Tuesday I got to show the visiting family of a good friend in the ward around Google. I’m getting fairly good at hitting all the good stuff.

After work when I reached my car and was about to drive off, I noticed a small finch perched on the hood. I figured he’d fly off after I started moving, but after driving in a semicircle he stayed put.

Eventually I realized his leg must be stuck in the rubber sealing around the edge of the windshield. A folded piece of paper was tool enough to get him dislodged.

The next day I went on a walk with a friend through a wooded area I’ve been to before, but only once. Ran across an owl I called Scratcher. Scratcher, unfortunately, didn’t seem long for this world, as he was very lethargic and his feathers were quite ruffled.

On our way out we got to witness a scuffle between like five owls and a nest of robins. If you’ve ever seen “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole”, it felt just like that. Man owls sure are graceful.

Thursday was game #1 of our office soccer league matches. Over a hundred players signed up, so we have eight teams currently in the running. We beat out our opponent 4-3.

On Friday I attended two going-away parties. One was for a co-worker, who was transferring across the lake to our Seattle office to work on a different team. The get-together was in a bar just a couple minutes’ walk from the office. I of course ordered a carbonated drink. The employee in question was an enthusiastic bird watcher, and loved the pics from above.

That evening was the going-away party for a friend’s cousin, who’d been in town for the last couple months.

Sunday night I had planned to go out and try and see the surprisingly visible aurora borealis, but the park we decided to hang out at suffered from excessive light pollution, and we were too tired anyways to stay up till 2am when it’d be most visible, so we didn’t get any good pics.

Monday was game #2 of our office soccer league. Five minutes in I pulled the muscle on the front of my left thigh. Five minutes after that, the same muscle in my left thigh was also pulled. I was left hobbling around the field, unable to kick the ball at all without quite a bit of pain. Ended up in the goalie box where I ineffectually did my darndest to block shots. We got destroyed like 7-0.

What made it interesting was that I’d biked in to work that day, so no way was I getting on my bike for the journey back. Thankfully a good friend visiting from out of town was able to give me a lift back.