Well it's over. The Memorial Day Weekend is over. This means that I need to be at work at 6 AM tomorrow to learn about all of the patients on the service. Thank God South Park is on to make everything ok. This particular episode is when we all find out that the planet Earth is a reality television show. God I love the dudes who created the show. And since it's Memorial Day, let me send a quick thank-you to all Americans who have served in our country's military. I certainly appreciate the freedom I have to write this blog and the freedom I have to do whatever the hell I want. I have nothing but the highest respect for all people, living or dead, who fight and have fought for freedom and democracy everywhere. So thanks.

I need to talk about the drive back to Houston. I was absolutely dreading this occasion, because it's a holiday weekend and I-45 in Corsicana narrows to one lane for construction. There are huge signs that warn of the impending doom miles before the construction. With all of the holiday traffic, I thought I'd be stuck in traffic for a few hours. It turns out that I really wasn't stuck in traffic at all. It was sort of slow during the one-lane part, but there wasn't any backup before that. However, the traffic heading north back to Dallas was stopped for miles. I have included pictures at the bottom of this blog. I also included other random pictures, including those from my budding landscape collection. I likes pictures.

I really need to talk about the movie Shrek 2. Seriously, I can't get over how good a movie it really is. As of today it has made 260 million dollars in two and a half weeks. I think the record-holder for an animated film is Finding Nemo (also very good) which made 340 million dollars. Anyway, I need to talk about why I liked this movie so much. It has to do with how the filmmakers don't water down the fairy-tale for a young audience. Every joke was funny on two levels...the first for the slap-stick part of the humor and the second for the actual joke which probably only the older kids and adults understand. But that's not why the movie is so great. I loved it, because it takes these age-old fairy-tails and sets them in a semi-modern era (lots of hyphens eh?). For instance, there are still magic potions, kingdoms, horse and carriage, and flying carpets. But at the same time there are drive-through restaurants and very current humor. To me this is a perfect combination of the two while still maintaining the fairy-tale feel and the essence of the original characters and stories. What it boils down to is that the filmmakers treat the kids like adults, which I would have LOVED at that age. Kids are much smarter than we think. Sure, they won't get some of the jokes--and neither will some of the adults. The cool thing is that while the film treats kids like a adults, it still maintains a child-like innocence and also an adult feel. Does that make sense? I just think the film does so much on so many levels. Adult films don't need to be so clever, so I think Shrek's writers deserve credit. I don't know if any of that made sense, as I'm watching a tape of The West Wing, but what are you gonna do? Enjoy the first week of June.

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I'm sort of upset that the Memorial Day weekend is coming to a close. These little vacations never seem to last long enough. Saturday and Sunday have been very nice. Allow me to catch you up with a few things.

I saw Dr. Brooks on Saturday Morning at Sweet Eugene's in College Station. The place has really expanded. Half of it is still the same, but now the other half has crepes and doughnuts. I spent a lot of time at that particular establishment during my days at A&M. I wish it had been that nice when I lived there...I probably would have studied there far more often. Anyway, Dr. Brooks was his usual gay self (gay of course from the Middle English "gai" meaning lighthearted or brightly colored). He had a lot of medical questions for me, which is fun because his questions sort of make me think about the state of medicine on the whole. We sort of talked about health insurance issues and the indigent. Actually, we probably rehashed the movie John Q now that I think about it. We also talked about a few of my classmates at A&M including Erin Fleming. She was always such a bright girl...and a very hot redhead if I don't say so myself. I wonder how she is doing. Perhaps I will drop her an e-mail and see how things are going. Anyway, it was great to see Dougie as always. He really is such a fantastic person. Teachers amaze the shit out of me...especially the really good ones.

