Fun & Humor
Third Day in new job at Trend Micro
So today I came into work a little bit later (about 9:15am) because I had a call/meeting at 5pm scheduled with my manager. The Trend Micro web team I’m a part of is spread all over: Boston, Manila, Taiwan, Pasadena, Cupertino, Japan, and more. My manager, lives and works in Manila, Philippines, so the time difference is all wacky.
Well, actually it just means that when it’s 5pm here in Cupertino, it’s like 8 or 9am over there in the Philippines. I forgot what the time difference actually is and I’m too lazy to look it up. As Michael Moore would say “…just trust me. i looked it up.”
So he calls me and we talk and I realize that it’s 8 or 9am — the next day! So basically, he lives in the future…. in the future!?. Take that, Einstein! It’s wednesday, here, and thursday over there. I mean, it’s like he already knows what’s gonna happen…tomorrow! Quite frankly, it’s amazing, really.
Anyway, because of another conference call he had, we started a bit later. yay. So I got home a bit later than I wanted.
About the time in between the beginning and the end….
Since my computer still hadn’t come in and I hadn’t any work tasks for the day, I had a bit (a lot) of free time during the day. So I was checking out the surrounding area in Cupertino. When I was driving to work in the morning, I noticed a place called “Le Boulanger” around the corner from my building. I think I had seen a “Le Boulanger” somewhere else, if not there, and it looked like a bakery or cafe of some sort. So I looked it up on the almighty internet who knows all things, and found information on hours, locations, and menus. And awesomely, I find that in addition to being a bakery with great sourdough and baguettes, they also served coffee, pastries, and what read like tastey foods. Is the word “tastey” with an “e” or without? anyway, the food menu was composed of sandwiches, soups, salads and pizzas. All freshly made there.
I loved that they served the kinda food I enjoy for lunch. I saw a few cool sandwiches that looked like I could actually enjoy and not have to ask to remove any of the ingredients. I’m kinda picky regarding sauces, onions, meat, and freaky stuff. I hate mayonnaise, and don’t like mustard or dijon or random crap like hollandaise sauce. In general, I prefer a large lack of condiments in my food. the deli term, i believe, is “DRY”. I suppose that’s true. I prefer to add my own condiments to my food, which is usually nothing, except maybe A1 sauce, barbecue sauce, but that’s usually only with a burger or steak. I like ketchup, but really only with hash browns or eggs maybe. oh! but i do like a light vinaigrette sauce — like balsamic vinegar and/or olive oil. In terms of sandwiches, I don’t really like roast beef, pastrami, or bologne. I kindalike salami, but only if it’s beef, and I don’t ever get a salami sandwich. Actually, I usually get a vegetable sandwich or a sandwich with turkey or chicken, preferably in strips, not in processed ‘deli thin’ slices. Okay, you didn’t really need to know all that.
So, the “Classico” and the “Margherita” sandwiches caught my eye. the Classico was a simple hot sandwich with baby greens, provolone cheese, roasted red peppers, tomato, hot chicken breast, with a vinaigrette on their ciabatta bread. awesome. And the Margherita al Fresco was another hot sandwich on ciabatta with mozarella cheese, basil leaves, tomato and vinaigrette dressing. Both of these sandwiches sounded like heaven. Not that I’ve actually heard what heaven sounds like; I’m almost certain these sandwiches don’t make sounds, but if they did, perhaps they would sound a bit like heaven.
I also noticed the soups, and I was like ‘yesss!’. They serve two different soups daily, with their delicious Clam Chowder served daily. About the clam chowder, a lotta people I know would be like ‘yesss!’ but not me. I don’t like Clam Chowder. I used to love it when I was a kid. I grew up in the Monterey Bay area, where clam chowder is a common thing, and people from all over can go to the wharf to get free samples and buy a bread bowl of the stuff, but somewhere between 8 and 12 years old, Someone mentioned the chunks of ‘clam’ in the clam chowder. And my world fell apart — it was then that I realized why it was called “clam chowder”. It had chunks of clam meat in it!! That’s disgusting! I had noticed it tasting more fishy as I got older, but never realized why. See, I’ve never liked seafood, and apparently, my mom never told me that clam chowder had actual clam in it. I just assumed them to be ‘meat’ chunks. perhaps chicken. so yeah, i was totally grossed out by clam chowder after that and never ate it again. it’s a mental thing.
Back to the Le Boulanger’s soup choices: They did have an appealing-sounding Cream of Tomato soup they were serving that day along with a Five Bean and Sausage(not so appealing) Soup as well. Even though ‘Cream of Anything’ sounds kinda gross to me, my experience with creamed soups has been generally positive, so I was planning on having the Tomato. oh, and you could even get any of the soups in a freshly-baked sourdough bread bowl, radical. But I thought ‘nah’. Conveniently, they had a Soup and Sandwich deal where you can get a cup of soup and ‘petite’ size sandwich (i noticed a French motif going on, strange). So, I was pleased that I had a lunch choice.
I take a walk down the street, and enter Le Boulanger. I’m not gonna waste time on location description, but it was a nice little cafe setup. I don’t know much about French anything, but for some reason, the French motif didn’t seem to be all around the store. I think it was limited to all the breads and pastries, and to the wording in the menu. I wait in line and notice all the delicious-looking pastries: big ol’ bear claws with almonds atop, biscottis, croissants, bagels, muffins, cookies and me with chocolate all over my mouth, frollicking in slo-mo among the mounds of soft blueberry scones… what? i musta dozed off. Behind all that was the baskets of freshly baked sourdough loaves, sticks of baguette breads, and other loaves of different kinds of bread. All very lovely. Anyway, I go up to the cashier, a young mexican girl of course, and I ask for the soup and sandwich - Cream of Tomato and the Classico. And she asks if I want anything to drink. And then I quickly reply, “um, i can’t understand your accent, Maria. are you speaking english?” Ha! no just kidding. I hadn’t thought of what I wanted to drink…. I had a whole buncha water before….. a coffee? no, not yet. i noticed they had ‘freshly squeezed juices’. so i was like ‘aw cool!’ and i asked for a carrot juice, but they’re like sorry, we don’t have that. and the cashier next to her said, “actually, the juice menu isn’t current, so just look behind us in the juice fridge and pick.” And behind her was some of the natural brand of juices “Naked”. I chose a “Berry Blast”. They’re not actually ‘freshly squeezed’, but they’re from organic fruits with no added crap.
To make a long story longer, I was all around delighted. The sandwich was great and tastey(?). And the soup was also dee-lish. The juice was good and I was pleased. And since I tend to like routine without the slightest change. I have decided to FOREVER eat at the Boulanger. well at least for lunch.
And then afterwards, I take a walk across the street to get a coffee at Starbucks. Good ol’ green demon — always conveniently located nearby. I walk back to work, tinker around with some work related emails, documents and calls, and then go back home. On my way home, I decide to stop by Rollicks, a local coffees shop, to talk to an artist friend who works there.
Dang, I’ve run out of stuff to say. Well that was a sucky ending.
:: efrain ::
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