The Last Few Weekends

Last weekend I went down to Corvallis for the OSU, Washington football game. We spent the day watching football and hanging out with friends. It was a great day and OSU crushed Washington. My mom and aunt were in town also that weekend so I got to have dinner with them in downtown Portland. Today I went skiing for the first time this year and this is the earliest in the year I have ever skied. The mountain opened last weekend and had another good week of snow accumulation. We got up there about nine this morning to about 10'' of powder. The snow was great and the weather was bearable. Not all of the mountain was open year but we made the best of what was there. We skied hard until about 2:00pm and headed home. We stopped at a BBQ joint just off the road on the way home. Now it is time to rest and watch a little football. THe Beavers won today 42-10 against Washington State. Up next is the Civil War. Go Beaves.

Hunting and a Few Pictures

I have spending my fall weekends hunting. Last weekend I went down to a place that is North East of Lebanon. We saw two does and a spike. No shooters. This weekend I went to a place that is North of North Plains and South West of Vernonia. No deer seen but I did see lots of sign. The fog was so thick at time that I could not see very far. I did manage to hike a few miles take a few pictures and managed to only get rained on a little bit. I took these photos this morning.

First week of school

The first week of school was crazy. The pace was fast and furious. It seems like I can plan but things always change. Everyday is different and exciting and hectic. I saw one patient on a semi-emergency basis and now she is going to be my patient instead of another students. I did a lot of treatment planning this week but next week I have a few more procedures planned including an esthetic composite, a root canal and a scaling and root planing. Should be fun.

Summer Vacation

Summer vacation started off with a trip to San Diego fro the weekend. I flew down and stayed with my grandparents for the weekend. After coming back to portland for a day, I drove down to Ashland and stayed for the week. On my way to Ashland I stopped in Albany and spent the day at my friend Carson's Dental office. It was a great experience to see how a private practice can operated and it gave me something to look forward to when I graduate. While in Ashland, I spent the week relaxing, I went to a show at the Oregon Shakespeare festival, got my teeth cleaned. On my way back to Portland, I spent the day at OSU for the Beavers home opening football game. I saw lot of my college friends and the Beavers won easily. I left the game early because my cousin Dale happened to be flying in to Portland that day to buy a pickup truck and was totally lost in portland. Dale stayed with me that night and the next morning we drove to Idaho. Me in my truck and Dale in his new one.
On the drive we saw some big horn sheep and we had lunch with uncle Harold in LaGrande. I spent three weeks in Idaho where I stayed on the ranch. I helped out around the ranch and enjoyed the fishing. The fishing in the bass ponds was slow but the spring pond got stocked with five thousand 6-8 inchers which were hungary and wiling to bite. I also made a trip to the South Fork of the Boise rive with my friends eric and Ben from school. I hooked 8 fish but most were white fish. Overall we had a good day and learned to fish a new river. We made one pack trip up into the Bennett Mountains in order to drop my uncles hunting camp for this upcoming deer season. We had a few small rodeos with the horses but everything turned out ok and we found a good spot to set up camp.
One project that I was working on this summer was rebuilding the front clutch on a '62 Cub Cadet garden tractor. The clutch runs the mower deck and it went out while I was mowing. The parts were hard to track down because there are only a few specialized internet retailers that carry them. It was fun to learn about the mower and all the enthusiasts for these classic mowers.
Overall I had a good break and was refreshed and ready to start school and stat seeing patients again.

NBDE Part I

I took the first part of the national boadrs yesterday. I am sure that I did just fine. I spent the last week and a half studying for the exam. I am now going to get out of Portland and enjoy the rest of my summer vacation.

The Clinic

This summer we got to start seeing patients as students providing comprehensive care. It has been a good experience and I have been thoroughly enjoying it most of the time. School is much better now that the things that I do are actually going towards the care of real people and not just practicing on manikins. Today was a particularly special day but not because I got to do anything spectacular. One of my patients who I am going to remake her upper denture came in today to so we could finalize her treatment plan and get her on a high caries risk plan. She asked if I could reline her ill fitting upper denture because it was bothering her and she knew that we are about to go on break. I said that I thought I could do that but I needed to check with faculty because we typically don't work on things that were not made here at the school. I got it cleared, and after all the paperwork was done I got to reline her denture. It made a world of difference to her quality of life. She went from having an upper denture that was poorly relined, irritating and would not stay in to having a denture with a little retention. A vast improvement for such a small procedure. She was so much happier she said that she was going to go home and have a steak. I said don't get too carried away. It is amazing how one little thing that takes only a few minutes can make such an impact on someone's quality of life. Before today I was kind of dreading remaking her upper denture knowing that the best I could do would still be not very good. But After today I am excited to see how much more of an improvement I can make when she gets a new denture that is done correctly. I still know that it wont be great but it will be better than I first thought. Experiences like today is why I got into health care and what keeps me passionate about what I am doing. I hope there are many more day like today in my future.
Tomorrow, I am going to be doing my first fillings on a real patient. Wish me luck!

