doctor, doctor

had a terrific weekend in DC for the g'town M'97 reunion. "spectacular", as dave would say.

spent almost every waking hour doing something reminiscent of our time at georgetown- meals at old glory and cactus cantina, beers at garrett's and clyde's, late night cheesesteaks on M street, and about an hour and a half just sitting in the balcony of LA-6, the old lecture hall, rehashing old stories. we even snuck in a visit to the gross anatomy labs, just for old times' sake.

finkbowl XII is right around the corner, so for those of you who we pulled from the woodwork to come to this reunion (that's you, tasha), this is the kind of fun we have every year! come on out to middletown in february, and we'll do it all over again- just without the dead bodies.

shiny! me like shiny

got a new phone yesterday, brought on by the facts that a) my old phone was 3 years old and couldn't hold a charge past 4 hours, 2) some little plastic piece inside the display was hanging down over the battery icon, so whatever charge i did have was nearly unidentifiable, and d) i needed to get my phone on my work account in my continuing efforts to maximize the benefit of being a small business owner.

same old number on a shiny new phone. despite all the whistles and bells, the new phone has about 1/4 of the selection of the standard ringtones the old one did, and the ones that it does have are lousy. so, i did as verizon clearly expected me to do, which was to spend more money and download a few ringtones at 1.29 each. maybe you'd like to sponsor my ringtone library, so you can each have your own unique sound i can identify your calls with.

the bidding for your number to be assigned the "super mario brothers" theme starts at 25 cents.

time for another pic

just a quick post tonight- been a while since i threw up a picture. this one's from last month, at build-a-bear for molly's b'day...

pride of the yankees

despite my general disdain for the yankees, i've always respected joe torre. maybe because of his days in the orange and blue, or maybe just because he's always seemed to be a class act in the dugout. i have no way of verifying this, but i'm willing to wager that torre's departure was a carefully negotiated dance by him and the team. by him turning down the contract offer, the team gets to save face by not firing him and actually offering him a high-dollar contract with great incentives, and by turning down that offer, he gets to save face by not resigning.

no one in the media seems to be offering this at all as a possible explanation. you heard it here first. (remember though, i'm also the budding online sports journalist that told you the yankees would trade a-rod for jason kendall)

i literally hate this word

what good's a blog if you can't rant from time to time? herein starts a new occasional feature- fink's language pet peeves. it's my attempt to better the world through the proper use of the english language.

i'm literally appalled by the literal overuse of the adjective "literally". from radio and TV interviews, to podcasts, to daily conversation, not a day goes by anymore that i don't hear someone incorrectly use the word "literally".

examples:

• "i was literally blown away by that movie". no, you weren't, because you're obviously standing in front of me still using incorrect language.
  
• "they literally moved 2,000 miles just to be near a white castle." maybe a true statement, but a superfluous use of the word.

the word should be used to describe a situation where an action that has a figurative meaning is carried out in the truer yet possibly less likely way.

example:

• "while collecting seashells, i was literally swept off my feet by the waves."

this ends todays complaining. tune in next time for a lesson on apostrophes.

old friends

one of the great things about moving back east a few years ago was re-connecting with some old friends from high school. not that i had lost contact, but the transition from college to med school to residency, and the increasing distance from L.I. that each of those brought, separated me from all but a few.

now, thanks to a few weddings, an annual summer golf weekend, and the wonders of the internet, i've been able to reconnect with most of the crew. amazing to think that friendships that started before any of us could drive are still going strong and continue to grow. recent e-mail threads have ranged from debates on the iraq war and the upcoming election, to star wars vs. star trek and who should have dated who way back when.

the best compliment i think i can give them all is that i can only hope one day my kids will someday have friends like them.

classic fall

finally getting some weather around here to make it feel like fall. after a few weeks of mid-80's, looking like a 65-degree weekend here. perfect for soccer, pumpkins, and maybe even the first fire of the season.

erin's half-way thru her trip to italy, which means grandma and big buddy are half-way thru their trip here with us. good times being had by all.

the sounds of progress

our office is in a building owned by the local hospital. they've just started site work on a new project right next door for a building 4x the size of this one. interesting watching all the work from up close, but it's not without its drawbacks, of course. for 2 weeks straight they've rolled the dirt every day with a vibrating steamroller, and because the new building will be within 4 feet of our current office, every pipe, window, and fluorescent light in this place has been rattling like crazy. on several occasions i had to practically shout in conversations with patients.

but the upshot is, this time next year we should be in that new building, probably shouting while they do the interior work on the floors above us.

i'll have the chicken

made dining reservations today for our trip to disney world. in april. next year.

for those unfamiliar with this phenomenon, because of the popularity of certain restaurants at disney world, it's become necessary now to decide what and where you want to eat six months prior to your vacation. the extreme here is reserving breakfast at cinderella's castle (which we're not doing). the reservations are so hard to get, some guide books give step-by step instructions (see page 337) on how to optimize your chances, right down to synchronizing your watch to be sure you call exactly on time. insane.

all this so i can pay 9 bucks each for my kids to order chicken nuggets they probably won't eat anyway.

greatest nickname ever

erin's off to italy next week- yes, that "once in a lifetime" trip a few years ago has spawned two return trips now. steve and dolores are headed to middletown tomorrow to visit for a few weeks and help out while erin's gone.

the kids are totally pumped about grandma dolores and grandpa steve coming out. last time they were out, through a hierarchy established after brendan was called "little buddy", grandpa steve became "big buddy" and the name has stuck. even molly goes around saying "big buddy is coming!" i hope he likes the nickname as much as they do, and doesn't feel like he's just a guy we found at the boys and girls club.

america's newest rockies fan!

thanks for checking in despite the paucity of updates lately. now that i don't have playoffs to worry about, i hope to get back to my 3-4 updates per week schedule.

went to a show in DC last week with googs and rachel- rilo kiley at 9:30 club. great, great show. never seen a band feed off the crowd's positive energy the way they did. they (especially lead singer jenny lewis) seemed to truly enjoy what they were doing, and seemed genuine when giving the obligatory "you guys are a great audience" salute. made it even more enjoyable.

nice opening set by a band out of omaha called "art in manila". i knew right away i liked them, especially their extremely talented lead singer/guitarist, but didn't know until checking their myspace page tonight exactly why (and it's not because her first name is "orenda").