It was time to get to the outside world and see the characters who make it great (and enjoy wearing PU hats).

I began by bringing my rental car with this license plate to the garage at UW and made my way to Ed Lazowska's office. We went for a walk around the campus and met his executive VP who seemed to be sweating about over runs in their new building which didn't seem to be over-running to me though I was glad we didn't have to go onto the walkways in the old EE building.

After this elegant lunch Ed posed with the hat and then with the father of our country after whom the university was named. And the state for that matter.

For some reason, I was asleep at the switch and so missed the opportunity to catch Rich Tong in his new hat. That will have to wait for the next trip. Maybe I was thinking about this wonderful neon sign that we would pass on the way to dinner. My salad looked better than this and Jane's salad looked exactly like this. We each had the same main course but the difference between my photo and hers can be attributed either to the fork in the picture or maybe to the angle at which the flash executed.