Memories

I got this off my cousin's blog and thought it might be funny...

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses.

Carolanne and Annie: Unleashed and Unsensored

This past week was quite the event - Mark's mom (Carolanne) and sister (Annie) came to Indy for a visit. Since it was Annie's first visit here and first vacation in a while, we thought she needed les voyage grands. We kicked off their visit with a two-day stay in Chicagoland, topped off by orchestra seats to "Wicked" the musical.

Here we are at the Oriental Theater in Chicago, just before we went into the play. The night was a bit stressful, in part because our wonderful tour guide and chauffeur (for the sake of anonymity, we'll call him Frankie) kept reminding everyone what time it was and that if we were late to the show, we would miss the first act. So after grabbing dinner, a sandwich from a local shop, and cramming in as much of it as possible in the two blocks between the "L" (the elevated mass transit in Chicago) and the theater, there we were at the show with at least 15 minutes to spare for a few pictures. Frankie would never forget to leave time for pictures. Thanks, Frankie...

Here are Annie and Carolanne outside the CHICAGO theater on our way back to the "L". Though she looks calm and collected here, Carolanne was terrified about taking public transportation. And as if learning to work the subway system wasn't enough (Wait, Mark! How do these dang cards open the gate?!), Carolanne had to buck up and brave the streets of Chicago, which were apparently swarming with shady characters. I mean look at all those scary people behind her; especially the old man to the right. I wouldn't want to be walking anywhere near those folks.


I guess Annie learned quickly that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. So here's her attempt to blend in with the rest of the weirdos running 'round Chi-town.


Safe and sound at last (at least until our train stop), Carolanne appears to have finally calmed her fears a bit and smiles for the camera.


The next day, we figured we should show Carolanne Chicago in the safety of daylight. This is the Museum of Science and Industry - luckily it was day time, or else you would not have caught us anywhere near this side of town. It was a really cool museum (although WAY out in BFE) with a special exhibit on glass. I think Annie was pretty disappointed though, as her special Siamese Twin and Fetus in a Bottle exhibit doesn't open until next year (You sicko!).

I guess you can tell Mark and I thought the glass exhibit was pretty cool. We especially liked these ones, although apparently not enough to recall what they were called. But they were really cool - when we looked at these, we were excited to find out if they had smaller versions of these available in the gift shop. Apparently, so did everyone else, because even the tiny ones were like $100. So we had to pass...

This was the best part: they did a live glass blowing demonstration. This guy made a vase for the audience, while the girl "worked" the crowd, explaining his actions step by step and answering questions.

This was one small part of the museum that we had to take a picture next to. It was representative of an old dentist's office. Mark and I were pretty surprised to see that many of the instruments look exactly the same today. Scary.

After a long cab ride back to downtown, we decided to check out the Art Institute of Chicago, which as luck would have it, was free.

This is the famous Seurat painting, "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte." I couldn't believe how huge it was! Ha-ha, Ron... saw it before you did!

And this is a whole other story. (Check out Carolanne's face!) Ask me if you want details...

Extreme close-up. Again, ask if you want details. But be warned, this story is not for the faint of heart...

On our way back from Chicago, we just had to stop at the dairy farm. We bought tons of cheese (which is still sitting in our fridge), ate grilled cheese sandwiches, and finished with homemade ice cream. We thought maybe we should submit this little collage to the dairy farm to put on their website as an advertisement. Annie does such a great job portraying the "essence" of the farm...

Back in Indy, we did LOTS of shopping. And, as you may be able to tell, it was very humid. No, Annie does not have numerous bullous vesicles on her forehead. Those are, in fact, hundreds, maybe even thousands, of droplets of pure salty perspiration.

And here is a good old fashioned picture of the Circle in Indy. Notice I'm not in these pictures - I finally put my foot down.

Annie and Carolanne, however, were not above posing in the middle of the city. So here they are, carefully positioned against the backdrop of the State Capitol of good 'ole Indiana.

And here is our grande finale. This is art in its purest form. We call this piece "Sweat du Ass." I love how Annie was most willing to pose for this picture right in the middle of the customer service department of Nordstrom's. She seemed very comfortable with this recent finding at first, but soon found herself purchasing a new outfit to wear for the remainder of the day. Ask Annie for the full story - it's worth hearing.

