Explosive Donut

Well, I quit my job today. I don’t actually stop working there until August 18, but I finally told everyone at work that I’d be leaving. It feels good to get the weight off, but at the same time it’s like my brain truly realizes that I am leaving Seattle. When you don’t talk about it you tend to forget that you’re going to have to say goodbye. You just think about who you are going to say hello to.
I don’t really feel like re-writing why I’m quiting (and this may be news to people), so I’ll just copy the email I sent out today. It was really hard to send because I don’t really want to leave – I just have a greater desire to go to Grad School. I’d be lying if I said my girlfriend, family, and friends back home had nothing to do with it either.

Hi all,
I want to let you know that I will be leaving Microsoft on August 18th. As you may realize from my 2 year mail this morning, I’ve been here for two years. I’ve been involved in some interesting projects but it’s the people I see every day that makes this difficult. Microsoft is the only place I’ve worked where everyone cared about the team’s work. I’m amazed every day that I can walk up to anyone in the group and ask a question and they will just help me with it. I’m also amazed that I haven’t been fired, considering the bizarre situations I seem to get myself in at work (see: tacos, happy meal, large frogs, 5PM foosball, master shake, festivus bbq, lunch posse, etc.) I’m lucky to work in a place that encourages that behavior. Well, most of it.
So what’s next for me? I’ll be moving to Boston to pursue a Ph.D. in Computer Science at Harvard. My studies will involve chip design and writing embedded software. I want to get into research and ultimately become a professor. I’m also excited to see my girlfriend and family regularly too.
The hardest part of leaving is knowing I won’t get to work with you anymore. But, that doesn’t mean I have to drop off the planet. Keep in touch! You can also keep tabs on my return to student life at my website.
Thanks,
Mike

Wow, this past week has been pretty crazy.
First, work has been pretty busy. I’m trying to get a lot of stuff done so of course that takes more time. Traffic has been oddly nuts too so there’s really no point going home early (or on time) anyway. It’s really just a question of how much gas I want to burn on the way home.
Pistachio (the large frog) and I brought in homemade donuts today. There was almost fourty and they vanished in under two hours. That’s a lot of donuts and a lot of people eatting them. Again, unusual volume.
I’ve been pretty busy at home too. Among other things, I saw Strangers With Candy (which was awesome, especially, well, everything) with Sasha and Mike, I celebrated Kenneth’s temporary freedom from studying last night, and the weekend’s looking pretty busy with day outings and Clerks 2.
Oh, and of course bootcamp is more intense. On Monday we had a substitute teacher while Corey was climbing Mt. Reinier. She really liked Pilates and Yoga, but a really evil Pilates/Yoga. On wednesday we ran the fartherst ever (7.3mi according to the iPod running thing). There were plenty of hills, of course.
Lesson Learned: I will never, ever finish a Sunday New York Times.

Tuesday was not a great day for me. It seemed to be the “let’s see how many different ways Mike can hurt himself” day. Hopefully this is a one-time deal and not a regular thing.
I was already in an off mood as Melody went back to Boston the night before. When I woke up I was also not feeling well because I had developed a headache, sneezing, and that whole thing. Work was pretty tame in the self-battery category, but when I got home to prepare for poker on Wednesday, I managed to peel back one of my fingernails while opening my fridge. While writhing in pain, I accidentally kicked my oven which didn’t feel so great either. This was of course when I was trying to wash my deep fryer, which was an exercise in futility. At least I didn’t spill hot oil on myself. Plenty of cold oil though.
Wednesday morning wasn’t much better after trying to wake up to go to boot camp while sick (not a good idea) I spilled hot oatmeal over myself, my desk, and my computer. At least my computer didn’t taste any of my walnut raisin quaker stuff.

