Farewell Hong Kong

Across the Bay
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

On our final day in HK we decided to split from the group to maximize the amount of ground we could cover. I got up early and made a run to the Delifrance that I had discovered was in between our hotel and the Mong Kok MTR station. Kinus took half the day off so that she could hang out with us and show us around a bit more. We took took the train down to the Tsim Sha Tsui station which just happens to be the last station on the Kowloon side. That gave us the opportunity to wander down to the waterfront to take some pictures.

Looking Down on Everyone
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

We grabbed a mango drink and then Kinus escaped from work and showed us a few of her favorite stores. Then she took us to a really great noodle shop where they only had one english menu that they kept hanging in the back of the restaurant. Fortunately we didn't need it, and we didn't accept the offer of a fork either. We took a ferry to the hong kong side, and Went to the observation deck at the International financial Center. From 55 floors up you can really see a whole lot of the city. The views were dizzying, and we took a little time to learn about the creation and history of Hong Kong money. We went from there to the most delicious sushi I have ever eaten. I have been absolutely ruined by how fresh and delicious it was. Believe it or not, we went directly from the sushi restaurant to meet a former co-worker of mne for dinner. We worked up a bit of an appetite getting there, but since we weren't starving we had several appetizers at a ritzy shanghai style restaurant. It was all things that I'd never had before, and were absolutely wonderful. We got done with dinner, strolled through Hong Kong park to the Peak tram. We took the tram to the top of Victoria Peak for some spectacular views of the city and the sorrounding areas. It was a perfect way to close out the trip. We went back to the hotel and met back up with the group and W went and got a massage. I was done, and got some sleep for the long journey back home. Our flight was decent, and I got to see shrek 3, oceans 13, and something else not good enough to remember too.

Final thoughts on Hong Kong. They have way cooler phone technology than we have. Everything is built absolutely straight up.Never has so much great food been gathered into one place. The MTR and the Octopus card are really the coolest public transportation inventions ever. I was dissapointed to have to ride old crappy BART when I got home.

Hong Kong at Night
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

Best Stairmaster Ever

Best Stairmaster Ever
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

More breakfast at the hotel bakery again today, and I'd need all the nutrients I could get, it would be a long day. After messing around and getting a slow start we went and had some lunch at the Cafe De Coral an HK institution of a Fast Food restaurant. Then we took a long ride on the MTR out to the place to catch the bus to the big Buddha. This bus was a little smaller, which was good because the road was even narrower to get there. W doesn't do buses very well, so its a good thing the views were worth the trip. A quick trip up the stairs and some walking around later and we got to do a little shopping for souvenirs. After another bumpy hilly bus ride we welcomed the caffeine and snacks at my new favorite cafe: Delifrance. We made our way back on the MTR and freshened up and then went for our only uninspiring meal of the trip at a restaurant I can't remember the name of at all. We spent a little time at the ladies market, and then ambled our way home and crashed hard again.

Temple Offerings
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

Dim Sum Anyone?

Dim Sum Anyone?
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

On Our first full day I wandered downstairs to the bakery in the hotel grabbed a pastry and a Cappuccino that wasn't very good and went to look for a quiet place to have some breakfast. I wandered up to check out the rooftop pool, but there was no place with shade to sit (It was already blazing hot at 7:30 a.m.) So I went back to our room. W was slowly waking up, and we were starting to think about a real breakfast. We went to breakfast a few doors down the road at Theresa's Coffee Restaurant. I had an English style breakfast that at least revved the engine a little bit, but it was still hard to be faced with all the hustle and bustle in there so early in the morning. After breakfast we dropped in to the Wellcome (a compact urban grocery store) across the street. My natural instinct was to check out a few of my company's products on the shelves, and I grabbed a couple to bring home. Then we moved on to Dim Sum!!! We ate at a place called the Kingsburg Seafood restaurant and If I've googled it properly it was in the Carnarvon Plaza, Tsim Sha Tsui. We ate and ate and ate and everything was soooooo delicious.

089
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

After Brunch we took the long double decker bus ride out to The stanley market, and spent the afternoon shopping.After the stanley market we found another great seafood place that was So so good. Any time you eat seafood in HK you have most likely passed your dinner still swimming in a tank on your way to your table. The freshness is amazing. The rest of the group was ready for a massage, but since that's not really my deal I went for dessert with our new friend and part time tour guide Komon. In HK there are dessert and drink shops everywhere, and inside are the most delicious drinks and mango dishes you can possibly get your hands on.. After dessert I went back to the room and attempted to wait for the group to get home, but was powerless to fight the need for sleep

Welcome to Hong Kong

Welcome to Hong Kong
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

It's taken me a few days to get my legs back underneath me, but I'm finally ready to sit down and tell you about my whirlwind visit to Hong Kong. My vacation Didn't really get started until after I phoned in to a meeting, So from we had to be at the airport early so I could clear security and find myself a nice quiet place to sit and take notes about the meeting. We didn't make the first flight, but knew the second one was nice and empty. After my meeting finished I got introduced to my travel group for the week, and ff we went. We Got Quality business class seats and I got to catch up on my early summer blockbuster movies. I saw spider man 3, Fantastic 4 and something else that wasn't even good enough for me to remember only a week later. As you can see from the picture the skies over Hong Kong were clearer than usual for our arrival, and as I looked down I realized I was unlikely to cover more than a tiny fraction of this enormous city in the 3 full days we had to get around. We jumped off the plane and found a couple of taxis over to our hotel, The Metro Park Kowloon. We checked into our small but comfortable room, changed clotes and Went out on our First Hong Kong adventure. Our Tour Guides Kin and Annie led us to this crowded but authentic Seafood restauarant that even If I lived there I wouldn't have found for years. It was in the Aberdeen Neighborhood, and Our group was clearly the only non-natives there. We also met up with Todd's girlfriend Kinus, and got to hang out with her a good portion of the weekend. It took me a while to get past the fact that you had to sanitize all your dishes and utensils in a bowl that you fill with hot tea, but once I got past that the food was delicious. I ate my first ever Mantis shrimp (I'll spare you the name it is commonly called) and ate lots of clams and shrimp and crab. We took a bus and a rather long walk back to the hotel, and made my first use of an Octopus card. You can literally use it almost everywhere. Every train, bus and ferry, and many grocery and convenience stores. Speaking of Convenience stores in HK you're never ever very far a way from a 7-11 or a circle K. At that point it was time to crash, It would soon be Our first big day.

