A Year in Books

As I posted previously, I now use LibraryThing to keep track of the books I read.

I read, by my count, 26 books this year...although I feel like I am missing a couple.

Here's the list:

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Best American Short Stories edited by Stephen King
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
The Dark Tower (Books 1-7) by Stephen King
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding (for the third time)
March by Geraldine Brooks
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Rebecca by Daphne de Maurier
Snow by Orhan Pamuk
Stanger in the Forest: On Foot Across Borneo by Eric Hansen
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace, One School at a Time by Greg Mortensen
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmeal Beah
The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff


I just started to list my favorites of the year and I realized I was going to copy half of the list. I really enjoyed almost all of the books I read this year.


If you haven't read it, you MUST read The Poisonwood Bible. It's haunting.

Bel Canto is a great tale, as is Water for Elephants.

The Golden Notebook was fabulous, as was The Name of the Rose. I loved Umberto Eco's style of writing and the historical aspect of the story.

I actually read more non-fiction than normal this year. Stranger in the Forest I read before we took our trip to Malaysia and I loved it. What a great tale of travel and immersion in another culture. I wish I was as brave as the author is when it comes to just letting it all go and living a totally different life. Three Cups of Tea was fascinating and made me realize how much more I could be doing to help change the world. Inspiring.


What did you read this year? What would you recommend?

Feel free to check out my library over at LibraryThing.com.

Meredith's Birthday!!!

As I alluded to in my last post, I went home to Kentucky in July. I didn't go just to visit family, although I certainly was thrilled to see everyone.

I went home for a very special day....my niece Meredith's first birthday!

Laura and Michael had a wonderful party at their house to celebrate this momentous milestone. I was so glad to have been able to travel home to be there on her first birthday. It's hard to believe that she is one year old now.

I know I am a little biased, but she is just the cutest thing ever! Here's some pictures from her birthday party on July 26, 2008!

It's been a long time...

I suck at posting. Let's just get that out there. Okay, I feel better now.


We have had an incredibly busy summer this year. We traveled to Orlando, Malaysia, Jordan, Kentucky and Las Vegas. We have one more trip in a couple of weeks to New Mexico and then we will stay put here in Rochester for awhile. At least until I can dream up a reason to go somewhere else.


The trip to Malaysia was fantastic. It was 18 days of no pager, no cell phones, no television, just uninterrupted time together in the hot sun.


We spent 5 days in Kuala Lumpur and had a great time eating wonderful food and shopping in Chinatown. Then we traveled to Tioman Island, which was the most amazing place either of us has ever visited. We spent the days laying on the beach, hiking in the jungle, snorkeling right off the pier and getting massages. Who could complain about that? Our final destination was Penang where we visited a snake temple, lounged around the pool and ate some amazing street market food. All in all, it was a wonderful trip and we can't wait to go back! (Pictures from Malaysia are in the previous post!)


We also visited Jordan and our family there this summer. We had a great time relaxing in Aqaba with Ahmad's brother and his wife and their adorable son, Hashem (2 and half years old). We also went to two weddings and ate a lot of home cooked meals that were out of this world.

Ahmad and Hashem building a sandcastle in Aqaba.

Delicious!

Virginie, Sufian and Hashem

Ahmad and our nephew, Hashem. He is the son of Ahmad's younger brother, Sufian, and Virginie, Sufian's wife from Belguim.

Hashem

Finally, we just got back from Vegas this past weekend. We met Shannan and Aleco there and had a great time gambling, watching Ka and Chris Rock and eating at Tao (the best meal any of us have ever had!). We didn't win any money, but we didn't lose any either, so I guess we can't complain.

In front of Paris hotel in Vegas.

Shannan, me, Ahmad and Aleco shopping in Vegas.

Our trip to Malaysia

As promised...pictures of our trip to Malaysia.

We had such a wonderful time. The trip was absolutely perfect and we fell in love with Malaysia. We can't wait to go back!

