Bad News Bears

Whenever you're down on your luck, I want you to remember Dave. Dave is a real person, a genuine mid-western guy with a strong work ethic and personal responsibility. However, Dave is truly down on his luck. The bad news bears make regular visits to Dave and have brought him the following life events:

• Cheating wife
• Unsolvable medical condition
• Broken nose
• Failing business

So his friends take him out for a night on the town, buy him dinner, and work to cheer him up. He decides to repay his friends by buying a round of drinks. As he squares up his tab his friends head outside. In the meantime, the valet is handing over Dave's car keys to a guy who paid him $5. Dave walks out of the restaurant to see his car driving away. So much for a fun night out. In his car were

• His beloved golf clubs
• All his business files including potential job leads

The insurance company determines the car's worth, but since it was leased, the dealership wanted full value. So Dave had to pay the different out of pocket for the stolen vehicle. Sue the valet company you say! Valet company went out of business and cannot be located as they were not in contract with the restaurant. Just plain out of luck. So a friend of Dave loans him his Porsche to drive around in the meantime until Dave gets a new car. Luck it up! A loaner Porsche never happens! Sitting a stoplight, feeling pretty good about things, a delivery truck flips on his reverse lights and begins to back up....oh no! Dave has nowhere to go and the front of the Porsche is crunched. It still is drivable, so at least it still is transportation. Well, to add insult to injury, the mid-west had a huge storm this past week with golf-ball size hail. The Porsche was outside. Total car damage:

• Destroyed Porsche hood and front end of car
• Hail damage to top of Porsche
• Hail damage causes structural damage to Porsche
• Porsche is potentially totalled.

So next time you feel like you're down in the dumps - remember, you're not Dave.

May peace be with you.

Here, kitty kitty kitty

Oh...who knew it would be so exhausting to have a cat! After a whole day of traveling back to Arizona, we came home to find out cat acting very bizzare. Weird noises screeched from her mouth almost like a yelping cry "ouch!" It really sounded like she was saying ouch. She belted it out like she had channeled Tina Turner or Diana Ross. After a little soul searching on the internet (meaning searching for an answer to save our souls from the rechid noises she was making), we discovered she is in heat. Slut. This also means she is not spayed. Add one more thing to the kitty to-do list! $300 + later (food, liter, collar, microchip, surgery, pain meds etc.) we have ourselves an ovary-free cat named Sophie.

And the race is on....

Dr. Dashing and I went to see my family in Indianapolis over Memorial Day weekend. We explored the rejuvenated downtown canal area as well as attended the famous Indianapolis 500! Check out some of the photos!

Ashley Judd's husband is on the right!

And the winner is.....Helio (also known as Dancing with the Stars cast member)

Family addition +

Dr. Dashing and I rolled into our loft's garage around 11pm last night after a fun filled family day (Celebrating Norwegian Constitution Day as another reason to get together) to find a curious little creature waiting in our parking space. A small cat sat there staring back at us as if to wonder why we were invading it's garage - who knew we would be breaching a cat's homeland security boundaries! Now we were curious whether the cat was friendly, so we slowly rolled down the window and simply called "kitty??" To our surprise, it ran up to the car and began to meow as if it was ready for us to exit our vehicle to greet it. So, we followed directions and jumped out of the car, and again called "kitty?" Immediately it frolicked over to us and in one brisk leap, jumped into our arms.

Now I've had cats before, but have never seen a house cat (let alone a lost cat) be so attention hungry from strangers. Most cats irritate me as the run and hide for what seems like days.

So now we're wondering, where the heck did kitty come from? We keep the kitty happy with petting only to notice it's turning our hands quite dirty. We begin to walk away, wondering what it would do. Well, it followed us into the building, took a ride on the elevator, and when the elevator door shot open, the cat sprinted down the hallway to our door. Bizarre to say the least.

After a midnight run to the local grocery store, we set up a little area for kitty in the bathroom to keep her for the night. (We think it's a she). We're making "Cat Found" posters for around our building, but secretly hoping she'll be our. Dr. Dashing is convinced she is our cat and doesn't seem to have any intention of giving her up. He has already been sucked in by her pretty green eyes and cuttles with her every chance he can get.

After a bath and some more petting, she crawled into bed and had a great long night's rest.

Goodnight, kitty!

A look into the crystal ball

I love cooking, so last night for dinner I tested my ability to make spaghetti squash. Dr. Dashing is a picky eater - so I had a feeling that he wouldn't completely swoon over the noodle substitute. For about the first 10 minutes of dinner, he just pushed the squash around his plate contemplating what to do with it. I just giggled and offered to make him a grilled cheese. He polietley declined, and to my surprise actually ended up eating it! Mark one in the win column for me!

The conversation during that 10 minutes though was a glimpse into my future. We discussed the upcoming years and his med school demands. He'll start third year (MS III for those fellow med school significant others). That means he'll begin his rounds moving from hospital to hospital for some hands on learning. It also means he'll be gone every third night and have a pager glued to his hip for the next two years. I knew this was coming, not a surprise as Dr. Dashing's mom Glenda* survived the role of a medical school girlfriend - which we discuss frequently.

In the meantime, Dr. Dashing is or I should say, supposed to be studying for his first round of boards - the first test to becoming a legitimate doctor. His schedule is planned out by a specialist that consists of 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. So, I have booked myself solid with fun things to do with friends and family. However, this independing lifestyle isn't going so well yet. For me, it's been fine, but for Dr. Dashing it's a struggle. He's all of a sudden calling a few times a day to say hi (procrastinating) and is always asking if he can help in the kitchen. He even went out and bought garden plants I've been wanting....and then planted them! Wait....that means he actually went to a nursery - fraternity alumna and plant nursery - this must be bad. My co-workers think I should totally take advantage of this and put my love of homemaker activities into high gear...I'll be pondering this more. In the meantime, I'm going to continue to quiz him on things like chemotheraphy drugs - maybe he'll get more motivated to study.

*Will refer to Dr. Dashing 's mom as Glenda, like the good witch from the Wizard of Oz. Beautiful, talented, motherly, supporter, beholder of the magic wand.

In case you're interested in dating a medical school student, think it's dreamy to date a future doctor, or what to get the scoop on what it's like, read this...http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,452186,00.html

You can also read the author Marissa's blog at http://mariskris.blogspot.com/