A much needed reward

I worked enough the last two weeks to earn myself a few comp days, which i certainly have earned. I'm going to find an interesting way to spend them that I'll get to later. While working so hard to learn my new job I've been squeezing in lots of time to play on the Wii. This week I'm investing a lot of energy in Mario party 8. It's an addictive force in our house and there are even things that require small quick motions that W is better at than I am. W's internship bought us a couple of tickets to Great America, and we used some of her Marriot rewards to get a free hotel stay in Santa Clara. We dragged the Wii with us, only to find out that we couldn't actually hook it up to the TV. To add insult to injury there was a fire at the hotel and we had to evacuate. The trip wasn't all bad though, there was a Bennigan's near by so I got to have my first Monte Cristo in ages, and we ate large quantities of fried food all day including a funnel cake and the most delicious deep fried granny smith apples coated in sugar, and served with Caramel and Whipped cream. Oops drooling on the keyboard a little bit. A new Vietnamese place just opened up near our house, and I won't tell you how many tasty $1.95 Vietnamese sandwiches we've eaten in the last couple of weeks. So things are pretty slow at work this week, and with a 3 day weekend coming up, W and I decided we were ready to squeeze in a quick trip someplace cool. Today's winner: HONG KONG!!! That's right we'll be taking off Friday morning and returning on Wednesday. It's a short trip, we have lots to do, and I actually know 2 people in HK, so we'll even have friends to hang out with. You know me, you can expect pictures galore. I even woke up in the middle of the night to get you this. The solar system is a very cool place sometimes.

Baseball on the Brain

Swinger
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

I've been working super hard lately transitioning between jobs, but I happened to luck into a Wii at the BRO last week. It is way more fun than I should have alone in the living room. Here you see me playing a little Wii sports baseball. W and I spend a lot of time playing the tennis and bowling games. She has some catching up to do since I have a whole lot of years of obsessive video game practice on her. We also managed to get out to an Oakland A's game this week, meaning I can scratch another major league ballpark off my list. So far we've got Tropicana Field, Tampa; ATT Park, San Francisco, and Mcafee Coliseum , Oakland.

Out in left field
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

We met a friend of W's at the park before the game for a little tailgating, and ended up having so much fun we went in late and left early. I guess the A's lost, but I wasn't really concerned either way.

The Simpsons movie is almost here!

I'm seldom very excited about movies coming out, but since my movie experience last week was so bad, I can't help but be excited about the Simpson's movie. I still have to get out and see Transformers too, but in the mean time I'm keeping myself entertained by watching and listening to this.

Light to Moderate Chop

Light to Moderate Chop
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

I've been busier than usual lately, but have made lots of cool discoveries worth talking about. W and I discovered the wonderfulness that is the Ghirardelli Factory Store here in San Leandro. We had always known it was close by, and I think we avoided it because of how much trouble we could get in if we shopped there frequently. It was as wonderful as you might expect, when you get out of your car the air is thick with cocoa powder from the nearby factory.
Work has been crazy, I'm trying to do my old job and my new job at the same time, so nights are sometimes late, and I'm often still thinking about work when I get home. It's worth it though, my new gig has turned out to be very interesting.
To celebrate ending the Fiscal year our management took us out to lunch and to a movie. There was a vote and Transformers lost to Harry Potter 5-4. I of course voted for Transformers because I was a boy in the golden age of transformers. I have to stop myself from buying toys right now every time I set foot in the BRO right now. It's hard because they're sooooo shiny and cool. We had a delicious lunch at Everett and Jones and then wandered over to see the movie. For the record I've not read a single book or seen one of the movies but I tried to stay open minded and judge the movie on its own merit. I spent most of the time trying to figure out who people were and why I should care about them, and when that got too hard I gave up and stopped caring. I was bored and had too much work left at the office to be sitting around not enjoying a movie. Even the fans of the series in the group weren't super impressed, so I didn't feel too bad.
On Saturday we went to one of W's coworker's houses and had a really great dinner party. We drank great wines, and ate food that was lifted from the Menu at the French Laundry. Our host poached salmon in 110 degree olive oil, and it was absolutely delicious. As is her habit now, W is off to Chicago for the week. We're working on planning a trip for me up there, so I can check off item number 25 on my lifetime list of things to do, catch a game at Wrigley Field. You know you can expect pictures of that from me.

Looking nowhere but up

through the sunroof
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

So we'll start with the big news, I accepted a promotion to financial analyst this week, which means a nice little 12.2% pay raise, an office that's not a pass through area for someone else's, and no more candy office. That probably means my days at the BRO are numbered. My boss sent out an email Friday that talked about how the rest of my group would be absorbing my responsibilities and lots of people wrote or called to say congratulations. It felt really good.

The Bridge
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

W came to O-town to pick me up and we discovered a great little sushi place right near my office. That could be big trouble. Then we wandered over to the city for some fun and had some beer and appetizers at Gordon Biersch. As usual I was good and picture happy. I've included some for your viewing pleasure.

Freeway
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

On the edge of something big

Tomorrow should be a big day at work, the interviews went well, and it turns out I'm the only real candidate. So all this week I've been arm wrestling with myself rather than the 3 other candidates I'd imagined were out there trying to take my job from me. They haven't said I got the job in so many words, but lets just say If I don't get it I'll be looking for another job tomorrow anyway. Its hot in the bay area this week, and the frogs are so loud right now I've had to turn up the TV just to hear it. I haven't seen any wandering around I'll have to go on a frog picture hunt some night.

