Starting in about 2020 this page turned more into a place to add and share old photos. Here are a couple from 2011 where it seemed Claire and I did a tandem barefoot run with Claire in the goofy-foot position. Here is the celebratory These are the feet pose after the run.
I recently posted a scanned photograph from a Christmas ad from the Livermore Computer Center. I began a project of identifying the people in the photograph. Geoff Lee did a terrific job (!) of mapping text to mouse overs, so you can hover over a face and see what our current best idea is of their name. I also posted comparable version on Facebook, though at lower resolution you can't really see or tag faces as well. I'm hoping on the Facebook version I can get others to identify more people. If you're willing to comment via e-mail: , please do so through the preceeding mailto or however you can get email to me. Thanks!
I haven't been adding to this page much lately. I thought I'd at least post this hijinx photo from me water skiing with Claire and Peter last summer.
Here are a couple of recently posted photos: First one of me with my pet snake, "Captain Vic", named after my uncle Vic.
Second, this photo I took of a rattlesnake near Del Valle lake with an SX-70 camera. I did have a small telephoto lens on the camera. Shortly after I took this photo a vulture flew low over my head, making a loud noise. The noise startled me (especially being so close to that rattlesnake) and caused me to jump back. Of course my jumping back startled the snake and it scurried away. It turned out that both the sname and the vulture were after a rabbit that the snake had bitten. I had heard the scream of the rabbit initially, causing me to look (and step) into the direction of the snake...
Here's another old photo scanned - in this case of a rappell I did into Moaning Cavern in 1991. Here is a video of the same rappell that somebody did with a video cammera more recently (2014).
I didn't seem to have a photo of a skier's salute, so I posted this one. It requires starting on two skis, taking one off, and holding it over my head while holding onto the rope with my foot. This particular one is from 2012. Also here's one of Faye doing a skier's salute from 2011.
A scan of an old photo of me riding a unicycle in the Picnic Day parade advertising for a meeting of The Contingent by the flagpole on the UCD Quadrangle.
I posted a story about the trip Faye and I took to Africa to visit Claire. I also posted exactly the same photos in the same order with brief descriptions in this Facebook album about our Africa trip, in case you might like to see the photos from the trip in that format. Highlights include a visit to Liwonde animal park, a visit to the village of Lugwena where Claire is working and where we went for a swim on Lake Malawi. We also visited Mumbo Island where we did many things including kayaking around the island. After our time in Malawi we also visited Mozambique where we went on a dhow adventure that included some SCUBA diving. Of course many more photos (over 100) are included in the full story.
Here's a Christmas Eve toast to Claire off in Africa. L to R, Ursula Althammer (Sara's mother), Yvonne, Temesia, Sean, Willie Althammer, Tristan, Faye, Sara, Lili (Sara's sister), and Annika. Of course I was behind the camera...
Here are a few photosynth images that I took while Dorris and I were out exploring San Francisco this afternoon. First one from Union Square. Then one from Macy's overlooking Union Square. Finally one from near The Embarcadero. These sort of Photosynth images seem to work best if you zoom in and then pan around. Here are a few more images from that SF explore with Dorris. This a selfie of the two of us. Here is a handstand photo that Dorris took of me at my old office building at 525 Market, and here is another at my more recent office building of 10 California Street. Here are some fun images of Dorris with hanging ornaments and of Dorris with standing ornaments. Here is one I like of Dorris with the Embarcadero behind her. She also seemed to enjoy watching the ice skating in Justin Hermann Plaza.
Now there are two rope in teeth stooling photos, this one of me from 2008, and now this one of Tristan from 2014.
Some photos from Claire's birthday: her ice cream birthday cake, limo ride up, arriving at Artesa, happy pose, Artesa welcome, pose by fountain.
Here is a Photosynth from Dorris' BDay dinner at Skates.
A couple of Christmas photos. One with Claire and Faye in new hats that we brought back from the Outter Hebrides. Another with Yvonne, Dorris, Faye, and Faye's boyfriend Tristan finishing up a jugsaw puzzle.
A holiday activity this season has been flying this Syma helicopter. My challenge has been flying it around the loop consisting of both stairs.
Yvonne's mother Dorris is visiting for the winter months. Here is a photo of Dorris with Faye.
Yvonne have a piano recital today. Here's a shot of Hobbs resting before things started.. Here is a synth of what things looked like during the performances. Here is a shot during a performance. After the recital every body entered for refreshments.
A few handstand photos added early in the holiday season. First two traditional Christmas at work handstands, one with Donna Mecozzi and one with Nick Balthaser. Then in response Mark Boolootian contributed this fun historical handstand from 1998.
Here's a photo synth of our Thanksgiving table 2013 - before guests. And of course later with guests.
Here's a photo of the dinner table group at the dinner for our Russian visitors. The next day we posed for this handstand photo.
Here's a photo of Annika and Linda after the three bridges tour we took in October.
A fun event in 2012 was the visit by family Melesi from France. Here are Gislan and Josien eating with us. Also Yvonne and their daughter Marlene.
Here's a handstand from halloween 2011. Most pictures these days are going to Facebook...
Here's a Google Street View of our house. I find it handy to have to share with friends.
Here is our boarder Marco in the traditional boarder pose. Here's a shot of the two of us standing on our hands by the Golden Gate Bridge.
I scanned an old photo from a basketball team. The team played in the Livermore City leage as "RLRA" (Radiation Laboratory Recreation Association) in 1978. The team members are (l to r, top to bottom): Jed Donnelley, Bill Nellis, Jim Trainor, Mike Mayr, Ray Jaeger, Steve Cochran, Kent Johnson, and Bruce Schumacher.
Also here's a photo from Faye's 1994 kindergarten class in Stuttgart on Pfaffenwaldring near the Vaihingen campus of the Universtity of Stuttgart. Faye is in the middle row third from the right. The whole class (l to r): top: Kattarina, Aida, Kirstina, Mario, Tobias, Peter, Bianca, Jannik, Floriam. Middle: Carla, Janina, Mo, Marina, Niki, Nadja, Stefan, Faye, Jan, Judith. Bottom: Xia Long, Natalie, Marion, Birgit, Rita, Sebastian.
For New Year's eve we had a delightful costume party with 24 guests. Here's a shot of the table looking toward the east while Claire was working on placing guests. Here's a shot of the table before the event from above. Of course we all had to get into our costumes including in some cases face paint. Here's a shot of the hard working preparation crew, excepting the photographer Mr. Oh Kay. After all was ready the guests began to arrive such as Andy and Tola, Peter and Dorrit and Eberhard. After the guests were seated discussion began of the little books with factoids about the guests to be puzzled through. This enlivened the discussion and helped get people mingling and chatting and puzzling on through desert. After dinner we played a word game for a half hour (sorry, no photos), sang in the New Year (brief trip up to the terrace to listen to the fireworks) and then bid out guests adieu.
Here are a few shots from our family Christmas. We had a lovely Christmas Eve dinner with my brother's family, Temesia and Sean (there shown with our girls, their dog Foxy, and Temesia's mother Sarah). On Christmas day we followed many family traditions by sitting around a fire opening presents (like these with the hidden to/from indications, this one to Claire that's pretty easy to see, but here's one that isn't as easy to see unless you look close. Here's another to Faye that's also not easy to see unless you look close. Family gifts included examples from the Yale theme and from the home made collection. Here's a little video clip that sums up the nearing end of a lazy Christmas day.
We had a delightful Thanksgiving with our girls, Rigneys, and uncle Sean and Aunt Temesia. Here's a look at the table looking west and one looking east with all home made soup bowls this year. An extra tablespoon of water made the pie crust a bit stretchier this year, so I got three pecan pies out of the crust dough rather than the usual two. A shot of some of the preparation. This year we had two turkeys, one cooked in a fryer. Here's a shot with dad who, as photographer, so often gets left out of the photos. To add in some of the cute factor here is a photo of Logan at the snack table. We got in some play such as the charades-like game that Temesia called "boobs". After dinner there was time for some reading of Jocasta Car Movie Star.
I got to visit both girls briefly at their college digs in October. Here's a short video clip from Claire's dorm room where Yvonne just Skyped us from home. One of the highlights of visiting Faye at Simons Rock was unicycling together where Faye made a unicycle basketball shot and did this demonstration of her one foot unicycle idling skills.
There are some photos of a recent backpacking trip to Desolation Wilderness for Faye, Claire, and me in Desolation 2010. Included at this one of at a spot overlooking Dick's Lake and some swimming in lake pictures (cold! water) like this of Claire on Fontanillis Lake and this of Faye on Dick's Lake. I put together a multi-photo stitch of the girls looking out over Fontanillis Lake.
A recent pyramid with Claire, me, and Faye's friend Zariah. That was about as close as we got in that shortly after this point (where you can see the rope is slack Zariah went over the front. Here is a shot with Faye, her friend and college roommate Fae Clark, and Zariah.
We've had some fun recently with visitors from England (Fae Clark - Faye's friend and college roommate) and Germany (Henning Lührs, Yanick's younger brother). We took Henning out water skiing. Here we were ready to start. Henning was a first time water skier, but he got up on doubles, the knee ski, and on the wake board. Also on this water skiing trip Claire got up on the stool for the first time and Claire and I did a tandem barefoot run for the first time.
After Fae Clark arrived we took a trip to Big Basin and Santa Cruz. At the start of the trip we stopped on Treasure Island for the nice view of San Francisco. In Big Basin we took in sights like the Mother Tree, the Father Tree, and the tree rings from before the birth of Mohammed. We also got to walk a log bridge, sit in a tree throne, and take a long log walk. After we got to Santa Cruz and the boardwalk we rode some rides like the Big Dipper, the log ride (where Fae and Faye had some splashing fun), and the Hurricane (another roller coaster). We also spent time on the beach with Henning swimming and playing the surf. We got in some beach walking and beach wading. We got to the end of the boardwalk and managed to keep Henning fed - though sometimes he wasn't sure if he was getting enough meat...
On the Fourth of July we all went to my brother Sean's house for a BBQ. We got to unicycle and juggle in gaps in the Larkspur parade. A bit moment was when we put together a four person all Donnelley unicycle "star" with me, uncle Sean, Faye, and Claire. Here is the start of the star as Claire and I come together. Then Faye joins in. Finally Uncle Sean joins in and we all wave to our numerous fans ;-). After the parade we enjoyed the BBQ and some relaxation. It's fun to have so many people in the house.
Early March is really a beautiful time of year in Berkeley. I particularly enjoy sitting out on the bench (don't miss the humming bird at the feeder in the zoomed in version) by our magnolia tree and reading. To get a little less sun I can move inside to our patio where you can see that I'm reading The Science of Liberty and Claire is reading the funnies with Kidogo. If you look closely at the first bench reading photo you can see a humming bird at the feeder - unknown to us at the time of the photograph. The bicycle seen in the patio by Claire belongs to her friend Joe who was with us at a fire in the living room fireplace last night (when else can you have fires at night and still enjoy Spring during the day?) doing homework, reading, and watching the Religulous movie with Bill Mahr (which I only glanced at as I've seen it before). Life is good.
We are in the throws of the process of finding a college for Claire to attend. One fun aspect of this "work" was the trip we took after Claire was invited to "candidates weekend" at FW Olin. As part of that trip we visited Brown, Tufts, Harvard, and of course Olin. Here's a handstand photo by the famous "Three Lies" statue at Harvard. Notice the bright, shiny left toe that the students rub for luck on exams. Here's a very interesting globe that's outside the map building at Babbson College. FW Olin college shares grounds with Babbson - a business focused college emphasizing entrepreneurship, as does FW Olin from the Engineering side. We had a very full evening and day during candidates weekend at FW Olin. It didn't hurt that they have a very active unicycling club and that they put on an evening fire arts performance. Claire was very favoribly impressed with Olin. This business of matching up with a college is definitely trying.
We had a wonderful visit with our friends the Boolootians on New Years day. My idea of a fun visit started out with everybody having their tastes modified with "Miracle Fruit" (Synsepalum dulcificum) that Mark had brought. This stuff makes normally acid tasting things (e.g. vinegar, lemon) taste sweet. We had a delightful meal (and here) and got to explore and play with things like these magnets. Here's a closer shot at the magnet work. Take a look at some of the creations like these chinese handcuffs, and this polyhedron. Here's a fun shot through one of the creations to Faye. We also played Blokus in the living room where we couldn't have a fire (spare the air day - on New Years day??), but we could do things like set up this completion pattern. A fun time was had by all.
I thought it might be fun to share a photo of one of the amazing lines that often show up outside the Ici ice cream store about a block from our home. With three new stores opening up in our neighborhood and people asking me for resumes, it seems the economy is picking up.
Here's a photo of Claire jumping on Boomerang. Also a couple from video frames: This one head on and this one from the run off after her clean run.
