tarapants.com

I am hoping they can pull it off. They have to get passed a tough Ohio State team and then they are in it. With Coach Thompson III behind the wheel, they have a pretty good chance! Go hoyas!

I love it. I especially love fancy Italian coffee machines like this one. It was custom made in Italy and shipped to a great little shop in Portland, Oregon that is owned by friends of my buddy Faz. It’s a gem in the NE called Extracto and everyone should go there…at least once. They have great art work, fantastic Chai Tea and Expresso that is made with Italian machine love. A great place to waste an entire morning at!

Extracto : 2921 NE Killingsworth St

I don’t want this to open a can of worms at all and usually I don’t make my opinion known about this kind of stuff, but I couldn’t pass this by.

The state of Texas never ceases to amaze me. Seriously. What the heck is going on down there? Here’s a clip from an article. I don’t want to get all political. In fact, I am the least political person on earth. I believe what I believe and could care less whether it is a right or left wing idea. Here is the article and some other interesting facts about Texas…

“NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas, March 23 - A Texas legislator has proposed that pregnant women considering abortion be offered $500 not to end their pregnancies. Republican State Sen. Dan Patrick, who also is a conservative radio talk show host, said on Friday the money might convince the women to go ahead and have babies, then give them up for adoption.
He said during a legislative conference in New Braunfels, 45 miles south of Austin, there were 75,000 abortions in Texas last year. “If this incentive would give pause and change the mind of 5 percent of those woman, that’s 3,000 lives. That’s almost as many people as we’ve lost in Iraq,” Patrick said. Patrick has filed legislation to make the payment state law, but the legislature has not yet voted on it. His proposal calls for giving any woman going to an abortion clinic the $500 option, to be paid no more than 30 days after the baby is born and given up for adoption. Critics say the proposal would violate Texas and federal laws against buying babies, which Patrick rejected as “the typical ridiculous criticism.”
Heather Paffe, political director of Planned Parenthood of Texas, said Patrick’s proposal “is very cynical and insulting to women and their families.” “It’s insulting to think women would make that kind of decision so easily,” she said.”

Texas stats: It’s interesting because Texas executed 53 inmates last year. They are the number one state in executions in the US. They lead with 388 total, the next closest state is Virginia with 98. The US has executed 1067 people and Texas makes up 36% of the US total. Dumb. Wonder how many of those people were innocent and now with new DNA testing the families left behind will get some peace.

No Mas.

Normally I don’t mind them. Not one bit. Today was different. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get ahead of myself at work. Ugh. Hate days like that. I’m home and am now slightly back in control. Slightly. I have so much homework I don’t really know where to begin. Overwhelming would be a good word, but not strong enough. Long week ahead of me too. Deep breath and on I go.

Went over to the Card family crib to consume Andrea’s famous Cambodian inspired Hot Pot. It’s always amazing every time she makes it. Tonight was no exception. Tonight was extra fun because 2 of their friends that are here from Switzerland came as well. She grew up not too far from my Aunt who lives in a small town near Laax called Chur. Matt goes to Penn also, but he is in school for international Law. He is an attorney in Zurich already and came over for some more schoolin’. Bennet was a blast as always. Man that kid is freakin’ cute. He’s slowly loosing his rubber band wrists. Soooo sad. He still has his tummy roll over which is fantastic. Here are some good shots of him from the past few months from Andrea’s blog-ola.

I have been slacking on posts about the cutest baby ever. Brighton is getting big and he is growing like a weed. He has doubled his weight already. We spent St. Patty’s day with him and I’ll post some of those photos later but here are some cute old ones…

The Grizzly bear is officially off the endangered species list! They have successfully reproduced themselves, with the help of some pretty amazing conservationists, back into high enough numbers that the federal government is no longer protecting them and it is now up to each individual state. Lets see how long it takes us humans to put them back on the list….Hopefully they will stay off for a long time and we can dwindle that list of other animals down more and more.

Help the Endangered Salmon

We have a problem.

“At Bonneville Dam on the Columbia river 40 miles east of Portland the sea lions - Californian interlopers - have discovered that it is easy pickings at the fish ladder. To enter the fish ladder the returning salmon have to funnel down to the entry. So to have lunch is quick and easy. And a couple have even entered the fish ladder itself.

The salmon are an endangered run of chinook salmon. The sea lions are not endangered, but they are protected by the US government. Why are they protected? It must be very complicated, but they are cute! But since they are protected there are fewer options to stop them.

A problem for the class: An endangered species is….. correction…. Not an endangered species…. It is a population - those living in a particular location - that is being exterminated by a nonendangered species/poplulation.

