More food

Our second day in Chicago we decided to take it a little more easy. We slept in and then made our way to the Grand Lux Café. We had a reasonable lunch and ended with beignets which had come recommended as the “best ever” to Abe by a friend.


Again, in case you were worried, we didn’t let them go to waste! How could we when they come with yummy raspberry sauce?
We did a lot of walking around the city, 16,592 steps (which equals 616 Kcalories, if you really were worried about the beignets).
We took a nap that afternoon and then went to a movie. Thankyou LivingSocial: we paid $9 for $22 tickets. I was worried about trying to catch a movie downtown in a big city so we arrived early, to be practically the only people in the theater. Abe got a kick out of teasing me about that. So in case you wondered, Monday night isn’t busy at the movies even in a happening place like Chicago. (We saw Unknown which we both recommend. It has Liam Neeson and I kept wanting to call it Untaken—it has a similar feel to it as his last movie Taken). It was a little weird to be in a skyscraper for a movie (below is the view from the theater). Oh what a Utah/Iowa girl I am, so small minded.

We ended the night with a late dinner at Gyu-kaku, a Japense BBQ restaurant where you cook the food on a grill at your table. Abe was excited for me to try this style of food and it was delicious. In case you were wondering, it is a somewhat busy time for Japanese food at 10 pm on a Monday night in the Windy City.

We ended our dinner with the Japanese delicacy, s’mores.

And yes, we ate it all (well mostly). Perhaps this has fueled my new found motivation for the gym now that we are home.

VACAY!

Each year we get 15 days off for vacation. Our program has a rule that we are not allowed to take time off in the summer months (June, July, August) as that is a transition period with new residents and by far our busiest time. We also aren’t allowed to really take time off during our rotations off of oral surgery.
What does that mean for me? I had to submit my vacation time early to ensure I was able to enjoy every last day (last year I had almost a full week I was unable to use due to scheduling…what a waste!). This also means that as I have been on other rotations for the past 6 months and prior to that was summer, I have almost three weeks of vacation coming up for the months of March, April, and May. Should be a nice way to break up the busy schedule!
Anyway, I fortuitously asked for a few days off around March 5, which just happened to be the day after Abe’s thesis. We felt the stars seemed to align and we definitely deserved a vacation. With a small budget in time and money, we first considered Vegas. There were some really great online deals. Until we realized one important point: VEGAS. We’re not huge fans for more than a day or two. We decided to head up to Chicago instead.
We stayed at the “historic Palmer House Hotel,” which facts streaming in the elevator stated is the “oldest operating hotel in N. America.” So it really is historic—I wasn’t just throwing around fancy adjectives to impress you. It is famous for this Tiffany’s “peacock door” which I wanted to walk through but they don’t let you do anymore.


We wanted to make sure we saw at least one show while we were in town. We decided to try Working, which tells the stories of normal everyday workers (cleaning ladies, steel workers, housewives, etc). It was a good reminder that “people are people no matter how small (their job seems).” Abe’s mom was in an off-broadway production when he was a little boy in Chicago so it was cool to see for that reason. Besides, it’s the “perfect musical for anyone who has worked a day in their lives.” We knew that was us.

We had the Sunday Brunch at a restaurant called Zed 451. This may have been one of the best meals I have ever had. It is one of those brazillian style grills where they bring out fancy meats as well as have a fancy salad bar. The food ranged from the best oatmeal I have ever had, vanilla bean oatmeal, to huge cinnamon rolls, buffalo chicken waffles, and ranch marinated beef. I wish I had pictures of the food (we were too fat to want pictures of ourselves afterward—j/k) but this is where we sat. I often read people’s blogs where they say, “Don’t worry, I didn’t eat it all!” As if I am judging their intake. And they are usually talking about a cupcake—which isn’t the whole purpose of a cupcake to be one serving that you don’t have to share? Anyway, “Don’t worry, we didn’t eat it all.” Only because we couldn’t possibly. We sure tried.

We did a bit of shopping at the Water Tower Place. I found two really cute boots on sale for 75% off at Macys. Here is Abe making me try them on for the camera.

