God Bless Katrina's Victims

We are praying for miracles for the victims of this horrible tragedy. The images are heart-breaking. What would it be like to lose everything you've ever earned or built or saved for in your life, your home, your car, your job, your memories, your pets. . . not to mention, in some cases, your friends or family? [Sherry has an uncle in the very hard-hit Gulfport, Miss. (as well as other relatives in the general area) and we have not yet heard what damage has been done to his home.] It is unfathomable that this nation has lost one of its great cities, in its entirety. New Orleans is the home of a culture that is unique in this world, with great national historical and architectural significance to this country. Years from now, when insurance is paid out (though large numbers are uninsured), and many have moved on with their lives, this nation will still mourn the city that once was.

The sheer number of elderly and the poor in general in New Orleans who were and are without the resources to evacuate brings to life fundamental and current national issues about age, race and poverty in our country. God bless all the victims, and please help them if you can.

Two new mini-Kates!

Speaking of crazy schedules (in our last post) . . . Congratulations to our friends Catherine and Dave who welcomed two new daughters, twins Ann and Genevieve, on Tuesday August 22nd! No pictures yet (a couple with a two year old and newborn twins is clearly forgiven for not sending out pics immediately!), but we'll post one when we get it. In the meantime, here is the pre-twins family-- Dave and Katie with their eldest daughter, Maria (Mae), back in Fall 2003. Katie was a classmate of Sherry's at Boalt, and a a co-worker for over three years, and we've been lucky enough to call her and Dave friends ever since. We can attest that all three of their darling daughters are lucky to call them parents.

Catching up...

Hi, everyone! Hope you are all enjoying the summer! Here is our update:

Last week we enjoyed having Eric, Kristen and Lucas to visit us here in Boston. We did all the fun "Boston visit" stuff, including a Duck Tour, Harvard Square, the North End, pedicures and shopping on Charles Street (Sherry and Kristen), exploring the Charles River with Lucas (Eric and Brian), lunch at the Union Oyster House, dinner at Figs and a fun little side-trip to Newport, RI. Lucas has learned to walk and giggles as though he is enormously pleased with himself the entire time he does so. He's ridiculously cute. (Here are Luke and Uncle Brian by the Charles.)

With the exception of their visit, our schedules have been awful. Brian has been working the night shift, from 5 or 6 p.m. to 6 or 7 a.m., and I've been working from 8 or 9 a.m. to between 9 and 11 p.m. So, we basically only see each other in passing when I'm leaving for work. Ick. This life is not for sissies, that's for sure. Brian's switching to days this week, so he had last night off, and we enjoyed a fun prix fixe dinner at Torch in Beacon Hill for Boston's Restaurant Week.

We need to wish our dear friend Elizabeth a very Happy Birthday. She turned 30 on the 19th, and we missed it on this blog, since we had family in town and all. Elizabeth is Sherry's longest-time friend, and one of Brian's as well. She came to this country a child immigrant from Poland, her father a leader of the Solidarity movement there. With Liz's intelligence, passion, and senses of duty and loyalty (not to mention her beauty and tremendous sense of humor), it seems clear that she will follow her father's leadership footsteps in her own way. She's also an invaluable friend whom we love as a sister. It's been a great 30 years Liz; we can't wait to see what you do with the rest. (This is Liz and Phil at our wedding in 2002.)

That's all for now! Take care. -- Sherry

PS-- Continue to re-check out the post below. We have added a pic of Emily. A pic of the newly minted Jewett family is coming soon.

Welcome, Ruby! Happy 3-0 Emily!

We want to welcome the brand new daughter of our friends Peter and Marie-- Ruby Marie! We met Peter and Marie at Stanford, where Marie was a classmate of Brian's at the med school, and Peter was a fabulous significant other, like Sherry. They are such a great, easygoing couple, and great friends. We know they'll be super parents. Congratulations, cute family! We wish we could be there to see her.


Also, Happy 30th to Emily Dean! Emily has been a good friend of both Brian's and Sherry's since high school. She is a hilarious, fun and wonderful friend with a heart of gold. We hope you had a wonderful day, Emily! Here she is with Ben and Brian at Ben's rehearsal dinner back in 2002. (Dude, Emily, we need to get together and get some more recent pics.)

We have family (Eric, Kristen and little Lucas) coming in tonight. We're very excited about their visit and cannot wait to show them the city. We're planning to do a Duck Tour, maybe hit a beach, eat at the Union Oyster House . . . all the fun Bostonian things!

Surgery, Shakespeare, Staind, and Sweet Ones

Sorry we have not written in a while. Things have heated up very much for Sherry at work, and she is now officially swamped. Brian . . . is a surgical resident.

Last weekend, Brian performed his first major solo surgery (meaning he did the entire thing by himself)! He removed the gall bladder of a 20 year old woman, sewed her up, and sent her on her way. The attending told him he did a great job. (For Sherry, watching his excitement almost made up for the fact that by the time Sunday is over, he will have worked about 120 hours during the week.) He was able to join Sherry, Jens and Sherry for half of their nice Saturday evening of free Shakespeare on the Boston Common (complete with a yummy picnic) and for grappa/cappucino/gelato in the North End afterwards.

