One of Laura's stocking stuffers this year was Marcel the Shell. Amy spent countless hours collecting the proper materials and recreating the lovable shell who became an internet sensation. If you are not familiar with Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, check it out:
One of our Christmas presents this year was a Flip Video Camera (thanks Dad!). Most people remember putting together and acting out plays when they were younger. Well, now we have graduated to making movies, and with the video camera and Marcel in the same room, it did not take long before I was busy working on a script. So without further ado, please enjoy "Marcel the Shell's Christmas Party."
Merry Christmas everyone!!!
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Jet Set Pet
Kirby has arrived at his new home in London!
Getting Kirby here was not easy… The UK is one of the strictest countries to import pets into. Rabies doesn’t exist here, so authorities have to make absolutely sure that your pet is not infected before they travel. They used to quarantine dogs but now they just give them a 6 month waiting period after their rabies vaccine. We found out we were moving in April, which was less than 6 months before our move date in early July. So since Kirby could not move with us, my parents were kind enough to watch him. My dad even drove him down to Houston a few weeks ago to hand him off to us before our flight home to London! He called his journey the “Grandpa/Kirby Road Trip!” :)
Sunday after Katie and Dave’s wedding, David and I were reunited with Kirby! After thanking Dad profusely for taking care of our baby, we headed to Kirby’s final vet appointment before our flight on Monday. And Dad got a treat by getting to visit NASA while he was in Houston for the day. He definitely needed a break before getting back into the car for the return trip to El Paso!
Transferring Kirby was one of the most stressful parts of our move. First we had to make sure that Kirby would even be allowed in our new home. So before our trip to London in April to find a house, we had to make a resume for Kirby, which we then turned into the relocation agent, who passed it onto the landlords of the homes we were interested in. Luckily Kirby’s resume was so exemplary that our landlord changed her mind about her no-pet policy and welcomed Kirby into the flat, so long as we clean up after his “fouling” (which is seriously a clause in our lease agreement).
So once we had figured out a pet-friendly place to live, we returned home to Austin and contacted the vet to start the paperwork. Before this ordeal, we had no idea that pet relocation agencies even existed, but they do and they charge outrageous fees to handle your paperwork and logistics! We decided to save some money and do everything ourselves. We figured we were competent people and it wouldn’t be that difficult. But it was much more difficult than we ever imagined.
After months of vet appointments and growing stacks of paperwork, we finally dropped Kirby off at Continental Cargo for his flight. I have to give a huge shout-out to the pet agents at Continental Cargo in Houston. They are really knowledgeable, wonderful people in charge of shipping thousands of pets a year. Right away they put us at ease. They reassured us that as long as the paperwork was stamped by the USDA, we would be fine. We should have opted for the Xlarge kennel, but again, they said it would be fine and if for some reason it didn’t get approved, they had kennels for sale on-site so we wouldn’t have to make a last-minute dash to Petsmart. Last week, David and I received our annual Onepass Member Continental Xmas card. And featured on the card was the agent who shipped Kirby! She definitely deserves the recognition. We are very thankful, Continental!
While we were waiting at cargo for all of the paperwork to go through the system, I noticed an enormous crate outside. After I asked, the agent told me there was a mastiff inside that would be headed to Brazil later that evening. I always wondered how they ship Great Danes or Mastiffs. Well now I know… with custom-made, giant wooden crates! The agent said mastiffs are very popular in South America and they ship a few each year. I can’t imagine what it cost to ship that dog... Doggy plane tickets are based on weight. Kirby had lost so much weight swimming and going for walks everyday in El Paso that he was a mere 60 pounds (80 total including the crate) when he was shipped. And yet Kirby’s ticket was more than both mine and David’s roundtrip tickets combined! You could probably buy groceries for a year with what it cost to ship that mastiff!
When we landed in London, we took a black cab to the pet reception center near Heathrow. We checked in and were told that Kirby had a great flight. He had already been taken outside to do his business and run around. There was one other family from Cyprus waiting for their Dalmatian in the center. After about an hour and a half, one of the customs agents came into the waiting area to give the family some bad news. Apparently they did not get a letter from their vet (signed in blue ink) stating the dog’s UK microchip had been implanted before the rabies vaccine was administered. See how strict the UK is?? You have to do the simplest things in a very specific order or you get in trouble. Until they could produce a fax or letter from the vet, customs would have to hold the Dalmatian. At that point, David became so stressed that he left the room to take a walk outside. He couldn’t sit still and wait any longer. I tried to focus on my book, confident that our vet’s letter was in our paperwork, but it was difficult to concentrate. Those two hours were nerve-wracking. Finally the agent came out and told us everything was fine and Kirby would be released to us in about 10 minutes. YAY!!
But now how to get him home??
We don’t have a car in London and Karen was working… so I called my trusty cab company that I use for all of my Dell travel needs. Sure enough, they could send a van for us. So we said hello to Kirby (who was thrilled to see us again) and then had to put him right back in his kennel. We put him in the back of the van, shoved the suitcases in the back seat next to me, and headed home.
And then Kirby slept… a lot! I was afraid that he would be uncomfortable or turn into a “pupsicle” in cargo because it’s always about -50 degrees outside at those altitudes. But the cargo area was climate controlled and the weather was fairly mild when we landed. I think he must have just slept most of the time, but he was still exhausted after a long weekend.
