Phew! What a hectic week it has been. On Wednesday and Thursday, I was in Redmond… and this is what Avis gave me to drive:

Uh, thanks for the upgrade guys. I’ve always wanted to look like a livery/senior citizen/cop.

Actually a few people slowed down as I zoomed towards them – of course that could just be typical Washington state driver behavior.

Some other quick notes:

-On Wednesday I visited Dan and Nicole’s house in Bellevue. WOW. WOW. WOW. Truly an awesome place. With a fantastic view that you could never have here in the Bay Area. (Well, without being Bill, Warren, Sergei, or Larry.)

-On Thursday I took a course (my main reason for going) and there I met Gretchen Ledgard in real life. Neato!

-The flight back from SEA-SJC on Alaska was unbelievably packed. And late, as usual. I don’t think there’s ever been a time when I was on the last flight of the day and it wasn’t packed. I’m so glad I have elite status on a partner airline though and can board early – they were bumping carry-on’s off the flight like crazy!

So this Wednesday I’ll be going up to SEA again, and next Friday (not this Friday) I’ll be going to BWI for my 5th year reunion (SJC-SEA-DFW-BWI!!)

Wow that’s a lot of flying right?

Well, unfortunately, it’s still not enough to earn me Platinum on American Airlines for next year.

According to my mileage tracking spreadsheet, I will meet this goal by the required date of 12/31/2005 if one of the 5 scenarios below occur:

1. I make 16 roundtrips to Redmond by EOY. Not likely!

2. I make 12 r/t’s to Redmond and 1 r/t’s to NY by EOY. Not likely!

3. I make 8 r/t’s to Redmond and 2 r/t’s to NY by EOY. Possible.

4. I make 5 r/t’s to Redmond and 3 r/t’s to NY by EOY. Maybe.

5. I make 1 r/t to Redmond and 4 r/t’s to NY by EOY. No way!

It looks like a mileage run is in my future. Hello Zurich?

Anyone want to go on a mileage run with me?

Wow check out all these fun statistics on this site!

Like this one:

Top 100 Cities with Highest Median House Value (pop. 5000+)

1. Montecito, California ($1,000,001)
2. Hillsborough, California ($1,000,001)
3. Palm Beach, Florida ($1,000,001)
4. Tiburon, California ($1,000,001)
5. Saratoga, California ($1,000,001)
6. Atherton, California ($1,000,001)
7. Beverly Hills, California ($1,000,001)
8. Malibu, California ($1,000,001)
9. Woodside, California ($1,000,001)
10. Kings Point, New York ($1,000,001)

Figures.

Top 100 Cities with Highest Ratio of Median House Value to Median Household Income (pop. 5000+)

1. Isla Vista, California (24.91)
2. Stanford, California (21.18)
3. Aspen, Colorado (18.60)
4. Beverly Hills, California (14.10)
5. Santa Monica, California (12.34)
6. Miami Beach, Florida (12.24)
7. Kiryas Joel, New York (12.09)
8. Twin Lakes, California (11.16)
9. Palm Beach, Florida (10.58)
10. Strawberry, California (10.47)

Top 100 Least-Safe Cities (Highest City-data.com crime index) (pop. 5000+)

1. Markham, Illinois (2405.7)
2. East St. Louis, Illinois (2030.0)
3. Washington Park, Illinois (1867.2)
4. Hammond, Louisiana (1689.7)
5. Ocean City, Maryland (1463.4)
6. Florida City, Florida (1433.5)
7. Lancaster, South Carolina (1316.5)
8. Emeryville, California (1314.7)
9. St. Louis, Missouri (1259.5)
10. Wildwood, New Jersey (1245.6)

Surprisingly Baltimore is at 40.

