Well, Thank you for asking. Last week I was on a religeous fast and was only able to make until Friday afternoon. No food or dring from sunrise to sunset. I spent most of Saturday with my wife and kid at a friends newly acquired house. Helped him put up a few cabinets. Barbecued, drank a few beers and watched the Mummy returns. Sunday I went to church, praised the Lord and prayed for no more war. All in all, I have had a great week. Thanks again for asking.

Pretty good so far.

Oh, I didn’t get a spot on the plane from Portland to New York for the big tour. I found out about it a little too late. Too bad; I’ve never been to New York and it would have been cool to tour the city.

I managed to sell the arrhythmia specialist on a medication change that seemed to cool out my pre-transplant patient. Didn’t even have to trot out my graphs of the pharmacokinetics of the meds; he visualized it from my description and gave me the ”make it so.” 96 hours free of v tach/v fib, a record for this guy.

Tonight I am making one of those ethnic dishes that I have never tried before but that I’ve always wanted to try- flanken with tsimmis. Further reports as they develop…

Hi! Nothing much going on here… mostly just having nightmares about what’s going on in the rest of the world.

Just wanted to say that, as a parent, I really like reading about the *other* side of the pediatrician’s world (beyond our (thankfully) boring “well-visits” and occasional “runny-nose” visits.), Well, I guess I wouldn’t say that I “like” reading about these kids problems… I guess it would be more accurate to say that I find it interesting… educating. You sound like a great Dr. Wish you were in this area!! :-)

Thanks for asking, Jason. The past week has been pretty good. I recently assumed the role of president of a local (Boston) nonprofit called The GIFT Foundation, Inc., and on Thursday nite we had simultaneous fundraisers in NYC (Trilogy Bar) and Boston to benefit families of victims who worked at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. We raised over $15k and got a bit in the Wall St. Journal.

Then, Stacy & I went down to the cape to relax for the weekend. I’m heading back to our hometown of San Antonio this weekend to hang out with the family. Coincidentally, our 10 yr. high school reunion is this weekend, so I’ll say hello to folks for you. Take care and have a great week.

Hi, let me introduce myself. I’m a forty something attorney who has given up the rat race to stay at home with my wonderful two little girls adopted from China. I do go to court once a month for the old firm and since I live in a rural area in Colorado, I don’t have to drive in to the big city to work. The firm doesn’t want to drive out to my county seat, so I drive for them once a month and charge them almost 10 times what they ended up paying me hourly when I worked there full time (and boy do I mean full time).

I really enjoy your site. I love the way that you enjoy and value being a pediatric intern. I recommended it to one of my doctor friends who also adopted from China and likes the internet.

I like that we can share and learn from each other. Just like I like to read books, I like to read other people’s journals and sites because I can always learn and it makes me feel good that we share the same sense of compassion in a sometimes cruel world.

My weekend, week, entailed hiking and picnicking with the girls, listening to some great cds I checked out at the library, a little gardening, getting ready for fall, and a big hike behind my house with my trusty old dog, scrambling through scrub oak and climbing up on rocks that raccoons had apparently marked with their black poop to see the vistas out to the plains and feeling a little like the queen of the world. This I got to do while the youngest was napping and so was my husband, but he was pretending to be watching the broncos.

Alwin, you were going to be in NYC and didn’t alert us? For shame, for shame. :)

And Steve! Congrats on your position; I’m glad to hear that you were able to have a successful benefit, too. And I can’t believe that you’re going back to San Antonio for the reunion (although I never really had to come to deciding, since I’m committed to a wedding in South Jersey this weekend). Say hello to whoever’s there, although from early scouting reports, I don’t know if I’ll have known many people there.

Hey Jason,

This weekend was Canadian Thanksgiving. I went to the cottage to visit my parents with my new kitten, Reilly. Unfortunately my aunt and her dog were there, so Reilly spent most of his thanksgiving under the stairs. Now I think he’s permanently scarred.

Did a bit of gardening, dividing lilies, stuff like that. And not a moment too soon, because Monday morning there were a few inches of snow on the ground.

Made pumpkin pie by myself for the first time. Ate way too much turkey (free range, of course!). Planned my upcoming trip to Portugal.
Thanks for asking about me, and talk to you again soon!

