My time away

I was away 11 days – and I haven’t blogged since 2 days before that. I’m so lazy – and I was so busy. My trip to the US was great. I was greeted by beautiful weather (on the first Saturday it topped out at 102) and very high pollen counts. After 3 hot days the mercury fell pleasantly to the 80’s and the Claritin kicked in so I could breathe. Pippin was very happy to see me. He seems just the same – and even still listens to me. How fantastic!

I got home midday on Thursday – mom was a little late to the airport – so had time to go and get an Almond Croissant at the airport Beaverton Bakery. We shared it on the way home – she was a little mad (but not really) at me for buying it. If you haven’t seen my mom lately – she looks PHENOMENAL! I really need to get my rear in gear – she has proven that the Holbrook (that’s my mom’s maiden name) thighs will shrink. I have new hope. I got home and worked for a couple of hours (it was a really crazy week to be away from the office – so I worked a lot in the early mornings – unusual for me). Rebecca had set up a fabulous meet for a handful of friends at Costa Vida for dinner. The food was great – but the friends were really the highlight. Rebecca was leaving for a week on Friday afternoon – so we also packed in a Friday lunch to catch up a little. I miss her a lot. It was good to talk.
On Friday I also had an appointment for my eyebrows – always a must when I go home – so I am sure that my friends thought that I was a hairy monster when they saw me – but by Friday morning I was all cleaned up. I had a phone interview on Friday afternoon. The woman that I was to speak with was in an outpatient surgery clinic where her husband was having a plate removed from his shoulder. While we were speaking said plate was handed to her by the surgeon and she said “can you hold on for a minute?” A very rhetorical question.

Friday night I saw Wanted with Christy – extremely violent and kind of a mind trip. It was hard to watch a lot of it. On Saturday morning I went to Christy’s yoga class with her and got very stretched out – and felt it for the next 2 days.

Rachel and Kathy were away at Grandma’s in California until Sunday night – so I mostly spent the rest of Saturday with dad (including finding a gelato place too close to their house). I walked the dog a lot. I went to 2 wards worth of church on Sunday – and that was nice.

I set up pedicures for all of the Foulger women on Monday. It was nice to be pampered. And then I had Pizza (@ Schmizza) with Jennifer. Yum-O! I love Pizza Schmizza – even when my favorite (Zorba Chicken) is not on the menu. My feet are fabulous and soft and the massage and paraffin was just a bonus. I think that everyone had a good time.

Then on Monday night I was lucky enough to get in to a stylist to get my hair cut. I love it. I basically just got a trim on my last cut (which is an awesome layered razor cut) with highlights (which I really needed). It is super cute curly too - if I can managed not to touch it (and make it frizzy) during the day.
On Tuesday I had my interviews (and a lot of work to get done for my real job). I had 30 minute interviews with 3 people, and then an hour lunch with the manager for the job. I really liked all of the people – although interviews always feel a little strange to me. I was told that a decision would be made on Wednesday or Thursday last week, but that they’d wait until after the holiday to share the decision with the candidates. I was the only candidate with Intel experience – for a job that is incredibly rare at Intel. In some ways it was the perfect job. Sadly, I just got the news that it went to someone else. :( So now I am back on the job hunt and just grateful that I got to go home for a visit. I am kind of bewildered with the whole thing. I did find another job that makes sense to apply to - so that is good.

Tuesday night was set apart by Pub Quiz. I went with Kathy and a couple other friends (and a couple) of strangers(to me – not to the rest of the team) and did our best to answer questions around the 4th of July theme. We got 2nd place by 2 points – because we didn’t risk all of our points. Live and learn. We came away with a grand cash prize that paid for some of dinner. :) Always good.

Wednesday morning was full of work and then a long walk with Pippin and Kathy. Then we went to Panera Bread to meet up with an old colleague who had a baby last year and left Intel to be a stay-at-home-mom – lucky her. :)

Thursday was fun times - a doctor's appointment with a friend (fun to see her though) and then a quick soup lunch - and then a couple of hours doing hard labor with Rachel and Mom weeding. I had patio duty picking out the weeds from between the stones. It was a big patio. My knees still are bothering me from the kneeling and my hands hurts for a couple of days from the picking (reminded me of removing staples) - and - I put a whole in the pointer finger of Rach's fabulous pink gloves (sorry Rach).

Friday was one of my favorite holidays - the 4th of July. It started off with a church breakfast which I took Pippin to (he was brilliantly behaved). Then we (mom, dad and I) hurried home to meet up with everyone before heading up to Golf-o-Rama at the fabulous SteakBurger in Hazel Dell, Washington. My dad won, but I was just behind him by 1 point. I got 2 hole-in-1s. We followed up the golfing with well deserved ice cream - I got a small cone with choc/vanilla twist. Mom shared her fresh banana shake with everyone. Yum.

I turn 30 this Friday - just 1 week after the 4th. So since I was in town I got to choose a place to have a birthday meal. Really the only day that would work for us was Friday - so I opted for lunch (as to not interfere with everyones fireworks plans). I picked Chevy's - which is apparently what I picked my first days back from China too. Don't take that yummy Tex-Mex taste for granted - it is a west coast specialty. I throroughly enjoyed my tamale and soft taco - and of course the super yummy tamatilla (or sweet corn cake).

We had a yummy BBQ a la mom and dad. My dad is one good watermelon picker. Yum. After dinner I gave Pip a bath - he was so traumatized. I need to get him back into that routine. But if I though the bath was upsetting I was soon to discover a catatonic dog. He was very upset by the fireworks. Mostly, he hid inside under mom's legs. Poor guy. We had a huge middle of the night thunder storm during the week (I think on Wednesday) that woke everyone up at 2:30am, and Pip was hardly phased - so I didn't expect the fireworks to cause so much grief - but we had some morons on the street with some huge sky rockets. Earlier in the day I spent $4 on 2 packs (of 3 each - can you believe how expensive?) of Crazy Eyeballs - my favorite fireworks. They are like the old Camilla Flowers, but with a Crazy Groundhog finishing touch. :) But we had some super old fireworks to get rid of - surprisingly they all worked. Good times.

I flew back mid day on Saturday, and got home mid day on Sunday. Then I drove into London to drop some American goodies off with Ginger. Then I drove through the heavy rain and walked in my door at about 5pm. I was able to watch the 4th and 5th sets of the Men's Wimbledon Final - including the crazy 4th set tie-breaker, 2nd rain delay and long 5th set (where there are no tie breakers). It was a GREAT match-up. I was pulling for Federer to get his 6th, but Nadal had a great tournament.

Now I just have to beat the jetlag and get back to normal - except that I will be 30 within days. Maybe it will be a new normal. I'll be celebrating the milestone in Bruges - which is in Belgium if you don't know (like I didn't). Yahoo! I can't wait.