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Other Stuff

Henri is getting used to his new digs on Belmont Ave E. He's also getting used to bathtime, which is now among his favorite activities. And he now sits in his high-chair and eats with his parents. Here are some photos of cuteness.

Someone cancelled, giving me a chance to give an invited talk at the Hertzberg Institute of Astrophysics, near Victoria, BC. I tried flying out the night before but the wters in Victoria harbour were too choppy so we came within a couple meters of landing before turning back and returning to Seattle. My flight the next morning was more succesful: a very gentle landing in Victoria just in time to meet Alan. I couldn't resist snapping some photos while in the air!

Henri can now crawl slowly, loves to babble, shake his head, eats solid food (but still mostly subsists off of milk) and is generally the best and most beautiful buggles. Photos!

I went to a conference in Porto, Portugal. The country is best known for Port wine and cork trees (used for bottling said wine). I snapped some Photos between sessions.

Enrico invited Daryl down to UCSC to talk about postdocs. Henri and i tagged along, mostly wandering around the beautiful campus, but also poking our heads into peoples' offices and talking science. Photos!

Nick was on the East coast on the 24th, so we temporarily moved his birthday by a day. Henri now has two bottom teeth, but we have not managed to capture them on camera. He is pretty uch mobile now, so we have to keep a vigilant eye on him. Photos!

Henri is chugging, along. He can now consistently flip from his back to his belly, so can roll himself around. Photos!

Daryl and i had a wedding in Santa Fe. Now it's official! Our beautiful and talented friend Claudia Valdes took wonderful photos, which i've divided into three groups to avoid crashing people's browsers.

Henri became 4 months old in New Mexico!

Time flies, and Henri is getting ready for his first ever airplane ride. We've been practicing by playing airplane in bed. Still keeps growing, and he's really starting to enjoy playing with his parets, and stuffed animals and mobiles. Here are some Photos!

Henri has started riding around in his jogging stroller, and he now faces out in hi Bjorn! He's also on the verge of mastering the roll-over. Photos!

... and he's already wearing his 3-6 month clothes! He's also mastered the art of burping up milk into his unexpecting father's mouth. Photos!

My mom held on to my argentine baby clothes to pass them on to me when i had kids of my own. We had a photo shoot to prove how stylish Henri can look.

Elizabeth and George hosted a birth class reunion. Henri hung out with the ladies.

Henri has learned to smile and giggle, but we still haven't caught him on film. He's cute anyways!

Rok and Molly bought us a photo shoot with their friend Rose. She took some awesome photos of Henri.

Henri keeps getting cuter and we have the photos to prove it!

Henri's a month old! Photos!.

Henri's third week, he's almost a month old! Some photos.

Henri's second week! Here are the photos.

Henri learnt a lot his first week, here are the photos.

After 7 hours of laboring at home, Kat (our midwife) realized that moosie's heart rate was dropping during contractions. This would not have been a problem except that Daryl's contractions were very long (many minutes) with little or no break between the end of one and the start of the next. We transfered to the UW Medical Center by ambulance at midnight, a first for all of us! After an extra hour or so of laboring at the hospital, Daryl's cervix was fully dilated and Ali (the OB/GYN) wanted to get the baby out in a hurry. We learnt in hindsight that moosie's umbilical cord was not only wrapped around his neck, a relatively common occurance, but he also had a mountaineer's coil of it over his shoulder; this is why his pulse was dropping with every contraction. Through Daryl's heroic pushing, a cesarian was narowly avoided and Henri Porter Cowan was born at 2:03 AM, March 24, 2009. He weighed 7 lbs and 15 ounces, and was 20 inches long at birth. He took a big, deep breath as soon as he came out, and he's been getting cuter ever since! Gail's photos are here.

Daryl and i spent a weekend in the bay area, hanging with family and friends, and to see Amy and Rob get hitched. A very large baby and wine bottle were also in attendance.

Daryl and i spent the holidays in Santa Fe with the Haggard Clan. I took some assorted photos.

Countless guests converged on 511 Federal for deliciousness.

Daryl and i spent some time in Montreal, where we were wined and dined by friends and family. We also took a stroll on Mont Royal.

