I have the movie “The Three Musketeers”playing in the background. The one starring Keifer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen and Rebecca de Mornay. Movies are more fun sometimes if you only hear the sound. It is super hot today and I am close to having another brain resembles grilled cheese moment!

Why? Well, I made it through the first round interview and tomorrow is the second round, the technical. In addition to the technical side of it, I also need to have a short presentation prepared on the topic so they can see what my stage presence is like. Unfortunately, it is not going to be as fantastic as these women .  Unlike Yvonne and Helen, who we saw in their wonderful strangeness at De Parade this past weekend, I can only wish I could achieve this sort of diva fabulousness.

Marianne and I have a yearly tradition of going at least one night together to De Parade every year – we then usually go again with other people. Saturday was our night. The weather was sunny and great and we sat on an unused stage with a bottle of wine (or two) and GG. It remains one of my favorite experiences of summer in the Netherlands – it must because we go year after year 🙂

Vacation is fast approaching, hence the swimup bar reference. Of course, now I am waffling and coming up with all kinds of puritanical reasons about why I don’t really need to go. I’ll let those thoughts run riot in my head and not actually act on them. We leave on Saturday and I really need to get smarter and actually take some days off before I leave. Oh well, remind me of that for next year 😉

I also had the guilty pleasure of going to a TributeParty in a village outside of Nijmegen on Saturday. A tribute party is basically a concert performed by cover bands. It is a big phenomen here. Sunday’s cover bands were Dire Straits, Beach Boys and Bon Jovi. I will admit this here, the Bon Jovi cover band was excellent… I know, I know. I was transported back to the 8th grade and rocking out. That’s what happens when you spend a great deal of time with someone who is a musician (GG). It rained buckets but they had the good sense to have an enormous industrial tent and other than getting muddy feet, it was a pretty good evening. I did realize something – the village life is definitely not for me. I am a big city person and I don’t see myself moving out of Amsterdam to the countryside any time soon. 😉

Today I was in Apeldoorn for a customer meeting. Tomorrow, the big interview and several other meetings. Friday is the day where it all has to come together in terms of finishing everything up for work.

Henry is doing fine. It turns out his back toenails had grown really quickly and he needed a pedicure. He didn’t care much for that experience but he was quickly back to his old self. Both boys are sitting here looking up at me and waiting for their tortilla with the sad eyes that only they can get away with.