Joe Biden is Better Than That

I repeat, Joe Biden is better than that --->

I know we haven't blogged in a while, but we were busy voting in Cuyahoga County, which I'm pretty sure makes us the most important people in the country.  Sadly, that also makes us residents of Cuyahoga County.

Since last we blogged, we've been busy with all kinds of autumn activities.  We went apple picking with our neighbors, carved pumpkins, and got dressed up for Halloween.  This year we went as Effie Trinket and Seneca Crane from the Hunger Games.

Seneca

Effie

Local Weirdos

The costumes were pretty well-received, though they did make us the silliest looking people to have passed through Ohio this Autumn.

...well, almost

I know, I know, that's probably enough cheap shots about this year's, shall we say, losers.  It's just that in our house we feel very strongly about certain rights.  For instance, how could we support an administration that wouldn't support this precious and super gay union:

Pretty sure Tolliver is the wife

And of course we had to protect Pig, Pog, and Pi's right to female reproductive surgeries.

Because who wants another one of these around?!?!

Let's see other than that, we've been very busy with school and internships.  Nicholas is flying through his second year of dental school and has progressed way past the stage when he is only allowed to create wax casts of teeth.  In October, for instance, Nicholas performed my annual prophy cleaning.  

The doctor at work

The "compliant" patient before she fell asleep in the chair

Wendy's eye view

And he only had slightly less facial hair than the last person to clean my teeth--I wonder how Mrs. Weston is these days--He was so kind, so gentle, so reminiscent of someone that I just can't seem to put my finger on it...

Oh, yeah

Meanwhile, I've been spending a lot of this semester working with adolescents who have diagnoses of substance dependence.  It's just the way they show it in the movies.

Of course, I'm practicing in Lake County, Ohio, so instead of Sandra Bullock, Angelina Jolie, and Leonardo DiCaprio it's much more like this

Well, that's it.  We hope that you're enjoying the splendor of autumn because I know we are.  We have loved taking in the beautiful scenery around Cleveland: the crisp air, the changing leaves, the local wildlife preparing for the cold winter months.  

Check out this wintering squirrel with his nuts

There ain't no party like a family party, because a family party is mandatory

So, I'm sure you're all wondering what we've been doing for the last several weeks.  And I'll tell you that we've been using the first few weeks of our vacation from school to rededicate ourselves to relationships with old and dear friends.

 

Yes, yes, the fact that none of our "friends" are real people did make us feel a little lonesome and pathetic.  Fortunately, in May we scheduled time for some sisterly bonding.

Alas, these Sisters were cancelled in 1996

So, we spent a week back in Philadelphia bonding with the Helimetses...Helimetsi...Helmets...My sister's family. 

The Smelimets Family

Alas, the euphoria...okay, mania (see above)...of seeing Molly, Tiit and Chloe was somewhat dampened when poor little Chloe fell ill.  Nothing too serious, thankfully, just fever and what I'm guessing is some pretty severe edema. 

Baby bloat

Mercifully, Chloe had drained and de-fevered in time for us to attend the bridal shower of my step-sister, Sarah, in Greenwich, CT. 

The food was delicious, the bride-to-be was lovely, and only once during lunch did Chloe look up from her plate to urgently declare "POOPING!"  Sadly, Nicholas did not provide the same warning and that brought the swimming to an untimely end. 

And then we came back to Cleveland and spent more time hanging out with our friends (See above). 

This weekend Nicholas and I drove from Cleveland to Morgantown, West Virginia, Morgantown to Nellysford, Virginia, and then back to Cleveland.  You might say that's insane...I would tell you that during a week when the headlines included "Police Shoot Naked Man Eating Another Man's Face", calling me crazy is a tad bit hasty.

Our primary suspect for that whole face-eating thing...

So when you consider the fact that everything is relative, I'm really a polygon of sanity.

Editor's Note: She almost certainly means paragon and not polygon.

No really, we went to Virginia for a very good reason.  Shelley Schwartz got married! 

The ceremony was lovely and the reception was a lot of fun. Stan gave a wonderful talk during the reception: 

Toast entitled "The Keys to Managing High Blood Sugar"

And Joey and Nicholas spent the whole time together corn-holing.

What? Not what you were expecting?

In the end a good time was had by all...

...Except by the person whom we forced to take this photo for us.

A Tail of Sadness and Woe

Nicholas and I would like to share with you our profound sadness over the loss of a larger-than-life figure, who is etched indelibly in our memory.

No, not this guy.

THIS GUY!

