O.A.R.

I first heard O.A.R. on XM radio. They had a catchy tune and the instrumentals were great, but I wasn't convinced enough to be a listener. Time had passed, and they were somewhat lost in the mass amount of music that catches my attention...until this past weekend when a friend of mine suggested that I listen to them.

After buying their live at Maddison Square Garden album I can now consider myself a fan. The CD hasn't left the deck in my car. A very uplifting style of music that reminds me a lot of Dave Matthews. Thanks Caroline.

Here's a number titled "City on Down". Live is so much better. Have a great day guys!

Geno Delafose

Here's a little Geno Delafose to wake you up on a Tuesday morning. As stated earlier, he played on Saturday at the festival, and he was an absolute pleasure to hear. Thanks Dawn for the history short lesson. I guess I have a little bit' of learning to do in regards to my culture. Better late-than-never!

Festival Weekend

This festival season saw Karen and I spending a lot of time catching up with family and friends. Karen's sister Natalie and friend Caroline were in town for the weekend. We spent both Friday and Saturday at the Festival listening to some great bands, eating some great food, and assisting LG when she became deathly ill...she's back to 100% though. That coupled with a second place finish in my age group at the 5K, and I'd say the weekend was great success!

Arguing over who we should go see. Thank God we chose B.C.

Caroline and Natalie taking a break

Herm busting a move with the locals

Mark coming to the aid of LG

Babylon Circus was definitely one of the top performances of the weekend. Their punk/raggae mix was definitely accepted by a full house on Friday night. I had stated in an earlier post that I would be skipping them in favor of Steve Riley, but better sense got the better of me.

The other top band that I enjoyed was Geno Delafosse. I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't even know who he was when some friends invited us to join them for the show, but as soon as the "Big Butt Women" song came on the connection was made. Great afternoon and great weekend. Too much to cover in one post.



Caroline, Natalie, Myself, Karen, LG, and Mrs. KK

Festival 5K

The festival 5K took place today, and I took part in it with Amy and Scrap. Michael Paul has developed multiple debilitating injuries. If you want to know the specifics you can check them out here. It sounds like he'll be finishing his next race in a wheel chair being pushed by Amy.

Me, Amy, and Scrap

I slammed my head into this before the race. I think it's the reason why I had such a good time.

Anyway, the weather was a little muggy, making the run all the more difficult. Half of the race was spent running behind a shirtless aboriganie who smelt like he hadn't bathed in ten days...seriously, it was that bad. When the times were revealed after the first mile I knew I was in trouble. 5:50 is too fast a start for me, and I suffered for it in the last mile.

Nevertheless, my time was 20:30, and I have to admit that I was shocked. All-in-all we had a good time, and shared a few beers afterwards. Looking forward to the festival today. Going to be a great time with some good music being played.

Georgia pushed her child Jackson the whole way.

Amy and her injured husband.

Festival International

Missed the Blind Boys from Alabama opening the festival last night, but it was worth it. Looking forward to seeing Steve Riley on the Mamou Playboys tonight at CC Scene heritage. Unfortunately their playing at the same time as Babylon Circus, a French band that plays a raggae/punk mix. Going to be tough to decide when 9:30 roles around, but I think you'll be able to find me watching Steve Riley.

Here's a clip from Babylon Circus.

Laura's Birthday

Today is my sister Laura's 15th birthday. She is, by far, the quietest deClouet, but that is slowly becoming a thing of the past as she is quickly embracing her teenage years. Countless requests to drive have become a daily activity, and constant rendezvous's to CC's reminds me that I shouldn't have come by the house today...haha!

Laura, I just want to say Happy Birthday! You're becoming quite the lady, and I'm looking forward to the day when you can drive me around.

Below are a few pics of the birthday girl. Unfortunately I didn't have one with her latest accessory, the braces!

Hope you have a great day, and I love you.

Karen and Laura

Laura getting her hair done before Ellen's wedding.

Chowing down...sorry but I couldn't resist.

Spending time with big brother.

Two of my sisters, Laura and Ellen

DMB's Ant's Marching

Ant's marching is one of my favorite Dave Matthew's songs. Used to listen to it all the time on the way to class as a way to wake me up in the morning, and I find myself using it again this morning. This is a live clip from Central Park when the band performed a free show after 9/11. Hope you all have a good day.

Karen's day alone with...

...Maggie produced these pics. I think my aspirations of her becoming a guard dog are falling at the wayside.

Houma Soccer

The six-week series of Louisiana's state soccer tournaments has kicked off, and this weekend I was participating in the event in Houma, Louisiana. Other than the run-down motel and Shoney's breakfast, we had a pretty good time. The soccer was competitive, and I was able to officiate a thrilling final between two u-18 Baton Rouge teams. Will's team also had a great outing, winning four games in a row to make it to next weeks semi-final match up. Below are a few pics of the event.

Veronica is the another national candidate from Louisiana.

Tyler stuffing his face with a chili dog before his final...unbelievable!

Alex in action. He had just sent off a player, and the game was heated.

