The big gap between posts can be attributed to:

1. Trying to get a mess of things at work organized before heading off to Europe, including three posters, two grant proposals, a progress report meeting, and invites for next year's seminar series.
2. Coming down with a cold one week before our flight to London, and drinking copious amounts of fruit juice while watching the History Channel in bed.
3. Purchasing the last needed items for our adventure in the old world while shirking the last remnants of my illness.

But lo and behold my health came back, work came to some semblance of order, and V and i made it to SFO last Saturday morning to fly to Dallas and on to London. Luckily, V's stepdad Bob agreed to come relax at our house for a few weeks and look after our pesky dogs. Our overnight flight to Gatwick on American Airlines wasn't too bad, although as usual i didn't get much sleep. Instead i watched the totally awful J.Lo/J.Fo abomination Monster in Law, followed by the much more engaging Sean Penn/Nicole Kidman thriller The Interpreter, and finally the last half of Shrek 2 when i just couldn't achieve full slumber. We arrived at 10am local time, and caught a series of trains to get to Lucy's flat near Old Street. We spent our three days in London going shopping in Camden and Covent Garden, sightseeing at the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Parliament, and the Tower of London, hanging out at pubs with Jeremy and Ant, and of course stopping by Stamford Bridge for a variety of photos and for me to spend £150 on new kits for Michael and i and a couple of jackets for myself.

On Wednesday we caught the high speed Eurostar train to Paris, checking into our nicely-situated but incredibly petite hotel in the Rive Gauche around 6pm. We spent yesterday walking clear across Paris, starting at Notre Dame and skirting by the Louvre on our way past L'Opera, down the Champs Elysees, up L'Arc de Triomphe, down across the Seine and up the Eiffel Tower, before taking a taxi back to the Latin Quarter to rest our aching feet. Today has been much more relaxed, but we're currently hoofing it towards Montmartre.

On Sunday we head on via rail to Amsterdam for a few days, before going to Cologne and the Society of Molecular Imaging meeting. Then it's 3 quick flights back to SFO, Bob, and the dogs. I'm a bit homesick already, but we're both having loads o' fun.

Five minutes before my cyber-cafe time expires, maybe a quick jaunt to Soccernet before torturing my feet again up to Montmartre ...