A Musical Birthday

What with all the moving and change and starting a new job, Kyle went all out to make my birthday special this year. Last night we drove to Milbrae, took the light-rail to San Francisco and watched the musical Wicked live in theater! It was very exciting and one of the best birthday's I've had.

I spent all day running around busy getting ready for our evening. I had to buy shoes and makeup since the movers have not arrived with our belongings yet. Thankfully, Mike and Ada showed up to watch our little girls for the evening and I was able to get ready.

I had made Kyle keep specifically what we were going to see a secret since four questions into a game of 20 Questions I had deduced that my present was tickets to theater or something similar. Kyle isn't very good at secrets and he loves sharing what he has gotten someone. I suspected which musical we were going to see based on conversations he had with his family (telling me that both Janelle and Brian think the musical is a good idea narrows it down a bit since the overlap of musicals that both Janelle and Brian like is a much smaller category than musicals that Janelle likes) and our own previous conversations about what theater we would like to see, but I enjoyed making him keep the secret. However, since our tickets hadn't arrived by the time we left I had to call Ticketmaster and the cat that was out of the bag was no longer pretending to be invisible.

Riding the light-rail was a strange and disconcerting experience. It was very noisy and the groans and squeals of the train as it sped along sounded like some alien vessel. Or like it was going to fall apart at any moment.

Once in San Francisco it was COLD. Being from Florida I hadn't thought to bring a jacket and we had about an hour to walk down the street to find something to eat. After turning down about 3 homeless guys, we decided to stop at Subway for a sandwich. San Francisco is a big city and I have true confirmation that I would not like living in a city. It felt dirty and unsafe the whole time we were on the street - even the people just felt dirtier.

Yet despite these discomforts, I truly enjoyed the time I got to spend with Kyle just walking around and enjoying each other's company. I think that was one of the best things about this date was getting a lot of quality time with him. Sometimes I forget how nice it is because we are always busy with the girls and don't always have a lot of us time.

And then we went into the theater. Our seats were at the very front of the balcony, but my height fears weren't triggered because we were looking out instead of down. The musical was lots of fun. The wordplay and characters were involving and I thought it was a clever twisting of the OZ story, although sometimes it felt as if it was all going so fast. I prefer the singers from the CD, but there is just something about a live performance that is a whole lot of fun.

All in all, it was a very wonderful birthday date night for me.

*A note to those who may not have heard about Wicked before: It is a musical based on a book about the whole OZ fiasco from the Wicked Witch's side. The music and musical are awesome. The book is terrible and contains inappropriate material. Besides that its just a lousy book.

Down at the Boardwalk

Our first family outing in our new state (California for those of you not in the loop) was to the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. It was very busy so we took pictures of each of the girls in case we lost one.

We rode some rides - well, I say we, but mostly it was just Meghan although Kyle and Addy did ride the Ferris Wheel and Merry Go Round. Meghan was such a big girl and would stand in line all by herself and pay the attendant with her tickets. She loved the boat the best. Addy cried at first on the Merry Go Round and she loved the Ferris Wheel.

We also took a walk along the beach. Kyle took Addy to put her toes in the water, but Addy cried because it was so cold. Meghan refused to even touch the water and satisfied herself with drawing lines in the sand with her toes.

And then I just had to add this last picture of Kyle and Addy waiting in line for the Ferris Wheel. Can you guess why?

The Quat Tree

Here is Meghan having conquered the Loquat tree at our Florida home. She calls it the "Quat Tree" and it has taken her our whole Florida residency to be able to get her bum on that branch. Sadly, we moved before she could get any higher.

Check her out climbing the same tree so long ago.

Easter

Here are the girls celebrating Easter. It was very simple this year. Each got a single chocolate bunny to eat while we discussed the story of the Resurrection with pictures. All in all I think it went well.

Wisdom Teeth Recovery

Actually, its a hands-free cellphone device. We tested it and it works.

Dancing Like The Stars

Kyle has an exercise video of Dancing with the Stars and convinced the boys to try it out with him. I don't know why, but watching the boys do exercise videos is pretty hilarious. I do have a video of it and once I figure out how I want to do uploaded videos (since Blogger doesn't do videos anymore) I'll put it up.

No Caption Required

Testing Grandpa's New Boat

So Meghan and her Dad got to go out and ride Grandpa's new boat. Addy and I waited on the shore.

And here is the triumphant return of the party.

We heard good reports of the trip. Kyle successfully got up on his water skis even though his endurance wasn't what it used to be. Meghan floated on her back and got to pee in the bushes on Boy Scout Island. They were out a long time cruising the Lagoon for unfortunate souls in need of assistance - they found one guy who needed Stevie's diving abilities to rescue a lost cellphone and another who needed his boat towed in.

How Many Princesses Fit in One Castle?

Addy Television Zombie

Playing Dress Up

So this pregnancy occasionally sends me to the couch to relax. Since I can't be working this gives Meghan and I a chance to play games we never really played together before.

We Love Our Subaru

Trampoline Hair

Here is Adelaide playing on Grandma's trampoline.

Google!

If you haven't heard, I recently got a job offer from Google. Yeah that Google. I figured I'd share the story, omitting the details that I promised on the head of my firstborn that I wouldn't divulge.

I was contacted out of the blue by a Google recruiter in December. I was busy, and asked her to contact me in January. That gave me a month to think about working at google. I told her to contact me after the 15th of January. On the 18th I was so excited about it, that I called her and left a message, only to later remember that it was a holiday. Working from home, I only occasionally remember when holidays are. She called back on the 19th, and asked for my resume as well as for me to choose skills to help her match an interviewer with me. She collected some more info, and scheduled me for a phone interview January 25th.

My contact at Google suggested that the only things worthwhile to study were algorithms, data structures, and discrete math. Having gone through the process, I would say that was generally true with one addition: If you're interviewing for a front-end software engineer position, you should also know JavaScript like your mother tongue, and the DOM.

The phone interview took ~45 minutes, and was representative of all the interviews: Approx 45 minutes, 30-35 of which are technically focused, and the rest are for you to find out about Google. The interviewer asked me a CS optimization problem where we were concerned more about constant factors than Big-O. Then he asked me a Haskell question, which proves that they do expect you to be able to answer Haskell questions if it's on your resume. (Not that it was in doubt)

A little over a week later, I was told that I did well on the phone screen, and was given to another recruiter. (All the recruiters work for Google, they're not 3rd party recruiters). It was also suggested that I interview for a front-end software engineer position. I had to think about this for a while especially because I've grown to despise internet explorer 6, but I decided to go for it since: a) Front-end covers a pretty broad scope of projects at Google, and given the fact that you get some scope to choose your team when you start, I should be able to avoid having to deal with IE6 too much. b) Google is pretty flexible about the ability to move to different projects. c) Google is really a cool opportunity to grow as a person and professionally, even ignoring the perks.

The recruiter scheduled my interview ~3 weeks in the future, February 25th (flights are a little cheaper that far in advance) and I continued to prepare as well as work. Google arranged the whole trip. Everything went really smoothly. The only things that I had to pay for out of pocket were food, and the rental car. Getting reimbursed was straightforward and speedy.

The day of the interview I got up early and got ready. I ate the Google-provided breakfast at the hotel, and went back upstairs and watched some TV until it was time to go. I was on time (just barely, I got confused as to which side of the road the hotel was on). There were 6 interviews scheduled, of which 4 were real interviews, 1 was the recruiter explaining more about the hiring process and working at Google, and 1 was lunch and a tour of the Googleplex. The interviews were pretty true to my expectations, and covered things that either I or Steve Yegge have mentioned. I felt that I'd done really well in 3 of the 4, and only missed some minor points in the 4th. Afterward, I called up my friend at Google and we talked over the interview questions and life at Google over a smoothie.

The flight home was relatively uneventful, except for the delays in Houston, but after I'd gotten back, and before I was even home, the recruiter called me and asked for references. She told me, that all my interview feedback was in. Over the weekend, I got her my references, a copy of my college transcripts, and I talked to her about my resume and which jobs were full/part time and why there was a 2 year break in my college education. We also discussed current salary and salary expectations. The recruiter was really efficient, because she was able to call me with an offer that Friday, March 5th. Tanya and I thought about it and decided that it was a good offer and a good opportunity.

My start date is April 26th, and I don't know what I'll be doing. As a part of the hiring process, after I received the offer, I had to fill out a project preferences worksheet. Sometime between today and the day that I start, I'll be given a choice among a set of projects to work on. When I decide, I'll post that here too.

Addy's Sweet Ride

When Grandpa hurt his back, we borrowed a sweet ride for him from the Samuels. Addy enjoyed taking it for a spin.

Sculpey Dragon

So I decided that I would try out polymer clay as a new hobby. I've wanted to for a long time and then Michael's had a big sale Feb 15. So here is my first sculpture.


Back View

Pre-Bake-Just-In-Case-I-Burn-It-And-Release-Toxic-Fumes-Pictures