Dear Savta,

We hope you are having a great trip to South Carolina!  William and I celebrated our First anniversary last weekend, and I wanted to write you a little bit about it.  On Sunday morning we got up early because we had signed up for a paddleboarding lesson, something we had never tried before.  The lesson started at 7:30 on a reservoir lake in Wake Forest.  When we arrived we were given a long board  that was actually inflatable, like an air mattress, and a paddle that was about 6 feet long.  We learned to stand on the boards and paddle over the water in the reservoir over the course of the lesson, but not without some pretty dramatic falls into the water; because William is so tall he took some serious spills, but the water was very warm, and once we had fallen once we didn't worry about falling again, so it was actually more relaxing!  We don't have a picture of us, but here is a picture from another website so you have an idea of how it looks.

During our lesson it started to rain, and it was so neat to be on the water with the rain coming down; we both felt like it was an amazing experience to connect with nature.  However, when we got back to the car we discovered that the trunk had been popped the whole time it was raining, and our towels were soaked, so we got to feel like we were connecting with nature a little more on the sopping wet drive home!


Afterward we came home and took a great nap, then we departed for the Fearrington, a beautiful Inn that is about 25 minutes outside of Chapel Hill.  We had a gift certificate from the Mosses from William's birthday, so we decided to use it to celebrate our first year together.  A picture of the Inn from their website is below:

The Fearrington is WONDERFUL, and we had a room in the corner, so we had windows taking up two whole walls; we looked out on the beautiful grounds surrounding the hotel and the "oreo" cows (you can see why they are called that below).  

When we arrived we were served a full English tea, which always makes me think of you, Savta!  I had raspberry tea and William had oolong, both were delicious.   The Inn makes all its own lemon curd and preserves, which we had on fresh scones with our tea.  Yum.

Afterwards we walked around the grounds; there are beautiful English manicured gardens and sun rooms with comfortable furniture, so we lounged around and read before dinner in one of the rooms.  We dressed for dinner and had a wonderful meal at the restaurant.  When we came back to the room there were chocolates on our pillow, port in a decanter, and slippers set out just for us by the bed.  We felt very pampered!  We both looked for a closet in the morning where we could stow away, but had no success, so we had to settle for a gourmet breakfast and then a car ride back to Monday reality.  We were so greatful for the time we had there though - a wonderful way to celebrate the first year of our marriage and relax together.

Fittingly, tomorrow we are headed to Ann Arbor to celebrate a new marriage - Pete, one of our wedding ushers who toasted William at the rehearsal dinner, is getting married there on Friday.  Afterward we are heading to Chicago for an overnight with some of William's friends from undergrad, which should be lots of fun.

We miss you Savta, and are glad you get to come enjoy some southern hospitality at Pawley's  with Minda and Rick.  Have a great weekend and we will talk to you soon!

Love,
Chailee and William

Midweek roundup

Dear Saba and Savta,

Things are pretty calm in Chapel Hill these days - William is settling into his busy law practice (I'm not loving his extended hours but am thrilled that he is enjoying work), and I am continuing to plug away at the research life.  I am starting to plan my schedule for the next year, and have FINALLY decided that I will definitely be pursuing an OB/GYN residency - I am so excited!   It is a huge relief to have made a decision, and now I am working on choosing courses and residency programs to which I will apply in September.   No updates yet on the research front, but I'm hoping to have a publication to share soon!

Over the weekend we watched the Duke-Carolina game and one male member of the household was particularly dismayed at the outcome (hint: it wasn't Perry) but we've pulled through and gotten on with our week.  Our race is only two weeks away, and I ran 9 miles on Sunday in the beginning of our taper down from 12 the weekend before.  We'll only run 6 this weekend so that we are nice and rested for the 13 that will come on March 18th!


Hope all is well in Andover!


Love,
Chailee and William

More Catch-up and overdue pictures!

I am so behind in my writing that I decided on another long post to catch up on all my pictures.  Perry is getting really big, I weighed him yesterday and he is a whopping FIFTY pounds!!  He is still handsome as ever, of course!

At the beginning of January I went to Philadelphia to take Step 2-CS, my last set of medical boards.  Unlike the computer board exams, this is a clinical exam with actors that play patients and only offered in four locations in the country.  What's nice is that the exam is pass-fail and fairly low-stress, so I decided to make a trip of it to see Emi (a high school friend who was in our wedding), who is now in Philadelphia, and then Lacey in D.C. on my way back.  I stayed with Emi the night before my exam and played with her very cute bulldog, Hatsu.

