Monthly Archives: April 2006

Hope all of you enjoy the new look of our Web site! Clinton has been working hard to make improvements.

In case you’re wondering, everything turned out fine from Tuesday’s dog bite incident. Clinton doesn’t have rabies and the bad dog that bit him will be removed from our apartment building.

We went out to a delicious Italian restaurant last night – I had mushroom and veal ravioli – and also saw American Dreamz. A very funny movie!

But then I woke up this morning at 5:30 AM because the cat was walking on the sill behind the blinds, and I was sure that The Killers were breaking into our bedroom. It sent my mind racing – I thought quickly of the machete in the bedroom closet. Just at that moment, Clinton, who is famous for talking in his sleep and sounding perfectly conscious and normal, proclaimed loudly from Dreamland, “Okay! That sounds great! So, when are you available to do it?” Meanwhile, Charlie – who we have fondly nicknamed “Chuck Nasty” – honked his now headless stuffed toy pheasant several times to emphasize the fact that he wanted to go out. A near cardiac arrest is certainly an efficient way to wake up on a Saturday morning.

Today I start Week 4 of my group run training program. We will increase the running time on our seven sets of repeated intervals to 4 minutes running, 1 minute walking, – up from 3 minutes running, 1 minute walking. Afterward, we’ll have an hour-long lecture on preventing injury and how to run in the N. Carolina heat. Then at 2:30 today, I’m doing my fifth favorite activity in the world: getting a full-body massage by my favorite masseuse, Marta.

My mom is also coming to town tomorrow to stay with us for a few days. Our mission while she’s here is to go hunting for Vietnamese restaurants and grocery stores in the Triangle area. We must succeed or I doubt she will visit again. (Just kidding.) But I’m confident that we will find what we’re looking for, because wherever you find Vietnamese people, you will find Vietnamese food.
Have a great weekend.

Clinton was bit by a mean dog tonight. He is fine, but the wound is pretty gross, and just to take precautions, he is at the emergency room right now. We called Animal Control to report it. The dog’s owner (a real dumb lady with three huge dogs) lives in our apartment complex, though we don’t know exactly where. Animal Control will investigate.

In other news:

- I had a nice visit with my mom and her friend Linda in Upper Marlboro, MD over the Easter weekend. We went for long walks and ate a lot of food. Mom is coming down here for a few days to visit next week.

- Charlie the Schnauzer is doing well in his 2nd week of Senior Puppy Obedience class. He is very polite and mild-mannered, and he continues to grow each day in height and in girth.

- I am now in my third week of the 11-week training schedule with my running group, Carolina Godiva. I run with the fastest paced group among my 75 fellow trainees and trainers. Together we’ll run in the Race for the Cure (5K) in June – a mere warmup for my 20K race in September.

Check out these t-shirts for people who love Vietnamese noodle soup.

Last week, we had a housewarming party at our new apartment, which I think it was successful because no one passed out and no police showed up. (Just kidding.) We played Apples to Apples and everyone very politely sampled Clinton’s cheesy horseradish bacon dip. Later into the weekend, Clinton and I also gave in and purchased a humongous television and home theater system, which we swear to each other will only be used for watching Netflix movies and eventually playing video games, not television, the mind-sucking fear-mongering tool of the Republican party. Though we thought War of the Worlds was a disappointing movie, the surround sound nevertheless made it intensely terrifying and exciting to watch.

Charlie the GIANT SCHNAUZER is doing very well. He’s just graduated from Puppy Life Skills Class and will soon start a Senior Puppy Obedience course. Yesterday, however, he was THE BAD PUPPY in the class. Not only did he poop on the floor during playtime, but he also attempted to hump each and every one of the other puppies. The instructor told us that humping is a very bad behavior because it means that the puppy is saying, “Yeah, I OWN you!” She said that Charlie, though already neutered, may have learned to hump from the older dogs at the Durham dog park where we take him every day to play. This dog park is apparently known as “humper park” in local dog owner circles. Hmm. In good news, he has not had an accident in the house for over two weeks now, which is a good sign that his cratetraining schedule is serving its purpose. Meanwhile, Charlie continues to grow at an alarming rate.

At work, I just completed the first part of my Clinical Monitoring Training. The curriculum included a day and a half of Research Ethics and Good Clinical Practices. Once I’ve finished the whole training (end of May, probably) I’ll be qualified to be a research study auditor for FHI’s clinical trials overseas. Therefore, my professional career includes some near-future travel – most likely either to Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Bolivia or India where most of our ongoing studies are taking place.