They have ridges

This may be my new favorite German word: geriffelt.



Oh, and I was quite pleased to find cheddar and sour cream chips. They're not Ruffles, but they're pretty good.

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If you think I've been slacking off with the blogging, you're probably not reading our private family blog. I post over there several time a week. And while most (all?) of it so far has been about our beautiful daughter and how she joined our family, I do have some crafty stuff coming up. And perhaps even some witty observations about life in Vienna. If you'd like access to the private blog, send me an email (my address is on my profile) or leave me a comment.

Handmade Holidays

My younger sister Christy told me that my blog has been rather lacking lately. I kindly reminded her that I had been updating the private blog, but she didn't seem satisfied. So I decided to blog all about our handmade holidays before she has a chance to blog about it. That'll teach her to complain!

In mid-October my older sister Amber suggested that we exchange handmade gifts this year. I had been going back and forth on whether I would make Christmas gifts this year, but when I heard that everyone was up for the challenge, I knew I had to participate as well. Even though it was a little stressful at times, I think it was worth it.

Here are some of my favorites.

My mom prepared a large brunch and dinner the day we celebrated. Before dinner she explained that she had prepared something special for each person. She had contacted each of our husbands' mothers to get some of the favorite family recipes. She also made each family a cookbook with family recipes.

M. received two really cute books. Amber made a quiet book she called "Let Me Do It!" Each page has something to do -- attach the dog leash to the collar, zip/unzip the dress, unbuckle a belt. Christy made a texture book -- bumpy, silky, etc.

Here are a two pages from "Let Me Do It!":




I don't have photos of the book Christy made, but you can see it on Christy's blog here.

I made the aunt and uncle dolls from Amy Karol's Bend the Rules with Fabric book for my nephew. (I also made them for Brian's niece.) I try to make gifts that include our photos for our young nieces and nephew so they'll recognize us when they see us. :)


Christy made a really cool gift for our niece, but I won't spoil her fun by telling you all about it and posting photos. Suffice it to say, it's been a big hit around here and I've already told her that M. would love one for her birthday or next Christmas. Keep an eye on her blog, because I'm sure she'll post all about it.

There were a lot of other great gifts as well, but I didn't take very many photos. I received an apron and a cargo scarf (a scarf with pockets and key chain). And I gave key chain wallets, pajama pants, an art caddy and a sticker book. I'm sure my sisters will share photos of more gifts on their blogs here: Amber and Christy.

Poor little piggy

While getting the swine flu vaccination today I noticed this cartoon hanging on the wall. So naturally I had to come home, find it on the internet, and share it with all of you.

Less than 50 days to go

Ah! Christmas! It's just around the corner. I was in the city center today and noticed that the Christmas decorations are already up. And with less than 50 days until the big day, why not!


Credit: "Vienna - Graben" by charley1965

http://www.flickr.com/photos/charley1965/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Here are some things I hope to do between now and Christmas:

• Make as many Christmas gifts as possible. I don't think all of the gifts will be handmade this year, but I hope that most of them will include something handmade.
• Bake Vanillekipferl (traditional Viennese Christmas cookies). Our neighbors gave us some last year and I decided then and there that I would make them this year.
• Visit a couple of Christmas markets. I might even buy something other than food and drinks this year.
  

Poor little bunny

I've been a little under the weather for the past week or two and now it looks like Brian is sick too. You know what that means.

blah blah blah

Have you noticed my absence lately? It seems like I've run out of things to say. I know. I never thought it would happen either. There are a few random things that I've thought were blog worthy, but they never seem to come out right when I sit down at the computer. So instead of making them into individual blog posts, I'll just share them in little bits and pieces. Yeah, I know that's pretty much the same thing I was doing with the Friday Filler, but it just never seems to come together on a Friday anymore.

So here goes...

I had just about decided to not make handmade Christmas gifts this year when my sister suggested that we all make handmade gifts. She said my gifts last year were an inspiration. She didn't use the words "inspire" or "inspiration" or "coolest sister ever", but I think we all know what she meant. So I jumped on the bandwagon and am pretty excited about it. Excited enough to make a list of what I'm making for everyone, but not excited enough to actually start on the gift-making yet.

