Song of the week

The song of the week is an oldie. I picked it in celebration of the fact that we are going to see Clapton at Malahide Castle in June. SWEET!!!

Before You Accuse ...

London

Hello London! We made our first trip to the UK's Big Apple. Big Ben, Parliament, British Museum, Tower of London, eating, shopping, it was all there. I'd say it is a place that we could go back to again (to live?). In fact, we'll be back in May so I'm sure this is going to be the first of many London slideshows.

Traveling

Check out this sweet slideshow!

Old Paris!

We've just returned from our big traveling adventure having seen more of the West coast of Ireland and jetting across the pond to London before taking the train under the channel to Paris. We have a TON of pictures and the slide shows will probably be trickling out over the next week or so.

The trip was a blast. Regan and Pete (my sister and brother-in-laws) came for a visit and with all we saw I'm sure they got their money's worth. Here is some of what we saw in Paris. I tried to keep the main attractions together so you'd know what you were looking at. They include: Notre-Dame, Eiffel Tower, Champs-Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre and more. The whole time we were there it reminded me of one of my favorite movies (it won't be hard to figure out which one!). Enjoy!

Superbowl

I have been continually surprised at the amount of American sports on television over here. This weekend alone I was able to watch the Arizona basketball game and the Superbowl. Neither turned out as I had hoped so I'll just leave it at that. We don't get the commercials, however, which is normal a good thing except during the Superbowl. Fear not, everything is online! Here is my favorite!

Song of the Week

The song of the week has turned into a song of the month but I'll try to get a little more consistent. This is Griffin House. He's a folky rhythm guitarist with what sounds like Johnny Cash/Bob Dylan influences. This song is called Only Love Remainsand is simple in it's progressions but attractively smooth and easy on the ears. Check him out. He's got a number of good albums.

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Purrr

Today my Mom went home after a 2 week visit. It was really nice having her stay with us as we had been accustomed to being able to see her on a regular basis. We got to do a bit of traveling, show her around Dublin, hang out around the house and eat...a lot! She also brought us the best gift...our purrrrrs! They are back to normal after the long trip and I think they did remarkably well. Now we are sharing our bed again with a couple of bed-hogs!

West Side!

This weekend we took our first road trip in Ireland. After a couple of hours you really get used to driving on the "wrong" side of the road. We headed West through several small towns and villages stopping at the Rock of Cashel (an old 4th century castle) along the way. Or final destination was Killarney where we stopped at the Muckross House and saw the house and gardens. From there we tackled the Ring of Kerry which is about 100miles of spectacular scenery. We started off up through the mountains in the Kerry National Park and then went around the peninsula before cutting back across to Dublin. These pictures are just a few of the countryside and coastline. Dana will probably be posting some of the castle and house fairly soon. It was great to get out of Dublin and see "proper" Ireland. It really is as beautiful as everyone says. Truly breathtaking.

One more from Rome

Here is one last show from Roma from me. We saw many spectacular fountains during our stay and took some pictures of a few of them. There are several shots from the famous Trevi fountains among others. Enjoy!

Roman Forum

The Roman Forum, or Forum Romanum, was the center of Roman antiquity. Commercial, political, religious and legal proceedings all took place in the small valley at the foot of the Palatine Hill. The Senate building is directly across from the forum which held shops and markets. The area held temples to Saturn, Jupiter, Agustus and Julius Caesar among others. The main street connecting the Flavian Amphitheater to the Capitol was called the Via Secra or Sacred Road. At each end of the road is a large arch way one of which was erected to celebrate Emporer Titus' victory over Jerusalem. The Temple of Vesta was considered one of the most important because it was dedicated to the goddess Vesta who was the protectress of family. It held the Vestal Virgins who guarded the eternal flame which was to represent the eternal life of Rome. The virgins were chosen by the Pontifex Maximus between the ages of 6 and 10 and had fulfill 30 years of chastity and vigilance over the flame. They were held in the highest esteem and were given a huge dowry by the Senate; however, if they failed their punishment was harsh. If the flame went out or they were untrue to their vow of chastity they were buried alive with a loaf of bread and a lamp.

After Constantine many of the buildings were taken down or converted to churches and even today a few of them still stand.

The Colosseum

The Colosseum is one of the great remaining historical artifacts and sits literally in the center of a bustling modern city. It stands as the embodiment of ancient Roman culture. Construction started in 70 A.D. on the site of Nero's imperial gardens and originally carried the name Flavian Amphitheater after the family that built it. In front stood a 30 meter tall statue of Nero made from bronze and gold that was called the Colossus of Nero and is what eventually led to the nickname Colosseum. Each person was issued a clay "ticket" and each entrance was numbered leading to a section that had numbered seats that each entrant was assigned to. The entire outer face was constructed of marble with marble statues filling each outlook from the upper levels. Canals were in place to fill the floor with water for naval battles (which didn't work very well) after which the floor was reconstructed to have a sand covered wooden floor over a series of passageways and rooms to bring gladiators and animals out through elevators and various trap doors. The sophistication and beauty of the Colosseum is breathtaking and demonstrates the advances the Romans had achieved. The other side of Roman culture is also evident. Upon its opening there were 100 days of "games" where 5000 animals were killed. Slaves would fight trained gladiators and be slaughtered. Rebels who wouldn't join the army and martyrs were led out to be devoured by lions and all to a raucous crowd. It is eerie to look and know that the floor was covered with sand to absorb the blood so it didn't rot the wood. Rome was certainly something to behold.

