sightseeing, dc pride, and birthday outings

I realized today that I've been in DC a month now for my summer internship. It's flying by, and I'm trying to remember to make my time very productive. In addition to my four weeks of research and writing at the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, I've managed to get out and about in the city a bit, and catch up with friends from Carleton, law school classmates also interning here, and enjoy some genuinely hot weather for the first time in a while. (I can enjoy it because the place I'm staying at has satisfactory a/c so there's always a refuge on the truly hot days.) My first weekend here J came to help me settle in, and between walks around the neighborhood to get oriented and trips to the store to get laundry detergent and the like, we did a little sightseeing. Of course, we went to see if Barack was at home (he wasn't).

In front of the whitehouse

From 2011-07-09

At the museum of natural history

From 2011-07-09

From 2011-07-09

At the Smithsonian

From 2011-07-09

Last weekend was the DC Gay Pride Parade, the route of which runs just near my place. So I caught some of that. It was actually one of the more decorous parades I've ever seen. However, the floats did not disappoint in their colorfulness. Below, my favorite of the floats I saw - I appreciated the creative use of the 'LOVE' postage stamp graphic - and a delegation from the Roller Derby.

From 2011-07-09

From 2011-07-09

And finally, yesterday we spent a lovely day celebrating my 29th (!!) birthday. We started off with brunch with friends, then walked to the Mall where there was a soap box race that was a lot of fun to watch. Generally it was a nice, low-key day. If the rest of 29 is the same, I could be on board with that. To close, some images of the day:

In front of brunch place

From 2011-07-09

Walking past the Supreme Court

From 2011-07-09

Soap box race

From 2011-07-09

Cupcakes to end the day

From 2011-07-09

thesis defense and west coast re-visit

A little over a month ago today, when Joey defended his thesis, I went out to Santa Barbara to populate his peanut gallery. While he's been back and forth a fair amount in the year since we left, it was my first time back since the move. Turns out, Santa Barbara was more or less as I'd left it. We spent a little time downtown on the weekend, and ran into the following antique car/other vehicle show. Some photos for your viewing pleasure:

Having gotten used to the (actual changes in) weather of Massachusetts, I got a pleasant reminder of the Central Coast unfailing blue sky and constantly mild temperature.

The other highlight of the trip, after Joey's passing his thesis defense, was visiting our friends/ex-neighbors Rachel and James, and their little boy Logan. Logan is quite familiar with Joey, who's had babysitting duty on some of his trips, but this was my first time meeting him. As you can see, he's adorable and very inquisitive!

It was a lovely trip, and I definitely enjoyed seeing friends and visiting old haunts. Hopefully we'll make it back to see them all again before long.

Big steps

Yeah, it's been a while ... but lots has been going on!

Several big steps have happened in our lives recently. In chronological order, the first is that Danielle survived her 1L year which is a big accomplishment. It was definitely difficult, long, and tiring, but she really seemed to enjoy the things she was learning. The first year is supposed to be the hardest, but the next ones won't exactly be easy. What Danielle's really hoping for is there's enough time to enjoy and think about the things she's learning, not the constant rush just to finish reading that this past year was.

 

My brother Drew graduated from NDNU in May, it was so wonderful for me to be able to be there and celebrate his accomplishment. He actually finished in December and as part of his graduation present got to go on a trip to Madagascar with my dad, a little bit jealous ;-)

 

Most recently, I successfully defended my PhD thesis a couple weeks ago! It was a wonderful experience, and very nice that schedules aligned so Danielle could come watch (and take this picture). That was really the last significant hurdle in completing my degree, tomorrow I will file my thesis with UCSB which officially marks the end of my graduate studies.

So now Drew and I are both facing that open-ended question which many graduates ponder: What comes next?

Well, stay tuned ...