Happy Belated Birthday...

...to Renee who celebrated her (...) birthday this past Wednesday. Sadly, however, she has been under the weather for the past week so the celebration was rather muted. The below picture of the half eaten brownie with the cold medicine in the background sums up the evening quite nicely. Out of respect for Renee there will be no picture posted of the birthday girl.


The last few weeks have been rather low key. Renee started up again with school last week and has been busy finishing her applications for her practicum placement that begins next academic year.


We've also spent the last month seeing new things and people in the city. In other words, we have some semblance of friends! In January we had dinner at the home of a woman in Renee's program, went to a birthday party of another woman from Alliant, and just today watched the Super Bowl with yet another person from school. Renee's clearly doing all of the heavy lifting lately when it comes to our social life.

We've also seen new parts of the area we hadn't checked out before, including Twin Peaks where the views were as good as promised. For the second time we crossed the Golden Gate north to the Marin Headlands where we went for a short hike in the late afternoon on a Sunday. We need to spend some more time there as the scenery was absolutely gorgeous.

Two pictures above taken from the top of Twin Peaks

The above four pictures were taken from the Marin Headlands, Marin County

Christmas, Part Two

After spending time in New York we were fortunate to spend time with the Lubbers/DePotty crew in Michigan for a week. Just like the Shands the Lubbers family was very good to us during our stay there. Also, Amy and Bryan were nice enough to rearrange their schedules to come home for the second time for Christmas in order to see us. Plus we got to see them one more day than we thought they would. Oh, and they brought their adorable and well-behaved puppy, Sadie. Sadie kept us on our toes to say the least.

Pictures below...

On New Year's Eve we went out for dinner at Boatwerks in Holland, the same place where we had a post-wedding reception last July for friends and family who couldn't make it to the wedding. Just days later we learned they're temporarily closing down until April. Hopefully they'll be able to make it as it's a great restaurant with a wonderful location on the water.

After dinner we made it back to Mom and Dad's just in time to ring in the New Year with Sadie.

Dad, Jeff and Bryan went to the "Born to Play Ball" baseball exhibit at the Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, which displayed old memorabilia and and presentations on the top 5 players at every position over the course of the game. Can you believe they listed Pete Rose as a better player than Rickey Henderson? Unbelievable.

Grandma and Grandpa came over for our late Christmas celebration and had a great time.

Amy C. came all the way from Ann Arbor to catch up with Renee and was also nice enough to spend some time with the Lubbers family before leaving.

And finally, one last picture of Sadie for no good reason.

Christmas, Part One

After multiple airplane delays we have safely returned from our cross country Christmas tour. The first part took us to upstate New York to celebrate with the Shand family followed by a belated Christmas with the Lubbers crew in Michigan. A wonderful time was had with both families and it was great to finally celebrate Christmas together for the first time as a couple.

Below are some pictures from the first part of the trip in New York. We'll post Michigan pictures sometime after we finally finish unpacking.

Renee's parents waited until we both arrived in New York to decorate the enormous tree. Renee willingly served as Santa's little helper.

Janine's son Evan kept us very amused during his visits (and Renee on her toes while shopping).


No bones were broken while sledding/sleigh-riding. It should be pointed out that Ma Shand seemed more enthusiastic about going than anyone else.

It's not Christmas with the Shands unless you swim in wrapping paper after opening presents.




It's also not Christmas with the Shands without a ridiculously large tree ornament.




Joseph called from Scotland on Christmas making Renee's day.

Porter in one of his few calm(er) moments.

We took a trip to the home of the Orange County Choppers and saw some amazing bikes.

Jeff, Renee and Ma Shand played tourists in New York City on a 62 degree day. Hotspots visited included Times Square, Rockefeller Center, FAO Schwartz, and a horse-drawn carriage ride through Central Park.

Christmas in California

The holiday season is upon us and sadly we had relatively little time to celebrate in California. With Thanksgiving being later this year and us both flying east later this week our holiday season here was rather brief.

