I made this

Well, my wife did most of the work, but I helped.

This is my new son, Felix Christopher. He was born at 3:22 a.m. one week ago today. I think he's perfect. He doesn't cry or fuss, he burps himself, and he loves to eat. Xander had terrible GERD, so a milk hound is pretty refreshing. I hope he keeps that up.

My favorite thing about him is how alert he is. If you hold him, he will just stare at you. He gets this profound look on his face like he's contemplating the deeper mysteries of your soul. And his coordination is incredible. On his first day of life, he grabbed my hand and pulled it into his mouth. That's not something your average just-born baby does.

I've been blessed to be able to take two weeks off of work to be home with mom and baby. It's been incredible. Also, with the semester winding down, I skipped pretty much all of my classes last week and the remaining three for this week. Now it's juts five exams and I'm done. I think I can pull this off. Then four weeks to work and rest and be with my baby. I'm excited for that. I need some time off to recharge and gear up for the spring semester. I don't think it could be any more grueling than the fall was. From my conversations with upperclassmen, I get the impression the fall of the second and third years are the worst two semesters, so hopefully that holds true.

I don't know that I wrote too much about the Interdisciplinary Ethics Course, at least this time around. That class was a source of great frustration to me. Every school on the campus participates in this class, which meets in small groups (mine was 9 in the first semester and 8 this time around), so you get some exposure to other disciplines, which I liked. You spend five weeks of your semester basically discussing ethical scenarios. For instance, you have a minor patient (under 18) who comes in for a dental exam and you find signs that she might have bulimia. When you confront her about it, she breaks down and asks you not to tell her parents. What do you do? The course teaches you to think through ethical dilemmas completely, considering all points of views and all the values at stake. The idea is to equip you to (1) work with a team of health professionals and (2) make ethical decisions that you are able to defend later.

Well, I really liked this class. What I didn't like was the timing of it. Ethics is a discipline that interests me, and discussion is probably my favorite type of classroom activity. This semester we had a great facilitator, too. He was a graduate student in philosophy from CU-Boulder, and he was great at guiding our discussions. But because this P2 fall is so hectic, I didn't have time to really do the course justice. That frustrated me. I wish the course happened over the summer so I could really give it the time it deserves. Regardless, I got a superior grade. The class is pass/fail, but students who go above and beyond are recognized by the facilitator with a letter reflecting superior performance. I was really honored that he decided to award that grade to me.

I think that's all I have to say right now. I've got another "not in my pharmacy" brewing, but it's not ready for publication yet. Stay tuned.

Thanks for stopping by.

Not in My Pharmacy: Smoking

This post is the first in a new sub-series for me. As I become more immersed, and more comfortable, in the profession of pharmacy I find myself developing opinions about the way things are and the way they ought to be. There are plenty of things wrong with the profession. Some of them are necessary evils (the complexity of insurance billing); others are absolute monstrosities (the inhuman profit motive driving retail pharmacy chains). What I'm going to do with the "Not in My Pharmacy" series is lay out things that I won't allow to happen in my pharmacy when I'm a pharmacist.

The first issue I'm tackling is tobacco sales. Now, I understand that the tobacco industry is a historical artifact built on centuries of tradition, and that it provides jobs to thousands of Americans and fuels our economy on a basic level. I'm not trying to go to war with the Big Tobacco (at least not yet). What I'm taking a stand on is the sale of cigarettes and other carcinogenic tobacco products in pharmacies. A pharmacy is a source of health care. It's where you go to get well. It's pure hypocrisy for such a place to sell a known carcinogen with little or no medical benefit. In many countries, it's now illegal for pharmacies to sell cigarettes. But if you go into your local Walgreen's (or Rite Aid, or a supermarket, or Wal-Mart - I'm not trying to fight a particular chain here; they're all bad on this), you'll find that while you have to walk all the way to the back to get your prescription medications you can buy cigarettes right up front. I don't understand this. Retail pharmacists have enough trouble being taken seriously as health care professionals. Why do we sell something that causes so many health problems?

My pledge today is this: No one will buy cigarettes in my pharmacy. To the extent that I have the ability to make that decision, cigarettes will be as inaccessible as possible. My preference is to work in one of the few retail pharmacies that don't sell tobacco, but that limits me to Target, independent pharmacies, and Kaiser. (PLEASE tell me of other options if you know of them.) I'm not going to limit my job search to this handful of companies. That isn't financially feasible at this time. What I will do is ensure that wherever I work, customers are not able to buy cigarettes at the dispensary counter. I'll use whatever power I have to make cigarettes harder to get in other areas of the drug store as well. Whenever and wherever I can set policy, I will make it as smoker-unfriendly as I can. And if you work in my pharmacy, you don't get a smoke break. Too many workplaces give special break schedules to smokers. Everybody gets the same breaks as mandated by law and company policy. You can smoke on those breaks, if you want to, but you have to be out of sight of the entrance, and you don't get extra time to do it.

Smokers, please don't misunderstand me. If you want to kill yourselves, please go ahead. I used to be a smoker; I understand that it's an addiction and it's really hard to quit. But I want you to buy your cigarettes at the gas station, or at a tobacco store, not at my pharmacy. And I want you to quit, too. I want to help you do that if I can. I don't think less of you because you smoke. The tobacco industry is very good at getting people to buy their product, despite the fact that it is lethal to their customers, and despite the overwhelming medical evidence against smoking. I'm going to do my part to make sure that my pharmacy is a place for health, not cancer. I'll sell you the patch, or the gum, or the lozenges, or prescriptions to help you quit. I just won't be the guy that helps you keep smoking.

