Farewell Muckers :(

Finally the inevitable happened, and Vince, Christine, Claire and JJ had to wave goodbye to Walnut Creek and make their way south, before Texas and then Germany.  America is soon going to be without their most patriotic family, and I'm not sure what we're going to do.  But the USA's loss is certainly Europe's gain, and Vince has some fun travelling and learning to do in the next 11 months while Christine becomes an expert in German wines.

Vince and Christine were some of the first people we met at Haas when they began throwing big parties in pretty much the opening week.  We arrived at their place, and when Christine suggested that, due to my visa status, I might want to hang out in the Office Depot car park to find some work, and when Vince laughed at a joke I made about American beer which is not appropriate to repeat here, I knew they were our kind of folks.

Three years later, and they have introduced us to shuffleboard, Texas, Hawaii, 4th July, Christmas "ornaments", American sports, PBR...the list is endless really.  More tellingly, there were discussions about the 2nd amendment, and a certain Mika concert, that say more about our friendship's endurance than anything else.

Somewhere in the middle of all this they introduced Claire to the world, who I still consider as my baby that I allow V&C to look after for extended periods of time.  What can I say about Claire?  Given that she's the most photographed and featured person on this blog, you get the picture.  And not content with one gorgeous baby, they followed up with James John!

So yes, it has been a traumatic morning waving them off, and in true and fitting Mucker style I think I'll have a dirty martini before lunch to get me through.  Thanksgiving 2012 has already been booked in Washington DC where, after Germany, Vince has an International Relations masters degree to complete before being the face of the American military as a diplomat in Kazakhstan.  Where, coincidentally, Chevron has just started drilling...

Big girl Claire.

Little man JJ.

First evening drinking with the Muckers - Bear's Lair, Berkeley, Aug 20th 2008

Final evening (for now) drinking with the Muckers - Flemings, Walnut Creek, July 17th 2011

---

And how could I not take the opportunity to put even more pictures of cute kids on my blog.  So here are Claire Camille Mucker's greatest hits:

Right at the beginning.

Bottle feeding.

Moving onto solids.

California is not always warm.

Forever Texas.

Pleased with herself.

Scary Clairey.

Aloha from Hawaii.

Alien.

New hat.

Mine's a Merlot.

Little monkey.

Unimpressed.

Gorgeous!

AIDS Walk San Francisco 2011

It was another opportunity for Chevron to show what a caring company it is, as this weekend big oil was a "grand sponsor" of the SF AIDS walk.  In its 25th year, this is a huge event held in Golden Gate Park following a six-mile route.  We weren't walking, but instead manned the finish line where Chevron handed out bandannas to every successful walker.

It was also a great opportunity to introduce Claire to the wonderful world of Chevron.  She received plenty of smiles as she wandered about in her ankle-length Team Chevron t-shirt.  Add to that the free popsicle she was given before lunch, the free Chevron barbecue, the Chevron flag, the Chevron pompoms...Hannah might as well sign her up for the intern program now.

All dressed up and ready to go!

Quite a crowd.

Hannah (pre-branded) leads Claire to the Team Chevron tent.

First the flag...

...then the t-shirt.

Someone here is expending human energy.

That's Alan Cumming!  He's a really famous Scottish actor.

Off we go.

Hannah now has a bandanna to match her tattoo!

The first walkers start trickling through the finish line.

Cheerleader Claire welcomes them!

Until it all gets a little too much.

Note to event organisers: next year, maybe locate the loos somewhere different.  Although it does keep the queues down.

Cool stuff I'd forgotten we had!

"Thrift storage" is Hannah's new phrase to describe where a lot of our UK goodies are going to end up.  It has been a long, hard day of unpacking, but we've actually done reasonably well.  There's the stuff that we knew was coming, and then some stand-out items that were a surprise to see again.  Most of these speak for themselves, so...

It's a fish-shaped gravy boat!  And it wants to give you a big sloppy kiss.  This is one small part of a full set of plates, bowls, cups...

This is a cushion made of ties that my colleague Susan made for me when I left work.  Very impressive.

A Crumb Pet!  It's a mini vacuum cleaner in the shape of an animal that picks up crumbs from your table!!  A gift from our cool friend Rachel, it will be in use again soon.

Now this is something.  The greatest board game ever made, greater even than the mighty Catan.  It was designed by Capt. Pat Reid of the British Army, who escaped from this notorious prisoner of war camp in 1942, wrote several books about it, then made this game of collecting supplies, sneaking past German guards, and making a run for it.

Many a rainy afternoon in England was spent playing this, although the rumour is that it was quicker to escape from Colditz than it is to play Escape from Colditz.  Who can forget when Andy broke back into Colditz because he'd left some supplies behind?  Or when, after eight hours, Miles managed to get one man out and we declared him the winner?

