I write this from a nicely appointed room in the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, California.  I’m in town for the 31st annual educational conference of the National Association for Healthcare Quality, for which I delivered a 75-minute lecture on ethical principles relevant to … you guessed it! … healthcare quality.  The really nice thing is that NAHQ is most generous to its speakers; the association paid full airfare, conference registration, and one night’s stay at the hotel.

San Diego is perfection.  No getting around it.  The hotel is on the bay, so outside my window lies the Pacific; plus, there is a tourist mecca nearby (Starlight Village, or something) filled with neat little shops and restaurants.  After my presentation, I left the conference early and went to see the sights.  I toured the USS Midway (an aircraft carrier in service 1945-1992), then went to the Maritime Museum where I toured a Soviet-era Foxtrot attack submarine and a pair of sailing ships.  One of them was the ship used in the film Master and Commander (HMS Surprise, which is actually a recently constructed replica of the 18th-century HMS Rose), and the other is in the Guiness Book of World Records for being the oldest sailing ship that still actually sails (the Star of India, which has an iron hull but sailing masts).  I hope to visit the San Diego Zoo tomorrow.  Woo hoo!

On a slightly more depressing note, I turned 30 last week.  I am now officially a Doppelgänger for Elton Weintz, although it’s ambiguous as to which of us is more truly evil.  On the bright side, I did have some fun with entering middle age — dinner with my cousin Callista, dinner with my mom, making my brother feel bad for forgetting, dinner with Emilie/Jon and Tony/Brittin, lunch with a gaggle of gals from the office.

Duane seems to be settling into the University of the Pacific as well as I could have hoped.  He is busy, but he seems happy, which is what’s important.  It almost makes me regret sending Sally his new address ….