Tumblr - Uhhmmm, how do I say this…

I’m leaving you.

I’ve been a faithful Tumblr blogger for almost 3 years, but to be honest, I’ve always wondered if there was something more… something, something more fulfilling…

So yeah, I looked around. I read other blogs and looked at layouts. If it makes you feel any better I didn’t look around a ton because, well, I did feel a little guilty.

But then I met Wordpress.

At first it was innocent. I mean I only blogged there a couple of times because that’s where my husband wanted our Vienna blog. But by the second post, I could tell my feelings and devotion were changing.

Ugh, don’t look at me that way. If your Dashboard wasn’t so cluttered with GIFS and reblogs and photos of nature maybe I would have stayed. But we both know you’re not going to change, not anytime soon at least.

I’ve already setup my new blog site on Wordpress here. If you need me you can find me there. I’ve moved all of my blog posts over to my new site as well so I’ll be leaving for good after this post.

Cheer up! We’ll see each other every now and then via HelloGiggles, The Daily What, my friends blogs, etc,. You’ll find someone else - I know it. Someone who loves How I Met Your Mother GIFS just as much as you do! It’ll be great, I promise. 

Ok… Guess this is it. Take care of yourself. See you around.

Translation: Hey friends and followers, I’ve decided to move my blog to Wordpress. The link is given above in the breakup post, so click it and follow me there! Thanks.

Today was a little on the warm side, more so than we’ve experienced so far in Vienna. I don’t typically mind the heat, but my husband minds it a lot so today was like, the worst for him. Ok I’m exaggerating a bit, but honestly, he’d live in an igloo if he could. Even though today’s our day off, we woke up nice and early and headed for a street called Schüttaustrasse to view an apartment which I think now is our twelfth apartment viewing or so? Somewhere around there. Quick side note about apartment hunting in Vienna: It’s not at all like the States. When my husband and I were apartment hunting back in Oklahoma, we took one Saturday to apartment complex hop, and by the end of the day we knew where we’d be living. Apartment hunting here is a lot more complex, especially since so many people live in apartments for many, many years. The search looks something like this:

Every morning I browse through 14 or so apartment websites, looking specifically for apartments that are located in the 22nd District (Donaustadt) and are within our price range. If I see something, we call the number and ask if the apartment is available. Unfortunately many of the sites are not regularly updated meaning there’s a good chance that the listings are old, meaning we’ve heard our fair share of “no longer available”s. If and when I do get a hold of someone who has an availability, we set up an appointment to come look at the apartment. Typically, the person I’ve setup the appointment with is a realtor, not the owner. When the time of the appointment arrives, my husband and I (along with our German-speaking coworkers) meet up with the realtor and view the apartment. Since my husband and I are only using public transportation to get around the city, we have to see if there are stores nearby, a bus, strassenbahn, UBahn, etc., making it easy for us to get around. Several of the apartments we’ve seen have been too far away from stores and transportation, so we’ve had to nix them. Other apartments have been tossed out because they looked good online, but not so good up close. The other issue we’ve run into is of course the rent. If you’re interested in an apartment, you come back with an offer to give to the realtor, who then sends the offer to the owner. If the owner isn’t having it, you’re out of luck. This has been the case with a few apartments as well, leading us back to square one.

Though the process is longer than what we’re used to, it’s certainly taught us a good lesson on patience. Each time something hasn’t worked out, we just take a deep breathe, maybe face palm one or two times, then keep searching. We KNOW our apartment is out there - just haven’t found it yet. We love, love, love the apartment we saw this morning, so fingers crossed that there’s a future in it.

After we left the apartment, we got some Eis (gelato) with the Hensal gals then headed to Schloss Schönbrunn. If you’ve never been to Vienna and plan to visit someday (right?), this is a definite must-see, and you have to see it when it’s gorgeous out like it was this afternoon. The palace itself is of course stunning, but the miles of gardens and woods is breathtaking. My husband and I toured the palace then walked all over the gardens up to Neptune Fountain. Later we met up with some friends at the Schönbrunn Zoo, saw some cool animals, then made it home just in time to watch a live feed of our best friends get married at the groom’s home in Oklahoma.

We have another wedding to watch (thanks technology) at 1:30am. We’re totally suiting up for it too. Well I am - the husband is wearing his pajamas and a tie. That counts, right?

