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.

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

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.

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.

Some of the sites we visited...

The Lincoln Memorial

The Washington Monument

Walked along the paths in the National Mall.

Were incredibly moved by the Holocaust Museum.

The World War II Memorial

The Vietnam Veterans War Memorial

The Korean War Memorial

The Capitol

The Arlington Cemetery

The White House

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.

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.

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.

Scrabble & Rain in DC

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. ;)

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!

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. :)

Tony Bennett

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.

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.