Boring to Bold . . .

We have an accent wall! We've talked about it for a while, but just now got around to actually doing it. Several months ago (more like a year really), I painted the back of the book case across from this wall the same color red, but didn't paint anything else at the time. I was waiting on the right inspiration (and Anthony's aproval) to paint an accent wall. Since I'm headed back to med school and clinics Monday, I feel this need to get everything done this week, so it's been a week of projects. This week we had the carpet and furniture steam cleaned, pest control out, planted the trees in the backyard, and painted this wall! Wow! I call that a successful week :).
Our plan for the backyard is going to be really great. I haven't taken a picture yet of what we've done to this point, but we planted (and re-planted after Gabby and Porter decided to taste and play tug-of-war with) Leyland Cypress trees along the back fence. These are apparently really hardy, drought resistant, and fast growing plants - which is perfect for our back yard and also means that we won't have to look out at our neighbor all of the time. Hopefully later this year we will build a deck/pergola and hang a swing out there. We love to be outside, but our patio is really small and there isn't a place for chairs or anything like that out back. We're also planning to put in a stone pathway from the gate to the pergola - part of the reason for this is because we will actually need a path, but perhaps the more important reason is becasue the dogs have worn out the grass there anyway. I'll post pics of that project as it goes and as we get a bit further along. I do like projects around the house, but think that they're going to dwindle at least for third year, then perhaps we will have other projects in store for my fourth year! The other project that I did this week was make a wine cork cork board - well, mostly, it's about 2/3 done - but it's kind of fun collecting corks from wine that we've had and enjoyed with friends and champagne that we've celebrated with over the past few years. I'll take a picture of that some time. Yeah for home renovations and time to do them...

Pacific Northwest Vacation

*Click any of the photos to go to our album on Kodak Gallery - more pictures are there, but these are a few of my favorites*

We take time when we can get it, and these nice simultaneous breaks from the medical world of UMC are quickly coming to an end. We have had a great time in Seattle and Portland. In Seattle - we stayed in the Pan Pacific Hotel which was excellent. The people there were really nice, and it was a pretty trendy place. When I was there alone, I stayed in the Hilton Homewood Suites - which i also recommend (free internet, breakfast, and a 'welcome home' dinner snack each evening). Seattle was a really interesting place -we loved Pike Place Market - the home of the flying fish! (Litterally if you want a fish, they will throw it - either to you if you're game enough to try - or to eachother to wrap up for you). It's a rather 'granola'/ ' bohemian' place - with lots of arts and crafts and BEAUTIFUL tulips and boquets of flowers that you would pay 3x for if purchased in Jackson. There were prople on the street playing music all the time, with cases open for dollars and change. There were dogs, and people and strollers all over the place - how wonderful. Not to mention the smells of fresh fruits and vegetables, and oven fresh pasteries.
We visited the Seattle library - that apparently has 10,000 self cleaning windows (outside only unfortunately - but hey - it's better than my manual cleaning windows. :) We also drove by the hospital, because we are nerds, and checked out some of the extremely high priced neighborhoods. We also went to the aquarium, which was a lot of fun! I love the sea otters - the lady gave them their 'toys' while we were there and they were adorable. The toys were dog "kong" toys stuffed with crab claws and legs that they had to play with to dig out, so it's like a toy and a snack - can't get much better than that!
We took the train down to Portland - which was a lot of fun - and CHEAP! it was a great way to travel and I would recommend it - it's quite a scenic tour and they don't charge you for a 2nd bag the way some airlines do - and when you're packing for 2.5 wks yes you do need 2 bags! (American actually charges you for EVERY checked bag - I recommend Southwest whenever possible 2 free bags!). In Portland we got a very good Travelocity deal and stayed in the Heathman Hotel downtown. It was lovely - very very small, but remodeled, rooms and very beautiful! Right in the middle of everything. In Portland, the publich transportation is excellent -there is a 'free' trolley that runs downtown and to some of the shopping districts. Also -there is no sales tax in Oregon - so if something costs $5 - you actaully only pay $5! Amazing ! Also they are required to pump your gas for you - no tips, they just have to do it! I'm thinking gosh this is nice - rainy weather and you don't ever have to get out to pump gas! sweet! In Portland we had a wonderful dinner with a friend and his fiance that I met throught APSA - he's finishing his PhD, and is going to eventually be a neurosurgeon! (I'm impressed with the stamina and ability to sign up for another 7 year program!) He's a great guy though and their house was adorable ! They have two cats, a dog, birds, and chickens - fresh eggs daily - not to mention fertilizer for their garden! very very cute. We visited the hospital (of course), and checked out the apparently famous Powells Bookstore - ended up spending quite a bit of time in there too! We visited Mt. Hood - which is the only place in the contiguous US where skiiing is possible year round - but we didn't take the right clothes - so no skiing for us. We visited a few vineyards -and the wine actaully made it back safely and all in one peice on the plane. We also visited this great place called "Multnomah Falls" that was absolutely breathtaking!
That was our last trip before Anthony begins his Endocrinology fellowship and I start M3 year! We feel very thankful and blessed to be able to take trips like this and spend time together.

