Bay Area

On Monday I flew into San Francisco for a workshop in Berkeley Tuesday and Wednesday. Grad school friend Lisa picked me up at the airport and we had a tasty dinner together and caught up. Afterward, she was nice enough to drive me to UC Berkeley where I was staying.

The workshop was busy and I learned a lot and met some good people. Wednesday evening, I took the BART back into San Francisco and step sister Tessa picked me up to bring me back to her family's house. I got to meet Tessa's and Spero's 2.5 month old boy Leander (before Mom and Elroy got to; they will be there this weekend!). He is very cute and pretty quiet! It was great to see them all and chat, and they even fed me dinner and I stayed the night. Thursday morning, Tessa took me to the airport and I headed back to Austin.

He slept on my lap!

Old Mt Si Trail

Old Si

Here are the pictures from the hike with Bernard at Mt. Si. I am still just a little bit sore from it!

End of time in Seattle, for now

Kyle and I hiked up Mt Si via the old trail on Sunday with our hiking buddy Bernard. It was great to catch up and a truly beautiful hike and day. The trees were full of moss and the light came through the trees in a really pretty way, plus we even had some views! The pictures are still being processed by yours truly and I will post them when I am finished with that.

After the hike, we picked up Bernard's wife Jenna and had a late lunch at Uneedaburger in Fremont, which is Bernard's favorite burger place. We all enjoyed our food and chatted more before parting ways until next time.

After that, we met up with Erin for a little bit at Vivacci's for a cup of coffee (or ginger cider, in my case!) and some chatting. It was great to see her again before we left.

The rest of the evening was full of packing and preparing to leave, doing chores like laundry, and trying to set Mom and Elroy up as much as we could on their respective devices.

Today, Monday, Elroy and I dropped Kyle off at the airport to head back to Austin, then I went to Vince and Michell's. We got to catch up a little bit more, then Vince and I met up with Dad for lunch, and then Vince dropped me off at the airport for my flight to California. I flew into SFO in San Francisco for a workshop that is Tuesday and Wednesday at UC Berkeley. Lisa picked me up from the airport and we tried a a tasty Mexican place called Nopalito, where we ate and caught up some more. She was nice enough to drive me to Berkeley afterward. I am staying at the Faculty Club here, which is an on-campus hotel run by the university, I think. It is reasonably priced and seems nice so far! The campus and the whole area has been beautiful so far, too. I was excited for a run in the morning to explore more, but I have discovered that I do not have my running pants with me, which means they are either in Seattle or in Austin with Kyle. Either way, I guess I will just go on a walk in the morning.

It was hard leaving Seattle, and hard parting ways with Kyle at the same time too, but I am glad to see people in California, and I am also enjoying the beautiful Bay Area!

Anthony's for Kyle's birthday!

Group Shot!

We all went out for dinner Saturday night as an early celebration of Kyle's birthday. We enjoyed our food at Anthony's, as always! Michael Christenson even was in town and we were able to catch up a little bit.

Meet up with Dad, Jan, and Grandmother!

We met up with Dad, Jan, and Grandmother at Elliott's on Lake City for a snack and a drink on Saturday! It was great to have another opportunity to get together and catch up. Dad and Jan had just seen "Life of Pi" and it sounds like it was a great movie! Today was Grandfather's birthday, but he stayed at home napping.

Games!

In the days after Thanksgiving, Kyle and I played games with people! Vince and Michell stayed at Mom and Elroy's house from Thursday through Sunday so we had lots of time together. The four of us played games along with Eric and Teri, who came by. Mom and Elroy played Hand and Foot with the four of us and beat us all! Usually Vince and Kyle go up against Michell and me, and the ladies usually win! Mom and Elroy came out ahead in this case, though. We also saw Skyfall, the new James Bond movie, which was quite enjoyable.

Hand and Foot!

The final numbers

This is what it looks like when we play board games

Thanksgiving!!!!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love sitting around, eating, talking, and enjoying the company of my friends and family. I got to soak up a lot of all of that throughout our time in Seattle this week, and especially on Thanksgiving! We had lots of good food and love to go around, and plenty of fun, too. Also, Kyle's shirt got dirty. You'll see what I mean in the slideshow.

Thanksgiving

Wednesday: more work and dinner with Leah and Brian

Tasty crepes!!

Also: tasty dinner!

Kyle and I worked at 3rd Place books for the day and then met up with Mom and Elroy for dinner at Ivars. Elroy's daughter Leah and her family were coming through town for the holiday, and it was great to catch up a little!

Tuesday activities

Tuesday Kyle and I got a good run in (View Ridge loop!) and then set about getting some work done. We worked at Cafe Javasti and enjoyed the cute shop along with tasty crepes and coffee.

In the evening, we met up with Alec and Hadar at Boom Noodle for a drink and a snack. It was great to see them, and a little weird for both of us since we know each other just from being in Austin together, but they have moved back to Seattle now. Three different establishments that we considered going to for the occasion have closed. Apparently the U Village is a tough place to stay as a business!

