Thanksgiving week was busy. Or not so busy, depending on your definition of busy. I'd go with the former. On Monday morning i headed off in the Jetta with my postdoc Ivana and another postdoc Zhen from the molecular imaging group at Stanford, on our way to Rohnert Park for the radiobiology retreat. The imaging session i had organized was first up, 1pm on Monday. We got an early start and made such good time that we stopped in Sausalito for breakfast at the Lighthouse Cafe. The retreat was pretty good ... we resolved to create a protocol for initiating hypoxia PET imaging in the clinic, but i also found myself a bit dismayed at the splintering of the department into factions who have increasingly little in common. I hope to do something to change that, but it's no quick fix. For Monday night, radiobiology director (and close collaborator and advisor) Amato had organized a "casino night" (sans real money to pacify the faint of heart, like me). I sat down to play some Texas hold 'em with a group of the biology students and Martin Brown, one of the senior faculty in the department. Within 15 minutes my $500 was down to $150 ... ack. Then Martin decided to move on to another game, and i won a few hands and was almost even. I decided to check out the lively craps table, which did not make the other players at the table happy considering i'd won about $250 in the last five hands. I promised to return, and made my way around the room. When i returned to the poker table a half hour later, my gambling mojo must've kicked in (or i finally had the confidence and money to gamble aggressively), because over the last hour and a half i cleaned up. It got to the point where people would throw their cards down if i started betting. Bwa ha ha. At 11pm our winnings were converted into raffle tickets for a giveaway of a bunch of door prizes. I ended up empty-handed, but the swelling of my gambling ego was reward enough.

I returned home Tuesday night to find that Geoff and Veronica had been mastering Guitar Hero, leaving my paltry skills in the dust. They'd mastered the poses necessary to activate the game's "star power" and could now kick my butt. What a great game though ... a wonderful outlet for wannabe rock stars. On Wednesday morning i again had to rise early, this time to drive the Jetta to Fremont for its 40k mile servicing, a few recall repairs, and replacement of the right mirror casing that i had broken while carelessly backing the car down our narrow driveway. Unfortunately the 40k mile service is the big one, so i had to shell out serious dough for that. While waiting for the end of what turned out to be an all day job, my parents picked me up and took me out to breakfast, then let me relax at the house. The kitties didn't bother me so much, and i whiled away the afternoon working on my laptop and watching old Law and Order episodes.

V and i made it to my parents' house at 2:30pm on Turkey Day, where my sister Hilary and her boyfriend Jeff as well as my aunt Cathy had convened. Thanksgiving has been steadily moving up my holiday rankings ... who doesn't love a holiday that revolves around football, overeating, and napping? Unfortunately, my allergy resistance from the previous day didn't continue and after a few hours my sinuses were hopelessly overwhelmed. I made it through one evening game of dominoes before heading back to Redwood City and Tara. Our NoCal-turned-SoCal friend Kevin arrived later in the evening for a Thanksgiving weekend by the bay. We introduced him to Guitar Hero before hitting the hay.

Kevin headed up to the city Friday morning, and that evening we drove north as well to meet up with him, Hakim, and Doug at Nihon, a Japanese whiskey bar in Soma. Excellent food and booze (Kirin Ichiban for me, i'm no hard liquor enthusiast). Afterwards we reconnoitered to Club ID at the Rickshaw, a place i'd previously described as a "ball of pretension". It was marginally better this time, possibly because of the presence of Popscene friends Jeremy (in from NYC) and Aaron.

Something from Friday didn't sit well with me on Saturday however, be it the Japanese food or the six or seven beers. I tried to continue finishing the dining room paint job (it seems i've said that i'm "finishing" it way too many times now), but after painting one cabinet face i quit with a massive headache. Within an hour it was joined by nausea, and i spent the rest of the day trying to avoid vomiting. Veronica went back to the city that evening to stop by Pop Roxx, a place that i may have scorned even if i'd been well. As it was, i was happy to climb into bed and cuddle with Tara while watching Saturday Night Live. Chelsea did their best to keep up my health, winning 2-nil at Portsmouth to follow up on their midweek 2-nil triumph over Anderlecht that clinched a spot in the Champions League knockout stages. I'm still not sold on our infallibility, not the same way i was during the second half of last season when we were really firing on all cylinders. Arjen Robben hasn't recaptured his brilliant form of last year, and as such our attack has a sense of frailty despite our impressive scoring record. Our defense also seems to have slipped a notch since shutting down anyone and everyone last season. We're not in crisis mode, actually far from it, but unlike last year i have tinges of doubt when watching the squad.

I was well enough Sunday morning to have breakfast with my parents and Hilary and Jeff at Stacks in Redwood City. While there, we got to see my dad's latest purchase, a shiny new red Honda Pilot SUV. Not a bad ride. Not at all. After discussing car philosophies with him that morning and also earlier in the week, i had begun to rethink my hybrid leanings. As Veronica put it, why am i spending more to buy a car that i'll only be using to commute a relatively short distance? The extra gas mileage isn't so useful in that situation. I was therefore revisiting my old wishes to get an Accord. However, upon further negotiations with Veronica over the next few days, we decided that it made more sense to buy her the Mini Cooper she has been longing for for years, and put me back in the Jetta i bought for myself way back when. I'm cool with this plan of attack ... hopefully over Christmas i'll add a Sirius satellite radio to the Jetta (got to hear uncensored Howard Stern in the new year!). Then in a couple of years i'll trade in the Jetta for an Accord. Meanwhile V gets her long-awaited Mini.

Maybe it's a product of age, or experience, or ... whatever, but i seem to keep encountering bands that i can't help judging in terms of their similarity to bands of my youth. Case in point: the People's Revolutionary Choir, a UK buzz band attracting praise from the likes of Kasabian and Kate Moss (?!). I picked up their debut ep Elevate today and was astounded to find a near-shameless ripoff of Spacemen 3 coming across my headphones. The title track is a jumble of the first half of Perfect Prescription, plain and simple. If i thought B.R.M.C. wore their influences on their sleeve, these guys have them tattooed on their foreheads.

Tomorrow i head down to LA for this year's SMFA Cup, hosted for the second consecutive year by reigning champion Matthew. Last year Matthew and i went fishing for the day, and i then compete in the Cup bearing a brutal sunburn, ultimately failing. This year replace "fishing" with "paintball", "sunburn" with "multiple bruises", and "failing" with ... "failing" ... and you're probably pretty close. After the male aggression show in the paintball arena, Matthew and i will watch the day's Chelsea versus Middlesbrough match, recorded earlier in the afternoon. Last year my defeat in the Cup was preceded by being forced to watch Chelsea lose their only game of the season to Gary's Manchester City, with Matthew and his noisemaker creating my own private hell. I'm hoping for salvation (at least in this part of the weekend's competitions) this year. Veronica's already resolved to be nowhere near so she can avoid my inevitable meltdown. The actual Cup will be held on Winning Eleven 8 International, which Matthew and i agree is clearly superior to any of the FIFA incarnations. Hopefully this won't give the two of us an unfair advantage over Sean and Gary. I'm not sure of their experience with WE, and the game has a pretty steep learning curve. Oh well. Game on!

On the topic of games, i've become completely addicted to this simple little Shockwave Flash game called N. Very simple but incredibly seductive play dynamics in the style of Lode Runner, plus some sleek and alluring visuals ... i dunno, this game just has me hooked.