Go Bulls!

Relax, all right? Don't try to strike everybody out. Strikeouts are boring! Besides that, they're fascist. Throw some ground balls - it's more democratic.

-Crash Davis, Bull Durham, 1988

The movie Bull Durham is nothing like going to a Durham Bulls Game. Not at all. For starters, the real Durham Bulls draw waaay more fans to their games than their Hollywood counterparts. Secondly, if you went by the movie, you'd think there was only one black person in the entire city. Seriously, would it have killed them to walk 3 blocks to the bus stop and pick up some actual residents for all the extras? But it is nice to be able to see the city that we live in. Durham's not that big (you could easily walk from one end of Downtown to the other in 20 minutes), and to see it up close and personal in a movie like this is pretty cool.

We've been to a few real Durham Bulls games since we've been here, and there really isn't anything quite like a minor league baseball game. You get to sit a lot closer to the action, and with the quality of pitching being lower than the big leagues, there tends to be more scoring, which is nice. The last game we went to ended up being $1 concession stand item night, so it was like having my birthday, thanksgiving, and and an epic session of colonics all in one night. Six hot dogs is tough for one person to pull down, and I was definitely feeling it the next couple of days, but it was totally worth it.

Sadly, the end of the season is upon us. For those of you keeping score, the Bulls are 72-69 this year and hold a 7 game lead over second place Norfolk in the South Division of the International League, so we're guaranteed a playoff game or two.

Mid-way through a gut-wrenching night of hot doggery:














Da Bulls:














Hit Bull Win Steak. Hit Grass Win Salad:

Durham, circa 1891

I have been checking out some of the other local blogs down here, and one called Endangered Durham focuses on showcasing the rich history of the city, particularly comparing the current layout of the city with what used to be. I've included a photo of a map of the town from 1891. The portion you see is a closeup of our apartment (marked with the number 19), which was built in 1874 and was originally part of W.T. Blackwell's Tobacco Manufactory. Either the map was never totally accurate to begin with, or the building has since been changed because its current form is not the Pi-shape that the map shows, but is instead a big square with an open courtyard in the middle. But the windows and the overall look of the building looks accurate to me. You can check out the blog where I found it at http://endangereddurham.blogspot.com

More maps like it can be found at http://digitaldurham.duke.edu

Blacksburg, Virginia

Well, we made it a whole week on our own before we felt the urge to high-tail it out of the state. Our friend Danielle, whom Rachel met in New York doing research, is a Forestry grad student at Virginia Tech in mountainous Blacksburg, Virginia. Danielle has lived all over the place, from Philly to Indiana, PA to Arizona to southwestern Virginia, so she knew what it was like to start over in a new place. The drive took us a little more than three hours, and right when you get to the Virginia border you start to climb back up into the Appalachians, or to be more specific, the Blue Ridge Mountains. Blacksburg was a good ten degrees cooler than we get it down in Durham, and after a week plus of 95 degree or higher temperatures, it felt really good to get to a higher altitude. We met Danielle at one of her favorite watering holes, the Hoakie House, and finished off a couple pints and caught up on our lives before heading back to her house for the night.

The next day begun with a late breakfast at the good old Cracker Barrel, or "White People Container" as Rachel has started calling them. Now, we used to have a Cracker Barrel off of 694 in Brooklyn Center, and I've been there a few times myself, but I forgot just how delicious a fat-filled Southern breakfast can be. Rachel was a Cracker Barrel virgin, so it was kind of a big deal. As a lot of you probably know, I'm kind of a food snob, but it really doesn't get any better than stuffing yourself with comfort food. Especially when you're homesick. Two huge bellies and twelve dollars later (seriously), we were feeling like we could go for another eight hours of sleep, but we had a big day with Danielle ahead of us.

Our next stop was the animal shelter (Danielle wanted to look at dogs). Turns out she found one just right for her, too, and she put down the money for a dog who for a while was going to be named after yours truly. Sadly, by the end of the day, the dog's name had changed from Charlie to Zap Brannigan to Hermes and Food Kitty before Danielle finally settled on George. Charlie or Zap Brannigan would've been waaay better. The funniest thing about this whole adventure was the fact that Danielle didn't have any cash on her to pay for her new friend, so she mooched off us until she could find a cash machine. I don't think very many people have paid for a dog with a few twenties, some roughed up ones and a hand full of quarters, but George has had a hard life so it kind of seemed fitting.

