So I am doing my best to now update weekly. Two days ago (sunday night) I had the fortunate experience of going to multiple events. Unfortunately I tend to be overbooked even during the weekends. e.g. Sunday at 4:30 I was supposed to be playing Ultimate frisbee and at our churches fall festival at the same time, then at 5ish I was supposed to be at dinner at my friend Becky's house then and 6PM was student supper at MELCAMESIA which I usually go to. Then at around 7:00 the group of us over 21 usually leave the student supper to do some "fellowship" at Welch Ave. Station (a local pub). Of course I couldn't do all of that so I chose three things to do. First I went to the picnic which was great fun for playing with the kids of the congregation and hanging out with some international students. I left that at 5:30 for dinner in Nevada, IA at Becky's house which was as usual very tasty, then while we were at dinner my spontaneity kicked in. Tami one of the 2nd year vet students was at dinner as well and mentioned a flying lesson that evening at 7:30 and asked if anyone wanted to go along. Being who I am I of course said yes. The plane was a Piper Warrior a four seater prop plane. It was distinctively the smallest plane I've ever been in. Our plan for the evening was to fly to DesMoines land, then go back up and continue the pattern of two touch and go's then head back to Ames. It was really fun!!! On the approach to DesMoines being in a small plane flying fairly low was really neat. You could look out both sides of the plane and see the lights below. The approach put us practically flying over downtown and you could see the gold dome of the IA capitol lit up for the night. I'd always thought it would be cool to do the whole touch and go thing and now I can say I've actually done it I think it was necessary to do some more landings as Tami proved to also show me the roughest landing I've ever felt as well. For years I've said I wanted to get my helicopter pilot liscense but I can also say it would be fun to be a pilot. Talk about exhilirating. I don't think it's in the cards for the near future but heck, I'm still young! On approach back into Ames, I want to point out that the vet school is huge as it looks on the ground but it doesn't get any smaller from in the air. Ames looks kind of funny from the air, unlike many towns which seem to be a somewhat square or circular shape of lights Ames seemed to be more of a spider shape or octopus. It was kind of funny looking. I'm hoping to have to opportunity to go up again in the daytime and night when I have my camera available to take some pics.
I know I promised to put my summer pics up on here a lot but I have yet to get that figured out so hopefully it will come soon.

Wow, it has been a while. I finally am on top of my studies and have managed to pass my first round of exams!! I am excited about how well I am doing this semester despite my feeling of being overwhelmed. I am thankful for my surgery and clinical classes. They bring sanity to my schedule and I get to work with patients. Last week I had the chance to assist in a Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy (TPLO) surgery which is a complex surgery aimed at fixing a torn cranial cruxiate ligament (ACL in humans). It was amazing and fun not to mention tiring as we were in surgery for 4 hours. I've also had the pleasure of doing some other procedures recently but I will not bore you with the technical details.
Some of the procedures I've helped with/done/observed recently include:
OHE ovariohysterectomy
neuter
Mandibular-sublingual sialadenectomy
lateral ear resection
liver biopsies
gastrotomy
gastroomentopexy
gastropexy
tracheostomy
And an abundance of anesthesia

The Brass choir which I direct at my church had our first performance this last weekend and it was great. I was worried because we are lacking in trumpets but fortunately we had a good turnout and I was able to prove my competency as a director YEAH!! We performed Laast uns Erfreunen (All Creatures of our God and King), and Earth and All Stars. We've started working on some Canadian Brass pieces which will be a lot of fun.

I haven't had much chance to get away lately, the last trip was a couple of weeks ago to the Henry Doorley Zoo in Omaha NB. But since then we have been very busy with tests and school inhibiting my social life. This month things will change a little. On the weekend of Oct. 24 I will be heading to my alma mater University of Illinois for the Omega Tau Sigma Grand Council. I look foreward to spending a little time with my friends while there and playing for a volleyball gig. Then the next weekend I will spend Halloween at a relatives wedding in the north suburbs of Chicago.

Other fun things from recent. Two weekends ago now we had a big Brazilian night festival here in Ames. I was volunteered to dance in the Bumba do Boi which is a story about a man and his cow which is killed and then reincarnated. I can't explain much more than that as I really didn't get it but it was a fun dance anyway. We danced until it was time to close the church down. I would have continued but my family seemed to be inclined to go home and rest and as my goal was to spend time with them, I joined in this action.
I look foreward to being able to write more often for the next couple of weeks.