First addition in some time - pictures from the "Sierras in a Nut Shell" trip that I took the Klobachorics on. First we visited Yosemite Valley with sights like Yosemite Falls and a high sierra lake. We arrived at Lake Tahoe at sunset. The second day we visited Emerald Bay where Teresa and her daughters enjoyed the scenery. On the way out of the Tahoe basin we stopped to view Donner Lake. We also stopped in Sacramento to see the Capital and Old Sacramento. We packed a lot into two days. Here a group picture that we took just before Teresa and her girls returned to Germany.
Here are a couple of short video clips of our dogs playing. First one with them fetching the lime for Yvonne. Here is one of them playing together in Redwood Regional Park. Here is a self portrait (timer) of me with the dogs on a rock that Buster and I climbed.
Here are a few pictures from recent events. First from the Berkeley Juggling and Unicycling Festival: Regan helping Claire and Talya do a tandem unicycle ride. Then here is Jed juggling and unicycling. Here's one of Claire on her giraffe. Claire also got juggling on her uni. Jed got in a few unicycle basketball games on Sunday.
Here are a few pictures of the fire on Angel island as seen from our terrace, picture 1, picture 2, picture 3, picture 4. I also got some videos looking through my telescope that I'll try to process for the Web later. All the pictures were takes between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. on October 12, 2008.
Here's a picture of Faye near the gravestone of her great * 10 grandfather, Matthew Gilbert, who was one of the founders of New Haven and it's deputy governor for a short time. You can see more detail of the headstone here. Matthew Gilbert died in 1680. Most of the gravestones from the New Haven green have been moved, but his was left there.
Here is the building I now work in with MyPoints in San Francisco. Here's a view looking south from the MyPoints offices (stitched from three pictures).
Here are some water skiing pictures from the summer of 2008. Of course some of them are success pictures like this one of Claire barefooting on the boom, this one of Leona and Claire and I doing a pyramid on knee skis, this narrower knee ski pyramid, and this picture of me stooling rope in teeth. However, I think even more fun are some of the falling pictures such as this one of Claire falling forward while working on barefooting and this one of her falling sideways during that same practice. Here are a couple recent ones of me falling from the stool while crossing the wake and another falling from the stool while just trying to get up. Here is that two person pyramid starting to go over (I'm smiling because I was in control of the timing) and then finally falling apart. This one of Claire doing a face plant from the slalom ski is also pretty good. Here are a few views of the Lazy-M Marina that we ski out of. First getting ready, then putting on sun screen, and finally heading out under the bridge.
I posted some pictures and videos from our recent backpacking trip to Yosemite. We had a base camp at Yosemite Creek campground where we could climb rocks and swim in the creek. Our first day in Yosemite we hiked over over this pass into this Ten Lakes valley. The scenery there is amazing. After returning from Ten Lakes we went on a whirl wind tour of Yosemite including bridal veil falls, El Capitan, Yosemite Falls, the giant Sequoias, and Tuolumne Meadows. More pictures and videos are included in the more detailed discussion.
Here are a few pictures of Claire roller blading to BHS. First stepping out from home. Next along the route. Finally at her locker. Then there was the day when she forgot her shoes and asked me to bring them to her on my bicycle.
Here is a picture of the four of us taken shortly before Faye returned to school. You can see that she is still recovering from her jaw surgery. Here is also one that I took including all the ladies and animals. Finally, here is one with our family, the animals, and the grandmother Dorris (thanks Janina).
Chirstmas Day was rather low key with the usual opening of presents.
For Christmas Eve we went over to my brother Sean's home to visit him and aunt Temesia. We took the dogs for a walk and Sean and I got to fly his helicopter (here is a brief helicopter flying video). We had a lovely dinner and got to chat about old favorite ornaments and gifts.
On Sunday December 23 we attended what is likely to be our last San Francisco Girls Chorus concert at Davies Symphony Hall with a girl singing in the chorus. Here are Yvonne, Jed, Faye, and Sean before the concert (thanks to Aunt T. for the photo). Here is a purloined shot of the candles during the final Silent Night. Afterwords you can see that Claire is a bit melancoly as in this picture where she gets a hug from Yvonne and in this one where Faye is visible. We've had a wonderful time with the SFGC and there is still Claire's "lauration" ceremony ahead, but the last Davies concert with a girl singing is certainly a milestone.
Our friends the Brookshaws visited in December. First a brief visit for dinner and chatting as here with the kids and parents. Here is a short video of a possum story. After their tour of the East coast they returned for a little longer stay where we again got to share some meals as this table was set for three plus Iain, Faye, and the rest of us of course. We got to share some local experiences like Faye and Sarah heading off to the Dickens faire and even got to discuss archery a bit. It's a long trip for them with all the packing, etc., but we were delighted we could spend some of it with us.
Here's a photo of Claire and Jed carrying the Christmas tree.
One of our fun fall events is the Cal-Stanford Big Game rally. Here is what the Greek Theater looked like before the rally started. The football team and the axe came out before the bonfire started. The best way to get an idea of the fun of the bonfire is to watch this video of the start of the bonfire. Here is a picture of just the bonfire itself. It really reaches high and gets quite warm. Of course there are many spirit raising events like the "haka" (a Mouri yell), doing the wave, getting the freshmen to add more wood, and even the more solemn events like the candle lighting ceremony near the end. All in all quite a fun event that we look forward to every year.
A couple of big family events have happened recently. Firstly Faye is off at Bard College at Simons Rock. I had an opportunity to take a professional trip to Boston to give a presentation on the Horton mechanism that Mark Miller and I developed with our colleague Alan Karp at HP. Mark and I had a good time in Boston. I got to see Boston Common, the Christian Science Collonade, Newberry Street, and even the Boston fens there near Fenway Park (that's a statue of Ted Williams).
After my trip to Boston I took a long walk to meet Faye at the Bradley airport and we visited Bushnell Park in Hartford, CT.. Our hotel near the train station was right across from Bushnell Park and quite a hot area in its own right.
Faye and I took the train to New York City and visited places like Central Park where we saw things like this beautiful fountain and these these radio controlled sail boats. We also got to take in the musical Curtains (delightful), visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (really an interesting place) and the UN building and even the Empire State Building. The Empire State Building was pretty crusty in some places. Still, there were some nice views of the NYC skyline, some iconic structures and decorations. Here is a shot of Bethesda Fountain and one of Faye inside the area behind the fountain.
After our visit to New York City Faye and I traveled up to the Berkshires where we visited Herman Melville's Arrowhead home before getting Faye settled into Simons rock.
I'm just posting a few pictures of my Berkeley City League, co-ed, softball team - Double Trouble. Naturally I got one of me showing off with a handstand. Here we are celebrating winning the 2007 championship!
Since I'm on the softball topic, here is a picture of my old Lab league softball team from LLNL, the Strokers. I've recently had a good time exchanging email with some of those guys, Jeff Huskamp, Bill Lowe, Bruce Schumacher, Stan Solbeck, Landon Bruce, Don Patterson, Joe Tull, Jim Minton, Don Wentz, and Bob Long.
Here is a fun shot from the nearly last water ski trip with Yanick: Yanick-Claire-Jed Pyramid. Here's also a shot of Yanick skiing with his dad, Rolf from Yanick's last water ski trip in July 2007. Here's a shot of me going out stooling that same day. Here's a brief video of me getting up on the stool and doing a 360.
It's been a rather busy time (early 2007) - too busy for many house page additions. However, we've had a short breathing spell and time to add a few picture highlights. Here are a couple of video shorts, one showing Claire mounting her giraffe, and one showing Jed doing a deepwater barefoot start - in poor light. Faye also learned to unicycle during the fall, and participated with us in a number of events such as the San Jose Christmas Parade that Yanick also participated in. In November I interviewed at Google where I got a fun picture doing a handstand in front of SpaceShipOne. Both Faye and Claire had fun in Pony Club this year, including opportunities to jump like Faye jumping and Claire jumping (though those are actually earlier photos). Here is a collage that Faye made me for Father's Day. Here is a fun video of Yanick and I juggling in our front yard.
We've had many visitors through the early part of the year. For example, Yanick's family visited and visited with us through Easter. We also had a group of four girls from the Australian Girls Chorus staying with us. Add those visits to a visit from our good friends the Walters and a baby shower for our niece Melissa's new baby, Logan, and you can see that we've had a very active early part of the new year.
We've been doing quite a number of late summer activities since a new exchange student, Yanick began living with us and attending Berkeley High School with our girls. Here is a knee ski pyramid with Faye and Claire and I. We also got out on our unicycles like in the Albany Stroll (Yanick is visible to the right just above my clubs) or in a tug-o-war at the Berkeley Juggling and Unicycling Festival or this later Unicycle spoon race with Faye on the left and Claire on the right. We got to do some camping (in this case in San Mateo Memorial park) where we partook of the usual pleasures.
Here are a few lazy Sunday pictures. Here's one of Claire and Kidogo Donnelley in the sun and from the side. The dogs do make some contributions to the family... Here is a shot of Faye reading at the kitchen table. I also took a somewhat closer shot of the kitchen table scene.
In August I attended the picnic for the Palo Alto High School class of 1966. My favorite photo from the event was this duo heel click with Reese Cutler. I also got a fun hand stand photo in the entrance to Paly.
I took some time to scan in some of the graphs that our neighbor, Sarah Levin, did for the girls generally on their birthdays. Here is one that shows Sarah in the lower right. These flower graphics of Faye and Claire. Here is the rest of the collection.
Here are some shots of the Castro Valley Jugglers (sans yours truly who took the picture) in the 2005 version of the Oakland Tribune Holiday Parade. This year we were early enough in the parade that I headed back to my office with some friends and watched the rest of the parade from our upstairs lunch room. Here is what a couple of the balloons going by looked like, Big Bob and Frosty leaning backward and Frosty leaning forward. There was a brief mention of the parade on the KTVU Channel 2 news where we got mentioned as some "local talent" "daredevil jugglers" (and I got on camera). Here is a brief video clip from the KTVU News. I also have a slightly higher resolution version of the same clip, but some software may not be able to view it.
For Halloween Faye and Claire went out as twins. Here is a close up and here you can see their full outfits (grabbing a bite to eat on their way out the door).
Check out this picture of a rainbow entering our terrace room that a neighbor took this spring. Thanks Paul!
This summer we went on a driving trip across the US and back. It started out with my brother and me and our two dogs driving through Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and Montana for a stay in Yellowstone, e.g. here where we stayed in Silvergate in this rustic cabin. We then drove on through the Bighorn mountains with some beautiful scenery and on through the Black Hills of South Dakota, Iowa, and Minnesota to stay with Yvonne's sister Loralee in Wisconson. We got to take in baseball games in Minneapolis and Chicago. We pushed on to Ohio where Faye graduated from the Montessori Farm School. There we met up with Yvonne and pushed on to Washington D.C. where we picked up Claire and drove on down to the Outer Banks at Duck, NC. There we had a fantastic time on the beach, sight seeing, etc.
After a week in North Carolina we started up the East Coast, first stopping in Washington D.C. to see our good friends the and their girls. We did some sight seeing and visiting along the way, ending up at Niagara Falls (or a short video if you're interested) before heading back to the Midwest for more visiting with relatives.
I headed back to California by plane and Yvonne and the girls and the dogs finished the trip by way of the Four Corners and the Grand Canyon.
Of course we took many pictures and videos along the way. For now I've only got some selections in directories by section of the trip:
At some point I hope to add descriptions to the above, but for now that's how they sit.
I've now posted some picture from our big coast to coast trip pictures above. However, I'm still leaving in this picture of Faye with Kidogo that Faye asked me to post for Paloma.
We got in a few events on our last day with Faye and Saraya here for spring break. When we picked up Faye's friend Eva I took the girls up to Indian Rock. Here is one of Faye, Saraya, and Eva on the rock. Also a similar one with San Francisco in the background. To give an idea of scale here is a shot of Saraya and Faye down climbing part of Indian Rock. Saraya clapped when this free climber reached the top. On the way back from Indian rock Saraya expressed interest in dinosaurs, so we stopped in to see this TRex skeleton. We topped the final day with dinner at Cafe La Mediterranee.
Here are a few pictures from the trip that Saraya, Yvonne, Faye, and Claire took up to a cabin at Lake Tahoe and skiing at Alpine Meadows. The first day there Faye took Buster and Kidogo out in the snow. E.g. this one of Buster and Kidogo playing in the snow and another with lake Tahoe in the background. Here's one a bit closer on the dogs. The next day everybody went skiing. Here is a shot from the bottom of the lift, and then this from the top with goggles and this from the top without goggles.
We went on a trip to Carmel and the Monterey Acquarium with Saraya and Sophie. Here is a shot from inside the acquarium with Sophie and Claire in front of the kelp tank. Here's a close-up of a couple of sea otters with a shingle. Here's one of the girls at the back of the acquarium. Of course we couldn't visit the acquarium without spending some time shop there. After the acquarium we spent some time on the beach and in stores in Monterey like this shot of Sophie and Claire in the sand by the pier and this one of Saraya and Faye under the pier. After that beach time we went for ice cream. After Monterey it was on to the beach in Carmel. Sophie and Claire posed for this one. Here are Faye and Saraya on the beach. Even Dad got some juggling in. Here's a shot of the girls on their beach blankets. After the beach in Carmel we went back to Monterey to the wharf where we had dinner at Rappas at the end of the wharf and picked up some treats for the ride home after dinner.
