Valentine's Season

With pink/heart-themed merchandise debuting on shelves the day after Christmas, it was clear that we needed to modify our cookie format to keep up with the times.

Ski Hogadon, WY

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Gingerbear

With more than a foot of blowing snow outside, a polar bear sighting was not entirely unexpected.

Doh-notopia

Two dozen pots of Play Doh transformed into a Jurassic landscape.

Merry Christmas

"Peat"... that's not total unlike coal - maybe someone didn't quite make the "nice" list this year?

You know you're in WY when...

...you're fenced in by horse-riding cowboy silhouettes.

Ski Eldora, CO

First trails of the season in Colorado - a small detour on our cross-country trek to Casper, WY. Our ski legs were surprisingly functional for their first outing - perhaps helped by the local microbrew.

Made some new friends too...

In the Heights: a New Musical

Part Rent, part rap, part West Side Story = less than the sum of its parts.

Noah & Melissa

Now 7, Noah was overdue for his first visit to Chicago, and arrived for a weekend of fun, bringing his mum along for the ride. We started off the day with a little work experience where Noah quickly located the pile of surplus Halloween candy.

We then headed downtown to the Shedd Aquarium where the fish always seem to be upstaged by the other aquatic life. Favorites this time included this colorful snake and friendly Beluga whales who obligingly popped their heads to say hello. Who would have thought that they change the shape of their forehead to make different sounds?

We secured seats early for the new Fantasea show in the oceanarium which meant a long wait for the show to start... While Noah enjoyed the dolphin tricks, most of our party thought it was quite overproduced.

We concluded our kid-friendly day in Chicago with a visit to the Lego store on Michigan Ave.

X7b-user

I scarcely landed in Chicago before taking off again for Long Island. We're visiting Jon at the NSLS to help him break in his oh-so-shiny new detector.

Les Egouts de Paris

Having visited Paris on several previous occasions, an alternative perspective of this beautiful city's history seemed like a good idea. And so we ended up in the Paris Sewer museum - a series of displays in underground tunnels with only metal grates between the soles of your shoes and the running effluent.
The guide book's description as "oderiferous" was accurate.

(Free) Museum Sunday

Entry to the big Parisian museums is free on the first Sunday of the month, i.e. today. Despite throwing the doors open, the entry queues were still long... something to do with the rainy weather no doubt.

Square eyes

Clearly an indication of too many hours spent in front of the computer.

DrG's guests

The following smile-filled photo can be considered as an endorsement of the fantastic mexican food and margaritas on this month's menu at Frontera Grill.

Dr G and special guests by the Chicago river.

I Heart MV, Menemsha ed.

Somehow I never get tired of Menemsha. This old fishing village provides endless points of interest with a constant rotation of rusty boats, fishermen unloading their catch, and cormorants diving through schools of minnows.

MV '09

Two days into the new job (Assistant Chemist) and I feel that a vacation is necessary.

All good things...

...come to an end, and so too have my carefree postdoc days without responsibilities. So long freedom. Tomorrow I start a real job.

Automotive Acquisition

It's not the first time that we've said that we're going to buy a new car, but you don't want to rush these things. Anyway, this time we really mean it.

The Car. It has been clear from the start that we would get a 5-door Honda. So once the minivans and supersized trucks were eliminated, that meant a Fit/Jazz, an Insight (the new Hybrid) or a CR-V. In a close race, the CR-V edged out nearest rival, the Fit, with the option of all wheel drive. Its not really for taking us off-road but for better traction on-road-on-snow when driving to ski fields etc).

The Color. A tough choice, with all options available at the local dealer. Navigating a maze of Green Tea and Urban Titanium our minds changed constantly before arriving at Tango Red Pearl.

The Deal was easier than I expected based on the how-to-negotiate-a-car-price articles I read online and good/great according to truecar.com. Internet quotes rock!
The Drama. No sooner had we paid our deposit and driven away in the faithful old Civic (to pick up the car and the loan on Monday when the credit union opened) than several engine warning lights appeared. Maybe we should have traded it in...
The Delivery. We immediately returned to the dealership to expedite the purchase, taking delivery of the new car and dropping off the other at the service center for repair.

It's a new car!

Ambi-navigatious

I am now legal to drive on both sides of the road.

If it's Friday...

Apparently it takes 6 weeks to recover from cardiothorasic surgery. As such I MUST officially be better now.

Hit 'n Run

The DrG-mobile feels the force of Wisconsin drivers while "safely" stowed in the hotel parking lot.

Madison WI

Home to Bruker ASX, the Bruker User Meeting and the Bruker shine to Spam. Surrounded by 3 lakes, Madison is a lovely little town suited to those interested in boating during Summer and ice fishing the rest of the year.

Better Late Than Never

I've been cleared for the long trip back across the pond. The flight went smoothly with a nice upgrade to Qantas Premium Economy with its better seats and service.

Family Portrait II

Family Portrait

Ben's back

After 2 years in Toronto, Ben has returned home and has promptly traced the shortest path from the front door to the piano.

