February 2007

Trapped in snow!!!!

Ryan, Noah and I had planned on going to Kirkwood for the weekend (Saturday-Sunday) and had a room booked, for which Marc joined us. We got a 1 bedroom and got to Kirkwood in time to go skiing on Saturday! But as the clouds started rolling in we had little idea that we would be trapped there until MONDAY!!!!

To step things back, on Tuesday I had my test-run with the Stanford - South Africa BioMedical Informatics seminar series for which I am the student no the Stanford-end. We have bi-weekly presentations where students speak to an audience in South Africa as well as here at Stanford via teleconferencing. It's a great opportunity for both sides to get a chance to practice a talk and reach a broader audience of peers who are less likely to be "nice" about your work. It almost substitutes a student colloquium where work is presented annually by students (which has now been replaced by a journal club). Unfortunately the hard drive on my MacBook is DEAD so I had to use a borrowed SMI computer which had its own set of issues.

I also had my first lab meeting for Gill Bejerano's lab, as well as my last Wednesday ethics course (this Friday is my last one for the quarter)!!! The lab meeting was pretty good, I think they enjoyed my presentation. We were planning to go to see our collaborators at UCSF on Monday (details to follow), followed by a meeting with Gill and my BMI course. Unfortunately everything ran late, and I was behind at everything (not to mention exhausted and running on 4 hours of sleep)! I was totally late to coffee with Marc so we ended up missing class completely talking about things, especially since I had to turn in an abstract that I had to write, which Marc had conveniently composed with Daphne! I was SO stressed, so I was pretty excited about our weekend trip! Friday night Alex had a huge group over for a Captain Morgan party. It was pretty great! Marissa from Arbor Clinic (the student-run clinic for which we are designing the EMR system for in BMI211) showed up. She's a real sweetie. Tons of BMI people were there!

On Saturday we woke up early and left around 8am for Kirkwood (yes that is early for me)! Noah got a chance to read in the car, and Marc got to do some reading (I on the other hand get totally car sick when I read in the car). So we got some skiing in on Saturday, which was great, until the snowfall. The snow was great! This is the first time I've had pretty nice coverage (aside from the fresh day we had with my dad). It was completely different, no patches of brown or green showing through, just great snow! We stopped for some food at the lodge on the back side of the mountain, and used the restrooms. They were basically holes in the ground! I kid you not! And steam was actually coming out of these holes!!!! Rather than a sink there was just hand sanitizer! It was pretty disgusting. I wasn't terribly hungry but I did need to eat a little something, so I split a chili bowl with Ryan which was just about the messiest thing I've ever eaten. Thankfully there was snow EVERYWHERE to help with the cleanup! :)

Marc and I decided to go back to the front after skiing down the backside once. It was getting really cold and super windy by then, so I figured I would just go to the front and warm up with some hot chocolate, and Marc decided to come along. Noah and Ryan went for a hike to catch some fresh snow at the top of the backside. But by the time we got to the bottom of the front side, I had warmed up and was pretty amped, so we ended up skiing a few more runs anyways (until way after 4pm when the lifts normally close). Noah and Ryan checked into the room, and Marc and I just kept going until they shut down the lifts.

We met them down at Bub's Pub where Noah was impressed by the plethora of ladies, but for whatever reason was not approaching a single one. Instead he bought us all a round of the most disgusting thing I've ever had the misfortune of drinking, Wild Turkey. It is a type of whiskey. I decided it should become a competition, and I bought a round of the cheapest tequila in the place, and filled it with whipped cream. I think Noah and Ryan's faces speak for themselves (below).

Noah doesn't look to happy...I guess I win!

Neither does Ryan! I'm sorry!!

I am banished outside for my gross mistreatment of their taste buds! Shouldn't this be a sign that we should be leaving?!

After this, we decided to go back to the room. That's me on the right trying to squeeze in the door with my huge helmet! Don't I look like Jack Nicholson in The Shining?! Noah promptly fell asleep. I tried to get some work done, but there was no internet connection available, and the lodge was closed at this point, so we decided to take a trip to South Lake Tahoe. This was my 3rd time to Kirkwood, but I still had never been to South Lake. With the new GPS I bought Ryan for Valentine's Day we drove there, and spent some time at Harrah's casino, where we were practicing for the following weekend's trip to Las Vegas. I won almost 50 dollars, which was great! But I'm sure overall I'm down.

