chloroquine monday

I got back on Saturday night (Sunday morning, really) from a week-long trip to Guatemala and Belize with friends. The eight of us spent two nights in Antigua, two in El Remate (near Tikal), two in San Ignacio, and two in Caye Caulker. After that, four of us left so we could attend a wedding on Sunday, and the remaining four stayed for two days of diving. Details to follow, before I forget everything...

Anyway, we were advised to take precautions against malaria, so we all started on a chloroquine regimen about a week before the trip. The pills are supposed to be taken weekly, on the same day each week, for a week before and four weeks after exposure. I took the first dose on a Monday, and I didn't feel any severe side effects (a little headache maybe), but one of my friends experienced some dizziness. "Chloroquine Monday", as we've been calling it, hit again on the day we spent hiking all over Tikal. Most of us were okay but the same friend had really bad nausea and fatigue all day. I just took the third dose last night, and again it wasn't too bad, but nevertheless I will be quite glad when we're all done.

positive identification

I ran the Bay to Breakers again this year with some friends. I was definitely not in good running condition, having had knee problems and a lingering cough over the past few weeks, but managed to finish anyway.

Afterwards we walked back to a friend's house, where we'd stashed a change of clothes and some groceries. We took turns showering and cooking, and eventually we ended up watching the party (she lives on Fell Street, which is pretty much party central) while munching on French toast and breakfast sandwiches.

I told everyone to keep an eye out for my coworkers, who were dressed as lemmings in green wigs and blue snuggies. We finally spotted them shortly after noon, at which point we had an exchange that went something like this:

friend:	Wow, the guys in the back are holding someone up. She looks really drunk! Do you know her? It's a dark-haired girl.
me:	(glancing out the window) Hmm. No, I don't think so, I only know like 4 out of the 13 lemmings, and they're all white guys.

Then, this morning at work:

me:	Hey, I saw you guys on the course yesterday. Who was the drunk girl?
coworker #1:	Umm. No comment.

A couple hours later:

me:	How was your weekend?
coworker #2:	Oh, good. Met up with J and some of the lemmings after the race.
me:	Hmm. (J is an Asian female, a coworker from another office.) Hey <coworker #1>, was J the drunk girl?
coworker #1:	I said no comment!

Hehe.

bike to work day

Goal #2 achieved! Yesterday in honor of Bike to Work Day, I finally biked to work.

My bike is 18-years-old and crappy; my parents bought it for me when I was in high school. I was a little concerned about the bike surviving all the way to work since it's nearly 20 miles door-to-door.

The first three miles from my house down to 101 are a steep descent; I literally did not have to pedal for over a mile and a half. I stopped by Oracle briefly to meet up with a friend, and from there we took the second half of the bayway route.

The route was pretty complicated but luckily I had written up a little card with directions and pasted it on my bike. Also, there were often little colored arrows pasted on the ground at the more confusing intersections, and then as we approached Mountain View there were lots of other bikers to follow.

In the end it took about 1 hour and 40 minutes, which works out to roughly 12 mph. Not great, but then again it was my longest bike ride in over fifteen years.

Anyway, that's ten items done or in progress, which gives me 2.5 years to knock off another twenty. Still on track!

whew

me:	Hey, what's with the teeny tiny font on <product>?
other engineer:	What are you talking about, it's not teeny tiny!
me:	Are you kidding? It's making my eyes hurt.
him:	Hmm...screenshot?
him:	(upon receiving screenshot) Eww, okay, that is eye-hurting. Maybe the fonts on your box are messed up.
me:	Heh, I told you! I know I'm old but I'm not that old.

We later figured out that it was his fonts that were messed up and everyone else was seeing the teeny tiny ugly fonts, so we filed a bug.