Vacation thoughts

Things important to KIDS on vacation:
1. Hotel swimming pool
2. Hotel elevator
3. Hotel ice machine

Things important to PARENTS on vacation:
1. Local museums
2. Historical sites
3. Does the restaurant serve alcohol? (we WERE in Utah...)


Other thoughts:
The hotel bar closed at 11 pm. Last call was 10:45. :(

Damn, Utah has a lot of mountains. Here in flyover country, we're not used to drastic elevation changes! Walking SLC's zoo was a challenge - up and down and up and down... It was truly a beautiful state, even when we took a wrong turn and went down a mountain road riding the brakes as hard as we could.

The Great Salt Lake is fricken' HUGE!

Great kid quotes:
Upon hearing that the breakfast buffet was served between 6 and 9; DD said "Great cuz I'm 7!" I started crying, I was laughing so hard at that one.

Amazing article

Go here for a great link to what death and dying can mean.

As someone who has been the primary caretaker in a home hospice situation (for my father), I find these pictures beautiful and amazing.

Death is not the enemy, it is the natural consequence of living.

The OR

There is very little that compares to a good OR day. The one where every patient is thin, all of the instruments work without needing to jigger this-n-that, the anatomy is normal, and the patient has a virgin belly. You have your CD player going, you are running on time, and the conversation between the nurses, CRNA, assist, and me are teasing in nature. It is honestly a hell of a lot of fun, although it can be physically draining. And if everything goes right, the patient improves quickly post-operatively and feels much better. And THAT'S why we love to operate.

The above paragraph is a dream...most patients are fluffy (to be polite), the damn bovie machine is acting up again, we're hours behind schedule, I forgot my CDs, and conversation consists of me and the assist swearing because of distorted anatomy and our legs/back/shoulders ache. It's still a lot of fun, even when I'm bitching and moaning about why I hate vaginal surgery.

My OR day this week was more like the second day...it beat me up! But I'm still operating tomorrow...