Things I've learned this week

This past week has been a world-wind of science meetings. First I was in Chicago at the American Physician Scientists Association (APSA) - MD/DO/PhD meeting with some established physician scientists with whom we were allowed to meet and network. This is a great meeting, not so much really to present my research (b/c these folks liked immunology much more than physiology - which was really good for Jeanann, but made for a rather lonely poster hour for me), but more to meet future colleagues and mentors, and/or program directors.
Then I came to Seattle for the American Academy of Neurology meeting, and have had a great time and learned a lot - a lot of neurology, a lot about residency programs, and fellowship programs, the pharmacology of Lyrica, methodology of white matter density post stroke, prolonged window of use for TPA, and a lot of really great neurology stuff. Experimental Biology meeting in New Orleans last week was alright, but a lot of basic science, but not much that I was really interested in, but this meeting really 'melts my butter' - and makes me excited to be getting a little closer to where I want to be. Other than science I've learned some other generalizations as well:
1. People are dishonest - even the people that you know should know better. So at this meeting, there are signs posted everywhere that say - "NO PHOTOGRAPHY" - yet there are grown people who whip out their litte silent cameras or phones in front of posters and take pictures, or even of EVERY single slide during the presentations. The problems with this are multiple - not least among which is that much of this data being presented is not yet published, and these people who are taking the photographs might have bigger, faster, better funded labs - and could easily steal an idea and run with it before the original presenter can get it published - this is bad!
2. There are scientists from great (however, northeast) universities who have the audacity
3. It doesn't really rain any more in Seattle than it does in Atlanta - who knew?
4. The Seattle Library has 10,000 windows.
5. Pikes Fresh Market is a wonderful place - you can get a whole bunch of Tulips for $10. It's so beautiful and amazing. However, there are a lot of um... bohemian people down there too. Lots of street musicians, who actually are really good. lots of people who are selling their arts and crafts.
6. American Academy of Neurology Runs that "start" at 6:30 am don't really 'start' at 6:30, that's just when they let you start picking up your bib numbers.
7. I'm going to try to cut my hair tomorrow at an Aveda salon (teaching aka cheap but really good salon) and I'm terrified of cutting my hair. It's time, but I'm always afraid that once i cut it, i'll not ever grow it out again - now - i'm not really cutting it above my shoulders, but maybe some chin length layers or something. I guess we'll see. I'll think of posting a pic if I like it- if not I'll wear a ponytail for the next 12 weeks :).
That's all from the last night alone in Seattle! Anthony flies in tomorrow night - yeah :).

Running for Research

I'm heading to Seattle for the American Academy of Neurology meeting soon and am running in a 5k there. If you're so moved, please consider making a contribution to raise money for research.
Thanks
http://www.active.com/donate/aan09runwalk/kimgannon

My all-star Husband

So even though Anthony has access to blog on this site, he's often too busy (or maybe it's just too cheesy for him), so it usually gets left up to me. On the up-side of this - I get to take a minute to brag on him - which is good because he wouldn't do it himself.

Anthony was named as one of the M3 Resident All-Stars. This award is given to the resident/or residents who display the characteristics that doctors and students should strive for; meaning that he is an awesome teacher, exciting lecturer, displays outstanding bedside manner, and is fun to be around at 3 in the morning on call. This makes him the "best doctor ever"!!! I'm so proud of him - I knew he was a great doctor, but I'm glad that his hard work does not go unnoticed by others.

Anthony's had an exciting week! He also just ran his first 5K (3.1miles) at the "Run from the SUN" - run to benefit and raise awareness of Melanoma, and other skin related cancers. This run was in downtown Jackson and many of the medicine (and med peds as the case may be) residents participated. Their shirts were really cute - they said "Dyspneic Docs" on the front and "Running Hard and Breathing Harder" on the back. I thought that this was particularly funny!! The last stretch was really brutal - they had to run around the coliseum and then back up High Street! Most people bring their kids to the races, so we decide that we should too... so we took Gabby! She was a very good little girl and a big hit with the kids. I'm so proud of Anthony - he did great!! :)

One down... One to go!

A long time coming.... I finally finished my Ph.D. in Physiology. My defense was in 2 parts (because one of my committee members forgot that he was on my committee, and was out of town); so I gave seminar on Wednesday of last week and then answered questions for my committee on Friday afternoon. The seminar was the part that i was more worried about - the committee meeting wasn't bad - the professors on my committee are nice and I know them all pretty well. Not to mention that I took them food (Yummy Lenny's sandiches, cookies and chips) :) which makes everything a little better.
My mentor then took our whole lab plus Anthony (and her daughter too) out to celebrate at Shapley's. When she finished grad school, her mentor took her out to celebrate and she passed along the tradition. If I ever have a grad student I'll take the lab out to celebrate their Ph.D. completion as well.
I really enjoyed my time in the lab, but I'm looking forward to going back to med school in June. I start my rotations on Family Medicine, then Surgery, OB/GYN, Peds, then Med/Neuro. I'm still pretty sure that I want to do Neurology in the long run, so it's ok that it's last- I'll have an idea of how the hospital works by then hopefully. But before I start M3 - I've got a whirl-wind of trips and meetings. I leave late Sat Apr 18 driving to New Orleans for Experimental Biology 2009 (after a friend's wedding, but I wouldnt' miss it - even though everyone else is partying on the Amtrak on Friday afternoon), return to Jackson on Apr 22. Then leave on the 23 for an APSA meeting in Chicago, then leave Chicago on the 26th for Seattle and the American Academy of Neurology Meeting. Then Anthony is going to meet me in Seattle on May 2- and we're going to tour the upper Northwest, specifically, Seattle and Portland for a week. And we'll return to Jackson May 9 :).
Then... about 3 weeks left to 1) finish the yearbook 2) finish up in the lab and 3) try to remember medicine and what a patient is! :)

Seaside 1/2 marathon

Who knew that freezing temps were possible in Seaside, FL in MARCH!?! Well... I'm here to tell you that they indeed are! Anthony & I drove down to FL Friday afternoon after he got out of clinic and made it to the Candlewood Suites in Miramar somewhat after midnight. (BTW we HIGHLY recommend this hotel - they are nice, clean, cheap and have a little kitchenette too - w/ a full refridgerator; and they have free wireless internet!). We enjoyed a day at the beach and picked up my race packet on Saturday, then enjoyed a little shopping at the outlet malls. I got a suit to defend my dissertation (in less than 4 wks) and Anthony racked up on socks and ties!
The race was on Sunday morning, and Anthony was a really good sport and agreed to get up and come with me early- he even sat in a coffeeshop in Seaside to study while I ran. When we got there it was probably about 34*F - BRRRR, but it felt kinda good once I got going. The race was great - an out and back along 30A - lots of pretty houses to look at; the only down side was that the wind was against me for the 1st 1/2, but that also meant that it was with me on the way back. I was really shooting for 2 hours this race, and nearly made it. My official chip time was 2:01:29:93. I'm not terribly dissapointed as this is a nice record for me, the downside is that i won't have much time to run I don't think next year - bummer. Anyway- if you're remotely interested in running a 1/2 marathon, this is a GREAT one - here's the link: Seaside 1/2 Marathon. Thanks for cheering me on!! :)
Next race = Legal Beagle (5K) for the Young Lawyers association - March 14.

