6 Months Later

So I'm back...or will try to be. George and I got engaged over Thanksgiving. Very exciting! He proposed on top of Mt. Washington and totally surprised me.



I've been working pretty crazy hours (well, not as crazy as doctors/residents who spend the night in the hospital), but solid 14 hour days during the week, for the last month, and I'm ready for the New Year's break. George and I visited his grandparents in North Carolina, just about directly across the Great Smokey Mountains National Park from where Karen and Mike were married (6 years? 5 years? ago).

George Loves Copenhagen and Sweden

Brief report

A's versus Yankees. With Yankee fans. Yikes. Oakland games are WAY more fun than Giants' games--the fans are often more entertaining than the game.


End -of-year Department Dinner. Bonham wins the Research Award as Kerry looks on with admiration. 'Cause he's the only CP resident doing research.


His wife, Kerry (right), and Andy Pingatore (left, resident) are even more stoked about the prize: a $500 gift certificate to Bear Hugs. ???


Anna, Petros, Ari, Ellie, Teresa, Teresa's boyfriend (sorry, my bad):


Outside of Moffitt-Long Hospital: Steeler Nation is everywhere!

Strong fog formation making a rare intrusion into the Mission:

Really?

Scummy and Scummetta

Dave made a spur-of-the-moment trek out to San Francisco for the weekend. I believe it was something like 2 hours between the purchase of tickets and boarding of plane!

We had a great time together. He arrived Friday night, and I immediately took him for the ultimate San Francisco experience: 16th and Mission. When you consider that Taqueria Pancho Villa is there, it makes up for the general neighborhood atmosphere.


Saturday morning I regulated and dragged Dave to CrossFit, where he represented extremely well for a first-timer, especially having to swing a kettlebell for the first time. After checking out crooked Lombard Street, Coit Tower and murals, and some general city touring, we then watched the Penguins stink up Detroit ice before heading out to dinner in Haight-Ashbury. The night was complete only after meeting Cascio and Carla for drinks back in my neighborhood. Consensus: "The Alaska Experiment" is a great show.

Sunday, Dave ran across the Golden Gate Bridge and back on an incredibly beautiful day. (Saturday had a been a stinker, weather-wise.) We headed out to Union Street to replenish his wardrobe and then met Otis and his cousin Tim for frisbee golf in Golden Gate Park. Dave started off like a prodigy, but wound up losing focus--and his disc once in a while. I turned in a really crappy performance, as usual. We rounded out the day's athletics with some Wiffleball, and Dave took Tim to the fences a few times. Otis tested out a new, funky sidearm pitch--his spring training, if you will, for August's Royal Chelsea.

Dave and I then headed off in the car over the Golden Gate Bridge and up to the Marin Headlands as the fog rolled in. The fog formation was approaching a 9 out of 10 in coolness factor. Dave was pretty floored by the sheer phenomenon of it all. We then got burgers, fries, onion rings, and shakes at Taylor's Automatic Refresher in the Ferry Building and stumbled home with full bellies and passed out.

I drove him to the airport at 515 this morning. Sadness to see him go--but we had a GREAT time together.

Bay to Breakers

The past weekend was full of fun and partying. Otis' high school friends Seki and Mitchell (last names, as guys will do) were in town, and Elle and I accompanied them in evening activities. Friday night to the Mission for tacos and burritos at Pancho Villa and beer stops along the way back. Saturday, I set a PR for the deadlift--225 lbs!--no boy help there. Very proud. And very sore. But a good sore. Saturday night we went to the Giants game and watched a rather boring loss to the White Sox. After 3-4 days of incredibly warm temperatures (reaching the 90s in San Francisco proper--an absurdity, truly), the weather cooled off and we appropriately froze our butts off in the last few innings.
Sunday was the Bay to Breakers race, a 14K run from the San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. There are people who actually run the whole thing, including professionals competing for something like $10K. But most San Franciscans wake up early to tie on both their costumes and a six pack. By 8:30AM, half the city is 1.5 sheets to the wind and dressed up in crazy--but creative--costumes. People push floats along the course, and others line up along the route and then hop into the procession. Most revelers don't make it past the entrance to Golden Gate Park, but it was a blast. People went all out with full on--or full OFF, as the case may be--costumes. Group costumes are most common. Robots, the Chinese-Tibetan Ping Pong Alliance, vikings, the Bluth Frozen Banana Stand complete with Blue Man Tobias, LOTS of naked man-parts...

Otis concocted our group costume: the Texas Mormon Compound. Elle, Otis, Seki, Mitchell, and I wore some of the most hideous $4.49 dresses from Goodwill: "We are a modest people." Sheehy dressed as Our Husband and led us around with the Book of Mormon raised high (or, "The Divinci Code," if you looked closely). Elle and I attempted the distinctive compound hairdo. Our group got great responses from the crowd, including a policeman who told us, "I'm into polygamy" and gave us some hairstyling tips. We were thrilled when we came across a Texas CPS officer--she started grilling us about our children and the Compound. We deferred to Our Husband.




