Jeff Stuart - Memoirs of a CPUNERD

As if the night doesn’t come early enough, we have to make it come even earlier by rolling off of daylight savings time (DST), or “Summer-time” for those of the British persuasion. Seriously, who cares if it’s still dark a little later in the morning? People want sunlight when they’re biking/driving home. The last thing anyone needs is to look outside at 1630 while at work and see street lights come on because it’s so dark outside. We need to start a petition to make DST be in permanent effect. And no, a group on Facebook won’t cut it, unfortunately.

On Monday, I returned some stuff to Hot Topic after my meeting. When I got back, I went in to say hi to Shakeh before my second meeting, and ran into some other friends at the MU. I chatted for five or so minutes, then went to the lounge and said hello to Shakeh. I headed to my MGI meeting, which was really short. Apparently I was the only one who really had a chance to work on anything, so it was just a “hi, bye” meeting. Sigh… couldn’t we just cancel it next time, please?

I dislocated my right arm in racquetball on Tuesday, huzzah! It didn’t stay out luckily, it just slipped out and then right back in, the repercussions will be seen sometime in the near future I’m sure. Ultimate Frisbee was good, we actually got to play a full-game (actually even bigger, 8v8) instead of two games with smaller teams. After lunch, I met with a man named Jeff Ota from BMW Research in Palo Alto. The conversation was enjoyable. Pinar, Brian, and I talked about the work that we are doing, and he let us know what he is doing. He also mentioned that there is a chance for internships in both Palo Alto and Munich. That would be very nice, though another summer in the Bay Area not spent at Google would probably seem lackluster. I went to football practice at 1730. Instead of playing (some of the pick-up games are just stupid), we just drilled on shooting at the goal, since we felt that was our worst performance issue during last week’s match.

I started the slow process of installing Gentoo on my work machine on Wednesday. While packages were compiling, I helped set up the demo area (hey, I got a free shirt!) for the visitors from the IEEE Visualization conference. Afterwards, I went to Sophia’s for Justin’s birthday dinner. Once we were done there (around 2100), we went to Swirl, then to Little Prague. Cover was already in place, and since it was almost 2200, I just decided to head home since I wouldn’t stay very long and I wasn’t planning on drinking anything.

I played in the ladder again in racquetball on Thursday. This time, I got Coach Clink to 13-15 (almost there!. Ita, Martyn, and Alex joined us for lunch. After chatting with them for a few minutes, I went to the lab and continued installing Gentoo. I left around 1630 and headed back to my place. I got changed and went to the fields for our third match. We warmed up for a bit, positioned ourselves, and then proceeded to get a goal against in less than a minute. Once that happened, our team actually woke up and the last 39:30 went really well. The game ended 8-1. Ken got a hat trick, I had an assist (as well as some reverse groin karma finally!). Shakeh and I went home and to the dance studio for our salsa lesson. After that, we went over to La Casa de Amy y Jess.

This Friday was the first time that I went to the GSA breakfast all quarter. I stopped by there on the way to the lab. I finally got my machine (kinda) up and running and then went to lunch at Cafe Mediteranee. I went home and started working from there, but then had to go back into the lab at 1600 for various reasons. I finished up again around 1800, then headed home and continued working, this time while watching some American Football, then headed over to Verena’s at 2000. The dinner was supposed to be a house-warming party, but one of Verena’s grandparents just passed away, so the party was cancelled and instead a wake/dinner was held. Most everyone had arrived by 2100, so we started eating our wonderfully prepared dinner (though some of us ate all the appetizers beforehand… woops). During dinner, Irish Car Bombs were mentioned. Chief Justice couldn’t resist, so he, Ciderman, and I ran out to get the necessary ingredients. We got back with the liquids, but found that there was but a single shot glass in the place. As such, Sean and headed back to the store, where there was none. After that, we tried Safeway, the Fast & Easy Mart, and even Dead Zone (which was closed), to no avail. We got back, talked some more, then someone finally broke into the Bailey’s and started doing car bombs. Not long after we were finished, most people left. I stayed for a bit longer, then as I was passing out, bid everyone fairwell and headed home.

