The Myers on The Move...

How Did We Miss This!?

2013-02-19T13:56:00.001-05:00

I blurred the picture for the blog...in reality its not blurred at all.

When we were in Vienna, I posted about an art exhibit that was in town featuring naked men. The advertising around the city drew a lot of criticism and complaints, but also a lot of intrigue.

Dan found THIS article today....we obviously missed out. :)

Vacation in Munich

2013-02-15T11:17:00.001-05:00

When we were trying to plan our fall travels for 2012, Germany in October was at the top of our list for obvious- Octoberfest- reasons. Well, finding an apartment in Germany at any point in the month of October is wishful thinking so we settled for a 4 day vacay at the end of our Europe trek.

Munich Opera House

Both Dan and I were looking forward to starting December on vacation in Munich for many different reasons. Dan would have a glorious 4 days off from work after a very busy year cramming in as many hands of poker as possible. I clearly was excited that there would be no work too, but we both had heard so many great things about Munich that we couldn't wait to see them all!

On our first night in Munich we had dinner at the world famous Hofbrauhaus. Incredible. The beers were huge and food was great. We loved the 'beer hall' style where there are tables and chairs and you sit anywhere with other people and meet new friends. Did I mention how amazing the beer was?!

On Friday morning we took a train to Schwangau, Germany to see Neuschwanstein Castle. This castle was built by Ludwig II in 1892. Disney used this castle as the model for Sleeping Beauty's castle. It is unfinished because Ludwig ran out of money, but the parts you can go through on the tour are amazing. We also toured the castle Ludwigs parents owned that is across the hill from Neuschwanstein.

Myers in Munich

The whole day was perfect from start to finish. It was snowing the entire time we were there which made the mountains and scenery even more beautiful. We felt like we were in a movie! The little town where the castles are located is tiny. There are three hotels maybe and just a few places to eat. It is a huge tourist attraction, especially in the summer, but a very quiet and quaint town.

Olympic Hall

The rest of our time in Munich involved shopping at the Christmas Market, the Olympic Stadium tour, the BMW Museum and enjoying the beer halls. The markets start in December and run right up to Christmas. They are outdoor markets made up of hundreds of different stalls selling ornaments, Santa figures, pretzels, bratwurst and of course, beers.

Dan picking out his new BMW at the BMW Museum

Here are a few more photos of our favorite things in Germany. We loved everything about Munich and can't wait to plan a trip back to Germany to see the other cities!

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Hand Carving the Horse

Christmas Market

Staying warm by the fire

Hofbrauhaus

The Munich Olympics Memorial Wall

Our new friends

The Lion

Favorite Christmas Market

Hockey Time in Prague

2013-02-04T12:33:00.000-05:00

While we were wrapping up our last week in Prague, hockey was still not back in North America yet. We decided to get our hockey fix while in Prague and go check out some of the NHL players on European teams while on the lockout.

We got tickets to the Lev Praha game on Friday night to see them play Lokomotiv Laroslavl from Russia. The game was a ton of fun and everyone was really into it. It wasn't too hostile between the two teams fans since the Russian team lost their entire team in a plane crash in 2011. They had a moment of silence at one of the breaks and played a video. Very sad situation, but the game was fun regardless.

Lev Praha won and it was a high scoring game. We saw some former Penguin players, Zedeno Chara and Marion Hossa's little brother all play. It was fun and a nice date night. I guess this would have been a much better post if hockey wasn't back in America yet, but Euro hockey definitely is a different game. The area is more like a high school or small college stadium.

Now that the NHL is back we are hoping to catch some Leafs games while in Toronto. We are making a Toronto sports bucket list and are going to check some things off! The first item checked off this weekend was a Raptors NBA game. Look for a post on that later on this week!

Prague Art Scavenger Hunt

2013-02-03T15:05:00.002-05:00

While researching things to do in Prague, Dan came across an artist- David Cerny- who had multiple works around the city. Cerny's work is known as a bit bizarre and different. We tried one day to find the most interesting piece that was on the far end of the city, but we never found it. So on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Dan and I researched all Cerny pieces around Prague and set out on a scavenger hunt.

Our first stop was to see Brown Noser- a sculpture of legs and a rear end coming out of the side of a museum. There is a ladder along the legs that you climb to view a very weird video inside of the bum. The video is of two people dressed as former leaders eating baby food set to the tune of We Are the Champions. No explanation. Just weird, but funny at the same time.

This piece is part of the Futura Gallery which was actually an amazing little art space. We saw a documentary there of Hurrican Katrina from the perspective of an art student whose grandmother is a LA native. Very interesting to see American issues through the eyes of a European artist and activist.

The second stop was to see the statues of Babies at the Museum Kampa. The babies are huge, but their faces are blank with just bars from the top of the head to the chin. I know I keep saying this, but there really is no way to emphasize just how different this art was. We did have a great time wandering all over the city and seeing each piece though.

The third stop was the Art School near the Charles Bridge called Amoya. In the courtyard of the building there are 4 large pistols hanging upside down. These were also done by David Cerny. While there we saw another exhibit by Cerny that we didn't know about- a man in a fish tank type coffin.

Near the Castle in front of the Kafka Museum, Cerny created this sculpture/water fountain. Considered one of his most humorous pieces, "Piss" shows two men urinating on the Czech Republic. They turn from left to right and if you text a special number a message they can apparently write your message out.

Next we walked through Old Town Prague to find the statue of Freud hanging by one hand off of a post over a pub. It is said that Cerny showed Freud this way to signify his constant struggle with his fear of death. Others believe that Cerny was questioning the status quo. The Open Concept Gallery says, "Man Hanging out is a fine example of the reason why Cerny is considered a leading sculptor and pop-culture icon."

Lastly, we stopped at a shopping center near the center of the city that houses Cerny's statue of Wenceslas and his dead horse. The horse is hanging upside down from the ceiling and Wenceslas is sitting upright on the horses' torso. The piece is said to be an attack on the Czech President, who is a fairly common target for Cerny.

Overall this was a great day adventure seeing an "off the beaten path" Prague. David Cerny is quite popular and controversial in the Czech Republic and across Europe. We really enjoyed the day- mostly because it was basically a scavenger hunt of weird art, but also because we aren't huge art people so this gave a humorous side to seeing art.

Please Pardon the Interruption

2013-02-01T15:35:00.000-05:00

Well hey there. I know it's been awhile. A long while. My apologies. We had a bit of a computer crash post Thanksgiving and then the end of our European adventures and regular life all got in the way.

So now I'm back. I want to post a few things this weekend about the end of our Prague trip, our vacation in Munich, and our trip to Miami for the National Championship game. However, after those posts I am not really sure what direction the blog will take.

The last 18 months have been a huge amazing adventure...super fun experience and great to blog about. Now that we are back in Toronto there is much less touring going on and much more real life.Those everyday things are boring to read about and even worse to write about.

This doesn't mean the blog is over. I am sure there will be plenty of recipes and the occasional post about Toronto life...so don't fret :) We want to thank you all for reading my daily (ha! more like weekly) ramblings. I've really enjoyed writing over the last year and half, and it meant a lot to hear such a great feedback from y'all when we were home over the holidays.