People are still reading this?!?

So, I know I haven't posted in... a while... and that was pretty much apathy at work. I'd apologize, but I really don't care. I'm a busy dood. But today I looked at my "stats" tab, which tells you, among other things, how people came to your blog. That was pretty revealing to me. Most of them come from facebook or Twitter links, which makes sense. A couple of people Google searched for this URL, which is weird. And most interesting of all is this chart:

So, at least one person wanted to know why everyone hates Boulder, and hopefully I was able to help with that. And another person totally empathizes with me on the subject. A lot of people were clearly looking for the blog (bufflo pharmer, buffalopharmer, "buffalopharmer"). I'm really confused about the last one, though. Just for kicks, I did a Google search for zoosex, and I'm not in the top 50 pages. (DON'T do this search, by the way; the top 50 pages are all... well, what you would expect to find if searching for zoosex.) So somebody sifted through a LOT of pron and then decided they would check out this blog. Creepy?

Anyway, I had 11 pageviews today, which surprises me. So people still check out my posts. In that case, I'll continue. Oh, I must have a following in Brazil, too. I had over 50 views from Brazil, and lately Israel has really been digging me (30 in the last month). So hey, if I don't personally know you, would you do me a favor and leave a comment at the bottom of the page? Just let me know how you got to this page and where you're from. It'll be like having a penpal or something.

So maybe I can make another post this week, if you're lucky.

Transpacific pears

Last night at work I had a prepacked cup of pears for dessert. It was delicious, but as I ate it I noticed printed on the side the words "PEARS F/ARGENTINA PACKED IN THAILAND." I thought that was odd. There's something fundamentally flawed with the global economy if it's really cost effective to grow pears in Argentina, ship them across the Pacific Ocean to be packed in Thailand, then ship them back across the Pacific to the United States for consumption. I mean, it probably makes sense to grow in Argentina, at least during certain parts of the year. I get that. But really, it's cheaper to ship it halfway across the world so little kids can pack it instead of packing it either (1) where it's grown or (2) where it's sold? Staggering. Think about how bad that is for the Earth. Think about how oppressive that is to the people of Thailand and, for that matter, Argentina. It makes me angry. It makes me not want to buy fruit from Dole. Grrrrrrrrrrr.

So, sorry I haven't posted for some time. I have no excuse, other than being a full-time student who works 32 hours a week and has a family to take care of. I got through "hell week" fairly well, scoring an A on two exams and a... passing grade... on the third. Also, I passed the verbal telephone exam (it was pass/fail). I think the rest of the semester is going to be a continuous gauntlet of tests, assignments and activities. I'll trade to drop updates as I go, but I'm having a baby at the end of November, so don't be too upset if I don't have a ton of time for you, my readers.

I also want to go on the record (so I can brag about it later) on the baseball playoffs. Since TBS started airing playoff games, the team that plays its League Championship Series on FOX (and therefore starts their series one day later) has won the World Series every year. That means the winner of Phillies/Giants, whoever that is, is in line to win the title this year. Let's see if that happens.

This semester is relentless

As promised, I'd like to talk about my school schedule a bit. In specific, I'm going to whine about how MUCH there is.

So, in the first week, the schedule seemed pretty manageable. Monday and Thursday are full days but Tuesday and Friday are half days with Wednesday being a variable schedule. (We have our Interprofessional Ethics course, which meets five times, in the afternoon starting next month, and our Experiential Programs class, which largely meets off-campus and on our own schedule, in the mornings.) And with work Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday nights, I thought, this will be hard but not terrible. Well, there aren't any assignments in the first week.

In the second week, things started coming due and we had our first quiz. Still, the load was not terrible, and the Experiential class time was filled with our immunization training, which is very low-level stuff and review of the text we'd read over the summer. In the third week, we had no Skills class because of the Labor Day holiday. But in the fourth week, the tests started coming and Skills started having weekly assignments.

In the fifth week - last week - we were done with the immunization training and ready to start the actual Experiential experience. That was just an orientation lecture, which is no big deal, but from here on out we're expected to spend three hours in our assigned pharmacies each week. That's more to do. This week, we have two exams and a fairly major assignment due Friday. And another exam Monday. And the week after next, the Ethics class starts up. And my wife is due at the end of November. It feels like they're just adding layer after layer to my already over-full plate. I might explode.

Or, I might adjust, and be just fine. I'm consistently amazed at humanity's ability to learn to deal with the tasks placed in front of it. I was talking with a coworker at the casino who got a second job. We both agreed that the more time you commit to things like work and school - basically, the thinner you spread yourself - the more you're able to handle the increased work load. Someone who works 40 hours a week feels like they work a lot. But someone who works 60 hours a week often feels the same way, or even that they have more time available, because they learn to use that free time more efficiently. I don't spend five hours playing video games because I don't have five hours available in a chunk. And I don't think it's a special ability I have. People are always telling me that they don't know how I do it. Well, I don't either, but I do it, and not because I need less sleep than everybody else (that's far from the truth) or because my memory is so good that I never need to study (I definitely do, as witnessed by my first exam score). It's because humans are remarkably adaptable creatures.