A quick post to say I'm still alive

100_1023
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

Not much time or energy to post lately, so lets take care of a little business. First of all a birthday shout out to my mom, who doesn't mind too much that her son is occasionally so busy that she has to call him on her birthday. To be fair I was still at work, and I did feel bad about it. Its time to end our fiscal year, so I put in a robust 12 hours at the office today. Why have I been so busy? Well, both jobs keeps me hopping as usual, and Last weekend I sneaked all the way to L.A. to hang out with my dad's family who I've been neglecting for a while now. It was one of those sort of awkward days where the last time anyone saw me I was only this tall, which means there were very few faces that I actually recognized.

100_1023
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

I had a few pictures but the one of me and my dad has so much camera shake in it its not worth posting. This weekend W and I ran out to Lake Chabot Regional Park, which is where the attached pictures come from. I can't believe how close we live to this place and have never gone. We've totally been missing out. We walked a few miles of the bike trail and enjoyed a beautiful day to be outside.

100_1023
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

I'm going to be working hard the rest of the week, so I'm staying home to rest on Wednesday. I also have some internal interviews this week, so think happy thoughts for me as I'm sitting across from someone I'm desperate to convince I need a new job.

Slowing down after a crazy crazy week.

Last Friday I took off to Florida and started a whirlwind week that I'm just now starting to think about everything I've done. I got into Sarasota late Friday, hungry, so my mom and I took the opportunity to visit steak and shake to have a shake and some cheese fries. I tried to go to bed early, but given my change in time zone, I couldn't get to sleep until far too late. The annual Cathryn Herron memorial golf tournament was nice and early the next morning, and I played about as badly as you might expect for a guy that only has golf clubs that live in Florida. We had a great turnout this year and made $5,500 to give out in scholarships for this year. There was a fox running around on the golf course,and he took time out of his busy schedule to pose for me. Saturday evening Mom, Donna and I Went to El Greco for some Greek food. I had a delicious lamb shank and some tiramisu, but the best moment from dinner was trying to pronounce a dessert we nicknamed the "Galactic Burrito". Its real name is Galaktoboureko.
I then hung out with Todd at his new crib, and got a nostalgic bite from my good friend Petey. Sunday it was home again, just in time to prepare for a visit from W's parents. W's cousin Grace was graduating, and having a birthday, so we needed to celebrate.



We had drinks at the top of the mark, where they have delicious $12 martinis and fabulous views of the city and the Golden Gate bridge. We pounded out more trips to restaurants than one person can normally handle, eating at Frank's Saloon in San Leandro, Louisa's Italian Restaurant in San Francisco, The Englander in San Leandro, and IL Davide in San Rafael. We stayed up in Marin Friday night at the Embassy suites there, and I took a walk with the camera and took some pictures at a nearby park. I won't bog down your computer with any more pictures in this one post, but you can find them on my flickr page. I had a rare day off on Monday, so I spent some quality time at home with the Calvinator, He's been here for 2 weeks and leaves on Wednesday. It will be nice to have the bed back to ourselves, but we'll definitely miss having his company

The empty house

Mr. Calvin went home today, so its just me here at the house. At least I have my screaming woot monkey to entertain me.



The neighborhood cat is hanging around too. He was nice enough to pose for a photo. He is not nearly as mean as he looks here, he is quick to roll over and show you the belly, and often guards our stairs.

My newest internet addiction

I have, on occasion, been known to spend a lot of/too much time on the internet (when I actually have time to burn) It is how this blog got started, and how I get away from the occassional mind numbness that comes from being a spreadsheet jockey for a living. My newest addiction is Flickr. You can upload tons and tons of photos and describe them and share them and look at what other people are taking pictures of. Then people come look at your pictures and make comments and put them in groups. Its just the sort of reinforcement my budding photo-nerdiness needs. If you look over there in the sidebar you'll see a link to my "photostream" with some flash previews. My active photostream is limited to 200 pictures, so I'm having to choose carefully what pictures I like the best and think that other people will actually find interesting. I'm sitting at home today wishing I was in the same place as W, she's wandering around Bangkok again, heading for the weekend market tomorrow. I am soooooo jealous, but with my meager 2 weeks of vacation I have to sit out some trips. At least she was nice enough to go someplace I've already been so I don't have to imagine the pictures I'd be taking. At least I have Calvin to keep me company. We got some exercise yesterday and I snapped off a few at W's request.

An adventure requiring more recovery time

My trip to Tennessee turned out to be a little easier to start than I expected. I had fully anticipated that the flights would be too full for me to make it but suddenly on Wednesday the red-eye to IAD was moved to a larger plane, and there would suddenly be a seat for me. I rushed home and packed my things in 45 minutes and grabbed a cab back to the BART station. I made the flight and found myself in Nashville 15 minutes before most of the rest of my family arrived. We rented a Hyundai Santa Fe, which turned out to be a nice piece of machinery and off to Shelbyville we went. I managed to forget a ton of important stuff like jeans and ties, but other than that I was pretty well prepared. We managed to have far more silly fun than people gathered for a funeral should have. It turns out things like using farm equipment, lifting stuff, cleaning stalls, taking care of livestock, and riding the 4 wheeler are all pretty fun. I certainly don't look too sad above. The services for my uncle were actually very nice. I still haven't learned to like viewings, but sometimes they are a necessary evil. The memorial itself was really great, the minister said something wonderful about how Carson was a man who needed a brace to walk, but never ever let that be an excuse not to do something that many able bodied people would not be able to handle. There was however an awkward interruption when someone (Despite the minister's warning at the beginning) allowed their phone to go off in the middle of the final prayer. Here's a tip: when warned to turn your phone off do it, and skip the cheesy polyphonic "when the saints go marching in" ring tone. We spent my next to last night in town playing some poker, and the next morning got up, kicked everyone else out of the house and had some breakfast at IHOP and a Cherry Lime Aid at Sonic. Then my Uncle and I accomplished a good deal of farm work for 2 city boys and went out for Mexican food and beers for dinner. Monday brought another early day where we got out the door a little late but still should have made it to the airport on time. We stayed on the street level rather than taking the freeway, and it became painfully obvious we weren't going to be on time. I made the timing worse by needing to stop to throw up. We scrambled to the airport and I got to the gate to see the door already closed. I started to feel worse, and was running back and forth to the bathroom as quickly as I could sit down. I took a nap in the airport, but I couldn't hold down any water or any of the pills I was taking so I checked myself into a motel and decided to sleep it off. Turns out 3 other members of the family were busy going through the same ordeal. I finally made it home late Tuesday but it meant I totally blew off the training I had at work on Tuesday and Wednesday. Here's my favorite picture of the whole weekend, the three most mismatched amigos ever. On the left sleepy Asthmatic kitty in the middle the Guinea fowl that believes with all its heart that its a cat and at the bottom right the skittish cat whose best friend is a guinea fowl.

