Foie Gras and other adventures in food

One of the best parts of visiting the Northwest is visiting my dear friend, Ms. Julie Spanks.  Ms. Spanks is a veritable dark angel, one of the sweetest yet most sadist souls I know.  I have a great admiration for the elegance she lives her life with.  She lives on the cornerstone of sublime, so I know that each visit I will be treated to some new and worldly experience.

Monday's stop in Portland brought Julie and I to her neighborhood restaurant, Toro Bravo.  It was hip and yet quaint, with candlelight and good looking chefs, cooking in a vestibule, open to all the patrons.  We had left Nascar at home with our Surly Camp matriarch, PattyCakes, to watch the BSC bowl game. so the two of us were able to procure the corner seats around the open kitchen.  In front of me happened culinary magic (I am sure), although I was more interested in the fantastic dirty martini I was sipping and catching up with Julie Spanks.

Our culinary treats included:

The foie gras (or foy grass) as I adopted, was not to my liking.  The richness of the fat and the sickening stories of its inception did not do much for my palette.  (I know I am not a trendsetter..)  Surprisingly, what I liked best was the Hedgehog Mushrooms and Crostini.  I have never enjoyed mushrooms until now, I guess it is a testament to the maturation of my palette due to living with Gabby.

The unfortunate end to this story was my Norovirus that occurred the next day.  A 24 hour bug set Nascar and I back one full day on our trip.  Twas most unfortunate, except that Ms. Julie Spanks was there to care for me.

Wild-Life

We are visiting with Nascar's Mom and her husband in La Casa Grande, Arizona.  They live in a strange place, "Retirement Planet" is what I have deemed it.  It is a strange land, filled with people who have no jobs, and play golf everyday.  Many of them drive around in golf carts, and drink wine out of sippy cups!  In truth, "Retirement Planet" is their neighborhood of golf clubs, strip malls and older people, and it is strangely comfortable to be visiting in.  I am sleeping late, as there are no jack hammers or trash trucks outside of their windows at 8am.  Sandy, my mother-in-law, is cooking for us everyday and has wine with dinner every night.  We have visited the "ruins" of Casa Grande (see last post) and today we visited a wildlife park.  Nascar is loving the chance to visit other nature sanctuaries, and especially enjoys the desert animals.

We watched a raptor demonstration featuring the Harris Hawks today.  These are the only type of hawks that hunt in groups and form maternal groups, with a female as the head of the pecking order.  They are beautiful soaring animals and remind me of the Animal Medicine from Native Americans of the spirit of "Hawk the Messenger".

We saw some beautiful cats, including two lovely bob cats, and two fantastic owls.

There were all sorts of learning activities, including experiencing the hearing of the bat:

It was fairly silly, and quite fun to be with Nascar's family and get to know his Mom better.  She seems so glad to have us visit and really proud of her son.  Here is a family photo:

Most importantly to me, Nascar had a great time.  He loved learning about the animals, and being outside.  We picnicked for lunch, and probably walked 5 miles.  Nascar was the navigator and took his map reading job very seriously.

La Casa Grande

Ryan and I are visiting Casa Grande, Arizona and his Mom and Mark, her husband.  Since arriving last night, we have visited the Casa Grande Ruins and met Ryan's Aunt Priscilla and Uncle Alan.

The Ruins are the oldest in the US, and have been up since 300 A.D.

The zeroscape of Arizona is quite beautiful.  Cacti remind me of some of my most favorite people in the world.  Prickly but striking on the outside, meaty and juicy on the inside.  Here are some photos of cactis.

2010 Wrap Up - Sil's Birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas

Whew!  2010 ended in a blur of work and family.  Thanksgiving brought Uncle David to the mothership that is San Francisco.  He lived it up in our fair city, having a wonderful visit with Ryan, Tigh, Noah and I.    Plus he made some fun memories of his own, travelling around and meeting people.  Alexa and Patrick hosted a fun filled Thanksgiving with the Smiths, Alice, and Tigh.  I think it was the first Thanksgiving I shared with Tigh ever as grown ups.

Speaking of grownups, Madame S, Ms. Silvia turned 40 on Sept 29.  A wonderful celebration was hosted by the Coopers, even Mrs. O made an appearance from San Diego.  We spent most of the weekend pretending we were not grownups, and I dressed up as an angler fish for Halloween.  (no pics though)

These photos remind me why I love my friends!  And the whole weekend made me really miss Surly Camp!