Taste of UMC

I apparently have a bad habit of over committing myself, and volunteering for too many things. Anthony says that I'd probably be bored and not know what to do with myself if I didn't have so much to do. (However, from now til May I'm not volunteering for ANYTHING else). Here are some picture os the aprons that I made for the ASB volunteers for the "Taste of UMC" on Saturday night. I really enjoy doing things like this, however, time is always an issue. Our table will be serving Strawberry Salsa (thanks to the nice UMC catering folks). I've never had it, but I've heard that it's really delicious. So if you're not busy Saturday night at 7:00, come to the Medical Mall and enjoy some great food!

Taos Ski Adventure.

Click the picture to link to Kodak Gallery: Taos Ski trip

I'm a little overdue blogging this but better late than never, right? Anthony & I had the opportunity to go to Taos, NM in January in the guise of a Keystone Symposia (aka nerd science meeting for mechanotransduction - little bitty things that make cells move in response to some sort of outside stimulus) . Really though, my mentor invited me to go to this meeting in New Mexico last year, and of course I jumped on the opportunity to see more of our great country, smooze with the big dogs, and present my data (this is really exciting, and borderline cool for us research folks!). Anthony got his vacation schedule moved so he could go with me. The great thing was that the meeting was scheduled from 8-11 am and then reconveined at 5:30pm; so we had all afternoon to go and try to learn how to ski! Neither Anthony nor I had ever been skiing before, so it was quite an experience. We took lessons all but our last day there, and the last day we spent the whole day skiing. THe name of the place we went was Taos Ski Valley . It was one of the most beautiful places that i've ever seen. We flew into Albuquerque, NM then took a little bitty van 3 hours north to Taos. The hotel that we stayed in -Sagebrush Inn was equally fabulous. They have free and fantastic breakfast every morning, and they have relatively reliable wireless internet (these are the 2 main requirements for any hotel that I stay in). The people were really nice. My mentor brought her two kids, and the little boy latched onto Anthony. The girl was my buddy some; and i think my mentor was glad to have a short break, even if it was just during dinner hour.
As for the meeting, there were a lot of people interested in the pathway of the cell contraction, but not many people interested in why it mattered, or the physiology behind it; that's what we/ our lab is interested in. My talk was ok, my mentor got cut off b/c everyone wanted to see Obama's innaguration - and that would have been fine, but they cut her off in time to hear Ms. Franklin sing. which was nice too, but we were there for science afterall. just a little rude i thought.
As for skiing itself, it was a really unique experince. You look up the mountain, and think 'wow wouldn't that be fun to come down' then when you're actually at the top - you think, "OMG- the only way down this thing is to ski! What was i thinking?!" We had our share of falls, bumps, and bruises - including me falling off the ski lift (don't worry too much - only at the end b/c i crossed my skiis - i didn't fall more than a foot, but i nearly broke a tail bone I think!). We had a good trip overall. Enjoy the pics!

MS Blues 2009

This is the 2nd year I've run the MS blues 1/2 marathon. My time this year was a bit (about 30 seconds to be exact) slower than last year at 2:10. That's ok for me, about average really. In my defense it was a little hotter, and a lot muggier - last year we wore long sleeves most of the race and were comfortable! Not so much this year. The people from AZ were asking "Is it always so sticky here?" I said - well about 360 days a year! Ha! So this past year, I ran the Chicago marathon, and in 2009 I'll have run the MS blues 1/2 marathon, and I'm heading to Seaside FL at the beginning of March for the 1/2 marathon there. I'm super excited about this for several reasons; not only is it the most wonderful place on earth, but also because the course is supposed to be flat, you get a vera bradley bag as a finishing prize (beats a cotton t-shirt any day!), and the fact that it raises money for the local Charter school. My goal is to finish in 2hrs - I think that if it really is flat this will be possible - but we'll see. Then when I'm in Seattle in April-May, I'm going to run a 5K for the American Academy of Neurology - which should be interesting, me and about 100 other old men :). I bet i have a chance to win my age group at least! Other than that I'm not sure how many other races I'll have time for - given that Med school is starting back in June. YEAH! :) That's all for now!

Christmas in New York 2008

Go warm a cup of milk and fix some hot coco, this is a long story of Gannon adventures ...... Anthony and I just returned from New York City and a week long vacation - which is very uncharacteristic of us, but much needed and appreciated. I'm going to post pictures and links throughout this post, so if you see something, try clicking on it- you never know what you might find. First of all - if you click on the NY skyline picture at the beginning of this post, you'll find yourself whisked away to our Kodak gallery and you can view all of the photos that we took on the trip - with a few minor edits - I'm still working on the captions to all of the pictures.