While chatting with my other sister last week we found out that all three of us were planning on making the same thing for my dad. I guess we look at the same blogs. Not to worry girls, I already have something else planned.

On a completely unrelated topic, I help a woman with her grocery shopping every week and she's always saying the funniest things. Unintentionally, of course. I can't decide which of the following is funnier.

From two weeks ago: After spotting a billboard of two dogs sitting on a park bench she told me, "If I ever get another dog, it'll be a jack daniel."

Last week: She asked me when is Halloween and I told her Saturday. She responded, "Saturday? I thought it was always the last Thursday of the month."

And on a final note: meal moths. I hate them. I think I've gotten rid of them. But I know that as soon as I click Publish and go into the kitchen I'll find another one. It's inevitable.

Ethiopia photos

I finally got around to uploading my photos from Ethiopia over the weekend. You can see all of the photos here: Alisha's Ethiopia photos on Flickr.

Most of the Ethiopians we had contact with were very eager to know what thought about Ethiopia and Addis Ababa. The thing is, we saw very little of Ethiopia except for the areas between our guest house and the orphanage. Even though our driver took many different routes, we really didn't get to see a whole lot. Once while we were riding along the driver just happened to spot his friend and pulled over to say hello. His friend happened to be a tour guide and offered his services if we wanted to see more of the city. I felt like it was quite a coincidence that the one time we were alone with the driver he ran into this tour guide buddy. (We shared the driver with another family and we were almost always together in the car.) Later the other family was in the car alone with the driver and they happened to run into the tour guide as well.

So, we didn't see a whole lot, but here are a few tidbits from our trip.

One evening we went to an Ethiopian restaurant where we had injera and wot and watched traditional dances and musicians. Injera is a spongy bread, similar to a pancake. It's used to pick up and eat wot, which is any type of stew.


Injera and wot at Yod Abyssinia.
It was pretty good, but some of it was really too spicy for my taste. The restaurant had murals of famous sites in Ethiopia. Our driver, who joined us for the meal, sat next to Brian and told him about each of the sites. And, he said, his tour guide buddy could take us to some of the sites. I really liked our driver and rather enjoyed that he was trying to help his friend's business.

There's a lot to say about the driving in Ethiopia. We only saw one traffic light the whole week and there seemed to be few driving rules. Even the lanes were subjective. The roads usually had at least faint lane markings, but they were often ignored. A road could be vary from one to four or more lanes just based on the traffic at the time. And the roads were not just for vehicles, but for pedestrians and animals as well. Here's a short video of one of our drives. There wasn't a lot of traffic on the road at this point, but there were a lot of pedestrians.

And the polution! It was unbelievable. It wasn't unbearable most of the time, but when we were on the road it was awful.


Many of the vehicles reminded me of Pig-Pen from Charlie Brown. Only it was a cloud of exhaust rather than dirt that followed them around.
The blue and white taxis became a very common site. We drove past a couple of locations where the taxis would collect to pick up passengers. The taxi vans were the most common. They had 5 rows of seating with 11 or 12 seats -- and usually 20 or more passengers -- all in about the size of a U.S. minivan. My guess is that they work similar to city buses and there are designated pick up and drop off areas rather than door to door service.


Another common site was the women cleaning the streets. They wore pink coveralls, large straw hats and a scarf cover most of the their face. The scarf, I'm pretty sure, was to keep out some of the exhaust and dirt. They worked in pairs or small groups -- one with a wheelbarrow and everyone with brooms.


Another thing of note was the construction. There were half-built buildings everywhere. Brian read that there was a big construction boom in Addis Ababa, but with the recent economic conditions many building projects were put on hold or abandoned. Some of the buildings were still being worked on, but it looked like many were just sitting there. In any case, we found the scaffolding quite impressive.


You can check out all of the photos here.

Not just for witches

Do you know how to tell if eggs are still good? See if they float.

After being away for two weeks I wasn't so sure I should eat the eggs in the fridge. After a few moments on the interwebs I found a simple way to test them. Here's what I found at http://whatscookingamerica.net/Eggs/EggsFloat.htm:

Carefully lower your eggs into fresh cold water (do not use salted water) using a spoon:

• If the egg stay at the bottom - it is fresh.

