms. Timp said "The mayor of Monroeville!!"

Hahaahhahaha. So the mayor of Monroeville is an 80 year old southern woman. And my friend Connie was in the same restaurant as Harper Lee, who may or may not have written To Kill a Mockingbird.

I think Connie likes to share these Southern experiences with me because she knows I will appreciate the absurdness of all of this. Remind me to tell you the story about her trip to a furniture store in Mississippi in the middle of a thunder storm with the mysterious cat...............

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!

I love this day. I think mostly because it gives me an excuse to drink one of my favorite beers.......Corona :) On the balcony......in my new favorite chair.........Feliz Cinco de Mayo!!!

Baby Shower # 5

Yes, that's right, I've been to 5 baby showers in the past 3 months, and I have 4 more friends/family who are due in the next 3-6 months. I guess it's just that time! I feel like I need a disclaimer with this blog so you all aren't thinking I'm writing this because I'm going to make an announcement (Dad!).

*Disclaimer: Tom and I are NOT, I repeat NOT ready for babies yet.*

Good, now that that's out of the way, I do have to say how CUTE baby stuff is. There was a 2 year old at the baby shower I was at today, and he's been to quite a few baby showers per his mom. Every time Amanda would open a present he would say "oooh, cute!" There were also margaritas (and limeaid-my new favorite southern beverage) at this baby shower today. Here's a couple of super cute things I got for Amanda.

The onesie says "Just Hatched" heehee.

"Hi Beeeeeeee" (That's from homestar). This little bee was sooo cute! He fit in the "C" pocket of the activity worm. Tom and I both agreed he should have been in the "B" pocket though.

Activity worm close-up

I also bought this little onesie that has a picture of the earth on it and it says "Hi, I'm new here." Soooo cute! I should also take this opportunity to announce that our good friends Carrie and John are pregnant with a little baby girl. Carrie was one of my bridesmaids in the wedding. Also, please keep my friend Kristine in your thoughts and prayers. She's 35 weeks and has been in the hospital on strict bedrest for almost 2 weeks now. They're trying to make it to 37 weeks and then they'll do a c-section. Please pray that their baby is born healthy and that Kristine doesn't go out of her mind in the hospital on bedrest!

My Weekend

Friday night was pretty low key and ended up being pretty fun. We went to a local bar (Rojo), for this End-of-the-year-Party for Tom's GSA (Graduate Student Association). I say it was pretty low-key because Rojo is a pretty chill place and there weren't a lot of people there. So we had some free burritos (compliments of the GSA) and munched on some yummy tortilla chips and salsa. We were sipping our beers that we had just purchased when Tom's name got picked out of a drawing to win a free pitcher of beer! Don't say you've never won anything Tom! So we enjoyed a pitcher of New Castle and the company of a couple of our friends who were there as well.


Saturday I woke up at 7:15 to get ready for work (second job) and Tom dropped me off at 8 before he headed to UAB for a full day at lab. When I got there, I saw that the census was low and thought to myself Sweet, this is gonna be an easy day! Then another PT showed up and I thought we would have no problem managing it. Then a THIRD PT called and said she was running late and we realized that the manager probably cancelled one of us due to low census but none of us had received any messages. So I called her cell and turns out I was cancelled :( I never got the message, apparently she was having "phone troubles." So I ended up getting Saturday off unexpectantly! Yay for me :)


Sunday I was relaxing in my new favorite chair on the balcony, sipping some coffee and reading the paper, when I saw some interesting looking things that were going on in Bham that day. (Tom was in lab). So I went to this giant "Garage Sale" hosted by the Jr. League of Bham in search for a lamp. We need another one for our bedroom but keep putting off buying one. So I purchased this ugly excuse for a lamp

for $4 (okay so it's really not that bad, it's just not something I would pay more than $4 for).

Then I went to Magic City Art, an arts festival downtown. I thought I would go check it out, not really expecting to buy anything (while simultaneously secretly hoping they had exactly what I was looking for). And they did!!! I've been wanting a larger piece of art that somehow incorporates turquoise water, AND I FOUND IT! It was a complete impulse buy but I knew I would regret it if I didn't buy it. I'm not really sure Tom agrees :/ And it wasn't quite as good of a deal as my $4 lamp, but I couldn't resisit! It's not hung up yet but here it is.

