Ski/Snowboad Trip 2008: Photo of the Day

Rail Slide!

Ski/Snowboad Trip 2008: Photo(s) of the Day

Teaching Mary how to snowboard.

A quick hop back to the condo for lunch.

Ski/Snowboad Trip 2008: Photo(s) of the Day

Today was the "Cookie Race" when all the kids in classes skied down a hill full of obstacles to get a reward of cookies at the end. Kaitlyn expertly plowed through the rings.Megan carved some nice turns too.
On this trip, Meme generously did all the cooking. One of our favorites was the traditional Veitnamese soup, Pho. We struggled to find a bowl big enough for Long.
Still snowing hard.

Ski/Snowboad Trip 2008: Photo(s) of the Day

Took two I liked, so I couldn't pick just one:
The extended Nguyen family (Mary, Long, Alexander, Kaitlyn, Sarah, Meme, Pepe, Megan, Paige and I) took a road trip to Vermont. We went to Smugglers' Notch, a place well known for it's family programs and it certainly didn't disappoint. They had all day ski lessons for Alexander and Kaitlyn which included lunch and a magic show. In the evening, we all went tubing. The bonus: all that was included in the lodging fee.
However, the mountain was not all children's programs. It had some serious terrain too, including jaw dropping steeps and those famous narrow New England trails. Also, it snowed last night and today... and it's snowing right now. It was a dry fluffy snow that was a simple pleasure to ride. It provided enough cover to make the woods a blast too.

Ski/Snowboad Trip 2008: Photo of the Day

We took a local trip to Blue Mountain in PA, today. I was staying at my in-laws and met Derek, Bill and Will there. (Will is dating Bill's sister.) As you can tell from the picture it snowed that morning. That was a pretty rare occurrence for a Pennsylvania resort which usually relied on the man-made stuff. It made for a very fun, but very cold day. "Bitter cold" is what the weather man called it. Snow quality was pretty good until 4PM-ish when the mountain became cast in shadow and the trails turned into a sheet of ice.

Dover's First (and Probably Only) Snowy Day of the Season

Pillow Fight Injury

Since the holidays, I've spent nearly every night at work. Megan and I have been planning two ski/snowboard trips this Winter, so for most of January I've been accumulating the time and money to go.

Basically, that was my justification for a work-based blog entry. More time at work meant more stories from work. However, I did really think this was quite interesting, primarily because of how this patient got this injury. It was from a pillow fight.

That's a shoulder dislocation. For you non-medical types, the shoulder joint is like a ball-and-socket. That ball at the top of the arm, is supposed to fit neatly into the socket made by the shoulder blade and the collar bone, like this:

So yes, we successfully put it back in. Drugs are a wonderful thing, not only because they put the patient to sleep so they don't remember the procedure, but because they relax the muscles enough for me to pull that thing back in.

Anyway, from a pillow fight? We were cracking up when the paramedic call first came in over the radio "patient injured during a pillow fight." Retrospectively, the dislocation made sense. It probably occurred when he recklessly, forcefully swung his arm back, pillow in hand.

Unseasonably Warm Day #2

Unseasonably Warm

A few days ago, the temperature went down to the teens (Fahrenheit). Today, it was up to the mid-60's. Sure these massive fluctuations may herald future environmental disaster, but we couldn't help but enjoy the warm weather. Megan did some landscaping, I got to jog, and Paige played in the yard. It was a refreshing change after being cooped up for the past month.

mp3: "Dumb it Down" featuring Gemstones and Graham Burris by Lupe Fiasco