We moved into our new building today. It was pretty exciting walking around and trying to get acquainted with our new surroundings. There was a bit of confusion that goes along with moving and rearranging. I must admit that getting settled was eerily similar to Office Space, "Umm...yeah...we're gonna need you to move" I also tried out the Japanese toilets that we have in the bathrooms. That was an...um...interesting experience.

I went to a Spa for a morning of pampering today. I've never done this sort of thing before and my wonderful boyfriend gave me a gift certificate to the local spa to have my first experience. I made the appointments for an hour of a pampering facial and then an hour for a swedish massage. Everything was so nice and relaxing, it truly made me forget about where I was and all of the things that were going on around me. I walked in and felt a little out of place at first. All of the other ladies there seemed to be 'experienced' with this sort of thing and knew exactly what they were supposed to do and where to go. I changed into my robe and then went out to the lounge and sat in a big comfy chair pretending to be relaxed while I listened to the two other women in the room discuss Michael Jackson and his ordeal. We all sipped our juices and ate our fruit until called individually to our rooms. The facial was very relaxing and different. It felt great until the lady started to poke, pinch, and scrape at my nose and my forehead to clean out my pores. I tried so hard not to flinch everytime she scraped something from my nose. There must have been a lot of junk in my pores because she worked on that section for a while. I have some little red marks all along my my nose, forehead, and chin now. After that I went in for my massage which was more than relaxing. The hour breezed by and I wished that it could have gone on another hour. Overall, it was a totally new experience for me and very enjoyable. Thank you honey.

I'm cold.

All you out-of-staters and in some cases out-of-country'ers are probably thinking, "Californian...you don't even know what a REAL winter is like." And you know what I have to say to that?

I don't care! I'm cold.

I'm wearing a turtleneck and a big courduroy peacoat, yet I'm still cold. I'm still very happy though despite my chills. Cold here means snow in Tahoe and snow in Tahoe means snowboarding for me. I just went to the dealership and picked up my snowboard rack for my car yesterday. The guy across the counter handed me a gigantic box with the rack in it. It was a long rectangular box. I tried to pick it up and also hold the other things that I had in my hand. When I got to the narrow door, I couldn't push the door open and also walk through with the box. I ended up trying to push the door open with the box and run out, but ended up dropping my wallet and cell phone all over. Then I had to bend down to pick up my wallet and ended up losing grip of the box. In the meantime, the service guys sat at the counter and watched me struggle. Thanks guys. By the time I got outside the door and collected all of my items, one guy runs out and says, "Do you need help?" Gee...ya think? By that time, I was already at my car though and putting the rack into the back.

We're packin' up to move to another office and I can't help but feel like it's my freshman year of college again. A new environment with new people. How fun.

I found out on Friday that one of my friends growing up was killed in a car accident the night before. Initially, I was just in shock and wasn't really sure how to react or what to do. I called my brother to tell him and the silence over the phone that followed made the news a little more real. He was so quiet and said, "she's my age..." My friend had IM'd me while at work to tell me the news.

While I was calling my family and our mutual friends, I kept thinking, "I hope I'm not spreading a rumor...maybe it's a different girl" However, these thoughts disappeared when I heard news about her mother and the devastation she is going through along with reading another news article with her picture and name.

Although she was younger than the rest of us in our little 'group', she and my brother had no problem making their presence known among the group of 'older' kids. The rest of us were 9 and 10, while the two of them were 7. The older kids made up their own 'secret language' and wrote it down on a 3x5 index card and hid it in our bag. While we were playing on the playground, she and my brother devised a scheme to steal one of our cards and try to figure out what we were talking about. I haven't seen her in nearly a decade, yet the memory of her still sticks strong.

I know that she is in a better place and know now more than ever, how precious life is.

I've been playing around with one of my Noogler gifts, a Rubiks cube. Initially I tried to keep it perfect so that it looked like I was somewhat smart and solved it, but then I figured...what's the point. So I messed it up all nice and good and now it's just stuck in that phase. This thing is going to take years for me to solve. Maybe I should get one of these.

My site host is terrible.

My site has been going down every so often. Apparently they are doing some 'server upgrades' or whatever, but did not notify their users of these problems. Not until I realized that my site was rarely working. My webmail got moved and was not notified of where they moved to. I checked their help pages several times (being a fellow support person) in order to try to find a resolution before contacting them. No luck. I went onto their site again today and saw some 'FYI's' and updates on help. The site indicated that the paths had changed to a specific path that they indicated on the site. I entered this in and still no luck. I ended up just doing my own trouble shooting and correcting the problem myself.

I hope my one year contract is over and soon to be over. Eekman is pushing for me to switch to DreamHost. As soon as these people respond to me, I'm going to find out how much longer I have on this contract so that I can move.

I think that this is my favorite time of the year. I really love this time of the year. For so many reasons. It starts to get cold...and the snow starts falling in Tahoe which means more snowboarding for Kimmy. Yeehaww. It's the big time shopping season. If you haven't already figured it out by now, I love to shop. I love walking around the stores and window shopping along with watch all of the people go by. That is probably why I love this holiday season's shopping more than any other shopping day, because this is the time when all of the people come out. The streets and towns are beautifully decorated with lights and other festive decorations, while families, couples, and friends stroll around. I like to watch people interact with each other and imagine the story behind the people that I watch. This is also the time when I get to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas and spend time with all of the people I love. There is a special vibe in the air from the excitement of all of these events that are coming soon and starting now. I'm getting so giddy from excitement.

I went to run some errands this weekend and also started a little bit of my holiday shopping. It was raining pretty hard this weekend, and I guess all of the people rushed into the malls and stores as a result. I loved it. If I could just sit on a bench and watch the people go by all day, I would. Maybe I will one of these days.

Today was also my first day as a permanent Googler. Several months ago while I was sitting up late at night in the computer lab's, never would I have imagined that I'd be working at one of the 'funnest' companies only a few months later. I guess it just goes to show that hard work and prayer really do pay off.

Wahoo! Yippee! Yay! So the day has finally come, and I was offered a permanent position today at Google. After three months, I start as a permanent employee this Monday and will go through orientations.

Congrats to Graham my contracting, now permanent, buddy too.

I got to go see the opening of The Matrix Revolution today along with all of the other Google employees and it was awesome. I'm not much of a 'sci-fyey' kind of gal. I've never seen what the big thrill was with Star Wars or any of those other 'types' of movies. It actually took me a good 5 times of seeing the first Matrix until I could watch it all the way through. I fell asleep halfway through the first four attempts. It took much encouragement from Bertrand for me to get through the first Matrix in order to be prepared to watch the second with him the next day. But...I'd be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying the movies once I started watching them. This last one had a few 'hold my breath' scenes but the end kind of left me hanging. So many questions are still left unanswered. I didn't really feel like it was 'the end' and that there was more to come. Despite the minor confusion, I enjoyed the movie and had a good time. It's always fun to see a movie on opening day.

Buffalo Wings just for you Aldy

Come home soon!