Shakeh and I met up with Verena and the Bay Area boys at the farmer’s market. Rawi was doing some street performing to try and pay for grad school apps. We listened to him for a little while, then went to get some food. We were sitting down as the market was closing, and ended up running into a ton of people. Why were they all there AFTER the market was supposed to be closed? Heck if I know. Anyways, I went home and worked for a little while, then went back to Shakeh’s and talked with Ciderman, Sean, and Lee for half an hour or so until Shakeh was ready. We took off and headed to Old Town Sacramento. The place was actually pretty nice. We walked around for awhile and looked at the shops, then headed to P.F. Chang’s in Downtown Sac for dinner. The wait was about forty-five minutes, so when we finally sat down, we knew exactly what we wanted. After dinner, we went to Baskin-Robbinn’s back in Davis, and then to see Dan in Real Life.

I realized upon waking up how much I am going to miss Summer-time. I got up around 0700, showered, then ran to Safeway to get some groceries. I went home after that and made breakfast and started taking care of the daily chores. Shakeh and I went to Chipotle for lunch, then headed back to my place. I got to talk to Chiara online, I actually dug out my webcam.

Seriously, they are evil! The international agency in charge of cycling already illegalized them (somehow the speed record for a bike is from a recumbent bike). For someone who rides a traditional racing/road-bike, the muscles being recruited for a recumbent aren’t very strong. I was so winded after riding a recumbent exercise bike that I could barely move the rest of the day.

On Monday, I rushed home from school to get a shower in time, then headed for the MU for a quick bite to eat. I dropped my racquet off at Volley’s to get restrung before going back for my second meeting. After the meeting, I worked with Brian until 1745, then went to the MU and played pool with Bill, Javi, Francisco, and Miles. After pool, Ophelie, Bill, Javi, and I went to Crepeville for dinner. Verena showed up a little late, but couldn’t stay long as she was on her way to the library. D drove Bill and Ophelie home, then went to Shakeh’s for half an hour or so.

I tried one of the recumbant exercise bikes on Tuesday. It sucked. I think it’s because it uses different parts of the same muscles, so perhaps I wasn’t quite as capable. I ran into Lindsay for lunch, then went with a bunch of people to the stadium to get a ticket for the Cal-Poly game. We also got our free UCD shirts while there.

Tennis was rained out on Wednesday, so getting my racquet restrung so urgently turned out to be unnecessary. In the afternoon, I met with John and we talked about my research plans. The conversation helped a lot. I was uncertain as to what courses of action could be taken to actually advance

I went to Pluto’s on Thursday for dinner. Afterwards, Shakeh and I headed to Dan Coming’s place for his goodbye party. We stayed there for an hour or so, then went to our first Salsa lesson. The lesson was a lot of fun, though it was packed! On the wa home, we grabbed a blizzard and enjoyed some decadent sugar and fat. Mmmmm blizzzzzzzzzzzzard. = )

I had the wonderful pleasure of getting my teeth cleaned on Friday. My teeth were actually in good condition! Anyone who gets their teeth cleaned regularly is familiar with a rinse that adheres to plaque and tartar, thus allowing the hygienist to pinpoint spots to be cleaned. When I used that rinse, my teeth were good in all but two incredibly minuscule places. To celebrate, I went out to lunch at Zia’s. Shakeh and I put our mudflaps on our bikes (well, I put them on, she assisted), and then I also went and bought new tires for my bike. I met up with Miles and Charlotte for the volleyball game and Aggie Jam around 1900. The match was entertaining, though disheartening as UC Davis was up 2-0 and lost 2-3. We tried to stay for the entire Aggie Jam, but the pre-show was so lame that we just left. Miles, Javi, Charlotte, and I stopped by Woodstock’s on the way home for some slices, then headed back to my place. Everyone else (the German’s and a few more) showed up a little later (except Abhi and Sebastian). We ended up watching Harold and Kumar go to Whitecastle.