Here's to brother Todd, the best of the best

W's parents were in town last week, so it was the perfect opportunity to bust out our new wine decanter. Todd graciously picked it up for us at Ikea during his visit, and we just needed guests to use it. So if you visit us in early spring you can expect a nice glass of wine out on the patio, and it might look something like this. This week brings sad news that my Uncle Carson is losing his battle against cancer. I am going to attempt a trip to Tennessee to pay my repsects. Unfortunately its a small airport and with the weather being as screwy as it has been the last couple of weeks, the chances are not real great, but It is surely worth the effort.

Thanks Easter Bunny!

The Easter bunny knows that we're not eating any candy at our house, so instead it brought us these nice flowers. Thanks easter bunny for watching our waist-lines and making our house a little festive.

Now if I could just get this chip off my shoulder...

A long time a go in a land far far away, A young Jason Herron had just sprouted himself some new front teeth. How did I celebrate this momentous occasion? by falling face first on a side walk and chipping off a large portion of one. I always wanted to wake up one day and have beautiful straight unchipped teeth, and this week I got a step closer. As a part of my other dental work, my dentist gave me a whole front tooth. I've also been referred for an orthodontic consult to work at that whole straightness thing. Here's my warning to all you little ones out there: Floss every single day no matter what! By my calculation I'm spending about $1 per day I didn't floss in life on fillings and root scalings and all sorts of other not very fun stuff.

Mixing my sweet and my savory

Someone who I share this house with can't stand for her savory food and sweet foods to be mixed. That means no apples with our ham, No mango salsa on our macadamia nut crusted fish, No orange-cranberry glaze on our turkey and the worst offense of all? No Ham and pineapple pizza! So W has gone off to Chicago for some "business", leaving me here to fend for myself. And given the opportunity what did I make myself? A Ham/Pineapple/Pepperocini pizza. I know what you're thinking, that's not on the diet. Its OK though, I bought the leanest ham I could find, I used part-skim mozzarella, organic tomato sauce, and baked it on a Boboli whole wheat thin crust. It was pretty good, just enough to keep me from buying one of these insanely delicious looking prosciutto artisan pizzas. I'm due for my midyear review at the MOHP, but my boss has pushed back the date on it so many times I hardly remember when it is anymore. It was supposed to be 2 weeks ago, then last Thursday, then today, and now 3:00 on Thursday again. It should be great, and may finally unlock the promotion I've been anxiously waiting for. So since I have the house to myself, I'm going to bed nice and early. We'll see how that works out for me.

It must be springtime

Spring suddenly broke out in San Leandro this week, where the temperature suddenly reached 70 degrees yesterday. My good friend Todd happened to be in town and was surprised to find temperatures in the bay area warmer than when he left Sarasota in the morning. I'm super jealous, because he's on his way to a 2 week trip to Japan. Todd had never actually been in an Ikea, so we took an extended walk through the Ikea in Emeryville. We then grabbed a late dinner at Johnny Foley's in the city. They have a lamb dish that is so amazing, and lots and lots of great beers. I spent a good portion of the last week with a nasty nasty case of the flu that I am finally shaking. It rampaged through the office, where all 4 of the people on my team were out at least one day, and one of the guys I eat lunch with was out 3 days with dehydration. Despite feeling crappy I finished the closet project, so now all the places in our condo that are supposed to have laminate floor do. Now I'm down to trying to get some base boards put up, and then I can finally move on from the flooring project that won't die. I have presidents day off tomorrow, the last 3 day weekend on the calendar until summer time.

Does this restaurant serve Thai food?

So it was back to the grind this week, things at the MOHP (manufacturer of household products) are super busy because of a financial forecast and a month end coming together into a perfect storm of early mornings and late nights. The nice thing about being busy is our management usally feeds us lunch when they know we're working this hard. Unfortunately food is not chosen from the most healthy places. I usually blow the diet during the day at lunch and then feel guilty about anything I eat the rest of the day. I've spent too much time at the office to even get near the gym, so I'll have to get some exercise this weekend. On monday I have a presentation to give about my work project that won't die. I've been working on a budgeting project for 3 months, and its become an excel file thats bigger than 10MB. Its been a great experience for me though, gotten me a ton of visibility in the company and makes my boss say nice things about me all the time. I've learned a ton of fun excel stuff and already find that I'm not hiding from array formulas like I used to. I'm still going through Thai food withdrawl, I ate it 3 meals a day and suddenly eat none. This weekend I'm attempting to finish the closet so we can get some closure on the floor project. I'm not sure I'll know what to do with myself with the floor and my work project finished.