We left Jackson on Saturday December 13 at 6:30 am. Aunt Mary (Anthony's aunt) was gracious enough to come and get us and take us to the airport at a ridiculous time of the morning. We flew Delta through Atlanta and got to NYC LaGuardia around 2:00pm (yes it was a long layover in Atlanta - thank goodness for good books to read on the way). We finally made it to our the Milford Plaza Hotel around 4:00pm. This hotel was in a really great location. It is one block off of Time Square, and very close to subway terminals - which is a relatively easy and cheap way to get around. While the hotel does not have free breakfast - which is usually a requirement of mine - is is close to a lot of great breakfast places with some delicious coffee. If all else fails, there is a Starbucks on every other corner - literally - I'm not kidding! Saturday night we got to catch up with some friends of ours who live in New York - sort of. Michaele is a post doc in Jackson at UMC Physiology, but her husband Jay is a lawyer in NY - so that's the 'sort of' part of it. They were really sweet and took us out to a great restaurant that I really wish that I could remember the name of - and not only because we had really wonderful Riesling wine. Then we went to the famous King Cole Bar in the St. Regis Hotel. This place is famous for perfecting the Bloody Mary - or "Red Snapper" and while we didn't try it, the bar and hotel were really beautiful. After this day of traveling and late night of fun we slept really well.
Day 2: On Sunday, we went to hear Dr. Tim Keller at the Redeemer Presbyterian Church (which interestingly enough is held in several different locations, but we went to the one in the building for the Ethical Cultural Society). It was a great service with a partial orchestra, and the readers spoke in several different languages for the lessons. What was really interesting also was the number of young people who were in attendance. We then explored the west side of Central Park - the neighborhoods were really beautiful - as you will see in the Kodak Gallery (go back to the top and click on the picture if you didn't already). We then had Chicago style pizza in New York because Anthony had never had any - then we spent the rest of the afternoon exploring central park. It was really pretty - I wish that i had had my running shoes though. There were a ton of people running in the park at all hours of the day. All of the dogs were out with their owners and all of the babies were bundled up in their strollers. The kids were really adorable - Anthony got tired of hearing about it, but they really were cute :). That night, we walked all the way back from the park down to our hotel via 5th Avenue. That night we had a late dinner at Robert Emmets Restaurant because it was right by our hotel, however not great- but we were there about 9:30 and i think that dinner was really over by then anyway.
On Monday - we got up late and decided to head south to see that Statue of Liberty. What we didn't realize at first is that the Staten Island Ferry - which is free by the way - does not take you to lady Liberty, but rather takes you to Staten Island - hence the name. Regardless, we got on the free ferry and took a nice windy trip over to Staten Island. I'm not sure if there is something great there or not, but if there is, we certainly missed it. The boat ride was fun, but after walking about 1/2 mile down the road and seeing nothing but houses and apartment buildings, we decided to go back and get on the ferry. At this point we discovered that we should have taken the Liberty/Ellis Island ferry - to which we already had a pass because of our Explorer Pass. This pass made being touristy in NYC a little more affordable. The way it works is that you purchase the pass on the website for 3, 5 or 7 attractions and then when you get there you just take the card and use it for admission rather than having to purchase tickets. There are a limited number of attractions, but it got us to the places that we wanted to go for about 40% off - which was nice. So... we finally got on the right ferry and headed out to see the Statue of Liberty . This too was a windy ferry ride, and it started raining while we were on our way out there. Thankfully we had our North Face Ski jackets on which are waterproof. We didn't go up into the Statue, but enjoyed walking around the park. After this we ferried back to the port, and walked around down in the south region of the island for a bit. They had a great shoe store, and I found some tall boots that I had been looking for. We also discovered at this point that clothes and shoes below a certain cost are tax free (however if you live in NYC, you pay city, state and federal tax, so this makes up for it - but it sure is nice for visitors!) They also will ship a lot of things back home for you for free. Following this - we took a nice long walk past Ground Zero. The actual site was fenced off pretty well and we couldn't see in, but they were there doing some sort of construction. We did walk into one of the churches adjacent to the World Trade Center site. St. Paul's Chapel was a refuge for the working and weary after the WTC attack. They still have memorials set up inside the church - it was really moving. Following this, we walked quite a way to "NoHo" - which if you're not familiar means North Houston (pronounced "house-ton", not at all like the city in TX). We had dinner with Kelly - one of Anthony's friends from residency at UMC. She is now living in NYC doing a fellowship in pediatric infectious disease (i.e. antibiotic queen) at Mount Sinai. We then had drinks with her and then subway-ed it back down to our hotel. Apparently "SoHo" (South of Houston Street) is the very trendy district. I have wondered for a long time what the shop at the mall stood for - or what the point of the name is.... I'm glad to find out that this is the meaning, my guess was way off ;).
Tuesday morning we got up and went to go see Good Morning America from outside the window. I tried to get us tickets to the show to go inside, but i guess that i didn't make it in time, or there weren't enough, or UMC's email filter ate their response. Regardless, it was fun to watch from outside the window. Tuesday was one of our shopping days. NYC has some really great places to go look - most of them are too expensive to actually purchase anything, but we did get some great Christmas presents! (I can't disclose what they are as the readers may be among the recipients - given the our blog is ever so popular! ha j/k - maybe you should get a present anyway if you're still reading of our adventure ... post a comment - I'll make you cookies!). Lets see... among the stores that we went in - American Girl (which is awesome, I used to have a Molly, but they have so many more dolls these days - Anthony was wonderful to look with me :) ), Saks 5th Avenue (really on 5th Avenue- the windows are as amazing as they say), Lord and Taylor - which was all nice but way too expensive. We of course visited the other stores including Tiffany (all 6 floors of glitz and glamor), Coach, the Disney Store, Peir 1. I did manage to not enter an Ann Taylor or Ann Taylor Loft - that's will power ladies :). We also went in Florsheim and got Anthony 2 pairs of shoes. On Tuesday night, we went to see Anthony's choice of NYC Broadway plays - Wicked. He has been enjoying the sound track for over a year, and I've been plugging my ears - but the girls who sang in the real play had a much more pleasing voice, and we both enjoyed the show very much. Anthony got us great seats - about 5 rows from the front on the right. it was really a wonderful show - if you get a chance while in NYC -definitely go! After Wicked we went to a really great restaurant on 8th Avenue called Thalia - we hadn't heard of it before, but really loved the food and service, even at 9 at night! We would definitely recommend this one! It's in the theater district too which is nice so you can go see a play and then have a nice meal afterwards.
