Back from the mountains

We returned home yesterday and were exhausted. It was a long weekend with lots of work, but we had some fun as well. Thursday afternoon the four team families left Vienna and headed for the mountains for a retreat. This wasn't my first time to visit the cabin, so I had some idea of what to expect. I was actually prepared for the hour plus hike from the parking area, but fortunately I was one of the few who never had to make the hike.

When we arrived on Thursday, there was enough snow to use the snowmobiles. I got to ride on the back while Kari and three of the kids rode in a sleigh. Jake followed us on another snowmobile that carried most of our luggage and food. I snapped this photo during the ride and am still amazed that I got everyone in the shot. I don't think Abby enjoyed the ride too much.


After we were dropped off at the cabin, the snowmobiles had to head back to pick up the rest of the luggage and children. It was a lot of work getting everyone and everything up to the cabin!

Sharkdog got a lot of good use out of his coat. I think it really helped him stay warm, even though he still shivered sometimes.



The kids loved the snow. The guys took them sledding one day and helped them build this giant snow man. It's hard to tell how big it is in the photo since there's no one standing next to it, but I think it was pretty close to my height.


In addition to the fun and games, we also spent some time talking about where we are right now and where we would like to be in the coming year. It was a good time to set aside the stress and struggles of our daily life and Vienna and plan and dream together.

This dog's got style

Tomorrow we're all heading to the mountains for a few days. We've heard that there's quite a bit of snow, so we've been getting prepared. Brian bought some boots and we both bought gaiters. We even decided to get a coat for Sharkdog. We hope he'll be able to spend some time outside, but he doesn't have enough fur to keep him warm for long. Unfortunately, the pet store has already moved on to their spring collection and there were no coats to be found. (Actually, we didn't find any clothes at the pet store. But I know they had coats at the beginning of winter.)

That's when I decided to make Sharkdog a coat. I set aside the 10 other things I was supposed to be doing to get ready for the weekend and got to work on the coat. After multiple measurements and fittings, Sharkdog was pretty tired and I couldn't convince him to stand up for the photos. And there was no way he was going to do a cute pose like the dog on the cover of this book. But I got a few nice photos.

The coat is reversible. I used green fleece on one side and the green cotton hippo fabric on the other side. There's a buttonhole on the back so that his leash can attach to his collar under the coat. That was Brian's idea. He's a clever one.





Sharkdog seems to like the coat. And I think Brian is a fan of the coat as well.

Vienna Zoo

I mentioned our trip to the zoo a little over a week ago, but wanted to write more about it and share some photos of the animals. I was amazed at how many professional photographers were there. I was snapping away with my point-and-shoot and I think I got some decent photos.

One of the highlights was seeing the polar bears. There are two polar cubs that we were hoping to see, but at first we only saw one bear pacing around out front. He seemed a bit agitated.


Not long after, we realized that he was just trying to distract us from the mama and baby bears around the corner. The mama stood like this for hours while her two cubs wrestled behind her.


We walked back past the polar bears an hour or two later and found them like this. I hope every day isn't this exhausting for them.



I think this was the first time I had seen polar bears, but there were other animals I had never seen at a zoo before. For example, penguins and grasshoppers.



And yes, there really were grasshoppers in the zoo.



In this same area, there were also maggots and cockroaches. But I didn't take photos of them because I knew no one would want to see them. There were also some glass cages with crickets. My mom pointed out that there was ample room for the crickets to escape at the back of the cage where the glass didn't go to the wall. And sure enough, right below the cage we noticed some crickets that looked suspiciously like the crickets in the cage.

The crickets weren't the only animals escaping their containment. I don't know if you can really tell in this photo, but this is some kind of woodland creature slipping under the ropes to head back into his area. Right inside this wire fence is a small electric fence. But apparently it's not working because we saw several of these critters scamper right over it.



And we found this peacock sitting behind a sign. I'm not even sure he has a cage -- maybe he just wanders around.



Oh yes, the penguins. We finally found them as they were receiving a quick shower. What's up with that black furry penguin in the middle? I've never seen anything like that.



The zoo also has a baby panda that has been big news in these parts. She was born last year and I believe she is one of the few pandas conceived by natural means within captivity. If you visit the zoo's website, you can even see photos of those natural means by which she was conceived. But this is a family website, so I'm not going to show those photos here. We didn't see the baby panda because there was a half-hour wait to get into the building and then there was guarantee that she would be out at the time.

We saw a lot of other animals as well. A buffalo, birds, giraffes, monkeys and such. But I only have one last photo. I think this is the creepiest looking bird ever. That eye just makes me shudder.




