A week ago Saturday V took me off to the airport where i departed for Orlando and the Academy of Molecular Imaging annual meeting. Flying on the new United subdivision "Ted" was a source of nonstop amusement. "Ted will be happy to serve you lunch and the beverage of your choice." ... i don't remember volunteering for that! Actually, i'm rather indifferent to see you. Hee hee. I managed to review a paper on the plane and get a little other work done. My new ultramobile Dell laptop is fantastic for travel ... i have no idea how i got around, let alone worked with that Inspiron 8000 brick i carried around for three years.

My postdoc Ivana and i arrived in Florida at about 9pm Saturday night and caught a cab to our hotels. I stayed at the Gaylord Palms Resort, adjacent to the convention center. I was expecting just a hotel, but this place had a huge atrium with shops, restaurants, and ... lo and behold ... "Gator Springs". While walking to the elevators to my room, i passed over a bridge and there below me were five or six alligators and a collection of turtles. Eek! I intended to catch the feeding on Tuesday evening, but unfortunately it completely slipped my mind. Doh ... i could've gotten to hold one! I was also hoping to get in a trip to Disney World, but the conference schedule ruled that out. The meeting went very well. I had several good interactions with colleagues from around the country, and bonded a bit with my Stanford chums over drinks at the reception. More comfortable all the time. The meeting was split along somewhat peculiar lines, reflecting the division of the AMI between the Institute for Clinical PET, the Institute for Molecular Imaging, and the Society for Non-Invasive Drug Development. That meant that at any given time i could have two or three very interesting sessions to choose from, or absolutely nothing even remotely related to my work going on.

"Uhhhh ... k ... kel ... chel ... see ... Chelsea! ... eleven ... p ... poy ... points ... clear. ... I don't understand."

My trip home took me through Chicago and finally back to SFO, arriving at 1am Thursday morning. On the way i managed to get quite a lot of work done, including revising my Journal of Biomedical Optics paper (for the third time ... grrr) and writing a one page seed grant proposal. Finishing that, i got to relax and watch The Incredibles on the way from O'Hare to SFO. I think it's Pixar's best film yet ... the fifties/sixties action aesthetic is perfect, the animation is spellbinding, and the humor caters to all ages. I then perused the SkyMall magazine, and came across this ad for the "reading pen". A statement about the IQ of Manchester United supporters?

Despite being totally deprived of sleep, i made it to work Thursday morning. And to 21st Amendment in the city for dinner with Naomi, Veronica, and Michael, and then to Popscene for Mr. Kloster's last visit before his impending move to Vietnam. God knows how i made it to 2am. I remember drinking a bunch of Bass Ales, throwing beer on the crowd while stomping on the dance floor during Blur's "Popscene", and being really miffed at the assorted excuses why the dj's wouldn't play the irresistable "Call It Ours" by new favorites the Legends. Despite only getting 3 hours of sleep, i again made it to work and to the 5-7pm poster session for the Stanford Bio-X "Watching Life" symposium, where my two AMI posters got a second showing. I then collapsed after arriving home, while Veronica and Raffi headed down to Sunnyvale to see Julieta Venegas.

I awoke at the usual 7:30am Saturday to feed the hungry and very awake dogs, then caught a few more hours of sleep. V and i then coordinated a breakfast/lunch in Sausalito at the good ol' Lighthouse Cafe with Naomi and Geoff. We then whiled away the afternoon at Best Buy and looking for a new car for V at the BMW/Mini dealership. She may finally realize her Mini dream when our tax refund comes back. Now the question is what goodies she's going to add to it. Speaking of cars, Geoff picked me up a new Alpine head unit and an iPod interface unit for my Jetta from his friend in LA. Now i'm debating whether i should trade the head unit up for the ooh-ahh-inspiring touch panel model.

Sunday, being the commemoration of Jesus's resurrection, we took N+G to Fremont where my parents had organized a family Easter dinner. A lot of fun, interspersed with a highly competitive dominoes match and scenes from the epic Kentucky/Michigan State battle for a spot in the Final Four. My March Madness bracket was hopelessly destroyed some time ago, but that means i can now enjoy the tourney without any ulterior motives. Despite the religious right's suggestions we managed to celebrate Easter without including a viewing of The Passion of the Christ. Instead, i kept thinking of an old Sam Kinison bit.

It's a pretty good trick to pull off, come back from the dead and not scare the hell out of everybody, huh? Jesus is the only guy that did that, you know? He's the only guy that ever came out of the fucking grave after being dead for three days where people didn't go "Ah ah AAAAAAAAH!!! THE DEAD LIVE, THE DEAD FUCKING LIVE!!!!! OH MY GOD ... OH, KILL IT, KILL IT!" And yeah, anybody else man, anybody else, people freak. Jesus comes out, it's like nothing, it's like "It's Jesus! Hey, you're a little dusty there aren't ya? Let's wipe some of that off. God ... what'd ya ride with the top down huh?"

Back to work today ... i'll sign off with another United Ted advertisement. This one is slightly uncomfortable depending on how deranged your particular psyche is.