The drive into Dallas was uneventful except for I-45 going to one lane at Corsicana. My God that is going to suck on the way back to Houston. Everything in Dallas looks nice as usual. The city is so much nicer and cleaner than Houston. So I hung out at our pool for awhile then called Mary to see what the plans for the evening would be. We decided on The Quarter which is a nice little establishment on Hall and McKinney in Midtown. I met Mary at her place on Turtle Creek which is VERY nice. She really has a beautiful condo and in a perfect location. While there, I met her teacher friend Lee Ann, who is adorable. She is an Aggie and went to high school in Mesquite. I was very impressed with her in your face attitude and sarcasm. Plus I took a couple shots of tequila before we left and never looked back. We walked to the bar and met up with another teacher friend who's name I can't remember. All I can remember is that Lee Ann kept asking me to get a rise out of the other teacher friend, because she was apparently very annoying. I pretty much hammered her the entire evening, but she was nothing but polite and funny. So as far as I'm concerned this girl is cool. We'll see what happens the next time I meet her. Then Katie Sternweis joined us straight from her psychology job at the Parkland ER. We caught up briefly, and I remember us discussing the difference between a client and a patient. I think she tried to convince me that calling a psycho a "client" makes him or her not as stigmatized, but I disagreed. I felt that people with mental illness have a disease process the same as someone with high blood pressure or the flu. To me, it's better for the person to acknowledge this and come to terms that what they experience is a disease...not something they can control. I guess I think the term "patient" legitimizes mental illness more than "client". Whatever...this discussion was much more exciting after 5 Grey Goose and Tonics. Back to Lee Ann...she apparently is friends with my college roommate Jeff Given. I've decided that everyone who went to school in Texas knows one another. So we talked about Jeff for a little bit and then my sister and her two friends joined as at the bar. Eventually we left and went to Manhattan Bar a few miles down the road. It's very trendy and really not that exciting, so I'm glad we weren't there very long. After that we went back to Mary's house, where the two girls seemed to enjoy cuddling with each other. I was invited to join in, but instead did not, which in hindsight probably was a mistake. Then I drove home and fell asleep around 4:30.

Sunday I woke up at 2 PM and basically did nothing the entire day. I recall watching some of the Indy 500, some of the Ranger's game, and lying on a raft in the pool for a few hours. I think I need to build a pool in the house I'm leasing in Houston so that I can do this more often. It really is relaxing. Then Carolyn, Mom, and I went to Houston's restaurant. I had some spinach dip, asparagus (yes my urine stunk afterwards), and the ribs. I tell you what, if you live in Texas and they have a Houston's in your city, please give it a try. I've never, ever had a bad meal there. After that I joined Mary and Sarah to see Shrek 2, which is absolute genius. Seriously, it's such a great film. Maybe at some point I will describe this in more detail but instead I'm going to watch TV now.

So I'm in College Station now (it's actually past midnight, so all of this really took place on Friday) after working what could be my last day at LBJ. Thank God my first inpatient month of medicine is over. I worked my ass off, and it turns out that I really didn't get the grade I wanted. I have no idea what that's all about. Oh well, the more important issue is that I only have one month of medicine left. Hopefully Dr. Farnie will make life easy for me.

I finished a round of golf with David. I played Pebble Creek for the first time, and I really enjoyed it. I played like absolute shit, but who cares! I think just being in College Station with Carolyn and playing some golf with a scratch golfer like Dave was pretty kick ass. He leaves for the NCAA nationals in Virginia tomorrow. The guy is an absolutely outstanding golfer. I couldn't believe how far he drove the ball. It certainly was a nice clinic.

We all went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner. The one here in College Station is actually managed and partially owned by a classmate's fiance. I've never had a bad meal at this particular location. The filet this evening was very nice. Then we headed over to Northgate to have a few drinks. They just built a bar called Logan's, which is a chain I suppose, because they have one in Addison. In fact it was exactly the same...loud music all the time, and every once in a while they play a movie clip on the television and follow it with a related song. We had a good time. I probably drank too much...but I only live once right? It's amazing how all the Aggies stay the same age, yet I keep getting older. If medicine doesn't work out, I am moving to a college campus so that I will stay young forever. Tomorrow morning I'm meeting Dr. Brooks at Sweet Eugene's. I haven't seen him in quite a while, so it will be great to catch up. He's the most important teacher I've ever had. I'm sure you've had a teacher that changed your life, and he certainly is that person for me. Carolyn and I will join him at 8 AM and then drive back to Dallas for the weekend. I'm really looking forward to seeing Mary and everyone else. I especially need to swing by Nathan's to learn more about this whole "Internet" as they call it. His painting looks great in our TV room, now sponsored by Nexium.

