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!
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!
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?
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
As a German abroad, I take pleasure in being able to buy things on Sundays -- especially after I spent some time living in Bavaria, the state with the strictest shop closing laws in all of Germany. (If you care: Stores in Bavaria must close at 8pm Monday through Saturday, and on Sundays stores are closed in all of Germany by federal law).
So I decided to do a home improvement project (semi-voluntarily), and took the car to the friendly home improvement store at the mall, just to find out that going to the mall on a Sunday wasn't exactly an original idea. After 10 minutes of looking for a parking spot, I gave up and instead walked to the store, so I ended up carrying the somewhat unhandy materials I bought home by hand. Sunday workout, check.
Today, Tara and I ran our first, 5k foot race, at the Coyote Hills Regional Park in Fremont. We finished the 3.5 miles (that's 5.6 km, trail races tend to be a little longer than their nominal distance) in right about 42 minutes. Had there not been a few spots where one could not pass for a while, we'd probably have shaved another few minutes off this, but in general, I am happy with the result!
Here are the two proud runners, with their medals, after coming home:
There are also a few more photos of us running in a set on flickr, taken by some volunteers around the track. Like this one:
How fun!
