Mr. Anderson drove up from L.A. for the weekend to stay at Casa RC for a few days, before continuing on to Tokyo and Hong Kong. He arrived on Saturday bearing his Wii for our troubles. For the week he's in Asia, at any rate. He mistakenly left The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess at home, so we gave the bizarre Japanese MD simulation Trauma Center whirl. Odd. If extracting shards of glass directly from a car crash victim's heart isn't weird enough, slowing down time to handle delicate procedures by ... drawing a pentagram? Who was this doctor's medical school mentor? Could it be ... mmm ... SATAN? Anyway, the game is amusing, making effective use of the Wii's motion-sensitive controller. We saved a few lives before beautifying and heading up to the city for dinner and drinks with Hakeem in Japantown. Then it was off to the mashup club Bootie at the DNA Lounge. One day i'll write my treatise on the evil of mashups. But for today, suffice it to say that i wasn't the most happy-go-lucky clubber Saturday evening. V however had a right old time, along with her longstanding club crew of Kevin, Hakeem, Gary, and Jenz. We left for home at 3am. Too late for my blood. About all i remember from the club is a union of Nena's "99 Luftballons" with a Jay-Z rap that went something like "99 problems but a bitch aint one". And a lot of the Black Eyed Peas. Good night.

I got about six hours sleep that night, but was lucid enough the next morning to gather V and drive up to the city for a Sausalito brunch with Naomi and Phil. A perfect cure for the mild hangover from which i was suffering ... the special and a few cups of coffee. I raised the idea of driving a few miles north to the Marin Best Buy afterward, where i found a copy of the new Winning Eleven and V grabbed a few new DS games including Diddy Kong Racing and the cartoony culinary simulator Cooking Mama. The store had a stack of 60GB PS3's in between the games and DVD's, the first time i'd ever seen one in stock. We had a conversation about the system's troubles in front of the display, until i suggested we relocate before my willpower broke and i grabbed one of the alluring boxes. My rational thought is that i'll wait to buy one until they've got more games to play beyond their sole worthwhile exclusive app Resistance: Fall of Man. My irrational obsession is that if i'm around them too long, i'll whip out my debit card. Luckily i escaped. This time. Back to SF we went, dropping Naomi and Phil in the Richmond and fetching Kevin from Hakeem's place in Japantown. We dined at a new Vietnamese place in the RC, after securing dessert in the form of a dozen cream puffs from new local favorite Beard Papa. The shopping area downtown around City Hall and the new movie theater is coming along nicely. Then it was back home to relax and watch the Grammys. I'm no huge fan of award shows, but the Police's reunion performance was worthwhile.

This week i've gotten another paper from my group accepted for publication, the third so far this year. Should be a good jumpstart to the renewed development of the Graves lab at Stanford. More on the way! I've also initiated the refinancing process for our house. The rates are good at the moment, and we'll soon find out just how much our house has appreciated in our three years of ownership. The predictions i've been quoted by several lenders on both how much our house is worth and how much it will cost to consolidate into a long term fixed rate mortgage are encouraging, so we're moving forward. For Valentine's Day i sent V a collection of roses at work, then drove up to the city for a late afternoon haircut followed by dinner for two at SoMa Thai restaurant Koh Samui and the Monkey. I've been growing my hair out since last October, at V's encouraging. I'm not sure i'm into it ... i've been suppressing my curls since 1996 ... and the new hairstyle given me on Wednesday by Samuel still causes me worry. Long hair in the back? Nervous memories of a mullet at age 15. What the hell do i do with this hair over my ears? Veronica tells me it looks stupid when i push it behind my ears, and if i let it hang down then it breaks into uncontrolled waves and worse, tickles my ears. I'll press on, if only because i like the way it looks when i play guitar and bang my head. Rock on.

V bought me a nifty Barcelona track top from Niketown for V Day. I've acquired several pieces of Barça wear of late. I dig the style, and have grown fond of of their grace on the pitch as well. The endless soap opera at Stamford Bridge has grown weary for me, so it's nice to have another squad to look upon and smile. Although now Samuel Eto'o is kicking up mud in Catalonia ... oh great, more drama. I've gotten a few pieces of Nike gear recently, including the Barcelona top and a Mexico track top. Very nice ... the child labor outfit may yet draw my commitment away from Adidas.

V and i may return to our home improvement efforts this weekend, in an effort to impress the forthcoming appraiser. Finishing the kitchen shouldn't be too much of a challenge, then our travails will shift to the problematic bedroom. Just thinking of emptying that room makes me tired. Yawn. Good night.