Teddy Bears' Picnic

Before I say anything... yes, this is me wearing various bear suits.







So how did this happen? It certainly was a surprise to me. Andrea has been doing volunteer work at the San Francisco Zoo, and today she was asked to help out for half a day with an event called the Teddy Bear Festival. When she takes public transit to the zoo during the week, she has a 3 hour commute each way. So, I decided to drive her this morning and save her roughly 4 hours on buses. My plan was to just hang out in the zoo while she did whatever they asked and then drive her home. She signed in at the volunteer's board, and we went back into a conference room to wait for a volunteer director.

The guy took one look at me and decided I would make a good teddy bear. Apparently they had planned for people to walk around all day in these 4 bear suits and greet children at the entrance as well as make appearances at the event. One of the guys who was supposed to this didn't show. So I got to spend the entire morning putting on and removing bear costumes and getting mobbed by small kids... well, the ones that weren't terrified of course. I don't understand how anyone could be afraid of this:



Nevermind, I kind of freak myself out with that one.

Andrea was assigned as my "guide" because your visibility is pretty much non-existent inside those suits. Andrea had to call out directions for where kids were coming up to hug me or take pictures.

One of the rules of wearing the suits was that you weren't allowed to keep one on for more than 30 minutes at a time because they are so hellishly hot. Luckily this was San Francisco, so it was a mild 65 degrees. It almost didn't matter, because I sweat through every suit I put on. Especially when they had me sit there for story time. Andrea said I left a big sweaty butt-mark when I got up. If I stayed standing and moving around it was tolerable, but any time I sat still for too long it got pretty uncomfortable. Now I'm back in Sunnyvale, and it's a balmy 90 degrees outside. I can only imagine what that suit would have been like in this heat.

Of course we had a changing-tent so that we didn't scar small children by pulling off a teddy bear's head in front of them. While I was changing in the tent, Andrea tried on one of the masks to check out the visibility.

Broadcom drops their Emulex takeover bid

http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE5683PD20090709

If you recall what I wrote when NetXen got bought, it probably had something to do with Broadcom's positioning to buy/take over a network fabric company called Emulex. QLogic bought NetXen as a reaction in order to stay competitive with a potentially large competitor if Broadcom were to acquire Emulex.

It looks like QLogic emerges from the fray as the only company able to service 10Gig NIC as well as FCoE and iSCSI needs.

TOEFL 2: Redemption

Last Friday was a bit of an adventure. Andrea scheduled her next TOEFL attempt in Oakland on that day. I took the day off work to drive her, and her friend Christian (who's in town staying with us until the 20th) tagged along for the ride.

The test began at 11am, and I'll admit I took a bit more of a conservative approach than was necessary. Fearing the bridge traffic on 880 in the Oakland area, I had us leave at 9:15am, which put us at the testing center around 10am. We sat around in a Starbucks to pass the time, then took Andrea up to the testing area to get her checked in.

This time Andrea actually got to take the test, so Christian and I spent the middle of the day wandering around Berkley. We walked up and down Telegraph and got to see all the hippies. After we had seen enough of Berkley, we headed back to Jack London Square to wait out the rest of Andrea's test. Things seemed to go fine from what Andrea was saying, but we'll know her score in about another week and a half.

When we got home, Andrea signed on and found this email:

Dear Andrea Paulina Ramirez Olvera,
I have received your inquiry regarding the iBT TOEFL that you had scheduled to take on May 15, 2009. Please accept my apologies for the problems that prevented you from testing. As an exception I have processed a full refund of your test fees. Please allow 7 to 10 business days for the credit to post to your credit card account. If you have further questions, please contact me. Good luck on your test today.
Sincerely,
Steve Krimstock
Educational Testing Service
Test Taker Advocacy
609-771-7285
skrimstock@ets.org

This response is the result of the Better Business Bureau complaint we registered the day she was turned away for the first TOEFL test. The system actually worked for us, as strange as that sounds. We were both tickled that this finally got resolved, but still shocked that this refund was anything more than a no-brainer.

Mystery Bruise

Andrea and I went hiking on Saturday. After we got home, I was showering and caught a glimpse of this awesome bruise on the back of my arm in the mirror. I have no idea where it came from. We've been racking our brains for the past day and a half trying to come up with an explanation, but we've got nuthin'. So for your viewing pleasure, I present... the Mystery Bruise!

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.