Adventures of Patricia, Brian and Riley

Thanksgiving in DC

2012-01-28T10:37:00.000-07:00

We got to spend Thanksgiving in Washington, D.C. in 2011. Some relaxation in a hotel, no worries about cooking or cleaning, I say an annual event please! We did the typical tourist attractions and the kids were great and didn't mind all the walking. We started at the Lincoln Memorial and trekked to almost everything in the area - the White House, Jefferson Memorial, Roosevelt Memorial and MLK Jr Memorial. We even tried Texas BBQ in DC, not bad east coast, not bad. I did, however, learn that pecan pie is NOT pecan pie where we ate for Thanksgiving. If there isn't a thick layer of goo goodness, then it's just a pecan tart, blah.

Riley, Grandma, and Shaelyn

Brian, Shaelyn, Me, Riley and Abe the Vampire Hunter

Thanksgiving Dinner

Why won't you pose Riley?

Milk in the ear please

Washington Memorial - anyone see that crack?

Sun in the eyes

Almost at the Jefferson Memorial.....not really

Big Boy Jefferson

Roosevelt and his little dog too

Newly opened MLK Jr Memorial

My poor attempt at planking outside the National Aquarium

Mount Vernon

Making sure the grass is up to par

Dad's 60th Birthday Bash

2011-11-30T20:44:00.001-07:00

My Dad celebrated a very big Birthday milestone last month. Laura and I had planned a surprise party for Dad's big 6-0. We almost made it to the party without him finding out, but a little mishap let it slip the weekend before, oh well, we tried. Thankfully, Dad had no idea Riley and I would be there, so when he walked in he was still really surprised. Everyone had a great time and we had about 40 people show up to celebrate!! Thanks to everyone who helped, we couldn't have done it without you! Seeing everyone at the party from my childhood made me really homesick, but in a good way.

Dad's Record Player Cake by Gigi

Me, Dad and Aunt Cheryl (wow I hope I age as awesome as these 2!)

Aunt Laura and Riley

Me, Riley and Aunt Laura

Party People!!

Did I mention the Razorback game was on too?

Uncle Ryan giving Riley a ride

Can't go to Baba's house without getting your new cast stuck in the pool table!

Bed jumping with Sooie

Bed jumping with Porkchop

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

2011-11-30T20:27:00.001-07:00

We were suppose to go camping with some friends the weekend of Halloween, but it decided to snow. Darn :) I am trying to be more outdoorsy and like camping, but lets just say a last minute change of plans to go to Cleveland to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was awesome! Definitely something I have always wanted to do and as a rock and roll music lover, it's one of the coolest things to visit. Riley did so well, guess we will pass on the love of rock and roll forever!!

Pyramid = Rock and Roll, duh

Hot Dog from the Phish tour

Misc Hanging cars probably from another tour

Well, you get the idea

Riley posing with his future instrument

An up and coming Beatles's fan!

Hand-holding camera pose, not bad

Johnny Cash's tour bus

Halloween

2011-11-02T20:51:00.000-06:00

I attempted to make costumes again for Halloween.

Things I have learned during this endeavor:

Procrastination does not work for costume making, so I ran out of time and didn't get to make my costume.
I cannot sew well by hand, get a sewing machine.
A hot glue gun is a good friend.
Need an airbrushed abs onesie? Pittsburgh has 3 specialty air brush stores, who knew!

Riley as.....SPARTACUS! (or a Gladiator for those who don't know Spartacus)

Trying out the double sword fighting

Batiatus and his slave Spartacus

Music time with Teddy

Ending the night hanging out with zombie baby

Rollercoaster Time!

2011-10-27T13:33:00.001-06:00

Pittsburgh has it's very own amusement park: Kennywood. We got to all go this summer for Brian's company picnic. We were pretty worried that Riley would be too scared to ride anything. But, boy were we WRONG! This kid loved every ride and asked for more almost every time. Sometimes, we had a hard time getting him off the ride. We ended the day with a nice splash from the log ride (twice) - well just Riley (don't worry we waited as close as we could while staying dry). Here's my 2nd attempt at imovie, slowly improving my video editing skills...slowly.

Willie and Ji Young's Wedding Weekend Part 1

2011-10-25T21:02:00.000-06:00

We got to go home last month for Willie and Ji Young's wedding. They decided to be crazy and asked Riley to be their ring bearer. So we got to be part of the wedding which was really cool for me. Willie and I have been friends since high school and I definitely consider him a close friend. Ji Young is one of the nicest girls I have met and I couldn't be happier for both of them!

Now, here's the thing: I had to ensure a 2 year-old would make it down the aisle (which he didn't) so we have no pictures of the wedding and then we realized we only had the video camera and not the camera - so no reception pictures either. I also had to stand outside with Riley for him to walk through the door and walk down the aisle, and then I had to run back inside and walk into the ballroom at the Peabody to see if he made it. Well, what do you think happened? I am not sure either, but in the 15-20 seconds I was gone Riley had managed to steal the show and stall the wedding. Apparently he did a partial walk with the flower girls and then decided it would be more fun to lay on the floor and try out a new dance spin/move.

Luckily it was funny to everyone (minus me who was hoping for a perfect performer, idiot mom.) and a great laugh. I did get to see the video, but blogspot won't let me post videos - any advice for that fellow bloggers? Anywho, I am learning how to get a still picture from video and that will have to wait until another post.

L-R: Ji Young, Me, Willie, Sylvia and Dao

Brian and I

L-R: Me, Shren, Muhammad, Sylvia and Dao

L-R: Ross, Shren, Muhammad and Me

The Caviness Clan (almost a Riley smile)

The boys

Dad and Riles

Riley's 2nd Birthday

2011-08-02T19:56:00.005-06:00

Thomas, Thomas, Thomas. The theme for his 2nd birthday went off a HUGE success. Brian took on the feat of making him a train table and we got a bunch of new Thomas the Train tracks, trains, puzzles, bath toys, etc. etc. etc. I am going to bleed blue here pretty soon. I thought that Riley would be too young for the train table, but everytime he went down for a nap or bedtime he would ask me about choo-choo, and go running to the table to play when he woke up.

Laura, Baba (my Dad), Grandma and Shaelyn all came into town to celebrate his birthday. Baba and Laura hadn't seen him since November so it was nice to have us all together. I also learned for maybe the 10th time to NOT wake up Riley from a nap. You would think I would have learned this by now, but each time I say, maybe this time he won't be cranky.....WRONG. Oh well, he still had fun, just not without some mini-tantrums. Sorry Riley, that was my fault.

North Carolina Beach Trip - June

2011-08-02T19:50:00.005-06:00

Riley and I got to go visit Grandma and Papa in Raleigh before I started my new job. Grandma was nice enough to take me (well more for Riley) to the beach for the weekend while we were there. I am a beach person for sure, while Brian is the mountain person. Riley which parent will you vacation with when you are older?

Riley LOVED the ocean. He pretty much loves water in general. We got him one of those swimsuits where he can float in the water and he has learned to jump off the edge and diving boards by himself now. Meanwhile his head isn't getting far enough away from the edge/board to ensure me that we won't be visiting the ER soon.

Anthrocon 2011

2011-06-24T12:06:00.003-06:00

Riley and I were at the park today and ran into some interesting characters. There was a limo and out came about 5 people dressed up as animals (dogs, cat, fox, cheetah). They were playing with the kids and Riley was a having a blast. I asked someone what this was for and the guy said 'Anthrocon'. What is this awesomeness you ask? Direct from www.anthrocon.org:

"Anthrocon is the world's largest convention for those fascinated with anthropomorphic, which are humanlike animal characters"

Anthrocon 2011 is going in Pittsburgh this weekend. That was definitely NOT what I was expecting. It just made my day, and Riley's!

Playtime with Daddy

2011-06-07T21:54:00.008-06:00

Since it has slowed down on the raining here, we have been exploring the city and finding great parks and water fountains. Oh yeah, and we found the Hofbrauhaus! Brian and I went to the one in Munich and were very excited to find one here in Pittsburgh.

A little 3-shot series of Riley getting thrown in the air.

And he's airborne folks!

Nothing like running through water on a hot day.

I think he could have done this for hours.

Cheers: Play hard, and get rewarded with 1 L beers, or water :(

Mother's Day

2011-05-10T11:19:00.003-06:00

Another Mother's Day and it still feels weird that I am a mom. I do, however, enjoy the benefits of Mother's Day. Homemade brunch, massage, time by myself to go shopping. Oh yeah, I did spend some time with the kiddo too.

Crab cakes with hollandaise, seared scallions, poached eggs and toast
(someone please tell me the secret to proper lighting for food pictures)

Riley and I enjoying the fruits of Daddy's labor

Some park time with Janna and Teddy.
The boys had fun, but not willing to show us

Trying to look nice, before heading our for a dinner barbeque

Easter in West Virginia

2011-05-10T11:05:00.004-06:00

Rob and Janna let us tag along on Easter to Janna's family get-together in West Virginia. We had just moved into town the weekend before so it was nice to have somewhere to go. What does a little country mean on Easter?

If you smile, you will get a present.

Ok, not too bad

Riley's first Easter basket/bucket

Tractors (Teddy steering)

Flowers on the hill

4-wheeling of course!

And Easter egg hunt, Riley made out with $8.60!

Last Hike in Colorado

2011-05-10T10:18:00.005-06:00

We went on a hike with Annabelle, Brian, Sophie and Sarah for our last outing in Colorado in April. Apparently with 2 cameras we didn't manage any pictures of the group together or any evidence we were with anyone. The really awesome pictures below (3 out of the 6, you'll know which ones) will be our proof. There is no way that Brian or I have a camera nice enough to take them. Thanks Annabelle for the pictures. We went to El Dorado Canyon, I don't know why we never went there before since it's only 15 mins from our place. Oh well, too many things to do in Denver when you're dead.

Daddy and mini-me time

Contemplating just throwing him into the water

At the beginning of the hike, doing good

No more baby, all toddler

The most awesome pose ever

Hike a baby to sleep

Wait, I found one!

