We have successfully returned to California. Most everything survived the move. E passed her test and got a job. I’m figuring it out.
In case you haven’t noticed we’re not updating this anymore. This was primarily a tool to keep everybody up to date. Now that we’re in CA again, this isn’t necessary. Bye everybody.
Who would have thought that French Canadians speak predominately French? Not us, apparently. Everybody we encountered spoke French and English, but French first. The majority of the signs were in French along with stores, menus, and pretty much everything else.
We’re slightly surprised we didn’t have more difficulty getting across the border considering our car license is from CA, and our driver’s license is from CT. They must have decided we’re harmless.
We had a great time. We stayed at a B&B in the Old City (I think) and walked everywhere, except for one trip on the metro. The room was a cute little thing that provided everything we needed in addition to a daily glass of port. The breakfast at this place alone was enough to justify staying there. French toast, eggs (Benedict for me) any way you like, fruit, Belgian waffles, cereal, yogurt. They brought you french toast and waffles THEN asked you what type of eggs you wanted to order for breakfast.
We got around for the day we were there (it takes 6 hours driving to get there, so two of the three days are driving centered). We started off at the Montreal Botanical Gardens which was not quite in full gear outside yet, but the greenhouse and insect exhibits were fantastic. From there we hopped over to Old Montreal, ate lunch and walked around for the afternoon taking it in. The next day on the way out we drove up to the top of Mont Royal for a view of the city.
Besides seeing a few sites, we ate. And then we ate again and again. There was soo much good food. I can now say I’ve had rabbit and it was good. Actually it was delicious. Here are the pictures. I went nuts in the greenhouses and at with the insects. Thank God digital cameras have replaced film.
Mmm. Rabbit.
Montreal hosted the Olympics back sometime before I was born. I caught Elizabeth posing.
These were about the only thing blooming outside the greenhouses at the botanical gardens. This place must be amazing in the summer months.
This goes on for a while…
The orchid house was awesome.
Yeah… it’s a lot of pictures. Imagine if I wasn’t trying to limit myself.
On to the bugs…
Yep. That thing is as big as my hand.
Not much happening outside.
Old Montreal
I am addicted to knitting. I knit while I listen to lectures, while I listen to board review CD’s, while I watch TV and listening to music in coffee shops. But don’t worry I haven’t completely gone over the edge: I do NOT knit while driving, in church, in the clinic or in restaurants (which I have witnessed). Part of my addiction is my love of doing creative things. The other part is how I manifest a pathology that Adam and I both share. This pathology is “how can we find a way to be as self sufficient as possible” ie: we love gardening, we want chickens, we admire (and use) our neighbors homemade honey and candles, we make our own beer and Adam on one occasion has said “When we have more space I want to grow my own hops (an ingredient used in the beer)” and I have once said “Maybe one day I can get an Angora rabbit and I can make yarn from it’s fur.”
It is getting a bit pathological, or we just need to live on more property- however you want to see it.
Here are some pictures of a sweater I finished about a month ago. This yarn was a Christmas gift from Arder. Thanks Arder. It is a really comfortable sweater, that I have enjoyed wearing so far. I felt a bit silly posing for these, but oh well.
The brown sweater is my current project. It is a empire waist cardigan that is knit in bamboo yarn. The sleeves will be three quarter length. The best part is it is knit in one piece. I discovered on the green sweater that I hate having to connect a bunch of seams- to many opportunities to make mistakes. I am excited to finish it so I can wear it in May’s spring weather.
I am actually feeling relaxed as I head into my last month of school. My praxis/thesis is virtually done- just waiting on the final “okay” from my advisor. All I have in between me and graduation is 2 finals, one more paper and exactly 24 more hours of clinical (which will be done by the end of April). So basically I feel like I have a light load right now. I am so happy I doubled up on hours at the beginning of the semester and did all that paper writing while it was still snowing outside. That leaves more time for knitting, cooking, trip planning and maybe some furniture refinishing once the weather is warmer- oh and then there is that looming job search I can’t forget about…. My financial aid exit interview last week reminded me of that reality!
I still plan on submitting my praxis/thesis for publication. It has the ever so sexy title “Developmental Assessment of Young Foster Children” and focuses on the developmental needs of young foster children receiving health care in a primary care setting. So alluring, I know. (I am joking, but I really did enjoy writing it and hope it will be useful to those who may read it) For all those family members who have expressed an interest in reading it- I promise nothing that you would call page turning. Remember it is a RESEARCH paper, yes, with practical implications and some good insight for primary care clinicians, but none the less 22 pages of text with about 10 pages of tables.
Here is a pic from today- just relaxing in the living room on Easter and talking about the stuff we still want to see on the East coast. Happy Easter everyone!
