We went back to the west coast for our holiday break; hitting Seattle, San Francisco and Phoenix. It was a little odd to be back stateside, mostly because you don’t realize how used you’ve gotten to not being around so many other Americans. It was almost startling in Frankfurt airport to be able to overhear people’s conversations again and understand everything they’re saying. But it was nice to speak (west-coast) english freely and feel like you’re totally understood, without working so hard mentally. It was great to be back home, but the first few days in Seattle were a little rough because of the snowy weather: Turns out we flew home just in time for the biggest snowstorm in 20 years, which everyone in the NW had coined, “Snowpocalypse.” Seattle was beautiful under a big blanket of snow, but the lack of plowing and salting on the streets unfortunately kept a lot of our friends stuck at home and not able to see us. Luckily we were able to spend time with Doug & Susan (who generously put us up!) as well as Lisa, Daria, Gilles, Clay and Elizabeth. We also got to stay with Erin and Steve, who very kindly schlepped us out to a snow-buried West Seattle. Then after canceling our plans to stay in Hood River due to their 5 ft of snow, we rented a (non-4WD!) car and drove south for OR, where we were very happy to be able to see Chuck, Emily and their cutie 9-mo old son, Gus. However the visit was a short one because another storm was coming in, so we hit the road only to be stopped by a huge pot-holed-ice-mess on I-205, on which we sat in one spot for about 8 hours (def. not the way we envisioned spending our time back home!) But we slowly made it out of the heavy snow and ice, and after a night in Salem, eventually made it down to Jamie’s stepsis, Carolyn’s, house in Ashland. We had a great xmas eve dinner with her and her husband, Dan, after which they showed us around their charming town. On xmas morning it was snowing again(!) and we actually had to buy chains to go over Siskiyou pass near Mt Shasta (even though they really weren’t necessary.) However soon we were in CA and the San Joaquin valley, which greeted us with some long-awaited sunshine. We arrived in SF that xmas evening and celebrated with our friends, Lisa and Darren, who put us up in their cool house in Fort Mason. Next day we met up with Jamie’s mom, dad and bro at the new De Young museum (fantastic) in GG park, and later that night it was crab on Fisherman’s Wharf…touristy, yes, but exotic for us these days! That weekend we also got to see Karen and Marta from frog design and got a chance to see their new, cool office near south park. We rounded out the SF visit with a stay at Quentin and Alex’s place in the inner sunset, where we had a blast at a sushi place that I’m pretty sure doubles as an insane asylum. And at the remodeled Cliffhouse, we also reunited with my cousin, Tracie, and her partner Jenny, as well as Annamarie, Alan and Jackie; so good to see all of our CA peeps! We then flew down to Phoenix–where it was a gorgeous and sunny 75 degrees–to spend the last four days of our vaca. with Curt’s family. It was great to see them all: Maia is getting so big and is def. a ‘tweener’ now; we had a lot of fun playing her new Wii with her. Jill and Jamie went for a big girl’s night out (to remember) on NYE, and the whole fam went to dinner for Maia’s b-day beforehand. Curt and his Dad were even able to get in a climb up Squaw Peak one morning. On the way out of PHX, we stayed out at Curt’s mom’s place in Laveen, which is in the quiet countryside down near South Mountain. One thing’s for sure, we ate awesome Mexican food every day we were there. It seems trivial, but aside from seeing all of our loved ones, some of our favorite experiences of the trip involved sampling the endless ethnic foods (Burritos in the Mission–xxoo) that are available in the states: It was really nice to have so many choices again. We’re looking forward to going back in a year or so for another US vacation!

Hello from Europe and happy new year! Over the holidays we traveled to Zermatt, Switzerland for some boarding from the highest lift in Europe. We had a great time although taking the dogs on the train can be somewhat challenging.

Some more picts are posted here.

Well, all in all, Germany is quite a peaceful and safe place. Kids walk to school alone with no fear, no one really has guns, people seem to keep to themselves, life is peaceful and good. But all that changes about 3 days before New Year’s Eve.It all began when some kids down in the park by our house started, seemingly innocently, lighting off some small firecrackers on the 28th of December. Hey, I liked fireworks and blowing up things as a child too, so I would not deny them this pleasure in Germany. But it does seem the size and availability of the munitions here are much more serious and potentially limb damaging than what we can get in the states (where fireworks are mostly illegal anyway).

As the afternoon wore on the bangs became louder, but then near 10pm subsided back to tranquility and peace. “No big deal”, I thought. The next day the same thing began but towards evening some rockets joined the fray as well as some pretty tall roman candle-type devices. The size of the “firecrackers” were up too, seriously, 1/4 stick-dynamite-style by now and quite unnerving for someone who hasn’t even seen combat.

Curious about where we could “see the fireworks” we asked at the local restaurant where should go to view the spectacle. The server looked puzzled, and now we know why: there isn’t one, everyone just does their own private, “professional” display.

Below is a video of the event. Mostly it just paints a picture in sound, it does however give you a sense on what we witnessed from our balcony on New Year’s Eve. Think: Gulf War I, you know, the short one. Now I have have a slight inkling how the reporters filming with thier cell phone cameras from the Bagdad Hilton felt.

Next year I hope to find out where to buy some.