2008 in Pictures

Well, 2008 sure has been interesting.  It hasn't been my favorite year, but I am realizing it had its moments as I looked back over my pictures.  Somehow I was able to whittle down my pictures to one per month.  Here are some of my favorites.

From left to right, starting at the top row:

1. January - Me & my coworkers goofing off at a hockey game

2. February - Royal Albert Hall (London)

3. March - Swimming in the Bahamas

4. April - Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

5. May - Running down Main Street during the Orlando Danskin Triathlon

6. June - Swim portion of the 5 Mile Lake Triathlon

7. July - Waiting at the train crossing (Bonn)

8. August - Reichstag (Berlin)

9. September - Nurnberg

10. October - Behind bars at Alcatraz

11. November - Me, Pooh & Jana

12. December - Deep Freeze 2008

Happy 2009!!!

I'm dreaming of a dry Christmas!

Snow, snow and more snow!! I never thought I'd say this but enough with the snow. I can't remember the last time it snowed this much. Actually, I can - I was in eighth grade. And the reason I remember? Yeah, with all the snow days we were in school until July!! I exaggerate - I think the last day of school was really June 30th. Last night was the first night my drive home wasn't a complete white-knuckle drive. Granted, I have an all-wheel drive, but that only helps so much, and really doesn't help when stopping. Exhibit A - It has been snowing fairly constant since this morning. The driveway was shovelled this morning before I left for work and arriving home this afternoon there was another couple inches of accumulation and I slid sideways down my driveway. Yikes!

Driving in the snow I'm usually saying one of two things - 1) Don't slam on the brakes, don't slam on the brakes to remind me if I do start to slide to not slam on the brakes or 2) Thank you Mr. Snowplow, Snowplow, Snowplow, thank you Mr. Snowplow, for clearing the roads (sung to Thank you Mr. Bus Driver whenever I see a snowplow). Which means I haven't really been listening to Christmas music the past couple of days. I love Christmas and Christmas music so I might just have to listen to Christmas music after Christmas is over to get my fix.

Speaking of Christmas music here are two things you may not know about me: 1) my all-time favorite Christmas song is Winter Wonderland which Jana pointed out isn't really a Christmas song and 2) I usually cry anytime I hear I'll Be Home for Christmas.

I was wrapping presents and Chloe was trying to "help". I don't know how she knows, but she can pick out the bag that has her Christmas presents in it. Maybe the bag smells like a pet store?

Here's a few more snow pics:




To my friends and family in Seattle (and anywhere else it is snowing) - stay warm and be safe

To all my friends and family - I wish you a very Merry Christmas!

An Austro-Hungarian Adventure

So I've been sitting here for awhile now trying to come up with a great opening line and it is just not coming so I'll cut right to the chase!

Day 0/1

I had been complaining that I would miss out on Thanksgiving dinner, even though I'm normally gone for Thanksgiving. The difference this time being since I was leaving the day before Thanksgiving I wouldn't get a plate of leftovers. Fortunately one of the choices for dinner was turkey & mashed potatoes! It wasn't too bad for airline food. The flight was extremely turbulent! I looked out the window as we got closer to Heathrow and saw the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Big Ben & Parliament, and Buckingham Palace - it was just like the Peter Pan ride! Jana & I met up and then boarded the flight for Vienna. After dropping our bags off at the hotel, we wandered around in search of dinner. We ended up at an Italian restaurant (big surprise there, right?), but it wasn't very good. We walked back to the hotel and arrived a bit frozen as it was cold. The cold actually wasn't too bad - it was the biting wind! Our beds turned out to be heat-sucking beds and it wasn't long before we were both toasty warm. Heat-sucking beds are fantastic when it is super cold!

Day 2

Today should have been called Hapsburgs Day as we explored the Hofburg Palace complex. We started off in the Imperial Apartments which had an exhibit on Empress Elizabeth. At first I was very interested in Empress Elizabeth (or Sisi as she is called) until I learned more. She wasn't the nicest person but she did live an interesting life. From there it was the treasury and the chapel before stopping for lunch. We ate at a restaurant in the cellar of the palace. It was canteen style, which reminded me of my time in Bonn.