• If the egg is at an angle on the bottom - it is still fresh and good to eat.

• If the egg stands on its pointed end at the bottom - it is still safe to eat but best used for baking and making hard-cooked eggs.

• If the egg float - they're stale and best discarded.

I also learned that eggs typically stay fresh for 4 to 5 weeks. Who knew. I thought they'd only last a couple of weeks. After testing my eggs, I found that most were still good, but at least one was spoiled.



By the way, I have some photos to share from my recent trip to Ethiopia, but I haven't had the energy to blog this week. So maybe next week.

A quick hello

I'm back from the women's retreat in Filzmoos and should probably be packing for the next trip, but decided to drop in and share a few photos from the week.

We stayed at the same place as last year, which was a little up the mountain overlooking the town of Filzmoos. It seems like it was pretty foggy most mornings and it was really cool to watch the fog lift.


It's such a nice town. There are cows with bells...

"Guess what? I got a fever! And the only prescription.. is more cowbell!"

And cows without bells...


And other farm animals like baby goats and tiny ponies and a donkey. But I didn't take any photos of those animals. I did however take a photo of the coffee and cake.


In addition to the food and the farm animals, the rest of the retreat was great as well.

And now I'm off for another week.

Friday Filler

I can't believe how quickly the days fly these day. I had so much I wanted to get done this week and it seems like I've done about half of it. I guess the week's not quite over yet.

If you build it, they will come
When we moved into our apartment a couple of years ago there was a big, empty field nearby that our neighbors told us would one day be a shopping center. For more than two years, nothing happened. Then two months or so ago the land was cleared. And several weeks ago, construction finally started. I'm skeptical about it being a shopping center. The building site is at a subway station and there is a mall only three stops away. But still, I'm kind of hoping it's a mall. How great would it be to have a mall within a five to ten minute walk from the apartment.

Brian suggested maybe it's going to be an apartment building, but I'm not buying that either. The area on the other side of the subway station has also been cleared and a building or two has been torn down, so I'm pretty sure the construction will continue on the other side. I don't see an apartment building straddling the subway tracks.


What do you think? A shopping center? Parking garage? Apartment building?
Play things
As a soon-to-be mother, I'm trying desperately not to buy every cute little outfit and toy that I run across. It's hard. There's one toy in particular that I'm very eager to buy: a Laufrad. I don't think there's an English word for this, but it's basically a bicycle without pedals. I've been asking around and several parents have started their kid on a Laufrad at the age of 2. Hopefully I'll be able to snap one up from a second hand shop in the spring.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwboeckmann/507750631/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwboeckmann/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

http://www.flickr.com/photos/axels_bilder/2293885069/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/axels_bilder/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

And I'm off...
This blog will fall even more silent that usual for the next couple of weeks. I'm leaving on Sunday for a retreat in Filzmoos, Austria and when I return I'll pretty much turn around and leave for Africa. So there probably won't be any Friday Fillers for at least two weeks. I may post some photos of Filzmoos and will definitely post when I return from Africa.

Saturday Filler

It doesn't have quite the same ring to it as "Friday Filler", but oh well.

Lesson learned
Last weekend some friends from Hungary stopped by for a quick visit. They arrived late Saturday night and left Monday morning to visit some other people in town before heading home that evening. The husband had visited Vienna once for a few hours over 10 years ago and the wife was making her first trip to Vienna. I learned an important message: One day is not enough time to see Vienna for the first (or second) time. We had a good time hitting the highlights, but I was beat by the time we got home!

It's official! Well, not really.
Fall is here! I'm excited to pull out my long sleeve shirts and don a light jacket. I know fall doesn't start until the 22nd, but I'm calling it now. It's fall. To celebrate, I made some sweet potato bread. I would have preferred pumpkin bread, but since you can't buy pumpkin puree here, I would have to make. Which takes a lot of baking and scraping and pureeing. And that's before you can even start making the pumpkin bread. So I make sweet potato bread instead. Which still requires peeling and boiling and pureeing, but somehow I've convinced myself it's simpler. And even though it's not pumpkin, it's still fallish and it satisfies my need for fall foods. I also broke out the creamy white chili with cornbread this week and plan to make beans and cornbread next week. I love fall.