What do you do?
Answer: You wring your hands and watch until all the salmon are gone. Why don’t the responsible authorities do something? Because it would look bad on TV to shoot the guilty. And besides they are just animals.”

These situations amaze me. Army engineers can’t figure out how to trap and safely remove seals from an enclosed watershed? But then again I shouldn’t be surprised..look at what the army engineers have done in New Orleans…

I’m ready for warm weather right now. Tom. It is going to be 70. That’s a nice change from the ice/snow we got at the end of last week. To say the environment is screwed up is an understatement at this point.

The first day of spring round these parts is a day all about free stuff. Rita’s, a fine local establishment, gives away free water ice and dunkin donuts is giving away free iced coffee. The good stuff. Double brewed for twice the caffeine, incase you didn’t have enough the first time around. Rita’s is pure sugar and ice with a bunch of artificial stuff thrown in between. I got banana this year. Little outside my comfort zone. But great none-the-less. Gotta have Rita’s in the summer in Philly. It’s a staple, especially at the shore on the boardwalk. For a while when I was in high school I didn’t eat much of it because Bird worked there and we got so sick of it. He brought home buckets all the time and it wasn’t special. Now it’s a treat. It is so far out of the way from where we live that it is a project to go.

Happy Spring to you and yours.

And he updated his website recently. Go there now. It is amazing.

www.nicklavecchia.com

Here is a shot of him and his bro from the open..when it was still fun to go to.

Working…Kind of…in Hawaii

I just like this photo for some reason…

Chuck and I had an awesome dinner last night with Carter Olcott and his lady April. So fun. He was in Philly to see her. She was in Philly for work-ola. We met up at the Continental mid-town which is always great. Fancy, Trendy place, but good food that’s not crazy spendy. Finished up the night with a walk over to Drinkers Pub to get some PBR’s. Much more appropriate for hanging out with Carter!

Stayed out way too late and I am going to pay for it tom…all day. Worth it though.

Come back soon! We miss you.

We are going to the shore to play paintball and drink Guinness with Denny and Kim. Should be a fun filled day. I’m Irish so I have to enjoy myself just a little bit extra today. We got a nasty storm and my clinical rotation got cancelled so I feel like celebrating right now. Love the way that people are such wimps when it comes to snow or ice around these parts. Fine by me.

Coulter and Dabica both rule simply because this picture is amazing…enjoy.

Today is my Oma’s birthday. I know she had a great day, because I talked to her a bunch of times. She is an amazing lady. She has a ton of life experience that is always inspiring to me. She has seen so much and been through so much in her life. Coming from a war torn country to America with two little kids and making a new life for her family. She had to witness some pretty amazing as well as some pretty terrible things happen. She is a good story teller too! I can only hope to live as full of a life as she is. Love you.

The best part about Easter for sure. Nothing is as fun as pure sugar with absolutely no nutritional value. none. zero. zippo. Love it! Ya gotta open them and let them sit for a couple days though so they get a little chewy and then they are much better. My mom taught me that trick. mom rules. In more ways then just showing me the ways of the peeps.

In honor of pruvecchia I am writing another good work story for this week…

Pt found unconscious on sidewalk in front of ER. OD on alcohol. Upon further investigation realized pt had DRIVEN himself to the ER. Yes that’s right. He actually passed out and went into cardiac arrest because he drank too many beers, but he managed to drive a motor vehicle through the streets of Philly and up onto the curb across the street from the ER to get help. Didn’t hit anything as he drove up and over the sidewalk and even managed to get it into park before he collapsed. Incredible. Incredibly freakin’ stupid. Someone please arrest this guy when he sobers up so I can drive home in peace. Geez.

I am so ready for it and today it is going to be 72 in Philly. I went for a long run this morning. Ventured outside the normal laps around the neighborhood and went down the country road we live off of. We have a lama/emu (? not quite sure which one) farm behind us. I ran by it this AM and there they were just starring at me as I went by. It was funny actually. Wonder if you can train them to run with you like dogs. That thought occupied the first half of my run and then on the way back (up hill) all I could think about was how freaking bummed I am that it is going to be so nice out and I am going to be in a building with no windows for the rest of the day up to my elbows in blood. Great. Everyone else should enjoy the day for me. Thanks.

I have 2 big ones this week. Lots of study time going down the drain to things like snowboarding and checking out new places to play paintball. Hopefully I have enough medical knowledge tucked away somewhere that I can regurgitate it at the time of my exam to pass. Wish me luck.

