Swimming in Sand at Rehoboth Beach

Lauren and I apologize for not posting last week. Lauren had typed out a clever post on her phone about our CSA share, Artscape (Baltimore Art festival) and the mouse we caught and disposed of. But when she hit "post," the app froze and we lost it all. It reminded me of the days of Microsoft Word '97 when we were reminded as students to constantly save your work. Why every program doesn't have auto-save and document recovery built in is beyond me. I thought our software engineers were less handicapped...

Artscape

Artscape is the country's largest free arts festival. It features artists selling their work, street performers, theater productions, large displays, and live music. On Sunday, Lauren's friend Lauren (yes, her namesake) was in town and we decided to go with her to Artscape to see what could be seen. We made our way to the theater and watched a fun Irish dancing troupe. Sadly (the other) Lauren could not stay with us for long and she had to leave after the show finished. But not before I snapped a picture! 

Lauren and Lauren! Lauren is a nurse practitioner in Virginia. The pair had fun swapping stories of their recent cases.

Some of you may know that Lauren finds my Tilley hat repugnant. Why? Because it is big, floppy, ... and not becoming of a young man? "Repugnant" is my exaggeration, but the fact is that she isn't always a fan of it.

It is beautiful, if you ask me, in a stranded swashbuckler sort of way.

Harbor Hospital Happenings

On Monday, Lauren invited me to her journal club. I was only excited to be there. Lauren arrived last of all the residents, but that is only a testament to her dedication to her patients. An M.D./Ph.D. professor there presented some statistics to the group while we ate a catered dinner. The presenter was happy to have me there that day and in the future, "to correct him and add another statistical viewpoint to things." I may not be very insightful, but I will do my best in the journal clubs to come.

On Thursday, Lauren finished her first four-week rotation. It is crazy to think already for four weeks we have been waking up at 5 A.M. and putting in extra long hours. Next up is a GI (gastro-intestinal) rotation with cushy 12-hour weeks. It is a welcome ease on the gas pedal of work. Maybe we will make it to the gym more often :)

The house and the weekend

The weekend began when Lauren finished her rotation's last day on Thursday. We watched Taken 2 (now we are glad we didn't go to Turkey for vacation, haha) and snacked on cherry tomatoes and pea pods from our CSA share. We also had chips and dip (salt and vinegar chips with ranch dressing packet mixed into sour cream) and Ben and Jerry's Cinnamon Buns ice cream. So it was a true, let-it-all-go party.

On Friday, we supported Baltimore's restaurant week and went to Langermann's. This is the second time we have been to this restaurant. They have great grits and local farm food, along with great meat and seafood. For the first course, Lauren had a beautiful tomato stack. I had scallops on grits. Then for the main course, Lauren had a Southernized version of paella and I had salmon. Wow, I am liking that restaurant more and more.

Langermann's is about a mile from our new house! So we had to stop by. Look at how it is turning out! We can't help but be excited for the progress.

The framing is complete! Next is the roofing. Soon we will have our pre-drywall meeting. They are going to show us around the house and we can examine the craftsmanship of our subcontractors. Looking forward to that this upcoming Thursday.

On Saturday, we drove to Rehoboth beach in Deleware. It is on the Atlantic coast. It seemed like everyone had the same idea as us. The traffic was horrible and what should have been a two and a half hour drive turned into a four hour plus drive. But we made it. We utilized the Park and Ride (we recommend it) and got down to the beach in a jiffy. The whole reason we went here was to meet Lauren's old roommate, Kate. She and her husband and child were there. And we all had a great time. Lauren buried me in the sand. I swam in the water (it is still pretty cold). I got Lauren to come in the water with me. It was a great day and the beach was packed with people. It was a good beach.