She got me!

Yup, Melissa got me good! It's been awhile since one of you has put one over on me like that -- she is the current champ!

Another week down

Well, I survived this week and I think I did it pretty well. Work is getting easier to survive. I got quite a bit done in the house. And we went to a regional auxillary training meeting last night in Rochester and it was worth going to. I also had to re-arrange my presidency this week, due to my Education counselor being snatched for Primary President.

I am starting to get to know the docs at the new site. It is a family practice with Drs. Thomas, Schenk, Berger, Morelli, Kowalski Sellers, and Newberger as attendings. We also have 3 3rd year residents, and some 2nd year and 1st year residents I'm not paying any attention to at this point. Dr. Berger is the only female attending and seems a bit dis-engaged. I don't think I really know who Dr. Morelli is yet and apparently he and Dr. Berger are married.... at least that's what I think I figured out this week. Dr. Newberger is very quite and doesn't say much. Dr. Kowalski is very nice and went out of his way to welcome me to the site and introduced himself as "Pete". Dr. Sellers is pretty elderly, and will only see his very own patients. He is only there one afternoon a week and only sees about 6 patients. He's a little crotchity, but generally well liked. Dr. Thomas is the director of the facility, and Dr. Schenk is the character of the bunch.

Two stories. I met Dr. Thomas last week, but he pretty much ignored me until yesterday. I over heard him talking to one of the residents telling him about being an officer in the air force. I piped up and told him about Adam being a sargent in the army and getting ready to go back to Iraq for a 2nd tour. All of a sudden I had value! I'm an army mom! He went out of his way 2-3 times then yesterday to talk to me. Thanks Adam!

I also met Dr. Schenk this week. Now keep in mind that he must be at least 6'3". He has a full beard that is graying sort of unattractively and he has his thick curly hair tied back into a pony tail that hangs down to his mid back. I was looking for a chart on Tuesday around his desk when he came into the library. He growled at me. I kinda smiled and kept looking for what I needed. and he growled again. It wasn't a cough, or clearing of the throat, it was a growl. I thought, is he nuts? or is he messing with me? So I took what I thought was a safe route and chuckled a little bit. Darn if he didn't growl louder and meaner again. I turned around, looked him straight in the eye and said, "Hi, I'm Pam Payne the new medical secretary. I've raised 5 boys and I carry a great big old stick!" He howled! He thought that was about the funniest thing he had heard in a long time. Now he's my buddy... thanks boys!

Progress

I'm beginning to make a little progress in getting ready for everyone being home soon. The step down room is definitely beginning to look like a room. We had estimates on building a fence around the back yard.... why didn't someone tell me it was going to be so expensive?!? For a nice vinyl fence like John and /or Drew's, it was going to be $8,000. But the estimate for a 6' high wood fence was $4300. Even the cheap 4' chain link which we didn't think could really keep the dogs in was $2700. So, no fence. I guess we will just have to keep a closer eye on the kids and get switching dogs on the cable.

Spring -- maybe

I think Spring may have finally arrived. I've seen daffodils, forsythia bushes, tulips, etc. I even saw a Robin today. How do you spell relief? SPRING! Work is going well, although I feel more tired working at the new place than at the old one. Don't know why, maybe I'm just getting old.

April 2, 2006

We got through April 1st this year with no torment, no craziness, no tricks, no fibs, no swearing, no adreneline rushes. It was nice and boring. I do have to admit though, I did check the caller ID every time the phone rang just to see if it was one of you lying in wait to torture me. I did answer a call from John -- he got me on the way to an early meeting and I figured that it was actually too early for him to have thought up anything really awful. Then at 9:30 this morning -- no early meetings, no work to get up for, no dogs barking, Ed Stull called.......