In other news . . . we came home Tuesday night to discover that Boston had been chosen as a surprise location for a Fusion Flash Concert. The rock group Staind played a surprise concert in City Hall plaza directly in view from our apartment window! There were throngs-- thousands-- of people packed in below. We had a great view and could hear everything! It was terrific.

Also, we have been adding some pictures to our picture site, so be sure to click on "Our Photos."

We just want to add that we were very sad to hear of the passing of Peter Jennings this week. He was both of our favorite news anchor, and he was a tremendous journalist.

On a happier note . . . we want to say Happy Belated Birthday to two special people (who we hope forgive us) from this past week!

Our darling niece, Cheyenne (Brian's sister Kathi's dear daughter), turned 13 on August 7th! Happy Birthday, Cheyenne! Have fun as a teenager! Cheyenne is such a beautiful, sweet girl, and one smart cookie! Watch out boys!!! Oh, to be 13 again . . .

Our dear friend Kit celebrated a birthday on August 11th. Sherry's roomate in Boston during law school, Kit then held extremely impressive clerkships, both at the federal district level and for the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, and is now a terrific attorney. She's beautiful, brilliant, and fun . . . Oh, and she just became a mom, to adorable Joe!

The thunder rolls . . .

Sherry's first week of work has been ridiculously busy, and Brian has been pushed pretty hard this week, too. The highlight of our week was Monday's night's and today's (Friday's) crazy lightning and thunderstorms! On Monday, the lightning lit up the entire city, and the thunder shook our building, for hours-- we counted about lightning strikes every 2-3 seconds during that time! We eventually fell asleep to sheets of rain pounding our window panes on a very warm summer night in the city. We had great view from our place, which we loved. The Bostonist blog describes it here . Today, Boston went dark at about 4:30 and the storm started thereafter and is still pounding the city! The rain was so hard Sherry could barely see our apartment building across the street from her firm. We love it.
Speaking of storms, Texas gets its share of good ones, and after blogging about Kelly the other day, we decided to feature our other Lone Star friends! Here is a pic of our dear Dallas friends Mark and Becky and their baby daughter, Kayla, at Kayla's recent christening. (How cute are those cheeks?) Becky has been a good friend since college, when she and Sherry were XO sisters and roomies.

Other Texas stars are our friends Shannon and Steven! Sherry became friends with Shannon through Beck, and she's a hilarious, thoughtful, sweet southern belle with a great heart. We learned from Shannon & Steven that a wedding video can cure a girl's most horrible of evenings. Brian has forever been thankful. You should see how fast he can pop that DVD in.

Our other FAVORITE TEXANS are Sherry's brother Brad and his wife Adair, but more on them later (when we can get a picture uploaded!) Also more on our crazy week later; for now, it's Friday night, and we'd rather relax!

First day of work & a Texas Star

Hey, everyone! We had a pretty good weekend. Sherry and Sherry conquered the Freedom Trail on Friday afternoon, and they had too much fun at the Faneuil Hall farmers' market later on. [The Freedom Trail runs right outside our apartment, so we've actually grown used to revolutionary soldiers, colonial women and Ben Franklin himself walking past our lobby on the way to their tour jobs.] We also met up with Sherry and Jens for dinner and drinks at our old haunts in Harvard Square .

Today was Sherry's first day of work, and by all accounts it went better than Brian's. For the sake of comparison:

• When starting a new job as an attorney, you are taken to lunch, put in your new office, introduced to your new secretary, and asked if you need anything. Smiling faces try to make your day better. You are trained, to the nth degree, on everything from the new computer system to your closest coffee fix. Your day will be about 10 hours long.
• When starting out in a surgical residency, you spend the entire day praying you don't get yelled at and none of the numerous critical patients assigned solely to you has any complications or dies. Nobody trains you on anything. You are expected to put orders into a computer system you've never laid eyes on, in the matter of a few seconds per patient, for things on which the patients' lives depend. You don't eat or drink, or even sit down. Your first day on the job is likely to be about 36 hours long.

Sherry had the better first day for sure. She loves the group she is working with, and is already buzzing with work and a pretty full caseload. ;)

In other news, last night we talked to our good friend Kelly, a law student at SMU. She has been selected as a judicial clerk for the federal district court in the Eastern District of Texas. A federal clerkship is a huge, super-competitive honor, so GO, KELLY! You deserve it. Keldog is a shining Texas star-- from cheerleader/ Homecoming Queen (and Chi-O!) at her undergrad, to law school president, getting ridiculous grades and honors-- but she never stops being a super-modest, loveable person and great friend. We have no pics of Kelly uploaded right now, since she abandoned us for her home state two years ago, but we intend to rectify this situation when she comes to visit this fall. In the meantime, we will just add this big ol' Texas flag with a giant STAR on it in her honor: