Busy As A Bea

September 29, 2006

For the first time in almost a year, I didn't have time to post a weekend update of some sort. That's just how damn busy I am these days.

I was talking to some previous research colleagues a couple weeks ago, and telling them how I've never been this busy in my life at work. It's a good kind of busy, but for a control freak like me, it's tough feeling anxious all the time with the paranoia that I'm missing/forgetting something. Tough beans, I gotta deal.

Why so busy? I took on a lot of projects a few months ago to cover as lots of people were out (maternity leave, vacation, sabbatical), and all these "easy" projects got really challenging and all at the same time. On top of that, we've had some intense interactions with the health authorities for work stuff, and as soon as they say any little thing, you're off and running to get the answer/response.

Also, frisbee season is heating up, as we're in the thick of fall series. My co-ed club team, Brass Monkey, competed in our Sectionals tournament to qualify for Regionals last weekend in sunny and hot Davis, CA. We had a relatively successful weekend, going 6-1, losing to Mischief in the finals to take the 2 seed out of our section. We will be heading up to Burlington, WA in just over a week for Regionals to seek one of four bids to Nationals in Florida at the end of October. So, that means track workouts, Sunday practices, and just overall trying to stay/get in shape.

Last night, I filled in for Anna on Smash and Crash's soccer league. Smash and Crash consists of Wendy, Ashley, Pete Rive, Pete Holland, Louis Eisenberg, Pat Hard, Shaun Webb and Anna. Will also played last night. I'm not going to lie to you, I'm not a very good soccer player. This may have been the third time that I've ever played soccer. I stayed back in "defense", had one successful challenge against a girl getting the ball away from her, and then proceeded to get beaten by one of their good men who passed the ball to himself between my legs. Not cool.

Anyway, today is Wendy's 31st birthday...(HAPPY BIRTHDAY WENDO!)...we'll be celebrating strong tonight, so hopefully I can post an entertaining post full of sinful pictures later on.

Genentech Turns 30!

September 19, 2006

The company that I work for, Genentech, is technically older than I am, and as such, we celebrated the 30th birthday of our company (and the birth of biotechnology) yesterday on campus. Now, it's no secret that I love my company, and that I'm proud of our achievements. They also know how to treat their employees well and are continually recognized as a "best company to work for".

Two and half years ago, Genentech held a celebration for the three drug approvals (Raptiva, Xolair and Avastin) that we received in 9 months. With the "trifecta of drug approvals", was a trifecta of music: Mary J. Blige, Matchbox 20 and Elton John. So, you can imagine the speculation that has been tittering about campus for the last few weeks.

So, yesterday was our birthday celebration and I had to get to work before 7:30 am to get a parking spot. Will had taken the afternoon off to join me, as the celebration was starting at 12:30 pm and there was no way he was going to miss this one (he showed up late to the last one and caught Elton John). Cameras weren't allowed, so I'll try to "find" some pics and post them here...

The introductions:

Our beloved CEO, Art Levinson, started off the celebration with some introductory remarks. It's no doubt that the main reason that we are where we are today is because of him. He's a scientist at his core, who also happens to have an amazingly acute business mind as well (he also sits on the board at Apple and Google). Art went on to introduce Herb Boyer (the scientist), one of the two founding members of Genentech. The other founder, Bob Swanson (the businessman), died of brain cancer in the late 90's. From there, Herb introduced James Watson, half of the famed Watson and Crick duo who identified the molecular strucure of DNA (and won the Nobel Prize in 1962), and who's one funny 78-year old.



After these quick speeches, Art introduced Sue Hellmann, our President of Product Development, and an amazing woman who's walking and talking integrity. Sue then introduced 4 patients who briefly shared their stories about getting benefit from therapies that Genentech developed and manufactures: Lucentis, Herceptin, Avastin and Rituxan. All 4 pretty much brought tears to my eyes (and stinging sunscreen...!). It was amazing to hear their testimonies.



Band #1: Foo Fighters

As Art was starting the introductions, the cameras showed a band in the background and as soon as I saw Dave Grohl, I squealed. It was so great to see these guys live, they did a primarily acoustic set of their tunes, which they've been doing on the road. They played for about 45 minutes and rolled through most of their hits. They were accompanied by a rad female violin player who complimented their acoustic set. Dave Grohl is also a master of the stage banter. He is the epitomy of a rock star, as he joked about his life, which is all about music and beer. He was damn sexy.




