järv

Järv appears to be the Swedish word for wolverine. Tomorrow at noon California time I'll find out if I got into Michigan. Since Michigan has been my top choice for something like three years now, I'm slightly anxious, but based on how my interviews went when I was there on Friday, I'm feeling good. I also found out that I got into USC, before going to Michigan and after being at Duke and Columbia, so I'm going to be a doctor somewhere! I loved Duke also, though, and the thought of huge beautiful converted red brick tobacco warehouses and big front porches (well, one of the houses we have our eye on in Ann Arbor has a front porch and a screened-in back porch) and driving to Wrightsville Beach in the summer and that heavy hanging heat. The only question now is when I can schedule the Berkeley/UCSF Joint Medical Program interview. I waited to hear from them for so long and despaired and finally let it go, so now it's almost too much to handle.

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It is nice to have a break from Sweden. The past week - Stockholm to North Carolina to New York to Michigan to San Francisco (via Las Vegas, where I lost $20 in about two minutes in a slot machine while waiting to board my next flight) - has been exhausting and fun, and it is like paradise being back in Berkeley for a week. There is the same old echeverria growing across the street, there are calla lilies outside our front door, Benjamin is grazing on cat food, Nero is passed out in bed with Jake, Hazel is walking around squeaking, Chloe is lounging in front of the heater, and Cocoa (just a guest!) is sleeping on the tall chair in front of the window. Yesterday it was warm, blue, perfect weather, and this morning it is gray and dewy.

Yesterday was a very good day. We went for a nearly 8 mile run with Rich along the Bay Trail, up in Albany by the marshes. There is some cool little island called Brooks Island which maybe everybody knows about but I'd never noticed it before. Anyway, Rich talked about kayaking over there sometime. The run was good and not that devastating. I took two advil before we started so my shins barely hurt at all, and it made me feel hopeful about doing a ten or eleven mile run in the next few days without too much effort.

We ate lunch at Herbivore, went to Fourth Street, saw Juno, got a beer at Triple Rock, and drove up San Pablo to buy the Cuisinart Prep Plus 11-cup food processor and a Breville electric water heater like the sleek ones everyone has in Stockholm and a new hand mixer because the last time we used our old one it started smoking. I have extensive cooking plans for this week, including edamame hummus, Lussekatter (St. Lucia cats, aka buns), and the striped bass with grappa recipe from the NYT magazine a few weeks ago.

Yesterday we went on a hike with Nero. We were trying to go to the Redwood park but part of Skyline was closed so we ended up at Sibley Volcanic Preserve and there were grazing cattle! We thought maybe Nero would be excited since he's half cattle dog, but he didn't even notice.

Today is the best day of all - Warriors at 1 pm.