My friend, Sarah R., is having a birthday on August 11, but we decided to throw her a surprise birthday party today (just to keep her on her toes!). Everyone will be headed different directions for the next few months as we start planning out our futures and important things like that, so I was pumped we could get together one last time.
Guess who volunteered to make a cake?! :)
Pam (the surprise-party-thrower) suggested something chocolate, or with cherries, so I found a delicious-sounding recipe for a chocolate/cherry cake that basically uses a can of cherry pie filling + almond extract instead of oil. The cake smelled AMAZING and it was hard for me not to chomp down on it right away.
I had originally planned to make a delicious frosting to put on the cake, then cover it up in fondant to make it all pretty. But after I made the decadent Hershey's Cocoa Frosting recipe, I decided I really couldn't cover up that deliciousness with a bunch of fondant. (and it was the icky fondant that you buy from Michaels, too, not even the yummier marshmallow kind)
So, what to do with all the extra fondant? Why not make a little Sarah herself?!
I think it turned out pretty delicious, and I'm going to wait to post this until after the party! :)
Pictures to come soon. Of this cake and the train cake, because I'm lame and forgot to post them.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
I'm Katie, I'll be your tour guide this evening
Apparently the BlogGods heard my post, and I didn't get sick. I just felt yucky for a couple mornings, and then it passed. Sweet.
Anyway, the last week or so I've been standardized patient-ing to study for Step 2 CS. It's this big, scary test, where you have to see 12 patients for 15 minutes each, then write a doctor note about your encounter, tell them what you think is wrong and the tests you want to do. You run a lot of tests. I wouldn't really do them in real life, because it is wasteful healthcare to run tons of tests when you're already sure of the diagnosis, right? The complaints were fairly straightforward (lots of "my ___ hurts" type thing), and I felt like it went OK.
Hopefully. US medical students have approximately a 96% pass rate, so I'd better freaking pass.
Basically this is a test to weed out foreign students who haven't quite mastered the English language, or those people who are jerks, and probably for those people who aren't good at acting.
Anyway, enough about the tests. My mom, dad and I went down to Atlanta to take this test (not included in the $1000, mind you) and we attempted a little sightseeing while down there. It was sort of a pathetic attempt, but an attempt nonetheless.
Now, I'm just lounging around before doing the 5 MILLION wedding planning things that I need to get on, like, now. I'm sort of ready to just elope. Maybe I'll play Chris' new Wii sports resort instead. ;)
Anyway, the last week or so I've been standardized patient-ing to study for Step 2 CS. It's this big, scary test, where you have to see 12 patients for 15 minutes each, then write a doctor note about your encounter, tell them what you think is wrong and the tests you want to do. You run a lot of tests. I wouldn't really do them in real life, because it is wasteful healthcare to run tons of tests when you're already sure of the diagnosis, right? The complaints were fairly straightforward (lots of "my ___ hurts" type thing), and I felt like it went OK.
Hopefully. US medical students have approximately a 96% pass rate, so I'd better freaking pass.
Basically this is a test to weed out foreign students who haven't quite mastered the English language, or those people who are jerks, and probably for those people who aren't good at acting.
Anyway, enough about the tests. My mom, dad and I went down to Atlanta to take this test (not included in the $1000, mind you) and we attempted a little sightseeing while down there. It was sort of a pathetic attempt, but an attempt nonetheless.
- We visited stone mountain, which was some random big mound of granite in the middle of trees, in the middle of Atlanta. Apparently there was a lot to do there for 1) kids, 2) hikers, and 3) people when it is not raining. It was pouring off and on so it was sort of a bust.
- While I was taking the test my parents tried to go to the Jimmy Carter museum (I was sort of thankful they did that without me because as hard as I try I continue to loathe US history). Unfortunately the museum is closed for renovations until October, but apparently if you rap on the windows and doors they will give you a free book and some 1/2 price passes to come back. (This was according to a random lady on the sidewalk, not my parents, until they found out she is actually the curator of the museum.)
