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Thursday, September 28, 2006
Let's move to P.E.I.
Here's a short update from what we have been up to so far. I really just have one thing to say: It is SOOO gorgeous here. I love it. :)
The drive up was nice and we ran into no problems, the border crossing was easy too. For my friend Lexi I have to mention that we stopped at a Tim Horton's soon after we got into Canada. :) We got really lucky at the the bed & breakfast we are staying at. Apparently the couple that was staying in the room we were supposed to have decided to stay longer so they booked us into a suite instead. It's a really nice room with a king size bed and a whirl pool tub in the bathroom.
Today we had breakfast (spinach souffle) and then headed out to the national park on the island. They have the nicest trails there. We went to a trail near the dunes and also walked the Homestead trail which is a bit longer and goes alongside the water, marshland, fields and forest. It's so pretty. The upside to coming in the off season is that we got into the park for free and also were the only people on the longer trail. All in all we walked about 4.6 miles today.
After the trail we had lunch and then visited the Anne of Green Gables house. It was neat to see the house that inspired the novel. Also walked along a trail there and saw some chipmunks. Sooo cute. :)
Now we are off to dinner in a minute to the Pilot House. I am ready to move here. :)
Very short mail update before I go. Wrote letters on our drive up and mailed them out today. So mail is on its way to: Tiff/Texas, Erika/Italy, Pamela/FL, Charmaine/Malta and Eunice/Malta. Still owe letters to Alex/Germany, Dee/PA and Nadine/Tenerife.
Posted by Hanna at 05:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Vacation - finally
Ok so that's it. I somehow made it through the crazy day that was today. I don't think I sat down at all today, just constantly running all over the place. But somehow the day went by .. as they always do. And now it's time for our vacation. :)
I forgot to send my regular email at work letting everyone know that I won't be in the office but I guess they will figure it out. The people in my department know of course so that's all that matters I suppose. I also forgot to leave Microsoft Outlook running after spending a good 20 min. trying to get my "out of the office" away message to work. Argh. Oh well I guess.
And of course I have this nagging feeling that I am forgetting something --- as always before a trip. But I guess all in all I am just trying to look forward to staying at the bed & breakfast and enjoying ourselves. I have been wanting to go to Prince Edward Island forever so I am glad we get to go.
We will be back Sunday night. I might update while we are away ... not sure. If not I'll talk to all of you when we get back. :)
Very short mail update before I go. Currently owe letters to Dee/PA, Tiff/Texas, Alex/Germany, Erika/Italy, Pamela/FL, Eunice/Malta and Nadine/Tenerife. I am going to try and answer most of them during our 13 hour drive back and forth.
Posted by Hanna at 08:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Monday, September 25, 2006
Crazy busy
Ok ... a whole week has gone by and no posts. Somehow this past week just flew by. Just pretty busy at work, re-arranging some schedules, staff, positions, one girl going on maternity leave soon, one guy coming back after being away at school for a year ... so I was trying to work out all the kinks in the schedule and re-arrange some of the department.
The weekend was pretty nice. Didn't do that much Saturday, answered some emails and was just lazy. Sunday I managed to write some letters and put out all my fall decorations. So that took up pretty much most of the day.
Short mail update. Letters went out to Kirsty/UK (2x), Nicki/Australia, Caroline/Scotland and Angela/Virginia. Still owe replies to: Alex/Germany, Erika/Italy, Pamela/FL, Eunice/Malta and Nadine/Tenerife. Hope I am not forgetting anyone.
The one good thing about all this is that I only have one more day left at work (although I am already dreading tomorrow -- it's gonna be soo busy) before we leave for vacation.
Posted by Hanna at 06:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Monday, September 18, 2006
Book recommendations wanted
Short mail update: Sent out letters to: Lexi/DC, Natalia/Poland, Celia/MA, Lene/UK and Jessica/DE. Don't know what I've received today yet 'cause I am still at work.
Thought I'd do a quick update while I am waiting for Mike to finish up. Got most of my stuff done yesterday. 5 letters plus did my hair. (very happy with the results - it's the same red that I originally had when I got it done at the hairdresser in Austria). Didn't get to put out my fall stuff or answer any of my emails ... but I guess that's better than nothing.
Almost finished with "Anne of Green Gables", only a few more chapters left - will probably read those tonight. I am in a reading mood now and want to get something else from the library after I finish this. Anybody have any good recommendations ?
Posted by Hanna at 05:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Anne of Green Gables
Not that exciting of a day but all in all a nice relaxing Saturday. Got up pretty late (noon-ish) and headed out to the library. I renewed my library card and got "Anne of Green Gables". I have read it a long time ago when I was younger and even own a copy, but it's in German. So I thought I would read it in English and refresh my memory of the story since we'll be heading to Prince Edward Island in only two weeks time.
Got lunch after the library and then headed home. Spent most of the afternoon reading and then made dinner. Made a dish that I had seen on the Food Network about a week ago. Roman Chicken and potatoes & onions. Took about an hour to make but came out pretty yummy. Might make it again.
After dinner decided to read some more. Mike's watching the baseball game on TV and when that's over we are probably going to watch a movie.
