I am an expert Haggeler

Rich with his future car (sort of)

This weekend i learned a little bit about haggling. We are getting a car for Richard and car dealers SCARE me. I read "Blink" and they talked about car dealer's instincts on who to give a good deal to. Well after reading about what they look for, I realized that I will always be given the higher price, just by virtue of being female. Not only that but I really don't know enough about cars to know what to ask about (just another reason that I will always get a higher price). Well this weekend we got to spend so time with Richard's parents. They took us out to look at cars. At the first place they did a lot of the talking just to show how it was done. Then we went to the next place and by that time we knew what we wanted and we already were armed with a pretty good quote from the other place. When the dealer talked to his general manager he said "these guys are no BS they just want our lowest quote." Can you believe that??? Wow...We are no BS. So now we are one step closer to getting a Subaru. Now Richmond dealers better look out, here we come.

Thanksgiving and such

Well I think its time for me to update the blog..."Richard's Thoughts" are getting old. SO Here is a run down of Thanksgiving. At work on Wednesday night we had a feast (I guess to stretch our stomachs in preparation for the next day.) Then Thursday morning we caught a ride with Jake and Marci and caravaned with Sara and Tommy to Richard's parents house for the big day. It was fantastic and my pants had enough give that it didn't hurt so much.
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I went back to Richmond with Jake and Marci, so that I could work on Friday. Work was not too bad(although there was definitely a higher percentage of people with chest pain). Then it was off to the Murder Mystery. This year the theme was that a movie filming company came to town then the murders started happening. One of the activities was to be the makeup artists. Here are Richard and I with our masterpiece make up

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I think I was talking.

Richard has his eyes closed, but you can see our zombies were quite scary.

Then there was a costume contest based off of a scary movie. Richard's mom came up with idea of us being Arsenic and Old Lace (everybody else seemed to get it, I didn't know what is was--now I know it is an old scary movie)

We didn't solve the mystery, but we had a great time. Unfortunately we had an accident on the way home.
So here is the story we got off the freeway, because my bladder is unbelievably weak sauce (and there was only a portapottie-a disgusting one at that, to add insult to injury). So after my rendezvous with the portapottie and my focus and attention back on the road, we went to get back on the freeway and I was coming down a hill toward the on ramp and the roads were slick, so when I pressed on the brakes they locked up and I couldn't stop. I even said, "Rich it won't stop." There were no cars in front of me so I thought it would be okay, but there was a truck with a horse trailer turning left. I cleared the truck, but the horse trailer swung into our lane and that was it. CRUNCH!! So Rich gets out of the car and apologizes. I got mad at him and said "it was not all my fault" Well apparently according to Rich, the lady I hit and our insurance company it was....DANG IT.

I guess it was a good thing Rich didn't get up for black Friday to get the TV we were going to get for Christmas because now that money is going to be used to fix my car. Bummer.

This is how we feel about that.

Random Facts I Learned Today

Patients often tell me random things and today I learned two random facts:

1. One patient told me that her son is a 4th grader in Henrico County and they are not teaching the kids cursive writing anymore.

My thought on that subject is no biggie. I really don't feel like kids will be missing out, but it is kind of crazy that it may be a lost art form.

2. One of my patient's works in research and development for Phillip Morris. I asked what kind of things she researched. She said they are looking at antioxidants with cigarettes. The reason they are looking at that is because they believe that a lot of the reason smoker's get cancer is due to the high levels of inflammation caused by the cigarettes. So they are hoping that by adding antioxidants to their cigarettes it will make them more healthy. Now if that is not wrong, I don't know what is. It is a huge glimpse into the minds of the cigarette companies, "maybe we can market these as healthy and then we can sell more." Also, of note: when I asked this lady if she smokes (before I knew what she did for a living) she told me that she did until she started working at Phillip Morris. Because as soon as she started doing research and saw just how damaging cigarettes are she decided to quit. How is that for Truth about cigarettes.

Fall Stories

My sister posted on her blog that she was starting a tradition of picking the best leaf of the year. I love that idea, so when Rich and I went on a walk at a nearby partk we picked some favorites.

And the winner is:

The primary program was today. I loved seeing the kids do their parts, but even more than that I loved being done with it. I was so worried about how is would turn out and if I needed to be doing more to be prepared. That being said, it really was great! I could tell that they worked hard with their parents. I was so impressed with how many of the kids memorized their parts. My favorite part was the kid whose assignment was to tell his favorite of Heavenly Father's Creations. He said, "animals like T-Rex"


Yesterday we celebrated Richard's Mom's birthday at short pump mall. We went out to eat and shopping. It was great to spend time with them AND it was a beautiful day.

Last story: At work I was standing in the hall and this lady walked up behind me and said "hey, have you been gaining weight?" (I have...dang drug reps and their dang tasty foods) I said, "uhhh yea...can you tell? " She said "yea" Then all of a sudden it occured to me that she was incredibly impudent (as Jane Austen would say). And I told her, "that's not very nice." Really...can you imagine saying that to somebody?!?!?!

Punkin contest

A couple of weeks ago at work they started talking about the pumpkin decorating contest. I love Halloween because it is the only holiday where everyone really wants to be creative. I am always amazed that every year I see a new idea (usually for costumes) that I had never even thought of before. Anyway, I really wanted to do something creative, so I asked Rich to come up with an idea for me. His idea: the ugly duckling. I don't know if you can tell from the pic but the duckies are all pumpkin except the ugly duckling, which is a squash.

They were so awkward, but I really started to like them a lot. I won an honorable mention.

Here were some of the other ideas

Halloween Costumes

So I know Halloween is a week gone, but our computer has been out of commission with a backlight out and our mouse pad malfunctioning, but I wanted to post about Heather's great Idea. She is a GENIUS. Her idea was to go as an eHarmony.com couple. Then, she stepped it up a notch, a big one. She came home one day and said "Richard, what if we shave a bald patch in the middle of your head?" I was unsure at first, but then I realized; HEATHER IS GOING TO LET ME SHAVE MY HEAD, HECK YES I'M IN! So we made some t-shirts that had profiles that looked like we had grossly misrepresented ourselves, dressed up in some goofy costumes, and then shaved me a cul-de-sac. Enjoy the costumes that brought home the first place costume trophy, BOOYAH:

Here's the profile. I was a hot doctor and she was a Dallas cowboys cheerleader. On the front it said "eHarmony worked for us."

Here's our first place trophy.