Lots of butterflies

A highight of the California Academy of Science's rain forest was the dozens of butterflies (of various varieties.) This photo shows people taking...photos of the butterflies.

There were many signs that asked visitors to please check their hair and clothing to make sure no butterflies hitchhiked out of the rain forest into the main museum.

Vanessa's company closer to IPO?

As predicted, Silver Spring preps for IPO | VentureBeat: At the start of the year, when everyone was throwing out predictions for the rapidly growing cleantech sector, Tesla Motors and Smart Grid networking provider Silver Spring Networks were pegged as the companies most likely to go public in 2010. Less than a month later, Tesla filed for a $100 million public sale. Now, unsurprisingly, Silver Spring has tapped bankers for its own IPO.

The Redwood City, Calif. company has retained Morgan Stanley and Jeffries & Co. to underwrite a public sale, according to Dow Jones Clean Technology Insight (subscription). So far, it’s unclear what amount it will be looking for, though it has raised nearly $300 million in capital, and may be valued as highly as $3 billion (again, according to Dow Jones).

Silver Spring Networks provides a vital segment of the emerging Smart Grid: the equipment that creates wireless networks to transmit energy consumption between meters, consumers and utilities.

Comment -- Vanessa is a Senior Project Manager for Silver Spring Networks. The sentence above is a pretty good explanation of what her company does. I'm going to tattoo it on my wrist so I'll have a ready explanation next time someone asks me what Vanessa does!

Just hangin' around

This sticky-footed lizard clings to a glass wall at the California Academy of Sciences. Part of the rain forest exhibit.

Birds of a feather

These colorful birds are residents of the indoor four-story rain forest display at the California Academy of Sciences. It was a terrific experience -- more photos to come.

Don't confuse the colorful birds above with these two old crows!

Sushi at your fingertips

The California Academy of Sciences had a nice cafeteria where we had lunch Monday. The dining room had the wall-length aquariums that you can see in the picture.

Of course, we all had to joke about having sushi on the menu -- just go over to one of the tanks, reach in and take a bite. Yum! Doesn't get any fresher than that!

Speaking of sushi, I had the best sushi of my life when we went to Yoshi's Jazz Club in San Francisco on Monday night. After the meal, we saw a concert headlined by one of Vanessa's college chums from UM music school: Sachal Vasandani (guy on the left in the picture.) Vanessa says he was an awkward geek when she first met him, but he sure seemed to me to be one cool dude now. Guess it's hard to find a job much cooler than being a jazz singer.

One crazy gator

On Monday on our trip, Rory and Vanessa took us to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. It's an amazing science museum with an aquarium, planetarium and indoor rain forest (photos of those later this week.)

This is a picture of their albino alligator. It was a weird looking beast and less-than-energetic. We were there for about three hours, and Rory said he thought he saw it move one toe -- but that was it.

Vanessa and Rory's famous neighbor

We took a walk Sunday after going to the Palo Alto Farmer's Market. Here's a shot of Jennifer and Vanessa about a half mile from Vanessa and Rory's apartment. The house in the background belongs to Apple CEO Steve Jobs!

I went up and pounded on the door and yelled "Hey Steve! I want an iPad!"

Sorry, that's ridiculous. I didn't yell that at all. I said "I want an iPhone!"