There are some cool things coming in Leopard (Apple's newest version of OS X). I recommend you take the time to watch the Keynote Address. As usual, there's a bunch of eye candy/fluff in Leopard, and it'll be interesting to see if they fix any of the numerous bugs that have been around since day one.

Mail

So, they've added a bunch of wizzy stuff in Mail that I could care less about. The ToDo thing might be cool; we'll see. I really want to know if they fixed the URL-splitting bug. My insider friend tells me that bug is fixed in Leopard, but it wasn't mentioned in the keynote (had it been, it would've received the loudest applause).

More

There's tons more cool shit. Watch the video.

Thanks to the MIT Club of Northern California, and my alumnus friend Mike, and through the gracious generosity of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, I was able to take a tour of the deep-sea research vessel Atlantis and the deep-sea submersible Alvin. This was awesome. There is so much cool work done on board the ship, just to support the research operations, I submitted my resume to one of the scientists. There's actually a surprising amount of EE work to be done, especially on the ROVs.
I've posted a bunch of pictures of the tour for your viewing pleasure. Just click the image below:

On a side note: I saw Tony Blair. Mostly I just saw his motorcade. Part of the tour included a lunch at the Delancey Street Restaurant beforehand. We were supposed to get there at 11 am, but had to wait for Mr. Blair to finish his brunch inside. There were cops and secret service (or the British equivalent) at every entrance up and down the street around the restaurant. We had just thought it was extra security for that morning's marathon, but looking back on it, the guys in the suits exuded far too much confidence to be rent-a-cops.
Interestingly, an ambulance, with sirens blaring, had to wait for the motorcade to pass before it could continue down Embarcadero.

Between the packing, and the commuting to work, and the general funk, I've been ignoring the watermelon halves in the kitchen. I go in there maybe once a day, and otherwise the door is always closed to keep the noisy-ass refrigerator out of mind.
Anyway, I've been noticing the little civilization growing on the watermelon the last couple of days, but was stunned to see how it has evolved in the last 24 (48?) hours. The grey-green puddle of toxic sludge is the most fascinating. At least now I know what fermented watermelon smells like...

Not. I've gotten this far. It's almost all books, so far. 20 boxes of books. 20 very heavy boxes...

Yesterday I went hiking with some Cal EECS peeps in Muir woods. Been there before, but it's always nice (except for the part where I bit my tongue).
After that, some of us went to Benziger winery and took the tour, then tasted wine. You're allowed to try tiny samples of two wines from a list. Then you coax them into giving you one or two more tries. Then you wait 'till they walk away and ask the next helper for a recommendation. They'll usually give you two or three things to try, also. And even if the tour guides tells you that the vineyard owner's personal stash isn't available for tasting, you can probably get one of them to let you try that, too. Wine tasting can be fun. I'm sure everyone was very impressed with my record-breaking 8 trials.
Benziger recommended a restaurant called Doce Lunas. Delicious food, and the sweetest, cutest server (Jolene) one could ask for. They offer family-style (combo) and a la carte versions of most of their entrees, and their Sticky Toffee Pudding dessert was amazing (it needed more ice cream, but everything does).
All in all, Saturday was decently salvaged, despite having imploded the day before.