January 2001 Archives

I learned last night that my fraternal grandmother passed away on Sunday. It was not unexpected, she had almost stopped eating in the last few weeks and was fading away. I'm sure it's a great relief for her, she was bed bound for several years now and almost imobile the last few months.

I've seen her only twice in the last few years, but she was always happy to see me. Last time right before New Year's and she had changed dramatically since the previous time.

I talked with my family and noone really sounded sad about it. That makes sense, all things considered, but it makes me aware how far away (geographically) from my family I am. It also makes me feel a little guilty that I don't write or call all that often. I'll try to keep this in mind and stay more connected with what's going on with my family.

I've switched hosting services again - this time to
HostGo.Com and so far I've been very impressed with their service.

Their hosting programs are pretty affordable. You can have subdomains (which I wanted), multiple mySQL databases (same here), and create separate ~user accounts, etc.

The best thing is their customer service. All my emails have been answered within an hour (even late at night) and often much faster; and all my requests or problems have been taken care of immediately.

I've been studying up on mySQL (ooh joint queries) and PHP - I'm working on my bookgroup's web site and then apply the knowledge a gain there to the Madrigal website.

I'm back in Austin and starting to fight the effects of my jet lag - getting up in the morning is easy, but staying awake in the afternoon takes a bit more effort!

The trip to Switzerland and the Czech Republic was a blast. We were blessed with pretty nice weather and I think that Jennifer enjoyed it as much as I did - despite the cold that she managed to pick up.

Spending the holidays with my family was a treat - the last Christmas I did with them was 11 years ago! It's different now, of course, since we are all older and my sister's children are now the ones who experience the magic and the awe of Christmas Eve the most. Still, the huge selection of home-made Czech christmas cookies, the Vanocka & hot coco for brunch on Christmas eve, the decorating of the tree on the 24th, the fish soup and fried carp with potato salad for dinner - then lighting real candles on the fresh tree and singing Christmas carols (Czech, German and English) before going through the presents - that's what Christmas was and always will be for me.

Christmas has always been a family holiday for me. Sure, it's the christian celebration of the birth of Christ (in both Switzerland and the Czech Republic it's the "baby Jesus" who brings the presents on Christmas, the feast of St. Nicolas having been celebrated on December 6) which is reflected in the text of most carols and in all the Nativities that you find in churches - for me, though, this has always been about the shared experience with my family. That it also has important religous aspects to my family has never been all that important for me, that was just part of the holiday. So I got to relive it again, this time with the addition of Jennifer and my sister's husband and children, and it was still magical.

The weather in Switzerland was cold, but we didn't have any snow (except patches in the mountains). My sister lives in Moerschwyl which is at a relatively low altitude and her town was always under or in the "Hochnebel" (high-fog), the cloud bank that often covers the northern parts of Switzerland this time of year. The drawback is that it's always gray and cold. On the other hand the trees turn white with beautiful hoar frost whenever the fog sinked low enough to envelope the town, and you can travel into the mountains (often only a few hundred feet higher up) to experience blue skies, sunshine and an incredible view of the sea of clouds from above. Jennifer and I hiked from Gais to Gaebris and down to Speicher during such a day. We also hiked around Swaegalp with my parents on Christmas day, although the weather was no longer as nice.

The only time we actually experienced fresh snow was when we were in Prague, but I'll write about that later.