February was a busy month for us. We started off celebrating Ground Hog Day with Abe’s birthday. We tease that my husband is the “Abe of Cakes” (instead of Ace of Cakes like the TV show) so I was a bit intimidated to have to make his birthday cake. He requested a coconut cake with butter pecan frosting.

Did you notice my funny face? I am always making faces when I concentrate on physical tasks. This is why I am glad that dentists wear face masks, so no one has to know!

It was the best cake I have ever made. You can find the frosting on Abe’s blog. He’ll have to add the cake.

I got Abe a Kindle. If you’re wondering how he likes it, I can tell you I’ve been thoroughly enjoying it and the classic books you can download for free. He hasn’t had much time to use it because he has been busy working on this baby:

His 160 page thesis on gene therapy for deafness in mice. After 4.5 years in the lab he completed his dissertation after weeks of late nights and all-nighters. This is what he looks like after about 10 hours sleep in 72 hours. Pretty good compared to what I looked like just thinking about all his stress. We even spent a romantic Valentine’s Day in the computer lab working together on making edits to his draft. He will be defending his thesis next week and returning to medical school in a few weeks!

I have one more day in anesthesia before I go back to my regular schedule on the oral surgery team. My first day back (March 1) I am welcomed with a bang by taking my first night of call in 6 months on our busy trauma week. It will be fun going back to what I know and enjoy doing most but I have lost all of my finger/hand/forearm strength and calluses. I’m sure I’ll be a little rusty but we’ll see how I do!