the first-year advisors brought us newbies out to dinner at lemongrass, a thai place up 36th and lancaster. everyone was scrupulously late, except poor melissa who paid $9 for a cab to be 5 minutes early. melissa has, i think, the most interesting history among us, having lived in ireland for 7 years on an extended hiatus from real life. i can identify with the sentiment. we trooped in - almost 20 of us - and took up about half the restaurant. the food was very good, although as one might expect, not completely thai -- intrusions included something that looked and tasted suspiciously like siew mai, as well as orange duck. we coaxed grad school stories out of the professors, including someone's confession that he "doesn't give a shit about gerbils". (jason: that's ok, i don't think gerbils care very much about you either.) later in the evening, while asking someone about psychtoolbox (which i have been using for several years), i discovered that dr. brainard, its actual programmer, was sitting three seats down from me. i am very foolish. people started dribbling away after a couple of hours, leaving the stragglers to order dessert, which i did, for myself, in thai, "mango with sticky rice" being one of five things i can actually say in the language. (the brother and the other brother will laugh at me -- but come on: you guys have been there for years. also: one of the other five things is pineapple. i confessed all of this at the table.) hilary and sara had coconut-and-ginger ice-cream, and everyone else had chocolate cake, and everything was excellent, particularly considering that i'd been eating leftovers all weekend. and now to work.