We'll Take Manhattan

On Saturday morning, Brian came off the night shift and slept for a few hours. We were surprised to learn that he had both Sunday and Monday off, so after he awoke from a short nap on Saturday afternoon, we drove down to Manhattan to rest and reconnect over the rest of the President's Day/Valentine's weekend. We had a fun, relaxing dinner at the Village Restaurant in Greenwich Village, and some drinks afterwards at another little place in the Village. Sunday, we slept in, and then went ice skating at Rockefeller Center, where the ice was pink with hearts for Valentine's Day. It was so fun! In the evening, we went to a little lounge called Dip for a glass of wine and some pre-theater fondue appetizers. We then saw Sweeney Todd on Broadway. After the show, we headed to Soho, where we had a great dinner at Mercer Kitchen before making our way to the rooftop lounge at Hotel Gansevoort. On Monday, we had breakfast at a little diner on the Upper East Side, then spent the rest of the day at the Met. We tend to look at art from different perspectives, so it is always fun to visit a museum with one another; we learn a lot, agree, disagree, and periodically engage in juvenile antics, as evidenced by our photos. (Click here for photos from our weekend.) We drove home on Monday evening, with a stop in New Haven for dinner. It was a fun weekend!

Go, Mandisa!

Mandisa, a friend of my sister's from our junior high and high school days has made it to the Top 12 on American Idol! (Click for link.) They aren't in touch anymore, and Mandisa's living down in Tennessee now, but we have fond memories of her and are rooting for her every step of the way. I remember Mandisa singing the National Anthem at school rallies and things like that. She was even amazing back then. And she was such a nice girl! So, root for Mandisa everyone!

-- Sherry

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day, Brian!
Hope you aren't too lonely at the hospital tonight.
See you in the morning.
xoxoxo

Love,
Your Wife

Winter Weekend

We had somewat of a typical Boston winter weekend. Brian got home from his shift Saturday morning and slept away the afternoon, but then we were off to cheer for the Bruins. No, not the Bruins from Sherry's alma mater, but the Boston Bruins hockey team. It was a great game, even though the Bruins lost. We then headed to a nearby sports bar where we happily hung out over a few beers after a long week. (We will both be very glad when Brian gets off the general surgery night shift and Sherry finishes her weeks of back-to-back depositions.) The Blizzard of 2006 came in over night. We awoke to quite a storm this morning! (See right-- that's snow blowing past one of our windows, with a nearby building in the background.) Later in the afternoon the weather calmed down a lot for about an hour and we ventured out a bit and took some pictures on our street. (Our building is the tall gray one on the right side of the street.) We got back inside right before the next wallop began!
By then, we couldn't even see across the street. Much of the city was closed down and streets were impassable. One great thing about our street-- it's a main downtown thoroughfare and gets plowed (and the sidewalks shoveled) first! We spent the rest of the day doing laundry, eating soup, watching the Olympics (interspersed with "Storm Watch 2006") and trying to stay cozy until Brian headed out to work Sunday evening.

Ho, Ho, Ho!

Brian's brother Eric and his wife Kristen sent us some very cute pictures from the holidays. We thought we'd share a couple. There's Lucas and Daddy after chopping down their big pretty Christmas tree, and Eric, Lucas and Tanner wearing their new Christmas jammies from us! (It's hard to see in the pic, but the boys' jammies have their names on the button-flapped bottoms, and Eric's says "Daddy" on the right side of his chest.)

Back here in Boston, things are okay, but we haven't seen each other much in the past few weeks -- not at all since Saturday night-- because of our respective work hours right now. Yuck . . . We did manage to have a date on Saturday night, though. We went to The Elephant Walk, a great French-Cambodian restaurant that we first tried when we lived here at age 23. Brian's boss at the time, Dr. Matlin, took us there one night for celebratory dinner. We laughed on Saturday that, back then, we were so broke that it was probably the best meal we had that entire year. (At the time we often joked that the cells for Brian's research ate better than we did; their food was more expensive than ours, usually!) We also remember that each of us, individually, were a little stressed out that Dr. Matlin was paying for our entrees that cost more than $20. We were fully aware this past Saturday that our date, while nice, could never be as special as the first time we went there, so young, broke, and totally unspoiled. It was a nice memory.

Other people's lives

So much is going on in our lives that not much is going on at all. Brian is working nights (long ones in surgery) and Sherry is working days (long ones full of government depositions right now), so we never really see each other. When we do, at least one of us is generally sleeping! If it so happens that we see each other and we are both awake, we have been dealing with househunting, which is a major pain in the neck. Since our lives don't have much going on, maybe we'll post about friends who do have some fun things happening! First, how cute are the new pictures from our friends Peter and Marie, and their baby Ruby (pictures right and left)? Marie was in Brian's medical school class at Stanford.

Also, here is a great picture from the recent nuptials of The Doctors Leng! Ted and Jodi are friends from the Stanford Med crowd as well; they tied the knot at the end of December. We wish we could have gone.

Second, congratulations to our friend Penelope, who just made partner at her law firm! (Click for bio showing Penelope's new role!) Sherry worked with Penelope from 2000-2004. She is a great lawyer, a sweet friend, and a terrific mother! Penelope has always been, and continues to be, an inspiration to her more junior colleagues.

Third, Sherry has been in "Chi-O update email" rounds, whereby a big group of the girls from Chi Omega UCLA email one another and give updates on their lives. (Click for link to chapter.) It is fun. So, here's a shout out to the XO's. In particular, congratulations to: Dr. Rebecca Garfinkle, who just received a great fellowship in Washington D.C. and just got married; and Jill Fifield, Nicole Long and Marissa Ware, who are all expecting new little XO's in the coming months. The updates continue to roll in, so we will surely have other fun things to get excited about for these great women.