One of the highlights of our trip was driving up to nearby Roanoke for the MicroFestivus Beer Party (or something like that). We were able to try ten beers from dozens of mostly local micro brews, and we also got to check out Roanoke, which is a pretty cool city and a heck of a lot bigger than I was expecting for southwestern Virginia.

The next day, Danielle took us through the Virginia Tech campus. It was definitely a very powerful experience to walk through a place that so many of us only know because of one of the biggest tragedies in American history. To walk on the huge drill field that became the site of a candle-light vigil after a disturbed individual took the lives of over 30 others would have been emotional enough for a regular person, but things like these are a lot different for my wife. Maybe she'll say something about it herself, but she told me that it was important to be connected to other people who have gone through a similar thing as she has. It makes you wonder how the world can be so wonderful and so terrible at the same time.

We'll probably post some more in the next couple of days; have a good night.

At the memorial at Virginia Tech:














The drill field:














The memorial:














Rachel and I in the Blue Ridge Mountains:














The Blue Ridge Mountains:

A little about Duke...

So, here's my first post, and I think I'll tell you a little about the school that we've moved across the country to attend. I am here to receive my Masters of Physician Assistant Studies (MPAS). I chose Duke because it is one of the top programs in the nation and is actually where the PA profession began. The concept of a PA was created by Dr. Eugene Stead, who was chairman of the Duke Dept. of Medicine during the 1960s. He thought that by producing more "mid-level medical practioners," people would have greater access to healthcare and doctors would have more time to deal with more complex cases. When I'm finished with my degree in 2 years, I will be able to work in any medical specialty, take patient histories, do physical exams, order tests, write prescriptions, and develop treatment plans with my patients. I am excited by the flexibility that is available to PAs because I will not be confined to any particular area of medicine and I will have more time to spend with my patients. So, yay! I start orientation on Monday the 18th, and I think classes begin the 20th. I'm scared but really excited to be busy again and start filling my brain with interesting stuff.

Charlie and I decided that it would be a good idea to go on a tour of campus just so we had some idea of where things were and we thought it would be interesting. The info. session and tour we went on were meant for high schoolers who were trying to figure out where to apply for their undergrad degrees, so we were a lot more engaged in the tour than the others because Duke was already "our school." We got to see the chapel and a bunch of buildings that I'll never go inside again (because all of my classes are all in the same building), but it was fun anyway. The take home message was basically that Duke has a crap-load of money to spend, so the buildings are all gorgeous, and they will give you money (as an undergrad anyway) to do pretty much anything you convince them will advance science or aid society in some way. Apparently you can make some sweet money making tobacco products. Right in front of the chapel is a statue of James Duke (Duke is named in honor of his father Washington Duke), which we were told is one of the only statues in the world that shows a person smoking a cigar (WOW!)

Today the temp was in the low 80s, which is about 15 degrees cooler than it has been, so we decided it would be a good idea to go to the Duke Gardens again, and this time we brought our camera! We didn't stay as long this time because we had already been there several times (and Charlie's tummy was rumbling), but we took pictures of most of the things we had seen in the past that we thought were cool. I don't have too much to say except the gardens are beautiful and the pictures will speak for themselves. I'll make another post soon about the weekend trip we took to visit my friend Danielle in Virginia, but I'm still waiting on a few pics. I miss and love all of you! Thanks for reading.

Duke Chapel














Fountain at the entrance to the Duke Gardens














Flower we decided looked like a shower head














"The Terrace" at the Duke Gardens














Gazebo at Duke Gardens (top is completely covered by tree branches)














One of the trees growing on the gazebo



















Crazy Lily Pads at the Gardens














Duck Pond at the Gardens (we saw some huge turtles fighting here when we were with our parents)














Plaque on the side of an old Liggett-Myers building (Go big tobacco!)

