Portland, OR marks the third destination for this month of travel. Melody had barely recovered from her 2-day exam, when we took off early Wednesday morning to visit her sister and brother-in-law. Since Portland was more or less lacking in big tourist attractions, we were able to take things slowly. We spent our first day bumming around the neighborhood and local shopping mall, taking note of all the other lazy bums who weren’t at work on a weekday. With little knowledge of the area, we just hit some nearby places for lunch and dinner. On Thursday, we decided to bond with nature, starting with a meditative stroll through the Japanese Garden, followed by a photography spree amidst the award-winning roses in the Rose Test Garden, and finishing with a visit to the Classical Chinsese Garden. We had hoped to grab lunch at the upscale Pearl District, but distracted by frequent stops at the various kitchen and home furnishing stores along the way and with most of the restaurants closing between lunch and dinner, we ended up driving to good ol’ Chinatown for some chow. Unfortunately, Portland’s Chinatown turned out far differently from what we expected, populated mainly by Chinese-American imitation cuisine and seedy shops with names like “Hung Far Low” which prompted us to quickly depart the area. Along the drive back for dinner, we witnessed the politically-active atmosphere of this city as we passed by what looked like a protesting fish. Friday, we drove to the town of Newport to visit the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Aside from the captivating view of the shark tank, however, the exhibits were pretty mediocre, with a sorry excuse for a new bat exhibit which featured tons of models, drawings, and videos, but only 4 live bats. A stop at the food court was equally disheartening, with sub-Progresso-quality chowder that left something to be desired. Unsatisfied, we drove into town afterwards to redeem ourselves with some real chowder and fresh, deep-fried seafood at the local favorite, Mo’s Original, before embarking on the drive home. With Emmeline and Eugene, our evening concluded with some outstanding Pacific Northwest cuisine at Wildwood with take-home treats from Papa Haydn for dessert. On our last day, I took the last opportunity to indulge in my first conveyor-belt sushi experience at the aptly-named Sushi Land before our red-eye flight back home. Overall, I found Portland to be easy on the eyes, but with the dirth of some authentic Chinese dining venues, it may prove to be a bit tough on the palate.

We spent a quiet weekend up in New Hampshire for the annual MD-PhD retreat at Waterville Valley this past weekend. Despite the rain and fog that engulfed us on the drive up, the weather improved by Saturday, providing us with some fresh air and a beautiful view of the fall foliage. This year, I was fortunate enough to enjoy Melody’s company, though she had to spend much of her time studying for her Step 3. Beside the usual: our miserable attempt at golf, the overpriced indoor tennis game, and the all-you-can-eat lobster mania that always left us uncomfortably full, we also decided to spare some time for the talks and poster session this year. History did not repeat itself, fortunately, and both the golf cart and I remained healthy after the trip. Meanwhile, with so many distractions from work, I’m gonna have to make the most of my time in lab in the next few days. Of course, now that the Sox have miraculously stayed alive to force a Game 5, I’m afraid productivity will be difficult to keep up.

I just got home last night and found this huge pile of mail overflowing from my mailbox. Apparently, the post office had not been delivering the mail due to some problem with our mailbox. I think I was suspicious enough to notice something was wrong, but too lazy to find out why until now. How many copies of the New England Journal of Medicine can you spot in this photograph? Today also marked the last day of work for my labmate Rajeev, who will soon be starting his cushy job at Novartis. There he will direct his countless minions to pursue great scientific endeavors while being pampered with a high salary and stock options, that poor guy. Btw, it’s amazing the kind of geeky factoids one learns from a mealtime conversation with a group of scientists. Over some yummy Indian food, I found out how asparagine was named (Was it that obvious?). And guess which political figure used to be an X-ray crystallographer? (Answer to follow…)

It was an action-packed weekend as Melody and I attempted to revisit her alma mater, attend her friend’s wedding, and provide me with a crash tour of the Windy City, all in a matter of less than 48 hours. Our adventure began Friday night, after our flight arrived at O’Hare. From the airport, we rented a rather ugly-looking Chevy Classic which looked totally old school, but to my surprise was a 2004 edition (LOL). After checking into our hotel in Evanston, we quickly headed out for a snack at Pete Miller’s Steakhouse with a parmesan-crusted New York strip for me and a lobster bisque for her, and finished off with a chocolate shake at Kafein. On Saturday morning, Melody gave me an extended tour of the Northwestern campus, followed by lunch at her beloved J.K.Sweets, a candy & ice-cream parlor which interestingly, was better known for the cheap bi bim bap sold in the back. Here, the plot thickens as we returned to our car and found that the car keys were missing! Over a frantic phone call to Hertz roadside assistance, I told them about the car which was registered in Texas, rented in Chicago, but now parked in Evanston, and then gave them my New York state license info, Boston mailing address, and Melody’s cell phone number from LA (my cell was locked inside). Fortunately, after some help from AAA to jimmy the car door, Melody was at least able to quickly change in the car and catch the exchange of vows at her friend’s wedding. Though we didn’t know anyone at the afternoon reception, we were nevertheless content with the delicious meal. After a bit of dancing, we met up with some of Melody’s college friends at their old hangout before crashing for the night at her friend Madhavi’s upscale apartment in downtown Chicago. Sunday was every bit as hectic as the day before, beginning with a contemporary-styled brunch at Orange serving up a Michael Jackson-themed pancake platter for her and a fat mushroom-asparagus omelette for me. We spent the afternoon touring the abstract metallic sculptures at Millenium Park, walking along the Lake Michigan harbor in Grant Park, playing with the beluga whales at the Shedd, and quickly scanning the Impressionist, armor, and photography collections at the Art Institute of Chicago. Perhaps we could’ve seen and done more if we had more time, but alas our busy lives awaited us back in Boston.