Getting Kirby here was not easy… The UK is one of the strictest countries to import pets into. Rabies doesn’t exist here, so authorities have to make absolutely sure that your pet is not infected before they travel. They used to quarantine dogs but now they just give them a 6 month waiting period after their rabies vaccine. We found out we were moving in April, which was less than 6 months before our move date in early July. So since Kirby could not move with us, my parents were kind enough to watch him. My dad even drove him down to Houston a few weeks ago to hand him off to us before our flight home to London! He called his journey the “Grandpa/Kirby Road Trip!” :)
Sleeping through the long car ride... that doesn't look comfortable!
Sunday after Katie and Dave’s wedding, David and I were reunited with Kirby! After thanking Dad profusely for taking care of our baby, we headed to Kirby’s final vet appointment before our flight on Monday. And Dad got a treat by getting to visit NASA while he was in Houston for the day. He definitely needed a break before getting back into the car for the return trip to El Paso!
Transferring Kirby was one of the most stressful parts of our move. First we had to make sure that Kirby would even be allowed in our new home. So before our trip to London in April to find a house, we had to make a resume for Kirby, which we then turned into the relocation agent, who passed it onto the landlords of the homes we were interested in. Luckily Kirby’s resume was so exemplary that our landlord changed her mind about her no-pet policy and welcomed Kirby into the flat, so long as we clean up after his “fouling” (which is seriously a clause in our lease agreement).
So once we had figured out a pet-friendly place to live, we returned home to Austin and contacted the vet to start the paperwork. Before this ordeal, we had no idea that pet relocation agencies even existed, but they do and they charge outrageous fees to handle your paperwork and logistics! We decided to save some money and do everything ourselves. We figured we were competent people and it wouldn’t be that difficult. But it was much more difficult than we ever imagined.
After months of vet appointments and growing stacks of paperwork, we finally dropped Kirby off at Continental Cargo for his flight. I have to give a huge shout-out to the pet agents at Continental Cargo in Houston. They are really knowledgeable, wonderful people in charge of shipping thousands of pets a year. Right away they put us at ease. They reassured us that as long as the paperwork was stamped by the USDA, we would be fine. We should have opted for the Xlarge kennel, but again, they said it would be fine and if for some reason it didn’t get approved, they had kennels for sale on-site so we wouldn’t have to make a last-minute dash to Petsmart. Last week, David and I received our annual Onepass Member Continental Xmas card. And featured on the card was the agent who shipped Kirby! She definitely deserves the recognition. We are very thankful, Continental!
While we were waiting at cargo for all of the paperwork to go through the system, I noticed an enormous crate outside. After I asked, the agent told me there was a mastiff inside that would be headed to Brazil later that evening. I always wondered how they ship Great Danes or Mastiffs. Well now I know… with custom-made, giant wooden crates! The agent said mastiffs are very popular in South America and they ship a few each year. I can’t imagine what it cost to ship that dog... Doggy plane tickets are based on weight. Kirby had lost so much weight swimming and going for walks everyday in El Paso that he was a mere 60 pounds (80 total including the crate) when he was shipped. And yet Kirby’s ticket was more than both mine and David’s roundtrip tickets combined! You could probably buy groceries for a year with what it cost to ship that mastiff!
When we landed in London, we took a black cab to the pet reception center near Heathrow. We checked in and were told that Kirby had a great flight. He had already been taken outside to do his business and run around. There was one other family from Cyprus waiting for their Dalmatian in the center. After about an hour and a half, one of the customs agents came into the waiting area to give the family some bad news. Apparently they did not get a letter from their vet (signed in blue ink) stating the dog’s UK microchip had been implanted before the rabies vaccine was administered. See how strict the UK is?? You have to do the simplest things in a very specific order or you get in trouble. Until they could produce a fax or letter from the vet, customs would have to hold the Dalmatian. At that point, David became so stressed that he left the room to take a walk outside. He couldn’t sit still and wait any longer. I tried to focus on my book, confident that our vet’s letter was in our paperwork, but it was difficult to concentrate. Those two hours were nerve-wracking. Finally the agent came out and told us everything was fine and Kirby would be released to us in about 10 minutes. YAY!!
He won't be needing those shades again for another couple of months!
We don’t have a car in London and Karen was working… so I called my trusty cab company that I use for all of my Dell travel needs. Sure enough, they could send a van for us. So we said hello to Kirby (who was thrilled to see us again) and then had to put him right back in his kennel. We put him in the back of the van, shoved the suitcases in the back seat next to me, and headed home.
And then Kirby slept… a lot! I was afraid that he would be uncomfortable or turn into a “pupsicle” in cargo because it’s always about -50 degrees outside at those altitudes. But the cargo area was climate controlled and the weather was fairly mild when we landed. I think he must have just slept most of the time, but he was still exhausted after a long weekend.
Who knew back then, when he was just a pup, that Kirby would become such a world traveler?
The next day we took him to the park and he ran around and made some new friends. All of the dogs were so curious about this new guy with his American scent and accent. He seems to be adjusting very well to the new house and climate. He has a big garden out back to run around in, but we often catch him sleeping in his dog house when we get home from work.
When he's not hanging out on top of his doggy cabin, we can usually find Kirby sleeping inside.
The Fujitas (our upstairs neighbors) came down the other day to help us rake the backyard. The Fujita’s older boy absolutely LOVED Kirby. He played fetch with him for about an hour and a half while we raked. So now Kirby has a new best friend living right above us!
Kirby's second-favorite hobby (after fetch) is chewing on bones.
This past week David and I were both back in Austin for work, so we left Kirby at Karen’s house after Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving evening, we packed up our bags and headed to the tube for Kirby’s first public transportation experience.
