Despite considerable deliberation between Veronica and i over potential Halloween costumes, our schemes didn't come to fruition. I'm horrible about planning costumes, apparently preferring the "piece something together from whatever's in the house at 7pm on Halloween night" method. We opted to attend Leisure in the city on Saturday the 28th, the unofficial celebratory date given that Halloween fell on a Tuesday. As costumes would be in effect (although not mandated), i put together a "self-effacing former hipster" look by wearing my old painted motorcycle jacket, and having V do my hair in the classic pouffy Ian McCulloch style. We met briefly with Phil and Naomi at Sparky's, mainly to check out their brilliant getups as the Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend of Venture Bros. fame. We then reconnoitered with Gary at Leisure, who was getting sick of questions about Blind Melon due to his bumblebee costume. An evening of dancing and commenting on costumes ensued, ending at club close at 2am. Veronica was particularly creeped out by my spastic Ian Curtis-esque flailing during "Love Will Tear Us Apart".

V and i flirted with the idea of waiting in line to order a Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation3 last weekend, as preorders began selling at Toys R' Us on Sunday morning. However these thoughts were squashed when we drove by the San Mateo store and found the line already about 30 people long at 2:30am. We'll have to work our magic to secure the systems come release day. I'm about six levels into Splinter Cell: Double Agent on the 360, and have greatly enjoyed reacquainting myself with Sam Fisher's brand of stealth action. I also snagged a copy of the apparently out-of-print Winning Eleven 9 International for the PSP on eBay, as well as the newly released Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories for PSP at the PlayStation Store at the Metreon.

Sunday evening we decided to try making posole after having a good batch prepared by V's friend and coworker Stephanie while visiting her and her beautiful baby girl in Hayward on Friday night. We obtained a recipe for the hominy and pork soup from one of Veronica's books, and i set about buying and preparing the chiles, spices, and meat. It took about two and a half hours to make, but produced a great hearty meal with just a bite of spiciness. The stockpot of soup i produced also fed us for the next three days.

I've had no luck with illness lately. I got a cold immediately after returning from Hawaii in August, then got knocked sideways by a flu and fever a few weeks later. Rising from bed on Monday, i felt that tell-tale sinus pressure swelling while in the shower, and lo and behold by evening had full-on nasal congestion. Luckily the sickness didn't progress to anything that kept me away from work, but given my notoriousness pansy-ness when it comes to illness i was no happy camper for the next few days. I picked up some Halloween candy on Tuesday afternoon to satiate any trick-or-treaters that evening, but oddly we got none. That was fine with me, as it meant i had a plethora of mini candy bars to consume. However, the Tara dog had other ideas. When i returned home from work on Wednesday evening, i found fifty or so empty Reese's peanut butter cup wrappers littered around her bed. The white she devil has learned that she can pull things off the counter and/or kitchen table if they're close enough to the edge, and to my shame i did leave the candy on the edge of the table. Dammit. I yelled at Tara and denied her dinner, which seemed to put her into a state of shame for the evening. The next night she vomited three times, worrying Veronica about a potentially serious late reaction to the chocolate. But Friday she was her usual peppy self once again. The scoundrel. Is it bad that my primary concern was that she ate all the Reese's cups, my favorite?

After seeing the fantastically creepy the Knife in the city last night, i awoke V at 6am to drive me to SFO, so i could catch my 8am flight to Philadelphia for my maiden visit to the annual American Society of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) meeting. This is the showcase meeting for my department, which i've been slow in picking up on since my conversion from Radiology to Radiation Oncology. The schedule looks good, so hopefully i'll get some good insights out of my trip.

One perk of my visit that i've already enjoyed has been my first authentic Philly cheesesteak. Seven years after a stomach bug prevented me from having one during a trip here in 1999, i had a "provolone with" at the famous Geno's Steaks. Perhaps it was the buildup, but it was not as mind-blowing as i'd hoped. The absence of sweet peppers (apparently they were out this evening) contributed greatly to that opinion. Later this week i'll try a Pat's Steak, or perhaps one from Campo's Deli.

This is the first meeting i've been to where i just went to my admin Becky and told her to find me a flight and hotel. I plan on doing this much, much more often. As i gave her my request only three weeks before the meeting, she was only able to get me into a Holiday Inn Express, albeit just four blocks from the convention center. I'm contemplating working that tidbit into my responses during my poster presentation.

"Did you use Monte Carlo analysis to simulate collimator performance and dosimetry?"
"No, but i did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night."

My flight afforded me an opportunity to finally make some progress on Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. I'm about a third of the way through, and have gotten real chills from its depiction of a grisly quadruple murder in a quiet Kansas farm town in 1959. I'm going to return to that after my post, as i try to work myself into slumber in a most likely futile attempt to adjust to the time change.

I like Philly. I liked it when i was here in 1999, and i liked it again tonight while walking the 1.5 miles from 13th and Walnut to Geno's on South 9th St. First off, there's that late fall bite in the air, something you just don't get in California. I love cold weather. I love bundling up in a hooded sweatshirt and jacket, and walking around while your face stings from the wind. Second, it's a wonderfully earthy, blue collar city. I got into a discussion about hockey with a few guys while waiting in line for my steak. I'm not talking blue collar like Pittsburgh, a town that just seems ground into the dirt, i'm talking about real people and real neighborhoods. My walk took me through a couple of nice areas, with the Saturday dinner crowd just rolling in. I was a bit worried about wandering through a city with a notorious reputation for crime, but as i'm told the area to avoid is that south of UPenn, a fair distance from my spot in midtown.

I'm trying to work out a trip up to NYC later this week to hang out with Roo for a bit. It's only a 1.5 hour train ride from Philly, and i should be able to get away from ASTRO as it trails to a close.

Anyone who obsesses over my listening habits as much as i do may have noticed that in my recently played list, you can now see where i listened to each track, be it home (), work (), or on my iPod (). My most recent mp3 programming exercise has been writing a script that grabs the genres and styles associated with each artist in my iTunes library from the impressive Allmusic database. I now have an Excel spreadsheet containing said data for over 2000 performers, which i will now slowly plow through to select more appropriate genres for my library. As i've said before, Joy Division as "modern rock" just will not do.

As i will still be on the east coast when Veronica's birthday arrives next Wednesday, i gave her presents on Thursday night before i departed. These focused on the theme of relaxation and included a red down throw blanket, and a gift whose time i figured had come, a foot spa from Brookstone. She loved both, and i'm eager to see how she enjoys the spa. She has another present on the way, which i hope will complete the relaxation trifecta.