The Google Dance

I'm back in Mountain View this week, and just when I thought things at Google were ho-hum, along comes the Google Dance out of nowhere.

The Google Dance isn't really a dance; it's just a big party that is named after a phenomenon known to search ranking experts by that name. The party is scheduled to coincide with a Search Strategies conference that is held in the area. Everyone at the conference (and there are thousands) is invited to the Dance. Also, many of Google's Mountain View employees attend. So it's a really, really enormous party. I mean, it is huge even by Google standards.

The first clue that something big was going on was that preparations began yesterday. First, they cleared away all of the outdoor tables early in the day; after dinner, they cleared out all of the tables in the main cafe (Charlie's) as well. They had dozens of technicians and stevedore-types putting up lights, speakers, big-screen TVs, awnings, etc. There were electrical cords as thick as your wrists snaking everywhere. Towards the end of the day they brought in a row of porta-potties, which was a clue that the event, whatever it was, was going to include non-googlers. (After all, our bathrooms might contain trade secrets. :-) ) I left at 10pm last night and they still had crews there working.

Today they started filling Charlie's cafe usual eating space with video games a la Dave & Buster's. They also closed Charlie's and No-Name for lunch. Presumably all of the chefs in both cafes were consumed with prepping for the party the entire day. They put in a row of candy bins like a candy store.

Outside, they put row upon row of tables loaded down with chafing dishes under the awnings. There were several pool tables, couches, and big-screen TVs in the center of the courtyard. There was a dunk tank ("dunk the google guy"), multiple beer stations, a karaoke tent (with video so that your embarrassment can be archived for the ages), even a station with nothing but milk shakes and root beer floats. Kirk and I did a quick calculation and decided that they had about 500 gallons of root beer in 2-liter bottles stacked up out there.

At 6pm, people began lining up for t-shirts. The lines was hundreds of yards long but moved with the typical google efficiency -- I'd say I spent only 5 minutes in line. Food didn't start serving until 7pm. I was starving so I raided a mini-kitchen for a salad. When the food finally showed up, it wasn't anything special -- hot dogs, hamburgers, pulled pork (which was super salty), corn-on-the-cob (which was mushy), strawberry shortcake. I guess it's the best you can do when you're cooking for 5-10,000 people. Luckily there was no shortage of milk shakes.

Anyway, I left fairly early because I had to head over to Tushar's house to pick up my bike. Tomorrow morning I intend to do the Alpine Loop again. But at least I can say I've been to the Google Dance!

Here are some links to prior years' Dances. It should be obvious from the link names how to find this year's, once it gets put online.

2006
2005

Oh, one more thing...

Figures that right after I say I'm going to stop blogging regularly, I do two posts within 12 hours of each other. But a co-worker pointed me at this blog entry that really sums up what's great about being a software developer at Google. If you find yourself getting bogged down in the software development methodology introduction, skip ahead to "THE GOOD KIND". It's a really nice description of what makes Google a unique place to work.

Announcing: less frequent posts from now on

I think I'm going to stop blogging on a regular basis, instead blogging only if something different or extraordinary happens. There just isn't enough happening on a daily basis, and blogging meals is getting old. But let's look back on all the Googley experiences I've had in the last four weeks:

• I went through new employee orientation
• I pigged out at as many cafes as I could find (net: 2 pounds gained)
• I stayed in the corporate apartments
  
• I commuted to the 'plex by bike a few times
• I attended talks by celebrities like Floyd Landis and Ron Paul
• I tried out the fitness center
• I tried out the lap pools
• I tried out the laundry room :-(
• I got a chair massage in Boulder
• I got a free table massage in Mountain View :-D
  
• I played pool, foosball, ping-pong, and free video games!
• I discovered that one of my old bosses works here
• I met some famous computer scientists who work here
  
• I attended a TGIF
• I changed projects in my first month!
• I videoconferenced between Boulder and Mountain View
• I got a bus pass and rode the HOP
• I did some great bike rides in the Santa Cruz mountains
• I drove across the Golden Gate Bridge

Some people have asked why I don't talk more about work. Well, the purpose of the blog is to convey the gestalt of working at Google, the stuff that isn't work. Besides, if I told you what I was working on, I'd have to kill you. (Attention: Homeland Security: this is a joke! Ha-ha!) Who am I kidding! I work for Google! They own Blogger! I'd probably just finish hitting the "publish" button on my post and they'd intercept it and cleanse it of all unapproved content.

But again, I jest. Okay, I'll let you in on a little secret: the purpose of my new project is to

Back in Boulder

Well I'm back in Boulder this week, and the most exciting thing that's happened so far is that I got my RTD bus pass. This is a freebie that you get for being a downtown employee -- the city doesn't want you to drive to work and take up parking spaces that shoppers might need, so they buy you a bus pass. The day after I got the pass, I took the HOP shuttle from work to the Y at lunch. It worked out very smoothly. The HOP comes about every 5-7 minutes during peak hours, but you can cut your waiting time even more than that by using a very cool site called nextbus.com, which tracks the buses in real time using GPS technology! Okay, so that was pretty cool and a lot of people in the office didn't know about it so I got to be one of those people who spams everybody and says, "check this out"!

