Office Remodel 2009

While finally getting some free time on the computer today, I realized that we have not posted to our blog in a LONG time. Tragic! So I have taken it upon myself to rectify this situation.

Below is a slideshow of photos showing the remodeling we've recently done at the office. Things had gotten to the point that in order for us to continue helping more people, changes had to be made. The feedback so far has been very positive, and we were thrilled about how it turned out.

The custom wood pieces were made for us by Boonie from Sugar Valley Iron. The material in the framing is called Lumicor. It is actual reed-looking grass impregnated in resin. It looks really cool!

Wisdom Removed

We took the day off today so that I could have my wisdom tooth out.

Yes, tooth, singular. Evidently, I was only granted one tooth's worth of wisdom in life.

As of 9:45 a.m. this morning I am several grams lighter and perhaps a little more dim than before.

The oral surgeon did a great job of getting it out and I am happy with my decision to just have local anthesia and some laughing gas. The laughing gas wore off in about 5 minutes and I was happy to be able to understand the instructions I was given--that's a surgery first for me! It only took about 4 hours for my face to regain feeling.

While waiting for the numbness to wear off, laziness struck. I really was not enjoying having to hold a cloth-wrapped ice pack on my head. It required laying down and freezing my digits. Not fun. So I decided to make my first request of Tony. I asked for the grey yarn and a crochet hook. Two hours later I had my very own ice pack cozy, as modeled in the photo below.



As you can see, the cozy is very functional, but the model is not. To that end, I plan to spend the remainder of the afternoon watching the first Lord of the Rings movie and wait for my face to start swelling as promised.

I feel very fortunate to have a six-pack of chocolate Ensure (turns out that opening my craw is not pleasant, so the popsicles, yogurt and alphabet soup will have to wait a day or two) and a loving Tony who brings me ice, pills, and Ensure before I even think to ask.

Summer Summary

Ok. I got a comment that prompted me to actually publish a post. There's a whole lotta little stuff going on, but none of it has been all that interesting. But at last there have been enough events to roll into a summer summary. Here's the haps in no particular order:

WORK
As you all know, a good deal of our existence revolves around our work. We are currently in the process of hiring an exam assistant. We are very excited to have a little extra help around the office!

In addition to the new hire, we have changed up our hours. We start seeing patients later in the day and finish later in the evening. The difference is that we'll be able to leave when we've seen our last patient for the day...which will be much earlier than what we experienced previously.

OUTINGS
We had occasion to go a friend's wedding at a winery just outside of Ames. The winery was lovely, the bride was beautiful, and a good time was had by all. The food was spectacular and there was lots of dancing (which we both enjoy). We also enjoyed the chance to spend some time with friends from California and Minnesota.

There was also a trip to Kansas City to visit a college friend of Tony's. His friend and his wife were hosting an open house and we took the opportunity to get out of town and see their new diggs. Lovely place and lovely party. Also lovely to spend some time in our favorite city and eat at our favorite places.

HOME
I was holding out for photos, but laziness took over and so you just get a plain wordy report. Sorry! So a big THANKS goes out to Ma & Pa Hocker for all of the accomplishments about to be listed.

As is usual with a Hocker-based event, there was a lot of planning. The execution went well and everyone was quite happy with the results at the end of the weekend.

The work started on Friday. Ma & Pa arrived and got to work before we even made it home. Saturday there was a whole lotta driving as we made a trip to IKEA for office related stuff and to visit the household things we plan to buy someday. Tony managed to get a couple boxes of dubblachocolateflarn (sp?) cookies into the cart. IKEA knows what they are doing by having several jars around the store for you to sample. Yum!

By Monday morning, there were 8 or so stumps removed, which involved a whole lotta grubbing. The screened in portch received a thorough scrubbing and some fresh paint. To top it off, we installed some plastic tiles to help with wear and tear on the not-so-new decking. Looks a whole lot better!


There was also a whole lotta cleaning. Floors were scoured, trim was cleaned, and the biggest surprise of all was to come home from work on Monday and find that Ma & Pa had tidied the garage and shop (which were a complete disaster)! I still marvel at how tidy it is!


Meanwhile, Ma & Pa solved the mystery of the gnome spilling. Turns out it was indeed the lettercarrier who was assaulting Gnomey...who then falls over and assaults a hosta. Mystery solved!

Finding this out made me resolve to move the mailbox. We are very happy with our new mailbox and it's location at the bottom of our front steps on the opposite side from Gnomey.

We also have a new critter that hangs around our house. I remember the first sighting disctinctly because I was napping when it happened. I was awakened by a very excited Tony telling me to hurry up and get down here (to the family room). I promptly got up an ran around like an idiot. I couldn't find my glasses and they were very necessary to identify what kind of new critter had just been spotted. I was momentarily thrown off by the length of the tail...but a groundhog it was and is. We promptly named him Coolige Drive Calvin.

We've watched him all summer long trying to decide what to do with him. He's kinda neat. This past weekend we found out from our neighbor across the back yard that he also hangs out at her place. We hadn't seen him in a couple weeks and then he turned up again on Tony's birthday. He's a busy little critter and has munched and dug his way under the screened in portch deck as well as at least one of our other decks. He's gotten a little destructive and it's time for him to enter the Davis Animal Relocation Program.

So, we set the have-a-heart trap with some grapes and left it out overnight--so did our neighbor. When I got up to go on my run the next morning it was too dark to see what we'd caught, but I could see the flaps were down. I woke up Tony so he could investigate.

When I got home I went out to see for myself and to check out the neighbor's trap. The neighbor's trap had been sprung and knocked over. In our trap was a small (not a baby, but not full grown either) raccoon. It had started to rain right as I'd started my run and I felt really bad for the little guy. We moved him under the eaves to keep him dry until he could be picked up by Tony's dad and set free.

We have decided we can't leave the trap out overnight anymore. It will be interesting to see how long it takes us to catch the groundhog...and how many other things we catch instead.

Hope that you all have enjoyed your summer! We'll try to do something interesting soon.

Technically Tech Support

Friends, I'm having a bit of a time with the folks in our software's Tech Support. And the use of the term "support" is accurate only in the most technical part of the definition...as in technically they've fulfilled their supportive role by sending a response to my question.

It must be the only industry where you can automatically (and politely) assume that your customer is an idiot...maybe not impaired to the point of drooling on oneself, but close.

If the situation wasn't so frustrating it would really be hilarious...or at least funny in a British humor kind of way.

What was the exchange, you ask? Well, for fun, let's change it to something other than Medicare claims.

Me: Help! I lost my keys, I had them at your house--have you seen them?

Support Staff Simon: I have looked in your purse and your keys are not there. You should put your keys in your purse.

Me: Yes, thank you, but have you looked at your house?

Support Staff Sally: As Simon told you, your keys should be in your purse.

Me: You are correct that putting my keys in my purse would keep them from being lost. But, have you taken a look around to see if they might be at your house?

Support Staff Sally: If your keys were placed in your purse then everything is great on our end.

Me: Why is my shirt wet? Oh, I've started to drool.

HA!

Seriously, hope that you are able to get outside a bit today. The weather here is beautiful. I for one, am going to take a nice long walk when I get home.

Big Birthday Weekend...the preparation

The time has come for Big Birthday Weekend. We depart this afternoon for the hills of Southeast Iowa to begin the celebration.

What is Big Birthday Weekend? Well, it started as the celebration of three birthdays and then expanded to cover Mother's Day as well. A few years ago, it expanded to include a several more birthdays. The grand total is now five (six when the extended family can come) birthdays and several mothers worth of Mother's Day.

It is a pretty quiet and low key celebration that takes place over the course of the weekend. There is usually some cake (angel food--one with nuts, one without, or half-n-half), and the food is never the same but always good.

