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.

Wisdom Lost

Fewer teeth take up more room - or so it appears from my expanded jawline.

SuzyQ and JillEBean take Chicago

Suzanne and Jill drop by on their Thelma-and-Louise-esque cross-country trip.

Ski Utah

After a work-related meeting we lingered a little longer in Salt Lake for a ski trip to Alta (no snowboards allowed!). With 2 feet of snow falling overnight and into skiday, they closed the Canyons to traffic just after we made it through, making for a sparsely populated ski field. Of course we were nearly buried in fresh powder on several occasions. After digging ourselves out, we returned to SLC slightly wind-burned and ready for a feast of fresh sushi at Takashi's - yum.

A pile of snow... with personality

cm802900t: Out... finally.

Its probably fitting that work that took forever (~3 yrs) from data to manuscript submission took just-less-than-forever to go from accepted (without changes - woohoo) to published.

I'm testing the theory that bright (burn your retina) colors = eye catching = more people reading the paper.

NYE

Nothing says "have a Happy New Year" like a Lobster-gram (thanks Mike!), complete with everything but the pot of boiling water.

Santa came!!

He ate the cookies, but left Noah lots of exciting toys.

Staying with Noah (& parents), we got to experience the near dawn wake up to open presents.

Jam Session

Caroling with the family - a revival of a Christmas Eve tradition for both our family and the Chupai.

Holiday Visitor

If you can't go home for the holidays, get home (or part thereof) to come to you.

Ben is forgoing a week of piano practice to hang out with his favorite sister over Christmas.