Elder Son graduated from his family medicine residency last weekend on Smokey’s birthday. Younger Son went with us to Sioux Falls to observe and celebrate.

ES’s graduating class. I would be pleased to be treated by any of them. (He is the one with his arms around the others)

That evening we went to a Brazilian steakhouse for the traditional celebratory dinner. Neither Smokey nor Younger Son nor I had any idea of what was, exactly.

The waiters walk around to the tables carrying huge skewers of picanha, chicken, pork, grilled shrimp (two kinds), or grilled pineapple. (In the Carnaval photo below, turn your head horizontally to the left to get a better idea. You can just barely see the waiters’ faces and the small special plates held under the skewers.) Those hunks of beef in the photo? Each is a picanha that probably weighs at least two pounds. There was a LOT of meat walking around.

Diners who order the rodízio receive a token: red on one side, green on the other. They place the token on the table in front of them, green side up to signal they want a waiter to stop by and slice off some meat/shrimp/pineapple. When they are full to bursting  stuffed to the gills done, they turn the token red side up.

Smokey, ES, and GirlFriend had the rodízio; YS and I ordered off the menu — New York strip for him, salmon for me. But ES and Smokey both shared a few bites of their feast with me.

Clockwise from upper left: waiter at our table offering a skewer of grilled shrimp; photo lifted from the Caraval website showing skewers of pork, grilled pineapple, and beef; our table with the token.

There was also a fabulous salad bar. Here YS enjoys his own particular kind of salad, containing jalapeños and dressed with wasabi. (Ouch!)

My salmon. (I knew you wanted to see it.) Clockwise from upper left: grilled salmon with avocado slices; grilled salmon with mustard sauce; coconut rice, recommended by the server and delicious; grilled salmon with (I think) fruit chutney.

There was also a fair bit of lazing around the house and chatting and laughing.

From top: ES, GF, Moose the dog. Note the empty bookshelf at left; out of camera range is the huge pile of packed boxes containing his books.

Moose does pensive awfully well.

We went out for brunch on Sunday. No, I did not have a SD margarita.

ES has about two weeks to tie up loose ends, finalize his move, and get settled in New Mexico. Did I tell you that he asked GirlFriend to move with him? The two of them were acting like newlyweds all weekend, which is highly appropriate. Smokey and I like GF a lot, so we are pleased for both of them.

From ES’s Facebook yesterday:

“I’m currently unemployed, …uninsured, and I do not have a valid license to practice medicine. This is all temporary, but it’s a strange feeling nonetheless. I’m not even sure whether I technically qualify as a doctor right now.

“I will start working in Zuni IHS hospital on July 18th, and my new insurance will kick in then, but until I start I have no paychecks and no health insurance. I could buy COBRA to continue my health insurance for 17 days, but I’m already spending quite a bit to buy COBRA for my girlfriend and her two kids for two months until the older one starts college.

“My resident medical license expired at the end of the medical academic year, June 30th, which happened to be a Friday. My full and unrestricted license to practice as an attending physician will not be issued until the first business day after the day my resident license expired, which happens to be on the other side of the 4th of July weekend.

“So I have no job, no insurance, and no medical license. Right now I don’t think I even have any annoying paperwork to do, which is the strangest feeling of all.”

* Middle school, high school, NYU undergrad, UMich grad school, Mt Sinai med school, and now this one.