Even though I took Monday off from work, I drove over to the Eastside to do bootcamp. It’s odd going when you don’t have to go to work after. Usually I’m thinking about how much I want to go back to sleep during my run/sit-up/pull-up/etc. For once that was an option.
Since we didn’t have a chance earlier, our Pancake Day celebration started when I got home. Banana pancakes with strawberries are good. They were also much better than whatever I would have been doing at work.
Melody and I were getting ready to head to Alki beach and went to the drugstore for sunscreen (an excellent investment for me). On the way, we passed Shiga’s, an Asian import shop that always looked interesting. They had a lot of cool things everything from “chopstick helper attachments” to nice bowls and futons. Melody got a cookbook and I can’t wait to try some of the recipes.
We headed over to the beach next. It was nice although a bit cloudy and cold. We hung out for a couple of hours, reading magazines and checking out the shore. The water was really cold and I only got in as far as my feet.
We headed back to my apartment and I made tuna melts, part of my effort to use up the huge pack of tuna fish I bought at Costco a while back. They came out pretty good.
Since we didn’t stay at the beach terribly long, there was some extra time. We went over to the Woodland Park Zoo. Even though we’d been there before, there was a lot of new exhibits (or I’m just forgetful). Our favorite would have to be the bird-feeding house where some small birds would fly on your hand and steal your birdseed-on-a-popsicle-stick, then ignore you until you went to buy more. Melody also liked petting a rabbit somewhere near the entrance. Also, I enjoyed making snake sounds and pretending my arm was a slithering snake in all the scary exhibits. Fun for me, not sure about Melody though…
I made spicy fried tofu when we got back. It wasn’t difficult or long to make but did make quite the mess. It was also delicious, so I would say worthwhile and definitely something to make again. For dessert, we had some strange Japanese egg tofu custard. This must be the most untasty food I have ever tried to eat (and that’s saying something). I proceeded to run around yelling incomprehensibly. Melody even said, “You’re going to write about this on your website, aren’t you?”
Sadly, it was time to take Melody to the airport. We said our sad good-byes and then I was driving back home. It’s always especially sad because I want to take the HOV lane but of course Melody is on a plane. I still had plenty of dishes waiting for me when I got back to my apartment.
Today’s lesson learned: even birds like food on a stick.

When I woke up, I wasn’t expecting to watch the world cup finals. I thought it started at 6am and since the Superman movie got out late the night before, there was no way I was getting up. To my surprise, it started at 11am. I watched both halfs, then the overtime, then the second overtime, and finally the shootout. I was rooting for France (as I like the coach’s crazy look) but after Zidane’s nutty headbutt I didn’t really care. I must admit though, that was an impressive headbutt. If you must headbutt someone on your final game, thagt certainly is the one to go with. I’m not sure if I could even knock someone over by punching someone, let alone using my noggin.
After the game ended, we went down to the International District to score some dim sum. Parking was really difficult as there was a market/festival going on. By the time we got to China Gate, it was past 2:30 and they didn’t have much besides the basics.
We were going to go to the beach, but since we were meeting up with Chilumba and friends for dinner we didn’t have time. In lieu of quality sand time, we went down to Pike Market. Melody bought some coffee at the first Starbuck’s. I’ve heard he likes his coffee, but if he’s requesting Starbuck’s, well, I’m not so sure about that. In Seattle at least, saying you like Starbuck’s is like saying you like Red Lobster if you live in Boston.
After making it out of tourist-central we headed through downtown. Melody made her way through Nordstrom (they are in short supply in Boston) and headed over to dinner at Benihana.
Chilumba and Grace’s birthdays were coming up, so a bunch of us (all friends of Chilumba and Nelly) got together. It was nice that they finally got to meet Melody – I think peole thought I was making her up. It’s always fun spending time with that group and it’s nice to see everyone’s doing well.
When we got back, I made a few cookies before bedtime. I used the cookie dough my mom bought me but they came out a little funny – the outside was crisp but the inside was still doughy. I don’t mind because I’m happy just eatting spoonfuls of cookie dough.
Today’s lesson learned: Eat dim sum first, watch soccer later.

