My new year's resolution to write in my journal more frequently appears to have fallen by the wayside. Let the excuses commence ... number 1, i've been sick. Number 2, i've been busy. Number 3 ... ah, screw it, nothing new here. Let's go back a week or so and fill you in on Ted-related happenings.

I ordered my belated Valentine's day present from Amazon the day after St. Valentine's holiday, a shiny, awe-inducing Motorola RAZR V3 cell phone. Due to assorted Cingular and Amazon snafus, it didn't arrive until yesterday. After one day of use, i'm still adjusting to the Motorola mode of operating a mobile phone. The phonebook is all kinds of screwy compared to the Nokia addressbooks i'm familiar with. I spent several hours last night trying to sync it via Bluetooth with my PC's Outlook, only succeeding after finding an obscure forum comment in the far corners of the web. I think that has more to do with my crappy Bluetooth USB adapter than the phone. The camera has a nice zoom feature, and i like having a petite flip phone after owning the Nokia 3660 brick for the last 1.5 years. At this point i realized i just want a nice-looking mobile phone that makes calls, text messages, and plays a game or two. I don't need an über-PDA/mp3 player/dishwasher/life manager, just something pretty that does its job. And the RAZR fits the bill.

Last Friday was spent in San Francisco at the Exploratorium for the first annual Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS) retreat. I was a bit nervous, but it turned out to be a great time getting to know the core molecular imaging faculty at Stanford. I knew a lot of them from our biweekly admin meetings, but this was a chance to hear more about their work and then spend some informal time wandering around the great Exploratorium science museum. It's always interesting when you have five scientists (a biologist, two physicists, an engineer, and a chemist) disecting each exhibit for any schoolchildren (un)lucky enough to be within earshot. I went to the Exploratorium while in grad school with several friends, unofficially to prepare for our qualifying exams by analyzing the science of each display. Anyhow, i gave a five minute presentation that attempted to tie together the disparate work being conducted by my group. The whole day made me feel more comfortable within the Stanford academic community. Am i, heaven forbid, settling in here? After the retreat ended at 5pm, i took my two postdocs Ivana and Lan out to dinner at Thirsty Bear. We had a good low-key meal, with Veronica joining us before long. "The Graves lab". That phrase still sounds friggin bizarre to me. But less bizarre all the time.

After dinner V and i scuttled off to the Independent (formerly the Justice League, and oh what a better moniker that was) for the evening's indie kid conference featuring the Secret Machines, Moving Units, and Autolux. We were among the first in and managed to get seats on the side of the stage. I've been impressed by Autolux's debut album Future Perfect and was keen to see the neo-shoegazing/drone rock outfit. They were incredibly tight, and excelled at putting together swells of noise reined in by driving melodies. Veronica somehow managed to sleep through them, more a comment on her lack of rest than the band. She awoke for Moving Units, an LA three-piece joining the legions of bands clamoring to recreate Gang of Four. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as far as revivalist trends go this is one of the more palatable. MU were quite good ... engaging songs, good energy ... but unfortunately i kept thinking that many of their songs sounded like the Rapture with a much less interesting singer. Veronica added that he isn't as attractive either. Anyhow, i give them a B+ and look forward to future output. I harbored an interest in the Secret Machines, but we both were ready to collapse when Moving Units wrapped it up, and headed home to relieve my sister Hilary from her dog-sitting duties.

The rest of the weekend was spent with V purchasing and applying the finishing touches to our music room in the detached garage. By the time my President's day holiday had come to a close Monday evening, i had finished touching up the paint on the borders and corners, put another coat of red on the ceiling, applied a white cover-all primer to the baseboard and door, and installed two Ikea light fixtures where the recessed lighting used to be. Once Veronica puts up the blinds and curtains this weekend, the room will be ready for use ... go go garage band!

