Bike Commute!

I got new inner tubes for my bike yesterday and today I rode my bike to work! It was pretty easy, even though I haven't been on a bike in more than a year. I think it was also faster than the lazy bus/metro/walk route that I would usually take. yay bike!

If I ride it a lot this year, then next year, I might get a cooler bike.

Thanks, work, for sponsoring this trip to CA

I had an awesome vacation in California. Work shouldn't let me go on long vacations to CA because then I want to run away to there and live in the wonderful sunshine. As usual, after finishing the vacation I don't feel like I have the energy to describe it, but I'll make an effort, even though it's mostly a list:

Saturday - I flew out at the crack of dawn. Stupid US Air was having significant computer problems so I had to run to my flight that was leaving at 7am even though I arrived at the airport before 6. Even kiddie vitamins apparently can upset my stomach if I'm up early and don't eat anything. I got to learn some sympathy for people who get airsick during the flight to Phoenix. I felt fine for the second leg of the flight and by the time I met up with Andy in San Diego, I felt normal. We went out to Balboa park and took some fun pictures of pretty plants and natural history. I made Andy stand in the sunshine and watch stupid funny jugglers.

Sunday - A marvelously action-packed day that got started with drooling over stupid-expensive cookware at the Le Crueset outlet store. I don't need any more pans... but they are pretty and shiny... and pretty ... and shiny. Then we went to a stealth brewery where the food descriptions tasted better in my head than the food did. The room was amazing and I'd be happy to go back there, but it would be nicer if they had less fancy food done better. Then, we were most of the way to the Wild Animal Park!! So we went and watched pregnant elephants lumber around for a while and then squinted at giraffes. There was a super huge line to ride the train around, so I'll have to go back again some other day to be on a pretend safari. Also, next time I have to remember not to rub waterproof sunscreen into my eye during brunch. Apparently it takes many many hours of watery squinting for my eyes to be happy again. After Wild Animal Park, we went up to Temecula to have port in a chocolate shot glass which I remembered as being slightly better than it was, but I was very happy to have gotten to go back there. Then Andy (graciously and kindly) drove me all the way up to my parents house through the evil freeway terror of Riverside.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday - I lazed around my parents house. There was much sleeping. The cats were happy to see me, and I was happy to be in the sunshine. I ate two Rosa Maria's burritos, which are some of my favorite food in the world. Here are some pictures of me and Fatso (the cat) enjoying the sunshine, and some flowers in my parents backyard:

Thursday - I took the train to meet up with my friend on the other side of LA. We road-tripped up to the fancy hotel in Pebble Beach with a stop in Santa Barbara for lunch on the pier. Surprisingly, there was a small whale splashing around in the harbor! I hope it went further out to sea eventually. I really enjoyed riding up PCH with her, but it got dark before we got to Big Sur, so it was a little scary riding around all those curves and cliffs in the dark. The hotel was truly amazing. We had a fireplace in the room!  

Friday - I had a day of official meetings that were the main reason work paid for my flight out to CA. It wasn't too bad, and my friend and I were able to go over to The Inn at Spanish Bay to watch the sunset bagpiper. I was surprised at how enjoyable I found it to sit in the evening sun listening to the distant bagpiper watching the sun go down. I'm sure that the Raspberry Lemon Drop martini had nothing to do with it :) Friday night was a big fancy dinner with lots and lots of drinking. At the dinner they announced a special award to two employees who had made a difference in our corporate community work, and I was one of them! Yay big check! Part of it is totally going towards my new and exciting mortgage. Then I ended up staying out with some coworkers until 3am. Good bonding time, and lots of fun.

Saturday - After staying up late, it was very satisfying to show up to the morning meeting at 7am bright and perky and to giggle to myself at the people groaning and holding their heads with hangovers. Meetings got out at noon, so we had lots of time to go sightseeing around the peninsula. I maxed out on social time sometime in the afternoon and greatly enjoyed sitting in the lounge on my own with a tasty cappuccino and chocolate/pistachio biscotti. For dinner, a lot of my coworkers met us over at the bagpiper hotel for drinks and outdoor fireplace-time. It was very very nice to have so many people come over to hang out with me; I just told where I was going and then left them to decide what they wanted to do, and apparently, seeing the bagpiper beat out sitting on their own, or coming up with something else. It was not a late night; I was pretty exhausted by 10.

Sunday - I took a shuttle from Monterey up to the Bay Area to meet up with Rachel. It was great to catch up, cuddle her cats and to get In-N-Out for dinner.

Monday - I entertained myself joyfully with a Tivo and some Gilmore Girls for the morning, and then we went out in the afternoon to walk around SF for a while. Golden Gate park was pretty even though it was cloudy and the Haight was very satisfyingly San Franciscan. Then to Berkeley for my favorite deep dish pizza. mmm i love food.

Tuesday - I almost missed my connection in Phoenix, but thankfully only had to go over a few gates. Other than that, it was a nice, uneventful trip home. Now I'm home and still worn out from all that vacationing.

I guess that wasn't such a brief summary. Now I'll probably not update this thing for another few months :)

Except to be joyful about figuring out how to set up a git server (versioning control system) at work and how to instruct other people how to work with it. go me!