The entire walk to the tube station, Kirby kept jumping up on the cars parked on the street, thinking he was going for a drive. We tried to explain he wasn’t going on a car ride, but he didn’t get it. We got to the tube station (which he was never allowed to go in before) and entered. He wasn’t really afraid of the tube, which is surprising since he is not a fan of the big, noisy double decker buses. In fact, he’s terrified of them. Every time one drives past us on our walks, he shrinks away and runs to the other side of the sidewalk. Kirby jumped right onto the tube, though, and sat nicely between David’s legs for the first part of the journey. When we had to switch lines, however, he began to get more confused and restless. We had to stand the whole time because of the rush hour crowd and Kirby kept wanting to pull away and say hello to everyone. He started to whine too. From that point on, I don’t think he stopped whining until we actually got to Karen’s.
We got to the train station and I paid for our tickets while David headed to the correct platform. The trains are much larger than the tubes, so the gap between the platform and cars is much wider as well. Kirby did not “mind the gap” here and instead, kind of fell onto the train. He lay sprawled across the floor for a few moments before he picked himself up and tried to wander around again. This time David let him have a little more freedom because the people on the train seemed to be friendly dog-lovers. David found an empty seat and sat down with Kirby. I remained standing by the door with our luggage. When a tall man wearing dark clothing came through the adjacent car into ours, Kirby got a bit spooked and barked at him. He was only trying to protect his mama, but dogs barking on trains is apparently not good etiquette in Britain… There was a very audible gasp throughout the car. David clamped Kirby’s mouth shut with his hand and after Kirby realized I wasn’t in danger of being thrown off the train, he proceeded to tug at his leash to wander around.
All in all, he did a pretty good job. And now that he knows what to expect, I think he’ll be less whiny on future trips.
Kirby looks like one happy commuter!
Karen and Jeff have had a wonderful time with Kirby this week. It’s been snowing like crazy in England, but Kirby doesn’t seem to mind. He still wants to go outside for walks, or to play fetch. Jeff has been a very responsible uncle and taken great care of him. We’re very lucky to have supportive families that are willing to dog-sit for us… even for months at a time!
We love having Kirby in London. The house isn’t nearly as clean as it used to be and it’s a bit more difficult to relax after work when the dog’s eager for his evening walk, but we wouldn’t have it any other way! With the scent of hot chocolate in the air, Kirby curled up on the couch between David and me, and the Christmas tree glowing, London officially feels like home now!
Saturday, November 20, 2010
J'adore Paramore
Last weekend one of my favorite bands came to the O2 arena in London – Paramore!
I have been dying to see Paramore for years but their tours never include Austin. Oh well… A few weeks after we moved to London they headlined Reading Festival (England’s version of ACL) but tickets were sold out so we went to Bath and Stonehenge instead.
Soon after that, I heard they were coming back to London and immediately wanted to buy tickets. The venue’s site had sold out of floor tickets, but we were able to snag a couple from a reseller! I just like the floor so much more. You can dance around and you’re so much closer to the stage. When David and I saw U2 last year for my birthday, floor was also sold out so we sat in normal seats and no one around us even stood or really moved around during the concert. That’s no fun!
It took a while to get out to Greenwich to the O2 arena, formerly known as the Millenium Dome, a huge event center built specifically for the millennium’s New Year’s Eve party. The tubes weren’t running well on Saturday night so we had to get off and take a bus across the river. When we got to the bus stop, the place was swarming with teenagers in their punk rock gear. We felt old… David and I were also both feeling some déjà vue because the last concert we went to was Boys Like Girls at the Austin rodeo. It seemed like everyone there was a preteen screaming girl. We felt even worse when we noticed the row of girls in front of us was wearing “Class of 2014” T-shirts. 2014?! We both graduated more than a DECADE before those kids.
The nice thing about being older, though, is our disposal income and the fact that we could afford to pay for a taxi and not wait for the bus. Ha! Take that, British teens with limited allowances!
Thank goodness we decided not to wait for the bus because we got to the O2 just before BOB came on to open for Paramore. WE LOVE BOB!
I have been dying to see Paramore for years but their tours never include Austin. Oh well… A few weeks after we moved to London they headlined Reading Festival (England’s version of ACL) but tickets were sold out so we went to Bath and Stonehenge instead.
Soon after that, I heard they were coming back to London and immediately wanted to buy tickets. The venue’s site had sold out of floor tickets, but we were able to snag a couple from a reseller! I just like the floor so much more. You can dance around and you’re so much closer to the stage. When David and I saw U2 last year for my birthday, floor was also sold out so we sat in normal seats and no one around us even stood or really moved around during the concert. That’s no fun!
It took a while to get out to Greenwich to the O2 arena, formerly known as the Millenium Dome, a huge event center built specifically for the millennium’s New Year’s Eve party. The tubes weren’t running well on Saturday night so we had to get off and take a bus across the river. When we got to the bus stop, the place was swarming with teenagers in their punk rock gear. We felt old… David and I were also both feeling some déjà vue because the last concert we went to was Boys Like Girls at the Austin rodeo. It seemed like everyone there was a preteen screaming girl. We felt even worse when we noticed the row of girls in front of us was wearing “Class of 2014” T-shirts. 2014?! We both graduated more than a DECADE before those kids.
The nice thing about being older, though, is our disposal income and the fact that we could afford to pay for a taxi and not wait for the bus. Ha! Take that, British teens with limited allowances!
Thank goodness we decided not to wait for the bus because we got to the O2 just before BOB came on to open for Paramore. WE LOVE BOB!
And this was perfect, because it meant we got to hear “Airplanes” with Hayley and BOB together!