Wednesday was our 3rd anniversary! Wow - it's hard to believe that it's been that long, and then other times it feels like we've always been together. Regardless - it was a great day. We started off by finishing up getting some Christmas presents for our niece and nephew then walked to the Toys-R-Us in Times Square to get them shipped. yes there is a UPS in the basement of the store. Toys-R-Us in the square is also three levels and has a Ferris wheel in the center of the store. We got that done, and then headed back toward Central Park. Anthony had made reservations for us to have a wonderful lunch at Tavern on the Green. It was a lovely lunch. We started out with a toast of Champagne and then both had delicious dishes (following our bowl of soup). Anthony had a cheeseburger - complete with his own little bottle of ketchup and i had butternut squash ravioli (again, note the pictures on Kodak). it was really great. We also had some spiced cider and Anthony had egg nog after our delicious lunch. Needless to say, we didn't need to eat the rest of the day. The decorations in the Tavern were amazing. The ceiling was all decorated and painted, and the Christmas decorations were magnificent. There was a man from Poland who came around and took pictures of the couples or groups in front of the tree. We decided to purchase the photo so that when we go back for our 25th anniversary, we can do it again and then compare the pictures :) I'm sure it will still be there. After the delicious lunch we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The super cool thing about some of the exhibits was that since they owned the art, you are allowed to take photographs - however on some of the pieces you were not. First we had to make it through some of the ancient pottery and statue exhibits, but then we finally found the art pieces that i really wanted to see. You'll probably recognize some of the art pieces in the gallery. My favorites were the impressionists - Monet and Degas. Anthony really liked the Pollock pieces (OK so I'm pretty sure that this isn't his official website, but it is fun to play with and you can get an idea of his art! use your mouse to scan over the screen then click for a new color - hours of entertainment!). Next we went the the Guggenheim - this wasn't really our kind of art. Very modern, and very abstract. I'm sure that there was a deeper meaning in all of it, but Anthony and I couldn't see it. The neatest thing about this place was the structure of the building itself, which was a spiral, you took the spiral up to the top floor and then worked your way down in concentric circles. Also the top of the building looking up from the first floor looked like the night sky. After our tour of the art galleries, we took the subway back downtown to the Blue Man show! This was a ton of fun! There were certainly parts that were messy, but the music was good and there was some comedy mixed in there too. If you do go see Blue man, make a point to get seats in the balcony, or at least not in the first 8- 10 rows or you will get messy - but they did give the people there ponchos to wear. Then, we took the train back up, and went to Rockefeller center. We wanted to go to the "Top of the Rock". This was really beautiful - not to mention really windy and cold. You go up the elevator to the top floor and it's open to the outside, except that you have about 1.5in paneled glass encasing the top. Anthony loved taking pictures of the city from up here. It was a great way to spend the evening of our anniversary.
Thursday - After a delicious breakfast at a cafe near our hotel, we went to the Museum of Modern Art - affectionately known as the MOMA. We enjoyed our trip the the museum and enjoyed viewing the works of art. Some of it was really odd, but then we got the the works of art that everyone is familiar with and we really enjoyed this part. After this, we had a little time left before we needed to get back to the hotel to change for the Rockettes and dinner, so we decided to take the subway down to Herlad Square to Macy's. It really was as grand as they say on the TV commercials. You'll see the decorations that were inside the first (of nine) levels. It was really beautiful (and once again - expensive). After this, we took the subway back up to our hotel, and changed for the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular! This was an amazing performance, and was my choice of show-type things to do in NYC. I thought that I wanted to be a Rockette for a while, and then I discovered that I'm about 2 inches too short to qualify. Alas - I ended up in medical school ;). Following this great performance, we again had time to spare and enjoyed the walk to Bobby Flay's first restaurant - Mesa Grill. Just to kill time waiting on dinner, we (I really, but Anthony willingly went and let me look while he caught up on the latest CNN new on his oh-so-cool i-phone) went to the Kate Spade store too - which is wonderful. This is my favorite bag: the small Bri in Chocolate. After that it was almost time for our dinner reservation, so we decided to go ahead in and have drinks. We got to sit down shortly, and had a delicious meal. Anthony had lamb and I had duck - it was really delicious. The chef for the night was good, but not Bobby Flay - that would have been too much to ask for considering his current fame. We had a great time and had enough nourishment to walk the whole way back to the hotel room too,.
Friday we awoke to our last whole day in the city. bittersweet for sure. We go up and went to tour the NBC station. It was a very neat tour and we learned a lot of information about the NBC studios and how they air the shows. We didn't get to see any of the anchors in person, but we did get to go into the SNL studios - which as really neat. There was one section that they asked for volunteers, and i really hate it when no one volunteers, so of course i raised my hand and elbowed Anthony who spontaneously volunteered as well. I got to pretend to be news anchor and read the tele-prompter and everything, and Anthony got to be the weather man. He really had the harder job because he had to figure out which direction to point out on the invisible map on the screen behind him. It was pretty cool at the end when they split the screen and we gave a virtual high five. :) After this we grabbed quick lunch at Rockefeller center - which was complete chaos in general. At this point it had already been snowing outside for a bit, but it was really coming down (click the video to see real snow - this is very exciting if you're from MS). Then we walked up to the American Museum of Natural History - this was Anthony's choice of things to do. On our way to the museum, we had to walk back past central park. At this point the ground was all covered with about 2-4 inches of snow. So we had to stop and take pictures and play in the snow. We would have taken more pictures because it was really beautiful, but I was afraid of ruining the camera and all of our wonderful pictures. Anthony found some boys (about 10-12years old) who were having a snow ball fight - he couldn't help joining in for a few minutes. After this we took our wet selves to the museum and checked our wet coats, and enjoyed the warm to dry out a bit. There were lots of neat animals and cultures exhibited in the place - it was just a little sad though to think that in the future this is the only way that we will have a record of some of the animals that are in there. We left when the museum closed, and walked toward the northern most part where the Lasker Ice Skating Ring is located. This park was supposed to be open to the public beginning at 7:00pm, unfortunately, the man on the Zamboni said that it was closed for the night- bummer for no ice skating in central park on this trip :( instead of walking back through the slush and snow, we took the subway back to our region of the city, and ate at an apparently famous pizza joint called "Johns" - it was really yummy brick oven pizza and by far the cheapest food that we had while there. Check it out at the Times Square location if you're in the area. After this it was back to the Milford to pack and get ready to head out.
Saturday morning we got up really early and were shuttled to Newark airport in New Jersey. It was a good experience overall - our planes weren't delayed too much; however we were switched from the 11:40 flight to Atlanta to the 1:00 flight. Regardless we had such a long layover in Atlanta, it didn't really matter - so we had plenty of time to read in the Airport and made it back to Jackson just after 7:00pm. Anthony's cousin Sarah Joy was wonderful and came to pick us up from the airport.
It was a great trip and we are so thankful for the opportunity to have such a long vacation in such a great city. We do love to travel, but it's always nice to come home and get back into the routine.
I hope that you've enjoyed the Gannon NYC saga - I know it was long, but i didn't want to leave out any details! You should be long finished with your cup of hot coco my now and ready to fall fast asleep :)