- So, instead of the museum, my mom and dad went to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, where my dad used his "photo skillz" to take ~150 pictures of flowers. Supposedly it was a nice place.
- The day after my test, I had really wanted to go to the Coca-cola museum because I'd heard lots of things from it. We actually drove over to where it was supposed to be (after checking two maps AND the Garmin) and walked around only to find out that they moved 2 years ago and obviously we were dumb tourists who just paid $5 for parking to go nowhere. So we tried to go to this place called The Underground while we there, because supposedly it's all historic and full of little shops and restaraunts and everything. Except it was all on lockdown at 9:15 in the morning.
- So, we left there and went to the World of Coke. It was pretty fun - there was tons of coke memorabilia, art, and advertising. There was only a little about the actual history of coke, which I would have appreciated more of. Then you got to taste-test 63 flavors of coke from around the world. SIXTY THREE. I should have known that was a mistake. They actually weren't "coca-cola" flavored, which made me sad, they were more like Fanta, Nestea, and fruity drinks. My favorite was Greece's Pineapple Fanta (like a fizzy pina colada! yum!) and the absolute WORST was Beverly from Italy. It was SO disgusting, bleh!
Now, I'm just lounging around before doing the 5 MILLION wedding planning things that I need to get on, like, now. I'm sort of ready to just elope. Maybe I'll play Chris' new Wii sports resort instead. ;)
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
sick
Seriously? WHY do I have painful cervical lymphadenpathy, a sore throat, and stuffy nose?
1) It is JULY 22. Summer!
2) It is my only 2-week vacation this ENTIRE year.
3) It's not even allergy season.
4) I have two relatively large and pretty important exams (you know, so I can graduate medical school) in less than a week.
5) This is the only time in the past year that I HAVEN'T been around sick people.
Life isn't fair.
1) It is JULY 22. Summer!
2) It is my only 2-week vacation this ENTIRE year.
3) It's not even allergy season.
4) I have two relatively large and pretty important exams (you know, so I can graduate medical school) in less than a week.
5) This is the only time in the past year that I HAVEN'T been around sick people.
Life isn't fair.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Picking iPhones
Yesterday, Kateri (who just became my 3rd bridesmaid, hooray!) invited us to head over to her parent's place in Danville for an afternoon of blackberry-pickin' and hanging out. First of all, her parent's place isn't exactly in Danville (about 12 windy-road miles away) and second, it is on 115 acres of land. ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN. It's gorgeous out there, all hilly and green, with tons of wildlife and room for vegetable gardens and wild blackberries and...wow.
We picked berries for a couple hours and ended up with 6 gallon-sized bags full of fresh blackberries. 5 of those bags are soon to become jam (yea!!!) and one bag came home with Chris and I. I've spent the entire morning drooling over recipes: blackberry pancakes, blackberry oatmeal, blackberry cake, blackberry smoothies...slurp!
It was awesome to get out there for the afternoon and spend the evening on the front porch, rocking on the rocking chair, watching the hummingbirds come up and feed, and enjoying the cool July evening.
The thing that impressed me most, though, was the delicious dinner that the Roessler family cooked up for us. We had a roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, squash, tomatoes with basil, cucumber salad (oh and the best benedictine spread I've ever had!), and blackberry wine...and everything came from their garden. Even the roast, which came from the cow they had owned (who Kateri's sister Christa had affectionately named "Steak" when they got him!). For dessert we sat out on the porch and ate big slices of sweet watermelon and spit the seeds into the yard.
I had a great time and am so happy Kateri and Karl invited us out there! Mrs. Roessler even sent us home with a bag full of more fresh veggies (cucumbers, tomatoes, squash!!) I am so excited!
I wish I had some pictures of the place, but unfortunately we left the camera in the car for this trip. Maybe we'll just have to come out again sometime and take photos!
We picked berries for a couple hours and ended up with 6 gallon-sized bags full of fresh blackberries. 5 of those bags are soon to become jam (yea!!!) and one bag came home with Chris and I. I've spent the entire morning drooling over recipes: blackberry pancakes, blackberry oatmeal, blackberry cake, blackberry smoothies...slurp!