The food this week is not as good as it was the last time I was here. Kind of disappointing.

The other thing that's going on is that they are about to set up about 16 new desks. There really isn't enough room for them, and our facilities guy Dan can't wait until we get to the new building. Of course, the new building was originally planned to last for years but at the rate we're growing they will have to start looking for the next new building as soon as we move!

Dash out of MV

Haven't update the blog in a few days, but you haven't missed much.

Last Friday, I had Indian food at Charlie's for lunch. (Lamb Sag, Lentils, Cucumber salad) Later that afternoon I went to my first real TGIF, where Larry and Sergei take on all comers in a live Q&A session. While I commend them for remaining so accessible, most of the questions are inane and aren't worthy of my, let alone their, attention. I was hoping to get my Noogler beanie but alas there were no extras. So I resorted to filing a trouble ticket and they are going to send me a beanie via interoffice mail!

On Friday the decision was made that I would change projects to something that is more aligned with my peculiar skill set. My ex-boss said no hard feelings, but get your bike out of our visitor seating area. I checked with the area where my new co-workers sit, but there was no spare space to stash it. I packed it back in its box, resigned to either (a) stashing it under a stairwell somewhere (where it probably would be mistaken for a bomb) or (b) taking it home with me on the plane. Then my new mentor & tech lead, Tushar, said I could keep it in his backyard shed! So we made a quick run to his place after work, on my way to the airport.

Luckily I had booked a late flight so I had no problem getting there on time. Unfortunately, the flight was even later, and as a result I didn't get home until 2am colorado time. It took me all weekend to catch up on my sleep -- I must be getting old!

The Alpine Loop

This morning I finally succeeded in riding the Alpine Rd Loop! Right-click on the link to open a google map of the route in another window and follow along with the description. (You have to imagine the two ends of the route being connected by a squiggly dirt road that google maps doesn't know about.)

I got out of bed shortly after 6 and was on the road at 7:20. I began the ride from the Enid Pearson open space parking lot on Arastradero Rd just west of Page Mill (marked on the map). I then proceeded counter-clockwise around the loop. The weather was cloudy, but I could tell that it was fog that had rolled in from the ocean and that it would eventually clear.

The first leg of the ride, up to the "start" symbol on the map, is a gradual climb. Alpine Rd runs along a creek bed, it's very lush and beautiful. Past the intersection with Portola Rd, Alpine is only 1 lane wide but I didn't see a single car on it. This leg of the ride ends at a gate, and took about 40 minutes. At this point the fog had lifted and it was brilliant sunshine in a blue sky.

Beyond the gate, it's a dirt road comparable in width to the Switzerland Trail in Boulder County. It's just wide enough for a car if you don't mind scraping the vegetation on both sides. The road is dirt, rutted by the rain but not rocky, so a mountain bike isn't really required. The grade starts out about the same as the paved road. However, there is a point at which the dirt road is closed by a landslide and there is a detour trail around it. That trail is about twice the width of a hiking trail and still fairly smooth, but is so steep in parts that I had to walk some of it. Eventually you pop out on Page Mill Rd very close to the top. This took about another 30 minutes.

Page Mill, it turns out, is not one long descent -- there's a fair bit of uphill when you're going downhill. Usually the uphill is right around a blind corner, so you are braking when you hit it! Also on the descent I had a sweeping vista of the valley and it was still fogbound! It turns out that the fog hadn't really lifted, I had simply climbed above it! I actually had to put my vest back on because I started getting cold. It took another 30 minute to descend on Page Mill. I was done riding at 9am and was at work by about 9:20. Whew!

By the time I got there it was too late to get a hot breakfast. I stopped by the Slice Cafe and they had some french toast that was too dense to eat. But they also had some delicious heavy breads and cakes. All of it was gluten free. I think the secret is the banana puree. They were moist and not crumbly. One was banana and goji-berry (I don't know what these are but they seem to put 'em in all kinds of stuff around here) and another was dark chocolate - heavenly!

For lunch I went to a new place (suggested by Tushar): Cafe 7:

• Grilled Ribeye Steak with Roasted Shallot Port Wine Reduction ****
  
• Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes **1/2
  
• Thai Basil Broth with Shell Fish *****
  
• Mango Lassi w/coconut macaroon ***
  
• Butter brickle ice cream w/toffe bits and choco chips
  

The cafe seems like every other google cafe except for two things: it has a sushi bar (although I don't eat the stuff) and it has a soft-serve ice cream machine with plenty of mix-ins!