On our drive back the snow was INCREDIBLE! And I do not mean that in a good way. We were driving and it was nearly impossible to see where we were going. The snow kept swirling around the car like we were driving through a tunnel, and it was mostly impossible to see. The car was DEAD silent. We were just so focused (although Ryan was the only one driving). It was extremely tense. It was definitely a sign, but somehow it still hadn't dawned on me that we could get snowed in!!!! We were just totally excited about how great the snow would be the next day! Ryan even wrote on the back of the car that had collected all that snow DRIVING!!!

The next morning the sky was totally dark and the snow was falling like crazy! The roads were closed, and we were trying to figure out when they would open. The lodge told us they were booked for the evening (so we had nowhere to stay) and that we can get our name on a waitlist. We wrote our names down, and decided there was nothing else to do but ski. We went on a ton of runs down lift 5, we found a nice chute where it wasn't completely freezing to ride down (since it was protected from the snow and wind), but I was getting progressively colder on every run. We called CalTrans every time we rode up, until FINALLY around 2 we got the go ahead!

We quickly ran down, loaded up the car, and headed down the highway.
They were not going to open our normal route, so we had to go up through South Lake and down the 50. We drove up and it was nearly impossible to see. There would be moments of complete white-out, and we would just wait until we could see brake lights in front of us. We made it about 3 miles until we hit a long line of cars just waiting. So we stopped the car and waited...and waited...and waited... About an hour and a half later we started watching a movie, then Noah walked ahead to the front to figure out what was happening. He put on his swim trunks while plows were going by and the car kept snowing over, and other cars couldn't start (look at the picture below, our windows are completely frosted over)!!! What a crazy guy!!! (picture left)

Around 530 all the cars moved! And then promptly stopped again. I predicted this meant they they had announced that the pass would open (where they were doing avalanche control) and that people simply got excited, jumped in their cars, and filled in the spaces where people had turned back. About an hour later we heard that they were going to be guiding through roughly 25 cars at a time (and we were car 43). And at 630, the cars actually moved again! Then about 30 minutes later the plows and CalTrans trucks turned around and headed back toward Kirkwood!!! We were devastated!!! People walked by and assured us they were simply on a shift change and should be back by 730. There was immense snow buildup, and cars were having trouble starting. If you look at the picture below you can see where cars had been before we moved! Not to mention...it is now dark out!

8pm rolled around and we hadn't moved...People were getting impatient and walked to the front and came back disgruntled, telling us a sign said 3am for opening time. We realized at this point we would not get out of Tahoe and we needed to find a hotel room to avoid having to sleep in the car! We found a cheap place and got some food, and I had to inform Gill that I was not going to be able to get out of Tahoe, even after trying for over 8 hours!!!!!!!!!!! This was terrible considering we had a meeting at UCSF at 10am!

I spent the ENTIRE night (I took a 30 minute nap at 8am) working on a good presentation to send to the collaborators. I sent it to Gill, who forwarded it to them, and rescheduled for Wednesday. At 930 am I got in bed to sleep until 11, but Ryan was hoping to get out of South Lake. We called, roads were open (the snow had finally stopped) and we headed down. It was very strange once we got out of the snow. Somehow with all the snowing we had been through it did not dawn on me that once we got to Mountain View it would be back to rain, not snow. Noah was pretty sad!

I was able to have a meeting with our collaborators on Wednesday (I presented to the group again), and they seemed very pleased at the prospect of working with us. I am extremely excited about the work, it should be absolutely great, once I am no longer being ribbed about what happened! I made a decision to 1) never schedule important meetings on Mondays and 2) never leave town when such a meeting is going to happen. I am glad things worked out in the end, and I plan on making it up to everyone 10-fold. It's just unfortunate I am leaving for Vegas on Friday.

On Wednesday night I went to Jessie's Thesis Defense dinner!!! I was so sad I had missed the actual defense in the morning. For whatever reason I thought it would be during the colloquium on Tuesday, but I was wrong!!! It was really fun! A ton of people from her lab and BMI came. We got the whole upstairs floor for her! Maureen's boyfriend and a guy from Jessie's lab look so much like each other, it's uncanny!!!! In all honesty, identical twins sort of freak me out in the first place, but photos of two people who don't know each other laughing at each other because they're so similar...even stranger!!!! They even laugh the same way!!!!!

