Pre-Christmas festivities

We took a quick trip up to Rochester, NY a couple of days before Christmas.  Being family-less this Christmas, we decided to drive to Rochester for a quick visit with Clark's cousin Kara and her husband Justin.   We decided to try and be righteous and see some of the surrounding church history sites while we were there as well.  Such a good idea to see these sites on a Sunday AND in winter! Seriously, we're happy we visited these places in winter, even if it was bitterly cold. Very few church history enthusiasts out and about.

 

 

I'm just pleased these tours were 80% less agonizing than the tour we took in 2011 through Liberty Jail in Missouri.

 

 

  

Original art.

 

Getting friendly with Kara and Justin's pet birds.  Sort of cuddly, but not kitty cuddly.  Still cute, though.

Before heading out on our final day, we decided to take a drive to the Rochester Harbor. We wanted to go for a polar bear swim but didn't want to catch the pneumonia or the black lung, or the hypothermia, or more accurately, death.

Mmmmmm, looks kind of like a slurpee, doesn't it?

Our trip could not be complete without a meal at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. We were so excited to find out that we wouldn't have to stop in Syracuse on our way home to get some amazing bbq because a restaurant now exists in Rochester. HOLLA!  So delish, St. Louis style ribs get me every time.

Kara and Justin shared a plate of various meats and sides.

Clark and I shared the sweetheart deal. Awwwwww, nothing says I love you like sharing a rack of ribs!

Thanks so much to Kara and Justin for welcoming us into your home! We had such a fun time and look forward to another visit in the future! 

It's Christmas time in the city...

Last weekend we finally got out to celebrate my birthday date day. A few days before my dirty thirty, Clark led me through the apartment on a scavenger hunt (he was out of town on my actual birthday).  Along the way I found treats and clues, and one gift was a handwritten I.O.U. birthday date day declaration, in which I would get to choose exactly what to do without ANY complaints from Clark.  Downtown, Christmas Village, Olive Garden (we haven't been in years--correction, Clark hasn't been in like 16 years...breadsticks are still good but my goodness, Maggiano's entrees trump Olive Garden entrees entirely), and a 76ers basketball game!  It even snowed!

 

 

 

Snow sure does make everything more festive here in the city

It was such a fun day, even if the sixers lost.  I think I deserve a birthday date day every month. 

MISH MASH

Surprisingly, I finally feel in the blogging mood.  I haven't been for a while, and even contemplated just retiring the old gal. 

 But I guess there are things I actually do want to share with family and friends through this portal of social media. Hmmmmmpppphhhh. 

So here it is: a mish mash of what has been going on the past several weeks.

At the end of October we visited some friends (new and old) in NYC.  I am still indifferent to New York and I still don't find it all that appealing.  But hey, I live in Philly and I don't find Philly all that appealing (I'm working on being more positive). Nevertheless, we had a great time, saw a show, ate good food, did all sorts of touristy stuff and caught up with our friends.   

 

 

On top of the Empire State Building.  We couldn't not do it this time around.

This is our friend, long haired Dan.  He doesn't like being taken off guard.

 Bad news at the American Girl Place...

 We lasted roughly 30 minutes at the Museum of Modern Art.  Not really our thing...

 Our friends Thuyen and Josh live in the financial district.  So we were fortunate enough to stay with them, and they lived so close to the Brooklyn Bridge we couldn't not walk it.

Then Clark and I both had our birthdays and entered a new decade and decided that life is basically over.  Clark spent my birthday in Maui attending a mutual friend's wedding while I stayed here and finished up my orientation for work (he sent me lilies to make up for his absence, awwwwww!).  He had a good time, and even got to see a nude drum circle and nude fire dancers. No, it wasn't an organized event but just something the medicated locals do every Sunday evening on a well known nude beach in Kehei.  Sexy, but not really.  And according to Clark, a barely amateur fire dancer accidentally let go of his flaming rope which flew into the audience. No one got hurt, but it actually sounds like it was a dangerous event.

Then some of my best girls from college came into town for the Philly marathon: Jenna to run and Amy to cheer.  Jenna kicked ass and ran a 2:47--only 4 minutes off the Olympic marathon trials B standard!  It was very inspiring to watch, and now I want to put forth some effort and try another marathon.

Amy was on downtime from training (she runs professionally) but thought it would be worth it to run the museum steps.  It's always worth it.

This frat house was probably the best cheer section of the race. 

 

Jenna rounding the corner along Boathouse Row...almost done!

Then I got lasik eye surgery and post-operatively had a meltdown due to severe burning, stabbing pain in my eyes.  Thank goodness for Tylenol, ibuprofen and Ambien.  So yes, the first couple hours after surgery were terrible, then I slept for 5 hours and most of the pain had subsided by the time I woke up.  And my eyesight is now 20/20 and this is maybe the best thing I've ever done.  When I run at night, I can actually see where I'm stepping and avoid tree roots and cracks in the sidewalk.  My right eye is still a little red due to broken blood vessels, but it's on the mend and hopefully in a couple of weeks I won't look so crazy.

Then we spent Thanksgiving in Baltimore with the Baltimore Toblers and the Alderson family.  It was delightful.  We also visited Gettysburg and played Catch Phrase which turned into a dance party....Greta and Charlie have some moves to be reckoned with!

Someone's standing...

And walking!

Greta was so excited to drink out of wine glasses this year! So fancy!

Then I started seeing patients on my own last Monday. Every day I learn something new and every day I get the nervous poops.  But so far it has been good and I feel very supported at work. 

Likely, we won't be sending out Christmas cards this year.  We're sad about it too, but maybe we'll do a special "hey this is our Christmas card post because we were too tired and busy to send out Christmas cards early in December like the masses" post.  We had an excellent idea for our card, but the moment passed and we had no one to take our photo and the garbage trucks took away the prop we most needed to make our card successful. So now we just have to find a different toilet on the side of the street somewhere here in Philly.... actually, it shouldn't be all that difficult.

Or maybe we should just re-visit "classy" Christmas.  I don't think classy Christmas could ever get old!

And I think that about sums up the last 5-6 weeks.