My own private Vienna
Today, in an odd twist of circumstances, I found myself wandering through the city center around 7:30 this morning. It was so nice and quiet. I learned some interesting things wandering around so early. For example, I was surprised to see that the ice cream salon Zanoni & Zanoni was open and there were probably at least a dozen customers there. But then I noticed that they were serving breakfast, not ice cream. (Hey, you never know! Several months ago I was at the mall at 9:30 in the morning when I spotted 4 retired men enjoying their morning beer at one of the cafes.) I also learned that the area near Stephansplatz where all of the horses and carriages line up still smells like horse poop even when the horses aren't around.


This is the horse and carriage area when there are actually horses around -- not at 7:30 on a Saturday morning. Stanley photobombed me!

The last word

Earlier today Brian was reading something in German and commented that he always had to look up the word regelmäßig. I asked him what it meant and he read out the list of English words.

Regelmäßig: constant; continuous; measured; periodic.

I complained that I didn't like words that could have two opposite meanings. How could a word mean both "constant" and "periodic". So I looked up "periodic" to make sure I wasn't using it incorrectly.

Periodic: recurring at intervals of time; occurring at regular intervals; repeated at irregular intervals.

I didn't like it that periodic could sometimes mean occurring at regular intervals and sometimes mean occurring at irregular intervals? That's when Brian brought up semi-annual and bi-annual and how both mean occurring twice a year. Which is confusing enough, but add to it that bi-annual can also mean occurring every two years and then things get really confusing.

As I continued to complain about words that had two opposite meanings, Brian said that you can tell the meaning based on context. A bi-annual sale would most likely occur twice a year while a bi-annual sports event would occur every two years. What about a bi-annual family reunion, I asked. Every two years, Brian answered. What if it wasn't really a family reunion but really just a get together but someone called it a reunion because words often have more than one meaning, I asked. Every two years, Brian answered. And then someone got mad -- but I don't really remember who.

It may have been me.

I took the computer so I could look up words. And Brian asked me what I was going to try to prove. And I said maybe I wasn't going to prove anything. I was just going to write a blog post.

Friday Filler

Around this time yesterday Brian commented on how I hadn't posted the Friday Filler yet. I told him I had completely forgotten it was Friday. Then I realized it was Thursday. It's been a bit of a crazy week.

The Draft Party
Last year I decided to join Brian in playing fantasy football. I didn't win, but I had a good time, so I'm playing again this year. I don't really know anything about football, but I think I have a pretty good method for choosing my players. I pick the players with fun names. Brian said that despite my unorthodox drafting method, I ended up with a pretty good team.

The last two years Jake has hosted a draft party, but he's in the U.S. right now (and completely forgot about the draft), so Brian and I had our own little draft party.



Our Latest Visitor
We have a visitor staying with us and he is really quite a dear. His name is Stanley and I don't think we've ever had such a quiet, easy-going visitor. Earlier this week we took him out of the town to see the sites. We also visited our favorite burrito place. Perhaps we should have taken him out for schnitzel or something a little more traditional. He'll spend a few more days with us before continuing his trip to Japan.

It's not what you think

I've been taking notice of the strollers lately as I'm trying to figure out which kind I want to buy. I especially pay attention when I see people get on the tram or subway with a stroller to see how well it maneuvers. But this is the first time I've ever taken a photo of a stroller.


I didn't take a photo of it because I was interested in getting this type of stroller. It looks pretty basic and not at all what I'm looking for. The woman pushing the stroller got off the tram at the same stop as me, so I snapped another photo as she was walking through the station.


Notice anything strange? Apparently, this isn't a Kinderwagen, it's a Hundewagen -- a stroller for dogs. Even though Vienna is an extremely dog-friendly city, I've never seen anything like this.

I continued on my way, happy to have my covert photos and expecting that I'd never see something like this again. I got on the subway to head home, and what do you know, when I got off the subway this lady and her dogs were there! We ended up waiting for the elevator together, so I asked her about the stroller and if I could take a photo.


The dogs seemed to be enjoying the ride. I bet one of these things would have come in very handy for Brian a couple of weeks ago when he had to carry Sharkdog home from the vet. But I'm not so sure Brian would be willing to push his dog around in a stroller.

