Last Night in Scottsdale

I am very excited to be heading back to Minnesota to join the rest of the moose family tomorrow!

My big task of the evening was dealing with my recycling...the apartment complex does not recycle, but I have been saving all my containers anyway. A couple of weeks ago, I found the Scottsdale recycling website and emailed them to find out whether there was some sort of drop-off point.

So tonight, I loaded everything into the car and headed off to a fire station a few miles away, where I'd been told I could find some large city bins. It was 105 degrees at 8 PM! Nonetheless, I was slinging all my bags into a bin when—CRASH—the glass bottles fell through the bottom of their bag and several shattered all over the pavement.

I was just starting to pick up the pieces when a couple of firemen who had been working outside came over with a broom and took care of the whole mess for me. Very kind and helpful!

The rest of the night will be spent packing up the rest of my belongings, other than the things I took to the hospital today to be shipped back up to Rochester on the clinic's dime.

In Phoenix Again

Taking some much needed R&R, I've been visiting H and the crumpet in Scottsdale this past weekend. Really, one could describe the whole weekend in that one sentence. But, since this is not Twitter, but an actual blog, I'll elaborate a touch.

I showed up late Friday after a flight as pleasant as one can hope for these days. Saturday was spent largely hanging around and escaping the heat. We had a really neat dinner at a vegan restaurant called, simply, Green, and enjoyed a tasty meal and Tsoynamis for dessert while working our way through a baby names book. Don't expect to hear much about names from us until the crumpet actually arrives. I will say this - many of the entries in that book are clearly made up. I ask you, have you ever met a girl named Parslee, or Schmoopie? I won't even go into the bastardized spellings of popular names these days.

Sunday we had brunch at a place called The Mandala Tearoom, in the artsy district of Scottsdale. That's where this hear horsy fountain is located. In the afternoon we saw the latest Indiana Jones movie. I could perhaps write a review, but instead will sum up by saying that if you go into it looking for entertainment and fun, though not quite as good Raiders of the Lost Ark, then you'll not be disappointed. Some of the adventure sequences are over-contrived, but clever nonetheless.

And now I am hanging before my flight back, while Hilary begins a week rotation through the ICU. I'll be spending this week, like last, splitting my time between the knee walker at work and the bathroom at home.

Weekend with Dad

This weekend we had a digital camera and tried to take some advantage of it! So here's some proof of my continued existence, despite the lack of blog posts. Dad arrived on Thursday and we've been having a wonderful time just hanging out.

I have gotten through another week of surgery (mainly more hernia repairs and gallbladders). I have one more week of actual surgery coming up, which will probably be quite busy. More getting up at 5 AM, unfortunately. Then a week in the ICU and a couple of days of anesthesia before heading back to Minnesota. Alex will visit next weekend, which will be wonderful. I've been so lucky to have so much company to break up my time here!

Thursday I left the hospital at a reasonable hour and we went for falafel sandwiches at Pita Jungle, then got gelato next door. Alex and I had discovered both of these places when he visited last. Here I am eating, which is something that I spent a LOT of time this week doing.

I think the crumpet might be having a growth spurt, as I have been hungry all the time. I eat breakfast at home just after 5, then again during the 7 AM conference, and usually a nibble or two in the middle of the morning as well to bridge the gap to lunch! I bring some food in every day, and there are also snacks (some healthy and some not) in the resident lounge, and then I have a small food allowance to use in the cafeteria as well.

Yesterday, we had a great vegan meal at Green, where they make their own ice cream. I had the yummiest dessert, which they call a tsoynami, with the ice cream, mint and chocolate syrups, and chocolate cookie bits in it. It is the vegan answer to a Dairy Queen blizzard and I want one every night!

Today, we went to see Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright's camp that is just a few minutes from my apartment. We had a wonderful two-hour tour from a fantastic, interesting guide.

They gave us umbrellas for shade!


Here's an outdoor view:


The drafting studio and dining area from the outside:


The living room:


Dad in the living room. The entrance is directly behind him: all the doorways are very short, and then once you enter, the rooms open up. To the far right of the photo is a mosaic-ish piece. Clare Boothe Luce made that from stones and other natural objects she found on the property when she came to visit.


I love this little door, it makes me think of a Hobbit:


This one's for you, Clara: a dragon standing guard on one of the posts in the garden. Wright was a huge collector of Asian art, and it's scattered all throughout the property.


The weather continues to be sunny and hot. I think it hit 100 today, and though it is a dry heat, that's pretty warm! I'm never outside during the hottest parts of the day, though, and things are pretty climate-controlled in the hospital. I would definitely miss the four seasons if I lived here all the time. Besides, it would be way too hot for Jasper!

