Golf: competition for the wafer mirror

I finally picked up my golf clubs this week after they have been sitting around the house for quite some time. I went out to a small golf course called Bradshaw Ranch with my friend James, which was just a 3 par course, good for my first trip golfing again.

Before we headed off to the course, I had to eat some of my roommates jello cake that he had made. This was a completely new experience for me, and let me say it was quite the delicious cake! For those of you who do not know what jello cake is, here are some simple ingredients for jello cake:

Raspberry Chocolate:

- Chocolate cake mix

- Raspberry jello

- Cool whip

Orange Cream:

- White cake mix

- Orange jello

- Cool whip

All you have to do is bake the cake in a big pan like normal, cook the jello like normal, poke a few holes in the cake and pour the jello on top and let it sit in the fridge for 4 hours. Once that's done, Frost the cake with Cool whip and you've got yourself a great dessert.

After cake, James and I took off for golf. We had made a bet before going to spice up the game a bit. If I beat James, I would get his wafer mirror (it's a small silicon disk I really wanted). If he won, I'd buy the pitcher at the bar for trivia night.

Started out a little rough, missing the greens here and there, but at hole 3, a miracle happened. I hit my first birdie! I chipped it in from a muddy surface with my pitching wedge, and I swear it was pure luck. That will never happen again, but for the moment, I was so happy. What do you think of that, Dad? Other than that, I made one other par, and the rest were either 4's or 6's. Rough day.

Strangely enough, the game ended in a tie. No beautiful wafer mirror for me, no pitcher of beer for James. Oh well...maybe I'll get that wafer mirror next week if we play again.

Soaking up the sun in Santa Cruz

Went down to Santa Cruz this weekend with a whole bunch of people. My friend Ajay from Intel's Hudson site set up a trip with a few of his friends and invited me along, and I in turn invited my roommates and our friends. We started the trip a lot later than I would have liked; it takes about 2 hours and 40 minutes to get down to Santa Cruz, and we hit more than enough traffic.

So one of the missions for Santa Cruz was for Max to get out and surf some waves, which he did. Rented this beautiful blue surfboard, wetsuit, and rocked on with his bad self. He was braver than me, hell no would I get in waves that size. Maybe next time. Stephen and I watched from the sidelines and cheered him on.



After the surfing experience, we made our way back to the blanket on the beach to get some food grilled up. Ajay's group took some time to get out to Santa Cruz, so we had to wait for them to get the grill. Because we got to the beach so late, it really started to get cooler. I didn't bring a jacket, so I ended up just buying a cute new one at a store on the boardwalk.

Went in the water a few times, and it was still so freaking cold! It felt good to be in the ocean again, but this part of the beach had a lot of sea weed and sand in the water. I was shaking sand out of my hair all night.

After some grilling of delicious hamburgers, the boys started up a football game and invited us along. It was pretty fun, made some game changing catches and got tackled here and there. Just some good old beach football.


It started getting dark, and we were tired out from the games and just goofing off in the sand. By around 10 PM, we called it a night, packed up our gear, and headed back to the van for the long ride home. I requested a short walk along the water, and everyone agreed to it. It was nice to hear the ocean while walking along it at night; reminded me of Maine.

Road Trip: Pacific Coast Highway, Monterey, and Hearst Castle

Now to continue on with the road trip!

After leaving the lighthouse, we made our way to the most expensive gas in the world. Pumped in a couple gallons to get us to a more reasonably priced gas station. The drive to the Pacific Coast Highway ended up being pretty beautiful in itself. The roads were windy, and the forest around us smelled amazing and had huge trees. We eventually made it to San Fransisco, and started our drive down the PCH.


I decided to let John and David take the wheel for this ride. I wanted to enjoy the scenery, and the boys just really wanted to drive fast along the windy road.

The beginning of the PCH wasn't too exciting; we were inland most of the time. We grabbed lunch real quickly and continued back on the road to Monterey.


Monterey was nice. Lots of boats and good places to grab chowder. Stephen, John, David and I grabbed a bread bowl of chowder and sucked it down so fast! It was delicious. We also saw pelicans and seals and sea otters, and got a wonderful picture of me as a proud mother...



After about an hour or so in Monterey, we piled back in the van for a few more hours down the coast. Let me tell you, the PCH is one of the scariest roads I have ever been on! David drove the rest of the way, and did a good job. One side of the road is a rockface straight up, the other side, cliffs down to the ocean. The drive would have definitely been more fun in a sports car, but the mini van did its job.






Just a little goofing off with my roommates. Max wasn't there though! We missed him!



Along the highway, people were stopping with their campers to set up for the night and watch the sunset along the coast. We drove as far as we could before we decided on the perfect location to watch the sunset. This was the first time I have ever seen the sunset over the ocean...it rises in the east!


My absolute favorite picture of the trip. John, Tori, and David enjoying the sunset from the top of the van. I totally have more appreciation for the mini van after this trip.


