Pharmacology Celebration

At long last, the second edition of our pharmacology textbook is a reality! After many late winter hours slogging away at edits, our 900 page behemoth has made it to the shelves. Our second edition is a great improvement over the first, with newly expanded drug dummary tables and a fully revised chemotherapy section. i won't bore you with the details, but feel free to write a serious, five star review on amazon.com:

• Go to amazon.com and type in "Golan." Our book is the first link. And yes, it's about pharmacology, not the battle for the Golan Heights.
  

In celebration of our monumental achievement, we had a celebratory dinner at the Fireplace, in Brookline. It was great to have the whole group together, and we spent a wonderful evening reminiscing about our seven year long collaboration and making plans for the future.

A Royal Visitation

On Thursday night, a prince came to town. Not just any prince, but Prince, the long-displaced medical school classmate who migrated south to Miami for his ophthalmology training. Prince had a few days off before starting his retina fellowship, so came to Boston for a quick visit. We all got together at Paul and Sophia's place and enjoyed catching up with prince, Marvin, and Christine Weeks after too many months/years apart. Inevitably, the conversation turned silly names for children (which I will not repeat here on this blog), bizzare cosmetic procedures, and other medically related topics. It was all good fun, and we should get together again soon.

Weekend in NYC

We spent a fun-filled weekend in the Big Apple. As our favored means of transportation, we rolled in Friday night on the Fung Wah bus and then checked into the W midtown, on Lexington and 50th. The hotel was ultra New York - a big loby area with lots of people in their early thirties wearing black and drinking martinis, with hip hop remixes playing the background and images flashing up on the central pillar. The hotel was a bit of an afterthought, with a 150 square foot "deluxe" room.
On Saturday morning, April attended a professional meeting, while Ehrin slept in (he was recovering from the final three nights of residency). In the afternoon, we toured through Washington Park and Greenwich Village. By the time we made it halfway through the village, our stomachs told us it was time to eat. We happened upon a restaurant that was just opening its doors for the night -- Pearl Oyster Bar -- and jumped in before the wait became 1-2 hours. April enjoyed many oysters, while Ehrin opted for the signature lobster roll. After dinner, we met up with Ryan and Casper for drinks near Union Square, at a bar where Casper worked in the distant past and was the inspiration, I hear, for "Slutty Summer." We finished off the night with biblical study of Steve Carrell in "Evan Almighty."





On Sunday, we slept in and then enjoyed a sumptuous brunch at the Rockefeller Center Cafe, followed by a few hours of the Gay Pride Parade. It went on forever! We were hoping to see the Dikes on Bikes, but I think they passed by before we made it to the parade.
Much exhausted from our weekend, we napped away on a Fung Wah return ride.

A Four Letter Word and, of course, Meeting Jesse!

Ehrin and I had wicked fun this weekend visiting P-town! Traveling with our two K-9 companions, we found home at a well-kept campsite at the edge of P-town Saturday night. Imagine fitting 2 adults and 2 dogs in one mini-tent. Bigelow, as usual, stole all the cover and left the humans shivering at night.

Sunday morning, we met with Ryan and Casper to fulfill the purpose of this weekend trip -- to see Casper's movie "A Four Letter Word". It was a deliciously fun film that Ehrin and I enjoyed thoroughly. I think I laughed so hard all the way that I now need botox to get rid of the laugh lines! Here is a hunky picture of Casper and Ryan at the deck of their hotel.

Okay, a definite highlight of the trip for me was meeting my All-Time-Favorite Blogger-- Jesse, whose witty way with words on his blog is only paralleled by his good looks! (www.jesseonthebrink.com/blog.html) I feel like I know Jesse even though we've never met before -- that's the beauty of blogging -- connecting people! And his boyfriend Bam Bam, whose adventures in the ER I somehow know intimately, was taller than I had imagined and a lot funnier than I imagined. Ryan got me Jesse's book, "You Can Run," which I can't wait to read about the exciting adventures of the sparking Jesse On the Brink.

Block Party!

We had a rather eventful weekend. On Saturday, April went to the TD Banknorth Garden and tried out for the Boston Celtics Dance Team. Over 150 hopeful applicants showed up, including the entire Northeastern Unversity jazz dance team! Thanks to her amazing talent, April made it through the first 2 rounds, but was eventually cut after 5 hours of tryouts. She enjoyed the chance to dance so much on a Saturday morning. Plus, it didn't seem feasible to practice three nights a week and dance at all the Celtics home games...

Meanwhile, Ehrin ran a 5 mile race to benefit ALS research. It was a rainy, overcast day, perfect for a good run. He managed to outkick the 4th woman finisher, and finished wit ha time of 32:18.

After all the exercising, we met up with friends at the gay pride block party in the South End. Something like 10,000 people showed up, and the music was so loud you could feel it vibrate through your shirt, apparently leading a number of people to take their shirts off. As always, April enjoyed dancing up on the stage with her men. Ehrin was content taking photos.