Two Weeks with the Fiancée

It doesn't happen often, but Gina has made it back to the mainland, and this time for two weeks! Because her visits are so rare, it's always a whirlwind to meet up with old friends, and this visit is no different, especially since she's locked into a very tight study schedule in preparation for her June boards. As a result, most of our get-togethers are for meals, since that's all Gina has time for.

She flew in Wednesday night, and the next afternoon we had lunch with Andrew, Gerald, and Hubert. If you asked Andrew or Hubert to name their favorite place to eat in Hawaii, they'd probably say Curry House, which unfortunately can't be found anywhere on the mainland (Gerald would probably say the Gold Club, which can be found in San Francisco). So Gina flew in some frozen sauce from Curry House in a small cooler (airport security took a long, hard look), and we prepared it with the chicken katsu from Da Kitchen to replicate the experience. Nothing was done to replicate the Gold Club experience. Sorry, Gerald.

The food was tasty, and all that was missing was some good ol' kimchee. It also would have been nice to have Jeremy around, so that we could settle the eating champ title once and for all. Perhaps in June.





Pictures were courtesy of Gerald, which is why he isn't in them, but he isn't very photogenic anyway, so it's for the better.

Sunday afternoon, Gina and I met up for lunch with her Iolani friends Jackie, Laurel, and Matt, who all ended up in the Bay Area for school. Tonight is dinner with my brother, tomorrow is dinner with one of Gina's relatives, and we still need to meet up with her old Hawaii neighbors, college buddies, former coworkers...like I said, whirlwind.

If it sounds like all she's doing out here is studying and eating, well, that's the bulk of it, though we have managed to play some tennis, do some shopping (both the mall and city varieties), and play video games. But in the end, the next seven weeks are all about preparing for the boards. She won't even let me visit her in Hawaii! :(

Happy Birthday, Eddy!

He turns 28 today!


Hard to believe we've been friends for almost half of our lives now. Thirteen years! We're getting old, man.

Fan of The DaVinci Code?

Go on the Quest!



The competition starts April 17, when you'll receive the first of 24 daily puzzles leading to the movie's opening night.

The top 10,000 finishers will receive a replica cryptex and an invitation to the time-based Final Challenge, where the winner will receive a prize package that includes a first-class trip for four to New York, Paris, Rome, and London, along with a slew of Sony electronics! It's my dream!

Unfortunately, I'm not eligible, so I hope one of you wins and invites me to join you (this means you, Annaka)! I got a sneak preview of the Quest, and the first few puzzles are fairly simple, but they get much harder as you progress. Are you up to the challenge? Good luck!

How is your quality of life?

The annual Worldwide Quality of Living Survey was completed recently, covering more than 350 cities and using the following criteria:

• Political and social environment - political stability, crime, law enforcement
  
• Economic environment - currency exchange regulations, banking services
  
• Socio-cultural environment - censorship, limitations on personal freedom
  
• Medical and health considerations - medical supplies and services, infectious diseases, sewage, waste disposal, air pollution
  
• Schools and education - standard and availability of schools
  
• Public services and transportation - electricity, water, public transport, traffic congestion
  
• Recreation - restaurants, theatres, cinemas, sports and leisure
  
• Consumer goods - availability of food/daily consumption items, cars
  
• Housing - housing, household appliances, furniture, maintenance services
  
• Natural environment - climate, record of natural disasters

The point of the survey is to help governments and multinational companies place employees on international assignments and compensate them for any negative changes to their quality of living.

So how does your city rank?

Zurich is the top city in the world, followed closely by Geneva, Vancouver, Vienna, and Auckland. As evidenced by the top five, Europe, Canada, and Australia dominate the top of the rankings. Asia's top cities are Singapore and Tokyo, coming in at 34 and 35.

The top city in the United States? Honolulu, at 27 overall! San Francisco falls right behind at 28, and Boston, D.C., and Chicago (36, 41, 41) round out the top five. Nice to know that Gina and I are living in the top two areas in the country. :)

The bottom city in the United States? Avert your eyes, Roothie...it's Houston. :(

Not surprisingly, the bottom city in the world, for the third straight year is Baghdad. If your job ever takes you there, be sure to demand a massive pay hike! Actually, if your job ever takes you there, find a new job.

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On a completely unrelated note (and I can't believe I'm adding this to the end of my blog entry), if you happen to know a source (other than eBay, unless it's Buy It Now) for a Winnie the Pooh Sweets Figure Keychain set, Gina would be forever in your debt. They look like this:


And I am officially whipped (as if that's news). Snip snip.

All Moved

In case you haven't heard, I've moved! Andrew recently bought a place in Palo Alto, and he invited me and Gerald to move in with him. It's a three-bedroom house in a nice neighborhood, and it's closer to campus for gamedays, but it increases my work commute by 50 percent! My easy-going 3-mile drive to Google has turned into a stressful, curse-filled 4.5 miles. I'm putting in a request at work for them to have the San Francisco shuttle make a stop near my place. With gas prices these days, and the impact on the environment, there has to be a better way.

On top of the new, longer commute, the moving process was extremely painful, reminding me why I swore I would hire movers to do it for me this time around. I don't know why I didn't listen to myself, since I'm always right (iocane powder, I'd bet my life on it), but I guess I figured I have huge muscles and not a lot of huge furniture...no problem. Boy was I wrong (wait...I thought I was always...eh, never mind).

A little advice to anyone out there who's moving anytime soon. You'll miss your sanity, time, and comfort much more than the money it would cost to hire people to do it for you. TRUST ME. Just getting the U-Haul was an enormous pain. Then I had to actually use it.

But that's all behind me now, and I'm settled into the new place. My room isn't as deep as my monster master at Laurel, but it is basically as wide, so I figured I'd keep the same setup as much as possible. Check it out (these are not pictures from the old place, I swear):







Looks almost exactly the same, right? But then you see this:



So it isn't quite the space that I previously enjoyed, but at least I was able to keep the executive desk setup, which was the most important thing (and with Colbert on the tube, how could I be anything but happy?). And it's close enough to the old setup that I don't need to redo the room tour. :)

Here's an overhead diagram of the room. For those of you who knew me in college, this was pretty much standard practice whenever I planned my move into a new room or felt like a new setup, though back then I used graph paper and furniture cutouts.



It is a little tough to share a bathroom for the first time since my Belmont days (was that really over four years ago?), but Gerald and I have worked out a schedule, and we also decided to not share soap ('cause I don't want to think about the last thing he washes and the first thing I wash...can open, worms everywhere).

Andrew already posted some pics of the place, so I won't duplicate effort, but the nice decking in the backyard is worth noting, and once this awful, awful weather clears up (record days of rain in March...even a hard-ass New Englander would be miserable), we'll have to take advantage of it and host a barbeque, complete with Nathan's famous hotdogs (and maybe we can get Eddy to come and do his best Kobayashi impersonation).

If you need my new address, you know how to get in touch with me. And for those in the area, I look forward to having you over for Lost nights and SHHNHB. I think it's time we resumed that tradition. Gotta get that trophy back from Hubert...even though it's still in my possession. :)