Vacation all I ever wanted...........

15 days until our trip to the beautiful Gulf Coast!!! We are going to the lovely Destin, FL, rumored to be one of the prettiest beaches on the gulf coast. I CAN'T WAIT :D Sure, we've gone on lots of trips since we've moved to Alabama, but we haven't been to the beach since our honeymoon almost 2 years ago. And it's a sin that we've lived in Alabama almost 2 years and haven't been to the gulf coast yet!! Everything seemed to fall into place with the beach, the hotel, and the entertainment the weekend we are going. We're going for 3 nights and 4 days.

Mostly, we are going to be relaxing on the beach all day :) But there's going to be an arts festival about 1 mile from our hotel that weekend. That should be pretty cool to check out. Our hotel seems pretty nice too. It's across the street from the beach, has a made-to-order free breakfast every morning, and has a free happy hour every evening! Also, quite a few restaurants have been recommended by friends who frequent Destin. Oh, and our hotel is like 1.5 miles from an outlet shopping center (Yipppee!). Also, I can't wait to check out Bad Ass Coffee Co. Yummm.

Here's a pic of the beach from the hotel website. I can't believe I've been THIS CLOSE (~4 hours) to turquoise water for 2 years and haven't been there yet! One of my friends who moved here from California about 10 years ago says the Gulf Coast beats the Cali beaches hands down. I can't imagine how it's going to compare against the Jersey shore!!!!!

Happy Earth Day!

In honor of Earth Day I decided to post things we try to do in our daily lives to help the environment. As I’m trying to think of things, I’m realizing that we don’t do as much as we probably should!

-We have huge bins in our pantry to recycle everything we can recycle: glass, aluminum, plastic, newspaper, and cardboard. Once every few weeks (or when the bins start overflowing) we gather everything up and make a trip downtown to recycle everything. Unfortunately, our apartment complex doesn’t recycle. I’ve asked them about it, but they said it “wasn’t an option.” Whatever.

-We re-use plastic grocery bags for lunches, trash bags, etc, and the ones we don’t use we recycle at Walmart.

-We still seem to accumulate a lot of those plastic grocery bags though! So a few months ago my mom got me a reusable, insulated grocery bag. I try to use it every time we go to the grocery store (Tom looks at me like I’m crazy), even if we’re not getting items that need to stay cold.

-We turn off the air/heat and open the windows if it’s nice outside (although, I have to admit, that is more for the budget than the environment).

-We bought a faucet filter and have a PUR water pitcher instead of buying cases and cases of plastic water bottles (I was never one for the plastic water bottles, me and my PUR pitcher go back a long way)

-Unplugging appliances/electronics during the day when not in use (again, more for budget than for being green!)

-Wash clothes in cold water.

-I dry most of my clothes on the drying rack or hanging up in the spare shower. Although, this is more to preserve my clothes than to save energy from the dryer. I also am working on convincing Tom to use the iron to get rid of wrinkles instead of throwing a shirt in the dryer for 5 minutes every morning ;)

-In public bathrooms I always try to use the hand dryers instead of paper towels.


Here’s some things I would like for us to start doing to stay green:
-Buy produce from local farmer’s markets instead of grocery stores (even though this means getting up early on sleep-in Saturdays!

-Switch to all paperless statements (I have such a trust issue with cc companies and banks, I like having things in writing…..most of our stuff has online statements but some doesn’t….like our crappy bank).

-Do a better job of convincing our apartment complex to start recycling…..a lot of college kids live here. I was one of those once, do you know how many aluminum cans and glass bottles they go through?!?! ;)

I'm sure there's LOTS more but at the risk of being late for work that's all I have time for right now!

Stay green :)

My second job....

About 16 months ago when I started considering taking on a second job, I have to admit I was doing it solely for the money. But in the past 16 months I've come to really enjoy it and consider it as a blessing (and not just the money part!). I try to work 1-2 Saturdays a month, which has been working out extremely well for Tom too. After he drops me off at 7:45, he goes into lab and is able to get a lot of work done (there's not a lot of people there Saturdays, so less distractions!). If he doesn't have to go into lab (which is rare), he's usually pretty productive around the apartment or he is able to run some errands for us.

