A new scope and some old friends

Finally, a mere two months after my last eventful business trip, I yet again took to the skies for Scientifica. My destination: the Gateway City.

Nelly the Neuron and I made it to St. Louis!

This week's adventure was just as eventful, if quite different, from the last. Specifically, there was a fair bit of head banging and time on hold with customs. It certainly didn't lend itself to an easy or particularly fruitful install to be missing some key parts until Friday at lunch time.

After five days and many fights with customs, here we have our nearly fully functioning two-photon system...

Thank goodness each install day was punctuated with a friendly face at lunchtime: Sylvia, one of my oldest friends, and her husband have just moved out to Saint Louis a few months ago. And as luck would have it, my install was scheduled just a few buildings over from where she spends her days post-doc'ing. I'm proud to say I got to be one of Sylvia and Peter's very first visitors, albeit a somewhat distracted and busy one.

By the time Nelly the Neuron and I escaped lab after 9pm on Friday evening, these beers at the 4 Hands Brewery with Sylvia and Peter were well earned.

Luckily, my flight didn't leave until Saturday afternoon, which left us a few precious hours to power-tour their new hometown. It's surprisingly empty, but overall a cute little place. Missouri: check. States-visited count now stands at 22. Perhaps I need to look into spending a bit more time venturing back home? All in good time. 😉

Sylvia and me, about 20 years after becoming friends. It's certainly a plus of my itinerant lifestyle to have friends scattered all over the globe, just waiting to catch up when the winds blow us back together.