It was awesome to get out there for the afternoon and spend the evening on the front porch, rocking on the rocking chair, watching the hummingbirds come up and feed, and enjoying the cool July evening.
The thing that impressed me most, though, was the delicious dinner that the Roessler family cooked up for us. We had a roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, squash, tomatoes with basil, cucumber salad (oh and the best benedictine spread I've ever had!), and blackberry wine...and everything came from their garden. Even the roast, which came from the cow they had owned (who Kateri's sister Christa had affectionately named "Steak" when they got him!). For dessert we sat out on the porch and ate big slices of sweet watermelon and spit the seeds into the yard.
I had a great time and am so happy Kateri and Karl invited us out there! Mrs. Roessler even sent us home with a bag full of more fresh veggies (cucumbers, tomatoes, squash!!) I am so excited!
I wish I had some pictures of the place, but unfortunately we left the camera in the car for this trip. Maybe we'll just have to come out again sometime and take photos!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Patrick's 20th Birthday - Train Cake
Note: super awesomely cool pictures of an orange dreamsicle-flavored train cake will be uploaded shortly. Using Chris' camera=uploading pictures to Chris' computer=waiting for him to play with them before I get to put them up! Stay tuned!
Patrick is my brother. He lives with me. He turned 20 yesterday, and in honor of the celebration of his day of birth, I wanted to make him a cake.
Here's our conversation:
I suppose this deserves a little explanation. Patrick bought some train horns (yes, exactly what you think they are) and installed them on his car from a website called hornblasters.com. He spent a lot of money to install big, loud horns on his car so he can drive around downtown Lexington on Friday and Saturday nights and honk in crowded areas just to watch people's reactions. The reactions are pretty funny, but I think it's silly and sort of mean. But, he really, really enjoys his horns so I suppose that's all that matters.
Anyway, so I perused orange flavor cakes for a while on the internet until I came across a recipe for an Orange Dreamsicle Flavor Cake - you remember those popsicles that are orange on the outside and creamy vanilla on the inside? Yea... So that's what I made. After the cake was out of the oven the recipe told me to boil 2 cups of orange jello and pour it over the cake, then chill it so the gelatin/cake would set. I added some almond extract to the whole thing to give it a little more deliciousness, and covered it in cream cheese frosting! YUM.
As luck would have it, my mom *actually owns* a train-shaped cake pan, which was an amazing help, considering the headache that it actually was to make it. I was trying too many techniques, and should have kept it simpler. Also, the cake came out SUPER gooey, so the train sort of lost its shape. All in all, it took me about 4 1/2 hours to get the whole cake done, which a ridiculously long time to make something that looks like it does. I was sort of disappointed, but Patrick certainly wasn't. He loved it!
Patrick is my brother. He lives with me. He turned 20 yesterday, and in honor of the celebration of his day of birth, I wanted to make him a cake.
Here's our conversation:
Katie:
Patrick, what kind of cake do you want me to make for your birthday?
Patrick:
I don't care.
Katie:
No, really, what kind do you want? Chocolate, Vanilla, Red Velvet?
Patrick:
Um, I don't care.
Katie:
Patrick, just pick a flavor.
Patrick:
I don't know!
Katie:
Seriously! What kind of cake do you want to eat?!
Patrick, sipping his orange soda:
Orange soda flavor!
Katie:
?? Orange? Okay. That wasn't so hard, was it? How do you want me to decorate it?
Patrick:
I don't know.
Katie:
What do you want it to look like?
Patrick:
I don't know!
Katie:
You're so annoying! Just pick something!
Patrick:
Fine, then! I want it to be a train because trains are freaking awesome. Whoo whoo!
Katie:
????
Patrick, what kind of cake do you want me to make for your birthday?
Patrick:
I don't care.
Katie:
No, really, what kind do you want? Chocolate, Vanilla, Red Velvet?
Patrick:
Um, I don't care.
Katie:
Patrick, just pick a flavor.
Patrick:
I don't know!
Katie:
Seriously! What kind of cake do you want to eat?!