The holiday was started with Noah's Birthday in early November.  Tigh, Noah and I went to the Oakland Zoo to celebrate the beginning of his fourth year.  He is such a sweet spirit.  It has been difficult to watch his little heart and brain understand his parent's divorce, but he is really so resilient.  Plus his mom and grandparents have done a wonderful job of keeping Tigh and active part of his son's life.  That being said, Tigh has been on a great path of good decisions and is flourishing in his role as Noah's dad.  Being grown up is never easy, but friends and family make it worth it.

Ryan and I spent Christmas at home together baking lasagnas and waiting for Gabby to return.  Lucky for us, Gab returned safe and sound from Honduras on the 31st.  And our happy home continues on into 2011!

Desmopressin

Another Saturday in the trenches.  It honestly was not that bad.  One of the things I love most about being a nurse is that I am always learning something.  Today's lessons included Desmopressin as a treatment of Diabetes Insipidus.


Diabetes Insipidus is a condition caused by decreased production of antidiuretic hormone by the pituitary.  My patient had a very large tumor encircling her pituitary that had to be removed.  Before the surgery she was confused, and had a lack of balance.  Since her surgery, she is much less confused and has a much steadier gait.  The surgery on her pituitary has caused the DI condition, though.  When your body does not make enough ADH, then the body just wants to pee and pee.  A person with DI is always very thirsty and always having to pee (even worse than breaking the seal during Friday night cocktails).  We often treat with a med called DDVAP, Desmopressin. Desmopressin increase water reabsorption in the renal collecting ducts, which makes you pee less.  The main side effect of DDVAP is hyponatremia, or decreased sodium, which can led to confusion, seizures, or death.  If you are peeing so much that your sodium levels are down, you cannot receive anymore DDVAP, because the water retention will then cause an even greater "dilutional" hyponatremia.  

The kidneys are such a complex organ, it really amazes me what the body can do.  I always enjoy learning more about the kidneys and their hormone connection to the brain.  The nursing student I am training was so knowledgable about this.  Her discussion really helped me grasp this subject.  

Rites of Passage

The New Year is almost over.  My life has been traditionally marked by Burning Man as the end of one project, beginning of another.  This year I did not attend Burning Man, but interestingly enough, my connection with that particular rite of passage grew immensely.  I look forward to returning next year, and plan on making it's theme "Rite of Passage," a major learning theme in my life this year.

My career as a nurse has shown me that the rite of passage that is death has been marred and manipulated by Western medicine and the Western ideal of hospitals.  Please understand, I believe we do great work in the hospital saving lives and elongating life.  However, I have seen too many cases where a patient is so obviously on the dying process and we forgo the signs, and utilize invasive tactics to sustain life for only a bit longer and with a very low quality of life (ie hooked to machines, pt not aware of surroundings).  It is my belief that the rite of passage of death should be taken back.  Not only is the patient's life quality affected, but so is the family.  Please let me die at home.  Let me struggle to breathe, rather than unplugging a machine.

Having just completed a Rite of Passage, my marriage to Nascar, I am convinced that our community does not place as much emphasis on the "hard" rites of passage.  Marriage is something for a wedding planner to plan, birth can be scheduled as a C-section, and death should take place by unplugging the machines that are substituting for my lungs.  I refuse to live this way and look forward to investigating these thoughts both artistically and professionally over this next year.

Going with the Flow

It has been over 5 months since I last blogged. Such a shame, for this is probably the happiest I have ever been. Nascar and I are a true team, in love with living as husband and wife.

I would be amiss to say that our lives are not tiring, filled with work and school, and family negotiations. But these are not problems, these are symptoms of a healthy and active life. I wake up every day and check my temperature (family planning), and thank the heavens for such gifts.

Nascar is in Texas currently on an aquarium business trip. He is flourishing in his job, and now dives once a week in the tanks to assist the husbandry staff with the fish care. I am still working at the local trauma center, and remain inspired by the patient population and the team of health care practicioners I work with.

I am humbled that I have been given such gifts of happiness. I realize that my choices have brought me to this station in life, but I do believe there is a bit of luck and a lot of faith on this road to happiness.

Of course, there is much about the country that is driving me to tears. The new bill in Arizona, SB 1070, legalizes racial profiling and is a travesty for all our civil rights leaders have worked for. Today, a bomb was found in Times Square in New York (no one hurt thankfully), last week a huge oil spill occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. I feel bad for the folks in New Orleans and Louisiana, ever since Hurricane Katrina, they really have not had an easy recovery. This oil spill will prove to slow the recovery down even more.