Band #2: Bob Dylan

That's right folks, the icon himself. This was quite the experience, as he has absolutely NO stage banter, did not look at the audience throughout his set, and rolled through some new tunes (he's got a new album out today) and some oldies (which also sounded very different because of how he chose to sing them). He ended his approximately 45-minute set with the goodie "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35".





Band #3: Black Eyed Peas

Damn straight, Fergie and boys were in the house. No one could rap Ge-Ge-Genentech better. They were so entertaining, but so different than the last time I saw BEP in concert pre-Fergie 5 years ago at the now-defunct Justice League. Will I. Am, Fergie, apl.de.ap and Taboo rocked the house with their hits. Fergie also did her solo single "London Bridge", as coincidentally, her solo album drops today as well...BEP also played for about 45 minutes. They ended the show with a ridiculously fast version of "Let's Get Retarded" (a 4.5 minute long song) in 2 minutes.





Band #4: The Eagles

And in the end, the closer was one of my Dad's faves, The Eagles. Man, these guys have a lot of hits, which they played a lot of..."Take It Easy", "Witchy Woman", "The Best of My Love", "Take It To The Limit", "After The Thrill Is Gone"...and so on, and so on. And yes, both Glenn Frey and Don Henley were there in the flesh. At one point, Joe Walsh donned a helmet cam to show what the audience looked like from his perspective. Oh, those crazy guys. The show ended with an encore performance of their classic "Hotel California"...truly classic.





The day was beautiful, with stage against the bay as a backdrop. You couldn't ask for a better day. The entire party went from 12:30-7 pm, and the temperature was spiking the mercury until the sun started going down and it got brisk quickly. The organization and execution that went into this event was so impressive. All in all, we are quite spoiled working for a company that treats us with concert celebrations and who try to maintain the innovative culture despite our tremendous growth.

Now if only I wasn't so damn sore from wakeboarding...

Weekend Re-Cap: Beth & Tony/Wakeboarding

September 17, 2006

FRIDAY

Fridays are pretty predictable these days, as after work, I went down to SJ again for baby duty. Here's the mandatory picture of cute babies:

SATURDAY

On Saturday morning, I headed back to the city pretty early (11 am-ish). Will and I headed down to Haight street for brunch at Magnolia Brew Pub. It was a nice and refreshing change from the typical heavy brunch that I usually partake in (a la Pork Store).

I had the orange cream soda (brewed in-house) and the HOUSEMADE SALMON GRAVLAX with cucumber, pickled onions, herbed (dill) sourcream, and rye toast. It was phenomenal. I love gravlax and there was a generous portion for $9. Will had the KING SALMON BENEDICT wild king salmon fish cakes with poached eggs and hollandaise served with homefries. Also quite yummy.

After brunch, Will headed home and I was joined by Wendy for an afternoon of shopping on Haight street. We hit Shoebiz, Ambiance and Villains, and it was a successful trip, particularly for Wendy.

On Saturday night, Will and I gussied ourselves up for Beth and Tony's wedding reception party at their newly-renovated warehouse space in SOMA/Inner Mission. About a year ago, Beth and Tony delved into a massive renovation project with their newly acquired 3-level building. The first floor is a dedicated workshop for Beth's art work. The second level, still "under construction" was a make-shift dance floor. And the top level has been renovated beautifully. I love it!

Beth and Tony planned an impromptu wedding ceremony with their friends and family in the SFMOMA earlier in the day, with a choose-your-own-adventure style ceremony in front of a painting in the permanent collection. It's a hilarious and creative way to include your close buds/family in an important day.

Recchiuti Chocolates with Beth's art designs

Will and I pulled the chute pretty early on this one (11 pm), as I was still exhausted from the 3 hours of sleep on Friday night with the babes and we had practice on Sunday morning...

SUNDAY

Sunday was a super-fun day, one of the best in a long while. We had a 4-hour practice in the morning from 10 am to 2 pm (not the best part of the day) in stinking-hot Castro Valley. From there, Will, Wendy, Anna and I headed to San Mateo to meet up with Abe at his aunt and uncle's house for an afternoon of wakeboarding. Abe's familia, Nancy and Mike, have a beautiful house on the water (lagoon in San Mateo), that's about 5-feet deep and warm enough to jump in with only a rash guard and board shorts. We relaxed in their open air covered patio (see pic below) and ate a late lunch and enjoyed the warm weather.





