The weekend was as busy as expected. Thankfully V and i warmed up by a quiet evening at home on Friday, with tacos from Taqueria el Grullense and TV. Saturday we got up at the relatively early hour of 10am so we could beautify ourselves and make it over to Fremont for a 1pm lunch with my parents. They just got a Panera near them, so V and i were thrilled to revisit one of our favorite places from our days in Allston. We spent a few hours relating our experiences in Europe, and then checking out the Apple server my dad managed to get from his work, before heading home. We got in some minor house cleaning before leaving the dogs for the evening, heading north to the city for tapas and beers at Thirsty Bear with old friends Kevin and Nathan. We then adjourned to Leisure at the Cherry Bar. Billed as "classic Popscene", as near as i can tell the club is really a bimonthly current Popscene on Saturday nights. But it was fun nonetheless. Veronica introduced Jenz and Kevin to the wonders of the Adios Motherfucker, a sort of blue Long Island Iced Tea. Gabriel had been the first to order one at a Leisure last December, so i suppose he bears the blame for what ensued. The blue concoction had them flying by the time the lights came on at 2am. Nathan tried to rally the troops to a party down the street, but he and i, being the two sober ones, had a hell of a time trying to point three random-walk particles in a particular direction. Nathan ultimately asked me if i thought they were done for the evening. I responded with a resounding affirmative, and encouraged him to just head off to the party. I then managed the solo task of getting all three to my car, in my car, out of my car (for the occasional urgent stop), back in, and dropping them off. Like the weekend before, V and i didn't get back to Redwood City until late late late.

On Sunday i arose to go to my friends' BBQ in Concord, but V was in no state to do much of anything so i made her as comfortable as possible before heading out. The event was fun, giving me a chance to catch up with a bunch of my grad school friends. Great food too. I miss those guys, i really need to get off my ass and keep in better touch with them. I went home via Diamond Heights in the city, where Geoff and Naomi were packing the last of their things into a U-Haul, bound for Naomi's dad's place in Sacramento. I helped move a scooter, a dresser, and some odds and ends, and was rewarded with a Guinness. N and G looked worked, apparently they'd gotten the s@#t end of the stick from U-Haul. I was very sad to see them go, as this obviously means the days of hanging out with them every weekend have come to an end. I'll have to get Geoff an Xbox and Xbox Live so we can continue our killing sessions from a distance. Tara and Pepe will be wondering what happened to those nice people who brought the mattress into the living room for them every time they came over.

I was too tired Sunday evening to do the work-related reading i'd intended to get to over the weekend. My postdoc Ivana and i did some experiments on Friday that had me questioning my knowledge of basic enzyme kinetics. All the predictions i had made about the outcome of the experiment were 100% wrong. I read my biochemistry text as well as an assortment of classic papers on luciferase kinetics yesterday night watching the Broncos kick the living snot out of the Chiefs (how in god's name did i let myself choose the Chiefs, in Denver, as my second highest-ranked pick of the week?), and was still befuddled as to our findings ... my recollection of Michaelis-Menten kinetics was fine, it was our results that were funky. Finally, after numerous PubMed searches i stumbled upon the correct set of search terms and found a paper from 1995 describing inhibition of luciferase by very high concentrations of substrate. Bingo. Experiment now makes sense. My grant writing continues, although to be honest my attention is really being drawn to these luciferase kinetic experiments at the moment.

I'm listening to an advance of the debut album by She Wants Revenge, who've been getting regular airplay on Live 105 lately. I can't tell if it's pretty good or the ultimate in poseurdom. Geez, if you thought Interpol were aping Joy Division, the recent crop of bands seem intent on digging up Ian Curtis's grave and parading around on stage with his bones. There's merit in the music of these acts (including SWR and Editors), but it's completely shameless the way these guys are putting on their best Curtis moan. I guess after 25 years those of us who still carry on the Joy Division torch are getting fewer and farther between, meaning new acts can come along and rerecord "Shadowplay" with new lyrics (doting on sex seems to be all the rage) and all the kids will be none the wiser.

The new Legends album Public Radio arrived at my house yesterday, along with the single He Knows the Sun. It's a different vibe than the first album ... less Primitives and C-86, more Seventeen Seconds-era Cure. Still has the great Swedish pop feel to it though, and i'm more than willing to wait for it to grow on me. I grabbed the Soft Set record Only Lovers Left Alive the other day, that's making me very happy as i type. Indie pop along the lines of Saturday Looks Good to Me, but with a distinct Go-Betweens flavor.