By 4PM, we were partied out, and Seki and Sheehy were passed out in Otis' and Elle's apartment. A fun weekend all around.

In an appropriate light

George has expressed his dissatisfaction with a previous photograph of the California Golf Club, in particular the lack of evidence of his handiwork. So, here, for your perusal, are some shots of the 12th and 3rd holes with the bunker and greens complexes he built and shaped. Ooh la la! The course is truly beautiful.

Kim's Sexy Prime Party

Saturday night Kim (my co-resident) threw a "Sexy Primes Party" in honor of her and her roommate's birthdays. Apparently sexy primes are prime numbers separated by 6---17, 23 & 29 and 31 & 37?? Party attire consisted of dressing up as someone sexy. Kim's boyfriend was spot-on as Brett Michaels, Poison frontman and star of "Rock of Love." Kim was an aspiring Poison groupie with absolutely fabulous fake boobs; her roommate was early Madonna. George went as Andre Agassi, post-mullet era.

Happy Birthday Bonham!

Miscellany

Not much excitement going on over here in SF. I started a new rotation at the beginning of March, working in the Microbiology lab at the SF VA Hospital. Learning about and culturing various and sundry bacteria from specimens like blood, poo, and pus is fun. Sort of. I learn mostly from technologists who've been doing their thang for over 20-25 years each, so they're pretty solid teachers. I have learned that a VA is a VA is a VA...I could be back in Philly, for all I know, until I look out the window. The SF VA is in the most ridiculously beautiful location possible--overlooking the Golden Gate, ocean, and bridge.

My newest exercise endeavor is called CrossFit (see www.sanfranciscocrossfit.com). I started back in mid-December, and I'm still going strong three months into it. It's a lot of olympic-style and complex motion weightlifting, anaerobic and aerobic interval training, and bodyweight exercises. It's done in a group/class setting with lots of student and coach encouragement, which is nice because it's as close to a team sport as I can do with my crappy knee. However, my knee seems to have improved on this regimen, so maybe I'll take the soccer ball out one day. I've gotten so much stronger and more muscle-y, though my doctor told me the other day that I needed to lose 4 pounds so that my BMI would be under 25 (which is in the obese category). I almost throttled her for being myopic, looking only at the number and not at my person/physique. "Come over here, Doc, and let me deadlift you!!" I didn't say it, but I wanted to! I "crossfit" outside, near Crissy Field, and here is the view from the parking lot just before class starts. Ridiculous.

Last weekend, George and I stopped by the California Golf Club, the very-private country club in South San Francisco where he worked from April to December last year, completing a restoration of the course to its original 1910s design. The last time I saw it, it was a huge dustbowl of dirt awaiting grass-seed and a growing spell. Now it's all green and looks like an actual course. Here is the clubhouse, which is actually pretty shabby when you get up close. I guess the Masters of the Universe will have another restoration project to tackle when the course gets squared away. Rough life.

New Arrival

I am happy to announce the arrival of the newest member of my family of furniture--Desk. Desk arrived on February 28th, 2008, weighing approximately 75 lbs and measuring 54 inches long.


As you may have guessed, I've had my hands full taking care of Desk and have had little other excitement to inspire blog posting. I hope that in the next few weeks, things will settle down enough for me to get blogging again.

Love you all!

6th Best Super Bowl Ever

I really don't have anything else to say. No pictures either. Just sheer giddiness that the Patriots lost.

Golden/Champagne Birthday

Yesterday I turned 29 and was lucky enough to celebrate with friends Allison, Elle, and Ria. We tried a new (to all of us) bar, The Homestead, and restaurant, Bissap Baobab. The Homestead had a great old wooden bar, gold-ish tin pressed ceiling, fuzzy red wallpaper, and old-timey naughty pictures of women sans shirts. The restaurant served Senegalese food, which was delicious. The multiple ways of cooking onions were all super-tasty. Here's a picture of the four of us (not quite flattering to me, but whatever).


I spent a long weekend in Pittsburgh and got to hang out with my parents and brother--and my mom cooked a birthday dinner. Our family friends, Bill and Joanie Kilpatrick came over (she's in the yellow shirt) too.


It was a typical cold and snowy winter weekend, but it was great to be back in Pittsburgh.


The weekend before, George and I met Allison in Point Reyes and we did a nice 8 mile hike down to the beach. It was gorgeous.

Steeler Sadness

Saturday marked the end of the Steelers' season...I am resigned to hang my Big Pappa Hampton jersey in the closet until August. However, watching the game was a blast. I met up with a bunch of Pittsburgh natives who were visiting my friend Sheehy (the Pats fan that he is), and we really got into the game. Lots of Terrible Towel waving amidst what seemed to be a world of Jacksonville fans--I just think they all had money on the Jags--there couldn't possibly be that many people in SF from Jax.

See me in pain after a Saturday morning workout in the rain (second picture).

http://sanfranciscocrossfit.blogspot.com/2008/01/we-fail-at-margins-of-our-experience.html

Golden Gate Bridge in the background? Beat that!