Click here to see a larger slideshow, or just watch the one below.

Just a Little Note from Paradise

I don't know if anyone even reads this blog anymore...but if you do and you wonder where we have gone to...

Ahmad and I are laying on a beach in the middle of the South China sea as I type. The water is crystal clear, the breeze is light, and the sun is hot, hot, hot. It's truly the most beautiful place I have ever seen.

We'll post lots of pictures when we return, but for now, greetings from Tioman Island, Malaysia!

Feel like a shopping spree?

I was perusing another blog and came across a link to this site.

We've all heard the 3 trillion dollar figure...apparently that is how much money we have or will have spent on the Iraq war.

I don't want to get into my thoughts on the Iraq war as most of you know them already and I don't feel like getting myself angry tonight.

I do, however, want you to take a look at http://www.3trillion.org/. What a fascinating website.

We know 3 trillion dollars is a LOT of money...but I now you can find out just how much it really is. The website gives you a budget of 3 trillion dollars and then offers you everything you can think of...and guess what? It's hard to spend 3 trillion dollars.

I have spent almost 2.5 trillion and I am having a hard time spending the rest. Here's a sample of some of my "purchases:"


For the good of humanity:

End our dependence on foreign oil
A Raise for every teacher in the US
Converted completely to solar energy
Cured two deadly diseases
Universal literacy
End world hunger for one year
Assist Iraqi children displaced, mamed or orphaned by the war
Universal Health Care for every American
New clothing, school supplies and books for ten million children
Finish repairing the damage done by Hurrican Katrina
Plant one million trees
Educate the world on sustainable agricultural practices


And I would send every man, woman and child in the US on a three week foreign vacation. This is a critical one, I think. If we all were more educated about the rest of the world, perhaps we would be less inclined to support policies which destroy it.


For you, my friends and family:

A bought a private island in the caribbean so we can all vacation when we like
A house for all of my family and friends
A luxury yatch...again, you're welcome to borrow it!


And finally, for myself and Ahmad:

New shoes every week for life
A really nice digital camera
Two iPhones
The entire Ann Taylor clothing line
Our dream house
My own personal library
And a car for you, Ahmad...your Mercedes 600!


Finally, I paid for the salary of 8 new weapons inspectors...so perhaps we can avoid this entire disaster in the future...well, at least once Bush is out of the White House.


Enjoy!

My New Favorite Thing

Earlier this year, Stephanie and I discussed books we had read in 2007.

As always when I talk about books with anyone, I started to feel guilty that I hadn't kept up better with books I have read.

I always tell myself I should keep track of the books I read, along with when I read them and what I felt about them. I even have more than one empty journal taking up space in my cluttered office for doing just that. The key word there is empty. Despite my best intentions, I never write anything in those stupid journals.

This year, I started to keep an Excel spreadsheet with the books I read and I even blogged about it in my very first post on this blog....until I found this.

This is my new best friend. It's called librarything and it rocks my world.

Seriously, it is awesome. I have archived most of the books that are on my overflowing bookshelf (although I haven't tackled any of the ones in the boxes in my closet) and I have lists for each year.

You can apply tags to the books that you enter that help you keep track in various ways. For example, I have "Books I read in 2007" and "Books I read in 2008" and "Books read more than once" tags. I also have a "Favorite" tag.

The other really nice thing is that you can see how many people have the same books that you do and you can peruse other people's libraries.

In other words, I am in love with LIbrarything. Check it out. And you can find my lists with my username: acardin11.

Happy perusing.

Busy, Busy

Ahmad and I have been very busy these last couple of weeks. He had several tests which of course were all scheduled the same week and I have been working a lot lately.

This is all in preparation for our trip to..........Malaysia!

We are going for two weeks of uninterrupted sun, sand, spicy food, and snorkeling/scuba diving.

