Ok. So I have been a little (a lot) remiss in keeping this up to date. Sorry. Busy girl.

I am in NYC sitting in Mary's apartment on the UES. She left yesterday for the Dominican Republic - and left at a good time. It is raining miserably. I started the week in DC on Sunday with a day of brunch, sunshine and cherry blossoms. We tried to get a glimpse of Sasha and Malia's play structure on the White House lawn, but it was nowhere in sight. DC was overrun w/ people due to the Cherry Blossom run, but Steve (cousin) and I still had a really nice day.

I am currently in a session on media & technology at the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. This session is being moderated by the head of TED Europe. They are discussing the opportunities for democracy as well as tyranny presented by the web.

I fly out to Heathrow this afternoon. I am departing the US from Minneapolis and it looks like the plane will be a about 1/2 empty. Makes for a nice international flight when you can stretch out. I am going back to attend the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship for the 4th year in a row. This event has gotten progressively more prestigious over time. The first year I went the attendance fee was $100. Now it is well over $1000 depending on the exchange rate. I am lucky I was able to get an assited place for only £100 (about $150) thanks to some friends on the inside I suspect.

So, I just got back from a meeting of the Broadening Participation in Computing PIs (Primary Investigator) in Charlotte NC. It was great to meet lots of people working on diversity in CS. We were fortunate enough to have JB Schramm as the keynote speaker addressing the issue of scaling a program. He is the founder of College Summit, who I had seen several times at the Skoll World Forum. The conference was interesting and I met a number of good contacts working in diversity areas such as Native American and Hispanic outreach.

I was lucky enough to be one of the approximately 2 million people in Washington DC over the last few days for Obama's inauguration. It was a very long, but pretty exciting day. The entire city was abuzz with excitement and I don't think I have ever seen a more diverse crowd of people. There were young and old, people of all colors, and walks of life pouring into the city. Being a part of the crowd, it was impossible to appreciate the scale of the gathering. I was blown away when I saw the NY Times photos.

We are just a week away from Obama's inauguration. I am leaving on Sunday morning (ugh I have to fly threw OKC - flying on miles - at least I fly back direct) and spending Sunday afternoon/evening in DC with my cousin Steve. He lives about an hour from DC in Front Royal, VA where he is a town planner. I last saw Steve when he came to visit in the UK and we had an awesome 10 day tour of S England and Wales.

Despite what is being called "Arctic Blast 2008" (gotta love the media hype), I managed to make it from Denver to Portland for Christmas day. Portland and Seattle have both been snowed in for days. The schools have been closed a week and the airport was closed for days. Fortunately I waited until the 23rd to fly and managed to get here w/ only an hour delay. On Friday I will head up to Tacoma for Christmas with Yvonne and her mom (and family) and then fly out of Seattle (weather permitting).

I am still moving in to my place. Have a number of things to unpack still, but still need to get bookshelves and cabinets. There is no Ikea here (the closest is Utah) and I haven't found a similarly priced alternative quite yet.

The weather has been unseasonably warm here - I was even driving with the top down last weekend. We finally got some snow late on Thanksgiving day. It wasn't much, but we got a bit more last night and it looks beautiful outside. The Flatirons look like they have been dusted with powdered sugar.

So, a bit ironically, I spent Saturday night attending a wedding at the Biltmore hotel in Arizona - where John McCain spent election night tonight. Now I am staying at the Hyatt Regency Irvine, which is the location of the Golden State Republican Party and Proposition #8 parties. Fortunately I was able to attend the Orange County Democrats party at a bar down the road. It was so exciting and fun to be in a room full of liberals for election night. When we came back to the hotel, we crashed the Republican's party in the garden pavilion at the hotel.