Patrick, sipping his orange soda:
Orange soda flavor!
Katie:
?? Orange? Okay. That wasn't so hard, was it? How do you want me to decorate it?
Patrick:
I don't know.
Katie:
What do you want it to look like?
Patrick:
I don't know!
Katie:
You're so annoying! Just pick something!
Patrick:
Fine, then! I want it to be a train because trains are freaking awesome. Whoo whoo!
Katie:
????
I suppose this deserves a little explanation. Patrick bought some train horns (yes, exactly what you think they are) and installed them on his car from a website called hornblasters.com. He spent a lot of money to install big, loud horns on his car so he can drive around downtown Lexington on Friday and Saturday nights and honk in crowded areas just to watch people's reactions. The reactions are pretty funny, but I think it's silly and sort of mean. But, he really, really enjoys his horns so I suppose that's all that matters.
Anyway, so I perused orange flavor cakes for a while on the internet until I came across a recipe for an Orange Dreamsicle Flavor Cake - you remember those popsicles that are orange on the outside and creamy vanilla on the inside? Yea... So that's what I made. After the cake was out of the oven the recipe told me to boil 2 cups of orange jello and pour it over the cake, then chill it so the gelatin/cake would set. I added some almond extract to the whole thing to give it a little more deliciousness, and covered it in cream cheese frosting! YUM.
As luck would have it, my mom *actually owns* a train-shaped cake pan, which was an amazing help, considering the headache that it actually was to make it. I was trying too many techniques, and should have kept it simpler. Also, the cake came out SUPER gooey, so the train sort of lost its shape. All in all, it took me about 4 1/2 hours to get the whole cake done, which a ridiculously long time to make something that looks like it does. I was sort of disappointed, but Patrick certainly wasn't. He loved it!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
aging
Just when I think I'm getting old, I find a test that tells me I'm not quite there yet.
But after listening to that sound for a few seconds, I wish my eardrums were a little more...mature. Ouch!
Created by Train Horns
But after listening to that sound for a few seconds, I wish my eardrums were a little more...mature. Ouch!
finishing the race
With only one more measly little test standing between me and M4, I thought I'd take a few moments and reflect back on the year. This year has probably been one the most amazing, interesting, and fun year of my life. For years I've "wanted to be a doctor" but now I'm actually living it. Sometimes it's not all it's cracked up to be. But most of the time, it is.
OB/Gyn: Young, young moms. Feeling like I should have 4 kids by now. Funny names: Tisamiracle, Fairy, you name it. Catching a couple babes myself - they're so slippery! Lots of bodily fluids. Practicando espanol todos los dias. Gyn-onc surgeries: boring boring boring. Big women, big tumors. Sweet residents, but babycatching is not on my to-do list anymore.
Family Med: Little mix of everything. Clinic hours and lots of free time. Variety of residents. Do I want to do this when I grow up? Maybe, maybe not. Derm and sports injury procedures. Prevention. "Touchy feely" stuff and disparities in healthcare.
Peds: Cute kiddos. Bardstown with grandma and grandpa, running, making them dinner and eating bacon. Learning so much about pediatric medicine and about Dora the Explorer. Don't forget Hannah Montana - the most popular halloween costume. Well child checks over and over and over. Sick kids in the hospital get better, get toys, and go home. Kids aren't drinking, smoking, and eating themselves to death. Kind, gentle residents. Maybe I want to do this, kids are so cute. Or will I get sick of well-children? Should I specialize?
ER: Busy. Life-threatening. Minute-to-minute. Algorithms and ACLS. Teamwork. Shiftwork. Too high-stress and boring at the same time. Fun to watch, lots of stories.
Medicine: A little of everything. My first dying patient - liver failure from alcohol. MRSA endophthalmitis, hospital-acquired infections, kidney failure. Managing disease states as well as preventing them. Women's clinic felt like a treat each week. VA old men and their stories - they love it when you smile. So much to learn, I will never know it all. Maybe I can try. Now this might be what I want to do.
