Twelve dollars well spent...

My brother and I got along very good as we were growing up and we continue to get along great today. Well today was one of those days that I tried to contact him because I knew he would like doing what I was doing! Tonight I spent $12 and went to a Milwaukee Admirals game. That's not when I thought about him. Hockey, not high on our most fun to watch sports list. Tonight because of my $12 I got to sit with 2 of my children and watch another stand near the ice with her hurt knee as we all watched her co-dancers perform in between the 2nd and 3rd periods, fun but come on, she has a banged up knee....and still did not think of him. Wrapping up the $12 evening we saw a shootout and the home team lost, no biggie...I don't even know 1 player on either team. My thought of "I wish my brother was here" came after the ice had been cleared and for the same $12 STYX took the stage! STYX for $12! Sure they were slightly older then when we were young (about 30 years ago) but they were STYX! Grand Illusion, Lady, Fooling Yourself and of course Come Sail Away... the faces of every 40+ year old person was beaming....we had endured a boring game, a mildly exciting shootout, free t-shirts shot from a gun and now STYX. My children appeared to enjoy this group of old men singing"rock" songs, each song sounding just like the previous one, while the melodic sound of old people like me echoed through the Bradley Center. At least for this night, for the same price as 2 8oz. Dippin Dots, I got to spend some time with my kids and 13,000 other "old" people, listen STYX and wish my brother could've been here....
"Babe, I'm leaving, I must be on my way
The time is drawing near"

Eye will see you later!

The fork in the road...

I know some people who love to read and that makes me jealous. When do you get that reading bug or why do we lose the drive to read. Everyone is excited when it is "See Spot run." "See Dick run." See Jane run." "Hello Jane." It is easy, understandable and we can see the story. At sometime in our lives we come to a fork in the road, to read or not to read. Men come to two forks actually the first one is easy....we buy new stuff, there are directions to read....easy decision...not to read! We don't need directions to put stuff together or all the extra pieces left over when we are done putting stuff together. We don't need to read directions to get anywhere, not only do we not need them, we don't even want to ask or hear them. Reading stuff like directions or instructions in not necessary, a waste of time, boring, even demeaning...but reading the paper "in the office", that is a necessity. The paper is not speaking to us like we are idiots, trying to direct our every move, the paper is keeping us up with life, the important stuff... the scores, the trades, the marker, the pork bellies! The second fork is the true reading, after Dick and Jane and the Weekly Readers. This is the fork that I don't understand. I want to read and I am picking up this fork. I have bought several books in the past years and I am in the process of reading them all. I simply have too many forks. I am setting down all but one and I am reading it until I am done! "The Shack" is the winner and I am going to perservre, I will not quit, I am halfway through and you will see me say "Stick a fork in it, I am done!"

Eye will see you later!

Quisp!

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day...experts say. I'm not sure who these experts are but it does make sense. A little nutrition in the morning should make a great start for the day. My breakfast habits have changed through the years. Quisp has to be one of my favorite cereals and I had a young patient today who said she had Quisp for breakfast! I was shocked, I didn't know this cereal was still in existence. I know it should be but I haven't seen it for 20 years. It is a scrumptious saucer-like disc of pure sugar goodness. It tastes exactly like Captain Crunch but it doesn't slice up the roof of your mouth. I lived off of this stuff for the first 10 years of my life and those were great years. I was full of energy and had Quisp to thank for the early morning power up. The next 5 0r 6 years it was buttered toast and true milk hot cocoa, you know, heat the milk, scrape the film of floating whatever off, add the hot cocoa, dip the buttered bread in the hot cocoa and eat it. Those were good mornings also. The college days breakfast was a large glass of RC Cola and well...another glass of RC Cola. Now for breakfast it is mostly capsule food...lotrel, allopurinol, omicor, cinnamon, selenium and the ever important baby aspirin...not quite as good as Quisp! So check out the supermarkets, it's out there and I am going to find it...the big blue box with the pinkish alien guy, my mouth is watering already! Tomorrow it's capsules with a bowl of Quisp as a chaser and I'll be ready for the day....

Eye will see you later?