Did I mention we are also going to do a couple of day trek through the Malaysian jungle? There are Asian tigers, wild boars, vipers, leopards, orangutans and even elephants. The likelihood of us actually seeing most of those animals is remote, as the jungle is huge and the animals are naturally skittish and hide deep in the jungle, but I can dream, right?

We will probably see lots of very large insects and a lot of leeches! Apparently, they are pretty much everywhere in the jungle and from all I have read, they are fantastic at jumpling onto you as you walk through the trails and then wriggling their way up to who know's where to attack themselves and drink. Sounds like fun, huh?

Kuala Lumpur is the capital and there is great diving in Malaysia with lots of turtles and sharks!

I hope we will have lots of interesting stories and photos to post after we get back....but until then we have two more months of work and school before we leave.

Home Work

It's been a busy week here in the Cardin/Almasarweh household, which doesn't really differentiate it from any other week. Too bad none of what we have been doing is really that interesting. I have been working on a new research project which is really neat, but unfortunately I can't disclose what it is on the internet! Anyway...

I thought I would post some pictures of our house since most of you have never seen it. We only have 2 more years here, so like I told Stephanie the other day, you better get busy making plans to visit if you want to see us here!

Ahmad and I have done a lot of work on the house since we bought it. One of the big projects was building a patio for the backyard. Mom and Dad came up to help us last summer and we worked for two days solid on this project.

As you can see, the guys did most of the laying of the stone so we could blame them later if it didn't turn out right. Mom and I carried every single piece of stone to them, though, so over the course of the day, we moved a ton of stone together. It was hard work, but we had a lot of fun, and as you can, the finished product is amazing. We've already thrown several cookouts and the patio is a big hit.

The patio turned out great. And this picture also illustrates the huge cherry tree we have in the backyard which in the spring fills up with cherries that are bright red/yellow and taste delicious.

The jungle (see the previous post) is also visible, as is some of the landscaping we did on the back yard. My project for this year is to landscape around the patio. I can't wait. I have to admit, landscaping and working outdoors is my favorite part of home ownership.

And here is the landscaping we did on the front of the house. We have single handedly kept our local Home Depot in business!

Lastly, Ahmad remodeled one of our bathrooms. It was sorely in need of a lot of work when we bought the house. Here's the before and after pictures.

More Political News

Our illustrious governor, Eliot Spitzer, was apparently caught on tape soliciting a prostitute in a prostitute ring in D.C. This, after he ran as a champion of removing corruption in our oh-so-corrupt New York state government.

While everyone seems to be really shocked (he apparently had everyone fooled into thinking he was squeaky clean), I am not. Not because I have some inside info on Spitzer, but mainly because there is no one I trust less than a politician.

Two things I don't understand:

-Why, oh why, would you solicit a prostitute if you were the governor? Can't you just have an affair or get a divorce and sleep around or something, besides PAYING for sex?

-Why would his wife go on stage and stand behind him while he gives a press conference confirming what everyone already knows at this point, that he not only cheated on her, but it was with a prostitute in a prostitution ring? Why would she stand behind him and "support" him while he announces to the whole country how he screwed a prostitute and now his career and possibly his marriage are over? Wouldn't it be better for her to have her own press conference where she announced to everyone what a jackass he is? At least, that is what I would do.

Read more about this story here.

And the campaign rolls on...

Mom sent me this funny cartoon and I had to post it. I don't know how much more of this election I can take!

Courtesy of Walt Handelsman from Newsday.com.

Robotic Training

As I stated in my last post, I went to Hackensack New Jersey for a davinci robotic surgery training course this week. Since I am always talking about robotic surgery, I figured I would give a little course of my own. Seriously, if you want to see what I am talking about when I say "robotic prostatectomy", here you go.


This is the general set-up for a robotic prostatectomy, courtesy of Boston.com. The surgeon (that's me), sits at the console and performs the surgery via the robot, which is that big thing towering over the blue drapes in the background.


