Mucho Music

hello blog world!  i'm sitting on my floor in my pj's groovin' to some of my most favorite songs.  and i think it should be officially stated that i. love. music. muy muy muy mucho.

i posted about a recent concert to see john mayer, and that was just a glimpse into my love for music. it started when i was negative 0, and my awesome pregnant mama would take me to concerts :) true story. it continued as she took me to the stevie ray vaughan memorial gathering, and when my parents surprised my elementary school self with tickets to see alanis morissette. i had a quick lapse in muscial judgement, as i got sucked into Brittney Spears and N*Sync (we don't have to keep talking about that though). it continued and has grown throughout college and since. my friend natalie n. is my live music  buddy, and we'll stop anywhere to dance along to a good tune. our tag line is 'WE LOVE LIVE MUSIC!!!' (it has to be in all caps, because when you're listening to live music, you must yell it!) guitar and piano are my favorites. in some songs, the lyrics really draw me in. in others, it's the guitar riff. sometimes the flowing beauty of a piano piece will get me. 

i love music for it's ability to permeate your body and soul. it flows through you, and swirls about your world in a magical way. 

my ideal future home allows me to be outside on a cozy, festive back porch with wireless speakers pumping my favorite tunes into the atmosphere and up into the bright shining stars.

ahhhh.....the end.

ps. if you wanna get your own music swirling, i highly recommend using playlist.com and pandora.com :)

Dramos in the House!

What up WHAT UP!? DRAMOS in the HOUUUUSE!

Check it. My rotation is criz-aka-lakin-CRAZY! 

Ok, For Realz. My rotation isn't in Breast Oncology, it's just Oncology - so I help operate on all types of cancer, not just breast. It's really neat and I have realized how important good shoes are after standing for 10 hours straight...ouch. I've already been able to do some procedures, I was the camera guy in laproscopic gall bladder removal, performed a whipple procedure on a pancreas, and have done a lot of suturing. Next week I have to give a half hour presentation about something significant related to cancer in front of 14 physicians. I think I'll present on Breast Cancer, and site my own research publications :) Surgery has been long hours so far, but I'm starting to get the hang of things and am glad I only have to do this for a month.

Peace out Yall.
(it's my bedtime)

Daniel

Rough Start

Daniel had his first real day of rotations today!

Here's how it went....5:30am-7:30pm. That's all I know. He left when I was asleep, and when I got back from work tonight at 9:00 he had already crashed.

Poor guy! The surgery schedule is not kind! He's in Breast Oncology (cancer) which he is really familiar with, so hopefully that will be advantageous during this rotation.  We'll see though, I'll keep you posted!

Here's a picture of Daniel from yesterday when he went in for his rotations orientation (which took place during normal, human hours, which is why I was awake :)

Go Daniel! You can do it!!!!!

Is fall here again!? Yippe!

It feels like fall outside, and I couldn't be more excited! I truly love the changing seasons! Last fall I began taking pictures around Yale, and had an idea to capture the 4 seasons in one location. I will do it again this year with a few more locations, and try to stand in the exact same spot each time (the ones below were just estimates each time). Maybe if they turn out good enough, I could sell them at Yale or something? Who knows. My inspiration was the Central Park four season photos that you see all over the city.

 I placed them in this order because of the song that goes "Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall...all you have to do is call, and I'll be there...". Good of a reason as any right?

Fall also brings more baking, soups, and autumn inspired recipes. I made a butternut squash chowder that is so yummy and healthy I just have to share it! It was given to me last year by Emily Streeter. I made it last week, and am making some more tomorrow!

B and B’s Butternut Squash and Corn chowder

2 T vegetable oil
1 1/2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1 inch chunks (about 5 cups)
1 medium onion, chopped
10 oz frozen corn, thawed
1 1/2 t curry powder
coarse salt and pepper
2 cans (14.5 oz each) vegetable broth
1/2 cup heavy cream (I only had milk on hand, and it worked fine)

In a large heavy pot, heat oil over med-high heat. Add squash and onion. Cook until onion is soft, about 6 minutes. Add corn and curry powder and cook until curry is fragrant, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add broth and simmer until squash is tender, about 25 minutes. In a blender, blend half of the soup until smooth and mash any large chuck of squash in the pot. Return to pot and stir in cream. Heat through but do NOT let it boil.

Photo Collages = too much fun!

This is two series of panoramic views from Maine. After downloading 2 panoramic programs that didn't work properly, I decided to just stitch the photos together myself..it's not the best, but it gets the job done! One day, I'll have a super snazy camera w/ photoshop pro, and look back at this post and laugh at my lameness :) 

Remember how I said we went on a 'food vacation'? I was not joking, and here is the proof! Try to find a vegetable other than the deep fried onion rings - which doesn't even count!

Here is just a little blip of our time with the Trans. We love them and miss them already!

Daniel's 1st year is done!

In mid August Daniel finished his last exam of his first year! For the next 1.5 years he'll be in 13 different rotations, mostly at the Yale New Haven Hospital. It's an amazing accomplishment and am so proud of him. He took one exam every week, and spent every night in the Library. I keep forgetting Daniel doesn't have to go to the library every night! It's been so nice!

Once Daniel took his last test, we left town immediately and began our summer vacation. First stop was to The Cox Farm in Maryland for the annual summer family reunion. Highlights included camping with the cousins up in the woods, the huge slip 'n slide, and the most wonderful homemade ice cream party ever!

After that we headed up to Maine to go camping in Acadia National Park. We camped 2 nights and filled 3 days with sight seeing, bike riding, and a lobster or two :) It was incredibly beautiful there, but surprisingly crowded! I often felt like we were at Disney World, not a National Park. Despite the crowds, everywhere we went we were able to go off on our own path and enjoy some peace and quite and solitude. Some of my favorite times was when we would go off onto the rocks and read our books for a while. I was so amazing to see all the beautiful elements of nature come together in one place...mountains, ocean, cliffs, big lakes, forests. It was so incredible! Can you see the amazing fog in the picture below? It was blowing in and getting caught on the islands in Bar Harbor.

We came home, cleaned up from camping, and then welcomed our good friends Hoang, Amy and their baby Lydia to Connecticut. They came up from Arizona for a week long vacation. We spent 4 days in NYC, and 4 in CT. Hoang and Amy are die hard food network lovers, and have been making note of good restaurants to eat at in our area as they are featured on different shows. It was a food centered vacation, and attractions and sight-seeing were filler activities :) It was more fun than I could have ever imagined.