A Friday Afternoon Outing

Today marks one week since Ly's rather eventful left shoulder surgery...and it seems that things are finally starting to improve - a bit. Her pain has decreased (at least she has good meds) and Ly is able to sleep more than a few hours a night. Ly is very appreciative that her husband is so patient and understanding and that he stayed home the entire week with her -- he is going to be an awesome doctor one day.

Alan's work at the NIH announced that this week is restaurant week in Bethesda. Bethesda is well known for its dining out scene and has tons of restaurants that both Ly and Alan have wanted to try for awhile now. What better time then restaurant week during which all the restaurants offer special price fix menus for lunch/dinner.

In order to help Ly get rid of her blues of being stuck inside and celebrate her feeling better-ness, Alan and Ly decided to take advantage of restaurant week. So after perusing the list of dining destinations, Ly and Alan settled on McCormik and Schmick's. Ly got all dolled up (yay for clothes that are not pajamas for once!) and off they went. They had a tasty two course lunch special. Ly had lobster ravioli in a cream sauce with some asparagus and carrots on the side with a chocolate torte topped with raspberry sauce. Alan on the other hand, ordered swordfish with a lemon sauce and a cup of crab soup. Both enjoyed their meals thoroughly and highly recommend either dish to anyone.

Ly certainly enjoyed her afternoon out and about!

AWOL Part 2

Despite Ly's efforts to go AWOL the other day from her hospital extravaganzas, certain people (read: Alan) swooped in and ruined her plan. So off she went to the hospital where Ly and Alan spent a few days basting in the glory of overnight hospitalization. Rather than dwelling on the unpleasantness of the situation (lack of privacy, "gourmet" food, slight medical emergencies and lots and lots of needles) the Lees are proud to report the surgery was an apparent success.

Ly was finally discharged a few days ago and is now resting (un)comfortably at home and hoping she will be back on the tennis courts in no time.

AWOL

idiom: go AWOL
a. Absent Without Leave
b. to absent oneself without explanation as in:

Instead of going to the hospital, Ly plans on going AWOL tomorrow afternoon.

A Labor of Love

As mentioned in an earlier post Ly spent a significant amount of 2008 working on a "secret project." It is now safe to reveal that it was a queen sized quilt for her parents bed in honor of their 25th (I mean 30th) wedding anniversary. This is the first quilt Ly has ever made and the hardest part of the whole ordeal was keeping it a secret from her family -- which she amazingly enough managed to do.

The final product:

Close up of the quilt - it is machine quilted "stitch in the ditch" style:

Ly insisted on testing out the quilt for "quality control" purposes before wrapping:

The quilt was a huge hit - Ly's parents were shocked! Here are the Bolig girls relaxing/sleeping under it after opening all the presents Christmas morning:

Hope.

"This is the meaning of [America's] liberty and our creed -- why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father, less than 60 years ago, might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath..."

-- Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States of America

Introducing Nina

One day, about a year or so ago, Ly was sitting at the kitchen table with Alan when she informed him of her secret desire for a sewing machine. She was a bit nervous to admit her desire for such an object in fear of suddenly being seen as a "stay-at-home wife who sews and cooks and cleans"...but Alan reminded her that she doesn't actually do any of those things, so one out of four wouldn't be so bad.*

With this comforting thought in mind, Ly and Alan trekked out to the local Bernina store the next afternoon to do some research - or so Ly thought. Yet, Alan being the tricky husband that he is, had already done his research and a few hours later the Lee family came home accompanied by none other than Nina the Bernina.

As you can see, Nina is quite a lovely machine. She is small enough for Ly to carry around the house, comes with a cute red case, is very heavy duty, and has all sorts of special features and stitches. Nina even came with a 9 week sewing class. So to sum it all up, Nina is basically the best sewing machine ever.

For the next 3 months or so, on Saturday afternoons Ly would spend a couple of hours at the Bernina store learning how to use her new sewing machine. She found it slightly awkward to be the youngest person in the class by a good 2 or 3 decades and even more awkward when she didn't even know how to hem a pair of pants. While Alan is still waiting to actually see Ly hem a pair of jeans, Ly maintains that she at least now knows how. Sort of.

Anway, the purchase of Nina was kept a secret for as long as possible because Ly was working on a secret project...but that's a story for another time.

*Let the record state that Ly is actually an excellent cook, and does help clean the house except for the toilets which she thinks is "disgusting"