Asides

Stork sighting

storksWow! It’s been awhile since I’ve had a stork sighting and this week suddenly storks are everywhere! There’s a new animated movie called Storks and the ads are everywhere I look.  I’m in NYC this week and I even rode in a yellow cab with a big Storks movie banner on its roof. I’m taking this as a good sign…

California: The Land of Orange Popes

My friend Noelle just sent me a story that her daughter Keira (6) wrote after their family trip to visit me in April. My favorite part (which had me baffled for a bit) was the “I saw popes that were my favorite color Orange.” Hmmm. Berkeley and San Francisco have their share of eccentric sites but I didn’t remember any orange popes. But then I realized that we saw lots of the orange California poppies on one of our hikes!

Keira's California Story

Stork sightings

IMG_3992I’ve been traveling in Germany for the last three weeks for work—a combo trip including two conferences and some talks in Munich–and I’ve been radio-silent in terms of posting for the last few weeks as a result. It’s been a busy but great trip. In between work events, I’ve also had time to get out and about. I was actually born in Munich and the trip felt like a bit of a nostalgic homecoming in some respects. I’ll post more on that later. But, in the meantime wanted to get in a “stork sighting.” Lots of stork sighting on this trip which I’m taking as a good sign!  This little guy is now my official mascot and good luck charm. Here he is looking out my hotel window in Seeon where the conference was.