Busy day today at Pertino. I got up around seven, got ready and drove into the office. Only my second day driving around and I feel like I am getting to know town a bit.
I was one of the later Spiceheads to arrive and I had to jump almost immediately onto a call for Dominica’s office. We have so much going on there that needs my attention that I’m doing something nearly every day.
The main part of the day was all scheduled events at Pertino. Whether group meetings, one on one user experience testing, company town hall or being filmed by a video crew (that’s the third time this year that I’ve done film work, I’ve done that for Pertino, Spiceworks and Drobo.)
For lunch today we had pizza like we did the last time that I was out with Pertino. California certainly seems to have amazing pizza. It is the only region of the country that I think, in any way, competes with New York for the quality of the pizza but the style is pretty different.
It was a very productive day, lots of good work done at Pertino. Before we completely wrapped up for the day, Craig took my out for a ride in his new Tesla S P85 – the all electric sports car that we have been looking at for a few weeks. I’ve wanted an electric car for a while and this one is really amazing. It is big and luxurious but also a sports car giving the best of a luxury sedan and a hard car sports car in one while having enough seating for five to seven people and lots of trunks space.
The ride was amazing. I have definitely never been in a car like the Tesla. Truly amazing. The acceleration is truly unreal. And the interior space is so much more than I would have guessed. Far more practical that I thought. We could probably do away with having the SUV completely with a Tesla.
After the day was done I ran back to the hotel and freshened up, dropped off my stuff and then drove up to Testarossa Winery where we had the “after work” wind down party. I drove up on my own since I was coming from a different hotel as everyone else but managed to pull in as the same time as AJ, Jeff and Kris.
We all had a really nice time there. My first California winery too. Got a chance to hang out with a bit of the Pertino crew for a few hours.
After the winery the Spiceheads went down to the Willow Street Pizza (the same pizza place that Rich, Mark and I went to before going to Pertino the last time that I was in California) and did beers and pizza. Some of them were there a bit before Kris and I arrived, since we drove down to the hotel, dropped off the car and walked from there. It was a brisk evening but as long as we were walking quickly the temperature was great. But it is too cool to hang out outside without a jacket if you aren’t moving around enough.
The pizza was excellent, just like last time, at Willow Street. We had a good time just the Spiceheads hanging out. One of the girls wanted to do kamakazis by the pitcher at the Black Watch because apparently we did that last time that we were here (not a memorable enough drink for me to remember that we had these but Dominica confirmed that we did) so we walked down there, did a quick pitcher (which was really just a big glass) and then went back tot he Tollhouse where everyone else was staying and joined Nick and his wife Jenn out on the patio and had California wine out there until people straggled off to bed one or two at a time.
After midnight on Kris and I were left awake. He had to walk back to my hotel with me because he left his iPad in my rental car and I needed to get that back to him. So we went back there and ended up standing out on the street talking till about a quarter till two.
Once back in the hotel I decided that I was going to have so little sleep that I had better pack everything now and be ready. So I spent twenty odd minutes getting everything possible picked up and packed and only the bare necessities for tomorrow morning left out. Had all my clothes ready to go and everything. I got to bed at a quarter after two and my alarm was set for five minutes before four. A very short night indeed.
I will be driving to San Jose airport first thing in the morning. Then dropping off the rental. Flight to Phoenix. Layover (short.) Flight to DFW and back home around two tomorrow afternoon.