Presidents' Day: my new favorite holiday!

A three-day weekend? Dare I relax, or will I live to regret this next week...we shall find out later this week...we all know the definition of procrastination...you're just screwing yourself, right?

On Saturday I took it SERIOUSLY easy! I slept super late and spent most of the day trying to figure out how to get together with people to hang out. Most friends were out of town for the 3-day weekend, and Hye Jin did not want to do anything but work (she makes me look bad)! Alex did not want to take me along and I hardly wanted to invite myself anywhere else. I have found that I am quick to invite people with me wherever I go, and plan events for everyone, but the same favor is VERY rarely returned. Luckily, we met up with a friend we know from San Diego, Ryan Cavalier, who lives in the bay area and is usually not interested in going out! He is a Subaru enthusiast, from back in they day when I used to Auto Cross my old car (race it in a big parking lot through cones, that's me in the picture). I still have my racing numbers, although I cannot do that anymore. It was VERY fun! Annie and Marc came with. We had a great time!

Group picture!

I guess Ryan's not pleased by his bowling skills.

Aside from the fact that Ryan's score of 145 was almost twice my horrible score of 75, it's funny that the initials of the players spell SAMR...my arch-nemesis for the homeworks in Atul's class (the software was fickle to say the least).

Ryan show's off his juggling skills

Marc's cool picture of me stealing his fluorescent drink!

Maybe if I look like a dorky fashion victim people won't notice my ridiculously low score?

Tonight we went out to sushi dinner with Marc, and dessert at Coupa Cafe. Marc is swiss of course, and he has SO many mannerisms that remind me so much of my dad (Ryan agrees). The best part is how he eats everything with a fork and knife, INCLUDING SUSHI!!!!! It was pretty hillarious to see someone cut a piece in half and eat it like that. The waitress was pretty confused when he gave his chopsticks up completely. I was planning on seeing a movie with Ryan later, but it turned out I should really get home, do some work, and of course update my blog. I intend to keep it in a much better state from here on out! I am tried of all this procrastination! Besides it's much more fun to actively blog, rather than recall things from memory!

It's always fun to go out with a friend who is willing to order something and share (Annie and I have ordered opposite things and shared a few times now)! And to state the obvious, coffee at 9pm is not a good idea if you plan to go to bed before the sun comes up!

On Sunday there was a mad rush for doing homework which I hadn't done all weekend! I needed to get things moving for my project in Atul's class. This happens to me quite frequently, I get way too excited about research so any work I want to do involves my project for Gill, not for class.

We also had another poker night. Marc, Imran (Marc's office mate and incidentally someone I met on grad school visits!), Nikesh, Noah, Ryan and I played. Imran raked in the cash in 3rd, Ryan got 2nd, and Noah won 1st (although he bought in a second time early)! I guess he has a good style of playing. If I'm aggressive at first, then I can either lose it all and just buy right back in, or win (it was tournament style). Maybe I will try this in the future. We are going to Vegas in March for Marc and Susy's birthdays! I'm not sure this is the right place to try this new strategy out, though. Should make for some great blogging!!!

Can someone define busy for me?

WOW WHAT A CRAZY FEW WEEKS! I've started to really think about the life as a graduate student, and I now realize that I have no clue what other people do with their time. My describing my life as busy is totally meaningless, but I suppose I can lay it out for you in terms of the last 5 days.

After getting back from Asilomar last Friday, and working through the weekend, I finished a homework assignment on Tuesday afternoon, realizing that I really did not have the time required to put the right amount of effort into it. I completely realize that there is nothing I can do to get everything done, but it has to somehow get settled. After my class ended at 245, I had a meeting with Mehdi to talk about the state of my project. I basically said I had no more time to work on the project and described what I would be able to do, and that I had to focus on my new rotation. He was fine with this, however he is also looking to finish up his postdoc and is leaving as soon as a few weeks from now for an industry job (ie, losing all contact with me). Arend is still interested in getting a paper, something I was not totally aware was in the works. After that I headed back to MSOB, finished up my homework for 211, and went out with Noah, Alex and David to get some food (Ryan picked me up and drove me home after). David got some really spicy food, I guess it was too much to handle!