I now work in the newspaper business in Canada. I check your page everyday and get upset when you don’t let us know what’s happening. If I was younger and knew then what I know now, I would have done your kind of work. I have a nine year old daughter and she’s my reason for living. Working and helping children, that’s so great.
Instead I’m a photo editor, ex news photographer and spent many years covering news in Europe Russia, Mideast and Africa for AP, Reuters and AFP. Have a lot of friends there or getting ready to go. Brings back the excitement and the fear, but in fact I was joking with my wife that perhaps now would be a great time to go and live in Saskatchewan, far far far away from any kind of big targets.
I’m a child of the fifties and it makes me sad that my daughter will inherit all this madness.

i finally made it here. my weeks and days are blending into each other so much that i can’t even keep track of when one week ends and the other begins. but i think my week was good. my pain is decreasing a little which is fantastic. my essays are getting more and more precise and clearer so that’s good too. a few more weeks and life should be fantastic. :)

The last week has been spent awating a new member of my family. A bouncing baby boy :) And I’m trying to get used to be an auntie before 30 *g*

Jason, I tell you three times, and what I tell you three times is true: The day I get airline tickets for New York will be the day you receive an email from me that I am on my way to storm The Big Apple.

Because I am so ready for it, guy. :-)

Well, this morning I got woken up at 5AM by a chicken in distress…raccoon in the henhouse. And the damnned thing (the raccoon, not the chicken) got away before I could get a shot off. Was up too late last night writing about multiple DataTables in DataSets in ADO.NET.

Other than that, though, the week is going fine. Our child, at 14 months, is getting talented with a fork and learning the wonders of chocolate (cow’s) milk.

Wow, Jason… someone finally asked how _my_ week went! Got a few minutes?

Well, my week was actually quite the mix… I spent the first few days finishing up a project here at work: we’ve got a product that includes parental controls, and part of the mix is a bi-directional content filter. We haven’t named it yet, and it’s still (very much) a beta feature… but I’m excited. Anyway, spent the “better” half of the last two weeks brainstorming lists of words that could be considered offensive, working with the tech team on logic, and weeding out a lot words that — though offensive — were too common to include (many of the 3000 or so drug culture terms fell in this category). I’m a bit sensitive to a lot of the language I was cataloging, so needless to say I’m still reeling from the over-exposure (who knew that there were more than 800 sexually explicit terms in the American lexicon — and I’m sure I missed a few!). I thought of putting the list out for folks that I know on the web to peruse and augment… but I just couldn’t stomach the idea of sharing that filth.

So. That was the low… but Tuesday, well, Tuesday I went down to the Humane Society to pick up my new cat. He’s a great cat… a “russian blue” or “archangel”. He’s quite the talker… and now that he’s acclimated a bit, he can be a little obstinant. But that’s the fun of it.

Anyway, thanks for asking!

I know i’m supposed to say how broken up by the bombing i am. I was, it’s true. On Sunday afternoon, when I heard on the radio that we had begun bombing Afghanistan, I was dismayed in the extreme. But I wasn’t altogether surprised. and then this week has happened — we have had beautiful Autumnal weather here in virginia and my husband and I laughed for a block this morning as we saw an Acclaim with a bumper sticker that read “Where have all the hippies gone?” turn into the McDonald’s drive-thru. I have moments when i look at our sons and am scared that the world they inherit will be one fraught with anxiety, but they are so beautiful and full of life I can only respond by playing and loving them with all my heart.

I read your log and care about what you have to say. I haven’t had as much time to read you as usual this month, so dont feel so bad about the lack of posts. And I hope you get a great response from this. If you’re interested in reading my site, go here.

Wow…what makes me want to share my life with a bunch of people I don’t know?? Who knows, but I’ve read this blog for quite a while and you seem like a nice guy.

On Sunday my wife and I took our kids (3 and 6) to church for the first time after a 10 plus year absence. We were both raised Catholic but have had “issues” with the church since college. I’m still not convinced that we have done the right thing, since I’ve grown to believe that organized religion is the root of all the world’s evils. Still, there was something strangely comforting about going through the rituals of the mass, although I feel quite hypocritical.

I always wanted to be a doctor, but became an engineer because I didn’t think I could stomach all the years of school and poverty. Good luck to you. I enjoy following your progress on the web.

Jim in Washington State

My week has been pretty good. I’m working on a new piece of software, exercising every day, digging working with my team, and diggin my TiVO too, and we’re making good progress with the W3C and patents.

Remember, you asked. My week:

I took my dog to the orthopedic surgeon who told me he’d need a THIRD operation on the same knee because she just didn’t know what was causing him so much pain and could only “guess” there was a small tear on the miniscus thingy that she didn’t see the last time she opened him up.

Diagnosis by surgery. Thought you’d get a kick out of that.

(Do the words, “No f-ing way you’re ever touching my dog again” seem too strong?)

Ah, I feel better now, thanks for asking.

Oh, and I do enjoy your site. :)