Satsuma Sashimi

Taking full advantage of my extended stay in Sydney to catch up with my Aunt and Uncle for dinner while they're in town for a meeting. On the menu was some fantastic Japanese. All the dishes were tasty and beautifully presented although the sashimi special and the grilled fatty tuna were particularly fantastic.

Escape!

Shortly before 5pm today I staged my escape from the SAN. They sent me home with the Coach - to practice breathing. I'm supposed to aim for 2600mL which is a long way from the ~1000mL I can manage at the moment.

Still a Mystery

Dozens (and dozens) of tests later and they still haven't been able to identify the cause of my current medical predicament. (Of course this also means that a lot of potential nasties have been eliminated.) I feel like I'm starring in my own personal episode of House only without everything being resolved within the hour's episode.

I've been trying to get some "exercise" (i.e., walking down the hall) to help with the lungs. Hopefully the ~1 cm diameter chest drain can come out soon so I won't be dragging so many cables/tubes around.

The Day After

After spending the night in the first class care that is the ICU, I (with attached drips, morphine pump, chest drainage tubes and monitoring electrodes) was moved to the cardiac ward. I scored a nice single room with en-suite and a view. On the agenda for the day, a full torso CT scan with contrast. That's 6 glasses of vile lemonade-from-hell flavored contrast chugged in quick succession.

Thanks

Thank you to Randy and my friends at XSD for the beautiful Australian floral arrangement.

O is for Operation

Well I survived surgery, all 25 min of it. Despite having a cannula installed in my left hand when I was admitted, the anesthesiologist had put a new extra large (~1 mm diameter) one in my right arm. With particularly low blood pressure, my veins were extra hard to find, making installing this IV a super fun process of trial and error (leading to considerable subsequent bruising). They also put in an arterial IV providing "on tap" blood for testing.
Apparently, while I was sleeping, they made a ~2 inch incision, spread some ribs apart, and pushed aside (i.e., collapsed) a lung to access the heart and put a drainage window in the pericardium. I'm guessing that I'll end up with the scars of a one-sided boob job without the associated augmentation.

Disclaimer: This post has been back dated to more accurately reflect the timing of events. In reality it would have been difficult to blog immediately following surgery in a post-anesthetic/morphine-induced haze with IV's in both hands/arms.

Parched

Nil by mouth from midnight = a very very thirsty patient waiting for late afternoon surgery. My morning ultrasound showed a ~1.5 cm shell of fluid surrounding the otherwise normal heart. Of course the extra external pressure had my heart beating more than twice as fast as normal. Incidentally, its quite fascinating to watch one's heart+valves at work.

Change of Plans - A Medical Drama

The eve of our non-refundable return flights to the US and it looks like we'll be forced to forfeit our tickets.

After an its-a-bit-difficult-to-breath-lying-down-can-I-have-a-pill-please trip to the GP and a chest X-ray, the doctor pronounced "What a big heart you've got. No plane trips for you. Go see the cardiologist."

Turns out I have a pericardial effusion (fluid around the heart). Admitted overnight to the Sydney Adventist Hospital, aka the SAN, (hurray for excellent medical insurance with international coverage that extends to the private hospital 10 min from my Sydney home), for surgery tomorrow. All the real doctors keep exclaiming how fortunate it is that we caught this before getting on the plane.

Po Po & I

Wii Fit

One could pull a muscle with the Wii Fit, that is, pull a muscle laughing at others using it. Sooo funny....

Next Stop Canberra

The relative road trip continues with a fabulous home cooked dinner and dessert at Po Po's.

More Fun in the Sand

More beautiful sunny weather to play at the beach. Time for a quick portrait of the original 3 members of the Chapman family.

Half of One Mile

A quick trip to Forster where recent storms had washed half my favorite beach away. The high tide mark was more like a sand cliff. The surf was still rough, with strong rips guaranteed to sweep you down the beach the minute your feet left the sand.

Art etc.

A concentrated dose of Aussie culture with an evening at the NSW Art Gallery's exhibit of the Archibald finalists.

Qantas A380. A better way to fly.

The improved seat design and extensive entertainment system made time fly on our LAX-SYD flight - 14 hours only felt like 13.25.

*live pictures of our landing in soggy Sydney courtesy of Skycam

Ski the Upper Mountain

The scientific interruption to our skiing adventures coincided with a significant snow event. We joined a group lesson for the morning, to ensure our skills were up to par, before exploring new powder patches and more advanced runs in the Supreme and Sugarloaf areas. I finished up ahead of Greg on falls, including a spectacular backward somersault down Sleepy Hollow that left me quite snow coated.

"I have a question"

Chairing conference sessions is hard - just ask Greg, my two-time co-chair. On the other hand, the need to devise a semi-intelligent discussion question, related to an unfamiliar field (in case the other 12 audience members have none), is motivation to be more attentive than ever.

Conferenskiing*

With the Spring ACS meeting being held in Salt Lake City, within 30 min of the "lightest snow on Earth (only 6% water!!!)", we returned to Alta for some fabulous spring skiing. Conditions were ideal for scuffing up some shiny ski gear. In other news, it seems that where ski jackets are concerned, green is the new black.


*This term has been shamelessly appropriated from Dr G.