"Aye, There's the rub!"

• The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
• Each player answers the questions about themselves.
• At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

What I was doing 10 years ago: I was not yet working at United Health Care. I was still working at Health Risk Management in Bloomington, Minnesota, a managed care company that was kind of a AAA team grooming nurses and other workers for working in the managed care industry. The company went belly-up a few years after I left there. I actually work with one of my former co-workers from HRM-and about 4-5 from when I worked at UHC. We were hosting a Brazilian exchange student named Zauder that year and I was busy coaching both my son and daughter's soccer teams that spring and summer. I was living in the same house in New Hope, Minnesota where I still live...and preparing for the Minnesota Twins to have a crappy season-the organization had not yet turned around.

5 things on my To Do list today:
1. Take Ibuprofen( Played rugby yesterday)
2. Do Laundry
3. Take car to Tires Plus
4. Take the Dogs for a walk
5. Go to the gym

Snacks I enjoy
1. Jalapeno flavored Old Dutch, Kruncher's or Poore Brothers chips.
2. Doritos
3. Cashews
4. Popcorn
5. Peanut Butter( Paricularly on saltine crackers)

Things I would do If I were a Billionaire:

1.Establish a foreign Language scholarship fund at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa(my
  alma mater-and where I met my wife thanks to studying French)
2.Establish nursing scholarships for men and single mothers at North Hennipen Community Collge and Chicago State University(A historically All black college on the South side of Chicago, not that far from where my wife grew up) We really need more good men and people of color in my profession of nursing.
3. Buy a house and live half the year in Puisserguier, France. It's the cool little town where my dear friend Jean-Paul lives in the south of France. There are a TON of vineyards that produce very, very good wines in that part of Languedoc. The people are nice. And it's not that far of a drive to Montpellier, Marseilles and Toulouse. I can sit with my buddy Jean-Paul and drink Pastis and watch soccer-at our own sky box in Marseilles for OM games and Beziers or Toulouse for rugby.
4. Give my kids money for school and to pay off student loans and a down payment for them to get their own house.
5. Travel with my wife to the home countries of all 12 of the AFS kids we have hosted.
6. Paying off my mom, dad, brother and sister's debts.
7. Buy my own gym.
8. Find a way to pay for my wife to go to George Lucas' Skywalker ranch so that she can meet the man behind Star Wars.

Three of my bad habits:
1.Swearing
2. Potato chips(See "Snacks I enjoy" above)
3. Being too sensitive to constructive criticism

Five Places I have lived:
1. Minneapolis, Minnesota
2. Burlington, Massachussetts
3. Chicago, Illinois
4. San Antonio, Texas
5. Montpellier, France

5 Jobs I have had:
1. Construction work
2. Dishwasher/bus boy
3. Prep cook at a pizza place
4. Nursing Assistant
5. Registered Nurse (You will note, I have wiped asses, dug ditches and washed dishes-if
    it has been dirty and degrading, I have done it)

Current Position:
Registered Nurse. Children's Hospitals of Minnesota. I work in the phone triage department, where I try to calm the frazzled nerves of parents calling in with sick kids.

5 People I want to know more about:
1. "Flanker"  http://totalflanker.blogspot.com/
2. Don. http://with-malice.com/
3. Jean-Paul http://olympiquemidilirou.midiblogs.com/
4. Blondie http://saturdayrugbyday.blogspot.com/
5. Da Redhead http://redheadmom.blogspot.com/

My work schedule has just been bloody insane for the past few months. I have been working 7pm to 3am, Sunday-Thursday the last 4 months. That means that making it to Rugby practice has been impossible. I have been lifting weights doing my Aerobic work on the cross trainer at the gym. I did a day of hard sprinting a couple of weeks ago, and my right knee is still protesting that move-note to self, running on black top pavement is not a good idea at my age. Once the snow is melted, I can do my sprints on the football field accross the street from my house.