One day while Saraya was here we went to an opera in San Francisco. Before the opera we had dinner in The City where I got this shot of the girls in denim. Also just before leaving for the opera I took Faye and Saraya up to Grizzly Peak road for a view of Oakland and San Francisco.
Here are some shots from Easter. In the morning the girls went on a hunt for poetic clues hidden all around. Here they are with Saraya finding a clue under our bench. Later Claire read a poetic clue from a tree. Finally they found their Easter Baskets. Later in the day Uncle Sean and the Boolootians came over for dinner. Mark actually was there as can be seen in this picture at the piano. After dinner I brought out the Levitron and got these pictures of Robert and Saraya as back drops. After dinner we played games. One bit of excitement was when a squirrel knocked part of a dwarf down the spiral stairs. Claire and Saraya also got in some arm wrestling.
On the Thursday before the Easter weekend I took Saraya with Faye to Big Basin and Santa Cruz. I Big Basin we saw lots of interesting redwood trees like this cross section showing dates back to 450 AD. Here are shots of Faye and Saraya in a burnt out tree and a close-up of the same. Here they are in the "Mother" tree and sitting in front of the "Father" tree. On our short hike we also went over a bridge. After Big Basin we went to Santa Cruz where we walked on the beach, went to the boardwalk (where we went on the Big Dipper as in this and this amusing picture and on the log ride. We had dinner on the wharf in Santa Cruz.
The first outing we took with Saraya and Faye after they arrived for Spring break was to San Francisco for dim sum. Most of the pictures are on that separate page, but here is a shot of Saraya and Faye looking over to SF from Treasure Island. The girls had a lot of fun running around the water in the fountains at the Embarcadero (where Claire Schneider fell in and got all wet. We also visited the hard and soft fountains at Levi Plaza. We made a brief stop at the Exploratorium where the girls posed as statues and we visited the Golden Gate Bridge and Sausalito for some ice cream. There are more pictures and a video on the trip page as noted above.
One recent event of interest was the sail I went for on the Bay with my juggling buddy Louis Kruk while some new shipping cranes were coming in from China. Here's a picture of the bow of the ship, the Zhen Hua just after it came under the Golden Gate (higher resolution). You can see some men on the bow to get an idea of scale. Note the sherrif's boat helping to provide a security perimeter. I also like this picture of the cranes in Oakland where you can see some men on top ((higher resolution). I also took many videos. A couple that I compressed for the Web are this one of the Zhen Hua in port just before we got warned off by the police boat you can see approaching at the end. This one on the way in I included just because I thought Kruk might like it - speaks for itself. Here is a shot of some outrigger kayaks on the Bay while we were out there. If you look close you can see some sort of ceremony happening on Alcatraz at the time. I also like this picture of the stern of a gaff rigged schooner - the "Alma" as it sailed past us. Here's another of the Alma against the City skyline.
The last time some cranes like this came into Oakland in 2002 I took pictures of it from my office on the hill at Berkeley Lab. Here are shots of the bow, middle, and stern as the ship was approaching the Bay Bridge - giving a good idea how little freeboard it had. I also like this shot of the ship over Treasure Island and particularly this one just as it was coming under the Bay Bridge - though it's a bit difficult to tell just what's happenig. In the foreground at the bottom is the upper part of the cantelever section of the Bay Bridge. Here's a short video that I didn't take of the cranes moving under the Bay Bridge. At the end note the tug boat being pulled stern first along - there I guess in case it was going to be needed to stop the ship from going under the bridge if it was going to hit. Fun times then and recently.
Another recent event was the St. Patrick's parade in Dublin, CA. It's kind of difficult to get pictures from the parade because everybody is busy. But this one is of a rotating feed while we were practicing. This one is a windshield wiper done with fire. As I recall we were trying to do a Karamazov shift at that time. Finally here is one shot from the parade showing by buddy Tony juggling some fire with me zipping off on my unicycle with some fire to juggle. I'm the one with the white shorts in all three pictures.
Here are a couple of recent dog pictures. One with both dogs jumping down an embankment and an amusing one with Buster meeting a large version of himself. The other dog is a 10 years old female 'standard' poodle who lives in the neighborhood, "Herbina".
I liked this picture of Faye riding Rainbow in the water enough to scan it in from a hard copy photograph.
Here's a Christmas picture of the whole family.
One of our wonderful Christmas traditions is the sing along with the San Francisco Girl's Chorus at Davies Symphony Hall - a shot of Faye rehearsing there in 1998. We aren't allowed to take pictures during the performance, but I did get some shots from around the performance. For example, this picture of the San Francisco City Hall from Davies. Here is one with our good friends the Locasios and us after the concert. I also got a relative close-up of Claire in her costume and Yvonne after the concert. I always seem to cry in these performances and this one was particularly moving for me. It might be our last with the girls performing in the event.
Here are a few first test shots with our new Canon SD200 digital camera. It's a tiny little guy. Almost as small as my Aiptek. Here is my traditional first self picture with the camera. Here is a shot I took in the kitchen with the flash. Here is a macro shot that's pretty impresive to me. I also took a couple videos. Here's a brief one from the kitchen that I took this evening. I left it pretty large for some comparisons, so don't expect it to download quickly.
I got some shots from recent parades. First from the Oakland Holiday parade here is one of me and Steve Perry. Here is one of the Castro Valley Jugglers rolling along. Here is even a brief video clip that Tony captured off television. I kind of like this one of Kruk really whipping a club. Hey (!), that's my club - careful there! That last and these below at night from Niles really pushed me to finally buy a new digital camera. Hopefully my next pictures will be better than these. Anyway, here are a few from the Niles Festival of lights parade. That parade is fun because it is at night, but that also makes it difficult to get pictures. I bought a cheap little disposable camera for the purpose. The pictures are sadly disposable. Anyway, here is one of Claire and I on our Unicycles with some fire in the background. Here's another along the same lines. Naturally Yvonne took Claire's face and my, uh, other end. Here is one with Tony and Kevin passing fire between my legs in a handstand. I don't know why Kevin has his mouth open. Here's another one of Steve Perry and I from the Niles parade. Here is one of me juggling on my unicycle in the Niles parade. Thanks for the loan of the glow balls Kruk! Yvonne's sister Loralee and our niece Dagny (at the left) were also at the Niles parade. You can see Claire just to the right of Robert on the stilts.
We got a few shots of the trip Yvonne, Claire, and I took to San Francisco with Loralee and Dagny and Claire Schneider. Here is a fun one with the two sisters on Twin Peaks (windy day) with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. Here is another along the same lines but with the Donnelleys there also (thanks Claire Schneider for taking the picture!). We also went shopping in Chinatown. Just to not leave out Claire Schneider, here's one with the two Claires clowning together.
One shot from Thanksgiving dinner. Here are a few more of the guests including one of Claire and Dagny and Loralee, one of Sean and Yvonne, one of Temesia, Richard, Camilla, and Robert and these two of Mark and I serving. It was really a great Thanksgiving! Thanks to all for making it so much fun!
Here are some Fall pictures. How about a handstand picture from Twin Peaks? On this same day I took this picture of Market Street from Twin Peaks. It's kind of interesting to me that in some sense it is looking back toward the aerial spot where this picture of San Francsco and Market Street in 1906 was taken.
Here are some with Claire and the dogs. First Claire with Kidogo. Then one with Claire with both dogs. We had our usual crazy Halloween with some 600 trick-or-treaters. Here's a shot of some of the empty candy bags. Here are the girls in costume. Faye made an amazing owl jack-o-lantern for Halloween. Here is some of Jed's makeup for Halloween this year.
A regular fall/winter event is the annual gutter cleaning. I do this on belay with a family member (Faye in this case) tending the rope.
I've done a fair amount of sailing with Louis Kruk this season. Here is a shot with the spinaker in the background and another with Alcatraz in the background. We sometimes get views of some pretty unusual places like this shot of a small light house on the Marin headlands.
Aunt Loralee and niece Dagny visited us for Thanksgiving. Here they are tide pooling at the Fitzgerald Reserve. I really like the colors of our house in the morning sun this time of year.
I finally decided to put up some short of some unusual vehicles in Berkeley, mostly taken while riding around on my bicycle. Here is a very fishy vehicle. This one seems more into pink dragons and such. This last one is more traditional Berkeley.
I put up some pictures of sailing out the Golden Gate with Louis Kruk. Here's the group, Laura, Aimee, Kruk, Frank, and Aimee's friend. Here are some nice smiles from Laura and Kruk outside the Golden Gate. Here's one of the Point Bonitas light house. Hey, I was there. Here's one of me against a San Francisco background. Fun time even in the rain. It's the furthest I've been outside the Golden Gate on the sea.
August 19 and 20 we attended a Rocketry class taught by Dr. Boolootian (shown mounting an engine - also see the South Dakota/Wyoming Dinosaur trip below). The rest of the launch effort included attaching the ignition leads, the excited onlookers, ignition, lift off, following the flight, descent on a drag chute, and recovery (somewhat unusual in this case). Of course not all the launches were perfect. What do you expect? This is rocket science after all.
Some other summer events included riding, e.g. at Fox Ridge Farms where Faye and Claire both got in some jumping. Also we managed to get in one show at Woodminster this summer. We saw Anne. Woodminster is a beautiful venue with scenes like this cascade and this view. Another summer event was the juggling party that we had at Bobo's (aka Marta Girard) place up Cull Canyon Road in Castro Valley. Here are some jugglers (Kruk and Robert) and here's a shot of us sitting around (inc. niece Marthe).
We took a few more shots while niece Marthe was visiting, including this one with Alcatraz in the background, one with the San Francisco skyline as we headed over for dim sum (a favorite trip with visitors). During the dim sum trip we also took in the fountain at the Embarcadero, visited the Hyatt Regency and visited the hard and soft water areas at Levi Plaza. I also took about our millionth picture of this favorite Bay Bridge overlook from Yerba Buena island (notice the typical summer fog rolling in over The City).
Here are some photos from a recent water ski trip that Faye and Claire and I went on with Tony while Thula was here. Here we are (except yours truly of course) ready to ski. Faye got out on doubles. Dad got out again on the stool and still able to do a 360 on it. Here are Claire and Faye out on the knee skis and later the three of us on knee skis. Thula had most of her fun on the wake board. Here is one of her doing a cut on it. I also got a couple of shots of lunch with Faye and Claire and Thula and later with Faye and Thula while Tony works on the boat anchor. Here's a closer shot of Faye and Thula on the back of the boat.
Thula and I got to spend a day at the beach while she was here. Here is a shot of Thula by some rocks we explored. At that end of the beach we had it to ourselves. The most fun for me was the ride we took in our raft. We got rolled twice, but had lots of fun. Thula also enjoyed reading and I enjoyed playing sand volleyball in a pickup game.
For Claire's traditional birthday ride I took her and her friend Jamie riding on the beach at Half Moon Bay. Here is a shot of Claire with her birthday cake.
Claire started learning to ride a unicycle recently. Here is a shot of her first effort. By the time of our trip to Santa Cruz for the Rocket Science class (above) she was getting pretty good.
I always enjoy spending July 4th with my brother. Traditionally we watch the parade and entertain the crowd during lulls. Here we are circling each other on unicycles. This year I tried a new trick doing a handstand while Sean Donnelley circled me on his unicycle. I wasn't able to gage the crowd reaction, but it was fun for me. I also enjoy just riding around juggling clubs.
I really enjoy my bicycle rides to and from work. Sometimes I see something worth a photo like this shot of some roses. I really like the colors against the brown background.
Faye and Claire and I went on a trip to Mount Lassen Volcano National Park from June 22 to June 25 2004. A more complete description of that trip is behind this link. My favorite parts of the trip (summarized here) were topping this lava flow expecting to find a lake and being surprised, this swim in Butte Lake (very cold, a proud papa moment), our exploration of Cinder Cone like this view from the top of the Fantastic Lava beds and Skaggs lake and lesser things like the ice cave and the lava tunnels. We got to see plenty of beautiful views like this one of Lassen reflected in Hat lake and experienced our share of volcanic stuff like the stinky boiling pots at the Devil's Kitchen. We even got to do some horseback riding like this ride around Cold Boiling Lake. Quite a fun trip. You can read more details here if you like.
A recent bicycle trip to a stream by Lake Anza and later resting along the Inspiration Point trail.
Here are a couple of pictures from Claire's graduation today. One of her speaking and one her graduating class.
We are winding up to Claire's graduation. Here's a picture of Claire's graduating class (all seven of them) and another of her whole upper elementary class. This graduation at Marin Montessori is a pretty big deal. Here's shot of Faye giving her graduating speech and walking through the arches a couple of years ago.