Sophie and Riley

Pittsburgh

2011-04-19T19:53:00.003-06:00

We made it to Pittsburgh last week. Even got to stop by Sara and Jason's house in Kansas City. I definitely have toy envy. Grandma took Riley to Raleigh and was nice enough to bring him to Pittsburgh. Free child pick-up and delivery....priceless. I don't believe I am about to say this, but the 3-day, 24-hour drive wasn't that bad. Yes, I am officially crazy and somehow the Stepp family has turned me into a road warrior? Nah, but I survived it. Thanks to all who called and let me chat with you during the cross-country trip. It's cloudy and rainy here, officially back in the midwest or near-east?

So, officially, this is Riley's 4th place to live before he is 2. Not counting the month we lived with grandparents. Hopefully, we will get him a permanent home soon. Poor kid, his parents are apparently gypsies after living in Prague.

Oliver the Cat

2011-03-11T15:17:00.003-07:00

I kept joking around that Oliver is just waiting until Riley is old enough so that they can play together. Looks like Oliver doesn't want to wait anymore and was playing with Riley today. What kind of cat lets a toddler hug him, push him, and put puzzle pieces on him without running away? A SPECIAL kitty (you know what kind of 'special' I am talking about).

Oliver awakes from his mid-day nap with puzzle time

Riley's favorite game "More, More, More"

Pittsburgh bound

2011-03-06T14:42:00.005-07:00

So, not that this blog stays up to date or anything, but I thought it necessary to at least post that we are moving to Pittsburgh next month. Brian got a job in Pittsburgh and so we are headed to a new city. It's crazy to move AGAIN, but we are hoping this one might be permanent. Thankfully we have our friends from Chicago, Rob and Janna, in town so we at least know people there. And their son, Teddy, is the same age as Riley so he has a friend too. But it will be sad to leave all our friends we have met in Colorado and the phenomenal weather here. The heat index here in the summer is LOWER than the actual temperature. That was so great, I cannot even explain how awesome that is, since we both come from the south and crazy hot humid summers.

Riley is quite the traveler, before he turns 2 he will have lived in 2 countries, 3 states, 4 different homes and been to 8 states. I just want to assure my European friends that we are NOT gypsies.

Some pictures of what we will definitely miss here in Colorado:

This cute little monkey, Jacob. Also his parents, Dana and Paul

Riley's besty, Ajna. And her parents too: Eric and Teresa

Brian's cousin and her husband: Bobby and Serena (yes, we will even miss Bobby)

Brian's cousin Amy and Serena's little boy, Jacob.

And the mountains

Definitely, going to miss the mountains.

Bye Rockies, microbreweries, Boulder, Pearl Street entertainers, agave nectar, Gluten-free everything, quinoa, 14ers and Krista (where are the pictures?)!

San Francisco

2011-03-06T14:26:00.004-07:00

We went out to San Francisco in January to visit my brother, Kristy and my cutie nephew, Melvin. Of course I took most of my pictures with my phone (so stupid) and my apple doesn't like my phone so I can't upload my pictures. If anyone knows how to get an apple to recognize an LG vortex, please tell me. It was so much fun to have Riley and Melvin play together since they are only 9 months apart, and the last time they were together Riley was only 6 months old. My brother lives right by Golden Gate Park so we got tons of outdoor time (absolutely necessary with 2 boys). I took Riley to the Academy of Sciences and tried to explain nanotechnology and the theory of relativity. He understood all of it while only wanting to stare at the fishies underneath him and playing(eating) with artificial snow. Genius material right here folks. They actually came to visit us 2 weeks later, lots of good cousin time for the boys!

Riley hanging out with Bella, James and Kristy's oldest kid

Cousins holding hands and being cute between toy fights

And.....

What happens when Dad gets to hang out with Riley?

Some nice finger tattoos: "Ozzy", next up we are teaching him the lyrics to "Mama, I'm coming home"

Christmas 2010

2011-02-14T21:02:00.003-07:00

Christmas in February, that's the way I like to post apparently. I know I took pictures at Christmas (Brian's family came to visit), but apparently not on my camera and since my new phone doesn't want to sync with my apple these are the only pictures I can find for now. The last ditch effort for a Christmas card. Not near as awesome as last year.

Ok, kid, tree, box, almost there.

Clothes optional.

Come on Oliver get in the box. Wardrobe change for Riley.

Good, now Elliot is trying it out.

And bam! Pissed off Riley in the box, Oliver out of the box,
and Elliot too mad to be anywhere near these two. Merry Christmas!

Riley and Ba Ba get a haircut together

2011-01-03T16:56:00.003-07:00

While we were home for Thanksgiving my Dad took Riley with him to get their haircut at his barbershop. My dad has gone to Lee for as long as I can remember, so this was cute to see him cut 2 generations of Caviness'. Riley behaved VERY well during the haircut and we finally figure out why. We have started using our cat spray bottle at home to prevent Riley from getting into things. You know, just a 'gentle' squirt, when 'No' isn't working. Lee has a similar water bottle, so maybe the constant spraying of his face kept him still :)

Kiddo Playdate

2011-01-03T16:42:00.003-07:00

A lot of my friends back home have kiddos, so we thought we would try a playdate over at Emily's mom's house. There were babies and toddlers everywhere and no meltdowns! Of course we made poor Sara come over at 9am even though she has no kid alarm clock like the rest of us.

Discovering a rocking chair

The twin troublemakers with their matching Razorback hoodies. Well, they were both looking in the same place at least.

Presley and Sophie hanging out.

Every kids favorite activity - getting in the toy box.

Group Shot

Thanksgiving in Little Rock

2011-01-03T16:29:00.002-07:00

My official last day at work was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. So I extended our vacation home and stayed for a week. You would think I had more pictures to prove this, but it did not happen. Also, with all this new 'free' time since I am not working, I thought I would update the blog more....again, it did not happen. I must be the most inefficient stay at home mom (or I have a typical boy who is constantly getting into EVERYTHING and doesn't like to nap). Hopefully my job search will be more successful now that the holidays are over and I can go back to work! Here are the few pics I got.

Aunt Laura helping Riley grab a balloon at Grandpa's (Ba Ba) house.

GREAT SUCCESS!

My Aunt Cheryl and my cousin, Christine, came to visit! Can you tell they are the short ones in the family :) ?

Riley's 1 year pictures - 3 months late

2010-10-25T21:46:00.006-06:00

Well, once again I am behind on putting up pictures that I meant to put up months ago. Riley got his 1 year pictures taken and my nice brain already convinced me that I had put them up on the blog. See you don't even need Leo to come into your dreams for inception, you can make it do it all by itself and then make yourself forget you even implanted the thought. My inception wisdom just for all of you. Anyways, here are Riley's 1 year pictures and some day I might even remember to put up some old vacation pictures - maybe.

Cooking on the side

2010-09-20T20:51:00.005-06:00

In my spare time, well what's left of it, I like to cook and do some occasional baking. I have been trying to take pictures to remember what I have tried. Turns out there is a whole art to photographing food, which I have not mastered AT ALL, but here's worth trying:

Ribeye steak with heirloom tomato relish

Baked tofu nuggets

Chive dumplings (Aunt's recipe from Taiwan)

Baked chinese eggplant with chili and coriander chutney

And frito chili pie of course! (apparently Brian never had it before - SAY WHAT?)

1st haircut

2010-08-15T22:38:00.003-06:00

Riley was overdue for his 1st haircut, but I was stalling because I didn't want to cut my baby's hair off. All that hair was me clinging onto him still being a baby, but we have ventured into toddlerhood. So I relented and let Brian use his clippers and buzz away. Riley was very good throughout seeing that this weekend was chock full of cutting molars, skipping naps and meltdowns in numerous public places.

Before.....

After!

Now, do we look even more like daddy or???

Riley turns 1

2010-08-15T22:16:00.006-06:00

Riley had his big 1st birthday on July 30, and we had a party the next day. We had been on a family vacation (pictures someday) with Grandma and cousin Shaelyn exploring the mountains of Colorado. We came back to prepare for the big 1 for Mr. Riles. We were very lucky and had a bunch of family come in town and some neighbors come celebrate with us. I found a cooking blog where the lady did a Dr. Seuss theme for her son's birthday. She was very creative and I decided to take some ideas, but by no means could recreate her awesomeness. I did keep the Thing 1 and Thing 2 theme by using red and blue with some green eggs and ham too. Rhyming also helps.

Riley posing with all of his gifts.

His birthday cake was from another blog and was a 2-layer yellow cake with chocolate icing covered in M&Ms and surrounded by Kit Kats. Cake from scratch, icing courtesy of Duncan Hines.

Green eggs and ham: Ham and cheese melts, green deviled eggs and a fruit salad for balance.

Riley trying out his new wheely bug from Aunt Laura and Grandpa Keith. Anyone have grandpa nickname suggestions??

Opening up gifts and the one shot where he was actually paying attention

Turns out Riley didn't want to make a mess in front of everyone, so I missed that classic messy face shot at the 1st birthday. He just wanted to eat his M&Ms one by one off the cake.

Some silly string fun

Brian's cousin Serena and her son Jacob came to party

Our neighbors brought Riley's girlfriend for the party. Cousin Shaelyn and Brian's cousin Amy in the middle.

3 generations of Stepps

Riley's Expressions

2010-07-05T22:32:00.008-06:00

I have been trying to figure out how to use iMovie on my new Mac. Haven't really figured out everything, which may be due to me not sitting down and spending some one on one time with my Mac. Well blogger said to upload it to youtube (as a private video) and then put it on here. I am not sure how the quality will turn out, but here goes nothing. These were some pictures that Grandma took of Riley back in May. I also have some water damage on my camera so I have been using my phone to take pictures and video, but Blackberry and Apple don't seem to play nice and I can't get them off of my phone other than to facebook. Oh technology, how I hate you.

Well, it looks like it cut the video on the right - cutting off some of the photos. If anyone knows how to fix that, PLEASE help me!

