The big 26

Ryan turned 26 this week and we had some fun birthday festivities. We had some friends over on Saturday to hang out and then Monday The Hamiltons arrived in Vienna. Tuesday for his birthday we went to the Donauturm...that means Danube Tower. It is a huge tower that rotates 360 degrees every 30 minutes and they have super food. This was Russ and Gayle's first dinner in Vienna. Earlier on Tuesday, we explored some of the city!

Ryan with new guitar...he's super excited

View from Donauturm

Ryan enjoying his birthday food...yumm!

Russ and Gayle trying not to look at the camera

The Hamilton gang

oohhhh...ryan....

In front of St. Charles Church (Karlskirche)

Russ and Gayle in front of St. Charles Church

Mr. Photographer

Klosterneuberg

Sorry for the lack of posting! We haven't really taken any pictures, so I haven't been blogging. Last weekend I went biking up to an old monastery/nunnery which produces the largest amount of wine in Austria from a non-commercial source. The biking was a lot of fun, though the next day it was a little tough to sit down! The place was really beautiful, here are some pictures. 

The front of the monastery 

The back

Cool statue in the main lobby

Grape juice containers

Intricate carving on Italian wine barrel

Chapel

Column at entrance

(if you look to the right you can see a priest)

Cafe view

It's been a long time since I rock and rolled....

So a couple of weekends ago, Linz and I went with a few friends to see a Led Zeppelin cover band. That's right....an AUSTRIAN Led Zeppelin cover band. Needless to say, it was a great time. And believe it or not, these guys were outstanding!!

Lead singer looking slightly large next to Diana's head

Performing

We said that we were from NY and so the whole night we got shout outs and dedications to us...the New Yorkers!! haha!!

Frohe Ostern!!

Here are some more pictures of Schoenbrunn Palace. Today was the last day of Easter markets in Vienna, so I thought perhaps it was time to visit! The Easter market was a 1/4 of the size of the Christmas market with many of the same vendors, plus a creepy lady on stilts dressed as a turkey...ahhh, Vienna...

Front of Schoenbrunn

Inside the court yard with horse and carriages

Back of the palace, the building on the hill is now a cafe

Creepy turkey lady....

The biggest craft are these decorated eggs. They are real eggs, with the white and yolk emptied out. Though beautiful and tempting to buy...there is a 90% chance I would break them, so looking will do for me.

Woah pretzel!!

Hot chocolate!

Crafts

Random Decorated Eggs

Crafts of forest creatures...

Letters and Babies...

I hosted and attended my first baby shower a little while ago. Myself and 2 other friends hosted the shower for our friend Stephanie, who is due in June. We had an alphabet theme and I had tons of fun with the decorations!!

The apartment with letter mobiles

Alphabet Cake

Diaper Cake, my gift to Steph

Steph cutting the cake

All of us, except Noami
The hosts and the mom-to-be

A day with Duchess

We recently bought a new camera, so we documented a typical day in the life of Duchess.

Duchess' spot on the couch...she lays here all day long.

If only she could fix the couch cover...

Every day she has multiple barking sessions, her most favorite past time

Duchess does this every day when I and/or Ryan come home from work. She shows off her rolling on her bone skills...very impressive...at least that's what we tell her

Doggie in a sweater...

Lounging around...again Duchess in her normal spot.

Duchess loves to lick the floor. Whenever she disappears we always find her cleaning up the kitchen...

Great news!!

I have a new job!! For those of you who don't know, I interviewed in front of an 8 person panel a couple of weeks ago...Since that was only my 3rd 'official' interview...it was pretty scary. I studied for that interview like I was studying for an exam and it paid off!! So hopefully I will actually begin working in my new office around March 17th. I'm very excited about this job, because I really do not like my current job. 

I am the new co-CLO for the Vienna Post. I will be taking care of orientation, information storing/sharing about traveling and Vienna, planning events, and even more! If you are curious as to what I'll be doing you can read a little ditty here: http://www.state.gov/m/dghr/flo/c1964.htm