So the biggest change in this year's curriculum is a switch in focus. In the first year it's all very fundamental stuff, much of it review or further explanation of required coursework we've seen before. In the second year, the Integrated Organ Systems (IOS) courses become therapeutics-focused. Therapeutics is the branch of pharmacy devoted to managing disease states with drug (and non-drug) therapy. It's not a regurgitation of facts or principles but an application of principles to a specific situation. You not only have to know what drug X does or the side effects of drug Y but which would be the best choice given a patient with condition Z and lab value N. And as you learn more and more organ systems, it gets more and more complicated. Right now all we know is neurotransmitters, the kidneys, and hypertension. By the end of the third year, we'll know the whole body, and the body is not as rigidly segmented as we like to think it is. All the systems interact. You don't have one condition in isolation in almost any patient. So how do you treat diabetes in a patient with impaired kidney function, high blood pressure, hypothyroidism, and crazy cholesterol levels? What if they also get a bacterial infection? I don't know that yet, but a pharmacist does.

Anyway, I feel like I'm learning at an incredible pace. Every week when I go to Kaiser I understand more about more drugs than I did the week before. It's really cool to be a part of that, and to recognize it, as it happens.

And what do you know, this was an incredibly on-topic entry. Did you like it? Don't be afraid to leave feedback, even scathing criticisms, and to ask for more of what you'd like to see.

Football!

Since my last post, the National Football League has returned to action. And the Bears are 2-0. Also, Carlos Gonzalez is the latest to fall victim to the Buffalo Pharmer curse (see also: the MLB.com survivor contest, Monday blog entries, the 2009 Chicago Bears, P1 class president, the Chicago Cubs as a franchise) . He hasn't hit a home run since I wrote the MVP article, and the triple crown looks like it won't happen this year. In fact, Troy Tulowitzki looks more like the MVP candidate than CarGo right now. Whatever.

A classmate of mine sent me a link to this article, in case I needed something to blog about. At first I thought, no thanks, I don't want to write about that. Then I remembered that I take requests, so I thought I'd chip in my two cents. The article admonishes Derek Jeter for acting hurt after a pitch hit the butt of his bat. The basic idea is that while this sort of thing happens all the time in baseball, it's not typical for Derek Jeter to behave like anything but a model citizen. I guess I agree with that, but I sort of don't care. A lot of stuff goes on in baseball that isn't really the most honorable. Pitchers throw at hitters. Players apply phantom tags, and get away with it. Matt Holliday slides right past home plate and the Rockies go to the World Series. This writer seems to be making a big deal out of nothing and, rather than showing Jeter to be a cheater, I think he shows the opposite. If this is the biggest thing we can get on Jeter, how much can we really say about him? A ball came close to hitting him, and he hammed it up enough to get first base. Chances are his reaction to the pitch had nothing to do with the call. My guess is the ump thought it actually hit him on the hand, and logically awarded him the base. I don't think major league umpires are in the business of making calls based on the player's reaction, for the most part. Also, all the bad calls and missed plays average out over the course of the season. I'm sure at some point, the Yankees lost a close call, probably even a wrong call, and ended up losing the game. So Jeter overreacts and ends up scoring and winning the game. Let's move on.

Anyway, since you asked, that's what I feel about it. Keep your requests coming! For my next entry, I'm going to talk about something I totally haven't mentioned this year, which is school. Isn't that a novel topic for my pharmacy school blog? Thanks for stopping by.

The case for Carlos

You should know right off that if you came here expecting anything other than baseball, you should turn around right now. It's September, and it's on my mind a lot lately.

Today I'd like to argue that Carlos Gonzalez deserves to be the National League MVP. Let's start by turning back the clock two weeks. With September looming and playoff races getting tight, the National League looks to be a six-team playoff picture: San Diego and San Francisco in the West, Cincinnati and St. Louis in the Central, and Atlanta and Philadelphia in the East. One of these teams, probably the loser of the East, will win the Wild Card. The race in the central division is particularly interesting because the first basemen for these two teams have emerged as legitimate contenders for the Triple Crown. Since about the All-Star Break, Albert Pujols and Joey Votto have taken turns leading each of the three Triple Crown categories (batting average, RBI, and home runs), with the occasional interloper displacing them in one category or another. As baseball heads into its stretch run, sports writers and media types begin to speculate about the end-of-season awards and it becomes evident that one of these two sluggers should almost certainly win the MVP. Conventional wisdom says that if one of them wins the Triple Crown, he'll be a shoe-in, and if not it will probably go to the player whose team wins the division. While the competition remains open (and fierce), it seems to be strictly a two-man affair.

Then something happened in Colorado. Carlos Gonzalez started hitting at a ridiculous pace. After yesterday's 7th-inning single, CarGo has a 16-game hitting streak during which he is hitting better than .500 with seven homers and 21 RBI. That streak has fueled him to a near-20-point lead in the batting race and made him the first player in the league with 100 RBI when he hit a three-run blast on Tuesday. If you're paying attention, you already know that this means Gonzalez - not Votto or Pujols - leads two of the three triple crown categories at the start of play today. And with 32 home runs, he is only four back of Pujols for the lead in that category, too. So if the Triple Crown is the metric of the MVP race, you'd have to say Carlos Gonzalez is the odds-on favorite.

