Sail away, sail away, sail away . . .

While work has been busy and all-consuming at times, Peter and I have still managed to get some time away with friends and enjoy the beautiful summer we're having. Last week we enjoyed some time at the home of Joe and Jeannie Silverberg, long time Hoofer sailing folks with 50+ years of marriage behind them. They're just about he cutest "older" couple (I say "old" but Joe still bikes around town and they keep up with us "youngsters" pretty well) you'll come across and they put on their annual "Social event of the year" party for the instructors. Peter and I stole a quick photo with them before we jetted that night.

We also got some time to take our friends Matt and Alissa and one of their daughters, Tess, on a nice Friday evening sail two weeks ago. Alissa and I have gotten to be good friends and she was my sponsor when Peter and I went through RCIA and confirmation at our local parish back in the spring.

Tess helping Mom work the jib

Aren't we cute? :)

Unfortunately, Tess left her hat on the boat . . . so Peter thought he might put it to good use!

Here's Peter towing our boat in to be put away as the sun sets on our evening.

Sunsets and sunrises on the lake are one of my favorite things in Madison. They always feel to me like God smiling at us and saying "Good evening" or
"Good morning." He gave us wonderful "smile" that night!

Independence Day

It was great to have off this past weekend for the 4th. Here's a great jello mold my friend Alissa made for a picnic we had on Saturday. I thougt it was quite festive! Just before tearing into it we had a "competitive" whiffleball game which brought back memories of my childhood living in our house on Mallard Ave and playing hours of whiffleball with my friend Ben who lived next door. We somehow made a "two man" whiffle ball game work with lots of imaginary baserunners and a little arguing thrown in when we lost track of where all our imaginary teammates were! :-)



Later that night, I headed downtown to another
shin dig (unfortunately Peter was away this whole weekend as he was finishing up a two week mandatory active duty time for the coast guard) and landed at the apartment of one of my fellow residents. It was a beautiful night so we headed up to the roof of her apt building to catch some nice views of the city. You can see the top of the capitol building behind me, and two other residents who started residency with me, Matt and Sandeepa. The weird thing though is that even though we all started together, Sandeepa is now one of the "chiefs" over Matt and I since she didn't do the two year research time. While it would be nice to be in my last year as she is now, I have a great class of guys to finish out my last three years with . . . and add a little "estrogen" to our now male-dominated class!


Finally, on Sunday, I decided to head out to the lake for a quick sail before Peter got home. It was gorgeous! Perfect wind and temperature. I rigged up a Laser which is a light, fast racing boat that is super fun to sail. The one downside is that it takes quite a bit of time to rig and de-rig but was well worth it that day. Being out on the lake is one the glorious summer treasures that we have here in Madison. There's nothing quite like it!

Early risings

So I thought this picture would be a great way to put a positive spin on my life as I now know it, and will know it for the next few years. I guess one of the advantages to driving into work between 5:30 and 6:00 AM is the great sunrises I catch as I pull into the parking garage. Univ of Wisconsin Hospital is uniquely situated on the edge of Lake Mendota giving you picturesque views every time you park or especially from the 7th floor patient rooms of the VA Hospital where most of our surgical patients reside. While I had good intentions of trying to drive to work a little earlier to actually photograph one of these sunrises myself, alas, that didn't quite happen so I stole this one off the internet . . . but it's exactly what I would have taken myself.




So I have survived my first full week back on clinical duties in the hospital. It's been a really good week though despite the longer hours and sleep deprivation. I probably had one of the
busiest Saturday 24 hr call shifts I've ever had since starting residency . . . which was kind of a rude awakening but sort of fun in a way. Our pagers started going off a lot around noon on Saturday and pretty much from that point on, we never really stopped moving or seeing patients until about 9 AM the next morning. We saw 17 consults for general surgery, trauma or burns overall, with 3 of those traumas being level ones (our most severe traumas) with all of them requiring a trip to the OR. One guy had his mobile home fall on his chest as he was backing out from working under it and crushed his liver, another woman suffered a traumatic amputation of her left arm and mangled her left leg after driving drunk and side-swiping a semi, and the last guy had multiple stab wounds after being jumped by some guy who was pissed that he was flirting with his girlfriend at a bar . . . he arrived with his intestines eviscerating through one of the wounds. So needless to say there was no lack of excitement or work but we made it and it makes for some good stories.