Friday, December 28, 2007

It was a penny!


The passenger seat on our little convertible has been stuck in a position only meant for petite passengers with little legs such as myself. For some reason, a couple months ago, we weren't able to push the seat back to its normal position. We'd think about checking it out, but ultimately forget once we got home because I was usually the passenger and fit fine. However, when we tried transporting some of our taller friends, it became more of a predicament.

Today, we finally pulled out the flashlight and investigated. And guess what was the cause of all our squishiness? A little tiny penny...mangled beyond belief, but still a once penny, stuck in the seat track.

Be free little penny! And now...taller friends, you may ride with us again.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Holiday with friends

Holiday with friends

Holiday with friends

Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same.
-- Anonymous

Monday, December 24, 2007

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays from our family to yours!

Monday, December 17, 2007

Time to do nothing, plan nothing

I am going on a 6 week leave from work. It has been quite a long trek. My personality is to always be on top of everything, to always have a plan, and to go-go-go. Even my awesome vacations and trips, are full of activities and fun (not complaining!). I'm tired. I'd like to learn how to do nothing.

Everyone keeps asking what I am planning to do. Travel? Take a class? Visit people?

Maybe a little bit of everything. I want to learn to be better at photography. I want to sleep. I want to learn to cook more dishes. I want to scrapbook. Or maybe nothing.

My plan? My plan is to plan nothing. If at the end of this 6 weeks I can say that I have done nothing and planned nothing, I will have succeeded in my goal for this time.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

White Elephant Holiday Game Night

We had a little Holiday Party/White Elephant/Game Night game night on Friday night. We lit a fire in our fireplace for the first time, got out the food, and gathered some of our closest friends for some fun and laughter. It was a great time having our friends from all areas of our lives come together.



White Elephant Game Night

We had a great time playing some crazy group games...and even ended up singing and acting out clues. Then of course...the white elephant. The best gifts? Probably the giant remote control, the Google Dog Calendar, and the toilet seat cover.

We also celebrated Bertrand's upcoming birthday!

Happy Birthday Bertrand!

Friday, December 14, 2007

Kooza!

We went to see Kooza - Cirque Du Soleil in San Francisco last night. It was a great show and amazing as all the Cirque Du Soleil shows are.

We've seen quite a few of these shows and this was the first one I have ever been to where there were actual accidents and mishaps during the show of daring acts. Usually...there are close calls, which help lead to the excitement of the amazing things the performers can do, but not actual accidents.

In last night's show, there wasn't just one mishap...there were several! Luckily all the performers were able to recover or repeat and seemed to be fine. In the tight rope act, one man jumped over another one on the rope. He didn't quite land right and missed the tiny rope and fell only to save himself by grabbing onto the rope and then pulling himself back up - sans his hat. In the acrobatic act with the seesaw-trampoline type thing...there were two men, one standing on the other's shoulders, and a third was going to jump on top of those two. He missed and ended up knocking the top guy in the head, getting caught by one foot, then hanging upside down until others came to rescue him. My nerves were totally shot.

Despite how much I did enjoyed the show, Ka is still my all time favorite Cirque show with O following closely behind.

Can't wait to make our next Vegas trip to catch a couple more...

Thursday, December 13, 2007

white elephant

While debating with a friend at work about the rules of a White Elephant gift exchange, another coworker walked by.
Me: Hey...tell me what a "white elephant" gift exchange means to you....
Coworker: What?!? There is such a thing as a white elephant???
Me: Hmm...nevermind.

Traffic sux

This was my view for most of my ride into work today. I missed the shuttle so had to drive into work (only to miss my meeting anyways). At least I had some good Christmas music to keep me company all those hours...

Monday, December 10, 2007

life is random

Amongst the flood of emails I receive daily, last week I noticed a familiar name float by on a misc mailing list we have at work. I thought it might be the name of my brother's childhood friend who grew up on our street when we were kids. This morning I looked him up and his face looked familiar...so I emailed him asking him if he'd grown up in our hometown and on our little street. And whaddya know? It was him! The last time I have spoken to him was probably when he was 6 years old....and now we are coworkers!