A Papal Blessing from John Paul II!

A Jamie Oliver Flavour Shaker!  The most amazing kitchen gadget ever.  Put the ingredients in, shake it, and out comes salad dressing.  It's true!

Travelling somewhere in the car and suddenly HAVE to play cricket?  I can help you.

It's a blue-eyed duck made of glass with a 5 pence piece inside!

It's a Jesus clock...but with flashing red lights around Jesus!  And butterflies around the edge.  And that is about as awesome as you can get.

From JC to OJ.  This is a genuine OJ Simpson t-shirt that I got on a visit to America during his trial.  I might wear this on my next trip to the gym.

And yes, here is the purple fish-shaped bath pillow, subject of many a heated argument between me and Hannah.  But he's here in America, and is smiling smugly about it, so I guess he (and Hannah) won.

Lunchtime, and Hannah manages to locate a square foot of space for beans on toast.

Here!

It has been a long journey, from the cold North East of England, through the sultry straits of the Panama Canal, up the West Coast to LA, then on by road to Walnut Creek.  But after three years of being stored in Mat's garage, all our stuff has finally arrived!

And "stuff" is the right description for this motley assortment of things that must have been useful to us once.  Now, of course, we live the Berkeley Zen lifestyle of few possessions (laptop, cell phone, camera) and thrift store furniture.

The 30-foot truck that the moving company told us to expect turned out to be a juggernaut, but they managed to park on the other side of the road.  Steve and his team of three carried all 111 boxes and bits of furniture up the stairs and through the door, and I unwrapped as they went.  He was obviously impressed with my skills, and offered be a job over the summer.  Hmmm...a little too much like hard work.

They finished off the unwrapping and were gone, and it was me and the boxes.  As the day went by there were fewer boxes but many more things on every available surface.  At one point I had to stop and assemble our dining table so I had some space to put more stuff.  "It'll be like birthday and Christmas rolled into one when it all arrives!" several people had commented.  Only if you had particularly cruel parents who bought secondhand things you didn't ask for.

I began sifting through the items that used to make up our life, and will post some pictures of the most amazing things we still own and actually paid to bring 6,000 miles from home (purple fish-shaped bath pillow, wheeled wire vegetable rack, etc.)  Our local Goodwill store isn't going to know what's hit it!

We pay extra if the delivery guys have to walk more than 75 feet.  That's one end of the van to the other!

Our stuff, in situ.

Living room before.

Living room after.

And bedroom.

And spare room.

And kitchen.

The first three boxes unpacked.  Do possessions make one happy?  (Clue: not unless they're put away neat and tidy).

Ayal

It has been a long time since I've seen Dana, but she was down in SF last week for an exam and kindly made a trip out to Walnut Creek with new baby Ayal to say hello.  He is extremely cute and happy, was reasonably impressed with a local coffee shop - he is a native of Seattle - and enjoyed lying in the sun in the park.  I enjoyed everyone smiling at me as I carried him around (I'm sure it was at me...)

How old do I have to be to drink a cappuccino?

Num num num.

Stand back, I'm going to do science

It was back on the yellow bus, as another day brought another Concord Children's Center field trip!  Having learned everything there is to know about nature last week, this time it was off to the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley - a stone's throw away from Haas Business School.  Maybe our next trip can be there!

The LHS offered slightly more interest in the form of dinosaurs.  There were models that moved, rolled their eyes and gnashed their teeth when you approached.  There were skeletons, there was a dino-nest that you could jump into and cover yourself with leaves.  There was much descriptive material on the walls that was run past by a large number of children.  I did my best to educate and inform, but I'm not sure if it was my accent, delivery, or subject matter that brought about the glazed looks.

Along with the giant lizards was loads of other cool stuff, including smaller, less extinct animals that could be handled and poked.  There's a great interactive globe, where we looked at California, Mexico, and England, and the distorted mirrors went down a treat.  It was less sedate than the last time I was there, but it was a great privilege to enrich young minds with science.  My degree in theology really helped ("despite what they claim here children, the world is flat, the sun goes around it, and God actually created it in seven days...")

Nayeli makes sure we're all present and correct on the school bus.

Unloaded, and ready to learn!

I wouldn't give the triceratops much of a chance.

Looking up at the moon.  I explained how all the landings were faked.

A quick game of "Chester McZoom, Space Bunny".

Giant tubes that shoot paper into the air!  Cool.

Scary monsters.

Put your hands in the air like you just don't care!

Back inside for some proper paleontology.

Here's looking at you.

Hall of mirrors.

Getting ready for the group photo...

Say: "Save the whales!"