For dinner I went back to American Table, because they were doing some special event in Charlie's. It's still "food of the northeast" (read: Italian) week:

• Sautéed Grilled Sausages ****
  
• Pan Seared Snapper **
  
• Pasta Fazool **
  
• Red and White Summer Spinach ***
  
• Grilled Chicken and Bacon Pizza Mushroom, White Cheddar, Fontina Cheese, Cream Sauce *****

I was planning to make the snapper my main course but I was very disappointed with it -- it seemed to have a fried breading over it -- not my idea of pan-seared! The sausages were good but I just took a little taste of them. The real standout of this meal was the pizza -- just looking at that ingredient list can stop your heart in its tracks! And it had a taste to match!

Last night I had my first Google-provided massage. A full hour at no cost to me. Not the best massage I've ever had, but the price was right!

For breakfast today I headed over to Cafe Moma for a good old fashioned american-style breakfast:

• Scrambled eggs
• Buttermilk pancake with organic (of course) maple syrup
• Bacon - 3 (three) strips!

Question: how can maple syrup be organic or not? It comes from trees, right? Are these trees cultivated, with pesticides and so forth? I kind of doubt it.

Lunch @ Charlie's:

• Bacon Wrapped Pork Loin ****
• Spiced Chunky Apple Sauce ***
• Glazed Sweet Potato Wedges ***
• Greek salad
• Peach & blackberry dessert crepe **

That's two bacon meals in a row!

Dinner @ American Table:

• Italian Wedding Soup ****1/2
  
• Chicken Marsala ****
• Ratatouille ***
• Pluot Fig Shortcake ***1/2

This meal was a mixed bag. The Chicken Marsala was chicken marsala, no surprise there. The Ratatouille, I felt, could have been more flavorful. But the Italian Wedding Soup, which was a clear stock with sausage meatballs in it, and a garnish of orzo and parsley, was quite yummy -- I went back for a second bowl.

After dinner I discovered that there is a video arcade containing all sorts of classic games that are 100% free right behind American Table. So I burned up 30 minutes playing Defender, which is my all-time favorite.

Since this blog entry isn't very exciting, I saved the best for last (I've been sitting on this one for a few days). Somebody is conducting an experiment in the elasticity of junk food demand over in the other building. There is a vending machine over there that has a variety of stuff (that you can't get in the mini-kitchens) at wildly inappropriate prices. For example:

• Pacific Gold beef or turkey jerky (the good stuff): 10 cents
• Candy bars: 70 cents
• Really good candy bars (85% dark): $1.50
• Famous Amos cookies: $4.55

No kidding! According to a co-worker, this vending machine may have begun as an April Fool's joke and it never ended. I of course bought some turkey jerky for a dime. I came back the next day and all the jerky (in fact, all 10 cent items) was sold out. Not a single bag of Famous A. had sold, however. So apparently junk food demand is quite elastic.

This place is totally wacky. You never know what to expect.

Note that there are multiple posts today. Best to read them bottom-up.

Dinner

Went to No-name with Kirk:

• Duck A L’Orange ****
• Watermelon, Honeydew, Cucumbers on Spring Mix with Plum Vinaigrette ***
• Sauteed Romano Beans ****
• House-made applesauce
  

Oh my gosh! This is quite possibly my first google meal ever without any RED food items! So I went across the courtyard to Charlie's to grab a Chocolate Coconut Macaroon and a Blackberry Chocolate Cream Tartlette!

Lunch

Even though I think that Charlie's is not the best, I needed to conserve time because I had a meeting after lunch. I was pleasantly surprised, lunch was quite delicious and not too heavy.

• Grilled Salmon Lemon and Thyme-Scented Salsa Veracruzana ****
  
• some kind of yummy rice
• Mango, Jicama and Cucumber Salad *****
• Berries with Lavendar Syrup *****
  
• Toffee Bars ****
  

All you lavender-philes, take note of dessert! I thought it would be weird but it was extremely yummy. Of course it didn't hurt that the berries were gigantic and sweet. The toffee bars were not actually toffee candy but more like brownies that had toffee baked in instead of chocoloate chips.

I comtemplated the Amartshari Goat Curry but I guess I wasn't ready to be that adventurous. Besides, how could I explain to my children that I ate a goat? (Maybe Zoe would see it as revenge for the goat that chewed on her on last weekend's hike.)

Lunch had a bit of added drama as I went to take back my plates and the plates were stacked up so high that the top few plates fell off and got my clothes dirty. I went and complained to restaurant management that the people who were supposed to be keeping up with the dirty dishes were not doing their job and they gave me a T-shirt to change into. However, I was really ticked off because the shirt that got dirty was my brand-spankin' new Google-Boulder shirt, which likely is the only one of its kind on the mountain view campus. Fortunately, I came up with the idea of doing my laundry immediately before any stains could set. So I put on this morning's bike shorts (ick!), and went downstairs to the laundromat. I scored an empty washer immediately and about 45 minutes later I had clean clothes again. Total cost to me: $0 and I got another shirt in the bargain! Where else but Google?

