god told him to do it...

Tuesday's big surgery at Davies was the reattachment of the hand of a 17 year old boy. They used 9 units of blood for that one. The kicker is this: the kid cut the hand off himself, using a butcher knife. He was (obviously) emotionally disturbed. But, yikes, the determination to do something like that sorta inspires a sick awe, at least in me. It's not easy cutting off significant parts of one's body, as I can attest.

Meanwhile last week, someone eating a bowl of chili at a restaurant in San Jose bit down on something a bit chunkier than she was used to, only to discover that the chunk was about 1 inch of the distal part of a (well-manicured, I heard) human finger. Authorities as yet still haven't found who it belongs to!!!

fax number?!

does everyone in Canada have a fax machine? Actually, I did try to hook my iMac up to receive faxes (as pdf's), by sticking the phone line into the back, but it didn't work too well, and I didn't really have a use for it, so I didn't pursue it. Just an experiment. But she's welcome to tie up the lab fax machine @ 415-255-0724.

No, don't cancel it

unless you want to. But my falling off has been mainly due to party planning and cleaning, and I have an assignment due, and we've had spectacular weather lately. Still snow on the ground, but bright and sunny and windless almost every day. I've been skiing at least 3 times a week. Carolyn and I went ice fishing with Yv. and his grandkids.They are catching lots of trout in S.Bay now.
Saturday was the Easter Egg hunt (once you start a tradition here, it is your job until you die) which was funny because there was still all this snow on the ground. With half the eggs all you could really do is dig a little hole in the snow and drop them in.

I never thought I'd say this but I hate to see winter end. I dread April and all the rain and mud. April feels colder than March and there is nothing to do. So I will probably be online a lot more in a couple of weeks.

Carolyn still misses you, Dana. She wants your fax number.

calendarmania!

whoda thunkit? The Hotties of Harm Reduction calendar went on to net over $5000! I had no idea we sold so many! At the onset I thought we'd be very very lucky if we broke even. So it looks like there IS going to be a 2006 Hotties calenday after all! Supposedly there will be a new theme and new models (they're calling for volunteers... if I'm around next fall, I'm there baby!)

Should be d/c the blog? Just start emailing instead? I sense a falling off...

unique event?

Yesterday I attended a job fair specifically for transgendered folks at the LGBT Center. I guess the idea being that TG people are underemployed due to, basically, appearance-based discrimination, and that if they are given the chance to interface with transgender-friendly employers, they will stand a better chance of landing jobs where they are accepted.

Mechanic pencils

don't hold up to my angstful writing pressure. Asians must be very calm writers.

I haven't been on line much. I spent the week planning a surprise party for Ed's 50 birthday, calling people, surepticiously bringing in large amounts of groceries, paper plates and cups, making cheeseballs and artichoke dip late at night, smuggling them into the freezer. I scanned a bunch of photos of him at different ages to decorate the walls with, put some on a giant birthday card for everyone at the party to sign. The tricky part was getting him out of the house for a few hours. I said I had to work at a library fund raiser doing dishes; Ed's sister had him out to dinner. And I rushed around setting up tables, blowing up balloons. I had shrimp rings defrosting under Carolyn's bed where he wouldn't see them; the cake and a deli tray stashed at the neighbors. I took our rambunctious border collie to Uncle Eldons. But it all turned out well. There was a good crowd, a nice mix of people, and Ed had fun. Lots of food left over; won't have to cook for a week. Ed was surprised but wondered why I had been on cleaning frenzy that week.

more stereotypes...

on the N-Judah today it was like some kind of weird Hollywood type-casting pageant: at one end of the car were the gangsta boys and hip hop chicks, bustin' moves and cappin' on each other; in the middle of the streetcar we had the clot of nerdy teenage Asian boys wearing sweater vests, sporting calculator watches, and cracking what I suspect would be physics jokes in muted voices, if I understood Chinese; and at the other end of the car was the trenchcoat mafia, talking about how stupid school is and how wasted they were going to get this weekend.

Mechanical pencils are cool in theory...

...but in reality they always break, jam, etc. etc. etc.

There's nothing quite so practical as a good old #2.

Un-PC thought for the day:

what's with Asians and mechanical pencils? I mean, in class, half the time when you look at an Asian kid taking notes, he or she is using a mechanical pencil. Especially the recent immigrants. And they'll have weird types of mechanical pencils that you've never seen before. Not just your typical Pentels or Papermate's. At the UC Berkeley bookstore they've got like 20 different types of mechanical pencil leads to choose from. I bought a mechanical pencil the other week just to see if if they've hopped-up the mechanical pencil technology. Bought a Jap pencil called the "NIJI-GRIP 700." Naw, mechanical pencils still suck.

sorry my blog output has been so crummy.

