poaching lions

So this is the new year
and I don't feel any different.

-The New Year, Death Cab For Cutie

I went home again for the holidays this year. I again felt lucky to have such a nice place to go home to, and such nice people there to welcome me back. I had stuck around for a few extra days in Vancouver after classes ended and did some stuff with Courtney's family. I was driving home by myself on the 23rd, so I offered a ride on craiglist and found someone from Rossland who needed a lift.

At home, I managed to get in quite a few days up at Red Mountain, a day of cross country skiing and spent new years at our cabin on Christina Lake for the first time. I was lucky to be visited by my cousin Dante, his girlfriend Ashley and their dog Jasper. I hadn't seem him in a number of years, so it was cool that he was able to come for a visit. We were also visited by a few of our classmates who were in the area, and I had the privilege of showing them around the ski hill on sunny day. Courtney attempted to fly in Dec 29th, but (pretty much as can be expected in Cancelgar), was unable to due the weather. Luckily she was diverted to Cranbrook instead of being taken back to Vancouver and Air Canada even provided a charted bus to finish the trip. Needless to say it was great that she got in the same day she was trying to, and it was fun to have her see a Castlegar winter for the first time.

Tomorrow, I start a 2-week elective in Urology. I haven't done inpatient medicine in quite a while, heck, I haven't even seen a patient of any kind in a month and half, so I'm feeling a little rusty. I reviewed some basic urology, but if this is like any other surgical rotation, I'm probably in for a shock.

Interviews are rapidly approaching. Let me give you an idea of when I will be visiting you.

Jan 24/25-Calgary
Jan 26/27-Edmonton
Jan 29- Newfoundland
Feb 5- Ottawa
Feb 9- Toronto
Feb 11- Kingston

There may be a few more coming, but that is the core of the tour.

Here are some photos.

This is me in some fresh pow at Red.

The Merritt "Children"

Dante and I chillin' on the porch at the lake

Cortney (the boy) and I making a fresh start to the New Year.

The view from the walk in.

Courtney being herself

Compliments to Trisha for learning to use her new camera so quickly, and letting me have the files.

shepherds quake

Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica
-Jim Halpert (as Dwight Schrute), The Office

Home for the holidays and it sure is great to be here. I feel like I've been on vacation for months now and it's only been about 5 days. The weather has been ideal with good doses of both snow and sunshine and we've made it up to Red Mountain a couple of times and cross country once so far. The coverage at Red is still pretty spotty and I managed to take a few hunks out of my board when we went up Christmas Eve. Yesterday I tried to take a few hunks out of my body, and put my helmet to good use x3 (one tree and two chairlifts). All in all, however, I'm relatively unscathed.

Otherwise, managing to squeeze in a few episodes of The Office, read a little and sleeeeeeep.

oh. Tech update. My 2.5 yr old Mac Powerbook has officially performed it's last subroutine. The logic board is kaput and the hard drive un-spinnable. Luckily, I had my photos backed-up appropriately. Some music and documents were lost, but nothing irreparable. I went out and bought a Macbook which is currently producing this post.

Here is me feeling pumped about the weather.

santa likes rich kids better

It's December soon and who's excited for Christmas! Well, actually, I am. More specifically I'm excited about snow, family, friends, chili and sleeeeeeeep. What I'm not excited about is hearing Christmas music early November as I buy groceries. Puke. But complaining about the commercialization and subsequent prolongation of the Christmas season isn't really a new thing. I did make significant headway last year in receiving fewer presents however. Thank you to all that obliged. (And thanks to those that did get me presents too-of course. I'm not a jerk)