Mmmm, raspberries (biking)

No, unfortunately, I don't mean actual berries. I mean something more like the lovely gash on my leg (or on my other leg, or my elbow) after I wiped out.

That being said, it was actually an awesome ride :-) We went up Montebello and down Sandhill Road. At the top of Black Mountain, we could see the Pacific, San Francisco, and the Bay, all at once.... good to have something like that after 2200' of climbing. Funny thing was, I made it down the unpaved part fine, and didn't even complain that it was scary (which Piaw said many people do)... and then crashed on the paved part. So, remember: for biking, rubber side down. But, more seriously... going around a hairpin turn on a steep descent going probably 30mph is a bad idea unless you know what you're doing. It may be fun... but being alive is more fun. I'm fine and nothing hurts, but I did crack my helmet (really, really, really, really glad I was wearing a helmet), and bent the handle on my bike... so there was a lot of force there.

That all being said... it was really fun, and I highly recommend the route as good climbing exercise and an awesome view. And thanks to Piaw and Lisa for insisting on bringing me in and patching me up.

Ps. After getting to work just now and looking around, I discovered that Piaw, with whom I went riding, is author of not only some cool internal tools I use, but also Google Toolbar. Wow. It's one thing when you find out that particularly smart people are also nice, but it's another when you find out that a particularly nice person also happens to be really smart and has done extremely cool things.

Best. Picture. Ever.

I just have to say... this is my favorite picture ever.

In case the picture filename doesn't tell you: me, Sergey, Laura, Gwendolyn.

Woohoo! Starting my first blog!

For a long time I resisted the idea of a blog, figuring I should be macho and manually edit HTML - idea being I'd learn more that way. Finally (just a few minutes ago), I decided that (1) I cared more about getting content up, since too much cool stuff is happening this summer not to have a record of it, and (2) the HTML to put up something like this isn't instructional, just repetitive, and if I want to learn cool web stuff, there are much better things to do. Besides, I work for Google, and this is a great opportunity to try another of their services :-)

So... today, I saw War of the Worlds (quite possibly the best disaster movie ever, and I love disaster movies) with Gwendolyn (another intern), then we polished off all but one slice of a yummy large pizza (we had no idea we were so hungry), then went wandering around all the neat shops in downtown Mountain View. Actually, our starting goal was to reach the gelato shop....

First, we discovered an awesome Book & Shiny Things Store (East West Bookstore, Castro St) and I got a funny little yoga figure statue. Then we went to an Asian foods store in search of herbs (with little luck, just got a cheap tea pot). This became one of the themes of the day... teapots. The next store had better teapots (numerous pretty sets), and I wound up getting a decent set, pot with 4 cups, and I found the herbs (yunnan paiyao, which is actually helping that old pull/knot in my left leg). Next store... many, many teapots! A whole store dedicated to tea and teapots! I was like a kid in a candy store... the guy running the shop seemed impressed with my knowledge of pots and tea, and I think he gave me a discount on the little pot I wound up buying. The tea I got from there turned out absolutely awesome... I'm gonna be sending this stuff out to people :-)

At any rate, we found our gelato, then came back to my place and tried the tea in the three different pots (different taste each time - more experiments are in order w.r.t. order of brewings). I was thinking of going into work, but I had to have my daily bike ride, since I'm quite addicted to it these days... this may be the first thing I don't mind being addicted to (as long as I don't get caffeine-withdrawal style headaches if I have to stop)....

I've noted to several people that both my bike and my laptop cost more than my car, and I think that's very appropriate to my priorities (and I intend to keep driving this car as long as it runs... it's a good little car). After drooling over the plethora of $30-100 teapots, it occurred to me that the worth of my teapot collection might also surpass the cost of my car if I get a good fulltime job, esp if I get to stay here and work at Google....

I'm going to try to add more entries, including pictures, to catch up on things I did earlier in the summer... I mean, I have mention as much as possible that, on my first Friday at Google, I played volleyball with Sergey....