I think that's all for now. Viva la alcohol!

It's yet another post call evening. I feel like I'm not typing enough for this blogger thing, so maybe I need to work on that. This weekend should be exciting. Tomorrow (today actually) I get my final evaluation from Dr. Boisaubin. I think I've really worked hard this rotation, so hopefully things will turn out well. After that I plan to have lunch with Jennifer. She has found and purchased a 99 year old home in Louisville, KY where she'll be living with Nate beginning this summer. I sort of feel I should use this space to talk about Jennifer, but I need to sleep soon. Basically, she's the coolest female I've ever met, and I currently won't allow myself to think about what things will be like after she moves away. I met her my freshman year at A&M, and we've been best friends ever since. Hopefully the whole e-mail and phone thing will suffice, but I have a sneaking suspicion that won't be the case. After lunch, we have lecture with Dr. Arnett, who is a world-renowned internist who specializes in Rheumatology. It amazes me how many world-famous faculty we have at UTH. I really lucked out. Then I'm off to College Station to play golf with Carolyn and Dave. Dave is Carolyn's boyfriend and a pretty sweet golfer from what I've heard. He recently qualified for nationals with the rest of his A&M mates, so he's leaving for that tournament Saturday. It will be fun to play a round with him. Then the rest of the weekend will be spent in Dallas. I'm sure I'll be writing more about that after it happens.

Call was interesting as usual. Late in the evening, Meagan and I were milling around in the ER, when a man in cardiac arrest was brought in. Of course, Meagan and I were curious, so we observed the paramedics performing CPR. The guy's blood temperature was 109, which meant that he probably arrested from heat stroke. Finally one of the nurses wondered why the medical students were standing around, so Meagan got up there and started doing compressions. After a few minutes she sort of looked at me and signaled "holy shit I'm tired, get your ass up here and take over" which I promptly did. I did compressions for 5 minutes or so with a few doses of atropine and/or epinephrine intermixed, and finally the ER attending called everything off. Death is never an easy thing to consider, even if this guy was someone I've never met. He didn't have any ID on him and was found alone, so I wonder how his family will find out the bad news. I was sort of struggling with that dilemma yesterday along with the fact that I was the last person who touched this man while still "alive". It was also quite shocking how young he looked, so the whole thing really got my brain going. After that, we saw patients as usual with my last admission finishing up at 2AM (which sucks because students are supposed to go to bed at midnight the day before lecture). The next day we rounded, and the 4 students went out to lunch at a cool Italian place in the Village. After that someone came up with the idea to have a few shots at Baker Street Pub next door (I wonder who that could be). We had a few drinks and proceeded to class involving 4 one-hour lectures. Needless to say, I was very tired and slept well when I got home. I capped the evening by eating dinner at Mo Mong (an absolutely fantastic Asian place in Montrose) with Ryan, Melissa, and her sister Katie. Then I packed up my stuff for the weekend, finished writing a formal H&P, and sat down in front of this screen to write. And with that, I'm heading to bed.

Reno 911! is on right now. This show is really quite funny. I really should work it into my daily rotation. Yesterday was Sunday which was a post-call day for me. Saturday really wasn't all that bad. I think we had a total of 9 patients for the whole team, which is about half of a normal night. Today Dr. Arango was back. She lost her father last Tuesday while on call and took a few days to be with her family. Apparently her dad was still living in Colombia, and she couldn't return for the funeral. So I still feel horrible for her, but hopefully she's doing better. A loss so close really makes you appreciate your own family. I can't wait to see my mom, dad, and sister this weekend.

Yesterday Ryan returned from his weekend in Dallas. He caught me up on the events of the day. For once his weekend wasn't filled with too much girl drama, which I suppose is good not to be fighting on two simultaneous fronts (Dallas and Houston). Speaking of drama...Ryan just walked in with his ladyfriend. This event really isn't that interesting, but from my seat here in the front room, I by chance saw them walk between our house and next door. The only things that are back that way are the backyard and our rotting shed. They were back there for quite a while, so I'll be interested to hear about that little escapade.

