working at home is always great.... especially if it's a friday. the morning commute is usually fine on fridays. it makes you think that everyone must be wfh and that the afternoon drive will be equally as easy. it is never the case.

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found out about this cool new exhibit about surfing opening in san jose this weekend. i will hit it at some point. i still have to hit the surf show at minna.

i had a long day of usability testing for a project that i'm doing at work. it's actually sort of nice cuz i didn't really have to talk to anyone all day. i just sat in this dark room and took notes.

i went to the gym and was running late. i was supposed to meet the girls out for drinks, but when i called jane, they were about to call it a night. i wasn't disappointed.

i just did a little flow diagram update and now i have a 70 page functional spec to review. yikes.

i sent that email to my manager and we're supposed to talk about my taking the time off in december. he gets it. i know he'll help me make it happen.

i think my need for a break is also partly due to the fact that i never really took one. i missed the boat on doing the post-college travel thing. i was never laid off from a dot com, which would have afforded me the break. i dunno. maybe i just need a better perspective on it all. i used to think that i had it.

i got my pics back from surfing with caroline, ami, and jane in santa cruz. i have to SCAN them, but they'll be up soon.

i had a horrible day at work. it was the second time in the last couple of months when i have really felt like i could walk away from it all. i actually CRIED at my desk. how pathetic.

i decided that i needed to drag my ass to the gym. the sweat did me good. when i got out to the car, i had messages from jane and raaf. i had planned to go to LAC for sarah's birthday, and jane's message motivated me to make it happen. so i took a shower and went to LAC. i'm really glad i went. i wasn't going to let WORK of all things bum me out to the point where i didn't want to go out. i have had enough of those nights, and i have to remember that it's just work.

kat was there, which was great, cuz she said she was swamped at work. baruch was there, and i hadn't seen him since january when we all went to tahoe on my first (and only) trip. he seemed happy and well. dave showed up a little later, and it was nice to catch up with him.

sarah had a slew of people around, and i only got to talk to her for a few minutes. she's eager to surf and i told her that we'd go in a couple of weeks. i mentioned my wanting to go to costa rica in december to surf and she was psyched about that. i may have a travelling buddy after all.

when i got home, i had an email from lanha waiting. she told me about a cool conference that's going on at the beginning of september ... right around my birthday. i'm in the middle of writing my manager an email asking for the time off. maybe i'll even get to hit the open while i'm out there.

when i drove up to rick's house, he was outside, waiting for me. the first thing he said was that tess had passed away on friday. tess was his golden retriever, and the constant in his life for the past 12 years. the irony of it all was that rick's life was going to become a lot less crazy in a week. he would have had more time to hang out with tess. rick is a workaholic. he's a surgeon and his identity is tied to his profession. it made me think about the preciousness of life. of course, you know that, but you sometimes forget. things don't always wait for you and you have to take the time to spend it with people (and dogs) who are important to you. they may not always be around.

this is the second death this week. my friend's mom died earlier this week. ugh. too much loss this week.

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so my sister and i are probably sending my parents to europe this year or early next year. i had been thinking about going back to europe this year, since it's been a long time since i've been. then i started to think about my parents and how they had never been to europe. it made me sad, and i mentioned to jin that i wanted to send them there and maybe she'd want to share the cost with me.

jin mentioned it to dad this weekend and of course he started investigating the options immediately.

it makes me happy that i'm able to do this for them. i would have never thought that i would be able to do that for them. i'm really glad that i can.

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talking to rick encouraged me to make sure that i take those 6 weeks off at the end of the year. i'm going to have to make sure that it happens.

last night i went to fog city diner with sunhee. surprisingly, i hadn't been there before and i was pleasantly surprised. i had heard it was good, but it's a *diner*. anyway, sunhee and i shared the ceviche and tuna tar tar to start and the cioppino. we had banana and chocolate bread pudding for dessert. since there was a wait at fog city, we thought to try the new butterfly, which is where the old lapis used to be on the embarcadero. butterfly is owned by the same people as the one in the mission. the wait there was even longer, which is why we stuck to fog city.

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* just a warning - the pics i have linked here are LARGE files.

i just got in from a jim's annual pool party at filoli. it was the perfect day for it, although i didn't really go into the water. i was pleased to see david and karl there. they brought their boys, nathan and cole. i hadn't met them until today. they are adorable.

the usual suspects were there - sunhee, dave and patrick, andrew and robert, bill, lisa and tom, and several people i only know through the main crew.

now i'm going to get ready to go out to dinner with rick. i haven't seen him since may. it will be nice to catch up with him.

i'll have to do a little work when i get home, but i'm ok with that. i had a relaxing weekend.