Missed the Blog

It's been a while since my last update! A lot happened in the last month, but I'll just give a short version. Early August my parents, Ivy and I went to Taiwan. We were unfortunate to be greeted by Typhoon Morakot. It's my first typhoon that I have any memory of. It was pretty bad and it happened on Aug 8th, the weekend that we were meeting with Ivy's family. A lot of plans changed because of the Typhoon, but we did get to meet. I felt bad for the loses Taiwan endured. My trip to Taiwan was unexpectedly extended by about 4 days because I got bumped from my flight. I received $5000 NT compensation, but I nearly spent it all on the high speed rail + meals to meet up with Ivy and her friends at Kaoshiung.

After returning to LA I was mostly busy studying and also house hunting. Apparently this summer was a seller's market because of the $8000 tax credit for first time home buyers. Home prices got jacked up, which was defeating the purpose of getting the $8000 tax credit. I'm mostly looking at homes in the Walnut area, which seems more valuable than Rancho Cugamonga or Diamond Bar. Although houses at Rancho Cugamonga are nice and new, they are in the middle of the desert (literally at the outer fringe of civilization). Maybe in the future the area would boom, but as of now it seems inconvenient for simple day-to-day stuff.

For Labor Day weekend I went to Santa Barbara and one of the Channel Islands. The trip was pretty cool. I didn't know we had all those islands off the California coast.

We did get to see some dolphins on the trip to the islands. We step foot on an island that's only one square mile. At the top of the island you could see ocean on all sides. That's a pretty gnarly feeling.


Next week a couple of my cousins and then later an uncle will come visit us from Taiwan! It looks like my mom has planned out their visits. My uncle is actually here for business, but has one day free. My cousins will be here for 2 weeks. They will stay at our home for the visit.

Going to Taiwan!

I'm on my way to Taiwan! The purpose of the trip is for my parents to meet Ivy's parents and then to discuss wedding plans. Last week Ivy finally picked out her engagement ring from Blue Nile. It's a very bright ring and she likes it very much. Cut is ideal, color grade is F and the clarity grade is VS2. We looked at Kay, Robin's Brothers at the malls, but their diamonds seem like cheap grades. I think we got a great deal at Blue Nile. In Taiwan we'll pick out our wedding rings. If we can't find what we want then we'll buy in the US afterwards.

Out luggages are filled to the max for the most part. A lot of the stuff are not even ours, but rather stuff friends and family in Taiwan want us to bring back. So yesterday Ivy and I went to the Duty Free store at Hollywood (Kodak Theatre). They marked up their prices quite a bit. I was amazed that a bag of M&M's cost $12! I could get a bucket full of M&M's from the grocery store for that amount of money. Also the stuff they sell are the stuff I don't use any way. They are mainly beauty products and upscale branded clothing and handbags.

At the Star Walk we saw a small shrine at Michael Jackson's star. Madame Tussauds seems to be a new attraction as I never seen it before. I got a photo of me and Snoop Dog! Hollywood was super crowded with tourists yesterday.

Bike Report: 1060 Miles, 13 lbs Lighter

I slowly broke the 1000-mile mark about a week ago riding my bike! Now I'm over 1060 miles. I also lost about 13 pounds since mid April!

The hills in Walnut were a killer at first, but now they seem ok. I could only do 14.3 miles (about 1.5 loops around the major roads in City of Walnut) in about 53-54 minutes, that's only about averaging 16 mph. That's a slow average, but considering I'm climbing the Amar hills twice I'm happy with it. I have yet to encounter anyone riding faster than me.

My fastest segments (because they are either downhill or flat) are:
Lemon Ave. southbound (35 mph)
Grand Ave. southbound (32 mph)
Valley Blvd. westbound (23 mph)

Speeds vary greatly when there are uphill climbs mixed with downhills:
La Puente Rd. westbound ( 15-25 mph)
Nogales St. northbound (10-18 mph)
Amar Rd. eastbound (6-30 mph)

Settling down in LA

I finally got my (small) truck load of stuff back last week! The United Van Lines drove their 18-wheeler up our hill and had to make a tight K-turn at a cross street. The semi-truck was huge, probably the biggest I'd seen. The cab seemed like it could sleep all 3 people who came to unload. I shifted though all the stuff and got most of the things I need out already. The rest will probably stay boxed until I find a new place to live.