During “Satellite” David could not stop laughing at the backup singers’ robot dance:
Sorry the sound quality's so bad, it was REALLY loud!
Then Paramore came on! They opened with “Ignorance,” had a ton of energy playing their other hits, settled it down for a few acoustic songs, and then did the inevitable “let’s pretend we’re done but then come back out and play some more!” They ended the concert with their first-ever single, “Misery Business,” which was AWESOME! They were really grateful to all of the fans and told us this was the biggest concert they’ve done so far. And the crazy thing is, since it was so popular, they did a second show on Monday night too! It was a great concert and we had a ton of fun!
Friday, November 12, 2010
My Best Friend's Wedding
Once upon a time in a land far, far away away I met a girl named Katie.
We had so much in common – we were born just two days apart, freshmen at UT living in Dobie, study buddies at the business school, and pledge brothers in Alpha Kappa Psi.
After four years of school, it was time to graduate and enter the real world.
But before the fun was over, we made one last girl’s trip to Cozumel! During the entire trip, Katie was the only one to know that David would propose to me when we got home…
She kept the secret and was a huge help planning our wedding! She came to Vegas for my bachelorette party.
She hosted my lingerie shower in Houston.
And she was a bridesmaid on the big day!
Even living hundreds of miles apart, we still managed to see each other at least every couple of months. Last year for our birthdays, we celebrated at the happiest place on Earth – Disneyworld!
A few months before our trip to Florida, Katie’s boyfriend, Dave, had popped the question!
So in October I flew back to Texas to host Katie's bachelorette party, a wine tour through the Texas hill country and a fun night out in Austin!
And last weekend David and I flew to Houston to be a part of the wedding!
I was a maid of honor and David was a groomsman.
We saw all of our old friends we don’t get to see as often as we used to. We danced the night away! We toasted the lovebirds and they lived happily ever after!
The End!
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Fall Fun
The weather has turned cooler. The leaves have started to change colors. Pumpkins have been carved. Fall is here!
Back in September, on one of the first cold (well “cold” for our standards as Texans) days of the year, David and I got tickets to a “Royal Day Out.” The day out included a tour of the Royal Mews, the Queen’s Gallery, and Buckingham Palace. Buckingham Palace is only open during the summer months, so we made sure to snatch up these tickets before the palace was closed to visitors.
I had no idea what the Royal Mews were until we showed up that morning for our tour. As I found out, the Mews are home to the carriages, horses, and vehicles that transport the royal family. The biggest attractions at the Mews are the working horses, the carriage that carried Princess Di to St. Paul’s on her wedding day, and the enormous Gold State Coach, which was last used in 2002 for the Queen’s Jubilee. The next Jubilee is expected in 2012 during the Olympics, so this carriage will stay locked away for another two years. In fact, the carriage is so large that the room it is housed in basically has to be taken apart to get the carriage out into the street.
After the Royal Mews, we visited the Queen’s Gallery. The current exhibition at the Gallery is “Victoria and Albert: Art and Love.” I recently saw “The Young Victoria” and LOVED it so I was excited to see some of Victoria and Albert’s prized possessions in-person.
Finally, we ended our day at Buckingham Palace, where we saw the state rooms filled with artwork and sculptures. We walked through Buckingham Palace’s gardens on the way out. I didn’t realize that there is so much green, open space hidden away in the middle of the city. David and I were fortunate to be able to tour the palace, since it is closed for the majority of the year.
On October 17, London Chocolate Week concluded. Throughout the week, different chocolate festivities took place. For example, restaurants around the city featured special chocolate menus, the world’s largest truffle was produced and then broken up into small, bite-size pieces to be sold for charity, and Divine chocolate bars created a signature chocolate cocktail for area restaurant and hotel bars.
On the last day of chocolate week, David, Karen, Jeff, and I decided to have lunch at Borough Market, a huge outdoor food market near London Bridge, and then head down the street to the wrap-up of chocolate week at the Vinopolis convention center. Bad planning on my part led to no lunch because Borough market is closed on Sundays. So we ate lots and lots of chocolate for lunch instead!
As you entered Vinopolis, you paid an admission fee and were asked to sign your name on the wall of chocolate. Just as the name described, this was literally a huge wall made out of chocolate. The pens were simply pointy plastic knives. We all signed our names, and then proceeded into a corridor displaying the history of chocolate.
Then came the good stuff!
The chocolate hall was filled with different vendors from around London giving out samples of their brownies, crepes, bars, spreads, and truffles. Our favorites were the brownies, chocolate crepes with peanut butter spread, truffles filled with sea salt caramel, and a make-your-own chocolate bar. This company was really cool! You go online to the company’s website, select which kind of chocolate bar you want (white, dark, milk, or a combination), and then for a few pence, you start to add ingredients to the bar. I made a dark/milk chocolate bar with sugared lilac and rose petals. David chose gummy bears, and Jeff chose pretzels. The company will inscribe your name at the top of the bar, and then ship the bars to anywhere in the UK or US. Coolest company EVER!
At the back of the room was a separate area displaying chocolate sculptures:
Eventually we all started feeling a little ill. We weren’t hungry, but we felt like we all needed some savory MEAT so we headed to Chipotle, Jeff’s favorite new restaurant in London.
Last week, I was in Slovakia again for work. In the fall in Eastern Europe, it is tradition for groups of people to get together and eat goose. So Tuesday night the entire European audit team drove to a small village outside Bratislava to a restaurant known for serving the best goose in that area of Slovakia. And probably also known for having the most dead creatures nailed to its walls.