First Mother's Day

2010-06-14T22:17:00.008-06:00

For my first Mother's Day, Grandma came into town to visit and help out. Now some people might not be so excited for your mother-in-law to come visit, but I am completely the opposite. I have hands-down the greatest mother-in-law. She even slept in Riley's room and got up each day with him so we could remember what it was like to sleep past 6:30am! It was a sad day, because I only lasted until 9:30, seriously? I used to sleep until 11 on the weekends. Oh long gone are those days. We went down to Colorado Springs to visit Cousin Serena (yep, Brian has 10 1st cousins), Bobby and their son, Jacob. We got to go check out the Cave of the Winds and some pretty awesome mountain views. Funny, none of our cave pics really turned out, bad lighting maybe?

Riley and Grandma outside of the caves

Riley and Jacob playing human sandwich

"The Thing" by King Chef's Diner as seen on Food Network: 2 texas toasts, 2 eggs, 2 potatoes, sausage, cheese and green chili. Brian made the clean plate club and so did I (but I had the 1/4 thing)

View from the Cave of the Winds

The weekend was finished with a night at The Melting Pot. A personal favorite of mine but I mistakenly let Grandma give Riley a whole apple dumpling (whose sauce had Mountain Dew in it) and he ended the night with his very first sugar crash.

Headed back to the South

2010-06-14T21:46:00.000-06:00

We made a quick trip to Hendersonville, NC back in April to see family. Unfortunately, it was due to a funeral, Brian's 2nd cousin, Phil, passed away. Despite the circumstance of the trip, it was nice to see family. Brian has such a huge extended family that after 10 years together I am STILL meeting new family! Lucky for Riley he has 2 full sets of great-grandparents on Brian's side and we got to show them how much Riley has grown since November. And all of Esther's sisters were there too! It is so great to be a part of such a huge family, maybe they will adopt our small little Caviness clan :)

Riley and Cousin (princess) Cristi hanging out for the first time (4th cousin?)

Riley the flirt with Cristina, Cristi's momma (3rd cousin?)

The Hoots' Sisters (Grandma's sisters)

Phil's parents - Dot and Elmer with Aunt Eileen and Cristi

(great, great-aunt and uncle and great-aunt???)

Hanging out with Grandpa

Riley's Easter Pictures

2010-05-10T20:44:00.000-06:00

Well we didn't make it to the mall to get Easter bunny pictures this year, Riley please forgive us. However, I did find a pretty sweet Cuban inspired Easter outfit. Our friend, Denny, was kind enough to do a photo shoot for Riley's Easter pictures. It's always nice to have friends with awesome jobs, who don't mind doing some favors for friends.

Razorback Pride!

2010-05-01T21:18:00.000-06:00

I figured it was time to post about something other than Riley. Back in the fall, Ryan (my sister's boyfriend, practically husband....hint hint to anyone who is reading), became the Razorback Football Fan of the Century. We were even in town and went to tailgate for the game where he won and beat out everyone else nominated. The Razorbacks are celebrating 100 years of sports and nominated people for Fan of the Century in every sport. Last weekend, all the winners went up to Fayetteville to see who would be the Razorback Fan of the Century. Well, Ryan didn't get the ultimate fan, but he still won the Football category, which let's face it, is the biggest one as we are concerned! Woo Pig Sooie (yeah I still enjoy saying it)!!!

He still got a pretty sweet trophy for Football Fan of the Century!

Everyone up at Fayetteville celebrating last weekend

They were even nice and found my name on the sidewalk. I never got back up to Fayetteville to see my name so Laura took a picture for me. Pretty cool, but who is this other Caviness stealing my thunder??

Emily and Presley's Visit

2010-04-12T21:44:00.000-06:00

Emily and Presley came to visit over the weekend. The last time Emily and I saw each other was at our high school reunion with no children. Ah, how life has changed. What did we do? Why entertain our children of course. Now hanging out consists of moms planning their day for babies and nap times. We did get afternoon hang out sessions while the kiddos slept and luckily both of them went to bed early. It was great to hang out and Presley and Riley had a lot of fun together.

Contemplating their great escape

Trying to calm Riley down since he has an aversion to the stroller. Presley was always the lady and offered Riley her hand any time he freaked out in the car, which was often.

Enjoying some tapas together in their mouths and on the floor

Posing at a scenic spot before one of the moms (maybe me) freaks out when she thought her baby was going to fall off the rock

What a great weekend, we miss our buddies already!

The All-Mighty Harvey!

2010-04-12T21:19:00.000-06:00

My friend Sara Harvey designed a t-shirt for the All-Mighty clothing line. It was so popular that it was also on a new Paramore video: http://www.paramore.net/video/the-only-exception-2/

Well, Riley and I just HAD to have our own of course.

Team Harvey!

Riley Scooting Around and Frozen Dead Guy Days

2010-03-09T22:23:00.000-07:00

Riley decided to get a little mobile tonight. How do you get your baby to scoot on the floor? Entice him with an electrical cord like every good parent would. Well, I tried toys, but of course they are of no interest. Here's a short video (now that we have a computer to download our video to). Expect to see a lot more video now that I am getting around to seeing the past 7 months of video we have taken.

This past weekend was the annual Frozen Dead Guy Days in Nederland. Yes, that's the celebration of a frozen dead guy that the family has cryogenically frozen so they can bring him back to life (Oh man, good luck with that!). We wanted to go see the dead guy, but they were charging $25 - ha ha. We went up for our first Colorado festival with our friend Krista. We got to see the Hearse Parade, coffin races, the largest rice krispy treats ever and of course Rocky Mountain Oysters. Here is a video of ALL of us trying it.

Melvin and Riley FINALLY meet!

2010-03-07T21:09:00.000-07:00

James, Kristy and Melvin (brother and fam) came to visit a couple weeks ago. It was so great to get to see James and Kristy since I haven't seen them since before we went to Prague. And of course, the best part, we FINALLY got to meet Melvin in person. I have been fortunate to video chat with him, but not to squeeze and spoil him like a proper Aunt should! What a cutie and he knows sign language! I would tickle him and he would sign for "more", I about died! He could sign "please" and "thank you" and way more that I can't remember. Brian and James got to go skiing on Saturday, while Kristy and I caught up and played "let's take turns putting a kid down for a nap". Melvin and Riley got to take swimming lessons together and we all went out for Brian's birthday. I think me turning 30 this year won't be so bad since Brian is 32 and now a well-established 30-something man.

I was hoping Melvin would help Riley figure out the whole crawling thing, but it was a dud. Actually, after seeing a 15 month-old boy, I think I would like Riley to stay immobile for A LOT longer. Man, those toddlers can move and grab! Poor Elliot and Oliver had to eat while Melvin was sleeping because he loved to try and 'help' with their bowls. We are also really looking forward to the cousins being best friends since they are only 9 months apart!

James and Melvin hanging out celebrating Brian's BIG 32

Brian's best pose for the camera

Aunt Kristy giving Riley some lovin' and Riley giving his signature weirdo pose

The women minority, now the boys have the edge

Update

2010-02-25T21:40:00.001-07:00

Well, I keep meaning to post some new pictures and video and haven't gotten around to it. So I will just type a quick update until I get around to the extras this weekend. Riley has officially got a pediatrician that we will be seeing more than once now that we are settled in one place for at least a year or two. I knew he was skinny, but it's always funny to get it confirmed by a professional. Riley is 29 inches (97%) and 16 lbs 11 oz (21%). That's right people, the tall and skinny has manifested at 6 months of age. Actually, I noticed it back in December when we weighed him at the Health Dept. I am now officially surrounded at home by guys who can eat whatever they want and not gain any weight. Awesome!

Oh yeah, and I am officially employed! Woo-hoo! I got a job as a Scientist for a start-up company in Boulder called InDevR. I am working on an instrument called a Virus Counter, that they designed and just launched this month. It's great so far and it's really nice to work in a small company. Now, if I can just get my science talk back and get rid of the baby talk I did for 6 months. Brian is still trucking along as a post-doc at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

I got an iMac and will finally get to view and edit all of our videos of Riley that we haven't gotten to see because our old laptops couldn't even process the HD video. So that is my project for the weekend - 6 months of video to go through. I have a feeling I might not get to all of it.

Riley 1st Christmas

2010-02-04T22:53:00.000-07:00

Wow, I uploaded these pictures and forgot to post them on the blog. Here it is February and I am posting Riley's 1st Christmas....bad mom. Laura and Dad came up for a week for Christmas. Dad got us Beatles' Rock Band and we jammed like the Partridge Family.

Santa Riley giving/eating Grandpa's gift.

Santa Riley ripping some paper. I was hoping for the crazy laughing baby like on youtube, but he was more interested in getting it into his mouth like a normal baby.

Oliver and Dad reuniting together on the couch (they are trying to act like they didn't miss each other). Oliver got to spend about 3 months with Dad while we were coming back from Prague and driving to Little Rock and they bonded. Bonded in fact so much I now have a cat who WANTS our attention!

Aunt Laura playing with Santa Riley.....SO cute!

Riley visiting Santa for the 1st time at the Bass Pro Shop.

Rocky Mountain National Park

2010-01-11T22:23:00.001-07:00

My Dad and Sister, Laura, came to visit for Christmas. We went one day to the Rocky Mountain National Park and tried to do a driving tour. Turns out a major portion of the park is closed from October to June due to dangerous driving conditions. Well, we still got to see some pretty amazing mountains at about a 2 mile elevation. It's only about an hour drive, and once we got to Estes Park there were Elk on the side of the road. We were wondering why people were just pulled over on the side of the road or stopped in the middle of the road at some places.

When do you notice that you are 2 miles above sea level? When you try to climb up some rocks to get a great shot with the mountains in the distance.

We end with a "My 2 Dads" shot. Riley decided to start up the screaming while in the car seat again while my Dad and Sister were in town. After the hour long ride in the back seat to and from the park Laura and I needed a break and switched places with Dad and Brian after dinner. Isn't it cute seeing the men in the back seat with the baby for a change? :)

Christmas Card Outtakes

2010-01-11T16:59:00.000-07:00

I had this great idea for a Christmas card (I know, I know, this is kinda a late post) and got lucky that it worked out as funny as I thought it would. I was worried I would have to make the reindeer costumes but I got lucky and found them at Target, exactly 2 left. The final card was done at Sam's and they don't let you save the image, but we did one for ourselves at the end with the same picture. The cats were great sports for letting us torture them and didn't get too upset with Riley yanking on their reigns. Ho, Ho, Ho, here are some outtakes from our camera:

2009-12-19T21:00:00.000-07:00

A little vacay in Little Rock to see some old friends and get ready for Thanksgiving. First, Laura threw Riley and me a baby shower. Then we hit up Seth's birthday party, and had some Thanksgiving fun. We were able to have a nice size Thanksgiving because Brian's parents came to spend the holiday with us and then help us move out to Boulder, CO.