Abe's aunt was nice enough to go and borrow another boat from some friends in the neighborhood, as she and Mike went and got it, and then they went to go pick up some gasoline. During which, the rest of us made ourselves at home on the beautiful open patio and relaxed in the heat and sun. When Abe and Nancy got back with the gas, the situation at hand could be summed up by Abe's observation "Hey Nan, is the boat supposed to be half full of water?".

In an unfortunate turn of events, the borrowed boat was missing the essential plug, which the neighbor friends had taken out to drain the boat and had not remembered to tell the borrowees that it was out. So, some panicky bailing with tupperware ensued and we managed to get the boat on the boat lift. In due time, the boat was able to drain, and the neighbors dropped off the critical plug.

Draining water out of the borrowed boat...

Instruments of bailing...

Boat #1 was driven by Nancy, with Abe, Wendy, Anna and Toby.

Boat #2 (the newly drained and plugged borrowed boat) was driven by Abe's cousin, Darren, with me, Will, Frodo, and Darren's buddy Andy.

It was fantastic being out on the water. Everyone attemped to wakeboard and everyone got up on the board within a few tries...success!

After the wakeboarding fun, we rounded up some BBQ fixin's (chicken, 4 kinds of sausages, corn, macaroni salad, potato salad) and took advantage of the calm and beautiful night.

Thanks so much to Abe's familia for hosting a wonderful afternoon! I am not excited to see how sore I'm going to be...

Girls' Night In

September 13, 2006

For the past few weeks that I've been in town, I've had a pretty regular after-work schedule that looks something like:

Monday - bowling
Tuesday - gym class/stairs
Wednesday - track workout
Thursday - 2 gym classes
Friday - go to SJ and take care of babies; no sleep
Saturday - recover from no sleep
Sunday - frisbee practice

It was nice to add in a little socializing last night with a girls' dinner that Gail planned. In attendance: Gail, Anna, Wendy, Ashley, Jojo, Sara, Sandy, Bea. In typical retaliation, Will had boys' dinner with Abe and Frodo at Pakwan.

The ladies decided to nix the idea of going out for grub and wisely decided instead, to order take-out from Eric's Chinese in Noe Valley...my favorite!

The menu:
- sesame beef
- General chicken
- crab rangoon
- walnut prawns
- asparagus in black bean sauce
- string beans in hoisin sauce
- Eric's fried rice

There was lots of girl talk, gossip, the typical girly fare. Awesome!

On a different topic, I took my car into Costco on Monday to get my tired fixed and luckily was armed with all sorts of paperwork to support the warranty on the tire that blew out, including the original receipts, alignment invoices, tire rotation invoices, etc. Costco ended up giving me half the credit for the blown-out tire (because it was 50% worn/old). All told, I ended up getting a brand new set of 4 tires for the price of 2.5. Why, you ask? Because 9 months ago when I got a flat replaced at Costco after my dentist appointment, they had put on the wrong tire, so they gave me a new one to match what I should've gotten...Lavonda's got a new set of wheels!

Weekend Re-Cap: 3 1/2 Year Old Ballerinas Are Cute!

September 11, 2006

It was a nice treat to have a short work week due to the Labor Day long weekend, but unfortunately, the workload was the same, if not more intense. It's hard to believe that it's already been more than a year since I switched into my new job, time has zipped on by. And, with frisbee season in full swing, I need to slip in as much time as possible with my sister's family before I'm outta town for fall series.

FRIDAY

As usual, I headed down to San Jose to hang with the babies for Friday night. A far-cry from my dear friends back in the city who embarked on a night of alcoholic indulgence. While they were carousing and text messaging me, I was changing diapers and feeding babies. Woe is me.

But damn, are Charlotte and Simon ever getting big and they are wonderfully chunky. Simon is starting to catch up to his older, chunkier sister, as he is now over 10 pounds, while Charlotte is close to 13 pounds. Sumo legs!

Despite the fact that both babies are sleeping better at night, I still only got about 2 hours sleep because they're both on different feeding schedules. Woe is me.

