103 Million Reasons I better be loving Japan... umm, not what you're thinking

$103 Million for Daiseke Matsuzaka, or D-Mat. 52 Million dollar contract, coupled with a 51.11 million dollar auction price just to deal with his sniveling agent, Scott Boras. It almost makes my 150 A$ a week look like a bargain. One thing I forgot about the location of my place, and its proximity to bars and cafes, it's also right near Lygon St., which is home to all the italian restaurants, outdoor seating, and some of the best smelling bread you can imagine. Seriously, the patisseries and bakeries here make the bread factory near Fells Point smell like my gym shoes (recall, if you will, how I neglected to let them dry after running stairs in them sans socks during a rainstorm).

Many of you (ok, just Kim) have been asking about how my new lab is. It's good. As of right now, that's how I'll describe it. Pros and cons, like anything else, but it's mainly just incredibly different from american-funded lab space (at least what I'm used to at hopkins). For starters, everything has a cost-benefit analysis, for instance, they don't order miniprep kits, too expensive. This is fine, I'm cool with saving money by cutting back on shortcuts. But then when you see the animal facility, and all the open experimental cages (as in, no lids), the "clean" autoclaved bins sitting out w/ open sawdust, and people doing barehanded mouse dissections on open-air tables, you notice the difference (is this barehanded mouse handling an Australian thing, Neil?). However, I must say, the animal workers here trump each and every individual in the hopkins veterinary system. They make harriet running our mouse-house seem like that beetlejuice guy from the howard stern show running a swiss bank. I went through my facility introduction today with Maya, who runs the place - she and her mouse folk do injections, set up breeder pairs, bleed mice, wean them, etc. We can't even trust the hopkins employees to properly sex the mice, let alone do complex experimental series of injections. Though when we witness the same type of people as the hopkins staff attempt to sex a "yo light skinned tall thang" on Caroline St., we are no longer surprised. I'll relay more info about my work (all I've been doing is reading the past few days, my head hurts, but i'm starting to get my mind around what needs to be done), and the people in my lab, but right now I don't feel like it, and, as the historic spousal intimidator Bobby Brown once said, "It's my prerogative."

As many of you know, if there's one thing Asian I love, it's raw tuna. Fortunately for me, there are sushi shops everywhere here. They're all over the place. And not just restaurants, there are these sushi bars on the street (not like carts or vendors, but just as in any other place in a row of storefronts built into the large buildings). The bars have a dining area inside, but also a window service to just get "take away" sushi (sashimi, sushi rolls, chicken rolled in rice and seaweed, seriously, eggs and kangaroo rolled in platapus tails, not seriously). It's pre-made (fresh and recent, just ready to go) and you can walk off w/ a roll or sit at one of the little outdoor tables. I may eat sushi 5 times a week, and it's relatively inexpensive. Delicious. While I was chopsticking my way through some salmon today, a guy (who I can only assume to be gay for reasons that should become obvious, but you never know these days, maybe he's just honest) rolled up, looked at me, and said "my my there are some sexy boys out today," and departed. I'll take compliments from anyone, so I was pleased. My powder blue terry cloth polo shirt does the trick every time. He also said Hugh Jackman was a former lover of his. I believe him.