Memoirs of a CPUNERD

I know this point is brought up constantly. And it’s not that I mind it, but… doesn’t it seem really funny that a secular country observes religious holidays [1, 2, 3]? Don’t try and bring up the founding fathers, just don’t. The types of observation vary, but they are indeed observed. Halloween has very little bearing on most people’s lives, but the government is still involved. Easter always falls on a Sunday, and a sizeable portion of the population, including business owners, use the day to celebrate. Christmas is actually recognized by the federal government of the United States. Just food for thought.

Like I said, don’t give me this speech about how America was founded by Christians. That is not the case[4, 5, 6]. America was founded by Freemasons [7, 8, 9, 10]. Those Freemasons did have respect for all religions but fought for a nation in which religion was not a qualifying or discriminatory factor for any person.

Halloween is an interesting holiday to examine. The celebration is largely secular now, but the history lies with Christianity. Local governments even go so far as to plan the specific night on which kids celebrate. Luckily for adults, this celebration doesn’t affect them all that much. They just have to turn on their porch light, hand out candy, and pray (yes, this word was intentional) that their house doesn’t get vandalized.

Now let’s examine the impact of Easter. Sunday comes around, ninety percent of Davis shuts down. Easter might not be a United States Federal Holiday [11], but it is a day in which the country says “I’m taking the day off.” And good for them, I whole-heartedly love the fact that people of any religion here can celebrate their holidays openly.

Christmas is a more iffy situation. It is the one religious holiday that the federal government of the United States recognizes. Fair? Don’t ask me. All I know is that if it weren’t for casinos and movie theatres, there wouldn’t be an open business in half the U.S. cities.

I know this is mainly a collection scattered thoughts, but I just figured they were worth sharing. But being as nobody ever reads these notes, it doesn’t matter. Right God? ; )

[1] - Christmas history - The origins of Christmas and related celebrations…
http://www.christmas-time.com/ct-history.htm

[2] - All Hallows Eve, All Souls and All Saints Day - Halloween’s Christian Roots…
http://www.americancatholic.org/features/halloween/

[3] - CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Easter
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05224d.htm

[4] - The U.S. NOT founded upon Christianity
http://www.nobeliefs.com/Tripoli.htm

[5] - Top 5 myths about america (sic)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/26169/Top-5-myths-about-america

[6] - Our Founding Fathers Were NOT Christians
http://freethought.mbdojo.com/foundingfathers.html

[7] - Freemasonry
http://www.freemasonry.org/

[8] - Freemasons
http://www.nobeliefs.com/freemasons.htm

[9] - Freemasonry, symbolisms of Masonry, art gallery
http://www.religion-cults.com/Secret/Freemasonry/Freemasonry.htm

[10] - Christians beware - of Freemasonry
http://bibleprobe.com/freemasonry.htm

[11] - Holidays and Other Dates in the US Secular Calendar
http://www.smart.net/~mmontes/ushols.html

On Monday, Shakeh and I went back to Jojo’s, hoping that they were actually just closed on Sundays. Turns out they were indeed out of business. What the heck? The owner of the building was there, and he told us that he’s had one hell of a time trying to find a reliable partner to lease the building. After lunch, the cast came off! I received a splint for the next few weeks, but at least I can take that thing off and air the hand out (and wash it).

Justin decided to skip the gym on Tuesday. After doing cardio, I went for a bike ride around Davis again. I visited the MU for lunch. I worked for a bit, then went to Burgers & Brew with Abhi, Shakeh, Martyn, and Sara for dinner.

On Wednesday, I lifted for half an hour, then played three and a half hours of racquetball with John and Chris. Rather intense. I picked up Amanda from the airport and then showed her the campus. Sara and I bowled with her until 1830, then we went to the Farmer’s Market. I overdid things just a bit and ordered a polish dog (good), a paneer wrap (so-so), and a bunless buck (great!). Franci, Javi, Shakeh, and Larry also joined us at the market. We left as the weather was getting cold.

