weird alien landscape-looking rocks

about to get washed away while taking my photo

this trail is closed!  CLOSED!!  VERY VERY CLOSED!!!!!  DONT GO THIS WAY!!!!!!!!

very very good cheese

dancing with wii

made this snowman

walking in the snow

sledding

since i last appeared i have been sick for 2.5 weeks, been to new york for an experiment, been to lake tahoe for a bachelorette ski(sledding) weekend, hosted my dad for a weekend and went with him to the all-california sacred harp singing, read ‘the scarlet pimpernel’ and half of ‘middlemarch’, ran ~25 miles, worked for days and days on another experiment here in livermore which is a PAIN IN THE NECK, wrote a draft of a paper, made a huge mess of my room and did no laundry (well, until yesterday), and pretty much subsisted on handfulls of cold cereal.  i wonder why i kept not getting better from being sick??????

‘the scarlet pimpernel’ was like the 1903 version of twilight i think.

cozy baby

frozen tenaya lake

standing on the lake

why does ice have these funny bubbles?

mother and son

father and son

son

the little family

kat completing the double axel

beautiful yosemite.  very little snow yet.  strange year.

experiencing something he cannot communicate

opening presents

some of us less interested than others

ice cream and pickles at midnight

for the pickles:  thanks Penny and Chuck!

also….

singing with my dad

puzzles with my cousins:

selling parking spaces, coffee and donuts at the rose parade

stealth bomber and parade crowds:

trying to take a family photo but we are all too tired…

some new years resolutions…why not

-drink more water

- see if i can do a half marathon in july with my colleague’s wife (unless i start feeling aches and pains while training).  so far this week i have run 6 miles and all is good.  will try to keep track and keep you posted.

dont think this is quite accurate but it has been very very warm.

craft night!

i made a little rabbit

and a baby dressed like a pepper

the fruits of our labors

went to my aunt’s place

piano recital…

eating all her chocolate, tormenting her with text messages

unpacking her toaster oven, sweeping her kitchen

playing impassioned solos on her viola, repotting her plants

going to the beach

oceans of cars too

we made a tentacled castle-type thing

cute beach houses

love their style

feel a little uncomfortable looking at this photo

really great thrift-store find from steph…trying to figure out exactly what it is

wonder what is in this package?

surprise, surprise  (we all benefitted from pat’s recent trip to congo)

backpacking cheese grater!!!!

elegant mosquito-netting

pat jumping off things.  this is the warmest christmas i think i have ever experienced in CA

there were very high winds in pasadena a couple weeks ago…the city lost around 1000 trees i heard…some of them huge old ones like this one.

we went on a little hike

notice the random girl trying to climb up the electrical tower (i have no idea what to call these things)

steph trying to jump off of things

andrew trying to jump off of things

you can sort of see downtown LA in the distance….kind of

the cat, getting fatter and fatter

mom having a little cookie with her whipcream

cat loves to lie on top of textured things

the old friends:

andrew’s birthday today.  happy birthday andrew!

dad resting his eyes

hahah gave him a giant photo of suzy.  this is actually a puzzle, assembled and pasted to a board.

staying up late working on projects as usual

the weather these days is so so nice.  things that I associate with southern CA:  wonderful weather, freeways with tons of lanes, smog, red hot chili peppers, palm trees, tacquerias, sunlight with this sort of white-ish quality that I can’t find anywhere else.

mom and me frosting cookies in curlers:

this is one of my special ornaments that my grandpa gave me when I was very little.  It has my name and birthdate on it.