Gone Fishing

Gone fishing in the metaphorical sense.

I'll be at the American Society of Nephrology meeting in San Diego, CA for the next few days.  

Not much else going on--last weekend/week was spent recovering from the flu (H1N1, perhaps?) so no new updates or pics.  See you in a few.   

Thoreau's Former Home

A nice fall day in New England calls for a walk around Walden Pond. Nice colors, great walking weather. When I was in high school, I wrote a term paper on Thoreau's Walden Pond; now nearly 20 years later my daughter is running around on the site of his former cabin. Pretty cool.

More Fair

Cute video of Sophie brushing a calf, and pausing every so often to check out the calf's reaction.

Topsfield Fair '09

What a difference a year makes! Check out these photos from almost exactly one year ago, when the Hellman family (then consisting of only three) visited the annual Topsfield Fair, about 30 minutes north of Boston. Sophie's done a lot of growing since then.

Claire & Max.
In the driver's seat as usual.
Taking a ride on the carousel with papa.
Rare family photo with everybody looking at the camera!
The Perfect Fair Food Trifecta: ear of corn, corn dog, and (not pictured here) fried dough.
Crazy pumpkin sculpture.
Michael Jackson Memorial Pumpkin

$$$ Pumpkin display.

Chaos as usual...

Chaos as usual in the Hellman household...



BTW, congrats to the Minnesota Twins for winning the AL Central last night...I had the game on and really enjoyed following it...unfortunately, it looks as if in doing so they earned the right to get demolished by the high-priced NY Yankees...good luck Twins!

Congrats x 3

Nate's Blog has a trifecta of congratulations this morning.

Congrats #1 goes to the winners of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine: all three Americans, who earned their recognition by studies of telomeres (the "caps" on the end of chromosomal DNA that prevent its degradation, also turns out to be extremely important in cancer biology). The winners were Carol Greider, Elizabeth Blackburn, and Jack Szostak, the last one of whom works at my very own hospital (Massachusetts General Hospital)!

Congrats #2 goes to the Duluth Dukes, my 2009 Fantasy Baseball team that pulled out a season victory on the last day of the season. I'm giving co-MVPs to my two starting pitching aces of the year, Felix Hernandez (Seattle Mariners) and C.C. Sabathia (NY Yankees), both of whom will probably be considered for the real-life Cy Young award this year.


Congrats #3 goes to the MN Vikings, Brett Favre, and Monday Night Football--their excellent showing against the Green Bay Packers last night gave me something to watch while my 10-month old son Max refused to go to sleep, literally screaming at the top of his lungs every time I tried to put him in bed--the game kept me somewhat grounded, at least during the first part of the night...

Uncle Frank and Aunt Susan Visit

Actually "Uncle Frank" is my Dad's cousin, but Uncle Frank just sounds better. He & his wife Susan were in Boston as part of a cruise of the Eastern seaboard, and we met them down by the wharf to participate in a great New England-style lunch. Sophie & Max easily sensed the "grandparent gene" present in Frank and Susan and had a great time. Pictures:

Sophie Tries on Boots and Other Stuff

Had a great dinner last night with our friends Keith & Kerri--and we had a lot of fun watching Sophie try on Kerri's stylish boots, which come up to Sophie's thigh. Some pictures.


Sophie & Keith
Sophie & Max playing on their bedroom floor.
Unfortunately Max is definitely in his "let's pull off all the books on the shelves" stage...putting the books back is rapidly becoming part of the daily routine for Claire & myself.
Sophie in PJs.
Sur les epaules de papa.