crunchie

One of my coworkers from London cane through and brought me Crunchie bars! Haven't had one in years, but I was kind of obsessed with them in college, so this is exciting.

balloons

Stayed with a few of the engineers at the office until 10 last night preparing this birthday surprise for one of our coworkers. It's a network of long, skinny balloons interwoven with round balloons (with glitter confetti inside to discourage popping), all tied to her desk. No helium involved, there are just so many balloons that they stay packed together. Add in some little exploding poppers in her chair, a silly cake during our weekly meeting, and I think her birthday counts as celebrated. Definitely the most fun reason I've had to stay late at work.

thingy

When I went to get lunch yesterday with a couple of coworkers (and the student I interviewed who got into Harvard, and happens to be interning here this summer), we went to a building that has a receptionist, which also meant that I was able to get a replacement badge holder thingy. My last one broke a week ago, and it was driving me crazy.

yesterday

I got to meet an author, get a signed copy of his latest book, and eat lunch with him and some other cool people. The funny thing is that he was probably just as happy, because he got to talk to folks from NY team, and try out Glass and the self-driving car.

perk

Not sure which was the best part of the day: getting a Nexus 7, lobster rolls, sushi, table massage, or spending three hours after work executing an elaborate prank.

hard knock life

This is a tough decision I'm facing at work: go to see The Dark Knight Rises tomorrow at 11 a.m. with the Patents team, or go at 7 p.m. with the Glass team. Or both?

edin-burra

So far, we've booked tickets to three comedy shows in Edinburgh (and flagged half a dozen other events that look interesting), and bought tickets to the World Pipe Band Championships (which also includes the Highland Games) in Glasgow.

Also, we'll get to meet up with two of my friends while we're in Edinburgh.

day three

Today is Day 3 of my attempt to be more active. On Tuesday, I did some cardio at the gym at work. Yesterday morning, I did a quick at-home routine that I found on YouTube, and I'm still sore from that (so either I am completely out of shape, or the exercises were actually pretty tough). I plan on doing more cardio today.

brush with fame

All kinds of people reach out to meet my awesome teammates. I am coordinating a visit from an author, and perhaps one from an actor, as well.

fitter happier?

I bought some workout clothes today. I think I may be committing myself to some active effort to lose the extra pounds, which would be a good thing.

haha

Meeting up with a college friend on our Scotland trip, and catching three comedy shows together!

so sorry

Not legible in this picture, but just spotted on a banner being pulled by a plane: "In case you forgot, I'm still sorry."

something fishy

I forgot that Wednesday is sushi day!

me too

One of the engineers invited me to paintball last week. I got back from vacation today to find one of the more impressive pranks I've seen (coworker turned my desk into a lawn). This week, there's poker night with some of the team, and some other people are getting drinks up in the city. Had lunch today and discussed nerdy cartoons from the 80s. I may not make it to all of the events, but it's good to know that people on the team feel like including me in random things. I think I'm settling in.

trip prep

In somewhat premature preparation for our upcoming trip to Iceland and Scotland, I've started browsing around and downloading Kindle books -- I've picked eleven so far, but since the trip is almost four weeks away, and I only have about six library books lined up for that time period, I'll probably read a few of the books I bought today before we even leave (which will be an excuse to download even more!). I got behind in my reading in the month leading up to I/O, so I'm determined to do some catching up on vacation, and still hope to make it to 150 again this year.

visitor

Had a good friend from my brief law firm days in town for five days, and we packed a lot in:

• soup dumplings (at a place Boyfriend and I hadn't tried before, and were very pleased to find was quite good, since the place we used to go to changed owners)
• Japanese Garden
• Golden Gate Park
• Golden Gate Bridge and Crissy Field (clearest day I've ever seen in the city -- we could see the bridge, the bay, and Sausalito without a cloud in the sky or a trace of fog on the ground)
• The Haight
• The Castro (complete with middle-aged gay nudist men)
• Mexican food (not my favorite, but Boyfriend was pleased to get to go to a Mexican restaurant for once)
• Napa and Sonoma, including seven wine tastings (I was the designated driver, but she enjoyed the wine and bought a bunch -- I was even able to leave a few cards for complimentary tastings for a coworker who was coming up to Sonoma just as we were leaving) and dinner at Cyrus (the waiter was kind enough to send a little something back with me for Boyfriend when he learned that Boyfriend was staying home to watch the dogs); perfect weather all around
• Tour of Google
• Japanese grill
• Brunch
• A short hike at Half Moon Bay

It was good to catch up with her for the first time in a few years, and to really get away from work for the first time since I started working full time with my group.

check out

Why, yes, we are taking a trip soon, how did you know?

ging gong

Calamansi juice at Whole Foods, which takes me back to our idyllic vacation to Palau and Yap two years ago...