In other news, I totally hate using Microsoft Word for HTML editing. It's the absolute worst I've ever seen. First of all, I'm embarrassed that I can't program in HTML and even worst, I'm using Word to do it for me. Hopefully Nathan can save me this weekend when I go to Dallas. He has some kewl software that hopefully doesn't suck nearly as much as Word.

Today is my day off and is good. However, my Dell laptop's keyboard has randomly stopped working, so I plugged my desktop's keyboard into the laptop. Technology can be kind of cool sometimes. Currently I'm watching the Rangers beat up on the Yankees. Unfortunately the Timberwolves are losing to the Lakers on TNT's inaugural night of High Definition broadcasting. Have I every told you about HDTV? Basically it's the clearest, coolest television picture I've ever seen. I still drool when I see sports in HD, especially hockey. Earlier in the day, I enjoyed happy hour at Cafe Adobe. Several people showed up including Ann Hyslop, Kendrick, Cory, Tara, Nick, Eric, and Huide. It was very enjoyable, especially the consumption of frozen beverages. Earlier I watched the greatness that is Meet the Parents on the USA Network. I've decided that commercials aren't so bad, because it allows me to do stuff around the house like laundry, vacuuming, and ironing. Meet the Parents may well be the most frustrating movie ever written (by design of course). The movie reminds me very much of television's funniest show Curb Your Enthusiasm. Undoubtedly Larry David is a funny dude, and his formula is writing a screenplay that can't get any more awkward and uncomfortable. It certainly makes me laugh. Speaking of Meet the Parents, the sequel Meet the Fockers is coming out this year. Apparently Gay's parents are Barbara Streisand and Dustin Hoffman. I'm looking forward to this.

Yesterday was outstanding. We did the normal thing at the hospital, and then we had class from 1-5. At 4 o'clock, Dr. Willerson lectured us for the third time over cardiology. Dr. Willerson is the President of the UT Health Science Center which includes 6 health related schools including my medical school. In addition to his schedule as an administrator, he still sees patients everyday. I think he wakes up at 4 each morning and works until late, then reads journals and stuff like that. I suppose he gets 4 hours of sleep a night or something like that. We're not sure if he's human or not, but he's certainly a remarkable person. Anyway, at the conclusion of yesterday's lecture he told us what a joy it was lecturing to us and that we were the best group of students he'd had in the last 4 years (which is about 16 or so groups). So that's a pretty cool thing to hear such high praises from one of the most important cardiologists in the world.

After class Meagan and I were joined by her roommate Erin and another classmate Rob to head out to Galveston to see the greyhounds race in circles. On the way down, Meagan became quite defensive while we discussed the restaurant Cracker Barrel. Apparently she has some sort of emotional connection with this particular restaurant, so I promised to take her there soon so that I can experience its greatness. Beer was 50 cents along with hotdogs and popcorn. I think I won like 8 of the 12 races I bet on, so I was quite happy. There's nothing like watching your dog cross the finish line first. My bets were tiny, so I didn't win very much, but who cares about that. We all seemed to have a super time. After that, Meagan and I went to the new Mist Bar (formerly Timberwolf) to engage in some pool playing. It turns out that Meagan is a pretty decent player, especially after being at the dog track having a few drinkies. I'm quite happy to have been paired with her this month at LBJ. I really didn't know much about her before now, but it turns out that's she's really a sweetheart. I think her presence has really helped make my inpatient medicine month more enjoyable.

I don't know how I feel about writing on days when I'm post call, but I suppose it's worth a try. For those of you who don't know what "post call" means, it is the period when a person has been up all day and all night at the hospital admitting sick patients. So let's say I was on call Tuesday. That means I go to the hospital to see my patients at 7 AM, I stayed the entire day and night admitting new patients, then I round on the new patients the next morning and go home around 12:30 or so. Anywho, usually it means some sort of delirium has set in at some point in the post-call period.