Yeah for those Irish Dancers

So yesterday was St. Patrick's Day, I'm not quite sure who St. Patrick is or why he gets "a day." I'm not a big fan of St. Patrick's day, it's nothing personal against the Irish it's really more about corn beef and cabbage..yuck! Most of my family had some yesterday but I had chicken and I did a lot of breathing through my mouth so I didn't catch a whiff of that cooked cabbage smell. Most of the people I saw had on green. I think Kermit the frog was right when he had that smash hit "It's Not Easy Being Green." Green is not even in my top ten of colors. Green makes me think of the Boston Celtics. When I was young that was one ugly team! Not basketball wise just physically. Larry Bird with that nose, Kevin McHale with the disproportional chest and Dennis Johnson with that face...they were ugly. Now I think they draft by good looks actually, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, R. Rondo...some sharp looking guys today. Anyway, there is also green beer on St. Pattys Day. I don't drink beer and green? All I know about Irish pubs I have learned from scary movies so I am not anxious to go check them out. I have never kissed the Blarney stone, pretty sure I can imagine what kissing a stone that millions have slobbered on might feel like...no thanks. My favorite March 17th memory was green bread. When I was in college, my wife would make my sandwiches and one day she bought some green bread from Cake Box and made my PB and J with it! My buddies were grossed out even though it was food coloring but I found it delicious. The other thought I do like is those Irish dancers. All the clicking of the shoes, the speed, the fast movements, they are very good. One of them is my good friend Kacie, she was awesome when she was an official participant. I think what they should try is dancing on St. Patrick's Day with a Stein full of green beer, now that would be a show! Hope you enjoyed your ST. Patrick's Day!

Eye will see you later!

Occasional Oral Peculiar Swallowing

Occasional Oral Peculiar Swallowing is a disease which is characterized by people , young and old, putting things in their mouth and swallowing them....better known as O.O.P.S. At least it should be a real disease. I recently saw a t.v. ad which shows a mischievous child doing many things wrong and the last scene was he and his parents looking at an X-ray of the boy with a diamond ring in his belly...very funny. Haven't we all been there. It is almost inevitable and I thing hard candy is to blame. As children, parents give us this hard piece of something sweet and say "put it in your mouth but don't swallow it." It is a sweet morsel of goodness. Then we find other hard things...coins, buttons, etc.. and we hear "don't put that in your mouth!" Well, don't..that's just a temptation and we've had hard morsels of goodness before so we try it and sometime...OOPS. My youngest contact lens patient was 7 months old and one day mom called and said "he ate it". Not only did he eat it but she had found it while changing the diaper and wanted to know if she should clean it up. I told her it was under warranty and we could return it..defective. I don't hear of adults OOPS'sing very often (unless they are smuggling drugs) but I am sure it happens with an occasional paperclip or just an adventurous person who thinks "I wonder how this would go down." One of my kids swallowed a dime and we waited a few short days and to our amazement when we were watching for results we found two dimes. I was very tempted to start rolling up hundred dollar bills...maybe this was a talent, doubling his money. Anyway, maybe we should be a little more accepting of O.O.P.S. suffers, those inquisitive souls who just wonder what this or that tastes like, who wonder how long it would take to get through the system, because as we have learned.... it really does come out alright... in the end!

Eye will see you later!

3/10/09

"All you can eat"... there's something about those four words that gets to the heart of a man.  Maybe it is because we just can't get enough of anything, or maybe it is because we are cheap but for some reason if we eat our self sick it is more of a value.  Tonight we had "all you can" eat crab legs for $23.95... what a deal!  Don't worry I am not writing this while waiting to dash to the bathroom,  I don't even like crab legs.  That is just a lot of work for such small portions of meat. I like to watch people eat crab legs though, not in a weird way.   The tools are cool, the cracking thing and the tiny fork.  It's all about determination, perseverance and the thrill of victory.  The joy on a persons face when they pull out a piece of crab that is larger than a half inch makes the experience well worth it. Even the butter amount is overwhelming!   I am not in trouble, stomach wise, until I go to the "all you can eat" pizza.  I am not a REAL cheap person but it is simple math to me.  The pizza deal is $19.95, divided by about 15 large pieces of pizzas and 5 sodas = less than a dollar an item.  Now that is a deal for a stomach ache and indigestion.  Even though I never feel good after that, I feel great because I know that I got a great deal!  So next time you're out about and see those four words "all you can eat" take a chance, loosen the belt, pull up a chair, tuck in the napkin and prepare for the adventure.... just remember the more you eat the cheaper the meal!

