Acupuncture!

I started my acupuncture course today - and I love it! The class is taught in a very contemporary manner - i.e. minimal emphisis on traditional chinese medicine, with the focus instead on the anatomy, neurology, and endocrine system - the various goals are to decrease pain, increase blood flow to an area, and influence the level of secretions (e.g. hormones and blood-borne chemical regulators)...but enough about the technical details. We even had a chance today start using the needles - both with a partner, and also on ourselves. Here's my warning - I'm going to be looking for guinea pigs to practice on, and I figure that anyone who is slow moving will be fair game.

There's about 50 people taking the course - quite a few chiros, a few medical doctors (from New Jersey!), massage therapists, physiotherapists...I saw a couple of people that I knew from school, so we'll be car-pooling to Hamilton together (@McMaster University)

The course will run for 5 weekends between now and June, at which point I will be fully certified to start using it on patients. Talking about patients - I started working in Courtice last week, and it is definitely much busier than the clinic in Whitby (I saw 11 patients on Thursday). Dr. Hadden has been supportive, but has also given me space to do my own thing.


J9

Almost there...

Mom passed this picture on for me to post. Here he is -- the almost-graduate. Just a few more weeks -- congrats, Ed. :)


Ed takes his place on the Kramer Hutch of Fame 

Move over Lumina...

...there's a new car in the garage!

We finally got the CR-V last night. Andy, our hyperactive dealer, who's definitely in need of a good dose of ritalin, showed up at around 7. There was one slight glitch -- remember those key fobs he didn't have? Well, that's because the car never had them (who would think that a car made in 2003 wouldn't have a remote lock system??). So we still don't have those, but we will -- Andy says he'll get his dealer's price and split the difference with us. Other than that, though, everything has been signed over, and the car is ours. And I checked this morning. It's still in the garage. It's real.

Pictures to come...

Trouble in car land

We were supposed to get our new car last night, but that didn't end up happening. Talk about frustrating! Paul called in the afternoon to say that he'd talked to Andy, the guy we're getting the car from, and Andy said that he still didn't have the extra key, two key fobs, and owner's manual he'd promised (right now, it's got just one key and no manual). So we decided to wait. As Paul said, if Andy's still got the car sitting there, it'll put a little extra pressure on him to get it done.

In the end, though, we wouldn't have gotten the car even if we'd decided to go ahead with it. Paul left work early to get the loan stuff taken care of, and it turned out that the woman we've been working with went home sick. She left the paperwork with someone else, but Paul discovered that some of the details were wrong -- and the guy at the bank wasn't authorized to make the changes. So we got hit with a double-whammy yesterday.

Meanwhile, at home, I went out over lunch to clean my stuff out of the Lumina. I was in the middle of the task when I noticed that the interior light wasn't coming on. I tried a few other things and concluded that the battery was dead. So we had to charge it last night. Paul tried to drive it around the block -- and ended up walking halfway after the car died mid-block. So we've been trying to charge it, but nothing seems to be working -- it's not keeping a charge. So how we're going to get it charged enough to drive it into the city on Thursday and get our trade-in out of it, we're still not quite sure... Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Notes on Soup...

So J9...we tried that cheese soup I was telling you about last week. It was horrible. So scratch that one off the list. I'm still looking for a good cheese soup recipe though -- I'd love to get a recipe for something like the grilled cheese and tomato soup that they used to serve at the soup bar of the place where we used to eat lunch all the time when I worked in downtown Holland. So if anyone knows of a good cheese soup recipe, let me know!

More weekend surprises...

Okay, so it's no surprise trip to Ottawa (which, by the way, was pretty cool and definitely very creative of Steve... :), but we did make a trip into the city on Saturday to check out a car -- one that will be parked in our garage tomorrow night. It's a silver 2003 CR-V with only 32,500 miles (meaning it's still under warranty for a few more miles...). Considering that I've never gone out by myself in the 3 1/2 months we've lived here, you can imagine my excitement. Paul asked me the other day where I'll go first, and I quickly told him that I wanted to go to Barnes and Noble. I've done some of my best work in the B&N coffee shop, and I miss it...

Vacation!

We booked our flights yesterday for our upcoming vacation -- one that we both need in a major way.

Paul has to go to Arizona for a big Exact conference in a few weeks (he leaves on March 1st). This is his third time going -- and I've had to stay home every year because Exact frowns on bringing spouses along. This year, however, we've decided to take some time off after the conference. So I'm flying in on Saturday night, and we're going to take a week to explore the Southwest a bit. I have family in Scottsdale, where Paul will be, so we're going to see them on Sunday. Then we're going to wander past the Grand Canyon and spend the week in a hotel just off the Strip in Vegas.

The timing couldn't be better -- just when I'll be getting really sick of grey winter weather, we'll be able to head south and catch some rays for a few days. I can't wait!

New "Bloggie"

Mom has reminded me that I haven't added anything yet - so here it goes!

I heading out to the clinic soon - I don't have many patients booked, and it's not too cold outside, so I'll probably spend my afternoon in a local neighbourhood putting flyers in the mailboxes - I've got a few new patients that way, plus it's a nice walk.

In the winter I go kind of crazy making soup all the time-- Paul tells me that soup on it's own is not a meal :) - but add a grilled cheese sandwich and you're laughing. Today I tried a new Southwestern style black bean soup - yummy! (email me if you want the recipe - it calls for chipotle peppers, which I've never used before, and I actually added a bit much, so the soup is a bit hot hot).

Okay, time to start getting ready for work

J9