It’s been a weekend of coincidences since coming to the Axon Guidance and Neural Plasticity meeting here at Cold Spring Harbor. After a week busting my balls trying to get some experiments completed before the 5-day conference, I left early Saturday morning for my flight down to New York. As always, I was running so late I had to catch a cab to the airport, arriving only 5 minutes before boarding, but only to find out that my flight was delayed by more than 3 hours (of course). Luckily, I ran into an old college friend of mine who was on the same flight, so we got to sit down at the airport coffee shop and catch up on our past few years while waiting for our plane to arrive. Yesterday, at one of the poster sessions here, I noticed the name of an old high school friend on a poster from a lab at Yale. I spoke extensively with the post-doc who was presenting the poster, only to realize that I had already met her when I bumped into that friend about a month ago at the Ikea in New Haven! Aside from these random blasts from the past, the conference has otherwise been quite disappointing. Among the exhaustive volume of talks and posters from 9am-11pm each day, I have yet to find much that I didn’t already know. Fortunately, the weather had been beautiful, and the relaxing environment out here is finally giving me a chance to kick back for a couple of days.

Say hello to Howie and Sammy! The foster brothers have been bonding really well, and Sammy has clearly benefited from Mom’s nursing. Mom however, is a little…. strange. Last night, she mysteriously went nuts and started running frantically in circles inside the cage. In fact, when the top was opened, she gained enough centrifugal momentum to spin out of the bin. We spent a good hour (with Thu laughing in the background) trying to catch her without being bitten by the crazed rat. But once we got her back into the bin, she calmed down pretty quickly and started grooming the pups again, despite their squeaky protests. Now, with Melody getting the next three days off and my boss in London, we’ll be looking forward to a more laid back Labor Day weekend.

It’s official. Our young friend Sammy has been adopted by a young mommy rat and her 8-day-old pup, Howie. The decision came mainly from the fact that rats are social creatures and Sammy was lacking in companionship, and also because we were becoming increasingly concerned with his nutritional support from human baby formula. Despite our progress in advancing his diet (he was eating solids at day 14 when rats aren’t usually weaned until 4-5 weeks), his coat of fur was pretty thin and he was severely underweight for his age. Fortunately, the young mom quickly adopted the little guy, though we’re still concerned whether after being fed for so long by human hands, he would still know how to feed from a mom. We’ll keep further updates on Sammy and Howie’s progress, so stay tuned! In other news, we took advantage of restaurants that have extended Restaurant Week and enjoyed a most satisfying 3-course-dinner last night at Pigalle. I started with some pan-fried duck livers over parmesan risotto, followed by a salmon in port reduction cooked to a medium-rare perfection, and closed with a light but rich milk chocolate pana cotta. For Melody, her meal began with a very unique eggplant terrine, followed by a slightly over-salted mushroom risotto, and ended with a delightful peach tarte tatin. Our memorable meal has quickly placed this French restaurant among our favorites in Boston.

It’s official. Our young friend Sammy has been adopted by a young mommy rat and her 8-day-old pup, Howie. The decision came mainly from the fact that rats are social creatures and Sammy was lacking in companionship, and also because we were becoming increasingly concerned with his nutritional support from human baby formula. Despite our progress in advancing his diet (he was eating solids at day 14 when rats aren’t usually weaned until 4-5 weeks), his coat of fur was pretty thin and he was severely underweight for his age. Fortunately, the young mom quickly adopted the little guy, though we’re still concerned whether after being fed for so long by human hands, he would still know how to feed from a mom. We’ll keep further updates on Sammy and Howie’s progress, so stay tuned! In other news, we took advantage of restaurants that have extended Restaurant Week and enjoyed a most satisfying 3-course-dinner last night at Pigalle. I started with some pan-fried duck livers over parmesan risotto, followed by a salmon in port reduction cooked to a medium-rare perfection, and closed with a light but rich milk chocolate pana cotta. For Melody, her meal began with a very unique eggplant terrine, followed by a slightly over-salted mushroom risotto, and ended with a delightful peach tarte tatin. Our memorable meal has quickly placed this French restaurant among our favorites in Boston.

Last Sunday I harvested DRGs from a batch of 6 day old rats, and there was one left over. The options were limited: either dispatch him humanely since his mom was already gone, or take him home for Melody to play with. After five days of hand feeding human baby formula via syringe every 4 hrs (luckily Melody’s on vacation this week) and playing Miyazaki tunes in the background, Sammy has gotten fat and sassy at 11 days old. It’s pretty surprising, given that we weren’t even sure he was going to make even one night without his mom. This has been the only work highlight in the last few weeks. Otherwise, I’m being flogged at work, trying to submit a manuscript by Sunday. There has been some time to enjoy Restaurant Week, however. On Thursday Melody and I went to Anthem, which offered a very creative 3-course meal, preceded by an amuse and followed by a take-home treat, for just $30 each. Lucky for us, some of the other participating restaurants have extended the opportunity for prix-fixe meals, so we’ll be taking advantage of that in the next several days.

This past week marked the grand opening of a new Ikea superstore down in Connecticut, and despite having been traumatized only last weekend by their state troopers, we braved the interstate highways again to get in on the deals. Even more memorable (at least for me) beyond all the bargain furniture, home decor, and kitchenware, was the store restaurant, serving a delicious crayfish sandwich, a mozarella and red pepper panini, and a Swedish meatballs dish all for just $1.99 each! Mmmmmmm… meatballs… =P~