Thank you Target for carrying some sweet baby urban clothes. It's hard to see but Riley is trying to show you his t-shirt labeling him as a Pink Floyd fan just like his Daddy. His cousin Melvin donated a sweet hat and some baby Vans to make his outfit complete. While he didn't act too happy during the shower we sure appreciated seeing everyone and all the awesome gifts.

Then we headed out to celebrate Seth's 30th Birthday that same night. Riley really appreciated the mustache theme that Gazell thought of. He looks like a baby Daniel Day Lewis during Gangs of New York. Turns out Riley might be a night party person since he behaved much better at this party.

Hanging out with Grandma on Thanksgiving and sporting his fall themed outfit and bib.

Whew! All that partying and Thanksgiving holiday activities really tired out Riley and Aunt Laura. Now, onto Colorado!

2009-12-19T20:38:00.000-07:00

We continued our road trip before Thanksgiving from Jacksonville to Mississippi. We have some friends that live in the state and offered us some breaks so we didn't have to make the torturous 15 hour drive in one day. We spent the night in Hattiesburg where Dee Dee and Franz just moved this fall. Then the next day we headed to Little Rock, stopping to have lunch with Rachel and Benji before leaving the great MS. Then, FINALLY, onto Little Rock for a couple weeks before heading to Boulder,CO.

A little cozy time with Dee Dee. The bug eye look is only because we kept flashing the camera in his face when he is trying to hang out with Dee Dee.

Checking out Franz and wondering when he can play video games with the big kids.

Thanking Rachel for his books that Benji and her gave him. 2 classics: Where the Wild Things Are and The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Like Rachel said, it looks like they are scheming something.

Weekend in Florida

2009-12-12T15:22:00.000-07:00

After getting to stay with Grandma and then seeing family in North Carolina it was time to start the road trip to Little Rock to see my family for Thanksgiving. First we stopped to see Brian's Aunt, Uncle and cousins.

We thought it would be a great idea to have a break in Savannah, GA. While Riley looks really happy here, he screamed for the last 2 hours of the road trip to Jacksonville. Oh joy!

Brian's cousin, Ricky, and his wife Audrey getting some practice with Riley. They are expecting their first little boy in the spring.

Brian and Riley's titanic moment

They even got some dolphins to ride by them for a complete Titanic experience.

Thanks Aunt Eileen for a great time in Florida (despite the tick fiasco) :)

Meeting the Great-Grandparents

2009-12-08T13:30:00.000-07:00

After getting to hang out at grandma's house for awhile we took Riley on a major road trip from Raleigh to the east side of NC, to TN, then to Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas and finally to Colorado. Our first stop was to meet the Great-Grandparents in Hendersonville, NC and Kingston, TN. We were a little worried with him hating the car seat and all, but turns out highway time is WAY different than city driving. Put that kid right to sleep. So here are some pics on the beginnings of our road trip.

Dancing with Great-Grandpa Stepp

Striking a pose with Great-Grandma Stepp

Trying to get Great-Grandpa Hoots to keeps his eyes open

and finally with Great-Grandma Hoots

We had a great time even though it was a really fast trip and glad that Riley got to meet everyone including seeing some Aunts, Uncles, and cousins.

Halloween Costume

2009-11-02T13:08:00.000-07:00

Riley's first Halloween and I decided to do something original and sew a Grim Reaper costume for him. Something I thought would be easy turned out to be tedious and late nights for me (and Grandma). Of course I decided to try it 3 days before, you know me, last minute or nothing at all. Babies are always cutesie on Halloween, so why not make him dark and scary. Turns out a baby as the Grim Reaper is still cute and hilarious.

Holding his scythe like a big boy Grim Reaper

Contemplating who his next victim will be

Costume malfunction

Shaelyn the witch and Riley the reaper

Nice family photo with the Grim Reaper

Back in the States

2009-10-12T10:17:00.000-06:00

Riley and I have made it back home and are staying with Brian's parents until he comes back at the end of this month. Riley did amazing on the trip home. All my worry for nothing. We even got delayed and it ended up being 22 hours of travel time and he was a trooper. I didn't get to sleep, but hey, a well-behaved baby is worth it! He even seems to have adjusted to the time difference without any problems. I like to think he gets that from me. I usually don't get jet lag, thankfully. Grandma did convince me to take Riley with his cousin, Shaelyn, to get some pictures taken. 2 months old and this kid already got some professional pictures, unbelievable. Shaelyn did great, Riley put up with it for about 20 minutes and that was that. Here are the proofs, and the last picture sums up the end of the photo shoot. Apparently I am the only one who loves that pic.

Nice close up with the best baby hat

Great picture of our niece, Shaelyn

Shaelyn and Riley
A little tongue and a bent ear

Preppy is cute on little babies

Little newsboy all upset, and mom's favorite picture

Go Hogs!

2009-09-19T09:58:00.000-06:00

In honor of Aunt Laura's birthday and Razorback football this weekend, Riley makes his debut in his very own Razorback outfit courtesy of Ryan! Hope you guys have a great time.

Riley Smiling

2009-09-11T11:27:00.000-06:00

Here is a video with Riley learning to smile and kinda laugh at 6 weeks old. It is a little long because my editing program was not working, and please excuse the baby talk from me. I wanted to dub music over my voice, but again the software was not cooperating.

3 weeks and still going strong

2009-08-21T03:38:00.000-06:00

At some point I need to post pics from our Rome trip and Brian's trip to Amsterdam (pre-Riley), but that will take some time. For now I will post some new pics of Riley until I can sit down and sort through old pictures. We are in the final months here in Prague and can't wait to come home to the US!

I borrowed some things from a friend at work, and this was an old school swaddling blanket. Pretty much looks like a straight-jacket for babies with some lace at the top. Riley was not impressed.

One night after feeding Riley I put him on the bed and went to the bathroom. I come out to find Brian and Riley asleep in the exact same position: like father, like son.

Brian thought the orange jumpsuit looked like a prison outfit for Riley. Our newest show? We just finished season 1 of Prison Break.

A little tummy time, and viola! Head and feet up, rocking out on his belly for about 5 seconds.

Riley checking out Elliot. On a side note, Oliver just went home with my dad and sister today. I am going to miss that crazy cat!

We had to take Riley to the US Embassy this week to get his birth certificate, SS card, and his first passport. We tried to take some passport photos at home, but we couldn't get those hands down. 3 week old babies are not very compliant to the passport photo instructions. The funny thing is his passport will be valid for 5 years with a picture of him from 3 weeks old.

Riley Keith Stepp finally arrives

2009-08-05T06:52:00.000-06:00

Well, finally after being 10 days late, I went in to be induced and Riley Keith Stepp was born. He was born on Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 3pm. He weighed in at 9lbs 1 oz, and was 21 inches long. So much for me having a 7 1/2 lb baby! Here are some pics before and after the big event.

Our last night out with Brian's mom and her friend Fran. We were lucky and they flew all the way over to help out! Even took us to dinner the night before!

Riley's first day

Group photo of the new Stepp brood

Historical birthplace: Apolinar Hospital in Prague, built in 1784. Really beautiful, but also ancient inside (no A/C! luckily it wasn't that hot here)

Uh, oh. Why don't you like the Razorback pacifier?

Overdue.....awesome!

2009-07-23T03:19:00.001-06:00

My due date was on Monday, July 20. That day has come and gone and still no baby. Ah the joys of being late. Brian's mom is coming to see the baby (that isn't here) on Tuesday. Let's hope he tries to make an appearance before then, but I am slowly losing hope. I am getting all kinds of advice on how to start labor. I think the best one was pressure on the pinky toes. Let's just say that trying to tell him to come out isn't working either. So here I wait at home, and another doctor's visit is tomorrow. I don't get an appointment, I have to go early and sit with all these other pregnant women waiting to get fetal monitoring and then see the doctor. My average time for this? About 3-3.5 hours. Now that I am overdue I get to go every 3 days, oh the joys of life.

39 weeks and the countdown begins...

2009-07-14T12:21:00.001-06:00

The final preggo picture for all of you who wish you were here to point and laugh at me (walking normal is a bit difficult these days). I am due July 20, apparently my wishing of him coming early is not going to happen. Although now I am looking forward to getting to see Harry Potter this week, but after that, he can feel free to come any day! I am officially working from home and waiting for the little guy.

39 weeks and with less than a week to go, I hope. I would also appreciate it if he would stay under 8 pounds and not try to be like his mom (9.5 pounds).

Baby's first playlist

2009-07-14T12:12:00.000-06:00

Awhile back, Brian and I decided to let the baby listen to some music while in the womb. It was a couple of months ago, but I was meaning to post it so I have some kind of record of it for my own memory. I use this blog for my own benefit to so I can remember what I did this past year. Later, he also got to enjoy some Chopin (my favorite pianist) and Jimi Hendrix too.

*1. Postal Service - The district sleeps tonight
2. Primus - My name is mud
3. Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood
4. Ben Harper - Burn one down
*5. Justin Timberlake - Sexy back
6. Weezer - Island in the sun
*7. Tom Petty - Running down a dream
8. Killers - Somebody told me
9. Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
10. Scissor Sisters - Filthy/Gorgeous

* means the baby moved during the song. So he either hates or loves the Postal Service, JT, and Tom Petty. We are hoping to encourage a musically talented kid since we both tried and failed.

Kutna Hora with Sunayana and Archana

2009-07-14T11:21:00.000-06:00

Sunayana and Archana came to visit us a couple of weeks ago. It was great to have some friends visiting for the week and I got to get my chat on. I was 3 weeks away from my due date but managed to get out and do some sightseeing with them. We went on a day trip to Kutna Hora, a small town about an hour outside of Prague that is famous for the Sedlec Ossuary (commonly called the bone church) and St. Barbara's cathedral.