Claire and I went on a trip to the Bay Area Storytelling Festival (their Web site is here). We rode out bicycles there along the old San Pablo Dam road and by the San Pablo reservoir. The story telling was a delight, though a bit difficult to get pictures of. Here is one shot of one of the venues. On the way back we found these three gopher snakes involved in some sort of ritual. Even after we separated them to get this picture of Claire holding one of them they went right back to their menage à trois. When Yvonne came to pick us up at our end point (near the end of the reservoir) we got to meet the new puppies there.
A colleague and friend from the University of Stuttgart, Paul Christ, usually wears a special type of overalls. Paul has a personal relationship with Schneidermeister Weik from Strumpfelbach who tailors such overalls from fine material in the old style. That is, he sits on a flat table and sews them by hand. I thought this fun and asked if he could help me get a similar pair. Paul introduced me to Herr Weik, I got my measurements taken and ultimately received a fine set of "overalls". In recent correspondence with Paul he asked that I take a picture of the overalls. Here I include two, one right side up and one upside down. When the second was taken some friends/neighbors happened to be coming by with their dogs. They of course heard the whole story and we got to chatting about German clothes (one neighbor had lived for three years in Munich) and handstands.
One of the walkers was interested in my Web handstand pictures here. I've gone through them and chosen some pictures that have the appearance of danger, like this one that looks like it is over a moat, or perhaps this one that had a bit of danger to it, or some that were challenging or others that were interesting, or even this one from a Mt. Whitney trip that was quite challenging. There are of course many more in that directory. Some day I'll have to take the time to organize and present them.
Its twins! We had asked for two puppies from the litter of Mork and Mindy, but didn't expect to get the second puppy. During the last week one family decided against another dog in their home, so we have twins (sleeping after some hard play)! Here's a close-up of Kidogo and here's a shot of Hobbs eying Buster. Melody hasn't met the dogs yet. Claire just returned from Crow Canyon, Colorado where she was on a school trip. Was she surprised when she walked in and saw two puppies! Now we're settling in and the puppies are, of course, growing and learning. I think they enjoy having each other. There was a lot of crying in the car on the way back from their old home, but essentially none since.
Here is a recent picture of Buster, the puppy we expect to pick up next Sunday (4/25/04). His birthday is 2/23/04 at 02:15 - first of the litter). We are picking up the stuff we need for Buster and studying up on how best to live with him. We received a very nice set of Puppy Instructions (MS Word document) from the owners of Buster's parents. With that, reading books, and getting advice from other dog owners I hope we will be prepared for our new charge.
Yvonne and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary by going up to Elk, California and staying in a Bed and Breakfast up there, Griffin House for a couple of days. We were in the Greenwood Cottage. Sadly most of our digital pictures ended up being out of focus like this fuzzy view from our room. Still, we had a great time relaxing, exploring the beach near our room, and exploring the area (e.g. in our BMW on an old logging road).
While both girls were off on their spring break we took the opportunity to go camping at our favorite local park, riding on the beach, and even got in a little tide pooling. Here are the girls putting up the tent (a first ;-). Later we went for a hike along the stream trail (notice the Bundaberg beers :-). Here are both girls in a wild flower meadow and Claire up a fun log over the stream. Later both girls relaxed looking over a water fall. At night both girls got into reading by the fire with the lantern while dad relaxed by the fire. The next day mom joined us for horseback riding on the beach. Here is a shot of Claire galloping on the beach. She definitely had the horse with the most energy, though we all got in at least some canters, at least on the way back toward the barn. Claire and dad also stopped off at the Fitzgerald Reserve where we found this buoy on the beach. Of course dad had to climb it also. Here's a later shot of Claire pointing at an anemone. Fun couple of days.
One of our easter activities was an Easter Quest. Here's a shot of the girls picking up a clue.
I took the day off 4/8/04 and Faye and I went bicycle riding on the 8 mi. plus Redwood Bike route in the local Redwood Park. Here is the traditional "before" picture. On the first part of the trail there was a lot of uphill that of course demanded a comparable amount of rest stops with various excuses - this one for a snack. Being early in the spring we saw quite a lot of pretty flowers like this desert paintbrush and these blue flowers that I take to be flax by where we ate lunch. We of course also had a couple of opportunity for handstand pictures like this one looking back at our bicycles and this one at a bench overlooking the valley that we circled. All in all a delightful way to spend the day with Faye.
Here is recent shot of our bench that just says "Berkeley" so much that I thought I would share it.
Faye just came home from the Farm School for Spring break - two weeks. The first thing I did after leaving the airport was take her over to "Kids-n-Clay" to see Buster. Here is a picture with Buster's parents, Mork the male on the left and Mindy the female on the right. You can see that Mork is almost all white. Buster is also lightening quickly, so it would seem he won't be brown for too long. Buster really seems to enjoy playing with his father - more so than any of the other puppies. Mindy growls when the two of them get together, but that doesn't seem to stop them. We certainly hope Buster gets along with our cats, Hobbs (left) and Melody (right).
This is the puppy that it looks like we will be bringing home soon. I call him Buster Brown, also known as Browny or BB. Here are some of his siblings. Buster is coming from the family that owns Kids-n-Clay where Yvonne is throwing this pot. Another recent event was the Marin Montessori Sock Hop. I've been to many of these, but it seems that this one will be my last. Here is Claire dancing with her teacher, Phyllis.
Claire and I recently (3/04) went on a bicycle trip through Redwood Regional Park. I didn't get my camera out until we were on our way back up and took time to rest. We also rested later on a log.
This spring the man who leads the Castro Valley Jugglers, Louis Kruk, bought a new sailboat. It has all the comforts of home. Here is a shot of me on the boat. Here is one of Kruk sailing under the Golden Gate.
Claire is really enjoying riding at Foxridge Farms. She asked that I take a couple pictures of her favorite horse, Magic.
I bought a new bicycle recently at REI.
One nice thing about working in a Scientific organization is the science oriented fun that you can sometimes have. One afternoor recently we replaced our afternoon coffee break with liquid nitrogen ice cream making feast.
As spring breaks out the blooming of our magnolia tree (magnolia X soulangiana or "saucer magnolia") is a real treat for me - even though I have to rake up the petals... A little later the bench becomes a fragrant delight. We also have star jasmine behind the trampoline and along the fence by the driveway.
This winter (03-04) we had quite a fun snow trip up to a cabin at Lake Tahoe. I've posted a few more pictures from that trip including a short video pan.
We've had a new boarder this fall (03), Christoph (shown repairing his newly purchases bicycle. We've had some fun with him with things like the trampoline, on the unicycle, at the Lodi Juggling Festival. I also got to ride my first giraffe there, one that my friend Tony bought.
Another fall event (03) was Claire's role in the San Francisco Opera's performance of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci. We did't get many decent pictures, but here is one Claire removing her makeup backstage.
Before Faye went back to the Farm School ('03) she and I got to take a trip up to Point Reyes.
Summer activities 2003 included sailing with friends, rafting on the American River, and I even hiked up Sand Mountain with my friend Sam.
We had a visit this summer (03) from our favorite cousin Mari who got to relax, read, and meet Hobbs.
A Fourth of July tradition is a visit to Uncle Sean's where we take part in the Fourth of July Parade.
A regular part of the summer these days is the Pleasanton Parade to open the Alemada County Fair. Also in the late spring there is the cherry season. This summer Faye was practicing the guitar. We also took a drive up Twin Peaks for this view. About this same time I happened to get this picture of our old Little House in Menlo Park where we lived when I was born - one building north from the corner of Willow Road and Coleman Street.
Here is a shot of the Dog and Easter Bonnet parade that happens right outside our house every spring (03).
In the Spring of 2003 Megan Isaac stayed with us for a time between her work at the Montessori Farm School and new work/study in the Bay Area. I've included here some pictures from a trip to San Francsico. Here are Megan and Claire dancing in Levi Plaza. I also got Claire in a tree and Claire with her hand behind a waterfall there. Of course dad had to do her one better with the old head behind the waterfall trick. Like others who stayed with us Megan enjoyed relaxing and reading on our trampoline.
I got to visit Faye at the Farm School this spring. Here is a shot of the back of the school.
We enjoy our house. Here is a shot from Feburary with Yvonne and Hobbs enjoying the sun. Here is a shot where Claire and I are putting up Christmas lights on our terrace room. I happened to have the juggling wagon at my place for a while and I thought I would photograph it. Here are a few shots of the Oakland Christmas parade including me on my unicycle by the wagon, Mr. Kruk doing a tic tac, and juggling fire by the sign.
For Christmas 2002 the Donnelley's visited friends in Germany such as the Walters and the Klobachorics. This was such a wonderful trip that it's difficult to encapsulate in with just a few photographs. We partook of wonderful historical areas like the castle in Aschaffenburg where the Walters live, Heidelburg Castle where we had a great deal of fun and saw many sights. We had a delightful time staying with our friends near Stuttgart and visiting sights in that area. We even got to take part in a New Year's (Sylvester) celebration. There are many more pictures in Germany Christmas 2002 trip.
In October 02 I went with Claire to Fort Ross with her Marin Montessori class.
Also in October Aunt Loralee visited with cousin Dagny. Yvonne was able to get out on the water with her sister. Here's one where our friend Madeline Trower got into the act. Here is a shot with all the girls together.
One fall event was a visit to the Exploratorium my Dr. Boolootian and his summer science kids. Here is a picture of Jed and Robert Boolootian inside some mirrors, and one of the Boolootians inside a sphere.
A regular summer event for us is the Berkeley Kite Festival. Here are a few shots of the 2002 festival, large kites, and kites for sale.
In May I received my 30 year award for service to the University of California. For me the most fun part of it was the handstand walk, but there are also other handstand pictures and some text from the Lab "Newsline" paper at the above link.
Here is a picture of Thula looking out her window and another from the right window before she returned to Germany (sob).
Here are a couple of shots from Thula's high school graduation. One of her picking up her diploma in the Greek Theater and one of her walking home with us after her graduation.
Rebecca sent us some new pictures from our recent snow trip to Mt. Rose. Here are Thula and Rebecca on the East Bowl chair lift. There is also a shot of them together on a shadowy snow ledge. Thula is obviously very fond of her snow board as can be seen in picture where she is kissing it at Sam's and in this one where she is hugging it in the Timberline Lodge at Mt. Rose. Here is also a shot of Rebecca on some nice power overlooking Washoe lake.
Here are a few pictures taken since Thula has been settled in. Also Hobbs is growing up from kitten to cat - e.g. Hobbs in one of the girls new beanbag chairs - life is rough. Here is Hobbs with Claire. He seems to be getting along to some extent with our rabbit Timothy - e.g. as in this picture of them sleeping together.
Here is a shot of grandpa here at Thanksgiving. During this time Faye played Titania in a Midsummer Night's Dream. Here is a recent photograph of our girls at school.
Not too long after Thula arrived we had a big dinner for the Walter-Finke clan. Here are photos of the dinner and desert that give a bit of the flavor of the event - though it extended over several days and events.
For Christmas my brother Sean gave me a little digital camera. And we had Sean and Temesia over for dinner - e.g. as with this picture Sean took of Temesia and Yvonne.
Many of the new images were taken with that little camera. For example, I used it to take this picture of Thula heading off to her grandmother's in New Mexico.
I also used that camera to capture most of the images from the skiing trip we took to Sam and Carol's house near Mt. Rose where we were treated to sumptious dinners like this (raclette) and this (showing the rest of the guests, Faye, Rebecca, and Thula). And of course on the trip we had great fun skiing as with this picture of the Donnelleys (minus Faye who was off with new found friends) and Jed and Sam at the top of Mt. Rose. I even took a short video of some of the fun sledding during the time at Sam's (a short video of one of the boys next door that our girls were playing with). It is always tough to get pictures of Thula, but she agreed to this picture of her and Sam getting ready to snowboard. I think she was so happy at that point she would have agreed to about anything.
Well, I finally got my backup computer working again after I moved out of my office to let Thula use it for a bedroom. Here is a shot of Yvonne working on stripping the woodwork before we painted. When Thula first arrived, the first thing she did was to lay down on the trampoline with Faye. Our girls have a great role model in Thula. Since she arrived we have done a number of fun things. We went water skiing a few times. Here is a shot of Thula sitting on the swim plate before her first time trying to get up on double skis. She eventually made it up on her third try. Besides skiing on the Delta, we also went skiing on Lake Tahoe. Here is a shot of Claire and Thula getting ready to tube. We also landed at Wizard's Island in the middle of Emerald Bay. While there I of course had to do an island handstand. Besides skiing (brrr) we also took in some of the scenery, like this riverboat. All while staying in the delightful retirement home of our friends Sam and Carol that is quite near Tahoe. To see more water skiing pictures from these trips, you can click on this link to more water skiing pictures with Thula.
We have done a lot of traveling this summer of 2001. I just selected a few representative pictures from a trip Yvonne and the girls took to see our good friends the Trowers in Washington, D.C. Our girls and theirs have a lot of fun together. For example, this wheel barrel play. They also put on a lot of plays. I think this is a scene with Faye running. Here is one with Claire running. Yvonne got a number of nice group shots, like this one. They also had fun visiting places like the White House. I liked this shot of Claire on a stone sculpture. Also this one of Faye with an unusual hair do is fun. I thought this one made Faye and Lucy look grown up. This one of the girls laying down together seemed to capture the mood of the trip. Finally, here is a fun shot with just their heads in a circle that seems a good one to end with. Seemed like a worthwhile trip. Those girls are best of friends.
