24 è tan an Ayiti (24hrs to Haiti)

As I sit here with my bags packed waiting for my taxi, I reflect on my choices and hope that I will be more help than a burden. By this time tomorrow I will be landing in Port-au-Prince and then heading out to Léogâne. I don't really know what's in store for me but it will with little doubt be a trip that wont be soon forgotten.

I will be gone for the next 3 weeks and will try to update every few days with news, pictures and videos so check back regularly.
-jerrad

Thanksgiving Holiday Trip part 2 : 17-Mile Drive

Part II: 17-Mile Drive

The second highlight of our trip would be the 17-mile drive along the shores Pebble Beach on our way to Carmel. Carmel itself is a very cute town lined with shops and trees, unfortunately we did not have time to walk around town. That is for next time.

Why did we not have time? Well, that is because we spent all the time we had absorbing the great beauty of the 17-mile drive. To start this drive, it took us a quick drive from Monterey along Highway 1 South to reach one of the entry gates. The fee is $9.50 per car. There are a total of 21 points of interest and 4 golf courses along this drive. Once you pay the entry fee, all you have to do is follow the red marks along the road to reach the points of interest. It is an easy drive with lots of signs along the way so no need to worry about getting lost or taking a wrong turn.

We did not stop at every point of interest for the sake of time, but here are some locations that we did stop at and enjoyed tremendously:

Shepherd's Knoll

Spanish Bay

The Restless Sea

Point Joe

another view of the Restless Sea

The Lone Cypress

It took us about 2 hours to do the drive and quickly enjoy/take pictures of some of those locations we stopped at. It was quite unfortunate that we did not have enough time to thoroughly enjoy all the spectacular views. Not only that, I also killed the batteries in our camera at the aquarium. So... we used an iPhone to take pictures, which came out pretty good, but our camera would've done a way better job. (note to self: next time, bring extra batteries).

We would recommend you to actually have the whole day available just in case you want to take a walk along the available paths or have a picnic or just sit and enjoy the waves for a while. We would also highly recommend you take your dogs along the drive because there are plenty of nice trails along the shores for you and your pet companion.We took our dogs Daisy and Gidget; MAN!!! they were super excited about this trip. They both couldn't stop whining in the car because they know they are near the beach (which is their favorite place on earth). I know they are thinking the same thing I'm thinking: we wish we were there longer.

~ josie

Thanksgiving Holiday Trip part 1: Monterey

We took a short trip to Monterey and Carmel for Thanksgiving holiday and these are the highlights of our vacation.


Part I: Monterey Bay Aquarium


This truly is a fantastic place to visit for a number of reasons. First off, their exhibits are pretty impressive ranging from the big mammals and birds to the colorful fish to the tiny invertebrates. Also, every exhibit is accompanied by little educational signs about the habitat and characteristics of the organism shown. They have several different touch tanks areas for us who want a closer look at these animals, as well as numerous educational programs and animal feedings that you can watch. Information on simple things we all can do to help the environment and the ocean animals are also found throughout the aquarium. 

Their current exhibits include the open sea, the giant octopus, the kelp forest, the sea otters, the secret lives of seahorses, the world-famous jellyfish, the penguins, and the rocky shore. As always, you can always go outside to their oceanview decks and use a telescope to observe directly the animal activities in the Monterey Bay. 

kelp forest exhibit

giant octopus

sea pen

big skate

sea nettle jellyfish

moon jellies

copperband butterflyfish

seahorse - the only animal on earth where the males bear children

Visiting this place always reminds us how majestic nature is and how diverse the ocean inhabitants are. We literally can spent hours at this place.  This is a place that everybody, from young to old, can enjoy and everybody can learn one or two new things about animals and the environment. We also like that this place helps to promote  the idea of sustainable living and responsible eating. It was worth the $29.95 entrance fee for the day (if you are staying for a few days, lots of hotels in the area offer a two-day-for-one ticket price). If there is one thing we did not like about this place, it is the cafeteria/restaurant food. It is mediocre at best, and we would definitely GO SOMEWHERE ELSE to eat and come back for the rest of the day.

For more info, you can always visit their website at http://www.montereybayaquarium.org and navigate from there to plan your visit. We highly recommend it.

~ josie

Live the life you love. Love the life you live.

When I tell people we will be moving to the US Virgin Islands the first question is almost always  "Now, where is that?" followed almost without fail by "why?"  The why goes a lot deeper than just sunshine and palm trees. I could probably write a novel on the subject but I will do my best to keep it as short as possible.

