Piya's Perspective

Trying to figure out what I need to do to get a title to display for each posting…

Finally tried a pizza place today that I’ve been meaning to check out for sometime.  It’s called Pizza Schmizza and it’s actually pretty good. I had a cheese pizza (ingredients:  Mozzarella, Jack, Provalone, Romano & Parmesan) and I’m about to eat their dipsticks.  Definately have to go back and see if they’re just as good the second time around.

On the way back to the office, I heard a Black Eyed Peas song on the radio.  On the album (which I own) the song is “Get Retarded”.  However, that must not be PC enough for top-40 radio because the lyrics were “Get Started”.  This is the second song (maybe third) they’ve made changes to in order to get radio time.  Just caught my attention…

AOL, Yahoo! and MSN are joining to form an IM network that will be available to Enterprise customers via Microsoft’s Live Communications Server 2005.  It’s a start!

My mom sent me a link to the Top Ten IKONOS Satellite Images for 2003.  These are some very cool looking photos. 

I had plans to update this yesterday…figures the day I’d go to update my blog the server needs a reboot.

Last week Ari and I went on an Alaskan cruise with both sets of parents.  It was a nice vacation.  We visited Ketchikan, Tracy Arm, Juneau, and Skagway, and then stopped in Victoria, BC on the way back to Seattle.  I definately look forward to visiting Alaska again…and hopefully next time Ari will be 100% healthy and I’ll have the right shoes.  We did manage to get in one hike and the view from the first lookout was breathtaking.  Every city we visited looked to have some beautiful areas for camping, hiking or kayaking and I’d love to take advantage of it some day.

When we weren’t being tourists, we were either working on the budget (a long overdue project) or sitting in the hot tub.  There were two hot tubs at the back of the boat that were outside and allowed us to soak in 180 degree panoramic views of scenery. The only thing missing was the tropical drink.  And to top it all off, my mom and I each got massages at the ship’s Lotus Spa the last day on the ship.

I could say so much more about the trip, but there’s not really enough time.

Returning to work was actually better than I expected.  I was relaxed and the vacation pretty much signified the transition break between positions.  I’m still working on some documentation of the new tools my old group just launched, but other than that (which still kind of fits under my new position) I am doing Software Quality Assurance now – a position I get to help define.  I’m actually looking forward to taking some classes at BCC soon to help me figure out just what this job should be.

Anyway…time for work.

Well, I thought it had been awhile last time I updated this blog, and it seems i’m a bit later if this is turning into a monthly thing.

Puzzlehunt – wasn’t as fun as past years because the puzzles were much more difficult and we didn’t really start solving any until 20 hours into it.  And I was a bit disappointed in the clues.  But, I’m still looking forward to the next one.  Must remember to practice more cryptic-crosswords.

Softball – Starting getting some practice in and I have a full team of 14 registered to play before the start of the season, so I’m pretty happy.  With the most obnoxious team and last year’s championship winners moving up a division, I think we’ll do pretty good this year.  I’ll be really happy if we manage to sign up a 6th female – I have no doubts that there will come a weekend when 3 women will be gone, leaving us with 2 women to play (thus an auto-out in the line up).  We’ve played short-handed – and won – but I really don’t like playing that way.

Exercising – I haven’t done much biking recently, but Ari is really becoming the enthusiast.  Did 85 miles over the weekend a couple weeks ago, and would have biked around Lake Washington this past weekend if his back tire hadn’t gone flat halfway through.  I really need to start going to the pro club, so maybe Ari and I can work a schedule out – Ari tried Abs and Cardio Kickboxing classes last week, so that could be interesting.  And maybe Yoga would be worth it.  I might talk to Stephanie, too.  I’d be happy to start biking with Stephanie since I feel I slow Ari down too much now.  And we did talk about swimming at one point this past winter.

Well…time to get back to work and, if I have time, look into News and Comics again.  Been awhile.

Last night at game-night, I played a couple games of Attika before running home.  Attika is a game for up to four-players where each player wants to build up their city-state to dominate Greece.   One thing I realized while playing this game was that I really enjoy tile placing games.  The randomness of what tiles will be placed where adds a dynamic to games that practically guarantees it won’t be played the same way twice. 

Other tile placing games currently in my collection include Settlers of Catan, Tigris and Euphrates, and Carcassone: Hunters and Gatherers.

I just returned from a nice 4-day weekend at Whistler.  Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures.  However, I believe a couple friends at least took a few, so there will at least be a little something to remember the trip.  Had a great time.  Ari went skiing three days, I did two.  Got a nice massage the evening of Valentine’s day and just had a nice time overall.  Can’t wait to go back.

My friend, Mathias, distributed a link to this little game and it has become addicting.  After a few tries, my best is 21.941 seconds.  Must….do….better.