We also tend to spend some time hunting mushrooms. Some years we spend more time than others. The last two years the ticks have been so bad that we didn't go as far or as long (note: ticks like dark colored clothing--especially black sweatpants...I'd always worn jeans before and will NEVER make that mistake again).

If it is warm enough we sometimes go to the local ice cream shop. It's super good and super cheap! Having grown up with such places I'm still in sticker shock at a Dairy Queen. Also the local ice cream shop would never tell a customer that they couldn't make a dip cone out of anything larger than a medium...and they make sure the coating covers ALL the way down and over the top ledge of the cone so you don't have any leaks (VERY important for customers of all ages--especially this one).

No matter what we actually end up doing this weekend, it will be a good time. It isn't anything that some folks would find exciting, but I enjoy the good, clean, relaxing fun of doing all the spring things I enjoyed as a kid in one family-filled weekend.

Hope you all enjoy your weekend!

When it rains, it pours...

Valentines Day 2008 and it's subsequent weekend will not be fondly remembered. Soon after the previous post things went rapidly downhill. Here's the synopsis:

Tony's Grandpa Charlie passed away on Valentine's Day. His health had been poor, but this was certainly sooner than anyone anticipated.

After slogging through the rest of our Valentine's work day, we head home and try and decide what to eat. While making our decision, I eat a cookie and drink some milk. (Insert Ron Burgandy: "Milk was a bad choice!") I instantly feel as though someone bashed my stomach with a shovel. Mercifully, the abusers let up for a bit and allowed me to sleep until 4 a.m. at which time they proceded to go for an uptempo second round.

At 4:30 a.m. Tony decided to take me to the ER because the pain level was high (8 of 10) and it didn't make any sense--no fever, didn't hurt worse to touch, etc. Three hours later the ER didn't know what was going on either, but discharged me because they guessed it wasn't going to kill me. Tony had to leave me for a bit to shut down the office. Luckily, Tony's sister (who is CMA in Des Moines) was able to get me an appointment in the very early afternoon. The diagnosis: 90% sure it was gastritis (raw stomach lining due to stress and too much stomach acid), 10% possibility it was something gallbladder related thanks to incriminating family history. Because I hadn't eaten anything, they sent me for an ultrasound to help rule in/out the gallbladder problem later that afternoon. (Side note: my kidney looks like an alien life form.) Dr.'s orders at this point are to exist on a very bland fat-free diet, so I'm currently fueled by chicken broth, rice, Toasty-Os, and Krisped Rice. As hungry as I am, I'm not taking any chances until after the funeral (I've been asked to sing during the service and it's usually assumed the singer can stand).

Fast forward to today: The weather in central Iowa goes from bad to worse while we are in church. The Highway Patrol deems that highway 30 is unsuitable for travel, meaning we couldn't make it to the visitation this afteroon, which was upsetting. In addition, our sister-in-law was making her way back from Omaha when she was majorly rear-ended outside of Des Moines, totalling her less than 3 week old car. She was already nursing a knee problem (her knee is the size of a grapefruit) and had an allergic reaction to the pain meds they gave her for it. Now, she's added whiplash to her list of pains.

To close, the funeral is tomorrow. Thoughts and prayers are greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,
Debbie Downer

PS: At least the Cyclones won on Saturday, although we did have to witness the ugliest first half of basketball ever. It seemed rather fitting at the time considering everything else that had gone on. An awesome second half was a pleasant diversion from the insanity.

My Funny Valentine

In addition to being one of my favorite songs, "My Funny Valentine" also seems to fit the general theme of the day as well.

"What are you doing for Valentine's Day?" has been my leadoff question for the week (when appropriate). The stories patients tell about their plans for the day are in turn sweet, bitter, silly, and sometimes even sensible--e.g., waiting for the weekend.

My Valentine IS funny. Yesterday we were looking for handwriting fonts and he found the following little diddy. We laugh everytime we think of it and hope you enjoy it too.

Ready?

"If you're not part of the solution, you're a precipitate."

(insert nerdy giggle here)

Happy Valentine's Day!