We continued exploring the Hofburg complex, with the National Library and Augustinian Church before taking a break to tour the Opera House. We fell behind the tour group at one point and were joking if we couldn't catch up we would be lost within the Opera and could become Phantomesses of the Opera!!! It was then back to the Hofburg complex as we visited the Papyrus Museum and the New Palace whose museum included an armory, musical instruments and ancient statues. I really enjoyed this museum because it was in an old palace and it was really fun to walk through. We finished up the day at City Hall where there was a Christmas market. Wow, there were a lot of people there, it was a bit overwhelming!

Dinner time! We started walking and decided to go one way and ended up making a huge circle and basically ended up back where we started. We ended up at, what else, but an Italian restaurant and they had the best tiramisu! However the restaurant was super smoky. If Italy can go smoke free, I would think the Austrians could as well.

The biting wind made me extremely happy for heat-sucking beds!

Day 3

As it turned out, the heat-sucking beds worked a little too well and we had a restless night. Our first stop of the day was at the Kaisergruft, the crypt where the Hapsburgs are buried. We continued on to St. Stephen's Cathedral where mass was starting so we were only able to take a quick look. Next it was the Globe Museum and the Esperanto Museum. What exactly is Esperanto? Yeah, I didn't know either until I went to the museum! It's a universal language, which I'm thinking is losing the battle to English.

After lunch we took a tram to Belvedere Palace where there was another Christmas market. We finished up the day at the Albertina Museum, which used to be the residence of Maria Christina. Maria Christina was the favorite daughter of Maria Theresa and the only one who was allowed to marry for love rather than political positioning. Our experience at the Albertina was hampered by the lack of line management, considering all the people. They could learn from Disney! The sign at the entrance said wait times were going to be anywhere from 15 minutes to 90 minutes. We ended up standing in line for about 30 minutes or so, which isn't bad, except when you are standing in the cold and the wind. The draw? There was a special Van Gogh exhibition.

Finally emerging from the throng of people at the Albertina, we had dinner at the Cafe Sacher, the home of the famous Sacher Torte, a special recipe used for 175 years. It was good. Apparently the hotel has received letters addressed to the Hotel Chocolate Cake.

Day 4
We decided to venture out of Vienna and took the train to Bratislava, Slovakia. We decided to walk into town from the train station instead of trying to figure out the bus. We walked by the Slovakian "White House" before arriving at St. Michael's Gate which had the kilometer zero plaque, the point from which all distances in Slovakia are measured. Lunch was at a "traditional" Slovakian restaurant. We had potato dumplings with mystery meat. It was pretty good!

Rick had told us about a couple places where cannon balls from the Napoleonic wars were still lodged in the buildings and that these cannon balls were all over the place so we kept our eyes open to find them. We ended up only finding the ones Rick specifically pointed out. There was a Christmas market in the Main Square. It was extremely crowded! We visited Primate's House which boasted of a Mirror Hall which would not be mistaken for the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles except in similarity of names. We continued down to the river to look at the bridge, a leftover from the Soviet days. We visited St. Martin's Cathedral before starting up the hill to visit Bratislava Castle where we wandered around and eventually found the deep well and threw a coin in. This was Maria Theresa's castle for awhile until it burned down. She shows up everywhere!

Day 5
This was the first day we ventured into the metro to visit Schonbrunn Palace. And what was out front of Schonbrunn? Why, a Christmas market! Inside the palace we learned more about Maria Theresa and Sisi and a few other Hapsburgs. If Jana & I were Hapsburgs, she would have been Maria Jana and I would have been Maria Amalia. We walked through the hibernating until spring gardens and up the hill to the Gloriette, where there was a restaurant so we decided to have lunch. The maze was also hibernating which was too bad, as I enjoy mazes! As this Christmas market wasn't too crowded we did a bit of shopping.