Bangkok Day 4

On Tuesday we weren't quite sure what to do with ourselves. We grabbed a leisurely American breakfast at the hotel. We decided we'd try to go the the Thai museum in the morning, but got there only to discover that it was closed on Monday and Tuesday. Someone outside the museum recommended we go see the Standing Buddha, the sitting Buddha and the golden mount. All three I'd read about, so they seemed like a good substitute. The man alleged the standing Buddha was 40 meters away, but it was a lot more like a mile, I'm glad we had decided to tuk tuk it over there. After that we went to the golden mount, which required a lot of stair climbing, but the payoff was great views of the city. We went back to the mall area to do a little more shopping and to squeeze in a final fitting. We had dinner at a restaurant called cabbages and condoms. All proceeds from the restaurant go to promoting A.I.D.S awareness in Thailand. So we did something good for the community and ate an absolutely delicious meal. We noticed that they had a lounge with free Internet, so we thought we'd go check on the flight. Our six a.m. flight was cancelled. Not good, I needed to be in the office on Wednesday. We looked at buying me a ticket, but $600 or more seemed like a bit much just to get back to Tokyo. We decided not to sleep so we could crash the airport the minute it opened, and try to get on a few other airlines we knew had seats. After much nervous waiting we got on a Thai airlines flight in the farthest back seat you can get. Their seat spacing is awesome and their food in coach is actually edible. We got to Tokyo and W had to take our bags through customs, so I ran ahead to try to catch the first flight back to SFO, it was going to be close on getting first or business, but when an eplus seat came up I had to take it to get home. I slept for the majority of time on both flights.
My final impressions of Bangkok:

• A lot of stray dogs and cats
• Horribly bad air
• Incredibly congested roads
• Possibly the worlds greatest cuisine
• Truly impressive historical buildings
• Incredibly nice and friendly people
• Did I mention how good the food is?
• When can I go back? Theres still plenty of Thailand I haven't seen!
  

Bangkok Day 3

On Monday morning it was Sunday afternoon back in the states, so we got up in time to catch the end of the Indy-New England game. It decided to rain, and when it rains in Thailand it does not mess around. We crammed into a cab to check out a couple of the Buddhist temples or Wats that bangkok is famous for. It was here we had our first experience with a cabbie who didn't want to run the meter. Fortunately the Concierge had told us about what the fare should be, so we were not willing to negotiate. As we arrived at the grand palace and Wat Pra Kaeow it was pouring. Some Thai boys chased down our cab and sold us a few umbrellas for way more than we should have paid for them. We sought shelter in a nearby restaurant and had a great lunch topped by a really big bowl of ice creams in tropical flavors. Once it stopped raining we ventured into the grand palace to see the Wat and the emerald Buddha. Pants are required since it was a holy site, and they made scotty put on a pair of loaner pants. It was even steamier than usual because of the rain, and I spent the first ten minutes trying to clear the condensation from my camera lenses. We checked out the emerald bhudda, then wandered over to Wat Pho to check out the reclining Buddha. I had seen pictures of it in a National Geographic as a kid and always wanted to go see it and there I was standing in front of it. Its always great to cross things off your lifetime list. We had been hot for long enough and headed back through insane traffic in a cab ride even scarier than our loaded down trip from the airport. We had to go back to the tailor shop for a fitting, so afterwards Dave and I grabbed a beer, and we let W and Scotty go get massages. A quick shower and then we were headed for a nice restaurant for W's birthday. We decided to go someplace we'd seen in a book that was across the river, so we took a train and then a boat to get across the river. We get all the way to the restaurant only to find out they require pants for men (as opposed to shorts) and both Scotty and Dave took a comfortable approach in shorts, so we had to try something else. By the time we were back across the river it was after ten and we were hungry, cranky and not real sure where we were going to eat. We got off at the major transfer station in Siam and decided to look around, but everything was closed. A nice man took pity on us and recommended a seafood place that he knew was open til midnight. He was an English teacher, and he even got us a cheap tuk tuk fare to the restaurant. The seafood was a little pricey, but we were so hungry at that point we would have eaten the fried crickets at a roadside stand. Our meal was actually very good, and ended up being worth the hassle and price. We went home to crash and try to figure out what to do on Tuesday.

Bangkok Day 2

We woke up pretty early Sunday morning, so we hustled out to the weekend market. We took our first ride on BTS which we often called by any 3 letter acronym that popped into our brain. There was a stop right near our hotel and one right at the weekend market. We were fortunate to wake up early, since it was only in the mid 80's by the time we got to the market and the real crowds had yet to arrive. We shopped and looked for a good place to eat. In a back corner of the market we found a great restaurant and sat down and ate pad thai for the first of many times for the weekend. We shopped until we were too hot and tired to go any farther. While eating we saw a really cool condiment set that we went back to get and the lady at the shop gave me a thumbs up on my Thai pronunciation. By the time we left the market was super crowded and steamy hot. We were glad to leave but wished that it was open more than weekends so we could come back and try all the great looking food. We went back to the hotel to get cool and change and then it was off to a mall and a tailor. After the tailors we took our first tuk tuk ride, a three wheeled taxi that you have to negotiate a fare and then hold on for dear life. The cool air of the open tuk tuk is refreshing, but smog filled. Plus, everyone in Thailand drives however they feel like. We had dinner at a restaurant that both Scotty and I had read about in the guidebooks, a place in Patpong called the Mango Tree. Patpong is the red light district, so the cast of characters we passed on the way to the restaurant was interesting. The restaurant was a nice place, but the food wasn't even as good as we'd had earlier at a place called Yum Saap in the mall. We then wandered through Patpong for a bit checking out a lot of the bootleg goods and advertisements for shows I will not print here. Nearly exhausted we went back to the hotel and crashed. This picture of the weekend market doesn't do much to convey the sights sounds and smells of the market.