But wait-- there's more. CarGo's ridiculous performance at the plate not only fueled his rise in the batting categories, it also pushed Colorado back into playoff relevance. While the Padres collapsed in late August and early September, the Rockies got hot and sit four and a half games back in both the NL West and the Wild Card. So if contribution to a team's success if the primary criterion of the MVP, there's a good case there, too, especially if Colorado can claw their way into a playoff spot.

CarGo can Go, Go, Go, too. He ranks fifth in the league in triples, with 8; Votto has 2 and Pujols has 1. He's 11th in stolen bases, with a realistic shot at being a 30/30 player if he can pick up seven more steals. That's a dimension the NL Central guys don't bring to the game. Nobody worries about Albert Pujols stretching a double to a triple, or Joey Votto swiping second and then third in the same at-bat.

Pitchers are starting to catch on that this guy might be for real. In the third inning of last night's game, with Dexter Fowler on first, Bronson Arroyo pitched delicately around Gonzalez, walking him on four pitches. Then he hung a curveball over the middle of the plate that Troy Tulowitzki promptly deposited in the left field bleachers. Without swinging the bat, CarGo added a run to the Rockies' score because the Reds were so concerned with not letting him hurt them that they let the next guy do it instead. That's a pretty valuable contribution.

And then there's his defense. In Tuesday's game, the speedy Brandon Phillips hit a ball into deep left field. Gonzalez tracked it down some twenty or thirty feet from the outfield wall, spun around, and threw out Phillips trying to stretch for a double. CarGo can play all three outfield positions, and his speed and arm are a great fit for the expansive outfield of Coors Field. Pujols and Votto may be roughly indistinguishable from CarGo when it comes to batting, but his contributions are so much broader that the argument becomes clearer the longer you look at it.

All that being true, there exists a certain bias among awards voters. In 2007, a Rockies left-fielder wearing number 5 also led the league in batting while leading his team to a playoff berth. He was snubbed in favor of an East-coast player, and so were the emergent rookie shortstop Tulowitzki and manager Clint Hurdle. That team went to a memorable World Series and got no recognition for it. Tulowitzki seems like the presumptive favorite for the Gold Glove (and Silver Slugger) at his position, but a DL stint could be the excuse voters need to pass him up. One-time Cy Young lock Ubaldo Jimenez has given a number of pitchers the opportunity to state their cases, and a player like Roy Halladay, Josh Johnson, or Mat Latos will probably win that award over the league's winningest pitcher. But the arguments against Carlos Gonzalez are weaker, fewer, and disappearing every day. As a fan, I hope MVP voters do the right thing and vote for the player who clearly did the most for his team down the stretch.

Back to school

Well, classes began Monday. Sorry there were no posts the last couple weeks; I was enjoying the end of my summer. I'm looking for a regular day to blog during the school year; it might end up being Wednesday afternoons. Might not. Stay tuned.

So, I received this request several weeks ago from Sams:
"Here's a request! The Prince has another set of ear infections, and trying to get him to take his antibiotics is challenging, to say the least. Any tips, or will you promise to work on a better way to get babies to take medicine when you're a famous pharmacist?"

I asked one of the pharmacists at Kaiser, and basically, the answer is no. I'm assuming you're referring to ear drops (not oral antibiotics), and it's never going to be easy. It should be easier than eye drops, because at the very least you can hold his head still while you drop the medicine in his ear. Eye drops are an absolute nightmare, even for adults, and can be almost impossible with an infant. On the other hand, if it's an oral medication, it shouldn't be extremely difficult. The key is to be quick and direct. Get the syringe into his mouth and put it up against the inside of his cheek. Then empty into his mouth, and he should naturally swallow it. He won't like it, and you might have to keep surprising him with it to prevent him from closing his mouth at the sight of the medicine, but it should help. Also, depending on the medication, it can actually be mixed in milk or formula. Diluted like that, he won't really taste the medicine, and it won't look any different from his normal bottle. You can't always do this, so ask your pharmacist about the specific medication before you do this. And that brings me to another good point: a disclaimer.

I'm not a pharmacist (yet). Even if I were, this blog is not designed or intended to give medical advice of any kind. Without knowing the specifics of your situation, I can't recommend a product or course of medication to you, and nothing I write here should be considered as such. I'm simply relating things I've heard, seen, or read about, not trying to be some kind of Internet pharmacist. You should always check with a real pharmacist if you have a question, and never change your medications or the way you take them without consulting your doctor or pharmacist.

My wife is six months (or so) pregnant. I can feel the baby kicking now, which is great. Sadly, she's not been in the best of health lately. Her doctor really thought she had gall bladder disease, since she had every symptom thereof, but after an ultrasound of her gall bladder, that seems not to be the case. So it's a medical mystery. And then her blood glucose came back high, but that turned out not to be gestational diabetes. I hope they can figure out what's going on (and hopefully it's just "normal" pregnancy symptoms), and I'm really grateful that she gets to keep her gall bladder.


The best news of all is that it looks like I'm going to be able to manage this course load well enough to get ahead a little bit before the baby comes. I don't think I'm going to get to many classes in the first two weeks of December. Also, if you're in Denver and want to help out with a 2-year-old and various around-the-house chores while Jaime recovers from a C-section, we would never say no.