I also keep meaning to post pics from our trip to Rome and Brian's trip to Amsterdam from May. But I am lazy and that will have to wait because there are a ton of pics from those trips to sort through.

The first church we encountered walking into town. Not sure the name of it though.

We couldn't find anyone to take a pic of all of us, so we had to take turns.

Kostnice Ossuary - contains the remains of a total of 40,000 people (mainly from the plague in the 14th century). There are 4 corners of the above 'bell' which is where most of the bones are in the chapel. The majority of the bone designs are from a wood carver, Frantisek Rint, who did most of the artwork in 1870.

You have to take a cute couple pic underneath the bone chandelier which contains all the bones of a human body.

A close-up of some of the bone art of the coat of arms of the Schwarzenberg noble family.

Bones, bones, and more bones.

St Barbara's Cathedral is a Baroque style cathedral founded in 1338. We only toured the outside (cause we are cheap), but it was amazing, with incredible detail and gargoyles all around the exterior.

Here is a detailed shot of the super-sweet flying buttresses on the side of the building.

A complete side view of the cathedral.

Archana strapping Brian in for the train ride home.
I think when he was little his mom used the child leash.

Bye Sunayana and Archana! We miss you already!

My nephew Melvin

2009-06-11T06:27:00.001-06:00

I realized after getting some new pictures from my brother that I haven't posted a picture of my nephew Melvin. He was born Nov. 2 last year - Melvin James Kaule. He is a very cute chubster and my sister-in-law, Kristy, sent me a great picture last month.

MJ - hip marshmallow man! Oh man, I need to come home and squeeze this little guy!

Here is an earlier picture of him. MJ is about 5 months here. We are hoping MJ and the little guy on the way will get to see each other a lot since they won't even be one year apart.

33 weeks (8 1/2 months)

2009-06-08T23:49:00.000-06:00

I am still behind on posting, but posts with multiple pics requires more time. It turns out that the reason it takes forever is because my upload speed at home is laughable. So, unless I can remember to take the pics to work I have to set aside awhile at home for all the pics to upload. So for now, I will do posts that are only 1 or 2 pics. Anyways, here I am finally down to the last count. Almost over and only 35 more days of work. Come on July 20th!

Here I am 33 weeks pregnant. Luckily, I have gained only about 22 pounds. I will have to thank Prague for that for not having any fast food except McDonald's, KFC, and some hot dog stands. Turns out that stuff gets old really fast.

I managed to find a super cheap stroller here at a second hand store, only to find out that it can't fit through our front door unless you open both doors (which isn't super easy since the other is bolted closed). Also, the cats seem to think it is their new bed since we are slowly kicking them out of the bedroom to prepare for the baby sleeping in a cat-free room. Good thing I will be cleaning that stroller before the baby gets here.

Prague Castle with the Family

2009-05-31T05:50:00.000-06:00

We went to visit the Prague Castle (began building in 870 AD), but unfortunately there was some reconstruction and we weren't able to see all of it. We did go to St. Vitus Cathedral which is on the castle grounds and is a great Gothic building. Of course I didn't take any pictures of the outside, sorry. The first two pictures below are of from the interior of the cathedral.

When we were in Prague in 2002 this was one of my favorite sculptures. I don't have any information on it, but I think it is really interesting. Brian's dad, Lester, seemed to like it too.

A view of Prague from the castle grounds. If only I had a nice SLR to really do this picture justice.

There is a John Lennon memorial wall near the castle, across from the French Embassy. People are allowed to decorate any part of it, but they leave the Lennon portrait and peace symbol as is.

John Lennon portrait

Imagine peace symbol

Prague Zoo

2009-05-30T17:10:00.000-06:00

Brian's parents, sister, and niece came to visit us in the middle of April . The weather was great while they were here and we decided to go to the Prague zoo. Of course we weren't the only ones who decided to go to the zoo on the first nice day of spring. The buses were crammed and I got stuck between two men's armpits for WAY too long. Oh the joy. Thankfully, once we got to the zoo it wasn't as crowded as the buses.

Brian and his mom checking things out.

We all took the swings to the upper half of the zoo. Shaelyn, followed by her mom Jaci, and the rest of the clan is hidden.

Nothing is as awesome as seeing a camel shed his coat starting from his rear end and his folded front hump.

The rams and the monkeys get along so they get to hang out together. The monkey almost blends in, but he is up front on the right.

Prague has to be the most animal friendly place I have been to. Dogs are allowed in the zoo and it is really nice because it helps to bring the animals closer. Here the wild cat wanted a closer look at the dog so we all got to see them checking each other out with only a plastic window separating them.

More Pictures of Valtice

2009-05-29T09:09:00.000-06:00

Once again I am WAY behind on posting. This weekend is dedicated to updating this blog since Brian is away at a bachelor party in Amsterdam (lucky, lucky). I am going to hit up the Prague Food Festival tomorrow, but definitely catch up on this blog the rest of the weekend. Here are the professional photos that a friend took while we were in Valtice back in April.

I like to call this 17th century meets 21st century.

I was told these are mistletoe bundles in the trees.

The other women on the trip went to Valtice last fall and picked the grapes for the Sauvignon Blanc that the winery is producing right now. It will be ready later this year, but here is their very own label!

Ok, not professional, but bye to the women that were nice enough to take me to Valtice twice and on their skiing trip!! Always a good time.

Spring Wine Tasting

2009-04-29T10:28:00.000-06:00

April 25-26 was our second time around in Valtice, a famous wine region in the Czech Republic. Of course this time around wasn't as much fun for me since I couldn't participate in the wine tasting. But it was a great weekend trip and a fun crowd to hang around. One of Daša's friends is a photographer and he let us have copies of his pictures too. So I have some regular group photos, then some neat artistic photos of the area which will be next. I am WAY behind again on posting so stuff from earlier in April, will have to come later. Sorry, I am lazy.

Martin is trying on his protective gear. He had an allergic reaction and broke out in hives on his legs before the trip and everyone wanted to make sure he was well protected.

Franta busting out the accordion a little early. Where are the dancers?

A toast to start off the evening! The preggo girl will just take the pictures, oh joy.

Deep conversation, well, not really.

Lunch time!

Ah, it's so hard to talk when one person is sober, the other isn't, and oh yeah, he doesn't speak English either.

Yummy, grilled pork knee. One of our favorite dishes here.

The evening begins, back in the Dvoraček wine cellar, for some wine tasting. Once again, I'll just watch.

Brian and I didn't make it late night. One, it's not so much fun if you can't drink, and two, Brian wasn't feeling very well.

Martin's wine glass holder.

Fedor, up to his ears in wine, heading home.

The Green Monster

2009-04-19T13:27:00.000-06:00

I was noticing that a new maternity tank top I got looked like the same color as some lounge pants I got last year. So, why not try them on together and then post it for the world to see? Here you go....6 1/2 months pregnant...ho, ho, ho, Green Giant!

President Obama in Prague

2009-04-14T15:00:00.001-06:00

I wanted to first apologize for my last few postings. Apparently I do have pregnancy brain and forgot temporarily that I could keep adding pictures to the same post and instead made about 6 posts with 4-5 pictures each because I am a moron. Oh well, last month I wore Brian's shoes to the gym and almost tried to eat a bar of soap. I think this month is fairing better so far.

This month started off great because the sun decided to come out in Prague along with Brian's family coming to visit and President Obama stopping by the castle. I decided to try and go see him speak at Prague Castle on Sunday, April 5 with my friend Claire. We were pretty sure it would be impossible since there were only 20,000-30,000 people allowed and her friends were showing up at 4:30am to wait in line. The gates opened at 7am and his speech started at 10am. Claire and I decided we would meet up at 8am and hope for the best.

Well, the best happened for sure. Claire noticed some volunteers giving out tickets to stand in the front of the regular crowd and thought we should ask if they do anything extra for expectant mothers. I laughed and thought no way, but turns out she was right. We got escorted to the front of security and got to go to the special 'ticket only' section up front. Claire then noticed a special seated section for disabled people and women with small children. Turns out expectant mothers also got to sit in that section, a little behind the VIP crowd. So not only did we get to see President Obama speak, we got to sit down, have free water, and our own port-o-potty. It was an awesome morning! Definitely a highlight of my stay in Prague so far.

Everyone scared me into thinking I would get my camera taken by security so all I had was my camera phone. But trust me that is President Obama up there speaking.

We were amazed at how many snipers were everywhere. It's a little scary since the area was so confined and it felt like we were surrounded.

Claire and I waving our flags for the speech - while seated I may add.

President Obama leaving with Michelle Obama. They are walking down the stairs from the platform, Michelle Obama can be seen as the one with a white blur on her. To think, I only had to go to Prague to see the President and First Lady of the USA.

Bye Bye Salzburg

2009-04-01T14:45:00.000-06:00

Ok, the final installment of our trip back from the end of February. I figured now that it was April, I really needed to finish these postings. I am the lazy blogger.

Salzburg had these little side streets filled with restaurants and shops. It reminded me of Venice a little.

Brian in deep thought while looking over Salzburg.

Me, not in deep thought, posing gracefully for the camera.

We took a train to Munich and spent the night before flying back to Prague. It's funny how in Europe a one hour flight takes you to a different country. A nice little sunset view out of our window.

Continuing through Salzburg

2009-04-01T14:34:00.000-06:00

A view of Old Town by the River Salzach.

The Salzburg Cathedral's ceiling. Originally first built in 767, it was rebuilt two more times, with the current Cathedral finished in 1598 after a fire destroyed that last one.

Always nice to see a modern scupture intertwined in the historical sights. Never found out the exact info on it, but we liked the "Big Gold Ball with a Little Man on Top".

Mozart's Birthplace: no.9 Getreidegasse

Salzburg, Austria

2009-04-01T14:08:00.001-06:00

We went to Salzburg for the day after leaving Zell Am See. It was a really beautiful town and I didn't really know much about it other than Mozart and The Sound of Music are associated with it. Well, that just goes to show you why traveling to historic European towns is a good history lesson for me.

An overall view of Salzburg from the Salzburg fortress. Man, if only the sun could have been out on our trip!

