A Little Piece of England at the Googleplex

First of all, I apologize for the lag between posts, but I find myself posting more and more on Google+. I realize that not everyone is on Google+ yet (wink wink) so I'll continue blogging about the big exciting events in my life, but if you're looking to find out what I'm up to on a more regular basis I encourage you to try out Google+. All you need is a Gmail account (more details at the bottom of this post).

Now...on to the good stuff. David Beckham is an early adopter of Google+ and stopped by this morning for an interview and his first Google+ Hangout . He talked about all sorts of things including his decision to sign with the LA Galaxy for another 2 years, what it was like to go to the Royal Wedding, his new underwear line, and his family. My favorite part of the interview was seeing his face light up when he talked about his daughter and what it's like to have a little girl versus the boys. He's definitely a family man.

I must say he looks as amazing in person as he does on TV and in the ads. He's the perfect mix of clean cut (nicely dressed in a suit) and bad boy (morning beard and tattoos peaking out from his left jacket sleeve). The interview itself was exciting, but even more exciting was the fact that the Hangout after the interview was held 4 office (50 ft) away from mine...SO CLOSE!

Needless to say, working at Google continues to be an amazing experience for so many reasons. I heart Google :) Below are my fav pics but if you want to see my whole album you can check them out here.

The stage

Havin' a good ol' laugh

Everyone trying to get a good shot

After the event right outside my office

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More details about Google+:

The best way for me to explain Google+ is a cross between Facebook, Twitter, blogs...but different ;). You can follow people you find interesting (eg. David Beckham) and share info with people you care about (eg. family, friends). It allows you to quickly and easily share information (thoughts, pics, articles) in a customized and personal way. Here is a great "Getting Started" guide. My favorite features:

• Circles: Put the people you know into Circles that make sense for you (coworker, family, book club). When you go to post something, you select which circle(s) to share it with.
• Hangouts: Group video chat (for free). I haven't had the opportunity to have many hangouts yet, but if you end up joining Google+ and want to "hangout" just let me know :)

Lenny Kravitz

Lenny Kravitz came to YouTube today for a short acoustic show. He was in town as he's doing a few shows with U2 on their tour. I hadn't visited the YouTube office yet, which is in San Bruno, so figured Lenny's appearance was a good reason to go and check things out. The short and sweet show was amazing. Mr. Kravitz was looking and sounding amazing as usual. Below are a few pics I took.

Full album can be found here.

Congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge!

I was in England when Prince Charles and Diana got married, and although I was young, I can still remember the energy in England for the event. My grandparents threw a party and decorated the house with streamers, Union Jacks, and pictures of Charles and Diana. Although I couldn't be in England for today's Royal Wedding, I knew I wanted to get up and watch it live. My Mom is visiting, and she and I were up bright and early this morning (2:30am PT for me) to watch the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. It was a beautiful ceremony which lasted an hour, yet seemed short and sweet. Although there were 100's in attendance, it was still intimate and struck the perfect balance between formal in some areas and informal in others. Kate's dress was surprising to me, as I expected something a little more fashion forward, but after watching her throughout the morning I realized how it was a classic and timeless beauty. England's people definitely showed up in the streets for a glimpse of the royal couple, but I was more amazed at the organization of the whole event, and how calm and peaceful the crowds were. I wish I could have been there, although I think I probably had a better view from my couch, but I'm very happy and lucky to have had the opportunity to watch it with my "Mum", as it will be an event that I will never forget.

Congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, I wish you nothing but happiness in your lives together, and of course, God Save the Queen.

In preparation, I made some of my favorite Lemon Blueberry scones which hit the spot as an early morning snack.

Meyer Lemon and Dried Blueberry Scones

Specialty foods stores, Trader Joe's, and some supermarkets carry dried blueberries.

Yield: Makes 12 servings
Recipe from Epicurious

Ingredients

3 cups of self-rising flour

1/2 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 1/2 cups dried wild blueberries (about 10 ounces)

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon buttermilk

1 1/2 tablespoons finely grated Meyer lemon peel or regular lemon peel

Preparation

1) Position rack in top third of oven and preheat to 425 degrees.

2) Line large baking skeet with parchment paper.

3) Whisk self-rising flour and 1/2 cup sugar in large bowl.

4) Using fingertips, rub in chilled butter until pieces are size of small peas.

5) Add dried wild blueberries and toss to coat.

6) Mix 1 cup buttermilk and finely grated lemon peel in glass measuring cup.

7) Pour buttermilk mixture into dry ingredients and stir until dough beings to form (some of flour will not be incorporated).

8) Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface and gather together. Knead dough briefly, about 5 turns.

9) Divide dough in half. Form each dough half into ball and flatten into 1-inch-thick disk. Cut each disk into 6 wedges.

Notes: For step 9, I instead separated dough into small individual sized round scones

10) Transfer scones to prepared baking sheet, spacing 1 inch apart. Brush tops with remaining 1 tablespoon buttermilk and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar.

11) Bake until scones are golden brown on top and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 20 - 25 minutes

Humans need breaks

I took a class a while back called Managing Your Energy which was very interesting and focused on how to...well...manage your energy. One thing they mentioned was that taking a break during a long day at work will actually increase your energy and your productivity. Humans need breaks.

Guess what? I'm human, today is a long day at work, so I took a break.

There is a park right next to campus that has benches to sit on, and a nice man-made stream to sit by, so this is usually where I go when I'm in need of a peaceful moment. I happened to take a picture of my view from a bench during the winter when the trees were bare. I found myself sitting on the same bench today but today the trees were covered in beautiful pink flowers. I just had to snap some pics as a reminder to take breaks in life. We deserve them.

View during winter (Jan '11)

View during spring (Apr '11)

Does anyone know what kind of trees they are? They're really gorgeous, although I don't know if I'd suggest them for your home (unless you like gardening). Today was windy and it was literally snowing pink petals as I sat there.

Note: Pics taken using the Retro Camera application on my Nexus S phone

Happy "21st" Birthday Banana

It was our baby boy's 3rd birthday on Saturday (that's 21 in human years). Anyone that knows Banana, knows he's definitely got his good and bad traits but we can't imagine life without him. He makes us smile every day and our lives haven't been the same since he came into them.

Banana started his birthday morning by joining us in bed where he snuggled and napped under the covers.

Once he woke up, he got a birthday belly rub.

For his big day we got him a party hat, a new toy, an edible card (made of rawhide), and a bottle of tequila (mini-sized for humans, full-sized for a Dachshund). Yep...tequila...after all it was his "21st"!

The hat wasn't very successful as it wouldn't stay on his head which resulted in Banana wearing it sideways and growling at it until he figured out how to get it off.

Banana sniffed the tequila, but in general kept his distance.

His favorite gift was his rawhide card, which he quickly started chewing and carried around with him for 6 hours until he finished every last piece.

Happy Birthday Banana! We can't wait to celebrate many more birthdays with you in years to come.

Note: Banana was not served alcohol as a part of this blog. It was purely for a fun picture moment :)

Baby Boy Banana

Lately Banana has been so loving and adorable, so I thought I'd share some recent pics of my baby boy and his Mommy.

For those of you that know Banana, you'll know he's not a fan of other people singing, especially the song Happy Birthday. Depending on how you sing it, sometimes he goes crazy, but if you sing it just right, he'll join in (see here).

Jury Duty and South Lake Tahoe

Well the past month has been busy.

Jury Duty

At the end of February I was called for Jury Duty. In Santa Clara County they make you call in (or check online) each day of the week you're "on call" to see if you need to actually go in to the courthouse. In the past, I've never actually had to go in and this time I thought I was going to be lucky again, but Thursday night I checked and they said I had to be in on Friday at 8am. No big deal (I thought), as I figured I'd go in for the day and then get dismissed. Unfortunately, it turned into another 7 day ordeal. On Friday when I got there, we were taken into the courthouse where we were told the trial was the De Anza Case, which was well known by many locally. I rarely watch or read the local news so knew nothing about it. To make a long story short, there were 120 potential jurors and over the course of the next 7 days we'd go in, they'd call up a handful of potential jurors, ask them a bunch of questions, keep some, let some go, call up some more people...rinse and repeat. They finally chose the 12 jurors and 5 alternate jurors on Day 7 at which point there were only about 25 potential jurors that hadn't been interviewed (one of them being me). The interview process took so long largely because if a potential juror had heard or read about the case, the judge and lawyers would question them one on one to ensure anything they said was not heard by other potential jurors that might not have heard about the case. It would have been a very interesting jury to be on, although probably very emotional, but the case was expected to go through the end of March which would have meant a lot of time off work for me.

South Lake Tahoe

This weekend we headed to South Lake Tahoe with some friends. I'm a true Southern Cali girl, so cold/rain/snow isn't really my thing, but I figured I should get out of San Jose for a weekend and enjoy a trip with friends. We headed up Friday afternoon and got home today (Sunday). It was a great trip filled with layers of clothes (weather ranged from 32 to 44 although it didn't rain or snow until we were leaving). We stayed at a beautiful cabin which was at an elevation of 8,000 ft. Here are some pics from our trip.

View from our cabin

Me trying not to freeze on our balcony

Banana enjoying the view while staying warm on the inside