Fotograf in Potsdam

Trip to Michigan

Franziska and I went home to Michigan for a week long visit so that we could go to Scott’s and Jenny’s wedding. It was a pretty action packed week, starting with the bachelor party, and ending with the wedding, all documented with a few hundred pictures. Everything is seperated into different gallerys by activity for your viewing pleasure.

First, the bachelor party… (click the photo above for pictures) we started early, at 8:30am, with paintball. I had played once before, so I pretty much knew what to expect. I was a bit concerned, because I didn’t have a cup. But, I felt that two pairs of bike shorts, with an extra pair of underware stuffed in, did a pretty good job. At least I thought it would, though I never really got that question answered, which was fine with me. Nobody got hurt, though we all got shot at some point, and all had a good time.

Next up: go carts. Fast go carts. At least faster than I had driven before. We each got three chances to ride, a warm-up, qualifying, and a final race. It was pretty fun, and there was definitely some skill involved in getting your cart around the track. I didn’t have much of that, though, and qualified in the middle of the slow group. Actually, I think I was second, but I spun out on the second lap, and later a second time, so I didn’t finish very well. Still, it was fun, and I’d do it again.

Then it was on to disk-golf. A first for me. We had a good time, and it was pretty competitive. Mike P, Greg, and Jeff were in my group. I forget who won. I almost killed a hawk with a wild toss.

Next up was moutain biking. It was getting late, but we thought we could finish. We were right, but just in time, as it was getting dark. Then it was back to Jeff’s for some poker playing and beer drinking to wind up a pretty full day of bacheloring it up!
Family Photos at Home

Family photos at home… here are some pictures of my family, from a few different days, mostly at the house. The star of them all…. Rusty - the new dog! He is just six months old and has a ton of energy. He’s great fun to play with, and can run you into the ground. There is a nice picture of me, my grandma, and my aunt Gin, from our visit to see her in the nursing home. She is doing very well.
Meeting Brendan

Meeting the newest of the Giles family… for the first time I got to meet Jodie and Greg’s new baby Brendan. He’s around 9 months old, now, and was born shortly after my last visit to Michigan in for Christmas 2005. He is also a handful, especially right now that he is growing some brand new baby teeth, but was very well behaved when I was around. I think I’ve maybe only held a human this small once or twice before. Larger humans can be more difficult to hold, something to keep in mind. It was only a brief encounter, though.
Cider Mill Trip

Trip to the Cider Mill… Franziska and me and my mom and dad took a trip to the cider mill, Parmenters, I think. Now that my parents are living in Brighton, this place is much closer to home than it used to be. I remember coming here when I was young on one of the fall car rallys that we would go on every year. I don’t think it’s really changed very much over all these years. The donuts were really good, as they always are at cider mills, hot and fresh. We ate 11 of the 12 we bought before we left. The cider was good as well. Too bad there aren’t cider mills in Germany!
Hiking at Maybury

Hiking in Maybury with Mom… Franziska, my Mom, and I went for a walk in Maybury State park. It was a really nice day for a walk. We did the usual loop, about four miles. I took some pictures of bugs, turtles, spiders, and humans. We watch some turtles balance on a log for a while. The log was floating, and spinning a bit, so once the turtles started to dip into the water they would crawl up a bit farther. Then the log would start to spin the other way and the would go in the other side. And so on, and so on… it was pretty cool to watch. Finally one fell off and they were able to balance it.
Rehearsal Dinner

The rehearsal dinner…. the friday before the wedding was the rehearsal dinner. It was at Scott’s parents house. We kind of went over what was supposed to happen at the wedding. Everything seemed a bit uncertain. But, Reverend Giles knew what he was doing. We knew what we needed to know, and he knew that’s what was needed. Franziska and I were a bit underdressed (my fault) but since it was a BBQ, I figured casual means casual. But no big deal.
Scott and Jenny get married!

The wedding… what more can you say? Scott and Jenny got married! Everything went off without a hitch! I was in the wedding, by the way, which is why I’m wearing a tux. Scott didn’t want to spring for the vallet, so he parked at a meter. This meant, though, that he had to leave his wedding at some point to feed the meter! Pretty funny. It was really nice to have absolutely everyone back together in the same place having a good time. There are some really good group photos. The only one missing is the Bride!
Walsh Cottage

Walsh cottage trip… I went up to the walsh cottage for a day. It was a small group this year, only Dyan, Mike W. and TaraGay. But we had a good time. We took a trip to a really great country store, and we got some pumpkins on the way home. Saturday night was filled with fishing and beer drinking, as usual! I was really hungry and could not wait to cook the huge fish I bought. So I didn’t wait. I did not buy a license this year, and I did not get a $70 ticket for fishing without a license. We had a good time at the fire on Saturday night, I managed to make it until 1am. Pretty impressive. The weather was great on Sunday morning, and there is a nice photo from down at the lake. I was off early, though, to spend the day with my parents.
Island Lake Bike Ride

Riding at Island Lake…. I went on a short bike ride with my mom and dad at Island Lake on the paved trail, which was really nice. The trail is an out-and-back, 4 miles each way. I had always wondered about it, but never checked it out. It connects with a loop at Kennsington, which I guess gives you a total of about 17 miles. Pretty nice.

There are more pictures in the gallery.

Aniket moves home!!!

Aniket invited us out for some good Indian food before he was to move back to India. It was at his favorite place to eat, but I forget the name. The food was really good. We miss you already, Aniket! I especially like the picture of Aniket and Rainer, they look like they are about to take it outside. We will see Aniket sometime in the next few months when he comes back to Potsdam one final time to defend his thesis.

There are more pictures in the gallery.

Vanessa in Germany

After Prague, Vanessa came back with us to Potsdam for most of the week. We saw some of the sights in Berlin and Potsdam. We took a nice walking tour of Berlin. We drove back to Dresden on Friday, so Vanessa could catch the train back to Prague for her flight back to Maryland.

There are more pictures in the gallery.

The IAU in Prague

Franziska and I went to the 2006 meeting of the International Astronomical Union. There were more than 2000 astronomers in Prague for the meeting. It was one of the most interesting conferences that I’ve been to so far, I think mostly because there were many talks that I was interested in. I gave a 15 minute talk in front of a pretty big audience, and I think it went reasonably well.

Rahul, my old roomate from Maryland was also at the conference, along with a number of other people from Maryland, Derek and Frances, and Vanessa came for the second week. We had a nice time seeing the sites in the city. I had already been to Prague once before, though, when I visited Franziska in 2003 in Germany.

There are more pictures in the gallery.

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