EncoreConnect and Silver Lining

We have often talked about whether or not we could/should ever work together, professionally. Well, after 13 years, our work worlds have finally collided. EncoreConnect, one the programs Eunice runs at Aspiranet has been contracted by Appirio, Ryan's cloud computing company, to provide outsourced volunteer coordination for Appirio's community engagement initiative, cleverly called "Silver Lining."

The first Silver Lining event that EncoreConnect helped plan was a food sort at Second Harvest Food Bank in San Carlos. A team of 25 Appirians sorted and boxed nearly 7,000 pounds of food (or approximately 5,500 meals) in two hours. That's a LOT of food! It's going to be fun helping Appirio do more good in the days ahead.

Dreamforce

Dreamforce is Salesforce.com's annual user conference, and is the biggest week of the year for Appirio, Ryan's startup-- this year 18,000 customers and prospects descended on Moscone center, and Ryan was fully occupied for the week with the booth, the speaking opportunities, and of course throwing the best party at Dreamforce-- a VIP event at the historic San Francisco Mint.

Since Eunice's non-profit is a Salesforce customer, she was also up at the event-- although she spent most of her time at the fancy hotel where Ryan's company put him up, catching up on the 4 years of sleep deprivation she's endured since our boys were born. (Ryan was only at the hotel a few hours a day, so Eunice had to make sure the room was put to good use!)

One highlight of the week was Ryan's 15 minutes of fame on stage with Appirio's customer, Avon. It was flattering to be asked by Avon to get on stage in front of 10,000 people and help demonstrate the application we'd built for them while Salesforce.com's CEO Marc Benioff bantered with our client.

Then Marc turned to Ryan and asked some questions about how the app was built. The only problem: that wasn't in the script, and Ryan didn't have a microphone! Ryan gestured grandly to indicate that the customer was supposed to do the talking, but Benioff came back 2 more times with questions, until the client said "Marc, he doesn't have a mic!"

It was definitely one of Ryan's most frustrating professional moments-- to have the opportunity to share a cool story but to be unable to do so! This video captures a little bit of the absurdity/humor of having a 6'5" guy pantomiming on stage.

Another highlight of the week was when Adam (who works at Salesforce) hosted a panel.... with Ryan as one of the panelists! The Nichols boys rocked the house (as much as possible given that it was a 7:30am session after the night with all the big parties). With Eunice in the audience showing her support, it was definitely a family affair to remember. You can catch the audio here, and learn a little big about what the Nichols boys are up to these days!

And where were the boys through all of this? Po Po to the rescue! Terry came out for the week from St. Louis, taking care of Spencer's pre-school drop-off and pick-up, entertaining Tyler, cooking up a storm, and putting the boys to bed at night. The boys had a great time hanging out with their grandmother while their parents were a world away up in San Francisco, and Eunice got 3 glorious days and 2 nights away from the kids - the longest stretch she has ever been away from Spencer and Tyler!

Experience Corps Bay Area Retreat

Eunice has worked with Experience Corps for nine years. She was hired as the San Francisco Director back in August 2000, with just a few dozen older adult volunteers tutoring and mentoring children in 5 San Francisco public schools.

Here's Eunice back in 2000 with her staff, which included just one other full-time staff plus five AmeriCorps*VISTAs engaging in a year of service with the program.

Since then, the program has grown into a multi-city effort with 200+ older adult volunteers serving nearly 3,000 children in 23 schools in San Francisco, Oakland, and San Rafael. This summer, Experience Corps held it's first multi-city retreat for its now 20 staff members, a wonderfully intergenerational group that continues to be near and dear to Eunice's heart.

Steve Miller Band at Mountain Winery

Should we feel guilty about taking advantage of a work boondoggle?

Ryan's company recently raised a round of VC money, and that inevitably unleashes a wave of cold calls from companies that assume you need to spend it on what they have to offer. One particularly persistent company was trying to sell us a data center.... particularly inane because you'd realize after 5 minutes on our website that the whole point of our company is that we don't need a data center.