My job is never - ever boring. Today a guy came in and had blood all over his face. Upon further investigation he was missing his entire right nostril. The whole freakin thing. Bit right off. To top it off, the person that bit it off was his brother. Man he must have been really pissed about something to bite the entire right half of his brothers nose off. Go figure. Guess my day wasn’t so bad. I got mad a few times, but nothing even remotely close to making me want to bite someone’s nose off. I love Philly. The city of Brotherly love. Ahhhhh.

hope this guy doesn’t grow up and continue to want to bite his brother’s nose off too……

Chuck and I went riding today. It was spring conditions and nothing to write home about, but we still had a great time! Super soft snow but way too many idiots around every corner. Last week we rode the best powder in Vermont with no one around and this week we rode spring slush with every idiot in PA on the mountain. Some of the people in this photo, I’m convinced, were still riding there. We even saw a bunch of snowler bladers. Way too many people on skis for my taste. Crazy.

Are the most amazing food on this earth. It is one of the things that I miss the most about Burlington. I haven’t found them like they make them at Sakura on Church Street. Moment of love for the little gems…yummy. We always go there when we go and visit. Pathetic - maybe - but I could care less. Here is a recent shot from our trip last week. HA.

Anthropologie.

Those of you that know me well already know this, but for those of you that don’t, here ya go. Just a few small examples of why I love this store so much. They do everything right. Well, ok maybe it is a little pricey, but that keeps everyone from wearing it - so I’m ok with that. Cute little skirts, flowing shirts and color perfect home goods. The interior design in all their stores is flawless. They have such creative people that work there and they are always right on point. I love it all. The clothing, the shoes and the stores themselves.

Chuck and I have decided that we are going to recreate the moss fixture shown below in our 2-story room. It is going to be our Spring Project. Since there is more daylight coming our way we should be able to have something to show in a few weeks. Hopefully. Wish us luck.

Chris got a flat tire. Called AAA and they came and took his frozen tire off and put on the spare. They had to use the air gun it was frozen on so tight. He drove 1/2 mile on the spare and the whole tire fell off the rim. He pulled into the Bank North lot on the rim and left it there. We went back in a snow storm to try to change it and had to call AAA again. These are the perfect slippers for changing tires in a snow storm in Vermont when it’s 1 degree outside. Nice one.

After our first drunk night out in VT the only battle wound was Chuck’s foot. Anna put her high heel right through the top of Chuck’s foot. Huge gash which was in the perfect spot to give him tons of pain riding the next day. Everything is all better now.

UGH. You suck. Quit already would ya.

Such a perfect day all together. Got up super early and rode in amazing conditions at Stowe. Tons of fresh powder. The website said 15-20 inches. It still costs an arm and a leg though. Worth every penny this time! I actually rode my fish all day in the woods. There wasn’t anyone there. We hit both the main mountain and big spruce. Jim met us for the afternoon and then we met up again for some grub and drinks. I hadn’t been to Red Square in years, so we headed there after eating/drinking at Leunigs. Props to Jim and his lady Jaime for going out strong on a Monday night. Impressive. We stayed out to last call and were pretty much ruined the next day. ugh. Here are just some of the good shots from the night.

Vin help me out here. What is the draw to this hobby? They build these cute little out houses and sit in them all day. Freezing their butts off because sitting on a frozen lake cannot be warm. Why are they all huddled in the same place? You think the fish are going to all be right there? When you normally fish, if you see someone else in a spot isn’t it appropriate to go the other way and fish somewhere else? These guys are all right on top of each other. Makes for a cool photo.

Chuck and I first lived on the lake in Shelburne when we moved to Vermont. The first winter was crazy. It snowed more then I could remember it every doing. Even in the 4 years at UVM, I never remembered it snowing as much as it did that winter. That was the first time I really got exposed to the culture of ice fishing. You could look out our front window and see all of them on Shelburne Bay. They would even drive their cars out onto the ice. One weekend Chuck and I looked out and saw only the bumper of a bronco sticking out of the ice. Hilarious. The guy’s car had gone right through the ice and was totaled. It stayed there for weeks. The lake froze more and when they actually tried to get it out it was a disaster.

He made my wedding bands and engagement ring from scratch with my husbands design direction. He made me beautiful 30th birthday present huge diamond earrings that matched my pefect and huge engagement ring. He made Chuck’s wedding band that weighs like 10 pounds. He rules at making jewelry of any kind and the best part is he’s really, really nice and genuine. Ladies he is also recently single…hint hint. He’ll probably kill me for that one though. Check out his website if you ever need any kind of jewelry at all.

www.matthewtaylordesigns.com