Check back over the weekend and next week to see new posts and lots of pictures.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend

2012-11-23T10:29:00.002-05:00

The Myers, food & pies I didn't cook (but happily devoured)
and some card games I of course won! :)

Happy Thanksgiving! Just wanted to put up a quick post about our turkey day in Prague. Hopefully you all are stuffed with lots of savory turkey and dressing and filled with plenty of time with family. We are winding down our trip here in Prague...only one week left here before a 3 day stop in Munich and onto North America!

As for our Thanksgiving, Dan and I were here enjoying lots of food, some American football, a few games of cards and lots of skyping. We don't have an oven in our apartment here and our stove has only two very small eyes so even making dinner on a regular basis is a challenge. A full Thanksgiving meal was out of the question.

I did some research and found a specialty store that brings in some different items for Americans and Brits. For example you can find marmite, nutri grain bars, and some other specialty items. They also prepare foods for traditional American and British holidays. So I ordered a full meal for us from them, picked it up that morning and nuked it all in the microwave when we were ready to eat! For someone that love love loves to cook it was a bit sad to have a holiday full of take out containers, but not having to clean the kitchen was a prize!

We had salad, pumpkin soup (for me) and corn chowder (for dan), turkey, mashed potatoes, a little stuffing, gravy, a slice of pumpkin pie and a slice of pecan pie. Overall the food was delicious. Much better than I was expecting.

Tonight we are heading to a Czech League Hockey game where a few big names from the NHL are playing right now. We spent today getting Dan and haircut and wandering through a Christmas market. Basically we are trying to stay busy to keep our minds off of the Notre Dame game tomorrow night!

Big day planned for tomorrow- we are going on a walking tour of David Cerny's sculptures all over the city....check back Monday for a recap of that tour. He is an interesting bird. Then we will be holed up in our apartment from 4 pm on watching all things football- Game Day, Michigan vs. Ohio State, Alabama vs. Auburn and finally at 2 am Notre Dame vs. USC. Ahhhh! We are beyond excited.

Hope you all had a great holiday and are steering clear of Black Friday madness. Just a little over 10 days and we are back! Check back in the next few weeks for posts about the end of Prague and our trip to Munich.

What traveling should look like...

2012-11-10T08:13:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to put up a quick post this morning passing along something Dan showed me from a fellow poker players life outside of the US....

Here is a video that is mesmerizing to me showing another poker players travels through Indonesia, Malaysia (Borneo), Philippines, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma, India. He spent about a month per country, with 3 months in India.

Not all travel looks the same...but this is one amazing view of what travel should look like. Hope you enjoy!

Prague- Castles, Clocks and Love Locks

2012-11-06T10:29:00.002-05:00

Food Tents in Wenceslas Square & handmade marionettes

Sorry for the delay in this blog...we've been experiencing some issues with Blogger, our pictures and getting this thing to work! A learning curve for sure.....but here is our Prague Blog.....

We've made it to Prague. It's our second to last stop in Europe and we feel like we've picked a great place to be for our last month over here. On Saturday we did our typical touring day around the city. We saw the Prague Castle, Charles Bridge, Old Town Square, the Astronomical Clock, the Love Lock bridge, John Lennon wall and more. We also were part of a Czech music video! Pretty busy Saturday...

The clock, Churches in Old Town Square, and a music video

The Castle was like a little village inside the walls, but we wandered around and saw St. Vitus' Cathedral. Since the hike up to the castle was pretty steep, we were able to get great views of the city when we left the castle area and were overlooking all of Prague.

View from Charles Bridge, Dan in front of Charles Bridge, Statue on Bridge

On our walk back down to the center we stopped beside the river and watched the enormous geese & ducks for a bit before stopping into a traditional Czech beer garden for a pint of Pilsner Urquell- a very popular Czech beer.

All Castle Pictures

Since we have seen so many churches and castles while being over here I try to find a few off the beaten path things to see on our days out too. On the list for Saturday was the Love Lock bridge and the John Lennon Wall. In full disclosure, the Love Lock bridge was an idea from the Bachelorette when Emily Maynard was here in Prague it was one of the day dates. We have read about these bridges popping up all over Europe, but we waiting until Prague to put out lock on the bridge.

View leaving Castle, Dan & a Pilsner, the ducks

The John Lennon wall was interesting. It's a smallish wall right next to the bridge and out of the way of most tourist paths. It has been painted over again and again both with graffiti and whitewash from the secret police in the 1980's. Since 1989 tourists have been making their marks all over the wall too. It was a symbol and political focus for Czech youth during communism and up to the Velvet Revolution.

Lennon Wall & Love Lock Bridge

After all of our traipsing around town, we ended the day with a nice dinner on the rooftop terrace of the U Prince hotel in the middle of Old Town Square. It is glassed in during the winter months so we were still able to enjoy the great views of Prague at night. It was an all around great day out. SO far we are enjoying Prague and still trying to find our way around for groceries and daily stuff. It is much more touristy than we remember Vienna being though. Hopefully we will head out again this weekend for some more sightseeing.

Check back later this week for updates. Hope everyone back home had a great weekend. A Notre Dam win- as stressful as that game was- makes everything better!

The Amazing Race- Museum Edition

2012-10-29T05:44:00.001-04:00

On Friday Dan and I set out for a big day of sightseeing. We are leaving on Wednesday for Prague so we wanted one more day to fit in a bunch of sights and traditional Viennese things that we hadn't seen yet. It also was a national holiday here so the museums were all open and discounted. Optimal time to run in, see the highlights, and go onto the next one.

The Freud Museum, the Vienna Criminal Museum,
Elephants at the Natural History Museum & the Ferris Wheel

We picked out the top things we needed to see, planned our routes, researched what we needed to know about why these items were important and set off. Now, to be honest we made it inside 1 of the many museums we planned. We actually went inside of the Art Museum to see some of Gustav Klimt's original works. In the late afternoon it was getting really cold and we had been walking around a lot all day so we scrapped the rest of the museums and went to a local brewery- 1516 -for a Austrian beer while waiting for our dinner reservations. Priorities, right?

Dan at the Art Museum, Katie at St. Leopold's Church, The ceiling of
the Art Museum, homemade pretzels, beers at 1516

At one point in the day we stumbled onto a military fair in the center of town. It was filled with old helicopters and machines, German shepherd dogs doing demonstrations of rescue/search work, food stands with authentic Austrian food, etc.

That night we had reservations at one of the recommended Austrian restaurants Plachutta. It is known for their dish tafelspitz. It is basically "boiled beef" in chicken broth with carrots, onion, potatoes, and parsnips. On the side there are two sauces- horseradish applesauce and chive creme. We were looking for authentic Austrian food and it was pretty good.