Swimming with Sharks

Motivation for graduate students:

HOW TO SWIM WITH SHARKS: A PRIMER
by Voltaire Cousteau*


Actually, nobody wants to swim with sharks. It is not an acknowledged sport, and it is neither enjoyable nor exhilarating. These instructions are written primarily for the benefit of those who, by virtue of their occupation, find they must swim and find that the water is infested with sharks. Swimming with sharks is like any other skill; it cannot be learned from books alone, the novice must practice in order to develop the skill. The following rules
simply set forth the fundamental principles which, if followed, will make it possible to survive while becoming expert through practice.

Rule 1 - Assume Unidentified Fish Are Sharks
Not all sharks look like sharks, and some fish which are not sharks sometimes act like sharks. Unless you have witnessed docile behavior in the presence of shed blood on more than one occasion, it is best to assume an unknown species is a shark.

Rule 2 - Do Not Bleed
It is a cardinal principle that if you are injured either by accident or by intent you must not bleed. Experience shows that bleeding prompts an even more aggressive attack. Admittedly, it is difficult not to bleed when injured. Indeed, at first this may seem impossible. Diligent practice, however, will permit the experienced swimmer to sustain a serious laceration without bleeding and without even exhibiting any loss of composure. This hemostatic reflex can in part be conditioned, but there may be constitutional aspects as well. Those who cannot learn to control their bleeding should not attempt to swim with sharks, for the peril is too great. The control of bleeding has a positive protective element for the swimmer. The shark will be confused as to whether or not his attack has injured you, and confusion is to the swimmer's advantage. On the other hand, the shark may know he has injured you and be puzzled as to why you do not bleed or show distress. This also has a profound effect on sharks. They begin questioning their own potency or, alternatively, believe the swimmer to have supernatural powers.

Rule 3 - Counter Any Aggression Promptly
Sharks rarely attack a swimmer without warning. Usually there is some tentative, exploratory aggressive action. It is important that the swimmer recognize that this behavior is a prelude to an attack and take prompt and vigorous remedial action. The appropriate countermove is a sharp blow to the nose. Almost invariably this will prevent a fullscale attack, for it makes it clear that you understand the shark's intentions and are prepared to use whatever force is necessary to repel his aggressive actions. Some swimmers mistakenly believe that an ingratiating attitude will dispel an attack under these circumstances. This is not correct; such a response provokes a shark attack. Those who hold this erroneous view can usually be identified by their missing limb.

Rule 4 - Get Out If Someone Is Bleeding
If a swimmer (or shark) has been injured and is bleeding, get out of the water promptly. The presence of blood and the thrashing of water will elicit aggressive behavior even in the most docile of sharks. This latter group, poorly skilled in attacking, often behaves irrationally and may attack uninvolved swimmers or sharks. Some are so inept that in the confusion, they injure themselves. No useful purpose is served in attempting to rescue the injured swimmer. He either will or will not survive the attack, and your intervention cannot protect him once blood has been shed.

Rule 5 - Use Anticipatory Retaliation
A constant danger to the skilled swimmer is that the sharks will forget that he is skilled and may attack in error. Some sharks have notoriously poor memories in this regard. This memory loss can be prevented by a program of anticipatory retaliation. The skilled swimmer should engage in these activities periodically, and the periods should be less than the memory span of the shark. Thus, it is not possible to state fixed intervals. The procedure may need to be repeated frequently with forgetful sharks and need be done only once for sharks with total recall. The procedure is essentially the same as described under Rule 3 with a sharp blow to the nose. Here, however, the blow is unexpected and serves to remind the shark that you are both alert and unafraid. Swimmers should take care not to injure the shark and draw blood during this exercise for two reasons. First, sharks often bleed profusely, and this leads to the chaotic situation described under Rule 4. Second, if swimmers act in this fashion it may not be possible to distinguish swimmers from sharks.