On the plus side we were able to get a Christmas tree just two blocks away. Due to the size of our apartment we had no choice but to get a smaller tree which allowed Jeff to carry it home using one hand, a rather comical sight in itself. As of this writing there has just been a single cat-caused ornament mishap (so far).

We did get a chance to go downtown Saturday night to see the Macy's tree in Union Square. And tonight we'll be seeing A Christmas Carol before Renee flies to New York Monday morning (Jeff heads to New York on Thursday).

And finally, congratulations are in order for the woman of the house because as of this writing she is officially done with her schoolwork for the semester (her final paper needed to be turned in today). Below is a video of her celebrating. Amy C. put it best and made Renee's day when she reminded Renee that she will never be a first semester Ph.D. student again. (That role may be left to Jeff in the future.)

Thanksgiving in Arizona

By virtue of moving west we now live a mere 770 miles from our closest relatives - Renee's Aunt Camille and cousins Anthony and Ashley in Phoenix. So naturally we decided to visit said relatives. After braving a downed power line on a major highway, a monsoon in Arizona, lighting storms in the desert, and rush hour traffic outside Los Angeles on the day before Thanksgiving, we made it to Arizona.

In order to survive many many hours together in the car, many steps were taken to keep ourselves amused, including completing multiple crossword puzzles, listening to our wedding reception music (including "I Love Rock 'n Roll" for loyal reader Janine) and listening to the Glenn Beck Radio Show to balance out our NPR-heavy radio listening habits. We were particularly enlightened by one caller's suggestion to aid the economy by eliminating all debt. Simple as that, right?

After sleeping in on Thanksgiving (which led to Renee missing the Macy's parade for the first time) we went for a run in the Arizona sun, during which we were confronted with the smell of barbecued turkey and chicken, not something either of us are used to in our midwest/east coast experiences. This was followed by a soak in Camille's hot tub, also a Thanksgiving first for us both.

Once Thanksgiving afternoon came and the Lions had lost to the Titans before our breakfast cereal was digested it came time for the meal. Anthony and Ashley cooked an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and entertained us for many hours. Both Jeff and Renee became Rock Band experts and are currently taking offers from music labels across the country.

Additionally, Anthony and Ashley recently got two kittens - Gizmo and Lexi. Needless to say they kept us amused the whole weekend. As can be seen below they took a particular liking to Renee.



Even when Thanksgiving was over the fun was only beginning. In addition to starring in a Rock Band of one Jeff kept very amused with Aunt Camille's actual drumset (he clearly plays best with a cutoff t-shirt) and Anthony and Ashley's ping pong table (a spirited doubles match was enjoyed by all). We also starred in Anthony's soon-to-debut movie on YouTube.





Before leaving on Sunday morning we were able to enjoy some authentic New York pizza (yes, in Arizona) and also watch home videos of Renee and Anthony's Grandma on Saturday night. We made a rule on the drive home to stay at least 150 miles away from Los Angeles, which necessitated a trip through the Mohave desert. At the one gas station within a 100 mile radius we saw a sign that read (paraphrased):

This is a business

We do not choose to be here

It costs a fortune to operate in the middle of nowhere

You choose to be customers

Please do not complain to our workers

Does this mean there are government-subsidized gas stations? Does anyone know if these actually exist? Plus, at this station we encountered the most unfriendly worker we're seen in quite some time. Although we figured that if we had to drive 100 miles round trip to go to work at a gas station where apparently customers complain all the time we'd be grumpy as well.

But in the end we had a great time in Arizona and are very grateful to our Phoenix hosts.

Trail Run

One of the great things about San Francisco is that we're very close to so many different outdoor settings. Yesterday we went for a trail run for the first time in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area north of the Golden Gate Bridge in the North Peninsula. It didn't take us more than 20 minutes to get there by car but it felt like a different world compared to our busy city life.