Another Quick Update from AZ

It's been a wonderful long weekend. Mom and Susan and I headed north on Saturday afternoon and spent the night in Flagstaff. We had an amazing meal at a veggie-friendly restaurant, and cranked up the heat in our hotel room (it was cold and rainy, not quite the weather that any of us had expected). On Sunday morning, we got up, had breakfast at another nifty coffeehouse, and headed for the Grand Canyon. Thankfully, the weather had cleared and it was sunny and warm, but not too hot.

The Grand Canyon was just spectacular! It's hard to even wrap the mind around how enormous and beautiful the scenery is. Mom and I strolled along the Rim Trail, which took us past several outlooks and also gave us a view of hikers and mules going up and down the Bright Angel Trail into the canyon. We also watched the National Geographic IMAX movie about the Canyon before entering the park, which was amazing.

Once Susan gets her pictures developed, I'll post a couple of photos, but they can't possibly do the place justice. When the crumpet gets a bit older, Alex and I hope to return and do some hiking off the North Rim, which is less crowded.

We did start the crumpet's National Parks passport book, leaving plenty of room for a second Grand Canyon stamp later on.

Today, Mom and Susan went off to tour Taliesin West, and I got a lot of studying done.

Here are a couple of photos that I took when Alex was here, just showing the lay of the land a bit. Here's a view of the apartment complex. Mine is all the way in the corner there, on the second floor.


And here's a view of the kitchen. If only it always had Alex in it making guacamole! Though cooking has been much easier since he brought me a big cutting board and our second-best chef's knife.


That's all for now! Mom and Susan unfortunately head out tomorrow, and Dad arrives Thursday. I'm expecting a busy week working with one of the chief residents.

Hero Worship

Mom arrived in Arizona on Wednesday night to keep me company for almost a week! Back when she was planning this trip, she carefully cross-checked her dates against the WNBA schedule, so we had a long-standing date to attend the Phoenix Mercury-Seattle Storm game on Thursday night. Since the main priority in watching WNBA games is to check in on UConn girls, we were quite pleased that this game would let us see no fewer than four: Diana Taurasi and Willnett Crockett (Phoenix) and Sue Bird and Swin Cash (Seattle).

I was able to leave the hospital in plenty of time for us to head into the city for the evening game, and on the way, I asked Mom where we were sitting. She said that she thought we were somewhere in the Seattle section.

Then we made our way to the arena, walked halfway around (why does one inevitably enter a sporting arena one hundred and eighty degrees from where one's seats are actually located?) and presented our tickets to the guy at the door, who looked at them and said, "Oh! You're right down on the floor! Just head all the way down the steps!" It turns out that Mom had gotten us seats DIRECTLY BEHIND the Seattle bench. As in front row. There was no one between the players and us. It was the most amazing view we've ever had at a basketball game! I am so excited to tell the crumpet how close she actually was to Sue Bird.

The game got quite exciting at the end...Phoenix completely dominated the first half, and then Seattle staged a tremendous comeback in the second half and actually pulled out the win. We got to see a lot of Diana, Sue, and Swin (Swin has had a rough couple of years playing in Detroit and it's wonderful to see the "old" Swin reemerging with this new team). Mom turned to me at one point and said, "well, we've never had our view blocked by the referee before!" Indeed. And what's with those coaches feeling the need to stand up all the time? Couldn't they crouch out of our sightlines?

It was amazing to be that close to the action, and to see how quick and strong the players really are. Also lots of fun to hear them all talking to each other. We thought we'd be able to hear the Seattle coach in the huddle during timeouts, but the arena blasted the music so loud that we could only catch a few words here and there.

All in all, it was a big treat, and a great night. I wished very much that I had a camera, but after several minutes of fiddling with my cell phone and trying to figure out how to work the pathetic camera it has, then finding that the shutter delay was about ten seconds, I abandoned the attempt and just watched the game!

The surgery rotation is trucking along. I had a good week with a breast surgeon, and actually have a three-day weekend now, being lucky enough to have Memorial Day off. Mom and I have been joined by Susan, visiting from Oklahoma, and we'll be heading up north this afternoon, staying overnight in Flagstaff, and visiting the Grand Canyon tomorrow. Susan, luckily, has a camera, so I may be able to post some photos from our adventure in a couple of days.

The crumpet is growing and bouncing around, she'll be 30 weeks along on Monday! She has been very obliging when I've been scrubbed in for surgeries, staying nice and quiet and not kicking me in the spleen. In return, I'm trying to get her as much sleep and good food as possible, and finding time to do some yoga every night. We're getting along quite nicely, though we miss Alex (and Jasper) very much.

In Arizona

An update on the goings on in Scottsdale:

I arrived Friday night without incident, and Hilary was there in a jiff. As it turns out, she had spent most of the day studying, patiently waiting for her resident to page her with something, ya know, medical to take of. Instead, we think that he took off golfing sometime around midday.

