Austria

Austria

Friday, December 31, 2010

What's Up Doc?

A long time ago in a land far away we gave our young children permission to stay up till midnight and see the new year in.  After playing games and eating our traditional fresh baked Chex mix we decided to watch a video tape.  Someone chose What’s Up Doc with Barbra Streisand & Ryan O’neal, and thus a tradition was born.  The next year the children remembered the zany fun in the movie and insisted we watched it again.   With few exceptions we have watched it every new year’s eve since then.   I may have missed part or all of it 19 years ago when we made a trip to the hospital for what turned out to be false labor.)
Tonight for the first time it is just two of us watching it.  I highly recommend it!

To Cover Up


When we moved into Bondi Villa a number of years ago our furniture did not match the rather bright wall paper in the front room.  I decided that covering my sofa and love seat with fabric was easier then getting permission from the owner to change their beloved wallpaper.  And I am better at making slipcovers then wallpapering rooms with 20+foot high walls.   The years we lived in Bondi Villa were happy years.  Recently I pulled out the slip covers to see if they would fit the furniture provided by my husband's employer in Austria.  With just a few adjustments and unpicking a few seams I think I can make them fit.

The love seat, will take a bit more work.... but is very doable.
Watch this space in January to see the finished project.



Christmas Glee

From Hawaii
modeling new clothes
Hawaiian Beauty

made and purchased in China





 two maps. Then we put dots on the countries we have visited

The older person of course has more dots on hers.
purchased in England!

Sasha slept through most of the fun!

Sopron

Our Girls really wanted to visit a country that they have never been to.  Sopron Hungary is just an hour drive from Vienna.  (Budapest -that would have been my first choice is at least 3 hours away...so that wasn't possible today.)
Spotted on the road outside of Sopron.
Town Square Sopron, Hungary

Old castle

the Old Tower




Hungary!!We have arrived! 

our travel dog-actually took this photo to try to capture her zany winter hair growth. It turned out that we should have left Sasha home.  She wasn't allowed anywhere.  It took some hard searching to find a place to eat lunch that would let her come in.
Sasha is really good and quietly lies at our feet under the table-most of the time. :-)  As long as we keep her leash on.  If we take it off then she wants to dash off and make friends with everyone in the restaurant...including or especially the cooks.


We didn't eat here but I was sorely tempted.
The girls wanted traditional Hungarian food.

Hungarian Flag-and beauties under it.

shooting the beauties!

Our 1st course was soup. (sorry no photo)
Mine was cream onion the other 3 had Goulash.

Their 2nd Course- Cake and Cream


My 2nd Course- Veggies
yes, they were good, and I had help eating all of it.

No Ice Cream cones are allowed to shop here 

Santa Sighting

the outline of the house is still there but not the house.



Stopped at Burger King on the way home.
It was mmmm! finger licking good!  yum! yum!
And the guy that took our order was eye candy.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Booty Boots

Yesterday while out doing errands I noticed a lady walking in front of me.  She had big black shiny puffy boots on that had bold white writing on them in English.  Moon Boots  Moon Boots Moon Boots
encircling the entire boot.
That transported me back to my childhood and the rubber galoshes or wellington type boots I wore.  They were not very warm, had no insulation, most of them required that I slip my shoes inside them;  Which often led to a rather frustrating scramble once I arrived at school and had to pry my cold stiff feet out of the wet boots, often leaving my shoe inside the boot.  Then to pry out the shoe often resulted in my cold hands getting muddy and wet. Yes, I was one of those children who actually walked to and from school. 
But in the 70’s much to my absolute glee the Moon boot was born.  My first pair were powder blue with navy decorative stripes and the insulation was soft thick and very warm.  Walking in them was heaven.  I could march through deep snow drifts and not even feel a tiny bit cooler.  In fact now I could stay out in the snow for ages and ages and then come inside with feet that were still toasty.
Before that my sled riding and snowman & fort building was restricted to how long I could stand frost bite on my toes.
Moon Boots were a fashion accessory that I adored at University.  They let me plow threw tall drifts and walk down un-shoveled walks with nary a blink.  In fact sometimes in heated classrooms my feet were too warm.  So I would need to dance in snow between classes to keep a comfortable temperature.
I don’t know that I need a pair of glossy black ones with English writing on them.  But I would not say no to some warm thick clunky Moon Boots. :-)

Having Fun! Paint, Paint and thin no more!

For almost 20 years I’ve been moving two small bookcases around with us.  They are small enough that they can fit into odd spaces.  But I really don’t care for the odd brown color they were painted by the previous owner.
Yesterday while looking for mirror clips so I could hang some mirrors I found some paint...and if I understood the sign right were tough paints for metal and wood.  I didn’t really care for the only blue they had so I bought some white paint as well.  I wish I had purchased more white.  But I think the end result is nice.




And I enjoyed myself.

Singing with style!

I love to sing!   I really really love to sing.  So after we sang for the Ambassador at a big Christmas shindig Wednesday night.  I was really excited when a very nice man came up and praised us loads and asked us if we could sing at his party on Friday.  I said yes with enthusiasm!  Then hoped the rest of my group could make it.  When we found out children were welcome that got our bass committed to coming.  It was with a bit of surprise though when I discovered this very nice man was Ambassador Davies.. another of the Ambassadors of Vienna.  The invitation:
The Ambassador and Mrs. Glyn T. Davies
request the pleasure of the company of
You and your family
at a holiday reception
on Friday, December 17, 2010
from six-thirty to eight-thirty o'clock
It was a lovely “sing out” the room had better acoustics then the other Ambassador’s residence.  And the children sitting on the floor were absolutely enthralled and silent as well as their parents standing behind.
And like Wednesday’s party the food was good, the decorations pretty, and the people interesting.
I remembered my camera and asked a new friend to take photos of us.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

The view from the hill

If I am going to stay young and fit I have to exercise.  Fortunately we live rather near a part of the Vienna Woods and hilly vineyards. Recently I remembered to bring a camera with me on my morning walk.  I was really thankful that I remembered to take my Nordic walking sticks with me because it was pretty icy and slippery in places.  Sasha really loves snow! So she really enjoyed herself.




Bucket List

Above the clouds


Air Pressure


Do you have a bucket list?  I don’t have one written down but I have a list in my head...and tonight it is pretty short 1. live long enough to see all my children happily married.  2. die young at a ripe old age. 3. be happy. the end :-) Well maybe if I think really hard I can come up with a few more...? Daughter #3 recently did something that was on her list and she enjoyed it.  Way to go! 

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

My Son-in-law smells better than yours!!








Yes, today I reviewed my China daughter’s blogs and the blog entitled “my niece smells better than yours does”.  Has inspired me.
Because that niece, my granddaughter has just about the best daddy in the world.  I think my daughter showed incredible intelligence by marrying him.  And it was absolutely delightful to be reminded this past week just how talented and nice and kind and intelligent he is.  I loved watching him and my daughter parent my grand baby.  Such tender times.  And to illustrate just how talented my son-in-law is- here are some photos he took their last day with us.