Keith, LaDawn, Brent and I had a great time at my boss' holiday party last night. Her parties are always amazing and this year was better than ever. There was real snow in the front yard, an ice rink in the back yard and her new movie theater in the basement (complete with a full candy stand and popcorn!). Not to mention fantastic food and lots of friends. Check out some of the photos of the festivities below. Double click on the album to see larger photos and to see the video of the ice rink at the end.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
California December
I love California. I love that even in December you can spend an entire weekend outdoors enjoying the sunshine. Last weekend Keith's friend, Neil, was visiting so we spent a lot of time together in the city. We did a lot of walking, talking, eating and touring. We even took a boat ride around the Bay and under the bridge. Keith and I also go to a 49ers game in Candlestick park. We had a great weekend! Wish you all were here to enjoy it with us! (click on the photo below to see the whole album)
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| From Neil weekend |
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Thanksgiving
We had a great time enjoying our all pie Thanksgiving at LaDawn & Brent's place. It was super fun to have Erin here to visit. Here are some photos of the holiday. I wish I got some photos the Wii matches between courses of pie. We had a great time. :) (Click on the album below to see all the pictures.)
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| From Thanksgiving 2008 |
Sunday, November 16, 2008
My new haircut
I finally cut my hair after months of talking about doing it. I hadn't planned on going super short, but my stylist insisted that this cut would look great on me so I went for it. I really like it. People I don't even know are commenting on this cut constantly. It seems like everyone has an opinion. This happens every time I cut my long hair short. The weird thing is that people keep describing it as short and "sassy". I think sassy is the last word I would use to describe myself. One engineer at work (with admittedly little social skills) told me that this cut makes me look 12 years old. Another engineer reacted by yelling "what did you do?!?!" in the cafe at lunch. A girl in the restroom looked at me and said, "wow, it must have been so hard for you to do that to your hair". I don't know how to react to these comments. Good think I like the cut. Otherwise I would have freaked out by now.
Mom's 50th Birthday Bash
I am back to blogging! Woo hoo! I finally paid to increase my storage space and can now share 10 more gigs of photos. I would like to commemorate this with photos from our trip home to surprise Mom for her birthday. I miss you guys and am so, so glad we got to see each other. That was so fun. I promise that my blogging famine is over and I'll start sharing more photos than you care to see. :) Love you all!
Fashion Week
I do a lot of crazy and cool things for my job but I have to say that working at Fashion Week in New York is my new favorite - and will probably stay that way for a while. I worked 3 3-hour shifts a day promoting the fashion skins on iGoogle. The real perk was that I then got to go to three huge fashion shows and people watch a celebrities walk by all day. I got to see fashions shows by Michael Kors, Anna Sui and Zac Posen. HUGE. I was a real "pinch me" moment.
Blogger is being dumb and won't let me upload the photos now. I'll try again soon...
Blogger is being dumb and won't let me upload the photos now. I'll try again soon...
US Open in New York
I go to New York for work pretty often now but I finally got to go and have some fun. Keith and I went to watch the US Open in New York a few months ago and had a great time watching Roger Federer win the title. We had to wait an extra day for the match because of a huge rainstorm that came through but the match was really fun and the sun came back in full force.
We also visited Central Park and ate some great food. It was a wonderful weekend away.
We also visited Central Park and ate some great food. It was a wonderful weekend away.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Hangin' with the Idols
As Brent mentioned on his blog we went to the American Idol concert in San Jose on Tuesday as personal guests of the show's producer. We had a great time at the concert and backstage afterward meeting all the Idols. Here is a picture of me with Michael Johns (left) and American Idol winner David Cook (right) backstage after the concert. I have a lot more pictures, but can't upload them now because Goog tells me I've hit my upload limit. Who knew I've uploaded a gig of pictures already?! I'll go harass a colleague now and try to get more space. In the meantime, you can enjoy Brent's pictures from the night. We had a blast! :)
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(Yes, I am so geeky that I wore my work badge at the concert, backstage and in this picture with rock stars. I'm hopeless.)