When I got home I resumed work on Atul's 217 homework (which was due on Monday) but I decided I would take my late days. Luckily, Atul announced that he had decided to drop the last homework assignment (thank goodness). I still had to do enough research in order to get some sort of idea for what my project title would be (hard deadline on Wednesday). Intermittently I was working on Gill's work with motif finding so that I would have something for my meeting with him on Friday. In other words, I was taking a break from work with, well, more work!! Senator kept me company in the dryer (we now always close the dryer...god forbid he's in it when we run it)!!!

On Wednesday morning I got up at 10 (after going to bed at 3-seven hours does NOT cut it for me) in order to do my study guide for my ethics course at noon, which I attended (12-1). At 3:30 I had Atul's class. I worked almost solid until 3pm, when I met Marc at the cafe across from class to get some food and some well-needed german in. We got back our homework in Atul's class and I was 0.5 points above the average! Professors David Chen and Alex Morgan (yes I know they are fellow first years...but seriously?!?!) scored so high that even if I had answered all my questions 100% correctly I would not have gotten their score! During class Marina was sending me IMs and Yael wrote me emails, they were both sitting in my row (see right)! It was VERY entertaining.

At 5pm (immediately after class )I went to Fry's to pick up Ryan's valentine's day present, and got home to exchange gifts, finalize my title and turn it in, and leave at 645 for San Francisco (on our date-yes I deserve SOME time off). We went to Rose Pistola, where I relaxed for a bit. I even bumped into a girl from high school, Jodi Vergo! She sat down right next to me, it was INSANE! We drove back, and I was singing and dancing in the car, which I now realize Ryan has grown completely immune to seeing. You would think having someone next to you flailing her arms around would distract you from driving, not Ryan. I guess it has been long enough (almost 5 years) to grow used to my antics. He snapped a picture!

When we got back I worked until I had to go to sleep!

The next day I went in to school at 12:15, I totally overslept (almost 8 full hours), and just worked all day. I didn't have any time to go do anything. I worked until 11:30, when I turned in my program (30 minutes before the deadline)! I resumed my work for Gill, but my computer started acting funny, so I went home at 12:30, and my hard drive completley died! It was TERRIBLE! This has happened to me more than once. The timing was horrible, of course, since I need the computer, but at the same time good since it happened AFTER my deadline!! Ryan stayed up until 7am trying to recover my data!

The next morning (after another 4 hour night) Ryan found that he hadn't been able to recover my study guide for my ethics course, so I had to do it over again! I attended my ethics class, and had my meeting with Gill, which of course wasn't as productive as it could be since I lost all my data (quite depressing).

After the meeting I went back and set up times for the South Africa Bioinformatics seminar for which I'm organizing the Stanford-end of things, got a laptop from Alex, and then realized my weekend was FINALLY here! I had tried my best to try to find someone to tag along with to hang out, but not one was receptive, so I decided to ask around if people were interested in going to the Old Pro around 6! Annie pointed out that the BioMass event was that night, so we went there first. We got there a bit late, and the food was mostly gone, but we took what scraps we could and had a good time!

We went to the Old Pro, where we met Ryan. David, Alex, Rahul, Annie, Marc and I headed over together. Noah literally showed and left, not sure what happened to him! We ordered one of those huge beer things, got some food, and had a great time! I went to the Apple store after, where they reformatted my hard drive, and reinstalled OS X. It is definitely not working right, and on the one hand I just want to deal with it until the end of the quarter, on the other hand that is a really bad idea since it could really just die at any second. I think I will go in tomororw and "lay down the law"!

Rahul must have had a really long week too! He seems really happy to see that beer!

Alex rode the bull!

So did Rahul! He is a PARTY ANIMAL! He was also the one who was excited about playing hands at Asilomar!

Alas...all good things must come to an end.

Rahul and Ryan show the rest how it's done.

Thanks for letting me borrow the hat Ryan!!

I guess I am just no longer sure what busy means. My old perception has completely shifted. In college I was clearly not being challenged at any level nearly as high as this one. I now have a new found respect for people who tell me they are busy. Can they please tell me how to make it more manageable? Or is this really just unique to graduate school (I really doubt it-but I have heard that most people who have never been here do not understand). I don't think I did a very good job conveying it...maybe I should do a montage of my life. Sometimes I feel like I sleep too many hours just because I need the time. I'm starting to think that Sam Pearlman's idea to switching to sleeping 20 minutes every few hours is a better idea!! Maybe I'll give that a try! I just have to decide what hours are best for that...At least I know I can always take a nap on one of our desks!