I didn’t ask for a special meal because I was willing to try the goose. I was not willing to eat the foie gras, though. The meal started with pickles, pickled peppers, saukeraut, and rye bread. Then came the foie gras. Giant goose liver? No thanks. Then the main course was brought out. For our group, we ordered three geese. These came with red cabbage and potato pancakes, which looked more like thin tortillas. I was tempted to make a goose taco, but I resisted.
The goose was really delicious. It tasted like the dark meat of a turkey. For dessert, we each had different strudels. There was a poppy seed cherry strudel, cheese and cherry strudel, and walnut strudel. I chose the cheese and cherry strudel. It was a really fun night out with the team and I was glad to try a new tradition.
I’m typing this blog now as trick-or-treater after trick-or-treater is ringing our bell for candy. Who knew there were so many kids in England that celebrated Halloween? When David lived here, his family basically stopped celebrating Halloween. He never got the chance to trick-or-treat again after he turned 11. It must be different in our neighborhood or the British are catching onto this great holiday because we are quickly running out of candy. I’ve had to resort to giving away my precious Mozart balls (nooooo!!!!) and David has made a mad dash down to the corner store for more sweets! We love passing out candy to all the cute kids in their lil costumes (and they're extra adorable this year with their accents) and David loves terrorizing them in his big bad wolf costume! As one less-than-scared kid put it, "Wow! You proper dressed up!"
Happy Halloween everyone!
Back in September, on one of the first cold (well “cold” for our standards as Texans) days of the year, David and I got tickets to a “Royal Day Out.” The day out included a tour of the Royal Mews, the Queen’s Gallery, and Buckingham Palace. Buckingham Palace is only open during the summer months, so we made sure to snatch up these tickets before the palace was closed to visitors.
I had no idea what the Royal Mews were until we showed up that morning for our tour. As I found out, the Mews are home to the carriages, horses, and vehicles that transport the royal family. The biggest attractions at the Mews are the working horses, the carriage that carried Princess Di to St. Paul’s on her wedding day, and the enormous Gold State Coach, which was last used in 2002 for the Queen’s Jubilee. The next Jubilee is expected in 2012 during the Olympics, so this carriage will stay locked away for another two years. In fact, the carriage is so large that the room it is housed in basically has to be taken apart to get the carriage out into the street.
After the Royal Mews, we visited the Queen’s Gallery. The current exhibition at the Gallery is “Victoria and Albert: Art and Love.” I recently saw “The Young Victoria” and LOVED it so I was excited to see some of Victoria and Albert’s prized possessions in-person.
Finally, we ended our day at Buckingham Palace, where we saw the state rooms filled with artwork and sculptures. We walked through Buckingham Palace’s gardens on the way out. I didn’t realize that there is so much green, open space hidden away in the middle of the city. David and I were fortunate to be able to tour the palace, since it is closed for the majority of the year.
On October 17, London Chocolate Week concluded. Throughout the week, different chocolate festivities took place. For example, restaurants around the city featured special chocolate menus, the world’s largest truffle was produced and then broken up into small, bite-size pieces to be sold for charity, and Divine chocolate bars created a signature chocolate cocktail for area restaurant and hotel bars.
On the last day of chocolate week, David, Karen, Jeff, and I decided to have lunch at Borough Market, a huge outdoor food market near London Bridge, and then head down the street to the wrap-up of chocolate week at the Vinopolis convention center. Bad planning on my part led to no lunch because Borough market is closed on Sundays. So we ate lots and lots of chocolate for lunch instead!
As you entered Vinopolis, you paid an admission fee and were asked to sign your name on the wall of chocolate. Just as the name described, this was literally a huge wall made out of chocolate. The pens were simply pointy plastic knives. We all signed our names, and then proceeded into a corridor displaying the history of chocolate.
Then came the good stuff!
The chocolate hall was filled with different vendors from around London giving out samples of their brownies, crepes, bars, spreads, and truffles. Our favorites were the brownies, chocolate crepes with peanut butter spread, truffles filled with sea salt caramel, and a make-your-own chocolate bar. This company was really cool! You go online to the company’s website, select which kind of chocolate bar you want (white, dark, milk, or a combination), and then for a few pence, you start to add ingredients to the bar. I made a dark/milk chocolate bar with sugared lilac and rose petals. David chose gummy bears, and Jeff chose pretzels. The company will inscribe your name at the top of the bar, and then ship the bars to anywhere in the UK or US. Coolest company EVER!
At the back of the room was a separate area displaying chocolate sculptures:
Chocolate Shoes
Chocolate Train with tracks made out of Twix, gravel made from Raisenets, and boulders made out of crumbled chocolate-chip cookies
King Kong Chocolate Cake
Last week, I was in Slovakia again for work. In the fall in Eastern Europe, it is tradition for groups of people to get together and eat goose. So Tuesday night the entire European audit team drove to a small village outside Bratislava to a restaurant known for serving the best goose in that area of Slovakia. And probably also known for having the most dead creatures nailed to its walls.
I didn’t ask for a special meal because I was willing to try the goose. I was not willing to eat the foie gras, though. The meal started with pickles, pickled peppers, saukeraut, and rye bread. Then came the foie gras. Giant goose liver? No thanks. Then the main course was brought out. For our group, we ordered three geese. These came with red cabbage and potato pancakes, which looked more like thin tortillas. I was tempted to make a goose taco, but I resisted.
The goose was really delicious. It tasted like the dark meat of a turkey. For dessert, we each had different strudels. There was a poppy seed cherry strudel, cheese and cherry strudel, and walnut strudel. I chose the cheese and cherry strudel. It was a really fun night out with the team and I was glad to try a new tradition.
