Field Trip

I just got back from a field trip to the movie theater to see Sex In The City 2. It was only three of us from work that ended up being able to make it, but it was still a lot of fun. We got there early to avoid the crowds....although it wasn't that crowded at 3:30pm on a Thursday afternoon.

Here's my quick review:

1) Overall, another fun movie to go see on girl's night.

2) Aidan was looking as handsome as ever.

3) Liza Minnelli singing Single Ladies was weird and I now can't get it out of my head.

4) There isn't a strong plot, other than the usual "Woman Power" message, although I thought staging it in the Middle East was kind of an easy target.

5) The fashion was out of control. I'm pretty sure they had 3 outfits just to ride a camel, and as one of my co-workers said, one of the outfits looked like it came out of Olivia Newton John's 80's wardrobe. I've always loved the quirkiness of the fashion, but some of it was just a tad too much.

6) I'm still in love with the LOVE rug that hangs on the wall when you first walk into Carrie's old apartment.

7) Samantha is up to her usual antics and out of control.

8) I missed the City in Sex In The City.

I know many of you will see it this weekend, so let me know what YOU think!

The Terminator, Cookies, Cupcakes, and LOST finale

This week I was passing by our large cafeteria area at work and suddenly heard a voice I recognized. He wasn't saying "I'll Be Back" but I knew it was Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was speaking to a crowd of non-Googlers and had security everywhere. I didn't stop long to hear what he was saying as I felt a little out of place. When I got back to my office and told my co-workers he was here, we all went running back to see if we could listen, or get a picture, but got stopped by security. There's an upstairs area where you can see down into the cafeteria area so we headed up there to see if we'd have any luck...and we did. He was speaking about The Green Product Innovation Institute. After his speech he actually came into the micro-kitchen right outside our office space, where he had some cereal and coffee, but was again surrounded by security. Below is the pic I was able to take from the upstairs walkway...check out those green shoes.


I thought I had two friends at work with birthdays today, Danny and Doris, so decided to make some birthday treats over the weekend. I wasn't sure if guys really like cupcakes, so decided to make some Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies for Danny (pic and recipe below). Doris doesn't like chocolate, but I wasn't sure if that meant she liked vanilla, or fruity cake instead. Luckily, another co-worker said she liked Carrot Cake so I made Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting (pic and recipe below). I've never made Carrot Cake before so hopefully they're tasty. Note: The reason I say I thought I had two friends at work with birthdays is because when I delivered the cookies to Danny, he informed me that it was another Daniel on the team that had a birthday today. Whoops!

I ended the weekend with the finale of LOST. We watched the 2 hour pre-finale show, the 2.5 hour finale, and the 1 hour after-show on Jimmy Kimmel. The pre-finale show helped me understand a few things that had flown over my head week after week. I realize the finale didn't answer all the questions, but I wasn't expecting an ending like that. All I can say is thank you LOST, for ending 6 years of frustration with such an amazing finale. I LOVED it.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

by Shannon Sharper (co-worker)

Mix:

2 eggs

1 cup vegetable or canola oil (you can also use closer to 3/4 cup and it still works fine)

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon vanilla

Add:

2 cups old-fashioned oats (not quick or 1-minute)

2 cups flour

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

1 cup chocolate chips

Note: You can also try adding in raisins instead of chocolate chips or make a trail mix version with cranberries, nuts and chocolate chips.

Make: Large, golf ball-sized balls of dough

Bake: at 350 for 10-12 minutes

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

Carrot Cupcakes:

1 pound carrots, peeled and finely grated

3 large eggs, room temperature

1/3 cup buttermilk

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

1 vanilla bean, halved length-wise, seeds scraped and reserved (or 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract)

1/2 cup golden raisins

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together carrots, eggs, buttermilk, sugar, oil, vanilla-been seeds, and raisins. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Stir flour mixture into carrot mixture until well combined.

2. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, 23 to 28 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool 10 mins; turn out cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

Icing:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1 pound (4 cups) confectioners' sugar, sifted

3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and cream cheese until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, and then vanilla, and mix until smooth and combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. If not using immediately, frosting can be refrigerated up to 3 days in an airtight container. Before using, bring to room temperature, and beat on low speed until smooth again.

Seahorses

Last week I spent Wednesday and Thursday in Monterey, CA with all of my co-workers from around the globe. Everyone in PeopleOps (aka. POps or HR) flew in for a two day conference which included breakout sessions, guest speakers, awards, dinners, trivia games, and plenty of parties.

The opening speech was given at the Golden State Theater which had a welcoming sign for us.

Almost everything else was held at the hotel(s), including an amazing breakout session I took on Managing Your Energy. The breakout session was shortened and customized for Google, but originally came from the Energy Project. Did you know... that sleeping less than 4 hours a night, for 4 or more consecutive nights, is the equivalent of being legally intoxicated??
The class teaches you how to maximize your energy, so that you can be more productive in the same amount of time, which is amazing since as we all know, time is finite. I've already implemented some of their tips and have found them to be really useful. I still hope to take the full class as I felt there was a lot more to learn.

Thursday night was our night to celebrated, which we did at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. All the exhibits were open for us to see, including the seahorses (how many can you find in the pic below?).

It was an amazing event, that included photo booths, dueling pianos in front of a huge fish tank, a live band that played Michael Jackson ALL night, and plenty of food and drinks.

Overall, it was a wonderful opportunity to meet new people, enjoy "down" time with people I work with on a regular basis, and really appreciate my job and my co-workers.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the new, old, and soon-to-be mothers. As I grow older, and more of my friends become new moms, I realize what a difficult and selfless job it can be, but hopefully just as fulfilling.

My mom and I will unfortunately be 500 miles away from each other but I'll be thinking of her all day long, and everything she's done for me over the years.

Mom - Happy Mother's Day! Thank you for always being there for me. When I need to vent, you're there to listen. When I need some company, you're here in a flash. When I don't know what I need, you always seem to have the answer. My life would not be the same without you in it, and I am so thankful for all you do for me and our family.

Love,
Rob
xoxo

And we're off....

First of all, I apologize for not posting anything recently, but I'm happy to say it's because I'm busy at work. Sounds strange...I'm happy to be so busy at work that I can't even communicate with the outside world. OK, maybe it's not that serious, but back to my point. We launched one of the programs I'll be working on this week so I've been soaking everything in. I'm finally starting to feel like I'm adding value to the team, even if it is just answering simple questions or sending out emails, it's nice to be doing something.

Amongst all the chaos, I was able to go see Conan O'Brien who visited the Googleplex yesterday. We often have authors stop by to talk about their books, or musicians, sometimes politicians. Just another crazy perk at Google. Conan is currently on a comedy tour and happened to be in the Bay Area so stopped by for a Q&A session where Googlers got to ask questions, and he answered. He was VERY funny, as usual, and it was a great break from my busy week.


To see all my pics, click here. There is a funny picture of me wishing I was Conan (from last summer) and a video of him doing the "string dance".

Note: For those of you that are Conan fans, looks like he'll be back in our living rooms soon. He signed a deal with TBS for a Mon-Thurs night show at 11pm and could be on as soon as Nov. 2010.