Saturday morning, I met up with Abhi at the Farmer’s Market for breakfast. We wandered around, checked out the Clif Bar 2-Mile Challenge. I headed to the stadium for the American football game vs. Cal-Poly a little after noon. The new stadium looked really nice, though I was puzzled as to how it could possibly be enlarged to have thirty-thousand fixed seats. After ten minutes of the game, the score was 0-14. I was ready to leave then, but decided to stick it out until the end of the half. It was a good idea since the score progressed 0-21, 7-21, 14-21, 14-28, 21-28, 21-35. However, I did indeed leave at half time, and when I read later that the final score was 28-63 or something like that, I was happy with my decision. I went home and worked for a while, then went to the grocery store, began cooking, and didn’t finish until 1915. I wrapped everything up, cleaned up the kitchen, and when Miles got in, we took off to go pick up Charlotte and Javi. We got to Anita’s around 2000. All of the food was great! There was a really good variety as well. After dinner and some drinks, we watched a few episodes of The Family Guy, and we also watched the movie.

Sunday was a lazy day indeed. I didn’t do much of anything. Shakeh got back into town, so after she got done with all her unpacking and such, we went back to my place. She studied while I worked and watched the Nevada-Boise St. American football game. The game itself was really exciting, especially for a Nevada fan who got to see the team come thisclose to beating Boise St. on the smurf-turf, something that had never been done.

Anyone who’s ever worked out or participated in sports with me knows how much I sweat. It’s not completely excessive, but it is more than normal. Everyone has their theories as to why. Some people think that it’s just genetic, some people blame it on hyperhidrosis. The thing is, I do remember sweating less or not at all when I weighed less. This leads me to believe that the simplest answer for why I sweat more than others is simply thermoregulation and Bergmann’s Rule. Sigh, time to get my butt back on the exercise bike…

Monday wasn’t all too exciting. I went to Off The Grid with Rachel for lunch, and then to No Name and Charlie’s with Andrew for dinner. My B5 quest continues.

The director of UNICEF gave a talk on Tuesday. It was interesting, though it was readily apparent that she is still a politician and a bureaucrat. After lunch, Andrew came by and grabbed all of my B5 while I went to a Vis talk by a professor from Berkeley. And the best part of the day, right as I was settling into working and hitting my stride, my building had a fire drill. Double Hamburgers.

With Wednesday came the Google Intern Scavenger Hunt. The hunt itself is produced by The Go Game. We did a few fun things, though most of it was just running around frantically between Ghiradelli Square and Pier 39. I had the unfortunate duty of singing to a woman in the middle of the street on bended knee. I’m sure no one (myself included) enjoyed hearing me screech. After we got back, I did a tiny amount of work, then went to dinner.

Thursday marked the annual intern open house. Tony and Ciderman came. It was different from last year. Instead of BBQing there was just sushi for everyone (we skipped out and went to No Name for pasta), and instead of shirts, people got a leather bound journal. Oh, and instead of giving away four DS lites, they gave away a Google branded iPod. The talks weren’t quite as interesting this year either, though they were more in the spirit of “Open House” than the previous year.

Yuan showed up for lunch. Daniel, Falcon, Yuan, and I went to No Name for lunch. After work, I played ping-pong with Andrew, then ate dinner with Bill, Scott, and Jonas. Even though I left after traffic should’ve stopped, it still took more time than usual to get into Davis.

On Saturday morning, Shakeh and I watched Heroes before going to the Farmer’s Market. We didn’t stay long though, as Shakeh was running a bit late and the market was almost closed by the time we got there. We each grabbed something frmo The Hotdogger and a homemade popsicle. We ran from the market (drove, really, but eh…) to the movie theatres just in time to catch a showing of The Bourne Ultimatum. However, Shakeh left her glasses at home so we had to run back and grab them. This actually turned out to be better, since it allowed us to get better seats and not rush so much. After the movies, we went back to my place and relaxed for a little bit, then got ready and went to Soga’s for dinner. After Soga’s, we went back to my place and almost finished all of the first season of Heroes.