When BMI goes to Asilomar...

My first retreat as a Graduate Student!!!! I was super excited! I had been there last year (Asilomar, a state park in Monterey next to Pebble Beach). I realized that I had a ton of work, we had to complete a poster, and I was supposed to go to an early ethics course (9am), although that was simply not feasible that day!

I worked my tush off to try to get everything done on time. On Tuesday, although I was fully aware I had ZERO spare time, we worked on our karaoke, which Noah did a great job on! In the end David and I spent a bunch of time on the powerpoint. It was all in vain since we ended up revamping most of it anyways (mostly to tone it down) but it was still great!!! I stayed up until 3:30 am, then woke up at 830 again to finish up my work and poster (which was a powerpoint). I printed it out just in time to swing by Stanford to pick up Marina and a Co-Term MS student, Jason, and head to the airport to get our applicant, Richard.

I was so ridiculously tired, as was Marina who was practicing on the piano (both she and David are amazing) the song that we were doing for our Karaoke, Piano Man by Billy Joel, at 530 am!!! She basically got NO sleep! We were searching around for a Starbucks while waiting for the delayed flight. Richard was coming from Boston (he works at Harvard in a Proteomics lab), and we got yelled at by the security at the airport for stopping for too long. We were going to just start unloading and re-loading our bags in the back to avoid a ticket, but finally Richard showed up, and I nearly backed into the police car behind me!

When we got to Asilomar all I wanted to do was sleep, but we began setting up for the day! Noah and I picked the "prime real-estate" (see below) in the area that overlooked the ocean, it was really nice. We figured it would keep people from realizing that everyone else had printed out posters, and we only had powerpoints. We were told that was sufficient, but somehow it seemed like we were the only ones! Noah figured he would keep people guessing by leaving his poster in an interesting state, but he finally got things together! I think they look pretty good, though! Obviously not as professional, but at a fraction of the cost, I think unless it is a conference, this will work just fine!

Although it wasn't my night, people actually came by and asked me about my poster and listened to me talk! I think I did a good job explaining it, you'd have to ask them! A lot of people wanted to know all about my results but, unfortunately since I only had a short time during the rotation to work on it, I wasn't able to finish (even with my best efforts the previous evening)! I spoke with Teri who told me that I really need to just "make a clean cut" with the rotations. I can always come back to a lab if I decide I want to work there, but obviously my free time is extremely limited, and so it will only mean that I have less time for my other rotation. Ultimately, something will have to suffer, and that is not a good option.

The next morning we got up bright and early to see deer outside our building! It wasn't really bright and early, since we decided to sleep through breakfast and just go to the talks directly (they serve food and wine the entire time anywa)! The previous year we had all seen raccoon, and they even ate the chips and dip that we had inadvertently left outside! They are pretty fearless!! I definitely was not in to walking alone around there at night, but luckily we were having all the night events at our place, so it wasn't a big deal.

During the free time (which for applicants translates to interviews, we played some ping pong, pool, and worked on our powerpoint and lyrics for the most important evening of the retreat, the entertainment! We all were required to have karaoke prepared, and also some other portions, including baby pictures. Somehow EVERYONE guessed mine immediately, even though Guanglei shouted my name at every single picture that showed up (everyone constantly guess that or Russ). I basically ruined part of the entertainment portion by cracking up during the part for 2 lies and a truth with Guanglei when he said he went down a black diamond (see the previous entry for why)! It was totally mean, but I had some wine in my own defense! The karaoke was great, everyone did something different and it was all completely clever! It included "walk like an informatician", "we are the nerds", dancing and singing to "ice ice baby", and an Indian song with translation. Our powerpoint is available here: http://www.computationalbio.com/Stanford/KaraokeFinal.ppt. The videos are hosted online too! http://helixknot1.stanford.edu/ygarten/BMIretreat/

(The applicants have got the moves)!!

