Moose Gets Neutered

We took Moose in to the vet early this past week for a little procedure. You're still a man in my eyes buddy (don't hate me)! He's healed very well, and it's actually a little hard to keep his energy level down where it needs to be. Supposedly he needs to be confined to a small room or kennel for almost 2 weeks. We've allowed him the run of the apartment, even if he just bulls through anything in his path with his spiffy new collar. Walls, legs, speakers... nothing makes him think twice. He's stuck in that collar 'o destruction and forbidden from running outside for another 10 days. I don't know if he's going to make it without exploding.

We also had the vet take some xrays of Moose's hips and elbows while he was under for his surgery. They said his hips look "good", but not perfect. Meaning there's a low probability he'll develop hip dysplasia (we were quoted 10% chance), but it's possible he'll end up with some form of arthritis. His elbows looked fine. No surprise there, except for the extra $100 they charged me for the third xray.

The consultant who examined the xrays mentioned that Moose is a touch overweight. So poor Moose gets neutered and his food cut back. Sounds like the start of the best week ever.

TOEFL Disaster

Andrea had signed up to take the TOEFL exam this morning. It's the first step on her way to certifying her veterinary credentials here in the US. Well, apparently they weren't satisfied with her documentation and turned her away.

For those who don't know, people in Mexico carry 2 last names, or family names. One from their father and another from their mother. On most of the online sheets we've dealt with thus far (including international airline ticketing), Andrea's father's surname has been sufficient and the only thing expected. TOEFL is cryptically different. When she entered her name online, she left off her mother's surname (as usual). But when she presented her ID at the testing center this morning, she was turned away because the name from the online form didn't precisely match the name on her passport.

A rational person would think "hey, no big deal... get a refund or get signed up for a later test date", but we're not dealing with rationality here. Because Andrea couldn't read minds and give the TOEFL people what they wanted in the online form, we're forced to forfeit the $150 registration fee and pay again to sign up for a later test. I was honestly shocked talking to these people on their customer support.

So what can I do? More screaming at people who don't care obviously isn't doing the trick. So I give up. I registered a complaint on Andrea's behalf with the Better Business Bureau and called it a day.

Hiking at Russian Ridge

This past Sunday, Andrea, Sain and myself all headed up Page Mill Road to the Russian Ridge Preserve. After the grumpiness that followed last week's 10-mile hike at Ranch San Antonio, I decided to take it easy on the gang this time around. The trail I plotted came out to just under 5 miles with some fairly minor elevation change.


One difference between this place and Rancho San Antonio is that you start off much higher. This preserve involved driving up a narrow winding road to reach (and I must say I enjoyed driving to and from the hike). The plus is that you get to enjoy phenomenal views throughout the entire hike. Supposedly, it's possible to see both the bay and the Pacific Ocean from the top of one of the hills (Borel Hill), which tops off at around 2,570 feet.





I'm sure I speak for Sain when I say I'm equally thrilled with my smile in my solo shot as he is with his. At any rate, our day culminated with a steak dinner. There was a sale on filet mingon on Friday, so all 3 of us gorged on a big ol' hunk of red meat. Nothing like undoing all the calories we worked off earlier in one meal.

Andrea's been bragging to me the past 2 days about how she's not sore at all from this hike. She has no idea what I'm going to come up with for her in the near future. Muahahaha!

I want to end by saying a big congrats to Sain on finding a date! Hopefully we get to meet Shin for mah jongg (and probably more food) some time soon.

A Nice Raise

Since I was displeased with my offer to stay on at QLogic, I had a little chat with Govind, the founder and former CEO of NetXen. You see, I had a manager back when I was hired 3.5 years ago. He was the only person in the company, apparently, with any knowledge of my compensation. He gave up his management position roughly 2 years ago, and Erik (my friend from grad school) became my manager. I explained this to Govind, as well as the fact that my salary was still less than an offer I received over 4 years ago from Intel to work in a cheaper area.

So from there, Govind had to talk with some of the higher-ups in QLogic. Yesterday, QLogic HR got back to me with the terms of a revised offer made based on the resume I had outlined for them. The change was a ~21% raise in base salary. This certainly couldn't come at a better time because I'm recovering from paying double rent from the month we moved into the current apartment, puppy expenses and the check I had to write to Uncle Sam at tax time.

The HR lady explained to me that they don't normally give raises of that magnitude, but mine was sort of an extreme situation. Govind came by yesterday to tell me I should have never let things get that far out of hand, and admit that mistakes had been made on the management side as well. In the end, I'm happy with my compensation... so I suppose I'll put away my resume.