Home from New York
We’re back in California after a week in the Eastern timezone. I worked out of the Google New York office while Mary and the kids cruised around Manhattan.
Highlights:
- The weather was perfect. Just like our last visit in September, we were there right around the change of seasons, so it wasn’t too hot, and it wasn’t too cold.
- Meeting coworkers who I knew only from email.
- Sitting down with one coworker who I normally sit 20 feet away from in Mountain View and talking in depth about flaws in the cookie security model. He happened to be visiting NY at the same time. It was one of those _Our Town
_ moments where you look back and realize that you’ve had this opportunity every day but didn’t recognize it.
- My continuing appreciation of the New York subway. I would love to have a 10-minute commute to work without having to drive.
- Coming in 44th out of a field of about 9,000 in a freeroll hold ‘em tournament. That’s the top 0.5 percent!
- Getting to play a few poker tournaments that usually conflict with work because they’re scheduled on East Coast time.
Lowlights:
- I had a cold the whole time I was there and couldn’t taste any food. But at the same time my illness protected me from various street odors, so not all was lost.
- How I lost that freeroll tournament. While I was in 5th place, my QQ fell to AK when he caught a K on the river. I had him covered by about 50K chips but that hand crushed my spirit and I went out soon thereafter. Sure, I was a favorite in the hand, but we were both stupid to risk everything so close to the bubble (top 27 advanced to round 2).
Major Discovery of the Trip: Our double stroller turned out to be just too damn wide to fit in the stairwell of our apartment or seemingly any store we wanted to visit. I was about to get out a hacksaw and solve the problem once and for all when I saw the Buggy Board. Buy a $15 umbrella stroller, bolt this thing on, and problem solved:
Emily loved being able to hop off whenever she wanted to get a closer look at something (and fortunately, she was responsible about her new privilege and didn’t try to run off into the street), and the whole contraption was practically weightless and easily maneuverable. If you have two kids and one’s old enough to climb on the couch without your getting worried about it, then I recommend a Buggy Board. Be sure to get the 3G model (we didn’t), which can supposedly be reattached to different strollers.