Irv’s Journal

RAIN! Wow, it seriously hasn’t rained like this in years. I love the rain… except when I have to be outside or drive around in it.

Somewhat concerned about the recently burned areas, since the land is probably in a fragile state. Hopefully the hillsides hold up.

It’s supposed to rain through Wednesday. Check out this map!

Esther and I decorated our house for Christmas!  Woohoo!  Actually, with the small amount of lights that we’ve put up, it really didn’t take us long at all.  First time decorators, both of us.  I’m thinking of trolling around for post-Christmas deals on lights and other decorations…

In the meantime, we’re going to look around for a tree.  For the sake of cleanup and laziness, we’re looking for a pre-lit fake tree.  I brought back a hand-blown and hand-painted ornament from Germany, so it’d be neat to have our first ornament on the tree for our first Christmas together.

Just catching up here.

As you may already know, Esther and I were forced to evacuate our house two weekends ago due to the Yorba Linda/Anaheim Hills Fire.  There was much excitement to be had, but we escaped with all three cars and lots of our belongings.  The evacuation was lifted on Sunday, but we didn’t return home till Monday.  Thankfully everything was okay, just as we had left it.  I believe the closest point of the fire was about a mile and a half or so away from the house.

The following weekend I headed out to Germany for a work trip.  While I had never been to Germany (besides the Frankfurt Airport), I wasn’t too excited about this trip.  I ended up having a white Thanksgiving in Germany (snow started early this year), and since the trip ended early, I was home on Black Friday evening.  With temps in the low 30s, i realized yet again that I am seriously lacking in the warm winter coat department.  Yeah, I never really think about it since I live in sunny southern California, but generally when I go on my work trips it can be REALLY COLD!

One of the nice things about being in Germany is the month long Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) that takes place in most of the cities starting the week of Thanksgiving.  Basically it is a giant fair that pops up in the town squares and people sell crafts and other random stuff.  It’s a place to get your Christmas shopping done.  And to go along with being a fair, there’s tons of fair food to sample, such as rostbratwurst (grilled bratwurst on a roll), kartoffelpuffer (potato pancakes served with apple sauce), giant brezels (pretzels), and of course gluwein (hot spiced red wine).  I managed to try most of the food, which was definitely good.  Tried a non-alcoholic version of the gluwein (hot spiced grape juice) and must say it was pretty tasty as well.

Now I’m back, and just counting down till the holidays!