Rule 6 - Disorganize an Organized Attack
Usually sharks are sufficiently self-centered that they do not act in concert against a swimmer. This lack of organization greatly reduces the risk of swimming among sharks. However, upon occasion the sharks may launch a coordinate attack upon a swimmer or even upon one of their number. The proper strategy is diversion. Sharks can be diverted from their organized attack in one of two ways. First, sharks as a group are especially prone to internal dissension. An experienced swimmer can divert an organized attack by introducing something, often something minor or trivial, which sets the sharks to fighting among themselves. Usually by the time the internal conflict is settled the sharks cannot even recall what they were setting about to do, much less get organized to do it. A second mechanism of diversion is to introduce something which so enrages the members of the group that they begin to lash out in all directions, even attacking inanimate objects in their fury. What should be introduced? Unfortunately, different things prompt internal dissension or blind fury in different groups of sharks. Here one must be experienced in dealing with a given group of sharks, for what enrages one group will pass unnoted by another. It is scarcely necessary to state that it is unethical for a swimmer under attack by a group of sharks to counter the attack by diverting them to another swimmer. It is, however, common to see this done by novice swimmers and by sharks when they fall under a concerted attack.

*Little is known about the author, who died in Paris in 1812. He may have been a descendant of Francois Voltaire and an ancestor of Jacques Cousteau. Apparently this assay was written for sponge divers. Because it may have broader implications, it was translated from the French by Richard J. Johns, an obscure French scholar and Massey Professor and director of the Department of Biomedical Engineering. The Johns Hopkins University and Hospital, 720 Rutland Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland 21205.

Denver Trip 2008

* * Click the picture to see more pictures, it will take you to the Kodak gallery **

This past weekend was our "Denver Blitz" trip. I love to tell this story - so forgive me if you've already heard it. Anthony decided some time at the end of the summer that we should go to a football game - keep in mind, we like football ok, and enjoy watching on Saturday afternoons, but aren't die hard fans for anybody in particular - so I said "Great! I'll get us tickets up to an Ole Miss Game"...
AG: "No... I want to go see and NFL game."
KG: "Oh, alright then, let's take the train down to New Orleans and see the Saints play. that would be fun!"
AG: "No, I don't really like New Orleans or the Saints.....hum.... lets go to Denver and see the Broncos."
So that's pretty much how it went... and we were spontaneous and bought tickets 3 months in advance (yes, 3 months of planning really is what we consider spontaneous!)
We flew out of Jackson Friday afternoon after Anthony (finally) got out of clinic into Dallas, and then on to Denver. We rented a car and drove to our lovely room at the Doubletree (they are the best place to stay - primarily because they give you a warm cookie upon arrival, and it's always nice and clean, with a good price - and they don't even have to pay their guests to say stuff like this). We got up relatively early on Saturday morning and wen to this cute place to have breakfast - yummy - then drove around down town to check out the city. They have a nice outdoor mall on 16th street. The only thing about Denver, is that there is no where to park for < $10 down town, so it was expensive, but an experience. Then just before noon we started our drive out to the Rocky mountains. We drove west from Denver to Idaho Springs, then directly north through a bunch of curvy roads toward Rocky Mountain National Park. The mountains were lovely as you can see from the pictures on the Kodak site . We stopped for lunch in a little town called Nederland (which is really funny if you know one of the Med Peds residents whose last name is Nerland, but no one ever gets it quite right). What made this lunch stop even more funny was that we had yummy curry chicken at an Indian resturaunt in a little town in Colorado - just seemed silly to me. We continued up north until it was starting to get dark, and we didnt' want to try to navigate the curvy turns in the dark, so we drove east to the highway (the mountains abruptly stop and then the highway is pretty flat and straight). On the way to the highway, there was a heard of Ram grazing on the roadside, so we took pictures :).
Then we got back to Denver and went to an improv show and dinner at a place called Wynkoop Brewery. The Improv group was the Impulse Theater. They were really funny.
Sunday was our day for the Broncos game. We slept in a little, then went downtown and walked around some more. We got to the game about 1.5 hrs early, but there was plenty to see and do. The Broncos weren't very good, but it was fun to watch. Afterwards, Anthony discovered that there was a 6 Flags in Denver, so we were lucky enough to get in on the last day of the season. We rode a couple of roller-coasters - WOW i hadn't been on a roller-coaster since 6th grade, and Anthony had never been to 6 Flags. It was a lot of fun too. We then headed back to the Doubletree to get ready to fly out on Monday morning. It was a great trip and a wonderful weekend away from Jackson.

Mike Gannon's Graduation

**Click the picture for a slideshow of pictures**

We are so proud of Anthony's brother, Mike - he just graduated from flight school and gets to fly Black Hawks! Click on the picture to see a slide show of the pictures from the event (keep in mind this was also a testing day for Anthony's new camera).

Chicago Marathon 2008

Hi Friends,
I know it's rediculous how rarely I write on here, but believe it or not, our life isn't all that exciting and UMC is pretty much the same day in and day out. However over the next few months we do have some exciting plans. and I'll post pictures on here.
The above photo (and link if you click on it) are pictures from the Chicago Marathon. My friend Jeanann came along too - she was a great travel companion even when we got dropped in the middle of the highway at a "bus stop." The city was fun as always - even though we didn't really get to enjoy it for too long. We flew up on Friday and returned on Sunday evening. The marathon itself was - in a nutshell - hot and long. But the people and neighborhoods were great. they all came out and gave out water and gatorade, and ice and oragnes, and sprayed us down with waterhoses and sprinklers. what was really funny was that it was hotter on Oct 12 in Chicago than it was in Jackson. My training fault is that i normally began my long runs on Saturdy morning around 5:30 so i could finish before it got too hot; unfortunately the real race didn't start until 8:00 and I didn't cross the start line until 8:20ish (yes there were that many people ahead of me). I finished just under 5 hours, which was a little more than i had hoped for, but this was my first marathon. I had a great time, but the pain came afterwards. The first day after - it was joint pain, knees and ankles really hurt. The 2nd day after was the muscle pain - which was a bit worse than regular run muscle pain, but went away after a few days as well. No long term damage that I can tell. I 've been taking it easy for the past few weeks - which is a nice break - but am looking forward to getting back to the running routine. The next race that I've signed up for is the MS Blues 1/2 marathon in Jackson in January. I haven't signed up officially yet, but I'd really like to run in the Seaside 1/2 marathon in march - just because I really love seaside and think it's a great excuse to go to the beach for the weekend! I'll keep you posted and keep posting pictures.