You can check out the rest of the zoo photos on my Flickr page.

Views of the city

Last Thursday, we took the family to Leopoldsberg, a well-known lookout on the northern edge of Vienna. I've seen a lot of photos from this spot and have been waiting for a reason to visit it. I would have preferred to go on a sunny day, but we only had one or two of those during the week and Thursday was not one of them. We could see a storm heading our direction while we were on Leopoldsberg, so we went back into the city for a late lunch rather than continuing our trip to a town on the other side of the mountain. By the time we finished eating lunch, there was a full-fledged snow/ice storm raging outside. I think it's pretty cool when it's snowing and thundering at the same time.

It didn't come across very well in the photo, but from the lookout you could tell where it was raining and where it was sunny in the city. You can see the rain way off in the distance over the Danube River. I think it's very interesting to see the green countryside and then the huge city of Vienna.


When we arrived, the weather looked very nice to the north of us. We were planning on heading into Klosterneuburg after leaving Leopoldsberg, but the weather looked pretty menacing that direction by the time we left. Klosterneuburg is situated on the west side of the Danube and the city of Korneuburg is on the east side of the river. You can see the Klosterneuburg Monastery on the left edge of the photo below. (You can click on the photo to go to Flickr and see a larger view of the photo. Just click on "All sizes" in Flickr.)


We were able to snap some nice photos, but on a clear day I imagine you can get a much better shot of Vienna in the background.

Crafty girls

Brian and I headed to the airport with my family around 4:30 this morning. I was really sad to see them go, but we had a great visit. I have one or two more posts about things we did during the week, but I'm still working on getting my photos uploaded.

In the meantime, check out the bag Amiya and I made together. I bought some fabric from Ikea with a black and white leaf pattern and Amiya and I used fabric markers to color some of the leaves. Then I sewed it into a shoulder bag. I used this tutorial again and decreased the size by 2 inches on each side and the bottom. I think I also made the strap shorter, but I should have made it a little thinner as well. The new size is just right for Amiya.



The bag is reversible, so Amiya picked out some black fabric with pink polka dots for the other side. I think she really enjoys modeling the bag.

The last supper

This week has passed too quickly. Tomorrow around 4:30 a.m. a mini-bus should arrive to pick up my family and take them to the airport. It wasn't too hard to decide where we wanted to go for our last dinner -- back to Centimeter.

Once again we got the sword meal.



And once again, we weren't able to eat all of it.



But this time we came prepared. In case you're not familiar with restaurant etiquette in Europe, it's not typical to ask for a take out box for your leftovers. So my dad had the idea to take along our own doggie bags. Fortunately, we were sitting in an area that was around a corner from the main seating area, so I don't think anyone noticed.



After dinner, we had a little live entertainment.




If you like the video of our after-dinner entertainment, more video may be appearing soon on Amber's blog.

City tour

This morning when I woke up it was bright and sunny, but within a few minutes the clouds had rolled in and we had a bit of a snow shower. It was sunny again by the afternoon, but quite cold. The family decided to brave the cold and Brian led us on a city tour.

We started out at the Riesenrad. I prefer the German name Riesenrad better than the English translation because "Giant Wheel" just sounds silly. Plus, it's a little different from what you would typically think of as a ferris wheel. You don't sit in a little basket with one or two other people. You load into a boxcar with 8 or 10 other people. What it lacks in excitement (is a ferris wheel exciting?), it makes up for in the amazing view. You can see all of Vienna from the windows.







Afterwards, we headed into the city. We visited Stephansdom (St. Stephan's Cathedral), Michaelerkirche (Church of St. Michael), Peterskirche (St. Peter's Church), and Minoritenkirche (Church of the Minorites). The last one had a really nice mosaic of The Last Supper. But I didn't take a photo. In fact, this is the only photo I took in that church.



We also stopped by Brian's favorite cafe -- Cafe Central. I think Amiya was tired of us asking her to smile for photos.



But she finally agreed.



We ended the day with dinner at this restaurant called Centimeter. I've been waiting and waiting to take my family to this restaurant where you can order a sword full of food. But when we got there everyone wanted to order their own thing. After throwing a little fit, everyone agreed to get the group meal -- although some were still worried that there wouldn't be enough food. But once the food arrived, everyone knew I was right for insisting that we go with the group meal.



The meal included schnitzel, pork chops, french fries, chili and chicken wings. The menu said it was enough for 6 people, but it was probably enough for 8 or 10 people. I think I'll have to make this one of the standard restaurants when we have visitors.

Emmy didn't make it into a lot of the photos because she was sleeping or sitting in her stroller a lot of the day. But she looked awfully cute.