Call yesterday was the most interesting I've had as a medical student. Unfortunately it wasn't in a good way. It turns out that my 3rd year resident's dad died during the night. She received a call from her husband which of course was very unsettling and caused much pain. Obviously she needed to get home to her family, but no one seemed to be doing anything, so I contacted another 3rd year resident who contacted the chief medical resident who arranged everything and sent my resident home. Meagan drove her car while I followed behind them to Katy where she lives. I understand that Meagan sort-of bonded with my resident, which makes me really happy. I feel really horrible for my resident, and I hope she is able to deal with this tragedy in a positive way. The whole thing made me think about my parents of course, and I was going to call them just to say I love them, but then I fell asleep. Yes, yes, I'm a super human being. Actually it wasn't so bad after all. After Meagan and I returned, we congregated in the lounge to finish writing notes on our patients and sort of decompress. I had my roommate Nick tape the series finale to Friends a few weeks ago, so we popped that in and watched it. Friends is a very cheesy show with the most annoying canned laughter I've ever heard. However, it's a cute show and takes a look at how complex friendships can be over long periods of time. I think Friends will be looked upon obviously as a huge ratings success but also as a great look at how relationships evolve over time. So hurray for the creators and writers of the show...kudos for creating success.

In other news, I ran for re-election as my medical school class officer and somehow ended up running un-opposed. I don't know if it's just that people don't care of if they think I'm doing a good job, but either way I get to continue at my post. I'm quite happy about this, because I feel I can get some important things accomplished before I graduate and become a doctor.

As far as today goes, nothing of note really happened. Ryan's girlfriend from high school and her buddy were in town to re-take a test for work. Of course that means that we all need to go out and drink a lot, which is exactly what we did. We started at Chuy's, which is never a bad decision. I had my traditional Elvis Green Chili Fried Chicken and a lovely beverage. We then proceeded to The Tavern and have Irish Car Bombs and assorted beverages. They even had a ping-pong table which was sort of cool. On top of everything, the Timberwolves beat the Kings to advance to the Western Conference finals with the Lakers. Go T-Wolves! I also noticed that the Flames beat the Sharks to advance to the Stanley Cup finals. Hopefully the Flyers can win tomorrow to force a game 7 in the Eastern Conference against the Lightning.

Oops, Katie Taylor is calling my cell phone. Will I answer? No, I think it's too late for that now. What I will do is go to bed though. Until tomorrow...

Today is Ryan's birthday. So of course we planned a huge party, bought tons of alcohol, and called a bunch of strippers to come on over. And since I'm typing this at 1:50 AM, it's obvious that all of those things happened. (Editor's note" when I say "happened", I instead mean "did not happen".) Most of the day before this in fact was quite boring. I got home post call at 1 PM and proceeded to sleep until 7. Of note, the garbage disposal was replaced today. Ryan informs me it took a sledgehammer to knock the barnicals (as I call them) off the old garbage disposal so that the new one could be installed. The new one had to be installed, because the electrical tape that was covering a 2 inch hole fell off causing water to leak everywhere under the sink. When we informed our landlord of this, she basically said "well it was working when I lived there" and left it at that. So we had the joy of paying another $50 to fix Judy's house. I must say, this is getting sort of old. But hey, at least we have tons of equity in the house. Oh wait, we're renters and have no such thing. After awaking, Ryan and I went to Lupe Tortilla, which was quite good as usual.



