If you've popped into the photos page recently, you've noticed the multitude of new pics under the heading Our new house (hopefully). Well, as of this Friday that hopefully can be removed. Veronica and i decided to place a bid on the 1930's craftsman in Redwood City. As Joe found out we would be the only bidders, we proposed a price $10k less than the asking price. The day after placing the bid, while fishing with Matthew in L.A. prior to the SMFA Cup, i got a call from Joe telling me that the sellers had countered with a price $6k higher than we had suggested, and were asking to remain in the house rent-free for a month after closing. We could live with that, so we accepted the counter and BANG! We're in escrow. One of Joe's strategies to make our bid attractive was to include a quick two week escrow, so things moved rapid-fire thereafter. The next week i drove down to San Jose to drop off our deposit check with the title company. I then made several trips to the house (just off El Camino Real and Woodside in Redwood City), and got to tag along during a general home inspection as well as a pest inspection. Those guys, in addition to charging me on the order of $300/hour, seem to take odd pleasure in poking rotted wood with a screwdriver or, the pest guy's instrument of choice, a ski pole. We learned the house had relatively minor foundation and pest problems, especially when you consider that it is 74 years old ... easily solvable. Meanwhile, i provided our mortgage broker with countless pay stubs, W-2s, bank statements, blood samples, permanent records, etc etc, and waited nervously for the word on whether the lender would approve our loan. After a few stomach-dropping bumps, we got word last Friday that the loan had gone through. Therefore this week we just have to sign what i hear is a War and Peace-sized pile of papers, and the house is ours.

Career ... check. Marriage ... check. Mortgage ... check. Now i just need a kid and all ties with my childhood will be irrevocably severed. That last rite of passage is going to be a while yet. Thankfully. One interesting aspect of the house is the detached garage, to which the sellers added a decent size office. Veronica and i have agreed that will be the music room. We're going to soundproof it, and i'll have my guitars and amp in there, along with all of our CDs, my four track, and perhaps a computer. Time to get a garage band going ... who says i'm all grown up? The four track hasn't been used in forever, and i'm very excited to get my guitar and recording skills back, and to bring them into the digital age. The last (and best, and nearly only) song i ever recorded was for my ex-girlfriend, featuring two guitar tracks, bass, and (yikes!) vocals. We need to get Veronica a Moog so she can get in on the action. And get old Kingsley bandmate and charismatic frontman Michael in the fold.

Other than obsessing over property, i've been racking up miles on my car. As i mentioned before, two weekends ago V and i drove down to LA for this year's SMFA cup. No offense to host Matthew, but that weekend royally sucked. For me, at any rate. First Matthew and i return from our fishing expedition ... well, fishless. That wasn't all bad, i had a lot of fun out on the ocean off Malibu, watching seals swim around the boat, seeing a school of dolphins frolicking on our way home, and grabbing live mackerel out of a small tank to use as bait (okay, that makes me shudder just writing it). We got home around 5pm, both rather sunburned, and hurried off to Kinko's to fax our acceptance of the house counteroffer (see? I can't get away from the damn house!). I then had to watch Chelsea play a friggin awful match against Manchester City, losing 1-nil on a penalty and getting ribbed by Matthew and City-masochist Gary the whole time. Saturday came to a close as i surrendered the SMFA Cup to Matthew. Strike three.

After not getting home until 12:30am Monday morning, i then had to rise at 5:30am to come to work to wrap up a presentation, due to be delivered to the radiobiology faculty at 8am. That went surprisingly well, making me wonder if i should give all my talks in a state of extreme sleep deprivation (4 hours Thursday, 4 hours Friday, 8 hours Saturday, 4 hours Sunday). I even managed to make it through a whole day of work, although the 5:30-6:30pm molecular imaging seminar had my brain coming dangerously close to complete shutdown. During the week i thoroughly enjoyed the climax of the Red Sox comeback against the hated New York Yankees in the ALCS. I'm very cautiously optimistic of their chances to reverse the curse of the Bambino in the World Series now that they're up two games to none on the St. Louis Cardinals. It makes me a bit upset that V convinced me to leave Boston though, because that's going to be one insane party. It was crazy when the Patriots won their first Super Bowl in 2002, but this is the friggin Red Sox we're talking about ... the source of endless grief and heartache in New England since 1918. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if Boston is burnt to the ground within 24 hours of a Red Sox series victory.