Amanda and I woke up early on Thursday, got ready, picked up Sara, and headed to Posh Bagel and Starbucks. We ordered some breakfast, then headed straight to to SF. We did the usual thing, parking at Daly City and taking the BART in. We visited Union Square park first, then headed to Hyde park. After that, we circled back around to Chinatown to look around, then went to North Beach and visited the Stinking Rose. We went to Washington Square Park and then made our way to Coit Tower. We walked around and wound our way to Pier 39 and checked out the Battlin’ Sea Lions. It was funny, some of them would be in the water, trying to get back up onto a platform. However, other sea lions had opposing plans. As one sea lion would try and get onto a platform, the other sea lion would just butt it off. It was fun to watch. After that, we walked to the wharf and watched the sourdough guys work their magic at the Boudin Bakery, then laughed at all the people getting startled by the bush guy. We went to Ghiradelli Square next and enjoyed some wonderfully decadent then took the trolley back to the BART. We crossed the Golden Gate by car, then headed to Horizon’s in Sausolito. After a long day, we got home and Amanda and I just crashed.

On Friday, Amanda and I went to The Village Bakery for a quick bite, then headed to Berkeley. Amanda and I walked around the campus and checked out a few of the buildings, then headed to Telegraph street for a quick look. We went to Palo Alto along 280, then walked down University Avenue and stopped at Madison and Fifth for lunch. I had a ravioli dish that was really good, but made my stomach hurt. We didn’t get a chance to really check out Stanford because there was absolutely no parking. We went to Google and had a forty-five minute tour, courtesy of Andrew. After that, we headed back to Davis. We got in, met up with Sara, Shakeh, and Javi for dinner at Kathmandu Kitchen. We went home and tried to watch Run Fatboy Run, but ended up watching The Darwin Awards instead.

Saturday we went to breakfast with Sara at Crepeville. Said goodbye (again) = \, then headed to the airport to drop off Martyn. Shakeh, Amanda, and I then went to Old Town Sac. My parental units met up with us, then we walked around and went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch. Shortly after lunch, we headed back to Davis. Amanda and I biked to “The Domes,” then another eight miles around the Davis bike loop. After we got back, we rested for a bit, then went to see Drillbit Taylor with Shakeh and Javi. We went to Sophia’s for dinner after that, then Amanda and I headed back to my place.

A lazy day was had on Easter Sunday. I worked through most of it, as did Amanda. pretty much a lazy day. Amanda and I wandered down to the 3rd and U cafe for lunch, which was closed for Easter (like most of the town apparently). We ended up going to Woodstock’s for lunch since most other things were closed and Bistro was just doing an easter brunch that was ridiculously overpriced. Later that night, Amanda and I met up with Bill, Emma, and Laura at Pluto’s for dinner around 1815, then headed to see the Bank Job.

It’s official! I’m going to Europe at the end of the summer. I don’t have exact dates down yet, but most likely it’s going to be from the end of August until mid-September. I face castration and other irreparable harm if I don’t visit England, Spain, Germany, and Italy. The thing is, I’m going to be in Europe for three full weeks, and being as I want to see a lot, I need some advice! Yes, I’ll have friends around as guides, but they have lived in their home countries, and as I know from experience, one rarely visits nearby tourist attractions. So… If you have suggestions for more countries, and better yet, specific cities, buildings (restaurants, bars, museums, gov’t buildings, etc), or natural landmarks (the Alps, the river Seine, etc.), I would really appreciate it = )

Cities so far (far more than I can actually do of course):

England: London, Stonehenge, probably Bath or Brighton.
Spain: Madrid, Barcelona, maybe Granada or Sevilla
Germany: Berlin, Stuttgart, Munich
Italy: Mantova, Venice, Rome (and The Vatican), Sicily
Greece: Athens, Crete
France: Paris, Grenoble, Bordeaux
Scotland: Edinburgh
Czech Republic: Prague
Ireland: Dublin, Cork
Switzerland: Zurich, Lucerne

My wrist was still hurting on Monday, so I couldn’t do more than a few lifts. All the cardio machines were taken, so Justin and I went upstairs. The elliptical machine was strangely hard. I played racquetball instead of volleyball. Later in the advanced class, I lost a game I should’ve won, but so far I’m 2-1. I had a really nice and relaxing lunch at Raja’s with Shakeh. We went to Safeway at night, got some supplies and some brocolli+cheddar soup. The recipe changed, it’s much more oily since last we had it. I had a big sweet tooth that night, so we went to Baskin Robbins later that night.