Tomorrow will have to be more productive. I have about ten letters I need to reply to I think plus want to put out my fall decorations and maybe die my hair (the red has faded quite a lot so it would be good to refresh it). Well, we will see ... hopefully I'll be able to accomplish all those things. :)
Short mail update. Received letters and need to reply to: Alex/Germany, Lene/UK, Celia/MA, Erika/Italy, Natalia/Poland, Lexi/DC, Nicki/Australia, Jessica/DE and Angela/VA.
Posted by Hanna at 09:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Chef Hanna :)
Just a quick mid week post. Everything's going fairly ok this week so far (fingers crossed obviously).
Sunday we went to another baseball game which was fun. The Mets lost but it was still a nice day. After the game we went to our favorite pizza place Arturo's in the Village. Coal oven pizza with mushrooms and garlic. Yummm. :)
Mail Update: Letters have gone out to: Tiffany/Oklahoma, Nadine/Tenerife, Lotte/Denmark, Tiffani/Texas and Dany/Germany.
Received letters and still owe replies: Alex/Germany, Lene/UK, Celia/MA, Erika/Italy and Natalia/Poland.
My latest obsession with the Food Network and cooking is continuing. Don't get me wrong, I am still not cooking every night by all means. But to me it's more of a mental thing, I am obessed with looking at recipes, cooking gadgets and learning new techniques and things. I go through these phases so this might pass but right now I am into it. :)
I made a very yummy dinner last night from a recipe my mom gave me. It was a chicken dish with a mushroom sauce and egg noodles. The chicken was coated in a tomato-mustard-flour coating and sauteed in oil and the mushrooms were in a creamy sauce along with the noodles. Yumm. I still have ingredients to make one more dish this week, an Italian recipe I saw on the Food Network.
My goal right now is to make about 2 dishes per week (you know from scratch, vegetables, sides, the whole deal). The rest of the nights I can deal with having simpler things (pre-packaged dinners, frozen meal starters, etc.) or eating out. :)
Posted by Hanna at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Week Re-Cap
I have had about fifteen posts in my head for this past week but somehow none of them ever happened so here's a short recap of the week. :)
Monday: Booked our trip to Prince Edward Island (see picture on the left) for the last week of September. We are staying at a bed & breakfast in Charlottetown. Will be gone Sept. 27th-Oct. 1st. The drive is 12 hours but hey, I love roadtrips. Plus the fall foliage should be really pretty up north by then. :)
Tuesday/Wednesday: Pretty busy at work, the usual after-holiday aftermath so to speak.
Thursday: Work was crazy busy, I was mega short-staffed plus had my driving test to take. Went to take my driving test and yes PASSED. Yay. :) So after the crazy day at work finally ended we went out for a nice dinner at a local steak house. YUMM.
Friday: Another crazy day at work. Again short-staffed, left work for a little while to run to the DMV to actually pick up my license (if you take your test at a driving school they don't issue the license right away but you have to pick it up the next day). Rest of the day was just nutty, trying to cram everything in since we had to leave early. Wanted to leave at 4:30 but finally managed to get out at about 4:50.
And off we went to the Shakira concert in NYC at Madison Square Garden. I have loved Shakira for a long time, long before she was really famous in the US, main stream. So I was excited to finally get to see her live. It was a great show and I really loved all the songs she played. :) After the show we went to a brewpub for a bit and stayed there till a bit after midnight. Got back home at about 1:45 am or so.
Saturday: Didn't get up today till about noon which was nice. Talked to my parents, went grocery shopping and then for a short while to the "Taste of Danbury" ( a local festival that has booths from local restaurants serving foods). The festival wasn't really all this great this year so we just decided to have lunch at one of the nearby restaurants which was yummy.
Been back home for quite a few hours now ... but haven't really done anything besides catch up on my blog reading. I should write some letters too.
Short mail update: Received letters from Tiffani/Texas, Alex/Germany, Lene/UK, Dany/Germany. Sent out a letter to Rebecca/FL and still also owe replies to Nadine/Tenerife and Tiffany/Oklahoma.
Posted by Hanna at 05:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Monday, September 04, 2006
Random Thoughts
And another week has started. It's September. Where does all the time go ? It just flies way too quickly. Well, Happy Labor Day to all my friends here in the US. We didn't really do much for Labor Day though to be honest. :) Got up around 9:30 and I went into work for a few hours to help out. Managed to get out at 2 so it wasn't so bad.
Afterwards watched a bunch of shows on the Food Network. I can get so addicted to these shows. Between yesterday and today I have watched Emeril create all kinds of yummy dishes with garlic, Rachel Ray explore New Orleans and Nigela make Everday Italian food.
I am feeling better and finally getting over that silly cold I was fighting last week. It took me all week but it seems to be finally going away. Last week was just a blurr at work, so busy with the upcoming holiday. Saturday and today weren't so bad at work but I think that was just the calm before the storm for tomorrow. I am bracing myself for what's to come. I am already down 2 people (just the way I had to schedule it) and I see bad things coming up on the horizon....
Short mail update. This weekend wrote letters to Becki/MI, Alison/UK, Hayley/UK, Pamela/FL and Celia/MA. Still owe replies to Tiffany/OK, Nadine/Tenerife and Rebecca/FL.
Posted by Hanna at 06:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack