A Year in Review

Stanley and I on New Year's Eve 2008 at the Silo with our family

1/24/09 Motorcycle Show in Syracuse

Our foster dog, Bentley, that we had for 3 months

March 2009 Wine Tour and still studying for boards

St. Patty's Day in NYC with Ashley and Stanley

Studying for boards. I had lots of company. :)

4/30/09 Found out I had passed National Boards. Celebrating at TGI Fridays

May 2009 Bronx Zoo with Charlye and her friend

Graduation!!

Vacation 2009 (Myrtle Beach, Charleston, Savannah, Atlanta and a little place in GA)

GOOD TIMES!

White water kayaking in NC on vacation. The water was frigid.

July 2009 Binghamton Air Show. Got to see the Blue Angels

 Labor Day 2009 Myrtle Beach

October 2009 Stoughton's Farm Corn Maze

Halloween 2009 Everyone except my brother (he's taking the picture)

Thanksgiving 2009

Logan Lorfils | A Dog Named Christmas

Logan Lorfils | A Dog Named Christmas

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What a drive home.

My ride home tonight was quite horrible but it could have been worst now that I look back.  But while I was driving I was just expecting the worst.  Left work around 5:10 pm, got on the road. About 15 minutes into my ride, my check engine light came on.

A little background info: There a town called Harford Mills. I don't think it really qualifies as a town though, more like just a hill.  This hill is my dreaded spot.  This is because you can't see what is coming over the crest of the hill until you are on the crest of it. It a "blind" hill.  So each time I drive over it, I imagine that someone will be in my lane and it will be a head on collision.

Today when I was approaching this "town", there were firetrucks, ambulance, etc. I was sitting in a small lane of traffic because it had just happened.  I turned off my radio, cracked my window to ease drop, and got my GPS ready to detour.  While my window was cracked, I heard the sound of something rustling in the leaves in the woods to the right of me.  I thought it might be a deer, so I looked, only to see a shirtless human scattering through the woods with a flashlight.  Very freaky. It made me think that it was some type of man hunt. And he was the one they were hunting.

The firefighter lady then got my attention and told me to take a left.  So off I was to putting all of my trust in the GPS to get me home.  The back roads were pitch black and very creepy. The only thing out there was some trailers.  While I was on them, I noticed that my gas was below a 1/4 of a tank.  I knew I should have filled up my tank this morning.  1/4 tank of gas is fine if you know where you are going.  Its not so reassuring if you have no clue where you are.    So as I was on this road after I noticed my gas, my imagination really took off. I thought <oh great, here I am on back roads with a check engine light and less than 1/4 tank of gas.  Watch my car is going to either break down or just run out of gas, and then I will try to call for help and have no signal because I never have signal in this "town".  Even if I get a hold of someone, I don't know where to tell them I am.  Then I will just be stranded and that strange man in the woods who is being hunted is going to come and kill me, chop me up and no one will ever find me>. So I made it onto Route 79 but still had no real bearings. I then saw a sign that said Center Lisle.  Still not sure how I got from Harford Mills to Center Lisle.

In Lisle, I got stuck behind a school bus. Please mind you, it is now 6 pm.  Why are kids just getting off the school bus at 6 pm?? The roads are dusty, the air reeks of manure, the skies are dark, and I just really want to get home.  Finally the road spits me out onto Route 26 in Maine.  At this point I'm getting a little more comfortable but still not fully orientated.  Then I pass 38b. Boy was I happy to see that. Now I had all of my directional bearings back.

So I made it home. No car broke down. Did not run out of gas. No psycho killed me (although he may still be out there in the woods).

Home Sweet Home.
I really do have quite a vivid imagination when things lend themselves to it.

Not much

So I have a whole week to write about, but just not feeling like writing. Feeling a tad bit lazy. Plus it is so nice outside. Maybe later tonight when its dark out and I'm feeling bored.

THE MOST WONDERFUL NEWS!!!

I had a patient towards the end of the evening tonight and somehow he said he was from Berkshire. Knowing this I knew he had to come to the dentist the same way I did.  So I knew he sees the same things. I asked him if he saw all the sheep on that one road.  He knew EXACTLY what I was talking about.  Not only that but he SOLVED my mystery.  Are you ready?? I know how suspenseful this is...














They are Cornell Sheep.