We also went on a dinosaur trip to South Dakota and Wyoming. Feel free to take the above link to get some details or look at some highlights here. We visited gold mines (e.g. Homestake with its 5,000 feet of cable for it elevator), the "Bear Country" wild animal park, Wind Cave, Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse memorial, and got to see lots of bison. However, the hightlight of the trip I would say was all the fossil explorations. These included visiting a mammoth site, finding fossils ourselves like this alligator tooth with roots that Faye found that will now be used for research and part of a trex tooth that I found while prospecting, an opportunity to help excavate a triceratops skeleton and time behind the scenes at the exciting Black Hills Institute. Feel free to click on the trip details link to see more pictures and get more details.
Here are some activity pictures from spring 2001. Firstly heading out for some water skiing with our friends Tony and Lynette at Lazy-M Marina. On that trip Claire got up for the first time on double skis. Here is what she looked like standing. We also got a shot of me and the girls knee skiing. Here is also a fun shot of our friend Tony skiing flat water on a single trick. I also got a wave in from on top of my stool and then this shot of me falling off the stool.
Here is kind of a fun shot inspired by one I saw in a magazine. We need to get out flash repaired to get the lighting right, but I hope you can see the upside down position I can get into in a brani.
We also had some fun recently at our friend Sam's place. We went water skiing on Pyramid Lake. You can see the pyramid itself in this picture. The next day we got a chance to shoot off my new air burst rocket in a meadow near Mount Rose. That day we first noticed this impressive plume of smoke from the Martis forest fire. Here is a shot of me and the girls on a rock outcropping behind our friend Sam's house. Later we went for a walk along a Galena creek trail. I hope to get some pictures from our boating on Lake Tahoe in the next roll I develop.
We have a new family member, Timothy the rabbit - here with Claire. Timothy is a very curious rabbit. We seem to be having lots of fun with each other. I'm sure more pictures of Timothy (named after the timothy hay that he eats) will follow.
My friend Tony Flusche just sent me a couple of fun water skiing photographs. The first is of him doing a really deep cut on a slalom ski. I wonder if he pulled that one out? The second is of me juggling on a slalom ski.
We had a fun art show on June 3. Here are some pictures of our friend Morgan at the art show (posted as a promise to Norma). First one with Morgan and Claire. Next one with Morgan and Faye. Finally one with Morgan, the girls, and Jed. Also from the art show, here is a shot of some of the people at the art show and one of our friends and neighbors Christin and Schmuel, with their house behind them.
Also during this period we went to Picnic Day at U.C. Davis. Here is a shot of the Boudinot children.
Here are a couple of recent pictures of the girls. One with some nice smiles. Here is one on the trampoline with them holding hands. This last one is actually of the whole family biking to work for daughters and sons to work day.
I also recently took some pictures of parts of our kitchen that I particularly like. Here is one that includes the split level drawers of silverware. Here is one also of the drawers around the stove.
I just added a couple of pictures from way back during our house remodel. One is whimsical picture of me climbing a 2x4 where the shaft of the spiral staircase will eventually be. The other is a picture of some folks at our "Maximum Crack" party. Namely the party we had after the house was lifted to level it (thereby making the cracks in all the plaster), but before we did any other substantive work.
My cousin John Hester recently sent me copies of some photograph from the salvage operation for a crashed seaplane that my father was the flight engineer for, US NC 15376. I am gathering information about this crash that can be found here: The Crash of NC 15376. Right now this information is password protected to protect its copyright restrictions. Please ask me if you are interested in viewing it.
While our friend LJ Evans was visiting - passing through from Alaska to the Philippines for duty in the Peace Corps, she took a few pictures that she shared with us. Here are a couple that I have scanned in. This one shows LJ, Faye, and Claire in our magnolia tree in something of the traditional "boarder" pose (though a bit lower). We spent the Sunday of her visit in The City. Here is a shot from Levi Plaza. The fountains there and in Embarcadero Center were turned off for the California Energy crisis. We spent the afternoon at Baker Beach where we did some gymnastics (e.g. Faye on my hands and Claire on my feet) and the girls made this great fort out of drift wood.
Here are some pictures from a snow trip we took to see our friends Sam and Carol. I didn't take the still camera out on the ski slopes, but I did take it on a tobaggon/sled trip that we took. Here is our friend Sam standing while sledding. Sam also rolled up quite a large snow ball and we got this picture of Sam and the girls posing with it. Here is a shot of the girls with Tahoe in the background. One fun thing we did was take a video with me sitting back-to-back with Faye and shotting Sam sledding down the slope. Here is a picture of what I looked like with the video camera on the toboggan. Too bad Faye didn't look around. Claire is barely visible way down the slope. While we were heading home we got this shot of the girls with Donner Lake in the background.
During the late winter we also got a couple of shots from home. This one is of a double rainbow. You can barely see the second rainbow. It was more visible shortly before I got there with the camera. Interestingly our favority local ice cream shop is called "Double Rainbow". I actually saw and photographed a triple rainbow once, but that is another story. Also, here is a shot of our house with a neighbors orange VW in front of it. We don't know yet if the house color was a factor in choosing the color of the car. It certainly seems to match pretty closely.
Here are a couple of fairly recent pictures of people from my work at NERSC. The first is some of the people who worked on the procurement of the newest supercomputer system at NERSC, NERSC-3. The picture is an interesting combination of people who worked a lot on the project (e.g. the man on the far left, the woman on the far right, the obvious leader, the woman with the grey hair in the middle, and a couple of others), some who had only a very small role, and others like me (with the blue shirt and the beard) who had a somewhat middling role. I worked on the selection of the system, but not on working out the contract for purchase.
This other picture is just of a somewhat random selection of colleagues who happened to receive service awards. My boss, Francesca Verdier, is the woman second from the left. Many of the others are my colleagues.
I liked this post Christmas 2000 picture of the proud engineer, Claire.
Also fun in the snow at our friends the Colemans. First getting ready for the snow. Next, Sam pushing Claire to get her started on the sled. Here she goes down the slope. This is what the sled run looked like from the top, and here are both girls at the end of the run. Later we did some posing. Here are Sam and Carol in a winter retirement pose. Finally here is the whole bunch of us posing on their steps in winter.
Here are some recent (11/2000) pictures of Yvonne and the girls and one of just Faye and Claire taken at school. Remove the trailing "-s" to see higher resolution versions.
Here are a few Christmas pictures. Here is one of Faye and Claire decorating the tree. Another with a glimpse of Yvonne and the girls playing with a present. Here is one where dad got in front of the camera. Here is a zoom in on that shot. The girls really razors this Christmas. The ride them everywhere! I follow along on my old skateboard...
One exciting piece of news we got recently was that it looks like we will have the 16-year-old daughter of a friend from Germany staying with us for the next school year. Her is a picture of Thula (left) with her sister (Franziska) at a fish market in Germany. Here is another of Thula with her mother and sister. We've got big changes coming up later this year!
We had a lot of fun at Thanksgiving this year. Rather that the usual pictures of the groaning table (which was there in plenty), I've include a couple to give the feel for the event. One of the most fun things was when most of us got into a circle in the family room and threw bean bags to each other, trying to fool the person the bag was thrown to into thinking that they weren't going to get it. I guess you had to be there. Anyway, perhaps this picture of our friend Morgan catching a bean bag with his neck (quite a trick in itself) gives a bit of the feeling. My brother Sean and I did our traditional tandem juggle. There was also lots of fun with the Levitron and with corn starch... I'll have to let you imagine that for this time around. We of course had time to schmooze, like this picture of aunt Temesia, uncle Sean, and the girls.
Two events that unfortunately happened at the same time were my trip to Dallas, Texas where I was the proceedings chair for the SC2000 Conference and the visit of the girls cousin Mariah from New York. Here is a conference picture of part of the committee in a light moment. There was also some fun at the various parties at the conference like this one where I got a chance to ride a mechanical bull and this weird picture from a horse race - where it looks like we are all practicing some strange sort of trance, and being actively studied by a student from Germany, at left. I also got a chance to get some handstands in at the conference, such as this one on an escalator rail. Also at the conference I got to have a picture taken of me with my good work friend George Michael.
At that same time the rest of the family was getting to visit with their cousin Mariah. For example, this picture of Mari with the girls and this one with just Claire. While Mariah was here they also got together with our friends Hubert and his family.
One event from late summer 2000 was a water skiing trip where we had a few events and took some pictures. One event was Faye getting up on double skis for the first time. Here she is getting ready for a first try on the boom. She made it up on her first try on the boom. Fresh from that success she got ready to get up on doubles long line and she got up on doubles long line on her first try. Our friend Sam also got set to come up on the boom and got up on his first try on the boom.
One thing I wanted to do was to get some recent pictures of me skiing on the stool - a somewhat unusual thing to do. Unfortunately the lighting was from the wrong direction, but we took some pictures anyway. Here I am climbing, then up on the stool, then waving while riding the stool (it is pretty easy once you are up), then backwards on the stool, then sideways, trying to recover, and finally falling off the stool. I hope to get some pictures with better lighting some day, but I'm sure you get the idea. During that same trip I tried skiing on a rola bola. There were some logistical difficulties (getting traction on the varnished board), but we will give it a try some other time. At least the lighting was better for that picture...
Somewhat related to water skiing is the 50th birthday party for my friend Shannon Clark who used to ski with us when were did a lot of crazy stuff. One thing that he did with us was to set up a three man pyramid on skiis. In honor of that event, we set up this pyramid in Shannon's back yard for his birthday (ignore that danger sign). When we got it set up, we even got some sprinkling to make it seem realistic!
I didn't get to stay long at the Lodi Juggling festival this year, but I did take this picture of Will Murray juggling on a unicycle. Will is the nominal leader of the Berkeley Juggling Club, a really fun guy.
Speaking of crazy events in this same time frame, there was this year's 2000 California/Nevada Mountain Unicycle Weekend. I took a few pictures with one of those little use once cameras. Here is one of me riding my unicycle down the hill. Notice that I am avoiding the big rocks, unlike John Foss or this other guy riding the rocks. Of course one can break a crank on such rocks, but that doesn't stop them. Here is what it looks like seeing a unicycle riding up the ski lift there at Northstar. This picture shows my riding buddy Tony ready to get on the lift with the unicycles there at Northstar. There was one unicycle race that I watched in this year's event. Here is a picture of the warmup activities for that race were you can see a few unicyclists on the course at the same time.
One fun fall event is the Big Game rally/bonfire in the Greek Theater at UC Berkeley. Here is the family (sans the picture taker) on the steps of the Greek Theater. Here is a typical part of the bonfire celebration - with Cal banners prominently displayed. One of my favorite parts of the rally is the candle lighting ceremony at the end.
An exciting Fall event was the wedding of my niece Melissa. Unfortunately, even though I performed the ceremony myself, I didn't get too many pictures - perhaps as much because of my role. However, here is one picture we got of the girls working on hair with Melissa at the reception the night of the wedding. I hope to get some more pictures from others. One other aspect of that wedding was that a lot of Yvonne's family came out for it, many staying with us in our house. Here are a couple of 5 sister shots, one with the sisters by our bougainvillea bush and another with the sisters on our porch. A couple of the sisters slept up on our terrace with some of the girls. We also had some fun with uncle Chris playing one of the varied stringed instruments that we have in the place. Grandpa Gene and aunt Loralee are also in that picture.
Faye's birthday happened during this fall period and we took a few pictures from it. E.g. here is Faye blowing out her birthday candles. Her party was all girls. They had fun winding up yarn that was wound around all the loops in the house and then there did some serious knitting even as they were getting ready for bed. They also played a fun word game where they searched for letters around the house and then put them into words/sentences. During Faye's birthday we also got a couple of fun pictures of the girls in our garden. This one of Faye in the garden, and this one of Claire in the garden.
Here are some photos from a trip that Yvonne and the girls took recently on the Hawaiian Chieftan. They went out with their friend Hanna (sorry for the back light). There were some great sights, like this other square rigger, the Golden Gate Bridge, and even a fire boat salute. The girls had to earn their keep, like this sail hoisting.
Another recent trip was to see the submarine Key West with our friend Sam Coleman. The girls got to sit at the controls, stroll the deck, and generally explore.
We also recently went on a water skiing trip. There are more pictures, but for now the one I have scanned in is this one of me barefooting by the boat on a short line.
One day recently it was quite windy at home. Both Claire and Faye got on the skateboard with me and sailed down the street. In addition we made a larger "skateboard" to try getting both girls on. It worked OK, but has some stability problems. Next time I think I will try 3 skateboard trucks on something that large.