On Sunday morning, we finished watching Heroes. After that, we went to Cafee Bernardo for breakfast. Shortly after that, I left and headed back to Mountain View. Daniel and I went to Google to do laundry and play ping pong, but Google was out of detergent! I ran to 7-11 to buy some, then headed back to start our laundry and play. Katie showed close to when we were leaving, so we played a game or two, then headed back to my place. I folded my laundry real quick, then Sean showed up so the three of us left. We went to La Strada in Palo Alto for dinner. It was good, and it wasn’t that expensive. After dinner, we headed up the 101 to San Francisco to see Eddie Izzard! We got a parking spot right across from the place, but Lee hadn’t eaten so we had to walk to Union Square for him to find a place to eat. After he ate, we rummaged around Border’s for a bit, then headed back to the show. Izzard was great! Though he didn’t wear any drag. The theatre was really small too, there couldn’t have been more than a few hundred people in the place.

So here’s the gist. I went to a Candidates@Google talk this week with a republican (actually he’s a constitutionalist) congressman named Ron Paul. At first I happy to see him talk. I’d never really heard of him, but supposedly he has decent support and some of his ideas seemed interesting. Then he opened his mouth… Most people, as they get older, begin to be very cynical about the world and its people. Therefore, this guy is either senile or naive (or both). He has many republican views (no gun-control, minimalist government, etc.) but he takes them to an extreme. After twenty-five minutes of the talk, I knew I would never vote for him. After thirty-five minutes, I was both proud and frustrated for my country that someone like this not only exists, but made it to prominence. After forty-five minutes, I just left. I’d heard enough to know that I would never want to talk with this person. We disagree on so many things that the only thing we’d be able to do is give each other respectful silence… But you, judge him for yourself. Look through the propaganda and see exactly what it is he stands for. You never know, he could be the republican candidate for 2008, and maybe even president again (doubtful though, I don’t think this country will ever vote in another Texas Republican as president).

I watched two Babylon 5 things on Monday. The first was the movie, In The Beginning. I never actually saw this movie. It was a background-story movie made after the series had started. It was actually done well, and added some depth to the plot that didn’t exist at first. I also watched episode 1×00, The Gathering, which is the pilot for the series. I found it funny that many of the primary characters changed, as well as the make up of the alien races. I didn’t actually get to finish the episode though. It is a double episode and it was time for bed about half-way through.

After work on Tuesday, Andrew and I played tennis at Ames. Andrew is pretty good, and he is giving me some helpful tips. We played for awhile, then played double with Paul and Katie when they showed up. After that was done, we played a few rounds of first-to-five, then played some King of the Court until 21:00, at which time I promptly departed for home. I finished watching The Gathering, then went to sleep.

Brian came to dinner on Wednesday night. Rachel and Andrew joined us. Brian had things to do, so he didn’t stay for long afterwards. When I got home, I watched more B5. Episodes 1×01-1×03 to be precise. I also realized that, with 1) these episodes being forty-three minutes long, 2) each season having twenty-two episodes, 3) there being five seasons, and 4) me having approximately two and a half hours a day after work of spare time, it will take me ten weeks to finish the series if I don’t have a few weekends for marathons.

On Thursday, I finished my “Tour de Cafe Google” with The Lunch Box. While there, Andrew, Michael, Dan, and I noted how nice the Crittendon part of the campus actually is, and how it is incredibly obvious engineers don’t work in the buildings (at least not in abundance). I watched more B5 again (get used to this every night people…), this time episodes 1×04-1×06. I like how the show is advancing already. Even though most episodes are just day-to-day random occurrences on the station, there is an underlying story that is bigger than any one episode, and it is unfolding slowly.

