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Tuesday, May 29, 2018
Memorial Day Weekend
And here we are. Long weekend already gone and over again. Why does time fly by so fast? Oh well. Had a nice 3-day weekend though so no complaints
there. Well the weather could have been a bit nicer but oh well what can you do? Saturday we were close to 90F (32C) with a pretty high humidity. We went wine tasting at Brotherhood Winery and then had lunch outside at Captain Jake's in Newburgh. It's on the riverfront overlooking the Hudson River. You sit in the shade so it was bearable to be outside. Still very humid though. We made the best of it and had a yummy seafood lunch. Later in the evening I did some reading while Mike caught up with some friends at Two Steps.
Sunday the weather was the total opposite. Dreary, rainy, cool and just barely 60F (15C) as the high. So we decided to go to the movies and saw "Solo", the new Star Wars movie. Was an enjoyable and funny movie. I am not usually a huge Star Wars fan but it was a good movie. After the movies we had lunch at 121 in Oxford and then stopped at Rizzuto's to meet up with John & Jana for a bit. So that brings us to Monday. The weather was a bit better on Monday, at least no rain. Temps were supposed to get up to 70F (21C) but I am not sure if they really did. It was overcast and a little damp but we made the best of it and went for a short walk through the trails at the Audubon Society in Fairfield. Everything was super green and super lush, a bit damp but cool and nice in its own way. Had fun walking around for a bit and then went to lunch at Flipside in Fairfield. Later we stopped at Terra at Hotel Zero Degrees in Danbury to check it out. It's pretty close to home and we've been meaning to go since they opened but just never did. Had a good time hanging out for a while. Good Happy Hour too. Then caught up on a few shows on the DVR when we got home.
And well here we are, now it's Tuesday morning and back to reality and work. Ugh. Not sure I am ready for it. I will sip my tea for a bit longer before I have to leave for work. Our cat Mindy has decided to go sit on my lap which is not very motivating either. Guess I will get through it somehow. We will see what the week brings. I am sure it will be busy, no doubt. Now that Memorial Day is over we have officially entered the crazy period at work. :)
Letter/Mail Update: Received letters from/owe replies to: Tiffany/OK.
Posted by Hanna at 07:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Monday, May 21, 2018
Crazy Weather Week
What a crazy week weather-wise. Lots of ups and down in temperatures, a crazy storm and more. Tuesday I had the day off for my orthodontist appointment (was getting the bottom part of my braces put on) and most of the day was actually really nice weather wise. I was done with my appointment around 11.30 and walked to the library to get a few books. Then continued my walk around downtown and decided to have lunch at Pour Me. They have a small patio outside and it was the perfect day for it. Temps were in the 80ies (27C) and it was a great day to sit outside in the shade. Had a delicious salad and some nice strawberry iced tea. After that I walked back and treated myself to an iced caramel macchiato at Barrister's (the coffee shop that opened early in the year) So a really nice afternoon all in all. When I went home I started on some letters. Then around 4.30 is when things went sideways. There were warnings popping up about severe thunderstorms. I didn't think too much of it at the time. Well close to 5 it got really dark and then the sky just opened up. It poured so hard I couldn't see the street, hail, wind, ... All of our windows were rattling and the neighbor's tree next door was bending in all sorts of directions (especially towards our bedroom window) Oh and let's not forget just a few minutes earlier a tornado warning came through on my phone as an emergency alert. It all passed relatively quickly (about 10-15 min.) but holy crap.
But honestly we were pretty lucky in our area. There was one tree down at the end of our street but all in all nothing bad. Large parts of the city and surrounding towns lost power. So many trees down and such destruction. When I looked at the pictures people were posting the next day. Crazy. Certain neighborhoods looked like war zones. The cleanup is going to take quite a while. They were saying that the destruction was maybe even higher than Hurricane Sandy which did quite a bit of damage in our area some years ago. Anyway, definitely a few crazy days.
The weather has been very up and down since then. Over the weekend for example on Saturday it was only in the 50ies (10C) with steady rain. Brrr. But Sunday it was humid and in the mid 70ies (24C) Today it is also supposed to be in the 70ies but tomorrow back down to only 60ies (15C) and rain again. Really just very unstable weather. We will see what next weekend brings. It is still a bit too early to tell. We have a holiday weekend next weekend with Memorial Day so 3 days off. Would be nice to have some decent weather on at least one of the days. Originally we had planned to go to some minor league baseball games on that weekend but we will need to see how it pans out with the weather I think.
This weekend we didn't get to really do anything outside as Saturday was just cold and rainy and miserable. We went to the movies instead and saw "Deadpool". Sunday the weather was nicer but it was very unstable. Sudden downpours, then sunny again, then another downpour a few hours later. Just not very good weather to be planning a longer walk/hike because you never know when it's going to start raining again. We went to Naugatuck to check out a place for brunch (66 Church) which turned out to be pretty decent. We will need to go back again some other time.
Letter/Mail Update: Letters went out this week to: Celia/MA, Eunice/Malta and Lotte/Denmark. Received letters from/owe replies to: Tiffany/OK.
Posted by Hanna at 07:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Monday, May 14, 2018
Eurovision + Mother's Day
And it's already Monday again, a whole week since my flight back to the US from Vienna to JFK last Monday. Where does the time go? The flight back
was relatively uneventful. Some turbulence but nothing too crazy. Immigration took forever but all my luggage arrived safely (nothing broke, spilled, leaked etc -- so that is always a success) Work has been busy since I got back. Pretty much a combination of trying to catch up from being away as well as just the busier summer months looming just around the corner. You can definitely feel the "summer craziness" as we head towards Memorial Day (end of this month) - the unofficial start of summer in the US.
This past weekend on Saturday we went to the movies in the morning to see the new Avengers Infinity War movie. I wasn't so sure at first if I liked it (to be fair I am not usually a big super hero fan to begin with) but having let some days pass and looking back at it I did kind of like it. I guess I am curious to see where it all leads in the next installment. After the movies I headed home to watch the Eurovision Song Contest. Not something that is really popular here in the US but something I grew up with in Europe so it is sort of a nostalgic thing. It started at 3pm here (9pm in Europe) so I spent the afternoon watching it. Austria took third place which was very surprising but in a good way of course. Israel won, Cyprus took 2nd and Germany was 4th (also surprising as Germany hasn't done very well in recent years) After Eurovision I puttered around for a bit, straightened out some stuff and then read some more of my latest Teashop Mystery book (finished it Sunday morning)
Sunday we slept in (the weather really was not very nice) and then headed to lunch at Rosy's. It was pretty busy there due to Mother's Day (happy belated Mother's Day to all the moms out there and most of all mine of course) After lunch we headed back home and caught up on some recorded shows. Got a bit behind since I haven't been around for two weekends so we had a lot to catch up on. A lot of the season finales are coming up now so at least we will be able to catch up with some stuff over the coming weeks/months before the new seasons start in the fall.
Letter/Mail Update: Letters went out last Tuesday to: Nina/WA and Kimber/Canada. Received letters from/owe replies to: Celia/MA, Eunice/Malta, Lotte/Denmark and Tiffany/OK.
Posted by Hanna at 07:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Sunday, May 06, 2018
Goodbye Europe ... until we meet again
And here we are. It's my last night in Europe. My flight leaves tomorrow at 10.40 from
Vienna. Catching the train from St. Poelten at 6.32 so I need to get up at 5. Not particular fun but hey it is what it is, right?
Friday I had my hair appointment and spent a good amount of that day at the hairdresser. But hey I am not complaining. It gave me a chance to read some more chapters of my book (reading the latest Laura Childs Tea Shop Mystery book) and the end result turned out beautiful as always. There is a reason that I end up only getting my hair colored here at my hairdresser in Austria who I trust explicitly. She takes care of my fragile hair and the colors always turn out beautiful and last for ages. The best of all words really.
Saturday I went into Vienna and the day just flew by. Managed to stop at the post office to mail a few things and met up with four friends that day, three in Vienna (Johannes, Lydia & Claudia) as well as one in St. Poelten (Anneliese) Was great seeing everybody and catching up. The weather was pretty decent as well and cleared up as the day went on as well. Walked around a lot, had some delicious food and drinks, and just fun hanging out with friends.
Today, Sunday, I spent most of the morning packing up everything. Always a bit of a challenge when there are a lot of souvenirs coming home. But my mom helped with bubble wrapping all the more fragile things (like bottles of wine, olive oil, etc.) and hopefully everything will work out ok. For lunch we ordered from an Italian place in the next town over. Had some pizza delivered as well as some delicious pork cutlets wrapped in ham and cheese in a white wine sauce with rice. Yum.