Just before our boarder Victor Rühle returned to Germany, we took him on a flight around the Bay Area. Here is a shot of Victor standing on the plane (a Cessna 172). Here is the group that went on the flight. Besides sightseeing, one goal of the flight was to get some areal photos of our house at 2835 Benvenue. Here is one of the best close-ups - from the south looking across Russell Street. If you know where to look, you can see the shadow of the plane on the back of the house two doors north (up) from ours (the one with the hole in the roof of course). Here is one from the Benvenue side. Here is a slightly wider angle from the south-west. We also got some pretty nice shots of the Golden Gate Bridge (with some of the bay islands in the background), the Richmond Bridge, and even a shot of an aircraft carrier in the mothball fleet. Note - if you would like see any of the above photos with twice the resolution, you can take out the "-s" before the .jpg. In the best close-up you can almost tell that Yvonne and Claire are up there on the terrace waving up at us in the plane.
A friend recently sent me a pointer to this video preview of a Cirque Du Soleil presentation of Dralion (Was Real Video, replaced with a Youtube link in 2016). Of the videos I have found on the Web, this is the one I have liked the best. It is almost 5 MB. I suggest downloading it before viewing it - especially if you have a slow line. Naturally you have to have the Real Player to view it. I believe it is worth some effort to view it (right click on the link and select "Save link as" with a Netscape browser).
Shortly before school let out I went on trips with the classes of each of my girls. Faye's class trip was to a program at "El Molino", a former resort that was converted from part of a monestary. El Molino is in Erongarícuaro, Michoacán, Mexico. We flew into Morelia and took a bus for about an hour drive to Erongarícuaro which is near Pátzcuaro which is shown on this map. The trip was a wonderful experience both for the children and the adults (e.g. me!). Most days we woke up pretty early, starting out visiting local businesses in the town like where they make bricks or grind corn or mill wood. Then there is time for breakfast and then off again, often through the market square, to learn a skill from a local artisan. Perhaps making corn husk dolls or sewing desilado (a type of sewing), or maybe even making perfume or measuring the local lake for oxygen or clarity. One group dealt with animal husbandry where they even got to inject chickens with vitamin B12 (to improve their fertility - ever seen children doing such injections before?). Along the way there was of course time for fun like swinging on a rope in the yard of El Molino or playing volley ball, for sight seeing in the large, like visiting local indian ruins, a volcano that covered a town, Eduardro Ruiz National Park, and for sight seeing in the small, like a small local church, outside and inside. There was plenty of time to take in local sights like the animals in the streets (even perhaps learning some pig roping).
The trip I went on with Claire was to Emandal, a farm on the Eel River. There the emphasis was on farm chores like milking goats and cows, collecting eggs, planting in the garden, sheep shearing, making food like this cinnamon bread, etc. There were also hikes with scenery, interesting things to see like this predatious water beetle, and experiences like the this log slide. Quite a week.
The Berkeley Kite Festival was a blast! We had a great group of friends that came up to attend the event with us. It seems flying kites can help keep you young. Look at old (75 year old) Ray Bethell doing acrobatics with three kites at once! There were all sorts of interesting things to see and play with like these huge (!) wind socks (see the girls playing in its tails) that were hung from kite strings. One of the highlights was the launch and flying of a very long dragon kite that was brought to the festival from China. The festival was delightful. Here is a higher resolution version of the last scene picture (still .jpg though, 834 KB).
Additional events of the spring/summer include a trip to the California Institute of Technology for Seminar Day (where I always seem to learn something), some juggling (I'm in the green wig, my first time time juggling fire - though more recently I bought torches) in parades and performances (I'm the one on my hands with the juggling passing through my legs), and a visit to Ardenwood where we saw some Roman legions.
Another recent event was our camping trip to Yosemite Creek campground. As you can see we had our own pool in the creek [actually about 12 feet deep though it doesn't look it with the clear water] where we could dive right in to the cold water [VERY cold in the morning]. In the morning we even found ice on our sleeping bags. During the day it warmed up, however, so a good time was had by all.
It has been a while since I have scanned anything in - paradoxically because I bought a new computer. I haven't yet taken the time (or found the software, etc.) to connect my scanner to my new computer. However, I did take some time to scan in a few pictures from the fall/winter 1999. One highlight was the visit of the girls aunt Loralee (Yvonne's sister) and her daughter Dagny. They slept in our guest room upstairs. We went on a number of trips together. For example, to San Francisco where we visited Levi Plaza (a place we always enjoy) and Baker Beach. Here is one of Lora holding Dagny at Baker Beach with Faye and Claire in the background. One of my favorite pictures from that day is Loralee on the beach that day. She really seemed to be taking it all in.
Another event that happened in the fall was the horse vaulting that the girls and I participated in. Here are pictures of Claire doing a kneel, Faye doing a flag, and three of us in our barrel performance together.
Other snapshots from this period include one from a trip on a sailing ship called the Hawaiian Chieftain, a random shot of Faye with a newt we found around the house, a picture of the girls in their favorite tree and one of our friend Mark Boolootian with some of the kids on the Tilt-a-whirl at Santa Cruz.
We got new school photos this year. Here is one of Yvonne and the girls. I scanned it in very high resolution. Here is a version with twice the resolution (still 1/4 of the scan resolution). We took a picture of some of the many "women" that we have in the house. Not even any Christmas pictures yet - time is limited.
This summer (1999) we had an unusual late summer lightening storm in Berkeley.
I like this shot of Claire and Faye with their good friend Jessica Peck.
I actually got up into the mountains two times this year. My second trip was to the summit of White Mountain and the ancient bristlecone pine area of the White Mountains. Here is the before picture with my hiking companions Sam, Mark, and Ross, and with Carol the consumate host. It was a long hike to the summit from the high altitude research station. I of course got a couple of summit handstand pictures, looking west toward the Sierras, on the research station at the summit (if the summit - those rocks - were at 14,246, then my toes must have been at about 14,260), and with my hiking companions (Mark Sgambato who hiked and camped with us didn't make it to the summit, but his hat that I am wearing did...). It was quite a zoo up at the summit due to the opening of the research station for Labor Day weekend. We also got a chance to see some ancient bristlecone pine cone trees while we were up there.
A fun late summer event was the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey circus. I think they have done a really good job of keeping up the circus traditions. You can see more at their Web site. Here is a picture of the girls in the center ring. I was most impressed with Wilson Dominguez. That "wheel" that he is on has another weighted half that must make it some 30-40 feet long. It is suspended some 5-6 feet off the ground. He gets it spinning fast enough that he pulls negative g's as he passes top dead center. At that time he flies over the wheel, probably some 50 feet above the ground as it moves around. He fell off once and broke both his legs. He seemed to me lucky at that. Incredible. The trapeze act was also quite impressive. They had three catchers, one on the trapeze and two like the one seen in the right in the above picture. The other was out of view to the left, but also supported by a band like the upper catcher in the picture. They did some very impressive multiple flyer moves.
For the last three years the girls have been attending the Opera Camp put on by Sanford Jones and his wife Judy. It is a two week camp that results in quite an impressive performance. Sanford writes the music and opera, Judy choreographs the dancing. This year they did something called Hachma and Mazel. A Jewish opera about the spirits of wisdom and luck following the growth of a boy. Wisdom tries to go it alone without luck, and does pretty well. However, at some point luck needs to intervene to save the day. Here is Faye as a balabusta - an old woman - debating the merits of the match with another. Faye also wins the pot when her symbol comes up on the dreidel. Claire animates body, mind, and spirit as the angel of life. Here she is dancing at the birth of the baby. Faye also had a part singing about the Chanukah candles. In this opera even dad had a part, lifting the groom during the wedding party (hardly visible there in the middle back). Lots of fun.
The girls have been doing some horse vaulting during the summer. Here is a Claire doing a sit and Faye doing a stand.
Another fun end of summer event was the User Service Group party. We started out at the zoo where we sat some, looked at and fed the animals, and played around, like right side up and upside down on these piles. Then it was off to the Durst house for a BBQ. Here are the guys standing around the BBQ while others such as Claire eat homemade ice cream. Here are the gals sitting around chatting. And of course there were plenty of activities such as killer Dave delivering a high hard one to a juggling pin batter while rolla bolla goes on in the background.
A fun summer event for Jed was hiking in Desolation Wilderness with Sam Coleman and Jerry Locascio. Of course one of Jed's favorite activities was doing handstands in interesting places, such as this handstand on a rock on this rock slope. Notice the clouds which are kindly dissipating as we are hiking in. From Dick's lake it was decided to climb Dick's peak. Then of course there had to be the Dick's Peak handstand. There were many beautiful flowers and grasses along the trails. Here is a sample of our camp life with our master chef Jerry cooking in our camp at lake Gilmore. I liked this shot of Jerry in these trees. Later Jed took this self photo while bathing. Nice area with the water fall and such? Sam certainly seemed to be enjoying it resting in such a beautiful and tranquil context.
After returning from the Desolation Wilderness area we even took time for a brief hike/trespass in a geothermal area where power is produced. Sadly I forgot my camera at the main site and was only able to photograph the above secondary and undeveloped area. However, we have been invited back for a visit some other time.
The kite festival this summer here in Berkeley was magical for us. I didn't get very good pictures - partially because I ran out of film - but you can get a bit of an idea with this picture of some of the kites in the background. Here is something that stayed inflated on the ground that the girls had a fun time playing with.
A couple of other late summer events included Faye making and selling wreaths. She has a deal with Michael the flower salesman in "Blooming Alley" to return him a percentage of her sales in return for the dried flowers that she needs. She sold 8 wreaths (all she had) at $5 each on this day. About that same time we also painted the garage.
Some late spring/early summer events 1999. Graduation day at Marin Montessori School (MMS). Also from the MMS trip to Coloma Outdoor Discovery School, Faye dancing in the hodown, Claire with Black Fox as he was speaking, many of the MMS girls with Black Fox, Faye, Joni, and Jessica watching Black Fox, even David and his son with Black Fox (great expression, no?). Here are also pictures of Claire on a Coloma hike, and Jed doing a handstand with the "Troublemaker" rapid on the American River as a backdrop.
Here are a couple of handstand pictures I took at LBL. One from near build 50C and one near the building 50 auditorium with the Berkeley pier in the background. It wasn't a very clear day. I need to repeat this exercise on a clear day.
We had a great block party this summer. It started out with a kids parade down the blocked off street. One of the fun features was a band with a guitar, bass, lute, fiddle, and at one point even a coronet (not shown). Here is the big picture. It was great fun and very Berkeley.
Speaking of parades. This year I participated in the Alameda County Fair parade in Pleasanton, riding my unicycle and juggling.
We also went cherry picking as somewhat of a block outting. Here are the kids as we were picking. I think all the kids look quite good, but Ilan and David seem to have been caught in a particularly good pose. I think this closeup of David is great. Does he look like he has been enjoying those cherries or what? I stayed petty busy picking so we could get our 30 lbs. Lasted us a week.
Here are a few of shots of a dinner on the terrace. One is just the table layed out for a romantic dinner (as Yvonne and I sometimes enjoy). This evening we started out with Norma (our boarder) for dinner. Later I got up on the roof and took this picture of Yvonne and the girls during the dinner.
We also did a little water skiing. For example, here are the girls knee skiing.
Also, we finally got out to the beach once this summer. Here is one shot of our friend Reggie Brown, his youngest boy - Tristan - and our girls near a waterfall at the beach.
Spring seems to bring so much activity. For example, we just returned from a Mother's Day trip to a whitewater slalom race. Unfortunately Faye and I caught the flu (here she is recuperating on the terrace) so I was not in shape to race. However, I did get to run that part of the river and we had lots of fun in the boats - we have two not that my brother gave me his. Here we are just arriving. We were there in time to see our friend Bruce start his last run. We also got in some sun on the beach and lots of boating ourselves. E.g. here is Claire and dad and another of Faye and dad. Norma also joined in the boating fun. At times we have the whole family out in boats. The girls even started paddling alone - e.g. Faye and Claire in kayaks. Bruce looks pretty hot as he runs the cource. E.g. heading down through this gate in whitewater, pulling up through this upstream gate, or sliding toward the finish through this gate. I enjoyed running the rapids, but I will have to try the slalom next time there is a race (e.g. perhaps on the Mokolumne). Of course there were lots of other folks running the course. For example, here is a couple in a two person canoe (they sit on their knees) as they go down through a gate and as they prepare to go up through this gate to finish the course.
Of course another event in the spring is Easter. Here are hunting for Easter eggs. We also had some neighborhood boys in on the egg hunting fun.
Nearly every spring around tax time I go up to my old alma mater, U.C. Davis, for Picnic Day. This year I started the parade out with a handstand. You can see the color guard waiting for me to finish in the background ;-). And of course Picnic Day wouldn't be complete without a PICNIC!. We had intended to go pick up the battle of the bands with friends in the afternoon, but it was a hot day and when the girls saw sprinklers in a park, well, we could resist the force. Both Faye and Claire had delightful times in the sprinklers.