At night we also had a party (which included games and dancing). Betty, Christine, Russ and Gavin Sherlock came to our building for the festivities. They all participated in Taboo, Betty and Christine left before we began the drinking game hands, and Gavin stuck around for dancing and the Denny's run! I have to get used to thinking of professors as something other than how I pictured teachers in grade school and high school! It's such a different position! In any case we had a good time. Unfortunately Marina and I offereed up our room as an outpost for the drinks both nights, and someone had an accident on our bathroom floor *YUCK*!

The next day Noah, David and I had trouble getting up, which was completely unfortunate. I also forgot to take down my poster, I hope that was not a huge deal. I pretty much slept most of the weekend after, and worked on my homework assignment for Atul and Amar! It's crunch time this week! I can't wait for Presidents' Day! I'm newly patriotic!!!!

Giving my spiel! People are listening...I think!

Signs at Asilomar should read: Please don't feed the animals or give wine to Sarah Aerni

Wow, for a "retreat" we're really not getting back to nature! Everyone crowds into the lobby for wireless internet (look at all those laptops)!

Relaxing without technology!

David and I work hard during the poster session (preparing for our Karaoke)!

LAST minute touches (and practice). The entertainment should have already started!

The applicants get DOWN to Ice Ice Baby!!!

WOW! If dancing skills are correlated with acceptance, things may not look so good, but for having fun, they're all in!!!

Everyone knew the lie (look at my reaction)!

First year karaoke. We rocked (although we really cannot sing)! The powerpoint is really funny!
http://www.computationalbio.com/Stanford/KaraokeFinal.ppt

N+ years did an interpretive dance including clustering, fuzzy clustering, depth-first and breadth-first searches and the above, constraint clustering! Look at Mike and Jessie!!!!

Faculty-Walk like an Informatician!

Yay for nerdy 80s!

"We are the nerds" was great!!!!

This was a great scheme involving one person from every group that was supposed to go through these string blindfolded.

Except they took down the strings!

Funny moves! I'm not sure if those were going to prevent him from hitting the strings if they had been there!

Nice moves!

Taboo! The boys won, but only because Kaustubh CHEATS!!! (Not really)

Hands

Drive to Denny's!

Party at Denny's!

The biggest Denny's bill I've ever seen!

I didn't get to my desk until the next Tuesday, when I found the above items on my desk! Noah is such a prankster! I've mentioned it to a few people now who admit that they thought I was having a "rough week"!!!

Kirkwood Trip

This weekend was our Kirkwood trip! FINALLY! The weeks leading up to it were basically a mad rush to get everything done (I think pretty much every entry starts like this). 217 had a midterm the following week, along with homeworks in both my classes, and a start of research with Gill Bejerano!! I've also been trying to get more involved in non-BMI things.

Finally we've had some rain (and hail) and were hoping that meant good things for the trip, but ultimately that did not translate to snow (although we got a nice rainbow)!

We met with the Arbor clinic last week on Thursday, Friday, and then David and Alex went to the clinic itself on Sunday and the following Friday again. It is a non-profit clinic intended to serve the communities around Stanford which do not have health insurance. It is run weekly, and gives pre-clinical students the chance to meet patients, which are ultimately overseen by attending physicians! It's pretty amazing! We are hoping to design an EMR system (Electronic Medical Record) for them, if they are interested. It is for our 211 class. We saw a talk by a couple of med students on Friday to present their own ideas, for a product called Chart Biopsy. We're not sure it's the greatest idea for this clinic, but we will be offering them an alternative.

Last Thursday I participated in something called the Science Bus (because I have so much extra time). A group of students goes to an East Palo Alto Charter School and has an after-school science program. We helped students build a large tower that is supposed to support a certain amount of weight using popsicle sticks! I worked with 2 girls who are so bright! I didn't have time to go again, but I hope they won! I also have tried to quite coffee which has somehow just translated into headaches and such. I'm going to give in pretty soon, after all, how can I resist when we have an amazing coffee machine!! (Ted is fixing it, he is our coffee machine guru, and apparently got one of these at home-he is beyond saving).

