We miss you Nate

It is with great sadness and sorrow that we are writing to inform you of the passing of Nathan Hellman, MD, PhD. Nathan passed away on february 13, 2010 at the Massachusetts General Hospital after a short illness. Born in Houston, Texas, on December 8, 1973, Nathan grew up in Duluth, Minnesota. He attended Yale University, graduating magna cum laude. After Yale, he went to Washington University, where he obtained his MD/PhD. He did his residency training in Internal Medicine at University of Pennsylvania and became a member of the Division of Nephrology in 2007 as a clinical fellow in Nephrology. He was completing his fellowship as a research fellow and member of Iain Drummond’s research group. He was to be appointed a faculty member in July 2010.

Nathan was most importantly a wonderful husband, father, son and brother. At work, he touched all of our lives with his warm heart and spirit, great sense of humor and remarkable intellect. He was an exceptional scientist, a talented and insightful clinician and a remarkably kind and humble human being. He was also known nationwide for his famous Renal Fellows Blog, a wonderful website he updated daily with nephrology teaching points, news and research findings.

He is survived by his wife, Claire, his two children, Sophie and Max, his parents, Dr. and Mrs. Hellman, his two sisters, and their families.

A Memorial Service will be held to celebrate his achievements and commemorate his contributions to the MGH community at the O’Keefe Auditorium on Wednesday, February 17th at 2pm, followed by a reception in the Thier Conference Room at 3.30pm.

In lieu of flowers, memorials can be sent to:

Nathan Hellman Memorial Fund
PO Box 471044
Brookline Village, MA 02447

HD Victory In Sight

We decided that our combined Christmas/Hannukah president this year would be a new flat-screen TV...in order to replace the hideously outdated 19" TV/VHS combo I bought early on in grad school. Should be easy, right? Just waltz into Costco and pick out a cool-looking TV, right? NOT so easy--the entire process has been a grueling exercise. First, we had to pick out a piece of furniture to go with the TV--something high enough that the kids won't put their grimy hands all over the screen--which we DID eventually find and managed to deliver to our home by renting a U-Haul cargo van for a couple of hours. The next obstacle was figuring out how to actually lift the waterlogged box containing said furniture up our stairs in the pouring rain (see photo)...an obstacle which could not be overcome until I enlisted the aid of the Strongest Man I Know, the big Russian who works in my lab--thanks, Alex! In any case, the next step involved installing the TV onto the furniture (it has this stand which elevates the flat screen a few more inches above the furniture), a procedure which involved some frustrating maneuvers with a level, but eventually did get accomplished. The final step in our quest has yet to take place--I recently discovered that I will have to get a new cable box equipped for HDTV--but the end is in sight! I watched a few minutes of the Celtics-Lakers game this afternoon.

Oh, and here's some pictures of the kids painting at home:

Bonus Kid Pics

One recent pic each for my favorite son & my favorite daughter:

Weekend with Aunt Susie!

My sister Susie came to visit this weekend and we packed a lot of activities in! Fortunately the New York City-to-Boston corridor was relatively snow-free and we were able to walk around outside quite a bit. Some highlights:

Ice-skating in Boston Commons! Sophie's first experience with ice skating was overall a good one, though she still needs quite a bit of support.

We took advantage of our family membership at the Boston Science Museum on Sunday.
Fun with the Science Museum distorting mirrors makes Sophie look like she has the same hairstyle as Marge Simpson.

Max enjoys being toted around on Aunt Susie's back.
Thanks for visiting, Aunt Susie!

Celts-Bulls Game Tonight

Just got back from witnessing first-hand the Boston Celtics lose to the Chicago Bulls at the Boston Garden tonight!  The two teams waged an epic playoff battle last season, and I was hoping they would recreate the same magic, but unfortunately, both teams looked a little sloppy, especially the Celtics.  Ray Allen missed a ton of open looks he usually makes, both KG (my fave) and Rasheed Wallace were injured, and thus Boston was forced to start the red-haired Brian Scalabrine, the team's only white guy, as its power forward.  When Brian Scalabrine is your starting power forward, you are in serious trouble.  Still fun to see the whole NBA spectacle, though.  

It's so Easy

So easy to make Max laugh these days...just pretend to start chasing him by stating "I'm gonna get you!" and 9 times out of 10 he'll go nuts. Usually there's more actual pursuit than in this video, but you get the idea.

Congrats to Andre Dawson

Congratulations to Andre Dawson, one of my favorite baseball players growing up, for being elected to the Baseball Hall-of-Fame.

"The Hawk" was at his peak while playing with the Chicago Cubs during the late 80s (also my peak as a baseball fan), though he played more years with the now-defunct Montreal Expos (and in my opinion should probably be inducted into the Hall of Fame wearing an Expos, not a Cubs, uniform, despite my allegiance to the Cubbies). I even picked my high school Spanish name ("Andres") after Andre Dawson.

When I was collecting baseball cards, me and my friends each selected three or four players each, and tried to collect as many cards as possible of these players. My cohort consisted of Andre Dawson, Ryne Sandberg, Ozzie Smith, and Fernando Valenzuela, the first three of which all made it to the Hall of Fame.