Weekend Roundup (Late Edition)

John Lennon wrote the lyric, "Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans." Lately I feel like I truly understand what he meant.

Much has happened since my last post, I'll try to recap the highlights.

My daughter Kaitlyn turned 15 Friday and to celebrate, Kathy, Rileigh, Dylan and I drove down and spent a very nice extended weekend at Susie and Bruce's. For those who don't know, Susie is my ex-wife and the mother of my 3 oldest children and Bruce is her husband. We wind up spending many weekends at their house where all the kids are together and we have a great time. I suppose it seems weird to most people, but I am really glad we all get along and get to spend so much time together with the kids. So, anyway, Friday we all went out to a pretty good cheeseburger place and followed it up with a barbecue and swimming in their pool. Here are some pictures from this weekend:

Cheeburger-Cheeburger is over-run by our not so little clan:



Johnny STUNS us all by whipping out his card and offering to pay:



Kaitlyn opening presents:



The birthday girl and her mommy. (mommy is the shorter one..hehehehe)



Kaitlyn and Meagan



Kathy and Dylan enjoying the weather



Our little camera-shy monster



One of my favorite pics: Rileigh donning protective glasses to counteract the glare bouncing off the top of my bald head!





Meanwhile, I have scheduled both of the next "big" exams for finishing medical school. I was originally slotted for mid-September, but got lucky and was able to switch to a spot in Chicago on June 10th for my USMLE Step 2 CS exam. This is a practical exam that consists of 12 patient encounters with professional actor patients where we are graded on things like communication skills, clinical examination skills, our ability to formulate a differential diagnosis, and writing a note documenting our findings and ordering the next set of labwork/imaging studies/diagnositic studies etc.. (and yes, there is a whole module dedicated to making patients wait 45 minutes in an uncomfortable paper gown while we sit in an office and surf the internet- in case you were wondering) I finalized my travel and hotel arrangements just a few minutes ago , so we are all set.

Also scheduled is the "written" part of my Step 2 board exam. It is actually computer based, consists of 400 questions, and takes about 9 hours. D-Day is August 10th. Yay!


Peds is going along okay and I will save some material for an upcoming post.... stay tuned.