Side note about dinner: We were seated in the enclosed space that is the porch when the weather is nice. A couple came in that was a little bit older than us and the lady had her dog. We had reservations at 6 pm so it was a fancy-ish dinner crowd... She placed her dog in the chair at the table, the waiter brought out huge silver dog dishes with chopped steak and a water bowl. The woman proceeded to hand feel the small dog buttered bread. Her date/husband never blinked at this. I have read that dogs are the Austrian version of children in a lot of cases, but this took it to a whole new level...and it takes a lot to shock me with how people treat their dogs. My sisters dog is named Harry Winston and you'd think he was an actual child at my parents house. Compared to this dog HW might as well be on food stamps.

Dan at the Military Fair, Austrian Food Tent, Sister Act,
the Myers in front of the Upper Belvedere on a chilly night

On Sunday we went for a walk around town again to see the Upper Belvedere- a museum we had on our list for Friday but skipped to go to the brewery. It is where the original Klimt "The Kiss" is housed. It was really cold on Sunday and we had to get out our hats, gloves and winter coats. It was the perfect way to end our month here in Vienna. Plus, a big big big Irish win over Oklahoma last night doesn't hurt!

We are off to Prague on Wednesday for the month. More blogs to come with new adventures in the Czech Republic. Check back this week for more stories!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Chili Chili Chili

2012-10-18T11:57:00.000-04:00

One night a few weeks ago I clearly didn't make enough food for dinner and Dan came to bed a wee bit hungry. There is a poker forum he reads and on the site there happens to be a chili thread where guys post their best or favorite chili recipes.

When we woke up on Sunday, Dan was chattering on about this chili for dinner idea...so off to the grocery I went. Turns out it's closed on Sunday so we settled for order in pizza. However, I had to promise chili as a Monday night dinner! After thoroughly researching this chili thread and settling on a recipe posted by a guy who calls himself "El Diablo."

Since we are in Vienna where I don't think spicy chili is a regular thing there was a bit of a change/modification on the ingredients based on what I could get here. I did write down exactly what I did and used so below is our new favorite fancy schmancy chili recipe for the fall. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
2 red bell peppers
2 medium onions
8-10 garlic cloves
1 jalapeno
5 chili peppers
1 medium sized habanero pepper
About 1 pound of beef stew pieces/chunks?
1.5- 2 pounds of ground beef or turkey or chicken. We used beef.
1 tsp. red chili flakes
1 tsp. black pepper
4 tsp. cayenne pepper (El Diablo called for paprika, but we didn't have it)
2 tsp. cumin (we didn't have that either so we left it out)
7 tsp. chili powder
1.5 tsp. sea salt
3 tsp. brown sugar
1 bottle of beer (I used Erdinger, but I read people using everything from Guinness to anything they had in the fridge)
28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
6 oz. tomato paste
About 16 oz. chicken broth
2 tsp. white vinegar
1.5 squares of dark chocolate chopped or grated
2 cans red kidney beans

1. Chop all of the veggies, garlic & peppers.

2. Brown your meat. Do not overcrowd it. Do it in batches so it has a nice good brown on it, not grey. I did the chunks first then put them into the chili pot. Next I did the ground beef and added it to the chili pot.

3. Save some of the fat from the meat and sweat the chopped onion and red bell pepper. Add it to the pot.

4. Sweat the garlic, jalapeno, chilis & habanero. We used all of the seeds too, but use what you want based on heat you like. Add them to the pot.

5. Add all dry spices.

6. Add bottle of beer.

7. Add tomatoes, paste, broth & vinegar.

8. Simmer for about an hour uncovered stirring every so often.

9. Add in beans and chocolate. Let it cook for about another hour.

10. Take off the heat and let cool for 15 to 20 minutes before serving. You can top with tortilla strips or chips, shredded cheese, onions, sour cream...really whatever you like.

This recipe makes a thicker chili..and a LOT of chili. We had leftovers and it may have even been better the second day! It does have a long list of ingredients, but I would say it's worth it. A little time intensive as well, but it hits the spot on a cool fall football Saturday.

What is your favorite chili recipe? Let me know if you try this one and how it turns out!

Birthday in Vienna

2012-10-16T10:02:00.001-04:00

Yesterday for my birthday Dan and I went to do a little more touring in Vienna. We had a great day and really ended up just wandering around the city for a few hours.

Our afternoon started at Naschmarkt- Vienna's most popular outdoor market that has been around since the 16th century. It is about 1.5 km long and includes stalls selling fruits, veggies, spices, trinkets, etc. It also has a ton of restaurants for the visitors to enjoy food that is mostly purchased from the market and prepared.

On Saturdays there is a large flea market that also takes place. Since we were there on Monday it wasn't too crowded but still had the energy of a busy market space.

For lunch we had Asian food- sushi, pad Thai and a chicken dish. We love Asian food and haven't had very much success finding good Asian food in Europe. I have been dying for some raw sashimi tuna so it was top of the list on my birthday. The food was delicious and we had a great time sitting outside watching all of the people mill around while we ate.

I had looked up a few of the top rated restaurants in the market beforehand, but when we got to the market we thought it was only one section...we didn't realize it continued across the road too. So we didn't really find many of the ones I had read about. Luckily the food at the Asian Stop was good so it didn't even matter. We eventually found the other places and may go back one afternoon and try lunch there.

The market is mostly Middle Eastern and Asian focused. There are a few Viennese restaurants, but lots of kebab stops and international shops.

After wandering through the market for a while we headed down to the Opera House in the main ring of the city. It is one of the busiest opera houses in the world producing 50 to 60 operas each year and over 300 ballet performances. Daily they lead tours through the opera house and at Christmas time the Vienna Boys' Choir performs there.

Not too much else to report on our day out. More pictures though! Hope y'all are liking the new look and format of the blog. I have more recipes to add this week...some great fall recipes for the cold weather that seems to have appeared.

I totally forgot to mention this...oh Europe. As I was adding these last pictures I wanted to share just an example of their exhibitionist nature over here. As we were walking past the Museum Quarter yesterday we came across about 20 of these huge posters. I blurred out the picture a bit....they seem to love straight nudity. It showed EVERYTHING. Literally 20 posters of different soccer players just lining the street nude. I am not even sure what the exhibit is about? Maybe a trip to the Leopold Museum is in order...

Flower Garden

Dried fruits and nuts

Big ol' tub of Sauerkraut

Waving kitties

Fresh produce

Fancy an octopus?

Large truffles

Hope everyone has a great rest of the week. Check back tomorrow for our new favorite chili recipe!

More Vienna Sights

2012-10-12T12:28:00.000-04:00

Parliament

Seated Dinner set up

Yesterday Dan took a half day off of work and we spent the early afternoon visiting the Imperial Apartments, Sisi Museum and Silver Collection of the Hofburg- the main residence of the Habsburg Family.

They also have a summer residence a little bit outside of the city. This was simply their winter residence. Doesn't everyone have two?

Dan and I both agreed that we are not fancy enough to have been or to be part of one of the banquets/dinners held for the family. The Silver Collection was incredible and there were so many dishes...I seriously doubt that it all was used. On the upside, each guest gets their own carafe of wine for dinner which includes 9 to 13 courses. Fancy, huh?

