Google & The Wayward One!

Yesterday, I got to hug my middle son, the ‘wayward one’, (the oldest is  the ‘big lug’ and the baby is the ‘young ‘un’) for the first time in five months. Now, I know I’m lucky. Many moms don’t see their kids for years, but we’ve always lived, even after they moved out, within regular Sunday dinner family barbeque’s distance, so the last two years have been a huge adjustment for me. At any rate, the wayward one works for Google, and we were treated to a tour of his new facility, and managed to meet his boss and  many of his teammates.

‘Googlers’, as they refer to themselves, have to be the luckiest and happiest employees on the planet. Everything’s provided for them. I’m convinced they’ve spoiled my son for working anywhere else. Not bad for the son nicknamed the ‘wayward one’ for  his rebellious inclinations. Hurrah for the rebels – they teach us to break the rules and make new ones!

Here are some pics:

 

Flavored waters at the gym - lavender was delish

Flavored waters at the gym – lavender was delish

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Look closely – it’s the mobile building & this is all made of dinky cars!

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My favorite place – Google employees can take free cooking classes from world class chefs – OMG I’m so jealous!

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The Sushi Bar in the one of 32 free restaurants on the Google campus. All are featured in foodie mags frequently. This one’s full service.

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Closeup of the sushi bar. Did I mention Googlers are encouraged to take food home? My son’s so spoiled.

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The Coffee & Tea Lab run in conjunction with Starbucks. It’s a real lab where they test responses to different concoctions. Amazing.

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One of the many parks & outside areas on the Google campus. Love the big chairs!

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Google’s Test Kitchen offers cooking classes to all employee free of charge, and all are taught by certified chefs! Sigh…drooling here.

 

 

 

Googlers and Google Earth!

IMG_1362So we had a fabulous visit with our son in California. My mind’s finally settled and I won’t be worrying so much about our ‘wayward one’ anymore (does the concern about your kids ever go away?). About his comfort or health or where he’s living, anyway.
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Now I have a new set of worries. Google spoils their employees. To the max. Lordy, you would not believe how great these Googlers (their term for themselves) have it. Not only is the campus stunning, but the weather and climate in Mountain View is purrrrfect. Really.

Our son says it’s rained once in the six months he’s been here.   IMG_1365IMG_1382

Of course, it stormed and thundered the day we arrived. Go figure.

One of the coolestIMG_1387 things we saw (and there were tons of way cool stuff) on the campus was the Google Earth 180 degree interactive Earth Map. Let me tell you this with absolute confidence – privacy, as we know it, is dead.

We started out with the globe spinning and, in less than 7 seconds, we zeroed in on our backyard. Incredible and scary.

 

 

 

Over the next couple of days, I’ll post the wine country pics. Oysters, champagne, wine, bread, and cheese—life can’t get much better with that combination. 🙂

On another note – I finished the free read that my blog group, the Love, Lust, & Laptops ladies are doing for Halloween. My story’s The Jack of Hearts and I’ll start posting excerpts on October 1st. We’ll have a free read for you (and sometimes 2) every week in October until Halloween!

Cheers,

Jianne