On Friday, I went to see Ron Paul talk. And well… you know how I feel about him now. We had a social TGIF, which consisted of a latin band and lots of food/drinks, but no talking. It was a lot of fun, but unfortunately there was no real dinner being served. I ate as much snack food as I could stomach, then headed to Davis. Traffic sucked, I left at 18:10 and got there around 21:00. Once I get there, Shakeh and I got to Sarah Koch’s farewell BBQ, stayed for an hour or so, then went home.

Shakeh and I watched South Park in the morning on Saturday, then went to the market. On the way, we stopped by the bank, and ran into Sarah, Simone, and Abhi. We went with them to the market and got food and (for some) coffee. While there, we found out that Simone was also leaving! Everyone will be gone! After the market (at which we didn’t eat lunch), we walked with Abhi for a bit, then went to The Village Bakery for lunch. We met up with Rawi at 13:00 to see Transformers. I enjoyed most of the movie, but all in all it was pretty terrible. After the movies, Shakeh and I went to Big 5 so I could purchase a ping-pong paddle. After that, it was so hot that we wanted to get something to cool us down and be somewhere with wonderfully powerful A/C. Shakeh went to Ben & Jerry’s and I went to Jamba Juice. We then went to Borders for a bit. There is a new Lost Chronicles book, Dragon’s of the Highlord Skies. I’m waiting for Amber & Blood still, but I have a feeling that will be awhile. After Borders, we hung out for an hour or so, then went to Fuzio for dinner. We split a Japanese noodle-dish and the firecracker pasta. Both were really good. After dinner, we went to The Marble Slab, then went home.

Shakeh mentioned that she wanted to try Crepeville for breakfast, so on Sunday, that’s exactly what we did. We drove around Davis for awhile after that, listening to Beethoven’s Last Night, then eventually found ourselves at Pedrick’s. We bought a bunch of stuff, most was Shakeh’s = p, then drove home. I dropped Shakeh off, then headed back to Mountain View. Conny, Dan, and I did laundry at Google and played ping-pong. After getting home and putting our laundry away, we went to P. F. Chang’s for dinner in Sunnyvale. Conny and Daniel had never been, so I figured they might enjoy it. They both really liked it. They took awhile to order, but we eventually came to an agreement. Conny got some double-friend noodles (which were most delicious), Daniel got the Sweet & Sour Pork, and I got the Crispy Honey Chicken. All were great, though the chicken was my favorite. After dinner, I just went home and watched episodes 1×07-1×10 of B5, then went to sleep.

Wow… I just realized that I have a week left in Davis. It’s very scary to me. Last year, I was with Deanna and knew all of her friends. But then, when we broke up, I had basically no true friends in Davis. So when the Summer came around, I welcomed it. I really wanted to get away from Davis, to get away from all the drama contained within. Obviously the thought of making a real salary for a few months helped entice me further. But the real draw was getting out into the world and discovering what I had been missing for the past four years.

I was with Deanna for a long time. More than four and a half years to be exact. I mean we were engaged! But really, in that entire time, we never really got out and did much. During the school year, we were always “work! work! work!” During the summer, she was so busy trying to scrimp and save money for a rainy day (meanwhile I was paying for all of our dinners and dates around Reno), and I was content with letting her, that we didn’t get out much. We went on a total of three trips in our four years. Yes, my reluctance to travel had a lot to do with that. But in reality, I went on every feasible trip she offered. Of the trips we went on, really only one of them was truly a new experience. We went to Santa Cruz twice (Seascape resort to be precise), but that was nothing truly new. I’d been to the Pacific Ocean several times before. The trip to the Carolinas was a lot of fun, the East Coast and the culture and sights were definitely new and exciting to me. But really, besides that, most of what we did was just the daily grind.

