I've been holding off recounting the rest of my Orlando adventure until my radiochemist friend Fred sends me some accompanying digital photos. However, as he's probably knee-deep in more important matters, i'll proceed and give you visual documentation when he can send it my way.

The rest of the AMI wasn't particularly inspiring. I have to blame the conference organizers for this, as myself and others frequently found ourselves either staring at a day full of nothing of remote interest to us, or having to choose from three simultaneous sessions that were right up our alley. Not a great job by the conference organizers. Luckily, i again had a great time hanging out with the Stanford MIPS crowd. We somehow managed to pull off a 15 person dinner at Gloria Estefan's decent Cuban restaurant Bongos on Monday night. Fred, Sandip, Andrei, Cesar, Min, and i then hung around the "Pleasure Island" portion of Downtown Disney ... not as naughty as its name suggests, c'mon, it's taken from Pinocchio. We drank Corona and danced until 2am, first at the 70's/80's club then at the techno joint Mannequins with its rotating dance floor. Which became harder and harder to enter and exit as it got later and later.

Fred, Ivana, and i opted to relax a bit more the following night. After attending the Gaylord Palms alligator feeding at 6:30pm, we waited in the short line to hold one of the beasts. Photos forthcoming. We then hit the hot tub and pool for an hour before a relaxing late dinner at the hotel's steakhouse. Fred and i managed to get lunchtime massage appointments at the hotel spa the next day. I headed to mine after the final session of the meeting, a relatively interesting discussion of the mechanics of drug and imaging agent clinical trials and FDA approval. I was unaware that i was supposed to arrive early to change, so i was hurried into my robe and on to my massage. My masseuse Nancy informed me that i am incredibly wound up and tense. Not surprising. The massage was nice, but it didn't hit me how much it had relaxed me until i was on my flight home. The travel wasn't too bad, particularly my first leg from Orlando to Chicago as i managed to get upgraded to United's intermediate "economy plus" class, which gives an extra five inches of legroom. Although that may have been a curse in disguise, as it made my stint in regular economy on my Chicago to SFO leg that much more unbearable. That flight was also delayed by an hour, so i didn't touch down in SFO until almost midnight. Veronica and Bob had been waiting at the airport for me, and whisked me home. I gave V a pair of mod earrings i'd picked up at a pop art boutique in Downtown Disney, and found she'd bought me a cool Vespa calendar for my office.

V had relayed some sad news to me earlier in the week ... our old friend Noel's father had passed away suddenly on Tuesday. Our Boston roomie Rudha was flying in from New York for the memorial, so i returned to the airport on Thursday afternoon to pick her up. We then headed to SF and hung out with Greg and Paul for a while, before rendez-vousing with Veronica for dinner at the yummy, low-key Pakistani/Indian Darbhar. On Friday we again met up with old friends for the somber occasion of Denis Wales's memorial in Palo Alto. However, in keeping with Noel's dad's wishes, the event was less grieving and more celebration of a life. For me, it was an opportunity to catch up with a few long lost friends. It was also my first encounter with Noel and Juliet's little Josie, a scene stealer to rival Ana.

Friday was also sad for me in that it was my postdoc Lan's last day at Stanford. I took a collection of Radiation Oncology friends to the California Café. Lan did some great work while here, and it's now on my shoulders to translate his preliminary findings into long term projects and funding.

V and i met up with Geoff and Naomi for brunch at the Brickhouse early Saturday afternoon. Then while V got ahead on some work, the rest of us did some shopping around Union Square. I failed entirely in my search for a few new pairs of pants. Retrieving Veronica, we then made what i thought would be purely a window shopping visit to Room and Board. Contrary to my predictions, V and i emerged with an antique Chinese trunk while G and N ordered a bed frame and mattress set. Unfortunately, i had not anticipated that our new trunk would not fit in my Jetta's trunk or front or back seats. Geoff came to our rescue by running off to fetch their Scion, so the rest of us hung out on the Room and Board sidewalk and guarded our purchase. We spent the rest of the evening at Greg's apartment watching movies and having pizza and pasta with Greg, Rudha, Noel, Juliet, Josie, Blue, and Paul. Our viewing included about half of the Fallon/Barrymore vehicle Fever Pitch (actually, not that bad), Clerks (it seems Kevin Smith's dialogue gets worse with every viewing, but it's still a hoot), and the Thora Birch British horror crapfest the Hole, which Veronica and i actually saw in an Edinburgh theater with Rudha's cousin Jillian. Geoff and Naomi headed home shortly before we did, with us resolving to solve the trunk conundrum the following day.

Geoff kindly agreed to drive our Chinese box down to us on Sunday afternoon, while hitting Target and EB. I spent most of my Sunday further tidying the house, bringing the kitchen up to my exacting standards and washing most of our bedding. When the trunk arrived and V positioned it to her liking next to our new entertainment center, we placed a collection of blankets and pillows in it that had previously been littering the sofa. We also moved the other Chinese box to rest on top of the trunk, obliterating our "asian corner" but in the process creating our "asian wall". Photos also forthcoming.

You'll notice a few new journal viewing options at left. Experiment to your heart's content. If you have an account (which i highly encourage, so i may keep tabs on you ... bwa ha ha), your viewing preference will be remembered. I've also added a few new old photos to the images section. Enjoy.

After the Bats show, i'm revisiting New Zealand pop and investigating some bands i'd missed on my first study of the genre, including Able Tasmans, Toy Love, and the Great Unwashed. Good stuff.