ack. so I’m supposed to leave for Whistler today with a couple of folks from work. I just found out that the guy that’s supposed to drive doesn’t have a current passport and his birth certificates are on the east coast…so there’s no way he can get into Canada. Looks like I’m going to have to drive now….so I’m scrambling to get directions and make sure my car is all good for driving up there. The good news—road conditions are “bare” right now. Kinda sucks–I stayed up til 4am last night working on my self evaluation and packing….I was looking forward to just sleeping in the car. Not going to…

what a crazy day. It started off with me coming into work and getting an email from a good friend/co-worker and finding out that his father very suddenly passed away in the middle of the night–very healthy and only 49 years old. No clue what happened. That’s just awful. I was so overwhelmed with emotion in the morning…even crying a bit as I talked about the ordeal with our other team mate. It’s events like this that just make you realize how much we take for granted our parents. All day today, I was just writing. I must be bug eyed by now. I really didn’t plan all my reviews…

So long, Captain Kangaroo. I have faint memories of catching his show in its last running years…but I do remember waking up early as a child and watching his show. Yesterday, I went up to Stevens Pass with Peter and 2 other Microsofties for a day of snowboarding. Man oh man did we get hit with snow—a total of 6 inches! The drive up was hard—instead of the usual 1.5 hours, it took us nearly 3 hours with all the snow on the road. There were accidents aplenty…but well worth the longer drive: there was POWDER everywhere. It was really one of the best snow days I’ve had in awhile.…

Gong Hay Fat Choy! Happy Chinese New Year everyone! It’s the Year of the Monkey! Re-org time at work.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EUGENE! I took Eugene out for his birthday last night at Bandoleone and then we watched The Company, the latest Robert Altman film about a company of ballet dancers (Joffrey). I really loved it. As far as plot or storyline goes, this film lacked it—as Eugene stated, it was more of an organic film, sketches of the life of a professional ballet dancer. What I loved most—the sounds. When you watch a performance or see ballet in movies, you never hear what the dancers hear when they’re on stage. Altman really captures the sound of the toeboxes hitting the floor and the swishing the tulle. I remember when…

ah, new year’s resolutions. I really only have one for this year–and it’s just to take better care of myself. Last year was a complete blur to me as it was completely dedicated to work. I lost touch with friends, I stopped going to the gym, I stopped salsa dancing, I never went to the doctor’s or the dentist (which, as silly as that sounds is horrible for me as I’ve always regularly made my annual checkups a priority). The result: a horrible immune system, proven by the fact that I’ve gotten the flu twice within a one month period. The good thing is that my manager is easing back…

Today, I thought I could make it into work. I was starting to feel better–my temperature had gone down, my head congestion was really starting to disappear, I was really getting better. Then last night, I decided to take one small capsule of Nyquil so that I could get a good night’s sleep—for the past few nights, I hadn’t slept very well due to my inability to really breathe very well throughout the night coupled with jetlag. And boy, did I sleep. I woke up at 10am and wrote an email to my boss telling him that I was going to try to come into work at lunchtime. Then I…

most likely, i’ve got a bad case of influenza—just got back from the doctor’s. man, that’s TWICE in about a month! I got sick like this at the beginning of December. I just want to get better—I feel like crap right now. It’s funny—there is a *remote* chance that I could have SARS since I just got back from China (although highly unlikely–the only reported case in China has already been quarantined and controlled…and it was in southern China, not anywhere close to where I was). Because of that, my doctor was taking extra precautions…and had me wear a mask the entire time during my visit…and drew some blood. Interesting…

I forgot to mention–I’m sick. Again. I don’t know what’s wrong with me–my entire life, I’ve gotten sick at the blink of an eye. I caught a cold on the plane coming back…and it’s just gotten progressively worse, especially in this chilling weather. My head is aching, I’m stuffed up, my throat is achy and I’m still jetlagged. Ugh. I HATE being sick. And what horrible timing–I have a mini launch next week—not much needs to be done…but it’s too difficult being home this week to really successfully launch thing thing. But I have to stay home—“work smarter, audrey”. Ugh. It’s just ridiculous how easily I get sick. I swear…

It’s so cold here today. Snow came down on Seattle at about 4 this morning—as much as the city was anticipating the snow, it’s certainly not ready for it. There aren’t enough snowplows and certainly not enough sand or salt on the roads. I spent an hour in my car today, getting stuck on hills—definitely could not make it into work. I called my boss about staying in and he was like “don’t worry–no one’s here anyway. No one could make it in”. I can’t even get my car back into my parking lot—there’s a very small little slant for the entryway into my parking lot–and it was so slippery,…