Happy New Year!

Well I suppose it's past time that I update this. We have been off and travelling for the holidays and busy with online classes to boot. That's always fun while you are trying to connect remotely! Many thanks to Jon that lent me his wireless connection!

We left on the 21st and drove down to Kyburz near Lake Tahoe where we were able to stay 3 nights in Birgit's host family's cabin. It was a very nice, relaxing start to an otherwise stressful trip. It's too bad it couldn't have been at the end of the trip instead. From there we drove to my Dad's in Fairfield, CA where we spent Christmas Eve, Christmas and the following Monday. My brother came up with his family on the 24th, my sister and bro-in-law came down on the 25th and my Dad and I went golfing at his course on the 26th. Pretty cool! We then drove down to San Jose where we stayed through New Years Day. We visited with lots of friends including the Reids, Dave, the Fullers, the Keeners (for a short while as they were back from China!) and sundry others of Birgit's friends.

Pretty fun trip, but it stormed the last couple of days and made the trip back through the Sierras challenging. Highway 80 was closed, so we drove back over 50 (lined solid with cars headed back the other direction!) and stayed overnight in Reno. That was fun, but we arrived home to a blown furnace igniter and a flood in two of the bathrooms (leaked from upstairs to downstairs). So Birgit is now in the process of tiling the floor since we had to rip out the soggy carpet. I told her it gave me flashbacks of New Orleans! I am looking forward to how the tile turns out. She is quite the skilled craftsperson!