The reason I bring this up is just to illustrate how much I had been missing. I essentially sat idle for four, count them one, two, three, four! summers, while other people my age were taking road trips, going to Europe, seeing old friends, etc. I can’t put a lot of blame on Deanna though, I had a lot to do with my idleness. But breaking up with Deanna and having an out-of-town job lined up really helped open me up to the idea of getting out from my comfort zone (which didn’t exist in Davis anymore) and trying something new and exciting.

But that was last year. This year is a whole different story. The coming of Summer, while still bringing the possibility of nearly endless fun (I’m going to Google for goodness’ sake!), brings the realization that almost all of my friends are leaving. It also brings the problem of only being able to see my girlfriend sporadically. If I were to stay in Davis, it would be easy to bolt out of town with her and go along the coastline somewhere. Oregon, SoCal, Washington, they would all be possibilities. Since I’m working though, our excursions will be limited to treks between Davis and the Bay Area, with hopefully one or two three day weekends giving us a bit of extra time to spend alone in a place new to us.

This last year did have its down moments. The worst and most chilling was probably the realization that some of my former “friends” chose the friendship (or the seeking of a relationship) of a selfish girl who has never done anything for any of them them over my friendship. This one really hurt me, especially since I felt that I had extended myself to help or embrace some of these people, and they just idly threw me to the wind. That hurt, but it helped me to get over them and realize that I have true friends who wouldn’t do something like that. Another sobering moment I had came as I tried to re-establish friendships with friends of Deanna. I was close to a few of these people, but they felt that they couldn’t be friends with both me and Deanna. That was their choice, but it still hurt, since they were really the closest friends I had in Davis for my entire first year.

However!… The good times this year far outweighed the bad. I made so many wonderful friends. They’ve come from several walks of life, with many of them not even being from the U.S. Talk about an eye opener, I didn’t even have to leave Davis to get a taste of what life outside the U.S. is like ; ) But seriously, I love the friendships and relationships I had over this last year, and am sad to see some of those change due to the soon to be thousands of kilometers between us.

And of course… there’s always the sports I’ll miss = ) It’s hard to beat being able to work out for five hours straight, four days a week. Especially when you have so many others who you know you can depend on for games, matches, etc. Google will offer some of this. They have their own gym (thank goodness, NVIDIA didn’t, that was rame), and have pickup games for most sports I enjoy playing. There are tons of tennis players, and even a few squash/racquetball people there. All in all, I should be able to find people to play with on a relatively regular basis, but it won’t be the same as playing in the classes.

Oh well… Here’s to another Summer in the Yay Area! See you all back in Davis in the Fall!

Monday was your typically “loose ends after a long weekend” day. I did my laundry, ran some errands, and then just chilled out with Shakeh. Of course, since it was a holiday, that meant no PE = ( It was alright though, I got to relax. We watched Accepted, which, with the exception of the last ten percent of the movie, was actually surprisingly funny (though predictable).

And then came Tuesday, or as I like to call it, the day before the day after the day coming immediately behind the day where I tied up loose ends… Yeah, a bit excessive, what can I say? I had another fantastic day of Ultimate. Badminton was the usual, as was Tennis. I had a meeting with Staadt at 15:00, which went fine. We talked about funding for the next year and my projects and my status. Later that night, Camran, Abhi, Shakeh, Carlos and I went to watch Shrek the Third. It was really good! Obviously it is the third in the series, and that tends to mean it can’t be as good as either of the previous two. But that wasn’t the case. The first one was obviously hilarious and original. While this one wasn’t original, it maintained a solid pace of hilarity and laughs. I would highly recommend this to anyone who hasn’t seen it yet.

For some reason, we didn’t have a racquetball coach on Wednesday. Not sure why, he just didn’t show up. I played a few people. I’m trying to play everyone in the class at least once. I set up a lesson with Coach Maze for tennis. In the afternoon, I met with a geologist for KeckCaves about some possible research. It’s great, If I decide to take it, the research would be exactly what I was doing for LBL. I went to the gymnastics club meeting with Sara, and almost broke my neck. I was doing roundoffs on the tumble-track, and Kristen noticed that I was coming out of them looking down. She told me to look forward. I tried, but instead of looking forward, I looked up. This caused my body to rotate backwards and I landing on the top of my shoulders and my neck. Needless to say, it hurt. After that, Sara, Justin, and I went to the Farmer’s Market for dinner.