TO EACH HIS OWN

Well, I have already told some of you about this, but I thought it was definitely blog-worthy. I will be sure to keep names and particulars out of it (so as not to violate HIPAA law) but I think everyone will enjoy this story. I saw a patient today who was new to the dental school. She was a relatively young, relatively healthy lady. She appeared normal at first glance. And then she opened her mouth. Now, usually when a dentist says, "And then she opened her mouth," you immediately begin picturing something nasty. Well, this time, when I say, "And then she opened her mouth," what I mean is, "And then she opened her trap..." This lady was a complete nutter. I asked her what brought her to the dental school, and she said she was interested in getting dentures. This surprised me, because although I had not done an exam yet, a person in my field notices teeth, even at a glance. I thought perhaps I had overlooked something - maybe she had lots of decay or something and needed her teeth extracted for some reason. So I thought I would take a look... Well, she was missing a few teeth in the back, but other than that, completely normal, healthy teeth and gums. I thought I should probe further into the situation to see why a person with perfectly healthy teeth would want dentures. She proceeded to tell me that she suffered from "chronic bad breath" and had been getting cleanings every three months to try and fix the problem, but it wasn't getting better. Apparently she attributed her bad breath to her teeth. She also said that she had a removable prosthesis to replace her missing teeth that touched the top of her mouth and mad her gag, so she wanted dentures intead. Umkay, if that makes you gag, don't you think a DENTURE would be even worse? I clued her in to this, and she said she didn't want a typical denture. She wanted one that snapped into implants. OK, fair enough, I thought. Maybe she is just not aware that there are ways to replace just those missing teeth without wrecking the rest of them... Why not just get implants, I suggested. Or maybe a couple of bridges. That way we can keep the teeth you have and just replace the ones that need replacing. She responds by saying that she has put a lot of money into her teeth and has never had the outcome that she wants, so she is sick of trying to fix her existing teeth, so she just wants them all out and wants dentures. I explained to her that we cannot ethically and legally take out healthy teeth, and that I didn't think there was a dentist in town who would do it either. She tells me that, actually, her dentist was willing to do it, but she just wanted to "support" the students at the dental school by giving them the first shot at it. Afterall, we all need more experience extracting teeth and making dentures, so why deny us the opportunity? Anyway, I got to the bottom of the issue just talking to the lady (for like, an hour)... Looks like she wants a "perfect smile" and doesn't want to spend a lot of money to get it. So the cheap solution: full mouth extractions and dentures!

I cannot imagine anyone wanting to look like this underneath it all, by choice.

And while these teeth may look perfect, who wants this rolling around inside their mouth? Complete nut job.

Home Improvements

Since Mark and I have SO much free time on our hands (ha!) we decided it would be a good time to make some improvements to our home. We started by ripping out all the carpet and linoleum in our living room, entry way, and hall. That was almost two months ago... Word to the wise is, don't start a project until you have the time to finish it! Just ask Angie - she had to live thru our ghetto-ness with us while she visited last month. Anyway, we figured as long as the floors were all ripped up, we might as well go for the gold and do whatever else we wanted. So we decied to build a bar from the "window" that leads from our kitchen into our living room. I was actually quite proud of us on this one - neither of us has ANY experience doing anything like this. But one phone call to Mark's dad, and Mark was ready to begin. It wasn't really all that hard. We glued/nailed some plywood together and topped it off with cement board. We hung brackets on the wall to stabilize the bar top, and then screwed the bar into the brackets. Then came the fun part: tiling the bar. It really wasn't that bad either. We still have some finishing touches to add (like a little more grout and a frame around the window) but I think it came out pretty well, all things considered.

Here is a closer look at the bar. It has been really nice to have - we just need to get some bar stools now so it can be completely functional.

And in case you hadn't noticed in the first picture, here is our new floor! We actually started laying it ourselves. We did a great job, but a very SLOW job. We laid about 30 square feet in about 8 hours and 100 curse words before calling a professional to finish the job. Needless to say, I will NEVER attempt something like that again, but I am sure happy with the result. Now we just need to do the bedrooms and we will be good to go.

Back to the DOG BLOG

It's been awhile since we posted any pictures of our dogs, so I thought I'd have another go... Daisy was spayed and had her "dew claws" removed this past week, so she has been wearing the stupid lamp shade and socks on her paws for a couple days now. I thought it was actually pretty cute, so here are some pictures of her in her new little get-up.

Normally she would only have to wear the collar, but her nose is too long and sticks out of it, giving her access to her paws. She started licking them, so I put some of my socks on her and tied them to her legs with hair ties. We have since retired the socks and added duct tape to extend the length of the collar, but I will spare you that little bit of added ghetto.

And in the interest of not showing favoritism, here are some pictures of Starkisha. She and Daisy have both taken a liking to the pillows on our bed and take any chance they get to snuggle up into them.


And here is an extreme close up. Spoiled doggies - just wait 'til we have kids.

CUTE LITTLE KIDS WITH CUTE LITTLE SAYINGS

Since Annie doesn't have a blog in which to post her stinkin' cute kids and the funny things they do... I thought I would post this. For those of you who don't know this little cutie, this is Natalie, our spunky little almost-three-year-old niece. Apparently Natalie came home from church with a paper on which she had drawn a series of circles. She points to a set of the circles and tells her daddy that they are "mommy's buns." Then, when asked if she learned about Jesus, she says, "Yeah, I saw Jesus, and he said, 'Hi Natalie,' and he gave me MUCKLES (knuckles)." Kids are so funny, especially when they are also so darn cute!