Bike ride

This morning I arose at the crack of dawn (really! -- 6am) to go for a bike ride. I wanted to go up Alpine Road to the dirt road that connects to Page Mill. On the way, though, I saw a turnoff for Los Trancos Rd, and, having seen that they eventually meet up on a map somewhere or another, decided to go up it. Well, Los Trancos is not nearly as nice a climb as Alpine (see an earlier post), as it is steeper and has more traffic. Near the top I asked a guy running if I was getting near Alpine Rd. He said, well, you don't want old alpine road because that's dirt, so do X, Y, Z. I followed his instructions to the letter and the result was a wild ride down Joaquin Road. They put roads in really sick, sick places around here. If you don't believe me, believe this image from Google Earth. Alpine Road is in the foreground; Los Trancos is the squiggly stuff on the other side of the hill. Joaquin is in the left foreground.

Anyway, it took so long to get up there that I didn't do the dirt. Once again I underestimated the scale of things around here, and in particular the climb to get up there via Los Trancos was much more time-consuming that I remembered the climb up Alpine (not surprising considering the extra elevation gained). So I plan to try the Alpine-Page Mill loop some other morning this week. Haven't decided if it should be tomorow or if I should wait for Thursday.

I congratulated myself on eating a small breakfast (yogurt, granola, fruit) and riding instead of going to work and eating a big breakfast. I thought, hmm, I'm probably starting the day with a net caloric intake of zero (or even negative), rather than the 500 or so calories in eggs, canadian bacon, french toast, etc.

Of course, by the time I got to work I was starving (after all, I had eaten 3 hours ago and I had done a pretty good ride), and when I noticed that it was only 9:20 (cafe's close at 9:30), I congratulated myself on doing my ride so quickly that I still had time for breakfast. So I ended up eating eggs, canadian bacon, and french toast anyway!

Back in Mtn View (Monday's post)

Took an early flight this morning so I wasted 1/2 the day that way, then was in a talk all afternoon where I could barely stay awake. As a result, this blog post is a day late.

Lunch @ Pacific:

• Stir-Fried Ginger Chicken & Chestnuts
• Sauted Bok Choy Leaves with Garlic Sauce
• further details are hazy...

Kirk arrived today (the other Boulder new hire), so I took him out to dinner -- my treat! :-) We went to American Table, where the theme this week is food of the Northeast:

• Beer Battered Deep Fried Cod ***1/2
• Grilled Venison with Shallots and Cranberry Demi *****
• Deep Fried Potato Wedges ***1/2
• Broccoli Corn Zucchini Sauté

The venison was STUPENDOUS. It was obviously farm-raised, for it was very tender, but it was also very lean. It was really, really, really GOOD.

For dessert they had snickerdoodles, I contemplated having one but instead I went for a single-serving Cherry Garcia over at Charlie's.

Went to bed early so I could do an early morning ride on Tuesday ... details to come.

Today's lunch:

• BBQ beef
• Roasted corn on the cob
• Baked beans
• Cole slaw
• Fruit w/whipped cream

For the first time in about 3 weeks, I think I didn't overeat!

Next week: back to mountain view!

As good as it gets

Today's lunch was, well see the title:

• Jerked pork loin with peach chutney *****
  
• Yam fries *****
  
• Stuffed peppers ***1/2
• Steamed zuchinni **
  
• Rice pudding *

Dessert was kind of a disappointment. The rice pudding was actually rice, it seems. I couldn't find the pudding in it!

General impressions of the Boulder office.

• It's about as hip as you could be. Right above a coffee shop on the Pearl Street Mall. Which would be a great location if anybody ever needed to go outside the building for food. :-)
• The office is one giant space (on two floors). There are very few partitions. I guess the people here are used to it, but in the new office, they are planning to put in more standard cubicle walls. Like the rest of Google, the cubicles won't be individually-sized, they'll be shared among 4 or so people.
• They are very serious about recycling here. All kitchen trash, including the paper(?) plates and silverware(!), is composted. The forks, spoons, etc. look like plastic but supposedly they are made out of corn?! Also, paper towels from the bathroom are composted. There are blue bins everywhere for bottles & cans, and near each printer there's a secured bin for office paper.
  
• There's a pool table, some video games, and two electronic massage chairs (i.e., like you see in Sharper Image catalogs). They are the exact same chairs they have all over the MtV campus; Google must buy them by the truckload. In the new building, they are promising a foosball table, which makes me happy, and also a climing wall -- how Boulder-y can you get?
• There are two showers and a few lockers. Unfortunately, the lockers seem to be permanently occupied with people's crap that they probably never even use. I asked around and there doesn't seem to be a locker policy of any kind.
• We get free parking in the parking structure across the alley. It's pretty challenging getting my truck in and out of there.
• We get a free bus pass because we work in the downtown area. (This is a city of Boulder thing -- it doesn't cost Google anything.) Once I have my pass, I intend to take the "Hop" bus back and forth to the Y, so I don't have to hassle with working the truck in and out of the parking garage. Of course, once we're in the new building I'll be close enough to the Y to walk there.
  
