Tag: health

Off To Visit the Baby, Madrid 2025 Day#2. “We Get to See a Celebrity Today”

by reissmd, posted in Madrid

Any of you parents out there will be able understand why today was so wonderful.  Erica met us at the hotel after breakfast and then it was off to visit the Irish Embassy where she works as the Executive Assistant to the Irish Ambassador to Spain.   And if you don’t know how much I enjoyed writing that sentence or telling it to anyone who will listen then you definitely are not a parent.   When we planned this trip I asked Erica if we could meet the Ambassador and she said definitely.  I asked, how she could be so sure and her answer was “I make his schedule.  Hmmm, Friday December 5th, 11:00 AM: Meet my parents.  There, it’s done”.  If you don’t think that put me in parent ecstasy you are out of touch with reality.   

Meeting Ambassador Brian Glynn was a real treat.  As expected this career diplomat was very diplomatic and said all the things we wanted to hear about our daughter.  We also spoke about world affairs.  He had viewpoints about Ireland, Britain, and the United States that were spell-binding. In addition he gave me a chance to show him a few of my magic tricks.  I was amazed by how much time he devoted to us.  Mr. Glynn is a very impressive person who speaks 6 languages.  That reminds me of a joke you’ve probably already heard.  A person who speaks 3 languages is “trilingual”, someone who speaks 2 languages is “bilingual” and someone who speaks one language is of course an “American”.  

Irish Ambassador to Spain, Brian Glynn, yours truly (aka Proud Papa), Patrice (aka Proud Mama), and Erica (Executive Assistant to the Ambassador).

After leaving the ambassador we stopped for a quick snack.  I was feeling a bit guilty about not exercising so I decided to work out while eating.  See below.  

I guess I was lying when I vowed to never get on a bike again.

We bought our treats at a local market. Here are a couple of pictures from the market.

Poor little piggies hanging in the market.

If that isn’t enough to make you give up meat try looking at this picture.

Poor little piglets.

Then it was off to meet a celebrity.  Wait, did you think I meant Brian Glynn when I wrote about meeting a celebrity?   Absolutely not!  A very prominent and respected software engineer has been in London working on a project and is traveling through Madrid on his way home.   Yes, our son, David made it to Spain.   How lucky we are.  We met David at the airport and cautioned him to try hard to carry on his luggage and avoid the problem we had.  The 1500 steps to baggage claim is another matter but some exercise is actually a good thing.  Unfortunately David was not allowed to carry on his small bag but luckily his wait at baggage claim was a lot shorter than ours.

It was great having 2 of our 3 children with us.  We visited the Museo Arqueológico Nacional and saw some fascinating  exhibits some dating back to about 500-600 BC. 

Patrice and me with 2 of our 3 wonderful children.

That is going to have to be enough for now because we are off to dinner.

Adiós

ACP in NOLA Day #2 “More Food”

by reissmd, posted in New Orleans, New Orleans (NOLA)

Today I started the ACP conference and Patrice toured the city.  She definitely got the best of the deal.  For example I started my day with a talk about pains in the butt.  That was my highlight.  In all sincerity the talk was very informative and gave me some tips that will help me assist my patients.  I hesitated writing that knowing that someone will make some butt jokes at my expense.  Go ahead I can take it.  The rest of the talks were just okay. Patrice on the other hand took a city tour.  Here is the one picture she sent me.

Caesar’s Palace Casino? Do I need to keep a closer eye on this woman?

The afternoon lectures were okay but none were as good as the 7:00 AM Butt lecture. In addition to going to the didactic sessions we have time to go to the the exhibit hall where all sorts of companies are looking to sell their products to doctors. There are electronic medical records companies, drug companies, and a variety of companies looking to hire doctors. I stopped at one of the booths to talk to a recruiter. I cut to the chase, “Would you consider hiring a doctor of my age?” The rep enthusiatically said, “Yes, yes!”. So we had a conversation and I think we might have a deal. I really liked the look of their booth. What do you think?

I later asked if they knew who their oldest primary care physician was at UCLA. They did not, so I told him it was me.

In addition to looking for a job I was availed some health food in the Exhibit Hall. After all this is the meeting for the nation’s elite internal medicine specialists, of course we eat healthy.

Delicious brownines. Not up to Patrice’s quality. But how would I know, did I eat one? No, I ate two.
Hmmm, maybe this is why I’m so thirsty.

That’s enough about food. Well maybe not.

Tonight’s dinner was at GW Fins (808 Bienville St, New Orleans, LA 70112). It was recommended by my friend Andy, who said he had the best meal of his life there. Andy is from Fresno. Should I have been worried?

The restaurant is in the French Quarter and they had a modest dress code (men required to wear collared shirts). They started us off with biscuits. They looked very plan but beleive me they were anything but.

Very tasty biscuits.

Patrice and I both ordered the Scalibut.  Seems like this day started with a lecture about butts and ended with us eating two. The Scalibut dish was Shrimp, scallops, halibut, and risotto.  Also with a few peas to fool you into to thinking you’re eating healthy.

This was amazing and gone in a flash.

I don’t know about you “butt” I’m exhausted. Talk to you tomorrow.