SATURDAY

Saturday morning came, which meant that Olivia's first tap/ballet/jazz class was going to happen. She was so excited that she couldn't sleep. It was adorable.

The dance school has strict dress code requirements, as all the little dancers-to-be had to wear their hair in a bun, wear a black leotard and pink tights. She also had the cutest little tap shoes and ballet shoes. Olivia calls it "ball-eh".


On her way to ball-eh class...

By 2:30 pm, I headed out and back to the city. The intention was to take a nap, do dinner with Wendy and maybe head out for Will Tams' art show opening at DaDa, a new-ish art studio/bar in SOMA. I accomplished item number 1. I was comatose until 7 pm, and then was awake long enough to eat some dinner and watch three episodes of Season 3 of Arrested Development on DVD. Gosh, that show is funny.

SUNDAY

Sunday morning came and I finally had some energy. It's amazing how one night of babies always takes me out for a day and half. My poor sister and bro-in-law are so sleep-deprived that they don't even know what rest is anymore.

Will and I went to Outer Richmond to meet up with Frodo for dim sum. Yup, that's right, Frodo is back in town from his SE Asian travels. And despite his pleas, I don't think that I will ever be able to call him Robert (his real name), as Frodo has been ingrained in my brain forever.

We met around 10:45 am at Ton Kiang, a famous dim sum spot on Geary that is always busy. But because we made it in before the mad rush at lunchtime, we had a table right away. Nice!

We had the usual smattering of dim sum favorites, including:

Ha Gao - shrimp dumplings
Siu Mai - pork dumplings
Noi Mai Gai - sticky rice with meat wrapped in leaf
Dai Dze Gao - scallop and shrimp dumplings
Ha Yeung - shrimp balls
Ha Cheung - shrimp in long rice noodle
Dan Tat - egg custard tart
Jin Doy - sesame balls

We also had some pea shoots and some shrimp-stuffed scallop (are you sensing a theme here?)

After delicious dim sum, Will and I went over to Katharine's casa to feed her diva-cat, Akela. While Kat is in Europe(France, Italy) on her sabbatical, Kenny was going to come back from his Canadian visit to house-sit, but was unexpectedly detained in our homeland. So, Wendy, Ashley, Abe, Will and I are trying to fill the gap and make sure that Akela and the plants are fed and loved until Kat gets back. When we got to Kat's house, Akela was jumping for some food and was rubbing against my legs (which she never does).

From Kat's house, it was back home to get ready for frisbee practice from 2-6 pm at Stanford. It was great to practice on Stanford's luscious Roble fields. It was nice and sunny in Palo Alto, so different than the cool misty fog of SF.

After practice, our team was having a BBQ at Geoff Dolan's parent's place in Los Altos. On the way there on Hwy 280, my front driver side tire decided that it was satisfied with its performance thus far and was going to retire. It wasn't quite a blow-out, but thankfully I pulled over quickly, as that baby was smoking. Also thankfully, Will and Coco were on hand to change my tire and I didn't have to use my quick dialing fingers for AAA help. Sheesh.

So, by the time we got to the Dolan house, I was excited to dip in the hot tub and have some girly Bartles and James Strawberry Daquiris. We had a nice BBQ and it was great to have most of the team together for some fun times. Will, Wendy and some other folks did some nice backflips and tricks off the diving board.

It took us about an hour to get home, as the poor little spare tire doesn't like to go over 50 mph. It's insane how impatient people on the freeway get with you if you're not clicking along at 80 mph. I was driving 50 mph in the right-most lane with my hazards on, and still, people were flashing their lights at me and tailgating. Some good perspective for me, as I usually like to drive in the fast lane.

Great start for Monday, as I'll need to go to Costco and pick up a brand new set of tires...joy!

Extra Long Labor Day Weekend In Calgary

September 5, 2006

Last week was a doozy, as Will and I were back in the homeland for some family stuff and a wedding. Will had gone earlier (Friday, August 25) to help move his Grammy into a nursing home and pack up her apartment. I was due to fly in on Tuesday and the following was the proposed agenda for the week:

• Tuesday: Go to Vulcan to hang out with my parents
• Wednesday: Go fishing with my parents
• Thursday: Go golfing with my parents
• Friday: Head back to Calgary to meet up with Will's folks for a memorial for his adopted grandma, Tove (who had passed away a month ago)
• Saturday: Eric Monteith and Marcia Keeler's wedding
• Sunday: Go golfing with Will's folks
• Monday: Fly home

TUESDAY (AUGUST 29)

I had an afternoon flight that got me into Calgary at 4 pm on Tuesday. From the airport, Will and my parents picked me up, we picked up groceries, and headed right to my hometown of Vulcan, AB. Yes, it's true, my hometown was named after the God of Fire, or Spock's home planet.

