A photo of Scout, taken on last night's walk. This is the hill behind Amherst Street, looking northwest, overlooking Palo Alto, the San Francisco Bay, and the east bay hills about 20 miles behind.

This is Monster, one of the kids' stuffed animals.  We don't know anything about it, and I've never seen anything like it before.  Their grandmother picked it up at a garage sale, so its origins are not known.  There's a tag that says that it was made in China by a company called Toppy Craft. 

The kids like Monster very much.  And really, what's not to like about this weird yet cuddly character?  I figure, at the very least, this guy will teach them not to be afraid of real monsters, or something like that.

Anyway, here are some drawings the kids made of Monster.  The last drawing, lower right, is my work.

This is our new dog Scout.  He's a golden retriever puppy, 9 weeks old (born July 4th).  Welcome little guy!

My boys...

'Need more photos... okay.

Happy Independence Day!  Fireworks at Stanford last night.
Christopher on guitar, Gregor on piano.
Christopher and Gregor at the Exploratorium in San Francisco a month ago.

Gregor and Christopher:

(They're probably playing "Snood".)

Last week my dad celebrated his 85th birthday with a cruise to Alaska with my sister's family and my family.  We had a truly great time.  'Stops in Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan.

I had never been to Alaska before, so this was all new.  The terrain there is crazy; you've got unbelievably steep slopes coming out of the water, mountains, mountains on top of those mountains, and even mountains on top of those mountains.  Mostly wilderness, not many roads.  For one thing, it's really difficult to build roads on such terrain.