On Tuesday I was able to do a few more lifts because it was leg day. I played squash and racquetball instead of indoor, and didn’t do anything in tumbling. I went to the MU for lunch, then had a phone interview with Rambus at 1400. It went well. I didn’t get a lot of “do this problem” questions, it was more me explaining what I do for my research. For some reason, our research meeting went really long. I stuck around for a bit , then went to the Google recruitment talk. Later in the night, Shakeh and I went to see Meet the Spartans, which was really bad.

I did ladders for lifting on Wednesday, meaning I started out with a low weight and went up by small increments, but did lots of sets. I think I did seventeen sets of leg press! In racquetball, I actually pushed a guy that usually crushes me to 8-11, whereas 3-11 probably would be more accurate. I went 4-1 today. Shakeh brought chipotle for lunch, which was nice because I had my google phone interview around 1300. I won my last divisional racquetball match, then went to Pluto’s for dinner. Shakeh and I watched Hook to end the night.

A bunch of us went to Cafe Mediteranee for lunch. John had a visiting german Ph.D. student, so I talked with him about research for half an hour or so. I did another phone interview with rambus when I got home, then cooked a wonderful Valentine’s dinner for Shakeh. After we got done, I took her to see Definitely Maybe. The movie was very enjoyable, though definitely a chick flick.

I had a follow-up doctor’s appointment in the morning. Afterwards, I went to the GSA breakfast, then picked up some parts from the ECE office. I went to lunch at the MU, then rode back home and found Tony, Shubho, and Hari on the way home. I sat with them at Chipotle while they ate. Shakeh and I had leftovers for dinner before going to see Jumper. Now I know that many people are going to have problems with this movie. But seriously, I’m so sick of movies trying to over-explain and justify everything. This movie was fun just to sit back and watch. I must say that I was secretly hoping Hayden Christiansen would utter a line about how much he hates sand (Episode II anyone?), but no luck.

On Saturday, I woke up and got a bunch of work done. In the afternoon, I went to the tennis match with Martyn, then walked around downtown and ended up at Zia’s for a late lunch. I went home after that, worked a while more, watched some of the NBA all-star skills challenges, then went to pick up Martyn and Dave for dinner at Thai Nakorn. After we got done there, we went to Cold Stone, which is apparently closed! Not like a store closing would deter us, so we headed over to Ben & Jerry’s. Once we were done with our delectable treats, we dropped by Sophia’s to say hi to Dani, then I dropped the kids off at their place and went home to sleep.

I woke up at 0700 on Sunday and got straight to work. I took an interlude at Konditorei from 1100-1230 with Tina and Mauricio. I went back to work for two hours, then joined Dani, David, and Martyn for some football. After playing for an hour and a half, we went to the ARC, and Martyn and I played some squash. Right after we finished, we went to Burgers & Brew with the guys from football, including all the Italians and a Dutch guy named Taj. I went home and worked for a few more hours, then met Jay and Anna at Ciocolat. Once they finished their wine, I convinced them to go to Crepeville to get a decent sized dessert. Anna and Jay split something as well. Jay and I inadvertantely made Anna snort wine through her nose, which I’m sure burned like hell. Jay and I headed back to my place, then waited for Lindsay and Mauricio to show up so we could watch Sicko.

I know several peopl, myself included, who would be thrilled to have Premiereship games abroad, particularly in the USA. The NFL already has one regular season game played in the UK at Wembley stadium. Why not return the favor? From what I’ve heard, every team in the league would get one game abroad, and seeding would be done to ensure that two teams in the current top-five don’t play (so as not to have one team’s homefield advantage stripped away).

