This is the year I put a BCPS after my name. If you are curious, that stands for Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist. I need to take an exam in October...after that, I will be moving to Britain to run for Parliament. ($1 to the first person who can tell me why that's funny; please post your answer in the comments section).

So anyway, I spent the last several days in Monterey, at a review for this exam. The review was a bit like a year of pharmacy school condensed into 4 days. My head kind of hurts.

Mi amigo Winston and I stayed at Asilomar,which is sort of like going to summer camp...only with slightly better rooms. There were deer everywhere; deer just kind of stare at you when you're about to crash into them.

I brought the bicycle along, and rode 17 mile drive in both directions (clockwise is much easier). I did not bring the camera, but Winston took some pictures of the Lone Cypress with his cell phone. I would post one here, but evidently the Pebble Beach Company has trademarked this tree...and it's likeness. How do you trademark the likeness of a tree? I am almost certain that the Pebble Beach Company will never happen across my page, but you never know.

And finally, if I have not hit you up for money yet: How about making a small donation to the American Diabetes Association?

Stuck at work today...Here's me sailing last weekend. Well sort of sailing. More like reclining. This picture does not capture the heel of the sailboat very well, probably because the photographer is also heeled. I'm actually leaning on the mast at pretty close to a 45 degree angle.



On a more somber note, both Red Fish II and Blue Fish are deceased. I was going to write, "My fish died"...leaving the reader to wonder which fish died...or did both fish die? But I thought that would be making light of this tragic situation. A coworker at the old building told me that the deaths were due to the high levels of clomiphene in the Costa Mesa water supply. I thought clomiphene would make them fertile, and give them strong fish bones, but I guess I was wrong.

In automobile news, the Cruiser received it's first dent a couple of weeks ago. I believe the dent may have occurred on my first day at work in Costa Mesa. Amongst the BMWs, Lexi, and Mercedes In Irvine, I had the crappiest car in the lot; no such luck here in Costa Mesa.



So I called Vince at Dents No More. Paintless dent removal seemed like a hoax, but for $75, why not give it a try? There's no point in posting the after pictures, as dents are very difficult to photograph well...but that dent is gone.

This is not Red Fish II, though it looks so much like Red Fish II, you will not know the difference.


Nico bought me a pair of Bettas for Valentine's day (2005, I think I bought her a vacuum cleaner). Red Fish and Blue Fish...except I don't think their names are supposed to be capitalized. No matter. Red Fish (I) had a habit of jumping out of his bowl, and perhaps this contributed to his early demise. I recently replaced him with Red Fish II (not pictured above). The two fish are quite popular in my new department, as they are evidently the only fish in the building. Blue Fish did not appreciate all the visitors, and requested that I place a sign out front: "Kindly refrain from tapping on our home; we promise, we are not dead." Previously, I thought only 8 year olds tapped on fish bowls/aquariums. I guess I was wrong.

As an aside, naming fish is always a bad idea. You feel much worse when they die. Also, if they don't have names, you can replace them with identical looking fish, and after a couple of weeks you will forget that the new fish is not the original. I felt safe with Red Fish and Blue Fish, as the names were just descriptions...but it seemed wrong to give the new fish the same name...hence: Red Fish II.

I bought this new bicycle earlier this year, and it has been hanging in the garage. All that changed today, when I officially became a commuter. Had I known I would be riding to work (as opposed to competing on the circuit) I might have bought a more practical bike...oh well. I've loaded it up pretty well. I'll post a picture when I have one...probably when those bastards at Amazon decide to send my camera.

In unrelated news: Does anybody have any guesses as to who will not be asking me to write a shopping list ever again?





P.S. To the best of my knowledge, I am not schizophrenic.

What $1900 worth on non-PacifiCare insurance buys you:



Anybody know if this looks normal?

After nearly 9 months of chronic daily headaches, I am going back to my old job...which just so happens to be in the same company. Here's the email that went around today (written either by my boss, or a secretary):

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael has decided to transfer back to customer service, where he initially joined Prescription Solutions as a consulting pharmacist. During the past year with Formulary Development, Michael has been instrumental in developing our Part D formularies, performing Part D analyses, and participating in many P&T meetings. Although he was a relatively new member to our team, he jumped in with both feet and performed well. Aside from being a clinically strong pharmacist, Michael could probably beat all of us in Trivial Pursuit. His knowledge base is vast and wide.

Michael's last day will be Thursday, February 23. Please join me in wishing Michael much success and happiness in his new/old position.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, in my very first ever web poll, I would like to know what my five loyal readers think of think of this farewell greeting.

What do you think of my obituary?
	They must really love you over there!
	Hey, that's like 7 sentences; what more could you ask for?
	That's all you accomplished in the last year?
	Sounds like they're happy to be rid of you.
Free polls from Pollhost.com

And I do not believe in snow...

Other titles making the short list for consideration:
"How I spent my winter"
and "They have Starbucks up here?"

Nico and I took a trip up to the Pacific Northwest, as I had been promising a friend (who used to live in Portland) that I would visit him for the last 3 or 4 years. He recently moved to Seattle, so (aside from the blistering cold that these people call Winter) it seemed like a good time for a vacation.

Although I do not much care for heights or overly touristy attractions, the Space Needle was slightly cooler than you would imagine. Here's a couple of pictures I took with our cheap camera (for the second one, I used a 4 second exposure time, and a table as a brace):




Other touristy things we did in Seattle included a vistit to the Pike Place Fish Market. If you have ever worked a customer service job, you have probably seen one of their videos...you know, with all the fish projectiles. It was not terribly busy when we stopped by, so there was very little fish throwing. Here's me in a rare picture with glasses. Two things I have concluded: 1) I am going to stop wearing glasses, and 2) Nico is not the skilled photographer that I am.