Being super girly has never been my thing. In kindergarten, I was the girl classmate the boys would invite to their birthday parties because I was into playing games that involved ninjas and pretend weapons. In middle school, my best friends and I wrote and recorded skits about Mario and Luigi, and later we did one about LOTR (Lord of the Rings). In high school (and still today), you could guarantee that I’d choose watching The Dark Knight or Iron Man over any recent chick-flick. In college, I avoided craft parties and nail painting gatherings at all costs. But when it comes to my hair, I’m as girly as a girl can get. I love getting my hair done. 

Read more …

I’ve never been interested in seeing an old man naked.  Crazy, I know - it’s just simply never appealed to me.  But with travel comes unexpected and occasionally undesired happenings, and in my particular instance, it was male nudity. 

In the fall of 2008, I spent three months living in Vienna, Austria - the same city I’m returning to in May. Our supervisors and students before us constantly encouraged us to go out and see all we could in Vienna, even when we didn’t feel like it. Living in another country makes you tired in ways you’ve never felt before, so it’s not really surprising to have days where you just feel like staying inside and stuffing yourself with tasty butter rolls (which may have just been my thing). Days like that didn’t roll around too often, but when they did, it was nearly impossible to convince yourself to go out and about, unless someone suggested going somewhere relaxing, like say, a spa.

A couple of my girl friends had been searching for something to do all morning when they stumbled upon what appeared to be a luxurious, high-class spa a little ways outside of Vienna. I happened upon their discovery, and together the three of us oo’ed and ah’ed at the descriptions of body wraps, massages, hot stones, and heated pools. It was particularly dreary and brisk that day, so a spa couldn’t have sounded more perfect. We extended the invitation to other classmates, recruiting another girl and one guy, unfortunately having no idea that mixing genders would later become a problem.

We traveled the somewhat lengthy trip outside of Vienna by train, finally arriving in a little town called Baden. The town was cute and filled with boutiques and restaurants way out of our price range. It didn’t matter though - we were there to enjoy ultimate relaxation for as long as possible and head right back home to Vienna. With pool bags in hand, we headed for the spa. The building looked like a peaceful hotel, complete with the sound of quiet music and tiny fountains. We went to the front desk, and in Germglish proceeded to list the services we wanted to partake in for the afternoon. The woman heard us out, then said all of that would be just fine as long as we each presented her with a doctor’s note. A doctor’s note? We were confused, but soon became less so as she pointed out that this spa was a rehabilitating spa, a massive detail we failed to read about on the website. The only thing she could do for us, she said, was to allow us 2 hours use of the pools and sauna, and we could come back later for 30 minute massages as long as appointments were made. All of us wanted to be able to say we had gotten a massage while in Vienna, so each of us signed up for a session for later on that afternoon. The woman showed us the way to the pools and that was that. Or so we assumed.

If you’ve never been to Europe before, one thing to know is that the human body is seen a little different there, in that the human body is seen. At beaches or pools, men wear tiny speedos and women may wear a top, depending on how they feel that day I guess, so for extremely private and somewhat prude US college students, this was nothing short of uncomfortable. It’s the culture though, we said. We can handle it. We’re adults. The five of us found the locker room where upon entering we learned that both men and women share the locker room and do not use private rooms to change out of or into their clothes. This presented a problem for us seeing as we had a boy in our group of girls. Not wanting to be separated but also not wanting to get to know each other more than we had to, we picked the farthest line of lockers away from everyone and each of us chose a locker. Since we had no other changing choices, each of us got inside our lockers and changed into our bathing suits despite the lack of room and light. We managed though, and finally made it to the pools. We tried out the outdoor heated pool as well as the indoor jacuzzi, ending with the largest indoor pool which was filled with rehabilitating jets and waterfalls. I think we piddled around for about an hour before we decided we were ready to sit awhile in the sauna.

