Scrabulous, You Are Fabulous

I win! I win! I beat the robot by 43 points, without cheating, while drinking eggnog and brandy. Not bad for a girl who can't spell.

Not bad at all.

Old Telephone

Old Telephone, originally uploaded by A Morld of Wonder.

Taking advantage of my day off from work, I took a tour of the Rengstorff House located in Shoreline Park. In this Victorian style house, I found this little beauty of the past decorated with a bow, for Christmas.

Porque Me Gusta Caminar ??

HAPPY NEW YEAR

It is 2008. I know what year it is, yet I still can't believe that this has happened. And, frankly, its making me feel old. I wonder what this year will bring.

Out Door Solar Lights

I have been looking for outdoor lights for my patio ever since Alan and I moved to this apartment, approximately 6 months ago. My little patio needs lights, hanging lights (sort of like Xmas lights), because at night it is really dark in Mountain View. There is no power outlet in my little patio. Therefore, I have been looking for solar lights. There are none. None in the world. The only outdoor solar lights for sale are those that you stick in the ground, not hang.  It seems like a fairly straight forward concept. Why are there none? I'm sure the technology exists. I'm sure people would buy them if they were for sale.

Can you imagine how much electricity would be saved if people used outdoor Christmas lights that were solar? There is a whole untapped market waiting to be exploited. But aside from all the money that could be made, I'm just annoyed that my patio continues to be too dark to hang out in past 4:45 in the winter. Really, its just silly that I can't find any.

UPDATE: 1/01/08

I mean hanging solar lights that work. I got some for Xmas, and they don't work. :(

EggNog

Eggnog is a winter holiday fixture. This christmas we have discovered that Alan does not like it very much (further proof of his alien origins). I love having eggnog during the holidays! En Venezuela it is only sold with alcohol already in it, but for some reason this variation of it is really hard to find in California. Don't let this minor californian defect deter you. Below is my favorite recipe for Eggnog and brandy.

Get a tall glass, half filled with ice cubes

Add one part cheap brandy (you don't want to use the expensive stuff because the flavor of the brandy is masqued by the nog)

Add one part eggnog

Garnish with a dash of nutmeg and cinnamon

Mix all together and enjoy with friends

It is Dark!

Dark and gloomy and rainy. This weather is unacceptable. It is an impediment for outdoor activities that I enjoy, such as walking.

Ba-humbug!

So This is Christmas

And soon the New Year

My bank account empty

My hallacas too spicy to eat without tears

My work starts tomorrow, as if this day of imposed laziness and gluttony were a dream

My presents wonderful, abundant and with cheer

And soon the New Year

With school starting soon

With wars I don't understand

With elections and democracy?

With butterflies in my ear

And soon the New Year

So this one can end

So dignified was it?

So worth the 12 months of effort?

So crazy and changing, demanding and unforgiving

So much happiness it brought to me

So this is Christmas

And soon the New Year

Holiday Party  2007

Part III

Location: LallaPalooza Restaurant-Bar. Monterey, CA

Time Frame: 12/15 Saturday night 5-11 pm.

Food: Restaurant Menu. (From paella to hanger steak.)

Entertainment: Nothing in particular

Number of people: about 60-80

(Company hosting party was Alan's employer)

This is the third time Alan and I have attended this company's holiday party in Monterey, at this exact same venue. Out of all the parties we have attended this holiday season, this one felt the most familiar and cozy. We were pretty sure we knew what to expect when we arrived, and we were prepared to have fun with our friends. 

The food was OK overall: the appetizers included raw oysters and other fried goodies. Alan had the hanger steak, which was excellent. I had the seafood paella, which was OK. The desserts were nothing sensational, but after all the holiday eating I have done so far I wasn't too worried about the dessert platter. I will, however, point out that the cheese cake may or may not have been a little rancid, as this was a topic of conversation towards the end of the evening.

The drink situation was very disappointing. You could buy any drink you liked, since Lallapalooza is a bar. But this is one of those places where you need to know what to order. I didn't know any better and I ordered a lemon drop. Ohh well. The two wines you could choose from with dinner were free, at least initially. They tasted like the residue of fermented sour grape drink, but the merlot was a little less revolting than the shiraz. I found out the hard way that you only got one glass of this "wine" with dinner. When I asked for seconds of the merlot, I was charged 12 dollars. My jaw almost dropped off my face. 

