I'm A Real Doctor Now

So I got a text message the other day that read, “I just got my medical kit.  It is awesome. I feel like a real doctor now.” 

This all started about a month ago when Mr. MedSchool came home and told me that he had to unexpectedly drop $800.  Great, what could have broken (1)? Did we have to fix all the pipes under the house or something? Nope. Mr. MedSchool had to purchase his medical kit.  This kit was full of toys medical tools like an othalmoscope (2), tuning forks (3), reflex hammer (4) and stethoscope (5). 

 Well last week the kit came in and when I arrive home Mr. MedSchool had already given himself a full exam.  He then proceeded to sit on the couch and listen to his heart, his stomach, his head, the TV and me through his stethoscope.  Then hit himself repeatedly with his reflex hammer and laugh after each time.  However he couldn’t look into his own ear or eye (6).  Because of this inability, I became the subject. Don’t fear, my heart sounds find and my reflexes work.  However, I apparently have very black eardrums, and I we’re not sure about my eyes as I cannot keep them open when a bright light is shined in it – particularly when the “doctor” can’t see so he gets as close as he can and takes way too long to look. 

1. And how did you do it?

2. Thing Doctor uses to look in your ears and eyes

3. Tests hearing and stuff like that

4. Like the one that the doctor uses to hit your knee with

5. Yeah, you should totally know that one

6. Although I wouldn’t put it past him to have tried in the mirror. 

You Have to Sign a Waiver for What?

Birthday excitement! We received my nephew's birthday party invitation yesterday.  There was a waiver included.  Like for our safety... we have to sign a waiver ... for the 5 year old's birthday party.  This should be fun.

Disclaimer: We are going rock climbing, hence the waiver.

Yeah you read that right.  5 year old. Rock Climbing.

Hot and Steamy Cards From the Dog

So Valentines is around the corner and Mr. MedSchool and I have our usual tradition planned, nice, quite dinner at home (1).  After just buying a house, doing multiple renovations and purchasing a dining room set (2), Mr. MedSchool and I decided not to get each other anything this year (3).  However, we do have a long standing Card war.  We buy each other cards for every holiday and not mushy, lovey-dovey cards but funny, make-you-laugh-so-hard-you-want-to-cry cards.

Being the procrastinator that I sometimes am (4), I finally went today to get Mr. MedSchool’s Valentine’s Day card.  After wading my way through the wall of people in the greeting card aisle (5).  I looked through the sparse selection left a card with the perfect mix of funny and sweet but keeping with my personality (6). 

While looking through cards, I realized how big the greeting card industry had become.  Where I usually remember there being categories like: Romantic, Funny, For Husband, For Wife, etc., now there are categories like Hot & Steamy, Cards with Sound, For Step Grand Daughter, From the Dog (7).  There were even specific cards for people whose birthday is n valentines, three different versions! Seriously … just buy two cards. I mean it has to suck to have your birthday on another holiday.  How much worse would it be if the one you loved bought you a combo card?

So after picking up my card (and some hair gel), I went to the check out thinking about how commercialized that we had become as a nation.  So, I made sure to grab a bag of Easter candy to console myself on the way home (8).    

1. because we don’t want deal with other people and waiters trying to turn our table on one of the busiest nights of the year. 

2. Craig’s List is the best!

3. Self-administered spending freeze .. perhaps the government could learn something from us

4. Not all the time … just most of it

5. Mostly Men… shocking.

6. Impossible you say? ... oh I found it, I’m good at this game

7. At least there were no Hot & Steamy cards from the dog

8. Seriously, who doesn’t love those Reese’s eggs?

Brownies That Move Mountains

I have found that one of the best ways to thank people is food (1).  Whether it’s thanking some guys for helping you move, a friend for inviting you to a dinner party or a relative whose house you stayed at, food is always to say thank you.

I recently ran across a recipe for brownies from the Barefoot Contessa Cookbook (2).  The recipe sounded great but a little intense.  I mean there’s a double boiler involved (3) and multiple types of chocolate (semisweet melted, semisweet chips [4], unsweetened).  However, it is completely worth it.  I add frosting to mine as well a ganache or cream cheese frosting make these even better

Outrageous Brownies

Note: These are baked in a 12 x 18 baking sheet.  You can also use two 12 x 9 baking sheets.

Ingredients:

                  1 pound unsalted butter

                  1 pound plus 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

                  6 ounces unsweetened chocolate

                  6 extra-large eggs

                  3 tablespoons instant coffee granules

                  2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract

                  2 1/4 cups sugar

                  1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

                  1 tablespoon baking powder

                  1 teaspoon salt

                  3 cups chopped walnuts (didn’t use these, still good)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter and flour a 12 x 18 x 1-inch baking sheet.