But still-- when they passed along 2 free invites to a customer appreciation night at Mountain Winery to listen to the Steve Miller Band.... on a night when Eunice's mom was going to be in town to babysit.... who were we to say no?

We made it into a date night. Decent BBQ, an open bar, good classic rock, perfect weather, unbelievable views over Silicon Valley, and no annoying work conversations either...

What a great night!

SNBC Film Festival

Spencer and Tyler attended their first film festival, the 5th Annual Sunset Neighborhood Beacon Center Film Festival. Spencer loved eating popcorn and watching movies made by youth and community members on the big screen - his favorite was "Magic and the Moon." Tyler spent the evening happily cruising along the theater seats and flirting with SNBC staff.



Five years ago, Eunice's film "New Beginnings," focused on four generations of women in her family, was shown at the 1st Annual SNBC Film Festival, so it was a little wild to be back here at the same festival with our own kids. Here is Eunice's film, posted online at last!

SNBC Holiday Party

Eunice attended her 9th annual SNBC holiday party, held this year at Erika's home in the Sunset.


Things look a little different than they did back in the day, with quite a few little kids (including Spencer and Tyler) adding to the fun.


Some things remain the same: a great group people, tasty food, and a rowdy game of White Elephant, including the yearly reappearance of "BOD" cologne. :)

Tyler Meets Mom's Colleagues

Eunice's former colleague, Cindy Consenzo, was back in town from Seattle for a few days and wanted to be introduced to the newest member of the Nichols family. They met up, along with Janet, in San Mateo for a yummy brunch at Nini's.


Tyler couldn't be happier getting so much attention from the ladies. :)

SAP Reunion

With Anamarie and Ben back in town for a few days, we hosted a reunion for Ryan's old SAP crew at our place.


A lot has changed in the last few months with Ryan's former colleagues, including new jobs... and new babies. We enjoyed catching up with everyone over some yummy BBQ, homemade Indian biyrani, and baklava! From left to right: Ben, Geoffrey, Preeti, Deepak, Eunice (wearing Tyler in the baby bjorn), Spencer, Narinder, Anamarie, Ryan (holding Matthew in a carseat), Fawad, and Sanaa (happily asleep in her stroller, off camera).

Appirio Pizza Party

With several remote Appirio employees in town for a training, Ryan's company decided to throw an impromptu pizza party, with spouses and kids invited. So, Eunice packed Spencer and Tyler into the car and made the arduous 7-minute trek over to Appirio's San Mateo office to show the kids where daddy goes to "work" each day.


The Appirio crew, enjoying pizza and beers.


The highlight of the evening for Spencer was playing foosball against his dad. He showed some serious promise for a two year-old!

San Mateo Central Park Music Festival

Each summer, the city of San Mateo hosts a series of free weekly outdoor music concerts in Central Park. This Thursday evening, we headed to the park with some wine, appetizers, and a picnic blanket to stake out a spot on the lawn to listen to "Tempest," a Celtic/folk/rock band which kicked off the summer music series.


We were joined by some of Ryan's work friends, including Conrad, Wendy, and their two sons (Tillman and William), as well as Dieter who was in town for the week from Germany.


Spencer kept himself happily occupied while listening to the music.


Spencer and Ryan out on the dance floor for the final song of the evening...

Work and Play in Germany

After almost 3 years of Ryan spending frequent work weeks in Germany, we decided to take the opportunity to have Eunice and Spencer come along. We stayed in Heidelberg, a charming University town on the Neckar River, and spent the weekend in France wine tasting in Alsace. This was Spencer's first trip abroad, and he was a traveling champion!


Heidelberg has miles of cobblestone paved pedestrian walkways with sidewalk cafes and beer gardens. The center of the altstadt (“old town”) is the old bridge across the Neckar.

