Jenn

I found a cool rock!

Romy

Traveling between the Fish Lake Valley and going to Monitor Valley in Nevada, with Blake and Shelby in their Vanagon.

Romy & Jenn

Cooking up some creamed corn, mushroom, lemongrass, and apple chicken sausage soup for dinner before we take a dip in the Fish Lake Valley Hot Well pool, in west-central Nevada.

Jenn

Snowshoeing from Hilltop to Crab Cooker, going hot spring hunting.

Romy

Waking up nice and toasty in the bus after camping by Hilltop Hot Spring outside of Mammoth Lakes. Our propane furnace kept it 50 degree F inside while it was only 10F outside!

Jenn & Romy

We are on our way to camp with Bubbles in the mountains with our friends Blake & Shelby, who have a VW Vanagon.

Romy

Romy perusing the internet.

Jenn, Romy, Nicole, & Marcel

This picture wasn't very well positioned. We had Christmas Eve dinner at N&M's and Marcel's parent were visiting.

Jenn & Romy

Crazy snow storm delayed us from going home (oh no how horrible!) so we snowshoed around Truckee while I-80 was closed.

Romy

Trying on a pair of rollerblades at the Goodwill outside of Carson City.

Jenn

Having a fresh hot coffee from the Middlegate Station Cafe and Bar, a historic Pony Express stop-over in central Nevada where Hwy 50 and the old Lincoln highway 722 join (near the shoe tree).

Romy

Relaxing in the super hot Paradise Valley Hot Springs where the ranch owners put a bright blue cow tub along the banks of the Little Humboldt river. The source looks like a mini Diana's Punch Bowl.

Jenn & Romy

We had Soldier Meadows Hot Springs entirely to ourselves. Only saw three ranchers in a truck hauling hay earlier today.

Jenn

Heating up our canned coffees at the Trego Hot Spring source - it's almost boiling hot! Our coffee warmed up in minutes! Almost too hot to drink!

Romy

After passing the Pyramid Lake Indian Res, we found these interesting rocks! I think they are some kind of spring deposit.

Jenn & Romy

Busting out of Oakland for a trip well overdue to the desert!

Romy

We took a walk through the hills this evening, but it was very muddy!

Romy & Jenn & Marcel & Nicole

N&M wanted to make sushi the day after we went out for sushi, so we had sushi again!

Jenn

To celebrate being done with my math class, we went out for sushi tonight! It was soooooo good!

Romy

We went to the Geography department's map sale and got a bunch of old USGS quarter maps of California and Nevada!

Jenn & Romy

Bike Party through downtown Oakland, then to the port, and then a party at Lake Merritt. It was fun! But super cold.

Jenn

My crazy ass new leggings are here! I just love the colors and the weird face. I got cosmic ones too. . .

Romy

Pumping gas at Costco. Its all cloudy today and kind of chilly.

Romy & Jenn

This afternoon we went mountain biking on some really awesome single track in Henry Coe State Park. It was so beautiful! We saw a newt on the trail :-)

Jenn

I am finally printing my poster for the AGU conference in San Francisco this week. I can't believe it's finally done! What a relief! I am presenting on Arctic sub-sea permafrost and methane hydrate stability in the Canadian Beaufort Sea.

Romy

Making juice.

Romy

We had Thanksgiving Dinner on Sunday this year. My mom cooked a really good turkey that was organic and free range from Sonoma County, with wild rice stuffing. I made two sides of quinoa and roasted squash, and collard greens with red cabbage. It was so good!

Romy & Mom & Nicole & Marcel & Jenn

Tonight we tried Beer Revolution for the first time, a small bar in Oakland that serves microbrewed beer from all over the Bay Area and California.

Romy

Yay! The La Pavoni is working again and making espresso better than ever!

Nicole & Mom & Jenn

Tonight we went out to the Samovar Tea Lounge and had traditional black Russian tea service, Masala Chai Tea (Indian) and some Tumeric Spiced Tea (also Indian). They had really good tea.

Jenn & Romy

After breaking the brass water tube, we went to a small La Pavoni shop called Thomas E Cara, in San Francisco, to get a new one. Woah! All his espresso machines were so shiny and nice!

Jenn

Today the gaskets and rebuild parts for the La Pavoni came in the mail. I rebuilt the group but couldn't get one of the gaskets to sit. So I asked Romy to jam it in. . .

Romy

Romy got the gasket to sit right, but we broke the brass water tube in the process! Oh no!

Jenn

Ugh. . . back to work! Its never ending!

Jenn & Romy

Today, for my birthday, we went road biking in the delta. We started in the morning in Rio Vista, and then biked along the dikes all the way to Locke where we had late lunch in the old chinatown! Blast from the past!

Jenn & Nicole & Marcel & Romy

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Tonight we went out to Jupiter in Berkeley to celebrate.

Romy

The last day of the beard!!! The experiment is over.

Romy & Jenn

Today we voted!

Jenn

Making a veggie wrap with mixed greens from our tiny backyard garden! Wooo hoo! We grew something edible!

Romy

The juice today had crazy swirl colors!

Romy & Marcel & Nicole

Nicole and Marcel are installing the big skylight in their living room roof. We helped them put it in. The hole in the roof looked so surreal!

Jenn

My LaPavoni espresso maker is gonna need a rebuild!

Romy

Such a cute little bottle!

Romy

Today is all about making faces!

Jenn

Today I am learning how to use PETSc. It's supposed to compile with c++ code but it's not working on my cygwin set-up. Grrrrrrr! Tomorrow I will try installing it on linux.

Romy

Making juice this morning! Romy stole my green fleece!

Romy & Jenn

Tonight we are having veggie wraps with yogurt sauce and some Chimay! It's Halloween but we got home so late after teaching that most trick-or-treaters were gone, plus it rained! Booo!

Jenn

Doing the dishes. So much to do!!

Jenn & Romy & the Dingos!

We got first place today! Here's the team and some friends - can you see the car behind us all!? From top left to right: Toby, Romy, Crusty, Raplh, Dave. Next row left to right: Liz, Jenn, Jim, Bob, Two-Tone & his dogs. And Carmen in the straw cowboy hat.