Just as a little slice of life, I decided to photograph some intrigue from my daily bus pick up. I ride my bicycle from home and through the UCB campus, but then stop to take the bus up the hill at a spot where there is this view. If you look closely you can see a seat over a staircase over a building. Well I was so intrigued by that seat for so long that I finally went up in that building (turned out to be the most disgusting dormitory - must be all men - that I have ever been in) and up to that seat to see this view. I could even see the newspaper stands where I select my rag of choice in the mornings - from the Daily Cal to Tech Times to the Mercury News... On that particular day students in the Ethnic Studies Department had been protesting about lack of support and had written about their plight on the sidewalk (barely visible). They occupied a building and created all sorts of havoc. I can't imagine the math or physics departments protesting like that. Here is a parting shot from the roof that catches the campanile.
A friend (Hi Marilyn!) recently asked if I had any audio of Yvonne playing the piano on the net. I have only recorded one piece of music that I dearly love to hear her play. It almost brings tears to my eyes whenever I hear it. Unfortunately we don't have effective recording facilities. I recorded it on a little cassette recorder of the girls and then input it to my PC through a microphone ??! So ... the quality is very poor. Still, if you can download it (~1.3MB) and your browser (or whatever) is capable of playing .wav format audio files, then feel free to give it a try. This is a link to the piano segment in .wav format.
Here are some pictures from the great trip we took up to visit our friends the Colemans in their retirement home near Mount Rose (NE of Tahoe). We had great fun building a snow fort. Sam had the idea to use plywood boards for forms. That allowed us to make the walls straight and tall. Strong enough for a handstand on the snow fort. We also did some tobogganing and sledding right at Sam's place. A big treat for the girls was getting ski lessons (that is them in the pink jackets) to where they could head to the lifts, take their first ski lift up and ski down. Later I got to go to up the lift with them. Yvonne also had a good time skiing there, e.g. this picture of her pausing with Sam or skiing downhill. Here is on of everybody except dad (taking the picture) at the top of the Pony Express run and another with a nice view in the background. After all that skiing naturally we needed to clean up. They were so proud they dressed as royalty.
Early in 1999 we got a new boarder, Norma (from Italy), seen here in a traditional boarder pose. Naturally she has been participating in many of our family activities - e.g. as we get into spring. As the spring weather settles in we are spending more and more time outdoors, e.g. as with some neighbor children in our newly refurbished sandbox.
One spring event was the class play at Marin Montessori, Way of the Stars. This year was especially exciting because both girls were in it together along with Yvonne accompanying on the piano (here proudly watching Faye go on as Persius). Here is the cast with both Claire and Faye singing (just left of middle in the first two rows). Each girl played numerous roles. For example Claire as a muse, as Casseopia as an Athenian, etc. Here is Faye as narrator and as Persius (here seen receiving the tools she needed to bring back the head of Medusa). The girls also played instruments (e.g. Faye on the recorder) and danced (e.g. Claire dancing).
We had numerous parties in the house during the holiday season. For example, this Santa Lucia party where the children dressed up and paraded down the stairs. There we also sing alongs.
When we had a full house like this one, it kept Yvonne busy in the kitchen.
Sometimes the children would put on impromptu plays or puppet shows on the stairs while the adults watched.
Around Christmas time we also had a number of relatives over. For example, here is cousin Melissa with the girls. Uncle Sean and Aunt Temesia also visited with their dog Roxie. We took this group photograph and also got some pictures of uncle Sean, the girls, and Roxie out for a walk. Claire really dotes on Uncle Sean as can be seen in this picture and in this one. Sometimes both girls get into the act.
For Christmas I bought a radio controlled blimp (nominally for the girls) and I've had a great time running it in a loop from the top of the banister, down through the family room, up the spiral, and back to touch the banister. My record is 1 minute 58.27 seconds so far.
After the holidays a big event was our trip to the snow to visit our friends the newly retired Colemans. Here we are at a toboggan site on Mt. Rose (Faye has grown ;-) where, among other things, we got the whole family on the old toboggan (next time we will wave on the far side for the camera ;-). The Colemans were wonderful hosts in their fabulous retirement home, e.g. this first meal in their new dining room. The girls really enjoyed walking with Sam, who was nice enough to take several family pictures on some of our walks, like this one where we are all up on some rocks, or this one just a moment later where I appear to be almost hovering. We also got some fun pictures of the girls, like this one with the two of them on some rocks (also to be seen as a close-up of the two of them).
We now have a new boarder from Italy, Norma. Sadly I don't have any pictures of her developed yet, but those will come soon.
My thoughtful sister-in-law Lauralee sent me this old photograph of a trio doing gymnastics on the Empire State Building as a Christmas gift. Every time I look at it my muscles twitch a bit. I wouldn't consider doing anything with that much real danger, but I could play any of the roles and it certainly makes me think about the possibilities.
We recently (11-14-98) went to see the Alexander Calder exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). In a way this exhibit was kind of sad. Most of it consisted of Calder's mobiles. However, nobody was allowed to touch them and they weren't set in motion by any other means (e.g. fans or such). This is particularly sad given Jean-Paul Sartre's definition of a "mobile" (a term coined for Calder's creations):
There were a number of fun events that we participated in this Fall. For example, the girls and I attended a juggling festival in Lodi. It is great fun juggling and watching other jugglers. The evening shows that they put on where the jugglers perform for their colleagues is always delightful. Sorry, no pictures. Maybe next year.
I also went for a day to the Mountain Unicycle Weekend. People there were also great fun. E.g. doing Things not to do on a unicycle. One of those was going down a cliff on a unicycle. The guy in that picture (Kris Holm) actually made it down. The guy who organized the event is John Foss. Here he is on the last part of the hill climb event. Going up that hill is perhaps more difficult than it looks. Only 5-7 people made it up the last part of that climb. There were probably 50 or so people at the event. Here is a picture of a few. The novice trail ride that I participated didn't have nearly as many participants. Here we are after our 4 mile trail ride. I am there squatting and my friend Tony that I went with is standing above me.
Another fall event was a camping trip to Yosemite. Here is a shot of dad and the girls on some large rocks. Also on that trip we found this large red fungus. When coming back from Yosemite we stopped by Knight's Ferry where we took pictures by the bridge (obligitatory handstand) and by the power station.
This fall we had another boarder staying with us, Isabel Calaza from northern Spain (Mondoñedo). I put up some pictures that I though she might enjoy from a water skiing trip that she went on with us. Isabel by the boat, Isabel in the water dealing with the ropes, and Isabel knee skiing (!). Pretty good for a first time out!
Here are some other odds and ends Fall pictures. Yvonne's uncle Buzz with his helicopter. I hope we get to ride in it some time. Here is a favorite place we like to take visitors, looking at San Francisco in the evening from Treasure Island, in this case Yvonne's uncle Vince and aunt Marianne. Here is a signed picture of Beethoven that friends in Germany gave us that we have had framed and now feature prominently in our living/piano room.
Of course we also spent time at the beach this summer and having fun around the house - here with Yvonne and the girls on the skateboard. Enough is going on that Claire and I often go to sleep together.
The summer of 1998 has been the summer of the butterfly. Yvonne bought the girls two milkweed plants with small Monarch butterfly caterpillars on them. They grew and grew (like this - pretty interesting gold on that chrysalis, huh?) until they completed their metamorphosis. Here is a shot when one had hatched out. It then proceeded to fly off into our sycamore tree where (after struggling and searching for about 45 minutes with binoculars, etc.) I was able to image it with my Celestron. Incidentally, by going through this site we were able to find out how to distinguish the sexes of Monarchs. Ours were females (fits).
Just as the Monarchs were hatching out, we (Claire actually, naturally) noticed a caterpillar on some plants that Yvonne had purchased recently. It was the caterpillar of an Anise Swallowtail on a dill plant. It has really been an eating machine. Here is how it grabs the end of a dill stem and eats it down to a stub. Notice the stubs under it and the thick one to the far left. It really knows how to chow down. At this point it has metamorphosed into a chrysalis. We hope to see it hatch out as a butterfly also. Hopefully more pictures later.
Two other single picture events: meeting with a high school friend, Reese Cutler and Faye's birthday tea. I (sadly) wasn't around for the tea. However, I really enjoyed talking to Reese - philosophy, life, events, etc. I hope we are able to get together again for some more chat. It is interesting to tie in such a large time frame - over 30 years.
Here is a page set is a page that describes a trip on the California Zephyr that we took 7/8/98 to 8/3/98 from California to the Midwest to visit Yvonne's relatives. There are many pictures linked to in the above page, but some highlights include meeting many friends met on the train and all the things we did with the various relatives like a canoe trip on the Mississippi, getting a tree harness lesson from the grandpa, a lake trip that included a fun tree swing, some fun pool time and river time, visits with friends, a Neal family reunion (large, ~118KB, watch out) and much more. See the full page for more content and pictures.
One other picture we got from the trip to the midwest was in the airport. Yvonne took a picture of the girls and I playing airplane. You can see that Claire can still stretch out, but Faye is getting heavy enough and tall enough that she really has to pull her feet in. It used to be easy to swing them both around like that for a long time. Now it is all I can do to swing them around for a short time with Faye holding her feet up... Times change.
We didn't get too many pictures from the 50th birthday party, but here are some of the tricks that I and the girls learned for the party:
This summer (7/98) I scanned in an old picture of the Network Systems Division folks that I used to work with at LLNL. That picture was taken in 1991. We certainly had fun working on the systems that we developed together (the various LINCS/NLTSS pieces). On July 9, 1986, the LLNL "Newsline" paper ran an article with this graphic showing a few principles and the XMP computer. Here is a scan from the original photograph. In some other historical work I put together a page from a July 30, 1938 Miami Herald article that mentions my father in a Pan American first survey flight from Miami to Alaska.
Faye recently (Spring 1998) finished her season in the San Francisco girls chorus. I don't have the pictures yet of her latest performance (truly memorable), but I did get the official picture of the level 1 group at the Dunsmuir performance that was quite good. Here is a zoom in on Faye.
Another recent event was the trip I took with the Marin Montessori "dome" children to Mendocino Woodlands. The above link is the whole story. Some of the Donnelley family highlights were Faye performing in her skit and of course enjoying the performance of others. Even dad (me) got into the act (I'm juggling balls tossed in by the three children while balancing on a makeshift "rola bola" made from a bench balanced on a 3 inch PVC pipe one of the cooks found). See the whole story for more pictures of the things we saw and did on that rather wet Memorial day week.
There are some genuinely new pictures in this section. First one of Claire in her PJs. She is getting bigger and starting to read up a storm. She is also learning all the songs that Faye is learning in the San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC). Faye's section of the SFGC put on a performance recently. Here is Faye in her section of the whole group. There was quite a crowd at Dunsmuir House that day for the performance.
This set of pictures scanned in 4/23/98 includes three that are actually older. One is a picture of me walking down the stairs from my second floor office at LLNL, circa 1981. I think the picture was taken by Bob Judd. It is unusual getting any pictures out of LLNL, so I am pleased to have this one which was OK'ed. This point on the stairs was part of an effort to walk down the stairs on my hands (two flights, about 30 steps?) and into the elevator (being held open by Bob) and then ride it back up to the second floor to close a loop (I like loops). I actually collapsed walking out of the elevator (still on my hands), but I consider it close enough. The blood had been in my arms so long they just weren't working so well any more ;-) The other two older pictures, dolls1 and dolls2 are from last summer. They show our girls with the dolls that they had just made (with mom's help) from a book sent to us by our good friend Ingrid Leser from Stuttgart.
Here are some shots of recent activities. One is of Claire hanging from our magnloia tree. Both girls love to climb that tree, into and out of the back porch. You can see the holes cut lovingly into our fence to allow the branches to remain uncut just above the branch Claire is hanging on. Another is also Claire visiting a Miwok Indian village. I think she is learning how they ground grain. Also one of the girls in dad's office (suitably with a Perl manual in the foreground).
Finally (in this set) are some pictures from the play that Faye's class did at Marin Montessori - Peter Pan. One is of Faye singing in her role as one of the lost boys, Tootles. Yvonne did the musical accompaniment with her friend Golnar on the flute. Here they are hard at work backstage and taking their bows.
Just a few new pictures from late March 1998. One of the house from the Klem's down along Benvenue. One of the girls at tea with their friend Hanna. A couple of the house at night from the sidewalk, one looking in at the spiral and one looking in at the kitchen.
Well, we finally (2/98) finished the last "big" bit of work inside the house, the fireplace. We also took some pictures of Faye by the fire place and Claire by the fire place. One interesting part of it is the center tile. It is a tile made from an impression of one of the fall leaves from one of our sycamore trees in the front of the house. Speaking of the front of the house, here is a getting close to spring picture. You can also get a closer look at us by the house (about time to take down the snow flakes I would say ;-). Despite all the rain we have had during February (all time records!) there have still been some sunny days where we could go to the park and get some shots of Claire with flowers and Faye with flowers (in a near-by park by the Bay). And of course we can't forget Valentine's Day when the girls made Valentine's heart shaped cookies on sticks with their friend Jessica.
