Catching up with photos

Paige, Brian, and Lea came to visit back in September. Lea did a lot of thinking.

Surgery finally, finally, finally ended in mid-October and I went home for a week. On the way back, we decided to drive through Virginia and West Virginia on Route 50. We didn't take it all the way to Cincinnati (maybe some other time), just until we hit I-79. We got a late start leaving and I was in a bad mood that morning, but when we hit the highway, for some reason I was all "you only live once" and suggested we take the scenic route, and Eric was up for it. The scenic route was really scenic. We drove through a couple tiny little cute towns in Virginia with colonial architecture and antique stores and tons of people out walking around. The rest of the time, we were one of the few cars on the road, and the foliage was gorgeous. And we saw the most unique car in the whole world.


Moxie and Mojo have been uncharacteristically friendly, if a little annoyed at having their picture taken

Last weekend we drove to Columbus, IN, which the AIA has ranked sixth on a list of cities noted for "architectural innovation and design." The town, population 39,000, has awesome buildings and public art all over the place. We also ate really good barbecue. Yum.

North Christian Church, Eero Saarinen, 1964

Eric and Mater (actually, a fire engine, not a tow truck)


Bartholomew County (Ind.) Veterans Memorial. We were there, coincidentally, on Veterans Day weekend.


Inscribed on all those pillars were letters from soldiers. They were all really sad, but this one made me cry.



In a fit of creative photography, I was instructed to pose along with the creepy children of "Crack the Whip." All 5 of us are ready to be transplanted to the lobby of Freedom Village.

The art and sculptures were more interesting than some of the architecture. I have to believe the AIA folks that some of those buildings were truly noteworthy; I found a lot of them to just be ugly. Nevertheless, it was a really cute town and it was fun to drive around and see all the buildings (we had a list and a map and a plan and everything).


Yesterday, I made a delicious pot of soup -- sausage and corn chowder. It was so easy, so quick, and so delicious. Plus, I got to use my beautiful Le Creuset dutch oven (in kiwi).

Recipe: Cut up some sausage (I used a pre-cooked andouille sausage I found on sale) and some onion (I was out of fresh, so I used some frozen pearl onions) and throw them in the pot to saute a bit. Add a can of potatoes, cut up, and about a cup of water. Let everything simmer for a while. Add some salt and pepper to taste (I made mine nice and peppery; you probably won't need too much extra salt because of the sausage). When you feel like it, add a can of corn, drained, a can of creamed corn, and about a cup of evaporated milk. Or, instead of water+evaporated milk, you can use all regular milk, but I didn't want to use all of ours up -- we need it for cereal! There's no set amount of liquid -- use your judgment. Make it look like a chowder. Everything's pre-cooked, so you're just letting it heat up. Add some paprika and fresh flat-leaf parsley to garnish/flavor, and enjoy! Really, it was totally delicious, and all from cans. It was so tasty, I wouldn't even bother to make it the "real" way next time (that is, making a roux and adding milk). Just make sure you make all your chunks of sausage, onion, and potato the same size, for easy eating. If I were a TV chef, I'd say serve it with a nice hunk of crusty French bread, but we ate it with Ritz crackers instead. I'm definitely restocking the pantry with corn, creamed corn, canned potatoes, and evaporated milk, just for this recipe. I've had the frozen pearl onions on hand for a while because I totally intend to make beef bourguignon and coq au vin (both also perfect for the Le Creuset!) at some point... soon...

Well, that's my last few months from a non-work standpoint. I'm just about done with outpatient pediatrics and I start inpatient on Monday. While I really like the hours of outpatient (9-5, with a 1-hour lunch!), getting home at 5:30 means there isn't time to get much done -- all the other businesses are closed, too! I can't believe I'm about to say this, but being on call will be much better for dealing with life stuff -- after all, if you're on call one night, you're post-call (and free!) the next. Jeez, what is wrong with me?