So tell me how you really feel...

First some background information: Mark and I have had several tests this week, along with presentations and lab work for patients to prepare for. Needless to say, my house looks like a tornado ran through it (for example, the living room is now home to a rolling computer chair and ghetto card table, complete with wax chippings, alcohol lamp, denture teeth, and various dental instruments, all positioned directly in front of the tv, in the center of the room), and I am stressed out just sitting in it. But I do have time to blog???

Well, I am sitting on the couch tonight finishing up my powerpoint presentation for rounds tomorrow, and my doorbell rings. It's late evening, probably 8:30 or so. I figure it's probably Ryan and TJ, and I am glad because I had a clinical question to ask Ryan's opinion on for my presentation tomorrow. Well, it wasn't Ryan and TJ. It was my visiting teachers, and apparently I was not that happy to see them. Instead of saying, "Hello..." or "Come on in..." I say (in what Mark describes as a rather mean, irritated tone), "Did you guys call???" The quiet one of the two meekly says, "Yeah, I called on Sunday and left a message on your phone..." But did I snap out of it then? No... To that response I add, "Well, did you call my phone or my husband's phone?" She says, "Oh, I don't know..." So I tell them Mark's phone is the one in the ward list, and that I would like them to call mine from now on (I grab a pen for them to write the number down), since I don't check Mark's messages. What is WRONG with me??? Meanwhile, Starkisha is yapping up a storm in my arms, and it is just about this point that I realize how completly rude I am.

So I start damage control, dump Starkisha off with Mark in the other room, and proceed to backtrack with the visiting teachers. I ask them to please excuse my disaster of a house and explain that I have had several tests this week along with a presentation to prepare for tomorrow morning. I tell them they are welcome to come in (although I don't know how convincing I was), but that I only have a few minutes, since I need to finish my presentation. Needless to say, they offer to catch up with me next month, since I am obviously extremely busy right now. I thank them for coming by, and in the spirit of attempting to salvage any civility which apparently waved bye-bye to me long ago, I apologize for the fact that I was not expecting them tonight (which I think at that point was probably just rubbing salt in the wound), and tell them I will see them next time.

So hopefully I didn't just drive two people away from the church. I guess I was just having an off night...

Daisy the Destructive

So Daisy has taken up a new hobby while we are away at school. Did anyone see Oprah with all the crazy smart dogs and their tricks? Well, this is nothing like that... The other day we decided it would be okay to allow the two dogs to have the run of the house while we were at school. We usually keep them both in our room while we are gone, but they love to lay in the sun during the day, and the living room is really the only place they can do that. So we took the "baby" gates down and let them have the run. When we got home, here is what we found...

If you can't tell, this is a pillow that once had tassels all around it (and that once was placed nicely on the couch). Daisy reduced it to a pillow with a few tassels, and millions of strings strewn across the living room floor. At first we weren't sure which dog did this - they have both had their way with toilet paper in the past...

We thought we would do a little test to see which one was the culprit. Mark sat down with Starkisha and tried to get her to play with the shredded tassels. She wasn't too keen on that idea - here she is spitting out the strings Mark shoved in her mouth, and giving him a look that says, "What am I supposed to do with that?"

Next, I called Daisy into the living room and started playing with the mess to see if she would catch on. She caught on alright...

And then she began shredding more tassels off the pillow, showing us exactly how she must have accomplished making this horrendous mess earlier that day. I even caught her in the act a few minutes later, as we were going to get the broom to clean up the mess.

That is Daisy's guilty look... Needless to say, our pillows are now tassel-free (so ghetto, we just cut all the fringe off), and we will not be buying any more pillows with tassels in the near future.

Labor Day in Music City

Mark and I decided to be spontaneous this past weekend, so we woke up and headed south to check out Nashville, Tennessee, since it is only about four hours from our house. On our way out there, Mark wanted to stop and check out the Corvette Museum. We couldn't go in, since it was 95 degrees outside and we had our dogs with us, so Mark settled for just checking out the facade.