City Hall

Afterwards we wandered through the center of town to see some of the areas we didn't see our first day out. We stopped by many of the government buildings- Parliament, City Hall, the University, etc. We looped around at a church that may or may not be completely haunted. It was mostly under construction, but still functioning as a church. But I am definitely thinking they could make some extra money by running ghost tours through there at night. For movie buffs- it is the church shown in the movie "Before Sunrise" with Ethan Hawke & Julie Delpy. Great indy movie that takes place in Vienna.

The Sisi Museum was probably my favorite thing we saw yesterday. Empress Elizabeth of Austria was pretty fascinating and kinda crazy. We were able to walk through their dressing rooms, bedrooms, conference areas and dining areas. She had a major weight and beauty complex, having her ankle length hair worked on for 2 to 3 hours a day. She was also known for having a super tiny waist of 16 inches around at one point. They didn't allow pictures in the Sisi Museum or Imperial Apartments, but we did take some more around town...

Old Guard Stand

Dan outside the Theseus Temple in Volksgarten

Hopscotch in City Hall park

Here is the church, here is the steeple

Stained glass windows

Statue at the University

BieberFever Ambulance?

Other than sightseeing, Dan and I have been busy at work. Well Dan has actually been working...but I've been keeping busy trying to revamp the blog and make it more organized and functional.

What do you think?

Vienna Sightseeing

2012-10-08T11:52:00.001-04:00

Myers statue picture

On Saturday, Dan took the day off of work and we went into the center of town and did some good old fashioned sightseeing. It feels like it has been a while since we trekked through churches and shops...we didn't do much of that in England.

On our list of places to see were St. Stephan's Cathedral, the popular shopping districts Graben & Kartner Strasse, St. Peter's Church, the Hoher Markt, Demel Coffee Shop, and Stadtpark. We covered a lot of ground!

One of the positives about Austria that we noticed...they don't charge a fee to go into their churches to see. We did have to pay a small fee to go to the top of the north tower of St. Stephan's but it has an amazing view of the city and you can walk around the large balcony and take pictures.

Overall we had a perfect day just wandering the city and getting lost. We loved all of the architecture and the old European feeling to the city. The weather was gorgeous and perfect for spending the day outside. Not much more I can say about it so here are our pictures from the day:

Old Town

The tunnel statues

Demel Coffee Shop

St. Peter's Church

Gorgeous altar of St. Peter's Church

Candles...maybe saying prayers for an ND win?

Outdoor bar in the city

Roof of St. Stephan's Cathedral

More architecture

Dan reading my notes on why these
places are famous. Little tour guide lessons.

Main altar of St. Stephan's

Famous pulpit

more prayers

stairs to the main pulpit

View from the top of the North Tower

Big bell on top of North Tower of St. Stephan's

Other part of St. Stephan's roof

fenced in

Bridal pictures in Stephandom

The Hoher Clock

Wedding Statue

Demel's afpelstrudel

Hard at work on some chocolates

Ruins...of old tourists...I mean the old city

more statues

Pinocchio

stairs in technicolor

Mural

Truffle Shuffle

Another view of the roof of St. Stephan's

Stadtpark

Dan and Beethoven

in Stadtpark

arm shot

funniest contraption on a segway!
They added a baby car seat and he was
just sitting while they zoomed around town!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Sorry for the picture dump, but I think it's better to see pics than for me to ramble on. We are off to see more sights on Wednesday so check back for some more posts this week!

Vienna- Day 1

2012-10-02T15:11:00.000-04:00

Dan's Lunch

We arrived in Austria! Last night we landed in Vienna late and made our way to our new home for the next 4 weeks. It was too late and dark last night to see anything so today we got up and went around town trying to get our bearings. Side note- immigration was a BREEZE! They didn't ask us a single question! Not sure what England's problem is....

My lunch

The first day in any new country is a little overwhelming to me. We usually rent an apartment that isn't directly in the city centre for our stay...so the first day is all about getting oriented with the city, finding grocery stores, figuring our new home out, etc. Today was a lot of those kinds of things.

Birthday plans- seeing Milli Vanilli Live!

Of course our first stop had to be some traditional Austrian food for lunch. I seriously think Dan will be in hog heaven here- both literally and figuratively. He had bacon wrapped hot dog type sausages with cheese. I opted for chicken wiener schnitzel- basically fried flat chicken...it was delish. Both were tasty and we felt very Austrian.

Never too far from home...sign on our street

The big mission of the day was to pick up some adapters for our laptops. I have no idea where the ones we had from Barcelona went, but we ended up here last night without any power adapters. We headed to the huge shopping street and found an electronics store- it was on the top floor of a shopping center. Hard to describe, but it's like a department store with all different levels- make up and shoes on the ground floor, clothes and home goods on the 2nd floor, a separate sporting goods store on the third floor, and a separate electronics store on the top floor. But they had what we needed so it all worked out.

So much more exploring to do this week. Dan will be back to work, but I will be out and about. More posts to come!

Hope everyone is having a great week. If you have been to Vienna tell us your favorite thing or something we should not miss!

Ta Ta England!

2012-09-28T11:13:00.005-04:00

The day has finally come...well, almost. On Monday Dan and I are leaving England- for good thanks to the immigration department- and moving to Vienna, Austria for October. We are beyond excited to get out of Manchester and enjoy these last few stops before settling down in Toronto.

I know I said a few posts back that I would be posting all of the last minute fun stuff we would be doing and seeing...yeah, we didn't do anything. Dan has been hard at work and I've been prepping for the move. We have been enjoying the Notre Dame games early in the morning/very late at night for the last few weeks. Other than that it's been same ol' stuff.

Nothing else really to update y'all on...we are pretty boring and quiet right now. I am guessing that once we get to Vienna next week we will have more to show since there will be some sightseeing.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I will be packing and practicing my german. Is it sad that all of the german I know is from Ferris Bueller's Day Off? Yeah...not sure I can make it 4 weeks with only "danke shone."

So check back over the month of October for some new posts on all things Austrian...hopefully including some castles, gulasch, apfelstrudel, Klimt paintings, and more.

I'm Going Back to Cali, Cali, Cali....

2012-09-18T09:33:00.002-04:00

Let me clarify a few things right off the bat here....we are indeed returning to a place. That place in not Cali though. I just couldn't find a better song than LL Cool J's amazing masterpiece to fully sum up how excited we are.

Dan and I made the decision to return to Toronto starting in December. There really isn't a song where anyone- much less someone of the lyrical genius level of LL Cool J or Biggy- sings "Going back to Canada." But you get my point.

We've booked our tickets and signed our lease! It is actually official that December 3rd will be our first official day as second-time-around Canadians! We are even going to be in the same apartment for the first six months! It will be one year from when we left....we are like the prodigal son returning to the place that treated us best. A homecoming of sorts.

Our decision is two fold- first, out of all of the places we have visited or lived in the last 18 months we enjoyed and felt most comfortable in Canada. Not only will we be closer to home and family and friends, but we see Toronto as a place where we can build a normal life until we can finally be back in the US.