That should do it for today. I'm sure to have plenty on my mind as the semester gets going. The second year looks like it's going to be extremely challenging but also extremely interesting. Thanks for stopping by.

Vacation report

After this week, I have two weeks before the school year starts. Ugh.

I had a great time in Wisconsin. I'm so glad my grandmother finally got to meet my son, whom she has been spoiling rotten since he was born. They took to each other immediately. He also spent quite a bit of time with my cousins Thomas (age 9) and Michael (7). They, like everyone else, adored him. It was great to spend almost an entire week a) with my extended family and b) with no responsibilities. Having my cousins around took all of the pressure off my wife and I to play with Xander. He was thoroughly entertained the entire time, to the point that bedtime became something of an ordeal because he just wanted to go play with his new Thomas the Tank Engine trains or with his super cool cousins. By the end of the week, he was asking for Michael and Thomas by name and spontaneously telling my grandma, "Lovoo, gramma." Waaaay cute.

My cousin Ashley got married on Friday with a backyard reception on Saturday. It wasn't really what I expected. They got married at the courthouse and had the reception at her husband's Aunt's house (I think - I'm still not entirely clear on whose house that was). It was obviously not a big budget wedding, which is fine. It made me really appreciate coming for the entire week. We looked at just going for the two key days, since that would mean less time off of work, but that would have been a disappointment. It wasn't a big enough event. I don't mean that to take anything away from their wedding or their marriage, it just wasn't a big enough deal to mandate flying a thousand miles for. Being able to spend time with all my Midwestern relatives made it worthwhile. And I don't regret going to the wedding, either. I'm glad I was able to be there for that.

Whatever was under my L key that was making it touchy in my last post is under the / now. It sucks for writing questions.

Yesterday, Alex Rodriguez hit his 600th career home run on the three-year anniversary of his 500th home run. If he keeps up that pace (he won't), he'll be 40 years old when he becomes the all-time leader and 41 when he hits number 800, in 2016. Maybe I'll start caring then. Even though he's only the seventh player in major league history to do this (hit 600 homers), I'm entirely unimpressed. It just always seemed inevitable. I also think that his admitting to using steroids took some of the thrill out of it. I mean, Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa almost certainly juiced, too, but it seemed different a few years ago. And it wasn't blatantly obvious at the time Bonds hit 600, either. We sort of figured that out later. The part that does impress me is that A-Rod is the youngest player to reach 600 home runs. It's not ridiculous to think he could clear 800, or maybe even 850, before he retires, especially when he inevitably moves to a DH role. My big hope is that Albert Pujols can continue his torrid pace and make a run for A-Rod's eventual record, whatever that ends up being. It certainly appears that Pujols never used any performance enhancing drugs. It's not as easy to say that as it once was, since the saving grace for Barry Bonds breaking the record was that A-Rod would eventually catch up to him and the idea was that we would only have a steroid player on top of the pile for a few years. It no longer seems safe to assume that anyone was or wasn't juicing back in the late 90s and early 2000s. Still, I'm pulling for Pujols. And I hate the Cardinals. He's just fun to watch.

That's the other piece that makes A-Rod's accomplishment sort of nonplussing. I don't think anybody really likes Alex Rodriguez. I mean, Barry Bonds was hated by a lot of people, but Giants fans still rooted for him, and a lot of people liked him before his head got huge and he started just belting long balls. Sammy Sosa was beloved by Cubs fans and many others. Ken Griffey, Jr., is a baseball icon about whom nobody has a bad word to say. And of course Willie Mays, Babe Ruth, and Hank Aaron are baseball icons, so all of the other members of the 600 club are these really interesting, iconic guys and A-Rod is just sort of unlikeable. You either hate the Yankees or you love the Yankees (I happen to fall into the former category), but I get the sense that even Yankee fans don't really like A-Rod.

I did get some requests since my last posts. I'll start dealing with those the next time I write, but I wanted to take care of my news while I actually had some. Thanks for stopping by.

We're having another boy!

So, apologies for not posting yesterday, but it was the all-important 20-week ultrasound appointment. Most of you at this point know that my wife and I are expecting at the end of November, and those of you that don't... well, you do now. Here's a picture of the little guy.

I'm pretty excited that Xander will have a little brother basically from as early as he can remember. I had to wait until I was almost six years old, and by that point I was pretty jealous of my sisters because they had each other and I was starting to become the odd man out. It's also a lot cheaper for us, because we have all of the stuff already.

I'm also terrified. The past year has been the most financially difficult of our marriage, and that doesn't look to improve any time soon. I spent the school year in a state of perpetual exhaustion because I had to work 25 hours a week just to keep the bills paid. I take student loans, but they aren't enough by themselves to support a family. That's only going to get worse with the addition of another person to our household. In general, I'm super excited about our family expanding, this just isn't the ideal time for it. I guess by the time the school year is done, I'll either have mad time management skills or I'll be joining the class of 2014.

I won't be posting next Thursday because I'm going to my cousin's wedding in Wisconsin. I'll try to sneak one in on Monday, but no promises. Also, nobody bit on the reader request line yet, but that's still open. Feel free to take advantage; it gets me off the hook for trying to come up with something to write about!

Now accepting requests

First of all, the L key on my computer isn't working very well, so if I leave one out, pease forgive me.