That evening we decided to see another show (student tickets!). Unfortunately it was a lag period in Chicago theater with few options. We saw God of Carnage, which I guess is the winner of 3 Tony awards. Sounds good, right?

It was entertaining but I don’t think we thought it was nearly as funny as the rest of the audience. I don’t think we find as much humor in people behaving badly as others apparently do. I do have to say it was the first time I have seen vomit onstage!

About 10 hours after our brunch we finally decided to eat again at one of Abe’s favorite places

All of this was in one day! We know how to PARTY!

Doctor Sheffield #2 (or I guess #3)

Since before I met Abe, he has been an MD/PhD student. When we first met he was finishing his second year of medical school. The next year he started work in the lab for his PhD in genetics. Since that time, most of his medical school friends have interviewed and matched for residency, moved away, and are now finishing their residencies. Since that time for us, Abe has been working in the lab. It has been very frustrating at times with mishaps with DNA constructs, failed mouse surgeries, cannabilistic mouse mothers, etc. But finally within the last few weeks Abe turned in his monster written thesis and finally presented and defended his thesis to his committee.

This was the advertisement they had for his thesis presentation last Friday.

Here he is with his mentor right before the presentation. His mentor had a lot of great things to say about Abe, as well as a chance to poke a little fun at him before the presentation.

Everyone agreed Abe did a fantastic presentation to a packed house, standing room only.

After that, he had to meet in a room with his committee to field their questions. This was the actual part they call the “DEFENSE” and the most stressful part of the day. Luckily after about 45 minutes they congratulated him on a job well done and declared he had met the requirements to graduate with his PhD. They had some great compliments, two of the members said it was the best written thesis they had ever read! Also, more great news is that he will not have to make any revisions to the thesis, which is a fantastic surprise as it is expected to have to make changes after.

After the defense his lab had a party. They made some cakes for him (I think they felt a lot of pressure knowing how great a baker Abe is): a mouse with headphones (to illustrate all of his work with deaf mice) and a kit-kat cake, a lab joke about Abe stealing the lab kit-kat stash.

Here is Abe with his labmates.

We headed to dinner to celebrate that night with the Sheffields at Wildwood.

Abe will have a few weeks off now before heading back into Medical school. I think our lives will get pretty crazy from here on out! I can’t believe the PhD is finally over.

*Unfortunately, he will not be rewarded the actual degree or title until May 2012 when he graduates with his MD as well. But as far as I’m concerned, go ahead and call him doctor.

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!

Feel the burn

Just in time for spring, we are redoing our fireplace. We are adding a gas insert (I’m so excited for the convenience) and changing up the look.

I expect it to look somewhat similar to this, a simple and traditional white mantle with a tile/stone surround.

 

My only problem now is, we can’t seem to choose a surround!

We have narrowed it down to three choices.

Blue Pearl Granite

Black Galaxy granite, which unfortunately does not photograph well. Basically, a pretty black, shiny stone with bronzey-gold specks.

or Metallika Bronze tile, which is also prettier in real life. It is a tile without the shine but does have a metallic-shimmer and a rich velvety texture.

Any thoughts? Realizing they don’t photograph quite as well as they look in real life, of course.

black galaxy, metallika bronze, blue galaxy

Speak up please!

I became an aunt late last night for the first time. My identical twin sister had an emergency c-section after developing pre-eclampsia. She is still recovering from some liver and kidney damage but thankfully all went well with the delivery and hopefully she will be recovered soon without further complications.

The baby was 6 lb 2 oz and 18 in long, two weeks early. She is adorable. Everyone keeps saying she looks like Amber, so I guess that means I can hope for cute chidren in the future! Name is still pending.

Funny thought, yesterday about the time my sister was in the hospital I had a very distinct thought, "Feb 7, feels like it should be someone's birthday. Someone important."

Twin ESP?

Now if I can just get home to meet her. Maybe in April.

Happy Conversations

Thought this was worth a mid-day, lunch break post.

Surgeon to me today after missing a tricky IV:

"I hope you are better at drilling teeth than that."

He also asked if I wanted the "_____ surgeon" to do it for me, both apparent digs.
--Yes, actually, I did. I think he would have missed too.



Remember my second to last post?