My parents love to spoil us when we come home, because we don't do it nearly as often as we should, so we were treated with massive lobsters for dinner...hooray!

My dad with the gigantic treats...

The lobsters ranged between 2.5-3 pounds each. It was a gluttoneous display of garlic butter, roasted potatoes, and sweet, wonderful Taber corn.

It was a wonderful dinner and fantastic to catch up with my parents. As we were relaxing our full tummies after dinner, we got a call around 10 pm from Will's parents, with the unfortunate news that his Grammy had passed away suddenly that evening.

So, Will and I got back in my mom's Honda Pilot and headed back to Calgary to be with his parents. It was a rather big shock to Will and his parents, as they had just spent the last 4-5 days settling her into the nursing home. Grammy was 93 years old and everyone was grateful that she passed away peacefully.

WEDNESDAY (AUGUST 30)

On Wednesday morning, Will and I headed over to the nursing home to pack up Grammy's things and make sure that was all taken care of. From there, I headed back to Vulcan to spend some more quality time with my parents while Will stayed in Calgary to help out.

Once I got back to Vulcan, it was pretty uneventful. There wasn't enough time in the day to do any fishing, so I taught my parents some low-tech things like: how to transfer pictures off a DVD onto a computer, how to burn a CD of pictures, how to create your own letterhead...etc. etc.

Even better was that my mom made some wonderful soup. There's something about Mom's soups and how good and yummy they are. I have no idea how to recreate them, so it's always nice to go home for soup.

THURSDAY (AUGUST 31)

Thursday morning rolled around and Will came back down from Calgary to hang out with me and my parents. Orginally, my mom had scheduled a masseuse to come to the house to give us massages, but in keeping with the comedy of errors that was occuring on our "vacation", the masseuse had miscommunicated with my mom and couldn't come...foiled!

Instead, Will and I headed out to the golf course with my mom and we golfed the first nine holes with my mom, and then Will and I did another round after. They are developing the second nine-hole course at Vulcan and next year, the 18-hole course will be unveiled. I think I shot a 106. Putting is definitely not my forte, but I was hitting the Big Bertha driver pretty well.

On Thursday evening, Will and I were treated once more to a feast for the meatiest of meat-lovers, with AAA Alberta Beef steaks, ribs, more potatoes, and snap peas. Delish!

FRIDAY (SEPTEMBER 1)

On Friday morning, Will and I got up pretty early in order to head back to Calgary and meet up with his parents for the memorial for Tove. (As you can imagine, it was pretty tough for the family to have another loved one pass on while planning the memorial for Tove).

The plan was to go up to beautiful Kananaskis country to scatter Tove's ashes. We were joined with of her friends from the Danish Lutheran Church, including a minister who would conduct the memorial service. Kananaskis is about 40 minutes NW from Calgary, on the way to Banff, and it was an absolutely beautiful day. We headed to the William Watson Lodge, where Tove had spent some time at and really loved the area.

After the memorial, we headed over to the Kananaskis Golf and Country Club for lunch. I hadn't been in this neck of the woods for quite some time, as my family used to golf here with the Calgary Chinese Golf Association when I was in high school...good times!

Lunch was fantastic and we each had a glass of white wine in honor of Tove, who loved her white wine. For lunch, Will and I split two fantastic sandwiches:

• Classic Reuben, which was a lovely combination of thinly-sliced pastrami, swiss cheese, sauerkraut and horseradish mustard
• Alberta Bison Dip, which included carmelized onions and mushrooms, surprisingly tender and lean

We got back to Calgary by mid-afternoon and relaxed for a while (okay, I did a few Sudoku puzzles...)

For dinner, we met up with Donna, Kalah, Dy, and Paul for dinner at Brava Bistro. As soon as we walked in the door, I was greeted by Dewey, and old friend from my days in the restaurant industry, and who was the managing partner at Brava, what a nice surprise!

