Thanks Shell

Following the encouraging email from my sister that essentially said "use your damn blog", I see that I am overdue for an update. To my defense, the first week of work was pretty busy. Now I've got some time to get caught up.

On Monday, I did the typical first day things like paper work, HIPAA training, safety training, meeting new people, and trying to find my way around Stanford Medical Center. The next couple days were spent reading papers, learning about some of the treatment and research equipment, meeting more people, finding places to eat lunch, and still trying to find my way around.

On Thursday, I was invited to the American Association of Physicist in Medicine (AAPM) regional meeting. The AAPM is the organization that has provided me with this fellowship. The meeting was at the Berkley Yacht Club. Pretty sweet huh? I got to meet and chat with the director of Radiation Oncology from the University of Alberta. He was the keynote speaker, detailing a new approach to tracking tumor motion in radiation therapy by using real time MRI to "see what we treat while we treat it". It seems like a promising technology that we may see in a few years.

Today I took a major bike ride! I started around lunch time and first went to "The Dish". The Dish, is a HUGE radio satellite dish that is owned by Stanford and resides in the hills behind campus. It is a popular place to go to walk, hike, and run (if you are crazy enough) because they have paved a few paths to establish a recreational area. You cannot bike there however, so I walked the loop past the satellite dish.

The trail meanders up to the base of The Dish, but I didn't think to get pictures from up there. Next time :)...

In the center is Hoover tower, a prominent feature of the Stanford Campus. All of the buildings near it with red/tan roofs are parts of the university. The bridge in the background crosses the San Fransisco Bay and links to Fremont CA. There were some points on the path where San Fransisco could be seen, but it was somewhat hazy this afternoon. I will have to go back there in the morning some day for more pictures.

A squirrel from the east coast these are not. It seems that they spend most of their time on the ground in burrows. They had a pretty relaxed attitude towards me. See mommy and her little one?

This one shows how well fed the adults are. There was a large amount wheat (or something) around that I saw them contently munching on.

This one was just chilling on the barb-wire enjoying the view. He stayed there for quite some time, but started getting antsy with me staring and taking pictures.

"Making Hay" an work of art by Tom Otterness. Pretty cool.

Another one toiling away in the fields. I bet these were over twenty feet tall.

So after the walk at The Dish, I hopped back on the bike and took a fairly common route into the Silicon Valley foothills via Alpine Drive. Towards the top, after a pretty grueling climb for someone who doesn't ride, the road shifts to one lane and leads to some precariously placed hillside homes. The road was nicely paved and followed a small stream (about 30 feet below) through some nice stretches of forest.

I heard some birds being rather alarmed and looked up to catch a view of this small owl. Turns out this was a Northern Pygmy owl. I also saw some California Quail. A beautiful ground bird and the State bird as well, but they were much too fast to get a picture of.

This is a view from the end of the paved part of Alpine Drive. There was one last driveway just past this point. I wonder what that place looked like.

The other option at the end of Alpine drive is to continue on dirt trails that lead around parts of the road that had been washed out. At this point, I was out of water and decided to turn around and get something from cafe that I passed on the way up.

After resting at the cafe for a bit, I took a different road that would lead me back towards Palo Alto. By the time I got back to the city, my legs were hurting pretty bad. It was definitely worth it though! This area is truly a cyclists dream. Most of the roads have a nice shoulder, and quite a few even have designated lanes especially around town. Next post I'll add some pictures I took on campus last weekend.