And, of course, Mark had to take pictures of the "Corvette Parking Only" row gracing the parking lot of the museum. Someday he thinks he'll be parking there...
Once we got into Nashville, we dropped our dogs off at the hotel and headed downtown to check it out. First we drove down "music row," which is a collection of just a few streets where recording companies are just lined up and waiting to sign the next big thing. It was pretty crazy to see, and I'll bet pretty overwhelming for people who are trying to break into the music business. After our trek down music row, we decided it was time for dinner - this is me on the phone with mom, walking toward Joe's Crab Shack, and finding out that she "outed" me to Brent. Just kidding, mom.
We walked all over downtown - there were tons of bars with live country bands, one right after the other. It was pretty crazy to see all the people trying to "make it" in Nashville. After our long walk, we drove over to the state capitol. Mark always takes pictures of state capitols - I guess it's his proof that we have been there...
On our way back to the hotel, we decided to drive by the river. Of course, Mark wanted to stop and snap a picture, since there was conveniently a little park area complete with benches. It was actually quite pretty, and there was a huge concert going on just across the river.

The next morning, we went to check out the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum. It has tons of memorabilia belonging to singers from Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash to Faith Hill and Garth Brooks. It also boasts original copies of every gold and platinum country album ever made. Garth Brooks' No Fences album sold something like 11 million copies. Nuts.

This is actually a piano that was commissioned by Priscilla Presley as a gift for Elvis. She had a Kimball piano placed in 24-karat gold leaf. Seriously. And if that wasn't extravagant enough, Elvis' diamond-crusted cadillac was also on display. It was gold plated on all the fixtures too (including the back-seat television set), and the paint job was done using 40 coasts of crushed up diamond and fish scales. Bling, bling!

And this collection belonged to Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, and Faith Hill. One funny thing is the job application to the Hall of Fame Museum from "Patricia Yearwood." Apparently she worked there before she became a star...

And this room was full of plaques dedicated to all the country music hall-of-famers.

After leaving the museum, we went to check out the park which hosts an exact, to-scale replica of the Parthenon. Yes, you read that correctly, the parthenon. I guess I have no reason to go to Athens now, I have already seen the Parthenon. The funny this is, it was done in some ghetto looking stone mixture, so the color is funky. It was a total WTF moment!

After the parthenon experience, we went to check out Belle Meade, a very exclusive neighborhood just outside of Nashville where a lot of the stars live. Some of the houses were just spectacular, but it was hard to see many of them thru the thick landscaping. That's what I would do if I had a house like that, too. Here is the famous Belle Meade plantation - it had "slaves quarters" and the works, since it was once a functioning plantation. Now it is just a tourist trap.

And this was the community park in Belle Meade... I want to live there.

This is another view of the park. It was seriously one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. It makes Indy look ugly - even springtime Indy.

And last but not least, this picture has become a new addition to our "tour of the temples." We like to check them out wherever we go - this one was quite tiny. It was next to a bunch of farms, but the neighborhood was beautiful. Typical of a temple...

What's for dinner?

Last year when Grandma Pierce came out to Indy, she decided to make a special birthday dinner for both my mom and me. Our special request was chili rellenos. This request came naturally, as Grandma makes the best Mexican food ever, and Indy has yet to be introduced to anything you could call Mexican food. Well, Kristin decided she needed to learn exactly how to prepare this dish so we could make it when we had a south of the border craving. Today we had that craving. As many of you know, Kristin is truly unique in that she is a genius, yet at times severely lacks common sense. Well, that endearing quality shined through tonight as she began preparing our dinner. If you are familiar with the recipe for chili rellenos using fresh peppers, you know that one of the first steps is to get the skin off the chili. This is done by broiling the peppers until the skin burns and then placing the broiled peppers into a plastic bag to steam the skin off. Well, tonight Kristin decided to try something new...
She decided she would place the peppers into a plastic bag and then broil them. As you can see, that didn't turn out to be the best method of attack. About 2 minutes into her project, I began asking what was burning. It didn't take long to find the plastic bag of peppers melting in the oven. It turns out that she very consiously placed the peppers in the bag before putting them in the oven. Her defense was, "I knew it sounded strange, but I thought I remembered that being the recipe." Maybe next time when your common sense is telling you something, babe, you should listen...

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!