Cornell Sheep

THIS MAKES ME SO HAPPY TO KNOW I'M NOT CRAZY...AND TO KNOW THAT THERE ISN'T A REALLY BORED FARMER MOVING SHEEP ALL AROUND. JUST REALLY BORED STUDENTS. 

Week in Review

Tuesday night we had our church small group over to our house.  I got to see baby Hugh for the first time. He was so quiet.  He just stayed in the dining room and barely made a peep.

Wednesday was a long day.  I came home from work thinking I would do some dishes, laundry and then read a magazine and wait for Stanley to come home from school. I figured I would get the laundry going first since it takes a while.  Went down to the basement and noticed it felt a little damp.  I looked around and then saw a pond of water in the middle of my basement.  Most of it pooled right in the middle, this would make sense if there was a drain in the middle too but there's not.  So I called my brother to come rescue me from this mess since Stanley was in school  until 9 pm.  He said I had to find the water turn off valve. This was an interesting task.  I knew Stanley had turned it off the numerous other times we have had water issues, but I had never taken the time to figure it out myself.  There are a lot of valves that look like they turn off the water, and they are even connected to the copper tubing. But what I really needed was the valve that was near a meter.  When I finally found it, it was hidden behind my dryer.  Once my brother got here, he began cleaning up all of the water by pushing it into the drain. This drain, once again not in the center, was on the edge of the room near my washer. Then we turned the dehumidifier on and it was beginning to dry up nicely.  Stanley finally got home and it was going okay.  Then he decided he would start the laundry that I never really got too.  Went to go flip it over and put it in the dryer, and the basement was all wet again.  This one would be my fault though. Logan had been in the basement when we were cleaning the first time and kept playing with his ball.  His ball kept going in the water and rolling in the dusty dirty basement.  I finally got tired of picking up the wet soggy ball so I put it in the wash bin that the washer empties into.  Well I never took it out when we were done cleaning.  So when the washer tried to empty, it did but it didn't drain, it just overflowed.  So Stanley went down and cleaned it up again.  It was no where as near as bad as the first clean up though.  Finally got to bed around 1 am with no dinner.

Thursday was a late night too. I worked from 10:30 am - 7 pm.  Well none of my afternoon patients felt like showing up.  From 230-530, I had no patients. So to stay busy I cleaned. My rooms are so spotless.  I even scrubbed the wheels on my chair.  Then my 530, 6, and 630 patients all showed up and I got out of work late.  It s so annoying when you have 3 hours of free time but still get out of work late.  After I got home, I grabbed some clean clothes and went over to my brother's to take a shower.  Stanley got out of work around 7 or 7:30 pm and he had to pick up his sister, Rebecca.  She was at Path of Life camp baking stuff with her class for their bake sale.  She didn't take her cell phone so we had no idea when  she was going to be back at her house so Stanley could pick her up.  While I was at my brother's I got to watch some baseball and saw part of the Yankees/Angels game.  When I left at 10:30 pm to go home the Yankees had just won the lead.  We all gathered home around 10:45 pm.  Still none of us had eaten dinner. So we threw a frozen pizza in the oven and then stayed up to watch Son's of Anarchy.  Once again, we got to bed around 1 am, but at least we had some dinner this time.

T.G.I.F.  Fridays are of course my half days and pay day. Well I got my paycheck and took off for the weekend.  About 10 minutes into my hour drive I decided to look at my paycheck. Seeing taxes, YTD totals, etc... Then I noticed that there was no signature! GREAT! I pulled into a parking lot and called doc to tell her.  So she said I could come back to the office, they were still there.  So that added another twenty minutes on my commute home.  I was so hungry by this point too.  When I got to Newark Valley I stopped at Stoughton's to get an apple to eat, a piece of fudge because I can't resist, and two pumpkins for Stanley and I to carve this weekend.  I got home and did some errands and around 6 pm, my brother came over and hooked up the new hot water heater.  By the time Stanley got home, it was all done, just had to add the venting we had him pick up on his way home.  We went out to dinner at Applebee's and then went grocery shopping at Wal-mart.  We got home around 11 pm and just kind of put things away and I went to bed.

I am so glad that it is Saturday and that I have hot water. I think I might go to A.C. Moore and get some stuff to teach myself how to crochet.  maybe...

Remarks from CBS Sunday Morning - Ben Stein

Remarks from CBS Sunday Morning - Ben Stein

I Only hope we find GOD again before it is too late ! !

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish.. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against.. That's what they are, Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.
I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Hurricane Katrina). Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'

In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said okay.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.
Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit.

If not, then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.