Well, last night was the mother-in-law's wedding. Pretty cool, reception on a boat circling Manhattan, got to visit with my own parents as well as the sisters and brothers-in-law. Of course getting to see the nieces and nephews was the best. I learned the importance of not rubbing lemon in your eyes, the coolness of the color game (me: "what color is a taxi?" 2 yr old nephew: "is it lellow? is it pink?"). Makes you wonder if he's being funny or if he's just messing with you.

Saw the movie Serendipity tonight with my sweetie. Besides making me want to eat MORE ice cream than I already do, there was a scene where they push elevator buttons and trust fate that they'll find each other. I picked one and asked Max what floor she'd choose and we both picked 17. Not a cool as a dozen double-yolk eggs, but pretty cool.

Oh, and to copy a comedian:


1975.
six-four.
married.
newburgh, walden, troy and clifton park (all NY).
cooper union, chemical engineering.
ice hockey.
med student.
soft serve vanilla.
brooklyn.
hong kong.
us, uk, cambodia, taiwan.
lonely planet.

Well, I'm back from the road trip a week now and haven't posted, so here's the highlights:
NY Mets game on Thursday night got rained out, but not before they played a couple of innings and we got rained on for about 2 hours. As luck would have it we were seated in rows M and N in the upper deck...the last two rows that are sheltered under the overhang for the lights. So we stayed dry and enjoyed out umbrellas (an appropriate giveaway for the night).
Thursday night was in Hoboken at Greg's place and then Friday morning we were off to Cleveland. We got lost right away leaving Slowboken and went about 20 miles out of our way, but now worries, we were back on the road in no time and off and running. Needless to say about 80% of the drive from NYC to Cleveland is through Pennsylvania. Nothing more to say there.
We rolled into Cleveland a little late, at around 4PM and shecked into our hotel...a Mariott "business suite" style place. Then we headed into Cleveland to meet up with Chris Seper but we missed him at work (turned out that he and his soon to be father in law were sitting about 75 feet behind us at the game. Anyway, the game was cool. The Indians beat the defending champ Diamondbacks on a seven run inning featuring a Thome home run, and another that landed about 10 feet from us. We had seats right by the right field foul pole. Jacobs field is a pretty nice park, and Cleveland is a nice, walkable city. Oh, and it was also the day Cleveland traded Bartolo COlon (who was supposed to start) to Montreal.
Saturday morning we met Chris at The Place to Be Diner in Lakewood, OH and delivered some books. Karen and Max had their REAL corned beef hash, and we got underway for Detroit. We got to Birmingham, MI to Cie and Dave's place around one and had a BBQ in the afternoon with Cie, Marcus, Elaina, me, Max, Karen, Luca, Austin, Michael, and Evada. Fun stuff. Then it was off to the ball game. Jeff Weaver pitched his last game in Detroit before becoming a Yankee and the Tigers won a real pitcher's duel. We had GREAT seats by home plate, thanks to Luca and Cie and then his the Town Pump for beers as well as Hockey town USA for chicken fingers after the game.
Sunday was Cedar Point. We got up a bit late and met Austin and Michael there (Cie and the kids were late getting on the road and didn't make it). Anyway...awesome! Rode all of the fun coasters, skipped Mantis, but got to Millenium Force twice...definately the best one. And than God it was Sunday...everyone was in church and the lines were short! Hopefully I can get the photos up.

Anyway, if you missed it...you missed it. Better be there next year.

Hey, tonight is the start of Road Trip O-H-I-O 2002. Second annual, that is. All of you who are not going, I thumb my nose at you, because you should be. You know better. Three baseball games, Cedar Point, a BBQ, visit to The Cleveland Plain Dealer, making a delivery to the Pookai Book Project and so much more. All in four days! And in a minivan no less!

Back to my rant about the state of medicine, 93% of those surveyed in New Jersey think that doctors should make less than $80,000 in a year. Excellent, because after taxes and the rising cost of insurance (which doctors pay out of pocket, along with other business expenses related to running their office) means that people in New Jersey think doctors' families should be living off about $5000 a year. Nice. I'll keep that in mind.

Here we go, in the very same issue of Newsweek, on-line. This doesn't get into the issue of insurance companies refusing to cover whole areas though.

Tired people make mistakes, and again, in medicine even small mistakes cost MILLIONS of dollars.
Here's an article about that.

Other stuff on the same topic from, ABC, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and the SF Gate.

Lastly, an interesting debate...paying for organs...

More on the big meetings in Chicago (annual AMA meeting). One of the big topics of discussion was the current push for/against limits to resident work hours. It's timely considering the editorial in Newsweek this week lamenting the horrible lives of sweatshop workers who have to work 70 hour weeks. All that is being asked for here is an 80-hour 6-day workweek, you'd think people were asking to be paid to stay home.

Honestly, who wants to be seen by a doctor who hasn't slept 4 hours at a clip in over a month and possibly hasn't slept at all in over a day. At least sweatshop workers don't have malpractice insurance premiums higher than their annual salaries, nor the threat of being sued for sums higher than most small nations' GNPs. I'm starting to think I'm definately in the wrong game here. On that same note, I hear there is legislation (proposed, of course by lobbyists for the legal profession) that there be not only no monetary limit to "pain and suffering" damages, but no limit to the relation to the victim. As in, your 9th cousin has a miscarriage and you can then sue the doctor for something like $20 million. Smart.

That logic leads to situations like we have now in New Jersey and other states where, if things don't change, it will not be possible to get a physician to deliver a baby. The choices will be nurse, midwife or taxi driver. Insurance companies are dropping obstetricians wholesale, not because they're screwing up and not because they're losing lawsuits but rather because they MIGHT be sued in the future and damages awards are getting too scary for the insurance companies to ponder.
Anyway, I'll see if I can get some of this linked to more reliable sources to back up my claims.

Oh, and PS, what the heck is up with the officiating in the Italy games in the world cup? Tossing Totti for getting bodychecked by a Korean defender, calling back goals left and right for offsides that weren't and letting the Koreans play a much more physical game while calling a tight one on Italy...why bother with the formality of playing? Just red card the whole Italian team and give the game to Korea.

OK, at the behest of Erik and Joe, here are more postings. I'm back from the oblivion of exams, conferences, meetings and such and it is summer. Quick hockey note, to the chucklehead on the Koalas. Take your own advice and a) LEARN HOW TO SKATE (that was a sweet faceplant there at the end when you had a wide open shot) and b) if you want to play like an idiot, expect people to treat you like one.
Chicago. I was in Chicago this past weekend for meetings and such. Discussing the important issues, like why med students should be required to pay $1000 for the priveledge of hanging out with actors in Philadelphia. (Frankly I can think of better uses for my money.) I saw Lincoln Park, which is a REALLY cool neighborhood. Then again it was 85 degrees and sunny, wonder what I'd be thinking if it were January and windy?

Hockey.
We played the Ice Dogs and tied, 4-4. The funniest part was at the end of the first period when I stepped between our goalie and this weenie guy on the Ice Dogs and he backed off a bit and shot out, "I'm not afraid of you," and skated away.
I love that.
Anyway, terrible officiating as usual and we lost a late multiple goal lead and went into overtime again...5 of 12 games so far this season.
I was even (one goal for, three against...but two were shorthanded), and had an assist.