The five of us made our way to the sauna where we were immediately told to halt at the turnstile. At first we thought the problem was with our flip-flops. We had noticed earlier that no one else was wearing any sort of pool sandal unless they were over the age of 65, so perhaps this was the problem. The guy in our group, John, and I attempted to communicate with the man who continued to politely refuse us. Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Nein, sprechen Sie Englisch? Nein. We then resorted to wild pointing and gestures as we didn’t know the first bit of German for articles of clothing, and the sauna man didn’t know articles of clothing in English. After a few minutes I noticed the sauna man had been continuously pointing at John’s legs, not his shoes. So, we can’t have hairy legs in the sauna? I was terribly confused. We all were. Eventually the exhausted sauna man called over his manager. We heard the sauna man explain to the manager that we spoke English, and that’s about all we got from that even though the conversation lasted a lot longer. The manager looked at us for a few seconds then looked as if he had a great idea. He ran over to a closet and grabbed a towel. He came back and held it up. Oooooh, we said to each other, we don’t have towels. We need towels to come in here. Got it. Somehow the manager knew we still didn’t get it even though we thought we did. He started pointing wildly at John’s legs, then drawing what appeared to be a square in the air with his fingers. John’s legs, air square. John’s legs, air square. Finally, when we thought all hope was lost and John’s legs were somehow related to a square which was preventing us from entering the sauna, the manager remembered a word he knew in English, I’m assuming from the last time he encountered this problem. OFF! OFF! OFF! We understood. The men hadn’t been pointing at John’s legs, they had been pointing at his swim shorts. The manager was drawing an air square to help us understand the need for the towel. John’s swim shorts, and also all of our bathing suits, had to come “OFF!” before entering the sauna, and we were only allowed one towel each.

While I will continue to post stories, rants, complaints, and other meaningful nonsense on my Tumblr blog, please check out my Wordpress blog if you haven’t already. The Wordpress blog is written by myself and my husband Will, containing updates on our move to Vienna, Austria, as well as stories and other goings-on from our life as we become accustomed to our new home.

You can always read about what we’re up to here:

http://gutenmorgenwien.wordpress.com/

And tonight I just recently wrote a post about how the moving process has been going which you can read about here:

http://gutenmorgenwien.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/the-art-of-moving/

Happy reading!

Are you sitting down and prone to hyperventilating at the sound of amazing news? If not, sit down, and if so, brace yourself and go ahead and have a pillow nearby in case you faint. 

Ready?

Rob Marshall (director of Pirates of the Caribbean 4) and Billy Ray (writer of The Hunger Games) are teaming up for a remake of W.S. Van Dyke’s The Thin Man.

Don’t faint yet! The best part is…

JOHNNY DEPP has been cast to play the role of Nick Charles!

Ok now you can faint.

Will broke this news to me a few days ago on the ride home and I nearly collapsed with excitement. Why? Because if you know me at all, then you automatically know these three facts:

1. The Beatles are my favorite band.

2. The Thin Man is my favorite movie.

3. Bacon is my favorite everything.

The Thin Man series has been in my life for a long time. I have my mom to thank for this because while all the other kids were sick at home watching all the “cool” movies and TV shows on cable, I was being forced to watch any and every show and/or movie that was in black and white. At first I resisted, but when I finally understood the humor of Abbott & Costello, the talent of Jimmy Stewart, and the hilarious wit and charm of William Powell and Myrna Loy, I realized that my movies and shows were the real cool movies and shows. This put a tiny stint in my social life in that I had no idea how to carry on a conversation about Boy Meets World and Even Stevens, and when my girl friends came over, none of them were interested in watching The Beatles: A Hard Days Night or oggling at the flat out hotness of Tony Curtis in Some Like It Hot. And of course, none of them jumped at the idea of having a Thin Man marathon - my idea of the perfect slumber party. Weirdos.

But luckily for me, the girl friends I made in college accepted The Thin Man with open arms. Friday nights were Thin Man nights, complete with M&M popcorn and hazelnut coffee, with my framed Thin Man poster (the best birthday present my parents have ever given me) gleaming above us on the wall.

Now back to the remake. Naturally I’m a little nervous. Remakes often do no justice to its originals, leaving the die-hard fan of the original film extremely angry and dead inside, which is how I always feel when someone does a Beatles cover. But regardless of the bad remake-routine, I’m confident about this one, obviously due to the casting of Johnny Depp.

Why Johnny Depp is the best choice:

Johnny Depp can be anyone. He can be an ornery pirate (Pirates of the Caribbean), a psychotic writer (Secret Window), or a crazy and colorful Mad Hatter (Alice in Wonderland). He can be any character, in any wardrobe, and within 5 minutes of the movie you’ve already forgotten about Johnny Depp because he becomes the character. So bravo Mr. Marshall and Mr. Ray. You get an A+ from this Thin Man fanatic.

