YKYW - Nursing Student Blog

Hey all you Austin people — If you are look for commercial office Space in Austin, Texas, be sure to check out Don Cox Company. They are one of Austin’s leading commercial real estate firms.

If you are looking for something special to do for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month this October, consider this beautiful piece from Storypeople. It’s called “Lifetime”. Here are the words:

We’re here to end it,
I said & she said, No,
we’re here to begin it
& then she turned &
opened her arms
& everywhere I could see,
there were people,
like bright birds, calling
with a thousand voices

& suddenly I understood.
Here is where it begins.
With all of us, together
giving our daughters
a world worth loving
for a lifetime to come.

From the site: All profits from the sale of this print, both here on the site & at our gallery partners worldwide, will go to fund breast cancer research for as long as it takes to find the Cure.

Be sure to check out his other stuff. It’s amazing!

Is anyone using Blingo? Blingo is a Google-based search engine that offers random prizes to users. All we have to do is search like we normally search. Seems like a good deal to me!

You can also add Blingo to your Firefox autosearch toolbar (and other browsers), which makes it even easier to use. And, if you sign up through my link, then we can both win!

I recently looked into signing up for VoIP phone service through Vonage. I used this Vonage forum to do my preliminary research. It was nice to have one place to keep up to date on news, and the reviews and forums had a lot of good information. Traditional landline phone service had better start making moves if they want to stay competitive in this changing market. If you are curious about VoIP, it is worth doing some more research.

We watched UFC 61: Bitter Rivals on Saturday night. I was hoping the card would surprise me, but the fights were fairly boring for the most part. Why are some many fighters content to let things go to the judges for a decision?

Yves Edwards Vs. Joe Stevenson - I think this was one of (if not THE) bloodiest fights I’ve ever seen. Stevenson opened up a nasty cut on Edwards’ head and the doctor stopped the fight. I look forward to seeing ‘Daddy’ fight again.

Josh Burkman Vs. Josh Neer - Boring. But another win for Burkman and Team Punishment.

Dan Christison Vs. Frank Mir - Another boring fight. Neither one impressed me, and Mir won by unanimous decision. Personally, I probably would have given the win to Christison but it was really close.

Tito Ortiz Vs. Ken Shamrock - Even before the fight started, everyone knew Tito would come out on top. What nobody predicted was that the ref would stop it at 1:08 of the first round! The stoppage is controversial, and so Shamrock will probably insist on a rematch so Ortiz can REALLY kick his ass.

Tim Sylvia Vs. Andrei Arlovski - 5 rounds of Arlovski trying to pick apart Sylvia but failing. Technically, Arlovski is the better fighter by a long shot, but Sylvia has size on his side. They were both rocked during the fight, but managed to regain their composure. I hate that the judges don’t seem to think that when all other aspects of the fight were fairly equal, pressing the action should be worth something. I’m not sure how they thought Sylvia won it, when Arlovski was practically chasing him around the ring the entire fight. (Yes, Arlovski wasn’t quite as aggressive at the end, but rumor has it he messed up his knee during the fight.) However, I do realize that in order to take away the belt, Arlovski needed to make it clear that he was the better fighter. Maybe next time.

I spent a few days with my family in Houston last week, and so I missed the first edition of Change of Shift.  This is a new nursing blog carnival and looks to be a great way for nurses around the world to share stories.  By encouraging submission from medical, nursing and patient viewpoints, Change of Shift really succeeds in presenting a varied and lively perspective on nursing!

While we were at the lake this weekend, I was added to 25peeps.com.  It’s an interesting way to find new blogs.  If I get enough clicks on my picture and send enough people to 25peeps.com using my link, then I get to stay on the front page and gain visibility.  Check it out and let me know what you think.

While we were in Houston, SK and I were heading home from lunch and the boys were in the backseat. We managed to convince my nephews that my windows were magical, and that if they said “Open Sesame,” the window would roll down. Hearing them try to say “Open sesame” was great, but SK’s idea for the magic word for up again was even better: “Banana-rama!” Can you imagine anything better than driving down the road to the sound of children laughing, and trying to say “Open sesame” and “banana-rama?” It was a lot of fun…

Until my window wouldn’t roll back up. My brother-in-law figured out that the pulley was messed up that operates things. So, now my car needs to go into the dealership.

There are 3 different BMW dealerships in the DFW area, and they all have the same loaner car policy: Only if you bought your car from them and it is still under warranty. My car is still under warranty, but I lived 6 hours away when I purchased my car.

What a crock! I thought I bought a luxury car for the exceptional performance, and the exceptional customer service. Am I supposed to drive all the way to Corpus Christi every time I need something done to my car? Not to mention that I’ve seen the financial numbers of a dealership - the majority of their money comes from the service side of the house. Most dealerships, when you factor in salaries and overhead, LOSE money on car sales. Doesn’t it seem like they should be courting the service customers? Wouldn’t it be GOOD for their bottom-line to cater to any potential repair need, regardless of where the car was purchased?

Up until now, I’ve been thrilled with my “BMW Ultimate Driving Experience.” I cannot wait for the customer service inquiry this time - I plan to give them a piece of my mind.

As a new website, of course I’m looking for different ways to spread the word about my blog. One of the obvious (and free) ways to do this is through a traffic exchange program. I’ve signed up for several, but do they really work? Do they bring good, qualified traffic into my site? In the week since my blog’s “go-live” date, I have had almost 1000 unique visitors. Among those unique visitors, several new people have commented on my blog, but I’m not sure how they found me (if you are one of those people, will you comment and let me know?). However, website statistics are a great thing, and with that information, here is my take on the various blog traffic exchange sites ranked by the number of visitors each one brought into my site:
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My weekend started off with a bang: SK found out she is in partial remission! SK has Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) and started chemotherapy in October, and radiation a few weeks ago. After her checkup last week, the doctor said her spleen is much better. However, her blood counts are still not within the acceptable ranges so she’ll stay on Prednisone (a steroid) for a few more weeks/months, but no more chemo or radiation! I never thought I would be so happy to hear one single word (”remission”) in my whole life!

It’s hard to top such great news, but the weekend did have a “Things That Make Me Happy” theme to it. During a Meals-on-Wheels charity auction, SK’s father won two tickets to Theatre Arlington and gave them to us. We decided to use our tickets on Saturday night to see How The Other Half Loves by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn.

Before the show, we went to eat dinner at Texas Land & Cattle. As a steak lover (sorry vegetarians), I’ve been to quite a few steak restaurants and TLC’s smoked sirloin is without compare. For something sweet, we grabbed some Marble Slab Ice Cream and then headed to the theatre.

Honestly, I was a little skeptical based on the synopsis I’d read, but quickly changed my mind. The stage was setup so that simultaneously we could see inside the homes of two couple on two different evenings. So intrigued by how the characters handled the stage, I almost didn’t notice that I was actually laughing and enjoying the show. I still like Circle Theatre in Fort Worth better, but I would go see another show at Theatre Arlington.

On Sunday, it stormed for most of the afternoon in DFW. Luckily, we headed to visit SK’s parents as the rain passed by their house. Once the rain stopped, the clouds and the rain-cooled breeze teamed up to hold off enough of the heat so that it was actually pleasant to sit outside and dangle our feet in the pool. While we were talking, SK looked up and noticed a rainbow filling the sky. There are moments when everything seems right in the world…

Eventually, we thought we’d play Spades - SK and her father on one team, and her mother and I on the other team. Both games were extremely close, but the father/daughter team proved that it does help to know your partner

Summary: It was a fabulous weekend, full of wonderful news, great laughs and even more love. I hope your weekend brought you the same joy!