Archive for April, 2010

Brain Surgery

Friday, April 30th, 2010

The server will be down for part of the weekend as we upgrade it to the latest version. Email, websites and other services will be down for a few hours, probably on Saturday. When it’s up and running — well, you won’t notice the difference. I will.

Have a happy May Day everyone!

Daniel, the Star Student

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Daniel is the Star Student from First Grade for Temecula Montessori.

While he was getting his award, Gabi was hosting friends in the gazebo. Chilly, and only a couple of roses so far …

Everything’s Coming Up Roses

Monday, April 26th, 2010

April 30, 2007. A two year old Camilla stands next to the gazebo.

Gabi’s roses are about to bloom again. In fact, looking for the photos of the last five years, they’re a little late this year. A bit odd, since we’ve had plentiful rainfall and watering.

Nonetheless, this is the season to sit in the gazebo, read a good book and watch the kids run around in the back yard. Below are some of our historical rose photos, as well as what it looks like today.

April 24, 2009. Last year was a good one for roses.

May 14, 2006. The gazebo makes an island inside a sea of flowers.

April 23, 2005. Lot's of rain this year. And Gabi didn't have a chance to trim back the bushes, so it was a 'wild' year.

April 26, 2010. This is what it looked like, ten minutes ago. One bulb ready to open.

Everything's Coming Up Roses

Monday, April 26th, 2010

April 30, 2007. A two year old Camilla stands next to the gazebo.

Gabi’s roses are about to bloom again. In fact, looking for the photos of the last five years, they’re a little late this year. A bit odd, since we’ve had plentiful rainfall and watering.

Nonetheless, this is the season to sit in the gazebo, read a good book and watch the kids run around in the back yard. Below are some of our historical rose photos, as well as what it looks like today.

April 24, 2009. Last year was a good one for roses.

May 14, 2006. The gazebo makes an island inside a sea of flowers.

April 23, 2005. Lot's of rain this year. And Gabi didn't have a chance to trim back the bushes, so it was a 'wild' year.

April 26, 2010. This is what it looked like, ten minutes ago. One bulb ready to open.

The Dead Hand, a review

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

For awhile, when I started reading the Dead Hand, winner of this year’s Pulitzer for general non-fiction, I felt that I was finally in the grip of the definitive end-of-the-Soviet-Union book. Even while living through the events of those years, I figured that a lot of the events forming it would not come to light for decades afterward. Think of the decoding of Enigma and JN-25 (the Japanese wartime code), which did not come to light until the 1970’s. I’ve been waiting for a final, historical conclusion, but none has been satisfying yet. (I can go into the role of history-as-fiction written by the winners at some later date.)

However, after 150 pages, one has to scratch one’s head. Why so much time on biological warfare? A fair time is spent on nuclear command and control elements (and much of this new to me). Almost nothing on the other aspects of the war.

By page 250, I started deconstructing the author’s work. Why did it ring so true, but so hollow and partial? I finally realized that Hoffman was at the mercy of the interviews he’d been granted. Yes, some of them were startling — Gorbachev, members of the Reagan White House (Robert McFarlane), officers at the nuclear command centers, scientists from several of the biological warfare centers. This does not make it a bad book, but it is not a complete overview. I class this as an important part of the end of the Cold War canon, but far from the definitive tome it wants to be.

As always with books like this, I’m surprised at how much was done on the Russian side of the table leading up to the collapse and how little was done by the West. Of course, the Russian’s were the ones feeling the pressure – falling behind, atrophying economies, unable to compete.

Dietrich Engagement

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

I’ve just learned (through Aunt Mary) that Cousin Dietrich Freitag is coming back to the US next week. He’s bringing his fiancé back from Korea to meet his mother, Batie. Sounds like a grand time! Sorry we’re going to miss it; someone please take pictures.

Magyar Training (Hungarian)

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

A new generation of Hungarian speakers get trained – one word at a time.

Salt Lake City detour

Monday, April 19th, 2010

Four hour layover in Salt Lake City

We had a four hour layover in Salt Lake City. Since Dan-dan had a state report due on Utah, we decided to take the time to go into the city and check things out.

Camilla and Daniel at Temple Square

The Mormon Tabernacle

The Temple - just too big (or the square was too small) to get a good photo of it

Saturday Photos

Monday, April 12th, 2010

Grandpa Cal, Grandma Gene, Aaron, Gabi, Daniel, Ed, Camilla, Aunt Cally

We made it back to California safely, but a little tired. We woke up at 12:30am PDT and arrived in Temecula at 5pm PDT – a very long trip. Everyone had a nap at one point or another. While we’re getting ourselves together, I figured this is a good time to post our photos from Saturday.

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Friday Mob Scene

Saturday, April 10th, 2010

Camilla and Daniel sleep late at the condo

The Steussy family mob all got together on Friday. Photos are below.

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