After that, Kyle and I moved to 3rd Place Pub to do a little work and then catch up with Michael, which was fun, as always! 3rd Place is another favorite place of ours so it was great to be back there.

More Monday activities

Kyle and I saw my dad for part of the afternoon to catch up a little bit, and I also got my ears repierced! I haven't had to take care of newly pierced ears for a long time, so it makes me feel kind of young doing it again.

After we parted ways with Dad and Jan, Kyle and I briefly met up with some friends at the College Inn. Kyle spent the evening with Nicholas, eating pizza and playing video games. I spent the evening with Martha, eating Thai food and catching up and then ice cream at Molly Moon's! It was wonderful to see so many great people today.

Our old haunt. Feels like home!

Salted caramel and chocolate ice cream!

Visit with Fr. Angelovic!

Blurry picture after lunch

Kyle and I met up with Fr. Angelovic Monday morning to catch up and talk about his new iPad! I think that Fr. has already been doing lots of stuff with it, and knows a little more about it now. We even had a nice lunch at the cafe below Fr's apartment.

Vince's birthday!

Vince's birthday

The family celebrated Vince's birthday on Sunday at Vince and Michell's! It was a lovely and tasty family dinner, and great to see the family.

Faux giving!

Faux Giving

Kyle and I flew up to Seattle Thursday evening and drove out to Snoqualmie Pass to a rental house Friday afternoon for a weekend of cooking and eating and catching up with friends. The annual weekend trip has been dubbed "Faux-giving." Kyle cooks the turkey and many of the others cook many tasty dishes to share for the weekend. It is always a great time! There was even some snow Sunday morning.

Date Night!

Last night, Kyle and I spent some time together paying specific attention to each other instead of each being on our laptops. It was really nice! We are used to usually getting some work done in the evenings, and it was a nice change to put it all away and just spend time together. Kyle made a tasty spaghetti dinner while I worked on the rest of the thank you cards from the wedding at the bar by the kitchen so that we could chat! Then we actually ate dinner at the dining room table, and then played a game together! It was a very pleasant evening.

Today we have been packing and preparing for our trip to Seattle. We're really excited to see our Pacific Northwest friends and family again!!!!

New Texas Activity: western Barton green belt and magnolia cafe

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Interesting patterns in the rock near Sculpture Falls (sans the water)

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A parasitic plant on some grass in the riverbed

Kyle and I went for a hike along an urban green belt in Austin this morning with Kristina and Dave. It was fun to catch up, and then we had breakfast afterward at Magnolia Cafe. It was pretty warm out, but some of the leaves are finally changing colors!

Dinner with Casey and Lindsey

Pretty tablecloth from France

Cake balls!

Kyle made a double batch of his delicious beef stir fry for dinner along with a mushroom soup. We had a nice time with Casey and Lindsey, eating, chatting, and playing Bang. We got to use a lovely table cloth that mom and Elroy got us in France this summer. Also shown: candle stick holders from Hans and Margit from Denmark!

Our guests brought up some tasty cake balls as a gift and we are enjoying them very much!

New recipe: Lemon yogurt mousse with blueberry sauce

Casey, another postdoc in Kyle's department, and his wife, Lindsey, are coming over for dinner tonight. I decided to try a new recipe from the healthy America's Test Kitchen for dessert. This seems sort of French inspired since I had to whip things up and it was a bit complicated but it seems to have worked out! Looking forward to trying to tonight.

Kyle is making a bunch of his delicious broccoli and beef stir fry for dinner!

Interesting bed

Kyle is with me in College Station this week to work through tomorrow and it's been fun to show him around a bit!

A bad side of that is that the air mattress, which had already blown out a few of its things that keep it bed-shaped, is extra hard to sleep on with two people instead of just me. Then today I filled it with some more air after a rather uncomfortable night last night, and then it blew out some more! Hopefully these pictures capture some of the ridiculousness.

Wreck-It Ralph!!

Go see it! Really fun movie!!! Marc is in the credits twice!

Pictures from the Star Trek TNG Reunion!!

I bought some special tickets for Kyle and me to go to the Austin Comic Convention recently as an early birthday present for Kyle. It was supposed to be a surprise, but Kyle eventually found out about the event so I told him a week or two beforehand.

We had a great time! We got to meet all of the cast members on this 25th anniversary of the start of the show. We had pictures with them and got autographs, and were allowed to get better seats than the other people at the event. We were in the very front for each! It was really fun to see the cast members up close and a great opportunity.

Star Trek Convention

More tasty food!

Kyle made a skillet shepherd's pie recipe from the healthy America's Test Kitchen cookbook, and it was really good! It has a comfort food taste but also really good flavor.

Some cooking!

Last weekend, Kyle and I went to the Austin Comic Convention. I will post pictures from that soon. But, after the convention, we did a little cooking. We made brown rice, sesame, spinach, and scallion pancakes, which have a nice texture but not enough flavor. We think they need a tasty sauce. I also made some pumpkin muffins, which are ok but not amazing.