Mike Jutan's World: Goodwins at Pixar, Mt. Tam hike, new friends

This past weekend has been a busy one. I was about to go to bed as it's Yom Kippur tomorrow and it's going to be a long day, but I downloaded the new Picasa and it was taking a while so I decided to post these before going to bed.

Ros and Graham Goodwin, our awesome family friends from Australia, came to visit me at Pixar on Friday!! They were stopping by the Bay Area for a couple of days on the way back from a big trip through Sweden and Italy I believe. They were really excited about visiting Pixar and it was really fun to show them around because they are exactly like my parents. :) Ros was VERY excited just like my Mom and I think that Graham was very impressed by the work atmosphere and culture just like my Dad!! :) Awesome.

Friday night we went to Sarah's apartment and watched some Dane Cook (a comedian) which was kindof funny. Then we watched some Dave Chappelle (one of my favourite comedians) and that was SUPER funny. We ate a lot of good food and Bill brought some fancy wine which rocked.

Saturday was super busy too. We drove to Mt. Tam and hiked up and down it, and saw some fantastic views of the Bay Area. In total we hiked for about 5 hours and it was pretty sweet. I met Alexi and Mark, two new guys who are starting at Pixar in a couple of weeks and they both totally rocked. After the hike Sarah and I made some wraps and then I passed out from tiredness on the couch for an hour. Then we drove to Oakland and watched a girl from work compete in this super insane Roller Derby thing, which is basically a full-contact rollerskating sport, it was totally nuts and the crowd was crazy. The girl from Pixar was awesome and totally won the game for her team so that was great. It was fun to chant "Let's Go Oakland!! Let's Go Oakland!!" haha awesome. The fun super insane day didn't stop there though, after this Sarah and I went to In N' Out burger which rooocckked and then watched The Big Lebowski due to the relationship between In N' Out burger and The Big Lebowski. Fantastic.

Today was less nuts, we just went to EBC as usual and then to Berkeley Bowl to get a bunch of food for the pre-Yom Kippur feast. My friend Yaron is back up here for the holidays and we had a big meal tonight before just relaxing this evening and watching some Scrubs and The Incredibles. I listened to a really well-done version of Kol Nidre by a chazzan (the singer who leads the Hebrew songs at a Synagogue) from Dallas, Texas! It was really good and they had a choir too, pretty fantastic.

Anyhow I am off to bed, I hope you are all well and those who also have Yom Kippur tomorrow, I hope you have a good fast, and a day full of thought. L'Shannah Tova and Happy Jewish New Year to you.