Our first stop was through the Mirabell Gardens at the Mirabell Palace. In the winter nothing is in bloom, but we could still check out the statues and fountains. Here is the Pegasus Fountain made by Kaspar Glas in 1661.

Here are some neat twig branches in the garden. Really, everything else was covered in snow.

The Holy Trinity Church by architect Fischer von Erlach built from 1694-1703. Of course more modern times make it hard to get a good picture with all of the cables running in front of it.

The Hohensalzburg Fortress. The largest and best preserved fortress in Europe (started building in 1077). Sorry, I keep adding historical names and dates so I can remember and not just say "oh yeah, another really old church or castle".

Zell Am See Part III

2009-04-01T13:35:00.000-06:00

A few more pics to close up our skiing vacation in Austria.

The view of Zell Am See from our bed and breakfast. Ah, if only the sun were out and we could actually see all the mountains surrounding us. Goodbye Alps!

Brian testing out the frozen lake to make sure it is ok. Sign said to walk at your own risk.

Guess I can walk across the lake, I mean if I were going to go drowning in a lake would be on my top five (cause I just love being cold and drowning).

What is a nice traditional drink here in Zell Am See? Apparently Jaga Tea. I have to say Jagermeister is a reoccuring theme in many drinks here. Guess everyone really likes the taste of it.

Zell Am See part II

2009-03-23T05:30:00.000-06:00

I wanted to show what I got to do while Brian was skiing, besides sleep. The bed and breakfast we stayed at was so close to the gondolas, that the walk down to the town turned out to be a fun exercise (well coming back was probably more exercise). I took some pics to illustrate my adventure down the driveway and to the town.

This is from the top of the hill. Doesn't look so bad, yet.

Now, just turn the curve here and keep going.

And around this curve.....

One more, we are almost to the street.

Last turn......There were two guys that had to come every day to plow the driveway. Each time they got to the end, the beginning was already covered in snow again.

Yeah, we made it, now just go down the street another 2 blocks and enjoy the town. I got to do this twice a day, once by myself to explore, and then again with Brian for dinner each night.

Brian's ski day at Zell Am See

2009-03-22T12:05:00.000-06:00

We went to the Austrian Alps for our European ski trip to a lakeside town called Zell Am See. I decided to chicken out and not go skiing. I am a pretty scared beginner skier and being pregnant has only increased my awkwardness on skis. So, I enjoyed the awesome views and slept A LOT. I will do another post of my daily activities later. Brian got in 2 days of skiing, unfortunately, alone. But he did take some pics of the slopes. It snowed every day we were there and there was probably a total of over 1-2 feet of snow each day which made for a ton of powder on the slopes but not the greatest views of all the surrounding mountains.

Our slopeside resort we stayed at. This is why it was so easy for Brian to ski onto the slopes directly from our room. Doesn't it look cozy? Kinda like a deer stand.

Ok, this is actually a view from our bed and breakfast we stayed at. The roof is on the left and the gondolas were right out our window.

More gondolas.....

Brian's super sweet ski pose for the camera.

His adventure through the trees where he almost lost a ski in all of the powder.

The sun did shine a little one day. It was still really nice weather, but some more sun would have made it perfect.

How deep was the powder? Here is Brian's pole almost covered completely in powder.

Another deep powder shot. This was a ski hut that was completely covered in powder, except for the roof.

Brian tried to ask if he could hang with this guy, but he said no.

A shot of skiing in knee deep powder and Brian's second chance to see if he changed his mind and wanted to ski together. Still no.

20 weeks in and 20 weeks left

2009-03-09T13:23:00.000-06:00

Here is my latest belly bump since Dee Dee is going to explode if I don't post it. I know secretly she just enjoys laughing at this growing monstrosity. The baby bump looks more like a baby lump. We have been getting some 3D videos of the kid, maybe the next one will be better and I can post it.

Valentine Dinner

2009-03-02T16:00:00.000-07:00

Brian and I went out on Valentine's Day to Bellevue, a restaurant in the Old Town district. We really enjoy what I call 'Frou Frou' food thanks to Matt going to Culinary school and introducing us to gourmet food. We like to use V-day as an excuse to go out and splurge at a fancy pants restaurant once a year. It was a great meal while overlooking the Charles Bridge.

I chose the V-day special menu (Brian got a different menu, but his didn't come with a take-home printout and since I took so long to post we can't remember what he got other than foie gras, fish, and veal):

1st course: Amuse Bouche - Wonton pastry pocket filled with coriander shrimps, avocado espuma (shrimp wonton)
2nd course: Pan seared beef carpaccio with tasmanian pepper reduction, sundried tomato and frisse salad (rare thin sliced beef with a sundried tomato salad)
3rd course: Grilled denver sole with saint jacques scallops jus, wheat pearl pasta softened with mascarpone cheese (fish and scallop pasta)
4th course: vension fillet with black elder and foie gras sauce, topinambur puree (deer with mashed potatoes)

Dessert: Milk chocolate and tonka beans mousse with strawberry heart candy and raspberry sorbet. It was so pretty I had to take a picture.

Krokonoše Ski Trip

2009-03-02T13:02:00.000-07:00

I got a little behind on blogging, so I am having to back track for the month of February. At the beginning of February we took our first European ski trip to the Krokonoše Mountain Range. The range is the northern part of the national boundary that the Czech Republic shares with Poland. We went with Dáša's family and some of the same crew that we went wine tasting with last year. Turns out even though we don't speak Czech they don't mind us tagging along. It makes for an interesting time since all the kids could say was "Hello, my name is....". Little Lucká (we had two girls with the same name) was really cute and kept saying "Please" and "Thank you" the entire time to us because that was the only English she knew.

Here is a view of the mountains from the ski slopes. No sun makes for not-so-exciting pictures, sorry guys.

We stayed at this pension (kinda like a bed and breakfast) which was up a mountain and Franta proved that even though they require chains on the tires, he didn't need them. He just needed everyone out of the car and drove in reverse up the hills. Why did driving in reverse worked? Who knows.

The view from the pension was nice with even a little sun to help me out.

A nice action shot of big Lucká (Dáša's oldest girl) coming down the slopes. Imagine it is me minus my awkwardness coming down the hill.

Brian and big Lucká heading up on the lift having a snack.

A nice group shot before everyone left me on the baby hill to go do some real skiing. I think next year I will have to pony up for some more lessons and learn how to be a better skier than the average 5 year-old. L-R: Franta, me, Brian, big Lucká, Eliška hugging little Lucká

A welcome home from Prague - a sunset. Who knew the sun does come out in the winter here!

The Australian Pink Floyd Show

2009-02-09T13:36:00.000-07:00

Brian and I went last week to see the Australian Pink Floyd Show perform 'The Wall'. It was our first concert of the year and a very good show. They have been touring since the 80's and have pretty much nailed the sound of Pink Floyd. About as close to the real thing as we can get. Here are some awesome crappy cell phone pics of the concert.

Now, Madonna is coming to Prague in August. If I could just convince Brian to go see that.....ha ha

It's a Boy!

2009-02-09T13:20:00.001-07:00

We are having a baby boy in July. Brian and I decided to make it public since Dee Dee and Stacy keep asking for some pregnancy pics. Turns out he will be nice enough to wait until after my birthday and try to sabotage another family member's birthday (grandma's). Shaelyn will finally have a little cousin to beat up on and my brother's new baby boy, Melvin (born in Nov. 08), will have a playmate to grow up around.

Bets can be placed now on what this kid will look like. My dad has blue eyes and brown hair, and was blond as a kid. Brian, the same as my dad, with lighter hair. Me? Well, darker all around. So what do you think?

Here is a pic with me after a nice lasagna dinner so everyone can see a big 'ole belly on me. I am 4 months pregnant right now and my belly has just started to grow these past couple of weeks. See these pants? Staple every evening. Nothing like elastic to be comfortable during this time.

Who's excited you ask? This guy!

Who's not so excited? These guys.

Chemicals and Organic Food

2009-01-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

I wanted to comment about a funny article Raj sent me. I was asking Brian the other day what a 'chemical' is actually defined as. He said it was everything and couldn't think of the right definition. I looked it up and here were two versions.

Merriam Webster: a substance obtained by a chemical process or producing a chemical effect (a little vague, so I looked up a more specific definition)

Chemistry.about.com: Short answer: Everything is a chemical. Longer answer: Chemistry is the study of matter and its interactions with other matter. Anything made of matter is therefore a chemical. Any liquid, solid, gas. Any pure substance; any mixture. Water is a chemical.

A few days later, with excellent timing, Raj sent me this funny article:
http://www.rsc.org/AboutUs/News/PressReleases/2008/ChemicalFree.asp

I just thought this was interesting since most of us are scared of 'chemicals' without even really thinking about what that means. I get caught up in the whole 'organic' world because I want to eat healthier. But I have to stop and think sometimes because the labels are sometimes very helpful, while a lot of times they are just saying things to scare me into buying their more expensive products (which I do sometimes without thinking). How about when I bought organic, hormone-free chicken one time only to find out that ALL chickens are hormone-free because the FDA doesn't allow chickens or pigs to be injected with hormones, only cows??

NYE on Charles Bridge

2009-01-11T09:15:00.001-07:00

We didn't really have NYE plans and had gone to dinner and resided to watching a movie when our friend Eli called. We decided to meet up on Charles Bridge with the rest of Prague and watch the fireworks. The crowd was massive and it was cold, but a lot of fun.

The view from Charles Bridge to watch the fireworks. Sorry, I am not very good with night mode on the camera so this is the best it gets.

There were about 3-4 different firework presentations going on, even a smaller one with some drunk guys near us on the bridge. The girls standing next to them did not seem impressed by it.

Here is some of the crowd right off of the bridge. Amazingly, I wasn't too cold and didn't mind being outside for the night. We popped some champagne on the bridge and toasted to 2009!

Iva, Magda, and Eli

Brian and I

Short Hair

2009-01-07T14:56:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to post this for awhile. So I decided about a year or two ago that I wanted to try short hair. It took awhile for me to actually do it, and just before I moved to Prague I did my first step. Apparently me asking for funky and edgy is not possible, people just don't believe me. It was a nice haircut, exactly that "nice".