• I rode to work last Friday, but Allison picked me up. I've yet to do a round-trip because it's too darned hot. Maybe tomorrow.

My computer setup would make any nerd drool:

• A dual-core workstation with 4GB of ram
• A 30" LCD monitor. That's right, 30 inches. That's bigger than a lot of televisions!
• A MacBook Pro 17" with dual-core cpu and 2GB of ram.

Okay, time to use all that computing horsepower...

Back in Boulder

Well, I've been eating at the Boulder office since last Friday, but I've forgotten to blog, so here's what I can remember. The Boulder office serves a catered lunch everyday, so you don't get the variety of MtV but the food is still very very good. There's always a meat entree, a veggie entree, a few sides, a salad bar (with crumbled real bacon), a soup or two, dessert, and fruit.

Friday: can't remember

Monday:

• roast beef ***
  
• fingerling potatoes **
  
• creamy potato casserole *****
• brownies ****

Tuesday:

• Make-your-own burrito (I made mine w/ roast veggies & steak strips) *****
• Guacamole, chips, cheese, olives, tomatoes, shredded lettuce etc. etc.
• Flan (didn't try it -- I'm not a fan o'flan)

Wednesday:

• Ham w/green peppercorn sauce ****
• Mushroom risotto cakes *****
• Lentils ***
  
• Make-your-own sundae (I had chocolate ice cream with toasted coconut, oreo crumbs, and semi-sweet chips)

So there you have it. I'm not starving, even despite my wife's threats to stop cooking altogether.

This will be my last post from mountain view for awhile.

Today I decided to go back to my office after class and tidy up before I went to lunch. I'm glad I did, because Tim came by and said "There's an Off the Grid run forming up." I immediately grabbed my bike and rode over there with Matt, Nathan, and Tim. The food was not as fabulous as last time, but dessert was way over the top:

• Ahi Nicoise Salad ****
  
• Sauteed Vegetables ***
• Potato Gratin ***
  
• Turkey Tonnato **1/2
• Awabi & Pasta **
• Peach & Blackberry Bread Pudding *****
• Brownies *****

The brownies were special because they were made with Scharffenberger 70% chocolate. They were like fudge!

For dinner (at the airport), I grabbed a shrimp & saffron rice salad in a to-go box from Charlie's. Just for good measure I threw a bit of marinated mozzarella and some greek salad in the box. I have tons of snacks from the kitchen that I've accumulated all week (m&m's, energy bars, etc) so I don't think I'll starve.

Ok, so that's that. Tomorrow and all next week I will blog about the catered lunch at the Boulder office. Stay tuned!

Bacon!

At long last, bacon has been found! On a tip from Scott over dinner last night, I tried out Cafe Moma. They serve a traditional american breakfast: eggs, bacon, pancakes, home fries. The bacon is applewood smoked; the eggs are scrambled but much better than the ones at No Name (which are overcooked -- maybe they are baked?). They put the bacon in pans with slices of bread at the bottom to soak up the grease, which is a great idea.

I got there just as they were closing, so I was only able to get bacon scraps, but mmmm mmmm mmmm, I've found my new breakfast place!

Today was overcast and drizzly for the entire morning. 100% humidity. Ugh! I was indecisive about riding in until I woke up and saw the weather, which made it easy to decide (not to!).

Anyway, I had lunch with my recruiter, Kristin. She suggested Pacific Cafe, whcih does Asian food. This week's "focus" is Korean. The menu was:

• Bean Sprout salad **
  
• Spiced Cucumber salad ***
  
• Sizzling Korean Beef in Onions ***
  
• Stir-fried Glass Noodles w/Vegetables ***
  
• Fresh mango ***
  

The also had sushi but I'm not big on raw fish.

I had dinner with Scott, who is the director of the Boulder office. We went to American Table (second night in a row for me) and it was fabulous as usual:

• Texas Pork Ribs *****
  
• Panko Crusted Swordfish ***1/2
  
• Red Pepper and Candied Carrots Saute ***1/2
  
• Lemon-Pistacchio Pilaf **
  
• Enchiladas Montadas ****
  
• Quinoa ***
  
• Chocolate Texas Sheet Cake ***
  

Yeah, I know I shouldn't have eaten so much, but it's my last dinner at Google for awhile! *sigh* Tomorrow I am returning to Boulder and while I can't wait to get home, I will definitely miss the gourmet food. And there are still about 8 cafes I haven't even tried! I'll be sure to hit those and report on them when I come back in August.

Next week, I'll be reporting on the catered lunches at the Boulder office.

In contrast to yesterday, today's dining experience was my best yet! I tried two new cafes.

For lunch, I went to the Oasis, which Chris told me about at dinner last night. I had lasagna and a salad. Dessert was a chocolate eclair. Simple but tasty.