Back in town, we visited Charles Church where we were able to take a elevator up to the base of dome and then walk up the remaining stairs. The church is currently being restored. It was neat to see the dome up close.

Dinner was at Cafe Sacher where we amused the waiter and he gave us each a Cafe Sacher pen. Since I had the Sacher Torte last time, tonight I had the Cheese Strudel for dessert - it was yummy!

Day 6

We spent the morning at the history museum where there were a ton of kids! We had lunch at Cafe Sacher before heading to the train station to catch a train to Budapest. Jana's finger got smashed when we were lifting her suitcase up. She was very brave - I would been bawling! We knew the Budapest station was coming up and so when everyone started gathering their belongings to leave we acted like lemmings and did the same. Only to realize, as our train was leaving, this was the wrong train station. Yikes! Another train was coming so we got on as our stop was going to be the next one. The train conductor looked at our tickets and tried to tell us something but our lack of Hungarian made it impossible to communicate effectively. He eventually gave up on us and continued down the train.

We arrived at the train station and thanks to Rick we were able to negotiate a decent price (at least we thought is was) for a taxi to our hotel. Our hotel is new-ish and the elevator is not yet operational and so up we went 59 stairs. The hotel clerk carried both our bags, at the same time, up the stairs. Wow! The hotel was beautiful! Maybe not as functional as we would have liked, but definitely beautiful! There was a bathtub, no shower and no shower curtain. Hm, this would be interesting in the morning. The hotel had a restaurant which was pretty good! And quite convenient!

Day 7

I survived the bathtub, or I should say the bathroom floor survived me taking a shower! We walked along the river to the Hungarian Parliament where we arrived just in time for the tour. Inside the Parliament are the Hungarian crown jewels. Myth has it, the crown is the original that King (later Saint) Istvan was crowned with in the year 1000, or something to that effect, I may not have remembered the details correctly. After WW2, the crown jewels were kept in Fort Knox until 1978.

We went to the Museum of Ethnography and tried to buy a Budapest Card, except apparently they didn't have any more and they tried to direct us to the metro station where we could buy the card. We finally found the station but they only had one card but station attendant called and found a station that had more so we hopped the metro to get our Budapest card. After all that it was time for lunch! We found, what else, but Italian! After that we went back to the Museum of Ethnography, which is a tiny little museum in a huge building! We walked back along the river, and across the Chain Bridge to look back at the Parliament at night. We stopped by St. Istvan's Basilica before heading back to our hotel for dinner.

Day 8

We started off the day at St. Istvan's, this time in the daylight, before heading over to the Buda side. I was really excited because we were going to take a funicular up the hill, and I just love funiculars. Unfortunately it was closed so we trekked up hill as it started raining. There were two museums in the old castle. In the basement of the Budapest History Museum were the foundations of the old castle. When we emerged from the museums it was really raining. Since we were already at the top of the hill we walked over to Matthias Church and the Fishermen's Bastion. Inside the Matthias Church is a statue of Mary & Jesus that reportedly scared the Ottomans but due to the renovation the statue was blocked off. We had dinner at our hotel but were seated in the corner and had absolutely horrible service. It took forever!!

Day 9

Our first stop of the morning was at the Great Synagogue, the second largest in the world. Behind the synagogue is the Tree of Life memorial which was built over the site of a mass grave of those killed by the Nazis. Next we visited the Hungarian National Museum. The 1848 Revolution against the Hapsburgs was declared from this building. It was really interesting visiting Vienna and learning about the Hapsburgs and how they viewed Hungary as part of their empire and then visiting Budapest where they viewed the Hapsburgs as oppressors. We got in a tiny metro and went out to Heroes' Square - no Hapsburgs left at Heroes' Square. Near there was a replica Transylvania Castle. We walked around before heading to the Postal Museum. I'm still not sure how we found the museum - there were no signs but somehow we did find it. The museum itself was meh but it was located in a grand old apartment which was beautiful. We then went to the Museum of Trade & Tourism which wasn't much at all. We decided not to eat at the hotel, but instead ate at Mamma's, an Italian restaurant that we had passed several times near St. Istvan's.