Monday, June 23, 2008
Norway and Frankfurt
I just landed back in SF a few hours ago after an unexpected delay and overnight stay in Frankfurt. I'm tired now and will try to type up a few stories not captured in the pictures here. For now, here is a preview:
Monday, June 16, 2008
Beijing
I am in St Petersburg now, I thought it was about time that I post the pictures from Beijing! I'll post the pictures from Russia in another day or two (likely once I get to Norway). Miss you guys!
Monday, June 09, 2008
Tokyo!
We're flying from Tokyo to Beijing tonight. Here are some of the cool things we've seen and done over the past 4 days here in Tokyo. To see larger pictures click on the slide show below.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Beautiful Brazil
In my posting below you will find more pictures than you probably care to see and here is a summary (probably longer than you care to read) of the stories behind the pictures. It was a great, and adventurous, vacation.
Our trip went flawlessly except for the flights. On the way there our flight to Miami was delayed by an hour and a half so we had to run from the gate across the airport to the flight from Miami to Rio. We barely made the flight but, as we suspected, our bags didn't make it on to the plane. We arrived in Rio on Saturday afternoon (the day before Easter) so we were pretty sure that we wouldn't see our bags until Monday after the holiday. I spent most of Saturday sweating to death in my jeans and tennis shoes until I finally broke down and bought a bathing suit and sandals so that I could go to the beach without risking heat stroke. My whiteness was shocking, but felt better than jeans. :) We were shocked when our bags arrived on Easter and very happy. We spent some time walking around Rio and talking with Joseph, and Miriam, who arrived the week before us. They helped us find a good place to eat and gave us a little tour. Our first meal in Brazil was pizza, which they cut into tiny squares instead of slices. For most of the rest of our trip I ate rice and beans and fruit platters. The pineapple and bananas in Brazil are my favorites. Yum! We spent a few days in Rio playing at the beaches in Copacabana and Ipanema. The weather was nice and warm and I got a burn on my shoulders the first day that we were there since my sunscreen was lost with my bags. I was pretty vigilant with the sunblock after that and that was my only real burn. We went to the Botanical Gardens in Rio and got to see a small waterfall, lots of beautiful, Amazon vegetation, a group of tiny monkeys playing in the trees and an orchid greenhouse. The Botanical Garden also had a great view of the Redeemer statue up on Corcovado mountain overlooking the city. We went there next. The only problem with this plan was that while we were in the gardens the weather was sunny and clear and hot. All that changed as we made our way up Corcovado. We drove over to take the train up the hill and the clouds rolled in. The train ride was fun and we got to see great views of the city as it disappeared behind the clouds. We also rode through some slightly scary favelas on our way to the top. Once we reached the top the entire mountain was deep in a cloud. We were standing only about 15 feet from the Redeemer statue (which is enormous!) and would could barely make out the outline. We stayed up there as long as we could until it was getting dark and we were freezing. The clouds gave way a few times so that we could see the statue and a bit of the amazing views of Rio and the ocean below.
After a few days we took a two hour bus ride down to Angra and then took an hour and a half boat ride to Ilha Grande. The boat ride was a comedy of errors. It started raining hard when we arrived at the boat. The boat was like a sailboat that had been fitted with a big motor so there was no roof (only a tarp) and no side walls so water started splashing everywhere. We couldn't sit on the sides of the boat (because of all the water pouring in) so we had to all crowd in the middle. Keith stood for the full trip (almost 2 hours) and I sat on a stack of beer six packs trying to hold our bags up so they wouldn't get wet. Not the most glamorous moment of our trip. :) Once we arrived on the island we found our hotels and then got some food. Our hotel was really cute (yes, by that I mean small!) and we had our own balcony with a hammock overlooking the harbor. I feel asleep in the hammock listening to the sounds of the ocean waves. Heaven. At 3:30 am we were woken up by two screaming kids in the room next door. I don't mean screaming as in crying. I mean loudly yelling at their mom for something and not taking no for an answer. The next night we switched hotels. :) On our first full day on Ilha Grande we took a boat out to the famous beach Lopes Mendes. The boat ride was about 40 minutes and on the way we saw a huge pod of dolphins (probably 40 or 50) swimming along side our boat. It was amazing. The boat crew said they had never seen that many dolphins at once before. The weather wasn't great that day so the dolphins were really the highlight. Once we arrived on the other side of the island we hiked for about 10-15 minutes along the beach and through the trees to get to the famous beach. Along the trail we saw some monkeys playing in the trees. On our way back on that trail Keith and I saw a black snake - about 4 feel long. I did my best to stifle my screams so that Miriam wouldn't freak out and make Joseph carry her the rest of the way. :) The beach was very nice and secluded but because it was cloudy we didn't get to see the amazing colors in the ocean water for which it's famous. But I've seen pictures of the color of the water, so I got the idea. haha. Keith and Joseph spent a lot of time body surfing. The tide was pretty strong so I only lasted a little while in the water. The second day on the island was my favorite day of the trip. We took another boat tour which took us to 3 spots around the island. The weather was sunny, clear and hot. Perfect for snorkeling. We first went to a lagoon where the water was clear and we got to see lots of colorful fish. The second spot had less fish so I spent most of the time on the beach soaking in some sun with Miriam and my book. At the third spot we had lunch on the beach of beans and rice which we enjoyed until we noticed that there way more than one half-dead ant in our food.