Anyway, Friday night was taken up with a quick dinner at the apartment while watching something on the History Channel about the history and production of chocolate. Hilary rejoiced in the return of wireless internet - she has been tethered to the DSL modem al week! Before long, it was almost midnight in Minnesota - high time for bed. The air conditioning here is rather a necessity, although I discovered the apartment's ceiling fans do a great job for less energy. Perhaps the previous occupant (another Mayo person most likely - there's a Minnesota utility bill addressed to him here in AZ) was keen on conserving energy more than us - only about 1/4 of the light bulbs in the place work.

Saturday morning was spent, not surprisingly, lounging around the apartment and trying not to heat up too much. Morning concluded with a nap. When we were finally ready to face the world, we went out to see the new Narnia movie. A good way to spend two and a half hours (almost three when you include the five previews that preceded it). Scottsdale, we have learned, is nothing but compact subdivisions, condos, apartments, wide roads, and shopping centers. As it happens, we stopped off at one that was close by after the movie to do some food shopping. I picked up some of the local brew. We picked up dinner to go at a neat local restaurant - Pita Jungle. Excellent falafel! I found it using the Google Maps feature on my iPhone, reinforcing my belief that it is the ultimate travel companion. We resisted the desire to hit up the gelato cafe right next door - it would spoil our appetite.

Here is Hilary doing her daily prenatal yoga practice. Yes, we know she's getting a bit large at 29 weeks. She's trying not to take it personally.

Sunday we decided to get an earlier start and get out and about. The local outdoorsy sight is Camelback mountain, which is a rocky ridge in the midst of the city proper, a bit NE from downtown Phoenix. Being a relatively short hike and right in the midst of the city, Camelback has lots of people on it all day. Urban Hiking, I think they call it. We approached the hike with this mindset: it's a mile and a half up, with 1200 feet elevation gain over rocky trail, with little shade, in what would soon be 100-degree weather. Ordinarily Hilary and I could make short work of it, in spite of the conditions. As it was, with her carrying extra weight and with decreased lung capacity, and me fighting off a caffeine-withdrawal headache and (as I would later conclude) a little dehydration, we moved a bit more leisurely. That was just fine - we still passed some folks on our way up. Even so, this was one of those rare occasions where the book time applied.




The south and east base of Camelback is bordered by a ritzy country club and resort: the Phoenician. This picture is, I think, the central clubhouse and hotel, with what looks like five swimming pools. The 27-hole course is verdant, well-kept grass, quite an accomplishment (and ostentatious extravagance) in the middle of the freakin' desert!

Actually, the descent took as long as the ascent. Hilary was being particularly careful of her footing on the gravel-covered rocks. The heat was up, our water exhausted, and the trail really seemed longer coming down. We received a pleasant surprise about halfway down - a call from Hilary's father, who is in the midst of a hike across Scotland. We stopped off at a supermarket on the way back to get cold water to knock back before anything else. Then we headed to the gelato place we found last night. It's a few hours later, and we're still trying to catch up fluids - a useful lesson there.

We'll be doing some of that fluid catch-up at wherever we decide to do dinner. It'll be an early night - Hilary has to report to the hospital, and my flight leaves, all before 7 am.

So Far, So Good!

Just a quick update from your friendly correspondent in Arizona!

I am settling in very well here. The apartment, though in the midst of suburban jumble (everything for miles seems to be either condo/townhome communities or strip malls), is quite comfortable, and my high-speed internet got hooked up yesterday without a hitch.

The consultants and residents have been easy to work with so far. Monday was just an orientation day, and I was done early enough to go out grocery shopping and make lunches and dinners for the rest of the week, anticipating long days. Yesterday (Tuesday) was my first day in the operating room, though my consultant had both of her cases canceled. I had spent part of Monday evening reviewing hernia repairs and groin anatomy in anticipation of these operations, and was very nervous when the resident told me that he'd find me some other surgeries to watch, since I hadn't studied anything else! Luckily, I ended up scrubbing in on three hernia repairs, so got to put some of that knowledge to use. They had me suturing within about 10 seconds of walking up to the table, and my fingers thankfully remembered what to do, even though it's been months!

Today was an outpatient clinic day, when the surgeons see pre and postop patients. Not too much for me to do, except to tag along and try to see/feel interesting clinical findings. Tomorrow we're in the OR again. At some point I'll post a much more detailed entry about what I'm up to surgery-wise, but for now I need to get to bed! The schedule has actually been very good so far, I arrive about 6:30-6:45 and have been out in the late afternoon.

Alex is arriving on Friday evening, which I am really looking forward to! We've also been able to videoconference each night using iChat, which is WAY more fun than talking on the phone, and even means that I can have a look at Jasper. He's going to bring the camera, so then I can post some photos of the desert surroundings. (It was a "cool" 75 degrees yesterday...most days it is in the 90s, and will be over 100 soon.)