For dinner I tried out American Table, which I tried to go to yesterday for lunch but it was mobbed. It seems to the the "hot" cafe right now, as there was a line there even at dinner. Let me tell you, this is was the most flavorful meal I've had here, and one of the best meals I've had anywhere! Check out this menu:

• Grilled Tequila Tri-Tip ****
  
• Chili Crusted Pan-Seared Tuna *****
  
• Truffle French Fries ****
  
• Grilled Vegetables with Mustard Basting Sauce ****1/2
  
• Texas Quinoa ****
  

The colors reflect the "healthy food" coding scheme around here: green means eat as often as you like, yellow means eat in moderation, red means eat sparingly. Hah! I guess we know what colors all the good stuff is! The *'s are my own ratings.

Anyway, I thought the tri-tip was yummy, but when I tasted the tuna my taste buds all lit up! Incredible! Eveything was quite spicy, which I like (the quinoa had jalapenos, for example). Although you have to like your food pretty undercooked to enjoy the tuna and, to a lesser extent, the meat.

Dessert was a very moist, delicious, and petite chocolate cupcake. Hey, I climbed 2000 feet this morning, I deserve it!

I'm working late tonight to make up for my late start this morning. This seems to be a pretty equitable trade-off, as there's not much else I can do at night. But now I'm burned out, so i'll probably head back to the apt.

This morning I attempted to ride up Montebello Road. This is a moderately famous climb around here. At the end of the road there is a gate, and a dirt road continues that hooks up to Page Mill. I was intending to make a loop out of it, going up MB and down PM.

I got up at 6:45 and actually managed to roll out of the apt complex before 7:30! I expected the ride to MB to be nice because it goes down a road called Stevens Canyon which seems to be out in a pretty sparsely populated area. But I couldn't help but notice the trucks! Lots of dump trucks, even tandem dumps going down the road, sometimes five of them in a row. It was truly opprobrious! I figured, maybe there is a construction site up ahead. But the trucks kept on coming. Turns out that there is a quarry at the corner of Stevens Canyon and MB. The trucks just kept coming, from both directions, all the way there! It marred an otherwise fine road.

At the bottom of MB I turned on my cell phone to see what time it was, but the cell phone couldn't find a network so I couldn't get any info out of it. So I started climbing. After awhile I checked the phone again and it was only 8:18. I thought gee, I'm making pretty good time.

Anyway, I climbed and I climbed and I climbed, and I could see that I was getting close to the ridgetop, which I surmised was the highest point I'd have to go, but it just wasn't getting any closer. Eventually I stopped to check the time again and it was exactly 9am. At this point I knew I had to turn around and go back down so I could make my 10am class at work. Too bad, because I think I was very very close to the top.

Worst of all, I had to ride Stevens Canyon road again on the way back!

Lesson: do Montebello on a weekend when the quarry is closed, and when you have more time.

Yesterday I didn't blog because (a) I didn't have time and (b) there was nothing very exciting. I wasn't very excited about the food either.

I had lunch at Pintxo (pronounced pin-cho, I think), which is the fancy-dancy tapas restaurant. The problem with pintxo is that everything is tiny and it comes on these big plates, so it's impossible to fit enough plates on your tray to actually fill yourself up. I tried a piece of fish -- probably halibut -- and a tiny tiny game hen --possibly sparrow :-) -- as well as a few sundry other things. Nothing really stood out and I had to go back and get another bird to get enough to eat.

For dinner I ate at No Name, which I like because it serves simple food. However, when I got into line there were only three entrees: fish, chicken, and beef. Now this may not seem like a problem but my first thought when I spied the fish was, oh wait, I had fish for lunch. Then I looked at the chicken and thought, oh wait, I had bird for lunch too! And so on. So since nothing really stuck out at me I took a little of all 3, and again it was sort of just a meal without any real memorable qualities about it.

The high point of dinner was that I shared it with my old boss from US West / Qwest, Chris. I found out quite by accident that she works here (and vice-versa): she saw me at Floyd's talk. Although I didn't see her, when I went on that ride on Saturday one woman there works at Google, and is a friend of Chris', and recognized me because Chris commented "oh I know that guy!" at Floyd's talk. Although she still considers Boulder home, she's been here about 9 months, dividing her time between Mtn View (about 75%) and Boulder (about 25%).

We had a good time reminiscing about Tony, Ted, and "the Horse". (Private joke!) We talked about how living in MV is at once alluring from a fringe bennie standpoint and disastrous from an economics standpoint.

I went to bed early in anticipation of doing a ride the following morning. More to come...

Well today I went on a bike ride with the Almaden Cycle Touring Club. As you can see, they are a pretty substantial operation. They have about 1/2 dozen rides to choose from on any given day so you can pretty much pick the level of effort you want to make.

The ride I picked was only about 44 miles but it kicked my @$$!! (Click on the image for a much larger view.) There were two climbs, Alpine Road and Old La Honda Road. (Alpine is the spur you see at the bottom of the map and OLH is the squiggle going up to Skyline Blvd right after the spur.) Neither of them were major by Colorado standards, although OLH is quite steep. Both are beautiful, very shady, although different. Alpine follows a creek (and for that reason it's pretty moderate) and is full of lush vegetation. OLH goes up through redwood forest and that is pretty impressive. Both are only one lane wide but there's rarely a car. OLH is absolute jammed with bikes though. It's sort of a benchmark around here and everyones talks about their "OLH time". The fastest time ever recorded on it was just over 14 minutes by none other than Eric Heiden (remember him?)! For the record, my time was 32 minutes, which was the second fastest in our group of six. Not bad for such an old fart, especially since I was trying not to go all-out because I didn't know when it would end.

By the time I got back to the apt I was draggin'. Luckily there's a pool here, and that fixed me right up. Although my knees hurt.

How am I going to make it through that century in Boulder 2 weeks from now?

Friday afternoon at Google is just a big party. Today they had a mariachi band out on the quad and all kinds of weird appetizers. The theme was "vampires" for some reason, so they had stuff like blood sausage, and some really undercooked meat on a stick, and some kind of garlic spread on bread. It was sort of revolting so I had to go scouting around for dinner, which is not obvious to find on a Friday. Officially, Google doesn't serve dinner on Friday, but if you are persistent you find that there is always something to nosh on for the people who want to work late. There was a sandwich bar at the No Name which I was about to settle for, until I discovered the chinese chicken salad. That, and a peach smoothie and some grapes from the Slice were my dinner. It wasn't bad, really, although not as lavish as I'm used to. :-)

This wasn't an "official" TGIF so there were no beanies to wear. Apparently the next official TGIF is next Friday, when I won't be here. I hope I get a beanie! They're really cool (if you're a nerd) :-(

Also, I spent the entire day planning ahead for tomorrow morning, when I want to avoid going out for breakfast (because I'm going on a bike ride). So I picked up some banana and zucchini bread, coconut granola (they're big on coconut here I've noticed), a few yogurts, hard-boiled eggs, Odwalla juice, some Odwalla bars, something called a Kind bar, a Clif bar, a Larabar, two bananas, etc. I don't think I'll starve!

So last night I rode my bike back to the apt. The bike path is a mix of nice and not-so-nice. Near work it's basically a straight line under power lines, and you get to see the trailer parks (not so nice) and a tree nursery (which is kind of nice). A little further from work it follows a creek so it's more fun, with lots of twists and turns. There are a couple of giant habitrail-type bridges over major roads. There is one intersection with a major road that requires you to push a button to get a walk signal, although last night it was so late that there was no traffic and this morning there were a few joggers who made the signal change just as I got there.

Where I get off the path it's a few blocks through downtown mountain view to get to my apt. It turns out that on Thursday nights they have a farmers' market in downtown mountain view on the main drag (Castro St.). That was kind of fun to ride through, although I quickly realized that I get produce just as good at the google cafes.

The total ride is about 5 miles and takes 1/2 hour at a leisurely pace.

Then this morning I reversed the process, and when I got to work I decided that since I had to shower anyway, it would be a good time to try out the swimming "spa". As I mentioned in an earlier post, this is a swimming pool that about 10 feet long that has a pump sending a current through it that you swim against. It takes a while to get the current adjust right -- like finding the right speed on a treadmill. If you think that swimming laps is boring, well you ought to try this because it's much more boring! Still it's not too bad to do for 10-15 minutes after a bike ride.

Since I walked at a brisk pace from where I parked my bike to the pool, I guess I did a mini-triathlon. :-)

Question: What do bacon and Floyd Landis have in common?

Give up? I found both of them in Google cafes today!

This morning I went to a different cafe for breakfast where they have a make-to-order omelette station, and they do have bacon there, fresh but crumbled. Still no luck finding big, honking, full strips dripping with grease.

Breakfast @ Charlie's:

• Bacon, cheese, and tomato omelette
• Watermelon
  
• Whole milk
  

Anyway, at 1pm Floyd Landis was scheduled to give a talk to plug his new book, Positively False: The Story of How I Won the Tour de France. I was running kind of late so I decided to go to the cafe that was closest to where his talk would be. I was telling the guy I went to lunch with about Floyd, and as we sat down at a long table I looked down at the other end of the table and said, "Oh, and there he is right now!" He was sitting on the other side of the table about 3 people down. But I didn't want to hassle him so I left him alone. If I had a cell phone that took pictures maybe I'd have asked for a picture (the people on the other side of the table were doing that).

I got a free copy of Floyd's book at the talk. I tried to get it autographed, but his handler shooed me away.

Lunch @ No Name:

• Steak au Poivre
• Jerk chicken w/grilled pineapple
  
• Butternut squash

Oh yeah, and I rode in today, but's that's another post. I was just so excited about bacon and Floyd that I had to blog it right away.

Dinner @ Charlie's

• Red-cooked chicken (asian)
• Chow mein
• Carrot salad (indian)
• Fruit
• Coconut cream tartelettes

Well, I've found a source of bacon but it's far from satisfactory: cold bacon on the make-your-own sandwich table. I might try breakfast at Charlie's tomorrow to see if they have fresh bacon.

Now I'm going to digest a bit, and ride back to the apt. See you again tomorrow.

Lunch @ Charlie's

• Grilled tri-tip
• Sweet potato salad
• Caprese salad
• Apricot, berry, & jicama salad
  

Breakfast @ no name:

• Scrambled eggs w/veggies
• Canadian bacon
• Blueberry brioche french toast w/fresh blue&blackberries
• Milk (whole, of course)
• Pumpkin streusel bread for later...

Yawn. Breakfast is starting to get old already. I might stop blogging it and stick to lunch/dinner. Note that every damn day it's "Canadian" bacon, which as we all know is about as bacon-y as white chocolate is chocolate-y. I guess they don't serve real bacon so that people don't start clutching their chests and dropping dead in the hallways. Although of course we all know that's a myth.

Speaking of which, I've decided that a light dinner is the way to go. Otherwise I just feel stuffed 24 hours a day. Plus tonight I'm going to ride back to the apt after dinner, so it's a necessity.

Got my bike! Of course I still have to put it together. Rather than screw around with that tonight, my plan is to drive in tomorrow morning with a change of clothes, put the bike together during the day, then ride to the apt tomorrow night and back in on Friday.

I think there's a bike path that goes pretty much from the apt to the 'plex. Check out this map of my apt and work locations. There is a bike path on Shoreline Blvd but it's kind of a busy street with a lot of stoplights. However, I can take Dana Street over to the the Stevens Creek trail and that would be a really styling way of getting to work. Plus it would actually make the ride a worthwhile length.

Gotta go, it's getting late.

My bike's here! I.e. it's sitting on a loading dock somewhere. Now I just have to figure out how I get to the same place that it is and convince them to give it to me.

Menu for Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Breakfast

• Canadian bacon, avocado, & cheese omelette
• Cocconut milk, banana juice, & fig smoothie
• Belgian waffle w/fresh whipped cream
• Milk
• Banana bread (saved for mid-morning snack)

Lunch

• Mandarin beef w/ brown rice
• Indian mixed vegetables
• Indian carrot and apple salad
• Sesame noodles
• Orange ricotta canolli & chocolate cookie

Dinner

• Grilled salmon
• Collard Greens
• Corn bread
• Creamed corn
• Cherry Garcia ice cream

7/10/07

Worked out at the google fitness center this morning. Pretty nice, has many cardio machines, good selection of core-strengthening accessories (i.e., fitballs, medicine balls, etc.), and an okay free weight area. The lock room is way too small. Fortunately there's another locker room in the building across the courtyard that the bikers use. Fitness center has trainers, I'm not sure if they cost employees anything to use. If not, I'm definitely signing up.

Contrary to my original belief, the campus does not have a pool. (I suppose nobody would do any work at all if it did.) What it does have are two lap "spa pools", that are about twice as long as a swimmer's body that have a current circulating through them that you swim against. Kind of the swimming equivalent of a cardio machine. They are outdoors, though, which is nice. I think you have to reserve them.

There are a smattering of ping pong tables, foosball tables, pool tables, and vibrating massage chairs scattered around campus. They are tucked away in unused corners of the buildings, so are always a surprise.

Today I rode a balloon-tired "Gbike" to the building that I had lunch in (at the suggestion of one of my co-workers). They are really hard for me to ride because the seat doesn't adjust high enough. Not to mention the fact that they must weigh about 50 lbs! Hopefully my bike will show up one of these days soon!

Menu for Tuesday 7/10/07

(Note: I don't mean to suggest that this is THE menu at google. There are actually 14 different cafes at this site, and each of them have several choices at each meal. This is simply a menu of what I ate today.)

Breakfast - No Name Cafe

• Scrambled eggs w/ veggies
  
• Canadian bacon
• Coconut pancakes (unbelievable!) w/ peach-blueberry syrup
• Pumpkin streusel bread

Lunch - Off the Grid

• BBQ pork soup
  
• Roast lamb
• Garbanzo bean cakes
• Some kind of slaw
• "Grandma's Kugel" (no kidding! Rich in sour cream)
  
• Chocolate rugeleh - yummm!

Dinner - No Name cafe

• Baked chicken
• Soft-shell crab risotto
• Spinach-berry-quinoa salad
• Roasted corn on the cob
• Fresh strawberries (look ma, no dessert!)

Menu for 7/9/07

Breakfast

• Didn't have badge yet so had to eat at the hotel

Lunch - Charlie's Cafe

• Briscuit
• Roasted potatoes with horseradish strips
• Salad
• Chocolate ganache raspberry cake

Dinner - Charlie's Cafe

• Achiote roasted chicken
• Spanish rice
• Guacamole
• Seconds: hot & sour beef w/ Udon noodles
• Cherry Garcia ice cream.