Random Thoughts

Since I am leaving for Washington DC, my dear friends got together with me, had a meal and wished me the very best for my future. They also asked me when I will be back next, seeing as I have family here, I don't think it will be too long before I come back again. I had intended to have the event at Joey's in Coquitlam. There were about a dozen or so of us, so I thought it best to make reservations and I called Joey's. They told me that they operate on a first-come basis. We decided to meet there around 7... and that place was packed. We took a while to figure out where to go and finally ended up going to the Earls on Lougheed Highway near Boundary. That place was packed too. We begged, pleaded, smiled etc to get a table for 13... and after much waiting and complaining... we got it. We had the fine plush chairs. Then they went hunting for a server. Allegedly, servers are hard things to find. Oh well. We found one. No one else believes me, but I am certain she has a moustach...

Well, what a week it has been. I can honestly say I miss DC. Not because I have some great love for the American capital... but because of the weather there. When I left DC last week, it was about 23 degrees Celsius, I wore a T-shirt, sat by the canal and had lobster. I came to Vancouver... and the damn rain hasn't stopped. We had so much rain that the water supply in this fair city has become clouded and 2 million of us have been told to boil our water before consuming it! Now... 2 million may not be such a big number in most places, but that is 1 / 15 th of all of Canada! The wind was so bad that trees fell down all over the place, people are STILL without power (4 days after the fact)! We were lucky. We did not lose power. We did lose the ability to use tap water. I am afraid to drink the tap water, brush my teeth etc. I cannot believe that in a country so advanced, 2 million people are forced to use bottled water due to a rain and wind storm. Its not raining right now, thankf...

I watched Borat on Friday. I haven't laughed so much in recent memory.

What have you been upto for the past little while? I have been in Washington DC for the past 2 weeks. As I type this, I am somewhere over the mid-west... but wait, I can pinpoint where, thanks to the tv screen in front of me with real-time flight information. I am just a little South and West of Angora, it is -27 Fahrenheit (-33 Celsius) outside, I have travelled 2800km so far and am about to cross the Denver-Utah border. My destination? Well on this Delta Airlines flight, it is to the capital of Utah, Salt Lake City... the spiritual home of the folks of that famous Church and the place that held the 2002 Winter Olympics. Too bad I won't be able to take in the city, and since it is dark (7:34pm MT right now), I am unlikely to see much on my way into the airport. So what have been upto in the past 2 weeks? I have been working hard like a dog over the past 2 weeks. I worked in the office till about midnight every day that I was there (including Saturday and Sunday) and got some work ...

I feel like I have a new job. Well, I do. I work for a software company based out of Washington DC. I switched departments to the product development team and am part of the performance engineering team. There is so much to learn and so much to do. So, how was the first week? Well, for one, it was interesting. When I got to DC, it was warm. I couldn't find food late at night (I got out of my hotel after 10pm) and had to adjust to the way the folks here speak... they sound rude but I guess they are just like that, they are not really rude people. Since then, I started working in the office, met tonnes of people and made friends. Met my new manager, he's a charming person with a million ideas. I had lunch at a few Mexican type places and am quite impressed. I ate at Baja Fresh and Chipotle. Good stuff there. There are a few places around the office with food around breakfast time... au bon pain, cosi's and corner bakery. Most are not open over the weekend... as I learned toda...