Deutschland!!!!!!!

We have had quite a fun week! I enjoyed having more orientation and just learning about work. Tomorrow I have to start actually working...yikes! 

We had our usual weeknights this week with some cooking here, tending plants there, community meeting one night, free chick fil a, etc.  On Friday, we went to a combined party for radiology residents from UMaryland and Hopkins at duckpin bowling near our house. This is kind of similar to regular bowling, but the pins are smaller, the ball is just a little bigger than a bocce ball (no finger holes either), and each frame has 3 tries instead of 2. That was fun, plus we had free pizza and San pelligrino, which is my favorite drink. Out of the 30ish people there, at least 7 were LDS so that was funny.

On Saturday, we went to the temple in the morning and then went to a crab feast with my coresidents at Hopkins, hosted by our program. They provided unlimited steamed/smothered-in-Old-Bay crabs plus some crab soup, crab cakes, corn on the cob, wings, etc. We were stuffed and the food was great. The place was right on the harbor next to all the slips for private yachts and sailboats. It was fun to meet spouses and kids of the other residents. Unfortunately for James, we are slow at picking apart the crabs so he only ate 8 or so. The record for this annual crab feast was something like 40 by a native Marylander resident. Later that night, I finally finished my pallet garden while James watched Netherlands vs Brazil. Poor Brazil.

Today after church, we had some friends (10 people!) over for the final World Cup game. Most were from our old singles ward. We made it a potluck and had people bring foods from Germany, Argentina, or Brazil. We had some yummy stuff to eat, like German pancakes, empanadas (James made these and they were delish!), and a Brazilian mocktail that had ginger beer/lemons/limes/mint but no rum. Yummy! Only 3 out of the 12, myself included, were rooting for Germany. It was a long game but both teams played well. Super fun, but it is nice that we can move on and not be couch potatoes every week, which is not our usual.

Some photos: first, our crazy tomato plant that has finally had tons of sweet little yummy tomatoes each day. I think it is now taller than 6ft, not including the pot. The thing is crazy!

Our front porch, aka jungle. So happy the lilies finally bloomed. They smell amazing.

My new and finally finished pallet garden. I'm so glad it worked out after it took so much work. It mostly just has flowers, but has a pepper plant, strawberries, and a cucumber plant at the top. Lettuce and kale are in the bottom rows.

James making his empanadas. Some were potato and beef, while the others had hard boiled egg and olives in them too.

Beautiful result! That man knows how to cook!

Our intense World Cup crowd (sorry about the poor picture quality...apparently my ipad is better than my phone now)

We also had part 1 of our 10 month checkup for our house this past wk, and part 2 coming up. Our 2nd floor was a bit uneven so they ripped up the carpet and are finishing it up this week. It pains me to see our carpet all loose. I hope it can be put back together!

Time to study and get to bed early. I start off my real radiology work (generating my first official xray report!) tomorrow. James is continuing to work hard at the NIH. He drops me off on his way but we've decided we need to bump it earlier so that he doesn't get stuck in rotten traffic! The DC beltway is truly awful!