In retrospect i had a relatively full weekend, but my body just couldn't seem to get motivated. It's a problem that seems to be plaguing me more and more, a general lack of enthusiasm for anything. I need a vacation ... i can't even remember the last time i took non-working, non-illness time off for longer than a day or two. Hopefully my year-late honeymoon in September, a two week jaunt around northern Europe (Cologne, Brussels, and Amsterdam), will remedy that. Although the trip is initiated with the fourth annual meeting of the Society for Molecular Imaging in Germany.

Friday i actually only made it to a half day of work as my general lethargy had solidified into a concrete feeling of not-quite-right. I did manage to attend my 4-5pm meeting with Stanford molecular imaging kingpin Sam Gambhir, who gave me some encouraging words on my ongoing projects and career development. I then headed home, fed the dogs, and caltrained to the city to meet V, N, and G for the first anniversary of the SF Scooter Girls, Naomi's new scooter gang. It was held at the San Francisco Motorcycle Club, where i'd attended the King's Classic Scooter Rally somewhere around 1996 or 1997, in my pseudo-mod days. Geoff and i had a few Heinekens, Buds, and PBRs, we watched a supremely amusing air band cover new wave classics, i spilled beer down my shirt, then we had a late night dinner at Bagdad Cafe where i, in my drunken state, was indirectly chastised by a fellow customer for not putting the toilet seat down after using the bathroom.

On Saturday V and i did some cleaning here and there, but basically nothing until G and N came by for dinner at Naomi's namesake Naomi Sushi in Menlo Park, followed by the 9:35 showing of Unleashed in Redwood City. I loved the film ... Jet Li deserves an Oscar nomination, although being an action star he'll never get it. His depiction of a man trained to be an attack dog by a Glasgow gangster (the ferocious Bob Hoskins) is perfect, from the intensity with which he attacks when released from his collar to the awe and wonder with which he regards life after he manages to escape his brutal upbringing. The fight scenes are of course brilliant, too. Geoff and i wrapped up the evening by becoming reacquainted with online Halo 2 killing. Recently a few new maps have been added to the online multiplayer game, as well as a number of new game modes. The new challenges are quite fun, and (for one evening, anyway) we managed to get paired with people against whom we could generally compete.

More laziness and malaise on Sunday morning, before heading to the Stanford Shopping Center and P.F. Chang's for my dad's surprise birthday dinner. V and i stopped at Kenneth Cole beforehand to buy him a new watch. Dinner was fun, catching up with my sister, her boyfriend Jeff, and my aunt Cathy and uncle Bud, as well as my parents. I then settled into my three week-old Sunday night ritual of drinking coffee and watching new episodes of Family Guy and American Dad.

I couldn't shake my not-quite-right feeling Monday morning, particularly after listening to the dogs click around the hardwood floor all night long, so i spent the day at home, working on an animal experiment protocol and playing Half Life 2. That game never ceases to amaze. I'm back at work today, now screwing up the courage to look at the just-received reviews of my NIH grant, which i'll need to address when resubmitting. No two ways about it, i suck at taking criticism. Better get used to it ... grants don't come for free.

I'm quite happy with my new listening statistics interface. Once i get some more entries in my played list the statistics might actually mean something.