Adventures in MV and NY

Nearly two months without a post. Why? I guess I've been keeping myself occupied with work (or maybe vice-versa) and well, my life just isn't all that interesting. But I'll try to be more consistent about updating this.

I ended up heading to New York again two weekends ago (this time for a Local/Maps Product Summit), which gave me a chance to work in-person with the people I see via video-conference on a weekly basis. My parents also drove down from Boston for a day to have lunch and some coffee with me, which was nice. And what would a trip to New York have been without a a few (two) completely random run-ins with old friends from high school? Crazy.

Just in case you couldn't find the room, check the coordinates.

Ice Skating in Central Park, NY; Local/Maps team

The kid to my left is obviously much better than me...

Drinks with old friends from Boston (BC/BU) and DC (AU).
(Sal, Lin, V, TEK, MOH, mJ)
The girl with demon eyes in the background; really freaking me out...

The theme of every trip to NYC: Food, and lots of it.
(Some sushi place in NJ)

Usually, my weekends consist of either making it up to Lake Tahoe for some snowboarding or staying local and mountain biking around the Bay area. I do an average of 20-30 miles/weekend and I try to take pictures of anything interesting I see along the way. The following were taken atop the Amphitheatre hills:

A side-shot of the Googleplex.

Well, if it isn't our worthy adversary across the way, Microsoft.

Shoreline Links golf course (where I'll probably spend the other half of my weekends in the summer).

Specialized Enduro Comp 130; this thing will go through anything (NASA in the background).

These weather forecasts were from a few weeks ago so they're a bit dated, but I thought the stark contrast was funny. For my buddies on the east coast, can you say "time for relocation?"

Ouch. Bring out the gloves and mittens, 'cause it "Feels like" 1 degree in Boston.

Mid-Febuary weather in Norcal. Not too shabby.

Largely unrelated to the weather, I recently bought an AC Schnitzer strut tower bar, which is supposed to increase the overall rigidity of the front-end of a car. Although the E46 chassis is already pretty stiff from the factory, I thought I'd give it a shot. After installing it, I can feel a slight improvement in steering responsiveness (probably all psychological). At the very least, it looks cool...

AC Schnitzer STB installed.

Anyone want to do my taxes? I know all of you guys working in audit are just jumping up and down with excitement. Let me know where I should send my W-2s and 1098s!