I am going to provide exemplary patient care

in the waiting room at a clinic last week, piled atop a wood-veneer side table of unknown provenence:
june 2005 chatelaine
may 2007 flare
november 2003 national geographic
and a time magazine of surprisingly recent publication

really I do not know how patients are expected to get well when they are left languishing in a waiting room with nothing but outdated cancon rags to read. well at least my patients will get cured, because I am going to have the sweetest magazines in my waiting room.

most beautiful thing I have read in a long time

"Forty kilos of veal, for instance, yielded no more than five kilos of jus. It was with this jus of the previous "sacrificial" deglazing that he deglazed the pan in which the veal chop had cooked. The sauce that ennobled the veal chop and accompanied it to the dining room was the product of this double deglazing, bound and thickened with foie gras."

olympic fever

omg why did no one tell me the olympics start so soon? as of august 8 I am fully volunteering to take care of all the patients on dialysis. and if the dialysis unit just happens to have a tv, well I guess I would just watch olympics all day.

I was born in the wrong country

from the perfectionist, an account of 3-michelin-star chef Bernard Loiseau's tremendous rise and sudden, tragic fall in the world of nouvelle cuisine. Fernand Point, a forefather of that culinary movement, offered this beautiful mantra:

"Du beurre! Donnez-moi du beurre! Toujours du beurre!"

and what could be more appropriate to mark EV's 500th brilliant and profound missive than a celebration of butter?

just chatting some sports

so, the oilers really played a good game tonight, eh?

and by "the oilers" I mean "the paper samples"
and by "really played a good game" I obviously mean "arrived today"
and of course by "tonight" I mean "and they are so sweet"

and by "eh" I truly mean "I think I will drop out of school and become a purveyor of fine papers"

administrative error

it is clear there has been some sort of mixup in my reporting instructions for an elective I set up for the fall. the email instructions suggest that on the first day of my elective I am to meet the resident on the ward at 6:30 am. I am fairly certain they meant to instruct me to meet at 9:30 am for introductory coffee and danishes; I should think it goes without saying that I will be contacting the office immediately to seek correction.

flower power

mila and I met with a florist recently. she was a lovely woman, though, as florists are wont to do, she kept rhapsodizing about more and more exotic blooms:

"really, we're just looking for something simple. think dahlia, not dendrobium," said simon, in a rare fit of fiscal responsibility.
"okay... I think one of my suppliers can get in some lotus flowers hand picked by a monk who lives on mount fuji."
"sounds beautiful, but seriously, no monks, okay?"
"I think he might be on vacation anyway. I'll look into it," promised the florist.

a few days later we get an email:

"good news! the monk's away, but I found an icelandic peasant who dabbles in rare wildflowers. he's already started scouring the fields. or fjords. do they have fjords in iceland? really not sure. anyway, hope you're having a great week! talk to you soon!"

mila and I are both alarmed, and mila instructs me to email the florist immediately to tell her to control herself, before she mails sven his deposit of two goats and a bag of rubies. the florist gets back to us in record time, letting us know that she is only looking into such exotic blooms for mila's bouquet, which, after all, ought to be special and unique.

"perfectly reasonable!" concluded an appeased mila, as she signed away the food budget. "carry on."