My weekend began at 4:45pm on Friday afternoon when i finished delivering my portion of my colleague's three day course on image-guided radiotherapy, a forty minute lecture on administrative and quality assurance issues in PET/CT. Not the most scientifically enlightening three quarters of an hour, but it went well. After i fielded the last few questions, i grabbed my bag and ran to my car, flew home to change clothes and give the dogs dinner, then headed up to SF to meet Veronica and Gary. The three of us then crossed the bay and headed to the Henry J. Kaiser Auditorium in Oakland for the evening's Chemical Brothers/New Order show. We had a crappy meal of hot dogs and nachos inside, then got down to the Chemmies amidst the numerous glowstick-wielding bozos. They were good, although i stand by my assessment that i could stay at home, play their cd, and watch a skipping DVD on 4x frame advance and have the same experience. After finding seats up in the balcony, we settled in for New Order's set. They opened with a good version of Joy Division's "She's Lost Control", commemorating Ian Curtis's death 25 years ago this May. Their set read like a greatest hits tracklist ... "Love Vigilantes", "Regret", "Bizarre Love Triangle", "True Faith", "Crystal", as well as their latest single "Krafty" from their newly-released album Waiting for the Sirens' Call. Sadly nothing from Technique. They also included two more Joy Division songs, the mandatory "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and the hypnotic "Transmission" (although Barney's smoother vocals and occasional yipe! can't match Ian's fervent delivery). The boys (with Gillian having left the band to care for her and Stephen's children, it's the three JD alums and former shitty Marion guitarist Phil Cunningham) closed with a rendition of the 1987 remix of "Blue Monday". A good evening, although Gary and i were in agreement that playing live is not New Order's forté. It beat sitting at home watching Friday night tv though.

After sending V and Jenz off for their Coachella adventure and taking in Chelsea's title-winning effort at Bolton, i arranged to have lunch and a movie with my parents. My mom was the one who encouraged me to read Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy novels, so i wanted to take her to see the newly-released movie version, twenty years in the making and commemorating Adams's legacy after his untimely passing in 2001. After enjoying the lunch buffet at Bombay Garden in downtown San Mateo, we made it to the 3pm showing. Critics have given the movie mixed reviews, but the three of us quite liked it. It thrives on the wry British humor of the books, and may be inaccessible to those not familiar with them. The filmmakers and actors captured the spirit of Adams, making a few modifications to produce a cohesive and compact film but without compromising Douglas's vision. The Office veteran Martin Freeman was an excellent choice for the demure and flustered Arthur Dent, while Mos Def put my fears to rest and excelled as Ford Prefect. Sam Rockwell steals the show as the irrepressible Zaphod Beeblebrox, and Marvin the chronically depressed robot is given a perfect voice by Alan Rickman. The otherwise wonderful Zooey Deschanel takes a mostly backseat role as Trillian, through no fault of her own.

The rest of my Saturday was spent doing yet more laundry (at the moment i can't find anything more to wash, so i think i'm done). I awoke Sunday morning to give the dogs their customary 7am meal, then grabbed a few more hours sleep before undertaking the none-too-easy task of bathing them. I completed two baths in forty minutes, although combing out the mounds of shedding hair on the porch took another half hour. As near as i can tell, Tara is essentially a hair factory. After giving myself a good cleaning, i hopped in the car to buy ingredients for a homemade Sunday dinner and to pick up another few PSP games, the acclaimed rhythm-puzzle game Lumines for Veronica and Twisted Metal: Head-On for me, a remake of the pinnacle of the series Twisted Metal 2. For dinner i decided to try out one of Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals, Thai chicken noodle soup and pork and shrimp balls. As we don't own a food processor i had to improvise a bit, but the end result was fabulous. I'm salivating thinking about the leftovers for tomorrow. To conclude my Sunday night i made a pot of coffee and relaxed watching Seth MacFarlane's conquest of Fox with great new episodes of Family Guy and American Dad. Now if they'd just put to rest the travesty that the Simpsons has become.

If i was pressed about it, i'd have to say my favorite band of all time is the Jam, my favorite movie is Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (please god don't let the Tim Burton remake suck), and my favorite mathematical concept is the Fourier transform. If i was pressed about it.