Our anniversary dinner last Friday at Left Bank in Menlo Park was very nice. I had the oysters and bouillabaisse, while V opted for a sort of caprese salad/bruschetta thing with goat cheese and a pork chop. She really dug her presents, a pair of books on decorating and gardening in small homes, and a journal to record her home design ideas. "Paper anniversary", get it? We slept in Saturday morning, still struggling to get the dogs to sleep for more than three hours at a time. When we did regain coherence, we conspired with N and G to pick them up at their new place in Diamond Heights and get a late breakfast at the ever-lovely Lighthouse Café in Sausalito. In typical fashion, we arrived ten minutes before closing time (3pm), but were served a fantastic meal nonetheless. We then did some shopping in Corte Madera at West Elm, followed by more shopping in Union Square in SF, with me picking up some sweet new chelsea boots at Kenneth Cole and a pair of jeans at Banana Republic, and everyone else making assorted purchases at a Paul Frank launch party to which V, N, and G had received invites. We then called it a day and headed home to see the pooches. Sunday i went a bit stir crazy, although in a more introspective sense. I was just bored for most of the day, and ended up taking a big nap and generally being lethargic, all the way through the evening's showings of Family Guy and American Dad. Today it's back to work, with this month's molecular imaging seminar and dinner on deck in just a few minutes.

Chelsea made good in their first competitive match of the season (sort of), defeating the Arse in the Charity Shield match 2-1 on the strength of two brilliant Didier Drogba goals. He certainly appears to be out to prove his naysayers wrong. He burst through two AC Milan defenders to score in a previous friendly this summer. Against Arsenal, he first controlled a long aerial pass with his chest at the edge of the box, then fended off up-and-coming Arsenal Swiss defender Philippe Senderos to angle a lob past Jens Lehmann. He one-upped himself at the start of the second half, receiving an Eidur Gudjohnsen through pass and shielding the ball from Senderos who was racing back to block Drogba from the goal. Drogba's technique and power were evident, as he expertly positioned himself between the gaining Senderos and the ball, and then outmuscled the young defender. In fact, Senderos fell over like he'd run into a brick wall. Drogba then rounded Lehmann, tripping a bit in the process, but recovering to swivel and fire a shot into the net. Arsenal are now trotting out their typical excuses (not a competitive match, my favorite "we outplayed them but it didn't show in the scoreline"). Even the casual observer must concede that Chelsea aren't going to be any easier to outrun in the Premiership than last season. And Arsenal have problems of their own, with the departure of Patrick Vieira and possibly Robert Pires, and a suddenly shaky-looking defence. On a negative note, it appears Chelsea's bid to sign Lyon's Michael Essien has finally failed. Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas seems to have been revelling in the attention lately. He also seems to be a bona fide schizophrenic, as the answer you get to the question "are you going to sell Essien to Chelsea?" varies from minute to minute. The asking price has gone from £20 million at the start of the summer, to £32 million as Aulas reasoned Chelsea should pay at least what they offered to Liverpool for Steven Gerrard, a player he considered to be of equal or lesser ability to his midfielder. The high price was £31 million plus Tiago, which recently came down to £28 million. Now Aulas claims to have closed the door on a transfer altogether. I think Essien would have filled a nice role at Chelsea, but we'll manage without him.