I also really enjoy the people I work with. It's really a good set-up, since it's rehab I stay mostly in one place and am not running all over the hospital like I do M-F. Sometimes we'll have some low-level, difficult patients, but the change in pace, patient diagnoses, and age really sets it apart from my regular job at Children's.

Lastly, if there are 2 (or even 3...gasp...) weekends in a row when I don't work, I find myself becoming "bored" on Saturdays and just kind of lounging/moping around accomplishing nothing. On the weekends I work, I looooooooove my Sundays because it is literally my only day of rest, but on the weekends I don't work I seem to take Sundays for granted.

Having 2 jobs isn't something I will probably do for long, and most definitely not when we move back to the Phila-ish area, but for now, it seems to be working out pretty well :)

Breaking the news........

Last year we were fortunate enough to be able to make a trip home for 9 days in August, during a week that both of our family reunions happened to fall on. Unfortunately, we won't be making the same trip again this year. Two of our full time PT's at work are pregnant and are due within 10 days of each other in June. They will be out on maternity leave until the middle of September and our director has already said absolutely no week long leave/vacations will be approved :(

That being said, we might try to swing something in September. One of our friends is getting married on the 20th and my dad's 60th Birthday Bash at the Penn State vs. Illinois game is the 27th so we're trying to play around with some dates and see if that works for us. We probably won't get to see as many people (from my family at least) as we would in August but right now this is looking like our only option. (Unless everyone from my fam reunion comes to Penn State for Dad's bday!)

Happy Birthday Beer!!!

"In case you didn’t know, today April 7, 2008 is a solemn and joyous anniversary in the annals of beer history. It’s the 75th Anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition for beer in the United States.

During the summer of 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt campaigned on the platform that he would repeal Prohibition (he called it the “stupendous blunder”), put American workers back on the job and help end the Depression. So, of course it’s no surprise that he won the election by a landslide.

True to his word, with one stroke of the pen 20 days after taking office, he signed the Cullen-Harrison Act, making 3.2% beer once again legal in the U.S. This meant that Lager Beer which was predominantly 3.2% alcohol by weight would precede heavier beer styles and hard liquor by almost 8 full months.

So, at 12:01 a.m. on April 7, 1933, beer was back. 25,000 people celebrated here at our St. Louis Brewery that night and the rest of the country listened to a special live broadcast from August “Gussie” Busch, Jr. that was carried on radio stations coast to coast. Happy days were here again!

So today on the 75th Anniversary of the Repeal of Prohibition, raise a glass to the wisdom and fortitude of great men like Gussie Busch and Franklin Delano Roosevelt with a Budweiser, the Great American Lager.

Cheers!"

*Taken from an email my dad sent me from Budweiser. Why he gets emails from Budweiser, I have no idea ;)

Moss Rock Preserve

Yesterday was GORGEOUS here! In a few years when we're sludging around the mushy sleet/snow in the cold in Philadelphia (or some other northeast city) this time of year we are going to COMPLETELY miss these beautiful Alabama springs! So to take advantage, we went on a hike yesterday at a local state park called "Moss Rock Preserve." We hiked to a place called Boulder Field. Here are a couple of pics from our hike :)

Tom Qualified!!!!

Tom passed his qualification exam for his PhD on Thursday! Basically what that means is that he's been given the go-ahead to work on/finish his thesis project. He submitted a written proposal to his committee (of 5-6 professors) about 2 weeks ago. During his qualification exam, he gave an oral presentation about his thesis and the professors could ask him any question about his thesis, previous research done that relates to his thesis, anything he learned in his classes the past 2 years, etc. And he passed! Yay! I'm so happy for him :)

Coupon-mania

So for the past year I've been obsessed with our budget. I look at it, crunch numbers, look at it some more, move around some numbers, look at it some more, and change some more numbers. No matter what I seem to do to the budget, money just never seems to magically appear on it! :)

So I've been trying to cut down on our grocery budget. I've been printing out coupons online for the past 6 months or so (for free) because I'm too cheap to buy the paper........but just recently I found out that the Dollar Store sells the Sunday paper for $1 ($0.50 off....yeah!) So I started buying the paper on Sundays for the coupons (and for the news too, of course ;)

Anyways now I'm obsessed with coupons and finding deals and I can't wait for Sunday to get the paper :) Here are my two best deals from last week:
1) 2 boxes of Betty Crocker Potatoes - Grand total = $0.19
2) Jar of Pickles - Grand total = $0.35
(Yay for double coupons and BOGO sales)

It's like a game! I LOVE going to Publix (local grocery store) and having the "Total Savings" section be more than "Total spent!"

