Photo: August 2005 Archives

Marble Madness is, quite possibly, the finest game ever created. Kevin and I have been playing this game with a near religious fervor, for the last two months. The shit-talking that goes on between us cannot be explained to others, who have not been touched by the greatness that is Marble Madness.

At first, Kevin and I were peers in this game, but in the last month, he has really eclipsed me in his craft at this game:

Having vanquished out all of my high scores long ago, he has now eliminated all of the sub 100,000 point scores.

The result of which, of course, is that I need to find more time in the day to play, so that my initials can re-join the high score list.

-Andy.

To celebrate Mike and Sheila's return to the Bay Area from South Africa, we went on a tour of the Scharffen Berger Chocolate Factory:

I can't remember the name of the machine pictured, but it uses granite rollers on two axes, to grind the cacau (a.k.a. cocoa) bits into a fine goo. It was one of the many machines that we saw on the tour, which was super-awesome by the way. I went there not planning on buying any chocolate, and of course, I ended up buying three bars.

I dig the fact that the break out the cacau content of their chocolate, and that they make a really dark chocolate (82%). Apparently, I am somewhat in the minority for liking dark chocolate, but hey, I knows what I likes.

All of the pictures that I took are up. This tour is definitely recommended if you are up in the Berkeley, CA area.

-Andy.

Snapped another picture of Chris and Tanya's (well, mostly Tanya's) puppy Zoey on Saturday:

With the number of pictures that I'm taking, you would think that she is my dog. :)

-Andy.

I had my birthday dinner this evening, at a Chicago-style pizza place called Patxi's in downtown Palo Alto:

L-R: Kalpana, Pratima, me, Anjali, Kevin, Chris, and Tanya

The food was good (Chicago is still bringing the one true, however), and the company was excellent.

-Andy.

Today at work, we had a going away lunch for John (he announced this week that he is leaving EDS, his last day being Friday). The supplier-of-cake on our team (Beth), brought it some micro-cakes today, I guess as a combination of support for my birthday and John's going away.

Anyways, the cake that I selected was sortof like a tall cylinder. Finding the knife and fork method to be ineffective for this particular cake, I put my creative thinking hat on, and just went for it:

As an astonished Dung and Shreyas looked on, I was glad to be able to provide entertainment for my team. I am clearly not being paid enough for all of the contributions that I am making at the office. Or, I am quite possibly being paid too much. It could go either way, really.

-Andy.

I didn't think it was possible (nobody thought it was possible), but coffee is a hospitable environment for mold:

Let's give a big round of applause to my roommate Kevin, for making this all possible. :)

-Andy.