Secondly, moving back to a familiar place and renting the same apartment are so that Dan can immediately get to work in his last month of work for the year. We need to be able to get acclimated with little to no disruption for him, and Toronto provides that for us. Once 2012 is over and Dan has more work freedom we will begin an extensive search for the perfect apartment with more space and more long term. Mike and Laura are back in Toronto now too, and they had a very tough time looking at more than 15 places and getting in bidding wars for a place. They have been such a big help learning all about the new Toronto renting market! We want to give ourselves enough time to be able to do that when Dan isn't in the middle of such a big work goal/deadline.

For me being back in Canada is the best scenario short of being able to move back to Raleigh. I loved our life there and our experience. Toronto, and this apartment, was our first place on our big journey of living abroad for Dan's work. It was a new beginning where we were going to have an exciting few years to explore. 2012 was difficult, challenging, exciting, and a great experience, but we are more than thrilled to go back to a new beginning in a place we love.

So start planning your trips to come visit! We will be making many more trips to visit friends and family now that we won't be but a simple border away from y'all! It makes a big difference than being an ocean apart! We also won't be ignoring anymore how important it is to us to keep close to our family and friends who have been so loving and supportive in this crazy journey we've been traveling. Being away from y'all is definitely the hardest part of this whole situation.

So Toronto or bust in December. I can't wait to blog more about all of the delish foods and meals we will be trying (especially with the St. Lawrence Market!), new winter activities we will be learning, and all of the things we missed in Canada our first time around!

The Many Myers in London

2012-09-13T14:56:00.003-04:00

Family Photo

This past weekend, Dan and I went to London for the day to see his parents who were just arriving in town. For the last few months they have been planning a two week tour through the UK, and we had the chance to spend their first day with them in the city.

An actual engine of the train Queen Victoria used
travel to Windsor in 1842

London is only about a 3 hour train ride from Manchester, so we took the morning train out and came back late that night after dinner. We were very excited to see some familiar faces over on our side of the world!

A fancypants car show on the lawn while the Queen is
in Scotland for the weekend.

When we arrived we all grabbed a quick lunch and boarded a bus headed to Windsor Castle about an hour outside of London. Sweet Lou & Momo- that's what we call them- are on a tour with Globus so there was a tour guide who told us all about the sites along the way and he even guided us through the the Royal Apartments once we arrived to Windsor. Dan and I laughed immediately as we boarded the bus because it was definitely a glimpse into our life 25 years or so from now!

Royal Guard

Windsor Castle is one of the 5 homes that the Queen has access to. It is one she spends her weekends at mostly and it is gorgeous. There are ceremonies and state dinners held there as well. We toured the Royal Apartments which showed many of the older rooms used by kings and queens from long ago. The walls were lined with antique armor, china, gifts from various dignitaries and many other royal artifacts. You can't take any pictures inside of the castle...cue all outdoor shots.

Gargoyles

In 1992 there was a huge fire at Windsor Castle, but it has been completely restored and the items and furniture were all saved from the fire by the staff and Prince Andrew so we were seeing original items. We had a great time wandering the grounds and taking pictures with the Royal Guards.

And our turn....

Once we were back in London after our tour we headed to Bumpkin, a great restaurant that our friend Nicole took us to when we were in London last time. It has british style food and is delish! Sweet Lou had a traditional Sunday Roast and a Bumpkin beer. Momo went for the Shepherd's Pie. Dan tried out Lamb rump and roasted neck fillet, while I played it safe with the sea bass. The food was so good again this time, and of course it's not a meal at Bumpkin without their amazing Sticky Toffee Pudding! We even ended up running into Nicole on our way out as she was sitting down with friends for dinner. Such a small world!

Queen Victoria

All in all it was a wonderful trip. So glad we were able to spend the day with the Myers since the wedding weekend was so crazy I felt like I didn't really get to see them. I am very excited to hear all about their trip once they get back. They are going to be seeing some really cool sites and traveling all over the UK.

Dan with his swan friends on the Thames

Hope everyone had a great weekend too! We are sticking out our last 3 weeks here in Manchester and gearing up for our move to Vienna for October. More to come in the following weeks so keep checking back!

Manchester United

2012-09-07T13:44:00.003-04:00

When we were under the impression that the last week of August could be our last week in the UK we decided to check something off our bucket list before being kicked out.

On Saturday, August 25th, Dan and I hailed a cab to Old Trafford and went to see Manchester United play some football. We have been watching the football matches at a local pub all last season and through the Euro Cup, but we've never ventured to either of the Manchester stadiums.

We didn't have tickets, but after trying to find some with no luck in the rain we were on our way to head back home when a nice gentleman offered us the two seats next to him. I guess scalping tickets for football is a huge no-no, but since we were already on thin ice with the authorities we decided to take our chances. Tickets to United games are very similar to Steelers or Packers tickets- hard to get and handed down through generations. They are in the form of a credit card with a swipe key to get into the gate. So whoever you buy from you get to sit with.

His arm tattoo is MUFC. Devoted fan.

The guy had good seats and we really enjoyed the game. United was playing Fulham and ended up winning. It was Van Persie's first match with United and he scored his first goal in Old Trafford. Big day for him. With about 20 minutes left in the second half, Sir Alex Ferguson put Wayne Rooney in to play so we got to see most of the stars on the team.

Lead Cheerleader

The game was entertaining...there were goals by both teams, an injury to Rooney in the final minutes that will have him out for 3 more weeks, and lots of singing. Apparently the fans know the words to all of these made up songs that they sing throughout the ENTIRE game. 99% of the songs are aimed at the other team in Manchester, Manchester City, not at the team they are playing. But it was fun to watch and guess what they were singing...we had a hard time making out most of the words.

Creepy, but we were there!

Since we are here until the end of September now we may just try to see a game at Man City's stadium too. So much to see still and so little time!

Have a great weekend!

Notre Dame Game in Dublin

2012-09-06T10:43:00.002-04:00

Group picture at the Guinness Factory

We have the best friends ever. Unmatched, hands down, no questions- the BEST friends ever. This past weekend in Dublin only proved this fact even more. They are all so smart and fun and welcoming and there for us and each other. I don't know how we got so lucky, but these are the best people to be able to call friends.

Friday night dinner at Fire

After our little debacle with immigration, we reorganized our life & suitcase for an epic weekend in Dublin, Ireland for the Notre Dame vs. Navy football game. This is the first game we have seen in a few season and the only one we will get to attend this season so we knew we had to make it count.

Game Day

Along with the 33,000 other people traveling from the US for the game- a record crowd traveling for one single sporting event in history- 10 of our best friends came over to Dublin and we all enjoyed dinners, tailgating, bars and the game together.

Sunday Funday watching Gaelic Football

On Friday everyone met up for dinner at a great restaurant, Fire, in downtown Dublin. I guess I assumed when planning this trip that everyone knew each other from the business school, but I was wrong. So Friday's dinner was even better with people meeting for the first time and Dan's and my friends all mingling and getting to know one another. It is a strange thing to see different parts of your life all collide, but strange in the best way.