I'm in the process of looking for a house to buy in the San Gabriel Valley. The housing market is still inflated here in LA. For $300k I could move into a mansion in Texas or Ohio, but here that's only a condo's worth. I have yet to get my pre-approval from the bank, but it seems like my price range will be $550k or less. My parents are going to help me out big time for the down payment since it's 25%. No more 0% down for doctors like before. I'm also looking at maybe a 15 year morgage, but first is to pay my parents back. The interest rates are low, so that's to my advantage.

Ivy and I will head back to Taiwan in August along with my parents. They will meet with Ivy's parents for the first time to discuss wedding plans. Hopefully things can get hammered out then. August will likely be hot in Taiwan. I'm also studying for the boards. We'll see how that goes. It's slow going so far with so many things going on. I know my trip to Taiwan will somehow disrupt the studying a bit.

On side notes, Fred had his surprise party at Seaport Village in San Diego. It was my first time seeing fireworks from San Diego's harbor. They had 4 fireworks going at the same time. Later that weekend Ivy secretly bought me my birthday present. It's a Gucci wallet! It's early, but no complaints. She had noticed that I needed a new wallet, but couldn't bring myself to spend more than $40 on a decent one. I wonder how much this Gucci wallet costs.

The Move

After 3 days, 2479 miles using 55 gallons of gas on my trusty Prius, Ivy and I made it back to California! Last Friday the United Van Lines movers came and cleaned out my apartment, except a few things, within 2 hours! They were pretty professional and packed every thing good. The only things left were my 2 bikes, computer, camera equipments, and clothes for the next 3 days. I decided to stay a night at a local Best Western since I didn't think I could last a night on the floor. So Friday night I packed every thing into my car and headed out to the hotel.

I started the trip from Columbus last Saturday morning. Ivy was supposed to start the trip with me from Columbus, but her original flight on Friday night was delayed due to an incompetent airline (US Airways). It was not a weather, mechanical, or air traffic related delay. US Airways was just slow in getting their planes to their destinations on time. As a result, Ivy took the flight to Indianapolis on Saturday morning so I could pick her up on the way.

Our first day of drive was the shortest, about 712 miles. It was a 3-hour drive from Columbus to Indianapolis airport. We stopped at St. Louis and visited the Gateway Arch for a bit. It was my second visit there and Ivy's third. We didn't go up the arch as both of us had done it before and didn't find it interesting. It was near 100 degrees and humid at St. Louis and we could barely make it to the arch from the parking lot without soaking in sweat. We then drove to Kansas City (Missouri side) for our stay at Sheraton near their airport.

Our second day of drive was about 873 miles. Kansas pretty much had nothing going on. The eastern half of Colorado was plain too. Even though the plains were as flat as Ohio, Indiana, or Illinois, at least those states had a lot of huge trees. Missouri actually has a lot of rolling hills and some cliffs. We didn't stop at Denver since we want to see the Rocky Mountains before sunset and get to our hotel at Grand Junction on time. The Rockies were quite a climb. It was my 5th trip up the Rockies on I-70 freeway. There were a lot of tunnels and the snow was still there. The Eisenhower Tunnel was interesting. This tunnel is the highest point on I-70 at 11,158 feet elevation. Ivy brought some sealed snacks and one of the snacks actually burst! We later passed by the ski resourt town of Veil and coursed along with the Colorado River down to Grand Junction.

Our third day of drive was 894 miles. It was not supposed to be our longest drive, but I had to take Ivy all the way to LAX at the end to pick up her car. The day started with us in Utah most of the time. It was very hot in the desert, at 115 degrees! There were a lot of scenic view points, but all of them looked similar to me. We made a stop at St. George near the Arizona border. We drove through the Las Vegas strip, but didn't stop. My parents wanted to see if we could make it home to have dinner with them, so after a fuel-up at the California border, we drove 200 miles non-stop to Walnut! After dinner I took Ivy to LAX to pick up her car.