Speaking of touristy, what could be more touristy than the very first Starbucks? We did not buy any coffee, as I am still boycotting Starbucks. If you would like to join me as part owner of Diedrich Coffee, now is your chance. You can currently buy a share of stock for about the same price as a cup of coffee.

Too many pictures already, and "Oh My God, I've just stepped in the Gum Wall!"
There was a cool song Gum Wall song. It went something like "Gum Wall, Gum Wall, Gum Wall..."

Briefly, we took side trips to Vancouver and Walla Walla; the picture is of me learning how to ice skate backwards atop Grouse Mountain. I thought I was getting good at it, until I realized that I could only do it in one direction (downhill).

I can't believe I have no pictures of all the snow I had to drive through to get back to Seattle from Walla Walla. They closed the interstate down due to an avalanch, and we nearly missed our flight. Here's the Marcus Whitman, the most luxurious hotel in all of Walla Walla.

Nico and I spent Martin Luther King Day tandeming from Seal Beach to the Santa Fe Dam via the San Gabriel River Bike Path. We had planned on bicycling all the way to Monrovia, but made a wrong turn at the dam and ended up at an airport for model airplanes (NO BICYCLES ALLOWED). We were a little tired after 35 miles and decided to head home.

Thing I observed on the bike path:
1) There are a lot of people living under bridges along the San Gabriel River.
2) Peddling down hill is much easier than peddling up hill.
3) Taco Bell is better than you would think after 55 miles of bicycling.

Top things overheard during the ride:
1) Shut up and pedal.
2) Your job is to pedal.
3) Why aren't you pedaling?

Does anybody else think Diedrich Coffee is much better than Starbucks? In addition to better coffee, Diedrich has free wi-fi. What could be better than free wireless internet access? So I decided to by some Diedrich stock (DDRX). Evidently, the company has been mismanaged, so the stock is very cheap. They just appointed a new CEO: Stephen Coffey. Can't think of a better man to turn around a struggling coffee chain.

In other news, I decided to clear the garage of some excess bicycles. Zebra bike and the old tandem are both gone.



I shall miss them both. Interestingly, either the ebay listing, or my add in the recycler triggered this email scam. It is so complicated, I am not even sure how I'm being scammed. Or maybe it's just early:

Hi,
I am a sports and leasure equipments dealer from London with clients all over U K. I have offices in most U K Cities. I have a client who's interested in your product and pleased to let you know that we are O.K with your price.

SHIPPING:
I have a shipping agent that handles all my shipments in the U.S, the shipping agent will pick up product from whatever location and have it shipped to my office.

PAYMENT:
Inrespect of payment i have a client in the USA who is owing me $5,500.00 All i need to do to make payment easier and faster is to instruct him to procure a cashier's check in your name and mail it to you. But i would want to know if i can trust you to send the remainder of the funds to my shipper via Western Union Money Transfer as soon as the check get cashed so that my shipper will make arrangement for the pick up at your location.

Should you be interested in this transaction, kindly mail me the name to purchase your check, the address you wish to receive it and your contact phone number(s), so I can forward it to my client who will purchase the check for the payment.
Thank you.
Richard Winston.

Yet another reason the British are better than us:

From the British Medical Journal's annual Christmas Cheer edition (full articles are currently free). Also, check out BMJ.com for a "Interventions for preventing and treating a hangover", and "Epidemiology and prognosis of coma in daytime television dramas".

The case of the disappearing teaspoons: longitudinal cohort study of the displacement of teaspoons in an Australian research institute

Objectives To determine the overall rate of loss of workplace teaspoons and whether attrition and displacement are correlated with the relative value of the teaspoons or type of tearoom.

Design Longitudinal cohort study.

Setting Research institute employing about 140 people.

Subjects 70 discreetly numbered teaspoons placed in tearooms around the institute and observed weekly over five months.

Main outcome measures Incidence of teaspoon loss per 100 teaspoon years and teaspoon half life.

Results 56 (80%) of the 70 teaspoons disappeared during the study. The half life of the teaspoons was 81 days. The half life of teaspoons in communal tearooms (42 days) was significantly shorter than for those in rooms associated with particular research groups (77 days). The rate of loss was not influenced by the teaspoons' value. The incidence of teaspoon loss over the period of observation was 360.62 per 100 teaspoon years. At this rate, an estimated 250 teaspoons would need to be purchased annually to maintain a practical institute-wide population of 70 teaspoons.

Conclusions The loss of workplace teaspoons was rapid, showing that their availability, and hence office culture in general, is constantly threatened.

and

Shape of glass and amount of alcohol poured: comparative study of effect of practice and concentration

Objective To determine whether people pour different amounts into short, wide glasses than into tall, slender ones.

Design College students practised pouring alcohol into a standard glass before pouring into larger glasses; bartenders poured alcohol for four mixed drinks either with no instructions or after being told to take their time.

Setting University town and large city, United States.

Participants 198 college students and 86 bartenders.

Main outcome measures Volume of alcohol poured into short, wide and tall, slender glasses.

Results Aiming to pour a "shot" of alcohol (1.5 ounces, 44.3 ml), both students and bartenders poured more into short, wide glasses than into tall slender glasses (46.1 ml v 44.7 ml and 54.6 ml v 46.4 ml, respectively). Practice reduced the tendency to overpour, but not for short, wide glasses. Despite an average of six years of experience, bartenders poured 20.5% more into short, wide glasses than tall, slender ones; paying careful attention reduced but did not eliminate the effect.

Conclusions To avoid overpouring, use tall, narrow glasses or ones on which the alcohol level is premarked. To avoid underestimating the amount of alcohol consumed, studies using self reports of standard drinks should ask about the shape of the glass.