Doug, Turney, and myself before our u-18 boys finals

Ross the Intern

Ross the Intern is a sideshow on the Tonight Show. I caught him once when I was working a slow night in Franklin. I think he was interviewing some actors at the Oscars.

Anyway, I was reminded of him tonight during a commercial, and decided to google him. Turns out he has some sort of daily video blog at http://blog.nbc.com/ross_blog/ . Here is a clip of the Oscar show he did. Karen and I thought it was funny, so hope it starts out your weekend with a laugh.

LG's new ring tone

LG has a new cell, and her ring tone takes the form of an old Elvis song. She's very excited about this feature, and I think that it'll lead to an increase in her using the phone. She always had a bad habit of not answering, but now that she has this new toy I believe that LG will be that much more accessible.

I cringe every time I hear a song as a ring-tone, and it usually leads me to hating the song. It's just something about the quality of music that comes from the speaker of a phone on the highest volume, I guess, but it drives me crazy. Sorry Tim, but now I can add Take my precious hand Lord by Elvis to that list songs.

By the way, LG is my mother-in-law.

Medical Surgical Nursing

I've decided on a change in scenery in nursing (although I believe it won't be a permanent one), and have decided to give medical/surgical nursing a chance. For the uninformed this is the section of the hospital that is full of patients who are less critically ill than the ICU, thus giving me seven patients to care for instead of two...I'll get to that in a minute. The patients generally come to this unit after general surgeries and to deal with medical issues that need correcting.

It's been nice to have a few more colleagues to bounce ideas off of (there are eight nurses on the unit), and having patients that can communicate with you is definitely a plus. It's actually part of the change that I was seeking out, but as I quickly figured out, the more you can speak the more you need assistance, as is the case in med/surge nursing. Never a down moment to collect thoughts as patients continue to call throughout the shift for every reason you can imagine. Tough to get charting done, as I've found myself staying after hours for an additional 30 minutes each of the past couple of shifts. The change in pace is definitely noticeable, and I'm learning a lot. Nevertheless, as stated earlier, I don't think it'll turn into a permanent change.

So I'm splitting my shifts between med/surge and ICU, and it's somewhat exciting and fresh...if that makes sense.. I'll never look at med/surge nurses the same. They can definitely hang with the best of them.

Shmuley Shmuley

Karen has me hooked on listening to Rabbi Shmuley. He has a couple of time slots on Oprah's XM channel in which he talks about modern-day problems in people's values. I've been impressed with his message the few times that I've been able to listen to him.

Anyway, I was searching the web today in an attempt to find a version of his show that Karen could listen to while doing her work at home. While my bid to locate a free outlet was unsuccessful, I was able to find a few debates that he had held with some noteworthy people.

Two hours later I realized that a great majority of my day was spent listening to one of his debates about evolution with Christopher Hitchens. While I believe that the 1.5 hours is too long for anyone to want to sit through I have posted it and a small expert of Schmuley speaking in one of his debates with Richard Dawkins.

Hope you enjoy the two.

The first is a ten minute clip on religion and evolution by the Rabbi, but it is hardly worth comparing to the 1.5 hour debate he has with Hitchens, which is the second clip.

Some great dialogue between the two.

Karen's favorte Maggie picture

According to Karen, Maggie looks so happy.

I think she looks terrified.

New Yankee curse...I think not!

A couple of weeks ago there was a report circulating the headlines that a construction worker at the new Yankee Stadium had buried a BoSox jersey in a block of concrete in an attempt to curse the new stadium. The report had since been considered a fabricated story, and the media had forgotten about it...

...until yesterday. According to the NY Post a couple of workers had approached the foreman with the supposed location of the jersey. A couple of hours later the crew had jackhammered the concrete three feet down to locate the cursed charm.

Yankees co-chairperson Hal Steinbrenner said that he "hopes his coworkers kicked the (expletive) out of him." You have to love those Steinbrenners!

Here is a small five minute report on the story...if you have the time to sit through it. Three minutes in is footage of the un-earthing.

Deep thought

Maggie spends the majority of her day outside. Most of that time is spent either sleeping or crying because of her desire to be inside. Every now and then she attempts to solve the worlds problems, and can be found pacing the backyard in deep thought...or until she finds a tennis ball.

Karen's Work (part 1)

Karen obtained her undergrad in fine arts with a concentration in graphic design a couple of years ago, but has since decided that she wasn't enjoying what she's doing. Changing one's concentration is a long process as you might imagine. Her professor at UL asked her to photograph her current projects for further study, EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE UNFINISHED...that was my selling point from Karen.

Karen is very modest about her work, and it took a lot of begging and whining on my part to get her to consent to my posting of some of her unfinished work. She is currently building a portfolio of drawings with plans to submit them for graduate school next summer/fall.

What's even more impressive is that these pieces are on 5'x3', and that's considered small in the art community.