Bangkok Day one

I'm finally back on the ground and settled in a little bit, so let me tell you a little about my trip to Bangkok. I had lots to do on the Thursday before we left, including staying up late to watch my Thursday shows. I snuck in for a couple of hours of work and then met W so we could rush off to the airport. We met up with our traveling friends Dave and Scotty and off we went. The first flight looked pretty full, and at first it appeared only Dave would get on. at the last possible second one more first class seat opened up so I jumped on too. Someone really wanted to sit next to her friend and offered me her window seat which I prefer anyway. The flight was pretty quiet, I watched Pirates 2 which I liked, and Little miss sunshine, but was disappointed by how not funny it was. Dave and I Went to a really cool bar in Tokyo where it suddenly occurred to me I hadn't even attempted to learn any Japanese for the trip. After a couple of big Sapporo's We knew W and Scotty should be arriving. We met them and went to catch the Nari ta-Bangkok flight. We only managed to get eplus seats, but for 7 hours we thought it would be livable. It was a looooong flight, and we arrived in Bangkok around Midnight. We took what was officially the craziest taxi ride ever. Thai taxi's are not built well enough for 4 large Americans and their luggage, and the tail end of the car was noticeably dragging. I thought for sure we would blow out a tire and spin of the road or have the back of the car catch on fire. Neither happened, and after a little searching we found the Chateau De Bangkok. Check out the bathroom!

My first ever international post

Just a quick post to say I'm alive and well in Bangkok, Thailand. Many more details to come when I return, but if I spend too much time in front of the computer I'll lose valuable tourism time. Expect lots of pics on or after Wednesday!

Sunset in San Leandro

One of my favorite things about getting a visit from Calvin is I have a good excuse to visit our local dog park, In addition to being on the water, its on the final approach to Oakland Airport. My plan was to get some pictures of Calvin romping around, but he was fairly subdued. So I snapped a few shots of the sunset and a planes landing. I'm still learning best use of the Sunset mode, but this seemed like my best effort. I finally broke down and got a new template for the blog, it was time for a new look. I'm thinking about a new title too, since my life is far more stable than I imagined it would be when I started this thing. I'm spending the rest of tonight and tomorrow cramming for my Thai test this week. I'm going to try not to overwhelm the blog with pictures, but no promises.

Introducing an Old Friend and a New Toy

This Weekend I'm joined by my old friend Calvin, who despite his age still enjoys a game of fetch up and down our hallway. He doesn't run much anymore, although with a chill in the air this morning he looked as spritely as ever. He's holding on to his new friend Bird Brain, a toy we picked up at Ikea for $2! The picture itself is taken with my new Kodak z612 camera. I fell in love with it online a few months ago, and finally talked W. Into buying it for my Birthday/Anniversary/Christmas gift. I haven't given up on my trusty Kodak CX7430, It has taken some great pictures for me, but its performance in low light, and only 3X zoom were starting to limit what I wanted to do creatively. I'm still ticked off about how bad some of my pictures from inside the Sydney Opera House were. My new camera has a 12X optical zoom and image stabilization, so I don't have to be frustrated by how far away I am from things like I was on my trip to the San Diego Zoo. I was being patient and waiting until the camera went on sale, but suddenly deciding to run off to Bangkok next week meant I had to rush my purchase a little. My Thai Lessons are going well, I've learned some key words and picked up a little phrase book so that I can navigate and try not to stick out like a super tourist. Although my bad American accent and over sized new camera are going to be difficult to hide. I'll at least skip the Bermuda shorts and black socks. I got awesome career news this week. I had fallen into the trap of the forced rating system at work, which was supposed to delay my first promotion until September, but the career management committee met this week and determined that in the case of people who received a low rating in during their first year, their mid year rating would be used to determine if they were eligible for promotion. That means some time next month when my mid year rating is done, I'll be ready to move!

The Big Roommate blowup

A friend of a friend of W's was looking for a short term place to stay, and we had a room that wasn't being used, so we volunteered. It represented some easy cash for our bottom line, and could possibly even pay off our floor early. For a few months it was weird but great, she studied and worked all the time, was never here, and cleaned up after herself. It wasn't perfect, her boyfriend stayed here to much and lately she'd been slow on the rent. So January second rolls around and we still haven't seen any money. I ask her and she announces she's moving out possibly on the tenth. She apparently wasn't going to tell us and just leave without paying. W let her know she should fork over January's rent now or pack up, and when I got home today, she had done just that. No "thank you", No F**** you, no nothing, just keys left on the dresser in an empty room. Easy come easy go I guess.

Resolving to take better care of myself, and my blog

I have resolved for 2007 to take better care of myself. It should be a resolution that is easy to keep and is its own reward. I'll eat better, exercise more, nurture my relationships, and feed my creative side, which means that I'm back to the blog. I won't announce it to anyone, but if you happen to surf by, then I'm happy to have you here. Its been over a year since I took the time to post, So I won't endeavor to catch you up in one post but I can at least summarize 2006 in bullet points.

• Started new job that underpaid me for how much I worked and in the long run underappreciated my efforts. I'm officially on the market again now that I've passed the 1 year mark
• Continued to trudge along at a second job where I usually spend more than I make
• Spent a week in Sydney Austrailia--If its not on your list of places to visit, it should be if its not at or near the top, move it up. It is sooooo worth it
• Visited Florida twice
• Visited San Diego for my birthday
• Turned 30 ugh!
• Installed a laminate floor over 85% of our Condo
• Started to Learn how to speak Thai, I'll be visiting there soon

That's the major stuff, I can assure you there was more than my share of laughs, and less than my share of pain mixed in there.

The Best Week Ever!!!!!

I have had some weeks in my life that I wished I was someone else. (One was 3 weeks ago when I was working 60 hours through the 3rd week of a sinus infection that wouldn't go away) I've had some weeks I'd like to forget. I've had some weeks that were pretty good, I've even had some great weeks. But, the last seven days it has been a really good week to be me. W's Aunt Peggy GAVE us a car, suddenly making us a 2 car family. That means I get the Jeep as a hand me down. It also means it's no longer necessary for me to trudge half a mile up hill both ways in a driving rainstorm to the bus stop. That has to be better for my health. So you're thinking to yourself, what could be better than a free car to a guy riding the bus? How about the job you'd been daydreaming about since orientation day at grad school. Where they said "What ever you do, don't accept a job for less than 50 K, it will bring down the schools numbers. Good numbers for the school mean your degree is well regarded in the job market." Well Dr. B, despite how much I disliked you by the time I was done, I have granted your wish. I can hereby announce that my MBA from the University of South Florida (it has to be spelled out here, USF is something else out this direction) is finally worth the paper on which it is printed. Anyway, I have another cold, am tired from working so much, but that still didn't stop this from being...
The Best Week Ever!

