A trip across the mountains...

I realized I hadn't written anything here in a long time, so due to lack of time today I will show a lot of pictures and write very little. But that's what most people enjoy anyway!!! These are from a trip I took to attend my Sister's college graduation - congratulations to her again!


The trip started with one of Europe's infamous traffic jams - here they call it a "Stau"...


You pass the main ridge of the Alps when you drive to the south of Austria from the north - fresh snow is very likely here in October...


There are 2 long tunnels on the way, here the entry to the first...
(picture taken while driving)


Inside a tunnel...


Austrian gas staion on the way back...

Pictures of my sister's graduation next time!!!

coffee maker...

We got on this subject last time, and I was quite impressed by koz-man's office-style coffee machine he has at home. We have a Melitta MyCup - my boss has one of those and I noticed the coffee actually tastes quite good so I got one about a month ago.



They go for around €100 but I found mine on sale for €59 - another reason to buy. The coffee pads come in a box of 12 in five available flavours from espresso to decaf - the pads are individually wrapped in foil which makes the coffee so much better than the Senseo I used to have where only the first 3 or 4 pads in the 16-pack tasted fresh. The cost for the pads is an average of 17 cents a cup. (that's Euro-cents, if you're keeping score)

I would have rather bought a real espresso machine like this one:



- but they start at about €399 - oh well, one day...

Mocha!

Yesterday was a good day - good for various reasons:
1) Monday is my day off - time to spend with my family.
2) The weather was nice and cool. If you know anything about me, you know I'm REALLY not into hot weather.
3) Hearing about the cool weather forecast, Brenda had one word for me: Mocha!"
Now before you get too excited for us, bear in mind that my first choice for Mochas, Starbucks©, has about 12 locations in Austria, but all of them are in and around Vienna, a 2-plus-hour drive from where we live. So the next best thing - not really a close second - is a place called "The Coffeeshop Company", to which we now have to drive 20 minutes to Linz (Austria's second largest city), since the local franchise sadly closed down. But once we got our hands on that warm paper cup and took the first sip of chocolately caffeinated goodness through that fragile crown of frothy whipped cream topping it didn't really matter that it tasted slightly stale and way, way too sweet - the world for a moment was exactly how it should be. Mocha!

(Attached: The "Coffeeshop Company's" hot drink menu)

hmmm - my first entry here. I feel like I have changed so much this last year. I used to blog at another place - a lot, always with a lot of pictures. I actually had a following ;) Then we moved to Europe, I thought I would be writing a lot, posting lots of pictures of where I am and what we do etc. But moving to another continent, changing careers, making about 1/2 the money as before all while being responsible for a whole family seems to have drained me more that expected. I really don't know what's next in my life. Maybe I'll write a book. You wouldn't know by reading this, but I can actually be eloquent. m-w.com is my friend. I'm just not sure what exactly to write about, so that's a terrible start. I have a lot to write about from my life so far, but how much can you write about without hurting people's feelings and or careers? I would be kidding myself to think I can somehow change all the names and remain anonymous. I hope noone reads this, at least nobody who knows me. But if you do, let me know. And I hope Christmas comes soon.