Into the Woods

I’ve always been taught by my father that I should not attempt to mix work and pleasure. In general, I agree, and typically don’t try to bootstrap ski trips on top of work trips. However, when Sean asked if I would attend a conference to provide expertise on LSID and Semantic Web in San Francisco in his stead, I was excited for two reasons. First, I always jump on opportunities to get my name out there speak about our work in Cambridge. Second, I thought there would be a slim chance I could get a couple more days of skiing in at Lake Tahoe. As my plans fell into place for the trip, it turned out that not only would I be able to ski, but I would be able to spend a bunch of time with my friend Jason, as well as accomplish a few more work related things.

I woke up super-early in Boston to get an 8:45am flight to San Francisco, arriving around noon. It took a while to get my skis from the baggage claim, take the escalators and train to the rental car place, and find my way out of the airport. However, soon enough, I was cruising down highway 101 toward Palo Alto with the sunroof open, taking in the California rays. After settling in to Jason’s apartment (I like to save IBM $$$ when I can ), we grabbed food at Baja Fresh (again saving IBM $$$). The only thing I had planned for Thursday was an interview of one Stanford student for a summer internship that I held outside.

On Friday, after lifting weights at the Y with Jason, I headed down to San Jose to meet with my 3rd-line executive, Jai Menon. He took me out for a really nice lunch and I got to tell him everything I was working on and my plans and vision for our group in Cambridge. Unfortunately, the meeting didn’t reveal a decision regarding my PhD but was great in every other respect. Friday night Jason and I had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with John Rosenblatt and his girlfriend Laura. We reminisced about good times at Lamdba Chi back at Cornell, such as when Travato took off the door on our room because Jason didn’t clean the stairs (or something).

On Saturday, I woke up early to drive up to San Francisco for the primary objective of the trip, the PSI Meeting. I did my best to follow their discussions, but their language is so specific to their domain that it proved very difficult to follow. However, I was able to distill their problems down to ones that our technology could help solve and provided some comments at one part of the meeting. I also had a really nice lunch at the Hyatt in SF with a Vietnamese couple who were both in Bioinformatics in the NYC area. They were really fun to talk to.

After puting in my two cents to the proteomics people, I picked Jason up at the Caltrain station by SBC Park (where Bonds hits HR’s), and we headed over the Bay Bridge to Sacremento and South Lake Tahoe. We had some unfortunate traffic due to a motorcycle and rubbernecking so we didn’t make it in to Tahoe in time to buy Jason’s ski gear. After a Mexican dinner at Chevy’s we head to Bart and Megan’s to hang out before going out. There were a bunch of people there and it was quite a festive way to start the Tahoe visit. Unfortunately, Altitude was closed for renovations so we were resigned to go to Cabo Wabo, which was retro-fitted as a club, and had a long line. So we bagged that idea and had a few drinks at California Bar. Somehow, we didn’t get back to the Best Tahoe West (yes, I stayed there again) until 2:30.

Sunday, we got up early and went to Sports LTD to get skis for Jason. I managed to bargain a good package for him and I was on the mountain by 10am. Even though the snow was still plentiful, that Sunday was Heavenly’s last day. Apparently, they can’t get enough people to come after April to make running the resort profitable. The park crew had the day off because none of the jumps had been groomed and they had all been blocked off. Also, Mott Canyon and Killebrew Canyon closed before I got a chance to ski them. Finally, the Gondola closed early, so we had to ski down to another base area and have Jessie (thanks a bunch!) come pick us up. Overall, the day was fun. I got to ski a bunch and also help Jason learn on his new Salomon Foils. He did really well and took some good spills

Sunday night, Jessie cooked dinner for a bunch of us at her house. Everybody was really tired and we just lounged about after dinner, talking about skiing and whatever. After dinner we went and played some pool, but called it an early night at about 1:00am.

Monday, we woke and drove to Kirkwood. The sun was out and everything was in great shape. The Wall (the huge bowl at the peak) had really nice snow in it, and I had some great runs. I also did a bit of park riding, sticking my last couple 360’s of the season. Around mid-day Bart and Megan came out and skied with me for a while. They are both really good skiers.

After skiing, we drove down the mountain pass and through the California central valley, and over the San Mateo bridge. It was a really beautiful drive. For some reason, Jason still had energy to lift weights so we did that, then gorged ourselves on Thai food, then watched 24, then crashed. Tuesday, I flew home.

For some reason, everything on the trip worked out really well, ending with my skis coming out of baggage check about 30 minutes before they otherwise would have because they were oversized (usually its the other way around). The belts were backed up with a flight from L.A, but the oversized stuff was delivered promptly.