Texas living

Sorry to have left you hanging after that last post where we jumped in the car to head east and then were never heard from again. We made it to Austin and have been busy getting settled here in our corporate housing. Which is a shame since they kick us out next week! But anyway it has been an eventful month and so far Texas is treating us just fine.


The trip from SF to Austin took three days, with stops in Flagstaff, Amarillo and Dallas. Highlights were eating at the Red Lobster and the Olive Garden...sadly we weren't able to make it to a Chili's to complete the trifecta.



Greg was our modern day welcome wagon, escorting us directly to the nearest Mexican food restaurant for margaritas and queso.



After all of about 12 hours in Austin we hopped in the car to head to Louisiana for Clay's cousin Caroline's wedding, which was just beautiful. Here are Clay and his brother Chris, coordinating wonderfully with their wedding gifts.

We also got to visit Lawson in New Orleans and eat at Restaurant August, which was amazing. If you go to NOLA, eat there. Seriously.



Once we'd logged 3,000 miles onto the odometer it was time to settle in and send Clay off to work. Here he is the morning of his first day.



And here he is that evening, officially a corporate citizen.



Like a good little Austinite I went right over to the DMV and got new Texas plates. No of course we haven't put them on the car yet but that's not the point.



We also got to visit all of our things which are in storage.



Apparently we have four crates, and they seem huge until you think about how your sofa, bed, table, etc. etc. are all crammed in.



And lastly, on Monday Clay uploaded his thesis and now he is officially done with school! Everything has been written, signed off on, updated, uploaded and sent off into some special, special place at Stanford where they keep their most prized works of art. It was actually really, really exciting and everyone is very pleased with his work, so well done Clay!

Hump party

And so, after all of the moving chaos we found ourselves with one last afternoon in San Francisco, a bunch of friends that we wanted to see before we left, a 30-pack of Miller Lite, a small bag of Fritos, a box of kosher salt, a bottle of soy sauce, a bottle of balsamic vinegar and some Corn Flakes. Our apartment was almost completely empty but luckily for our guests there is a window seat type thingy, known as "the hump", that runs the entire length of the apartment, so no one had to sit on the floor. Everyone came over to help us out with the Miller Lite situation and a nice time was had by all.

Simon came first and this gave us time to argue about whether or not the hump was intended as a style element or if it actually hides pipes or something.


Kim and Jim brought a back of SunChips, which was super appreciated by all as apparently our spread of Fritos and Corn Flakes was a bit underwhelming.


Kerry and Tim, cute as ever!


Liz W. was tempted to adopt the bottle of balsamic vinegar and it looked like it was going to be a great match, but Pete was about to take her out for her birthday and in the end she decided she didn't want to be lugging around a bottle of vinegar on her romantic birthday evening. Somehow I managed to not get a photo of Pete and Liz, but as luck would have it we have this older photo of them posing in front of the hump! Pay no attention to the bunny ears in the background...


Liz P. and Bart stretched out and made good use of the hump space in the living room. Liz, btw, declined to adopt the soy sauce or Fritos because of high sodium, but then agreed to take the box of salt. I know, right? And worst of all she forgot it and the salt ended up in the trash the next morning with everything else. May that rest on your conscious forever, Liz!


And here we are! For the record we did finish the Miller Lite, and only then allowed everyone to head up to the pub up the street for some real food. And then the next morning we piled into the Xterra and headed east...

Moving

Before


During


After

A few random things that we'll miss about San Francisco

When not working on our thesis (Clay) and trying to stay out of the movers' way (LL) we have been making our way around the city trying to enjoy San Francisco as much as possible before our big move to Austin. Here are a couple of completely random things that I'll miss about life in SF:


SF soup company. All they have is soup, and really what more do you need in a restaurant when it is 57 degrees in July?



The dry cleaners up the street. It is fantastic because a) they take credit cards b) they are open before and after work, making drop-offs and pick-ups easy, and most importantly c) the owner knows my name and I don't even have to keep up with my little ticket. He automatically grabs our clothes when he sees me coming.