Back to organizing coupons.............



P.S. Tom meets with his committee to qualify for his PhD on Thursday morning at 9 (central time). Please send him good thoughts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

I love this day :) I don't know whether it's the fact that I get to wear green (favorite color) or the fact that I get to drink beer (favorite beverage). Or some years a combination of the two (green beer!) Today was actually a pretty normal day for me, work, gym, dinner. No green beer. BUT we did have a little St. Patty's Day bash on Saturday that was quite fun. And yesterday the weather was gorgeous......a sunny 74 degrees. Below are a few pics.

Our beer mug cooler :)

Irish Car Bombs for all!!!

"If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes"

........Or one week. That's the saying in Alabama. Last weekend was beautiful. Mid 70's both days. Yesterday we woke up to snow!!! OK, not really "snow" in the sense that we are familiar with.....more a "light dusting." But still! Here's a couple of pics of the Great Snow of '08!

View from our balcony

This is the most snow our car has ever seen!

5 1/2 hours and no more information later.........

Thursday evening we spent the entire evening and night in UAB's ER. NOT what we had planned :) Our usual "after work" routine consists of me going to the gym and calling Tom when I'm finished, then we walk to the parking garage and drive home together. Well, Thursday I really didn't feel like going to the gym, so I called Tom when I was finished with work to see if by chance he was ready to go. Turns out he had a lot of work to do, so I figured it was fate telling me to get my lazy butt to the gym so I went. After I was done at the gym I called him again, but he still had more work to do so I decided to run to the library real quick to return some books that were due. Surely by the time I was finished at the library, Tom would be ready to go.......or so I thought. That's where things took a turn.

Tom called me and said that he had gashed his fingers open when a glass pipette broke in his hand and he was cut really bad and he was going to the ER to make sure there wasn't any glass stuck in his hand. I ran out of the library and drove downtown to meet him and we got to the ER around 6:50. About 15 minutes went by and they called us back to triage. They took all his vital signs and told us it shouldn't be a long wait. Then about 10 minutes after that they called us to registration and we filled out all of the paperwork. Then we returned to the waiting room, where one lady sprinted past us with her hand over her mouth and barely made it to the bathroom before she puked, and another guy had about 8 layers of gauze wrapped around his whole head covering his eye. Then of course there was the guy who kept combing his hair and laughing at nothing.....I don't even think he checked in.

So we sat, and sat, and sat......then at 9:30 I couldn't stand it anymore and ran across the street to get some chips from Qdoba (neither of us had eaten anything since lunch!) Around 10 they finally called us back and put us in a room. The medical student came in first and asked a bunch of questions, took off Tom's bandages, and I don't think he was prepared for the gushing blood that came out of his fingers after he took the bandages off. He took a look, determined he knew nothing (sorry...that was mean!), and wrapped them back up. Then the resident came in and decided to get a finger xray to see if there was any glass. Now it was about 10:30.

They decided that they "thought" they saw some glass in his finger so they then proceeded to numb it up with lidocaine and dig around to find the glass. After about 5 minutes of poking and prodding, they found nothing. So they left. Then at 11:00 they decided to get another finger xray to see if they still saw the glass. Around 11:30 Tom got another xray. Then around midnight the attending finally came in and said "Looks like there is still some glass in there but it will work itself out. Just make sure you wash your cuts daily."

So at 12:15 we finally got to leave the ER with no more information than we came in with! They were able to cut away some skin that was barely hanging on, and I do have to admit I would have freaked out if we got home, took the original bandages off, and Tom's fingers started gushing blood everywhere.

Tom's fingers are fine. Now that all of the blood is gone and the extra skin was cut away, the actual cuts look teeny tiny. Thankfully no nerves were cut and there was no permanent damage!