Dr. Doolittle (psrt 2)

Yesterday was amazing! That had to be the most exciting graduation I had ever been too. Janelle is officially a Doctor. She worked so hard to get here and I am so proud of her. She is my hero. I have taken 2 quarters of school lately which consist of only 2 total classes and I have no idea how she did 9 years (5 of them medical) of college.

She glowed the whole day. She woke up and went to bed the night before being extremely nervous, but during graduation she glowed. My mother, and all of Janelle's family (Leslie, Marlene and Meredith) were all there cheering her on! I am married to Dr. Doolittle, WOW! I wish I could write in words how proud I am of her!!!

After graduation we had to pull some lies, specifically Meredith and I, to lure Janelle into believing dinner was at Anthony's homeport, that night. She thought her and I were just stopping into Canlis for a personal couple celebration cocktail before dinner. As she turned to Pepe at the bar she noticed a bright flash and then heard my dad (Gary) say her name. She turned to see her whole family sitting in lounge with cocktails. At first she thought they were just there to enjoy a cocktail too, but finally realized we were all going to have dinner at Canlis.

Dinner was special. We had champagne for toasts. Then started with appetizers (Braised beef short rib, teriyaki tenderloins, Canlis prawns, steak tartar and oysters). Then we went to the salads, (crab salad with papya and a avocado vinegarette, a mango prawn and avocado salad, canlis salad, a baby artichoke serrano ham with champagne vinegarette salad and a heart of palm salad with smoked paprika oil). We enjoyed our salads with a 2006 sauvignon blanc from Maipo, Chile. For our entre's we had wagyu ribeye (mine with foi gras) with crimini mushrooms, a soy madeira sauce and a port reduction with a yukon potato gratin (with goat cheese and cream) Meredith and I enjoyed that. Janelle and Leslie had the NZ lamb chobs with Isreali cous cous and Oregon blue cheese. My dad had the ahi tuna with a spring vegetable ratatouile and a black olive oil emulsion. My mother had the king copper river salmon grilled with a kumkwat and bell pepper emulsion, garlic spears, esparagus and fingerling potatoes. Finally Marlene had the filet mignon with fingerling potatoes, market vegetables and a bordelaise sauce. Wow, was the food and service great. We enjoyed the 2003 J.L Chave Syrah with the entre. Oops I almost forgot we also had the truffle fries as a table to share. Finally for dessert accompanied with some coffee we enjoyed the cherries poached in pinot noir and sugar topped with a cinnamon lattice crust and sweet corn ice cream, lemon thyme creme brulee', chocolate covered chocolate, apricot almond cake with a apricot consume' and olive oil ice cream and the Dr. had a almond expresso chocolate cake with mango and chocolate mouse, cocoa nib and mango sorbet. Lets just say at the end of the night we all couldn't speak due to the food coma we were all suffering. This was all while enjoying Walt Wagner on piano. Both Mark and Brian Canlis paid a very pleasant visit as well as a lot of the Canlis team and the floor manager Doug K. Our server was a combined team of Chris Matthews and Panita. We had a really wonderful time.

What a great 3 days to celebrate Dr. Janelle Margaret Doolittle!!!!

Dr. Doolittle

I am so proud of Janelle! She has worked hard to get to this day, 9 long years of college and medical school. It has been really nice celebrating her all weekend. Her parents (Leslie and Marlene) flew in from Minnesota Wednesday to spend a week here for this special occasion. Her sister also flew in Saturday just in time to make her graduation BBQ party.

The BBQ was great, a lot of close friends came over for burgers, steaks and beers. I believe we hosted around 25 people and it was great to have them all in our new place in Greenwood. Marlene, Leslie and Tru have spent countless hours in the morning helping us unpack boxes and organize our place. After the BBQ Janelle, Meredith and I went to Janelles's graduation party for Bastyr with all her peers. I know for a fact Janelle had a great time for she glowed the whole time, and that wasn't just the drinks. There was good food, drinks, a picture show and a lot of dancing. It was nice to put faces to a lot of her friends names I have been hearing over the years. Meredith and I had a lot of time to hang and catch up through-out the night. We got home at around 2am to get a few hours of sleep before we got up to join the Johnson half of the family and my parents at N. Creek Presbyterian. We had lunch afterwards at the Saw Mill.

The afternoon for me was filled with a nap, while Meredith and Janelle took a power nap and went shopping. Leslie and Marlene put a lot of time into a fantastic 4 course dinner. We started with cocktail hour and then started dinner with a delicious curry carrot soup, chilled. The salad was called fattoush, which was a greek style salad, very refreshing. The Entre' was roasted halibut with peppers, zucchini and fennel and served with crispy potato's mmm mmm good. After a champagne toast to Dr. Doolittle (thank you to Mike and Carrie) we enjoyed coffee and Leslie's wonderful lemon meringue pie. Meredith was welcomed into Doolittle game night and was surprised by how quiet and calm we all are! ;) We played apples to apples and of course Meredith won (beginners luck).

Tomorrow we watch Janelle receive her ND and boy am I excited!! This is our first blog so we will learn how to post pictures and fix up the sight!