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Sunday, May 31, 2015

NYC Movie Afternoon

Collage_20150531170920059_resizedAnd already almost June. This year is definitely flying by. Was off Monday for Memorial Day. The rest of the week was pretty busy dealing with post holiday stuff at work. Now we are past that but next week I have someone on vacation so that's going to be a busy week too I am sure. Well we will see how it goes.

Saturday I had to work but we got out at 2 and headed down to the city. Traffic was crazy so it took much longer than we had anticipated. But we still managed to have a drink and quick snack before going to the movies. Saw "Barely Lethal" at a theater in the East Village. A fun movie and neat combo of your stereotypical teen movie (aka Clueless, Mean Girls, She's all that, 10 Things I hate about you, etc) and spy movie with combat/fight scenes. 

After the movie we decided to walk back to midtown rather than take the subway since the weather was nice. Walked past a bunch of places and decided to stop at a cool looking wine bar called Vitis on 3rd Avenue. We're only going to have a drink but then ended up staying quite late and didn't get home till almost 1am. Definitely a cool place and fun atmosphere. 

Today we slept in and then had lunch at Elmer's before heading to the movies to see "Aloha". Weird weather day today with showers and thunderstorms throughout the whole day so it was a good movie day. Stopped at work after to finish up some month end stuff. 

Mail Update: Received a letter from/owe a reply to: Lotte/Denmark. 

Posted by Hanna at 05:43 PM in Film, Food and Drink, NYC, Wine | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Memorial Day Weekend

Collage_20150526075830139And the three day weekend is already done and over with again. It's crazy how fast time flies, especially when it's something you were looking forward to. :)

All in all we had a pretty relaxed weekend and didn't do all that much but that's ok. Traffic can be so crazy on these holiday weekends so we really didn't want to go anywhere too far. Wanted to stay clear of NYC and any big parks/zoos etc. I remember last year we attempted to go to the Bronx Zoo on Memorial Day. What a crazy idea that was. We ended up at the Botanical Gardens instead which was nice but still a nightmare to get to. Ugh. 

So this year we ended up doing more low key things. :) Saturday we finished up the current season of "The Big Bang Theory" and then I watched the Eurovision Song Contest with my UK friend Joanne. Sunday we went for a nice walk at the CT Audubon Society in Fairfield where they have some pretty trails and afterwards had lunch at Flipside in Fairfield.

And yesterday, Monday, we went to the movies in the morning and saw "Tomorrowland" which was a fun movie. It probably didn't need to be quite as long as it was but once it got going it was a fun story. After the movies we stopped at the store to pick up some cheese & crackers and a bottle of wine. And then spent the rest of the day vegging out and binge watching a bunch of our recorded shows (Saturday Night Live & Hawaii Five O) Now it's Tuesday and back to work and real life. 

Mail Update: A letter is on its way to Laura/Spain today.

Posted by Hanna at 09:15 AM in Holidays, Outdoors, Television | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Eurovision in Vienna - Sweden 12 points

Collage_20150523191044118Had a busy week at work as usual leading up to the Memorial Day holiday. Always a lot going on and pretty hectic trying to make sure everything is arranged correctly, orders are placed and nothing falls through the cracks. Of course no matter how hard you try there is always something that ends up not working out. But all in all it went ok I guess.

Mike and I actually have a three day weekend which is very nice and very rare so we are appreciating it. :) Today we relaxed a bit because Mike's not feeling too great, dealing with seasonal allergies plus a cold. So we slept in and stayed home. I made some lunch (yummy Serbian rice dish from a packet I bought in Austria) and afterwards we caught up with the rest of the current season of "The Big Bang Theory". 

After that it was time for Eurovision. Mike watched some "Parks and Rec" episodes while I caught up with friend Joanne from the UK to watch the Eurovision Song Contest online. I was excited to be able to catch the ORF Austrian broadcast live stream of the contest while chatting with Joanne online. It was fun to talk about the various performances and voting afterwards. Definitely a lot of fun. 

Austria sadly didn't get any points at all which is kind of disappointing since their performance actually was quite good I thought. But it's ok, we're used to it. :) I am still in shock that we actually won the contest last year. Only the second time in history and first time since the 60ies. It was definitely exciting to watch a song contest in Austria and to be able to see Vienna as the host city. Originally I had planned on going to Vienna for it but it ended up not working out. Oh well. It was definitely fun to catch it online with my friend though. :)

Now I am just lounging around, having some tea and being lazy. Feels like it's been a long day. I guess Eurovision is exhausting. lol. :)

Mail Update: Received mail/owe a reply: Laura/Spain.