Christmas tradition

Bertrand proposed to me under the big Christmas tree at "Christmas in the Park"in downtown San Jose a few years ago. Since then, we have made it a tradition to go back every year to enjoy the trees and lights, and to take a picture in front of the same tree.
Pre-proposal Merry Christmas

At the "proposal" tree Christmas in the Park
Please tell me we haven't aged too much over the past 4 years.... :)

Friday, December 07, 2007

My boys, the celebrities

One is not enough Prepmeister

Toby & Max are becoming little dog celebrities.

Google had a little competition for photos for the "Google Dog Calendar". Max won and became "Mr. February". Little did I know, when I went to check out the prototype for the calendar, that Toby got an honorable mention and is one of the dogs on the cover!

If I couldn't be more excited and proud already...

A couple of months ago, I shot a video of Max stripping off his t-shirt. I submitted this to America's Funniest Home Videos. This morning, I got an email from the show saying that Max was being considered to be aired on their show!

What's next? The movies?

Saturday, December 01, 2007

Max's 1st Birthday

Today is Max's 1st Birthday. He had a little impromptu ice cream party to celebrate his big day.

Birthday boy

Birthday Boy

Family

Ice Cream Sundaes

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Crazy long weekend

What an exciting full long weekend this has been!

After lots of family time, food, and giving thanks on Thursday, I woke up at 4:30am to join the other crazy Americans for black friday. We were out the door and at the stores by 5am. By now, I've got the technique and strategy down that it was relatively painless and most of my shopping was done by 10:30am. All I can really say about it is...some people should stay in bed and get a little more sleep before they deal with other people. Common courtesy people, common courtesy.

After a nice nap and leftovers, I couldn't contain my excitement and asked Bertrand to start pulling out our Christmas decorations so I could put them up around the house. It started off as pulling out some boxes, then putting up a couple of things, then exploded into the tree being up and decorated and the garland/lights hung. It's okay. I have accepted it and embrace it. Let the season begin!

The rest of the weekend went from going to see the "So You Think You Can Dance" tour and seeing how amazing those guys can move their bodies, to watching the sold out game between the San Jose Sharks and the LA Kings, to relaxing on the couch reading through magazines.

Sharks vs. Kings

Zamboni & Sharks!

I also took tomorrow off from work so I can have just one more day of relaxing before going back to the grind. Thankful indeed.

Thanksgiving 2007

My Turkey!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving

Family

We had another wonderful blessed and cozy Thanksgiving. Good food, good company...and more good food. What could be better?

There is so much to be thankful for and I thank God for all that he has given me.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Washington D.C.

Washington D.C. is a great city. I've always known that there were plenty of things to see in D.C. but did not realize the size of the city and how much history is actually packed all in that one area.

Our trip was filled with lots of funny and eventful moments. We got to see so many of our nation's monuments, history, and museums.

Washington Monument

Some of the sites we visited...

The Lincoln Memorial
Lincoln Memorial

The Washington Monument
Washington Monument

Walked along the paths in the National Mall.
National Mall

Were incredibly moved by the Holocaust Museum.
Holocaust Museum

The World War II Memorial
Bertrand

Washington D.C.

The Vietnam Veterans War Memorial
Vietnam Veterans Memorial

The Korean War Memorial
Korean War Veterans Memorial

The Capitol
Capitol

The Arlington Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery

The White House
The White House

Arlington National Cemetery

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Googlers deliver babies too

Not only do Googlers create, maintain and run some of the most innovative products in the world...we also deliver babies.
One day last month, Matthew, a software engineer in our Seattle/Kirkland office, arrived at work as usual. As he got to his desk, he learned that his expectant colleague Min was home sick. He thought this was strange, since she seemed fine the day before and her baby wasn't due for another 17 days. He sent her an email to make sure everything was okay. Min responded that she thought she might be experiencing contractions, but that everything was fine. Fifteen minutes later, he got a second message: Please come help me get to the hospital right away. Matthew rushed over and had barely backed out of the driveway when Min managed to say, "The baby's out." He picked up the little bundle in his right hand and declared, "It's a boy," and gave him to her to hold. An ambulance arrived on the scene seconds later. And just like that, Min and her husband became the proud parents of Andy.
The part where she just says, "the baby's out" is cracking me up. haha. Seriously? :)

I walked to the Pentagon

sort of.