On Tuesday we had "girls' night" for BMI (which Alex refers to as the BB, Bioinformatics Babes). I headed over to Coupa Cafe before going to Blue Chalk, with every intention to either do work or update my blog. I started cropping pictures, but I called David who came, and I basically ended up chatting with him about his work. He is continuing his rotation in Atul's lab. I'm pretty jealous, since he basically has an advisor. He was submitting a paper on Friday at midnight, which basically kept him from coming to Kirkwood. Atul mentioned that it was due at Midnight, "any timezone". So he was working like mad until that deadline. Eugene dropped of Marina, and we headed over to Blue Chalk.

The girls all sat around the fire, and we were basically the only people there. The bartenders were playing some kind of video game, and weren't terribly interested in serving us since we were mostly drinking water and diet cokes. After all, we have two expecting mothers!!!! (Yael and Rong)! It's REALLY exciting! Diane was telling us all about this class she was taking about managing people. They sit in a room with a group, and talk about things, without any syllabus. Basically, people start by saying what they like about others. Diane pointed out (quite rightly in my opinion) that it all seemed a bit contrived! And they started to argue!!! But I'm pretty sure that's precisely what is supposed to happen. They are not allowed to talk about anything external, so it's just totally strange. We're all pretty convinced that there is a hidden camera somewhere.

On Friday Beth and I left pretty early (after my Arbor meeting) for Kirkwood. We were trying to beat the traffic so she stayed over the night before, and went on a date with an interesting character in Palo Alto. We got there ahead of everyone else, picked our room, made beds, had dinner at Bub's Pub, and watched the Phantom of the Opera. I got pretty concerned about everyone at one point. Guanglei, Marc and Ryan arrived next, they had some trouble finding the condo. It was right next to the slopes (the picture below is the view from our condo!), but since nothing has addresses around there it was really difficult to let everyone know how to get there.

Barry, Tania, Alex and Csongor showed up next. They were relying on their GPS, and so since there was no address to provide, they had a lot of trouble finding the place. I decided if the other boys were able to make it, they would too, and let them sweat it out (it was freezing outside) until they found it. Significantly later were Annie, Shirley and Sam. They were most disconcerting since, although they left later than everyone, should not have hit as much traffic, and Annie's phone hadn't worked a couple times I had tried. Ultimately it turned out they had taken some weird thing called the Mormon Trail, and had been stranded. Shirley saw a "road closed" sign, but they thought it looked okay so they ended up getting stuck, until some stranger drove by and towed them some 20 miles!!! Apparently it was ROUGH! Thank goodness that person drove by!!! Shirley likened it to the Kim's! That was VERY dangerous! No service on the phones, a closed road (so unlikely someone else would drive by) and it was cold! I'm glad they made it.

The next morning we all got up early, and made it to the slopes when it opened (most of us at least). We took it pretty easy in the morning, except for Csongor and Tania who ski WAY too fast for me. They just zip down those slopes without stopping! I definitely do not have the same habits. I generally stop and take in the sights, chat a bit, stop for chocolate, and relax. We decided not to go to lunch back at the place, even though I had brought food for everyone to eat. The whole organization bit was a mess. I've decided I will never organize such a trip again, and certainly not be responsbile for others, or invite people I do not know. I truly appreciate the work that Christine and Carol puts into all of our events! I cannot imagine!

In the afternoon we skiied until everything closed (and we were exhausted). Guanglei had some trouble so I tried to help him, but ultimately we pushed him too hard, and he had to get driven down on the back of a snow-mobile! He just went by with a big smile on his face, it was pretty funny. He returned his skis, got a refund on his 2nd day of the ticket, and got a ride back with Annie, Shirley and Sam (who left the next morning to get back in time for the superbowl.

Ryan made everyone a delicious chicken and pasta dinner, but we were mostly too wiped out to do anything. Marc, Beth, Ryan and I went to Bub's to get hot chocolate and play some pool, but basically came home and crashed. All in all it was a great trip, but I was glad to get back and get going with studying for my 217 exam (which no one finished, except for Prof Chen and Prof Morgan)!! Pretty crazy! We'll see how the grades go!!!

Lunchtime!

When sunblock just does NOT do the trick...

Ryan builds a snowman! (Target practice)

So I knocked it out with this snowball

And got what I deserved for it (pants full of snow)!

Csongor and Tania enjoying the day (the building where we stayed is in the picture behind them)!!

Ryan enjoys the beautiful day

Ryan, Marc and Alex!

I'm wiped by the end of the day...phew

It will take a lot to get us out of bed after skiing...or maybe just some food!