Triple Threat

On Saturday I ran in my first Triathlon out at Hagg Lake near Forest Grove. It was a sprint triathlon which is 1/2 of an olympic distance. It was 1/2 mile swim, 12.5 mile bike ride and 3.1 mile run. I completed the race in 1:38:11 which ended up being 180th out of 303 participants. I was 6 out of 9 in the males 20-24 division but I did beat a former OSU football player in my division. The swim was the most difficult because I am a novice swimmer and it was my first time swimming in open water my swim time was 21:37. The bike was tough because the course was anything but flat. Bike time 47:05. I did well in the run with a time of 23:53. This equates to a 7:39 min/mile pace which is good considering it is the last leg of the race and it was again a hilly course. Add on a few minutes for transition time and you get the 1:38:11 total. I am now poltting my next adventure and I will update when I have that planned out.

Summer Break

Last week was my one week early summer vacation. For the first part of the week I went down to southern oregon where I relaxed at home and spent two days rafting on the Rogue river. Me and seven of my dental school friends went on a two day float on the section above the wild and scenic section. It was a short, easy section to raft and we took our time doing it in two days. We stopped the first night and camped about half way. I spent a few minutes fishing that evening but was unsuccessful and that section is not very good for trout fishing. On the second day we stopped for a while to jump off the rocks and swim around in the water. That night we stayed in Grants Pass at our buddies house. On thursday of that week my mom and I drove to Kent and Celia's house located outside of Dale oregon on the North Fork of the John Day River. I wetted a line on friday morning but again was fishing a river that is not very fishy to begin with and got skunked. On friday, we stopped in Pendleton to have lunch with a friend of my mothers before heading up the hill to a church camp in the Blue Mountains where we had a Butler family reunion. The family reunion was fun and it was nice to see everyone. On Saturday afternoon, Several of us went down to La Grande where we fished Grande Rhonde River. Again not a very fishy place to fish but my cousin Dale managed to pull three fish out of the only hole in the entire stretch. they were probably steelhead smolts. Sunday I hitched a ride back to portland with my cousins Jennifer and Lori who were heading that way for a vacation and a trip to the coast.

Summer term has now started and I am already starting to feel busy. There is a lot of new things to learn and do as we are transitioning into the clinic and treating patients. Ther is a lot to learn as well as getting everything scheduled and organized.

Last weekend, Went to Boise for cousin Adam's Wedding. It was a short trip to Idaho but it was nice to see all of the family. I believe it was the first time in a long time that all of my cousins were in one place together in quite a few years. I flew in to boise on Friday night did wedding, BBQ, reception stuff on Saturday and flew out on Sunday afternoon. Sunday afternoon, I did some errands on my way home and sunday night I did a bunch of lab work on my competency full gold crown casting. I have have been taking competency exams and only have two more left until I can start seeing patients in the clinic. Next week is finals week and that will be busy but am relived that this term is about to wind down.

Memorial Day Weekend

Sorry it has been a while since I posted here last. I have been busy and my weekend adventures have been severely limited by school work. Last weekend two buddies Kenny and Sten and I went to eastern Oregon on a fishing trip. We drove to Ontario on friday night the another hour south the the Owyhee river where we stayed at a little cabin in the park by the river. We fished for brown trout and and relaxed at the cabin. Another classmate that was in the area also came out and fished with us. We did pretty well considering that Kenny, Sten and Kenny's dad Dan were all novice fly fisherman and the Owyhee river is a demanding river to fish. The fishing was good at times and frustrating at others. When the hatch was on, it was on that the fish were easy to catch and when it was off the fish were not interested in much that we could throw at them. We were able to sight fish and that produced a little success. On Monday we packed up an headed back to ontario for lunch and to visit with rest of Kenny's family and we drove back to Portland.
The rest of this week has been extremely busy. We had a competency exam a midterm and we started a difficult project that is a combination of work from two different classes. I also delivered a night guard to a classmate that we made as a class project.
The Beavers baseball team made the playoffs for the NCAA tourney. They won their first game of the Fort Worth regional tournament and play again at five this evening.
Today I am headed down to Pioneer Court House Square to watch the finals of the Campus Rail Jam Tour. My friend Ryan Kirkpatrick company is the doing this it will be fun to see them and hang out with a lot of people that I have not seen in a while.