A day at the zoo... and other places

Today we headed out to the zoo. It may be the only day we have nice weather this week, so we took full advantage.


I think the sea lions were playing with us. They kept swimming right up against the glass.


And isn't this the cutest little puppy.

After the trip to the zoo, we headed to the town center for some ice cream.


And then we saw my favorite street performers. Lots of fun. I'm too tired to write more, so enjoy the show.

Happy birthday to me

In the spirit of full disclosure, my birthday is not really today.

But I did have a little party. And some pretty special visitors.



This morning around 9 a.m. I greeted my mom, dad, Amber, Amiya and Emmy at the airport. It was quite exciting. After working through some snags with the transportation service I had reserved, we headed to the apartment.



This was my first time to meet Emmy because she was born after Brian and I moved to Vienna. You can see that she was thrilled. I think she may have been the only one to sleep on the plane.

My family brought lots of goodies from the U.S. But the biggest surprise was this...



Yes, that's a cake. But not just any cake. It's a red velvet cake from The Red Oven in Texas. I've had this cake for my birthday every year for as long as I can remember. Sometimes it's a little late and sometimes it's a little early, but not a year has gone by that I haven't had a red velvet cake from The Red Oven. I had resigned myself to the fact that I would not be have a Red Oven red velvet cake for the foreseeable future. But my mom managed to bring one with her in her luggage! Never underestimate this woman.

My dad's birthday is actually on Monday, so we decided the cake was for both of us.

Spring is in the air

We've had some lovely weather the last few days. After class, Brian and I decided to walk to the u-bahn station so we could walk by Votivkirche and through the nearby park. There were a lot of people sitting out enjoying the sunlight and warmth.


While trying to take that photo, a young boy approached us to try to sell us flowers. You see this fairly often around Vienna. Young girls and boys walk around touristy areas holding out a flower. If you take it, they insist that you pay for it. Sometimes they will thrust the flower into your hand and then refuse to take it back. I suppose this works for tourists who may be confused and not want to cause a scene, but I think it's also a front for pickpockets.

This boy was waving his flower in front of my camera and when I turned my camera directly on him, he gave me a big smile.


After I took the photo and a few others of the park, he wanted to see the photo of himself. As I showed it to him, I wondered if this was a ruse to pick my pocket. The sad fact is that many of these children are trained by their parents or other adults to become thieves. This was one of the topics (the trafficking of children) that was discussed in a recent forum hosted by the UN in conjunction with UN.GIFT -- the UN Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking. I hope to write more on this topic in a few weeks.

Catching up

I was late to class this morning. I contest that it wasn't my fault because I was meeting with someone about something and it went long. Really, I had no control. Or very little control, anyway. But I happened to be late on the same day as almost every other person in class -- only three out of sixteen students were present when class started. So the teacher gave a writing assignment for all of the latecomers. Brian, who happened to be one of the three who was not late, was more than eager to point out the assignment when I arrived to class.

Other than the extra writing assignment, class is going pretty well. Although sometimes I feel like I missed a level or two somewhere because it seems so much more difficult than the last level. But really, it's not so much that it's difficult, but that everyone else seems to know a lot of words I don't know. I need to work on vocabulary. Here's a little secret to language-learning: You can't speak a language if you don't know the words. It's true. You must learn the vocabulary.

And in other news, I completely forgot to show you these darlings.

They're the coasters I received from Fiona at Dragonfly-Crafts for the coaster swap. They arrived several weeks ago and I love them. Cupcakes and teacups -- what more could you want. The design on the reverse side is also great. Thanks Fiona!

Let's play a game

Do you remember playing that game where you have two similar pictures and you try to find the differences? Well, I thought we could play that game with the photos below. So take a look and see if you can find any differences.

Picture 1


Picture 2



Okay, did you count up the differences? Let's start with the obvious -- Brian is putting bunny ears on Sharkdog in the second photo. And then there's the slightly less obvious -- the couch is pulled out into a bed.

Yep, that's right. We've been living in this apartment with this couch for about 7 months and only today did we discover that the couch turns into a bed. I wish we had known that last week when we walked around for about 3 hours looking for a shop that sells air mattresses.

It may be time for duct tape

My computer is still barely holding on. Earlier this week, the twisted metal piece that connects the left side of the monitor finally broke. So now only a thin cable is connecting the monitor to the keyboard on the left side. The cardboard and twine are still doing their part, although they may need reinforcements before too long.

Fortunately, I shouldn't have to wait much longer for my new computer.

And because I know you're curious, here are the photos. I'm sure all of that dust is helping the situation. Maybe we can all pretend it's not there.