So, I decided to try one more time once I got over here. Now, a language barrier was a little difficult to get my point across, but this lady did a much better job. I like it, but not sure if I am going to keep it. Sometimes I am tempted to go back to long hair. Comments please?

The best part of all of this is my friend Sara got her hair cut the same way too at the same time. Hey, what can we say? Great minds think alike (or get tired of their long hair at the same time).

Christmas in Vienna

2009-01-04T11:06:00.000-07:00

We made a trip down to Vienna for Christmas for a few days. This was our first Christmas to celebrate alone without any family. Holidays don't feel the same when you don't have family around. We did realize that this was probably our only Christmas to spend alone so we did it up like any other couple. We toured the city, ate some food, slept in, and were very lazy. The best part about living in Europe is that a 4 hour train ride puts you in another country with a whole different history. Here is a slideshow of our sightseeing. I guess we should thank our blog because I had to look up exactly what were all the buildings that we took pictures of while we were there.

Oreos in Prague

2008-12-21T13:59:00.000-07:00

I know what you are thinking, double stuff Oreos, big deal. Oh, but here apparently a very big deal. I found a store over Thanksgiving that carried American products, mainly processed food stuffs that you can't get here: Aunt Jemima pancake mix, Karo Syrup, Oreos, peanut butter, certain cereals, Kraft Mac and Cheese, etc. I thought it would be nice to pick up a few items the other day. I knew everything was a little more expensive and decided that a few items wouldn't be so bad. Ha ha, now I know why they won't put a price on anything. Hoping everyone will do what I did and pay, drum roll please,

$12 FOR OREOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas Party

2008-12-21T12:44:00.000-07:00

My lab had a Christmas party at work and one after hours at an American/Mexican restaurant. They both involved the secret santa gift exchange with a twist. We were only allowed to spend 50 crowns, which is about $2.50. I was worried this might be kinda hard, but turns out they have stores like The Dollar Store here in Prague too. I didn't take pictures at work, but did manage to catch everyone's gifts at dinner. On a side note, good mexican food is hard to find here. Amigos, where we had our party, was OK, but today we FINALLY found a place - Cantinas. Thank you, Thank you! Sorry, off topic, but extremely important for Brian and I. Anyways, back to cheap Christmas gifts....

Kaya decided instead of numbers she would write down animals and hand them out to everyone with the presents labeled with the corresponding animal. After a few drinks, we noticed she really liked types of monkeys.

Kaya got a piggy bank that was a bright green mouse with a buddha belly.

Romanka got a pink witch's hat. Everyone always needs a good witch's hat, just in case.

Ivana got a unicorn along with a little grooming person. I mean unicorns are for good luck, right?

Darina may have gotten the best gift: orange slit glasses. I said they were "Kanye West" glasses, and then everyone asked me who that was....guess he's not international yet

Míša (sounds like Misha) also got a pretty cool gift: Harry Potter glasses, kinda. Both glasses were a big hit and we all thought it necessary to try them on.

I mean, honestly, can you resist trying these babies on?

Here is my gift, not that funny, but way useful. Brian and I were thinking we were in need of something to entertain us at home other than just each other and the computers. I said the only game I knew how to play was called 'Shit'. Turns out that game is actually called 'Farkle'. Ian you should probably tell Shari she misinformed us.

You can't really see it, but it's not very stimulating. Our boss, Iva, got a bag of dried fruit. I tried one and honestly don't know what kind of fruit I was eating.

Daša (sounds like Dasha) got a dinosaur shaped soap and some candy. Not super exciting, but will probably get used more than the witch's hat.

The most entertaining gift, Michael got a light up green animal bouncy thingy. Sorry, best description I could come up with for right now.

Romana, my lab partner, was lucky enough to get both of my secret santa gifts at both parties. During the day - liquor magnets and a ghostbuster bottle opener. Tonight's gift? A dolphin cell phone holder that lights up when you call the phone.

And a combination of some gifts to end the night!

Sv. Mikuláš/ St. Nicholas

2008-12-08T05:50:00.000-07:00

December 6 was Sv. Mikuláš Day (St. Nicholas) in the Czech Republic. The night before St. Nicholas comes out and visits with all the children to see if they have been bad or good. This seems very similar to the Santa Claus tradition in the U.S. with one exception: instead of helper elves there is an angel and the devil. The children must say a poem or sing a song to him to get treats from him and show that they have been good. If they have been bad the devil will try and scare the children into being good. I was told that the devil comes out in the streets or in apartment buildings trying to scare children during this night. If the children are bad they get a bag of coal instead of treats. In the stores there are even devil decorations along with the traditional Christmas decorations. Seems like a combination of our Halloween and Christmas. I like it, remember - scared straight? Brian and I got caught by St. Nicholas and had to say a poem. We stuck with what we knew: Mary had a little lamb and Row, Row, Row your boat. Hey you see what you can come up with on the spot, St. Nicholas suggested our national anthem, ha ha, yeah right. Me singing is never a good idea.

A Few Tidbits

2008-11-26T11:44:00.000-07:00

I thought I would try out my new camera phone and take some pictures from this week. First up is about food. Most of you know that I love food and am willing to try just about anything, except stinky tofu. If you don't know what it is, be glad, if you do, you can understand why I couldn't try it. Oh the smell. Well, this week at our cafeteria at work they had a new soup I hadn't seen before. It didn't look amazing, but it did sound interesting, at least to me.

Pig blood soup, don't it look good? Let's just say it tasted only slightly better than it looked. That grainy looking black stuff is congealed blood. If you have had blood sausage, this would be the equivalent of blood sausage soup. If you didn't have to look at it or know what it was, it would probably taste a lot better.

I came across a new blog that seems pretty interesting. It is called 'happy mundane' and has random things posted on the blog. This past week it had instructions of how to make carrot flowers. So here was my first attempt at a simple craft that maybe even I could pull off: carrot flowers. Pretty easy, and puts a smile on my face.

This is the view from my office. There are 2 important parts of this picture.
1) I worked in a basement for 5 years in Chicago and now I have 6 windows and a view, pretty awesome.
2) This was the first snow in Prague, ok maybe second, but I was asleep the first time. If you look REAL hard those barely there white specs are snow (in the grass it's a little easier to see). The only good thing that comes out of winter, snow!

Valtice Wine Tasting

2008-11-13T13:21:00.000-07:00

Blogger and I have been having some issues. Luckily, Leslie was so nice to tell me how to embed a slideshow from picasa. SO MUCH easier than downloading each picture. Thank you Leslie!!

This past weekend we had a blast at a wine cellar. My friend from work, Dáša, was nice enough to invite Brian and I to Vinařství Dwořáček, a South Moravian Wine Cellar in the town of Valtice. Moravia is famous in the Czech Republic for their wine and this past weekend was the beginning of the celebration of St. Martin's Day (Nov. 11). It is the first time everyone tries the young wine from the previous year. We headed on a bus with Dáša, her husband, Franta, and their group of friends. Everyone was great and we started the party as soon as we got on the bus. After a 4 hour bus trip we checked into our hotel and went for a late lunch. There is a special meal during this celebration: goose with potato or bread dumplings and cabbage. The goose was delicious! We got a 2 hour break so we went bowling with some friends before heading to the wine cellar. We sampled about 10 types of wine, sang (or we listened), danced (got suckered into that), and played some musical instruments (or tried really hard too). The next day we had to get up for breakfast at 8:30, head back to the wine cellar to try it again (oh yeah, that's right 6 hours wasn't enough), buy some wine, and then headed back to Prague. We had an awesome time and they invited us to go on their Annual April trip, too. We definitely want to go!

Munich Day Three

2008-11-06T12:08:00.000-07:00

What happened to day 2? Day 1 ran really late into the night and we missed our wake up call. We spent the day in our hotel room laying in bed. So we wasted an entire day recovering from the night before. Most people would like to go sightseeing around the town, we decided to check out the nightlife instead.

We did manage to get up later that day and walk around outside by the hotel. There was a nice creek with a swan floating down the stream. The stroll around the creek was almost worth the cost of our pre-paid tour we missed.......yeah right.

We sucked it up and paid again to ride a train to the area where Neushwanstein Castle was located. They had a really nice hike up to the castle that had some great views of the town below. Here is Brian declaring this spot on the trail as his own.

The hike wasn't very long, but it was pretty much uphill the entire way. I decided to take some breaks and take pictures of the castle from below.

Here is the entrance to the castle. We had a guided tour in the castle of only 16 rooms. There are a total of 65 rooms, but only 16 are completely finished. King Ludwig II built this castle starting in 1869 and spent so much money building castles around Bavaria that when he died (1886) they stopped all construction that he had sanctioned. Although it was built in the late 19th century, this castle had electricity, a telephone, steam engines, modern venting, plumbing, and heating pipes. The rooms were amazing and very intricate, and of course, no pictures were allowed.

At the end of the tour we took some pictures of Hohenschwangau Castle from the window. This was another Kind Ludwig II castle, but we didn't have time to visit it. Neuschwanstein Castle is owned by the state of Bavaria, but this castle is owned by Franz, duke of Bavaria. I wish I owned a castle.

Munich Day One

2008-11-04T16:31:00.001-07:00

Someone in my lab was nice enough to tell us that Tuesday, Oct. 21 was Czech's Independence Day, meaning our first holiday. We decided to take Monday off and have a long weekend. I had been wanting to see 'Cinderella's Castle'. Turns out this is in Bavaria, Germany about 2 hours outside of Munich and it is called Neuschwanstein Castle. We went and bought our train tickets the week before and got up nice and early on Saturday to head to Munich. Of course we get to the train station only to find out that we are at the wrong one. Luckily, by some miracle, we were early enough to go to the correct station and still make our train.

So here we are, smiling because we are in first class and we don't even know it. Luckily after 5 hours on the train an attendant was nice enough to tell us to move to 2nd class even though we were only one stop away from Munich.

Our first task in Munich? A beer tour of course. This is the New Town Hall (City Hall) in the center of Munich, a very nice place to meet for a beer tour. We almost missed the tour because our hotel was a little farther outside the city than we thought (think walking on the side of the road where there is no sidewalk, but some nice farmland).