3rd Weekend in April

I had a great weekend. It started on Friday where The dental school band Malpractice was playing their final show at a local pub. There were a lot of people there including students and professors and a good time was had by all. On Saturday morning I did some work in the lab where I cast gold a MODBL onlay. In the afternoon, I went for a run out side on the Willamette waterfront. That evening I BBQ'd at my friend James's house and we watched the Blazers get killed in the first game of the playoffs by the Houston Rockets. On sunday morning, I got up early and went skiing with a long time friend from Ashland. We skied until about noon and headed back to town. It was ultra springy conditions. The snow was soft from the beginning and got real sticky about 11:00am. In the afternoon I went for a run and enjoyed the nicest day of the year so far. This evening I did some errands and grocery shopping and tonight I worked in the lab for a little while. Overall a busy weekend but I did get to be outside and enjoyed the warm sunny weather.

Walk On

This is a link to a video called Walk On. It is an inspirational video about a guy named DJ and his overcoming his disability. It was very well done. It take about ten minutes to watch but was well worth it.

Walk On

Spring Break so Far

For spring break so far I have had a great break. On friday evening, I hung out with some of my friends from OSU. On saturday I took the day to rest and recover from finals week. I ran some errands and got caught up on everything that I put off the last two weeks.
On sunday My friends Dan and Haley and I all went skiing at Mt Hood Meadows. The roads were bad getting there but that was because there was two feet for fresh powder. We spent all day tracking up some amazingly deep and uncharacteristicly light powder for this time of year in Oregon. The weather was nice too. THe area that we like to ski is well protected from bad weather unlike the rest of the mountain. We had some sun to go along with the great snow.
On monday My friends Eric and I went fishing on the Nestucca river with our friend Matt in Matt's drift boat. We had an amazing day hooking 11 steelhead and landing 6 of them. I personally put on a clinic hooking six end landing 4. I should have landed on more but eric failed to net it. Of the fish that we caught 3 of them were big fish in the 15-17 lb range. We kept one hatchery hen so Matt could eat it and keep the eggs and cure them for salmon bait. We also caught and released two sea run cuthroats. This was my first sea run I have ever caught. The weather was beautiful and we did not get rained on. This was the best day that I have ever had steelhead fishing by a large margin.
On Tuesday, Eric, Ben and I went fishing on the Wilson River. We did not get any fish and it rained hard on us. I spent a lot of time rerigging my setup after loosing it trees. We did find a few new holes that look promising as new places to fish. In the afternoon I had coffee with a friend and got my bike tuned up and ready for warmer weather.
Today I am resting up after going hard for three days. I had an offer to go skiing today but I decided the snow and weather was not going to be great.
The rest of the week will be filled with attending the Oregon Dental Convention.

here is a link to pictures from the fishing trip.

Another Amazing Weekend

This weekend was a the last big weekend before dead week and final week and i went all out. On friday night I hung out with my friend Andrew. We watched the Blazer game on his HD TV while we waxed our ski's and boards for Saturday.

On Saturday, we left early in the morning and headed up to the mountain for some skiing. The roads were great getting there and we arrived to get a good parking spot and on the lifts early. As soon as we got there, it started blowing snow and it continued throughout the day. The snow for the first run started off a little crusty and icy but each successive run, more and more powder stacked up. By the afternoon were were taking powder run in the trees. It was good but a little inconsistent with the stuff underneath not deeply covered. On saturday evening, I ran some errands and bought groceries. I also budgeted for spring and summer so I can plan out my financial aid.

Sunday morning was the 31st edition of the Portland Shamrock Run. My friends and I ran the 15k(9.3 mile) distance. There were three of us that ran together apart from our group and we all pushed each others pace along the course. I ran it in 1:13:00 which equates to about 7:50 mile times. It would have been much faster had we not been bunched up at the start in downtown Portland. Our first mile was something like 12 minutes. It rained hard the for some of the race and the temperature was in the mid to low 40's with some wind. It was miserable running conditions but we had a great time. I finished 28 out of 81 for the men 20-24 age group.