Our favorite date night: Sushi at Ryoko's followed by a drink and bar snacks at the Owl Tree.


Friendly reminders on every street corner to not throw any crabs down the drain.



Rubbing elbows with local celebrities.

Clay graduates!

After Clay's successful Ph.D. defense we felt justified in celebrating with a little graduation party as well as participating in the official Stanford commencement ceremonies. It made for one busy but fun weekend with lots of proud family and friends.

Clay wanted to have a traditional Cajun crawfish boil and so we invited everyone over to the backyard to show 'em how it's done. Clay's Maw Maw made the trip out from Ponchatoula, which was awesome.

The crawfish showed up in a big cooler alive and well, if a little homesick for the swamps of Louisiana and confused by the California smug. Howard, our crawfish expert, was nice enough to do all of the heavy lifting as far as figuring out how to turn the cute little critters into something we could actually eat.

Success!

Tony, Christine and Oliver enjoying the party. Christine and Oliver are two of my work buddies from Ernst & Young.

Arezou and Pedram stopped by even though they were just one week away from their (very beautiful) wedding, and Travis flew in from San Antonio. Travis was forced to earn his spot on the air mattress schlepping around food and ice, but he was a great sport and pretended to not mind!

Cousin Annie made a cake!

The next day all of us city-dwellers piled into a van to head down to Stanford for the graduation ceremonies. We were very proud of our parking spot, and very grateful to Cousin Wil for driving.

And so, apparently the Stanford graduation is a little crazy and lots of the students dress up and make fancy props and stuff. It made for an entertaining procession! Which was good because we needed the distraction -- it was HOT.

The Ph.D. candidates made a more dignified enterance than the undergrads. Clay may or may not be one of the guys processing above.

Susan Rice, a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a Stanford alumn, was the speaker, and she gave an excellent talk on the importance of service and putting your degree to good use.

The gang with the graduate.

Chris, Clay, Celeste and Joanne

Clay with the in-laws!

It is a Stanford tradition to give your stole to someone who "has provided extraordinary influence and support during his or her experince at Stanford", and so Clay gave me his stole. Which was super sweet although I suspect that he was mostly just really hot and trying to get rid of as much of his extra clothing as possible. But I was still really proud and wore it around all day.

Next we headed accross campus for the Electrical Engineering (EE) ceremony. The alumni association passed out all kinds of snacks and bottled water, which was very appreciated. And then the EE department provided boxed lunches between ceremonies, so we were well fed!

Clay and Maw Maw

Clay chatting with his advisor, Boris, while Wil and I look on and smile and nod.

Boris presenting Clay with his hood.

LL, Maw Maw and Clay

So proud!

And here is the whole gang:
Front Row: Lily Poche, Liz Poche, Laura Lee Daigle, Clay Daigle, Betty Poche, Celeste Daigle Brandom, Paulette Poche

Second Row: Hollis Poche Jr., Annie Poche, Josh Suarez, Christopher Daigle, Laura Verboon, Joanne Poche,

Third Row: Wil Richardson, Leon Branom, Travis McBurnett, Howard Taylor, Gene Box, Leslie Box

The Hoover Tower on Stanford Campus.

Celebrating at the Oasis: LL, Clay, Joanne and Howard

Annie, Aunt Paulete, LL, Liz, Cleste,Josh, Laura, Chris, Clay and Maw Maw

The dunes

So, I wasn't there and don't know much about this photo, but I think it's beautiful. That's Clay on the right, and I believe that is The Second Best Lawyer on Pine street (TM) coming toward us. Which would mean the photo credit goes to Cousin Wil (Richardson).

Braley visits!

Braley the bride came for a visit a couple of weeks ago, and we had a fantastic time shopping for wedding dresses, sightseeing, and of couse visiting the Golden Gate Bridge:

LL and Braley


A Viszla family we met along the way...


Viszla puppy, 4 months old. Cute! Side note: Apparently this was his second 2-hour walk of the day. We have been considering a Viszla puppy but doesn't 4 hours of walks a day seem a little overly ambitious? Thoughts?

It ended up being quite a hike

Clay admires the bridge

LL and Clay