Here are some Christmas pictures. The night before Christmas not a creature was stirring except dad - putting together a lego electric train (that was a hit actually, but I didn't see any pictures taken of it). Still featured after all these years is the old dancing bear that helped Faye learn to walk (she REALLY wanted to get to that dancing bear and put it into her mouth). Opening presents on Christmas morning was serious business. Claire wanted to know "What did you get daddy?" The girls also had their friend Jessica over while they were making a ginger bread house.
One big change recently (12/97) is my accepting a position at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, sometimes referred to as Berkeley Lab (from a denim shirt that I bought there - the building on the hill is the Advanced Light Source and the UC Berkeley Campanile is at the bottom). The change of venue has been good for me. Things are just so different. Two particularly nice things are the view from my office and the commute. Those eucalyptus trees block our view of the Golden Gate Bridge, but from offices just down the hall you can see the Golden Gate nicely. That was a particularly clear morning where you could see the Farallon Islands there just to the left of the right tower. From my normal sitting position I have great views looking left (I can see the Bay Bridge by scooting my chair a bit to the right) and looking right. The girls school in Corte Madera is just above the high point in that island just left of the middle of the picture. You can also see the Richmond Bridge at the right. It is delightful to take in some of the different moods of the bay throughout the day.
The commute is also great. I ride my bicycle from home, through the UC Campus, past the Campanile and then up the hill on the off-site shuttle bus. The bus looks a bit further than it is from my office. I can get from my office to the bus in under two minutes. The busses leave promptly every 10 minutes until 17:50 and every 20 minutes thereafter. If I get that 17:50 bus or later I usually hear the Campanile bells being played as I ride by. They seem to start playing them at 18:00 nearly every day. I am really enjoying the ride to/from work. Sometimes I walk just for fun. I've only ridden my bike up the hill once. I get sweaty doing that, so I will have to shower at work upon arrival if I do that often. I may have to shower anyway during the summer, so perhaps I'll ride up the hill more often then - we'll see.
The play "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" was put on by the girls school (though not by their class). Claire gave out programs at the door with a little boy. Both girls are really enjoying the soundtrack to the play.
Sadly, our boarder Peter Betsch left to return to Germany. Look at all those boxes! (Just kidding Peter - those boxes are, blush, ours...). However, Peter did find some things lost in his desk as he packed up to leave. It took an offer of a great position at the University in Kaiserslautern to get Peter to go back to Germany. We hope he enjoys his life there as much as he seemed to enjoy his life here.
Wait! I forgot the Christmas pictures. Oh well, I'll get to them tomorrow...
Here is a picture of the family in front of our newly painted house. The orange color really attracts attention. We are just about finished with the inside of the house now. We got the custom tile with an imprint from one of our sycamore trees for the fire place and are now waiting to get the tiles put in place. My french drain (pictures below) is doing well at keeping water out of the basement, but we haven't had very much rain yet this year - El Nino notwithstanding.
I have accepted a new position at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. I now ride my bicycle to the UC campus and then take the LBNL shuttle up (and later down) the hill. The work is interesting and I have a terrific view of the bay (the Bay bridge over to the Richmond bridge) from my office. I'll put up a picture or two once I have them developed. Our boarder Peter left to go back to Germany ;-(. He just got an offer that he couldn't refuse. We are undecided whether we will get another boarder or not. It will be tough to top Peter.
We just (11/13) got some pictures of the girls back that were taken by professional photographers. Some came out really good. Yvonne and I really like some of the ones of Claire - e.g. this side shot and the one where she has sort of a pixy pose. This modest pose by Faye seems pretty nice to us also. We also got some pictures of the girls together and one with Yvonne and the girls. It looks like Claire is getting a bit tired of the posing bit at the end there, but I am impressed that the photographers were able to get her in some of those poses. We don't have any luck getting shots like that ourselves. I guess that is why they are professionals.
Here are a few pictures from around Halloween (10/31). First one from a big project that we have been working on - trenching the storm drain. I work 'em hard don't I? In this picture you are seeing the back side of the house. In the distance is Faye filling in trench by the garage in the east side yard. Claire is digging out trench by the back door. Here is a family shot in front of our newly painted house. The orange in the background is more realistic. The foreground is a bit washed out by the flash. Look at these clowns (a bit large and colorful)! Dad also got a bit into the Halloween spirit (sporting the new beard). Finally, here is the golden sun in the golden state setting behind the Golden Gate from 2835 Benvenue (the golden house?).
Dad and the girls went camping at San Mateo Memorial park in the Santa Cruz mountains on September 12 and 13. We stayed at an old favorite campground, Azelia 12 (from the days when I and my brother Sean were young). Here is the little tent that we slept in. I took a picture of us all on the throne. Perhaps Sean remembers this old hollow redwood stump that you can climb up or down through. We also had fun "paddling" about on a very long, half planned log. After the camping we also visited the nearby beach (Pescadero) for tide pooling, bird watching, and wave jumping and many other activities. What fun!!
The biggest recent event in the Donnelley household was the opera! Sanford and Judy Jones came to Oakland and Claire and Faye both had parts in "The Little Mermaid." Claire was a sailfish (in this picture with only her hat), Faye was a seahorse (seen here with Judy Jones and Faye's friend Holly) and a courtier, and both girls were church bells. Claire had an exciting leap and both girls of course enjoyed well deserved bows (all pictures from the dress rehersals).
Both girls have been getting closer to our new neighbor Calli.
We also recently (August 24,25) had a nice visit from our friends from Germany, the Hasses (Peter, Ruth, and Katrine - who came with her friend Ana). This picture was taken on the beach at Carmel, where the water was quite warm due to the developing El Nino. We expect a wet winter.
I went off to the Sierras near the end of July (97). We went in at Dana Meadows near the eastern entrance to Yosemite (Tioga Pass) and hiked up to Mono Pass. From there we climbed Mt. Gibbs (~12,600'). Here is the summit handstand on top of Mt. Gibbs. Mt. Dana can be seen to the right and several other northeast Yosemite peaks to the left (e.g. Mt. Conness) in the distance. On the way down we took this picture of Helen and Spillway lakes. Helen lake is just over my head. Spillway is just in front of my face. We later climbed the ridge that is just to the right of Helen lake and above Spillway. Here is a picture from the ridge just above Spillway lake and to the right of Helen lake. We also hiked over Koip peak pass (~12,400') and got a look at Alger lakes. Mammouth mountain is to the left in the background and the Minarets are just out of view to the right beyond Black mountain. Here are a few additional handstand pictures that my partner Jerry took: one at the side of a lake near our main camp, one a bit more technical on a log during our hike - Mt. Dana in the background, and one with cold hands.
I also have some pictures of the girls from a recent trip to acquatic park in Berkeley (7/97). Claire was happy when she caught a turtle. However, she was unhappy when she skinned her knee during a bicycle mishap. Both girls generally had a good time.
One of the exciting spring (97) events was Faye traveling off to "Emandel" - a farm up on the Eel River. She went up with her Montessori class for five days and four nights. Here she is as she was leaving, and here she is after she returned. Note the important return items, the t-shirt, the wild flower wreath, and "beary." Also a recent handstand picture outside the front of the house.
Here is a snapshot of comet Hale-Bopp. This was taken with just my Canon EOS/RT on a tripod - with some fairly fast film.
I also recently scanned in an graphic from the LLNL newspaper, "Newsline", from September 29, 1992 when they ran a brief spot on our noon time volleyball. Thinking back about all my years playing volleyball, I decided to include this photo of the USVBA Region 12 Champions in 1978, including Russ Kamp, Charlie Brown, Jed Donnelley, Fred Milanovitch, Mike Pratt, George Liepelt, and Chris Bufkin.
Here is a last shot of Peter, me (=Jed), Claire, Michael, Kristin, and Faye just before Kristin and Michael returned to Germany.
Some of these shots were from the Spring just after Easter and we had just finished our inside Easter egg hunt. We were still playing host to German visitors, e.g. shown here with Claire pointing out her favorite doll. Faye recently lost a tooth and played the part of a flower (a chrysanthemum) in the school play "Alice in Wonderland". Naturally with spring in the air we are enjoying the outside even more of late as this three on the skateboard picture shows.
In addition to our boarder (Peter below) we now have two visitors from Germany, Kristin Leser and her boyfriend Michael. Here are a couple of pictures of them, first by the Golden Gate Bridge and later eating dim sum in San Francisco with us and Peter.
During this time we have been touring around some. E.g. we all went to the Monterey Aquarium. Here is a picture of us at the beach in Monterey. Kristin and Michael are the dark couple in the back at the left. Yvonne and Claire are to the right on the beach. Faye is near the bottom of the picture on the rocks. While there Faye got drenched by a rogue wave. But it turned out OK because she got hot chocolate afterwards. Naturally Claire also got chocolate. And of course dad couldn't resist doing a handstand to show off at the beach or later in the Hyatt Regency in SF.
We now have a boarder, Peter Betsch, staying with us from 2/97 to 2/98 from Germany. Peter is a post doc from University of Hannover working with a professor at Cal. Here is the first picture of Peter that I scanned in. He is standing on top of our SE side fence with our upstairs bedroom window behind him and just visible in the upper left the south side terrace windows - where he slept the first few weeks. He now finally has a real bedroom that he is settling into (3/2/97). About this time we went up to my brothers in Larkspur and took time to visit the Golden Gate Bridge and Mt. Tamalpias - looking north and also looking south to SF. It was quite a clear day. We could see seagulls on Alcatraz island and the Hoover Tower at Stanford University with my telescope. We could also see snow on the Sierras with binoculars (e.g. those Peter is holding).
Our house and piano were officially "warm"ed! We had Thanksgiving '96 dinner with friends in our new kitchen and we celebrated the completion of the bulk of our remodeling work with a house/piano warming. Thanks to all who attented our warming on Sunday Dec. 1 1996!
Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving - taken on November 23 and posted on December 7. We were warming up the kitchen (don't forget the gravy!), the kitchen table, the piano (no, DON'T STOP!), the kids, and even the sidewalk (are they having fun or what?!)! That's my friend Mark Boolootian directing the skateboard with his two boys and my youngest Claire on the left. We had plenty to be thankful for this Thanksgiving!
Here is a picture from the House/Piano warming where we were officially warming up the piano (taken December 1 and posted December 7) - shown are Yvonne and Mary Campbell at the piano. Claire is wondering what all these people are doing. We had around 50 people for the house warming. Most were wandering around the house, even during the piano performances.
It is interesting to contrast some of these house warming pictures with the house as we bought it. For example, there are pictures from pretty much the same position looking east toward the side door(s) before and after. In the before picture you see a wall that we took out and the old side door where the new glass side doors are now (after). The contrast is also pretty stark in the "master" bathroom before and after. In the after picture of the master bath you are unable to see the shower that is just to the left of the bath against the far wall. It is nice having a shower and bath in that bathroom. Here are pics of the other new bathrooms - upstairs and downstairs.
Here a few more sample shots from the house warming. First looking toward the spiral and guest room from the east side door. Next looking west from the floor of the terrace room. You can see the top of the remaining chimney, the roof line, and the access door to the attic storage on the west side. Here is another view looking back east toward the terrace room from that attic access door. Here is kind of a fun picture looking down the spiral from the second floor. Here are pictures looking into the kitchen and one looking out of the kitchen. I also have a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge from the roof of the house. Sorry it was a cloudy day. Here are another couple of shots from the roof of the U.C. Berkeley Campanile and of the Berkeley Hills looking east. You can just see the Clairmont hotel at the far right - the dome with the flag on top. You have to remember that some of these pictures are taken from the roof and not the deck, so they are a bit misleading.
I have a little better picture of the eastside deck from the roof of the garage. That is the kitchen bay window to the far right. Here is one other view of the bay from the south side window in the terrace room. They were shooting fireworks off over in that direction last weekend (12/15). Some fun. In this last roof picture you can see the Bay Bridge and some of the San Francisco skyline. This is the television tower "Sutro" tower that is barely visible on the opposite hill. I will have to try again on a clear day...
Finally (for now 12/9) people were asking for an outside picture of the house. It isn't too exciting from the outside - pretty much just a big wood frame and stucco box. What I have scanned in is a before picture of the front of the house. It hasn't changed substantially from this view. Lots of windows! Only the access panel on the right is now a vent and the chimney in the middle (barely visible at the top) is now replaced by the terrace room. You can see what the house looked like then in drawings for the first floor and one for the second floor (sorry they are so large). I still have to get some good after drawings scanned in (or even better in acrobat format). The only way I know to effectively look at these drawings is by printing them out (in landscape mode). If you find a better way, please let me know. In the mean time I will work on getting acrobat format line drawings.
People interested in the house project might also be interested in some pictures of the girls. I put together a block of four school pictures. The latest aren't so good, but you get the idea. I like the BW ones from last year so I included them. I actually think the "kids" picture (above) from Thanksgiving is a better picture of our girls (but note that Richard there in the middle is not ours...).
The rest of the pictures are from the construction (all dates are posted dates, not the dates of the photographs - the year is 1996):
Yvonne,
Jed,
Faye, and Claire Donnelley
(and brother Sean and wife Temesia)
Berkeley, California
(510) 548-4590 or E-mail:
