Continual Self-Improvement

There is a long list of things I'm terrible at and floral arranging is pretty high on that list. (Photography is also on that list, one I'm hoping to rectify by keeping this blog).

These tulips were casualties of me getting into an altercation with some shubbery. At least they lived long enough for me to find the vase. They were really pretty though and a sure sign that spring is in full bloom!

Got Milk?

Fire Pit and Friendly Visitors

Last night we had our second official BBQ of the season. This time with the Fire Pit! Yay! After the fire died down a bit, we saw a racoon in our neighbors yard. Justin was going to set Ewok on him, but I was too fearful for the puppies safety. (Though really between Ewok and Vax it would have probably been the racoon who I should have been worried about).

Luckily, though we had already eaten my strawberry cake:



I'm getting better at making it, the structural integrity is beginning to hold more. Here's an earlier attempt from New Hampshire, over a year ago. You can see it falls a bit flat. Eventually, I will master this cake!

Matt at 18 Months

Why is he so happy? Cause he is running away from my pizza.



As you all probably know, Matt is a fussy eater - but I keep trying to get food in him!

Book Club of One

I really miss my New England, partners of med students book club. I miss you guys! Last year, after we moved I focused on volume of reading, and was pretty proud to average roughly 1 book a week.

This year, I've been trying to focus on depth and digging through topics and books that intrigued me last year. I'm almost finished with Alan Greenspan's "Age of Turbulence", and plowing through, "Guns, Germs and Steel". However, I have to just abandon Ralph Nader's "Only the Super Rich can Save Us". I know I won't get "credit" for finishing it but I think I'm going to have to be okay with that.

I'm kind of disturbed that Alan Greenspan attributed a lot the rise in GDP to productivity gains from corporations installing I.T. I had a front row seat (at Prudential Insurance and later at Bear Stearns, which is a whole other post) for the execution of those projects and I it seemed to me that a lot of corporate I.T. was a drain on productivity not the other way around.

We brought the snow with us...

This morning Matthew, Vax and I went for a walk in Fairmount Park, and later Ger joined us on the patio for an outdoor dinner. It was lovely to enjoy the sunshine, since just a month ago our backyard looked like this:



Yes, this is Philadelphia. A tree fell over from the adjoining property and blocked us in for 7 days! However it's long since melted and we've gotten our first flowers!

Philadelphia Rising...

Hello - So we've been in Philadelphia for 9 months, and wow has time flown! Ger is almost done with his intern year, and Matthew just turned 18 months! There isn't a single system in the house (electrical, plumbing, floors, etc) that we have not touched, and I mean to post more about that work and our upcoming house projects.

Mostly, it's been great to see Matthew grow and start to play and explore his surroundings. Here's a picture of him at the Treehouse Cafe, a local spot where kids can play and mom's can have some coffee (which I've been drinking a ton of!)