Second of all, I've decided to take requests. In the summer, I have time to really craft my blog entries, so I want to open it up a little bit. I want suggestions for future topics. Leave a comment after this or any other entry with what you'd like me to write about. They can be pharmacy related, but they don't have to be. I'd love to give my opinion on hot button issues like gay marriage or health care reform, and I'd be happy to devote an entire entry to NBA free agency or Coke vs. Pepsi, if that's what you want to hear. Get creative. Get inquisitive. I'll try to honor as many requests as I can, based on how much I like the suggestions I get. Let's see how this goes. Hopefully it won't be too terrible.

No real news in my life, other than that I love my son. Yesterday when I got home from Kaiser, after not seeing him for two days, he proclaimed, "Hello, daddy!" and then ran across the living room into my arms. It was pretty darned cute.

Thanks for stopping by, and thanks in advance for leaving your requests.

Things I've learned about my son

Monday was Xander's second birthday, and in the course of his party on Sunday and our family day together on Monday I came to understand several things about him that I'd like to share with you. Many of these I've known for some time, but all of them were illustrated to me by various behaviors I saw on Sunday and Monday.

For instance, my son is pretty darn smart. I put on a monkey hand puppet, which he loved, and held out one of its little paws for a high five. He slapped it, just like he does with a human hand. As a hand puppet, this monkey didn't really have hands or fingers of its own. So I told Xander to "pound it," which he also does regularly. He bumped his fist into the monkey's paw (which was really just my pinkie). Then I asked him to "poke it," which is another hand gesture we do where we poke index fingers together. No problem. Lastly, I held up the monkey's paw in the air, and said "thumbs up." He didn't have any trouble with that one, either. I was impressed that he knew these from verbal cues, not from mimicking gestures.

Xander's also quite polite. As we sat in the living room opening gifts, we asked him to thank each gift giver as we went. I was surprised when we told him to say, "Thank you, Jess! Thank you, Doug!" and he actually looked at the people who had given him the gift. It's hard to tell sometimes how much of what he parrots back at us is actually understood and how much is just the repetition of heard sounds. Apparently, more of it sticks than we thought.

He can be rude, too. One of his friends is a 20-month-old girl named Lilah. We had his party at the park in our neighborhood, and he and Lilah were fighting over balls and badminton racquets and various other items most of the time.

On the other hand, he knows when he's misbehaving. He and Lilah both had their hands on a ball and when his mom looked at him and just said his name, he let go, looked ashamed, and moved on to another.

Xander is funny. And he's not afraid to try new jokes. He puts on hats sideways and toddles over with a goofy grin on his face. It's impossible not to laugh. As I was saying goodbye to him the other day, I asked for a kiss. Instead, he grabbed me by the hair and bit my lip. He knew what he was doing wasn't what I had asked him for - he had a smile of anticipation on his face, waiting for me to crack up laughing.

And above all, he loves me and his mom. He's started saying, "Hello, daddy!" when I walk in the house. If I ask him for a kiss, he won't always give me one (see above), but when I kiss mommy good-bye, if he's not too distracted to notice that I'm leaving, he'll come over and demand one, too. He's got an enormous heart. If another kid is hurt or upset, he'll offer things, like his toys or bottles, or try to comfort the injured party with a hug. I'm so proud of him for that, because it's not something we tried to teach him. He just loves others, and I hope that never goes away.

Thanks for stopping by, and Happy Birthday to my darling boy.

Cruising through the summer

Well, things have quieted down a little for me. I only work two days at Kaiser this week, including tomorrow. That's left me with time to see friends and extended family. Tonight I went to the Rockies game, which they won. It seems like their offense is finally getting it going, which they'll need if they're going to make a playoff push. That's not really my point here, though - it's that this summer has been extremely enjoyable, and relaxing, after a difficult push to the end of the semester. I'm working a ton, spending time with my family, sleeping enough, and generally not stressing out about school.

My son turns 2 on Monday. I think I'll write about that then.

Every shift I work at Kaiser makes me resent the casino job more. Don't get me wrong; it's still fun and I still like to do it. It's just very clear to me what I'm meant to be doing for the rest of my life, and it certainly isn't dealing cards. Getting a taste of a more respectable profession is just making me yearn for the day when I can finally quit the job that was never supposed to be a career, but was very quickly becoming one.

At the end of the month, my cousin is getting married. She lives in Milwaukee, where my grandmother does, too. I'm excited for that trip because she's never met Xander, even though she's spoiled him rotten. I can't wait for that meeting.

Unfortunately, I haven't got a lot of news to report. I was going to try to work on some non-time-sensitive entries (along the lines of the one I made last week) on various topics that interest me, so I can go to those when I have a slow week like this one. Maybe I can put out one of those on Monday.

Summer blog schedule

Well, I have a lot more time in the summer, so I've decided to make, and stick to, a schedule for this blog. I'm going to blog every Thursday, whether I have something to say or not, and I'm going to post on Mondays as often as I can. Those are the best days for my schedule at two jobs and with my family.

Speaking of two jobs, both are going quite well right now. I'm really enjoying Kaiser, and learning how to work in a pharmacy. It's pretty early to be thinking that far in the future, but I could definitely see myself at Kaiser for a long, long time. I think they do health care the right way, and I would feel much better about working there than, say, at Walgreen's.

Don't really have much else to say at the moment, just updating y'all on the schedule. Check back on Mondays and definitely on Thursdays. Thanks for stopping by.

