As if I didn’t have enough to worry about already, my luck took a turn for the worse last weekend, precipitating a series of events that I’m only beginning to recover from. It all began right before my trip to New York for my talk, when my laptop decided to die for the second time in 2 weeks. After bringing it back to the bozos who claimed to have fixed it last week, I flew down hoping to spend some relaxing time with my folks back home. Upon arriving, we headed out for lunch, but just when I sat down at the table, I realized my wallet was MISSING! I knew I had it in the car, so it was only a matter of minutes between leaving the car with the valet and walking into the restaurant that I lost it. I spent the afternoon canceling all my credit/ATM cards, and even filed a police report. Incidentally, this happened to be my first experience inside a police station, and it was nothing I’ve ever imagined. Looking around, I saw officers sitting at old wooden desks like those from a public high school. On one side were stashes of various paper forms and a typewriter (no, not a computer keyboard … a MANUAL typewriter). And on the other side, a lady was staring at a MONOCHROME computer monitor! Not exactly like the stuff on CSI. Fortunately, the talk itself went well, and I got to rub elbows with some Neuro bigwigs. Without any IDs and with a fraud alert all over my accounts, it almost feels like I’m the fugitive. I even missed my return flight amidst all the drama, and had to resort to the Chinatown death-mobile to come back home, just in time to pick up a nasty stomach flu. I guess if there’s a silver lining, it’s that I survived such a whirlwind of a week. Let’s hope that I’ve depleted all my bad karma for a long time to come.

With all the writing I’ve been doing at home, we were hoping that Winter Restaurant Week in Boston would give us a chance to take our taste buds out for a treat. But as with every other Restaurant Weeks, this one was a mix of hits and misses. Our first stop was at the highly-coveted Icarus, where highlights included a rich cauliflower soup with braised short rib, and a sea scallops appetizer with chanterelles, bacon, & potato. The second place we tried was Julien at the Langham Hotel, where the classy antique dining room setting was complemented by a mesmerizing Maine shrimp and lobster bisque. Our last stop at Ariadne, unfortunately, turned out to be a disaster. Not only did the waitress misinform us that their Restaurant Week menu was unavailable, but the food and service turned out to be overpriced and as Simon Cowell would say in his snooty accent, utterly forgettable. Otherwise, the week’s been pretty busy, but ended with a high note with a night out with Melody’s co-workers at 33 Saturday night, and a free screening of the comic thriller Lucky Number Slevin on Sunday. Now all I have to do is finish writing my review article, work on my NYAS talk, compose 6 more chapters of questions for Kaplan, and grade 120 Pharmacology exams.

Is it me or has the standing ovation become a meaningless show of approval at entertainment venues? Just as a person can’t just order a “small” coffee at Starbucks, people can’t just clap without standing at a show anymore. It’s worse than grade inflation at Harvard. Last Friday, Melody treated me out to a showing of Les Miserables, which despite being one of my favorite musicals, I’ve actually never seen before. The show itself was well done, but the true star was Randal Keith who played Jean Valjean, the role for which he was also chosen for the final Broadway cast back in 2003. Of course, despite our hopes of reserving our standing ovation for him, we found ourselves sitting among a sea of standing audience members clapping and cheering loudly. And since we couldn’t SEE anything sitting down, we both stood up, and so goes the entire theater giving a standing ovation. Nevertheless, the show’s popularity is well-deserved, and I was glad we caught it before its limited 2-week engagement at the Opera House was over. My parents also visited for the weekend, resupplying us with more delicious home-cooked goodies. Unfortunately, the comments for our manuscript has just been returned, so I’ll probably be quite occupied for the upcoming weeks.

When the cat’s away, the mice will play – especially when the cat happens to be an evil, draconic slave-driver. With the man away last week, the atmosphere in lab turned instantly lighter. We even revisited Hong Kong Eatery for some savory comfort food to celebrate the occasion. And with Melody off from her last call night of the week, we were able to spend the full weekend relaxing. Since the most important part of President’s Day weekend is President’s Day sales, we spent most of our time shopping and eating. I also found an interesting new website at Pandora.com. After 5-years of development by the “Music Genome Project”, the site offers a simple way to discover new songs tailored to your musical taste – perfect for those of us who feel jaded by the same collection of mp3s. Anyway, in case you’ve forgotten what we look like, I’ve also posted new pictures in our personal and rats categories.

