St. Patrick's Day in Chicago

St. Patrick's Day is a great time of the year to be in Chicago! To see our picture album, click here. We kicked off the holiday with the Civic Celebration Mass at Old St. Pat's. In attendance were Mayor Daley, the Prime Minister of Ireland Brian Cowen, Chairman of the Parade James Sullivan, Parade Queen Kerry Ann Brennan. The mass was celebrated by Cardinal Francis George and led in music by the Old St. Pat's choir (including Aimee).

We made not one, but two batches of corned beef and cabbage and shared the meals with our great friends. It was delicious. And I'm so done with corned beef for the year. At least for this month anyway.

Aimee's sister Katie and her friend Kathleen joined us for St. Patrick's Day and the Siamsa na nGael concert. The concert is a celebration of Celtic arts and held at Symphony Center and features the Metropolis Symphony and the OSP Choir. It was the culmination of weeks and weeks of rehearsals -- rehearsals that always provided a great reason to hang out with some amazing people.

Finally, we finished off with our first ever race. Aimee and I decided to sign up for and train for the Shamrock Shuffle with Megan. It is an 8K race (4.97 miles) and we finished in under an hour. The weather held out and all in all it was great fun! Definitely will do again...

I wonder what St. Patrick's Day will be like in Atlanta....

link to our St. Patrick's Day Photo Album

Our Trip to Tucson

This year's conference for the North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society took place in "sunny" Tucson, AZ. We were there for 6 days and enjoyed a variety of activities (me more so than Aimee...). The Southwest Airlines once again delivered a great journey down there and the JW Marriott Starr Pass was a fabulous place to stay, albeit a little on the pricey side.

I took advantage of the hiking trails, spa and workout facilities, pool, and golf course. One of most memorable was a day long visit to the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum. There are quite a pictures in our Picasa Album from that experience. The surrounding landscape is quite nice and certainly a departure from what we're used to seeing around Chicago. This is a picture from one of my hikes:

One of Aimee's big reasons for coming was to present her research poster. The poster was 4' by 8' and very nicely done. Here's Aimee at the poster session:

Finally, we' like to really thank our friend Megan for being willing to spend 6 days away from her home and live in ours and watch Crowley. She allowed us to relax and know that everything was taken care of at home.

For a link to our Tucson photo album, click here

Our move to Atlanta...

Wow..it's been a while on this whole blog thing. Sometimes you just need a little motivation. As most of you know, Aimee and I will be moving to Atlanta for a year starting July 1st for her fellowship in neuro-ophthalmology. I'm hoping to use our blog as a way to share picture and stories from our little adventure. First things first though. We need a renter for our condo in Chicago.

Click here for more information...