The good kind

Well, Sharkdog is a free man. This morning we took him to the vet to have his stitches removed and boy, he did not like it. I don't know how many stitches he had, but there's a mighty long scar. I would post a photo, but it's right by his private bits and I don't need to be showing that online. Let's let the dog retain a least a little bit of his dignity.

I tried to capture Sharkdog's joy at his new found freedom, but this was the most joyous photo I captured.

He may looked perplexed, but his tail is wagging.

And in the name of full disclosure, I admit that bribes were used during this photo session.

Ah ha! I have his attention now!

This is how I found him when I entered the room, but I didn't think this photo truly expressed Sharkdog's happiness to get rid of the cone.

While this photo doesn't do a good job of displaying Sharkdog's happiness, it does show his excellent Eeyore impersonation.

But he perked right up when he saw I had crackers with me. He sat, lied down, and even attempted to roll over. I was just trying to get him to sit, but when there are treats involved, sometimes he automatically starts going through his whole repertoire. Even though he was happy to get the treats, I think he was still a little emotionally scarred from having the stitches removed.

You would not believe what they did to me! It makes a dog nervous to have someone snipping around with cold scissors down there!

We know, Sharkdog, we know. After removing the stitches the doctor gave us the good news. The mole didn't show any signs of cancer. It was the good kind, he told us.

Friday Filler - Sharkdog edition

Tomorrow's the big day Sharkdog goes back to the vet to have the stitches removed. And he'll finally get to take off the Elizabethan collar. The Elizabethan collar we had in the U.S. simply snapped on and off, so we could remove it occasionally without any problems. But this one is much more complicated, so we haven't been able to remove it at all during the past week.



Sharkdog is pretty used to the collar by now, but it does cause a few problems.

He occasionally runs into something (or someone) because he forgets his head needs extra clearance. He also isn't able to get under the covers because his head gets stuck.

He can't eat out of dog bowl, but he is able to eat his food from a towel on the ground. However, he doesn't like to eat alone, so sometimes he'll whine and prance around until someone will join him in the hallway. Other times he'll take a few pieces in his mouth and carry it into the room where Brian and I are sitting. But this doesn't really have anything to do with the collar -- he's always like that.

However, he hasn't let us leave the house without him all week. When it looks like we're both going to leave, he makes sure he is constantly following one of us. It's a good thing Vienna is so dog friendly.

Probably the worst part for Sharky is that he can't scratch behind his ears. He tries and he tries, but he just hits the cone.

I scratch and scratch, but just can't reach the itch!

Fortunately for him, someone is always around to lend him a hand.

Tell you what Brian, you scratch behind my ear and I'll lick your arm and we'll call it even.

Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with the news from the vet. And perhaps some photos of Sharkdog sans collar.

Friday Filler

Street legal fail
I learned an important lesson this week: I really should carry my camera around with me more often. To get to the subway station, we usually take a shortcut through a grocery store parking lot. Earlier this week while cutting through the parking lot Brian pointed out a woman in the left turn lane -- driving a motorized scooter. The scooter did have turn signals, but definitely was not street legal. Later the same day we saw a man driving a fork lift down the street.

Summer vacation
Sometimes I feel like Brian and I are the only people not vacation right now. We went to a burrito place earlier this week and they were closed for summer vacation. And it's not like we could just go to another burrito place since this is the only one in the city. And when Brian tried to make an appointment for Sharkdog with his vet, the vet was gone on vacation. (Probably the same vacation he was on weeks ago when we tried to make an appointment.) My doctor is also on vacation, but at least she has another doctor filling in for her. Which makes me wonder -- what does this fill-in doctor normally do? Does she take vacation from her own practice to fill in for another doctor? Or are there some doctors who only fill in for other doctors? These are the questions that keep me awake at night.

The pitiful look just makes him more adorable
Yesterday Sharkdog had surgery to remove a suspicious mole. When Brian took him to the vet (not his normal vet, who is on vacation), we didn't really think much of it. But the vet wanted to remove the mole. Sharkdog was pretty out of it after the surgery and Brian had to carry his limp-noodle body the almost mile back to the apartment. Sharkdog was a little sluggish the rest of the evening, but he's back to his normal self today. Except he has to wear one of those Elizabethian collars for the next week.