The Arlington National Cemetery is 624 acres big. They had a shuttle bus which took visitors to the various points of interest in the cemetery. Once we arrived via the metro, we decided to walk the paths to the points of interest rather than take the shuttle bus. It was incredibly moving to visit the sites of those who have so faithfully served our country. The walk between the sites seemed to go quickly because there was so much to see and take in. We ended our tour at the "Tomb of the Unknowns" which is about halfway in to the cemetery. Since we had finished our visit of the National Cemetery, Bertrand pulled out the map to decide the best way we could reach our next destination...The Pentagon. According to the map, The Pentagon was on the other side of the Arlington National Cemetery, which since we were halfway, was about the same distance away as walking back to the metro. So he proposed we walk directly to The Pentagon instead. I reluctantly agreed and we began our trek walking opposite the direction of all the tourists and visitor signs in the cold. We walked and we walked and we walked. As we got closer, he would point out to me that we were "almost there" and give a little "hang in there". We got to the edge of the cemetery and I was so excited that we had made it....only to realize that we had reached a fence, and on the other side of that fence, a freeway.

So we turned around and walked all the way back.

Not exactly a "romantic" walk wandering through a cemetery. Oh well, at least we got some exercise.

Monday, November 19, 2007

To the moon

Overheard between a mother and daughter while touring the National Air & Space Museum.
Mom: See? Back then when they came back from the moon, they'd land in the water and we had to go pick them up. Now they land...actually, we haven't been to the moon in a long time.

Daughter: I've never been to the moon.

Mom: No, not us. Mankind.

Friday, November 16, 2007

My most prized possesions...in an emergency

We came back to the hotel to rest after our busy day of exploring D.C. While relaxing on the couches, the emergency alarm suddenly went off. It took us both a second to realize what was happening when I stood up and said, "Let's go!". Bertrand looked at me thinking something happened to my computer while I was playing on it. Then we both said, "Oh my goodness! This is real." A voice came over the intercom saying an emergency was reported and all the guests needed to evacuate using the stairs and to avoid the elevator. We grabbed what we could within the few seconds we had, and joined the rest of the guests going down the 7 flights of stairs. Once we got outside, the hotel staff let us know that we could all go back up to our rooms. Some of the folks throwing an event in the reception hall were burning something and couldn't get it out of the room before all the alarms went off.

What would you grab if you only had a few seconds to evacuate your hotel room not knowing if you'd be coming back? Me? I grabbed my laptop, cameras, phone, and unknowingly....sunglasses, oh yes, and my husband. I guess in those few seconds I had to react, I just grabbed my sunglasses automatically without even realizing it. Once we were standing outside in the cold, I looked down and realized I had hooked them onto my shirt.

So if the hotel went up in flames or exploded from some bomb...at least I know my eyes are protected.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Scrabble & Rain in DC

Scrabble!Hello from Washington D.C.!

Bertrand and I randomly entered some promotion from Dockers several months ago, bought a bunch of Dockers products, and got 2 free round trip tickets to Washington D.C. So...here we are!

Since I was inspired by Debbie & her mom's game of Scrabble...I brought our travel Scrabble along for our plane ride over to the east coast. It made the flight go quickly and helped us forget about the worries back at home for a bit. It was an intense game that started off with a huge gap when my first word was "belonged" using up all my letters, but then came down to the wire as the captain announced that we were on our descent and would need to put our things away. I ended up winning by 1 point and really...only because the plane was landing, but I don't care...I still won! Bertrand managed to connect a big chunk of words together with one letter, and our controversial word of the day was "beader"....you know...a person who beads. ;)

Soaked in D.C.

We woke up this morning to an incredibly cold and rainy day in our nation's capitol. Bertrand somehow managed to convince me that we should walk all the way down to the mall to see the monuments rather than take a cab or the metro. He in return was accompanied by a whining girl with blue fingers (forgot my gloves!) and pants soaked to her knees. This "brisk" walk ended up being a mile and a half...and oddly enough...we were the only people walking around in the pouring rain. All these other people obviously have a little more common sense.

It's our first day here...and we've managed to already see:
  • The Lincoln Memorial
  • Washington Monument
  • Vietnam Veterans War Memorial
  • Korean War Veterans Memorial
  • Holocaust Museum
  • Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Please send rain boots & mittens!