Will ordered an appetizer for the table to share: P.E.I. MUSSELS, with a white wine leek cream sauce, pomme frites & aioli. These mussels were amazing, as I had not tried mussels with a cream sauce before. The mussels were quite large and tasty.

For dinner, I ordered the BEEF SHORT RIB (red wine braised boneless short rib served with an aged canadian cheddar "mac 'n' cheese", roasted broccoflower & a cabernet rib jus). What can I say, I'm a sucker for braised beef and aged cheddar mac n' cheese. It was exactly what I expected, delicious and filling. I had to pass on 1/3 of it to Will, which he didn't mind.

Will ordered the SPICY SESAME BEEF (chilli & sesame oil braised beef with bean sprouts, pea shoots, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, rice noodles & soy/ginger vinaigrette), which he thoroughly enjoyed. Donna and Paul had the AHI TUNA (seared rare, served with sesame spinach, shitake mushrooms, shoestring potatoes & red wine pepercorn sauce), while Dy had the GOAT CHEESE, PESTO & CHICKEN PIZZA (grilled chicken, goat cheese, cherry tomatoes & basil pesto).

Dinner was really nice and it was great to catch up with Kalah (who had just gotten back from a trip to the Dean Family compound north of Zhijuatenjo), Donna and Dy (who regaled us with stories about teaching and Costa Rica), and Paul (who is just entertaining all around).


SATURDAY (SEPTEMBER 2)

Finally! The day of the wedding! We were excited for some revelry after the craziness of the week so far.

We headed over to the Westside Recreation Center for a workout (and to get rid of the guilt of gluttonous eating all week). This place was huge, with a 430m track, tons of cardio and weight equipment, massive pool with waterslide, hockey rink, etc. etc. We got in a good workout and headed back to the house at 1 pm.

We had to book it to South Calgary to check into our hotel early, get ready and catch the shuttle bus to the wedding site by 2:30 pm. The wedding was taking place on a ranch south of Calgary and was slated to begin at 3:30 pm (early!). Our good friends (via frisbee), Eric Monteith and Marcia Keeler were getting hitched, and they had planned a sweet agenda for their event.

• Ceremony: 3:30 - 4 pm
• Pictures/Drinks/Games: 4 - 6 pm
• Dinner: 6 pm
• Dancing: Until 2 am

Did I mention that it was open bar? And I was overwhelmed to see the list of names of folks who I had not seen in a long while (6-8 years) and were able to catch up with. There were about 2 hours between the ceremony and dinner where it was non-stop catching up and bocce. And gin and tonics.

The dinner menu included salad, Alberta steak and corn (flown in from a family farm in Ontario!). As promised, floss was provided...

Table 8!!! (Amanda Hobbs, Jamie Kelly, Will, Steph Chow, Bea, Jeff Sward, Megan O'Brien and Morgan Hibbert)

Needless to say, there was plenty of shots, drinks, dancing and good times that happened until 2 am (that's an 11 hour wedding!). Thanks so much to the Monteiths and Keelers for a fantastic time!

SUNDAY (SEPTEMBER 3)

It's safe to say that I was "tired" on Sunday. After we checked out and got a much-needed chai tea latte, Will and I headed back to his folks' place to meet up for a round of golf at Pinebrook. Our tee-off time was 2:44 pm and we spent the next 4.5 hours in the schweaty heat (30 degrees celsius!). I was hitting really well, but could not putt to save my life. I think I 3-putted almost every hole. Seriously, I had the mental strength and focus of a 8-year old with ADD. I think I shot a 108. Sheesh.

When we got home, Mike and Susan Lavery fed us well...again. We had a yummy salad, roasted vegetables, and pork loin, with a lovely 1999 Pine Ridge Merlot. Will and I were toast on Sunday night and bailed on meeting friends for drinks. No hair of the dog for this little camper.

MONDAY (SEPTEMBER 4)

Alas, Monday arrived and we would be leaving on the 7:20 pm plane back to SFO. My parents came into town and joined Mike, Susan, Will and I for lunch at Pinebrook.

After lunch, there were a few errands and then my mom took us to the airport. It was an interesting and busy week, as usual, despite our attempts to work in relaxing down time for this trip. We will miss Grammy dearly, but are relieved that she's in a better place now.

Now I really can't wait for a real vacation in November...!