Seafood Buffet

I absolutely love seafood. Which is particularly sad because I live in landlocked Utah and don't get good seafood as often and I would like. One of my favorite things to do on vacation (if it is by the ocean) is to make sure I eat some kind of seafood every day.
My cute Ben took me to Deer Valley's seafood buffet for a Valentines date last week. YUM!

My goal was to try a little bit of every kind of seafood offered and I did! Luckily they give you little portions so you can try many things.  I got to have oysters on half-shell, 2 kinds of crab legs, shrimp with incredible cocktail sauce, mahi mahi in a coconut sauce, barely seared tuna, scallops in orange ginger sauce, herring, salmon, trout with a lavender almond sauce, clams and mussels in a butter-wine sauce, calamari salad, and of course some eel and yellowtail sushi. They have lots of other things like fruits, cheeses, prime rib, breads, salads, and other sides but I only dabbled in those and focused on the more important seafood. Wow, was I full afterward. Thanks honey for a fantastic time!

My Day

My sister challenged me to list out a day in my life for a blog post. I guess she is curious how I really spend my days... the rest of you don't have to read this unless you want to.

6:45 wake up when Ben gets up and has a coughing fit, try to rest more since my alarm won't go off for another 15 min. have a weird dream about going to church in a movie theater.
7:00 stumble upstairs to use the bathroom, eat only a little cereal (still kind of full from the Seafood Buffet last night)
7:15 lay back in bed and read scriptures
7:30 get up and shower, dress, put on makeup and do hair, brush teeth
8:00 make my lunch of a few leftovers
8:10 decide to go into work a few minutes later since my first patient cancelled, text Dana
8:11 start a load of white laundry
8:20 fill up and turn on dishwasher
8:30 read a few emails
8:35 pick out shoes and jewelry, fold up blankets on the couch
8:40 think about all the things I want to accomplish this weekend
8:45 drive to work
9:00 Clock into work, greet Dana
9:05 She fills me in on the new medication Bydureon injection she learned about at the rep dinner last night and how to administer it-ugh, does not look fun to do OR to teach.
9:20 answer work emails, got phone messages
9:30 finish paperwork on charts from yesterday
9:45 discuss and look up inpatients that might need to be seen
9:55 file charts
10:00 help Dana download and install a barcoding font on our computers so we can code our documents for the new paperless system we start in April.
10:20 look up a pump download from a patient at home, called him to discuss
10:30 analyze results of a survey I'm doing and emailed director about it
10:50 our patients (a couple) finally show up late and throw a fit about the registration process and had to convince them to stay and still get their education, promising them to be out in an hour. We each take one of them. I teach the husband about his type 2 diabetes, kind of fight about what he could do for exercise, why pies and cookies aren't good breakfast foods and that there are other meal options besides fast food.
12:00 my coworkers decide that noon is a good time to schedule a meeting. We sit around and discuss the ADA expo for a whole hour... the 3 women there talk about the same thing over and over again. It could've been over in 15 min. and I really didn't need to be involved at all.
1:00 my next appointment came in crying and frustrated. I reassured her about all her great efforts in lifestyle changes and how you can't base everything on your weight. We make some tweaks and she agreed to try the regimen for 1 more month
2:00 I finally clock out and eat my lunch. In the middle, I call an omnipod patient for a follow up (for my contract job)
2:30 clock back in and work on my charting, answer phone calls
2:50 look up the requirements for abstracts for submission to the ADA scientific sessions, text ben and missy. Post a question about LASIK on facebook
3:00 My next patient comes. Make her do a survey while we waited for my coworker to finish her downloading session. We analyze her pump download and blood sugar records; made goals
4:00 set up a temporary phone message on our phones saying that we are closed for the holiday weekend
4:05 last patient comes. Download his trial sensor and he decides he wanted to order both a sensor and pump. Help him fill out the paperwork.
4:50 fax in the paperwork for the devices, look at my phone messages and decide what is emergent enough to take care of before the weekend. Finish charting.
5:00 Say good bye to Dana, clock out.
5:05 call Ben on my way home
5:10 stop at Smiths to buy some Mucinex for Ben, also grab a little produce since we are very low at home. Make friends with the self checkout attendant because you have to show ID to buy Mucinex now, and the grapes ring in wrong.
5:30  Get home and greet my cute husband, talk about our plans for the night and this weekend
5:45 make dinner (spaghetti with homemade sauce and salad...had to be fast tonight)
6:05 help Ben hang up all the washed clothes to dry
6:10 eat dinner
6:25 put on a skirt, brush teeth, help ben find recommend
6:40 drive to the temple
7:00 do initiatories at the temple...read D&C 88 while I wait (awesome stuff in there!)
8:30 drive home and talk about possible remedies for Ben's horrible cough
8:50 make hot chocolate for us both and heat up the heating pad
9:00 snuggle a bit on the couch while we watch Harry Potter (3rd one) on TV for a bit
10:00 put Ben to bed, say prayers, take pills
10:10 watch the rest of Harry Potter while I had a little cup of ice cream and almonds, while doing my computer stuff (checked my email, facebook, blogs and wrote this...)
went to bed, goodnight!

Raclette Party

We had a fun dinner party tonight, the Swiss traditional way...with swiss raclette cheese. You might compare it with an upscale fondue. You use an iron that looks like this.

You put cheese in these little shovels and melt it under the heating element and scrape it out with a wooden spatula to pour over the food option (potatoes, steamed vegetables, bread, and bratwurst)

We also grilled pineapple on the top grill of the iron. It's delicious. Especially if you appreciate good european cheeses. Ben's parents had a bunch of cheese left over from a dinner they did so we decided to throw our own. We borrowed their iron and invited over some friends. I, of course, got caught up in the food making and chatting with friends that I completely forgot to take pictures. Yup. that's me. We had a great time, though!