Caution: Bloody Birthday Pics

One of the reasons I love Ben's b-day is that it gives me the opportunity to blog about all the crazy/amazing stuff that he does with his life.

Here's just a few of the happenings in my hubby's life as of late:

1) Sim Wars - this is a competition that was developed a few years back for emergency medicine education. They have a team of medical professionals (doctor, nurse, anesthesiologist, etc.) There are robots that act as patients, and the team is given a situation and they have to simulate the experience as if it were real and come up with a diagnosis. This is done in front of a live audience and judges.

Ben was asked by Highland Hospital to be the lead doc for their team. Highland had never entered the competition before. UC San Fran has won for the past 3 years. So Highland only wanted to enter if they felt strongly that their team could make a good name for themselves. Well, Ben definitely made a good name for them. Highland won the whole competition!! Ben said it was nerve-wracking being in front of all those trained docs in the audience and being judged on your work. But he did it! Ben is a Sim Wars Champion!


2) Urban Warfare Training - FEMA (Federal Emergency Managment Agency) developed this urban warfare training program to train military, law enforcement, and critical care teams on how to provide disaster relief and humanitarian aid. Ben signed up to be one of their volunteer emergency doctors. He said it was pretty wild. These are the pics that I must caution you about... they are disgusting.

This is what happens after 200 bullets are shot into an office building.
(Remember kids, this is totally staged... not real)

Ben with the 200 bullets

3) Ben turns 35! We decided to celebrate with Cowboy Cookies this year.

Ben does not like smiling pretty for the camera at all...

He's much more comfortable like this...

Happy Birthday, Babe!
Thanks for keeping life interesting!
I love you!