So that's our 3 day vacation, mostly driving. I spent the last few days unpacking and putting all the stuff in the right places. I have a truck load coming next week with the rest of my stuff. I am going to prepare and plan to study for the boards and continue to exercise on my bike. So far the hills at Walnut are killers and could take some time to get used to.

Only a few days left!

Only Thursday and Friday left for me in Ohio! Sometimes it feels sad to leave, since Columbus is a pretty nice city without the traffic and pollution of LA. When I left Columbus after med school in 2004, I never thought I'd be back here again. Now with me starting work at Kaiser and putting my roots down in the West Coast, I think the chances of me coming back to Columbus is even less. What I will miss the most is the awesome bike trails that Columbus has. I will definitely not miss the snow in the winter and the humidity/rain in the summer.

Speaking of bike trails, I made another YouTube video. This is in slightly higher quality and the sun was out. There were clouds too, so some parts of the video go in and out of the shades.



Also the fireflies seem to be out earlier this year. I think it is probably because of all the rain that we had and the warmer spring. Here's a video of fireflies as viewed from my apartment window.



As you can tell, I'm liking my little Canon SD960 IS camera. The high-definition videos are pretty awesome.

As I wrap up my fellowship, I had the chance to go out to lunch at Max & Erma's at German Village with Heather, Snow, and Stacy (our new attending). It seems like the next year will bring new things to all of us.

I am still in the process of packing all my stuff in the apartment. Today I took all my shelves apart, packed my printer, clothes and bike equipments. Tomorrow, I will pack my computer, clothes, and kitchen and bathroom things. I'll end things up by cleaning the apartment. The movers will be here Friday. Also, it turns out that I can get a refund for the unused portion of my parking permit, so that's an extra $100 that I'll get back! Ivy's flying in Friday night and we'll stay at a local hotel since my room will be completely empty by then. We should drive out at about 8am.

Bike Video

I made a bike video! I made it using the Canon SD960 IS on RAM mount. The video is composed of clips from about 20 minutes of bike ride. I rode for more than 1 hour, so this was just a taste of what I saw on the trail. I chose a day where there was not a lot of people on the trail so I could go faster. It was overcast and I shot the video in regular definition. When we have more sunny days, I'll make another video, this time in high definition.




I'm one week from my drive back to LA!

School's Out...

...at least for OSU students. Graduation was yesterday. Today a bunch of U-Hauls showed up at our apartment. Pretty soon it'll be my turn to move!

Last week I was the preceptor for 10 medical students for their ICM course for 2 days. It went pretty well, and I hope they learned something from me. Then last weekend I got certified for advanced cardiac life support. It was easier than I remembered. I guess having some experience at USC made it much easier. It does suck to spend 14 hours in the weekend for it and the certification only lasts 2 years.

Now that I got those out of the way, next is a bunch of paperwork. My program director told us that we need to audit other fellow's charts to make sure documentation is complete. I got that taken care of today. Then today we were informed that we need to turn in 10 patient satisfaction surveys. I could probably do that in the week, even though my patient load is much less now. The problem is for Heather to complete that, since she only has 2 days left here. Also, I'm initiating my pension withdrawal/transfer. It looks like I have to make a visit to human resources to get the paperwork completed. After that's done, Kaiser Permanente also has some paperwork for me to complete. The paperwork just don't stop!

I haven't even started packing anything yet. I think, first I have to decide what stuff I want to bring along in my car and what stuff I'll ship with United Van Lines. I'll probably spend the next 10 days just packing stuff. I need to make sure I do my laundry on the day before the move and to end my internet and electric services. I need to call OSU parking to see if there's a refund for the unused portion of the parking permit. I need to turn in my OSU keys and pager. There's also a move-out checklist to complete for my apartment. I have to turn in the keys and ID card to get my security deposit back.