But I have no internet at home right now (apparently when marc cancelled the cable he also cancelled the cable internet). And I have been incredibly busy. I've been asked to be a supervisor at the switchboard, which means I have to go through training again. Which if you recall was four full weekends, 16 hours per weekend, starting April 2. Plus, training committee is starting up for my section at the clinic, which I suspect will be a time suck.

that is incredibly sweet

you seem to really have a special little person there.

and of course we know Dana is a special person.

But that is really neat. Dana had an impact of my kids in even the brief time they met her. Dana is really impactful on people's lives. that's why you'll make a great doctor. If you go.

that is so sweet!

Carolyn's pretty darn cool herself. I'd love to come back this summer if it's ok with you and Ed, and assuming I don't get into med school...I still have no firm idea of what I'm gonna be doing the 2 weeks I have off in June (although I may be teaching at the BFC, don't know how much time that's gonna suck up).

Anyhoo, I'm all set to send ya the AABB Standards, 17th edition. Would you also be interested in AABB's "Collected Questions and Answers" and AABB's "Blood Transfusion Therapy, A Physician's Handbook"?

She was almost a little

timid hugging Dana goodbye the night before she left, so i was surprised to find Carolyn sitting cross-legged on her bed looking so miserable. "I'll never see her again!" She sniffed, and snuffled through her bed time story, and after her Dad turned out the light, she appeared at our bedside with her stuffed lion and said "I'm too sad to sleep alone." So she climbed in between us. Tears streamed down her tiny round cheeks. Ed rubbed her back and I tried to console her saying maybe Dana would come visit some summer, or maybe if we went to California to see aunt Karen, we could see Dana there. "But that's such a long time away!" Finally she drifted off to sleep.

I thought she would be better in the morning, but she came in the kitchen and said "She's gone isn't she?" Carolyn was too sad to watch cartoons,and frowned over her bowl of corn pops. She pressed her her face into my soft belly and whimpered. "Don't be sad," I said. "Think of all the stuff you can write in your journal at school this week. Think of all the fun things we did. Think of all the cool things she showed you."

"But that just makes it worse!" Carolyn said. "Dana's gone, and she's taken all her coolness with her.

We had 2 dogs over today.

ABM has a friend/acquaintance she is teaching to spin who has two medium sized dog things. She brought them with her today.

Cats were not happy.

carolyn, keeper of the Big Cats. 

sounds great

i've been battling a nagging cough - but at least it hasn't developed into a full blown cold.

my kids all thought dana was the coolest too.

have great fun.

love scott

hi Scott

You could be cross country skiing with us and going ice fishing tomorrow but nooo. Or being quizzed extensively about the hibernation habits of bears by my daughter.
How about getting wasted on Canadian Club and pepsi? Just kidding. (Not really). Dana flew into Sudbury airport Tuesday morning after a ten hour flight from San Francisco; her plane got grounded in Fairfield, Iowa for 5 hours due to bad weather; coincidently, this is the same airport Buddy Holly's plane was grouned at before his fateful "death flight" in 1961.As you might guess, Dana got back on the plane with some trepidation. But she managed to arrive safely in her bitchin' Chevy Malibu. She brought lots of subversive west coast candy and Asian rice noodles for a freaky chinese-fusion dish she is demanding that we prepare.
I go to the grocery store and buy vegetables and randonly assemble them into dinner. Dogs of all kind adore Dana, as do small children. She is forced to sleep on an Army cot in what we call the "Canada Room" because it has snow shoes on the wall and sleigh bells and a giant Caribou skin on the floor and other types of Northern decor.


hugs.

hey kiddo,

I'm here in the restaurant in the Sudbury airport (what a cute little airport!) waiting for the next flight from Toronto to arrive at 1:50. Why? Cuz my main piece of luggage is on it! For some reason it didn't get put on the flight I was on. Oh well. There's always a hitch. So hopefully I'll arrive sometime this evening. Weather doesn't look too bad. But if the roads aren't clear, I won't take any risks. I wrote your phone number down, but it's in the missing luggage; shoulda took the time to program it in the phone. again, oh well. If Winston were here he'd be berating me for poor prep.