We had a very nice tour guide that explained some beer historical facts. One specific image was very interesting to me, a priest holding some barley on the town maypole. That's how important beer is in Germany! This is from a maypole that historically was in every village showing visitors what was in the village. We also learned that beer gardens in Germany must have 3 chestnut trees to be an official beer garden and there are places for you to sit with your family and bring a picnic and hang out or a section to eat from the restaurant while enjoying your 1 Liter beer.

The night started out promising. We went to a brewery and had dinner and I met Nicole, a newlywed from Ohio. We ran into her and her husband again 3 days later at Neuschwanstein Castle. It really is a small world.

Then we were off to the famous Hofbräuhaus. This brewery was started in 1589 by Wilhelm V., Duke of Bavaria. Bavaria is the region of Germany that Munich is located in, kind of like a state in the US, I think. Here is Brian with his 1st 1 Liter beer.

And here is Brian with another 1 Liter Beer. We met some guys on a bachelor party from England and the night just kept getting more exciting.

How do you end your night at Hofbräuhaus you ask? By arm wrestling the biggest dude you can find. That just happened to be Nicole's husband, Nick. And who won? Why I did of course! He may have 'let' me win, but I have some rock hard biceps.

And the night continues, but without pictures. We went with the guys from England to the Atomic Cafe (http://www.atomic.de/). We were there until 4 am. Interesting, because we had to be on a Castle Tour the next day at 8am.

Our Flat

2008-10-21T10:38:00.000-06:00

A tour of our new home, flat, apartment, etc.

Since the realty agency did the pics so nice (basically when it was clean) I am putting up their pics. Believe me, it looks nicer this way.

As you walk up our lovely entrance don't forget to turn the lights on and hurry up before they switch off. No worries, we are the first door on the right. The whole light situation is super annoying if you are chasing a cat up the stairs and right when you are about to grab him the lights turn off and he makes it up another flight of stairs until you are both on the 5th floor. I'm just saying IF that was to happen to you......

Our living room, with combined dining room and kitchen. The couch is a little small. It kinda seems like 2 adults trying to fit on a hobbit (or Dee Dee and Franz's) couch. Nice pull-out sofa bed to those who come visit (don't forget the contact solution).

The other half of the living room showing the dining area and kitchen. The bathroom isn't shown, but it's standard size (not Chicago standard, but normal). It only has a shower, but it did come with a towel warmer on the wall and a tile warmer too. I hope this is not hinting towards winter weather, please no.....

A close-up of the kitchen. Got me one of them fancy ceramic top stoves! I have been testing out the burners to see if I can toast bread on them. Things appear to get really hot here really fast, so stove top toasting is still in an experimental phase.

One half of the bedroom with the window facing the street. The other half just has the bed and armoire. So there you have it, the tour of our apartment without our stuff in it. It look super nice before we unloaded all our junk!

Houskové Knedlíky - Czech bread dumplings

2008-10-20T09:39:00.001-06:00

I attempted this weekend to bake. Now, while I love to cook new dishes, I do not like to bake. Mainly, cause I am pretty terrible at it. So I have tried to stay away from it, I mean it's usually stuff that's not good for you anyways. But, Romana and Daša swore to me that Czech dumplings would be easy. So armed with a family recipe with no exact measurements (oh great) from Romana I tried to make them at home. Here are some pics to illustrate my surprisingly successful attempt - who would have thought?

The initial product, so far so good....
Now just have to boil them and hope they get nice and fluffy.

Now, the real Czech secret: How do you cut these babies so that you don't deflate? Why, with thread! Now, since I did not have thread I used dental floss instead. Ahh, now that PhD in Engineering is really paying off!

Voila! Beef with sauce served with dumplings. Just one problem, the beef was a terrible cut and I might need to learn how to make better sauce (bought a box of it). Oh well, the dumplings turned out good.

Prague Sightseeing

2008-10-14T05:09:00.000-06:00

Brian and I finally remembered to bring our camera when we went out.
We went to the Old Town area and looked around on Sunday and
got some nice pictures right at dusk. Below is the Rudolfinum, a
Neo-Renaissance building built in the late 1800's where the Czech
Philharmonic Orchestra is located and hosts many concerts and an art gallery.

Here is a close up of one of the sculptures on the side of the building.

I also caught saw a hot air balloon and thought it looked nice against the sky.

Here is a distant shot of Prague castle. You can't really see the birds in the
picture, but I thought it looked like the opening shot of Frankenstein or Dracula.

I thought this was a funny sign outside of a pub. Nothing is quite as persuasive as a picture of a guy drinking a beer with a big beer belly and big shoes!

This is a TV tower near our flat called Prague Tower in the Žižkov area.
It is the highest tower in Prague and has an observation deck and restaurant.

Can you see those things on the circular posts?
Here, let me zoom in for you:

Yes, those are babies crawling around on the posts. Very interesting art
for a TV tower, they are called “Babies” by the artist David Černý.

The end of the week

2008-10-10T08:31:00.000-06:00

Today was our first day of Czech lessons. I guess they want to try the total immersion way of teaching - only speaking Czech. A lot of us were lost most of the time. So I had to come back and ask my co-workers exactly what she was talking about. Seems like the class will have a very steep learning curve.

Brian and I went to the other cafeteria on campus today for lunch. We realized we should really learn some Czech words for food. We thought we got rice and beef in gravy. Ah, how about boiled liver in gravy instead - gross. Earlier this week I was able to get a whole trout with butter and potatoes in the cafeteria. It is a typical Czech meal and it was really good for cafeteria food and being fish. I am trying to eat more fish, because SUPPOSEDLY it's healthier than other meats. Personally, from a researchers' point of view, could the National Cattlemen's Beef Association for consumers, fund research to prove this wrong? Please?

Last thing: For anyone who comes to visit (hopefully a lot) I would really appreciate if you could bring me some contact solution. Turns out here, it costs roughly....wait for it......$30! I will refrain from writing additional descriptive words on this topic. Oh yeah, and no generic versions of it, only name brand.

Patricia and the dead bolt

2008-10-08T03:34:00.000-06:00

Well, let's just say this week is not starting off that well. I managed to stub my toe pretty bad chasing Elliot in the building on Sunday night. Monday the alarm didn't go off, we woke up around 9:30 and then I went to the doctor about my foot once I finally got to work. Universal health care here seems pretty easy. Got an x-ray immediately, no broken toe, and I only had to pay about 2 dollars total.

Ah, but what happened today you ask? I got ready to leave for work and couldn't unlock the door. I made the alarm go off twice and had to just wait for it to quit. Brian had to go to the foreign police early in the morning. He locked the door, including the dead bolt. Finally got a hold of our landlady only to find out if someone locks the dead bolt from the outside you cannot open it from the inside. WHY?????

She came over and unlocked the door for me. Future help - we have a 9 foot ladder in the house to escape out the window in case this happens again. Awesome.

Interesting facts about Prague

2008-10-07T08:01:00.000-06:00

What have Brian and I learned so far in Prague?

1. Beer is as cheap if not cheaper than water everywhere. Wine isn't that much more expensive either.
2. You can get beer everywhere, even in the university cafeterias.
3. Personal space doesn't appear to exist on the metra.
4. Brian isn't that tall over here, but I am :)
5. Luckily, American movies are in English at the movie theatre.
6. Hall lights must be manually turned on.
7. Water gets really hot here, very fast.
8. Bed comforters here are for one person only and they aren't long enough.
9. Satellite tv comes with about 100 German channels and 2 English channels: BBC world and CNN Europe. Guess which 2 people don't like to watch news?
10. Hatchback cars are the most common in Prague.
11. Hot sauce and fresh hot peppers are hard to find - not cool!
12. Our washing machine takes about 2 hours to wash clothes, and driers aren't common.
13. Czech's version of Coke is 'Kofola' and tastes strangely reminiscent of Jager.....

Going out to the pub

2008-10-07T07:53:00.000-06:00

A group of people from my work invited us out to the pub last Thursday. Our first social outing with other people. I mean Brian and I enjoy each other's company, but it is nice to hang out with other people. The pub was a basic bar, but with 2 big differences. First, the food at pubs is suppose to be really good. Unfortunately, we didn't know this and went to KFC (our mistake) before we got to the pub. So we missed out on some really good food, bummer. Second, they had a dance floor at the pub even with a disco ball and lights. Apparently our group really wanted to dance and especially enjoyed dancing to the Grease soundtrack, YMCA, and other cheesy songs. They finally convinced me to go out on the dance floor for 1 song after I had a fernet (similar to Jager). Of course once I got on the dance floor they started playing Czech music. I already can't dance, it gets even worse when I don't even know the song.

Starting a Blog

2008-10-02T07:42:00.000-06:00

Someone suggested that Brian and I (let's be honest, just me) should start a blog since we will be in Prague for the next year, and I have noticed that blogging seems to have taken off. Then I got 2 emails from people who also started one, so here I am joining the masses and trying this out. I have never even kept a journal or diary, my grammar isn't great, and facebook is getting WAY too advanced for me, so this should be interesting. Da'ša (pronounced Dasha) in my lab also started one today. We will try it out together and see if either of us can be interesting enough for people to read about our lives.

We got to Prague on Sept. 20 and let's just say taking 2 cats overseas caught a little unwanted attention. Oliver managed to tear the crap out of his carry on during the whole process while Elliot sat quiet and angry. Luckily you couldn't hear them meowing over the airplane engine and a loud kid in front of us. We made it to Prague and may I just say they have the best customs - none. We had temporary housing at a Pension (similar to a hostel private room) and let's just say we were both eager to find a flat. I think the cat hotel was nicer than our accomodations. We had a tv with 2 channels in Czech, no internet or phone and not near anything. We found a flat last week and moved in on Friday of last week. It is super sweet with tall ceilings like my Dad's house and was completely furnished. It even has heated tiles in the bathroom (which we can't figure out how to work) and a towel warmer. We got satellite tv, but only 2 english channels - CNN Europe and BBC world. Awesome - news, my favorite thing ever. The internet gets hooked up on Sunday - I need to watch my TV shows!!! Missing premier week blows big time. Then we can also sign up for skype and be able to communicate to everyone back home.