let's play catch up! today's episode - my birthday

I've let the gaping hole between November and January alone long enough. It's time to fill you in on what we did over the holidays!

First, will be my birthday blog. My birthday is not technically during the holidays, but it is in December, so it counts :)

I was waiting to post till i had photos (Tan???) but it's been way too long now.

So, I turned 32 on December 3. :( That was a sad day. I didn't like it, but I couldn't stop it.
But, we ended up having a very fun time the weekend before, so it was worth it! Here's what we did....

Tan invited Alberto and me out with him and some friends visiting from Orange County on the Saturday night before my birthday.

We had Korean BBQ which was really unique and delicious. The meal comes with about 10 different side items, plus wonton soup plus sticky rice. YUM!

We had pork and beef and chicken and shrimp, all marinated in their own unique sauces and ready for cooking. Then we just dropped them one by one onto the grill in the middle of the table and picked up whatever we wanted to pop in our mouths as the items were cooked to our own unique preferences. We polished off the super yummy dinner with the blue bottle of very smooth saki recommended to us by the waitress.

We rolled ourselves out of the restaurant an hour and a half later and decided to work off some of our food by going dancing downtown in the Gaslamp. We ended up at this place that is connected to Martini Ranch called The Shaker Room. They were giving out VIP cards for free cover and so we decided to try it out. This place was super sexy. The dance floor was cramped and steamy and there were extremely hot women dancing in practically nothing up on the raised platform areas around the dance floor. The lights were really great, I have a newfound appreciation for the way moving lights are set up and run because of Backstage Presence, and these lights were the perfect mix of color and movement to play off the dancing masses. There is an upstairs area with a second bar and very cozy little couch areas tucked against the wall. The bartender upstairs made the yummiest vodka/cranberry drinks. One of the local stations was broadcasting from there that night so one of the upstairs areas was blocked off for their private party.

Then, for those who are tired of the hordes of beautiful people, there is a tiny little adjoining room where, on the other side, you walk through another door and into a very casual but lively sports bar and grill.

When we were ready for a switch we left there and went to another place I've always looked at but never gone into called The Bitter End.

The Bitter End appears to be just another pub from one of the British Isles, but it is actually much more! It has an underground dance floor that plays a variety of music from many different genres. The lights are almost nonexistent, just enough to faintly illuminate the big open floor with a few twirly lights to make things interesting. We danced to hip hop, electronica, new wave, 80s hair bands, and even a bit of country until the lights came up and the staff shooed us out the door.

By this time it was after 2:00 am, but none of us were tired. As we made our way back to the cars we kept our eyes peeled for any late night activity and Tan spotted a hookah bar with lots of people inside. We popped our head in and made our way to the counter where there was a menu of different kinds of things you could smoke in the hookah.

There was all sorts of flavors, ranging from regular tobacco-sounding things to fruity flavors to rich and chocolatey items. We decided on two fruity flavors - since none of us really smokes we thought this would be easiest for us to handle. A few minutes later after we sat down, a young guy dropped two hookahs at our table, one ready with strawberry flavored stuff and the other with mango flavored stuff. We each also got little plastic mouthpieces to put over the hookah tube so that we wouldn't catch each others germs.

It was very interesting! You could definitely tell the difference between the strawberry and the mango flavor, and I preferred mango :) The only downside to the experience was when we asked the guy for some water (we were, after all, smoking a lot!) and he paused, turned his nose up at us, and said that the only water available was for purchase.

By the time we exhausted the hookahs we were much more mellow and ready to wrap up the night. We could have also been a little green from smoking so much, but no one fessed up to it.

We parted ways shortly thereafter and headed home for the evening.

A great time was had by all, and it turned out to be one of my favorite birthday memories of all!

Natasha had Surgery on Friday

Yesterday I had outpatient surgery here in North County. Apparently, symptoms I have been experiencing have indicated to my doctor (OBGYN) that I may have endemetriosis, and he recommended we do a diagnostic laparoscopy to see if there was anything that needed to be taken care of.