As I said, I’m excited at this prospect. Many Brits are not. And really, I just can’t agree with them. I understand that it would suck to not have that extra home-game, but why not finally let some real football be played in the USA and other countries. Who knows, we might even return the favor with that European NBA division. Oh, let’s just hope you don’t read the last post I wrote…

Shakeh and I ventured to Chipotle for lunch on Monday. Due to all the heavy rain Davis recently endured, my bike was showing some rust and a major lack of oil. So, I did what any reasonable bloke (wait, Rachel said I was a chap) would do and took my bike to the bike shop. While there, I also got the rear wheel adjusted.

Tuesday brought the understanding that I really just need to work on my handstand. Several things will come more naturally I think if I do that. I brought some carrot cake with me to Pluto’s and let Martyn, Alex, and Emma tryt it. Before my meeting, I read at the MU and chatted with Ita. Shakeh got home and we went to Burgers & Brew, then to Salsa.

On Wednesday, Shakeh and I tried Sam’s. The chicken shawerma was awesome.  After that, I went home and worked solid until 2300! Craziness. I did take a small break to cook and eat dinner though. Drat, I had a nice, nine-month streak going where-in I never cooked myself a single meal.

I couldn’t sleep well on Wednesday night, so early Thursday morning I noticed an email from Google EMEA. I played Justin at squash, then Priscilla at racquetball, since I didn’t feel like doing any real cardio. I figured out that I can run my ass off in indoor, and then just sub out. I tend to do much better when I do that (go figure). Tumbling was alright, then I went to hit some tennis balls with Amy, which was so good. It feels great to finally be hitting again. Funny enough, I also got an email from the US Google office. I hurt myself playing indoor at night, I got tripped and fell and used my wrist to break my fall. U played through it for racquetball (which I won), but sat out the men’s indoor game.

I decided to get my wrist checked out on Friday, so I went to health center triage. I joined Shakeh and Javi for lunch at Orange Hut.  Afterwards, I went back to health center and got some X-rays, which came up clean. I watched some of the UCD women’s tennis match, then went home. I worked some more, got another US Google email (when it rains it pours). Shakeh and I went to Thai2k for dinner, then Ciocolat for dessert.

Saturday morning brought a walk to Chipotle. Afterwards, Shakeh and I took a stroll around the neighborhood by 3rd and C. I continued icing my wrist, and watched the Nevada-Hawaii game. I’m happy to say it looks like we’re starting to pick up finally. Javi came over and I helped him with his resume for a bit. We were going to go to Sac with Lee and Verena, but neither Shakeh nor I felt up to it when the time came. We went to manna for dinner instead, then went to watch Fool’s Gold. The movie wasn’t anything special, but it was exciting and fun to watch.

We went to Starbucks and Posh Bagel on Sunday morning. For lunch, Jenny prepared some wonderful food for Lee, Verena, Shakeh, Lindsay, and I. That night, ,y heart sank as I found out that the graphics cards in burn only support compute 1.0, not 1.1. ARGH!

Just For Fun, the auto-biography of Linus Torvalds, ghost-written by David Diamond, was all in all a good read. There is not much technical background required, and even parts that require such knowledge can be skipped without missing the point of the book. In the very beginning of the book, an interview is printed that shows how Linus would only do the book because he thinks it will be “just for fun.” The book lives up to that, being light-hearted and primarily anecdotal. There is a lot in the book about his technical achievements, but so much more of it is about his struggles as a nerd in general.

I found something in the book that didn’t sit well with me. There is one quoted line from Linus that is so unlike anything else said. Due to it’s difference, it stuck with me, and now I have a hard time discerning which voice is actually his; that single quotation I found, or the rest of the book. Yes, the book has a ghost-writer, and I’m sure much of the voice is dictated by the ghost-writer, but still. A ghost-writer, should by nature, strive to make the work appear to be in the voice of the subject. Now, we’ll never know. Then again, not knowing wouldn’t be such a huge loss, as this whole experience was “just for fun.”

