Leona's daily notes

Photo's of Will's last day

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 22:47:24 GMT

St. Patrick's Day 2008 - Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Duit!

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:24:50 GMT

It is about time I got to write about how we celebrated St. Patrick's Day at AOL, Mountain View.

I sent this email out to the team in Mountain View and in Dulles:

Subject: Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Duit!

Come by my desk to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

You can taste some yummy homemade Irish bread with either Irish butter, Kerrygold cheese or some smoked salmon.

In order to get to taste the wonderful Irish food you need to answer the following questions:

What did St. Patrick banish from Ireland?
What did St. Patrick use as a symbol to convert the pagan Irish to Christianity?
Was St. Patrick Irish?
Translate the heading of the email?

So get searching on the Web or make up some creative answers and then drop by to part-take in the goodies! For the Toolbar team and my fellow PjM's in other locations, you cannot partake in the food but I will have a prize ( you own kit to make Irish bread) for the most creative answers to the questions so please do join the fun!

Leona

PS these are the same questions as last year and there maybe some hints from old PjM for Journals!! :-)

Here are some pictures of the food:

And some of the folks that came by with answers to the questions to sample the food:

And Thanks to those who sent creative answers to the questions as follows:

From Daniel: 1. Green clothing, so everyone else could dress up like frogs on his special day. 2. Himself (as a symbol) - he was quite an arrogant saint. 3. Irish in the sense of his parents walked on the island before he was born, or Irish in the sense that he knew his beer. Yes to both. 4. "It's MY ISLAND" - (taken from the movie Braveheart)

From Chuck:

1. Lucky Charms

2. A big big stick

3. According to James T. he was French

4. Joyeuse Fête de la Saint-Patrick

From Steve: Responding from Dulles (trying to get the breakmaking kit):

What did St. Patrick banish from Ireland? People that love Ireland. I swear there are more Irish people *outside* of Ireland than there are inside!
What did St. Patrick use as a symbol to convert the pagan Irish to Christianity? Michael Collins. Is this right? I swear I saw a movie about this with Liam Neeson, Colin Farrell, Pete Postlethwaite, and the Corrs!
Was St. Patrick Irish? He was only before he became a saint.
Translate the heading of the email? A hundred thousand pints.

Am I close?

From Seth:

I want my bread too...

What did St. Patrick banish from Ireland?

The pagan snake symbol...even though snakes dont live in Ireland.

What did St. Patrick use as a symbol to convert the pagan Irish to Christianity?

The Sun in the background of Cross

Was St. Patrick Irish?

English?..British?

Translate the heading of the email?

The day when everyone is Irish

Congratulations to Nancy and Sheli who actually had the right answers to all the questions. The guys in Dulles keep an eye out for a Leprechaun who maybe delivering a break making kit in the very near future. Here is Ninoscka with a bread kit she took home and had great fun with her daughters and made real Irish bread on March 17th:

Tags: Blogplug

And the proof is in the making and eating........

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:35:54 GMT

As mentioned in my last post on St Patrick's Day 2008, you will have seen a mention of an Irish Brown Bread making kit a number of times. One of the lucky recipients was Ed, the Daddy of the following beautiful children, Kalyen and Jacob. Ed very graciously shared these pictures with me and I was so happy to see my gift was used and obviously enjoyed immensely. So I will let the pictures tell the story:

Getting ready to start bread making

Kalyen studying the mason jar of the secret ingredients and Jacob reading the instrucitons

The studying continues...........

Step 1 - Contents of the jar goes into the mixing bowl

Step 2- Pour in the 12 oz of water

Step 3 - Mix well

Step 4 - Spray the loaf tin

Step 3 B - Double check that the mixing is all done

Step 5 - Place the mixture in the loaf tin

Kalyen and Jacob - looking so proud at a job well done

Step 6 - Bake for 40 mins and VOILA the above brown bread loaf is just PERFECT.

Another shot of the perfect loaf ( not sure what Jake is doing!)

Now it looks like he is taking a bite out of the middle!! :-)

And when all is done the only thing left to do is taste it, Jacob taking a really big bite.

Pretty Kaylen showing off her slice before she eats hers.

I hear through the grapevine that their Dad is very good at baking cakes from scratch. BTW Ed, my birthday is in June! :-)

Rakesh's going away lunch - Photos

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 12:31:18 GMT

All kinds of everything - a special bond continents apart!

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 18:00:49 GMT

A little before Christmas Rakesh, a fellow AOL Journals team members, called me over to his cube to show me something on his computer. I thought it was some work stuff but was just blow away by what did transpire in the next 10 - 15 minutes.

Rakesh asked me if I knew the song "All kinds of everything by Dana" and I said "Of course I did. Everyone in Ireland did as she won the Eurovision Song Contest in the '70's and I spent my childhood singing this song, listening to it on the radio and seeing it on the TV every year when Eurovision time came around."