Then later in the afternoon my aunt stopped by and we took advantage of the nice weather and sat outside in the garden for a while. Afterwards I went to see my great uncle (he's almost 94) Always nice to see him. When I got back I watched some TV with my mom. We found a nice TV movie to watch. And well now it's time for bed since I need to get up at 5am.
So my next post will be back from the US, most likely next weekend. Hopefully by then I will have shaken most of the jetlag. Always the most dreaded part. At least getting up in the morning and going to work is not bad but once the afternoon hits I am more or less done.
Letter/Mail Update: Received letters from/owe replies to: Celia/MA, Eunice/Malta, Lotte/Denmark, Nina/WA, Kimber/Canada and Tiffany/OK.
Posted by Hanna at 04:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Thursday, May 03, 2018
Hello from Austria :)
And just like that it's already Thursday. We drove back from Croatia to Austria yesterday. Managed to make it ok with the rental car and all worked out so that's good. We had to make the drive in one way in order to return the rental car on time but everything ended up working out ok. We left the resort a bit after noon and arrived back at the house around 8.30pm so not so bad.
Today my dad and I returned the car in Voesendorf (near Vienna) and picked up a different car he can use until his own car arrives back from Croatia. After that we also stopped at a grocery store so I was able to stock up on some supplies (soup mixes, chocolates, candy and whatnot) Always a necessity. :)
Once we returned back to St. Georgen we decided to go for lunch and I had some delicious Fritatten Soup as well as Cordon Bleu. Yum.
Tomorrow I have my hairdresser appointment at 8am and then we will see what the rest of the day brings. Saturday I am heading into Vienna to meet up with my some friends. And Sunday is already my last day here. Sunday I think my aunt is going to stop by and I also want to make sure to see my great uncle before I leave. Oh and my friend Anneliese who lives close by. Always so many people to see and such little time. Same story every time.
Of course this whole trip has flown by but what can you do? Can't say that it has been perfectly smooth but I guess things have worked themselves out and I have been able to make the most of everything. Well I better close here because I am sitting outside and I keep hearing thunder in the distance so I think it might only be a matter of time before the rain comes pouring down. Will try and update one more time before I leave Europe if possible. :)
Letter/Mail Update: Received letters from/owe replies to: Nina/WA, Kimber/Canada and Tiffany/OK.
Posted by Hanna at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tuesday, May 01, 2018
Croatian Adventures Part 2
So it's Tuesday already and I leave Europe next week Monday so less than a week to go.
Time is flying as usual. We leave Croatia tomorrow already. It's been a bit of a turbulent stay here but making the best of it. Saturday after lunch we ended up in a minor accident on the way back into the resort. We are all fine, nobody hurt, but the car didn't fare quite as well. Damage on the driver's side, the hood, headlight, rim, etc. The car was sort of driveable but it was making all sorts of bad noises because the driver's door was shifted as well. So my dad ended up having the car towed. It was brought to a local garage and is now being transported back to Austria by OAMTC (the Austrian version of AAA) We will now receive a rental car that was also organized by OAMTC to drive back to Austria tomorrow.
So it's been a few turbulent days. Getting things organized and set up. Also no car now so was only able to stay around the area which has worked out ok though because there are a few restaurants, bars as well as a small market in the area around the resort. So been making the best of it as much as possible. The weather has been beautiful. A lot of days up to 75F and even slightly more (23C) Yesterday it was only 70F (21C) and today a little less (around 18C) and a bit cloudy. But most of the time here the weather has been absolutely beautiful. So really no complaints. Especially compared to the way the weather was when I left Connecticut.
Yesterday on the walk back from lunch we stopped by a street vendor who was selling local products. So I bought some acadia honey and infused oil (with rosemary, peppers and garlic). Always nice to have some local items to bring back. And especially nice considering that we weren't able to drive anywhere so I was happy that we came across that stand. Was also able to get some postcards at the mini market at the resort. Just no souvenirs (magnets or key chains or whatnot) to bring back for people. But oh well, that's ok. I can always pick up something in Vienna when I am there on Saturday.
Alright I will close here for today. Will see how the rest of this trip develops. Fingers crossed. :)
Letter/Mail Update: Received letters from/owe replies to: Nina/WA, Kimber/Canada and Tiffany/OK.
Posted by Hanna at 04:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)