There wasn't really much in terms of entertainment, but I don't think it was necessary anyway. People actually talked and made jokes and had fun enjoying each other's company. After we left the restaurant, we hung out with a small group of people from the party at a nearby bar.  

We arrived home tired and happy. We enjoyed every second of this holiday party. Monterey is a beautiful place full of interesting people, and I can't wait to go back and visit. 

Google Holiday Party 2007
Part II

Location: Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View

Time Frame: 12/08 Saturday night 8:00pm-1:00am

Food: Little things to munch scattered around the rooms.

Entertainment: There were three main rooms. Each room had a theme and a different type of entertainment: There was a DJ in one room, a live band in the next room, and ambient music in the third room. Each room also had a photographer stall, with a background for your pictures. The picture only took a minute to print, and the photographer-helper person would put it in a little frame for you. There was a big corner of video games in one room, and a wall dedicated to a virtual reality game in another. There were also two people in really weired orange costumes who liked to lie you down in a chair, strap you down with weights, and hit a gong. I think if you were in the chair you felt the vibrations of the gong. In other words, there was plenty of entertainment.

Number of people: 4-6 thousand. (I couldn't count)

The Google Holiday Party was a two day affair. The first half of the guests attended on Friday, and the second on Saturday. A total of about 11 thousand people attended between the two days. Alan and I went on Saturday. SO MANY PRETTY DRESSES. Almost everybody dressed up, especially the ladies, and there where beautiful dresses everywhere. I found it amusing that only 5 minutes into the party I was already seeing women take off their 4inch shoes or limp around. By the time the party was over many women were barefoot.

The food was OK. Not inedible, but definitely not spectacular. The presentation of the food was very nicely done though. Actually, the presentation of everything was very nicely done. It amazed me that this party was so big, and everything seemed to be running so smoothly. Trash was in its place, because there were many servers running around the rooms making sure everything looked nice. I spotted a couple of coordinator-looking people with headsets, checking things out. Obviously, there was lots of man power behind this extravagant party. The decorations, the parking experience, the bars and food, everything worked so seamlessly. As a guest, all you had to do was show up and be pampered.

The three rooms were very lavishly decorated. The first room we went into was dedicated to pink, white and red, with tall vases of water that had pink and red flower balls on top. Its hard to explain, but there were what looked like gigantic half circles coming out of the ceiling and they had light projectors inside of them, so the inversed domes were very pretty and beautiful patterns of light emanated from them. There were columns rising from the floor that were enveloped in white triangles. This first room had a DJ placed on a platform the middle of the room. The DJ ROCKED! The dance floor was packed the entire night. The food was basically little hors d'oeuvre and ravioli.

The second room we visited had black walls and black floors. There was a gigantic stage, where the band was playing. The band was very good. They played and sang everything from salsa to Maroon 5 and Santana. There were big projector lights hanging everywhere from the ceiling. And, all around the upper part of the walls there were gigantic circular projector screens that had images on them, kind of like a tv, the screens had live feed from the band and people dancing on the dance floor, among outer space and Google images. The food was Asian themed with rice buns, shredded pork, and things like deep fried green beans.

The third room was called "The Space Lounge" It had gigantic retro-looking T.V.s on each end of the room. The TVs played cheesy science fiction shows and movies, like Star Trek. This room was quieter, as there was no band or DJ. The food was more "americanized":little hamburgers and sandwiches and mini wrapped hot dogs. I remember seeing BIG buckets of shrimp too. The photo stall in this room was the best because they took your picture against a green screen while you were holding a Google flag. Then they replaced the green for an image of an astronaut on the moon. I think the photo stalls were my favorite part of the entertainment.

There was at least one bar located in every room, and all the bar tenders looked really cute because they were wearing little alien-antennas. However, this did not stop the drinks from being disappointing! The selection of alcohol consisted of mostly beer and three types of wine. I don't drink beer, and the wines tasted like One Buck Chuck. There was no hard-alcohol to be found... which was probably for the best because people got smashed out of their minds anyway. (Being the hard-core alcoholic that I am, I spent the night being totally sober.)

