"...a weak man knows the value of strength. Knows the value of power."

This post is entitled "the Catch-Up: Part 2." This post is all about what we have done during the gloriously less-hot-than-the-sweltering-Summer Fall that has now come to Saint Louis. I started my second year of medical school (wow!), and Holly got a raise! Woot! As if she wasn't a suga-momma already...

With the Fall comes cooler weather, and with cooler weather come the opportunity to go camping! Ah the great outdoors! Holly and I only camped once last year and forgot all of our camping gear that we got for our wedding. So naturally we wanted to go camping and actually look legit with our gear. We went camping with our neighbors so that was a lot of fun. The part that wasn't a lot of fun was the rain. You see, the cooler weather comes at a price, and the price is rain. We camped two nights, and the weather did not definitively clear up until the afternoon of the second day. So while we felt slightly more legit with all our gear, we were wet because we didn't have a rainfly or something to shelter the picnic table. Note to self: Self, please buy a rain shelter. It still was a blast! I got to wake up at 6:00am and go fishing (in the rain) with my Ugly Stik and not catch anything! Seriously though, I didn't mind. I like fishing with my Ugly Stik.

Fish Beware The Ugly Stik!

Between the rainy Fall days, we have just gorgeous days of Fall colors and sunshine. Holly and I went to a glass-blowing factory to watch a demonstration. The glass they make is amazing. Please note: Holly is showing you how her hair is curly like the glass. She just isn't very obvious about it. I was selected from a group of applicants to present a poster of my summer research at the American Medical Association Research Symposium in New Orleans, LA. It was a great experience, and... I WON the best poster in my category, Immunology/Infectious Disease/Inflammation. Cash prize to be awarded... So yea, things are great here in St. Louie. Although, we are starting to wear lots of clothes indoors and run the space heater. Winter is coming! :(

Title of Poster: Monoclonal Antibody Treatment Ameliorates Recurrent HSK in Vivo

Oh and we saw the Captain America movie and really liked it (see quote in title of post).

"If you vote for me, it will be summer all year round."

This post is entitled, "the Catch-Up: Part 1," for obvious reasons. I won't even apologize for the absence because it's not like I've just been sitting here not blogging to annoy the masses. Oh no, I've been hard at work... and hard at play. Holly and I had a great end-of-summer. Holly continued her work, and I finished part of research in ophthalmology. Lest you think from the previous post that I only got Holly flowers for our one-year anniversary, let me tell you about our real celebratory trip.

We took a trip down to go para-sailing at the Lake of the Ozarks. It was a great trip. We were really worried because it was raining as we left, and rain was forecast, but the weather cleared up and was sunny for about the 20 minutes that we were on the boat and in the air (what a blessing!). Saint Louis does have this way of waiting to send bad weather right when you plan something fun and more outdoorsy. Our other fun activities included lazer tag, mini golf, going to a Cardinals game, having my parents visit, and picking our first fruits from the garden (we were waiting for the onions to get bigger... and then we realized they were GREEN onions; the bulb wouldn't get bigger... you eat the green part; yes, that's how new we are to gardening...).

We really had a fun summer. This short post doesn't really do it justice, but we enjoyed our time. I enjoyed the time off from school, and we enjoyed the several activities we did together.