Eye will see you later!

3/6/09

I like geese. I do believe that God shows us things in life, He sends them our way, things we appreciate and enjoy. I have a slight fascination with geese. I remember going to Horicon Marsh and seeing thousands of them all in one place. Amazing! I remember learning about them, observing them fly overhead in that large < pattern. I meet someone once who explained about the < and why one side of the < is always longer then the other. Almost everyday as I am walking into and out of work they are flying and making there goose noises and I like that. People say, there's your geese! I thank God for that special part of the day where he just lets me see and hear one section of His creation. The geese, graceful, orderly, swift and abundant...at least where I live. I don't see them walking around town but they are almost always flying overhead, one section of the < longer then the other, honking their good morning honks...displaying their God given ability to make me smile. I don't really care for geese much on the golf course but everywhere else I like to see them and hear them.
Oh yeah, the part about the <, the scientific reason that one section is always much longer than the other is.....
there are a lot more geese in that line.

Eye will see you later!

3/5/09

The dog..man's best friend. In my lifetime I have travelled this road 6 times. Frosty, Chelsey, Gizmo, Little Rosie (who never stopped leaking), Sooner and Rosie(who performed "the stunt"). Six best friends each with their own personalities and each with many stories. Presently, I am dog less and I am fine with that....happy actually. What will happen when the kids want another dog? My thought was lets just cross that bridge when we come to it. This week in the office many people are talking about their dogs, their "best friends." Yesterday one gentleman talked about his golden who loves to duck hunt with him. The dog is only 2 years old but has mastered this bird hunting and you could just feel the excitement they both get when they spend time together. He talked about the training and how his dog just loves to go out there and flush out the birds, retrieve them and sit proudly as he removes the bird from the dogs gentle mouth. I was starting to think maybe... My very next patient started talking about his dog who had run into some knee and hip trouble. In the past year and one half he has spent $10,000 on vet bills for his dog. Wow! My thoughts of maybe quickly faded and I felt glad to be dog less again. Not too long ago one of my kids popped the question "Can we get a dog?" The bridge had come... sure they can, just as soon as they move out and get a place of their own! I love dogs, I loved the dogs we had and I'm sure I will love the dogs they get someday but as for now...there are no dogs on my side of the bridge, my yard is clean and I am quite fine with that!

Eye will see you later.

3/3/09

When I was younger it was a special treat to go for some ice cream. We would drive about twenty minutes to a drive-in ice cream place and get our little cones with the swirl ice cream and we were happy! We didn't do it very frequently so it was just special enough to make my brother and I smile. As I got older, but not too old, it was Chuck E. Cheese...where a kid can be a kid (as long as he has plenty of dads quarters). Now I like things hot and spicy! Taco Bell hot sauce ...not hot enough. The place to go now for that special treat is Buffalo Wild Wings. As my kids call it BDubs! It has everything. It has the trivia game with the handheld units, which I love. I am very good at that game as long as my wife is funnelling me the answers. She is very trivia smart but I get to push the buttons. Honestly, I can't figure out how to log in to the unit! DR LUV was our code name the other night and we were dominating! Or you can play Texas Hold 'em on the other screen which my daughter was raking in the chips. The best part is the 17 sauces. Throw out the first 10 if you want hot and spicy, choose from the magnificent 7. I had the boneless dozen, 6 Hot BBQ and 6 Mango Habanero. The Hot BBQ's were good but the Habanero's wow! That was hot and spicy. My mouth was on fire. I refilled that soda 3 times just for some relief...those were excellent. There are still some choices even hotter and if you get a dozen with the hottest, eat them all, they put your picture on the wall! I am not sure I will ever achieve that plateau of the hottest dozen wings but when I go there I do leave with a smile, those are tears of joy created by the mango habanero and a special treat with the family.