Two not-the-main points

Jamie and I spent this "weekend" (Thursday afternoon until around 8:20 this morning) driving to and from PA and spending some time with our friends there. It was a great trip. Full of family life, smallish town community, laughter, and good conversation. We'll update with some photos and more info later. For now, here are two things from today. Not particularly meaningful, but still...

First, a bit of excitement. The fire alarm in our apartment complex went off a couple (maybe 20?) minutes ago. At first I thought it was just in our apartment. Oh my goodness, I was only reading blogs on the computer. What could have set off the fire alarm? Oh yes, I did have the oven warming up so I could bake some chicken, but it didn't seem like that could be it. I turned the oven off, checked for fire in the apartment, and tried to turn the smoke detector off (it was very loud and piercing). Then I went outside and it was even louder out there. I called Jamie to see what he thought: should I call the office or 911? He opted for 911, so I placed my first (that I remember) 911 call ever. I felt cool. But I did have to collect myself before I called long enough to try to remember our address.

Then, a couple people started to emerge from the buildings next to ours. I met Jenny, Kim and Jose. Seemed nice. They all thought it was their fault too, but it definitely wasn't any of us. Jenny had called the office, so we had both bases covered. I was wondering how come there was no one else out there. Either EVERYONE in our apartment complex is out on Saturdays, or we have a lot of people who think they're invincible and like loud piercing noises. Anyway, eventually the alarm went off. We still weren't sure whether we could go back in, so we went around to the parking lot side of the buildings. Then, the fire truck pulled up. And the maintenance man came out and told them that a fire alarm got pulled. Wonderful.

So that was my adventure for the day.

Second not-the-main-point is this. This weekend is some kind of memorial day rally for motorcyclists. They come from hundreds of miles away to converge right between Jamie's old house and my old house and then drive into DC together. So today is a gathering day and there were lots of motorcyclists on the road between PA and here.
I have to say that my least favorite people on the road are motorcyclists. But I especially am peeved (to put it lightly) by those who don't wear protective gear. I saw one guy with no helmet, countless people in jeans and leather jackets, and many in t-shirts, teeny helmets, and other forms of less-then-protective gear.

My brother and uncles ride motorcycles. I don't like it. They are definitely endangering themselves if they get hit by cars, trucks, etc. But at least they wear the full amount of protective gear: huge well-fitted helmets, some kind of teflon/fiber glass type material covering their whole bodies, crazy amazing gloves, and tough boots. One of them (who shall remain nameless) fell off his bike swerving to miss a car and totaled the bike a while back, but was barely scratched. But these people who don't wear protective gear. Ugh. i've seen road rash. Its not pretty. REALLY not pretty. And that's from a crash going very slowly and wearing leather and denim. Yuck, yuck. Their arm will be scraped off their body if they fall of the bike on the interstate wearing just a t-shirt.

Ok, so there is some concern for them, but I also have to share the road with them. And they don't all drive so safely either. I HATE being near them when I'm driving because I'm so afraid I might not see one in my blind spot or they might stop too quickly or whatever and I'll be responsible for their death by road rash.

So, here's my thing. If you ride a motorcycle, be responsible. Don't be stupid and scare the other drivers. Drive extra carefully and wear the most protective gear available. And don't ride near me, please.

Melting Pot

This past Sunday, Catherine and I went to the Melting Pot to celebrate our one-year Melting Pot anniversary. We went there for the first time last year and absolutely loved it. But it is a ton of food - and also a ton of money. So we told ourselves we'd come back in a year.

I remembered. So we went back and it was fantastic. Here are a few pictures of our splurge. They're pretty self-explanatory.



Oh, that last picture... That's my "I feel sooo fat" face. That's after the bread and cheese fondue, the salad, the steak, chicken, shrimp, tuna, veggies, potatoes, drinks, and dessert. Oh, the dessert. Wow.

Johnny

I know we just posted a photo of him the post before last, but I just wanted to say that, even though I'm biased, I'm still right in saying that our Godson is one of the most beautiful babies in the world.

We got to see him (and his parents and brothers and sister) yesterday and he just gets more gorgeous everytime we see him with his dark curls, dark eyes, long eye-lashes and chubby flushed cheeks. I miss him today. Yesterday we realized that 2 months is too long to go in between seeing him. He didn't recognize us, which meant that, because we love him and didn't want to cause him distress, we didn't get to hold him really at all. Today I feel that lack of baby-cuddle.

But it was good to see his brother and sister and parents. I've known those kids since they were tiny. So we wrestled with all the kids (except Johnny) for a while, and then Jamie went out to play "soccer" with Joshua while I sat inside talking and rubbing Bella's back. There was lots of other conversation and play and ice-cream eating, but you don't want to hear all of that.

I miss that family. Why can't all my friends and family live within a 1-2 hour driving distance from us so we can see them all more often?

May at work

I'm at work...
I know, I shouldn't be blogging. But its after 5 and I'm just waiting for them to finish with a patient who was late because of traffic. Yup, that happens pretty much every other day. :)
Anyway, May is a fun month in the office. Dr. Sellers opened his office here 25 years ago in May of 1982. We're doing all kinds of things to celebrate. We have a banner and silver dangly 25s hanging from the ceiling.
We're doing daily, weekly, and a monthly drawing for special prizes. We're going out to dinner as a staff on May 31st. We're giving away chapstick that is a yummy "shamrock" flavor.
And now the patient has left so I'm leaving pretty soon. Just have to do the final stuff... :)

...

Ok, so I wrote that on Thursday and now I'll finish it.

Other things we're doing in May that make it just a bit more interesting:

- each bringing in a photo of ourselves 25 years ago. He he. Almost everyone except me has those really beautiful "wings" in their hair.
- playing music from the 80s - we have some wonderful old Michael W. Smith and Phil Keaggy (its hard to find cds of 80s Christian music) and then we extended it to just oldies, as long as its appropriate. So Phyllis, who works at the front desk with me, disappears into nostalgia whenever the "Best of the 60s" instrumental cd comes on.
- displaying a photo of the dentist 25 years ago.

I guess thats it. But if you have ever gone to Dr. Sellers, come by and say hi sometime during May. Its really amazing me how many people have come in just in the past week and said that they have been coming to him since before he moved into his own office 25 years ago - 4 in the day that we counted! The first person to come in last week brought us a beautiful plant with a "Happy Anniversary" balloon. It makes me realize how much our practice is really very small community like even though we're right in the middle of the DC metro area. People love us and are attached to us and its kind of fun to be a part of that. People drive from hours away every week just to come get their teeth cleaned or get fillings or something....

If you need a dentist, come on over!