This past weekend V and i headed up to Tahoe (with a fresh few feet of powder from Tuesday's storm), where i spoke at the annual UCB/UCSF Bioengineering Retreat as a "distinguished alumnus" (ha!). It was fun to see all the familiar faces from grad school, and to see how the group has expanded in the three years since i moved on to ... well, not greener, but different pastures. V and i made a Friday night excursion around the lake to the casinos in Nevada, as well as a Saturday afternoon trip to the outlet stores at the Y. Returning to the bay on Sunday, we stopped by the Oakland Museum to see Marcus at the Dias de los Muertos celebration. There was a very interesting exhibit on the intersection of Spanish and indigenous cultures ... it's amazing how the indigenous religious and cultural practices were reworked and modified during colonialism to place the focus on Catholicism, while retaining elements of the original culture. We're going back next weekend when Marcus will be presenting an ofrenda (an altar welcoming the spirits of departed friends and family during Dias de los Muertos).

Chelsea made amends for putting me through Gary and Matthew hell by thumping CSKA Moscow 2-nil in the Champions League midweek (their third straight CL victory, all but assuring them of a place in the knockout stages). This despite the usual media claims that we played badly and won by a flattering margin. However, i didn't hear that accusation after we blasted Blackburn 4-nil on Saturday, featuring Eidur Gudjohnsen's first career hat trick. Even though Mateja Kezman still hasn't managed to exorcise his Premiership goalscoring demons, many bright points can be drawn from the match: Scott Parker made up for time on the bench with a solid display in relief of the ill (and not the good ill) Claude Makelele, while Damien Duff played like the Duff of last season and got on the score sheet with a great left footed top-of-the-box strike. Also, Arjen Robben came back from his season-long ankle injury (damn you, Olivier Dacourt!) to make his Chelsea Premiership debut. He looked very dangerous, almost scoring himself and setting up former PSV Eindhoven teammate Kezman for an easy tap-in that the latter somehow managed to put off the crossbar. If we can keep playing like this, we'll do just fine while waiting for the return of injured striker Didier Drogba.

One last Chelsea note: Adrian Mutu is a s@$thead. First he calls out manager José Mourinho, accusing him of falsely claiming Mutu was injured to prevent him from playing with the Romanian national team in World Cup qualifiers. We've already seen Mourinho's no-b.s. approach to management, and Mutu must have known saying something like this would all but end his career at Chelsea. Was he pissed that his summer loan move to Juventus fell apart? Maybe so, but this move aint going to force Chelsea to bow to his whims. Then it comes out that he tested positive for a banned substance, originally thought to be cocaine. His response? "It wasn't cocaine. It was something, i'll tell you what later." Pardon? You're inviting the British media to speculate on what drugs you've been enjoying during your time in London? It's now come out that he tried something a friend told him would "enhance his sex life". Oh god, Adrian, where is your freakin' brain? He'll most likely be banned from football for six to twelve months, after which Chelsea will almost certainly unload him. Probably for significantly less than the £15 million they paid for him, but good friggin riddance. He impressed early but then disappeared without a trace. I'll take Drogba and Gudjohnsen up front anyday.

I'm eagerly waiting for a call from my local EB, telling me my preorder for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is ready for pickup. I can choose the cornrows and tats of my gang banger, the hydraulics and mods of his ride, and drive all over California and Nevada? Ahem, i mean Los Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturas? Sign me up! Goodbye, free time! ... As if it wasn't already devoted to the new house and work.