I’m typing this blog now as trick-or-treater after trick-or-treater is ringing our bell for candy. Who knew there were so many kids in England that celebrated Halloween? When David lived here, his family basically stopped celebrating Halloween. He never got the chance to trick-or-treat again after he turned 11. It must be different in our neighborhood or the British are catching onto this great holiday because we are quickly running out of candy. I’ve had to resort to giving away my precious Mozart balls (nooooo!!!!) and David has made a mad dash down to the corner store for more sweets! We love passing out candy to all the cute kids in their lil costumes (and they're extra adorable this year with their accents) and David loves terrorizing them in his big bad wolf costume! As one less-than-scared kid put it, "Wow! You proper dressed up!"
Happy Halloween everyone!
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Vienna
This week I needed to be in Bratislava for work and since I fly into Vienna and then take a taxi across the Austria/Slovakia border, I asked David if he could take a day off and come to Vienna early with me. Since he hadn’t taken any vacation days since we moved in July, that was an easy “yes!"
What wasn’t so easy was waking up at 3 AM on Friday morning to catch our 6 AM flight to Vienna. We kept telling ourselves we’d have the whole day in the city if we got there early, but it was so difficult to get out of bed and finish packing in the middle of the night. I slept the entire flight, but David was wired after his coffee and read the paper. We landed at 9 AM, ready to tour the town!
Vienna was beautiful, despite the cloudy, cold weather. Every building is stunning and the city is filled with so much history. We didn’t know a lot about the Austrian Empire before our trip, which meant we learned a ton! These are our top five highlights:
It’s amazing that there are cities beneath cities around the world like this. How do major buildings get buried? The windows of the ruins are now filled with dirt beneath the street. It’s hard to imagine that a couple thousand years ago those windows faced open sky. Looking around us in Vienna, I couldn’t comprehend how the grand opera houses or palaces might one day be excavated hundreds of feet below where we stood. I don’t get it…
3) There is actually a patron saint of the plague, Saint Charles Borromeo. During the plague epidemic in 1713, Emperor Karl VI vowed to build a church dedicated to St. Borromeo once the city was healed. Karlskirche is the result of this promise. It is the tallest Baroque church in Vienna at 236 feet. We visited the church on Saturday morning after deciding to skip Vienna’s flea market and sleep in. Visitors have the option to view the artwork of the dome close-up by taking a terrifying elevator ride to the top, and then finish walking the last few feet up an even scarier scaffold to see the painted dove directly underneath the dome. Well of course we had to do this! I didn’t think it would be that frightening, but the scaffold was so rickety! My legs must have been tensed the entire way up to the dome because they were sore days later! I learned to appreciate the work of the artists hundreds of years ago so much more standing directly beneath the dome and watching other church-goers over 200 feet below me. They really couldn’t be afraid of heights at all to have such a steady hand to paint those beautiful images.
4) Cocaine injections were commonly used as painkillers and antidepressants for women going through menopause or PMS a hundred years ago. On Sunday afternoon, David and I toured the old royal apartments.
The first floor exhibit featured all of the royal china and silver. The first few rooms were interesting, but there was so much china that after about 20 minutes, David and I gave up listening to the audio guide and practically jogged through the remaining exhibit. Seriously, how much china does the royal family need? There seemed to be a different set for each day of the year. The second floor of the apartments was called the Sisi Museum. We had no idea what that meant, but when we walked inside, our audio guide explained that this tour would explore Empress Elisabeth’s fascinating life and all of the rumors surrounding her. Sisi was Elisabeth’s nickname, hence the name of the museum. She was promised to Emperor Josef when she was 16, married and had her first child by the age of 18. Obsessed with her appearance, her ankle-length hair took 3 hours to do every day. She was 5’8 and only weighed about 95 pounds because she regularly fasted or drank meat juice. She wasn’t content with her life in the Austrian court and travelled abroad often. In one of her medicinal travel kits, there was a syringe her doctors used to inject her with cocaine. Empress Elisabeth became more and more depressed the older she got. Her son, the Crown Prince Rudolph committed suicide at his hunting lodge after he murdered his 17 year-old mistress. After that, she fell into a deeper depression and was eventually assassinated during one her visits to Switzerland.
5) Mozart was a freemason. On Sunday evening, David headed to the central train station to catch the “CAT” out to the airport. I walked with him so he wouldn’t get lost, as David is known for easily getting lost in both familiar and unknown cities. After our goodbyes, I walked back through Stadtpark, but then it started to drizzle and I had left my umbrella in the hotel room, so I hurried through the city centre to Mozart’s house. The house was fairly empty. In fact, the only other tourist inside was a fellow Texan wearing a Longhorn sweater. I was too depressed about Saturday’s game to say anything, plus we both had our audio guide headsets on, so I wasn’t even sure he’d hear me talking to him. It’s funny that on a random Sunday evening in Vienna, I can meet a fellow UT alumnus in Mozart’s house. It is a small world after all. I had toured Mozart’s Salzburg house with my family about 10 years ago on our big European vacation. This was very similar, except the apartment was much nicer. Mozart was a struggling artist in Salzburg and hit the big-time in Vienna. One of the things I either didn’t remember from my Mozart Salzburg tour, or learned on Sunday, was that Mozart was a freemason. As part of the exhibit, his admission certificate into a Masonic lodge was on display, as was an attendance form with his signature. I always associate the Masons with the US founding fathers and myths straight out of "National Treasure" or The Lost Symbol. But I guess this secret society has a lot more famous international members than I thought!