I have to say, there is one aspect in which this party fundamentally failed my expectations: when I left the party, I did not feel like I had just attended a Holiday party. It was big, beautiful and well coordinated, but it no way did it remind me of the holidays, or winter, or gift-giving, or giving thanks. There was no (cheesy) traditional uplifting holiday-speech. It just felt like a really big party, thrown for an unknown reason. The first room, with the red and pink and flower balls, reminded me of wedding decorations. So, if the purpose of the party was to celebrate the holidays, then unfortunately, Google failed. :(

Also, at least for Alan and me, there was something very impersonal about the party. This might have been because we are newbies, and we don't know that many people. But, there were so many thousands of unknown faces in the crowds. It was almost intimidating. The leaders of the company were nowhere to be found. I just felt like it was, well, random. And it didn't really matter if we were there or not. I guess Google would never have thrown such an amazing party if it did not value its employees, but I felt like it still needed to be said.

My Consumer Down Fall

Today I went to San Francisco. In this magical place, where every store around Union Square is playing Mariah's Christmas carols, I spent 4 hours buying three pairs of shoes. I'm not proud but I am happy, as my new shoes are quite fabulous. I really needed shoes too, because when I moved to Mountain View I threw a way a lot of old shoes that were uncomfortable/ hadn't been used for over a year. Recently I also had to retire my favorite pair of black pumps; they were so abused by my daily wanderings that they were peeling off my feet, literally. (OK, I'm done trying to justify why I spent $160 on shoes today).

Anyway, on my shoe-day I had several random thoughts:

- If I were to venture into retail, I would definitely open a boutique store dedicated to clutches. It is so hard to find a decent, well made, stylish clutch. Currently Payless has the market cornered, which is just sad.
- WTF is wrong with Starbucks? I had a venti non-fat latte and it tasted like swimming pool water, only made with milk while the 'barista' was thinking about coffee. I drank it anyway though. I couldn't let it go to waste.
- Malls = Cable t.v. There are too many stores with the same stuff. Malls make me feel like I'm watching tv sometimes: I keep flipping through the channels, hoping something interesting will appear, but nothing really happens and eventually I get bored.

Guess Who Got Accepted into Grad School?

ME!

I got the acceptance e-mail today. I start classes January 23, 3008. Yay! I'm a student again. It's official.  Merry Christmas to MM. Yay! Starting next year, I will slowly start chipping away at my masters degree in Business Administration from San Jose State University. I am so excited; I want to do a backflip.  Yay! I couldn't have done it without the support of my friends and family. I love you guys! Thank you for your help and understanding through all of my self doubt and essay writing crises. 

Holiday Party Review. 

Part I

Alan and I have 3 (possibly 4) holiday parties to attend this year, due to our various jobs. I've never been invited to so many job-related holiday parties in one holiday season. So, I thought it might be fun to compare them and highlight the things I found most interesting.  Last night we attended our first, for my company. 

Location: Hilton, Santa Clara

Time Frame: Saturday night 6-11pm

Food: Choice of salmon or steak.

Entertainment: There was a DJ, and a person from the office was in charge of getting us to play games, like musical chairs.

Number of people: 40-50 from my region.

At first, when we arrived, I was very nervous. I had no idea what to expect. I had a slight dressing emergency that day and I really didn't know anybody who was going to be at the party, as my office was recently realigned to a new region, and I was only person who was attending from my office. The first couple of minutes was a little awkward, as I went around the room saying hi to people. Thank the non-denominational holiday deities, there was plenty of alcohol. Everybody was happy and in a party-mood. I never once herd a word of work-related conversation. People danced to pop music, and played silly games for silly prizes. All in all, I think it was good fun.

In terms of food and drink, the salad was horrible: warm leaves of lettuce topped with two slices of tomato and  soggy sugar coated walnuts. The main dish was pretty good; I chose steak. However, eating the thick cut of steak with a butter knife was a little difficult. (come on Hilton! Inexcusable.) The dessert was a slice of chocolate cake, with cherry filling.  The cake tasted like it was made with box mix, and a little too much canola oil. The cherry flavor was strong, so it helped disguise the canola oil taste. In general the food, aside from the main dish, was pretty disappointing. The alcohol was good though. I had a very nice long island ice tea and some wine and, towards the end, my new Area VP invited me to take a generous tequila shot "for the road" with him and a couple others. (Don't worry, Alan drove). I haven't had a tequila shot in years. And,  I could probably go a couple more years before I have another. 

In conclusion: the Hilton servers were attentive, the party was fun, the food was mostly disappointing, and the new AVP is high on my "cool boss" list.