Week of the Living Dead - and cheese.

Happy Friday!

It's been a crappy week. I've been sick since Sunday 17th and fortunately have been able to work from home most of that. The rest of the time I've been in bed. Finally, Friday is here and I almost feel normal. At least I'll be able to go back to work on Monday - I miss being in the office for many reasons (it's that kind of place to work) but I have to say I have enjoyed being home with Claudia and the cat. Not my idea of a vacation though.

It's the cat's unofficial birthday on Wednesday 27th. That is, this is the anniversary of when I got her from the shelter. Looking back, she's still the same although has lost that hopeless skinny look she once had (which is good). Here she is from that first day on top of one of my kitchen cabinets.

So Wednesday, her birthday present arrived. Don't laugh. Yes, I know it's basically a box with some corrugated cardboard in it. Yes, I know I paid more for it than it is "worth". But then many presents are equally over-priced. She does enjoy it though and lies it it and rubs herself. The other night, it was in use by her evil twin (or so it seems from the demon eyes).


Quick poll.

Who likes hot chocolate? I'd imagine probably half of you wouldn't turn down a decent hot chocolate (and we're talking about good chocolate here, not the stuff from a packet or powder).

Who likes cheese? And again, good cheese. Something real (no, not cheese "food") and not outlandish. Many people like cheese.

So that said, who wants cheese in their hot chocolate?


Yes, the lumpy looking thing on the spoon is melting cheese in hot chocolate. Apparently it's a South American thing and as I recall, none of my European colleagues have expressed an interest, nay, a desire for this.

Keep smiling/breathing...

Spy devices

An interesting week. Remembering my rant from previously about camera phones, I was held up for 20 minutes on Monday morning at a railway crossing by track maintenance - a whole convoy of oddball little devices complete with blaring horns. Of course, no picture. It didn't actually occur to me until later that I could have taken a picture. Of course, that would be strange.

I had an interesting lunch with Fang at our local Chinese favourite - we ended up talking food with the restaurant owner on such topics as regional variations, Canton duck and durian fruit.











The tennis saga continues. Armed with a new variation on the combination, we tried to play on Monday night only to find that one didn't work either. Not fun. Since we've both been busy, neither of us have had time to try again.

Tuesday

We had some of these last night - quite enjoyable. What made me laugh though was that they are made with Northern Spy Apples - evidently not for sale in South Korea.


Pleo Evolution ( or lack thereof) - the most talked about thing at the Christmas party was the Pleo that Joe won. He had a hatching the next day - that was interesting. But apparently, Pleo hasn't evolved much. Such high hopes.... Apparently the software developer kit hasn't been released for our pleathery friend.

On the way home on Tuesday, I heard Spencer Rascoff, CFO of Zillow talking on NPR about the way Zillow's business has not been negatively affected by the housing market downturn. If anything, it has boosted use of their site (for those of you not familiar with Zillow, it tracks home sales and values - try it at zillow.com). Anyway, I worked with Spencer at Hotwire.com in the good old dotcom days. First person I've known be interviewed on NPR.

Claudia was out Tuesday night with her friends. The cat and I stayed in....

Wednesday saw more exciting stuff with some missing CSV files that later turned up. We had a great team lunch at the House of Chang again and I really must go back there for Peking Duck...

Since Wednesday was also the day prior to that great Hallmark tradition (Valentine day), we exchanged our stuff Wednesday night so we could pretend we didn't celebrate it. I got some really nice passport holders to go with my dual passports and Claudia got a pair of 2ct diamond earrings. The cat got the bow from the box.


Thursday - I had a discussion about the Mosquito. It's a device gaining popularity in the UK as a means of clearing an area of teenagers who apparently are susceptible to this frequency. Fascinating. Seems to work too.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5434687
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teen_Buzz
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7241527.stm

Frankly with some issues, Thursday and Friday were a blur. I worked from early Thursday until 7am Friday and then drove to the office for the rest of the day. Finally got to bed Friday night after being up for 40 hours. I love my job :)

Saturday, I was back in the office working on some support related issues. One of my colleagues, Daniel, wore an "Office Space" t-shirt that he had modified with a picture of Kevin, our director. Since Kevin was also in, it was quite funny. Those of you who know the movie will get this...



Lastly, Saturday on my way home I saw an advertisement on the side of a truck offering "a way to better health through colon cleanse and foot mineral treatment". Wonder if you get both at the same time?

Enjoy the week!

Pictures - from a fruit

Actually a Blackberry.

Blackberry fields forever

Click on the picture to view these thrilling optical feasts for the eyes (ok so since it's optical, what other organ might apply?)