As of Monday, I was still sick. Luckily my fever was drastically reduced, but it was still there, as well as the general soreness and cough. Shakeh and I went to Chipotle for lunch, since I actually had my appetite back. We watched The Nanny Diaries that night, and it was surprisingly decent. The production company did something that is often done with movies of this kind. They tried to advertise as something it was not. It was not a chick-flick, yet the main point I got from the commercials was that it would be a romantic comedy. Again, it was not. After the movie, Shakeh and I watched Serena Williams lose to Jelena Jankovic. Come on now, was anyone else aware that Serena has never defended a grand-slam title? When she repeats, it’s never the next year. And besides that, Jankovic is just bloody (I’m using that in place of a more American word) annoying. Boy do I hope she loses. After tennis, I finished reading Just For Fun.

Holy crap was it raining bad on Tuesday. I don’t know if I was still weak from the cold or what, but I was not doing good during the morning. I went to the MU for lunch, then joined Justin and visited the health center. The nurse said a  virus was going around and I probably had that. Then again, she also told Justin the exact same thing, so I am doubtful they do anything but say “There’s a virus going around, you probably got it from someone.” For dinner, I grabbed some El Mariachi to go and ate with Shakeh at her place. I went to Salsa solo since the lady was not feeling well, though Justin also showed up. Speaking of others who showed up, Marilena was there. I hadn’t seen her in such a long time (my birthday or Halloween I think). I also ran into Anna, Nina, and Andrea, all of whom were in the intermediate class being held afterwards. I didn’t get to chat much though, as I was trying to leave.

Racquetball on Wednesday was fun. I played three matches. The first match, I owned someone. Then, as karma would have it, I got owned by Andy with the exact same score. I played Chris in my third match and it was really close. I managed to pull it out though and won 16-14. I met up with Shakeh for lunch at Raja’s and then walked her to work afterwards. I thought I saw Cathy there, and it turns out I actually did, though I didn’t know until later. I picked Shakeh up from her appointment at the health center around 1630, then dropped her off at her place. I then picked up Bill around 1800 and went to Ita’s to wait for everyone. For Dave’s birthday, he chose to go to Wendy’s. His name is Dave after all. We left there around 1930, and I ran to Pluto’s to get some actual dinner. I headed to Shakeh’s, and we watched the Hantuchova-Ivanovic match. We saw the first set and a half, then I headed home and watched the rest of the match. Even though Hantuchova won the first set 6-0, she lost the match. Come on woman, what the heck?!

There were a ton of people on the cardio machines on Thursday morning. All of the exercise bikes were taken. As such, Justin and I played squash for a bit instead of biking. In gymnastics, we had a substitute. He let us do significantly more than we usually do, which was great. After I got home and showered, I went to Woodstock’s with Javi, Martyn, and Alex for lunch. Around 1600, I headed to the ARC for IMs via a ride with Javi (thanks again). The coed indoor-football game didn’t go very well. In fact, it went quite badly. We got shut out 0-7. Martyn and I decided to go upstairs and blow off some steam by playing squash. After our match, I went and signed in for racquetball, then headed down to the lobby to wait for my opponent to show up. My match started promptly at 2000. Before the match, I asked my opponent how long he’d been playing. His response was something along the lines of “I’m rusty, but I played for eight years.” Needless to say I was a bit worried. I was suddenly very glad that all my supporters had said they would turn up to watch. And luckily, chance would have it that I didn’t have a need to be worried. I ended up winning 15-3, 15-5. The points I dropped were all off of serves I chose to use to go a little easy on the poor guy. On top of the good score, I also made good time. The match finished in about ten minutes or so. Thus, I was able to go downstairs and join in on the men’s indoor action only five minutes late. Regardless of my presence, we still lost that match 2-6. After I showered, Justin gave Bill and me a ride back to my place, and then I dropped Bill off and headed to pick up Shakeh from school. We dropped her bike off, then went to Crepeville for dinner. I was fairly exhausted so we didnt stay long. After I dropped Shakeh off, I headed home and longed for some blissful rest. I fell asleep to the fourth game of the Federer-Djokovic match. Turns out I should’ve stayed up, as Djokovic won in straight sets.