Quite possibly the luckiest man on the planet

I did something stupid on Friday, and thus far have come out unscathed. I managed to leave my wallet on a bus. You can check the archives, misplacing my wallet in the house is something I do fairly regularly, so as I was preparing for my shift at the BRO Friday evening I really wasn't alarmed that I couldn't immediately locate it. But I started to sweat it part way through, and rushed home to check all my credit card balances on line to see if I was paying for someone's shopping spree. I needed to do some house work over the weekend anyway, so cleaning up the place was a convenient way to find the missing wallet. By Sunday it was a No-show, so I prepared for the harsh reality I might have actually lost it in transit. In the most fortunate set of circumstances, 2 calls to AC Transit yielded someone who was nicely holding my wallet for me in a building a mere 3 city blocks from the MOHP. I wandered over during lunch to find that it was untouched still containing 2 bart tickets (amounting to $2.25) A half used 31 day bus pass. (approx street value $35.00) all my credit cards and $5 in cash. Plus my discount card from the BRO, and 3 separate sushi dinner receipts. Sad I know.

Photographic proof my mom still loves me!

Mom dropped in to visit W and I to make sure I was still living. (if you'd been waiting for a blog post, you might have begun to wonder) We worked the bay area over pretty good. On thursday we took her on her first visit to our home away from home, Ikea. She was like a kid in a candy store, exactly what you might expect. We dropped by to see aunt peggy after that, and then had another fabulous meal at sushi avenue. (They're hiring, and that seems like a lot more fun than working at the BRO part time) Friday We took BART into the city and then rode the MUNI up to the wharf area. We strolled throuh pier 39 walked along Until we got to fishermans wharf and then had the most delicious and filling lunch possible, a Huge bowl of Cioppino from Scoma's. We had another restaurant in mind but the nice person at the CA welcome center desk decided we should go to Scoma's instead and she was sooooooo right. We got a corner, waterfront table and impeccable service. Yes, it was expensive, but I got more food than I could have eaten in 2 sittings, and it was one of the best meals I've ever eaten. Saturday we visited the farmers market at bayfair, and found out how badly I'd been missing out on something right under my nose. We then went to Kincaids at Jack london square and had a fabulous lunch. I have to figure out how to make their signature hot crab sandwich that is to die for. Saturday night I did bust out the culinary skills as we entertained mom and family friend (and fellow san leandrite) Jen. I thought the food was good, but it was no Kincaids, Scoma's or Sushi Ave.

A tall ship on San Francisco bay. Yes, this day really was this beautiful 

How good a job do I have to get to eat here every day?

Here was my view from our table at Scoma's on fishermans wharf. Yes, that is the Trans america pyramid and coit tower. Once my enourmous bowl of Cioppino arrived I could barely see out the window anymore. We got fabulous service, and I am hoping someday to be able to create a masterpiece like we ate.

Mmmmm Chocolate Augghhhhhh

We spent a while at this SF Landmark but managed not to buy any chocolate. Although they did give us a free caramel filled chocolate bar that was absolutely delicious. This is company number 327 I'm boycotting since their main plant is now in San Leandro but they refused to hire me for a financial analyst job they advertised online for months

Cool New search for the week

It always cracks me up the things that bring people to my humble little site here. Typically they are pinball machine machine related occasionally they are a little obscure, but this week we have a new champion. Someone seaching on yahoo uk searched for "I am going to humiliate you", and I was at the top of the list. I'm not sure if I should be proud of this or not.

So Long CJA

Interesting goings on at the MOHP this week. The other temp who I have not so affectionately dubbed Captain Jerkass (a name that I have given to everyone who has made my job search more difficult) Announced his resignation today, having scored a marketing analyst gig at another large bay area company. I had some particularly negative things typed in this space that I have decided not to publish, because they made me seem negative and petty so I will say these things only as succinctly as possible.
CJA Taught me a TON of EXCEL shortcuts, a good portion of my future success will occur because I had someone teach me these things.
CJA had trouble communicating ideas as whole sentences often "umming" every 2nd word This made learning from him extremely difficult.
My favorite interaction with him happened one day last week.
He usually came in late around 8:15 or so, and would silently scurry into his cube and not say anything at all to anyone.
After about 45 minutes I hear
CJA Hey Jason um...
Me: Oh hey good morning CJA
CJA: (After a thoughtful pause) Oh yeah.... I really need to work on greeting people...Anyway (something he said constantly to fill gaps between incomplete sentence clauses)Rambles on...

So Now I have to solve all my Excel difficulties on my own, and there is some suspicion that he might not be replaced. Which unless I'm brought in full time is really really not going to be any fun. But could also be a sign that money is being freed up for a full time analyst. Stay tuned for more developments on that.

Breaking free from my Seattle based opressors

It is now thursday at 10:12 p.m. and I have yet to partake of a single Starbucks beverage this week. Is that easy? No, Caramel Macchiato was starting to flow through my veins. But at 3.95/day for a Venti, you can imagine why I was feeling like I didn't have any money in the bank. Plus they have these delicious apple fritters that are absolutely wonderful for breakfast. At some point that had to give way to making coffee at home. I lack complete motor function before 5:30 a.m. so that has meant getting the pot ready before bed and fumbling only to turn it on in the morning. The transition to home brew hasn't been perfect... I keep leaving my travel mug at work (fortunately I have 2) and it means I lose my newspaper turning hand becuase I have to keep the mug upright. No newspaper hand means reading a lot of headlines on the train instead of risking accidental spillage from a sudden train speed change. I also can't run if I'm late, so I almost missed the bus one day too. The bus driver knows I always show up there, and saw me hustling and was nice enough to wait. I have really been standing out at the MOHP this week. The supply chain manager responsible for one of our largest customers has taken note of my work on improving on-time delivery to his customer. As more and more people learn my name/face/reputation around there, good things are sure to happen. You're getting a lot of posts from me this week since I have much thinking to do about my immediate future. I have until the Tuesday after Memorial Labor day to make a decision, but at the rate I'm going I honestly don't see it going that long.

A little fuzzy math for you algebra lovers out there

Jason Has 2 jobs
He earns hourly Rate B at the BRO and Hourly rate M at the MOHP
M = 2.6B
Jason Gets offered a promotion at the BRO that will pay him 2B which sounds nice, but would require him to give up salary M
Jason's current earnings are:
40M + 30B which we'll call X
Accepting the promotion means Jason only earns
80B which we'll call Y
How do those compare you ask? (you could do the math yourself here but I'm feeling generous)
X =1.7Y
A complete analysis here means assigning some sort of premium to the guarantee being offered by the BRO, Since I am only a Temp at the MOHP but I am not really sure what that's worth. To be fair I'd have to assign some other premium to how much I enjoy what I do at the MOHP and how much I'm learning there. Then Since I'd be managing people at the BRO, I'd have to assign some sort of value to the management experience I'd get from doing that job. So lets face it, these things are difficult to quantify and terribly subjective; which kind of defeats the purpose.

Where have I gone?

Yes, I know. My blog is badly neglected. I had free hosting for my little favorite Icon (The little pinball that used to appear in the address bar) and I didn't log in often enough to keep my acount open. What have I been doing with all this time? Well that's actually a good question. Time is flying, but i'm not really having all that much fun. Things at both workplaces are still good. There's much buzz at the BRO about a promotion, but only a small one. Meaning I'd have to give up my much more lucrative gig at the MOHP. I don't really see that happening, since I'm quite happy there and doing exactly what I need to do to get the job I really want. Also on the job front fellow MBA'er Vicky N finally scored a real gig at City Group. She was even nice enough to let me know they were looking for one more if I was interested. But I have vowed not to move again anytime soon. I wouldn't quite know what to do with only one job anyway. This Week W had Friday off, so she came and met me at work for lunch. I was really excited about trying the Pacific coast brewing company. The beers were awesome, but the food was only average and we got the worst service ever. If i'm at a brew pub and no one ever asks me if I want another beer, I'm not going to say nice things about you. Not to mention we never got asked how our meal was. I will go back, but only to drink, not to eat.
I'm starting to owe less and less people money these days, so hopefully soon I can stop working 60-70 hour weeks and start enjoying my sorroundings. I have been assured of a Gig at the
In other family news (so you'll know where I get it from) I'm extremely proud of my grandmother these days. She packed up all her stuff and moved into a nice retirement place. I have tried to call her a couple of times, and she refuses to sit still long enough to answer the phone. That's how we work in this family, we move away and fully immerse ourselves in whatever's available.

Sure, like most of my weeks aren't crazy

This really was a strange week. I was the most rested I'd been in two months, so on occasion at the BRO I was really nice to people. I didn't even look like a walking zombie. I had strangely been scheduled not to go in until 6, which meant I could even go home and squeeze in a nap on occasion. Job prospects all continue to improve. A higher up at The BRO called me in to his office to make sure I was still interested in moving up there, because 2 positions would be opening up in the very near future. I said it might come down to who made a bigger move first. My supervisor at the MOHP also said this week that one of the other higher ups decided he'd really like me to get hired, and If I could master one particular task it would be very easy for the 2 of them to convince the director I was needed on a full time basis. To make matters even more interesting I fielded two job offers while standing at my register this week, one from a financial services recruiter wanting me to sell life insurance and mutual funds for him. (yeah, we know where that one leads; No thank you) The other came from a guy in human resources at a hardware store.
Here's how our conversation went:
Him: Are you new here?
Me: Me, I've been here about 2 months
Him: O.K.
Me: Why, are you a regular here who notices these kinds of things.
Him: No, I just am the kind of person who notices when people are doing a really good job
Me: (Flattered, Grinning and maybe blushing a little) Well, thank you very much.
Him: So are you a student or something?
Me: No, I have a real job during the day and just work evenings and weekends here for some extra money
Him: Well alright, Keep up the good work
Me: Thank you, Your total is...
Flash forward past his payment and he's frantically digging through his wallet. I move on to the next customer. He eventually moves to the empty register next to mine while continuing to search. Finally he walks back over leaves a card on my register and says "if you want to make more money part time give me a call".
So suddenly a guy who went a whole year without a real job offer is about to have to make some very difficult choices.
Choice 1, Accept potential offer from Transportation department at MOHP
Choice 2, Apply for really great Finance position at MOHP that has been open and staring at me for a while
Choice 3, Accept potential middle management job at BRO and have to leave MOHP
Choice 4, Assume that I won't stay at BRO for much longer leave for more cash at the new offer
Assumptions
1. Job in transportation Department at MOHP will pay more than my temp position there, but not as much as the job in finance
2. A single rung up the ladder at the BRO will still have me earning much less than I currently make at the MOHP, but would offer stability and certainty about the future.
3. The newest part time offer would yield me a bigger discount, in a Hardware store!!!!!! That might be worth the price of admission on its own.

Plus there is the final question of will I be happier as a guy who sits at a desk all day staring at a computer doing spreadsheets but has a nice set schedule or as someone who is up and moving around all day interacting with people but has to work holidays, weekends and nights.
Alas, nothing is ever simple

Your chance to browse our personal Ikea catalog

Here is the long awaited picture of Mr Hemnes in his daytime mode he's a wonderful place for a nap

Reason # 2 you should come visit me

Yes, you also miss having me around but the guest bedroom amenities are suddenly very nice. Here it is in sleepy time mode , extra comfy

Our newest thing

Say hello to my lil friend! This is the newest addition to our home ikea showroom, the matching night stand to Mr Hemnes. He came to us as a gift from W's parents who took the new stuff on its maiden voyage