I’ve never been big into watching the Winter Olympics, but the chilly weather and foot of snow this past weekend pretty much sealed our fate and made TV our sole source of entertainment. The opening ceremony on Friday night was quite a show, though it was sad that the country had so little star power after Pavarotti and Sophia Loren that they had to resort to a Ferrari Formula One racer drifting on stage as one of the “performances”. So far, there haven’t been too many upsets in the events, perhaps except Michelle Kwan’s dropout. Otherwise, the weekend was quiet and cozy with steaming home-cooked Vietnamese bun rieu – one of those noodle dishes that makes winter snowstorms completely worthwhile.

Happy Chinese New Year! It’s not often that this holiday occurs on a Sunday, and it’s even less often that it coincides with my birthday. With all the festivities stacked together, and with work taking a bit of a breather, I was able to enjoy the weekend feeling more relaxed than usual. On Friday, I celebrated my birthday with some friends over steaming Chinese seafood and spent some quality time with Melody over 8-ball at our now-regular hangout. Saturday morning, we woke up early to warm pineapple buns for the bus ride down to NY, where we spent the lazy afternoon lounging about before the super year-end meal. Finally on Sunday, I realized again the benefit of a large extended family as I collected pocket money for the next two months. Anyway, according to Chinese tradition, it’s important to stay happy and enjoy the new year because the rest of the year will follow the same way. To help you along, check out these two clips that are so outrageous you won’t know whether to burst out in laughter or cringe in disgust. The first is David Hasselhoff after an illustrious career with talking cars and bombshell babes. The second features the Dormitory Boys, the newest lip-syncing sensation since the Numa Numa guy. Enjoy!

You’ve guessed it – Jack is back! And since our favorite TV series returned to Fox last week, we’ve been hooked like Bubba on shrimp. This is perfect since I finally submitted the new manuscript to Neuron last night. It was ultimately a bit anti-climactic as two more first authors were added for political reasons. Overall, I’ve become quite disillusioned by the whole publication process, but as my friend told me, it won’t be long before I get to be disillusioned by medicine too! (Yay) Nevertheless, with this paper out of the way, I should get more free time in the upcoming weeks for more Jack, more CivIV, more Kaplan freelancing, and taking another crack at teaching Pharm again.

Wow! I made it through the entire day yesterday without touching Civ IV. I’m so proud of myself. =) Btw, check out this hilarious website based on the official game trailer (yes, even computer games have trailers too nowadays). On another note, it appears that I’ll be speaking at the New York Academy of Sciences in March, the details of which can be found here. I’m actually going head to head with a Yale prof, so it’ll be a bit nerve-racking. I’d invite people to go, ‘cept they’re charging a whopping 20-smackers per head! I only wish that I could get a cut of THAT sweet deal.

I have just gotten my hands on a copy of Civilization IV, and I’m quickly realizing that it may be even worse than crack itself. Just when I thought that I had matured beyond those college days staying up past 4am clicking away with my mouse, here comes the fourth installation of what was perhaps one of the most addictive games in the history of computer gaming. Created by Sid Meier back in 1991, the original version was a simple turn-based strategy game that simulated the evolution of a civilization from the stone age to the era of space exploration. After three incarnations, it now adopts a full 3D engine along with a whole slew of new implementations such as cultural borders, religion, and great people. This newest edition has cost me two nights of sleep, and deservingly earned Gamespot’s Game of the Year in 2005. So say goodbye to sunlight, and as the review suggests, “If you have even a passing interest in strategy games, world history, or getting LESS SLEEP at night, you owe it to yourself to give Civilization IV a try.”

Happy New Year from Sammy and Howie! For those of you who’ve been wondering about our rats, I’m happy to report that they’re doing very well (though we’re considering sending Howie to a weight-loss camp this summer…). It would be a bit hypocritical of us, however, as the holidays this year have been a fattening experience for all of us. I spent Christmas weekend in Stockton with Melody’s family, where we played lots of Scrabble and gorged ourselves with Chinese food. And the night before New Year’s eve, we pigged out at Capital Grille with crab and lobster cakes, lobster bisque, veal rib-eye, and kona-crusted sirloin. I guess our New Year’s resolution will be for all of us to lose some weight.