tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88285265175675319952024-03-19T07:44:18.951-04:00Grotus' Acornthe last earl on horsebackGrotus' Acornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09388437722442326725noreply@blogger.comBlogger83125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8828526517567531995.post-38460568938951550202022-01-01T16:51:00.087-05:002022-01-01T17:42:00.507-05:00The sense of it is returning4,665 was supposed to be some kind of departure. Not a departure from writing but a departure from the systems that left me gasping for air. Whoops.Just as my mentors had warned, you learn more in your first year of medical practice than in the entirety of your residency training. You see more, say more, do more, be more. Even as someone who trained for six years in three venues, nothing could Grotus' Acornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09388437722442326725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8828526517567531995.post-55322822692100179532015-10-27T16:22:00.000-04:002015-10-27T16:22:01.534-04:004,665
I guess it's been almost five years since I've written anything here. Plenty of time for it to cool down. We'll see what happens.
Medical training has ended, and ten years of my life are past. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, I am grateful to my mentors, peers, and patients, for making me who I am. But nothing is without its cost. It was the hardest thing I've ever done.
It's amazing, events in Grotus' Acornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09388437722442326725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8828526517567531995.post-55806437951949785192011-02-13T16:59:00.000-05:002011-02-13T16:59:59.561-05:00(Last Night's) Menu : braised pork, polenta, beetsWine-braised pork with juniper, sage, lavenderMushroom sage leek polentaOrange-scented roast beets
So, first of all, there aren't pictures of the process or the finished / plated product - it's only in retrospect that I thought to write this one down. Retrospect, I say because my wife, mid-dinner, looks up and says "This one's a winner. You should write it down." Fair enough, Grotus' Acornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09388437722442326725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8828526517567531995.post-20732983752778015902010-10-22T23:03:00.000-04:002010-10-22T23:03:25.562-04:00Tonight's menu : pieI am not a violent person.
But there is one particular situation that arises, year after year, that briefly pits father against son in my parents' home - a simple matter of greed. Ironically, this happens every year at Thanksgiving. Unironically, it involves my mother's pecan pie.
There are certain things, good things, great things, for which it is difficult to be strictly thankful. Grotus' Acornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09388437722442326725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8828526517567531995.post-33445155332031449212010-06-26T21:50:00.000-04:002010-06-26T21:50:40.875-04:00Finally discovered why I haven't ever watched an entire game of soccer... and why I won't ever again.I was all set to steam-clean the carpets at our old apartment today in preparation for our vacate date. Luckily for me, I stopped off at the front desk to get the official forms for my wife to sign. "All you have to do is vacuum the floors, clean the counters, and all that" said the secretary, but I had to verify. "You mean you don't want us to deep clean the carpets?" She waved me off. "Oh no Grotus' Acornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09388437722442326725noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8828526517567531995.post-995614258146133372010-01-21T18:03:00.001-05:002010-01-21T18:06:29.539-05:00Tonight's MenuAside: I really don't mean this blog to be purely devoted to my experimental cuisine. It's just, that's the most of what I do for fun lately. Hopefully more interesting things soon.caramel pears in dessert crepesbourbon buerre noisetteblack walnut and brie white sauceWe'll see how it turns out...Grotus' Acornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09388437722442326725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8828526517567531995.post-71427637156675434792009-11-08T21:55:00.002-05:002009-11-08T22:50:13.438-05:00Tonight's MenuTonight, my dear wife and I celebrate our six months' wedding anniversary. Six months! So short and yet so long. We've been counting down to this particular anniversary for some time, because - colloquially - the folks who make it six months tend to make it for good.Not that there's any doubt of that. As good a woman as I have somehow enticed into marrying me, I'm never letting her go. Too Grotus' Acornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09388437722442326725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8828526517567531995.post-41063066509493040472009-10-08T07:28:00.003-04:002009-10-08T07:31:24.110-04:00Method for Quantifying Whole-Team PerformanceThe question is, what’s the best way to look at a team’s performance on the whole? We basically have three important units by which we measure a football squad. The first – and most ultimately important – is the scoreboard. The second is yards, either yards given up by the defense or yards claimed by the offense. And the third is turnovers. Being an engineer and seeing three units, my