Summertime

and the livin' is easy. Unless you're Babar.

SYL's half-birthday

On Sunday we celebrated SYL's half-birthday. Since she shares her birthday with a very famous dead person, her birthday doesn't usually get much fanfare.

This year, though, it was different. We went all-out. The sort-of theme of the birthday party was "six years old." So we had masks, party hats, a piñata, goody bags, pin-the-nose-on-the-puppy, and pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey.We also had alcohol and sushi. You know, just to adult it up a little. And yes, there was cake. Can you find the two cakes in the picture below?A good time was had by all. I think SYL should have a half birthday every year!

Our favorite Japanese baby

Here is a picture of our favorite Japanese 2-year-old, gearing up for the rainy season:According to his parents, he will become a big brother in September!

Navajo Peak

To celebrate the first day of summer, yesterday I went hiking with some friends.

We left Seattle in the gray mist, climbed over Snoqualmie Pass, and found the sun. On the east side of the mountains, it was 80 degrees and there was not a cloud in the sky! Happy summer, indeed!

We went up the Stafford Creek trail toward Navajo Pass. The trail is lovely, running up the valley just above the creek. The whole hike is through old growth forest. The hike also had a decidedly eastern Sierra feel to it - dust, shale, pines, the creek, and the super-bright sun. The only difference was the butterflies - I think the part of the Sierras that I know best might be too high for many butterflies, since I can't recall seeing them in the numbers I see them in the Cascades. Yesterday was no exception.At the head of the valley, we left the trail and hiked up a very steep slope to play in a lingering patch of snow (otherwise the entire trail was totally snow-free). We didn't hike as far as the junction at four miles that the article mentions, so I guess we probably went about 3.75 miles up the official trail before we began our cross-country adventure.There were some great views!

My weekend

Well, while Mike stayed here and slaved away on his dissertation, I went to San Francisco for my cousin’s high school graduation.

I had a great time! First, a shot of their dog, Jake:The graduation was held at the big Masonic auditorium in San Francisco. For the record, my cousin did not go to a Masonic high school.

The happy parents:

Graduation entertainment:

The diploma (ta-da!):

Family shots:

We had a super-yummy post-graduation lunch of crepes. Later that evening, my cousin’s parents had a little open house to celebrate. The open house featured great Mediterranean food.

Saturday, the weather was, well, very San Francisco. Finally, in the afternoon, the sun broke through the fog and we went for a short walk on the hill near my aunt and uncle’s house.

I saw an owl on the walk.Saturday evening we ate the leftover party food and celebrated my grandmother’s 90^th birthday. This was a bit of a surprise party, as my grandmother sent an email several months ago explicitly forbidding any celebration of her birthday. Yeah, whatever. Also, for the record, I didn't even receive said email (I'm not sure what that says about what my grandmother thinks about me).

We had plenty of champagne on hand.

And my brother made a very delicious cake.

My grandmother, however, was not allowed to cut her own cake because, you know, we all wanted pieces we could see.

A question for our readers...

This question is directed at our readers who have earned PhDs or are familiar with the process. Is it a good idea to pay the extra $45 to copyright my dissertation? I am having trouble figuring out what benefits a copyright confers, but I am definitely open to the idea.

Please discuss.

Graduate school is a long road

with few high points. But I just reached one of them. I just submitted a draft of my last dissertation chapter to my committee. Yay!

For the record...

in the last year, people have found our blog with internet searches for phrases including "champagne cupcake recipe"; "knitting jokes"; "why are we supposed to eat fish on fridays?"; "aloe yogurt, michigan"; and "big lebowski origami cranes."

You can find a complete list of searches here.

Lake Serene

We took our first hike of the season today. There weren’t a lot of snow-free choices that met our requirements for length (somewhat long) and driving distance (somewhat short), so we ended up at Lake Serene.

I’d actually always been a bit hesitant to do this hike, knowing that it is one of the most popular hikes around. It was, indeed, popular today: there were many other people on the trail, but not so many that we lost the wilderness sense, so that was good. Although we did see one guy hiking while talking on a hands-free cell phone device (I can’t imagine the reception was all that good, as our GPS receiver was having some trouble, but whatever).

The hike is about 7.5 miles round-trip, with 2,000 feet of elevation gain. Although there were pretty parts, we both agreed that this was not one of the most scenic hikes we’d done in Western Washington. Also, the lake-water near the shore was a little brackish and pollen-y, limiting one’s desire to go swimming (an essential part of visiting any alpine lake).

Make Way for Ducklings!

We went to the park yesterday and the ducklings were out! I'd been seeing them for a few days now during my runs around the lake, but I never had my camera with me. Although they're very cute in these pictures, they were much cuter and fuzzier at the start of the week (I would also like to add the disclaimers that ducklings aren't the most cooperative of subjects and that the lighting was kind of strange).

A New Restaurant

Some friends of ours just opened a vegetarian Thai restaurant in the Wallingford district of Seattle. We ate there for the first time last night, and we both really liked it. It is called Jhanjay, which apparently means "vegetarian food" in Thai, and it is on 1718 North 45th Street. Kate had Pad Thai, which she really enjoyed, and I had a fun dish called "abundant asparagus," which, in addition to asparagus, also had some other vegetables and these interesting mushroom cakes. Our friends were also very friendly to us and the other guests. So, if you are in Seattle, and you like Thai food (even if you are not a vegetarian) we recommend this restaurant!

I followed dinner up by seeing the Japanese movie Ping Pong -- a really sweet and funny movie about two high school ping pong players. If you can get a hold of a copy, I recommend that as well.

The S. Weekend

In addition to teaching wrapping up (almost) for both of us, we had a lot celebrate this weekend since Mike’s good friend B-Hatch and his lovely fiancée were in town.

First, we had a little baby shower action.

Then, we went to hear B-Hatch’s brother’s orchestra. The orchestra was playing a symphony written by B-Hatch’s brother. How cool is that?

So, just a few more weeks of school. . . . Then summer school begins for Mike.

Our other exciting piece of news is that Mike is set to become Dr. Mike on July 16^th. A few days after that, we’ll probably leave on a two-week road trip through the mountain west (Idaho, Montana, and Alberta). We'll be doing some car-camping and maybe even an overnight or two. Hooray for summer (although it's 50 degrees and pouring here today)!

Slightly out of order

These are actually some pictures from last weekend.