Utah – Day 1, 2
It was rough getting out of Newark. A freak snowstorm delayed the landing of the plane that I was supposed to board and the subsequent snow buildup necessitated de-icing. I touched down about three and a half hours behind schedule. To make matters worse, the Hertz counter where my car was reserved was manned by perhaps some of the most incompetent people. Ever. There were probably 6 groups in front of me and it took me at least an hour and fifteen minutes just to get my car >:-[ There’s something weird about driving a mini-van when you’re not expecting it. While I was supposed to have a Corolla reserved, the only thing they had in the same price class was a Toyota Sienna. This is actually the first time that I’ve driven a mini-van…it’s kind of weird since I’m used to smaller cars.
We had lunch at Rubio’s, a Mexi-Cali place that specialized in fish tacos. I had a grilled salmon taco, which was delicious (out east, we only have the kinda shitty Baja Fresh).
Dinner was at Joe’s Crab Shack, a great seafood place where Jim (our CTO) finally found a satisfactory martini in Utah. Unfortunately, they also pulled the birthday-boy schtick on me and I had to dance around on a broomstick horse and cowboy hat (I have pictures, but it’s just too embarassing)…
This morning, I woke up to find 3 inches of snow on the ground. But by that time, I was already dressed and ready to go to the gym. I wasn’t too excited by the prospect of trying to drive in the dark to a gym which I only had rough directions to in 3 inches of snow in a mini-van with California plates…
But I’m glad I did. I ended up at the new Lifetime Fitness gym here. DAAAAAAAAAAYUM. This is the nicest gym I’ve ever seen. It’s bigger than the Costco back home. The indoor pool had two huge, twisty water slides like the ones you find at amusement parks. The basketball court was full size, well lit, and they actually had good basketballs, too. And the workout floor: at least 100 weight machines and wall to wall plasma TVs. It was kind of weird being the only person in such a huge building…I think I would move out here just for this gym 😛
I ended up at the office earlier than anyone else (or so I thought) so I killed some time by writing my name in the snow…
So begins day two of Programmathon II…
It turns out that Jim had already arrived at the office. He saw my snow writing and walked downstairs and let me in 😛
We had lunch on day two at some Chinese place in the food court at a nearby mall. Damn that gave me gas (actually, I think eating out anywhere give’s me gas).
After a long day of programming, we ended up having dinner at Johnny Carrino’s. I checked the score on the Colts-Pats game and it looked like the Pats were gonna blow the Colts out.
As you can see, it was my birthday again. Forced against my will, I finished the free chocolate cake and ice-cream.
