So, I get up early enough today so that I can make it downtown to meet Qi for our volunteer stint at the Mercury News Run/Walk this morning… I walked over to the Santa Teresa Light rail station, and catch the train at 7:30, and make it to Discovery Meadow just before 8:00 AM. The instructions we had said to show up at 8:30, so… we were there in plenty of time. We met up with the volunteer coordinator, and she said she didn’t need our help! So, I have to thank Qi for making me get up so early. (dork) 
The volunteer coordinator thanked us, gave us a t-shirt and sent us on our way. We managed to sample some snacks and athletic drinks (Gatorade flavored water) before heading back home, so, the morning was not a total loss.
I picked up a bicycle shipping box at Pacific Bicycles and took apart a bike to ship to Boston this week. Gotta have transportation while I’m there. I have one hopeful response to my craigslist posting. Might have to post again this week. Speaking of bikes, I rode the other one on the Coyote creek trail with one of my housemates, Nick to Coyote Hellyer park. Round trip 12 miles in just under an hour. Took the dogs for the obligatory sunset walk afterwards. Made a pot of rice and Korean BBQ for dinner tonight, yum.
Just did a 20.5 mile bike ride to the Santa Clara County Model Aircraft SkyPark. Afterwards, I took the dogs out for a walk just as the sun was setting. Nice day here… now I feel like grazing at Sweet Tomatoes or Fresh Choice…
Have to do some laundry today because I’m heading to Boston and NYC for the week. I’ll be working in the Extreme Blue Cambridge lab dring the week, then off to NYC for the Reaching Out MBA conference over the weekend. I hope to find a short-term sublet while I’m in Boston for the six weeks prior to Extreme Blue program start.
I suppose I should plan on bringing my snowboard and mountain bike, John says there’s still some decent snow in Vermont. I just ordered an AutoSpin2 for my board, hope it arrives before the end of the season.
Qi convinced me to volunteer for the Mercury News Run/Walk tomorrow. Should be interesting.
I didn’t get to ride my bike into work because of a really annoying distraction from a coworker yesterday morning 
, so I should be out this afternoon on a longer ride to make up for it. Took the dogs with me over to get a snack at the gas station and then for a long walk last night, which was nice. Oh well, back to laundry…
Went for pho and a haircut with Qi and Tom tonight… As usual the pho was good, and so was the company. This pho place makes a pretty good avocado shake too. We almost didn’t make the haircut place, because we talked too long at dinner. But we were the last two in the joint. Haircuts at this place are only $6, and you’re in and out of the place in ten minutes, tops.
I had to drive up to Palo Alto today to go get some soap at l’occitane, left here it was all cloudy and gloomy, and it was the same in Palo Alto, but by the time I got back down to San Jose, it was warm and sunny. The ladies at l’occitane are always so nice, and their soap lasts forever and smells really nice. I got one bar of Hyssope and one of Green Tea. The two women behind the counter were commenting on my Rebus IBM logo shirt. Speaking of which, I really want one of these.
Stopped off on the way home at Pet Club to get some snacks for the dogs, and cat food and litter for the cat. All three are so spoiled. 
I guess I’ll be taking them for a walk through the park later…
I should have made some plans for the weekend, the weather this morning looked gloomy, maybe it’s just some marine layer fog that hasn’t burned off because I got up too early. Need to do some laundry and buy dog and cat food today. Other than that… nothing’s happening. Still working out details for housing in Boston from mid-April to end of May. After that I’ should be in the student housing at BU. Visitors welcome! I’m definitely going to bring my bike, since driving across country is out of the question. I can take the T to get around Boston anyway. I rode my bike into work on Thursday and Friday this week, actually made pretty good time since Nick took my backpack in the car with him, saves me a few extra pounds on the way up the hill. My door to door time on Friday was 31 minutes. I can actually work until 6:00 PM now and still make it home before dark. I finished up the updates to the IBM EAGLE Silicon Valley Chapter web site that I needed to make yesterday, and I can start working on something new now.
OK, why do people call my home phone number at such early hours in the morning? Here’s a hint: we don’t EVER answer that phone anyway, it’s only there for DSL. Everyone has their own cell phone, so you can be pretty sure that anyone calling the land line is a telemarketer. It rang at 6-something and again just now. HELLO! It’s SATURDAY! Oh well… more later.
I drove up to South Lake Tahoe this weekend to hang out with my buddy Ryan and his fiance and friends. We spent the day at Heavenly snowboarding today. The hotel we booked is right across the street from the new gondola at Heavenly. Unfortunately, it was closed this morning due to high winds, so we wound up driving to the Nevada base lodge. Since it was windy and snowing, chains were required on Rte. 207. Unless you happen to have a 4WD car with snow tires like a Subaru Outback. We had dinner Friday night at Harrah’s seafood buffet, which was good too. Nhut asked if I took some for him 
. No, and I didn’t lose any money gambling either! 
Nhut finally created his own blog. Oh, I heard a radio ad for a spring season unlimited pass at Alpine Meadows for $99. Might be worth looking into…or maybe I should go visit Japan before I had off to Boston for the summer. Oh, yea, since I won’t be going to Japan, I needed to fill a spot back in my department in IBM US, and there’s a spot in Cambridge, so I’ll be there for the summer. Sheila is already talking about taking the ferry from Boston to P-town… should be fun.
I think I know now what it feels like to be a slacker like Qi… should have updated the blog this weekend, but I was too lazy. Anyway, I rode ten miles on Saturday, and did way too much laundry. Then Sunday I met up with Qi the slacker and Tom for dim sum, cut the lawn, took the dogs for an extra long walk and even managed to squeeze in a 6 mile bike ride.
I confirmed with IBM Japan that I will not be moving to Japan for an assignment, unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond my control, Nhut’s assignment with his company presented too much risk for me to give up all that I’ve been working on here at IBM for a six month international assignment.
OK, somebody remind me not to spread fertilizer on the lawn in February. It’s now March 2, and I have to cut the lawn again! Well, at least it’s nice and green. I took the dogs for a walk along the hike and bike trail yesterday, and EVERYTHING is super-green right now. Speaking of green, I must have ate something bad on Friday night, because my gut was about to bust on that dog walking excursion. All better now though. Left my bike at work on Friday because I worked till after dark, and caught a ride home with Nick… I should pick it up later today so i have it to ride into work this week. Or maybe I can ride the other bike, whatever.
OK, update… I did pick up the bike, and rode yesterday on the hike and bike trail to Coyote Hellyer park. (12 miles total) On the way back, my ride was interrupted by a bobcat walking along the bike path!
Speaking of work, my buddy Qi was the feature student for Extreme Blue this month, and he mentions me in the article.
I scheduled an EAGLE lunch this week for another Extreme Blue student to meet some “family” at work. Also met a coworker while chatting this weekend who is not out at work, and I invited him to join us as well.