After my exam (on a Friday) I drove to D.C. to hang out with Lacey (another bridesmaid) and her husband, Jeff (another IMSA alum).  Lacey, Jeff and I met up with Erin (my Wellesley roommate and bridesmaid) in the city to hang out on Saturday.  We went to a restaurant that you would both really have liked, based on classic historic American food (e.g. Delmonico's hamburger, Southern-style shrimp and grits, and catsup, to name a few).  Some of the dishes were done traditionally, and others were a little more avant garde, as was the case for my "sugar on snow" dessert; shaved ice with lemon custard and maple syrup (the maple syrup froze so it had more of a taffy-like texture).  The dish was quite a sight:

Afterwards we went to the Museum of Natural History, and there was a really great bug exhibit - I got to hold a HUGE grasshopper!

We also got to see a cool exhibit about the Chilean miners that included one of the two Phoenix capsules in which the miners were rescued.  I thought it was a little weird that the capsule would be in the U.S. rather than Chile, but apparently NASA made the capsule so it got to come back to the U.S.  There were amazing letters from the miners and diagrams of the disaster and rescue efforts.  

Lacey and Jeff live near Arlington cemetary so on Sunday before I left we took a quick trip over to the Robert E. Lee house before I headed out.   Jeff took this picture of Lacey and I looking out over the D.C. skyline, if you look closely you can see the Washington monument, the Capitol, the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, and Arlington Cemetary behind us.

It was nice to be home after the D.C. trip - William and I did a TON of traveling over the holiday and it was very nice to be home the next weekend.  A few weeks ago we also got to go have a nice Shabbat dinner at Amy and Anthony's, and we showed them the blog.  They wanted to send you lots of love and good wishes, so we all squished in front of William's camera and took a picture to send you!

Lastly, I have been doing some experiments with baking, and I made some cookies that have hydrangeas piped from icing on top, as well as some royal icing that I painted.

 

We are less than three weeks away from our half-marathon and got up to a 12 mile run last Sunday.  On Saturday we are planning to do the full race distance - 13.1 miles - and then only doing short runs so that we are well rested for the race on March 18th.

Will try to be better about posting more frequently in March!  We miss you and are sending you lots of love from North Carolina and counting the days until Passover! 


Love,
Chailee and William

Zavi's Find

This morning, on Zavi's third day of walking to the top of our cul de sac, she was shying away from the east side of the circle. I thought she was afraid of the trellis above one of the mail boxes.  I decided to take her over "there" to directly address whatever she was fearing.  So I get her over there, and I am giving her some treats (what you're supposed to do when they are scared of something), and she has almost no interest in these diced chicken pieces.  She just keeps staring over the mailbox. I finally get wise, and look over the mailbox. This is what I (we) saw......Joe

Zavi:  Very confident before seeing the bear

Long time, no post!!

Dear Savta and Saba,


I have been completely delinquent in posting lately!  William and I have been traveling a good number of weekends and training for the Virginia Beach half marathon in three weeks.  We are up to 10 miles, so this weekend we will do a 12 mile training run and then take it easy with shorter runs for the two weeks before the race.  We bought our tickets for Passover and we are so excited to get to see everyone!


Perry has started obedience lessons with a new private trainer (group classes were not working for him - our little pup needs special individualized attention because he has a little trouble focusing) but he is doing great on the leash and much better in the apartment since we started. We got Perry's DNA results in January (a cheap test where you send a cheek swab from him and they tell you what breeds he's made of), and we had a little contest to let our friends and parents/siblings guess his heritage.  It turns out he is about 1/4 hound (american foxhound and otterhound) and 1/2 lab.  Some of the sillier, small breed contributors were lhasa apso, saluki, and finnish spitz.  We're not sure about those, but he does look a lot like a foxhound/lab mix! Bill Moss, William's dad, got the most points (he guessed both foxhound and lab) and won the contest.

Dad is having a great time with Zavi in Asheville, he took her to the top of our road in Asheville for the first time last night, and she looks great!


We celebrated six months of being married and Valentine's Day at a place called The Inn at Celebrity Dairy last week.  It is a little bed and breakfast out in the country near Chapel Hill, and it has been taken over by a gourmet chef and his wife (Tina, a former rockette!) but it is still a working farm. Dinner was awesome - all local produce and cheese made from goat milk from the farm.  We woke up on Wednesday and got a tour of the dairy before we both headed off to work.  It was pretty wild to be on the farm at 8 a.m. and at work at 9 a.m.