Only about an hour left on the road, and we finally made it to Cambria. We found ourselves a sweet hotel room with three beds! Enough for everyone to have some sleeping space. Another night of hanging out with a few drinks and good times.

We started our day going out to breakfast, and made it to Hearst Castle just in time to catch the bus for the five mile journey up the hillside. Hearst Castle was like nothing I have ever seen before. William Hearst, or "The Chief", built this paradise by importing materials that were hundreds of years old from Europe.



I will be basing my house off of the design of this place...



Don't I look nice with my new indoor pool and 22 carat gold tiled floor? I think so. I could get used to that lifestyle.

This was an amazing trip. I had so much fun with everyone and enjoyed every second of it. The sights were like nothing I have seen before. I will definitely try to make that drive again!

Road Trip: Days Inn and Point Reyes

This road trip made me realize just how stunning California is. The drive down the coastal highway 1 made me see how much the scenery of California can change!

The trip included me, my roommates John and Stephen, Tori, Leilani, and David. We started out Friday night after work and cruised on down towards San Fransisco. By around 9PM, we found ourselves at a Days Inn, about an hour away from our first stop, Point Reyes. We made the best of the night in our small room, enjoying a few beers, infomercials, and the beautiful Snuggie; props to Stephen.


We managed to get to bed at a reasonable hour in order to get up early enough to see the fog rolling over the foothills first thing in the morning. We piled in the mini van and made our way down to Point Reyes.

The drive out was out of this world. All of a sudden, we are driving for miles and miles, surrounded by fog and cows in fields. Happy cows really do come from California! After miles and miles on this road, we finally made it to Point Reyes. The scary thing was having only about 1/4 of a tank of gas to get back to society, but we managed. Point Reyes has a lighthouse on the coast of California. The scenery was beautiful...


...once the fog cleared.


The lighthouse opened up around 10PM, so we hiked around the area , and managed to see all sorts of plants and wildlife. This little guy below was on the hunt, running back and forth between his hole and this shrub. The deer in the area were not scared of people at all, I was able to walk within a few yards of them before they even flinched.




Eventually, we were able to walk to the lighthouse. Walking up the road wasn't bad, but walking down the 305 stairs took some time. It was so worth it though, the lighthouse was beautiful!




The sound of the fog horn was quite soothing; David and I both agreed on that one. It was chilly out down at the lighthouse since we were so close to the water. It was just relaxing being there, other than climbing back up the hundreds of stairs.


Once we finished the climb back up, we took a breather (literally). 305 stairs definitely took the wind out of me, and John and Stephen raced almost all the way up them. No thanks I'd rather just hike up slowly.

We made our way back to the mini van and hopped in to start our journey first for gas, then to drive down the Pacific Coast Highway.

The journey down the coast of California will be updated by tomorrow!

While at work...

So Intel is growing on me. Maybe I will want a job here after I graduate, especially at the Folsom site.

I really like the whole free fruit and free beverages deal. I just had the most fantastic peach (those are hard to come by). The fruit that is typically out are bananas, apples of all sorts, pears, and oranges, but when the peaches and plums come out, man you have to stock up!

Another thing that's sweet is the flexibility, like when I show up to work, being able to take breaks online (what I am doing now), and wearing whatever I feel like. No dress pants or dress shirt for me!

Lastly, and most importantly, the benefits. Intel has all sorts of health benefits that would be really helpful to have. The vacation time is also good, I think its 4 weeks every year, and then every 7 years you've been at Intel, you get an extra 8 weeks off! Holy Sabbatical! I could handle that...Having a free gym on site with basketball, volleyball, and all sorts of other fields is nice too.

The only downside I can really think of is working for such a HUGE corporation. A lot of people don't like working for such a large company. I don't know if I would mind that, as long as I can move around to different groups when I feel that it's time to try a new job.

Back to work I go.

Weekend in review

Had a great weekend! Friday was a glorious day. First week down, so many to go. I am actually almost done my script, and my mentor was quite impressed! He thought it was going to take me longer to learn Perl, but I am picking it up pretty quickly.

This weekend, we went out to the local bars in downtown Folsom (Old Folsom). It looks like a scene out of an old western movie! That part of town looks like an old western town! I think of Johnny Cash when I'm down there, and Folsom Prison Blues! I have driven by Folsom prison, but cannot see it; there's too many fields around. I can't believe that I thought Folsom prison was in Texas. aye.

The bars we went to were Scarlets and Powerhouse. It was a great time, but the scene was definitely older. I think that was half the fun! Saturday, we went to Paint Me Mine, a little pottery painting place down the street from Intel. It brought me back to when I did that when I was younger. I painted a cereal bowl, and it came out quite nicely!


Saturday night we hung out at the house, a few people came over and chilled. Sunday was the best, we all went go kart racing! I didn't do too well, but it was really fun. We ended up getting a membership, so we're definitely going to go more.