Dogs, dogs, dogs....

So this is our Gabby's boyfriend Otis. Otis is the white curly-haired golden-doodle. This is a combination of a golden retriever and a poodle - the idea is that they are hypo-allergenic, don't shed as much, and combine the best traits of both breeds - I couldn't agree more. He really thinks that Gabby is his girlfriend. They literally give each other a hug at first meeting and are inseparable the entire time that they are together. Adam and Elizabeth Byrd invited us to their lake house for the Fourth and we took Gabby along. Porter is still too little and too unpredictable I think. She had to stay home. Gabby LOVES the water - she kept going to fetch the ball and bringing it back the long way all morning long. Since there are no steps up the pier from the water - Gabby went to get the ball, swam all the way to shore, got on the pier and brought it back to me. Even when sweet Otis did get to the ball first - Gabby would dunk him under and steal the ball away to bring it back. it was such a great game and she was exhausted the rest of the day, and slept all the way home. We are so blessed to have friends like the Byrds and I know Gabby likes the company as well. :)

Hood Family

Anthony's sister and her Family (husband Dave, son Justin - 5, and daughter Hannah 2). We went to Houston to see them in May of this year and they came her this weekend for a quick trip to see the Grandmas. Enjoy the slideshow - we'll see how much i know about technology!

Inspired to write again.

So... I'm obviously not very good at this whole blogging thing - on average I have one every two months. My friend Adelle (whose blog is on my favorites to the right - and who has a much more interesting life and the cutest little girl - as well as a very old picture of us) does an excellent job of blogging and has inspired me to pick it up again. On the up side - not much changes in our house too quickly - we're very habitual creatures and keep a pretty tight schedule. Lets see... recently Anthony & I took a trip to Houston to see his Sister, brother-in-law, and two sweet kids. I've put some of the pictures on here. It was Loads of fun - little Hannah is just over one year, and Justin is a super smart 5 year old. We had a blast with them even though we only got to stay for a weekend (thank goodness for direct flights on Southwest - and funny flight attendants). Justin actually lost his first tooth while we were there. He and Anthony and Dave had a great time playing video games too - I could just picture Anthony as a kid doing the same thing. Justin also got really good at riding without training wheels while we were there too.

Other adventures - I had a meeting in the Windy City - it was my first of three trips to chicago this year and it was indeed windy. This first trip was for a meeting of APSA- American Physician Scientists Association - I think the link is to the right as well. It was a lot of fun to meet with other nerds from around the country! Chicago was wonderful - especially because it was cool and dry! Lake Michigan was this beautiful color teal green/blue - the picture really doesn't do it justice. Oh the shopping on the "Michigan Mile" is awesome too - they have a Garmin store, and Nike, and Apple, and Tiffany's :) among other things. Next time i go, i'm also going for business- another APSA meeting, but just exec for a day, so not too exciting- but the people really are great. Here are some of the pics from this trip:

The last trip of the year to Chicago will be fore the Chicago Marathon- terrified and excited about 26.2!! It should be really well organized thie year after the fiasco that happened last year. there should at least be plenty of water and gatorade. I have a friend at Michigan State that might get to come down and hang out with me a little during this trip.
At the end of this month Anthony & I are headed to the beach for a 2.5 day weekend - we are really excited about having the time off and love the beach almost as much as the mountains of Virginia! It will be a short but relaxing trip. .....Lets see - other updates .... we've added another member to our little family - We got another Golden Retriever named Porter (her whole name is Erin Porter - becuase we got her on St. Patrick's day and Erin is the poetic name for Ireland, and Porter b/c Anthony liked the name - she goes by Porter. She's really sweet and Gabby loves having a friend to play with during the day. We are officially at our pet limit- no more living things in this house unless they are human - otherwise we'll have to charge admission to the Gannon Zoo!! That's all for now - i'll try to do better with this - just in case anyone is interested :o)

It's been a while

So now that you've all got that song in your head.... (sorry to all the faithful readers - all two of you!) Life has been really busy and since we don't have real two legged kids and we live in the same city as most of the family - there's not much reason to blog really. none-the-less - here we are. Life's good. Anthony is on Peds wards this month and I'm in and out of town most of this month. I just got back from San Deigo Experimental Biology conference - San Diego was great - American Airlines not so much. We had to get back the same day we scheduled to get out, so... we re-booked through Southwest and flew through Oakland to Houston to New Orleans, then rented a car at 11:30 pm and drove to Jackson! YEah for American - I'll never fly them again! Yes i realize that all of the companies have problems - but it was rediculous! And someone owes me $575 for the extra travel that my poor Discover card has suffered. On the upside - Coronado Island right across the bridge from San Diego is wonderful - if we ever go back I hope to stay there. the breakfast buffet is amazing and you get to look over the pacific (see pictures below). Next I'm off to Chicago - which i'm also really looking forward to! I've never been there before and the meeting will be good too. We've got tickets to a baseball game the first night we're there. Unfortunately Anthony doesn't get to go to this one either. His next trip is on the CMDA mission trip to Mexico in May. WE also might get to go see his sister and our neice and nephew in Houston (Thankfully there is a direct flight to houston on Southwest from Jackson). And we're hopefully going to the beach at some point this summer. I think we've both been in Jackson a little too long and are going stir crazy - plus traveling is much easier pre-kids (no, we're not planning on any any time soon) and pre-clinical years.

Gabby's Birthday

Today our little girl, Gabby, turns 1 year old. We're still not out of the chewing phase, and we're down two window screens on the back of our house not to mention several boards off the back, but she sure is cute! Happy Birthday Gabby!!