In the meantime I continued to ride my bike when it's not raining. I'm a bit over 700 miles now. Ohio has been having a lot of rain and storms and I wouldn't ride in those. The next 2-4 days could be my rest day because of storms. I did get some ride in today. I picked up my pace now to 18-22 mph on the flats. It's been a while since any one passed me on the bike path. I think I'm getting up there now. The bad part is that now almost every day I have muscle pain (kind of like before when I would run 5 miles every day), so rest days are definitely needed for a couple of days per week.

Today, toward the end of my 18.5 mile loop, I caught up to a person riding his bike at a pretty good speed. He was wearing regular T-shirt, shorts, and tennis shoes. When he saw me tailing, he picked up his speed to average of 20 mph, which is about my speed. I drafted for a couple of miles and, boy, that made my muscles much better! At a stop light, he looked back and said, "Hi." I looked at him, and replied, "Good day for a ride, huh?" Then I realized he's quite young, and he told me he's 15 years old! Half my age! Well, I told him that he's doing pretty good for a teenager. He said he hopes to get biking outfits like those I was wearing, which made me feel a little better.

Columbus has more sun than LA!

2 more days 'till LA! I just realized that in Columbus, we actually get about 1 more hour of day time than LA. Our sunset is currently 8:56pm while LA sunset is 7:56pm. That's why when Ivy visited she wondered why there was still light outside at almost 9pm. How cool is that? It's not summer solstice yet, but Alaska is already having 24 hours of sun.

I've stepped up my cycling a little bit by doing about 18.5 miles 5-6 days per week (depending on weather). I'm close to 600 miles on my bikes. I got rained on pretty hard today again, and I was riding extra fast just to get home. I got dirt and water spray all over my bike and along my back all the way up the helmet. The tires are amazingly grippy even on the wet pavement. When I visit LA this weekend I'll be bike-less for 5 days. I hope I don't get deconditioned that fast. Also it seems like my bro Jack has gotten into road bike too. He just got a bike just like mine.

Want to ride with Lance Armstrong? In August, there's a bike ride for cancer sponsored by OSU Medical Center (http://www.pelotonia.org/). They offer 25-180mile rides. I believe you need to commit to raise $1000-$2000 depending on the distance. You can get sponsored by companies or friends so you don't pay that money out of your own pocket. But the interesting thing is that those involved will get to ride with Lance Armstrong! Too bad I won't be here by then.

There's so much to do this month: study for ACLS, preceptor for ICM courses for medical students, fill out pension withdrawal forms, pack some stuff for the big move, and complete my apartment check-out lists.

Packed Weekend!

What a weekend! Ivy and I had an action packed Memorial Day weekend! I was on call, so I couldn't go far. Luckily Ivy and I were able to find things to do close to Columbus. The farthest we went was 80 miles to Kings Island (near Cincinnati). Initially I had thought about going to Great Smoky Mountains or Chicago, but they were too far. The whole weekend was pretty humid. We were sweating so much that we got pretty sticky the whole time. At King's Island we had to buy those big-gulp 42 oz. souvenir cups because they let you get refills for $2 with those cups. Guess what, with both of us sharing one cup, we went through the equivalent of 3 fills!

Here's the weekend breakdown:

Ivy arrived to Columbus late Saturday morning after I went out for a bike ride. For lunch we went to Benihana! Yeah, Columbus finally has a Benihana. It opened about 2 months ago. They don't have much business though as the restaurant was almost empty, but at least their sushi was just like the one in LA. Their lunch boat seemed bigger than LA for less than $10.

After lunch we went for a short visit at the Specialized bike demo at a local mountain bike trail. It looks like Specialized puts out these demos across the country as they travel in a truck and trailer. We only browsed for a few minutes before heading to see an RC airplane competition near by. The planes were huge in person, but so small in the air! The RC pilots got some skills too and did a few acrobatic tricks.