I had been weighing the options of where my wife and I would be living after she finished grad school. I wasn't thrilled about any of the places we were looking but there were a couple options I was willing to settle on. [settle...what an ugly word]

Luckily, while planning a trip to the USVI in celebration of my wife's graduation, I noticed that she could actually work there. This sparked an idea and at first this idea seemed more like that of a daydream than anything else. So initially I paid it little mind but it kept grinding away at me day after day. Eventually I had no choice but to look into it so I could lay it to rest once and for all.

Almost as soon as I began seriously researching I was sold on the idea. The business friendly attitude of the islands excited me (I had been running a small business in California which is not business friendly). More personally, the type of business I could run would be more enjoyable, the laid-back lifestyle and slower pace of life enticed me even further. And I can not forget to mention the culture, history, food, and music of this part of the world really are something special.

Obviously there are some issues like the high cost of living, lower average salary (compared to the states), hurricanes and the potential for island fever. These things must be taken seriously as well as the fact that life moves significantly slower there. Going from the go go go to the slow slow slow is often too much for would-be transplants. However, once we visited the islands (in September), this really sealed the deal. The outstanding natural beauty, slower pace of life and Candi's "come back sauce" were too good to pass up for the sake of practicality.

Even more refreshing than the picturesque waters were the people. Total strangers were so helpful and willing to talk to you. Like the time when my wife walked into a random medical office to get job hunting tips and the office manager was more then happy to stop whatever he was doing to give her some pointers. Or just waiting for the bus under a Kapok tree and shooting the breeze with Ms. Jenny in Coral Bay.

I guess in the end it comes down to doing what I love, in the place I love, with the woman I love.

-jerrad

Gidget - Mischief (Almost) Managed

"We need to get a friend for Daisy."

"She's very lonely and sad when we leave her alone all day at home."

So we did. There she was, Gidget. An Australian stumpy tail cattle dog, small for her breed but feisty like no other (probably because the previous owners named her Gidget). She was...different than Daisy, she was quite a handful.

We thought they were going to accompany and play with each other when we were not in the house, but Gidget had her own idea of fun. She chewed up their plastic bowls, the couch, the trash, the socks and turned Daisy into a rebel dog as well. So it shouldn't come to a surprise when we had to do some damage control with Gidget.

Like the time when I got the phone call from my husband:

"I think you need to put some stitches on Gidget." WHAT? Apparently the girls have gone wild; a play turned into a fight and Gidget got a deep cut right on her chin.

I just finished my ER rotation, so I was able to do laceration repairs (on humans, at least). Armed with my suture kit, supplies of benzocaine topical anesthetic gel, gauze pads, and benadryl pills, we attempted to stitch up Gidget's cut.... It didn't work. She was too scared to even get remotely drowsy with the benadryl, and the topical anesthetics wasn't doing it. And honestly, I was too emotionally attached to her to even attempt to stitch her up without any numbing meds/sedatives. What's our solution?

 

Yup, that's right. We super-glued the cut. It turned out really well, actually, better than I expected. You couldn't even see a scar on her chin.  SUCCESS!!

But Gidget wasn't going to stop there.

Two days ago, we found a nasty lump around her rear right leg. It was an abscess... a pus-draining abscess. Didn't know how it got there, but I'm sure it got worse really fast because she probably licked it like crazy. I refused to do an I&D (incision and drainage) but my husband was going to try anyway, mostly because we were worried of being stuck with a huge amount of vet medical bill that we couldn't really afford.

So here we were again, at a local drugstore, getting supplies. We had a scalpel (from my suture kit), more benadryl, more benzocaine, more gauze pads, a box of dog treats, and some saline spray. We then lured her into the bathroom, closed the door and started the I&D.

It worked.. in the beginning. Made a small cut and yellow/brownish, foul-smelling, pus started oozing out of her wound (note: next time, do this in a more airy room, or at least turn on the vents in the bathroom for goodness sake! the nasty smell started saturating the whole room). Then it stopped. No pus came out but we knew there was still a lot in there. After a few more failed attempts, and poor Gidget was shaking now, we stopped.

We took her to the vet the next day (I thought she would probably need a course of antibiotics anyway, and I didn't have that handy with me). They did a "clip and clean" there (which we assumed is a less-scary term of I&D), gave us some antibiotics and ibuprofen to take home. Oh, and of course the collar...

