Dancing with the statistical stars

When the wedding celebrations were done on Sunday, I headed south from Charlottesville to visit my old graduate school stomping grounds in Chapel Hill, and to catch up with former friends and colleagues. I spent Monday and Tuesday night visiting with my co-author, Marie Davidian, and her husband, Butch (Anastasios) Tsiatis.



Marie and Butch are both professors in the Statistics Department at N.C. State in Raleigh. When I visited they had just returned from the East Coast Classic ballroom dancing contest in Savannah, in which they snagged the top amateur award in their category.



Now, I was pretty happy with the charcoal-gray Giorgio Canali suit that I wore at Katie's wedding (purchased at Nordstrom's just for the occasion). But, as these pictures clearly indicate, I can never hope to match the sartorial splendor of Butch and Marie.


The gentleman with Marie in the middle picture is her dance instructor, Robert.

Marie and Butch have long been stars in the statistical firmament. Obviously, they are well on their way to total domination in the cutthroat world of ballroom dancing as well.

It was a great visit.

A most excellent wedding

I've been on the road (still am), so it's been hard to find time to update this blog. Not for want of news, though. The biggest and best piece of news is that the wedding of my charming, gorgeous, funny, witty, and talented god-daughter, Katie, to her equally charming, funny, witty and talented fiance, Adam*, went off without a hitch this past Saturday in Scottsville, VA. It was a terrific wedding, not a dry eye in the crowd, and a wonderful time was had by all. I particularly appreciated the chance to get to know Adam's family better (including his Aunt Barbara, who made the most righteous wedding cake pictured above, and took far better pictures of the wedding than I could manage), as well as the opportunity to see Paddy's family, who made the trip north from Huntsville, AL for the occasion. Celebrations lasted from Thursday evening to Sunday at noon, and it really was a terrific occasion. I could post photos for days, but will limit myself to one more, of the bride and groom:



* : oh, OK - Adam is a fine-looking young man, but I draw the line at 'gorgeous'. :-)

Some more wedding pictures can be found on my Flick'r photostream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaelstat/