What would have been London weeks 79, 80, 81

I had an almost three week work trip to the SF Bay Area in CA, and it was interesting to say the least. I had four major things for work over those three weeks, and they thankfully went smoothly enough that I could handle it. However, it barely went smoothly enough.

I still had some time to have fun with people in California.

I got in Monday, and got to the hotel, taking it easy the first night. Tuesday we met at Shoreline Lake. I took the shuttle to a Safeway in Mountain View, then walked along one of the trains that led to the lake. I didn’t even realize that there was a concert until Michelle showed up on her bike and told me Michael was stuck in the traffic. Michael and Adam got in a little after that and we had a nice picnic by the lake.

Wednesday was games. I was giving demos late, so I grabbed to-go at Speedy’s and headed to George’s. We played some Mars, and remembered that I no longer want to play mutual solitaire games. Mars is great, but I’d like more interaction with the other people.

Thursday I went to dinner with Paul and Yutong at Crouching Tiger. We got so much magic chili, both tofu and prawn. It was delicious. Yutong also loved the London mug, and she passed over the gifts for Steph.

Friday I joined for Frosthaven, watching as they had one of the boss fights that was especially tough. They did a good job of exploiting the rules, but in a different way from how Steph and I did it. I worked on an AI song, getting the lyrics just right. It is another prototyper sea shanty, but Suno.ai has seriously improved their model.

Saturday I did laundry and walked around the Burlingame neighborhood near the airport hotels. It was nice, and I was able to get things from the pharmacy. I also picked up Steph’s computer from her parents.

On Sunday Michael and Michelle were hosting book club then a sushi making day. They had so much delicious sushi prepared. I epically failed on the first one and had my first sushi taco of the trip. After that we went to Palo Alto to see Tina perform. Lee was also there and it was good to see their dancing. It was fun to watch. I then walked into Palo Alto to try to buy a Vision Pro, which didn’t work out, then had dinner with Xiaomeng. We went way over the top in ordering, and I had my first overage of the trip on food expenses.

Monday was one of my chill days at work. But by chill I mean I didn’t have lots of meetings and demos to give. I still got a lot done. I also decided to make a game that evening, one that I’ve been thinking of for a while. It was a simple game where you start with four simple elements: Fire, Water, Air, and Rock. You then have to combine them to get to some crazy final goal. I started with the goal being a spaceship. I set it up to have AI give the results and give images for the results. It worked really well and took me a little less than 2 hours to make and beat.

Tuesday was more demos, then Pickleball. I really enjoyed playing with Paul, Michael, and Michelle. We played in a little park near the office that I hadn’t been to before. After that we went to dinner in Redwood City at Broadway Masala. It was just as good as I remember.

Wednesday was the big demo summit and I showed some of my work there. Then I met up with some of the team from Zurich for dinner before joining people at George’s for games. We played a more party game, but it involved no talking. I still enjoyed it a lot more as it was lots of interaction. We did really well, only losing once.

Thursday was the team meeting for design, then dinners. We went to downtown Palo Alto to drink afterwards.

Friday I took Mate and David S from work to Devil’s Canyon for beer and food trucks. We then walked my old neighborhood.

Saturday was more laundry, then heading to Paul and Yutong’s place in Sunnyvale to make Zhong Zhi, a sticky rice dumpling wrapped in leaves and boiled. It was so messy, but a lot of fun to make and eat. We were all sooo full by the end of it. I took some back to the hotel and ate it, but without a plate or utensils it looked like a murder scene afterwards.

Sunday I played FrostHaven with the group. It was fun. I got caught in a really bad situation when an unlikely event of the laser turrets firing really early happened. I then got slaughtered in a corner. The rest of them made it to the end and won. My sacrifice was not in vain.

Tuesday I met up with Steph’s parents and Jeff, Patty, and Elizabeth. They were great to see, and seemed to be doing really well. It was interesting to hear what Jeff and Patty have been doing since they’ve decided to not work for a while. We went to Pacific Catch and I had my second round of sushi tacos, but this time they were meant to be sushi tacos.

Wednesday was more dinner and games. We went to the vegan place, Merit, and then played Codenames. Nicole came by, and played for the first time. I really enjoyed the evening, and it solidified that I’m probably done with the mutual solitaire style games.

Thursday was just the flight back. It was mostly uneventful. Someone else from the London office sat next to me, and we chatted a bit.