Grotus' Acornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09388437722442326725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8828526517567531995.post-30244839693539444822009-08-31T18:33:00.004-04:002009-09-22T09:12:45.056-04:00Grotus Acorn: now, truly, a blog about vinegar.I get the feeling sometimes that there are two distinct groups of people who visit this blog. Firstly, there are the folks who are here because they know me in real life and they themselves are awesome. They're mostly here for real-life-ish updates and maybe to see what bizarre thing I'm cooking. Secondly, there are the folks who come to Grotus' Acorn primarily for the football- and Grotus' Acornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09388437722442326725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8828526517567531995.post-75126758041735779832009-08-14T06:20:00.006-04:002009-08-14T10:04:54.203-04:00What else is in the teaches of Peaches? Todd is the starter. Huh? Wha?pretty stunnedI woke up this morning and loaded up my run of sports sites in Firefox. As usual, I end up skipping to THABOTN because Jay's videos auto-play and they start off with that goofy music. "This again," I think to myself. "I'll just shut that off." Thus my day begins: as your body grows bigger, your mind must flower, it's great to learn 'cause knowledge is power! Chris Todd: starting QB Grotus' Acornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09388437722442326725noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8828526517567531995.post-20986804174450060102009-08-08T14:15:00.005-04:002009-08-08T14:36:41.043-04:00Tonight's Menu: chicken soup with tarragon-walnut dumplingsTonight, the wife is post-call and exhausted. It's always good to have a hearty, rib-sticking sort of meal when you're post-call. So, I'm making chicken and dumplings.My recipe is a little bit different from the norm, though. For the chicken, I use boneless chicken thighs. These little beauties give you all the dark flavor of the thigh meat - so much better than a measly old chicken breast - Grotus' Acornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09388437722442326725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8828526517567531995.post-16340495019456423582009-07-16T05:24:00.004-04:002009-07-16T07:22:53.974-04:00Burns-shirtingFirst off, credit where credit is due: it has been remarkably bearable offseason, and that's in large part (for me) due to The Joe Cribbs Car Wash. I've wanted to write about Auburn football, and I've tried, but my posts always go something like this: "What Jerry said."That said, I couldn't disagree more with the latest post on Tyrik Rollison and the possibility of burning his redshirt. I thinkGrotus' Acornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09388437722442326725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8828526517567531995.post-67047277506926936482009-06-10T07:00:00.001-04:002009-06-10T05:10:05.478-04:00Gridiron Skew Part 1Something you have already guessed: your humble blogger is a bit of a nerd. And, I really nerd out on football. It is a great sporting frontier of obstinate complexity. Twenty-two men with different, overlapping and constantly fluctuating jobs operate from a multitude of formations on a field that, conceptually, is massive, continental, vast. This is no pitcher-vs-batter game, is not even asGrotus' Acornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09388437722442326725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8828526517567531995.post-41158409289157167552009-05-15T08:15:00.001-04:002009-05-15T20:10:47.267-04:00Monopoly PropertiesEdit: WIFE! WIFE! WIFE!Recently, I was playing Monopoly with my darling wife. The first game, I got lucky and bought all four railroads and the orange set of properties. I leveraged everything for hotels and won that game handily. But the second game brought the nightmare scenario: all properties purchased, no monopolies.Rather than restart the game, we began bargaining. I resolved to holdGrotus' Acornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09388437722442326725noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8828526517567531995.post-68158331492089879292009-04-24T09:36:00.001-04:002009-04-24T09:38:56.985-04:00Poem for my research projectStatisticsTea is better caffeine for you than coffee,ennobled by the language of Confucian leaf.Like a wet thumb looking for proper tack,my mousewheel chirps - a cricketrelentlessly counting Farhenheit on the hearth.Blood vessels constrict through a chemical sieve,splintered by the thicket of keels.My cup is cold as eelskin, too particulate to divine.I let pass my lips the lees of a Chinese river.Grotus' Acornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09388437722442326725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8828526517567531995.post-56966428386834653832009-04-11T22:45:00.004-04:002009-04-12T17:29:08.341-04:00Tonight's MenuI'm back home for Easter with the folks (God bless my single Monday-Wednesday class!) For fun, here's what we're eatin' for Easter dinner:Ham with ginger-orange glazePeas and pearl onionsSlow-cooked butterbeansHomemade potato saladSister Schubert's dinner rollsLemon meringue pie7-Up pound cake with strawberriesRecently, my Mom got me to listen to a bit by this comedienne, Jeanne Robertson. In Grotus' Acornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09388437722442326725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8828526517567531995.post-39868755151215011662009-04-05T21:01:00.004-04:002009-04-06T10:44:30.771-04:00"Hello?" "This is Aquaman. Don't worry." "Worry about what?"I never knew a