07 April 2010

Yesterday morning, I met Kailash for coffee in the hotel lobby and he took me to the airport to get me a rental car. Thrifty, which is preferred by the Institute, only had vans and SUVs, so I went to the Enterprise counter. They had a compact car available, so I got it. Now, we were enabled to take shifts in supporting the data collection. I immediately headed to Whole Foods and bought a bunch of GF non-perishable and a few GF perishable foods. My hotel room has a refrigerator, but no microwave. So I bought some fresh fruit, breakfast bars, cheese, hummus, sparkling water, and crackers. I really tried not to buy too much, knowing that I didn't want to waste food or carry the non-perishables home. I did go overboard on the GF snack bars. They had several flavors of Lara Bars that I had never seen before, so I wanted to try them. And since they won't go bad anytime soon, I bought one of each of the ones I was interested in. Those and a few other brands, like Bumble Bee Bar. Some of these seem easier to find in California. I had first tried the Bumble Bee Bar in Downey last summer, when staying with Grandma. Her Ralph's store had them and I liked them.

After putting away the food in my room, I collected my laundry and headed to the hotel laundry room. I also need quarters, but right next to the laundry room is a market. I got quarters there. In the laundry room, I put quarters in for the laundry detergent, but the machine ate my quarters and didn't produce any detergent. I asked at the front desk and they sold me the single size boxes of detergent. Finally, I was able to start the washing. I waited outside at the tables provided for diners at the market/grill. I moved my clothes to the dryer and headed back up to my room. I talked to Chris, but the kids were out playing with the Hansons, while Chris was talking to John next door. Then I folded my clothes and put them away just in time to get into the testing to relieve Kailash. He didn't leave right away. Testing continued, with sporadic training sessions and updates on the latest scripts and wrapper scripts. He finally did leave, and came back in time for a late dinner at Rice Thai Restaurant. It was good. Kailash and I agreed that I would come in for the morning shift today, arriving around 8 AM.

I did my usual morning routine and was out of my room by 7:30 AM. I wanted to find a drug store to get toiletries and a coffee shop for a large coffee I could take into testing with me. Every drug store or grocery store was still closed. Nothing opens before 8 AM. I knew there was a Peet's down on El Camino, but I missed it in my haste looking for a drug store. I never saw a Starbucks, despite knowing that there was one somewhere. I finally found a little cafe and got my coffee. On the way back up El Camino, I finally spotted the Starbucks, right next to the Tofu House. Now I know. I still have to get to the drug store later. Kailash is supposed to be coming in sometime between 2 and 3 PM. Today for lunch we walked to the larger cafeteria, which has many more choices and a great salad bar. It is in a separate building, but still on the Lockheed campus. It was nice, the weather was nice, and we sat outside to eat. Very nice.