This afternoon I watched the Beavers play in the Pape Grand Slam event at PGE park in Portland. They were playing the finish of Saturdays game and Sunday game today. The Beavers lost both games but the won Fridays game. It was fun to watch but disappointing to see my team loose. I went with a friend who was able to get free tickets to the event.

Next week is dead week and the week after is finals week. It will be a busy two weeks but will come with a much needed break.

Powder Day

I was fortunate enough not to have any classes rotations or conferences scheduled for today. I took the opportunity to go up to the mountain with my friend Will. The mountain had a 10'' of new snow yesterday and it did not open because of inclement weather. We got up there about 10am along with the rest of the crowds who were after the powder. The weather today was good and the snow was epic. The powder was deep, soft, light and there was plenty enough to go around. We skied hard until about three thirty and then headed down. It was an epic day and I don't think I am going to go tomorrow because we tracked out all of the best powder today and I would like to get some stuff done here in town.

Two of My Favorite Things

Last Friday, after Give Kids a Smile, I went fishing with my friends Eric and Ben on the Wilson River. Eric caught a sea run cuthtroat and I caught a 25'' steelhead. I caught it on my spinning gear as i had broken my fly rig off in a nearby tree. On Saturday, I got up early and went to Mount Hood Meadows for some skiing. I sold my voucher pass for ten dollars more than I payed for it and proceeded to purchase a spring season pass which was only $99. We had a great day skiing. Good weather and lots of good soft snow. none of it was untracked powder but it was still great to ski. We found some great places for tree skiing and some cliffs, rock and cornices to make things interesting. I am heading up to the mountain tomorrow and all indications are for a epic powder day. I will post pics and a report later. Also may be skiing saturday.

Give Kids a Smile

Today was the annual Give Kids a Smile event at the dental school. We had over 180 kid in the clinic today that were in need of dental care. All of them were prescreened and have e-rays take by the local dental van. The kid that I assisted with treatment on was a cure little first grade girl named Jaime. She got sealants on her upper permanent molars, a stainless steel crown on a primary molar and she had one primary molar extracted that was too far decayed to save. She was great patient and only squirmed and cried a little when her tooth was coming out. Some of the other kids were squirming, fidgeting and crying when work was being done on them. Overall a great event which I look forward to participating in as a student provider next year.

Presidents Weekend

I was able to get Friday off and headed down to Ashland for the weekend in hopes of getting some skiing in. It turned out that my Aunt Mary was going to be in town visiting my mother and I wanted to take her up to Mt Ashland. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate with us and high winds kept us off the mountain. There was plenty of new snow for the first time this year, so I was a little bummed out. We also were going to see the opening of a play at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, but we thought our tickets were for Sunday not Saturday and we missed our show. I did get a chance to do a little work on my pickup. I changed the fuel filter and replaced the radiator cap as well as gave it a wash down. Overall an uneventful weekend but relaxing to not do any school work. Back to the grind this evening with a little lab work.

The First of Many

Today I gave my first anesthesia injection. This was the first of many thousands to come. In all I gave 5 injections and numbed several section of the maxilla. My first ones went well but I still have a lot to learn and much more to practice before I am comfortable with them. I also received five injection from a classmate. I walked around for a while today with a numb mouth and a profoundly numb right side of the nose.

Christams Break

For the Christmas break I spent the first week in Ashland and the second week in Idaho. I left Portland the morning after finishing finals and Just in time to escape the brunt of a crippling snow storm that hit the Portland area. On the 27th My mom and I drove to Idaho. Most of the drive was in the snow but we made it safely. We spent the week in Idaho with family and friends. We played lots of cards, basketball, pond hockey and other games with family. We saw lots of wildlife including bald eagles, antelope, mule deer and rocky mountain elk. On Saturday the 3rd of January I drove back to Portland and My mother flew back to Ashland. I stopped in La Grande to have a short visit with Unlce Harold. On the 4th I went skiing at Mt Hood meadows. The conditions were good and we even found a little left over untracked powder.

I have a video to share with you. My friend Eric Berkner which you may have seen in posts on my blog created a fishing video of 2008 fishing adventures. I am in several scenes of the video and I shot some of the footage. Here is the link to FlyFishNW. It is near the bottom on the right side of the page.

On the school side of things, We are back and in full force. Fortunately we get to go to Bend and stay at Sunriver Resort for the weekend as part of the All Hill ski trip. I am leaving tomorrow afternoon. Unfortunately the mountain has had some sever weather with a recent ice storm that has knocked down some trees and predicted the warm weather will probably keep us off the mountain. We will still have a good time though.