Happy Halloween

Last week while Brian's parents were visiting, we took a stroll through Vienna's amusement park, Prater. I've been to Prater before to ride the giant ferris wheel, but I've never walked through the park. For a town that doesn't celebrate Halloween, this park sure did look a lot like Fright Fest -- only scarier. Take these guys for example:





Keep in mind, this is not merely Halloween decorations (obviously, since it's July), but these things are up year round. And in case you're about to argue that these aren't necessarily Halloween related --



In addition to the weird Halloween-themed rides, there were some pretty decent-looking rides. These two rides looked similar to Superman and Flashback from Six Flags.


We only rode the ferris wheel, but I think I would enjoy riding some of these rides. Next week over at Almost Daily Vienna I'll be featuring other scenes from Prater. (And I promise to quit plugging Almost Daily Vienna.)

Heading home

This morning, Brian and I delivered his parents to the airport for their return to the U.S. The past week just flew by and it's hard to believe their visit is over. We were able to see a lot of the city and even a little beyond the city. I'll show you some of the things we saw later, but photos have already started appearing on Almost Daily Vienna.

One of my favorite things about the visit was experiencing Robert and Rhonda's first trip to Europe with them. I think I was 10 when I made my first trip to Europe, so I don't remember what I thought about it. I do remember that my mom made my sisters and me each keep a journal so we would remember our trip. And I remember that we couldn't find grape jelly and at the time I really liked peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with grape jelly. We saw vineyards all over the place and I couldn't figure out what they would be doing with all of those grapes if not making jelly.

I guess I was naive in my youth.

I'm a loser baby

Brian does not play games with me very often. He says it's because I enjoy winning too much. I suspect maybe it's because he doesn't enjoy losing enough. In any event, we don't play a lot of games.

But we finally found a game we can play. Not necessarily because we both like it so much, but because I'm so terrible at it. Yahtzee. We've been playing the game a lot with Brian's parents the last several nights. And until yesterday, I hadn't won a single game. Out of the 11 games we've played so far, I came in dead last 7 games and won 1 game. But at least we're having fun.

So happy together

Brian's parents arrived yesterday. On the way home from the airport, Robert asked whether I thought Sharkdog would remember them. We weren't sure -- it has been more than a year since Sharkdog has seen Robert and Rhonda. But when we got home, Sharkdog sure seemed to remember them. And he certainly seems to like them.

I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual.

I can be manipulative

Do you know about Gimp? It's an image editor -- in the same vein as Photoshop, only free. (I'm sure that's not the only difference between the two, but it's one of the major differences.) I started using Gimp to make cool blog banners, but lately I've been using it to manipulate photos.

This started several weeks ago after reading an article from the L.A. Times about the marketing of Che Guevara's image. Soon after, I was looking through some photos and noticed one particular photo where Sharkdog had some of the same characteristics of Che's famous photo: the tilted head, the strong jaw, the righteous anger blazing in his eyes.


What? You don't see the righteous anger blazing in his eyes? Well, I see it. So I turned the photo above into the one below.


Oh, but it doesn't stop there, folks.

Earlier this week saw some photos of my niece on my sister's blog. Skip on over there and take a look at the first two photos and tell me what pops into your mind.

Do you know what came to my mind? Mug shot. So I turned my sweet, innocent niece into the hooligan you see below.




I hope this isn't a vision of what's to come!

Garden update

One thing I was really looking forward to leaving behind in Oklahoma was the wind. Oklahoma is windy. And much to my dismay, Vienna is also windy.

The wind has been taking its toll on my little garden. I've pretty much given up on my strawberry plant even though there are about dozen strawberries on it. But the sweet potato vines are looking positive. And yesterday the first two flowers on my pumpkin vine bloomed.


The flower's a little wind-blown, but it's there. Now when will the pumpkins show up?

Mail call

I received a letter today that made my heart skip a beat.


When I told Brian I was blogging about the letter, he asked whether I was just trying to scare my mom. But I imagine my mom only noticed that the letter was addressed to my maiden name. She probably didn't pay any attention to that long German word above the address.

That long German word that looks like it might have "police" stuck right in the middle of it.


Bet she's noticing it now. And maybe her heart is beating a little faster as well. But there's nothing to worry about, Mom. Yes, I received a letter from the police asking me to come down to the station. But I'm sure it's nothing serious. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about.

On a side note, wouldn't it be nice if the police could send out letters to criminals asking them to report to the station and it actually worked. Of course, if said criminals had seen the images of this 5-star prison in Austria, they might be more than happy to report to the police station.

Back to the letter... I actually knew it was coming, I had just forgotten about it. Last week, Brian and I started working on getting our U.S. driver's licenses transferred to Austrian driver's licenses. One of the requirements is a document from a physician that states you are fit to drive. But since I'm diabetic, I'm required to meet with someone at the office that issues driver's license -- which happens to be part of the police bureau. So this letter was just telling me what to do next. If all goes well, maybe I'll have an Austrian driver's license in a few weeks.

See, Mom, I told you there was nothing to worry about.

One year later

Wow, I can hardly believe it's been a year already. One year ago yesterday, I wrote my first blog entry. Thanks for sticking around and humoring me. Hopefully there will be some fun and interesting stuff in the near future, but right now I've got nothing.

For those of you in the U.S., enjoy the fireworks and don't forget to wear your flag if you want to be in fashion.