Farewell to a postdoc

Gab is going to be leaving us next week. He has been in the lab for 9 years, first as a grad student and then as a postdoc. That is just nuts. I cannot imagine being in a single lab for that long. But he finally got a job in Naples and will be leaving us after the sea urchin meeting. It took us a long time to plan the parting festivities, partly because of the impending meeting contributing to added stress amongst us. We managed to convince Ping to plan the parting dim sum lunch after her little party faux pas in the coffee room, and EHD will be attending so perhaps he will foot the bill :P Then M I guess felt bad about not doing anything at all as a roommate, so she wants to plan a little reception at the urchin meeting, and after a little discussion, we decided on a gift for him. Each person will contribute a song with an inscription for a CD that we will custom make for him. Someone I got stuck with the job of making the insert and the cover. I didn't really want to spend all that time but I agreed partly because Gab had always been a really good friend to me and had helped me through a lot of tough times. And after T left in Jan I am once again losing a friend. Good thing that V probably will be here till next summer, by then which I hope to be gone. I think I made a pretty cool cover, with a really embarassing picture of Gab, but it looked like a rock band album, which was what I intended it to be. My song choice will be something I sang, either the "Irish Lullaby" at a performance with the Glee Clubs or Schubert's "Ave Maria" from T's wedding, if I can get a copy of that. My personal present for him will be a collection of all the concerts which I have CDs for. Took some photoshop skills but I am able to replicate the recordings I have, which I think he will appreciate as they are not available in stores and he likes classical music.

Finally did my taxes today. If I waited till I come back from the meeting it would be cutting it way too close, and messing with the IRS is never a good thing.