Saturday morning was made for bagels. I’ve been outspoken about bagel consumption lately, due to Eric introducing me to Noah’s Bagels. They are so good that I’ve been known to tell Melody that I’m a “Bagel Monster” and saying “Chomp! Chomp! Chomp!” frequently. I imagine myself to be a human pac-man who subsides on quality bagels.
After Melody had her chocolate bagel and I had my garlic, we headed to the outlet mall (of course). Melody’s been quite excited to go so I held off on buying new sneakers at the expense of my knees. I managed to score a sweet pair of Adidas sneakers for $25 which I suspect is a sweet deal.
We then dropped by the science museum to pick up tickets for Superman Returns in IMAX which were only $3 (thanks Prime card!). After that, we went to Bourbon & Barbecue in Ballard and got some amazing barbecue. They’re big on letting you try all their sauces. My favorite was the “spicy.” Melody recommends “Jezebel.” The pulled pork and baby back ribs were both good too, but I doubt they make anything disappointing there.
Melody and I walked down to the UW boathouse next and rented a canoe. We made it pretty far out on lake Washington and could see Bill Gates’ house. By the time we got back, we had spent two hours paddling and Melody’s arms were not terribly useful.
We headed over to Thai Tom (by bus due to Melody-exhaustion). Unfortunately, they were having a busy night and we waited at least 30 minutes to get in. Melody had Poor Man Noodles (which is one of my favorites) and I tried the Tom Kah soup (which is really a giant bowl of chicken curry). I must have been to Thai Tom at least five times and I’ve yet to have a disappointing meal.
We then went over to see Superman but we were only 30 early. There are a lot of Superman fans in Seattle. The line was longer than the circumference of the theater. Since there were to of us and the screen is so huge, we still managed to get decent seats. The movie was pretty cool in IMAX. Everything was huge and the 20 minutes of 3D was nifty. I was a bit apathetic towards the story, which seemed to be to be along the lines of The Passion of Superman. He didn’t really seem to enjoy saving people, but felt the burden of having to save humanity. After about 2.5 hours of special effects, I didn’t really care.
Today’s lesson learned: try Thai Tom for takeout.

Melody flew in yesterday, which gave me a nice reason to leave work early. After I picked her up, we headed downtown to see the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel. We somehow got there early and due to the strange way parking garages work, had 25 minutes to kill. We drove to the International District, got a Chocolate Oreo Bubble Tea (which is the most un-tea of all the bubble teas) and drove back.
We met up with Chilumba, Nelly, Colen (in full pirate gear), Shawn, and one of his buddies. Shawn’s new company had rented out the whole theater and Shawn was nice enough to hook us up. The movie was pretty impressive in terms of crazy pirate battles but seemed way too long (2.5hrs), especially when nothing coherent happened. It also had an ending with the closure of an episode of 24. Good, but not great.
After we got our pirate fill, we went to the U District for my requisite weekly Thai Tom visit. We got there too late and with too many people and couldn’t get in. Instead, we walked over to Cedars, the Indian/Mediterranean place which was great as always. They even gave us some of Nelly’s favorite desert (I don’t remember the name) on the house. Also, Chilumba, for reasons that escape me (besides being Chilumba), told Melody that I was buying her a cat for her birthday. I’m not sure why he said that, not only because I’m not buying her a cat, but because me and half of my family are alergic. They even gave us some of Nelly’s favorite desert (I don’t remember the name) on the house.
As we walked back, Colen was getting a lot of responses to his pirate costume. There was the contrarian “Pirates suck” as well as a liberal amount of “Yarr!” and “Arr!”
Today’s lesson learned: Indian/Mediterranean restaurants don’t carry rum, even if requested by a pirate.

I was in an elevator today when someone asked me, “what are you wearing?”
My first reaction was to say, “a t-shirt and shorts,” but I figured that wasn’t what she meant before I could say it out loud.
I think she realized that I was confused after I said, “uuuuuuuhh,” and said it smelled nice. At this point I realized she meant my cologne.
However, I didn’t remember the name and the elevator door just opened. I replied, “I don’t remember” in the most suspicious way possible. It was a lot like when Homer Simpson tries to steal Mr. Burns’ mail but can’t remember his boss’s first name.

My flash is very bright…