extremely disturbed

I walked into the women's restroom just now (at work), and heard someone talking. She switched from English to another language shortly after I got there, but continued her conversation. After I left my stall, I checked to see if there was anyone else in the restroom (other that woman and myself), but there wasn't. I concluded there was only one explanation; the woman was carrying on a cell phone conversation while on the toilet.

After I got back to my desk, I mentioned the episode to my officemate, and she informed me that the situation was even stranger than I had realized; apparently that woman had *placed* the call while in the restroom. In other words, she hadn't just received a call, she had actually decided to dial someone up and initiate an extended conversation, while sitting on the toilet. I wonder what the recipient of her call thought when s/he heard the toilets flushing in the background.

Is anyone else disturbed by this or is it just me? Maybe it's a cultural thing?

too many restaurants, not enough meals

I recently was invited to a birthday dinner at Fresca. Since I've been on a Peruvian food kick ever since going to Limon, I was kinda bummed that I couldn't go, due to a prior commitment (another wedding, of course). I wasn't too bummed, though, since the wedding reception is going to be at Yank Sing.

Then, the birthday dinner got moved to Ozumo, which is even more tempting than Fresca. Maybe I can leave the reception early and have a second dinner. Or not.

summertime at lake tahoe

I'm usually too busy skiing to pay attention to the scenery when I'm at Lake Tahoe, but over Labor Day, I was in the Tahoe/Reno area, and it was gorgeous.

view of Lake Tahoe from around King's Beach:


by Spooner Lake:


Emerald Bay:


at Squaw Valley:

English grammar

It drives me nuts when people make common spelling and grammar mistakes in emails and code comments.

My pet peeves:
- affect vs effect
- calendar vs calender
- their vs they're (vs there)
- separate, not seperate
- peak usage, not peek usage

This one is a bit pickier: Yesterday a co-worker blogged internally about "if I were them" vs "if I were they". I was tempted to comment and say that they were both wrong, due to numerical agreement issues, but someone beat me to it. For the record, "if I were they" is more correct than "if I were them", since the verb "to be" links two nouns of the same case (in this case, nominative). It's the same reason you say "this is she" when answering the phone. But, "if I were s/he" is most correct; since "I" is singular, the other pronoun must also be singular.

I do realize that I'm a complete freak.

one in a million

Today, someone said to me, "you're one in a million!". No, it wasn't a co-worker praising my brilliant coding skills, or a friend admiring my wit and charm. It was my dentist, commenting on my fused tooth.

My dad's side of the family has a tendency towards weird teeth. My cousin and I were both missing two baby teeth, and her brother was missing one, but had a fused baby tooth. I think they both have normal adult teeth, but I continue to be missing two teeth, and one of the adjoining teeth came out as a fused tooth. It looks like two teeth somehow got smashed together, but there is only one root. On the bright side, because of the resulting extra space in my mouth, I've been allowed to keep all four of my wisdom teeth.

Anyway, apparently my new dentist also has a fused tooth, so she was excited to see mine. Maybe we're related.

sadness

How did I not hear about this earlier? Madeleine L'Engle, one of my favorite authors, passed away last week.

Selfish person that I am, my first thought was to be horrified that The Eye Begins to See, her book about the adult Meg Murry, will now remain incomplete forever.

That aside, I really am quite sad about this. I've read every one of her non-religious books with the exception of Ilsa, which is just too expensive to buy. I always thought that she wrote beautifully and evocatively, and she also somehow managed to incorporate her spirituality into her work without annoying the agnostic/atheist in me. No small feat, that.

MNF...live from Candlestick!

Yesterday, I went to my first live Monday Night Football game. It happened to be the 49ers home opener, and they were playing against the Arizona Cardinals; division rivals to whom they had lost four consecutive games, so it was certainly an exciting setup.

We left Mountain View at 4:45pm for a 7:15pm kickoff, and still got into the stadium late, due to horrendous traffic on 101, parking issues, and extra-tight security inspections. Luckily, the women's security line was short, so I was able to get to my seat just before Harris' interception and Gore's touchdown.

The rest of the evening was a mixed bag. The improved Niner defense looked really good; the Nate Clements-led secondary pretty much shut down Fitzgerald and Boldin, and rookie linebacker Patrick Willis was all over the field.

The offense looked horrible, for the first 57 minutes of the game. I lost track of the number of three-and-outs, pass protection wasn't great, play-calling was uninspired, Alex Smith wasn't all that accurate, and his receivers weren't giving him any help, either. Frank Gore looked decent early on, but as soon as the Cardinals defense figured out the Niners couldn't pass, they just focused on the run, which made it hard for Gore to get his yards.

The last three minutes were pretty thrilling, and it's great to start the season with a win, but I'm more than a little bit worried. It's going to be a lot harder next week in St. Louis; the Rams will be looking to prove themselves after getting thrashed by the Panthers.

trampoline dodgeball

Last week, I went to a birthday party at Sky High Sports, in Santa Clara. Located at the site of the old SpeedRing indoor go-karting arena, Sky High fills that space with three huge trampoline arenas; one for "free play", one for dodgeball, and one with a foam pit.

To paraphrase Joey: trampolines == good, dodgeball == good; trampoline dodgeball == good!

It was a total blast; we stayed out there for an hour, and I must have played at least five or six games. It turns out I'm no good at throwing, but I seem to dodge pretty well, since I didn't spend much time on the sidelines. As a result, I was pretty exhausted (and dehydrated!) afterwards, so it was a good workout, too. Definitely worth multiple repeat visits, especially for $10/hour.