Psych: Consult service. Addicts are people too, and sweet young women at that. Bipolar girl who thinks she has AIDS and talks to her dead father, then storms out on me. Depressed cutter transgender man shows me the plastic hidden in his shoe that he did not use to cut himself all week. Really talking to patients. Talking to families. Lots of talking. I want the best for them but they don't want it for themselves.
Neuro: Brainy docs, literally. Love diagnosis even without treatment. Patient who was eating Easter dinner on the back porch, walked inside and suffered a massive stroke, never to respond again. Funny words for not funny things: aphasia, hemiagnosia, etc. Curiosity and zebras.
Surgery: Dreading this all year, but suprisingly not bad. Plastics, ENT, VA. Cool residents, "doing stuff" in the OR is actually fun. Learning to sew, tie knots. Learning about what's important in trauma, and in life. Patients who say "you saved my life."
I don't really know any other way to sum up the year. It was all so overwhelming...in so many ways. I can say pretty confidently that it has been the best year of my life, which leads me to believe I have picked the right profession. I have had so many rich experiences this year and I can't believe our 3rd year has come to a close. I remember being M1/M2 and seeing those wise old M4s lounging around the hospital...now I am one of them! And this time next year, we'll all be doctors! It's sort of unreal....
OB/Gyn: Young, young moms. Feeling like I should have 4 kids by now. Funny names: Tisamiracle, Fairy, you name it. Catching a couple babes myself - they're so slippery! Lots of bodily fluids. Practicando espanol todos los dias. Gyn-onc surgeries: boring boring boring. Big women, big tumors. Sweet residents, but babycatching is not on my to-do list anymore.
Family Med: Little mix of everything. Clinic hours and lots of free time. Variety of residents. Do I want to do this when I grow up? Maybe, maybe not. Derm and sports injury procedures. Prevention. "Touchy feely" stuff and disparities in healthcare.
Peds: Cute kiddos. Bardstown with grandma and grandpa, running, making them dinner and eating bacon. Learning so much about pediatric medicine and about Dora the Explorer. Don't forget Hannah Montana - the most popular halloween costume. Well child checks over and over and over. Sick kids in the hospital get better, get toys, and go home. Kids aren't drinking, smoking, and eating themselves to death. Kind, gentle residents. Maybe I want to do this, kids are so cute. Or will I get sick of well-children? Should I specialize?
ER: Busy. Life-threatening. Minute-to-minute. Algorithms and ACLS. Teamwork. Shiftwork. Too high-stress and boring at the same time. Fun to watch, lots of stories.
Medicine: A little of everything. My first dying patient - liver failure from alcohol. MRSA endophthalmitis, hospital-acquired infections, kidney failure. Managing disease states as well as preventing them. Women's clinic felt like a treat each week. VA old men and their stories - they love it when you smile. So much to learn, I will never know it all. Maybe I can try. Now this might be what I want to do.
Psych: Consult service. Addicts are people too, and sweet young women at that. Bipolar girl who thinks she has AIDS and talks to her dead father, then storms out on me. Depressed cutter transgender man shows me the plastic hidden in his shoe that he did not use to cut himself all week. Really talking to patients. Talking to families. Lots of talking. I want the best for them but they don't want it for themselves.
Neuro: Brainy docs, literally. Love diagnosis even without treatment. Patient who was eating Easter dinner on the back porch, walked inside and suffered a massive stroke, never to respond again. Funny words for not funny things: aphasia, hemiagnosia, etc. Curiosity and zebras.
Surgery: Dreading this all year, but suprisingly not bad. Plastics, ENT, VA. Cool residents, "doing stuff" in the OR is actually fun. Learning to sew, tie knots. Learning about what's important in trauma, and in life. Patients who say "you saved my life."
I don't really know any other way to sum up the year. It was all so overwhelming...in so many ways. I can say pretty confidently that it has been the best year of my life, which leads me to believe I have picked the right profession. I have had so many rich experiences this year and I can't believe our 3rd year has come to a close. I remember being M1/M2 and seeing those wise old M4s lounging around the hospital...now I am one of them! And this time next year, we'll all be doctors! It's sort of unreal....
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