I made a video for everyone to see what my house and my neighborhood looks like. I love it. I've had so much fun in the first week of being here.



One day at work was a little bit boring, so I decided to write a list of some of the things I want to do while I am out here. Please leave comments with more things I should do! Some things I have already done, but want to do again.

1. Visit San Francisco
2. In-n-Out Burger (Went with my roommates Thursday night!)
3. Visit Greta
4. Visit Carrie
5. See Chelsey
6. Drink wine in Lodi
7. Visit Tahoe
8. Snowboard at Tahoe
9. See the Giant Redwoods
10. Go hiking and camping in the mountains
11. Surf
12. Travel to Las Vegas
13. Run the Malibu 1/2 Marathon
14. Visit Folsom Prison
15. Hike Half Dome in Yosemite

Also, here's a picture of what the area looks like around my neighborhood:


The field area has lots of bike paths around it. I went for a run on them the other day. Everyone around Folsom bikes. There are specific lanes in the road just for bicyclists! Maybe I'll pick up a bike up off of Craigslist to join in on the fun. There's a beautiful lake here in Folsom, which I've been swimming in. It's really quite big and pretty! The river from it is beautiful too. All of Folsom is really nice, but the 100 degree weather is something to get used to!

Quick update

Due to lack of internet at my house, I am currently writing this blog at work, so it will have to be quick!

Sorry for no recent updates...I should be back online tomorrow (hopefully!) with a video of my house and an update of all the fun things I've been doing!

NAND Flash is cool

Today was my first day of work at Intel in Folsom, CA. I made it to work right on time for orientation (7:45am) to sign papers to prove that I am a citizen, I understand the rules of Intel, and so on. Orientation got out early because NEO was not scheduled; I will be taking that next Monday.

My hiring manager was off on vacation, so I met with my manager that I report to, Thamir. He introduced me to two of the guys that I will be working with, Matt and Ben, and they took me to a meeting that they were heading to. I had no idea what was going on during the meeting, but it was something to do. I will mostly be working with Matt, who has been at Intel for about a year now. It will be nice working with someone who is closer to my age.

After the meeting, Matt took me down to the lab to explain some of the equipment and how it works. It was all a little bit confusing, but I was mostly able to follow what he was explaining to me. As of now, I will mostly be working on writing scripts for some of the test equipment. I will be using Perl to write scripts, which is a programming language I have not used before, so it will be something new to learn!

Also, Intel's Folsom site is HUGE! Much bigger than MMDC in Hudson, MA. There are 7 buildings on site, all connected. I work in FM3, while my roommates work in FM5. It is a bit of a hike to get over there to see them. I hope I can learn my way around this place!

Living in California

So I am officially living in California. Right now I am just chilling with my new roommates: Stephen, John, and Max, and we're just watching The Simpsons. So far I love it here. My roommates are great, but they cannot replace my lovely ladies from 65 Hillside. Miss them.

Friday was my flight out, and it was such a long day. I left at 10 AM and flew to Phoenix, and 5 hours was too long. I was ADDing the entire time. My plane was in Phoenix for about an hour and I was happy to stretch my legs. That's also when I saw the news and found out Sarah Palin is resigning. Made me laugh.

I landed in Sacramento around 3:20 PM, and pants were a bad idea. It was so hot! All my roommates came to pick me up and I really appreciated that. The drive was so nice; it's beautiful out here! Everything is so different from back home, and one thing I noticed right away...it's not raining! Sleep didn't happen on Friday night. My roommates threw me a little welcoming party (with a cake and everything!) and invited some friends over. It's nice to meet some of the other interns. Everyone is really nice.

Saturday was another busy day. Happy Fourth of July in San Francisco! The drive is a little long, but doable. I liked driving through the foothills; first time I saw those and they were lovely. San Francisco is beautiful and it reminded me a bit of Boston. Got to see the Golden Gate Bridge, and that is quite a sight! Got plenty of pictures that I will put up eventually. I met up with my friend Eric who joined us and the other Intel interns for dinner and the fireworks. The fireworks were beautiful, but Boston's over the Charles wins. Fell asleep for the ride home.


Today was more about settling in. Big Red made it out to California in one piece, but it is so dirty! Once I had my car, it was off to the mattress store to pick up my bed. I am so happy to not sleep on the couch again. Assembled the bed with the help of my roommates, and started to put my bedroom together. All I need is a desk and I'm all moved in.


Headed to Folsom Lake today to catch some sun and chill out in the water. It was nice, but they are developing around the lake and that's not too pretty. There's a dam also that we drove by. Had my first corn dog too! It was delicious.

As for now, I am nervous about starting work. I have to find what entrance I am going to, and I hate having to meet people for the first time. The first day of work is always uncomfortable. I should probably start preparing for the first day and get some rest!