300 Blackwell Street, Apartment 208

Well, here goes our first big post. We left home in Minnesota at around 3:30 AM on the morning of Thursday, July 31st. Apart from the latter half of Wisconsin, which smelled like bratwurst and BO, our trip was fairly uneventful. Tom kept us at a pretty good clip; we only stopped every four or five hours or so. Because of how early we left, we were able to make it to Knoxville, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains by the end of our first driving day. I think that everybody who was with us would have voted for either Kentucky or Tennessee as the prettiest states that we drove through.

We finally pulled into Durham at around 12:30 on Friday, and we went straight to our apartment to unload. As it was the first day that our building was open to anybody, it was a little busy with other neighbors moving in around us. It could have been worse, though. Only half of the building is currently leased. The next day and a half was spent moving everything in from the cars and finding a spot for it once we got it inside. We saw a dead body in the alleyway. Just kidding. I put that in there because Rachel just said that my first post wasn't very exciting. Take that, Rachel!

At the end of the first day, Tom, Sherry, Deb, Rachel and I had dinner at Tyler's Taproom, a bar/grill that's just around the corner from us. After that we walked around the rest of the American Tobacco campus (that's the big development our apartment is a part of), and stopped in for the end of a Durham Bulls game. There wasn't anybody manning the gate at the time, so we were able to catch an inning of baseball and a great fireworks show for free! After that, it was back to our apartment for some well-earned sleep.

One of the coolest things about our apartment is that it is just across the block from the Durham Bulls Ballpark, and we can hear the crowd cheering whenever something big happens. On top of that, the American Tobacco campus is chock-full of really cool businesses and restaurants. Just off the top of my head, there's Tyler's Taproom (where we went the first night, and where they have about a billion different kinds of beer), the Mellow Mushroom (a gourmet pizza place), Symposium (looks like a cool date place), Cafe Zen (sushi), SalaDelia (???), a YMCA, a ton of Duke University administrative offices, the WUNC North Carolina Public Radio broadcast studios, and a neato central square area with a big water tower, a giant smokestack (from when they made cigarettes and cancer back here in the day), and a man-made river. Basically, it's the bee's knees, as Rachel and the beatniks say.

Saturday was spent going around on various errands and spending so much money that Wells Fargo called to see if we got robbed. We bought an entertainment center from Target, a bedroom set, and a new car battery because mine crapped out in Tennessee. We also went to Hog Heaven, a great Eastern Carolina barbeque shack, and the Sarah Duke Gardens, which is pretty much a must-see if you come down here.

Tom and Sherry had to leave us on Sunday morning, and it was one of many really sad moments since we've been down here. That's probably the hardest thing about moving down here. We really miss our family and friends back home, and hope that as many people visit us as possible over the next couple of years.

Deb, Rachel and I ran a bunch more errands on Sunday, including buying a gigantic Majesty Palm plant on a whim that we're pretty sure will off itself sometime in the next couple weeks because we put it in a size-too-small pot. But oh well, Flora, as Rachel calls it, had a heck of a run with us, as we had the top half hanging out the side of our car as we crawled home from Costco. We ended the day on Sunday by going out to Pop's, an Italian restaurant at nearby Brightleaf Square just west of downtown.

Monday morning was my turn to feel really sad. I drove my mom to the airport early in the morning for her flight, and we both fought back tears saying goodbye. I'm pretty sure we both lost it the second we were out of eyesight from one another. When I got home from the airport, I cried some more because the Verizon guy took so freaking long to get our internet to work. But we finally got everything up and running in the end.

Tune in for more! Here's some awesome pictures of our place!














Our bedroom. And big kitty.














The kitchen.














Charlie's office.














Our gigantic tv.


















The view out of our living room window.














Our living room from the entryway.

Welcome to Our Blog!

Hi, everybody! Welcome to our blog about our new life in Durham, North Carolina. We've been moved in for about five days now, and I thought it was about time to get this thing up and running. This first post won't be much, and I will make a bigger one later today, but make sure to bookmark this page and check in regularly for our latest update.