Our amazing nightlife tour guides Molly & John

Molly Eyerman and her friend John had studied in Dublin when we were in college, so they were the nightlife tour guides. We hit all of the fun Friday night spots and even found a bar that was similar to our favorite bar in South Bend. These places were full of Notre Dame fans more so than Irish people, but we loved it.

Notre Dame Tailgate at Temple Bar

On Saturday we all got up and met in town to tailgate. Megan, Justin, Dan & I stopped by the Notre Dame tailgate in Temple Bar and ran into other people we knew from school. It almost made it feel like we were back in South Bend...but with Guinness. So many people were in Dublin for the game and it was the perfect Saturday game day. We then met up with everyone else at a pub to enjoy some pregame rituals before heading to the stadium.

In front of Aviva Stadium

Obviously the game was great. We definitely don't have any room to complain when we score 50 points. It was fun to see real American football in person and the Aviva stadium was incredible.

With Sebastian Lara!

After the game we all headed to another pub- seeing a theme here?- and caught up with other ND fans and friends from school. Dan and I ran into Sebastian Lara who I have known since the 5th grade in Memphis. He's a doctor in D.C. now and we don't see each other as often, but it was great to catch up and reminisce about move in weekend freshman year with his family and all things that have happened since.

Street Windows we all Decorated

After a typically Irish dinner at Captain America's- not Irish at all in fact, we just wanted some food and American football on TV- we headed out again to celebrate birthday's and relive college. We were getting pretty good at that by night #2!

Perfect Pour Masters

On Sunday, the group met for a brunch and a tour of the Guinness Factory. It was really fun and a great Sunday activity. Lots of people, mostly game fans, were there as well so it made it an even better experience. We were able to learn the "perfect pour" and get Guinness certified. A resume plus, I think!

Sunday night at The Bank

Sunday night was our final group dinner at the Bank, which is the old Irish bank redone into a large restaurant and bar. We were celebrating Molly's birthday so obviously there was cake. We had a great time and the food was really good. Even though Erica- our waitress- had a little trouble with the whole "surprise her with a birthday dessert" we made it work in the end.

At St. Stephen's Green

A few of the couples had early morning flights on Monday so it was the end of the road for the group trip, but all in all it was a huge success. I really can't believe how lucky Dan and I are to have such amazing friends who make every situation a really fun time. This was one of, if not our best vacation in a long long time. This week has been sad realizing the trip is over, but I am already trying to figure out another place we can meet up and celebrate together again.

Big group love

Getting to spend this weekend with friends was exactly what we needed. We are constantly reminded how amazing and crucial to our life our family and friends are. We can't thank y'all enough for loving us and giving us so many great memories. Can't wait to do it all again!

On the Run...

2012-09-05T08:49:00.003-04:00

On Wednesday of last week when Dan and I landed in Manchester, we ran into a litttttle immigration hurdle. We won't go so far as to call it an "issue," because it is all settled now. However, that morning and for the next 6 days it sure felt like more than an issue.

At the first stop- the visa desk- we encountered a lady who we think is the same lady that let us into England in April, but she apparently didn't like our landing card information this time around. On the card it asks profession and Dan put down poker player. We filled one out in April so in an effort to be honest and our cards matching up, he wrote the same thing down again. After a while at the desk answering some routine questions, Immigration Lady sent us to a side room to sit while she spoke with her boss.

In the hour it took her to discuss her next move we were joined by a cast of characters. First, there was bi-polar Bob. He is actually bi-polar, not me judging...and he is a writer. Apparently Bob had run out of paper because his offense was writing on the pages of his passport...like allll over his passport...stories of people he saw on the plane and ideas he had. Also, Bob must have used up all of his passport pages because the left leg of his pants included a grocery list and the first chapter of a novel he wanted to write. In sharpie. On his pants.

Next, a stream of 5 or 6 different people from a flight landing from Angola mingled around in the room, each waiting for their turn with the translator explaining why they brought no luggage or wanted to stay with a relative for more than 6 months. Lastly, we were joined by a young boy who hid in the bathroom until the line was completely gone and only one person remained at the visa desk waiting to check passports. The boy lied and was caught about 5 different times, but they let him through when he pointed through the window at another African American man who either looked up or acknowledged him staring and the Visa man allowed him to go. Never in a million years do I think the man he pointed to was his guardian, but hey...I was just sitting and watching. Not my call.

Once our hour had passed, Immigration lady came back and said they decided to give us a temporary admittance to the country, but we needed to get all of our things and shut down our apartment and return the following Tuesday for an interview. We mentioned to her that we had a flight to Dublin the following Friday and she simply said they would put us on the first flight back to Chicago- where we came from- once a decision was made. Perfect. Not only had this taken up Dan's entire birthday, but we were in jeopardy of missing the Notre Dame game in Dublin. The game we planned our entire travel for 2012 around attending. No big deal. Plus, we had a 4 1/2 hour wait to figure out our next step while she wrote out all of the paperwork. It was obviously our lucky day.

So in the days that followed we scrambled around trying to get things tied up in Manchester, printing all sorts of documents showing everything from funds to pictures of us doing touristy things. We packed and cleaned and made sure our life was all tidy on paper and in a suitcase. We researched other options of places to live, and more importantly how quickly we could board a flight in Chicago (if we were sent back) and make it back to Dublin in time for the game/weekend we had planned.

Fast forward to Tuesday morning...we lug all of our suitcases to the airport and to the employee check in where we are supposed to meet someone from immigration. Apparently we were told incorrect information and they had zero plans to send us anywhere that day. We were not supposed to have luggage of any kind and no decision had been made. Relief! We were starting with a clean slate of an argument and maybe we still had a chance.

After dealing with the bag situation, a gentleman took Dan into the interview and quizzed him for about and hour and 20 minutes. When he finally came out he said it was "good." After the fact Dan told me they went through all of the docs we printed, banking information, work information, etc. So now the guy wants to interview me. Here is how the 7 minute interview went:

Immigration Guy: "So, what do you do all day?"
Katie: "run, clean, cook, read....um shop?"

Immigration Guy: "And why exactly do you have no career aspirations?"
Katie: "What?! Well I do have career aspirations, but we are taking this time to travel and see the world before we settle down and have kids."

IG: "And why do you not have kids yet?"
K: "We are only 28 and have been married for just 3 years. We just don't yet."

IG: "Well most people who want kids have them by the time they are 28."
K: "Perfect."

Needless to say this was not the best 7 minutes of my life. And all I kept thinking was, "If this is how Dan's interview went and he said it was good we reallllly need to have a chat about the meaning of the word good." I was really scared that my answers were ruining our chances of getting to stay.

So to end this amazing conversation, my dear friend Immigration Guy said, "Well, to be honest you are borderline." Perfect. I already was thinking about the fun weekend we could have in Chicago. Windy City here we come!

After much discussion, they did somehow agree to let us into England. I guess the whole problem that we were stopped for in the beginning is that there are two options when you enter England: 1. You get a 6 month stamp to enter or 2. You are denied. Since we left 4 1/2 months into our stay in England and then returned, they thought we were trying to extend our 6 months when we in fact had zero intention of staying past October 1st. So it really had very little to do with poker or anything else. They just didn't want us holing up in England so Dan could work while going home every 4 to 5 months to restart our 6 month stay.

