What a terrific weekend! While Saturday was a bit overcast, Sunday was about as good as it gets. In the morning I decided to go hit some golf balls at Haines Point, forgetting that the cherry blossoms and the Park Police had other ideas in mind. So, I scooted out to Potomac, and thoroughly humiliated myself in front of a group of perfect strangers at the Falls Road Golf Course and Driving Range, most of whom had never witnessed such a putrid exhibition of shotmaking. So, nothing has changed, and all of my “winter swing thoughts” turned out to be hallucinations. Oh well, now I’ll have to wait until next winter to feel good about my game.
On Sunday afternoon I accompanied Harriet to the Atheneaum in Alexandria to attend the opening reception for the Botanical Art Society National Capital Region’s Art Show. Harriet was Exhibit Chair, so I was delighted to meet the exhibiting artists and be her guest. At one point I stepped onto the sidewalk to check out the NCAA tournament basketball scores (I picked Kentucky to go all the way, though I had hoped that Georgetown would at least get to the Sweet 16 this year). So, while hunched over looking at the scores, I heard a familiar voice, but one that was out of context, as it belonged to a “St. Baldrick’s bald” Ray Mitchell, who had been checking out the exhibit. Small world!
As always, last week flew by, marked by the usual torrents of meetings, attending the funeral of one of my patients, and three consecutive evenings out on work-related dinners. We have a lot of good stuff going on in the lab, and I look forward to sharing some of the work we are doing when it’s my turn to give a research update in a couple of weeks.
On Wednesday, after returning from the funeral, I attended the Research America Celebration at Mellon Hall, where one of the honorees was Margaret Foti, CEO of the American Association of Cancer Research. Marge has been a good friend, and more importantly a dynamic and effective leader of the AACR for many years. I was delighted to be able to honor her accomplishments.
On Thursday, a small group went out to dinner with the lead candidate for a major clinical and clinical research position at Lombardi; Mike Atkins was in town, and joined us at dinner. Then on Friday evening Harriet and I attended a reception for the lead candidate for Chief of Surgical Oncology at the home of Lynt and Gloria Bowles-Johnson.
Saturday brought an opportunity to catch up a bit on sleep, and we drove up to Baltimore to visit our grandson. All in all, a full week.
One reminder; Lombardi’s CBCC team is doing a great job gearing up for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, which will be held on May 5-6, 2012. Jeanne Mandelblatt and the team of 44 walkers are currently in second place in fundraising for the walk, but need everybody’s participation and support. Some of the walkers have not yet been able to raise any money, and won’t be able to walk if they don’t meet the minimum requirement. I met recently with Marc Hurlbert from the Avon Foundation, and you can be sure that he mentioned our efforts on behalf of the walk on several occasions! So, all the hard work is definitely noticed. Please come out to walk if you can, cheer if you can’t walk, or support one or more of the walkers if you cannot walk or cheer. More information can be found here, or visit the team’s fundraising page here. Congratulations and good luck to Jeanne and the whole team!