A different kind of post

My old creative writing professor is dying. She was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer, which is usually terminal. This was a few months ago. I assume, because I haven't heard anything, that she has neither improved nor passed away. Over my four years as an undergrad (actually, in three years as an English major), I had her for nine courses and TA'd for her twice. Ultimately, it was probably under her direction that writing turned from a hobby into work, and she probably saved me years of toiling away on a novel I never would have finished. I'm grateful for that, as miserable as ended up being, because it pushed me into pharmacy, and I know I'll be happy there. I might write a novel some day, but I can't do it for a living.

The Kaiser that I work at is literally a block from the college that I went to. Last week on one of my breaks I walked over to the campus. A lot has changed - new buildings, improved buildings, landscaping. Two disgusting ponds were turned into one really nice one. Many professors that I had are gone. The last place I went was to this professor's office. It hasn't changed a bit. It looks like she just stepped out to give a lecture or meet with an aspiring writer. Seeing that saddened me, and I wanted to share the emotion.

Thanks for stopping by.

Summer update

Oh, hi there. I took a month off from this blog after finals. I took a month off from a lot of things. I've just been working and spending time with my family. We went to Vegas right after the end of the semester. That was relaxing, but Vegas isn't really my scene. I'm not big on partying or clubbing. The shows are pretty cool. I don't gamble too much, either. We were there for three nights, and that felt like plenty. A big thank you goes out to my sister-in-law for joining us there and providing some babysitting so we could go out like adults a couple of times.

My final grades were respectable. For the semester I have a 2.9 GPA; for the year it's 3.1. That's not going to win me any scholarships, but it's respectable. All things considered, I think that's pretty good. And more importantly, I feel like I was studying smarter at the end of the semester. I think I can get on top of it earlier and do better in the future.

I went through orientation at Kaiser Permanente last week. It's not enough hours, and doesn't pay enough, to be my only source of income, so I'm still working at the casino, but it's good for me to get into a pharmacy and maybe some day it can become my main/only job.

MLB.com has a contest where you pick a team to win each day and try to build the longest streak. Each year I play and each year I put together a decent, double-digit win streak, but as of this morning I am actually tied for the lead with 20 wins in a row. If I win, I get a trip to next year's All-Star Game, and if my streak is 37 or more, I get $10,000 with it. Today I picked the home town team, the Colorado Rockies, if you want to cheer along at home. Right now I'm less worried about winning and more about the guy that I'm tied with losing. Of course, if both were to happen, that'd be ideal.

Saturday was my six-year anniversary. I'm more in love with my wife today than ever before. Sorry to bombard you with that sap-fest, but really, I'm not sorry. I think a lot of people get married for the wrong reasons today, or from the wrong state of mind, or to the wrong person, and I'm not ashamed to brag about my own marriage. It's not been easy, but it's been a success, and I like to brag.

I'm on twitter now @buffalopharmer, if you want to follow me. I don't know how often I'll be posting blogs this summer, so for tiny updates, Twitter is probably the way to go. For now, thanks for stopping by.

One more day to go

So for a couple of weeks I've had a pretty much constant craving for lemonade. Do you know how hard it is to find lemonade at the convenience store? Vitamin Water used to have a low-calorie lemonade flavor, but I can't get it any more. Last week at 7-Eleven, all they had was Squirt sparkling lemonade. That is delicious. But my lemonade quest is just the setting for my story. I think I found the guy with the worst and/or most embarrassing job in the world. This unfortunate fellow was changing out the dirty magazines for the new issues. I just wonder what course your life has to take to bring you to that point. "What do you do for a living?" Oh, I go around from one 7-Eleven to another putting out new issues of Hustler and Playboy. It really fulfills me. I don't know. A lot of people aren't fulfilled in their job, but that seemed like a particularly depressing way to be unfulfilled. I guess it's still a step removed from the graveyard cashier at the adult video store. It just makes me glad that I enjoy even the crappy non-permanent job I have now.

I have only one final exam left in the P1 year. I just took one that didn't go as well as I thought it would, but I'm pretty solidly on a C in that class so it's not the end of the world. I'm definitely going to pass the year unless I sleep through tomorrow's exam.

Going to Vegas next week. That'll be nice. Hopefully I'll win some money, because we is broke right now. I start at Kaiser on June 1st, which will be cool. The extra income will be especially helpful.

Xander is turning into a toddler. That's both good and bad. He's a lot more active, and interactive, and is starting to understand our rules. But he's also really starting to impose his own will on us. Pretty soon he'll be telling me he hates me and smoking cigarettes and getting girls pregnant. I'll be sure to let you know when that happens.

I'm really going to try to write again after this final, probably over the weekend. Thanks for stopping by, and I'll see you then.

So I used to have this blog...

... and it was pretty great. Then April hit like a hurricane and I sort of stopped writing it. That was definitely crunch time. To extend the metaphor, this post is but the eye of that hurricane. Finals start a week from today, and I just finished a test and I have one later today and another on Wednesday. It's meant some sleepless nights and a lot of time spent studying that I much rather would have spent with my family. The strain it's putting on my home life is palpable. My wife is so supportive, which goes a long way, and my son is always just happy to see me, but I don't like it. I miss them. The good news is I'm two weeks from getting to spend a LOT more time with them. The summer is going to be nice.