Here are some more highlights:
What wasn’t so easy was waking up at 3 AM on Friday morning to catch our 6 AM flight to Vienna. We kept telling ourselves we’d have the whole day in the city if we got there early, but it was so difficult to get out of bed and finish packing in the middle of the night. I slept the entire flight, but David was wired after his coffee and read the paper. We landed at 9 AM, ready to tour the town!
Vienna was beautiful, despite the cloudy, cold weather. Every building is stunning and the city is filled with so much history. We didn’t know a lot about the Austrian Empire before our trip, which meant we learned a ton! These are our top five highlights:
1) During the Roman Empire, Vienna was one of the centers of Germania known as Vindobona. For those movie buffs out there who love "Gladiator" as much as David and me, you’ll remember that the beginning of the movie features a battle in Vindobona against the Barbarians (aka Germans). So Vienna is where that battle took place, and shortly after, where Emperor Marcus Aurelius died (in the movie and in real life). While touring the city on Friday afternoon, we stumbled across the Roman ruins in Michaelerplatz.
It’s amazing that there are cities beneath cities around the world like this. How do major buildings get buried? The windows of the ruins are now filled with dirt beneath the street. It’s hard to imagine that a couple thousand years ago those windows faced open sky. Looking around us in Vienna, I couldn’t comprehend how the grand opera houses or palaces might one day be excavated hundreds of feet below where we stood. I don’t get it…
2) The delicious Sacher torte was invented at the Hotel Sacher in Vienna across from the State Opera House. After we landed on Friday morning and dropped our bags at the hotel, we headed to Café Frauenhuber for a traditional Austrian breakfast of rolls with different spreads and hot chocolate! This café is famous for being the oldest café in town and can also boast that both Mozart and Beethoven performed here. After our meal, we walked around the city for a few hours, and decided to skip lunch and opt for some sweets instead! Hotel Sacher, I have to admit, is a tourist trap (and infamous as being known as a discreet hotel for adulterers), but it’s worth it to taste the torte!
3) There is actually a patron saint of the plague, Saint Charles Borromeo. During the plague epidemic in 1713, Emperor Karl VI vowed to build a church dedicated to St. Borromeo once the city was healed. Karlskirche is the result of this promise. It is the tallest Baroque church in Vienna at 236 feet. We visited the church on Saturday morning after deciding to skip Vienna’s flea market and sleep in. Visitors have the option to view the artwork of the dome close-up by taking a terrifying elevator ride to the top, and then finish walking the last few feet up an even scarier scaffold to see the painted dove directly underneath the dome. Well of course we had to do this! I didn’t think it would be that frightening, but the scaffold was so rickety! My legs must have been tensed the entire way up to the dome because they were sore days later! I learned to appreciate the work of the artists hundreds of years ago so much more standing directly beneath the dome and watching other church-goers over 200 feet below me. They really couldn’t be afraid of heights at all to have such a steady hand to paint those beautiful images.
Karlskirche
4) Cocaine injections were commonly used as painkillers and antidepressants for women going through menopause or PMS a hundred years ago. On Sunday afternoon, David and I toured the old royal apartments.
Michaelertor, home to the royal apartments and Spanish Riding School
The first floor exhibit featured all of the royal china and silver. The first few rooms were interesting, but there was so much china that after about 20 minutes, David and I gave up listening to the audio guide and practically jogged through the remaining exhibit. Seriously, how much china does the royal family need? There seemed to be a different set for each day of the year. The second floor of the apartments was called the Sisi Museum. We had no idea what that meant, but when we walked inside, our audio guide explained that this tour would explore Empress Elisabeth’s fascinating life and all of the rumors surrounding her. Sisi was Elisabeth’s nickname, hence the name of the museum. She was promised to Emperor Josef when she was 16, married and had her first child by the age of 18. Obsessed with her appearance, her ankle-length hair took 3 hours to do every day. She was 5’8 and only weighed about 95 pounds because she regularly fasted or drank meat juice. She wasn’t content with her life in the Austrian court and travelled abroad often. In one of her medicinal travel kits, there was a syringe her doctors used to inject her with cocaine. Empress Elisabeth became more and more depressed the older she got. Her son, the Crown Prince Rudolph committed suicide at his hunting lodge after he murdered his 17 year-old mistress. After that, she fell into a deeper depression and was eventually assassinated during one her visits to Switzerland.
5) Mozart was a freemason. On Sunday evening, David headed to the central train station to catch the “CAT” out to the airport. I walked with him so he wouldn’t get lost, as David is known for easily getting lost in both familiar and unknown cities. After our goodbyes, I walked back through Stadtpark, but then it started to drizzle and I had left my umbrella in the hotel room, so I hurried through the city centre to Mozart’s house. The house was fairly empty. In fact, the only other tourist inside was a fellow Texan wearing a Longhorn sweater. I was too depressed about Saturday’s game to say anything, plus we both had our audio guide headsets on, so I wasn’t even sure he’d hear me talking to him. It’s funny that on a random Sunday evening in Vienna, I can meet a fellow UT alumnus in Mozart’s house. It is a small world after all. I had toured Mozart’s Salzburg house with my family about 10 years ago on our big European vacation. This was very similar, except the apartment was much nicer. Mozart was a struggling artist in Salzburg and hit the big-time in Vienna. One of the things I either didn’t remember from my Mozart Salzburg tour, or learned on Sunday, was that Mozart was a freemason. As part of the exhibit, his admission certificate into a Masonic lodge was on display, as was an attendance form with his signature. I always associate the Masons with the US founding fathers and myths straight out of "National Treasure" or The Lost Symbol. But I guess this secret society has a lot more famous international members than I thought!
