The [rainiest] village on the plains...

Guess who we visited this weekend?

We ate at Amsterdam...

Stopped by Chick-Fil-A on our way to tailgate (reason #1372 why it is one of my favorite places to eat - an employee saw us sitting outside with Bella and brought her a little bowl of treats)...

Tailgated with wonderful college friends (congrats to Riley & Caroline on their recent engagement!)...

And endured a downpour in Jordan Hare with 80,000+ other loyal fans (no game photos as my camera would have surely drowned)...

The rotten weather spoiled any chance I had of documenting the weekend in beautiful photos - rain + mud + heat + humidity + sweat does not bode well for photography.

Back to the real world...

People are interesting...

In medicine, a patient's "chief complaint" is the reason that the patient has decided to seek medical attention, in the patient's own words. It is usually whatever the patient says in response to, "So, Mr. X, what brings you to the hospital today?"

On night's when I am on call, I will occasionally troll the ER chief complaint list on the computer to see what kinds of patients/medical conditions might be admitted to the Internal Medicine service (my current rotation) that night. Chief complaints like "My chest hurts and I can't breathe" are likely to earn a quick hospital admission. Other complaints are just downright entertaining. Here is a glimpse of what I saw last night in my trolling (none of these got admitted, so I can offer no further explanation/clarification of their complaint)...

Disclaimer: these have in no way been altered. I felt changing the wording (i.e., making them less crude), would take away from their entertainment value. Read on at your own risk...

-"I got hit by a broom handle"
-"I have a boil on my butt"
-"I punched a wall and my hand hurts"
-"I got tased by the police"
-"I need you to cut off my finger"
-"My nuts are too big"
-"I fell off a garbage truck"
-"My wife got too frisky and hurt me"
-"I passed gas twice today"
-"My pants keep falling off"

Just a little taste of a Birmingham ER on a Friday night...

War Eagle! (& my new lunch box)

After a series of posts detailing lame (albeit, useful and needed) items I have purchased lately, I thought I would share my most recent (not lame) purchase that I am very excited about. No one who lives on a budget can afford to eat out for lunch everyday, which leaves a dilemma about how to tote one's homemade lunch (b/c let's be honest, a paper bag provides zero insulation for items that need refrigeration). Behold, my new lunch tote!

This weekend brought the beginning of one of our favorite times of the year, college football! We had some friends over to watch Auburn open up the season. (I was a poor photographer, but managed to snap a few shots.)

Bella was in her gameday attire and very excited as she waited for the guests to arrive.

Here's to 7 seasons of Auburn football games with Krisha!

War Eagle!

So embarrassed

My latest purchase (yes, they are Crocs, the brand I have loved to hate since the dawning of their existence). What can I say? I needed something to add variety to my otherwise Dansko-filled wardrobe...

(I can't say I found these beauties on my own. I figured if my fashion-savvy friends Fran and Mary Lauren owned them and thought they were acceptable then I could too.)

Montgomery & Meg's b-day

We went to Montgomery this past weekend and thoroughly enjoyed spending time with my parents and Walk's mom. We also got to spend a few hours with my sweet niece Lauren which is always a treat...

Monday night we celebrated Megan's birthday over at Fran's with a girl's night. It was such a treat to all be together two weekend's in a row (minus Lindsay, who unfortunately was on call her first night on Pediatrics, and was sorely missed). The only pics from the event are from Mary Lauren's camera phone and are a little blurry, but photos are fun, so I thought I would share them anyways.

In other life news, I finished my Neurology rotation last Friday, and started my 8 weeks of Internal Medicine on Monday. Thus far (knock on wood), it is looking like my lifestyle (when considering # hours/week spent at the hospital) will slightly improve. On a related note, I am now the proud of owner of not one, but TWO pairs of Danskos (see prior post)... don't knock them til you try them!

Walker's time these days is spent with his laptop and a second oversized computer monitor looking at ridiculously large Excel spreadsheets. Ah, the life of a tax accountant... He/we will be so grateful when his September 15 deadline has passed!

Catching up...

Life remains busy in the Fain household, but this weekend did provide some much needed sleep and (a moderate amount of) down-time. Friday night we got some quality hang-out time with the Beasley's and Schwee (who is moving to B'ham, yay!), and sleeping until 8 on Saturday felt like I was in college again (sad, isn't it?). Walker worked all day Saturday, and I (tried) to get in some studying for my upcoming Neurology shelf exam.

Sweet Michael planned a party for Mary Lauren's 25th b-day on Saturday night, and it provided an excellent opportunity for all the med school crew to celebrate the occasion and reunite! These people have been my sanity the past 2 years, but now that we have started clinical rotations, it has been much more difficult to arrange time for all of us to be together. We thought we were going to be Fran-less, but she managed to switch call nights and was able to join us!

the birthday girl!

delicious lettuce (er, cabbage?) for the burgers...

Josh, Walker, & Daniel

hooray for reunions :)

In other news, we cooked a delicious meal tonight that I highly recommend... "White Chicken Spaghetti". It's in one of the Southern Living cookbooks but I found the recipe online so I thought I would share it (yum!). Italian food comes in right behind Mexican on our list of favorites, so we are always excited when we find new delicious recipes (this one is pretty healthy too!).

On a final note... somewhere along the way we heard that it was a good idea to try to brush a dog's teeth to keep them healthy (and to avoid expensive vet bills). We bought Bella a kiddy toothbrush at Publix yesterday (don't laugh, apparently dogs need the super soft bristles), and tonight attempted to improve her oral hygiene (see previous post...). It was an epic failure and I think she thought we were trying to poison her. We will continue to make an effort, but it looks like we may just have to take our chances as far as her dental health goes.

Time to re-set the 5 a.m. alarm...

Happenings...

1. I started my first clinical rotation (Neurology) last Monday and I was at the hospital for 65 hours from Monday morning to Friday evening. Hello, world of clinical medicine :)

2. My all-time favorite couch received a makeover. It went from this...

to this...

3. Walker's mom celebrated her birthday on Saturday, and thanks to some secretive planning by her children, she was surprised by everyone being present for her birthday dinner at our house.

delicious carrot cake from Savage's

Fain/Griesheimer/Norris Crew

birthday girl + kids

cute Campbell

Happy weekend everyone!