Mr. & Mrs. Link

Most of you are well aware that I have recently started my second year of medical school at the fabulous Johns Hopkins. As such, from time to time, I am privy to some random and exciting information: science fun facts if you will. As soon as I learn one, I’ll post it on here to share these pearls with all of you! (Also be on the look out for my post about our soon to be ultra-sheik apartment: I LOVE the curtains!)

Fun fact #1: Did you know that there is a biological reason for the tequila shot? Alcohol is a diuretic, which is a fancy way of saying it makes you pee. When you pee a lot, you lose a lot of your bodies good stuff like sodium, potassium, and water. Sodium and Potassium are two particularly important electrolytes because they are so widely used in your body. Being that Mexico is a desert, they tend to lose even more water than people in more wet climates so retaining water and electrolytes are all the more important. So as you take the tequila shot, you first take some salt: the salt contains sodium so it replenishes your supply while at the same time causing an anti-diuretic effect, aka, makes you not have to pee as much and causes you to increase your retention of water. After the shot, you eat a lime, which contains lots of potassium, which also increases that supply as well as having an additional anti-diuretic effect (same as sodium) so you lose even less water!

So there you have it folks! The biological explanation of the tequila shot!

(Also, Mexican beers are the only beers in the world where you put a lime in the beer before you drink it, for the exact same reason! Bonus fun fact!)

What better way to commemorate a major life event than with a shirt custom made for the event?

I’ve had a Cafe Shop for years, featuring Debate Wear. Yeah, it’s pretty nerdy. I don’t make much money on the site – Cafepress charges an awful lot and my target market is primarily poor college students – but I do have a lot of fun with it. So when I decided that I wanted a custom shirt, I knew where to go.

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Tags: proposal

Good Trees, Bad Forest

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

Guns, Germs, and Steel (Jared Diamond) is an academic exercise in junkyard salvage. Any mechanic will tell you that a car that doesn’t run isn’t necessarily trash. It can still be useful for the parts that the car is made of. This book is worth reading, not because its thesis is in working order – it’s not – but because there is a wealth of interesting information in the parts that make up the thesis. If a reader can overlook the overly simplified environmental determinism, they can mine out fascinating nuggets of information ranging from crop domestication, to linguistic studies to human migration.

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Got your engagement card today (Kathleen, what language does your boss sign his Frank in? Sanskrit?)!

Kathleen, I credit you for the idea – I don’t think guys really think about this sort of thing, right Chris? But the Best Buy gift certificate was definitely a touch of testosterone to compliment the estrogen essence of Bed Bath & Beyond. Very nice touch. Thanks! You guys rock!

By the way: Who can’t wait for The Game!

The great state of Montana has a bi-partisan Senate delegation. The senior senator, Max Baucus is a Democrat while the junior senator and my boss Conrad Burns is a Republican. This creates an interesting dynamic in that they both care about the well-being of Montana, want to help Montanans as much as they can, but have very different ways of doing that faced with different pressures and influences.

Politicking aside, though, because this is not a political blog, last night the softball teams of these respective offices squared off on the National Mall under the shadow of the Capitol Building.

Now, you’ve got to understand someting about Senate Softball. If a team is comprised of senate staffers, well, we tend to be the nerds who were good at math, but not so good at recess. In other words, we play for fun, but we play ugly. So, knowing that this game would entail Montana bragging rights for the next year, we made sure that our significant others would be there, if they were ringers.

Tiffany had Orientation for her second year of Med School yesterday, but she treked down from Baltimore to play in the game. She’s definitely a ringer: All State Softball in high school, with a wicked arm. She was our Defensive MVP, I think.

It was great playing with Tiffany. I just loved watching her. She was good, and she brought up the game of those around her.

So thanks for coming down baby!

Oh, and final score:

Senator Burns – 29
Senator Baucus – 12

Edited: I figured out how to put the site-meter in the sidebar!

Four Rings. One ring to bring me to the store, one ring to notify me that it was ready, one ring to pick it up, and one ring to bind us forever. Four Rings.

Once the shopping was done, it was time to actually buy the ring. This was going to be a little tricky because Tiffany lived in between me and the jewelry store. Although it was important, I just couldn’t justify traveling all that distance and not seeing her.

So I had to find another way to get a few hours alone – a state that neither of us prefer when we could otherwise be with each other. Memorial Day weekend provided the opportunity I needed. Since I had Monday off, I decided to extend my weekend through Tuesday, which had two advantages. One, I could stay Monday night in Baltimore and Tiffany had class Tuesday morning, which would give me a few hours along. Two, staying in Baltimore made it easy to attend Tiffany’s White Coat Ceremony, which is when Medical Students are awarded their doctors’ coats and stethoscopes (most med schools do it at the beginning of year one; Johns Hopkins does it at the end).

So that Morning, Tiffany woke up early to go to class and I pretended to stay in bed. As soon as she left, I got dressed and drove up to the mall to make The Purchase.

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Tags: proposal, ring

So, just for clarification’s sake, my wedding colors aren’t really chartreuse. On Wednesday, I met with one of Jed’s best friends, Vanessa, one of my bridesmaids, to hang out and see the dresses that I liked at David’s Bridal. I had previously been told that David’s Bridal is like the K-Mart of wedding shops, but they are everywhere and since three of my five bridesmaids are in different states, I figured a national chain would be the most convenient for everyone.

When choosing my bridesmaid dresses, there were a lot of things to consider. Such as, I still want these girls to be my friends after the wedding, so I had better choose wisely. Im not one of those girls who feels the need to put all of my (gorgeous) bridesmaids in really hideous, unflattering dresses in an attempt to make myself look better. In addition to me actually wanting these girls to look pretty because they are my friends, they way I look at it, they are like my wedding accessories too. I so happen to have beautiful friends, so I lucked out there. But if they look horrible in my wedding pictures, then my wedding pictures look horrible, so you see, my intentions aren’t completely altruistic.

Vanessa and I went to David’s bridal to see if she could help me decide between these two beautiful dresses that I had found. Both were in the light Periwinkle color that I loved and both were very delicate, flattering dresses. And of course, Vanessa just looks fabulous in everything so I still couldn’t make a decision. She sent me these pictures that we took of the dresses. After looking at how the dresses take pictures, I’m kind of leaning towards the dress that Vanessa has on (Vanessa is the taller one with long straight hair), but I would love to know what other people think. I’m still trying to decide. I’ll probably have my other bridesmaids try the two dresses and either send pics or just get a consensus on which dress they like better. Let me know what you think!

I can’t find a picture of my shoe that I got for my dress, but it is outsanding. It’s an Alfani sandal that I got at Macy’s. I’ll post a picture as soon as I take one.

Until next time…

Pictures after the fold Read more… …

Tags: bridesmaids, dresses, planning

… might have to be Google