Poor baby, she must be miserable wearing that thing. She didn't even know what it is, or what it's for. But she wouldn't be the Gidget we know if this silly little thing was going to dampen her spirit at all:

That's the Gidget we know. Feisty little thing, mischievous and all, but we love her to death (and Daisy too, of course).

~josie

Octopus Curry!

My wife gave a thorough intro so I'll just get right to it:

While in Santa Barbara this week I decided to do a little pier fishing.

I was after lobster, crabs and halibut but as you can probably guess by the title I caught none of the above. Luckily, a successful fishing trip to me just involves bringing a good meal home. After about an hour of freezing my ass off I manage to grab a good-sized octopus.

We have a fresh octopus, so now what?

Well first it needs to be cleaned, a simple process that involves flipping the octopus inside out and removing the undesirable bits and rubbing it in white flour to remove the sliminess and rinsing it clean.

Next you need to tenderize it so that it is pleasant to eat, a regular meat tenderizer does the job fine. Then, and most importantly, you put it in the freezer for at least 8 hrs. I fought this idea but honestly freezing and thawing it will make the meat very tender.

Once you are ready to cook the octopus, take it out of the freezer and let it thaw overnight in the fridge. Once thawed you will want to bring a pot of well-salted water to a rolling boil then bring it back down to medium/low heat.

Dip the tentacles in one by one for about 3 seconds to "scare" the octopus then drop the whole beast into the vat. He will turn red and the water will get progressively darker, this is normal.
Keep the heat on for about 45min then shut it off and keep him in there for probably another 15min while the water slowly cools. This step is to help soften up the meat further.

After removing your eight-legged friend from the water you will want to remove the skin but try to keep the suckers attached. After you have exposed all of the glorious white meat you will want to chop him up into bite-sized pieces.

To make the curry I start with about 3 tbs of red (Thai) curry paste, freshly minced garlic, onion, fresh ground peppers and paprika. I combine these ingredients with the fresh-cut octopus into a large pan with about a tablespoon of oil and stir-fry for a few minutes until aromatic.

At this point you add a can of coconut milk(14oz) and bring it to a boil. Once boiling take the temperature way way down to a low (I mean low) simmer and stir regularly. You keep this up for about 45 min till the sauce thickens and the octopus is nice and tender. Also it isn't a bad idea to throw a couple tablespoons of butter in about 5 min before you're finished to help enrich the flavors even further.

Now pour a healthy serving over fresh rice and enjoy.

[note: if adding vegetables in the curry it is best to stir-fry them separately and add them at the end because if you put them in when you start the curry they will end up as a hideous mushy mass ruining all you have worked so hard for]

-jerrad

Intro

I never thought that I would be blogging, since I've never liked writing anyway, but here I am... writing my first blog. It took me probably close to one hour just to come up with the first few sentences, and probably a whole Saturday night to write a whole entry. So why am I doing this?

When you asked me ten years ago about what I want in life, I would've most likely given you the most generic and predictable answer that many other people give: to have my career, settling down, living in my own home, etc, etc, kinda like what everybody else is doing. That was what I envisioned for my future, not because that's what I really wanted in life, but because that was what everybody around me is doing. It seemed to me that that was what life is: you go to school, then college, then get a job and start a career, then get married, settled down, buy a house, live like everybody else. It does sound kind of boring... but that was okay, because I'm not much of a thrill-seeker anyway.

But then I got married... to someone who doesn't settle with a boring life. After two years of marriage, we started to envision what we want in our lives together, what we want our lives to be, and we don't want it to be boring.

This blog is to document our journey of marriage together. Long story short, we want to live the life we want, fulfilling in every aspect, and (hopefully) along the way give something back to the community we are living in. Oh, and we also want to live here:

That is the US Virgin Islands. We are planning to move there hopefully in 2013, that way we have about a year and a half to plan the move and save money to start over. I will continue to work as a Physician Assistant there, hopefully in a primary care community clinic setting serving the locals, while my husband will work in the tourism industry starting his own business. We also want to volunteer, help the community and maybe even one day start a local non-profit program there.

So that is the plan for now. We will write about our life in the meantime: living in a crappy town, working hard to save tons of money and getting ready to make the move to paradise. But it is Saturday night, it is time to relax and enjoy the weekend in our crappy town, so maybe I'll have one of this...

~ Josie