Let me repeat, early Friday morning on the west-coast, Federer lost in straight sets! Damn, what is happening to the world? Luckily it was to Djokovic, who I can be quoted as saying he would be great after since the first time I saw him in July of 2007. I drove Shakeh to the health center since she was late for her appointment. Later that day, Javi, Tony, Shakeh, and I met up for lunch at Ali Baba. Even later that day I picked Shakeh up from school as it was absolutely pouring outside. We went to Sophia’s for dinner, then to the Yogurt Shack for dessert. We then went back to my place and watched the Women’s final, which Sharapova won in straight sets. After the match, we turned on the movie Mr. Woodcock, which was pretty bad. I wasn’t expecting much, and boy did it fulfill that promise of non-deliverance.

For some weird reason, when I woke up at 0700 on Saturday I was really tired. Nonetheless, I jumped in the shower, got dressed, and then headed out. I made a quick stopoff at Posh Bagel for breakfast, then drove to NASA Ames to pick up Paul. We drove to Google to print out directions, but Paul forgot his laptop so we went back to Ames one more time. Then we drove back to Google, printed directions, and proceeded in to the city. The first place we visited was in Nob Hill. Paul had to run all over the block since he didn’t have an address and the contact’s cell phone number wasn’t working. Go figure. After that, we went to a shady area in the mission to check out a flat. Luckily the owner didn’t answer the door, so Paul was able to just check that one off and say “No way in Hell.” We drove back to the south bay and checked out North Park again. Turns out that the plans to bulldoze the place and make condos went under, so Lyon sold the property to Prometheus. That means that Lyon couldn’t do leases anymore since Prometheus would take over right away, and might require a twelve-month lease. After North Park, we headed to Castro Street and stopped at the Roadhouse Bar and Grill. The food was alright. The BBQ sauce used by the restaurant wasn’t that great though, and being as the meat was covered in it, the meal was somewhat ruined. After lunch, Paul and I went to Google and watched football (the original kind) and basketball for awhile. This involved poking fun at Len Elmore and the Oklahoma State coach for a bit. At the halftime of the WVU game, I dropped Paul off and headed back to Davis. Shakeh and I got ready for Javi’s dinner and then we went off to Crepeville. An absolute TON of people showed up. Our party took up the majority of the tables at the restaurant. After dinner, Shakeh wasn’t feeling well so we went home. We tried to just go to sleep but she was having such bad fits that she was in physical pain and I was forced to stay awake. Eventually we were able to get her cough to subside so we could both sleep.

Sunday morning brought the results of the Australian Open, Djokovic beat Tsonga. He did drop a set in this game, something Federer couldn’t make happen, but his win was rather convincing. The match was really good though. We saw some highlights and a few games from it. A lot of people are saying now that Federer finally met his match and won’t win much more, but I doubt that. I think Djokovic and Tsonga will now do really well, but I bet Federer still wins three more majors and breaks the mark set by Sampras. Shakeh and I dared to try Quizno’s for lunch. The flatbread sandwiches have gotten small and not that good. After lunch, we saw 27 dresses. The movie was somewhat blah. The Devil Wears Prada was funny, entertaining, and thus obviously had an appeal to both men and women. 27 Dresses was pretty much a chick-flick with another usual story. After the movie, we went home and got some work done, then went to Giovanni’s goodbye dinner for about half an hour. We picked up some food and went home to eat, then tried to get some sleep. Shakeh was still having coughing fits though, so it took a long while for either of us to be comfortable enough to sleep.

Yes, yes, I know, I know, I’m not actually taking any classes. But still, the end of the quarter is something meaningful. I now have to schedule my daily sport instead of having it handed to me. Not only that, but with the end of the fall quarter comes the departure of several friends. Anuja, Charlotte, Paul, Wijnand, and my Kenny Bear are all departing for good. While I didn’t get to know everyone of them as well as I would have liked, I’m still going to miss them all.

Monday wasn’t very eventful. After my early meeting, I fixed a problem with the splitter (yay!), but not much else happened. Shakeh and I watched the episode of DH that we missed the night before.