Rakesh proceeded to show me a YouTube video of Dana singing the song at the Eurovision song contest and the two of us started sining along to it and I must admit that when it was finished the two of us had tears in our eyes. Here is the video:

Here are the lyrics of this simple but beautiful song:

Snow drops and daffodils, butterflies and bees

Sailboats and fishermen, things of the sea

Wishing wells, wedding bells, early morning dew

All kinds of everything remind me of you

Seagulls and aeroplanes, things of the sky

Winds that go howling, breezes that sigh

City sights, neon lights, grey skies or blue

All kinds of everything remind me of you

Summertime, wintertime, spring and autumn too

Monday, Tuesday, every day, I think of you

Dances, romances, things of the night

Sunshine and holidays, postcards to write

Buddingtrees, autumn leaves, a snowflake or two

All kinds of everything remind me of you

Summertime, wintertime, spring and autumn too

Seasons will never change the way that I love you

Dances, romances, things of the night

Sunshine and holidays, postcards to write

Budding trees, autumn leaves, a snowflake or two

All kinds of everything remind me of you

When the song ended I asked Rakesh how did he know the song and he explained to me that in the 70's he Dad studied in London and he recorded this song and another by Mary Hopkins and brought them back to his family in India. Rakesh has fond memories of sitting in his home in India listening and singing along to these beautiful songs.

I just think it is awesome that we both were children singing this song but worlds apart - Leona in Ireland and Rakesh in India but bonded by Dana a young 19 year old who won a song contest with this very beautiful song. We connect up in the Silicon Valley and work with each other for over a year and then discover a wonderful link in our past. Was this a coincidence or did God have a part to play in this?

I asked Rakesh for photos of his family and I told him it was for a secret and of course I wanted the photos to Blog about this wonderful moment of sharing and bonding we had. Here are the photos he sent me, he also gave me some history of his family and the photos and I use his own word to explain:

My dad, Dr. Ramesh Kumar Mishra( in short Dr. R. K. Mishra) did his Masters and Ph.D under Professor H.O.W. Richardson ( son of Nobel Laurete O.W. Richardson ) in Nuclear Physics during 1966-1970 at Bedford College, London University. Bedford College has since been merged with Royal Hollaway College and has moved to Egham county. Bedford Collegeduring those years was in London.These pictures were taken in Indian YMCA , located at Fitzroy Square, London while we were returning back from Tripoli , after completing his six years of teaching assignment at Al-Fateh University.

In this picture , from the right , its me (Rakesh) , then there is an unknown person lurking in, the person writing in the autograph book is the Indian scientist George Sudarshan, my younger brother ( Rajesh), dad partially visible, my younger sister ( Vandana) and my mom ( Anjula).

In thia picture, from the right, its my younger sister ( Vandana), me , George Sudarshan, younger brother ( Rajesh ),my dad and my mom.

Here is a picture of Rakesh and I taken last week :

Unfortunately, this was at a lunch for Rakesh's last day at AOL. We had a wonderful lunch with the AOL Journals team but it was bitter sweet to see one of our team members and friends leave.

The great news is that Rakesh and his wonderful wife are expecting a baby for June and I know that Rakesh will make a wonderful father and I know that one of the first songs the new baby will hear will be "All kinds of everthing".

Rakesh I am available for baby siting anytime and my fee is very cheep - I just give and receive lots of love!

Another AOL Party - Baby Shower for Prash!

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 12:15:37 GMT

Friday seems to be the day for surprise celebrations in AOL lately and yesterday we had a lovely lunch to honor Prash to celebrate the upcoming arrival of her baby daughter!

Of course I was busy with my camera and took plenty of photographs:

Happy Birthday Junaid

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:57:35 GMT

On Friday we had a surprise birthday celebration for our work colleague and friend Junaid. We all knew his birthday was February but he would never tell us the date. With a little detective work on the part of little Project Manger and the help of Facebook and a cooperative wife ( Thanks Mahira!) we found out the date was Sunday the 17th.

Project Surprise Junaid was planned and all worked out really well - at the beginning there was a few moments of denial from the birthday boy but after a few moments he joined in the fun and we all were allowed to celebrate him and show him how much he means to us all. We are all like family in AOL, Mountain View.

Here are the photos I took on Friday, click the sound button for the song to go with the slide show:

We are all sad that will is leaving today

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 20:27:33 GMT

My favourite picture of Will taken on the Job shadow day last Friday.............

Talk to the Hand!!!!!

We will miss you Will.i.am.

As I said earlier not bad for a Brit :-)

Job Shadow day last week at work

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 20:17:22 GMT

Last Friday I took part in a job shadow event at work where we had a group of teenagers from a local high school visit for the day. We showed them what it was like to work a day at AOL, they visited our Data Center, our Telesuites conferences rooms and spent time talking to a number of people who work here. Here are some pictures of the wonderful day I had as I was one of the hosts for the day:

Students listening to Edwins presentation

Touring the office space Great interest in the games arcade Meeting Junaid and Danielle Visiting Leona's desk to see what a Project Manager really does! Will and Junaid saying "Hello"

Will and Render sharing a joke at Danielle's desk

Students visting our Telesuites on the second floor

View of the students from the Telesuites on the first floor

Anohter view of the students from the first floor

Edwin answering questions from the students as he sits in the Telesuites on the first floor and the students are on the second floor Telesuites. This gives them the feel for what it is like for when we do conference calls with teams around the world.

Students with Leona and Render at reception prior to leaving.

Hmmmm How am I shorter than 9,10 & 11th graders!! lol :-) One last group photograph to end a really fun day!

testing picture upload - Zhendi's Good bye lunch

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 16:33:28 GMT