Dinner out with my girl

Ocean City's only combo greek restaurant and coffee shop

Pool party

Getting away from the rest of the party

Paige's new toy

Clams at Reel Fresh

Some days the dog just doesn't feel like coming in

What's left of my birthday cake at work by the time I got a break

My parents came over for a birthday dinner

Megan made me a birthday cake

Out on a walk with my girl

kids are playing while I'm having brunch

Music Festivities

The Siren Music Festival has become my favorite summer music festival. First of all, it was free. It was so well integrated into the local Coney Island scene and it seemed less corporate. For example, other summer music festivals bound me to their food and beer lines, but at Siren, it was common to sample nearby local food vendors. Since we could come and go as we pleased, we could take a break away from the music to enjoy the beach, ride a roller coaster or sit at a nearby bar. Nothing beat the ability to walk away from a crowd in 90+ degree weather in order to jump into the cool nearby beach water. That experience alone made Siren Music Festival my favorite. As for the roller coaster, I'm still in awe that the 80 year old Cyclone remained one of the greatest roller coaster rides I have ever taken.

I went with Carl and Derek this year, and that basically entailed a lot of driving. I left my house at 9:00 AM, picked up Derek in Philadelphia and picked up Carl in Northern New Jersey. I dropped them both off at the end of the day and after a detour to a diner with Derek, I arrived home at about 2:00 AM.

As for music, we saw Parts & Labor, The Dodos, Islands and Broken Social Scene. The Broken Social Scene experience was not as ecstatically joyful as the one I had at Lollapalooza two years ago, but still good, despite the buzz-killing ambulance that pulled into the middle of the crowd during their set. The other three bands were very good too. Parts & Labor were noisy and energetic, The Dodos were experimental and fascinating, and Islands were catchy and complex. I took a few pictures.

mp3: "Fractured Skies" by Parts & Labor

mp3: "Jodi" by the Dodos

mp3: "I Feel Evil Creeping In" by Islands

mp3: "Almost Crimes" by Broken Social Scene

Two nights later, I ended up at another concert. This one was at the Delaware State Fair and featured an American Idol alum. It was well known that Megan and I had drastically different music tastes. However, she really wanted to share a concert experience with me. Actually she wanted to see two American Idol acts. Each one was playing a different night. She wanted to see one with me and the other with friends, and she gave me a choice between the two. One was a pop country act and the other was a post-grunge ballad rocker. I had been very vocal about my distaste for both kinds of music. Which do you think I picked? The choice became more obvious when using visual aids.

















I took pictures of that show too.

impromptu picnic

Our wives went out so Dan, Tony and I gathered our kids for a pool party and picnic.

at the Delaware state fair

the dishes I came home to

going to music festivals and backyard barbecues really put me behind on the chores

more backyard fun

celebrating Dan's completion of the CFP exam

in the crowd waiting for islands to start

on the coney island beach

stuck in traffic

our romantic night out?

resting in the shade

even in this heat she demanded to go outside

a surprise visit from Alexander

he was on his way back from the beach with my parents. he gave me some ice cream. I gave him a bagel.

while paige and I were at the beach yesterday, Megan made some improvements to the bathroom

Geek Post

Megan and I got the new iPhone. Yeah, we spoiled ourselves. We waited in line five for hours on Friday. Actually, I waited and she occasionally checked on me while she shopped. Boy, she shopped a lot. I, on the other hand, spent the whole time talking to this guy.

Since procuring the iPhone, I thought about different ways I could improve this blog. I liked the idea of Twitter; instant microblogs that allowed me to let everyone know what I was up to. However, I didn't like how the photos appeared on a different page and I didn't want to send any readers away from this site.

After a little research, I found the application ShoZu. Voila! Instant little photographic blog entries became possible from my phone. I already posted a few entries from the 14th. The ShoZu logo undortunately appeared in each entry, but I decied to keep that to indicate which entries come from the phone.

mp3: "Language City" by Wold Parade

driving home from Ocean City

dinner with the kids

at the beach with Paige

Ten Photos From the Annual July 4th Nguyen Family Trip to Ocean City

I was actually in Ocean City from June 30th to the morning of July 4th. I worked the night of the 4th. Unfortunately, that night was the busiest July 4th our ER has seen in a long time. On previous Independence Days the ER would be quiet for the early evening, until after the fireworks, then we'd typically get the rush of patients. Not this time. Apparently, six people were hit by a car. That set us back a little.

We have a drunk that comes to our ER nearly every night. Occasionally, I have jokingly greeted him with a "welcome home." After all, if I slept nearly every night in the same place, I'd call call that place home. Anyway, he came in the night of the 4th, then left to see the fireworks. He came back at 6AM. I was tempted to scold him with a "if you're going to stay under my roof, young man, you're going to have to live by the rules. You said you were going to see the fireworks and then you're gone all night?! I doubt that was a nine hour fireworks show! You're grounded!" No, I didn't ground him. He's been at our our institution way too often. I wasn't going to keep him longer.

Oh, anyway. Enough of this tangent. Here's a link to the photos as promised by the title.