Bawlmore

Baltimore is supposed to be 3 syllables, but it seems that those from Maryland chop it into 2. I recently went to the American Society of Clinical Pathology meeting in Baltimore. I hadn't been there since 2005 - when I interviewed for a residency of Johns Hopkins. The meeting was down in the Inner Harbor, and I have to admit, it has been revivified and a pretty neat place! In my free time I walked around the cobblestone streets of Fells Point and browsed the record stores and antique shops (purchasing nothing of course). For dinner, some of the Washington folks went for crab and seafood - one lone picture captured - Larry, Monesh, Jennifer, and Mike. It was a great time! Who knows when I will be back... the flight from Seattle to Baltimore requires a connection and is quite a long trip! Mike

Roses

When we moved into our house, there were a number of rose bushes in tough shape. Frankly, we thought that they were all spent - a master gardener looked at our yard last year to give us advice on what to keep and what to chop out. She thought that the rose bushes were likely just the root part of the graft (rose bushes are often grafted) and that no flowers would come. Well, our first year, we got a single yellow rose, 8 feet off the ground. When we cut all the trees and bushes down in anticipation of the fence, the rose bushes took off - but no flowers. Oh well. Then, the rose bush least likely to bear flowers (it was small, shriveled), burst out two bright red roses in early September, right before we got married. I suppose that it was nature saying -- good luck in San Francisco! I had hoped to catch a photo, but by the time I had a chance, a windstorm had blown all the petals away - so I captured a photo of the petals. That's all that remains until next year. Oh well! Still lovely to have had a couple of roses this year!