who knew there were so many shades of green

12 sample sized cans of paint later, we've made a decision. We've certainly managed to make this decision as painful as possible - but the contractor arrives tomorrow morning, so there's no turning back. Keep your fingers crossed for us that it doesn't turn out like the living room did!

This weekend we experimented with house colors

Now I have three different color schemes on three different windows of my house - NONE of which are going to be used.

So it continues...

who's more British?

TJ thinks that he is actually more British than I am. This is based on the bands he likes, the tv shows he watches and the slang he knows.

Clearly I disagree with this assertion, but over the holidays he was able to add one more item to the list: Football songs.

If you listen carefully to the clip you can hear the classic, "I'm forever blowing, pretty bubbles in the air..."

there's more...

In case you didn't see enough of our trip in my earlier post - there's video footage here.

Happy Anniversary!

Nicki and Kevin came to stay with us for a couple days as they were en route to Florida. One of those days happened to be their 1st anniversary. So we took them out for Tres Leches and asked the waiter to put a candle in it to mark the occasion.


The waiter went one better and brought over a group to sing Happy Birthday (?!) - followed by this lovely number from the resident guitarist.

Christmas Eve at a country pub

Complete with Christmas Crackers...


...and the paper crowns that come inside them!

Something you should know about Austria

If you are in Salzburg around Christmas time, and you hear bells jingling and see antlers from just above the crowd -- don't assume that Santa is coming with his reindeer. It could also be terrifying troll demons coming to say hello to the children.

We're still not exactly sure what was going on, but we were there on Winter Soltice, and our waitress later that night told us that it is tradition for these 'characters' to come and scare away the bad ghosts of the year past for the children. If you are a good child you have nothing to be scared of and you are happy to see these guys. If you are a bad child, they will beat you.

Either way I did not want one of these guys anywhere near me!