Bulldozers in the Yard

Most people think of November and December as the holiday season. But as anyone in residency, or their last year of medical school, will tell you, it's actually interview season. Every Thursday night and Friday another dozen bright-eyed medical students interested in delivering babies for the rest of their lives converge upon my residency program and they try to impress us, while we try to impress them. Part of the impressing comes in the form of a different resident hosting a nice catered dinner in their home every Thursday night before the interviews officially start. This Thursday night was my turn.


Eric and I spent much time preparing the house on Wednesday. We put up the tree, cleaned, decorated, made sure the Indian food (yummy naan and tikka masala) was properly ordered, bought the apple cider, etc etc. I rushed home from work on Thursday to put the apple cider to heat in the crock pot. Three blocks before I arrived, Eric called to tell me he would be rather late, as he had gotten stuck at work. Anything he said after that was lost as I stared in amazement at my front yard as I drove past. There was a large truck w/ a flatbed trailer taking up all the parking space in front of the house, and . . . what?! A bulldozer in my front yard! Eek!


Apparently three separate neighbors had called the gas company earlier in the afternoon because they could smell a gas leak outside our house. Fortunately, the leak was entirely outside. UNfortunately, the leak was located underneath our front lawn. This may not mean much, but for the last 2 1/2 years, Eric and I have waged a battle to magically get grass to grow in our (very shady) front yard. We have reseeded 3-4times. I kid you not, it has been maybe four weeks since we were raking leaves and I commented how it finally looked like we were getting a modest amount of grass to grow, and how this was a major improvement from when we bought the house, AND how nice it would look when we put our house on the market in a few months. Sigh. I guess we should just be grateful that our house didn't blow up.


To make matters worse, the gas to our house was turned off for about four hours. We have a gas-powered boiler. Translation: it was very cold inside our house. But, all's well that ends well. The heat turned on 15 minutes before people arrived, and most people could just keep their coats on for the first hour until the house warmed up a bit. The bulldozer and trailer left before people arrived. The Indian food was tasty. The cider was....lukewarm, but still tasty. The gas line is fixed. And our lawn, well, WE bought the house when there was no grass in the front yard, so maybe someone else will do the same. :)

Trimming the Tannenbaum

This week we continued our tradition of the Scotch Pine decorating. We poured a couple glasses of egg nog, turned up the Bing Crosby, pulled the Christmas box (singular) out of storage, and set to work. Apparently, egg nog and Bing are a combination for a wild time, as seen below.

Yet the tree found it's way to full decoration, where it has been enjoyed by all.

Stories From Thanksgiving #3

Getting to see lots of family meant that our baby got lots of presents. Thank you all so much. Here's the gender-neutral baby quilt my mom made (note: no boxer shorts were used in the making of this quilt).

By the way, the baby is officially kicking.

Stories from Thanksgiving #2

Thanksgiving Day was a balmy 60 degrees or so in Tennessee, and the women-folk decided to go for a stroll in the neighborhood. Brian, my dad, and I decided to stay back and test our relative masculinities in the form of foose-ball. But this was swiftly interrupted by a call from the women.

A snake (a good 4' long probably) was hanging out in the neighboring grass. Having recently been certified as an official "MacGyver Medicine" practitioner, I was ready to tell the populace whether this one looked toxic. Basically, if the head looks mean, stay away from it. The problem, I discovered, is that it's hard to really study the head well from a safe distance. So, better safe than sorry, and my dad threw down a shovel a few times, ending the snake's life prematurely. Everyone looked at him with awe, and we walked home...with much thanksgiving.

And thus, no matter how many times I beat him at foose-ball, his snake-killing trumped my masculinity.

Stories From Thanksgiving #1

My mom, Rachel, and I are sitting on the front porch. It goes that, several weeks ago, my sister Sami and her husband Jonathan were home.

Jonathan: "Sharon, I was wondering if you could make a guitar strap for me."

Mom: "Sure, I guess."

Sami: "Jonathan, tell her what you want her to make it from."

Jonathan: "Umm," (pregnant pause) "from my boxer shorts."

And she did, and apparently all parties were quite impressed with the result. I have to wonder where this idea came from in the first place? I might feel strange telling the world about this, but Jonathan apparently announced it from the stage a couple weeks ago, whilst trying to kill time with his (and Brian's) band Concerning Lions.

My mom offered to make me a quilt out of my boxers, but I passed. Good to be home.

Quotables

Our running list has been somewhat updated.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy 60th, Dad. Wish we could have been there. See you soon.

(I wonder what Jon D was so happy about?)

Cross-blogging News

We have found a hospital. Amazing...

Missing A2 #4: Eunice

Last night, we went to a U of M concert band performance with our good friend Eunice. As a rule, our list of Missing A2 items does not include people (which is obviously the thing we'll miss the most), but we make an exception here, since Eunice is a wonderful friend, but also an Ann Arbor institution.