My Metropolis rugby club is slated to play the Madison RFC this Saturday at Hamline University in Saint Paul. As an old boy, I let the coach know that if he needs a spare body to prop or play any other position on Saturday, I would love to get a run in the B squad game. Next week, while the A squad is at Nationals, the B squad will play at Rochester. I won't be able to do the trip to Omaha the following week, but the week after that, we are set to play in Green Bay. Everybody I know on our club who has done that trip( My son Ian went last year when I could not) has told me that it is a fun time. Good rugby, nice guys on the Green Bay team, and great bars. The president of our club, Chris Babbiash, is a native of Green Bay, so I am looking forward to him showing us around. I'll probably be sore as hell Sunday, but it will be a good kind of sore. I hope Madison brings enough bodies so that we can have a B squad game. With out of state trips and the spring break season, you never know.

My schedule at work will change to 11pm to 7AM starting in a couple of weeks. I am actually looking forward to it, as it will actually open my evenings up for making it to practice....and having some time with my wife and kids.

A couple of days ago, my daughter Rachel and I took our turn to be Road Warriors, and we drove up to Fargo, North Dakota to check out North Dakota State University. I finished work at 3 AM, drove home and picked up Rachel. We then 'dead-headed' it up I-94 to Fargo. It took about 30' of conversation to make my daughter comotose. While she slept, I battled snow and sleet for a couple of hours, untill we got to Alexandria, Minnesota-where the snow and sleet vanished and became fog, instead. That's what I had to contend with untill we got to my friend Sharon's house in Fargo, where she so kindly had breakfast waiting for us. After a nice breakfast and conversation, Rachel and I headed over to the Equine Center for NDSU.

In terms of things related to horses, it takes a whole lot to impress my equine-crazy 17 year old. The equine facilities at NDSU did just that. The facilities were large and well-maintained. Rachel had a nice conversation with one of the professors and the rodeo coach. It turns out, that if Rachel decides to go to NDSU, bringing Maverick along will NOT be a problem. After our nice visit at the equine center, we checked out NDSU's Wellness center, where it was my turn to be blown away: It was airy,well-lit, it had EVERYTHING a person could want to stay fit. They even had bumper plates-the rubberized plates for Olympic-style weightlifting bars for the Olympic lifts like the clean and jerk, snatch, as well as power cleans and such. I was salivating like Pavlov's dog at all of the cool workout stuff at the Wellness center.

Factoring many things in, I think NDSU just jumped to #1 on my daughter's hit parade of colleges. I know she would like to check out schools like Texas Tech University and Texas A&M University-the catch with those two is the out of state tuition-something my son Ian found out about in a big way when he went to shool out at Rutgers University for one year, and decided that mortaging his future for a 4 year degree just did not make sense.

From a parental standpoint, I have to admit that I would be pleased if she ends up a "Bison" at NDSU...but like Robert Frost said, we have "Miles to go before we sleep".

After the World Cup, Welsh Flanker Martyn Williams announced his retirement from international rugby after Wales was eliminated from Rugby World Cup 2007 by Fiji. He probably never imagined that he would be lifting any international rugby hardware. Yet, after Wales beat France yesterday in Cardiff to complete it's grand slam in this 2008 Six Nations Tournament, there was Williams, all over the Millennium Stadium in rucks, tackling like a demon and scoring the try that ended up killing France's small hopes for good in a 29-12 win. In a match where all of the men in red played with a great deal of heart, Martyn Williams was just great.

The two plays that kind of symbolized the day for the French were both in the second half, France had a scrum put-in around the Welsh 22, the Welsh pack just BLEW the French off the ball and ended up controlling the ball and putting it out of harm's way. The second play was when France's Jauzion dropped the ball, Shane Williams was on the ball like white on rice. He booted the ball about 35 meters downfield, picked up the ball and planted the ball down for a try that just sent the Welsh fans into rapture.

Good thing that the Welsh Rugby Union has inked coach Warren Gatland to a 4 year contract. He has done just a fantastic job, when 6 months ago, Wales could not even make it out of group play at RWC 2007. If Wales would like to keep improving for RWC 2011 in New Zealand, the Welsh Rugby Union better do all that they can to keep this guy happy and under contract. 

