Oh! Baby Baby

So once again, it's been awhile since the last blog. Apologies.
In the interim, we were busy buying last minute Christmas and holiday presents, running into strange advertisements for Segways (!!! what target audience is that nun on the segway supposed to appeal to, please tell me?), visitng the US, and getting addicted to a couple television shows (Andreas is threatening to give me an iTunes allowance now that I have discovered Weeds and Lost and Mad Men and...all available online for a measly $1.99 fee per episode - come on people, dollars are like Monopoly money these days).

This is a somewhat random assortment of photos from the last two weeks. The non-random part are the three babies that we got to play with. There were actually even more than three, these were the three I snapped photos of. First off is Victoria, Andreas' niece - bundled up in her snowsuit. Next is Theo, who is growing up faster than a speeding toddler (8 months already!) - my nephew. And finally, Ms. Julia there, who is already a charmer at 10 months, Gino and Kate's daughter. In all our interactions, we recognized how much fun babies are again...and how much work. Yikes. :-)

And thrown in for some amusement (after the nun-Segway photo)
Schupfnudeln! in all their Schwabian goodness. I get to eat these little German-style gnocchi about once a year. Dorothee made them for us while we visited them for a few days before leaving for California. Served with mounds of sauerkraut, blood and liver sausages, and a special kind of smoked ham, the dish is really not something you should be eating more than once a year. :-) Looking forward to next year now.

Next we have the anti-food and drug beagle that always meets us as we get off the plane in San Francisco. Thankfully he missed the Christmas cookies in our luggage as we zipped through customs...

Next is a photo of my parents' beautiful porch. It was rainy and foggy for a good part of our trip, but it didn't bother me at all - still good in its California beauty.

Finally, a quick trip to market hall in Berkeley is always good for seeing fresh produce eye candy and I couldn't resist snapping a photo of those beets.

Now back to the hum-drum of daily life here in Munich now. Except that I am working on a great project.

More soon.