1) Go to my sister’s blog to enter her contest. It’s her 500th blog post, and you have a chance at winning one of these adorable goats that I made:
or

2) I’ve been trying to cook more. We’ll see how long it lasts, but I recently made my own naan, french toast, and stuffed bell peppers:

The peppers were inspired by a friend’s blog. Sadly, I didn’t have any avocados, so the photo is lacking a little green, and my stomach was missing avocado. Still, tasty, and not too difficult, even for someone like me.

3) I’ve also been keeping up with a photo of the day again. I haven’t been posting them here, though I probably should. You can see them on my flickr page, but I’ll give you today’s. The classic, “I’ve run out of ideas” daily photo of my dog. I love her.

So that’s it for now. I’m excited about tomorrow – we’re off to see Tori Amos. It’ll be great.

We stopped at one point on the tour to get out and see this:

This is the Hundertwasserhaus. Hundertwasser wanted to make a building that you couldn’t tell existed if you looked down upon it. So, it’s covered with greenery, has uneven walls and floors, and even trees growing through some apartmens. It’s quite fascinating. Still apartments and private space inside though, so we can only glance at the exterior of this unique building. I love it.

We also stopped at the Belvedere Palace:

It’s currently a museum – it has a large collection of paintings by Klimt including “The Kiss.” We didn’t get a chance to go in as a group, but we could explore the grounds a little, including the garden and the view down to the Lower Belvedere. The garden was quite flat – apparently the Viennese were fond of this type of garden – from the Upper Belvedere it would appear as a large, colorful carpet, certainly not high enough to obstruct the view of the Lower Belvedere.

After our tour, we ate lunch at the Rathauskellar – the cellar of the town hall. I was excited about this, since Madison had it’s own version in the union – the Rathskellar. Good times. We had our first Wiener Schnitzel here, as well as the famous chocolate cake – the Sacher Torte. Delicious.

After lunch we had our first rehearsal for the Requiem. It was good to finally practice with men and the rest of the chorus, and to get to know the conductor. On the other hand, we’d had a busy morning, and most of us were still pretty jet-lagged. The conductor could tell, and let us go a little bit earlier than planned; the scheduled 3 hour rehearsal would’ve been a bit much. After the rehearsal, our tour guide showed us a little more of the city, including a stop to see the famous Lippizaner horses of the Spanish Riding School grazing and playing:

These colts will grow up to be white, and will be part of the famous dancing horse team.

Our days were packed in Austria. After such a busy day, we were treated to one of the festival concerts at the Musikverein, home of the Vienna Philharmonic.

There was a lot of music on the program, but the one group that really blew me away was the Atlanta Boy Choir. I can’t find my program at the moment, but there were some absolutely gorgeous pieces, and it was a beautiful setting, too.

Shortly thereafter, we all headed to bed to prepare for the next day.

So, after an amazing week in Vienna (albeit without cheap internet), I thought I’d give y’all a quick update. I’m home safely, after being up for 24 hours with only marginal airplane sleep, and I’m more or less settled back home. I haven’t gone through and edited/dealt with a lot of photos yet, but here are a few to whet your appetite.

This past Sunday, Logan and I headed to Cedar Point with a number of other grad students. It’s been on my list of things to do since moving to Michigan, but we never actually made the effort to plan a trip down there, so when the grad school organized one, I was quite happy to tag along. It was a great day – perfect weather (as long as you were in the shade or had some ice cream), good company, and the lines to most of the coasters were ridiculously short. Seriously. Some of them we could walk practically right up to the coaster. I ended up taking a dozen coaster rides, which is a pretty good rate for one day at the amusement park.

Now here’s the thing about coasters. I enjoy them after the fact – or at least, after the first hill. However, on the way up that first hill, with the loud clicks of the ratchets and the oh-so-slow ascent as you watch everything get smaller behind you and the sides drop away – that part I’m not so okay with. My hearts beating a little faster even now just thinking about how nervous it makes me. And yet, I do it anyway.

We started off the day with Raptor, one of the dangly-feet type coasters. I like those. Usually not so much of a giant hill to start off with, and the large shoulder harnesses are quite secure feeling. The twists and turns I can handle much better than huge first drops. This was a good one too, although these rides always seem so short when you’re actually on it.

Next we headed off to Millenium Force, the most popular coaster there, and the one in the first picture. It’s a good thing I didn’t know this before hand, but that first drop is an 80 degree drop, and 300 feet tall. It’s a rush, I tell you. Logan and a few others were tempted to go back and do it again in the front of the train, but I don’t think I could’ve brought myself to go on it again. ::shiver::

Photo courtesy of buschap on Flickr

Magnum XL-200 was another one of the rides I couldn’t quite bring myself to do again, but I think I would if I were to return. It’s celebrating it’s 20th anniversary this year, and was the tallest and fastest coaster back when it was built in 1989. (Cedar Point always has to out-do itself.) By the top of the second hill I could actually appreciate the beautiful views of Lake Erie and enjoy the rest of the ride, but again, that first hill…..

Maverick was the only ride there with a substantial line that day, and that induced the most drama of the day. A couple of people decided they didn’t want to wait in line, and so jumped over a number of the barriers, causing great discontentment amongst the crowd. Apparently, someone knew who to call though, and eventually a police officer showed up, and then two more, and then two more still. The crowd applauded as the jumpers were escorted out of line. The ride itself was a mix for me. It’s got a 95 degree drop in the beginning, but you’re launched and it’s not ridiculously tall, so it was fun. However, it seemed to last a couple of twists and turns too many, and I walked out of it with a pounding headache. Thankfully one of Logan’s classmates came well-prepared with advil, and I was better shortly thereafter.

I think my favorite ride of the day was Gemini. The tallest and fastest coaster of 1978 – it was just the right height and excitement level for me to enjoy the whole ride from beginning to end, and there was no line at all. It was also unique – it’s got two trains that go side-by-side, and you race. (I was on the winning train each of the three times I rode it, I’m not sure what the says about me, but whatever. And no, the same train doesn’t win each time.) Good, classic wooden roller coaster.

So yeah, I had a good day on Sunday, and after a busy week, I’m now in NYC visiting my good friend before my trip to Austria next week! I should’ve probably learned some German, huh. Oops.

And one little cell phone picture of me before I go (boldly wearing my Michigan shirt in Ohio):

I even got a couple of snarfs in while there. Good times.

Anyway, I had a great time with sister goat and family, played a lot of Dominion, and took some pictures of the baby goat as well. Still more to edit and send off to her, but here are a couple of my favorites from the weekend:

I’m here in Minnesota, visiting the sister and the baby goat, as well as a couple of friends. Having a good time so far, and last night I finally saw the famous “Spoonbridge and Cherry” in the Walker Art Garden. I’ve seen pictures of it advertising the cities in the various airports and things, but I hadn’t actually gone to see it for myself yet. We’ll be doing a baby photo shoot later today, so I’ll probably have some shots for you later.