Melt together the butter, 1 pound of chocolate chips, and the unsweetened chocolate in a medium bowl over simmering water. Allow to cool slightly. In a large bowl, stir (do not beat) together the eggs, coffee granules, vanilla, and sugar. Stir the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and allow to cool to room temperature.

In a medium bowl, sift together 1 cup of flour, the baking powder, and salt. Add to the cooled chocolate mixture. Toss the walnuts and 12 ounces of chocolate chips in a medium bowl with 1/4 cup of flour, then add them to the chocolate batter. Pour into the baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes, then rap the baking sheet against the oven shelf to force the air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. Bake for about 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not overbake!

1. Or beer  

2. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/outrageous-brownies-recipe3/index.html

3. Problem, since my method of melting chocolate involved a microwave.

4. Please use good chocolate!  Like one of the ones that has a percentage of Cacao in it.  Even Kroger has a generic brand, come on  

More Adventures in Homeownership Part 2

Sunday 4:52pm .. final closet doors up!

Next up: paint the back porch … awesome

More Adventures in Homeownership

So we continue our home improvement adventure by putting up more doors in our house (1).  After the last the weekend of the More Tools, More Work Treaty, Mr. MedSchool continued to hold up his end of the deal (more work).  However, the work became very sporadic.  Now I understand that he is in Med School and is not my handiwork houseboy (2), and I don’t want Mr. MedSchool to sacrifice his studies because things need to get done around the house.  However, when our hallway bathroom goes without a door for 2 weeks … I feel like the intense (3) studying habits weren’t prohibiting the door installation. 

On Sunday, Mr. MedSchool took several doors down with the intention of putting them back up that day.  However, the door needed to be cut and it was raining (4).  Mr. MedSchool informed me that he would have them up by Tuesday.  Tuesday passed.  Wednesday Passed. The weekend passed (5). 

It is Saturday and the door is up.  Only 2 more to go… who knows when they will make an appearance in our house.

Reader’s Note: All this being said, my husband is wonderful and does balance Med School and real life extremely well.  He also does tons around the house to help me in addition to all of the handiwork (6). 

1. Yeah ..that’s right we’re still doing that.

2. We’re not into role playing anyways.

3. More like erratic

4. And as we have learned from past experience, Power tools and rain do not mix

5. I will give this one to Mr. Medschool because we actually weren’t home for most of the weekend. 

6. And he cooks and cleans

Party Time

Nieces and Nephews are a special gift.  They give you just enough “kid time” to remind you why you are not ready to have children while also satiating your parents’ need for grandchildren so they are not consistently bug you about having kids.  We have a few nieces and nephews in the family and get together for holidays, family vacations and birthdays. 

Little kid birthdays are the best.  You get to do things like bounce in a bouncy house, go to a petting zoo, swing, fight over presents, play with water guns, (1) etc. I was especially excited about my 5 year old niece’s birthday party this past weekend.  We were meeting then in Big City, South to go Snow Tubing at a local amusement park.  I was pumped! (2)

Unfortunately we got a call shortly before the party was to start telling us that because of the incoming rain, the outdoor Snow Tubing was closed.  Scrambling to find another place, our brother and sister-in-law settled upon one of the most popular spots for children’s birthdays: Chuck E Cheese. 

Now I have been at a Chuck E Cheese in the past.  In fact, we had a college sisterhood event there for my sorority.  Unfortunately a Chuck E Cheese full of 100 20-something girls gossiping and a Chuck E Cheese full of 100 children screaming and running around (3) is not the same.  Not even close.

Mr. MedSchool and I ventured to the party location and sat outside in our car for 15 minutes.  Even though we were on time, we did not want to be the first ones there.  We entered the Chuck E Cheese and made a beeline for the back “Party” area where the family sat (4).  I quickly learned I could stand the “Party” area with the creepy animatronic mouse and incessant playing of children’s songs was easier to handle than the arcade area.  The arcade area was filled with kids running at top speed and screaming.  I was amazed at how parents just let kids run wild throughout the area.  Aren’t they afraid that, I don’t know, that someone will take their kids (5).

So after two hours of screaming, kicking, greasy pizza, creepy animatronics, and a loop of “She’ll be Comin’ ‘round the Mountain,” we realized that our life was still better than the person that has to dress up like Chuck E Cheese and dance and sing everyday.  So onward to our next birthday party.  Our nephew turns 5 next month and his party is rock climbing (6).

 1. Sadly, Mr. MedSchool and his friends do 3 out of 4 of these without being around any children

 2. Come on, it doesn’t snow here much

 3. It was like a swarm of flies, only with very high decibel level

 4. And my father-in-law was complaining about how there were so many TVs and none of them were playing the game.

 5. Note they do have a “stamp system,” and no child is suppose to leave without the adult with the same ink stamp on his or her arm.  However, there is this thing called water … which washes off stamps

 6. Yeah cause that’s not dangerous for adults … much less 5 year olds.