Another day of Ultimate, another great day of Ultimate. Funny, I wonder why my teams keep doing well. It seems that as long as I’m not on a team with an injured player, we do great. Tennis was good, I just practiced serving for a bit, then I had my lesson early. The lesson was awesome. It’s really nice to get some actual one-on-one attention, and I think it really helped. I went to lunch at the MU all sweaty, which I wouldn’t have done otherwise, except I thought I might catch Shakeh getting food. After that, I went home, showered, then took Justin to get his car in Sacramento. I dropped Shakeh off at her lab, then went out to dinner with Falcon, Tony, and Brian. As soon as I got home from that, Shakeh called, so I picked her up. We got home, then decided to watch Ghost Rider. Seriously people! WTF?! I loved the comic. I usually love Marvel comic movies. I like Nicolas Cage. That movie just plain sucked. No, it was beyond suck. The entire world would be a better place if that movie simply ceased to exist and all memories of it were erased.

I went to the GSA bagel day with Shakeh as usual, then she took me to her O-Chem class. It was alright, though I understood approximately 0.0001% of what the professor was talking about. After class, we went to Ali Baba for lunch. I worked until 19:00, at which point I dropped Shakeh off at an internship orientation, then went home and napped. She called me about an hour later, so I picked her up, then we went to Anita’s for the Yellowstone photo viewing.

My Saturday was a lot of fun, but a complete wash in terms of productivity. I woke up a little late, 9:15, hopped in the shower, filled up my gas tank, got Carl’s Jr. for breakfast, then headed to Palo Alto. Verena, Lee, Ciderman, Chief Justice, and I proceeded to move Lee’s apartment from Stanford to his new place in Mountain View. We got the majority done in four hours, then called it quits for the day. We went to Togo’s for dinner, then I went to Greenpoint to try and find the Canadians. I couldn’t find them, but I picked up another South African, Chris. We headed back to Lee’s place, then to Castro street to get some gelato and let Verena look around. We got back around 23:00, at which point I headed home.

Being as I am going to the Yay Area in a week and a half, I need some new clothes. I went to the mall with Shakeh on Sunday for this purpose. We started by getting some crappy mall chinese food. I don’t know why, but I am just a sucker for this stuff. It is nothing compared to good American-Chinese food like P.F. Changs, yet I can’t seem to turn it down. After eating, we proceeded to visit Anchor Blue, American Eagle, Forever 21, Hot Topic, and Macy’s for clothes. We ended up taking four hours, and I spent almost two-hundred dollars. I was okay with it though, being as I need new clothes, especially for the summer. After the mall, we got home, rested for a bit, then went out for an early celebration of our six-month anniversary. We went to Tucos Wine Market and Cafe. It was awesome. You know how you can have expensive food, like $70-$80 a person, and it doesn’t taste that good? Well this was not that way. Everything we had was awesome. The cheese and wine were excellent. The salads were of a different nature than we’re used to, and that turned out to be a great thing. The appetizers (of which we only had a small sample) were superb in quality and taste. And the entrees were to die for. I loathe seafood. The swordfish tasted so fresh and good though, it didn’t even matter that it was fish! The vegetarian lasagna was cooked perfectly, and the combination of vegetables worked marvelously. And of course the dessert was great (but then again, it’s dessert, hard to screw up). The final bill came out to $160, which I gladly paid. Truth be told, I actually thought it would be more, just based on the shear quantity of food we ordered (we only sampled the non-entree dishes). Actually, right after we ordered our gigantic meal, the owner came out and said “how hungry are you?” I informed him that we were both decently hungry, and he said that for two people, this is a lot of food. I felt a bit embarrassed, but in the end it was worth it to get to taste everything we did.