Happy Birthday Mr. Kulkarni! Yes, yes, Tuesday was Abhi’s birthday. To celebrate, Vanessa and Charlotte bought a whole Yin-Yang cake from the MU bakery. I stayed and chatted with people until 1400 or so, then went home and got some more work done. I met Shakeh for dinner around 1715 at the new burger place called Burgers and Brew by Crepeville (exquisite, though awful waiting, just go to the Crepeville method). I went home after that and worked until Shakeh picked me up for my IM game. Verena was with her, and so the three of us headed to pick up Ita and Emma. We headed to the fields from there. Long story short, we lost the game. I am now officially against penalty shots. We played the game very well. The final score was 0-0, but the ball encroached onto our side of the field only a handful of times. For the majority of the game, we were pressuring their defense. The opposing team didn’t get a single shot on the goal, while we had several on their goal. And it was a good game too, the other team didn’t play dirty and they didn’t flop, though they did at one point grab onto Leslie’s arm and his shoulder popped out again. This time his arm didn’t go back into the socket though, so there was a very long and unfortunate ordeal for him to get to the hospital. I felt really bad for him since I know almost exactly what he was going through. After the game (which ran until 2230), we gave Ita and Emma a ride home, and then I went home and slept.

Shakeh and I decided to go back to Raja’s for lunch on Wednesday. After lunch, I went to the MU bakery, then talked with Shakeh until 1400. I did some work at the lab, and even to this day am still utterly confused by my machine’s desire to disable its NIC intermittently. For dinner, Google took Elliot, Francis, Daniel, Shakeh, and Justin out to Thai2k for dinner. Afterwards, Shakeh and I went to The Yogurt Shack (on my own nickel, not Google’s) then back to my place for some South Park.

We started doing back-handsprings in tumbling on Thursday. Finally, finally, finally, I took a racquetball game from Coach Clink. I had a really long lunch with everyone, then Went to the lab for some work. I stayed until 1600 or so, then rode home. For dinner, Shakeh, Falcon, and I took Tony to Sophia’s (his choice). After dinner, Shakeh and I went to our first of three extended Salsa lessons. There were significantly less people there, which was very nice. Van went over several of the previous moves, then we went over the Figure-8 turn. After dancing, I met up with Zach and Daniel to go see Enchanted. The movie was alright, though a bit tought to watch. For some reason, disbelief is much more easily suspended with a cartoon then with a live-action sequence.

We had to get a few more things for Abhi and Verena, so on Friday, Shakeh and I went to the Davis Commons. We went to Pluto’s for lunch, then ran to The Gap and Borders afterwards. Google hosted TGIF, and as usual, several people showed up. Getting the food ordered was a bit of a mess though, the silly gift card has some reservations with how much cap is needed for a tip and what not. I eventually had to go to the pizza place in person and get everything situated. After TGIF, I went home and worked for a bit, then took Shakeh to BJ’s in Vacaville for dinner. There was a long wait to get in, but we passed that by having drinks. Shakeh sampled a fruity cocktail that tasted good, while I tried root beer from the tap (it was great). We sat down and decided to split a buffalo chicken pizza. We each ate a slice or two, then boxed everything up and headed home to get some well needed sleep.

Shakeh fell in love on Saturday, this time with a show called Beauty and the Geek. MTV ran the previous seasons and Shakeh couldn’t turn the TV off while it was being played. I managed to tear her away for a bit as we went to look for some wrapping paper and get her some coffee. The time eventually came for us to go to Abhi and Verena’s birthday bash at La Casa de Frederic y Matthias. It was a smart party, so I busted out a tie. We got there and made Abhi open his gifts, which included a wonderful floppy frisbee set featuring the faces of famous Disney princesses. Throughout the night, there was plenty of beer pong and screwing around on the no-stripping strip-pole. Miles screwed around a bit too much though and apparently put two holes in the wall. Woops… Before I left, I danced a bit with the girls, then got thrown into a grid session between Miles and Danny. Luckily there were other girls nearby to pull me to safety.

Before they left town, Shakeh and I met up with Verena and the Bay Area Boys at Burgers & Brew. We all enjoyed our lunch (though don’t get the chili fries), then Shakeh and I headed back to my place to get some work done. We finished off the night with the season finale, which was a bit depressing and weird to say the least.