Ariana

Congratulations to my brother Michael and Jessica on the birth of little Ariana. I can call my parents Grandma and Grandpa which is very fun. She's a cutie. She must take after her Uncle!

The Bucket List

This is the video of John Mayer's (yes Ryan, John Mayer) song for the movie The Bucket List. The song is one of those cliches that is only brought up when the circumstance calls for it but it is well said in this song...and the movie looks very good as well.


Music Videos - Say

Song of the Week

Week 2 of my song posts. This is Augustana. They have 2 singles out, Boston and All the Stars and Boulevards, and this is another off of that album. I think they have a good sound.

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Work Stuff

Dana has been telling me to blog about work since I started but to be honest there hasn't been much to blog about. The past 5 days have changed that. This may not be too impressive to most people but I've done 3 Norwood Stage 1 procedures, 2 Arterial Switch operations for transpositions, a Tetrology of Fallot and 1 ECMO in the past 5 days. I would say that MOST perfusionists don't see all of those cases in a year and a good few won't see them in their career. Gotta love paediatrics! It has been very busy as I've logged almost 100hrs in the past 9 days (yeah, 9 days straight) which is making me look forward very much to our trip to Rome at the end of the month. I've caught up on my case load for the year so I am back on track for my March exams.

Song of the week

I haven't blogged in a long time and totally don't have anything to say so I thought I'd start a "song of the week" to give me an excuse to blog every once in a while.
Enjoy.

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Edinburgh and beyond

Scotland, and Edinburgh in particular, is an amazing place. There is so much history in such a small area that it is unfathomable. The "young" artifacts and locations are a couple of hundred years older than our own Declaration of Independence. While visiting Edinburgh we took a day tour into the Highlands including Sterling Castle and Loch Lomond. Our tour guide had an awesome grasp on his country's history and talked for nearly the entire 4 hours we spent in the van recounting Scotland's past. It was fantastic.

I won't pretend to be able to recount (even in brief) much of what we learned but I will relay some of truth behind the Wallace fairy tale. Wallace was a huge man as judged by his sword and stood nearly a foot and a half taller than the average man. The story goes that after the death of his father and brother he was raised by 2 of his uncles. After fishing one day he was confronted by 5 English soldiers who demanded his entire catch. He offered half to them and they denied the offer and threatened his life. He killed all 5 soldiers which enraged the local sheriff. He was labeled an outlaw and it was discovered that the family of his wife/fiance' (Marion) was hiding him. Marion was taken and hung as an example not to harbour fugitives. Obviously enraged, Wallace attacked and dismembered the sheriff. Wallace went on to win a number of small battles but his most famous was the battle at Sterling bridge where he and his military strategist Andrew Moray defeated an English army more than 3 times their size. Moray was killed and Wallace was defeated at Falkirk where most of his army was slaughtered.

In 1305 Wallace was captured after one of the Scottish nobles John de Menteith betrayed him. He was drawn, hung, castrated, eviscerated, beheaded and quartered. Obviously King Edward I was making a statement.

That was a very brief report. It is amazing to be somewhere that stands on so much history. Edinburgh castle is built somewhere that has ruins dating back to around 850B.C. That's old baby! There is a movie coming out about Mary Queen of Scots which should be very interesting as she was a complicated figure. Anyway, enjoy the slide show!

Belfast

Last week we took a trip up to Northern Ireland and spent the day in Belfast. Everyone knows about the troubled history that has only recently begun to resolve in Northern Ireland but if you are like me the Irish Republican Army is the only group who's involvement is well publicized. We spent a good portion of our time on a black cab political history tour. I'll do my best to regurgitate the information we learned so maybe you can have a better understanding of what has been happening in N. Ireland.

Back in the 17th century a rich lord was given a substantial amount of land in N. Ireland. The overwhelmingly catholic community was expecting to receive jobs working the land, however the lord brought over Scottish protestants instead which was the beginning of the trouble. Fast forward to the 1972 when a catholic civil rights march to obtain equal rights was confronted by a British regiment that shot and killed 26 unarmed protesters. This was termed "Bloody Sunday" and began the organizations of the IRA which consists of catholics who want to be part of the Republic of Ireland and the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) who are protestant loyalists to the British crown. Both groups have been labeled terrorist organizations and have since become heavily involved in organized crime. Western Belfast is still extremely split between a catholic side and a protestant side that are separated by a huge Berlin-style wall that has gates that close at night or anytime trouble starts. You'll see the murals on the houses in the UFF neighborhoods of their heroes and on the IRA side a memorial we visited. You'll also see a photo of a house with a steel screen covering the back yard. People still throw things over the wall and the houses that boarder it are all protected. It was amazing to be somewhere that only a few years ago would have had army patrols to keep the peace. There are also pictures of a now closed down court house and prison reserved for terrorists.

That is the abbreviated history lesson. It was a very educational trip to say the least and one I'm glad I could see myself.

Newcastle

I just spent the weekend in Newcastle for the general annual meeting of perfusionists in Great Britain and Ireland. It was very interesting to go to a professional meeting that is meaningful to my career. I've been to national meetings before but typically only to satisfy my boss or pad the CV. I got roped into giving a talk as well which wasn't too bad and was actually quite an honor considering my recent graduation. I got out in Newcastle a little and caught a soccer game and took some pictures of the city. I intended to post them a while ago so with out further adu...

Irish coffee

I have finally found coffee I like. Irish Coffee! A good Irish coffee looks like a well poured Guiness. It is made from coffee (of course), brown sugar, whiskey and topped with thick cream. Delicioso! We're going to practice the fine art of creating these so we can provide our visitors with a traditional Irish beverage.