Eunice was a missionary linguist to Papua New Guinea for 26 years, and has been back in Ann Arbor for over 20 years now. For years, she hosted boarders in her spare bedroom, including the both of us at various times. For years, she also hosted a lunch group of largely UM grad students from around the world, now disbanded, but resurrected as a Facebook group titled "Eunice's Lunch Bunch".

Eric first met Eunice the very first time he visited Ann Arbor, when he flew in to interview for medical school in 2001. Having ended up next to her sister on the plane from Nashville, Eunice drove him into town the first time he ever came. She has been a friend and mentor, and dinners at her house or a nights out to a music performance will be incredibly missed.

Five

Forgive the grainy quality of these images, but such is the way of ultrasound images, that sometimes you have to use a little imagination. Nevertheless, people ask us how our baby is doing. Well, our most recent look shows that s/he has 5 fingers, on at least one hand. Can you see it? And we included a less detailed, but easier to appreciate image, below. Things are well..

November

The snow is on the ground. It's not much, but it's enough for Tennessee schools to be out, and for the grocery stores of Nashville to be stripped bare. Here in Michigan, it just signals a change of season.

November is our English Muffin month. Yes, these common breads from across the pond do count as Ethnic Bread of the Month. They turned out well, and are interestingly cooked on a griddle instead of in the oven. Hmm...

All Dressed Up

This past weekend, a few days past Halloween because of scheduling issues, our small group from church hosted a potluck costume party. The rules were set as follows: Your food contribution had to contain a double letter (e.g. jeLLo or souFFle). Your costume had to utilize only items found around your house.

Rachel had great success with a New Guinea spear from Eunice, chopsticks from Cambodia and various Swazi trinkets.

Eric utilized Rachel's MD graduation gown, a shawl from Afghanistan, a couple dress sashes, and some souvenir daggers for a dandy Sikh get-up.

The surplus of weapons did get a bit out of hand.

And here our wonderful small group. Note that some were not as excited about the costume element of our party, though Kelly gets full props for dressing her baby boy up as a pumpkin even before he is born.

For some interesting thoughts on Christians celebrating Halloween, I suggest Thomas' thoughts.

Missing A2 #5: The Arb

When talking to people who are considering moving to A2, I often mention the extensive parks system, since I assume this will be more broadly appreciated, compared to the bus system or the free birthday stuff. The Huron River snakes its way through the city, and all along the way, parks fill the city. Two honorable mentions include the canoe route from Argo to Gallup and Gallup Park itself.

However, first place in our opinion is most definitely the Nichols Arboretum, or "The Arb" for short. This park is an extensive botanical garden/park near the medical center, that is tucked away in such a way that you could go right by it for years without realizing it exists. But when you enter, you find layer upon layer of varied nooks and crannies, and adjoining praries and hills. It reminds me of an garden version of some of the best of the world's cities, where each neighborhood has its distinct features, and years of development have given it a legacy of it's own. One our all-time favorite Ann Arbor activities has been stopping by Bubble Island to get a couple bubble teas, then walking over for a stroll through the Arb.

Publication

Congrats to brother-in-law Brian, for getting his short story "Together at Last" published on the online literary magazine Monkey Bicycle. Here's the link. I read it a while back, and it's delightfully quirky. Most of you who check this site would enjoy it, though if any of you understand what he's talking about, let us know. Brian, you can comment if you which, or keep your mystique all to yourself. Congratulations.

Missing A2 #6: Plethora of Restaurants

When Rachel first moved to Ann Arbor, we made a list. We like to make lists. Seeing the bounty of culinary options in our fair small town, we wanted to make sure we were diligent and gave ourselves ample time to sample them all. And we have made good on that, with the notable exceptions of Bella Ciao and West End Grill, which are too expensive, and don't offer anything free on your birthday. Good food, and of almost any variety. So, here we submit some of our favorites. Fellow Ann Arborites, feel free to chime in. (n.b. we are also including venues outside Ann Arbor proper.)

Fine dining: Real Seafood Company, Chop House (overpriced, but fantastic if someone else is paying), Common Grill (in Chelsea, and Rachel has never gotten to go, but we'll amend that), Pacific Rim

Indian: Temptations, Madras Masala

Middle Eastern: Charlie's Mediterranean Cuisine (formerly La Shish, in a blunder of PCness), Ali Baba's, Jerusalem Garden

Ethiopian: Red Sea in Ypsi

Vietnamese: Dalat in Ypsi

Microbrews: Both Grizzly Peak and Arbor Brewing Co.

Cheap Eats: Nothing beats 2 for 1 on Sundays at Moe's, the hot bar at Aladdin's Market, Pea Pod Inn in Ypsi

Thai: Tuptim, and formely Banh Na (R.I.P.)

Pubfare: Ashley's, Sidetrack's in Depot Town