First the ports are placed into the patient by the surgeon, similar to any other laparoscopic surgery. Then once all the ports are in place, the robot is wheeled over to the patient and is attached to the ports. Long instruments are placed through this ports and they can be changed depending on what the surgeon needs.

A camera is placed through one of the ports. It actually has two lenses or cameras in one, so that the image the surgeon sees through the console is in 3-D. The image is magnified about 10 times normal so that all of the structures are very clearly visualized making surgery a lot more precise. This allows us to see vessels and nerves that are difficult to see during a regular surgery.

Finally, as you can see in this picture, we use two funny looking contraptions to operate and move the robot inside the patient. It allows better movement of the instruments than even our own wrists and fingers could. There are also 5 pedals that we use to do various things.

So, that's the robot in a nutshell.

Odds and Ends

We are expecting the biggest winter storm of this year in the next two days with snow accumulations of up to 16 inches by tomorrow afternoon.


I just drove home from working overnight (yes, moonlighting!) and it's already starting to come down. I have to say, I love the snow. My feeling is, as long as it's going to be cold, there might as well be a pretty blanket of snow to go with it.


I am traveling to the oh-so-exciting state of New Jersey tomorrow for a Davinci robotic training course and I just hope the weather doesn't interfere with my travel plans. My co-resident Jonah and I have to complete this training course prior to starting to work at one of the hospitals next year (this despite the fact that I have already done about a 150 robotic prostatectomys already at Strong Memorial, but who's counting) and it's been a nightmare to plan. I really hope we don't have to reschedule.


Ahmad starts back to class today after winter break. Apparently here in the northeast it's quite common to have both a winter and spring break, the former I suppose so students can take skiing trips.


We didn't go skiing this week, but we did attend a private piano concert performed by a friend of a friend which was spectacular. Michael Tan was the pianist and he trained at Juilliard and is now doing some post-graduate training at the Eastman School of Music here in Rochester. It was an amazing concert.


Finally, Laura and Michaels daughter and our niece, is now crawling. Or scooting, as Mom described it. Here's a recent picture of her for those of you who haven't seen her lately (or ever!).
I am a little biased (just a little...okay a lot!) but she's pretty darn cute, huh?


Hopefully we will get back down to KY to see her soon.

Helping a Neighbor

My mom told me about this article and I wanted to share it with you.

Apparently, UK Men's Basketball coach Billy Gillespie was listening to the "General Store" radio program from a station in Stanford KY when a woman called in. The premise of the show is that people call in selling all kinds of things from prom dresses to chickens, to tailgates, according to the article. A woman called in wanting to sell her car for $600 immediately so she would have the money to attend her father's funeral in Ohio.

Gillespie called the station and identified himself as only "Billy" and offered to help the woman with her expenses so that she could keep her car. He and the host of the radio program talked after the show off air and confirmed that the woman's story was true and he sent a personal check overnight to the radio station to cover the cost of a new outfit for the funeral, transportation, food and a hotel for the woman. His identity was revealed only later, after the woman returned from the funeral, by the host of the show who had noticed that the caller ID was "Billy Gillespie." He never identified himself as the UK coach to the host. He states "I didn't do this for attention, I was just trying to help somebody out."

Regardless of whether he wins a lot of games this year or not, his stock just went up in my opinion.

My Hometown

This video shows part of Amman for those of you who have never been. While we have camels and sand and the hot, hot sun, we also have a beautiful city built on 9 mountains. In the middle of all of these mountains is downtown Amman with a wonderfully kept Roman ampitheater and lots and lots of shopping. Just ask Allison, she's haggled there with the natives.

Pay close attention at the time 2:37 to 2:40. You can see a very large Jordanian flag which is 1 mile from our house.

Enjoy! And if you like what you see, just let us know. We'll be happy to show you around in person!



The song is about someone who left his or her country and how much they miss the country and the country misses them as well. It also speaks about the beauty of the country and the memories they have there.

