Comings and Goings

What a day! The President gave his State of the Union address today and the state of our union is...wait for it...strong. The Oscar nominees were named and were populated by a bunch of movies we haven't seen. Samuel Alito was confirmed as Supreme Court Justice, likely tipping the Court to the right. Coretta Scott King died today at 78. Alan Greenspan stepped down after 18 years as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Twins were born in my practice today and my oldest patient died a peaceful but sudden death at 103. She was on virtually no medicine and got out of the house everyday. She always had a smile on her face and made my day every time I saw her. All of this will take a few days to sink in.

Our New Nephew

Manning Bryce Evans was born to my brother Mark and his wife Melinda today. He was 8# 2 oz. and 19 inches long. Mom, baby, and the rest of the family are doing well. Welcome, Manning!

Aaron's New Words

Aaron has been saying several new words lately after a drought that seemed at times intentional. Including today's "toe", his latest are "no", "yoyo", "home", and "two".

Will Rogers Follies

Last Sunday Becky and I saw The Will Rogers Follies as a part of the Broadway series at the local Stranahan theater. It was a musical Ziegfield Follies-style production of Will Rogers' life. Growing up in Oklahoma, I had learned a lot about Will Rogers growing up. I went to Will Rogers Elementary through the 4th grade. We went on field trips to the Will Rogers Museum in Claremore. I didn't really realize until the musical what a big radio, movie and newspaper columnist star he was. I linked him in my head to Mark Twain, I guess because of all the wonderful quotes that they produced, though they really worked in different media. It wasn't the best show we've seen this season, but it was fun and had several memorable tunes. A must see for any Will Rogers fans, this won the Tony for Best Musical over Miss Saigon in 1991. It looks like its playing in Oklahoma with Larry Gatlin (a different cast than the one we saw) for a couple of weeks if you're interested.

Sitting at the Big Table

I'd like to take a moment to bid adieu to the high chair that has been a part of our lives for 6 years. There was about 1 year in between the boy where it took a hiatus. But both boys are sitting at the big table now and the high chair is in a children's resale shop. We will not miss tripping over it, but Aaron will miss using it as a jungle gym.

Halloween 2005 - Buzz & Rex - Take 2

We went to Portrait Innovations at the end of the year last year and took some more pictures in the kids Halloween costumes. They were too cute to wear just once I guess. Alex would wear his every day if we let him.

A Pirate Adventure

Last night we went to see Dora Live! A Pirate Adventure - a live action stage show of one of the kids favorite shows. We tugged in booster seats to make it easier for them to see, but Aaron still spent much of the show in my lap. There were chances to yell back at the performers and dance in front of our seats. Alex enjoyed it but didn't participate much. Aaron was amazed to see the performers singing his favorite Dora the Explorer and Go, Diego, Go! songs. They got Dora lights and fun memories for souvenirs.

Embracing Paper

I love paper. I never thought I’d be saying something like this. It seems I have always been trying to go more and more digital. My 1st handheld computer was a Velo 1 which I upgraded to an HP Jornada 680 until I realized that I kept advising everyone who asked me to get a Palm PDA, which of course I did too. In addition I digitally record TV, listen to digital music on my iPod, get weather maps on my digital phone and read email from Becky on my digital pager. With all this, I was baffled as to how I could be so digitally enhanced and so disorganized. My latest handheld Palm OS PDA, a Sony Clie TJ-35, has a calendar, address book, and to do list, so why wasn’t I getting anything done? The Palm OS is the simplest, most intuitive handheld platform on the market, but to enter a To Do item I still had to pull it out, turn it on, pull out the stylus, navigate to the To Do section, pick New To Do Item from a menu, and then either type it in on a tiny onscreen keyboard or use Grafiti – special 1-2 stroke gestures I learned to write on the screen for it to recognize them as letters – to enter the item. It took a minute or two, but often I was so busy that I wouldn’t do it. I’d either try to juggle it in my head or I’d jot it on a scrap of paper and shove it in my pocket to either remind me about the To Do item or enter into my Clie when I had time.

A few months ago I stumbled onto a reference online to the Hipster PDA. I built my own from scratch at home for less than $1 and it changed my life. The Hipster is a stack of 3x5” note cards and a binder clip. That, plus a pen, has helped me get more things done in the last few months than all of my digital sources combined. I have one card with a To Do list (write it down, cross it off), one card that just list the next action I need to take to complete something on my To Do list, Project cards for items that have multiple steps, monthly calendar cards where I can jot events down quickly and retrieve them at a glance, a shopping cards for things I want to get for myself or others, a Someday/Maybe card for bigger ideas that I want to ruminate on, and a few blank cards for whatever else I need. I still use my PDA all the time. It is great for storing and searching databases like my Epocrates medication reference or my address book (though I do keep a card in the Hipster with frequently called numbers on it).

My latest paper acquisition is a Moleskine pocket journal. It is slightly larger than my Hipster, with creamy pages bound beautifully in a hard cover that closes with an integrated elastic band. It has a woven ribbon to mark what page I was on. Its almost too beautiful to write in...almost. I’m using it for more permanent thoughts – short term goals, a journal entry, a record of Aaron’s first words so far. I have a larger journal I have been filling for 3 years now, but it is too big to carry around routinely, so I hope to do more writing because I can carry it easier. Think about adding a little bit of useful paper to your life, too.

Happy New Year 2006

We hope your New Year is full of Joy and Peace.