Christmas Pictures

February 10, 2006 · Print This Article

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Christmas vacation in Germany, Day 7.
After visiting the cathdreal in Cologne, we go to a good, old-fashioned brewery to drink some Koelsch. The same brewery we should have been a day earlier to celebrate Thomas’ birthday, in fact. Well, at least we went there!

Another New Addition To The Bird Cage

February 5, 2006 · Print This Article

I already have five budgies, and I didn’t think that I really needed another one. Victoria on the other hand doesn’t have any budgies, and I thought that she very much needed one. So yesterday morning we went out to Pet Arcade and Victoria picked a bird from a cage of five remaining budgies, all of which seemed to be brothers and sisters. We think it’s a guy, he called him Jeremy (after the Raven in Secret of Nimh). Six birds, will it ever end? I’d love to post a picture, but my camera -> computer drivers are busted and I can’t seem to read out any photos. Hopefully soon!

Christmas Pictures

January 26, 2006 · Print This Article

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Christmas vacation in Germany, Day 7.
Somebody(1) posing at the entrance of something old, big and towering(2). We had tried to go to Cologne the day before to attend Thomas’ birthday bash, but got snowed in badly enough to not even try. At least we visited the same brewery once we got to Cologne, pictures to follow. The drive back was “fun” – the GPS/mapping system I had borrowed from my dad fell down during the trip and somehow the option “Avoid highways where possible” got set. So all of the sudden the thing sent me on a wild goose chase through the middle of nowhere for no apparent reason, and it took an additional 45 minutes to get home. Stupid really, especially because I didn’t need the GPS in the first place. The drive from Essen to Cologne is about as straight-forward as it gets, I just didn’t know downtown Cologe well enough.

Obviously I didn’t get around to updating the page over the weekend, our deadline dragged out. I’ll start updating more regularly again now that we’re done, though. I promise(3)!

(1) Victoria, (2) Cologne Cathedral, (3) Not a promise

Christmas Pictures

January 5, 2006 · Print This Article

Christmas vacation in Germany, Day 1.
We go to the city to do some last minute christmas shopping. Victoria was getting kind of angry at the fact that everything was so Americanized, you couldn’t enter a store without seeing English-speaking artists, movies etc. Nothing that a good, old-fashioned Glühwein on the Christmas Market couldn’t cure, though. Well, actually she really started ranting after that mug of alcohol, but you didn’t hear that from me.

Chrismas Pictures

January 4, 2006 · Print This Article

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Christmas vacation in Germany, Day 2.
We meet up with most of the old mailbox/Doom/Quake/Braindead crowd. Almost everybody makes it into the picture. Bis auf Andre, der nicht da war dieser Unzuverlässling! Uncheckbar, wie Olli frueher gesagt haette…

Christmas in Germany

January 3, 2006 · Print This Article

xmas05 01 544x362 Christmas in Germany

White Christmas in Germany. Over the next few days I’ll be posting a few pictures that Victoria took with her disposable cameras during our Germany trip. Sorry for the image quality, did I mention that they were disposable cameras? I didn’t want to carry around my clunky Powershot G1. And luckily the prints came out looking a lot better than the digital versions.

Scroll back to December 04 for last year’s pictures.

Flood Aftermath

January 3, 2006 · Print This Article

Below is an email that Victoria sent to various relatives and friends after the flood, and that she would like me to repeat here:

Hi Everyone,

Happy New Year! I hope you are doing well and had a relaxing holiday. If you happen to be watching the Bay Area news and possibly the Sacramento news then you would know that the lovely town I lived in, Napa, flooded over the weekend.

I am happy to say that I officially am a Napa Resident for I now have a flood story to tell. I live in a bottom floor apartment in Riverwood apartments which is built right along the river. The only thing that separates me from the Napa River is a bike path and my patio. At 4am on Saturday, Dec. 31, Matthias and I awoke to the Napa Police Department driving up and down the street along my apartment complex telling residents to evacuate. For the first time in my life, I actually had to think about what I would bring with me (along with my roommate’ stuff, who was in Spain at the time).

Matthias and I got in my car to see what was going on and if we could tell how far the river had risen. We only drove a mile from my apartment and found the street had flooded. As we checked the river, it looked like the river had another 20 feet across and about 3 ft high before it would come into my apartment. We decided to stay.

Later on in the morning we watched the news to discover that we could not leave my apartment. Main highways were closed. If Matthias had stayed in Marin on Friday, we would of had to spend New year’s eve apart. I am so thankful he was with me.

The sun broke long enough for us to take a walk down to the nearest bridge and pick up some movies at Blockbuster. To my amazement and grace I looked over the bridge at the River to see it had flowed left…instead of right. If the river had drifted right it would have completely flooded my apartment.

The Napa river had grown from 100 feet across to 2000 feet across. The average depth of the river is 6 feet. On Saturday, it had risen to 30 ft. And here I was in my apartment with a first class seat watching Nature take its course.

Matthias and I enjoyed a great New Year’s Eve staying in at my apartment watching The School of Rock movie, making dinner and playing dice. On and off we would look out my patio window to watch the River.

Now it is Monday Night. Earlier today I took a walk down the bike path. It’s one of my favorite things to do in Napa. I’ve been walking and watching the river for almost 2 years now. Today, I had to walk through a little mud. The river had returned to its normal self. As I walked the bike path, I noticed that some parts where the river had flooded to the right. Reminding me how easy your life “as what you own” could be swept away and to know…change is always flowing right near you. As I walked, I though of the people who made a home living along the river. Some of their clothes hung on the trees. I thought of New Orleans.

Do you remember the Brad Pitt, Robert Redford 90′s movie “A River Runs Through It”? Well, with Grace and reason, a river runs by me and through Napa, CA.

Take care,
Victoria

P.S. (What I would have taken? I decided on all my photo albums, my 10 years of journals, and a suitcase of clothes–favorite pants, t-shirts, LOTs of socks – hey you never know.)

Family Dogs

December 24, 2004 · Print This Article

Merry xmas and all. I’m too lazy to write much about it, so instead here’s pictures of our household pets. Terry is our West Highland White Terrier. He’s over 14 years old and is starting to lose his sight and hearing, but he can still be as cute and/or annoying as he’s always been. Flint is my brother’s Rhodesian Ridgeback. Young, big, tail like a whip – and excited/happy a lot. Did I mention that his tail is like a whip? Very cute, though – even though I don’t think I’ll be wearing those clothes he’s lounging on…

Not pictured: an old, disturbed budgie and the dead mouse my mom found in the box of xmas decorations earlier today icon smile Family Dogs

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Terry, our late West Highland White Terrier

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Flint, my brothers Rhodesian Ridgeback

Impressions from Germany

December 23, 2004 · Print This Article

Essen, Germany. Established ~800 around a Benedectine cloister, developed into a steel and coal mining town around 1830, destroyed 60-90% during the bombing of WW2. Today it’s being branded as a shopping town with its several miles of shops in the city center, attracting people from several neighboring countries.