Winter Birds

Ahmad and I have a crazy neighbor lady who owns two empty lots between our house and hers. While she's certifiably crazy, she also keeps those two lots filled with trees...except for the middle in which she has made some sort of garden/bird feeder/squirrel haven.

Here's a picture of what we lovingly refer to as "the jungle."

All of this is fine by us for several reasons. One, we love the privacy of having "the jungle" next to us and not some other house. Two, the animals are nice, except when she leaves out donuts for the birds and squirrels. The squirrels love to bring the donuts to our front porch and try to hide them in our chairs. But that's another story. Three, she leaves us alone despite the fact that we use about 7 feet of her property as part of our yard. Plus, the "jungle" makes a great place to blow all of our leaves in the fall without having to pick them up and put them into bags!

Due to the fact that she religiously feeds the birds, we have 5 or 10 cardinals that spend a lot of time near our windows...and the view is beautiful especially when the trees are white with snow. Here's some snapshots of cardinals I took today:

Winter Blahs

So it is definitely still the middle of winter here. Apparently, there was a 36 car pile up today in Rochester due to white-out conditions on the highway. It wasn't even snowing...just white-out from the wind (the horrible wind!) blowing. It's freezing. Today, Ahmad commented that he really misses working outside and I have to agree. I miss our flowers and lilac bushes and shrubs. I miss our beautiful trees and the delicious cherries that grow in the backyard.

So, I decided to post some pictures of the lovely plants from last summer. Rochester really is amazing in the summer...but it's hard to appreciate when it's currently 10 degrees outside with a windchill of who knows what.

Until May, this will have to do:

This is our lilac bush. It has grown by leaps and bounds. Notice the bug? I LOVE my new camera!

Our mums were equally amazing this last summer. I swear, they were at least 2 and half feet tall.



Those of you who know me know that tulips are my favorite. We have a few, but these pictures were actually taken at the Lilac Festival here in Rochester which is held every May.

Only 2 more months (okay, I may be being a little optimistic here, but so what!) until Spring!

Dean's List

As most of you know, Ahmad just finished up his first semester in college in December. He's taking 14 hours this semester and loving it.


I can't help but brag on him a little bit. Last semester, he made the Dean's List! Isnt' that exciting?

In honor, here's a few pictures of my scholar:

Don't you love the white goatee??? What was he thinking?

He also learned how to dive last year in Aqaba. For those of you who were present at his first swimming lesson in Louisville (Steph, Shan) you know what a big accomplishment this is! Ahmad wants to know if anyone can dive as well as he can?

This is from our trip to Egypt last summer.

Finding Friends on Facebook

As if we weren't busy enough already, in addition to starting a blog...we also started to spend more time on Facebook.


If you haven't joined yet (Kasey), you should. I was skeptical at first. But through Facebook, I have reconnected with lots of old friends from college and med school. I even reconnected with one friend from all the way back to Elementary School.

Shannan just joined and true to Facebook spirit, she's already posted several photos from our time living it up in Louisville. Here are a few I wanted to share:

I guess we had a wild night and somehow ended up in Krispy Kreme hats!

Shannan and I helped Laura (my sister) move to San Antonio one summer. Now if I only had video of Shan and I trying to two-step.

Here are Stephanie, myself and Shannan at a wine tasting.

And finally, my favorite two pictures courtesy of Stephanie. The first is at Kristina's wedding and the second is from our wedding rehearsal. You girls are beautiful!

More pictures to come later...including one of Ahmad with a white goatee!

Yes We Can

I can't remember a presidential election that I have ever been excited about...until now. I love Obama...and I love the message of hope and the thought that maybe things can be different. Maybe we don't have to put up with the old Washington politics anymore. Maybe someone who is in a position to become President of the United States does actually feel the way that I do.

Here is an awesome video highlighting the "Yes We Can" speech that Obama gave. It will bring tears to your eyes...and hopefully some hope!