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Most anti-climactic news interview ever

Listening to the local news radio in the car
Newsman: And now we bring you to the breaking news story. Beaches are being closed due the oil spill from the container ship that hit the Bay Bridge today and we are here with a city representative. Sir, can you tell us what is happening.

City dude: Yes, the beaches are being closed due to the oil spills.

Newsman: And can you tell us why the beaches are closing.

City dude: Well, there is oil on the beach.

Newsman: And is there a particular concern to oil being on the beach.

City dude: Yes...well there is oil coming up on the beach and on the rocks.
And there you have it ladies and gentleman.

Odd Puppy Proposal?

Max was basically asked to father some puppies today. After work today, we took Max for a little walk through a park in Mountain View. We ran into a man with a little Yorkshire Terrier dog. Max and the little dog greeted each other with the usual sniffing and tail wagging. Since Max is half Yorkie, he and this little girl doggy had similar features aside from the fact that she was much smaller than him and his schnauzerish features like the mini beard. The man got extremely excited to see Max and immediately started evaluating him. "Please tell me he's a boy", "He's got the right coloring!", "His ears! He has the right ears", and "What a cute couple you two make". At first we thought he was just trying to compliment our dog's features and his cuteness, until he started telling us about how his dog was "in heat". Actually...he told us this several times. He also mentioned how he had given her a bath, how it was okay when they were sniffing each other and again...that she was in heat and how perfect his coloring was. The "go ahead" was a bit odd also.

But the kicker was probably when he found out that Max was about 11 months old and said, "It's okay...she is very experienced." What does that even mean??

So we excused ourselves and continued on our walk. I probably should have told the man that Max is fixed. :)

Monday, November 05, 2007

Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett & Me
I met Tony Bennett today. He came to visit Google, give a little talk, and he even sang some songs for us. I knew that he would be visiting and was so bummed I would be missing his visit because I had a meeting at the very same time. I was fortunate enough that Tine saved me a seat and after running over to the cafe after my meeting, was able to catch him singing a few songs for us. He was amazing. What an awesome voice and command of the crowd. Everyone was smiling and leaning forward in awe of his presence. Once the show was over, I rushed back to all the work that was waiting for me. After stopping to talk about an issue with a colleague, I walked outside of my building and who was walking down the path towards me....but him, Mr. Tony Bennett.

He is such a sweet gentleman. Is it wrong to have a crush on an 81 year old man?

Dodged another bullet

I changed my last name a couple of years ago when I got married. I also moved to a new house about 6 months ago. Apparently I forgot to inform the county about both of these changes. When some of my mail is sent to my old address, the post office forwards it to my new address...this takes several days (or longer?). Today after work, I went through my mail that arrived today and there was a forwarded letter from the county calling me in for jury duty. Aw man. Jury duty? I opened up the letter to read the date that I have to report...which was...today. Oops! I called the automated line, entered in my juror number and waited wondering what will happen now since I completely missed another call of jury duty. To my surprise and relief, the automated system told me I had fulfilled my jury duty and am excused for another year!

Phew! Looks like next year I won't be able to get out of it again. I promise I'll be good and ready next year.

Sunday, November 04, 2007

d.s.t. schmee-est-tee

This time change is screwing with my head. Despite the extra hour of sleep, I have been walking around like a zombie. And rather than just "falling back" in time, I'd rather just fall back into bed.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Monday, October 29, 2007

fall & family

My cousins Christina & Brad flew up from Southern California to spend the weekend with us. It was great fun getting to spend time together, be silly, and have a good time.

family

After a huge brunch and some time shopping at the Nordstrom rack, we headed to the local Wente Vineyards for some wine tasting and a tour of the estate to see how the wine is made there.

wine grapes

We loved it!

We loved it!

We played a bunch of wii. Despite Christina's lack of any sort of technique, she managed (to our surprise), to beat all of us at boxing and became the Undefeated Champ.

Undefeated Boxing Champ!


To celebrate the fact that it's fall, we went to a Corn Maze and got lost amongst all the stalks of corns.

In the jungle

And in between all of that, we ate a lot, slept a lot, and caught up on old times. Such fun.

Thanks for coming up to hang out with us!