Cookin'

We're having an Inaugural Potluck at work tomorrow (my instigation). I'm bringing quiches.

HD got a new camera, so he was playing with it while I cooked. Here are a couple of shots. I'll post the recipe tomorrow, if I find out it turned out well.

Gratuitous hiking shots

So, my group at work has an annual summit to discuss what we're going to work on in the coming year. We brainstorm, we laugh, we get to see a couple of our remote employees who work at home in other timezones, we compliment the size of each others' dictionaries. It's a geeky good time. I look forward to it every year.

Well, we do this summit for 3 days, with the 3rd day set aside for an "offsite", which is just a teambuilding day. In the past we've taken a cooking class, taken a merlot blending course in the wine caves at Rutherford Hill, and had a generally drunken hilarious time playing Hyperbowl in the arcade at the Metreon (sadly, this great arcade has been replaced with I don't know what, but it sure ain't what it used to be).

Given the economic climate, we decided it might be a better idea to do some volunteer work and then have lunch together. I contacted the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy and we're going to be doing some trail maintenance at Muir Woods, followed by lunch at a restaurant not yet determined because seriously, have you ever tried to get 13 people to agree on somewhere to eat a lunch they're not paying for?

Well. This is turning out to be a long story.

So, after I arranged that, I started clicking around on the GGNPC website. The page for Muir Woods listed another suggested place to hike that has redwoods and is nowhere near as congested as Muir Woods: the Phleger Estate in San Mateo County.

The Phleger Estate is in Woodside, actually, home of Neil Young and Steve Jobs. The house itself is still a private residence, so you can't go there. However, the woods around it are absolutely wildly beautiful. You enter the national park from a hiking trail in Huddart County Park, which is really cool as well.

Anyway, here are some shots from the iPhone.

New and Cold

The end of this week has been emotionally draining to monumental proportions*, so after work Thursday I drove to my favorite flower shop and had them make me a bouquet. Isn't it weird and pretty? I felt bad for the corkscrewy ones on the sides, so I told the florist I wanted them.

It is absolutely bloody freezing outside. Well, ok, it is freezing outside, but I don't want to get into a pissing match with North Dakota, so I'll downgrade that to "really cold". That's ice on the roofs of the houses and cars outside my living room windows. The steps are icy off the deck.

Anyway, I'll probably have more later.

*That article is a little sensationalistic; Carol Bartz wasn't "poached" by Yahoo!, she hasn't been our CEO for almost 2 years now. And I think she's only going to do good things over there.

Happy New Year

December 6 was my last post? SRSLY? How sad.

My company gives us a "Week of Rest" between Christmas and New Years every year. Well, since that was a particularly well-positioned week this year, we got 2 weeks. Weeks of Rest, I've been calling it. I was barely home. I spent a week in Sacramento with the family, laughing and having a really great, relaxing time. I haven't been that relaxed back home in a long time. It was great. I just kept extending my stay, because really, what did I have to do here? Nothing, that's what.

I came home for about 36 hours to pack my things after Christmas, and then went back to see the Oregon contingent and then fly to Seattle to see my dear dear dear friend. What a great trip. Seattle is so beautiful. We went to a silly New Year's Eve party where the drink list was composed entirely of things mixed with champagne, went snowshoeing in the Cascades, played games, and just generally vegged out. It was great.

All in all, Weeks of Rest were so rejuvinating that I was downright excited to come back to work and see my peeps. I love my peeps.