Later we stopped at the 15th annual Asian Festival at Franklin Park. The whole event was free with music and stuff. The music wasn't great and the boutiques sold pretty cheap looking stuff. They got a lot of foods there, but we decided to eat dinner elsewhere.

In the evening we spent a few minutes at a free concert at a city called Gahanna. We didn't stay cus they were playing country music, which both of us don't like. We then decided to go see the Star Trek movie. It was a pretty awesome movie!

Sunday morning I got up bright and early (6:30 am) for a 20 mile bike ride. Not a lot of people riding that morning, but other riders say "hi" when passing. At about 11am we arrived at King's Island! Memorial Sunday was filled with events at the theme park because it's the beginning of their "summer" season. There's a new roller coaster ride called Diamondback. They also had a BMX competition in which Sunday was the finals day. There was also a motocross acrobatics demo. But...the main event of the day was the Collective Soul concert!!! They threw in an extra concert by Pop Evil, but it's obvious everyone wants to see Collective Soul. Collective Soul played all of their hit songs and also a couple from their new album. We were sitting pretty close up to the left, but we were also in front of the speakers. It was so loud that my camera couldn't pick up the audio when I recorded videos. The day at King's Island ended with extended firework show and 3 pyrotechnic skydivers. The ticket for the theme park, including the concerts, was just $33 per person! That's so cheap compared to $70 per person at Disneyland. We didn't get back to Columbus until almost 1am.

On Memorial Day we basically slept in. I decided to skip riding my bike for a day. All we did was just visit the OSU campus. For lunch we had $6 Chinese buffet. The food was great and the restaurant was filled with people. I think Ivy over-stuffed herself cus she felt nauseous afterwards. She skipped dinner since she was flying back to LA.

So that's my 3-day Memorial weekend. In about 10 days it'll be my turn to visit LA. I am also 32 days away from my road trip back to LA! I've already booked my hotels at Kansas City, KS and Grand Junction, CO. We'll pass by St. Louis, Denver and Las Vegas. It'll be a straight shot with maybe short stops at the big cities.

300+ Miles

I broke the 300 mile mark today on my bikes! I started riding about a month ago. I'm averaging 16 mph and I ride 12-15 miles each time. On the straights I go about 18-20 mph. I found that road bikes are about 4 mph faster than a mountain bike given the same effort (power). Good thing here in Columbus we have a bike path near my apartment. It runs along the river and is very scenic since you are hidden in the forest. It takes you away from the traffic. I just hop on the bike and I'm at the bike path within half a mile. The bad thing about the path is that other people use it to jog, walk, walk their dogs, and rollerblade, so you really have to watch for these people. Today is the first day I got rained on too! The rain actually kept me cool, though.

There are still a lot of bikers who go faster than me. But I'm flattered that the last 2 days I have others riding my draft. Apparently by following very close to me they have less wind resistance. Naturally the stronger rider is in the front....hehehe! Riding my draft (or "sucking my wheel") makes me nervous because I have to keep my speed constant or the person behind would crash into me.

On other news, I finally got 1 of the 2 reimbursement checks from my interviews at Texas. I spent a total of $1800 on the interviews and I got back $1000. The other $800 should be in the mail right now. It sucks to get reimbursed this late.

Ivy's coming to Columbus for a visit on Memorial 3-day weekend! We have yet to decide what to do. I thought about going to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but the round trip drive would be 14 hours and Ivy won't get to Columbus until Saturday afternoon. Apparently there are a lot of local events; I'm just not sure how interesting they would be.

7 weeks and counting!

Okay so I have about 50 days left of fellowship! There are a few things I need to get in place before I leave here. I have to get recertified in BLS and ACLS, complete my retirement fund withdrawal paperwork, and then do a complete inventory of the stuff I want to ship with the moving company (United Van Lines). As it turns out, I will probably drive my way back to California because I have some things that I don't trust the moving company for handling. I remember my BMW 325i was damaged back in 2000 from a mover. Also I have a computer that I don't want to wait 10 days for it to arrive in California. United Van Lines quote for the move was pretty high and may exceed the $5000 limit because 18-wheelers can't get to my apartment here in Columbus and home in Walnut. If I take the car out of the equation, then they can use a smaller truck to move the rest of my stuff door-to-door. I think I still have to sell a few things (like the one bed mattress) since I don't imagine needing them in California.