Let's move on to something else. Tonight instead of having a wild party, I gave Ryan his "Frank the Tank" t-shirt (thank you www.meshhat.com $18.99 plus shipping), and then we proceeded to watch the weirdest movie ever called 28 Days Later. The movie is basically about a virus that spreads giving people a rabies-like syndrome. Except instead of becoming paralyzed and dying, the infected people became walking zombies. Kind of an interesting twist eh? Ryan also reminded me that this evening was the 1 year anniversary of the "Velvet Melvin Fiasco". Basically, Ryan and I went to see the second Matrix installment and proceeded to drink our lives away at Thursday $2 you call its at the Velvet Melvin while watching the Mavs in last year's NBA playoffs. The actual evening wasn't that great until I left the bar (well the movie was awesome and drinking is always fun). The first thing I did was slap this poor girl's bottom thinking it was a friend of mine. Instead it turned out to be a complete stranger having a fight with her boyfriend. I looked up awkward in the dictionary, and it now has a video of this event as illustration. The boyfriend was so stupefied that such a thing could happen; he just stared at me blankly instead of beating the shit out of me. Also deterring him was 6'5" Ryan standing next to me...also looking stupefied and amazed. We got in the car and began driving home, which was only a few miles away. Ryan, not trusting my driving prowess at that point, asked me if I should be driving in my condition. And since I don't break the law, I of course was entirely within the legal drinking and driving limit, but I couldn't just say something simple like that. So instead I said, "Ryan, the question isn't am I ok to drive--the question is will I get you home safely? And the answer to that question is yes Ryan, yes." And we indeed all got home safely. So it was fun to remember that night.

Now I am writing to you 22 hours later than when I started this blog. I guess it's officially Ryan's birthday now, which means we did absolutely nothing sort-of like last night. However, I did go to Auto Zone 3 times today. The first time, I purchased some kick ass ultra bright white headlights and a new brakelight bulb. When I got home, I realized the kick ass ultra bright white headlights were the wrong kind, so I had to take them back. On the second visit, I got two kick ass ultra bright white headlights that actually fit my car which were $5 more expensive for each light. I also picked up some front windshield wiper replacements, because everyone likes a clean windshield. When I got home I installed the kick ass ultra bright white headlights, which are supposed to look like the Xenon lights BMW's and Lexus’s have...but they don't. It's ok though, I still have the old lights for when the new ones burn out. Then I tried to install my replacement windshield wipers, but one of them was missing the metal clip. So I returned to Auto Zone to get a replacement replacement front windshield wiper. When I got home I noticed the replacement replacement windshield wiper was the wrong kind, so I'll need to return it tomorrow and get another one. I think Auto Zone is awesome.

Pedro Serrano came and trimmed the trees and bushes today. The outside of the house is immaculate. We paid $150 for hedge trimming and general cleanup and Judy paid $275 for tree trimming, which she haggled down from $300. Pedro is the best landscaper in Houston. He owns a company called Peter Landscaping. If you live in Houston and need any kind of work done around the house or just a regular lawn service, his cell phone number is 713.875.7580. Tell him Thomas Roshek sent you, and he'll hook you up. Seriously this guy works unbelievably hard and does outstanding work (and he's cheap as hell). He really is one of the most stand up guys I've met here in Houston...and I work with Doctors. Maybe I'll post some before and after pictures to show you his work.

Ryan, Nick, Melissa, and I went to Nick's Pasta today for Ryan's Birthday dinner. I had pistachio chicken which was really good. The best part is that half of it still remains, so I'll have free dinner tomorrow. Plus I still have leftovers from Carolyn's graduation dinner, so it looks like I'm eating like a king for the next few days. Hopefully I won't die from E. coli bacteremia after I eat.

Ryan invented a new word today. It's called "slingo". He says it means exactly how it sounds (what?). Examples would be guesstimate or desirement. I think the people who made up these words should be shot, but I can't always have everything.

It is Saturday morning at 1:40 AM. I'm currently sitting in the library at LBJ Hospital taking a breather. Today has been a good day. This morning was routine--I rounded on my current patients and made sure my CTs, X-Rays, and labs were ordered. Then I hopped in my car and drove to College Station to watch Carolyn graduate. I must say that I've been very excited the past few weeks about her graduation, but I was faced with a bit of a dilemma. It turns out that my team is on call today, so it was necessary for me to miss some of my call to travel to College Station. No one had a problem with me missing, so I joined my parents, Carolyn's roommate Laura, and Carolyn's boyfriend Dave at Reed Arena.

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Tonight's commencement address was given by George Tenet, the director of the CIA. His speech was absolutely outstanding. He encouraged the graduates to be great at whatever they do and to give back to the community. I really enjoyed what he had to say. Then we all went to Christopher's for dinner. I had bacon-wrapped scallops and a filet (which was outstanding of course). Then I drove back to LBJ and saw a patient with the most distended belly I've ever seen. Plus he was basically glowing yellow. He drinks 12-24 beers a day for 6 months, so I'm pretty sure he's shot his liver. But the LBJ stuff isn't important. I need to revisit today's commencement activities.