Top 100 Cities with the Largest Percentage of Females (pop. 2000+)

1. St. Joseph, Minnesota (68%, Median age: 21.8, pop. 4681)
2. Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania (68%, Median age: 22.5, pop. 4382)
3. Dugway, Utah (68%, Median age: 19.8, pop. 2016)
4. Lima, Pennsylvania (67%, Median age: 79.1, pop. 3225)
5. Rossmoor, New Jersey (67%, Median age: 76.8, pop. 3129)
6. Chowchilla, California (66%, Median age: 34.1, pop. 11127)
7. Laguna Woods, California (66%, Median age: 78.0, pop. 16507)
8. Rossmoor, Maryland (66%, Median age: 76.9, pop. 7569)
9. Leisure Village, New Jersey (65%, Median age: 72.0, pop. 4443)
10. Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania (65%, Median age: 36.1, pop. 2363)

Heh… Bryn Mawr.

Anyway, check out the site for more fun stats!

Job Title: Program Manager
Job Category: Program Management
Product: MAC Office
Job Code: 130875
Location: CA – Mountain View
Travel Required:

Do you want to have a big impact? Design software for a passionate audience with unique needs? Work with a proven team on market leading products? If so, we should talk. The Macintosh Business Unit delivers the leading productivity software for the Mac. We?re a small team that takes on big challenges and consistently delivers useful, high quality software. As a MacBU Program Manager, you?ll be responsible for leading the technical side of our product development team, defining and shipping the next wave of Mac products. The successful candidate will have a strong technical background and experience solving technical problems by influencing others. Passion for customers and for technology is also essential, along with strong skills in planning, organizing, and coordinating. Macintosh enthusiasm is a plus, as is a B.S. / B.A. degree in Computer Science or related field.

and

Job Title: Program Manager
Job Category: Program Management
Product: MAC Office
Job Code: 130874
Location: CA – Mountain View
Travel Required:

Do you want to have a big impact? Design software for a passionate audience with unique needs? Work with a proven team on market leading products? If so, we should talk. The Macintosh Business Unit delivers the leading productivity software for the Mac. We?re a small team that takes on big challenges and consistently delivers useful, high quality software. As a MacBU Program Manager, you?ll be responsible for leading the technical side of our product development team, defining and shipping the next wave of Mac products. The successful candidate will have a strong technical background and experience solving technical problems by influencing others. Passion for customers and for technology is also essential, along with strong skills in planning, organizing, and coordinating. Macintosh enthusiasm is a plus, as is three or more years of relevant work experience and a B.S. / B.A. degree in Computer Science or related field.

Do you have a passion for Macs? The Microsoft MacBU currently has two positions available for Program Managers.

Have you thought about applying? Do you have what it takes?

I was in NY for about 5 days last week – as a tourist. To be honest, I’ve never spent that much time in Manhattan on the streets, and if you think about it, that makes sense.

If you work in a city, how often would you spend 5 consecutive days going to all the tourist attractions there? You’d probably go to work 5 days a week, and then just hang out on the weekends. You’d never see what the tourist attractions are like during the business hours. Pretty interesting.

One of the things that really struck me was the number of tourists from the United Kingdom. Wow. Everywhere I went, I half wondered if the British were secretly invading to take back the land! Of course, with the exchange rate where it is, I’d come to the USA too if I were British – and buy like 20 iPods to sell them back at home.

In anycase, here’s a picture of a bagels on sticks that I saw in Grand Central Station.

So those of you who read this blog know that I tried really hard 2 months ago to get reservations for Per Se. And in the end, I did! I got a reservation for 2 on Sunday at 9:30pm.

The restaurant was amazing – it even had some hints of French Laundry. The food was amazing. The desserts were amazing. The service was amazing. I highly recommend it – Thomas Keller is a genius.

Here is a bad photo of the menu and the folder that I got to hold the menus.

Remember, if you go to New York, plan ahead and get a reservation!

Now that I have been here, I will never eat well again.

UPDATE: Click here for a larger picture of the menu!

Uh. Thanks. I think.

So I was walking up Broadway tonight, from 42nd. And low and behold, NYPD had completely taken over – parking everywhere. With their lights flashing.

Unfortunately, the rain picked up and I decided to leave the scene before figuring out what was going on.

Anyone know what was going down?