Brains, Bears & Beverages

On Thursday afternoons I have a session called Clinical Skills. This is where we learn the basics of taking a medical history and doing a physical exam. We've done everything from head & neck exams to abdominal exams to...down there exams.

Currently, we're in the neuroscience unit of Med II and have been learning the ins and outs of cranial nerves, sensory & motor tracts and muscle innervation. It's one thing to learn the material but a whole other challenge comes in doing a neuro physical exam smoothly. In this case, practice makes perfect is 100% true, but what do you do when no family or friends are available?

You resort to using stuffed animals...

Will you test my cranial nerves, please?

I know how ridiculous this must seem, but I really had to practice running through the exam and having an object to manipulate, especially when it comes to assessing musculoskeletal strength and tone. At the end of the exam I also decided to take a listen to Mr. Bear's heart to make sure everything was in working fashion.

No murmurs here!

After Clinical Skills and my elective, I rushed over to Pete's Frootique. I've been craving pumpkin and was crossing my fingers that it was on sale.

I was in luck!

I decided to try out a homemade pumpkin spice latte that I read about on Keep'n The Faith. Because as much as I enjoyed the one I had last week at the Smiling Goat, I don't want to fork out $6 everyday! I'll go there as a bi-weekly or monthly treat :).

To make the pumpkin spice mocha latte I mixed the following in a blender:

• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 2 heaping Tbsp pumpkin
• 1 Tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• sugar to taste
• 2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp ginger (or 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice)
• 1/2 tsp ginger

Once blended, I heated the mixture over the stove and then added approximately 2 cups of strong coffee. To top it off I frothed about 1/4 cup milk and spooned it on top.

Milk frothing = my guilty pleasure!

Then I lovingly sprinkled it all with cinnamon.

I'm not quite in the Christmas mood yet but this mug just seemed so appropriate for a warm, comforting beverage :).

Tonight I'm heading to The Middle Spoon Desserterie & Bar with some friends. My tummy is anticipating the yumminess already!

Happy Friday!