Last week, my bro Fred, bro Jack, Noelle, and mom returned from their vacation at Japan and Taiwan. It looks like they had a lot of fun and Fred and Noelle got engaged! Jack's photos are quite nice and I'm impressed by them. Of course, Ivy gets jealous seeing those photos. I say there'll be plenty of photos when I'm back to LA and have someone take photos of us! My mom said she can take photos for us, and I said Ha....!

I finally got back into bicycling after a long period of absence. I have now switched to road cycling with the Specialized Tarmac Pro SL and Specialized Allez Sport Comp (got a great deal on both). I'm finally riding fast enough that when I hit a bug, it'll just die and stick to my face! On my last ride, each of my eyes ate a bug. I was riding with my regular small glasses, so I decided to utilize my optometry coverage on my health insurance to get new sunglasses. I only have two pairs of sunglasses in my life time (both are at least 5 years old), but the lenses were too small to provide any protection. So my eye exam was completely free with my vision insurance at the OSU School of Optometry. The student spent 2 hours examining me, and did a lot of tests that I thought was unnecessary, but hey, she's learning.

I went for the Oakley Flak Jacket XLJ with Fire Iridium lens and Oakley Radar Path Livestrong Special Edition with Black Iridium lens from Lens Crafters. Both pairs of glasses are covered under my vision insurance! I initially ordered the Flak Jacket because of the more traditional sports look. Then they said that I could also get the Radar Path for 50% off retail. The Radar Path wraps around my eyes very well when I tried it out at the store. I think I got a great price on both pairs because of my vision insurance. They would be too expensive without it.

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

So today is the official day that I signed the contract with Kaiser Permanente! That means I have to make the phone calls to all those other places that offered me a job. One particular call was pretty bad with all the awkward silences on the phone as the office manager was pretty shocked. But keeping in mind that of the contracts that I received, they have the worst offer. I had previously called this place and asked for a better offer, but it seems like they couldn't do it.

Another place made a surprising offer of $220,000 per year guaranteed for two years and with benefits rivaling Kaiser (but Kaiser is still better). Potential income could be over $300,000 per year. I did some calculations regarding taxation, as I would be in a higher tax bracket. This place still works out to be about $3000 more in take-home money per month than Kaiser Permanente (CA has a heavy income tax). But after talking to my attendings, co-fellows and my parents, being close to home is worth the $3000 per month difference.

So that's what I did today! Not very pleasant, but had to be done. Kaiser will pay for my move to CA. I got an estimate from United Van Lines today. My move would cost a bit over $4000 ($1800 to move my stuff, $2200 to move my car). That's quite expensive. If I were to pay for this, I would rather drive back myself and spend the $4000 on new furniture. That's it for now. I do need to get my ACLS recertified.

It's Decided!

It's finally time to relax! I decided to join Kaiser Permanente at Fontana as a hospitalist (rheumatology part-time)! I managed to squeeze 7 interviews into March. 4 of the interviews were internal medicine and 3 were rheumatology. I spent over $2000 on the trips, with $1800 that should be reimbursed in a month. I turned down several interview requests from Florida and Hawaii (Please don't ask why I turned down paradise before I regret it, again.). I received some contracts already and, after a lot of thinking, I think I belong in southern California! The good thing about Kaiser Fontana is that I will have the chance to do some rheumatology if their rheumatologist goes on vacation or needs additional help. And it also sounds like a hospitalist has more chances to work over-time (ie get over-time pay).

The other OSU rheumatology fellow, Heather, has just signed her contract with a competing hospital here in Columbus. It was a move that many of my attendings would not like. Columbus already has a lot of rheumatologists, so as a result, her starting pay is not as high as mine.