Election Insight

Take a gander at this chart which definately provides some food for thought. It summarizes all the candidates (both Dem and Rep) on a multitude of issues.


The most ironic thing of all to me: how republicans (conservatives) can be simultaneously opposed to background checks for purchasing guns and at the same time support the patriot act.

Aren't those two things diametrically opposed?

Overheard: The Problem with Medicine Today

I was just in the Emergency Room seeing a consult when I overheard the ED attending say the following to one of the patients:

"Your test results are back. Your chest x-ray is normal, your EKG is normal, your white blood cell count is normal, your electrolytes are normal and your D-dimer is normal."

At this point, I glanced over towards the curtain he was standing at, and in the bed I see a young girl who couldn't have been more than 22!

Clearly, she had complained of chest pain...and had gotten a million dollar (okay, probably more like a few thousand dollar) work-up. What's wrong with that, you say?

Here's what wrong with it:

1. It's 2 in the morning and this is not an emergency.

2. She is not having a heart attack...nor does she have pneumonia, or a pulmonary embolism...

3. ALL of the above should be ruled out by history and physical exam in such a young girl.


Maybe when I am practicing on my own I will feel differently, but there is no way this work-up was justified. Clearly, he was trying to cover his ass on the one-in-a-billion (and it really is one-in-a-billion) chance that there was something wrong with her. And someone (her, you, me, the hospital) is paying for it.

Iraqi Refugees

Ahmad, as posted previously, had a wonderful trip to Jordan. He got to spend a lot of time with his family and ate a lot of amazing meals.


He also, inadvertently, got a lesson in just how dire the situation of some Iraqi refugees is. He was fortunate enought to meet several Iraqi women refugees. Quite a few of them were Iraqi women who were raising their children (or grandchildren) without their husbands either because their husbands weren't allowed to leave Iraq or more often because their husbands had been killed in the violence in Iraq. He was awe-struck by the depth of gratitude these women felt when he was able to help them with groceries or some money. The stories he heard and the things he saw would make you cry, but the problem is so much deeper than the few women he was able to help.


Since he returned, I have done some investigating on my own. I already knew that the Iraqi refugee situation was bad in Jordan. We have seen Iraqi women trying to sell whatever they can on the side of the street just to put food in their mouths. There are hundreds of thousand of Iraqi's living in Jordan and a great deal of them are living in abject poverty. It doesn't just affect the refugees, either. Our nieces and nephews have to attend school in shifts because there isn't room for all the students at once now that there are so many Iraqi children attending school in Jordan (but thank God the Iraqi children are now allowed to attend school). And the schools were overwhelmed with the number of students and half of the kids we know did not have books two months into school because there weren't enough to go around. The cost of living in Jordan has risen dramatically since the war began but Jordanians aren't making any more money than they were prior to the war. We even felt the difference when we were there in August, and we certainly have more disposable income than most in Jordan. Finally, there are refugee camps where conditions are much less than ideal.


I recently was reading the webpage for Refugees International and I came across these facts:

• Over 4 million Iraqis have been displaced from their country by violence
• 1.5 million are now living in Syria
• 1 million refugees inhabit Jordan, Iran, Egypt, Lebanon, Yemen, and Turkey

I don't know what the solution to these problems is, although I am sure that the trillions of dollars that have been spent on the Iraq war could go a long way towards helping solve some of the problems. We created this refugee crisis, whether intentionally or not, and I think it behooves the US to fix it. Not only will it improve our image around the world, but it's simply the right thing to do.

Back from Jordan

Ahmad returned from Jordan today after an unscheduled overnight layover in Chicago. He had a wonderful trip and got to spend a lot of time with his family. Here are some pictures from the trip:

Some of our nieces and nephews. They were thrilled to see Uncle Ahmad!

Driving to Irbid from Amman

What is this guy thinking?

Everyone was sad to see Ahmad leave, especially his nephew Ahmad.

And just for you, Stephanie: mensef.