Recap

Tues: I went to a wine tasting event at Bristol Farms with a small group of people from work. We started with a three cheese platter: pungent goat, mild goat, and manchego. The cheese was accompanied by crackers, grapes, a yummy quince jam, and two glasses of white wine - a sauvignon blanc, which was not bad but a bit fruity for my taste, and some other white that was obviously not memorable. Next, we had a bean and sausage soup, paired with a merlot, followed by a bizarre chilled mango champagne salsa "cleanser" which nobody liked. The main course was Italian flank steak wrapped around basil and roasted bell peppers, with a side of asparagus. That was paired with another red. For dessert, we had bread pudding and coffee. I'm pretty sure we tried 5 different wines but now I can't remember when we had the 5th. The wine wasn't fabulous (I tend to like drier wines) but overall, the food was tasty and I had fun conversation with people I don't normally hang out. What more can you ask for on a Tues night?

Wed: I attended the first session of the Intro to Molecular Biology class at UCSD Continuing Education. Boy was the teacher a rambler. I didn't want to be rude but I was hoping he would notice my eyes rolling back into my head and stop telling his long irrelevant stories about having dinner with famous geneticists. That stuff is interesting but not when its 20 minutes long. When he did talk about the subject matter, it was great. The first class was a chemistry review and a discussion of the chemical structure of biological molecules. It made me realize how little chemistry I'd retained from college. How could I have forgotten about valence electrons and the different electron orbits, e.g. 1s, 2s, 2px?? I used to really enjoy chemistry...except when I slept through my chemistry final and had to hysterically call the professor to beg for amnesty. That was not so enjoyable but at least I still passed the class (god bless freshman pass/fail). Anyway, it turned out there was someone else from Illumina taking the class. I chatted with her at break and we both agreed it'll be interesting to see just how out of control the teacher's rambling can get.

Fri: At lunch, I ran my 8-mile tempo run inside at the gym. It was a bit warm so I really didn't want to be out in the heat. Bizarrely enough, I was able to run the entire thing at a 9:40 min/mile pace without stopping. I give thanks to the bagel I ate for breakfast. Breakfast of champions. After work, Kim, Jon and I went to Cozy's for some happy hour margheritas and to dabble in some gossip. Ryan, Brian (Kim's husband) and Trish met up with us and a good time was had by all.