I have started to exercise again recently as the weather got warmer. I'm very out of shape from the winter! I ran two miles both days this weekend and did some weight lifting, and I am feeling muscle burn pretty bad now. I went on the bike trail at Olentangy river to jog. When I saw a bunch of people on bikes, I felt the need to get a bike of my own. Since Kaiser is going to fund my move to California, I thought a bike would not cause a problem with the move. I like bicycling because is a low-impact aerobic exercise.

I had a black bike when I was a kid in Taiwan, then never again until today! I went for the Specialized FSR XC Expert! It is a 2008 model on clearance at Bike Source. Got a pretty good deal on it as the 2009 model is almost the same. I am surprised how bicycles have advanced in the last 10 years.

The new bike is Handmade In Taiwan, all aluminum alloy frame, full-suspension (adjustible X-Fusion air suspension in rear with RockShox Recon suspension fork in front), 27 speed Shimano Deore shifters, and Avid Juicy Three hydraulic disc brakes. Bike Source threw in the bottle holder and helmet for free and gave me a 20% discount on the air pump (apparently modern bikes have different air valves than the ones we use to inflate other things). Can't wait to give it a ride!

Job Search!

It's finally down to this: finding a real job. I will start my first interview this Friday at San Diego, a private practice with both out-patient and in-patient care. Then next week I have 3 interviews all in the LA area. I'll round off the month with a visit to Eureka and Texarcana. I may interview at Ohio locations too. I am looking forward to moving back to California, but I am broadening my search to other states including Ohio and Texas. The job market is decent, but not great, considering the economy seems to have some effect on hiring. A physician's job prospect is still better than many other professions though.

The Lunar New Year came and went. Ivy came by for a short visit. We also visited her sister's family at Illinois. We had hot pot with their Taiwanese friends. Spring is just around the corner, but these couple of days we are having one last (I hope) freeze. Tonight it's going to be 8 degrees. We are supposed to be 25 degrees warmer. Luckily we missed all the snow that hit the east.

I recently purchased a new camera, the Panasonic LX3! It's been a long time since I bought a camera. It's very nice. I took it out for a few shots and it seems like a good compact camera. It's got HD video recording, a f2.0 lens and great low light performance up to ISO 800. Here are a couple of shots from around my apartment.

I can see the end of fellowship!

I just came back from an awesome vacation at Hawaii with Ivy! Hawaii was very nice. It was only my second time there. We stayed at Waikiki most of the time. The weather was always a perfect 75-80 degrees. I took lots of photos of our trip. Check them out at my photo album!

I then spent a week just staying home in southern CA. I met up with three friends from residency at USC. It's good to catch up on old times and see how they like their work. We spent a day in San Diego's outlet mall at Carlsbad. I bought a pair of cargo pants from Polo because I thought I had lost my original one. When I came back to Ohio, I found it in the closet! Now I have two cargo pants and they are almost the same color! At least the Polo pants are more rugged looking. Anyway Ivy finally found a couple of her Christmas gifts during this vacation (a pair of UGG shoes at Hawaii and GAP furry hooded jacket at the outlet mall).

I'm back in freezing Ohio. I'm quite busy this month because of medical student lectures that I'm giving. I'm also covering consults for 1 week due to a switch in schedule. This may allow me to go to California for job interviews if they occur in February (my next consult month). I will start applying for a job soon. After talking to several people, it looks like my heart is now leaning towards a hospitalist position in southern CA. I'm not sure if rheumatology is all that attractive anymore. The poor job prospect in rheumatology really turned me off. I felt I may have wasted 2 years here, slaving away like being in residency.

Lunar New Year is coming up next week! So Ivy is coming by for a short 1 day visit at her sister's place at Urbana, Illinois. She is actually flying into Indianapolis and I will drive from Columbus to pick her up, then we will proceed to Urbana. Her sister's family will move back to Taiwan in June. They will have a short road trip/vacation in May. I'm also looking forward to move back to California at the end of June! I will likely put off my trip to Taiwan this spring due to my job interviews. Perhaps I will visit Taiwan in July.