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• Toyota Prius, so-so: I upgraded to a hybrid for the week in Seattle, and I have very mixed feelings about it. It's got a certain chic (especially out here in green-obsessed Seattle) and it certainly gets great gas mileage, but it's a bit of a pain in the arse to drive. The sight lines are bad, making it hard to change lanes, pull out of blind corners and park in tight spaces. The LCD showing how power is being generated, re-generated and dispensed among the wheels, motor, battery and engine is cool, but distracting while driving. It also just feels weird to have the engine randomly shutting off and restarting while in traffic; tough sensation to get used to. Most annoying though? When in reverse the car beeps a back-up chime INSIDE THE CAR. What's the point, other than to annoy the piss out of the driver?



• Seattle, thumbs-up: I really do enjoy this city: nice neighborhoods, great scenery, wonderful fresh air, abundant delicious coffee and laid back folks. Qualitas.



• Cincy wedding / MIT reunion, thumbs-up: I'm really psyched for this weekend, which should be an awesome reunion of all the people I love most from the 'tute. Shame it's only a couple of days!



• SafeCo field, thumbs-up: Absolutely gorgeous stadium, great views from the cheap seats, easy parking. Too bad the Sox got swept whilst I was in town. Also too bad that beers cost eight bucks.

They're no Don and Jerry

The Mariners' booth team last night (Dave Sims and Dave Niehaus) were pretty miserable. Sims has an irritating voice that he uses to spew out lots of grim baseball clichés. Niehaus, on the other hand, is just getting a little old to be on TV:

Niehaus: Well, Dave, I remember a classic game between Seattle and Boston that went 19 innings. John Olerud won that game with a home run. I forget which inning he hit it, must've been the 14th or 15th.

Sims: Um, wouldn't he have hit it in the 19th?

Niehaus: Why, yes, I guess you're right!

Seattle

Here I am in Seattle again, where the air is cool and fresh and I have nothing to do but work. Well that's not entirely true, since the BoSox are in town. I think I'm gonna go to SafeCo tomorrow night (I would've preferred seeing Dice-K on Wednesday, but it's an afternoon game and I've got a conflicting meeting).

The trip didn't start well, as I got up to get something from my bag in the overhead compartment shortly after takeoff. While pulling out my headphones I accidentally knocked out my heavy silver watch, which fell straight onto the unsuspecting skull of the old lady in the row in front of me. I remarked to the woman next to me, "That's a great start to a 9.5 hour flight" and she chuckled politely. At this point the husband of the woman I konked whipped around and growled, "You think it's funny that he hit her on the head?!" Yikes. Luckily I managed not to do anything else embarrassing on the flight.

Jack Cox

The Jack Cox Cup is Oxford's interdepartmental cricket cup. A few of my friends play on the Medical Research team, and the games are held on the oval next to the University Club, which affords excellent game-watching opportunities from its outdoor balcony. A few of us headed down after work yesterday to drink a couple of beers and watch the game against the Geography department.

Robbo is pictured here after an excellent smash, and a few more photos are on Facebook. The good guys won, 104 for 3, after the Geographers went 102 all out.

Transferylvania

Today I successfully transferred status from Probationer Research Student to DPhil student. A bit anticlimactic, but it's another box ticked on the way to finishing my degree.

Redistricting

If you care at all about the process of representative democracy and/or enjoy nerdy games, you owe it to yourself to spend an hour tinkering at www.redistrictinggame.com.

Culinary awesomeness

Yesterday was off-and-on raining all day (with occasional heavy downpours), so it was a good day to spend a lot of time hanging out inside and eating. Which a few of us did with gusto.

Carl, Morven, Blanca and I met up at Blanca's place around noon for a big fry-up. I whipped up some mushroom, onion and swiss omelettes which went quite well with bacon, bramley apple sausages and the other standard breakfast accoutrements (not least of which being strong, black coffee).

After a few hours of mildly productive work we decided to have dinner together as well. This time at my flat in Marston we cooked up a tasty jam of chicken fajitas. The fresh chilis were the hotness, both literally and figuratively. We finished the night with some good natured hanging-out over glasses of Sardinian grappa. That stuff'll put hair on your chest.

On the whole, the day pleasantly reminded me of the A-Side Lounge. Good times!