he said, she said

i’m traveling again, this week. this time, i’m in LA for usability testing.

highlights:

• muscle car. my car was upgraded to a mustang. the thing is a manly muscle car — actually more like a tank. the interior is trimmed in metal and the car feels super heavy. i feel like i should wear a muscle-T when i’m driving it.
• perfect cup of froyo. i happened upon yogurt factory, a little ghetto-looking place in a run down strip mall. it looks like a typical tcby-ish operation with sweet froyo and syrupy toppings that has made an effort to modernize. there was one tart flavor called yoberry. it was plain tart — just the right amount of creamy and just the right amount of tart. there were three fresh fruit toppings: blueberries, strawberries, and mangoes. yum.
• usability study. it was really cool to sit in a dark room behind 1-way glass, observing as users clicked around and wandered through our internet portals. the room had big comfy love seats, wifi, and was fully stocked with food, snacks, and drinks.
• second cup of froyo. yogurberry was disappointing compared to the first perfect cup, but at least they had good mangoes. (the mangoes at the norcal places that i’ve been to lately are either underripe or mushy.)
• dinner at nobu. my boss INSISTED on eating at nobu. ok, twist my arm. nobu was delicious, but not deserving of the rave reviews that it gets. i would say that the trendy sushi places in atlanta that i’ve tried recently (blue fin and mf sushi) are just as good. and i’m sure there are dozens of sf bay area spots that are equally good and less expensive.
• our hotel is across the street from a starbucks and a pinkberry!

lowlights:

• the usablity study was for our spanish portal, and the sessions were conducted in spanish. i added no value and understood very little. thank goodness tomorrow will be in english. =P
• i was flagged down by the police and had my car searched when i went to pick my boss up at the airport. the the cop asked me to open my trunk. i told him i didn’t know how.
• i missed out on our sharks select-a-seat appointment tonight. but mike went with the other guys and they ended up keeping our existing seats, so maybe i didn’t miss out on much after all.

*it never rains (in southern california)* -tony toni tone (i know, this post has nothing to do with rain, but it was the first song that came to mind, and i’m too sleepy to think of a better one)

christi is out on travel AGAIN, so i’m left to fend for myself this week.  this means that i can eat whatever i want all week long.  things i see in my future are: pizza, mexican food, and steak.

last night i had tri-tip and corned beef for dinner.  you know, one kind of meat just isn’t enough and i don’t get to eat like this every day.  after eating dinner, i promptly fell asleep.  it was an early day for me.

what was bad, though, was that i missed a wii fit weigh in.  it is probably a good idea that i didn’t weigh in after i ate because i’m sure that i must have eaten a couple of pounds worth of food there.

yesterday for lunch, i had sonoma chicken coop.  it was pretty good, the portions there are large as always.  it was a nice change of pace to eat in downtown san jose.  even though i am pretty close to downtown, i rarely venture out that way to eat there.

it hasn’t been all fun and games, though.  christi usually sets the alarm so this morning i woke up and i woke up late.  i forgot to set the alarm so when i did wake up it was a mad dash to brush my teeth, get dressed, and get to work.  a little hectic of a morning, but it has finally started to settle down.

i also went to the sharks select-a-seat event to see if we could score better season tickets at the shark tank, but it turns out that there weren’t very many seats available.  i guess everyone is looking to keep their seats.  you would have thought with the downturn in the economy and with all of the foreclosures that there’d be more seats available, but alas, that does not appear to be the case.