We took a ferry back to the mainland instead of riding a ghetto sailboat again - definitely a good call! Joseph and Miriam stayed back in Angra (her home town) with her mom and Keith and I took a shuttle back to Rio. That was a crazy ride. The driver reminded me of Kramer from Seinfeld. He talked really loud on his cell while driving, swerved all over the freeway (not too unusual for Brazil), stopped unannounced for a hamburger and gas only 10 minutes down the road, and at one point stopped to dunk his head in water (I can only assume it was the windshield cleaning water - gross!) because he was feeling tired at dozing off. We were just glad to get back to Rio alive. He dropped us off on the side of the road about 3 blocks from our hotel - but I just wanted to get out of there so I didn't argue.
Keith and I really enjoyed our time back in Rio relaxing at the beach and staying in a nice hotel for the last two days (our other hotels were pretty basic). We had a great time and took lots of pictures. It was wonderful! On our last day in Rio (Saturday) I woke up to Keith telling me he had been sick all night with a serious sinus infection and that he wasn't sure he'd be able to fly home in that condition. Luckily the hotel was able to connect us with a local doctor who was able to see Keith that morning - even though it was a Saturday - at his clinic. We had a great experience with Brazilian health care. We only waited about 5 minutes to see the doctor and then walked across the street to the pharmacy and got the prescribed medications with no waiting. In all it cost us about $150-$200 for the visit and the 3 medications. Not bad! Try getting that in America without insurance. :) The medications were really effective and we enjoyed our last day of relaxing by the pool before heading to the airport.
Our flight from Rio to Miama went well and I even got some sleep. The real problem was in Texas where we sat on the plane at the gate for over an hour before they announced that there was a mechanical problem and that our flight was canceled and we'd all have to be put on stand by for flights leaving the next day. Ugh. I think we spent about 10 hours in the Dallas airport total. It's nice, but not that nice. When we finally got home - some 30+ hours after we left Rio - one of Keith's bags were missing. We didn't have the energy to care too much about that. We took an uneventful American cab ride home (using turn signals, and driving between the lines and everything) and fell onto the bed. Keith's last bag arrived at 3:30 am today. We're officially back. :)
Now you have all the details. What an adventure! We're really glad we took this trip. It opened my eyes to the beauty of Brazil, it's culture and it's people. It also made me appreciate my home all that much more.