Daryl and i got engaged! Carmen and Rok helped out. Photos are here!

I went to a transiting planets conference in Cambridge and worked at the Center for Astrophysics for a month. Here are some pictures from Cambridge and Boston.

I joined Daryl and other Haggards at the Hartshorne family reunion (in honor of Harry's 90th and Peggy's 80th birthdays) in Spring Lake, NJ. Here are my photos.

We had friends over for salmon and crab dinner and i snapped some photos.

Mom & Dad drove their RV to the Bay Area to witness Andrew's second Master's graduation. I joined big bro the next morning and we headed up to Fred & Frances' hermitage in Anderson Valley, a few hours north of SF. We enjoyed good food and conversation, read a bunch and worked on some odd jobs around the property. Photos!

Nate, Boo, Rich, Rok, Daryl and i spent the weekend relaxing at Nate's uncle's cabin near Willamette Pass in the Oregon Cascades. Highlights included spectacular dinners, the hot tub, countless DVDs of The Office, and a foot of fresh. Photos!

Rok, Daryl and i spent Christmas in Montreal and New Years in NYC. The camera mostly stayed in my bags but i took a few photos for posterity. Catherine did a much better job of documenting the goings on in Montreal.

Celebrated my first birthday as an urban sophisticate.

Daryl and i spent Thanksgiving in New Mexico with her family. We ate all sorts of delicousness and i took many photos.

The astrobiology crew headed east of the crest to check out the channeled scablands. I took photos.

Becky and Joe got hitched on Orcas Island, so Daryl and i made the drive and ferry trip ou there to see the show and enjoy the views.

Dave and Meghan got married! My photos are here.

Daryl and i spent a few weeks in Europe, ostensibly to attend a pair of Conferences. We flew to Santorini, ferried Rhodes then flew to Thessaloniki and caught the Trans-Balkan Express to Slovenia to hang out with Rok. Good times had by all.

The first and second years took a big exam so we had a party.

Daryl and Nick: Hollywood Style.

Daryl and i joined her friends at Becky and Joe's for the second annual Easter Styles. Brunch, bloody marys, modeling, croquet, egg run, strolling about town, and ridiculous pastel fasions ensued.

Bernhard came over and we made pasta. Damn good stuff.

Just a lazy afternoon in the apartment smoking shisha.

For those of you who wonder what we do in the Pacific Northwest when it just keeps on raining, here's and idea.

Went to Yellowstone National Park for an Astrobiology workshop. Photos here.

Catherine and Darryl got married! Photos here.

Went to a week-long summer school in Bad Honnef, on the Rhine between Cologne and Koblenz. Then spent a week sightseeing in Berlin. Photos here.

Ironic...

David enjoys the overcast Seattle weather.

David was in town so we had a picnic of St-Viateur bagels and some tasty cheese down at Gasworks. Hucked a frisbee around, too!

Shadow art. --photo by Steve

A butte. --photo by Natalie Beckman

Natalie's boss, Steve, took us out for in his Jeep Rubicon (a sturdy little vehicle). We drove around in the cactus and flower-covered hills near Pheonix, stopping occasionaly to sip tasty beer and enjoy the views.

Dinky American Falls

Big-Ass Canadian Falls

Andrew and I, ever the patriotic Canadians, finally dragged our sorry asses to the tourist-packed, honeymoon capital of the world. We played frisbee on a finely manicured lawn and ate over-priced cafeteria food.

Harrison Hut gets a facelift

The view from the hut

Being a big fan of manual labor, and not being one to turn down a free helicopter ride, I could not resist when Roland asked for volunteers to work on the VOC's Harrison hut.

We began the day before the sun peeked over the horizon, driving up past Pemberton to a clearing on a logging road where we were picked up by a helicopter. Now, helicopters are quite expensive to operate and i'm told that it costs on the order of $1 per second to keep one in the air. So how did poor students manage to get air-lifted to their inaccessible hut? Well, it turns out that Frank, an ex-VOCer, does geological work up in those parts and has access to a 'choper. Since Frank was an active member of the VOC back when Julian Harrison was prez, it isn't too far-fetched that Frank is willing to pull some strings to help maintain the Julian Harrison Memorial Hut.