Sharkdog took it easy for several hours following his surgery.

He's back up and around today.

The mysterious case of the disappearing moon

You're probably tired of seeing photos of the sunset or the moon that I've taken from my balcony or kitchen window. The thing is, I just don't take my camera out with me as often as I used to. So my blog material suffers.

Oh well. This one is a little different. It's a mystery. You see, the other night as I was walking from the living room to the bedroom I noticed the crescent moon against the sky that was still lit up from the sunset. So of course I had to take a few photos. This was my favorite.



Now this photo was taken at approximately 8:13 p.m. About half an hour later (or 25 minutes later) it was much darker so I decided to see what the moon looked like. And here's where the mystery comes in -- I couldn't find it. The sky was clear, but the moon was gone. Or so I thought. Dun-dun-dunnn! (I'm trying to add a little drama to the mystery.)



See it there? You can just barely see the tip of it peaking out from behind the mountain. So I did a little research and discovered that on this particular day (August 23rd), the moon rose at 9:55 a.m. and set at 8:46 p.m. I never realized that the moon set so early on some days. I found the moonrise and moonset times here.

And now that I know where I can look to find out when the moon will be full or when it will coincide with the sunset, be prepared for more moon photos.

Friday Filler

It's official. I'm ready for fall. The summer heat just keeps dragging on and it makes me really unmotivated to do anything. I'm looking forward to school starting at the university where Brian and I volunteer because it will help give my week a bit of a standard schedule. I'm much more productive when I have a schedule.

So here's my filler for the week...

Vaccinated!
Brian and I went for our second round of vaccines earlier this week. We thought we'd have to go for two more booster shots in a couple of weeks, but we got them all taken care of this week. We are now vaccinated and ready to go. Apparently, based on where you're traveling the doctor has to discuss certain vaccines. I already had a list of the vaccines we wanted and we added one more the doctor recommended. However, there were a couple of vaccines which we decided not to take. One was the rabies vaccine which consisted of 4 shots on three different visits. When she told us that the vaccine worked as well after being bitten (within a certain time frame), it was easy to pass up. She also asked us if we wanted the cholera vaccine. She said it would help prevent diarrhea, but was really only necessary if we commonly had this problem. But the thing was that she hesitated and smiled a bit every time she said the word "diarrhea". I think maybe she wasn't sure how to pronounce the word in English and not that she had the sense of humor of a 10 year old boy. But who knows. Maybe she finds the word "diarrhea" really funny. I prefer the German word "Durchfall". It comes from the German words "durch" which means "through" and "fallen" which means "to fall or drop".

In Other Words
Sometimes I love how well a German word fits its meaning -- like with Durchfall. It just sounds so much nicer than the English word. The German word for slug is another great example. "Slug" just sounds disgusting. But the German word "Nacktschnecke" is a combination of the German words "naked" and "snail". Naked snail makes you feel kind of sorry for the thing instead of making you want to pour salt on it. {Just for the record, I would never pour salt on a slug.} But it doesn't always work out that way with the German words. We have a bottle of Listernine sitting in the bathroom that says it provides "Zahn- und Zahnfleisch Schutz", which means tooth and gum protection. But "Zahnfleisch" -- it's a combination of the words "tooth" and "flesh". And every time I see the label I can't help but think "tooth flesh" instead of "gums". Tooth flesh. The word makes my skin crawl.

Friday already?

This week has been so dull I don't even have anything to post for Friday Filler. So instead, here are a couple of photos from last week.


I'm sure the moon would have turned out better if I had a tripod, but I didn't want to bother with setting it up. So I just balanced the camera on the railing of the balcony. The pointy thingy in the bottom right corner is Stephansdom and the vertical line of lights to the left is UNO-City (where the UN is located. I'm not sure about the other lights.


This photo was taken the same night and is a much clearer view of the moon. Either photo was enhanced except for cropping.

And here's a photo of the my first quilt. A friend gave me some fabric and asked if I could use it to make something for her son, so I figured it was a good time to make a quilt. It's not perfect, but I'm pretty pleased with the results. And my friend's son loves it. So I think it's a win.