Go together well

I'm enrolled in a really interesting class called Food Technology & Health , and today we had a guest lecturer: Marianne Gillette, the Vice President of Applied Research at McCormick , who is quoted in this article   from Forbes. She talked about product development and the best-selling new food products of 2011 (table from foodprocessing.com ): {the only one I've tried is Pretzel M&M's...delicious}  Other random things... This article from the New York Times about the science of addictive junk food--fascinating (and scary)! A test to see if your smile still works . Mine does! A nice essay about marathon spectators. {a friendly sidewalk in Charles Village }

Our puppy-sitting gig ended last night and, although it was fun playing with Maizie, we were reminded of how glad we are that our dog is a grown-up! (Puppies are a lot of work!) We continue to be extremely  grateful to my parents for taking care of Tessie during our time in Baltimore, and we're counting the days until we get to relieve them of their dog care duties. {my favorite picture of Tessie as a puppy} Today, I spent the morning at the Peabody Library , putting the finishing touches on my capstone project (similar to a master's thesis), which is due this Friday. I have focused on global environmental change/climate change (commonly known as global warming ) as a neglected public health problem.  Prior to starting my MPH program, I hadn't really thought of climate change as a public health concern...but it makes sense: people kind of rely on a healthy planet and a consistent climate for our health and well-being!  (Stephen Colbert's thoughts on the mat...

Favorite things about Bawlmer, Merlin   When we first drove into town last June, our GPS wanted to show us the scenic route, so it took us on a winding road through a lovely forest full of bicyclists and joggers before leading us into one of Baltimore's grittier neighborhoods. (Prior to moving here, my knowledge of the city was drawn from a vague memory of a visit to the National Aquarium when I was six...and from what people told me about some HBO series .) After we  drove through several blocks of boarded up houses and apparent drug deals, the GPS told me that I was less than a mile away from my soon-to-be home--and I began to wonder whether I should have enrolled in public health school in a different city .  Once we got settled in, my perspectives of Baltimore began to change...and I have actually found the city to be quite charming after all. There are certainly more sirens and police helicopters than I had seen previously, and the juxtapositions between ext...

Today is my brother Bill's 33rd birthday !  {a few years ago at Santa's Workshop in Colorado Springs} Bill will finish his family medicine residency at about the same time that I start mine. He's a great doctor, and he is part of why I made my way back to family medicine after a "tour de possibilities" (geriatrics, general surgery, OB/gyn, gynecologic oncology...)  When I graduated from medical school  last May, I was fairly certain I would go on to become a gynecologic oncologist . At the start of my MPH coursework, I planned to do a women's and reproductive health concentration with a particular focus on cervical cancer among medically underserved populations . I spent time meeting with a gyn oncologist at Hopkins and shadowing her in the clinic and operating room...but my various classes reminded me that my interests are very broad--perhaps too broad to enter such a specific field of practice. I loved learning about such public health issues as en...

This weekend, we're puppy- and cat-sitting for friends who are scouting out their future home in Klamath Falls, Oregon . My MPH classmate  Katherine is planning to start a wellness center there with another classmate (Stephanie--a family medicine doctor who also founded  this clinic in Uganda). They plan to address chronic diseases (such as obesity and diabetes) by working with individuals in clinic and with the community to address built environment issues. They are both remarkable people (as is Randal, Katherine's fiance), so I can't wait to see what they end up accomplishing! I've gotten to know the three of them very well this year, because we worked together on this and this --plus, Katherine and Randal live about a block away from Chris and me.  So Chris and I are hanging out with an adorable yellow lab/ catahoula (and dachshund?) mix puppy named Maizie and a cat (I don't know cat breeds) named Bogey: {Oh hi, Maizie!} {Bogey has a l...