fortune cookie could be ominous, until I got this one today:What aid will I soon require, O mystical pseudo-Chinese pastry? What mighty forces have chosen this bastardized polygonal confection as their mouthpiece, their prophet, their 911 operator? Good evening, sir. The A-Team will arrive in the nick of time. Do not call or email - all lines are monitored by your enemies. Grotus' Acornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09388437722442326725noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8828526517567531995.post-16161829935102752682009-02-27T15:00:00.001-05:002009-02-27T15:00:00.287-05:00Lamb of God's new album WrathAll my favorite metal bands eventually go prog. I caught up with Poison the Well right on their album You Come Before You. Didn't even listen to Cave In until I ran into Antenna. Between the Buried and Me most recently released their excellent but concept-y Colors. Opeth laid a lot of flute and english horn into Watershed. The Deftones just went plain weird. Not to say these aren't fantasticGrotus' Acornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09388437722442326725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8828526517567531995.post-65129215450144750102009-02-14T16:00:00.004-05:002009-02-14T16:07:29.052-05:00Sonnet for DaiseyMy dog napped on a sheet of newspaperthat I'd been reading, having made a ringof punctures in the commentary, forshe never let us trim her nails. The wingsof birds out back could not tempt her from sleep,though twitching legs and quiet yelps betrayedher dreaming impulse - rustling in her deepunfettered mind were feathers of the preyshe never caught. Or maybe did. I can'tbe sure. I do know thatGrotus' Acornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09388437722442326725noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8828526517567531995.post-15299630135680238032009-02-04T06:01:00.007-05:002009-02-04T06:21:58.961-05:00PSA for all our friendly fliersThis fall, if you are flying in the general area of Auburn University on a Saturday night, please take care to divert your Cessna around Jordan-Hare Stadium. We would hate to chip the paint.War Damn Eagle.Grotus' Acornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09388437722442326725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8828526517567531995.post-7286286632017538362009-01-30T15:30:00.000-05:002009-01-30T15:30:01.142-05:00I stand double-correctedYou may recall some certain family lore I shared with the intertubes last fall (hint: Phillip Marshall's mustache) and subsequently had to correct. Well, the whole story is even more clear now, thanks to my Mom who wrote me some time ago to further elucidate:Before it becomes some family legend that Dad met me at Auburn, Dad and I met at work, when I was a secretary at the State of Alabama, Grotus' Acornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09388437722442326725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8828526517567531995.post-19254732827914753232009-01-30T14:30:00.000-05:002009-01-30T14:30:00.468-05:00As good a day as anyWhat a YearI may have - no, absolutely I have - picked the weirdest season possible in which to begin writing about Auburn football. From the Tony Franklin hire to 3-2 to ChrisToddGate to Spread Man Walking to Zombie Nallsminger to Tubby Fired and Chizik Hired to Gustav to the inexplicable firing of Clinton Durst... I can't remember any season in which college football as a whole left me so Grotus' Acornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09388437722442326725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8828526517567531995.post-49305011523089329882009-01-28T10:56:00.005-05:002009-01-28T12:41:01.943-05:00Post-MealAs suggested by one of my friends, maybe I should let y'all know how everything panned out.This was easily one of the most fun meals I've ever made.First and foremost, the gnocchi. I formed my recipe from two different recipes I found online. One by Mario Batali was a little more complicated than I'd wanted, calling for parsley, pepper and nutmeg in addition to the egg, ricotta, and flour. I Grotus' Acornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09388437722442326725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8828526517567531995.post-49465690356686143522009-01-27T14:50:00.004-05:002009-01-30T14:25:17.074-05:00Tonight's MenuBeen a while since I've done one of these. It's been an absurdly hectic fall and most of the time, the blog has been eat up with the bewildering Auburn football season. Hopefully that hot can of angry is going to cool down sometime soon.But in the meantime, my fiancee and I were lucky enough to catch "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" on the Food Network. It was a half hour of foodie people raving Grotus' Acornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09388437722442326725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8828526517567531995.post-71362172273927756112009-01-22T18:10:00.013-05:002009-01-23T15:20:36.961-05:00Okay What?...really, what?I was still basking in the glory of our Christmas windfall. The Malzahn-Taylor coup. What the hell is happening on the plains? I leave the blAUgosphere for a few weeks and this is what happens.First: the guy I don't miss.This (courtesy of the JCCW.)Now I'm not one to assign all sorts of moral imperatives to the coaching of college football. It's a business, bottom-to-top. TheGrotus' Acornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09388437722442326725noreply@blogger.com1