I've been up in the Pacific Northwest for a little over 9 years now, and in all that time there have been two foods I could get in Los Angeles that I just can't seem to get here: truly good pastrami and Wilno Kosher salami. I still hold out hope for good pastrami, but this morning my hopes for Wilno Kosher salami were dashed as I found out it will cease production "on or before January 30, 2009."

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Finally getting to bring my head up for air for a moment.

My son, a.k.a. "twoboo", was born yesterday, tipping the scales at 9 pounds, 11 ounces...

... ten fingers, ten toes, and one stylin' hair do.

I've been having a problem with tendonitis in my wrist. It's been getting worse since I started my new job, so I went to my doctor and he recommended I see a physical therapist at any one of a number of physical therapy clinics in the area and a hand specialist at a satellite sports medicine clinic run by the University of Washington (my doc is at a satellite family practice clinic run by the university).

I was able to choose from a variety of upcoming appointments with the physical therapist. No problem.

When I called the sports medicine clinic, it turned out their hand and wrist person is only in that office on Mondays and has nothing open until 3 weeks from today. "Is November 10th okay for you?"

Sure, I'm a brand new patient with a worsening condition that's driven me to seek treatment from an orthopedic specialist, but I'll just explain to my condition that the doctor isn't available for three weeks and it will happily go into remission until the doctor can see me.

If you're in say Vegas, and you call up a hotel, say "I'm in town, got any rooms," and they're full up, they'll try to help you get booked somewhere else. If you call a doctor, they'll tell you when he/she is available, and if that doesn't work for you, that's too bad.

I know that doctors are not hoteliers, but it would be nice to see an attitude that says: "We understand you may be in pain. If we can't serve you within a reasonable time period, we'll be happy to recommend some other doctors who might have an appointment available sooner."

Best I could do was get waitlisted for a sooner appointment if someone cancels.

Of course, you can bet I'm now going to shop around.

Just posted this over on the Honda CR-V forum over at edmunds.com. Thought I'd post it here too.

Last week, there was a Shelby Cobra, red with white rally stripes, in the parking lot at the supermarket. My 3-and-a-half-year-old was mesmerized. He spotted it the moment we pulled into the lot and said "Daddy, I want the red car." I could only second the emotion.

I'm turning 40 in a few weeks, have another kid due a few weeks after that, and I'm trading in my Elantra GT (which I bought because it looked like a Saab 9³) on a CR-V LX with AWD today.

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