Speaking of work, I am contributing to several Emergency Medicine projects that I think are going to be published soon, which will be a big help for my residency applications!  I'm still not sure Emergency Medicine is what I want to do (I have been thinking more and more about ob/gyn) but any publication is helpful, and I am enjoying the work now.  Last night I got to work in the free clinic that all the students from UNC's health school run, and it was really fun to work with the newer medical students and realize how much I've learned in the last 3.5 years.

William's picture was in the paper because his new firm took an ad out announcing all their new attorneys last Sunday - he's a little sheepish about the ad but I think it's great!


We cannot wait to see you both at Passover (and to introduce William to our Passover traditions - you'll really have to hide the afikomen low this year so William can't find it)!
 


Love,
Chailee and William

Food!

Frank and I ate at "Cantors" which is a local institution reminding me very much of Reins Deli. I took a picture of the pickles for Savta because they instantly reminded me of here. Oddly enough the restaurant is down the street and 24 hours and a year and change being here and this is my first time! Zachary Quinto is sitting next to us ( for mother, that's spock in the new star trek movies)

Love ya

Mike

Zavi

January 7th saw Rendi and Joe pick up the newest addition to the mountain crew:  Zavi. She's a Field Golden Retriever from the same bloodlines as our friends, the Langguths, have had ever since we have known them.  The trip TO Birmingham, Alabama area was much faster than the RETURN--but worth it.  We think Zavi will be a good fit for the mountains--most definitely high-spirited and, so far, pretty smart. Postings of her growing up will be a regular occurrence. 

M-S Sanibel

Sanibel was, as it has been over the last 12 or so years, the perfect end to another great year.  Of course, this year was a special one with Chailee and William getting married. 

The M-S parents began with the usual driving trip on Thursday, 12/22, and made it to Ocala from Asheville. Ever mindful of our commitment to good nutrition, this year there was no stop at “Five Guys” in Ocala (you have to admit though, that s—t is GOOD! By Friday, after the obligatory stop at Ellenton, we made it to Sanibel.

The weather this year was perfect—around 80 all week, excepting one day.  Lots of beach walking, bicycling, a little golf, fun eating at the local haunts—all the regular rituals that never seem to get old. 

Maris and Cole landed their rental car, after 22.5 hrs from Hartford, at Ft. Meyers airport on Tuesday the 27^th. Their team driving this year was pretty evenly split as they pushed through the night after a 6pm departure from the northeast. 

Chailee and William arrived Wednesday, flying into Tampa, driving the rest of the way to Sanibel in a very specially designed Ford.  This vehicle had a very clandestine cruise control unit. Everyone had a turn in hunting for it.  No one ever found it. 

We did do the Latke Dinner on Thursday with steak and swordfish grilled by the guys.  Maris and Chailee handled the latke frying duties.  The Chanukah calendar, as is the custom, was shifted to match the time at Sanibel.

Friday, Dec 30, we all did a sunset cruise between Sanibel and Pine Island. Fun, Food, and dauphins for color--coupled with a super sunset!

The parent crew could not have been more honored, than to have been surrounded by these four!  It is just plain great.  Talk about GREAT.  This year each of the younger set couples, separately out-wrestled Joe for a dinner tab. He, of course, was indignant, as he was out-smarted in each instance—well at least surprised.  It is a surprise he could get used to—as he left for the restroom as the check came for subsequent meals.  Kidding aside, we are very lucky as a family.  Sanibel gives a good time out every year to reflect on that fact!  Thanks Chailee and William, and Maris and Cole for the efforts to join us at year’s end!!!!

New Year’s Eve saw Chailee and William depart before noon for their return flight.  The remaining four bicycled to Captiva (24 miles rountrip) for lunch water-side at the Mucky Duck.  Maris and Cole decided on a tandem bike for the excursion.  They got the hang of it very quickly and progressed to where Cole could go “no hands!”  That woke up the Mel Woman—big time!  We were graced with a Rosanne Barr look a like waitress from hell at the restaurant.  Rendi guilted Joe into leaving a tip. We have to admit, though, Joe was extremely tolerant of this b----'s p-ss poor bald brain numb skull approach to good service. 

 

We celebrated New Years with a little TV, Bowl game, poor Dick Clark, embarrassingly pathetic Anderson Cooper, a card game, cheeses, prosciutto, salami, fruit, wine.  After the ball dropped, we looked at the Florida coast fireworks from the roof deck of the condo, and finished off the wedding sparklers without having to employ a sprinker or dial 911—close there. 

Thanks to every good grace of 2011, and a hearty welcome to 2012!  In Savta’s words, “May we never have less!”