San Francisco Olympic Party

Date: April 11th 2003

Where: Golden Gate Park - Speedway Meadows

Alicia Chastain, NickD, Rob Woollen and myself had the opportunity to plan the party celebrating the release of WebLogic Server 8.1, which was code named Olympic. Alicia took care of all the games, getting the volleyball, badminton, softball setup and balloons. Nick got more softball stuff, and assisted Rob with beverage selection. I just sent out a couple of emails and worked with Cecilia (Mike McHugh's admin) who did all the really hard work.

The day of the party Nick, Rob and I headed out for beverage purchase. Nick drove the monthly Cherokee Jeep.

We arrived with the car completely loaded with beverages, I even had to carry a case on my lap.

Here is the view from the back.

Alicia was waiting with a car full of balloons and other game sundries.

We drove down to the site and began to unload. The weather contrary to the forecast was beautiful, (originally it was supposed to be partly cloudy with temperature of 58 degrees). The spring blossoms also didn't hurt.

Rob of course being a heliophobic troglodyte had to lather himself in sunscreen, and Nick and I took this as an opportunity to capture a humiliating photo.

The food was served at 1:30 and people sat down to eat.
(left, front to back) Sagar [who loves the ladies], Zsolt, Michael Kovacs, Keng-Woei Tan
(middle) Cedric Beust
(right) Ellen Pao Kuo, Marina Kogan, ???, Sam Pullara, Patrick Calahan [pcal]

(left) Paul Rohrdanz, John Greene, Andrew Littlefield
(right) Nicholas D'Attoma [Nickd], Todd Karakashian, Susan Kwong, Ilsa Van Hook

Ajay Honnur, Prasanth Pallamreddy [Prash], Vinod Kumar, Alex Worden, Sam Woollen [Sabha Parameswaran], Tushar Harduley, Mihir Kulkarni , Corinna Witt, Dana Xu, Saurabh's wife, Srikant Subramaniam, Saurabh Dixit

Mark Spotswood wife and 2 kids, AB, Eric Hsiao, Aena, Vivek, Judith, Reto

Eric Hsiao, Larry Dino, [Dana Xu], Don and Claire

Vivek and Aena (AB's wife and son)

Anno, Judith (Reto's wife), Dan Seeman, Reto

Mark Spotwood's wife and Thorick, assuring we have mutual photos

Chris Wall, his fiance and Dee Elling.

Claire, Don's daughter.

Dolly (Viresh's wife), son and Viresh with half his head.

Mark Spotswood's daughter and Dolly (Viresh's wife)

Mark Spotswood's daughter and Viresh's son.

Don and Claire.

Ed Rawlings and Elaine Vaza-Kaczynski.

Chris Fry (attempting to kiss) Scott Ziegler

PCE and Mike McHugh

Todd Karakashian in his groovy mirror ball glasses

Taraka Siva Rama Prasad Peddada, Mark Spotswood and Thorick Chow

Mark Spotswood

Vinod Mehra, his wife and daughter.

Volleyball was a popular game amongst the more sveldt of the party goers.

Many enjoyed themselves just chatting.

A bunch of us played a 9 inning game of softball. It was interesting to watch the cricket players begin to get the hang of the game. Ravi caught a pop fly to center field, Vinod (both Kumar and Mehra) got some major hits, and Nick was MVP with 2 homers, one with bases loaded.

Here McHugh pitches, Brown looks for worms, and that is Juliet Shackell in the background.

David Yaroslaski (controller in SF) makes a mighty swing and Sam thinks about putting down his beer.

Seth White took over pitching, here Paul R, watches it skim 6 inches over the plate, not exactly a strike. :D

Kovac's, while wearing his softball cleats, anticipates making a super play on the gopher ridden field.

Here Sam pitches a wicked googly and Kovac's prepares to strike out.

We had a great time but we knew it was time to go home with Claire started sucking on the Sam Adams.

I went home to be with my family and everyone else helped pitch in to pick up the games and clean up. Dave and Laura (engaged to be married summer of 2003) danced in the falling cherry blossoms and the setting sun.

Till the next release.