coming up for air at last

so it's been over a week since my last post, but certainly not 'cause of a lack of goings-on. we had our second viewing of our house on thursday and i love it more and more every time i see it - it will make a perfect home for our family. they guy who's selling also had a content sale yesterday and we managed to pick up 2 leather couches, a leather loveseat and chair, a deep freezer, a lawnmower, a rug, two lamps, and a kitchen hutch for about $2 grand. he also has this bedroom set that's solid cherry wood, imported from italy and of i'm sure impeccable quality, but it's just so, so...shiny and glitzy and ornate and too tony soprano for my taste. he wants to sell it to us for another $2 grand which is less than a quarter of what he paid for it and canuck's salivating over it because it's italian and imported, but it's really just not my scene. and then my father-in-law was trying to haggle the guy over the price while i was standing there and i was like but i don't really want this stuff... at the same time, i didn't want to insult the guy by emphatically saying NO! just because something's expensive and high quality doesn't mean i have to like it. so canuck and i are hammering this thing out, he's trying to convince me and i'm really resisting. ugh, married life. arguing about furniture. it can be so banal sometimes.

my sister-in-law contracted a new version of plague, which was passed down to cookie, which was then lovingly transmitted to me. the fever's passed, but the poor kid's still congested and snotting all over the place and has become quite crusty. nonna and i have developed a new technique to get the medicine down without her upchucking and it's been very successful, so she was way more comfortable this time around. daddy and nonno also just put up a swing set in the backyard so she can run around and have a great time. i'm not going to take her to the park down the block anymore - there's so much glass and garbage everywhere! i can't believe a country and city that pays so much in taxes doesn't clean up their parks. canuck and i are actually going to write to the city and complain, since cookie almost picked up a shard of glass when reaching for her ball on the tennis courts. yucky! but the backyard is nice and roomy and we saw 2 ladybugs on one if the rose bushes - that means good luck! cookie named them "lady" and "baby".

slow week at work again, but i had a job interview on saturday in an office outside the city. this office was insane - LCD t.v.'s in each operatory, three associates (one of whom i will be replacing) three hygienists, all new chairs and beautiful furnishings, and quality materials to work with. they can guarantee that i will be booked three days a week, which is really nice. downside: young family practice which means A LOT of kids. the day that i spent shadowing the owner there was a 5-year old girl who cried so hard it was impossible to get anything done on her. she started the work, got her numb and even prepped the tooth for a filling and the girl completely freaked out midway and wouldn't even let the doctor put in a temporary. so she left with a big old hole in her tooth. the doc couldn't do anything but give the mom some cavit temp material to put in the prep when the girl calmed down at home, and gave her a referral to a pediatric specialist who will probably use nitrous. now, i love kids and i love dentistry, but i don't love the two together at all. it's kind of like peanut butter and hamburgers - each are wonderful on their own, but i wouldn't put peanut butter on my hamburger. some people might, sure, and that's okay. but not me. i simply can't stand to see a child cry and be afraid of me. anyways, i also have two more interviews downtown, which means fewer kids but you never know what you're going to get there. some of this places are insurance mills that are incredibly unethical.

i don't want to give up the gig i have now, since despite the fact that i'm not making as much money and the office is loaded with freaky people, i still like the place and i have a sense of loyalty to my staff and patients there. but i do have to scale back if i wind up taking this position and i really don't want to break the news to my office manager who's been trying so hard to get me booked. there's just not enough new patients to go around and i've completed treatment on the ones that have been compliant. there's nothing left to do, except doing unecessary dentistry on virgin teeth just to make a quick buck. it's also hard to be as booked as my colleague, someone who's been there for seven years and already has an established patient base and referral system all set up. i really don't want to, but i may wind up working over 5 days a week now, as opposed to the 3 1/2 i wanted so i could spend more time with cookie. but this is how it goes when you just get out there and are starting from scratch, which is essentially what i'm doing now. i guess i'm paying my dues, right?

so enough about my week, hopefully i'll have some good news in the next coming days. i hope the two ladybugs in the yard were a good omen ;-)