As a result, I went in yesterday morning for the procedure where they cut two slits in my tummy area and inserted a light, a camera and a laser. 45 minutes later, they had lasered off two areas of scar tissue that were found (translation: endemetriosis confirmed) and they found a third that they could not get to.

I am not sure what my doc plans to do about the third spot which, as luck would have it, is most directly related to the pain I have been experiencing over the last few months. I will find out on Feb 4 when I go back for my post-op visit with him.

Lucky me, I got full-on glossy photos of what I look like on the inside. We have photos for both before the scar tissue was removed and after. We also have a vivid picture of what the inside of my uterus looks like. Believe me, it's not that pretty!

Overall, I was really frightened about the whole procedure. I didn't even realize how scared I was until I chatted with the anesthesiologist before the procedure and he started telling me about how they were going to put a tube down my throat to assist with spontaneous breathing during the surgery. I, who am terrified of choking and generally anything going into my throat (I can't even really swallow pills), had to choke back tears as soon as he said that. I managed to pull myself together, but it was even more overwhelming as I made my way into the actual room where the procedure was going to be done. It was just me, the nurse and a hundred different menacing sterile, shiny bright objects all waiting to be used.

When the nurse laid me down, the anesthesiologist came into the room and they both took one of my arms for different purposes. The nurse had my right arm fully outstretched and the anesthesiologist had my left arm fully outstretched. I felt like I was being hung on a cross! I didn't cry in the full sense of the word, but I was in such sensory overload that as I lay there with my arms outstreched tears started streaming down both sides of my face. The nurse noticed and said in a soothing tone to the anesthesiologist that I was a bit nervous, and he responded kindly that we were all going to be fine and I shouldn't worry about a thing.

And he lived up to his word as he was very gentle and made sure that the anesthetic went in nice and slow so that I didn't feel like I was being pulled under (another very frightening thing for me!). It wasn't more than a minute or two as he was talking to me about skeet shooting in Houston after he learned that I grew up there that I was out.

Next thing I knew it was an hour and 45 minutes later and I was slowly waking up in the recovery room where I could hear the murmur of different nurses as they made their rounds checking on all of us who had just been operated on.

My nurse, Liz, was very friendly and quiet and made the whole experience as plesant as possible for me. Both my docs (the anesthesiologist and the OBGYN) came to visit me and made sure I felt at ease before Liz brought me into the secondary recovery room where Alberto could join me.

Alberto did pretty well, only blanching a bit when he saw the needle from the IV being taken out of my wrist. After reviewing all of the things that needed to happen over the next 2 to 3 days to Alberto, Liz loaded me up in a wheelchair and whisked me out to our car in the back.

You'd think that after such a brief surgery, done on an outpatient basis, would be pretty easy and painless - or at least that's what I thought. Clearly, I was wrong. I am alternating regularly between Motrin for inflammation and Vicadin for pain, and I can't really be on my feet for more than about 10 minutes without feeling like I am going to be sick.

Alberto has been great and has a very gentle bedside manner. He has made sure that I have a ready supply of Apple Juice, water, and Saltine crackers which are the only things I can really eat without feeling sick. In the meantime, I have spent the last 24 hours or so alternating between sleeping and reading my Harry Potter book ( I am up to number 4!)

I'll be hanging out here in bed for the next day and a half or so, and then should be ready to get back to work on Monday. If you come across this post over the weekend and feeling like giving me a ring, please feel free!

Obama at King Memorial

Another effective delivery by Obama. This one was for Martin Luther King's Memorial service on Sunday January 20, 2008.

When I look at these speeches, I look for a sense of earnest and evidence that the speaker is truly engaged in what he is saying. Not all of Obama's speeches can fall under this category, but this is definitely one of them.

It's kind of long, but worth it:

I'm a doctor Jim, not a film critic!

Holy megamovies! Guess what I just found:

http://www.paramount.com/startrek/

Hopefully having J J Abrams on board will give it a pretty decent shot at being a good flick.

