Another Visit Home

Last weekend I went home for an extended stay. Okay, it was only a single extra day, but Julia and I have found it really makes a difference. Taking Monday off and flying back Tuesday seems to give us enough time to both get things done and relax -- now I just have to figure out how to do those things plus see some friends. I haven't had any real quality time with my friends for, well, about a year and a half. Ugh.

Since they redesigned the San Jose airport, I've had to leave a bit earlier than before, which means I arrive in Seattle early enough to have dinner with the little lady. This month, like the last couple, we stopped at Genki Sushi in Renton. I'd ordered an anniversary cake from Jen and she was nice enough to drive down to visit with us and visit for a few minutes. I'd told Julia about it ahead of time, just so the handoff was easier -- she loved the sentiment, loved the cake, and loved telling her family about it later in the weekend.

Friday we were up early to meet Julia's mom to buy me some new clothes -- for the interview I had the following Monday along with a few other shirts and such. Then Julia and I ran a couple of other errands and picked up the makings of a compost bin we'd planned to build this weekend. That went very well, actually, and I managed to dig the holes, plant the posts, wind the chicken wire around it, and staple it into place in about two hours that afternoon. Here are the end results!

The posts are just in dirt, so they're not super sturdy, but they're buried about a foot deep and don't have to stand up to too much abuse, so they should be good. It's hard to tell from this image, but the bin on the left is the "raw" compost (hidden under some loose dirt we threw in there) and the bin on the right is pretty much all dirt (except for a pretty beat up cardboard box that I threw in on Julia's say so). Over the course of the weekend we added a bunch of coffee grounds we picked up from Starbucks. The biggest thing we need to find for these is dead leaves. We don't have a lot of mature trees in the area, so they're hard to come by, but necessary for good compost. Anyway, we were very pleased with how these turned out.

Saturday was Julia's family reunion, which was held at her parents' place. We arrived around ten-ish for a late breakfast and stayed most of the day. We talked to everyone, celebrated birthday for me and an uncle, then celebrated anniversaries for Julia and I and an aunt and uncle. We played with the kids a lot, too, which was fun, made s'mores, and generally socialized.

Sunday we must have worked in the garden, because the only thing I can remember specifically doing Sunday is going to eat at a bar in downtown Renton called "A Terrible Beauty." It's an English pub-style place and it had some very tasty food for us. Yeah, we must have worked in the yard. I'm pretty sure I mowed the lawn Sunday, too. (I saw quite a few grasshoppers and little frogs in the grass, too!)

Monday was my birthday, but I had an interview to go to at 10 o'clock, so I was up, dressed, fed, and out the door relatively quickly so I could make it over to the foot of Lake Union for my appointment. That went well, but I heard a couple of days later that they decided to hold off on filling the position for a few months at least. They did, however, really like me and will contact me if and when that position opens up. As for the rest of the day, we ran some errands, cleaned up, and relaxed. Oh, I also think I broke our vacuum, so next time I'm home I have to open it up and fix it.

There you go! A long post about my birthday weekend -- and anniversary weekend, since that was July 26th.

Hopefully I'll have some more things to write about soon. But really, after that compost bin thing, I mean, how can I top that?