i know, i know...

i don't post anything for months, and then twice in one day!

i went on a bird walk today with the audobon society and saw my first owl, ever. i know they aren't rare, or anything, but i was beside myself. i made sean go back with me later so we could check in on them.

here are two baby barred owls. their parents are somewhere close by. i saw one of the adults earlier today but couldn't find it when we went back.

a visit from mom

it has once again been awhile since i've blogged. it was a very busy winter and spring. i'm happy to say that my schedule gets more and more manageable by the month. july is going to be rough, but then it appears to be smooth sailing for the rest of residency.

i recently had vacation and my mom came to visit. it was her first time ever to seattle and our first visit since i graduated from med school. since we stuhldreher descendants are "nervous" travelers, my mom took the train here, enjoying the 3 days of scenery from her sleeper car.

i was somewhat anxious about the agenda as my mom has particular tastes. the only 2 things she wanted to do were go to pike place market and go on the seattle underground tour. given that her visit lasted 7 days, that left approximately 6 days and 22 hours of time to fill.

all in all, we had a good time. we did some touristy things. i've lived here for 2 years and just managed to go on my first duck tour. Sean and mom toured the seattle underground. we ate out a lot. we took a 2 day trip to the peninsula, reminding me just how much i love port angeles and olympic national park. i saw several harbor seals from our waterfront hotel. i played blackjack for the first time ever and lost 20 bucks in the process. we went to forks and rialto beach, seeing lake crescent along the way.

here are some pictures from the trip, in no particular order.

hurricane ridge, one of my most favorite places.




lunch at the red door in fremont. do you see us in the mirror?




jenga and asti spumanti, a perfect combination.


in the elwah valley.


sean enjoying the ediz hook with port angeles and the olympics in the background.




a monkfish at the market.



we all suck at golf, it turns out.


mom and the troll.


feeling nervous about the amphibious nature of the ducks.



bye, bye.

winter in seattle

the snow, which has been well documented by now, was quite crazy. of course, it was no worse then the average winter day in, say Minnesota, but we got pretty excited. our road made a pretty good sled hill, it turns out.

here's the neighborhood pup, roxie. she was so cute, chasing everyone down the hill.



here's sean (the red blur) snowboarding. too bad the light wasn't better. the white blur is roxie chasing after him.



christmas came and went. i had the day off, which was great, but i was on call that weekend. we spent christmas evening with sean's aunt and her family eating calzone made from scratch.

here's sean trying out his new tripod on xmas morning.



sean got me a karaoke game for the wii. here he is, singing away...



sean got me jenga for christmas. i know, i'm like 10 years late, but it is quite fun. we had a quiet new years with rachel at our place. we played jenga and then scrabble. sean was in bed by 10. i fell asleep on the couch at 1130.



i hope everyone has a happy and peaceful 2009!