Eugenie Goldstern

This fell out of a copy of the book that C is currently translating from German into English. She says that it is still here favorite bookmark.

I am in the process of proofreading her translation of the biography of Eugenie Goldstern, a Jewish Folklore researcher who was born in Odessa, Ukraine and fled to Vienna in the late 1800's to begin her studies at the University of Vienna. her research took her to many places in the heart of Europe, including the town of Bessans in the French Alps where she lived and studied with the local people high up in a mountain town. Some of her work, including many pictures Eugenie took during this time, were on display at the Vienna Folklore museum several years ago while C and i were living there. I distinctly remember the pictures she took of the family who shared their space with cows and goats, who helped to keep them warm during the cold winter months. C thinks the smell must have been awful, but i guess one gets used to that rather quickly. Plus, there is the benefit of having the company of 'pets', which at the same time provided some of the daily food items such as milk and cheese, and possibly some meat as well.

Solid Rock

today was J's first time at a climbing gym. i left work a couple hours early today to pick J up from school and we went to 'solid rock gym' down by the airport to meet his friend active boy and his dad B. at first J and active boy were mostly interested in the pebbles on the floor, but once they saw B climb and JK struggle on the walls J wanted to give it a try, too. we made it more interesting for the boys by pointing out that the holds were shaped like little animals and fruits. J particularly started liking the 'mixed berry' route and the 'blackberry' route, both of which got him up about 6 feet above ground. i suggested he put on his safety harness so he could go even farther, but he had no interest. after we got home and had dinner, J and i went to the park down the street and had the whole playground for ourselves (no wonder, it was already dark and pretty chilly).

It's Boo Time

the fires last week delayed our entire life by one week - we did not even start carving pumpkins until the night before halloween. J is very fond of the book 'too many pumpkins', which tells the story of Rebecca Estelle who hated these vegetables most of her life because she was forced to eat them when she was a child when there was not much money too buy any other food. when a pumpkin truck drove by her house and dropped a pumpkin, causing the seeds to sprout the next spring, she frantically tried to get of them, to no avail. that fall dozens of pumpkins grew in her front yard, and she needed a way to get rid of them. they were too heavy to cart away, so she decided to make all sorts of pumpkin dishes, and carved several more, some of which had the word 'boo' written on them. the candles in them made the glow at night and attracted the towns people, who were invited into the house to try all of the pumkin goodies she made, and even take some home, along with a jack o'lantern and roasted pumpkin seeds. all Rebecca kept was a handful of seeds, ready for next year's pumpkin harvest.

wildfires are (not) over yet

even though life for us and people we know has returned to normal (i have been back to work since thursday), the wildfires are still burning in the county. the harris fire is about 70% contained, and the witch fire almost 90%. there are still 3 other fires burning in the county, and since the Santa Ana winds are expected to pick up again within the next couple of days the fire department is still on heightened alert. i took the picture above last friday while driving towards the wild animal park. neighborhoods that have experienced damage from the fires are generally inaccessible by people not directly affiliated with those (home owners, security personnel, contractors).



one of our pumpkins withered away during the heat created by the Santa Ana winds over the last couple of weeks. i guess we started the carving too early. luckily, there are 2 more pumpkins out on the porch ready to be turned into jack o' lanterns. J enjoyed the halloween parade at his friend's house, along with all the good food and games. a good ending to a week that did not start that great at all.

Helpers at Qualcomm Stadium

The fires in San Diego are getting out of control. at least that's what we are hearing on radio and TV. the witch creek fire ('das Hexenbachfeuer') burned through many thousand of acres north of Rancho Bernardo, destroying many homes along its way. 300,000 people have been evacuated since last night from those areas, including Rancho Bernardo and Poway. no work, school, or kindergarten for any one of us today or tomorrow. M had to evacuate her home in Rancho Penasquitos and we took her in early this morning. late afternoon we gathered several cans of food, a blanket and a towel, and J picked out two of his stuffed animals to donate to the children that will be spending the night at Qualcomm stadium. we then drove down and dropped off our things, together with many other San Diegans who dropped of mountains of food, water and bedding. we all hope this will end soon.

Marble Run, Swingset, Fires and Insidious Pipes

We had an eventful weekend. Saturday morning we left for Campo in the East County to ride the pumpkin express. We were joined by J's friend O and his parents and grandma. We enjoyed the ride and also the pumpkin patch which was set up in the museum railroad's exhibition hall. J really enjoyed decorating his pumpkin. we took the scenic route 94 back to San Diego (Not that the drive out the I8 is not scenic). we were briefly considering camping out in a small town called Potrero, but luckily we did not. that night a large wildfire started in the area, fueled by the hot and dry Santa Ana winds that were blowing throughout Southern California since mid last week. We are watching the news as the events unfold, with 2 large fires burning in San Diego County, and many more in LA County.



Sunday was a day filled with work and play around the house, interrupted with a quick trip to the Y for swimming and lunch at Rubio's. i made some progress with the swing set, while Julian helped paint the ladder that we are adding to the set. He became a little overconfident when sticking his arms into the *telephone piping* his Papa was planning on adding to the swing set. when he realized that his arms got stuck and i was unable to pull them off, i feared for a minute that we would have to take him to the hospital to cut off the pipes, but luckily i remembered that we had used soapy water before to remove a ring. a couple cups of water and his arms slid out the pipes, although not without tears of desparation on J's end.

Pumpkin Patch

We had a lot of fun at the Pumpkin Patch this weekend. J rode a red wagon into the patch and picked out two - one will have the word 'BOO' carved out and the other will have a face. At the patch in Ramona, a small town just north of San Diego in the local mountains, they also had a petting zoo (mountain goats had their own little playground), a corn maze, a corn cannon and lots of different types of pumpkins and gourds on display. JK tried the corn cannon, which must have been quite fascinating to J since the next day he set up his own one in the backyard using a pen and a couple of sidewalk chalks for support. the other thing we picked up that day was a bale of hay (rather, straw) to use as stuffing material for our scare crow. After we had gotten back home J's friend A came over to help with making the scare crow (as well as tearing apart the bale and spreading the straw all over the backyard).