Pictures is the answer

A month has gone by, and I have not made any entries here, so I'm posting some pictures so you can see some what we've been up to.

October, of course, deserves an Octoberfest.

Michal & Adam are at work feeding us Bratwurst.

Coming to the serious part, the next weekend, the
experts (Natalie & Geoff) are cutting
pumpkins for Halloween.

Kellie is getting her pumpkin ready to insert the knife.

In the meantime, Patricia has a growing man to feed.

Another weekend trip was to Seattle, Patricia's old stomping
grounds during college at Univ of Washington.

The Chihuly glass exhibit at the Civic Center is a permenant home
of this famous Washington native son.

And as always, Patricia is creating great memories.

Back at home Michal, Adam and Kellie invited me for an
evening of wild entertainment, go-carts, pinball machines and minigolf.

Then, we are off again, this time to San Miguel de Allende
to visit our friends,Whitney and Don

Don waiting for Patricia who is discovering the town through
her lense.

Back home again hanging out having coffee at
the CUP, a little coffee shop in Oceanside.

We have arrived

So it has taken me 17 years to get back to the fatherland, and for Patricia it's been 27 years since she last visited Europe.

On the left you can see a rainbow from above

We touched down in Muenchen after a great restful flight in Deltas Business Class and my confusion started immediately. Somehow, I am intimidated by the Germans, and I have to say getting through customs was child's play; you just walk in and you're in Europe.
We changed some $$$ and got just a bit more than half of what we gave them, so for a $ we got about .65Euro's.
It takes about 45 min by train from the Airport to the Hauptbahnhof in Muenchen, there we put our bags into storage and explored some of the sites.
One of the first things I discovered is that it almost costs more to go to the bathrooms then what you pay for the drinks. Each time you go, you pay to enter or you are expected to leave a tip for the cleaner.

If you have been here you remember this

This is one way to get around Muenchen

We had a great time just walking around taking in the sites and pictures.

Looking forward to the train ride

At about 13:00 we were ready to get on the train which takes us to Stuttgart. While sitting there waiting to leave the station, we read the conditions on our Europass and found out that before we enter the train it needed to be stamped by the agent, so we quickly left the ICE and found the office where we encountered another problem; my passport had not been stamped when I got into the country, so I needed some proof that I was not in the country already when we bought the ticket. Starbucks, internet, trashed e-mail with boarding pass saved as PDF, back to the office, and voila 1 Stamp and we are good to go.

We made it to Stuttgart to Eva and Bernd's place. After quickly putting some deo under my armpits, Eva took us to town to the Hamburger Fisch Markt, a yearly 10 day party in the middle of town. They have lots of this festivals all year around; just give them different names - lots of wine, beer and food and all is well.
We met some very nice friends of Eva and Bernd from South Africa where they live a few months of the year.

Now this is what I call a Beergarten

Patricia fits in the picture perfectly

Eva on the phone organizing 

Patricia and I got home about 20:30 and went strait to bed and slept for the next 12 hours.

Almost the start of summer

We had another great Biergarten Party, very good turnout, and we made a lot of new friends.
As I like to say, everyone of importance was there.
The food, very important to me, was fantastic as always, and we want to thank everyone for bringing something - except I did eat and drink too much again, but that's no one's fault but my own.
Here are a few pictures, and there are more in my album.

Someone took over the center table

Some of the Paradee family and Ian enjoying themselves 

Mary, Glen and Chris are in deep discussion

Francis and Teresa posing for pictures

The week in pictures

Sunday, I drove up to Anza, Patricia was happy to have a day on her own, and I was happy to see Guido and Annette and speak Badisch all day.  After having inspected Guido's new additions to his house, we went for a walk to see Clair and Lee who live about half hour walk away.

Guido and Annette on our walk

I had no idea that last year's fire came so very close to their house.

On the home front, whenever Patricia starts to measure something, I became wary.

And it always turns out great.

The first potatoes for this year.

Then, of course, there is the time with Gavin, all day.

Here is Gavin's first major work of art. Abstract impressionism? Post modern?

To top it off, we fixed up the Biergarten for the new season and
had a soft opening with Glen.

That was it for the week. It looks like the next Biergarten Party is on Saturday, May 11th.
Have a happy week.

October Fest

This was our version of the Oktoberfest here at the Koenig Biergarten in Encinitas.
Periodically, Michal puts on a garden party, which we have now renamed the "Crest Dr. Community Party."
What a great time we had.  It was a beautiful sunny day and at great personal expense, Michal engaged the PigPen Band that play Folk-Country and Blues Music.
The pot-luck style food, plus Michal-provided-German-sausage-and-beer, was exceptional. Whenever people ask me what to bring, my standard answer is "something you love," and there is always plenty and a great variety of different, sometimes new and interesting foods.
Thanks to everyone who came and made it a great party.

Our new sign announcing a party

The property is ready to have a party

Lots of sausages and great food

Great friends, lots of laughs and good conversations

This time Michal engaged a great band to play fun tunes.

Next time, we look forward to seeing you at the Party as well.

What's up?

Time flies. It's not that nothing happens, just the opposite.
Since I last posted, we have a new gig, looking after Homer, and Eli and Jessica's place (in that order).
We are having a great time here, and I get to walk Homer twice a day, hurray. He is a very quiet and relaxed Shitzu, and when he doesn't feel like walking any further, he just lays down and that's it.

This is about what it looks like to be relaxed.

Here he is just looking cute.

The weather here is fantastic, just like it says in the Beach Boy song, 'It never rains in California.' The best things are the beaches around here. We love driving along and stopping to take in the ocean air.

I honestly can not think of a better place to be at this time.

And then there is, of course, the party time @ the Biergarten. Yesterday, Patricia and I celebrated our 15 years together, the happiest I have been.

Patricia with our friends, Pauline and Dan

And me with  Atsuko and Francis

Today, there was another party next door to our old place on Crest. A young couple just bought Irma's house and are is renovating it. Actually they are very smart. They are heading out for a three-month trip around the US, and when they get back, it will all be done, they hope. Ahh, and congratulation; Jimmy and Taya just got engaged.

Here you have it.

Taya

Jimmy

Have a safe trip.

That's it in the rough until next time.

Summer is here

Summer has arrived in Southern California, and we celebrated it with, what else, a Biergarten Party.
I spent the last few days getting things ready while staying at Michal's, and yesterday, we had about 50 people over in the afternoon. We saw some new neighbors and friends of friends.
Everyone had a great time, at least the people we talked to, and the kids had fun when we took them over to Chicken-house to see the chickens and the goats. Of course, now some of the parents are in trouble.  There children now want a goat, too.
As always, there was a great variety of food and drink; everyone contributed something, and in the end, we were left with some very nice half bottles of wine, thanks to whomever.

The garden is ready.  Patricia planted the flower-boxes, and they look great.

Ready for business; just waiting for our friends to fill up the tables.

Michal is staring to grill the sausages.

Natalie's family brought the biggest Pizza ever. It hardly fit through the
gate, and we needed to bring out a special Pizza table.

One of the highlights was chasing the chickens at Natalie's.

And then there was the spectator lineup.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, everyone is enjoying themselves 

We are all very excited; Aariel is in her fourth month, and it's going to be a boy.

Here's Patricia getting ready to be Oma with Danny.

Here is Jessica teaching Jack and Jaiden to hold
onto the goat.

Sparta is loving her goat.

Then there is the Goat pulling contest

All in all, another great party.  Hope to see you in a month or so at the next Biergarten Party.

Eddie is not ready to go home jet.