Tomato Festival and other August fun

Every August, our East Nashville community has it's annual Tomato Festival, a day of tomato fun! It's motto is "The tomato...a uniter, not a divider - bringing together fruits and vegetables." The day starts with a 5K race through the neighborhood and proceeds to an all day festival of tomato-themed art, music, costumes, food, and contests.

Mark started a Couch-to-5k program this summer for those who have never run before (or had let it fall by the wayside - thus, self-proclaimed couch potatoes) and it was a huge success. He trained over 50 people to run in the Tomato Festival 5k and it was so fun to see how excited they felt and how motivated they were to continue running. Their t-shirts read: "Potato to Tomato" and there has never been a happier group of runners. They got him a yellow "coach" shirt to thank him. :-) So he is easy to find...

It was a hot day outside, but it was worth it. We got to hear Katy sing songs from Coaltrain Railroad, meet up with friends, and buy some great tomato art.

Try and ignore the sweat stains. That tomato fan clearly didn't help much in the 105 degree humidity!

This past weekend, I got to go visit one of my best friends in California. Monique and I met in the parking garage on our first day of nursing school orientation 7 years ago, and we were pretty much instant friends. It was good to have four days with her to just talk and catch up. It didn't hurt that she lives in Pasadena near the ocean and that it was 75 degrees of sunny perfection outside either...

Mark's parents visited a few weeks ago. His dad is an amazing woodworker and made us an island for our kitchen. He did such a beautiful job - we showed him a picture online and he basically re-created it. It has a lovely butcher block top that I am still afraid to cut on for fear of putting a scratch in it, but I guess that is inevitable!

And even though I love summer with it's long days and fun trips, I am ready for the fall and some cooler temperatures. I can't wait for pumpkins and 'mums and the leaves changing color. Tennessee has great autums and I always enjoy running outside so much more this time of year. It's a good thing, because Alison and I signed up for the Memphis half marathon in December so I better get to training!

Summer Reading

Anyone who says they have only one life to live must not know how to read a book." 

~Author Unknown

I love to read and it seems that there is always a little more time to read in the summer with longer days, traveling, trips, and a little less busy-ness than usual.  I had a large stack sitting next to our bed and I have now made my way through most of them, so I thought I'd post some short reviews and recommendations.  (Okay - I recommend all of them!)

1.  I just finished reading a book entitled Infidel by Ayyan Hirsi Ali.  It is a fascinating autobiographical account of the author's life growing up in Somali with a strict Muslim upbringing. After fleeing an arranged marriage, she ends up in Holland and through hard work and defiance of her own family and culture, ends up renouncing Islam, and becoming a member of Parliment, speaking out for Muslim women's rights.  It is not a lighthearted book at all, as it covers topics and some descriptive passages on child and domestic abuse, female genital mutilation, the experience of starvation and poverty, and religious extremism, but she is a great writer and storyteller. Most of all, she boldy stands up for the rights of oppressed Muslim women even though her life is now on the line for doing so.  I see a lot of Muslim patients at Siloam, so this was an area of interest to me and has opened my eyes to some of the issues that my patients, especially the women, are faced with.  

2.  The Help is another book I couldn't put down.  It is a fictional story based on what life was probably like for many African American women in the deep south in the 60's.  The story takes you through the lives of 3 different women as they begin to speak out for change and take a stand and against some of the injustices they experience as "the help" for the white families they work for.  Kathryn Stockett, the author, was inspired to write this book because she herself was raised in the south by a black woman and she wants to examine what life must have been like for her.  Really, it is a book about friendship and crossing lines that have never been crossed before.  

3.  Marley and Me - I thought I'd throw something more lighthearted into the mix here.  I bought a used copy of this at Powell's bookstore on our trip to Portland, and though I'd already seen the movie, the I had always wanted to read the book.  The author wrote a column for his local newspaper for many years about his family, life and of course, Marley, the huge yellow lab that brings humor and chaos to all areas of their lives.  The book is a sort of compilation of all of his columns and thus, covers a 12 year period of his life and the events that take place in their family, always somehow centered around Marley and another disaster he has caused. Really, it is the story of the ups and downs of life, and while it doesn't always happen the way one plans or expects it to, Marley can always be counted on for both consistent loyalty and disaster.  Also, I refused to read the last chapter of this book.  I saw the movie, and I know how it ends, and I didn't want to read about Marley's end, and so I put it back on the shelf in a state of denial.  Just thought I'd admit that...  

4.  Julie and Julia  - If you've ever been frustrated with learning to cook a new recipe, then you will easily empathize with the author as she tries to cook all of the recipes in Julia Child's book The Art of French Cooking in one year.  This is an honest and funny look at her life as it begins to center around this goal.  She has to conquer her fears of killing live lobsters in her kitchen, cooking and eating calf brains, and most of all, the thought that she may not be able to recreate all these ridiculously complicated recipes.  (Julia Child wrote her book well before the days of food processers and other kitchen gadgets).  Shortly after finishing it, our friends had us over for dinner and there on the stove in their kitchen was The Art of French Cooking open to the recipe for the hollandaise sauce that causes so much distress for the author, but my friend Katy made it beautifully and deliciously and I know I wouldn't have appreciated it nearly as much without reading this book!   Also, don't read this book if you are stuck on an airplane during a 5 hour flight and very hungry and all they have to eat is peanuts...

We just got back from a great weekend at the lake in Georgia with good friends.  After a busy week at work and previous weekends spent doing projects on the house or in the yard, I welcomed one that involved sleeping in past 6 a.m., a good nap while it rained, coffee on the porch in the morning, floating on a raft in the lake, and a delicious steak dinner to top things off.  We were with Mark's two best friends of the past 12 years, Ash and John, along with their family and girlfriend.  It was fun to see them interact as long time friends do, tell stories about the ol' days (many of which I'd never heard before), spend hours on the porch in deep discussion, and catch up on life together.  It didn't hurt that we got to spend 3 days in the mountains of Georgia on a beautiful lake either!

I could wake up to this every morning...

And - kids just make everything more fun...

So do dogs - especially when they let you hang onto their collar while they pull you around the lake on your raft.  :-)

Photo Session by Katie, Age 6:

We would only do this on camera for a 6 year old...

Sad to be leaving... :-(

I think we'll make this an annual trip!