A quick update on our lives for the past few weeks since we started back up at school.
We joined our neighbors (and classmates) John and Bri for the Seahawks playoff game against the 49ers. We loaned Bri a little Seahawk gear for the day. On her 5'3" frame it was certainly more like a night gown than anything else :)
We had a lovely spread of snack and then enjoyed some home-made enchiladas at half time.
Tom made it all a little more interesting by filling up the white board with predictions that we all filled out before the game. It ranged from everything from the predicted score of the game, how many times the "12th man" was referenced on TV and how many "tantrums" we spotted the 49ers coach having :)
He was always up and down from his seat to update the board so that we didn't lose track of critical stats.
Dave would check in on his cell phone occasionally to make sure we got the yards by Lynch correct.
Here's the final tally. Tom and I tied! Who would have thought?
Then it was a short week of classes and I was off on an adventure to Carmel, California for the Western Student Medical Research Forum. Here was our nifty rental car-- I've never seen a "mini-van" like vehicle that looked so much like a regular car, until you opened the doors and they slide open. It was perfect for the 5 of us that were carpooling together.
Our hotel felt a little "vegas-like" with this big courtyard complete with palm trees, fountains and koi ponds.
The morning after we arrived we went for a jog to the beach and it was INCREDIBLE! It's amazing how quickly you can forget how beautiful a sunny blue sky can be.
Here's the crew of friends I traveled with/roomed with: Kendra, Claire, Peter and Danny. They all live together in a house and I became an add-on "roomie" for the weekend.
On arrival we were given a copy of the Journal that we were all published in --now Tom and I both have something to add to our CV.
On the first evening we also all got together for a bonfire on the beach. It was fun to gather around with the 50+ UW students in attendance at the conference.
The other night we were there we also all got together for a dinner at Chili's--not a fancy place but we actually went to a conference event where they told us there would be free dinner...and we were sorely disappointed by the lack of food there....so, since we were starving we just all went to the closest restaurant to the hotel.
And, what's a hotel stay without a little hot-tubbing? Well, we all got into it...literally and figuratively :)
Each day I was there I made it a point to get down to the beach to see it because I swear it got more beautiful each time.
Here is Danny trying to master the conference attire with a little beach-friendly wear for when we walked down to the beach between sessions. I looked foolish next to him with just rolling my dress pants up--why didn't I think of bringing a pair of basketball shorts?
On the final day it was the best weather - 75 and full sun. We enjoyed some frisbee and lounging on the beach.
The boys decided that they would have some "tough guy" shots.
Of course, the guy on the end, Chad and Max, were too cool to participate.
We couldn't let them get away with such a ridiculous picture--we had to try to one-up them.... ridiculous!
And, then we had to get a traditional "girl" shot.
It was so hard to say goodbye to this!
But, on our way out of town, we took advantage of the fact that we were in California for a little opportunity for some "quality" junk food: In-n-Out!
Here we all are, enjoying our 1000+ calorie meals and loving every one of them :)
The day after I got home we got to go celebrate with Grammy for her 80th birthday.
She put on a great party (ok, maybe her daughters put it on...but she was a great hostess too)
Her view from the Bayview Retirement Community simply cannot be beat!
Now, it's back to reality for at least 3 more weeks before I'm off to my next conference in Manhattan Beach, CA. This next conference is much more high stakes--instead of presenting to just my peers, I'll be presenting to experts in the field of medical simulation/robotics/engineering. My presentation in Carmel went well (except that the computer literally froze half-way through and I had to hold down the power button and totally reboot the computer in the middle of it). Here's to hoping that the presentation in February goes much more smoothly. I'm hoping that this Medicine Meets Virtual Reality conference (feb 19-22) will have much more tech-friendly presentation software so that we won't have any major glitches like that! well, I've got finals next week for my first set of classes and got to get right back to studying-- good thing I don't have to move from my desk to do it :). Ta-ta for now!
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