Tom and Abigail go to the Chuppah

David and I recently witnessed our old neighbor Tom doing something we never thought he would do: he got hitched. We are so happy for him and Abigail, his beautiful new wife. Tom and Abigail are so cool. They both have their own shows on KOOP radio and run their own business in Austin. We were so pleased to be at the wedding--David even had the honor of acting as witness and signing the ketubah (marriage contract). These pics were taken with my phone (I lost my camera recently), so they aren't great.
Abigail walks to the Chuppah
Tom and Abigail under the Chuppah

Despite what the weatherman had predicted, the weather was gorgeous which was lucky for us, the ceremony was outdoors at the Thurman Mansion in Driftwood, Texas (another plus for this wedding was its location in my beloved Texas Hill Country). This place is actually right up the hill from The Salt Lick, which apparently owns the Thurman Mansion. Days like that make me really miss central Texas.

The guest list included an old friend of mine from college, Jorie. This makes at least three weddings Jorie and I have been to together. It was great to see her and catch up, and meet her very cool fiance Roy (whoever thought Roy was an Israeli name?). I didn't think I was a huge fan of assigned seating, but Tom and Abigail did a great job with the table assignments. Everyone at our table was interesting. The reception also included a great band playing, lot's of dancing, toasts and a short entertaining medley performed by some friends of Abigail from Boston. Very cute.

Mazal Tov Tom and Abigail!

Pics from San Francisco

A few weeks ago I was in San Francisco for work. Specifically at the Dreamforce 2006 conference for Salesforce.com customers. The conference was quite good, lot's of learning and schmoozing. I wrote a bit about it for our work IT blog. The whole week I was there, the weather was glorious--sunny and cool with only a few clouds appearing here and there for artistic effect. The conference was fascinating--I didn't want to miss any of it--so I didn't really make it out to enjoy the weather until the last afternoon I was there after the conference ended. I made my way down The Embarcadero to one of the Blazing Saddles locations to rent a bike. Since SF is so hilly, most of the bike rental places are along the Embarcadero (which is flat) and they encourage you to ride across the Golden Gate Bridge, which aside from the road going up to the bridge, is also flat. Lovely, lovely. I did the ride at a leisurely pace, stopping several times along the way to snap pictures of the bridge and other views. Many who know me know I am a little in love with bridges. GGB is definitely one of my favorites.

	I couldn't help but gape at these signs placed along the GGB walkway. I wonder how many of the people that are drawn to jumping off the bridge are saved by these call boxes? Interestingly, after I got back, I heard about a documentary that delves into the lives of several GGB jumpers.
	Obviously, I'm not the only one intrigued by these signs. This woman was riding across the bridge with her family and had to stop and take a picture of it, too. Unlike me, she took several, trying to get it just right. Her husband and kids were whining in the background and talking about how weird she was. I took a picture of her and we shared a little moment.
	I like the repetitive image of the bridge pieces in this view from the middle of the bridge. It doesn't quite capture the beauty of it, but oh well.
	Very colorful container ship emerging from underneath the GGB
	I did not actually spend my whole day on the bridge. I eventually made it into Sausilito and found a coffee shop for a very late lunch. This was the view from their back patio
	As I was waiting for the ferry back to SF, the amazing fog rolled in. I tried to capture it on video on my phone, but it just couldn't capture the rolling, roiling-ness of it. It was gorgeous.