Good Finish to the SF Trip

The UCSF conference was very informative. I'm looking forward to going back to work and using the information I gained.



On Friday afternoon, Rowdy and I drove down to Monterey to visit our friends The Weatherman, SuperMom, PorterPan and Aftonbell. We took a little bike ride along Cannery Row and then had Mexican food. Saturday morning, we had SuperMom's patented breakfast sandwiches, then hiked at Point Lobos.




Monterey is so lovely! All of our photos look like we have a painted backdrop. The Cheerys' view out their front window is of the ocean, and you can hear sea lions barking in the distance. Pretty idyllic in many ways.

Now we're home and(phew!)the Primary program is over for another year. I also have my talk for Evening of Excellence outlined. Now I just have to concentrate on last-minute studying for the CAQs.

Gettin' Crabby

My sister, Karen, used to live in San Francisco. She had many favorite restaurants, but one that has since become one of Rowdy's and my favorites it Thanh Long. They make the most astoundingly delicious roasted crab you will ever eat. So, tonight was Thanh Long night, with roasted crab, the obligatory and delicious garlic noodles and crab puff appetizer. I didn't bring my camera to take any pictures, because I know that it would be too painful for Karen to see. Also, no one wants to see us covered in garlic butter and pepper.

Earlier in the day, Rowdy and I met up with Steph H. in Davis at a little locovorian restaurant, The Farmer's Kitchen. Very delicious, very fresh. Who knew that gluten-free brownies could be so delicious? It was so worth it to visit with Stephanie, even if it only was for a short period of time.

There will be lots of exercise tomorrow to make up for this day.

We also went to the Oakland Temple, mainly because we needed to go to the distribution center and Rowdy couldn't remember how to get there. They are presenting an exhibit of sculptures of Christ at the visitors' center. They were quite moving. One in particular really touched me. It was Christ walking on the water to his disciples. The caption had a blurb about faith and fear being opposed. I have something coming up in a couple of weeks that I've been fearful of, but looking at the expression on Christ's face and the strength in his hands reminded me that I can get through it with His help. I really don't have anything to fear.

Just the Perfect Blendship

So, here we are at the end of Day 1 of our trip to SF. The drive up was good. Rowdy and I listened to "The Pirate Coast" on audiobook. It's about the Barbary Coast in the early 19th century.

This morning's review course was informative. UCSF always puts on a quality movie.

We met Nettie, Curtis and Spencer Atkisson at Crepes o Chocolat for lunch. It was so fun to see them again. Nettie always inspires me to raise my sights and be my very best. It was just a short visit, but a lot of joy was packed into it. After talking with her, I have a better idea of what I'm going to say to the Young Women at Evening of Excellence next week--but that's another story.

Rowdy and I were thinking about going to the movies tonight. We walked up to the theater, but we had at least an hour to kill. As we walked back to our hotel, we realized that we would be walking through The Tenderloin at 10 pm if we went to the movie. We're not wimps, but that place is Sketcherville. So, we changed our plan and watched Baby Mama on PPV in our quite gorgeous hotel room.

Classic

Go Bricco!!

Our awesome SIL, Amy, won her age group and 82nd overall at the Kansas City Marathon today. She's an amazing runner, on top of being a great wife, mom of three adorable children and a Primary president.

On to Boston!

Russian Dinner in San Diego

My lovely nurse and friend, Bella (seen here with her husband, Albert), organized a Russian dinner for a bunch of us Kaiserians. Like all good Russian dinners, there was food, food and more food. Some people were overwhelmed and couldn't hang with the rest of us. They left early, no doubt in shame. In between courses, there was live music, complete with disco lights. Rowdy and I, being fun people who like to dance, got down to the Slavic sounds of Arkady. It was so much fun!! I sometimes think that I was born the wrong ethnicity. A Scandinavian/English girl like me shouldn't be dancing like a gypsy. (But I did anyway.)

I Love to See the Temple--ASL

Our Primary is signing and singing "I Love to See the Temple" in our Sacrament Meeting program in two weeks. One of our teachers is an ASL translator, and she kindly agreed to let me film her as a reference while we're practicing. Unfortunately...I'm not much of a videographer and I included 13 seconds of Rowdy eating breakfast.

New Element

I've added a new element on my sidebar, the Heard In Passing wall. When I was in college, living at good ol' Belmont Apartments, we had a piece of poster board on our front closet door where we recorded funny comments we'd "heard in passing" from roomies and visitors. Acutally, we borrowed the idea from our friends' apartment. Jenny, Cindy and I carried on the tradition in our post-college apartment.

Rowdy comes up with funny one-liners at least 20 times a day, so I feel the need to record them for posterity. Sometimes I will provide background, but most of the time, I'll just post them as they are.

Today's line:

It doesn't matter if you're the slowest cheetah--you're still a cheetah!

Remember that.

What a Sweet Husband!!

Today was an amazingly annoying day. It was made significantly nicer by my sweet Rowdy, who came down to the hospital and left me the car so that I wouldn't have to ride my bike home. Believe me, I really wasn't looking forward to that ride.

Thanks, HoneyBunny! I love you!

Some Saturdays Are Better Than Others

I'll let you decide which way this one went...

1) Help clean the church.
2) Run 4.5 miles. Podcasts certainly make it go faster. A coyote crossed my path, one block from my home. I told it to go kill the gophers in my front yard.
3) Go to the Martial Arts Expo at the Fairgrounds and watch jiu-jitsu matches for four hours. Thank goodness Rowdy knows fun ways to pass the time. Too bad he didn't fight. There were only two guys in his weight class at the beginner level.
4) Retail therapy. Why can't I ever find exactly what I'm looking for?
5) Run to Kinko's to print the October, November and December scripture posters for Primary.
6) Watch The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (2005 version).

Saturday Happenings

I have been very busy on call this week, and today was no exception. I was at the hospital from 10 until 3. Granted, it's not the 12+ hours that I'd usually spend at work when I was on call as a fellow, but it's a busy day as an attending in what amounts to a community hospital. This is following an 11 hour day at work yesterday, being home for an hour and then having to go back for another case. A couple of hours of that 11 was spent doing a particularly tricky embolization with the help of my section chief. It turned out very well, and was part of the ongoing evidence that Heavenly Father loves His children and gives us guidance and direction when we ask for it.

Rowdy and I started the morning at the Ursula Rains 5K. Pictures courtesy of our buddy G-Ride to follow. I was well-back of the pack, finishing last in my age group by a wide margin. But, no big deal. It was still fun and a good beginning to my day.

I missed all of General Conference, but I was able to watch nearly all of the morning session online while Rowdy was at the Priesthood session. Having lived in Kansas City, I was excited to hear about the KC temple, but the thing that literally made me shout for joy and brought tears to my eyes was the announcement of the Rome, Italy temple. Rome in particular and Italy in general have a very special place in my heart. I'm sure that the Saints in Italy are just thrilled.

If I had to choose a favorite talk from the morning, it would be Elder Neil L. Andersen's. Two quotes that will stay with me: "You don't know everything, but you know enough" and "Faith is not only a feeling, it is a decision." We know enough to keep the commandments, and we move forward from there. We have to choose to act on our faith.