Tucson 2012, continued

Since I know you were all waiting for the picture of Scott and I with the kiddos I'll post two!

Tucson 2013

Last year we went out to visit my brother's family in January and had so much fun we decided to go again! He has 4 kids that are really cute and crazy so we had tons of fun. Even better this year was that Laura decided to come from Atlanta. Basically it was awesome.

Scott was dressed up many many times by Maren and Macey. He was a very good sport.

Caleb quite enjoyed the dress up time too.

Parker is almost 9 and sometimes he would participate as long as he wasn't busy being too cool.

(It's so sad to see kids grow up. Why can't they stay babies forever?!)

The girls got some bikes for Christmas and showed me how they can ride around the grass circle. 

I know you were hoping for a face shot but this is the best I have!

Laura and I took the girls outside to the swings for a while.

Maren loved it.

We went to some rocket museum in Tucson and learned all about some things I've already forgotten.

(I fell asleep during the 17 minute intro movie and Laura had to nudge me to stop snoring!)

Parker and Caleb at the command center.

Not the best picture of me but good enough for a blog.

Part of the rocket.

Four little monkeys. 

Caleb is quite the piano master and was showing his improvisation. He was really good!

 Saying good-bye to Laura before she flew off to Atlanta.

And the family photo.

Scott and I also took a photo with the kids but I can't get it to load...

Thanks Bains for hosting and showing us a good time. We hope to come visit again next January!

The Melting Pot

Because we're still DINKs* for a bit longer one random Friday we decided to go to The Melting Pot for dinner. 

I didn't think about taking a picture until dessert but the whole meal was great. We had a cheese fondue, followed by salad, then meat, and finished off with chocolate.

I now have a serious craving for a lot more chocolate fondue.

* Double Income, No Kids

The Defense!

 Last Friday, I had my oral examination for my PhD. The day seemed to come so quickly. In early January, I scheduled my defense for March 8, but the schedule changed and the defense was rescheduled to February 15. That started my weeks of quality time with Powerpoint.

Cecilie organized the refreshments and set them up with the help of my mom. They worked hard and made a very nice spread. It was nice to have family and friends there with me.

My advisor, Professor Roger Howe, introduced me and clarified that this project was 'really hard'. I was really nervous starting out. 

I normally settle into a nice groove when I start giving a presentation. In my introductory material, I talked about how field programmable gate arrays are everywhere - including in the Mars Rover located in France! I have no recollection of saying that the Mars Rover is in France instead of on Mars but my quote has been confirmed by too many sources for me to doubt it.

I went through all my slides at a good pace. I was excited to get to the end of my talk. The public then began asking their questions. I have been to a number of defenses where they get only one or two questions. Questions for me just kept coming and coming. Finally, my committee chair, Prof. Tom Kenny, closed off the questioning period and excused the public. I came back in for the closed session and my committee grilled me for a half hour with lots of suggestions on things to include in my written dissertation. They were all good comments and some interesting problems to think about. After all my committee asked questions, they dismissed me for a few minutes to discuss my fate. After a few minutes, the professors started walking out. As they passed, they shook my hand and said congratulations and I knew I had passed. What a relief to be done!

I then had a celebratory lunch at the Palo Alto Creamery with Cecilie, my mom, the Bains, and the Spurlocks. We pulled out all the stops with delicious burgers and milkshakes. Bill had all the chocolate they could find put into a milkshake.

We gave Rushton an earlier birthday present from us and we had a friend for the day.

That afternoon, Cecilie, my mom, and I went to Windy Hill to have some outside time. We played with the panoramic pictures on the iPhone.

The picture below is of a happy Scott.

With my mom in town, we hit up some classic Stanford sites like Hoover Tower. We saw the main Quad, Memorial Auditorium, and the library. It was great February weather.

Scott fab work

This boy is almost done with his PhD!! He's defending tomorrow and has been working so hard. This is him testing devices in the basement. Almost all of them worked!

Good luck Scott!!!

Getting Baby Ready!

Who's going to get down the fastest?!

Tesla Model S

Scott and I are in mutual love with a car: the Tesla Model S. It's seriously awesome and we drool with every chance sighting. In fact, last week I was driving home and happened to see 2 parked on the street. Scott was home already so I picked him up and we drove back to just gawk at them! 

We know, we're lame.

Yeah, it's parked on the street like any other car.

In case you're not familiar with how awesome these cars are here are a few links:

http://www.teslamotors.com/models

http://www.automobilemag.com/features/awards/1301_2013_automobile_of_the_year_tesla_model_s/viewall.html

It's awesome.

Boston deliciousness

Since my last post was about Boston I'll stick to the theme with one last post. I finally figured out how to upload my phone pictures to my computer and found these 2 gems.

Here are the delicious original Parker House Rolls. 

And here is Scott's breakfast: Boston creme pie.