Day 10

We spent the morning shopping at the Great Market Hall. After dropping off our packages we headed to Mamma's for lunch. We walked to the Opera and stepped inside to look at the grand entrance hall but decided against going on the tour and continued down to the House of Terror, the former headquarters of the Nazi Gestapo and then the communist Secret Police. It walked us through the terror of the two regimes, it was an excellent but sobering museum.

We decided to have our last dinner at the hotel. Sometime after dinner but before dessert a man walked into the restaurant. I remarked to Jana he looked a lot like Jason Isaacs. I didn't think much of it until 10 or 15 minutes later when another man walked into the restaurant that looked and sounded like Viggo Mortensen!! Both Jana & I reached the same conclusion - it was Viggo Mortensen! Which meant the first man must have really been Jason Isaacs! We were both star struck and very giggly. After a little research (aren't Blackberries wonderful? And props to Ben for helping) we discovered that Viggo & Jason had made a film in Budapest and were in town for the premiere. We lingered at dinner for as long as we could but finally decided to leave as we still had to pack. And for those of you wanting pictures - well, I don't have any. It seemed to us they really didn't want to be recognized. And I'm sorry to say there just wasn't a good angle for us to get a picture surreptitiously So our only other choice was to be obnoxious and intrusive which neither of us wanted to do. We settled for gazing at their backs.

Day 11
The next morning came fairly early as our flight to London was at 8:30 a.m. The flight to London was uneventful and we did some shopping before saying goodbye - me to Seattle and Jana to Houston.

Another List!

I am procrastinating working on my pictures from Vienna & Budapest and saw this on Mandi's blog.  What a perfect way to procrastinate! :)

99 Things Meme

Things you’ve already done: bold
Things you want to do: italicize
Things you haven’t done and don’t want to - leave in plain font

1. Started your own blog.
2. Slept under the stars.
3. Played in a band.
4. Visited Hawaii.
5. Watched a meteor shower.
6. Given more than you can afford to charity.
7. Been to Disneyland/world. Okay, so this past year was apparently all about Disneyworld - next year I'm going to try and make it to Disneyland! :) I have also been to Paris Disney - someday perhaps I will make it to Tokyo Disney!
8. Climbed a mountain. I've climbed on mountains but not one to the top. Someday...
9. Held a praying mantis.
10. Sang a solo. I'm with Mandi - you wouldn't want me to do this!
11. Bungee jumped.
12. Visited Paris.
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea.
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch.
15. Adopted a child.
16. Had food poisoning.
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty.
18. Grown your own vegetables.
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France.
20. Slept on an overnight train. I can't decide if I want to do this or not...
21. Had a pillow fight.
22. Hitch hiked.
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill. I am such a rule-follower this may be hard to imagine. I did tell my boss that I was taking a mental health day.
24. Built a snow fort.
25. Held a lamb.
26. Gone skinny dipping.
27. Run a marathon. Never going to happen - you realize the reason why it is called a marathon is when the messenger arrived at Marathon after running 26.2 miles he died. Yeah, not going to happen. I am seriously considering trying to do another half, but you will not find me doing a full.
28. Ridden a gondola in Venice.  I go back and forth on this one - Venice is not my favorite city but I can tolerate it in the colder months but then would I want to go on a gondola in the cold?  
29. Seen a total eclipse.
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset.
31. Hit a home run.
32. Been on a cruise.
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person.
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors. Made it to Germany. And I have been to Ireland, but I would like to go to the area where my family is from.
35. Seen an Amish community.
36. Taught yourself a new language.
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied.
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person. I was so sick that day that I literally got out of the tour bus, saw that it leaned and got back in. I'm not even sure I took a picture!
39. Gone rock climbing. This is a maybe...
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David in person. YES!!! I love David! Every time I'm in Florence I visit him and he is usually the highlight of Florence for me.  Well, him and Ponte Vecchio.
41. Sung Karaoke.
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt.
43. Bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant.
44. Visited Africa.
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight.
46. Been transported in an ambulance.
47. Had your portrait painted.
48. Gone deep sea fishing.
49. Seen the Sistine chapel in person.
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling.
52. Kissed in the rain.
53. Played in the mud.
54. Gone to a drive-in theatre.
55. Been in a movie.
56. Visited the Great Wall of China.
57. Started a business.
58. Taken a martial arts class.
59. Visited Russia.
60. Served at a soup kitchen.
61. Sold Girl Scout cookies.
62. Gone whale watching.
63. Gotten flowers for no reason.
64. Donated blood. They have a hard enough time trying to draw blood for blood tests (my veins are difficult to find).