Everybody make your Christmas plans accordingly...

chargers victory simply stunning

It's been a while since I've blogged, and lots of you are making sure I remember that ;) I plan on posting updates soon, as there is lots and lots to tell. December and January have both been jam packed and I'll have an opportunity to share with you soon.

But before that, I just simply had to give the Chargers some props this morning. I watch football occasionally, so I am not a huge die hard expert on the sport, but I still do enjoy watching it when I can and (like everyone else) love a good game with lots of spirit.

Yesterday's playoff game against the Colts fits into that category better than any game I've seen. Did you see it? If not, you missed (in my opinion) one of the best NFL games ever.

Here's a repost of an article on the web today about the game and Norv Turner, the Chargers new head coach this season:

INDIANAPOLIS – He got choked up during his Saturday night speech,
punctuating some of his more passionate statements with fist-pumps, and the San
Diego Chargers felt inspired by their head coach's emotion. "I believe in you," he told them, and they believed him, and it meant something more than they had dreamt it could have back in the uncertain days of autumn.
This was a different Norv Turner than the man some of them doubted earlier this season, a driven leader who strode confidently and defiantly into the den of the defending champions intent on irrevocably changing the way he and his team are perceived.
He shed the dead-fish exterior and took command of the sidelines, railing at
officials and at one point venturing a good 10 yards onto the playing field to
throw a replay-challenge flag. He looked like he would fight somebody – a ref, a
row of fans, Peyton Manning, whomever – to get what he wanted.
Through it all, Turner kept his poise. There were smart calls at ideal times as he got into one of those sublime play-calling rhythms which made him such a hot coaching prospect in the first place. And for the first time as a head coach in a truly big game, he walked off a winner, his face showing no trace of surprise.
Meanwhile, virtually everyone else looked at the final score – Chargers 28, Indianapolis Colts 24 – and wondered if the football world had spun off its axis. San
Diego, a team known for playoff flameouts, had just taken out the one team
thought to have a realistic shot at stopping the New England Patriots' merciless assault on an undefeated season. Instead, it'll be the Chargers who show up at Gillette Stadium next Sunday to play Tom Brady and the Pats for the AFC Championship, while Manning sits home and digests a can't-win-the-big-one flashback to which Turner can unfortunately relate.
Throw in the game's surreal circumstances, and what Turner's team
accomplished was nothing short of stunning. Playing most of the second half without his superstar halfback and starting quarterback, seemingly shafted by the officials on a couple of key occasions, and stuck on the short end of what would be a 402-yard passing day from Manning, Turner was the hero in the headset.
"The adversity this year, starting out 1-3 and putting ourselves in a hole, it was a tough road," Chargers owner Dean Spanos said after the game. "And I give Norv all the credit. He stayed the course and pulled us out of it." Turner, he of the 59-83-1 coaching record in prior stints with the Redskins and Raiders, joined the Chargers at a fractious time, with ultra-emotional coach Marty Schottenheimer having been fired by Spanos last February after losing a power struggle with general manager A.J. Smith. That the top-seeded Chargers, who'd gone a league-best 14-2 in the '06 regular season, had flailed down the stretch of a 24-21 divisional round playoff defeat to the Pats cemented the franchise's reputation as front-running underachievers – something Turner alluded to when he spoke to his players at their suburban Indy hotel the night before the game.
The new coach had his share of critics when he got the job, and the bashing intensified when he dropped three of his first four games, including a 38-14 thrashing by the Patriots in Week 2. To be fair, I have been a longtime member of this not-so-secret society, not because of anything personal I have against Turner, but largely because of what I've been told about him by various players and coaches I respect.
And, to be even more fair, some of those people who felt Turner was miscast as a head coach were current Chargers players. In mid-November, San Diego was 5-5 and seemed to be treading water, and Smith, a shrewd talent evaluator with an
authoritarian streak, looked like he'd blown it by putting Turner in charge.
The coach, however, stuck to his message: Last year, you were the best team in October and November, he told his players, and look where it got you. The challenge this year is to be the best team in December and January.
LaDainian Tomlinson, San Diego's All-Pro halfback and unquestioned leader, helped get his teammates on board with a heartfelt speech. The Chargers promptly began a winning streak that on Sunday reached eight games, and as the victories mounted, the coach's credibility increased internally.
On Saturday night, at long last, Turner found his voice. He spoke of the team's journey, reminding the players of the season's rough beginning and how many times they'd been counted out. "Once again, we're at that crossroads," he told them. "People want to see Brady vs. Manning. Let's be honest. No one gives us a shot in this game."
He talked about the way the Chargers were perceived by outsiders – as a talented team that couldn't dig down deep and, say, pull out a big game as road underdogs.
"I don't know where that comes from, but that's not true," he said emphatically.
The room grew silent as Turner continued, "I believe in you. I believe in this
team."
Then, tapping his chest for emphasis: "I feel it right here."
"You could see him tearing up," Tomlinson recalled Sunday. "We all felt it,
because we knew it was coming from the heart. And when he tapped his chest …"
Wait a minute – that was a page straight out of the Schottenheimer playbook.