I also managed to finally put Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to rest. The last chapters of the game dragged in places, particularly having to take over 35% of the gang territories in order to unlock the final mission. I was ready to break my PS2 into little black shards after being gunned down for the umpteenth time by angry Ballas defending their hoods. However, the conclusion to the epic gang-banger saga was very satisfying, and i must again give props to Rockstar for producing the best video game series around today. Unfortunately my post-finale game seems to have fallen prey to a bug, as i cannot find the girlfriend i need to woo in order to advance to the casino heist mission. She's never home! No chance i'm putting in another 30 hours starting from scratch just to rectify that shortcoming, so i may have to close the book on CJ Johnson and the Grove Street Families.

The downside of my industriousness over the weekend was that i ended up finally contracting the nasty cold virus that's been going around my department. I think it was the day in the music room breathing nasty primer fumes that knocked my immune system down and allowed the virus to seize control. So i've spent the last few days in bed, cuddling with the dogs while they look bored out of their minds at having to lay with me for hours on end. As i'd finally ended GTASA, i turned to Winning Eleven 8 International and put some time into the ultra-gory shoot-em-up The Punisher, a surprisingly entertaining game. I've also been checking out Mercenaries, a decent military shooter from LucasArts, and Mechassault 2: Lone Wolf, a mostly lackluster followup to the Battletech-inspired Xbox Live pioneer.

My illness couldn't have been timed worse, for Tuesday morning my uncle Bud arrived to begin modifying our living room-kitchen-dining room doorways. He's sealing up the door from the living room to the kitchen, and opening a new, larger doorway from the living room to the dining room (which is in turn connected to the kitchen). This will open up more space in the kitchen and redistribute space in the living room in a more appealing arrangement. So while the dogs and i rested in the bedroom, he was knocking plaster off the walls and chopping through lathe and diagonal supports. He's opened up the new passageway (save for removing the studs), and today is working on framing for the new threshold. Hopefully by the middle of next week the project will come to a successful close.

I've also been lamenting Chelsea's foibles of late. Last weekend our mostly reserve squad (still nothing to be sneezed at) was knocked out of the FA Cup by Newcastle. José Mourinho made all three subs at halftime when trailing 1-nil, and 10 minutes into the second half Wayne Bridge broke his ankle and had to be removed, leaving the team to come back with only 10 men. What seems to have been lost in the post-match analysis is that Mourinho made exactly the same mistake that Liverpool's Rafael Benitez did in the previous round: he took the competition lightly and fielded a makeshift team so as to rest his stars for other competitions. Granted, the makeshift team still boasted a number of talents, but a continual problem with post-Abramovich Chelsea has been the lack of consistency when implementing heavy squad rotation. Different players don't play together often enough and hence don't produce together, despite their individual skills. On Wednesday the Blues faced Barcelona in Spain in the first leg of our key Champions League showdown. Despite going up 1-nil when a Barça defender turned Damien Duff's cross into his own net, Chelsea were beaten down for the the majority of the 90 minutes. We managed to hold onto our lead until early in the second half, when Didier Drogba was sent off for a second bookable offense. This event gave new life to the Catalonians, who proceeded to set up camp in the Chelsea half. We ended up losing 2-1, a respectable result given the complete absence of our attack. After the match Mourinho alluded to a forthcoming formal complaint to UEFA regarding Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard meeting with the ref at halftime. Whether or not it's true is irrelevant, Mourinho has got bigger fish to fry. Like figuring out how to keep the ball and put it in Barça's net when they come to London in two weeks. Arsenal and Manchester United fans are hoping these two consecutive Chelsea losses signal the "blip" they've been waiting for. I must admit, i'm nervous. We've got our first Mourinho-era cup final in the Carling Cup this Sunday, against Liverpool. Like i said before the Arsenal Champions League quarterfinal last year, it's time for the squad to put up and make everyone else shut up.

On the cards for this weekend is moving into our music room (at long last!), and continuing my recuperation. The latter may be irrevocably tied to Chelsea's performance on Sunday. Such is my complex biosystem.