All Work and No Play?

After something on the order of 30 hours on the road and in the air, I arrived safe and sound for a brief stopover in San Francisco before I head down to Mexico.

Despite the concerns I had about travelling to and transiting through the US, everything went smoothly. There were more body checks than usual, but nothing excessive. Best of all, my baggage made it through the transfer in Los Angeles with no problems. Hurray!

Eric picked me up at the airport, and after a delicious and much-needed meal at a local Thai restaurant (where I had my favourite dish phad kaprao gai, with khai dao), we went back to his place...where we immediately got to work.

me

While it may not appear from this snapshot as if I'm engaged in a serious endeavour, I was actually looking through a pair of diopters that Keri Wilk from ReefNet sent over for me to use in Lembeh later this year. (Eric posted a 3-D version of this photo).

I've actually ordered (but not yet received) a pair of these, so Keri was nice enough to lend this set to me in advance of my units being delivered. The diopters are +5 and +10 power, and I was looking through them to view the relative difference in magnification. They have a 67mm thread, which means they'll fit directly onto my macro ports. Can't wait to try them out!

diopters

Eric also had to engrave his name and signature for a couple of prints he sold, but he encountered a few minor technical difficulties due to a mismatch of Dremel bits (No, I didn't know what a Dremel was until Eric pulled one out):

...and to round things out, we ended the evening with a practical lesson in aerodynamics: