I doubt we have any readers left, but I decided this morning that I wanted to do a very late "Christmas Letter" like some of my friends did about a month ago: a recap of the year and a look at what lies ahead.
2007 was a busy year! When I think back briefly, I mostly remember a lot of hard work and time spent on the 101 and 280 commuting from San Francisco to Mountain View 5 days a week.
But my memory is glossing over the many, many highlights and so I want to enumerate them here lest my memory degrade further over time.
Achievements: - Brad landed a new job in the food industry, something he'd been seeking for a while - Brad and I completed the Nike Women's Half Marathon on October 19, 2008 - I was part of a 4 person team to launch a publicly-facing microsite to help content partners understand various opportunities to distribute their content on Google, some of my first work which was clearly public-facing work since I joined Google in July 2007. [link] - Brad and I were 2 votes of millions to elect Barack Obama!
Countries Visited: - I visited Zurich, Luzern, and London during business travel in June and can't wait to get back to Switzerland - Brad and I visited the Caribbean islands Aruba and Curaçao in August, basking in the sun, eating great Dutch food, and admiring salsa dancers - Brad and I, along with 6 dear friends, visited Cabo san Lucas for Thanksgiving - 3 days of pure relaxation
Top Concerts: - SXSW 2008: fell in love with Le Loup, then saw them in SF, and then they fell apart - Radiohead (!!) at the Outside Lands Festival - Flight of the Conchords at Google I/O
Extra-curricular: - Wine tasting in Sonoma 2-3 times - Bought a keyboard, received great music books for Christmas - Made beer, canned fruit and veg, and a bit of gardening - Picked up samba dance
So it's been quite some time since either of us has posted. Brad's been busy with this other blog of his, and I've just been... busy. As such, I don't expect this post will get much readership but I thought I'd post all the same.
I've spent the past 8 months adjusting to a few things: - Working 5+ days a week, as opposed to my blissful 2 years of grad school which, while busy, provided a lot more flexibility than the standard full-time j-o-b. - Working in Mountain View, which entails about 2-2.5 hours on the road per day. I'm very lucky that I have a shuttle to take me there and back, but the result is that I see less of my fair city than I used to. - Working in a very high-performance environment of crazy smart people. It's energizing and enriching, and it's also exhausting!
I've been sort of in lock-down mode, focusing on adjusting to work since I started, but I'm trying to achieve a better level of balance now. I miss my friends and I need to pursue other outlets to keep myself from being too one-dimensional. Hopefully I'll make some progress there soon.
Some highlights since October: - A great Thanksgiving with our friends here in San Francisco. Karaoke might be a new T-giving tradition. - A great Christmas with family and friends back in Texas, including discovery of my favorite new Arlingfun eatery, Olenjacks. - A raucous weekend trip to LA with L&L to see Miss Zog! - A weekend trip to Seattle with Mio to see Lex and a surprise appearance by Gabs! - SXSW 2008 and some good hang-out time with my darling sister Jillbo. - Visits from Beth and Angela and Kathryn! - As of yesterday, I'm the owner of a brand new car - my first ever! I apparently get the car tomorrow. We still have Bjorn though, don't worry. After he was offered a paltry $700 we vowed to drive him into the ground. We love our Swedish beast, particularly now that we're not dependent on him for, you know, reliable transportation.
Photographic evidence of Beth and Ang's recent visit:
So Brad wouldn't want to brag. He wouldn't want to tell you that he finished first place among men, and fourth place over all, in the Nike Women's Half Marathon. But here's proof:
Even more amazing is that he managed to do this while simultaneously sleeping in until 9 yesterday, when the race started at 7. He ran it in his sleep.
Actually, we sold our race bibs to some more dedicated and athletic individuals, as we haven't been training. And of all the people to buy our bibs, one of them was apparently the kind of guy who runs about a 06:30 mile. So now when people Google Brad's name, they're going to be really impressed. Particularly when he mentions that he doesn't really train much.
We did some gardening. April planted lots of fleurs, and I made a yard!
I took some pictures of it. First I had to clear off mulch, then tear up the moisture barrier tarps underneath, then clear out the weed roots, then till the dirt and get rid of the rocks and glass and nails (really), then rake it and mix in new topsoil, then plop down some grass.