"Yep," Tomlinson said, smiling. "It sure was."

The Chargers could have been blown out of the Dome on Sunday, as so many other teams had before them, but they kept finding a way to silence the roar of 56,950 fans by drawing on the deep, talented roster Smith has assembled.
The Colts were up 7-0 and driving late in the first quarter when future Hall of Fame wideout Marvin Harrison, in his return after missing the regular season's final 10 games with a severely bruised left knee, made his first catch on a crossing route at
the San Diego 23-yard line and fought for extra yardage. Cornerback Antonio
Cromartie, a Pro Bowl selection despite spending the first half of the season as a non-starter, forced a fumble that safety Marlon McCree recovered – the first of three valiant takeaways by the Chargers, who led the league in that department this season – and the game settled down into a back-and-forth affair.
Three gorgeous touchdown passes by quarterback Philip Rivers (14 of 19, 264 yards) gave San Diego a 21-17 lead, the last coming on a short screen that 5-foot-6 scatback Darren Sproles turned into a 56-yard breakaway down the left sideline to close the third quarter. But Rivers tweaked his right knee while backpedaling on the
delivery, forcing him to the sidelines, where (gasp!) Tomlinson had been relegated since twisting his left knee in the second quarter, on the Chargers' first touchdown drive.
So it was that with 10:07 left in the game and Indy having just gone ahead by three on Manning's 55-yard touchdown pass to rookie wideout Anthony Gonzalez, Turner's offense took the field with backup quarterback Billy Volek manning the controls.
Armed with a slew of Smith-acquired skill players, including backup halfback Michael (No Relation) Turner, and the cool wisdom of a confident coach who pushed the right buttons at the perfect time, Volek marched the team 78 yards in eight plays, scoring on a one-yard sneak with 4:50 remaining to put the Chargers ahead. A pair of fourth-down stops, thwarted respectively thanks to killer rushers by bookend outside linebackers Shawne Merriman and Shaun Phillips, doused Indy's comeback hopes.
The Colts, commonly depicted as having flown under the radar while the Patriots were completing an unprecedented 16-0 regular season, had officially crash-landed.
Now Volek was taking a knee, and the Chargers were skipping off the field and into the locker room, where Turner gave the backup quarterback a game ball and told his players he was proud of them and marched into an interview room with a new bounce in his step.
"We've got some guys who compete and fight and scratch and claw as good as I've ever been around," Turner said. "I told them in the locker room I've been doing this a long time … and I've never been around a more gutsy performance by a team. And the adversity, the things that happened during the game, the injuries, our guys never backed down. "It's one I'll remember in terms of individuals stepping up and doing the things you talk about and competing. That's a special game."
No matter what happens in New England next Sunday, this victory over the Colts was a game that Turner will never forget. When we look at him now, we see a different man.
His players saw it first.
"We're going to New England," Tomlinson said.
At long last, they know who'll lead them.

By Michael Silver, Yahoo! Sports