But, I'm getting ahead of myself.  Let me start from the beginning...The gigantic raccoon--whom you may remember from other blog entries, such as lf the whole world moved to their favorite vacation spots, then the world would live in Hawaii and ltaly and Cleveland--showed up in our backyard again the other day.  Obviously we were surprised that the critter was bold enough to show his face around here again after the extent to which we previously scared him (minimal).  Actually, the most surprising part was that it was broad daylight and raccoons are known to be nocturnal, which means that they usually only come out to forage in response to auditory stimulus provided by this guy:

Too esoteric?

Editor's note: Being nocturnal has nothing to do with response to Chopin's Nocturne. 

At any rate, there was the raccoon staggering around our yard like a Harvard sociology major after a kegger.

Harvard sociology major after kegger

So naturally we were concerned.  Our first thought was that this golden retriever-sized raccoon was probably rabid and we should keep our distance.  But he made it difficult to avoid him when he decided to charge the house

And then curl up by our back porch

where he decided to stay almost motionless for a good 6-8 hours, moving only to glare at us when we went to check to see if it was still alive (Nicholas) or give it the finger and squeal (Wendy).

So at this point we had to decide what to do with the lurking raccoon. And since we have such good boundaries with feral animals,

We don't

and we would never take one in and try to integrate it into our household,

We would

we decided to call animal control and see if we could get the mammoth raccoon exterminated.  And that was when I learned the most important lesson that I've learned since moving to Cleveland (Thanks, Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences): Spring and Summer are "rabies seasons".  Fall and Winter are "old animals crawling out to die seasons". So rather than incur the cost of having animal control out to trap the colossal raccoon, we took their advice...which was to leave it alone and if it died in our yard to put it out on the curb for the trash (Cleveland Heights, you are a classy, classy town). 

And so we mourn the loss of a very sick, very large raccoon.  If I got one more chance to talk to him I would say, "Old buddy, come trash day we're going to give you a cozy resting place right in between my empty seltzer bottles and the giant bag filled with soiled kitty litter"...and then I'd probably give him the finger.

The final lesson that we'd like to share with you, our family, is this: if you happen to look outside this winter and see one of these:

Or perhaps, one of these:

don't be afraid.  Just remember that they're old and sick and just coming out to die. 

Gray Days

Well, the didactic portion of Nicholas' first semester of dental school is over.  He did really well and we're both very proud of the hard work that he's done.  At this point he's been going into the under-served areas of Cleveland and putting sealants on the teeth of public school children so that they don't get cavities.

Hard at work

This is a really wonderful program that Case has established and the dental students do a lot of very hard work.  And besides, why wouldn't you hand over your children to strange men doing charity work?

Oh, yeah.

As for me, I'm in process of writing all of my final papers.  I must say I'm handling it well:

Artist's rendering

Okay, fine, maybe I've been a little stressed as the end of the semester approaches; but I'll rally.  I have to.  Cause, really, who ever heard of a crazy mental health professional?

 Oh, yeah.

School aside, autumn in Cleveland has been really nasty.  We've had a ton of gray days and inches upon inches of rain.  Take a look at our back yard from this past weekend:

 Clearly God's covenant never to flood the world again does not extend to the suburbs of Cleveland.  You know where I'll bet it never floods...

It's a bible joke AND a gay joke

Well, I'm busy with finals so that's all for now.

This blog entry was sponsored by 

Topol brand toothpaste: where dental hygiene isn't just our job...it's TRADITION!

School, school, school, schoo-oo-ool

Bonus points to anyone who can hear the Warner brothers and their Warner sister, Dot, when reading the title of this exciting new blog entry.

(Just in case we lost you on the reference)

Today was Nicholas' first day of dental school--and just in case you're anything like his loving domestic partner, we should clarify that he is not in fact a dentist already.  It's more like one day down and 4 more years to go.  What did Nicholas learn today, you ask? He learned how to wax teeth.  For those of you not in the know, waxing teeth is the elective procedure during which hot wax is applied to the tooth followed by cotton strips.  The dentist then pulls off the cotton strip thereby removing all unwanted hair.

(Editor's Note: Waxing teeth is not the removal of unwanted hair from teeth.  It's actually the painstaking process of creating a hot wax cast of a tooth.)



All in all the process is quite taxing on the fledgling dental student.



After



 

Before



Don't fret.  He had a wonderful first day of classes!



I had my interview today at The Hanna Perkins Center for a potential field placement.  I met with my future supervisor and he explained to me about the work that's done at the center and the responsibilities of and learning opportunities for interns at Hanna Perkins.  Interns take on their own clinical case load right away.  My interviewer told me that he feels like I would be a good fit and would bring a lot to the center if  (when) I accept a field placement there.  It promises to be a very rewarding and challenging experience, since if my interviewer's anecdotes are any indication, I will be helping some very troubled children.



 

 

Pictured above: Very troubled children

All in all, it seems like we're getting off to a good start with our first days of graduate school!