My time in Nicaragua ended up to be a wonderful experience. I went down there with a group of Family and Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Students from Yale. Over the week we saw 120 children at La Escuelita. La Escuelita is a school in Managua that is for children in a poor neighborhood that borders the large oriental market (the largest open air market in Central America). Though public education is free, students are required to buy uniforms, books and supplies. Because these things are expensive many children in this neighborhood do not go to school. La escuelita offers these children a free education (no uniforms required). This was the nursing schools third consecutive year going down there to offer health care to the students at la escuelita.
Nicaragua, though very poor, was beautiful. The people are lively and poetic and buildings are vibrantly painted. I hope you enjoy the photos. All the photos of the churches and vibrant buildings are in Granada one of the old capitals of the country, and the ones of the kids and clinical days are at the school.
🙂
Que the out of control mad scientist laughter.
In the muddy and dark world you see below…
this picture was taken today.
It’s a start.
Actually, I had wort. Now, we have beer. Good beer, or, at least decent, ingestable beer. Wort is the sludge you ferment to make beer.
It took about a month, but it was worth it. Pictures below are of bottling day about halfway through the process. Wort ferments in a bucket for about two weeks, depending on the variety, then a secondary fermentation take place in the bottle for a couple weeks to carbonate. To my surprise, it turns out that beer-making with the exception of a couple nervous moments is mainly washing, waiting for things to boil, and then waiting again for them to ferment.
Siphoning from the fermenting bucket to bottling bucket in an effort to remove the yeast sludge that settled out. There was at least an inch at the bottom of the bucket.
I don’t quiet think she knows how she got roped into helping.
I capped and Elizabeth filled bottles.
The finished product.
After two very long weeks of waiting.
In other news, not much has been going on besides school and work. Elizabeth is stil running a crazy schedule, and fought off the flu. I’m doing my best to stay warm. Although when it hit forty this week after a month of nothing over ~30 I was down to a long sleeve t-shirt, woohoo? We’ve been cooking a lot. E just made her first Tiramisu, and we’ve been savoring the last couple days. The following is the obligatory Maple picture. We’ve been practicing with the mapes not to attack anybody sitting on the floor with slobber. She’s getting better, sort of…
Hi all,
Again a little tardy on the posts. We are experiencing quite a winter so far. Lots of snow, lots of cold and lots of ice. I feel much more “in tune” with the weather this year than last. I guess having a dog that I need to walk at 7am regardless if it is icy, snowing and 16 degrees (without wind chill). I feel in touch with the reality of the weather here, but not as much as Adam who works outside ALL day.
We had a wonderful time in California on vacation and are back to our routine here, already longing for spring. The other day Adam said “please tell me it will get warmer soon” my answer was “I can’t lie, at least two more months.” We are using the time to read alot and I am trying to front load my work (clinical hours, papers, thesis) so that in march and april I can enjoy more socializing before graduation and less studying.
I was excited to learn that the Lerners have the tradition of Gingerbread houses, it had been a while since I made one, but my frosting skills returned.
Hank, Lia and Lady
December in Carmel 🙂
I don’t think Adam knew what he was signing up for when he joined my family.
This picture cracks me up, it is kinda like “Boy and his dog”
Reunion with Maple
I think she is trying to figure out why he is holding her
I am trying to write my Thesis (painfully), Maple is trying to get my attention, the other day I was on the couch writing and she just sat there like that and stared at me typing for the longest time.
Our turkey keeps on giving. At this point in time I wish it would just go away. To feed the five people we had over for Thanksgiving, all of us away from family and such, we bought a 17 lbs. turkey. We now know this is way too much turkey. We got through one leg and about half a breast. There is still turkey, mash potatoes (we made way too much of this too) and cranberry sauce sitting in our fridge. Any ways it was a bunch of fun.
This is Elizabeth writing under Adam’s Alias. I forgot my password and I don’t want to bother getting a new one..
Here are some updates from the past several weeks. I have been busy with school, generally tired and ready to graduate. My mom and Bill visited two weeks ago, we had a great time eating out and exploring the state.
Here is my new favorite photo of Maple. So cute and finally acting more obedient, but still just as needy, Imagine me trying to sit on the couch and write this right now, with her staring at me like that. So cute, a little creepy, but so cute.
In our backyard. This is a signature Bill picture with Adam and I looking at eachother.
Overlooking New Haven
We drove to the North East corner of Ct for the day, I felt like I was in Vermont!
Bad hair day? I guess Adam was the only one who escaped that one.
East rock park- still a lot of trees to change.
Yes- Bill visited as well. These were all his pics, so since he was the one behind the camera, I don’t have any he is in.
Eastern Standard Time 