Petco Park for a Padre game with Mario!! Whooooo! Good fun with some pretty decent seats considering the fact that UCSD sold them to us. Haha. We had hot dogs and nachos, but apparently bought the dorky versions instead of the truly worthy ones, so we're definitely going to have to go back for the food. The game itself was great, with Chris Young pitching a no hitter into the 8th inning (interestingly, the last game I went to Adam Eaton had a no hitter into the 7th). And ... we got to see Trevor Hoffman!! It was all thanks to me wearing my Hoffman shirt, and of course we won the game. That's a 3 game winning streak for Padre games I've attended. Call me up anyone who wants to catch the next game!!

Yay for 3 day weekends!!

The other day I saw none other than our old friends Tiffany and Jose. It's been quite awhile, and they are now happily married! Yaaay. Man, seeing them really takes me back to high school, and I remember Tiffany in Ms. Harkins class with all those historic moments; junior paper, dance across the decades, all those practice AP tests. Wow, those were the days. Seeing them again suggests something nostalgic and introspective, but instead I think I'll just say I'm glad we aren't singing songs to the tune of "Candle in the Wind" anymore.

Last weekend I went over to SDSU for my cousin's graduation. The ceremony was actually a lot quicker than last year's, which was good because it gave us more time to go to Barona for a buffet dinner. Good stuff.

On the suggestion of Thuy, my lab went down to the convoy area for some pho. It was pretty good, and cheap as well. Plus, lunch with laboratory scientists are always interesting, and we had such scholarly discussions as figuring out which lab member best matched which harry potter character, and whether the moving cat statue was waving or clawing at the air.

Also had dinner at this thai place down in rancho bernardo. It was also pretty good, except they mixed up the spicy requests, so my mom ended up getting the 7 and I had the 5.

On the note of random restaurants, had dinner at On the Border with Vic and Amy. Really good hot wings and even more spicy salsa, plus their all new watermelon margarita, which tasted like a jolly rancher. Then it was back to Vic's place for some good old fashioned gaming, including the new tomb raider (lara croft is hot).

X-Men 3!!! Whoooo, good stuff. Overall it was pretty good, but it didn't quite live up to X2, which easily ranks among my top 10 favorite movies of all history. No psylocke or gambit, but jean gray was pretty freaky and wolverine kicked some butt. Overall I think it gets a B+ on the Michael rater.

Cheaper By the Dozen 2 was pretty good also.

24, Lost, and American Idol finales were all great. 24 didn't answer who that one dude with the glasses was though, but the ending was pretty dramatic. Lost was intense, and they really did show what happens when the button isn't pressed. Taylor and Katherine singing "Time of My Life" was good.

2 more weeks ...

Last weekend spent a day over at mission bay with a bunch of the folks. Lots of fun, and even the furry guy got to join us, although this time no hot girls came up to pet him. All in all good stuff, with lots of cheetoes, barbequed food, frisbees and footballs. Played a little softball too, which was fun until i broke the bat hitting a pitch. "Mike's on steroids!"

Metal Gear Solid 3 is one of the coolest games ever, and reminds me why the original was my favorite of all time when it came out. I like to pretend that the guards are that one mean lab tech in my microbio lab, and then i sneak up from behind, grab him, and cut his throat with a knife spewing blood all over the place. Then I drag the body over to the side of a cliff, and drop him off. Ahh feels good.

After 8+ weeks of working in the lab i FINALLY got my precious construct to be properly constructed. It all kinda happened on accident too, but thus is science. Now I can introduce myself as "Mr. Imus, creater of the GFP-ATG18 reporter protein that detects phosphotidylinositol-3,5-bisphosphate in fly cells".

MI3 was pretty cool with lots of action and things blowing up. It all kinda played like a couple of high budget Alias episodes, although maybe I'm biased knowing that JJ Abrams directed it. Still not sure if the getting blowin in the air by missile fired from jet is as cool as shooting gas tank of car while riding on motorcycle (thats MI2). Also gave me the best response when Calvin ignores my threats to give him a bath ...

"You don't think I'll do it!!!?"

Yesterday the wonderful lab folk in and around my lab had a beach bbq down at la jolla shores. Lots of good korean food and delicious soda, and also a great game of football with some surprisingly athletic scientists. My final line was 2 catches, 2 dropped passes, 2 pass interferences, a couple tackles, and a pass deflection using my leg. All in all some good fun that beats waiting for electrophoresis gels to run, and made even better since I'm only slightly sore this morning.

Also went with Vic to a car show last weekend, which was pretty cool. Got lots of food and got to ride in the back of this spiffy new car that according to vic is really awesome, especially since the guy driving it was pretty crazy and fast.