Finished Project! (and some funny dog pics)

Keeper and I have finished our first home improvement project. We refinished a dresser for our bedroom and I must say we did a great job. I think it looks awesome. Check it out for yourselves.
Before
After








We have to re-motivate ourselves to refinish the rest of the guest room furniture but I vow to get it done!

And here are some amusing pictures of our dog. The first is her with some lab safety goggles. She wasn't cut out to be a nerd.
I decided to give her a stuffed animal today to play with . It took her all of half an hour to "kill the monkey".

Midterms

I hate it when blog people apologize for their lack of recent posts. Having said that, sorry about the lack of posts.

One of the interesting aspects of a Quarter system, especially at a school where your first day is in the middle of August, is that you don't even get to October before mid-terms. Luckily, we really only had/have three. Monday we had Anatomy Lab, i.e. point stuff out on a dead body. I did OK. It wasn't worth much more than our weekly quizzes, so I'm not sweating a 75(ish).
Thursday we have Biochemistry, the class that puts a journalism major at a distinct disadvantage. You see, journalism majors don't take biochemistry, while chemistry and biology majors do. I'll figure it out, right?
Next Monday, we our Homeopathy I midterm. We've really only discussed theory, of which there is a lot. I'll try to explain it to you sometime.

Other notes:
-Chloe is doing great at charm school. She still has her moments, but is learning to ask for things.
-We took on our first home improvement project ever, refinishing a dresser so it better matches our bedroom furniture. Pictures of our triumphant project forthcoming. We still have to finish the old girl.
-It was about 70 degrees outside when we woke up today. Now I remember how we talked ourselves into moving to the hottest city in America.
-This deserves its own post, almost. The raw food diet that we told some people we were on, didn't work out. Raw food sucks and makes you tired. We've decided to do 70 percent raw. Then June can keep running as much as she likes, and I can actually concentrate in class, but we'll be super healthy at the same time.

Quiz, Quiz, Test, Quiz, Quiz

I'm in the middle of a string of five straight days with a quiz or a test. I think I'm holding up pretty well. The attitudes people have about grades are interesting. I had a conversation with a like-minded classmate the other day, and we agreed that our grades are not a reflection of ourselves or our potential as (someday) clinicians. The other side of the spectrum, and we all have known these people, tear up at the sight of a B.
I've decided to take it in stride. My job is to do as well as I'm capable of while not driving myself crazy with the incredible amount of information we have to digest. My job is also to do well on the board exams we take after two years, which determine whether we move on to the next two (clinical training) years.
Will better grades lead me to better opportunities in the way of possible residencies? Perhaps. Does someone check your report card before you open up your own practice? I doubt it. There is so much out of our control. I can only do what I'm capable of and no more. Having said that, I hope I ruined the curve on the Embryology exam :)

Labor Day Weekend

I know we haven't been great about posting but there really hasn't been much going on. Keith goes to school, I go to school....and that's about it. We had our first visitor this weekend, however which was a lot of fun. The picture to the right is of Corbin trying to do some push-ups in the living room. Chloe thought he might want to give her a belly rub instead.

The heat out here is really starting to get to us. It's now September and we are still reaching 110 degrees on most days. We wanted to a short hike with Corbin so we drove up to Flagstaff to get out of the heat yesterday. We went to Strawberry Crater, which is a dormant volcano. It wasn't nearly as hot in Flagstaff as in Phoenix, but we did the hike in the middle of the day so it was very sunny (no shade along a volcano) and the temperatures were probably in the low 90s. One difference about the climate in Flagstaff: the breeze actually felt cool! In Phoenix, a breeze feels like someone opened the oven door and all the hot air is hitting you. It's not very pleasant. The picture to the left is Keeper and Corbin on the first part of the hike. We were pretty much going up the side of the crater. It was steep and not easy footing. My feet kept sinking in the cinders/rocks from the volcano. The views from the top were amazing (as you can see). Chloe and I were glad it wasn't a long hike, as we had done some running early Sunday morning (6 miles for her, 12 for me); we got tired pretty easily. We got back to Phoenix last night and I had a pretty low-key evening, while Keeper and Corbin painted the town red once Corbin's friend got in (late) from San Diego. Today we caught a D'backs game, and not a very good one at that. They lost 10-2 to the Padres.


Tomorrow is back to the grind for all of us. I start pre-season soccer practice after school. I'm sure 110 degrees will feel very refreshing at 2:30pm on the soccer field. Corbin flies back to Brooklyn tomorrow and Keeper goes back to class.