If you saw Wales' putrid first half performance against England in it's first match, and if you would have told a spectator at that time that: A-England would piss away the match and Wales would come back to win AT Twickenham. B-Wales would win the Triple Crown and C-all that stands between Wales and an unexpected Grand Slam or Six Nations tournament win is France, the spectator in question probably would have thought you were either drunk or delusional.

The gritty Welsh win against the Irish was a well-earned and deserved win. Shane Williams, my mine of the match, was involved in the two most key plays of the game:
Teaming up with Mike Phillips to keep Shane Horgan Inches away from scoring a try that would have made up the difference in what turned out to be a 12-16 win. Williams also score the only try of the match, using a devestating stiff-arm to free himself so that he could plant the ball down for the decisive Welsh Try. When you think of how mediocre the Welsh looked in the World Cup (Eventhough their loss against Fiji was the game of the tournament) The joy on the Welsh players' faces was palpable.

For Saturday's key match with the French in Cardiff, the Welsh will face a team that has shown flashes of brilliance from it's backs, particularly it's corps of wings and it's fullback who all play for Clermont-Auvergne. Against the plucky Italians on Sunday, Rougerie was the Man of the match.
Marc Lievremont, the French coach, has tinkered a great deal with his lineup this Six Nations season. He has brought out a plethora of youngsters in the first 4 games. The French have shown flashes of their old attacking-damn-the-torpedos style of rugby, which can be a joy to watch. The French Achilles heal seems to be it's forwards, particularly the front three. In the second half against the Italians, the Italian forwards were really making life difficult for the French.

What it comes down to on Saturday is this: If Wales wins, Grand Slam. If Wales loses by less than 20 points, it still wins the Six Nations tournament. Not only do the French have to win in Cardiff-not always an easy task in front of 60,000 singing Welshmen at the Milleneum Stadium, but they will have to SMOKE the Welsh by more than 20. I just don't see it happening, but the French can be a funny team to try to count out-just ask the All Blacks after France upset them in the Semifinals of the 1999 World Cup and the Quarterfinals of last years Rugby World Cup...interestingly enough, also played in Cardiff. Game on!

The last 48-72 hours has seen some major movement and updates on some items from the news that I have commented on in my blog. Here are some updates that I call the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

The Good: Law enforcement officals in Georgia and Alabama have suspects in the murders of University of North Carololina co-ed Eve Carson and Auburn Student Lauren Burk http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/03/12/unc.arrest/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/03/08/auburn.student/index.html?iref=newssearch

I was watching the news while working out when Chapel Hill police brought in the suspect in the Eve Carson Murder. He sure as hell looked like the surveillance video of the guy who tried to use her bank card at an ATM. What struck me is that you would think that a kid who did a high profile murder and the media has a good picture of you, you would think that you would try to change your appearance: Shave, take the cornrows out, shave your head-something to make it tougher on law enforcement. Not only is this guy a murderous thug, he's also stupid(trying to use the ATM card of a murder victim is not a great idea either) This guy deserves the death penalty.

The Bad:  A couple of weeks ago, I posted about a young Nebraskan named Prabesh Sapkota who was fighting the good fight against Leukemia. To my utter amazement, Prabesh's grandmother found my posting and commented on it. A couple of days ago, she had the kindness to update me on Prabesh. Unfortunately, it was bad news-Little Prabesh Sapkota passed away on 03/01/2008. The story of the seriously sick little boy who just wanted to be like other kids and go to school, and was able to do so for a day,  thanks to Make a Wish,  touched a lot of lives, and gave us all a serious reality check of just what is important. RIP Prabesh.