We didn't get flagged or punished or fined. They put in our file we are set to leave on October 1st. If we stay longer until the second 6 month stamp expires then try to return we will have a real issue. We also were advised to stay away from England for the next year or 2 so our hiccup could get out of the system.

All in all we are not Bonnie & Clyde or Claire Danes from Brokedown Palace. But we did have a slight issue and word did sort of spread so I wanted to set the record straight here...after the interview and weekend in Dublin.

Tomorrow will be a post about Dublin and all of the fun we had! Keep checking back for more fun stories and reading my long posts....next time someone asks my career aspirations I can say blogger and these updates will prove my point ;)

Back in Business...

2012-09-04T13:38:00.001-04:00

We're back. I feel like after a few months of diligently blogging I take a month long vacay from posting and then have a lot of catching up to do. Nothing new about this post today. This is the "hi, I'm sorry I'm such a delinquent blogger, but I promise to be better. To prove my point here is an excessively long post about our life over the last 4 weeks." Again, nothing new today. Here it goes-

For about 3 weeks in August I went back to the USA to visit family and help with Dan's cousin, Elizabeth's, wedding. It was the most amazing 3 weeks ever. I was able to spend time with my family in Memphis, celebrate my sisters birthday, and be home. Since I had not been back in the States for 7 months it was nice to do American things, eat American food, enjoy ESPN and sunny summer weather. The little things make all of the difference! We also were able to see and snuggle with Finnegan, our cat. He loves being at my parents house with Harry Winston, but I think he was secretly glad to see Dan...and me a little bit. ;)

Then I went over to North Carolina and spent time in Raleigh with Dan's Aunt Mary Jo, Uncle Rick, cousins Elizabeth & Ricky, Megan and the boys- Brady & Caleb. We spent much of the time getting all of the finishing touches ready for the wedding, but I also saw friends from work and was able to get some classes in at my gym back home. I am so beyond lucky to have such a great family to be part of through my marriage. They have been amazing and welcoming and it felt just like I was with my own family. The wedding was a gorgeous and perfect. We are so happy for Stephen and Elizabeth!

Dan came over to the States right before the wedding and stayed for about 5 days when we came back to England together. We were able to celebrate his birthday with his family over the wedding weekend and then with my family in Memphis with some bbq and banana pudding.

When we arrived in England we hit a little snag with the immigration department- a blog post for tomorrow- but everything is fine now. We are currently in Manchester until October 1st. After that we will be spending the month of October in Vienna, Austria and November in Prague. An exciting fall to look forward to for sure.

This past weekend we were lucky enough to go to the Notre Dame football game in Dublin with a group of friends from college. We had the best time! It was a perfect vacation and American football was on our turf...nothing better! I promise a big post about the weekend sometime this week full of stories and pictures.

On Sunday, September 9th we are headed to London to spend the day with Dan's parents who are in town to start a 2 week UK tour. We are going to spend the day sightseeing and catching up before they meet up with their tour group and we head back to Manchester to prepare for our move.

Overall, things are great. I am still homesick a bit- we didn't have much time between the immigration mess and going to Dublin to re-acclimate, but it is a work in progress. I am sure after a week back on track with running and cooking dinners I will be fine :)

Look for more posts this week...and in the weeks to follow. We still have some things to do in Manchester before moving so I will be posting on all of that fun stuff.

London & Wimbledon

2012-07-08T07:53:00.000-04:00

Last weekend Dan and I took a trip to London for a few days. We were very excited to take another mini vacation, and Dan has never been to London so I was excited to show him the city. When I was in middle school, I spent a spring break in London and remember loving my time there. They city seemed so exciting and filled with things to do and see.

Our trip last weekend felt quite similar. The city was buzzing with Olympic excitement, Wimbledon action and general love for the city. We also had the added excitement of seeing friends from the States for the first time in 10 or so months. Cate and Anthony, our friends from college, were in town on vacation and we had plans to see the city with them over the weekend. Also, our backyard neighbor from North Carolina is working in London this year, and we had such a great time catching up over dinner and hearing all about our neighborhood updates and Memphis updates- she and I are both, coincidentally from Memphis.

Below are a bunch of pictures of our weekend. Some highlights include seeing the Olympic rings on the Tower Bridge, the Borough Market, and Wimbledon. Today we are purely British cheering on Andy Murray in the Wimbledon Finals!

Amazing burger at Byron

Milkshake love

Clearly London

Kensington Palace

America Sculpture at the Albert Memorial

Dan and Nicole

Breakfast heaven at Elliot's Cafe in Borough Market

Strawberries and Ice cream for Cate

Dan & the Bartolacci's at the Market

Butter Croissants

Brownie Tower

Paella at the Market

The boys at Roast in the Borough Market

And the girls

So the Borough Market was a great place to start our Saturday. We had breakfast and coffee before wandering around all of the tables to see the products. The market is very similar to the market I went to in Toronto except it was mostly veggies, fruits, high end items like specialty cheeses and jams, bakery goods, and food to go from upscale eateries. The market in Toronto had more of the everyday items like butchers and spices by the spoonful. Either way I am a sucker for a market...and this one was incredible!

The London Bridge

On the London Bridge with the Tower Bridge & Rings behind

The Tower Bridge and Olympic Rings

In front of the Tower of London

Group Picture

The Globe Theatre

The London Eye

Big Ben

Parliament House

Westminster Abbey

Dan in front of the Abbey

Westminster Abbey

Heading to Buckingham Palace

The Royal Balcony at the Palace

Guards

Fish & Chips...with mushy peas

Group picture at the Grenadier Pub

Amazing hidden pub in the "1,000 Places to See Before You Die" book

Street Party

Harrods

On Portobello Road in Notting Hill

Notting Hill

At the Smithfield Market where William Wallace was hung

Princess Louise Pub with Samu'l Smith beers

Swedish National basketball team in Nike Town + Anthony

On Monday, Dan and I went to Wimbledon. They have grounds tickets available for so many people and you have to wait in a line to see if you get in. Well when we arrive there Monday morning there was no queue so we made it in! We were so excited to see tennis and actually be inside of Wimbledon. I kind of felt like at any moment they were going to realize we weren't fancy enough to be there! Such a cool experience. We saw some great tennis matches and had an amazing day. It is definitely something we want to plan to do again in a few years and get tickets to a centre court match to see the big names.

Excited for Wimbledon

And we're in...

Strawberries and Cream

On the hill

Serena Williams

Maria Kirilenko defeated S. Peng

Bryan and Kohlschreiber

Before our train left Monday night, Dan and I went out to Kings Cross Station where they filmed Harry Potter scenes. They have set up a place to take pictures so naturally we did. It was probably one of the best moments of the trip....

Dan headed for Hogwarts

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July. Shockingly there was no big celebration over here ;) I just made some burgers, homemade potato salad and strawberry shortcakes. We are looking forward to being in the States for our next vacation in August. Nothing much planned until the end of the month when I leave to head home for a few weeks before Dan.