Johnny Depp’s Counterpart Options:

According to Deadline, there are 8 actresses lined up as possibilities for the part of Nora Charles - Eva Green, Amy Adams, Emma Stone, Carey Mulligan, Rachel Weisz, Kristen Wiig, Emily Blunt, and Isla Fisher. Several women to choose from, right? Eh, I think we can easily sort out the Uh, no ‘s from the mmm, maybe ‘s. Before we can do that though, let’s take a look at Nora herself.

If I could sum up all that is Nora Charles in one word, I would go with elegantclassygorgeoustallglassofwater- the point being, I can’t, because Nora is everything. She’s witty, classy, intelligent and beautiful with a touch of naivety. She adores her husband and he adores her right back, even though he jokes that he married her for her money. I mean, how can he not when his wife looks like this:

So let’s sort through the wannabe-Nora’s:

1. Kristen Wiig - I love Kristen on SNL, which is why she’s a definite no for the role of Nora Charles. When I think of Kristen attempting to be Nora, I think of two Kristen Wiig characters: The “Don’t make me sing” Lilia in the 1920s Party skits, and then of course, Mindy Grayson on Secret Word. While I know she’s funny and could pull off the quirky side of Nora, I don’t think she would successfully portray any other of Nora’s characteristics.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/311561/saturday-night-live-1920s-holiday-party

2. Emma Stone - Absolutely not. She’s been great in both comedy and drama, but her voice is way too low. Can you imagine Emma running around in fur coats attempting to yell “Nicky! Nicky wait!” in a high pitched semi-whining voice? I sure can’t.

3. Emily Blunt - Eh, no. There’s a lack of playfulness in her personality and one of my biggest fears about this is that Nora will be cast as not being playful enough. Emily would do well as serious Nora, but other than that, this role isn’t for her. Whoever plays Nora has to be able to be concerned for Nicky’s wellbeing, while also able to scrunch her nose at him from time to time.

4, 5, & 6. Isla Fisher, Amy Adams, Carey Mulligan - These three all get a No for the same reason - They’re girls. Being Nora Charles is not a girl’s role, it’s a woman’s role, and Isla, Amy, and Carey don’t fit the bill. Their maturity would have to rise exponential amounts before they’d be able to play a role such as this. Isla and Amy don’t belong in the film at all, but I do think Carey would be perfect as Dorothy Wynant, the daughter of the presumed killer. Dorothy is young, immature, overly dramatic, lives with a crazy family, and eventually states that she’s “just out for the ride”. Carey has experience playing a similar role as Kitty in Pride & Prejudice, and she even looks a little like Dorothy too.

Dorothy Wynant

7. Eva Green - Maybe. I don’t have a strong case for or against her. I’ve only seen her in Casino Royale and liked her for the most part.

8. Rachel Weisz - YES. Truly, Rachel is the only one who is capable of playing Nora Charles - the only one. She’s quirky yet sexy; she has a sultry voice but can also sound panicked and playful. She speaks infinitely more with her eyes than any of the other girls are capable of, and she’s a woman, not a girl. She’s it.

If you don’t believe me, do the test. Watch the first 5 minutes of The Thin Man so you can see how Nora Charles makes her first appearance - you’ll quickly realize Rachel Weisz is the only one who can pull that off. Then, obviously, watch the rest of the movie.

If you have never seen The Thin Man, figure out a way to see it. Have TCM running constantly on your TV or rent it from any remaining ghost-town Blockbusters. I would lend you mine but then I’d have to microchip you and that’s such a hassle. For anyone else who also loves The Thin Man, I’m totally up for a marathon before being Vienna-bound. And let’s keep our fingers crossed that the filmmakers make the right decision in choosing the correct Nora Charles. There’s a lot weighing on this.

…Mommy?

Baby girl you’re supposed to be in bed. What’s wrong?

Nothing… I just wanted to ask you a question.

Oh ok what’s up?

Are these your pictures?

Yeah! This is a photo album of all mommy’s and daddy’s album covers. Look, here’s me 7 years ago, just before I had you.

…Oh.

Oooh and look! Here’s your Aunty Rih! This was just a couple of months before you were born.

*eyes widen*

Such great memories. Ok Blue, off to bed! Sleep well!

Um… I’ll try…

(Source: google.com)