Our trip went flawlessly except for the flights. On the way there our flight to Miami was delayed by an hour and a half so we had to run from the gate across the airport to the flight from Miami to Rio. We barely made the flight but, as we suspected, our bags didn't make it on to the plane. We arrived in Rio on Saturday afternoon (the day before Easter) so we were pretty sure that we wouldn't see our bags until Monday after the holiday. I spent most of Saturday sweating to death in my jeans and tennis shoes until I finally broke down and bought a bathing suit and sandals so that I could go to the beach without risking heat stroke. My whiteness was shocking, but felt better than jeans. :) We were shocked when our bags arrived on Easter and very happy. We spent some time walking around Rio and talking with Joseph, and Miriam, who arrived the week before us. They helped us find a good place to eat and gave us a little tour. Our first meal in Brazil was pizza, which they cut into tiny squares instead of slices. For most of the rest of our trip I ate rice and beans and fruit platters. The pineapple and bananas in Brazil are my favorites. Yum! We spent a few days in Rio playing at the beaches in Copacabana and Ipanema. The weather was nice and warm and I got a burn on my shoulders the first day that we were there since my sunscreen was lost with my bags. I was pretty vigilant with the sunblock after that and that was my only real burn. We went to the Botanical Gardens in Rio and got to see a small waterfall, lots of beautiful, Amazon vegetation, a group of tiny monkeys playing in the trees and an orchid greenhouse. The Botanical Garden also had a great view of the Redeemer statue up on Corcovado mountain overlooking the city. We went there next. The only problem with this plan was that while we were in the gardens the weather was sunny and clear and hot. All that changed as we made our way up Corcovado. We drove over to take the train up the hill and the clouds rolled in. The train ride was fun and we got to see great views of the city as it disappeared behind the clouds. We also rode through some slightly scary favelas on our way to the top. Once we reached the top the entire mountain was deep in a cloud. We were standing only about 15 feet from the Redeemer statue (which is enormous!) and would could barely make out the outline. We stayed up there as long as we could until it was getting dark and we were freezing. The clouds gave way a few times so that we could see the statue and a bit of the amazing views of Rio and the ocean below.
After a few days we took a two hour bus ride down to Angra and then took an hour and a half boat ride to Ilha Grande. The boat ride was a comedy of errors. It started raining hard when we arrived at the boat. The boat was like a sailboat that had been fitted with a big motor so there was no roof (only a tarp) and no side walls so water started splashing everywhere. We couldn't sit on the sides of the boat (because of all the water pouring in) so we had to all crowd in the middle. Keith stood for the full trip (almost 2 hours) and I sat on a stack of beer six packs trying to hold our bags up so they wouldn't get wet. Not the most glamorous moment of our trip. :) Once we arrived on the island we found our hotels and then got some food. Our hotel was really cute (yes, by that I mean small!) and we had our own balcony with a hammock overlooking the harbor. I feel asleep in the hammock listening to the sounds of the ocean waves. Heaven. At 3:30 am we were woken up by two screaming kids in the room next door. I don't mean screaming as in crying. I mean loudly yelling at their mom for something and not taking no for an answer. The next night we switched hotels. :) On our first full day on Ilha Grande we took a boat out to the famous beach Lopes Mendes. The boat ride was about 40 minutes and on the way we saw a huge pod of dolphins (probably 40 or 50) swimming along side our boat. It was amazing. The boat crew said they had never seen that many dolphins at once before. The weather wasn't great that day so the dolphins were really the highlight. Once we arrived on the other side of the island we hiked for about 10-15 minutes along the beach and through the trees to get to the famous beach. Along the trail we saw some monkeys playing in the trees. On our way back on that trail Keith and I saw a black snake - about 4 feel long. I did my best to stifle my screams so that Miriam wouldn't freak out and make Joseph carry her the rest of the way. :) The beach was very nice and secluded but because it was cloudy we didn't get to see the amazing colors in the ocean water for which it's famous. But I've seen pictures of the color of the water, so I got the idea. haha. Keith and Joseph spent a lot of time body surfing. The tide was pretty strong so I only lasted a little while in the water. The second day on the island was my favorite day of the trip. We took another boat tour which took us to 3 spots around the island. The weather was sunny, clear and hot. Perfect for snorkeling. We first went to a lagoon where the water was clear and we got to see lots of colorful fish. The second spot had less fish so I spent most of the time on the beach soaking in some sun with Miriam and my book. At the third spot we had lunch on the beach of beans and rice which we enjoyed until we noticed that there way more than one half-dead ant in our food.
We took a ferry back to the mainland instead of riding a ghetto sailboat again - definitely a good call! Joseph and Miriam stayed back in Angra (her home town) with her mom and Keith and I took a shuttle back to Rio. That was a crazy ride. The driver reminded me of Kramer from Seinfeld. He talked really loud on his cell while driving, swerved all over the freeway (not too unusual for Brazil), stopped unannounced for a hamburger and gas only 10 minutes down the road, and at one point stopped to dunk his head in water (I can only assume it was the windshield cleaning water - gross!) because he was feeling tired at dozing off. We were just glad to get back to Rio alive. He dropped us off on the side of the road about 3 blocks from our hotel - but I just wanted to get out of there so I didn't argue.
