We spent the weekend with my residency classmates for a ski trip to Loon Mountain in New Hampshire. It was the eve of my 33rd birthday, and being aware of my mortality, we decided to forgo skiing and opted for snowshoeing instead. The well-groomed 2 km trail took us along a quiet mountain stream with sightings of mora tapinella reminiscent of a scene from Skyrim. After refueling on hearty American fare like lobster-mac, Portsmouth pie, and mussels at The Common Man, we made fools of ourselves over a few rounds of Cranium before calling it a night. For my birthday dinner, we met up with the Harvard gang for HK-style seafood at East Ocean City. Dinner at our old med school hangout reminded me of our bygone days, but with more babies at the table this time. We felt a bit out of the loop with all the baby chat, but it was good meeting all my friends again before we leave the city this summer. Meanwhile, my team at the VA hospital celebrated the end of our rotation with dinner at El Oriental En La Cuba. Despite the flog of all the administrative duties at the VA, the patient and surgical experience has been amazing, and is something I will look fondly back upon. That said, I am also looking forward to returning to home base, where I can’t wait to get back into the groove of academic teaching and more importantly, good cafeteria food, again.

As we prepare for the big move this summer, and with many big expenditures looming on the horizon such as medical licensing and a trip to India, we’ve had to scrutinize our finances more carefully. One major decision has been to hold off selling our condo, and keep it instead as a rental property. In the process, we’ve had to look into refinancing our mortgage to take advantage of the low rates, finding a management company to look after the place when we leave town, and meeting with realtors to investigate rental prices in our neighborhood. I’m also discovering all kinds of junk I’ve accumulated over my past 8 years in this apartment, which I hope to sell off in the next few months. Meanwhile, I’ve finally gotten my hands on a new laptop which has been backordered since Black Friday. I’ve always been a fan of Asus motherboards and graphics cards, but this is my first experience with their ultrabook series. The Zenbook UX31 is purported to be a blend of form and function – featuring a sleek aluminum body reminiscent of the Macbook Air but with better performance and longer battery life. My major gripe has been the shallow keyboard which is taking some time to get used to. Time will tell how I adjust to the new form factor.

2012 is the year of the dragon, and what better way to kick it off than to slay one? Six years after closing the gates of Oblivion, we returned to Tamriel to embark on an all new adventure in Skyrim, Bethesda’s critically-acclaimed and newest chapter in the Elder Scrolls series of role-playing games. With more dungeons, more quests, and more monsters to slay, the game already has us totally immersed in the rich, beautifully-designed fantasy world. Whether we were collecting torch bugs in misty groves, watching giants and mammoths cross wheat fields, capturing a Draugr deathlord’s soul in torch-lit catacombs, or taking down a frost dragon with our flaming bow atop a mountain at dusk, the various moments have kept us in constant awe. Perhaps most memorable was a Daedric quest where we retraced our steps after blacking out from a drinking contest. We later learned that we had stolen a goat named Gleda, sold it to a giant, and proposed to a hargraven in a night of debauchery reminiscent of the newest Hangover movie. We’ve played into the wee hours of the morning, even on New Year’s Eve when we paused briefly to watch the ball drop before resuming our adventures. Back in the real world, I remain in exile from my home institution, as I began my rotation at the Boston VA. Despite the high surgical volume and appreciative patients, the onslaught of administrative and scheduling duties have kept me in constant psychological and emotional strain. Compounded by the thick stack of licensing and credentialing paperwork, a scholarship application, a research manuscript, and a visa application for India, I anticipate a busy start to the new year.