Olympic Fever & Euro Cup Soccer

2012-06-25T06:08:00.001-04:00

Sorry for the week delay in posting....to be honest, there hasn't been much going on here to post about.

Dan has been busy busy busy working away. I've been keeping busy with daily stuff. Nothing special to report.

We are going to London this weekend for a few days. Very excited to see the city, explore, catch some of Wimbledon, and most importantly, hang out with friends! Cate and Anthony will be in London at the same time so we are going to get to see them and spend time together. Also, our backyard neighbor from NC, Nicole, is working in London for 10 months so we are going to get to hang out with her too! Knowing that we get to see friends this weekend is what has kept us going for the past few weeks :)

This weekend we did take a break for some fun. On Saturday, the Olympic torch came through Manchester so we lined the street Saturday evening to see the relay. It was fun, but very quick. When the Olympics were in Atlanta a while back, we were lucky enough to have the torch come through Memphis and we went out to see it. It's a very cool experience if you get the chance to partake. To me it seems to crazy that it is lit in Greece and carried all around the world before arriving at the site of the Olympics. Needless to say, the UK is getting quite excited for the games to start. Some of the football matches are even going to be held in Manchester at Old Trafford Stadium, so that is making the city buzz even more!

At the start of the parade...seems to be having fun

Trying on my paper hat and waving the flag

Dan having none of the hat...over it

The bus with the other runners and extra torches

The torch!

London Bound flame...

Another fun thing that has been going on for a few weeks is the Euro Cup Soccer Tournament- I don't think that's the actual name at all...but you get what I mean. All of the Euro countries have a team that play in a tournament after the regular season is over. England was doing so well, but sadly they lost in a shoot out last night to Italy. We had a fun time going to The Lost Dene to watch the games. It is definitely different than league play since everyone in the bar is cheering for the same team this time around. Quite a fun atmosphere.

Not too much else to report. We are off to London on Friday so next week check back for pictures and stories from our trip.

Hope things are going well in the States. One month until I get to come home for a few weeks! We are counting down the days for our American summer break. (As you can tell from the pictures it is still cold here. In the 50's and rainy mostly. So we are so pumped for some sunshine and hot temps while we are home....plus, a tan wouldn't kill either of us. Just saying.)

Damn You, Rachael Ray!

2012-06-08T10:32:00.000-04:00

I swear that lady has my house bugged. This week, Rachael Ray came out with a new cookbook called "The Book of Burgers" or something like that. I get it, she's a chef/TV personality/NYT Best Selling Author... so cooking and cook books are her thing. Well, here is the truth...she has been listening to Dan and I plan our menus each week and has claimed this idea as her own! Just getting the real story out there.

A while ago, Dan and I were coming up empty on ideas for dinners. We somehow got on the topic of different burgers...probably because we are genius or always hungry or love burgers....but we did NOT get this idea from RR. So we've been trying a new type of burger each week for some time now. It has been sort of a game to think of a theme or flavor and make up a tasty dinner burger. Then this week RR puts this book out. Shock does not describe. In my humble opinion, she could have stayed with the whole shortening names of ingredients train she was on....EVOO is equal parts catchy and annoying...and leave the burgers to us. Just a thought.

Since we want y'all to enjoy great food too, here are our favorite ones so far for you to try and enjoy this weekend....and Rachael Ray, beware...we are on to your game.

Mexican Inspired Turkey Burgers
similar to Taste of Home

1/4 cup salsa
3 tsp. paprika
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp ground cumin
3/4 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 lb. extra lean ground turkey
4 slices pepper jack or cheddar cheese
4 burger buns
lettuce & tomato to top burger

-In a large bowl, combine first 7 ingredients. Crumble ground turkey over ingredients and mix together. -Form into 4 burger patties.
-We seared ours in a pan on the stove and then placed in the oven to fully cook through for about 7 minutes. These would be best if made on the grill.

You can add a sauce on top before serving. Use 1/4 cup salsa and 1/4 cup reduced fat sour cream. Mix together and use as a condiment for the burger.

Asian Fusion Turkey Burgers
idea from Finger Licking Food

The recipe I found was for Asian bean burgers. We are mostly meat eaters so I used turkey instead. These could definitely be made with beef too. I am going to try the bean burgers out one night...but haven't yet.

1 lb or package of extra lean ground turkey
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 tsp reduced sodium soy sauce
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp minced or ground garlic
1/2 tsp or more red chili flakes for heat
2 tbsp diced scallions- I used 2 whole scallions and diced them
2 tbsp diced carrots- I used 1 small/medium carrot and chopped it up
4 burger buns

-Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl (except the buns...)
-Form into 5 or 6 burger patties.
-We cooked ours in a skillet on the stove and finished them in the oven, but a grill would again be a great option

For the sauce:
1/4 cup light mayo/olive oil mayo- we used less, just enough to make it into a sauce texture
1/2 tsp reduced sodium soy sauce
1/2 tbsp minced scallions
1 tsp hot sauce

Once the burgers are done, place them on the toasted bun and top with a bit of the sauce. Enjoy!

Breakfast Burgers

1 lb or package of extra lean ground turkey or beef
salt and pepper to taste
4 eggs
4 English muffins
4 slices of cheese of your choice
dijon mustard
tomatoes

-Season the ground meat with salt and pepper
-Form into burger patties
-We cooked ours on the stove and finished them in the oven
-While burgers are in the oven, lightly fry the egg in a skillet
-Place burger on toasted english muffin and top with a slice of cheese, a slice of tomato, some dijon mustard and the egg

So that ends our recipe share for the week. Hope everyone has a great weekend! Enjoy that summer weather for us...

And thank you all for your sweet comments and emails about our anniversary! Dan planned a great dinner at a new steakhouse here in one of the casinos. It was amazing food! We had a great time and enjoyed some fun gambling afterwards. Perfect celebration!

3 Years Ago....

2012-06-06T05:36:00.003-04:00

It is crazy to think that three years ago today, Dan and I said 'I Do." In some ways it feels like it was just yesterday we were surrounded by all of our friends and family celebrating. In other ways, I think we've had a lifetime together in just 3 years. I can say with out a doubt that each year has been better than the one before and that we are better together now than we were 36 months ago.

So much has happened in these last three years that we never could have expected when we were on that altar. I think moving alone, we've packed and unpacked 6+ times...not including the month of March where we lived in three different places. Jobs have changed, addresses are different, hundreds of meals have been shared, but together Dan and I have grown into a team. Some days this outcome never seemed possible, but I am so lucky to have found my match.

And since I have the best husband in the world, he is surprising me today with a totally planned anniversary celebration. I have no idea what it is or where we are going...all I know is that I don't have to cook dinner :) I'm excited to see what the year ahead has for us. I can't really think much more long term than that. Even a year out seems to be a stretch with how things change in our lives. But this time next year I am sure I will be more in love with Dan- if that's possible- and celebrating another year of journeys and memories.

Happy anniversary Danny! And many many more to come. The adventures we are having now are the kinds people hope to tell their children and grandchildren about. I am so glad (and lucky) that I get to have these adventures with you.