Keith and I really enjoyed our time back in Rio relaxing at the beach and staying in a nice hotel for the last two days (our other hotels were pretty basic). We had a great time and took lots of pictures. It was wonderful! On our last day in Rio (Saturday) I woke up to Keith telling me he had been sick all night with a serious sinus infection and that he wasn't sure he'd be able to fly home in that condition. Luckily the hotel was able to connect us with a local doctor who was able to see Keith that morning - even though it was a Saturday - at his clinic. We had a great experience with Brazilian health care. We only waited about 5 minutes to see the doctor and then walked across the street to the pharmacy and got the prescribed medications with no waiting. In all it cost us about $150-$200 for the visit and the 3 medications. Not bad! Try getting that in America without insurance. :) The medications were really effective and we enjoyed our last day of relaxing by the pool before heading to the airport.
Our flight from Rio to Miama went well and I even got some sleep. The real problem was in Texas where we sat on the plane at the gate for over an hour before they announced that there was a mechanical problem and that our flight was canceled and we'd all have to be put on stand by for flights leaving the next day. Ugh. I think we spent about 10 hours in the Dallas airport total. It's nice, but not that nice. When we finally got home - some 30+ hours after we left Rio - one of Keith's bags were missing. We didn't have the energy to care too much about that. We took an uneventful American cab ride home (using turn signals, and driving between the lines and everything) and fell onto the bed. Keith's last bag arrived at 3:30 am today. We're officially back. :)
Now you have all the details. What an adventure! We're really glad we took this trip. It opened my eyes to the beauty of Brazil, it's culture and it's people. It also made me appreciate my home all that much more.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Brazil
Hey everyone! We made it back from Brazil and had a great time! We had terrible times with our flights (lost bags to and from) and it took 18 hours to get there and 30 hours to get back (with an LONG unexpected delay in Texas when our flight to Oakland was canceled). But we're back now and still waiting for Keith's last bag to show up. We had a great time while in Brazil. Check out the pictures from our trip. Click on the slideshow below for larger pictures and captions. It will be fun to write to Reed about our experiences. We thought about him a lot while we were there. :)
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Kayla's birthday
Here are some of my favorite photos from our weekend together in Seattle for Kayla's birthday. I wish I had charged my camera earlier in the trip. I'll have to rely on the rest of you for the priceless photos of Kayla's baptism and Grandma playing Wii. Mom - Post the video!! :)
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Disneyland Trip
LaDawn and I just got back from our company trip to Disneyland. We had an amazing time. We flew down to LA on Monday and went to the park all day on Tuesday. And I mean ALL DAY. I got to the park at 9:30 am and stayed until about 1:00 am. First we went to California Adventure and rode the Tower of Terror. That was a big ride to start with since it involves a 13 story drop. :) Then we rode the roller coaster - twice - and California Soaring where you're in a simulated hang glider and zoom up to a wrap around screen and fly over scenes of California (orange groves, surfers on waves, downtown LA, etc). It was fun! I felt like I was flying. My favorite part of Disneyland was Space Mountain. I think I rode it 6 times at least. It was best once the park closed at 8pm and our company was the only people in the park. There were no lines! I mean NO LINES! You could just walk up to any ride and hop on. My favorite picture I took was in front of Space Mountain where the signs says there is a "1 minute wait time". Hahahahaha! :) I don't think I'll ever see that again. I also *loved* the free food (woo hoo!) and the most incredible fireworks show I've ever seen. Enjoy some of my pictures here:
Monday, February 04, 2008
Tahoe Ski Trip
I know I haven't posted in a long time and this is going to make it look like all I've been doing is partying - but believe me that there has been a lot of work behind all of this. Here are some photos of the ski trip I arranged for 700 people on our team. We had a blast. And then I died of exhaustion. Check it out. :)
The Holiday Party
Okay, it's embarrasing to finally post pictures of a holiday party now that it's February... but the party was so fun I want it to be remembered. Check out this album for the highlights.