The helicopter dropped us off on the snow near the hut and we got to work: scraping off the twenty year old paint and applying fresh stuff. After what we deemed to be a healthy amount of work, we wandered up the morraine to get better views of surrounding peaks and glaciers... but mostly to see how much air big boulders would get after being knocked down the steep slopes :-)

After our walk, we continued cleaning up the hut and outhouse before catching our lift back into the valley to our car. The drive back to Vancouver was lengthened by a road closure on the 99 between Whistler and Squamish so we only got in at 2:00AM. A long day, but the helicopter ride and breathtaking views were more than worth it!

Headshot!! --photo by Nicolas Clement

out of the dozens of people who had expressed interest in this trip, only 11 brave super ninjas actually showed up at shatner on the day of the event. we travelled by means of the metro and bus to the paintball place in ville st-laurent. we almost lost irina along the way but we all made it safely. once we were all decked out in stinky cover-alls and face masks, and armed with guns, we took to the indoor courses and started blowing the crap out of each other. everyone got covered in sweat, paint and sand. everyone felt FEAR. everyone had fun. we also spent a lot on extra paintballs...oh well.

asta la vista, baby!
-nick

medals of honour:

**greg** (this insane super ninja never stayed put and always nailed people point-blank in the back)

**cata** (this sharp-shooter managed to use half as many paintballs as the rest of us!)

**nicolas** (for stoically taking a few hits to the unprotected top of the head...sorry, i didn't know you were already gone!)

**jon** (for taking 6 hits from point-blank range in under 1 second, from complete strangers, no less!)

**paul** (for actually catching a paintball in his hand!!)

**irina** (most likely to shoot you in the back, possibly because she was always last in line)

Poi!! --Photos by Julien Lemire

I'm the scruffy fellow downing pop --photo by Julien Lemire

seven of us managed to make it up to shawbridge for some hardcore no zipper action. maude drove laurie, jackie and kristin up in her brother's sweet ride (0:45). martha and myself took the bus (1:30), while julien zipped up on his motorcycle (fast).

we bought some extra yummies at the depaneur and hauled our awekward packs up to the lake. we saw a beaver in the lake, the girls called it benny (both the lake and the beaver). walked around the lake (saw frogs), then set up camp, keeping an eye on the sky which seemed conspicuously cloudless. we had brought loads of tarps and other water-proof stuff but we ended up sleeping on, not below them...

went for a dip, got nibbled on by little critters, then got out of the lake only to realize that we were dirtier than before ( photographic evidence courtesy of julien will come). we made a fire, had some dinner, then went on a night hike up to the power lines where the electricity flowing above our heads and the bright lights of montreal helped us attain nirvana...

during the night the sky was clear so the temperature dropped...but just enough to make us roll up in our blankets. in the morning i went for a jog in the woods, scrambled along the old rock slide and spotted a fox (hurray for wildlife!). made hot chocolate to entice the sleepy heads out of their blankets, then we stashed our bags and went for a hike up along 6X and the power lines. everyone made it back ok.

7 of us (Annie, Jamie, Maja, Nick, Phanh, Sonja, me) headed to Mont Saint-Hilaire this evening to go horseback riding. After a long traffic jam leaving Montreal it felt so good to be welcomed at the ranch by the sweet smell particular to good stables. As the sun was going down behind the mountain, we got on our 7 horses (Blacky, Bobby, Comptesse, Captain, Picasso, ?, Blanche) and started heading towards the sun. There was some apprehension at first but it progressively disappeared as we tRoTtEd and then cantered/TroTteD-VeRy-FaSt. The trail then went through sumac bushes and tall plants that the horses enjoyed tasting. The moon became brighter, the stars started to brighten up and slaloming through the forest at night was amazing. dark and mysterious, with the moon and stars shining on us. As Sonja puts it "it feels like we are in a fairy-tale or during medieval time".

I know that everyone had a wonderful time and those riding for the first time discovered how enjoyable it can be. Like Maja who started aprehensive of trotting and near the end asked the guide "madam, can we try to galop again?". I could keep writing for pages about how amazing horseback riding is. Two hours is too short I want to go back!!!

I'll end with a quote from Nick: "this is great! it's like a bike that knows to avoid puddles and rocks"