The Just plain ugly:  EX-Governer Groper from the Empire State, Eliot Spitzer, did the right thing and fell on his sword today. He resigned today as Governer of New York. You had to wonder how this guy was ever going to help balance the books in Albany-he is alleged to have used that call-girl service about 8/ times to the tune of about 4,000 bucks per session-and possibley as much as $80,000.I can just see former President Bill Clinton:" Don't y'all have any interns up in Albany or in New York City? They're a whole lot cheaper!" In all seriousness, Eliot Spitzer's political form of Hari-Kari today should start the healing in New York State. I really, really feel sorry for his wife and particularly his daughters-who must be taking some serious shit at their fancy private school in New York City.If the Spitzer family had any decency left, they would send those poor girls to boarding school in Switzerland to get away from the limelight.
    Today's Star Tribune.com had an interesting posting related to my posting about Eliot Spitzer's wife and  about the subject of  women taking the  heat in public along with their disgraced husbands.
http://www.startribune.com/politics/16611291.html

• First study of its kind shows nearly 3 million teen girls have an STD
  
• HPV, which can cause cervical cancer, is the most prevalent
  
• Nearly half of all African American females tested had at least one STD

As Jerry Lee Lewis would say, there really is a "whole lot of shaking goin' on".

For the complete story, here is the link:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/03/11/teen.std.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

In my practice in phone triage, it is mind boggling the amount of calls I am getting from sexually active teens with STD's diagnosed or symptoms strongly suggesting STD's. I recently had a call from a 17 year old who was two months pregnant and had just been treated for Chlamydia. I had a call that was my call of the year so far: A seventeen year old male diagnosed with Chlamydia from his sports physical who asked me if it was still ok if his girlfriend could give him oral sex, even if he was not yet treated for the disease.( "I overslept and missed my appointment") Talk about Chutzpah, nerve, whatever you wanted to call it. I did not know if I should have laughed, cried or gotten the kid's address so I could find him so I could kick his ass. There are times in my job where I wish I had a button to push where I could send electric shock to the caller on the other end of the phone to jolt their ass back to reality.

The thing that people have to remember with the STD's is that do not just present a current health problem. They can pose a health risk to the fetus the woman is carrying if she is pregnant. There is also Human Papilloma Virus(HPV) which is a major cause of Cervical Cancer in women.(There is a new virus out there that ALL girls should be getting that can protect them from HPV) There are multiple factors that have fed into this: Parents NOT talking about sex and related issues with their teenagers, kids thinking that getting an STD is going to happen to somebody else, and I would not totally overlook the fact that we have a mass media that sells having sex to kids that are younger and younger-but that's a topic for another day.

All of that said, today's news from the CDC should be a wake up call for parents, teachers, pediatricians, nurses... and the kids themselves.

The American media-oh hell, ALL MEDIA just loves a good sex scandal. New York State has a real corker right now: The Governer of New York, Eliot Spitzer, got connected -thanks to federal wiretapping- with a prostitution ring.

Now Sex and Government is nothing new, just ask the former First Groper (and possible First Husband) Bill Clinton.

What Makes Spitzer's fall so spectacular is that this is a former District Attorney who ran for public office with a kind of holier-than-thou zeal about how he was going to clean things up in Albany, the New York State Capital. http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/10/spitzer/index.html

When I was working out today, the gym where I was at had TV's on showing Gov. Spitzer with his very pissed, dejected, and unhappy-looking wife.

Why is it, that every time a politician gets busted for doing something stupid, they feel compelled to wheel their wife in front of the press and the cameras? Why can't they face the music alone and leave their spouses out of it? "Well, she is just standing by her man!" Oh, give me a BREAK. These guys like Spitzer, the Ex-gov  of New Jersey who got busted having a gay affair, the Senator from Idaho who got busted right here in Minnesota of tryinig to solicit sex in the bathroom of Twin Cities International Airport, ALL of these schmucks decided to wheel their wives out under the uncomfortable glare of the press corps. If these guys really cared about their wives, 1. they would not have had the affair, and 2. They would have had the decency to leave them at home, be real men and face the music alone instead of trying to hide at the sides of their wives.

All I can say is that I would have LOVED to have a been a fly on the wall hearing the Spitzer family on their way home from  this press conference.

My Red-headed bride, seeing how much fun that I have been having on the Blogosphere, has now decided to have her own blog. So, Instead of talking about Rugby, current events or anything like that, I will throw out a shameless plug-and a link-for my wife's blog:
 For those of you who want to talk Star Wars, movies, conservative politics and what it's REALLY like to be a Funeral Director, check out her blog...

http://redheadmom.blogspot.com/