Ear Thermometer
In early January, little Anthony came down with a "bug" that lasted for two days and he had high fever and body temperatures of 103 degrees. The house has a new baby thermometer that is digital and takes the temperature in a second by placing the instrument in the opening of the ear canal. Much better than using the mouth or rectal thermometer on a small child and asking him to sit still for two minutes."I want to do it", says Anthony. He take the thermometer from his grandfather and places it in his own ear.
"I want to push the button", continues the little boy.
Anthony's pediatrician did not want Anthony brought into the hospital for an examination. She said that so many of her patients had a bug that caused high temperatures. There was this bug going around with school aged children, and that we should wait it out a couple of days. Sure enough, after two days, Anthony was all better and ready to resume his play duties.
Cook Your Goose!
After eating a wonderful goose at Kathy Niu's home on New Year's Eve, Paul and Rachel decided to cook one themselves for a small dinner party in late January. This was not an easy task.Three days before the party, the goose was taken out of the freezer and defrosted. Two days before the party, the goose was par boiled for about two minutes and then set to dry naked on the cold porch. One day before the party, the goose was salted and peppered and the skin was punched all around in order to allow the fast between the skin and the flesh to slow out during roasting.
Friday. Party day. Paul had an appointment with his opthomologist in Brookline at 1 pm. He was surprised that the eye exam, the periferral vision test, the eye pressure test, the reversal drops to off-set the dialation drops... all took 1 1/2 hours and Paul did not get home until 3 pm. Oh, oh, this is going to be tight. Into the oven at 3 pm, the goose was ready to be taken out of the oven by 6:30 pm.
Rachel needed the oven to roast her vegetables.. the goose was so large that it took up the entire oven. She'd have to wait until after 6:30 pm. The guests were expected to arrive between 6:30 and 7 pm.
5:30 pm and DING DONG, the front door bell. The first guest had arrived. In the less than 30 minues, the second guest was at the door. Oh my goodness... are we behind in the dinner preparation! Well,it all worked out well with the dinner. We cut out a couple of dishes(and still had more than enough food) and the goose was enjoyed by all diners. Will we roast goose again? If called for, the answer is "Yes".
Oh! Oh! Paul's got a problem
In late January, Paul's PCP Dr. Christina Gelev phoned him at home to inform him that the stool samples he had taken in the home test kit were "positive" for blood in the stools for each of the three days of the three day test. that meant that he should start off with another colonoscopy ( the last one done about 15 months prior) and try and locate the source of the blood.The last physician to do the colonoscopy on Paul, which he liked very much was Dr. Theodore Koh. Unfortunately, Dr. Koh had left the MGH practice and moved his work to UMass-Memorial Hospital in Worcester. Upon tracking Dr. Koh down, he found that he would be glad to take Paul as a patient, but would not start in his new rotation until March at the earliest.
Paul had heard that one of the best gastro-enderologist in Boston was Dr. Robert Schapiro, so he asked Dr. Gevel's secretary, Andrea to set up an appointment for him. Andrea khew of Dr. Schapiro and told Paul that he was very good but that his practice was "closed" and that he was not taking any new patients.
"Oh well", said Paul in a resigned voice,"Please have Dr. Gelev recommend the best she knows and set me up an appointment with that doctor."
It so happened that one of Paul's morning walking buddies was a patient of Dr. Schapiro so Paul decided to call on him for an attempt at help. He asked the friend to call Schapiro for him and see if he could get him to take Paul as a patient. Bingo! It worked! So Paul called Schapiro's office and set up an appointment for a colonscsopy at MGH with Schapiro on March 29th. The he called back Dr. Gelev's office to get a referral number and a referral from his PCP. With all these health care restrictions and managed care costs of the HMO's, it takes a lot of effort to work through the system. In Boston, where there are supposed to be so many doctors, it is not easy to get an appointment with a good one and when you do get an appointment, it is often months before you get serviced.
Well, we'll have to wait until the end of March for the next installment on this story.
La Caridad
La Caridad 78 is a Cuban-Chinese restaurant located in Manhattan at 78th and Broadway. The Weston Food Critic ended up here by default after trying to get into Ruby Fu's and the Penang restaurants without reservations on a Saturday night.The location is wonderful, the decor is "greasy spoon" a la 50's, the service is friendly with Chinese waiters, and the food varies between good and fabuolous depending on the dishes that you order. Zagat's describes the meals as "peasant food". The Weston Food Critic agrees. On the other hand, peasant food is one of his favorites!
There were four of us that night so we got to sample each other's dishes. The rice and black beans were great as was the lechon asado(the roasted pig). Order the fried plantano with fresh garlic sauce... wonderful. And if you still have room for desert(unlikely as the portions they give you at La Caridad are double size} then try their homemade flan with a cup of Cuban coffee. Price tag? Well, with four of us and after stuffing ourselves, we still had a big "doggy bag" and the bill with tax came to under $40.00. Try and get a wonderful meal in NYC for that price and have very good food on top of it. Highly recommended as a good deal and a fun place to eat on your next trip to NYC.
Jump Start
Anthony has decided to enter the computer age on his own. His parents bought the software program called "Jump Start" and it has call kinds of songs, numbers and alphabet games and puzzles.It rather simple in that it is run by the cursor and the clicker. Simple for an adult. Not so simple for a 2 year old.
Well, Anthony can point the cursor on his own and click the icon that he wants. The music comes on. Sometimes Antony listens. Sometimes he sings along. And sometimes, he just get up and dances to the music as he prances around the room.
