Attempting to salvage my "update on a regular basis" goal

I was doing such a good job of updating on a regular schedule. I updated two weeks in a row on the same day of the week!

Then I missed last week.

There hasn't been much going on to really blog about. Rich was gone most of the previous week and I didn't do much but play Minecraft on XBLA and get all the achievements.

Will probably have a more interesting blogpost next week sometime while Rich is gone in LA for E3 and I have nothing better to do than blog about building IKEA furniture and playing Diablo 3.

But next weekend, the 8th-10th I'll be down in LA with him, so maybe we'll get into some crazy post-E3 fun!

Waiting for the Richster to get off work. Can you see his head back there? Haha.

San Francisco living - getting somewhat settled in

Had an amazing second weekend in San Francisco.

Friday, instead of going to work and working all day my company had planned a day outing for everyone to Angel Island to celebrate their 200th release! It was a great third day of work and a great day to get to know my new coworkers better. I spend most of the time laying in the sunshine and socializing, rather than join in the baseball game or go on a hike (which part of the group got lost and were gone for 2+ hours).

View from Angel Island 

After we left Angel Island I walked along the Embarcadero with a coworker, I was on my way to Rich's office and she on her way to a train stop not far from there. Great getting to know more about her (she's also my assigned "onboarding buddy" at work) and we snapped a few photos along our walk of the area.

Bay Bridge (I..think?)

Hung out at Rich's office waiting for him to wrap things up since it was his last day in the office for a week, then we met up with Stone who drove us out to IKEA!

Furniture shopping, how exhilarating.

Ended up spending ~$600 on a bed frame, dresser and a TV stand. Three items yet I have ten different boxes in my house to build them all. I'm waiting until Rich gets back cause I know I could use the help.

The three of us then ventured to the neighboring shopping center to find somewhere to get dinner. We also found an IT'SUGAR store, which I promptly dragged the boys into. Cause...well candy...also lots of cool goodies there too!

Pretty sure I need these. 

This picture doesn't show it well but all of these are HUGE. 

We decided on Elephant Bar for dinner (basically like a Cheesecake Factory but with a lot of animal print stuff inside) and ate some delicious food and ordered some HUGE desserts.

Stone and his...whipped cream mountain? 

Rich and I with our giant cookie sandwich thing.

Headed back into the city and went to bed early as the next morning the three of us were heading to Santa Cruz the next morning!

Stone picked us up around 11am and we headed out to Santa Cruz where we met up with one of Stone's friends, Kim. The weather had originally told us it would be sunny and near 80F outside but unfortunately it was partly cloudy and in the 60s instead. But that's okay! We all brought jackets! Walked the Boardwalk and found a place to eat, then headed to one of the multiple arcades on the Boardwalk that we saw.

If we hadn't just eaten I think I would've liked to try the Deep Fried Oreos.

Rich got the high score on Ghost Squad!

I worked in an arcade for 7 years so I got to work on looking for the machines I know and for machines out of tickets (got 253 tickets just from machines that were out), found a machine I knew and got to work on winning some tickets (and taught the rest of the group how to do it).

Collected my winnings and picked out some prizes. There wasn't really much to choose from, but I ended up getting a stuffed frog, shot glass, some fake flies, crappy rings, an annoying clapper to annoy Stone and Rich with on the trip back and A SQUID HAT!

We parted ways with Kim and headed back into San Francisco to get food and then...See The Avengers again!

Rich and I later fell asleep on the couch while watching Mad Men.

Sunday was more relaxed. Waited on my IKEA furniture to be delivered and then we took the BART out to Pleasanton, CA for some shopping since Rich needed to make an exchange at a store that's all the way out there. Didn't buy much myself, just some things for my kitty, and I scoped out some Chucks for myself (can't decide on a color!)

All in all a great weekend. Unfortunately this weekend I'm all alone as Rich left on Monday to LA for pre-E3 things and my roommate headed out this afternoon for a wedding back in Chicago.

BUT! I have Diablo 3, Mass Effect 3 and Minecraft on XBLA to keep me busy!

Bonus picture: What it's like to date an IGN reviewer when he has a game review to be done in short time (Mario Tennis Open).

First week in San Francisco

Chilly in SF, borrowing one of Rich's beanies.

I have successfully made it to San Francisco and survived my first full week here!

Squeaks (my kitty) and I flew out of Chicago the evening of April 30th and went from Chicagoans to San Franciscans! Squeaks actually did surprisingly well with the 4 hour flight, I think the sedatives helped. Definitely a lot easier than a multiple day drive would have been. Moving costs added up to about $1k total between flight ($150 for me, $100 for the cat, $50 for two suitcases) and around ~$750 for shipping all of my belongings via UPS.

What all have I done since being here? Mostly lounging around at my place and at Rich's.  Most of my boxes didn't get here until this past Saturday and I still have no furniture or bed, so I've been sleeping at Rich's.

The weather here has been crazy nice and sunny (though I hear this isn't all that common) and I've actually managed to work up a little of a tan by laying out during the nicer days. Last Thursday at midnight Rich and I went and saw The Avengers (which is awesome and we're talking of going to see again) and then last Friday I went to the San Francisco Giants game with Rich and my roommate (and a bunch of Redditors).

Not only that, I've also managed to find an awesome job and just finished my second full day of work there! I'll be doing QA and some programming for test automation. I'm really excited but also nervous. It's my first time ever doing QA stuff, but everyone at the company is super friendly and I know I can go to anyone with questions or if I get stuck. Plus I'm actually being trained and taught all their systems and products. I think it'll be awesome (and I'll be awesome at it) once I learn more!

Company MacBook means lots of Photo Booth pics!

Hopefully I'll be going to IKEA tomorrow after work with Rich and another friend (one with a car). I need to work on getting some furniture (mainly a bed) for my place, especially since Rich is going out of town all of next week for Pre-E3 things, and while he says I can stay at his place I think I need to spend more time at my place.

Actually, speaking of work tomorrow, I don't have work tomorrow. I was lucky to start this week as my job is actually taking tomorrow off and we're having a company outing at Angel Island to celebrate specific release for them! Yay!

Here's to the weekend.

And, also, here's a picture of me squishing Rich's face.