Wow, almost two weeks since I wrote, never a good sign. Last Sunday (5th Feb) was the Super Bowl, and I spent it at Syd's place with Kadie and others at the big lesbian party. It was a lot of fun, and I got to catch up with many people. The last two weeks have been busy working on this proposal, which is slowly coming up to the first draft. Once you've written a few of these, it becomes easier of course.
In very nice news, on Friday I was invited to go to Washington DC to serve on a review panel. This was courtesy of a former boss of mine, and I am really excited. This will happen in the first week of April, the same week I have been invited to give the plenary lecture at the local meeting of the American Chemical Society. That will be very cool as well, but I certainly am going to be busy.
I've been getting to the gym on and off, and using the cycling machine instead of the running track. Using the exercise machines allows me to set longer goals for myself, and I always did like to quantify how I am doing. I'm one of those people who read the caloric content of everything, for me however it's more out of scientific interest.
In other news Bonnie passed her preliminary exam and is now officially in graduate school. I will try and see her when I fly out for Sydney. She is going to Boston in late May with Lauren, but will be back in a week to work. I was at Adam's place eating stew and watching "Grave of the Fireflies" with Kadie, so I felt a little guilty about sitting in the bathroom talking for 20 minutes. Of course I hardly ever get to talk to Bonnie, so I didn't feel too bad.
Things with Kadie and I are going ok, but we still don't use the “gf” word. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day of course, so I am sure there will be pink crap everywhere. We will do dinner, and maybe watch a DVD at home. It's ironic that roses are the flowers of love, since they are sterile and don't produce any progeny.
On Friday night (10th Feb) Kadie, Brandon and I went to Katie's birthday party that was held at Johnny Walker's place. It was noisy, but a lot of fun. We came back to my place around 12:30 am, and Kadie had to get up for blood sampling at 7 am. Later that day I gave her a very special present, a walk with the bees. I think it helped her a lot, and we spent some time at the lab before cycling back to her place where we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening. She said that she had made a truce with herself, so I hope that leads to a more optimistic outlook for her. She just won an undergraduate research scholarship, and I am encouraging her to apply for others. I have been lamentably slow in recognizing how the US scholarship industry works. Like an avalanche, one quickly accumulates others.
I also talked to Ben in Miami for the first time in many months. He is well; although he has some crazy patent idea he was telling me about. I am tempted to go down and see him everyone else for July 4th, although it will be hotter than hell.
In other news, I also had really hot, uh, pleasure today. I'm quite toey because my doctor has me cycling my dose and I am off my meds for a week. Anyway, I had to come home late in the afternoon for a bit because I was frustrated with work, and frustrated in other ways too. Afterwards I was amazed at the “flood” which had ensued, although I was very happy it had happened.