Posted by Hanna at 08:19 PM in Austria , Current Affairs, Food and Drink, Performances | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Spring Weekend

IMG_20150517_150648And already Sunday again. The weeks are flying by and next weekend is already Memorial Day weekend, the official start to the summer season here in the US. Trying to enjoy the nice weather as much as possible after this god awful never ending winter. Ugh. 

Was off on Wednesday and it was actually quite a bit cooler that day than it had been (60F = 15C and breezy) But it worked for what I needed as I wanted to do some spring cleaning. The warmer, humid weather we had before wouldn't have been good for that.

Worked on Saturday. Today we had off and took advantage of the nice weather and went for a walk in Meriden/Cheshire followed by lunch at SBC in Milford. Yummy swordfish salad with avocado and strawberries. 

Oh and of course we also saw "Pitch Perfect2" since it came out on Friday. Was a fun movie and a good sequel to the first movie. Had a good time watching it. Some amusing jokes, great performances and heartfelt moments. A feel good movie all around. 

Mail Update: A letter went out on Thursday to: Charles/TN. Received mail/owe a reply: Laura/Spain.

Posted by Hanna at 03:35 PM in Food and Drink, Nature, Outdoors | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Paramore @ Mohegan Sun and Happy Mother's Day!

Collage_20150510133729307And here we go, another week already flown by and it's Sunday afternoon again. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there and especially my mom of course. :) Spoke with her and my dad on the phone earlier. They are currently planning a trip to France for the fall. Glad that they are doing generally well and are making fun plans. 

The weather here is really nice, sunny and in the 80ies F (27C) today but Mike's fighting with his seasonal allergies so we are staying indoors. 

Had a fun day yesterday. Drove out to eastern Connecticut near the Rhode Island border and had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe at Foxwoods Casino. Not generally a casino fan but we had tickets to see Paramore at Mohegan Sun so we had a late lunch/early dinner at Foxwoods before heading over to Mohegan for the show.

This was the 5th time we have seen Paramore over the last 2 years. As always it was a great show and a lot of fun. Mike's niece and her friend were also there along with some other people we knew so that was also fun. 

Didn't get home till after 1am so we slept in. I then puttered around the apartment for a bit, made myself some tea and watched the latest Outlander episode from last night. Only 2 more episodes in this season. Ugh.

Not too much going on for next week. Will need to start Memorial Day prep at work soon to try and get everything organized for the holiday.

On Tuesday I have plans to meet up with my friend Jana to see "The Age of Adaline" at the movies which should be fun. And hopefully supposed to be off from work on Wednesday. We will see how it goes. 

Mail Update: No letters have gone out. Received mail/owe a reply: Charles/TN. 

Posted by Hanna at 02:39 PM in Family, Food and Drink, Performances | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, May 03, 2015

Gorgeous weekend - Central Park and more

IMG_20150503_150404And another week gone by. A relatively busy week all in all. On Tuesday we had to go to Port Chester for my biometrics appointment to get a new picture & fingerprints taken to renew my green card. Dealing with government red tape is never any fun so I am glad that's over. Now I just have to wait for the actual card to show up, which apparently takes 9 months. 

Wednesday I had lunch with my friend Sharon and Friday we had dinner plans with our friends John & Jana to celebrate her US citizenship. She is originally from Russia. So been busy meeting up with people.

Saturday Mike and I headed to Poughkeepsie to walk across the bridge there. It's called "Walkway over the Hudson" (about 2.5 miles roundtrip) and is an old railroad bridge that was turned into a pedestrian bridge for recreational purposes. Now people jog, walk, ride their bikes across it. 

Then today, Sunday, I met up with my friend Tina from Long Island in NYC. We met up at an Austrian cafe on 86th St/5th Avenue. It's located inside the Neue Galerie Museum which is home to some Klimt paintings including "The Woman in Gold". Had a nice but expensive lunch. Still always nice to have some Austrian food. 

After lunch we walked over to Central Park and strolled through it, taking pictures and just generally enjoying the beautiful high 70ies F (= 24C) weather. So many things were in bloom and it's just nice to see nature rebounding after this awful, long winter. 

So all in all a very nice weekend. Always nice to spend time with friends and the weather was just perfect on top of it. 

 Mail Update. Letters going out tomorrow to: Thursday to: Nina/WA and Eunice/Malta. 

Posted by Hanna at 08:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack