Day 40 - Good Morning, Mountain View

This is a photo I took this morning on Castro Street in Mountain View. It's a cell phone shot that I ran through HDRtist and messed with the colors a little... The American flag is waving on top of the Ames Building in the nice, springy, morning sun. As Dave put it yesterday, spring comes early here.

About the building, we can learn from the depths of the Internets:

The Ames Building [...] is thought to be the second-oldest building on Mountain View's Castro Street. Built in 1903 by Professor Daniel T. Ames, a nationally known handwriting expert, it was damaged in 1906 by the San Francisco Earthquake, but was quickly rebuilt. However, over the years many of its architectural elements were wiped away in modernization efforts. [Since 1996] the facade [was restored] to its former glory. The renovation was completed in time for a gala celebration of the building's centennial. The Ames Building once again stands out as one of Mountain View's most notable examples of historic commercial architecture.

Quite interesting!

February 08, 2011Fred Wenzel

Day 39 - Spring Cleaning

Meet Ryan and Dave. They work with me on the Firefox Input project, and this is what spring cleaning looks like. We are working through a number of maintenance bugs to get our code base ready for the challenges of Firefox 4 and beyond. Busy times!

By the way, our code is Open Source, and can be forked on github.

February 07, 2011Fred Wenzel

Day 38 - Passed Out

Today, Lizzy spent almost an entire day at the vet, getting a full checkup, various vaccinations, the works. Apparently it was an exhausting endeavor in doggy land, which is why she is com-plete-ly passed out now. Aaaaaaw!

Update, Feb 8: After a good night's sleep, Doggie is back in the land of the wagging and the home of the barking. Excellent!

February 06, 2011Fred Wenzel

Day 37 - Terrible Towel

Just in time for the Superbowl, I got my Terrible Towel out of the last remaining moving box and decorated our television with it, before we had a bunch of friends over for the first Superbowl party we ever hosted.

Sadly enough, the Steelers didn't play well enough to win this time, but it was still fun!

February 05, 2011Fred Wenzel

Day 36 - Mural

This is a mural at the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto. Reminds me of the many murals we saw in Lyon, France. Not-so-coincidentally, this mural depicts a French street. Is there an unwritten rule that all American murals must show scenes from France?

February 04, 2011Fred Wenzel

Day 35 - Crop Circle

Here at Mozilla, we take pride in our community -- it is the number one reason that Firefox is awesome. One great community project in the past was the Firefox Crop Circle. This is a (the?) blueprint that was used to make the project happen, and we show it off on one of our office walls, not far from my desk, where I see it every day.

February 03, 2011Fred Wenzel

Day 34 - Kwak

This is morgamic. He's focusing the prey right before attacking a fine little Belgian brew called Kwak. I like the hourglass-shaped beer glass, and that it comes with a wooden stand to keep it from tipping over. Belgian beers are known for their extravagant glasses -- and their hidden strength that'll knock your socks off before you can tell what happened. As a German, color me impressed.

February 02, 2011Fred Wenzel

Day 33 - Goofy Gown

Today I went to the doctor for a routine checkup, my first doctor's visit in the US (except for a dentist appointment two years ago) and everything went smoothly. In fact, it was remarkably similar to going to a German doctor -- including collecting a copay beforehand, and of course the extended waiting, since a scheduled appointment doesn't mean anyone except the patient actually has to adhere to that scheduled time.

Aaanyhow, the only thing quite different than in Europe is the silly hospital-style paper gown that is carefully designed to complicate the very purpose of the visit: The doctor's look at the patient's body.

February 01, 2011Fred Wenzel

Day 32 - Secrets

This is a statue I saw in downtown San Jose. It's made in 1986 and is called Secrets. Now, I am European and used to naked statues everywhere, but I couldn't help but think: If this was Arkansas, would there be a "family shield" on this thing?

Thanks, Jabba, for pointing out today's subject!

January 31, 2011Fred Wenzel

Day 31 - Om nom nom

This or something like this is what hungry Mozillians see after their weekly meeting: Monday's on-site lunch. Today, we had Mediterranean food. To me in good ol' Europe that term always meant Italian or Greek or so, but over here, it seems to mean middle eastern food. Well, they are all in the general vicinity of the Mediterranean, that's for sure :) The wraps and other delicacies were pretty excellent either way.