Click here for the full slideshow

We stayed at the Villa Marstall, right on the river. Our room was in the attic on the top floor, which meant lots of opportunity for banged heads for Ryan and Eunice. But Spencer was in paradise-- lots of low furniture for him to practice his cruising. Spencer was a great traveler-- he adjusted to the time zones better than either of us!

Our weekend in Heidelberg corresponded with a festival to mark the beginning of the summer. People and boats lined the banks of the river to watch a spectacular fireworks show. The show commemorates the burning of the castle, which is reenacted every year using colored lights, smoke and fireworks. We could watch all the action right from our hotel window-- the Villa Marstall was the perfect location. We were also lucky to be able to introduce little Spencer to big Spencer (Ryan's high school friend, a scientist collaborating with a lab in Heidelberg.)

We spent Saturday in France, driving the wine road of Alasce through several very cute little towns. The hills above the wine road are blanketed with vineyards, and each little town is a walled medieval village, a little different from Napa or Sonoma! The wine tasting was fantastic-- the region specializes in Reislings and Gewurtz, perfect summer wines.

What a great trip-- thanks for being such a travel champion, Spencer!

Day Trip to Dallas

Ryan had to do a day trip to Dallas for work, giving him the chance to grab dinner with Jennifer, David, Melody, and Valerie... and meet little baby Paxon, born on April 14! This was their first big family outing since Paxon was born... I was very lucky to be able to take part and meet our first Newphew.... boy is Eunice jealous :)

Modeling Naomi's Sweater

Naomi Baskin, an Experience Corps volunteer that Eunice has gotten to know over the years, knit a fantastic sweater and hat for Spencer when he was born. Now he's finally big enough to wear it! Despite Eunice's best efforts to get Spencer to model the entire outfit, he kept insisting on taking the hat off, sometimes with hilarious results...

Click here for the full slideshow

Catalina Island Getaway

A year ago, Michael won a week-long getaway to Catalina Island (off the coast of Los Angeles) in a silent auction to benefit the Sunset Neighborhood Beacon Center. This March, Michael invited us (and Eunice's mom) to join him for a fantastic week of hiking, exploration, and relaxation on the island.


Terry, Michael, Eunice, Spencer, and Ryan on one of many hikes on Catalina Island.


View of Avalon Bay and the historic Casino building on the road leading to the old Wrigley mansion.


Michael made a stop in Montery Park for lunch to meet Eunice's grandparents.


Spencer is fascinated by Great Grandpa's nose.

Click here for the full slideshow and videos, or...

The Other Spencer in Germany

The bad news is that Ryan's work required a 1 1/2 week trip to Germany, the longest he's had to be away from Eunice and Spencer since the little guy arrived. The good news is that he was able to meet up over the weekend with the other Spencer, his Deerfield high school buddy from Australia, now doing a post-doc at Cambridge (he collaborates with a scientist in Heidelberg.... what a small world!).

We just got the great news that he and Marnie will be coming to Palo Alto for Spencer to start at Stanford GSB this fall... it will be fantastic to have them so close, and there was a lot of swapping-of-notes for him and Ryan to take care of in Germany!


We decided to swing by the medieval city of Freiburg... perfect for a walk to this lookout point overlooking the black forest.


The rest of the weekend was in Heidelberg. More sausage and beer for dinner and an evening out along the Hauptstrasse on Saturday, and a healthy walk up Philosophenweg on Sunday. Still sinking in that these guys will be in the Bay Area soon!


On this trip Ryan also decided that it was ridiculous to have flown into Frankfurt over a dozen times without ever having seen the city itself. So he spent the night before flying out up in the city... it doesn't have the reputation of being very exciting but I thought it was a nice city... interesting juxtaposition of the modern banking center Frankfurt is today with some ancient remnants of its past.

Still... I was happy to say Auf Wiedersehen, at least for now!

Vegas, Baby!