My sister is 22 years old. She now has a B.A. in speech communications, which at some schools is probably called Public Relations. Carolyn has always done well in school, but she focused more on sports than on academics which sometimes frustrated me. Don't get me wrong, she was a kick-ass softball, basketball, volleyball, and soccer player, but I always felt she could also be a really smart young woman someday. I think today that dream of mine came to fruition. It's hard to express in words how proud I am of my sister. She is absolutely a great human being--kind to others, extremely athletic, and now it appears she has some brains too. She really has turned into an outstanding young woman.

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In other news, Mary Mathieu called me right after graduation was over. She seems to be doing well but is sad that her job teaching at an elementary school is over. She has decided to go to graduate school to get her masters in school counseling. It's always fun to hear from Mary, especially after a few drinks. Even more fun is when her sister Sara calls me a few hours later even more drunk to discuss her plans to become a flight attendant. She will be graduating from the University of Texas next week. I can't believe everyone is all grown up. I can't believe I just wrote a sentence like that. So it was good to hear from Mary. She is so good about calling every so often to see how things are going and chat. I on the other hand am completely terrible at this, so I'm glad I have friends who do such things.

So I suppose that's all for now. Eventually I need to start dropping in stuff about the first two years of medical school, college stuff, and maybe even high school. I suppose I can address these things as this log progresses. Until then, I guess I'll get a little nap before I start rounding again.

I'm watching Kill Bill Vol. I while sitting on Ryan's 20 year old Flexsteel sofa which was purchased indirectly from my dad 15 years before I even met Ryan. (How's that for sentence construction?) This film is highly enjoyable as is Kill Bill Vol. II. In fact one might even say that the two films (which are really one long film) is Quentin's finest work. Anyway, today was a good day.

Today rounded out week one on inpatient internal medicine at LBJ. I highly enjoy my attending Dr. Boisaubin along with the rest of the residents and students. I think I'm going to learn quite a lot this month. Then it will be off to Memorial Hermann Hospital for the second month of inpatient care on internal medicine. After rounding I frequented the greatness that is Marshalls to purchase some white dress shirts which are quite nice. Then it was off to Chipotle to have lunch with Ryan. While my loyalties will forever lie with Freebirds, Chipotle makes a pretty good burrito. Then the three boys did work around the house. Nick cut the lawn, Ryan fixed the door and cleaned, and I sprayed for bugs. We all feel very useful here at the Old School House (or Club 1948 as some call it). Then I capped off the evening by having a very nice dinner with Huide, whose presence seems to make me quite happy.

Tomorrow I'll be on call, which is ever so much fun. Maybe we'll cap early and go to bed at a reasonable hour. Or then again, maybe we'll be up all night.

Today is the first day of my journey into the world of internet diaries. Let me start by thanking Nathan Beach for helping me get started. I highly encourage you to click on his name and enjoy his assortment of "web pages". My website lives with his websites, and I think you will be fascinated by many of his creations.

Speaking of Nathan, he came over with Shelley today to give me the painting he made for me called "A Hospital Scene". I of course have given the work its proper name of "Bowl of Organs".

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Nathan is such a creative person, and I couldn't be happier with his painting. It is now proudly displayed over Ryan's sofa in the front room. After Nathan dropped off the painting, we all went to Dietrich's for coffee and then on to Yan Sushi for some dinner. We called Brian Eiseman to see if he could meet up, but he was judging bands at the University of Houston and couldn't make it. After dinner, Nathan and I registered mytommyroshek.com and tommyroshek.com and got me started on this whole Blogger thing, which he has been doing for quite some time.

After all that, Ryan, Nick, Eric, and I went bowling. I am happy to report my high game was 149 which was good enough to actually win one of the games. After bowling I met up with Meagan Hill and Rob Koval for a few drinks at Brian O'Neals. So it was really good day.