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

Clay defends! Daigles visit!

There has just been all kinds of excitement out here lately. On May 20 Clay presented his Ph.D. orals and defense. This involved a 45 minute presentation in front of four Stanford professors as well as the general public, followed by a public Q&A session, followed by a closed Q&A session and discussion between Clay and the faculty. He did beautifully and officially passed, so now there is just the thesis to go and he will officially be finished with school. Forever. We hope.

The day was even more exciting thanks to some visitors: Clay's dad, Ms. Bonnie and Dallas made the trip from Ponchatoula, LA and Greg came from Austin, TX. We all had a great time learning about Switched-capacitor DACs using open-loop output drivers and then visiting the sights in San Francisco.

The man of the hour with the breakfast spread.

The future Dr. Daigle presenting his research.

Clay shows off his work to the family during a quick visit to his desk.

Daigles!

More Daigles!

Manly men.

Dallas, LL and Clay.

These two are very possibly related to each other.

Visiting the painted ladies.

Matching shoes + emergency pair of socks.

Fisher's visit

Our good friend Fisher visited a couple weeks ago, and I'm just now getting around to posting it. What should you know about Fish? Hmm...We were all part of the great Austin, TX, Roaring 00's, which was basically a continuation of all the fun parts of college but with paychecks. Fish was and is the culinary expert of the group, routinely making sunday night dinners for anyone who wanted to stop by. Only now, he has given up on the silly idea of making micro-chips, and is pursuing a full-time career as a chef...though apparently your first working title is not so much "chef" as "you." He visited SF as sortof a last stop before flying to NY to dive headfirst into the restaurant scene there, which we hear is amazing, cruel, eye-opening, fun, tyrannical, and egotistical, but otherwise like a party.

LL and Fish are waiting for the muni. We make all our friends wait on the muni. As an aside...if you are on twitter, I suggest following @sfmunitrain and his ongoing feud with BART.

LL and Fish in the rose garden in Golden Gate park. We walked a LOT. But it was fun. Fish and I also got some great raw oysters on the wharf. Somehow, Fish knew a lot about oysters...wait I guess that makes sense.

Bird ignoring a turtle outside the DeYoung. Anywhere else, the bird might acknowledge the turtle, but not in front of the snobby art museum.

This is a pic of our friend Schulte after dinner at a place on Clement called Burma Superstar. He and Ali suggested it, since it is apparently one of their favorite places. It was my first experience with Burmese food, but it was really, really good.

Celeste and Leon visit SF

My sister, Celeste, and her husband, Leon, visited us last weekend. Leon is taller than everyone else in our family, but that's not saying much. Celeste is NOT the shortest person in our family, and that is really saying something.

Here are me, Leon and Celeste walking across the Golden Gate Bridge. I have always wanted to walk across, but this was the first time we had visitors who actually would go along with it. It's 1.7 miles across with a biting cold wind if you are dressed for summer.

LL found a cute dog at the GGB visitors center. She finds cute dogs everywhere. But this one is really extra cute.

Here's LL and I taking an obligatory pic in front of the GGB. You can't stand in this spot without taking a picture exactly like this one. You just can't.

We also went out to Alcatraz. The National Park Service administrates the island, and really everything is very well done. The audio tour is especially great, and I recommend it to anyone. You'll even know your way around the prison (somewhat) by the end of the audio tour.

Here are Celeste, Leon and me waiting for the Muni. This is right before we headed up to Noe Valley for brunch. We ate TONS this weekend. Now Celeste and Leon are gone, and we have to diet. Again.

Parking is HORRIBLE. But I did it anyway.

After trying for 20 minutes last thursday, 30 minutes yesterday morning, 80 minutes last night, and 10 more minutes this morning, I have successfully found good street parking for the Xterra!!!

(During the intervening times, it was in various short-term parking locations and garages, none of which are good for more than a day).

Exhale. Relax. The end.

What we did on our Memorial Day vacation

1. Plan to eat healthy food and be cheap:

2. Eat healthily (and cheaply):

3. Give up and go out to drink wine and stalk puppies.


Repeat as necessary until holiday is over...