So, the Nuggets laid a total egg. It was a coaching problem. I don't know if Adrian Dantley is a bad coach, but he was coaching a team that wasn't his to begin with. You can't change coaches like that and expect to beat, or be, a legitimate contender. Oh well.

The Rockies aren't as good as I thought they would be; the Cubs are better. I think the Rockies will be fine. Maybe the Cubs will be, too. Most intriguing is the "Jason Marquis effect." Jason Marquis has been a major-leaguer for ten seasons, and in each year his team has made the playoffs. That made sense when he played for the Cardinals and the Cubs. Last year, the Rockies started abysmally, and I had counted them out by mid-May. Then they fired Clint Hurdle, and Jim Tracy led them on one of the all-time great season turnarounds. Well, this year he plays for the Nationals, who have long been a punch line in the National League. Today, the Nationals are 13-12, which for them is remarkable. And they have God's gift to professional baseball, Stephen Strasbourg, getting ready in the minors. This could be exciting.

And that's the news from Lake Woebegone, as it were. Thanks for stopping by. I'm going to try to update during the week because I feel like I'm forgetting something, but then again, that may not actually happen.

Buffalo Pharmer

So why did I change the name of my blog? Well, the Buffalo is the mascot of the University of Colorado Boulder. It's not really supposed to be associated with the other three campuses (Denver, Colorado Springs, and the Anschutz Medical Campus). They don't use the Ralphie logo any more, and student organizations aren't allowed to, either. None of the other campuses has a mascot, so I don't personally see the harm in borrowing the buffalo, but apparently the administration does. Whatever. So I dropped the buffalo from my blog. That said, the Buffalo Pharmer name was such a great pun, and people seemed to like it, so I think I'm going to switch back next week. Sorry to keep doing this to you.

There are some things that I like to do but hate to have done to me. Tousling my son's hair is a good example. I know it doesn't really feel good to the recipient, but I can't resist. He's too cute.

It occurred to me that my last several posts were written on very little sleep. I bet that makes them seem whiny. So sorry. I'll try not to do much more of that. Last night, I got three hours of sleep after work before my exam. What a difference that made! Now maybe I'll end up with a good grade in Principles of Drug Action.

I wasn't really looking forward to the Masters, but it turned out to be a great show. Seeing Phil Mickelson win it, the way he did, with his wife looking on, put a lot of perspective on the whole Tiger Woods thing. I'm sure what Tiger and his family are going through is very difficult for them, and I don't mean to diminish that hardship for them. But Tiger's predicament is directly the result of Tiger's actions. Yeah, it's tough for him, and yeah, he clearly wasn't 100%. I think we forgot, though, that Lefty's wife AND mother are battling breast cancer. It was a stark contrast. And I get the sense that while Tiger's off-the-course issues were getting in the way of his golf, I think for Phil it's the opposite. Over the past year, golf has really gotten in the way of Mickelson's personal life. It was refreshing to see such a high-profile guy who has his priorities in the right order. I like Tiger, and I admire him as a competitor, but as a family man or even as a man, I'm not all that impressed.

The weather has been extremely nice this past week. It's made studying a little difficult. I got to go to the Rockies home opener on Friday. I love baseball. It was a perfect day. I got sunburned on the right half of my face. The Rockies won.

My son split his head open on a door frame. Again. He's fine, but he's got six stitches in his face. He gets them out today. I feel bad for the guy. It's just about half an inch above the spot where he got hurt last time. If he can get another injury running sort of perpendicular to those two, he'll have a nice Harry Potter-style lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead. That might make me feel better about it. I mean, kids are going to get hurt, but I feel a little bad that he's going to have facial scars for his whole life. Well, maybe not. I got burned on my hand pretty badly as a child and the scar lasted for ten years or so. Then it spontaneously disappeared. I guess that could happen with Xander, too. Here's hoping.

Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to come back to whatever URL I'm using next week. Check them both, just to be sure.

Baseball returns

Sorry I missed last week. April is sucking already. But now it is also awesome, because last night was the first day of BASEBALL!!!! Dustin Pedroia, my fantasy second baseman, hit a home run. Also, I love baseball. All the other teams get in action today. I'm stoked. The Rockies should be excellent, and the Cubs could be good if enough things go their way.

I made flash cards for this morning's exam, and it really helped. I like my flash cards.

I won both of my March Madness pools. Of course, gambling on sports is illegal in my state, so there's no financial benefit to me, but the pride is well worth it. Also, I like being proved right. I get a better score if Duke wins tonight, but there's no way I can lose. Nobody really picked Butler to win it all.

How cute is this? At my dad's house last week, my son was hamming it up for the camera. Whenever my dad tried to take his picture, my son gave a goofy fake grin, closed his eyes, and tilted back his head. To your left you can see him and my sister doing the face together. Then when I tried to take his picture a couple days ago, he didn't respond at all. He stared at me with his mouth agape and a little bit of drool coming down his chin. I guess he doesn't like daddy's camera as much as grandpa's.

You'd think I would have more to say after two weeks without an update, but it's been non-stop hard work. I hate it. I miss my family. I have to remind myself all the time that it's just four years, and that this semester is just six more weeks and then it'll be three more years. I need to beat that mantra more or less to death.

Well, I guess I'll leave it at that. Thanks for stopping by.