Mozart's Home
Here are some more highlights:
We had dinner at Figlmuller on Friday night. This restaurant is known for its HUGE Wiener Schnitzels. Even though David was hungry, we split this one!
St. Stephansdom is in the heart of Vienna. It was almost destroyed during WWII but has been restored. Its soaring spires are currently under construction.
On Sunday afternoon, David and I were lucky enough to score tickets to the Spanish Riding School. Cameras are restricted during the performance because it distracts the horses, but this is the Winter Riding Hall where the entertainment took place.
The State Opera House
Friday, October 15, 2010
Hook 'Em Horns!
American football season has started.
How long do you think it would take to get ESPN America as part of our cable package? Keep in mind it took about 6 weeks to get our internet and cable set up in the first place, about 2 months for me to get a debit card (even though David and I have had a UK joint bank account since April), and we still don’t have cell phone plans. So naturally, with everything else taking forever here, I thought a change to our cable package would take at least a week or two.
I was wrong.
Before the first NFL game of the season a few weeks ago, David called Sky Cable to inquire about the ESPN sports package. And whatdayaknow? They were able to instantly grant him access to those channels and I couldn’t even argue the cost because it’s free for the first 3 months and only 8 pounds per month after that. Great!
So David set his alarm for 2 AM that night to wake up and watch the Saints/Vikings game. Fortunately he was really sleepy when he set his alarm and set it wrong. So he didn’t wake up. But he did record it correctly and rushed home from work that evening to watch the game. On Saturday, after a lovely theatre evening out with his sister and wife, David rushed home again to catch some college football. I think he came to bed that night around 3 AM. And the other night (or should I say morning) I woke up at 5 AM and noticed David wasn’t in bed next to me. Where did I find him? Asleep on the couch with ESPN on the TV. He swears he fell asleep around 1:00…
Football isn’t all bad though. I had never watched a football game in my life before I moved to Austin and became a Texas Longhorn. Since then I’ve watched almost every Longhorn game, either in-person or on TV, for the past 7 years. With football season approaching, David signed us up for the Texas Exes United Kingdom chapter hoping there would be game-watching parties. And there are!
UT alumni living in London get together every weekend at Bodeans, a BBQ joint in the city. We usually either watch the games live on Saturday night (like this weekend’s Nebraska game) or we watch on Sundays if the time difference is too great. We have all sworn an oath that we will not watch the game ahead of time and do everything in our power NOT to learn the score. That means we are usually phone/internet/ESPN-free Saturday nights through Sunday afternoons.
The first weekend we headed into the city, we had to admit we felt a little ridiculous wearing our burnt orange jerseys on the Tube, but we’re used to the strange stares now. It’s definitely better, though, to meet up with others and head to Bodeans together. Then people seem to understand you’re part of a group going to an event instead of one of those couples that like to wear matching outfits.
Even though the Longhorns have been sucking it up lately, we still like going to the games to socialize with other Americans and eat some decent BBQ. Hook ‘em horns!
How long do you think it would take to get ESPN America as part of our cable package? Keep in mind it took about 6 weeks to get our internet and cable set up in the first place, about 2 months for me to get a debit card (even though David and I have had a UK joint bank account since April), and we still don’t have cell phone plans. So naturally, with everything else taking forever here, I thought a change to our cable package would take at least a week or two.
I was wrong.
Before the first NFL game of the season a few weeks ago, David called Sky Cable to inquire about the ESPN sports package. And whatdayaknow? They were able to instantly grant him access to those channels and I couldn’t even argue the cost because it’s free for the first 3 months and only 8 pounds per month after that. Great!
So David set his alarm for 2 AM that night to wake up and watch the Saints/Vikings game. Fortunately he was really sleepy when he set his alarm and set it wrong. So he didn’t wake up. But he did record it correctly and rushed home from work that evening to watch the game. On Saturday, after a lovely theatre evening out with his sister and wife, David rushed home again to catch some college football. I think he came to bed that night around 3 AM. And the other night (or should I say morning) I woke up at 5 AM and noticed David wasn’t in bed next to me. Where did I find him? Asleep on the couch with ESPN on the TV. He swears he fell asleep around 1:00…
Football isn’t all bad though. I had never watched a football game in my life before I moved to Austin and became a Texas Longhorn. Since then I’ve watched almost every Longhorn game, either in-person or on TV, for the past 7 years. With football season approaching, David signed us up for the Texas Exes United Kingdom chapter hoping there would be game-watching parties. And there are!
UT alumni living in London get together every weekend at Bodeans, a BBQ joint in the city. We usually either watch the games live on Saturday night (like this weekend’s Nebraska game) or we watch on Sundays if the time difference is too great. We have all sworn an oath that we will not watch the game ahead of time and do everything in our power NOT to learn the score. That means we are usually phone/internet/ESPN-free Saturday nights through Sunday afternoons.
The first weekend we headed into the city, we had to admit we felt a little ridiculous wearing our burnt orange jerseys on the Tube, but we’re used to the strange stares now. It’s definitely better, though, to meet up with others and head to Bodeans together. Then people seem to understand you’re part of a group going to an event instead of one of those couples that like to wear matching outfits.
Enjoying some good old fashioned American beer (and root beer for me) at the Texas-Texas Tech game. Karen just HAD to wear her red Tech jersey, but it didn't bring the Raiders very much luck!
Even though the Longhorns have been sucking it up lately, we still like going to the games to socialize with other Americans and eat some decent BBQ. Hook ‘em horns!
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