What Emily's been up to

I'm sure you've all been dying to know what's been occupying my time lately, so I thought I'd give you an update. Here's what's been occupying my days lately.

1. Working - I LOVE my job. It's going great. I'm learning a lot, keeping busy, I like the people I work with and the environment, so it's all good. Of course, like any job, it's difficult to start because there's so much you don't know, but I am enjoying learning it and the co-workers have been great with helping me along. It's so nice to have a job I can actually look forward to going to.

2. Exercising - I've gotten kind of bored of running, so I'm branching out my exercising routine a little. We got 1-month passes at the YMCA so we've been swimming, using the elliptical and treadmills, and lifting weights. The YMCA is super nice, but unfortunately, our passes expire this week and we probably won't be shelling out the $850 for a year's pass. We've also been riding bikes quite a bit and I've been playing some tennis. A lady in the ward tried to pressure me into joining her city-league team, but I'm just not ready for that. It does feel good to hit again, though.

3. Shopping and finding incredible bargains - I have to dress nice for work, so that's given me an excuse to buy some new clothes. Bargain hunting is like a sport for me. And I have to say, if shopping were an Olympic sport, I would be a gold medalist. Today I wore a skirt I got for $3.60 at 90% off. And it had never even been worn before!

4. Being domestic - This week I made strawberry jam all by myself from strawberries I picked all by myself. I also like trying out new recipes, although I don't have as much time to cook as before.

5. Directing the Ward choir - This calling is definitely in my top 5 list of favorite callings (along with being nursery leader of 1 in a singles ward). It's fun to choose the songs we sing and pretty much do whatever I want. Plus, I like it when the old men flirt with me. (Preston says they flirt--I just think they're very nice :) The choir here is completely backwards from any other choir I've been in. We have lots of men, almost too many, and hardly any sopranos! But I really do enjoy it even though the Bishop thinks I choose songs that are too hard...

6. Reading - You can see my current reads here.

Well, that pretty much sums up my current activities. Stay tuned for the next post: What Preston's been up to! From all of us here at Winding Ridge #1, have a good night.

Subscapularis tendons, anyone?

One of the extremely engaging tasks I get to do at work is transcribe documents that the attorneys dictate into their little mini-recorders. We often get to do summaries of a person's medical records, which can get quite complex. Here's a little snippet of what I had to decipher today.

Impression is 1) that there are small areas of partial articular sided tearing of the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, subscapularis tendons, with no full thickness rotator cuff tear identified and there is tendinosis in each of these areas. Small amount of intrasubstance tearing of the subscapularis tendon near its insertion is also noted. 2) Probable small enchondroma at the humeral head. 3) Mild acromioclavicular degenerative changes. The achromion is relatively downsloping, which can predispose to impingement. 4) No significant glenohumeral degenerative changes. No definite labral tear.

Try saying that five times fast.

Federer is not betterer

Not today anyway... Did anyone else see that AMAZING Wimbledon final? Nadal wins 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 9-7. We got lucky that there was a rain delay--I said after church, "I wonder who won?" and Preston got online and saw that they were still playing, so we were able to tune in to The Best set of tennis I have ever seen. They're both so good...it totally made my day, week, and possibly month.

Franzen, Wisconsin

Preston somehow found out that there is a town in Wisconsin called Franzen. So, in the spirit of family pride, we ventured out to investigate it. Turns out, Franzen isn't so much of a town...more of just a township. There was no sign announcing "Franzen, Population 505," but because it's not within any city limits, each driveway has a little sign that says Franzen and the number. I'd invite you all out to see it, but the picture pretty much sums up the experience.

Let me know if any of you want me to look into real estate in the area.

Betcha haven't seen this...

I was going to post about our little excursion last weekend, but I can't find the camera, so instead, I decided to post about one of my FAVORITE movies--Dil Chahta Hai. A couple years ago, I had to watch some Bollywood movies for work (I know, get paid to watch movies...what a job.) I didn't really know what to expect, but turns out, I really liked them, and this one in particular. It's about three young men in India who are just graduating college and trying to find themselves, including their true loves. It actually has a really deep story about friendship, but there's a lot of funny stuff too, like how they say random words and phrases in English (a lot of their random English words are swears, but it's hilarious hearing it with their Indian accents) and the extended song and dance scenes--some of them are so ridiculous you'll about fall off your seat laughing. Anyway, if you want a good time (about 3 hours worth), find a copy and enjoy.



Here's a link to a YouTube clip of the title song. I also recommend Lagaan, which is very good (incidentally, I saw a copy at our local Hollywood Video), and Bride and Prejudice, which is not very good, but should be watched just because.

Pet Peeves

I have a grief that I would like to share with the world. It drives me crazy when I send someone a friendly email and they DON'T RESPOND. I mean, talk about rude! I know people are busy, but I also know that everyone checks their email just about every day. Why wouldn't you take 30 seconds and at least send a note saying you got someone's email and appreciate them thinking of you? It really discourages being friendly or trying to stay in contact with old friends when they don't make any effort. I need to see if Gmail has that feature that sends you a message when your email is read. That way, at least I would know people do get my messages and just don't care enough to respond. I would rather have people just tell me never to email them again than to never respond. So there's my complaint of the day.

P.S. I am not directing this post to anyone in particular. It just seems like it's happened a lot lately and it BUGS me!

Boston-mania

So in the past year, I've unintentionally become a Boston sports fanatic. Just ask me about any player on the Red Sox and I'll tell you what position he plays, what team he came from, and how good he is (example: Dice-K (Matsuzaka): Japanese pitcher, given an insane amount of money to come play for the Sox, has been somewhat of a disappointment--at least not as good as everyone made him out to be). Ask me who my favorite Red Sock (?) is and I'd tell you Jason Varitek, catcher and captain. In fact, I think I watched every game of the World Series while Preston watched about 1/2 of one game. Same goes for the Celtics. Ask me who my favorite Celtic is and I'll tell you Paul Pierce (Kansas, drafted by Boston, starter for past 10 years). Don't go thinking I sit around looking this stuff up and studying Boston athletes. It just comes up in casual conversation around here. I'm sure all this stuff is pushing other more useful information out of my brain cells, but for now that's the way it is. Go Boston!