... that's the sailor's way!

Just got back from the glorious San Francisco Bay Area yesterday. I headed back last Monday to spend a few days relaxing in Fremont at my parents' house (they were off in the U.K.), after which i attended a radiation therapy meeting at the Fairmont in SF. It was good to slow down a bit, although as always it could've been a little more relaxing. I drove up to SF the day after i got in to hang out with all my old friends from the MRSC. That was great, but after returning to Fremont the little yellow "Check Engine" light came on in my parents' Acura. Oh, great. I went to bed hoping everything would be right in the morning, but no dice. Plan A: walk to central Fremont to pick up a rental car, getting a deal from my friendly Avis employee Gary. I walked about 3 of the 4 miles there before Gary called, advising me to call the Avis 800 number. Lo and behold, the Fremont Avis has no cars. Plan B: take the Acura to my dad's mechanic. I was able to have him look at it that afternoon, but after dropping it off i had to walk the 2 miles home. I watched the second half of the excellent Real Madrid/Manchester United Champions League quarterfinal then took a serious nap before i got the call to pick up the car. Another 2 mile walk and an $88 bill to find out there was nothing wrong with car. Oh, did my poor legs kick and scream on hearing that. So there goes one of my three "off" days at home. The meeting in SF was good, although to get there at 8am i had to rise from my peaceful slumber in Fremont at 5:45am. Yeesk.

So i got back to beantown at 10 last night, and today drove Veronica to the airport for her trip to London and Glasgow. Sounds like it will be a blast for her, but for another week i'm all by my lonesome. I've got so much work to do though, i may not even notice. Two papers to write, a postdoc to hire, a lot more planning to do for Stanford, and god knows what multitude of delights waiting for me at the CMIR after my week off. Also got the movers coming tomorrow to give us a quote, and i've got to take my poor Honda into a body shop for an estimate on repairing the door. Damn Columbian restaurant.

Any interesting media i've indulged in recently? Hrm ... i picked up the last Spoon album Girls Can Tell at Amoeba, that is terrif. Also got the new Go-Betweens which hasn't really worked for me yet, and what i believe is the debut album by SF shoegazing outfit The Stratford 4, Love & Distortion. That one is quite good, featuring the producing talents of Death Cab guitarist Chris Walla. I downloaded the as yet unreleased Yeah Yeah Yeahs record, it's kickass. Haven't seen any movies since the infuriating Laurel Canyon. I watched some of Mr. Personality last night, and let me be the first to say there is a new king of TV trash. My reading lately has centered on an unintentional immortality kick, pushing through Anne Rice's The Vampire Lestat and currently Queen of the Damned, as well as Tom Robbins's Jitterbug Perfume. The latter is an amusing philosophical epic chronicling the quest for immortality of a 10th century Bohemian king and an Indian widow. Oh yes, and the importance of smelling nice. It was developing into one of my more favorite Tom Robbins efforts (they're all excellent, but Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates still takes the taco), until the last twenty pages in which Robbins espouses his uninteresting and unfortunately climactic theories on floral consciousness.