Ben Folds

Ben Folds performed this past Friday night at Centenary College's Golden Dome, and Karen and I were in attendance. I had premonitions about the quality of the music because it was being played in a dome, but the padded walls prevented any echoing that would otherwise prove bothersome. I would have to say that the average age of the attendees was 19, and they were all holding each other as if this was "the night"...too much PDA, seriously. The opening act was Eef Barzelay. Our impatience for Ben to play coupled with the PDA going on pushed us to seriously dislike the opening act. His myspace page actually has some quality songs.

That being said, when the main act came on stage it was truly an exciting moment, especially for Karen. The teenagers that were gathered didn't seem to interested in the show, at first. The majority of them just continued to hold there loved ones and sway in an anti-rhythmic beat, but believe me when I say the performance was amazing.

I think it would be a difficult task for any pianist to play loud enough to actually put on a show that would be accepted by a college crowd, but within three songs the kids got into the music, and I believe a good time was had by all. He opened with a collection of songs that are on his new album that's due out this September, so any more info on that would be hard to come by.

"Still fighting it", "Rockin the suburbs", and "Philosophy" were some of the longer more exciting pieces that the crowd participated in. Since we were on a college campus he couldn't resist playing "B*****s Ain't S**t". Definitely not one of my favorites, but the kids responded well to it, sometimes singing over Ben in the melody!

The highlight of the evening for me was when he played "The Luckiest." It was Karen and my first dance at our wedding, so a little bit of sentiment for us. I think I found myself with my arm around Karen as if I were one if the teenage lovers that I observed earlier.

Below are a few selections, so you can get an idea of what we saw. Definitely a quality performance. It would have been much better if it were in a concert hall as opposed to a dome, but we were five rows back, and didn't miss a lick of the performance:

"Jesusland"

"Philosophy"

Michael and Kristy (engagement party)

Karen and I celebrated the engagement of Michael and Kristy tonight...not on our own, but with 50 other people at a party that was thrown at Mike's parents house. It was a really good time, especially since we haven't seen some of these friends in a long time. Everything from the NCAA tournament to skiing next February to babies to cleaning supplies was on the table. I believe our generation has truly entered adulthood, and have taken it on in full force. Below are a few pics. The rest can be seen at my flickr account.

Michael and Kristy

The deClouets

Clayton's Big Speech

The Party

Ben Folds...Live from Centenary College

Karen and I are off to Shreveport to see Ben Folds play at Centenary College. This is a show that we've been looking forward to for a long time. It's general admission, so the plan is to get there a couple of hours early for the good seats...hopefully it works.

Here is a song offhis latest albumn...pretty great music, but funny video!

Obama (DMB) vs. Cliniton

Just as President Bill Clinton was about to speak on Hillary's behalf in Bloomington, Indiana a representative for Obama began giving away free Dave Matthew's Band tickets from their Bloomington office. According to sources it drew a handful of students from the Clinton rally. Some even stated that this give-away sealed the deal for them on who they were going to vote for.

If this deal were offered to me I believe I would take the free tickets, and catch Bill's speech on youtube. After all, how often do you get to see DMB?

BTW, is this legal?

First time for everything...in the ICU

Unfortunately, if you work at this job long enough you're bound to run into the situation that everyone works to avoid...the code blue. Whenever you hear "Code Blue" in a hospital it usually means that someone is having a cardio/pulmonary arrest (either their heart has stopped or they quit breathing). Eight to ten people throughout the hospital respond in an attempt to resuscitate the individual. I'm sure you have all seen such situations on Grey's Anatomy or ER. What appears to be complete chaos usually comes together in perfect harmony...usually.

Last night I had my first patient pass away after such an event. It wasn't particularly difficult to deal with because he hadn't been on the unit for longer than six hours, so I hadn't had the chance to get to know him that well (this is also due to the fact that my other patient had tuberculosis(TB)...requiring immense attention). He had a bad case of pneumonia that stripped him of any energy he had to communicate. Once he got to the unit we stabilized him, and started pumping him full of antibiotics. Pretty standard stuff. It's unfortunate he had to go through such an event.

The code was performed tp perfection. Each person involved took care of their role, and didn't try to overstep their boundary onto someone else's. When something was in question, there was an answer. Everything was performed as it was suppose to, except the outcome.

The rest of the evening was spent wondering what went wrong. How could this have been prevented? I kept blaming myself for not being too attentive, but in the end you can't possibly be prepared for everything. One minute he was feeling great, and the next he was arresting. With all the modern technology that we have that enables us to constantly monitor patients heart rhythms, oxygen saturation's, blood pressures, respiration's, etc...the list can go on and on...one would think that such situations would be few and far between. I guess I can take comfort in the fact that this is the first time this has happened to me. Hopefully it won't be too soon before it happens again.

Thanks for your patience in reading such a long post. I guess this forum can be an avenue for venting as well.

The last season in Yankee stadium begins...

...with a W. I didn't get to see last nights game, but was told than Wang put in a good performance as the Yankees opened up the season with a win. What's even better is that A-Rod's first at bat was a RBI. I really think that the Yanks are going to do some damage this year. Kennedy, Jaba, and Hughes are going to have great break-out years. A-Rod will win another MVP, and the Yankees will add another World Series to the list.

Maybe an undefeated season. You heard it here first.