65. Gone sky diving.
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp.
67. Bounced a check.
68. Flown in a helicopter.
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy.

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial.
71. Eaten Caviar.
72. Pieced a quilt.
73. Stood in Times Square.

74. Toured the Everglades.
75. Been fired from a job.
76. Seen the Changing of the Guard in London.
77. Broken a bone.
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle.

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person.
80. Published a book.
81. Visited the Vatican.
82. Bought a brand new car.
83. Walked in Jerusalem.
84. Had your picture in the newspaper.
85. Read the entire Bible.
86. Visited the White House.
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating.
88. Had chickenpox.
89. Saved someone’s life.
90. Sat on a jury.
91. Met someone famous. Okay, maybe not actually met - but Jason Isaacs and Viggo Mortensen had dinner at the same restaurant as me & Jana in Budapest, which I hope to get around to posting my trip report and pictures soon.
92. Joined a book club.
93. Lost a loved one.
94. Had a baby.
95. Seen the Alamo in person.
96. Swum in the Great Salt Lake.
97. Been involved in a law suit. Do class action law suits filed on my behalf count?  Several lawsuits have been filed "on my behalf" against my former notorious employer.   
98. Owned a cell phone.
99. Been stung by a bee.

Snow Day!

Massive snow has been predicted for awhile now. Monday - no snow. Tuesday - no snow. Wednesday, the supposed "big snow day" - no snow. But Thursday? The snow showed up on Thursday. It started snowing early this morning and literally has been snowing all day. And while this really wouldn't be big news anywhere else, in Seattle snow is a four letter word. I can't remember the last time it snowed this much. The total accumulation? About 4 - 5 inches. Those of you used to the snow feel free to laugh right about now.

Snow & Ice - Oh my!

Today was supposed to be the 12Ks of Christmas, "supposed to be" being the key phrase.  We woke up to a light dusting of snow and in true Seattle style the city slowed to a crawl.  I dressed appropriately with lots of layers and gloves and slowly drove to the race only to find out the race had been cancelled due to the ice.  Oh well, at least I got the t-shirt!!

Book List

I am procrastinating instead of wrapping Christmas presents, addressing Christmas cards, or editing my pictures, take your pick. So now I'll post this which I saw on Mandi's blog. Wow, I've got a lot of reading to do!!

a) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
b) Underline those you intend to read. (Or, if you can’t underline, asterisk!)
c) Italicise the books you LOVE.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy*
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller*
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier*
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - J D Salinger
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot*
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy*
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving*
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73.The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson*
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens*
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Ronald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo*

Sneak Peek

I'm back!  Where was I this time?  Vienna & Budapest, with a stop in Bratislava.  With Christmas, work, etc., it is shaping up to be a busy week and I'm not sure when I'll get to my pictures or a trip report but thought I would post this sneak peek.  

My feet in Buda & Pest!

I wasn't sure it would turn out, but I think I like it.  More to come...