The 3 of us are off to Vegas-- SAP had a technical conference there, Ryan had to go, Eunice said "not without me," so we decided to make a little two day vacation out of it! Spencer's first trip on a plane... a warmup for our big trip to Hawaii in January!



Spencer was actually fantastic on the plane-- the guy next to us is just feigning despair...we had no idea that he saw us taking the photo!


Where else but Vegas could we settle into our palatial top-floor suite at the Veneitian and roll our 2 month old baby down for a fancy midnight dinner at the base of a 20 foot Buddha, set to the beats of a DJ spinning upstairs? Tao was our hippest dinner out with Spencer yet-- the Kobi Sashimi, Sea Bass over asparagus, and a bottle of Reisling. Welcome to Las Vegas!


Spencer enjoying a little late night nurishment, Eunice enjoying the view over the strip from the living room of our suite at the Venetian.


Spencer gets dressed and ready for his first big day out in Las Vegas!


Ryan spent Tuesday inside the conference center-- Eunice and Spencer had a slightly more pleasant day exploring the pools and shops around the hotel. Let's hope the running water didn't give Spencer any ideas...


Spencer asking Eunice: "So where is Dad's next business trip?" She doesn't have the heart to tell him that it is in Germany... far less glamorous.


Ryan got a couple hours off at the end of the day for a quick dip in the Las Vegas heat.


Vegas dinner #2-- this time at an "outdoor" cafe along Venice's "Grand Canal," complete with singing gondoliers and St. Mark's Square. The only difference from the real thing? A never changing sky, which is actually a painted dome over the restaurants and shops. (Truman Show, anyone?) But the "outdoor" environment was great for a meal with the little guy... 100 yards in the stroller on the "cobblestone" streets combined with ambient noise were a sure bet to put him fast to sleep. The family next to us at dinner had 2 hapa kids of their own... they told us to enjoy the easy traveling while Spencer is young, because it doesn't get any easier! One thing is fore sure-- we defintely felt like the center of attention carrying around such a cutie.


Walking the strip for another late night jaunt-- our first excursion outside of the hotel (why leave, really?). Highlights included the sexed-up pirate show with fireworks at Treasure Island (now rebranded "ti") and these huge waterfalls pictured above outside Wynn hotel and casino. We discovered the main disadvantage of pushing around a stroller everywhere, especially in a city like Vegas with non-stroller-friendly escalators to take you up and over every cross street.... our little walk involved 6 different 1 story elevator rides!


The end of our final night in Vegas. We had such a good and easy time with Spencer along that we talked about joining forces on all future business trips. The next morning was a little bit of wake-up call... It took us four times as long as normal to get ready, and we ended up missing our flight home. Oh well-- Spencer played the slots at the airport and paid for the entire trip! :)

Dropping by Sunset Neighborhood Beacon Center

Eunice and Spencer dropped by the Sunset Neighborhood Beacon Center to catch up with her colleagues. Here, Spencer meets his first poet, Experience Corps volunteer Rich Yurman, who made a special trip to the office to meet him.


Cheryl carries on a lively conversation with Spencer...


...and gets him to give us one of his biggest smiles yet!


16 pounds is nothing for Michael who remembers carrying around his twins, one in each arm!


Janet isn't sure she's ready for motherhood any time soon, but that's ok since she's busier than ever running the Experience Corps Bay Area kingdom. :)

Becky's Bridal Shower

Eunice took an afternoon off from Spencer and headed into San Francisco to attend a manicure/pedicure bridal shower for her old Dove Consulting colleague, Becky Frank.

Talking Shop at Little Sichuan

Andre, Matt, Eric, and Mike met us at our place before walking over to Little Sichuan to talk about start-up ideas over dinner. With exposure to brilliant entrepreneurs like these at such an early age, Spencer is destined to do some great things later in life!

San Mateo Wine Walk with Clarke and Katy

Clarke, Eunice's former Dove Consulting colleague, and his wife Katy swing by to grab dinner with us and check out the "wine walk" street fair in downtown San Mateo.