Thanksgiving for pyromaniacs

Hello, lovelies, can you believe it's already December?! We just got back yesterday from a spontaneous mini-vacation in Barcelona, which has inexplicably left me feeling jet-lagged despite the lack of time difference (I'm blaming it on 10pm dinners—how do those Spaniards do it?). I can't wait to tell you all about it, but first I wanted to share a little something from our Thanksgiving celebration last week.

For CM's birthday this year, my parents sent him a special pot for making Feuerzangenbowle (Fire Tong Punch, obvs), a traditional German Christmas punch. My first reaction was that a kitchen appliance was a completely bizarre present to send someone who is living out of suitcases while his belongings are in storage on another continent, but then I realized I was being narrow-minded and that it was actually totally brilliant and a perfect excuse to get tipsy and light things on fire.

Here's how you make it. You pour 2–3 bottles of red wine into a pot on the stove. We used Beaujolais Nouveau ('tis the season), but you could use any kind. Throw in a couple cups of orange juice, slice up an orange and a lemon, add a cinnamon stick, a handful of whole cloves, and a couple star anise, and heat it all up together. Your kitchen will smell divine.

Then you pour the hot wine mixture into the special pot, which sits over a little tea light to keep it warm. The pot comes with a metal grate that you set across the top. On top of the grate you put a sugar cone (Zuckerhut—literally translated, Sugar Hat), which is a thing you can buy in the Austrian grocery store for precisely this purpose.

Then you pour highly alcoholic rum (we used Austrian Stroh rum, it's 160 proof!) over the entire sugar cone so it gets soaked through.

Now here's the fun part. You light that rum-soaked sugar on fire! Turn out the lights so you can admire how pretty it is.

The sugar caramelizes and drips slowly into the punch, making it oh so delicious.

Once the fire's out, you drink.

Or, alternatively, if it's not fiery enough for you, you can also pour more rum onto the lit sugar until everyone screams that you're going to burn the ceiling.

THEN you drink.


If you want to try it but you're not in Feuerzangenbowle country, you can buy a set here, although if you don't feel like paying $99(!), you could also use the fondue pot gathering dust in your cupboard and just buy the $10 grate to put on top. You can also buy a Zuckerhut here or you can make your own. For best results, you should use something like Bacardi 151.

Photos by CameraMan with a couple iPhone shots of my own thrown in.

Winter is coming

This weekend's Christmas market excursion

It's getting chilly here in Vienna, perfect weather for wrapping your hands around a hot mug of Glühwein while you wander the Christmas markets. The Viennese are completely undeterred by the cold weather—nobody's hibernating just yet. From what I can tell, the key to enjoying spending time outside in the late fall and winter comes down to a simple question of wardrobe, as so many things do.

I should point out here that I am no stranger to cold weather. I spent the first 11 winters of my life in a drafty old New England house, hot water bottles warming my flannel sheets at night. Then there were those 4 unforgettable winters during my undergraduate years in Wisconsin, where my wet hair would freeze on my way to class and flannel-lined khakis were my favorite J. Crew purchase. And, for the past several years, even though I've lived in sunny Houston, cruel fate (aka the Met schedule) has brought me to NYC for a good portion of every winter, where I seem to slip on ice on my way to work on a frighteningly regular basis.

Somehow, it was only last winter that I realized I didn't have any warm clothes. I had finally bought a down coat that was long enough to cover my butt, and instead of reveling in how warm and toasty it made me, I started focusing on all the parts of me that were not warm (that is, every part of me that was not covered by my new coat). I suddenly realized, while talking about it over dinner, that I was cold pretty much all the time during the winter, and that maybe, just maybe, it didn't have to be like that. I happened to be having dinner with a Uniqlo Heattech aficionado, and the rest is history.

Of course, Rome and my winter wardrobe weren't built in a day, so I've been gathering essentials over the past year: Heattech t-shirts for layering (spread the gospel), a hat that covers my ears, Heater Hog shirts and ear warmers for running, flannel pjs and furry slippers for at home, woolly knee socks to go under boots, sweaters, and my most recent purchase, fleece-lined leggings (which might actually change my life). Next on my list: shearling-lined boots, a giant cozy scarf that can double as an airplane blanket, and warm gloves. Let the temperatures drop. I'll be ready. (But do tell me if I'm forgetting something! I will stop at nothing until I've achieved Ultimate Coziness.)

The Great Hibernation Urge

Seemingly all of a sudden it's cold here. I was wallowing in colorful leaves, and long sleeves, and that crisp fall air, and it crept up on me. We're getting down into the 30s here at night, and because Daylight Savings Time ends a week earlier here than in the States, it's dark before 5 o'clock.

This is not me complaining. It is, however, me fighting a losing battle with the Great Hibernation Urge, that which roots me to the couch and ensconces me in blankets and gifts me with snuggly kitties keeping close for warmth. CM was gone for the weekend, and I whiled away the hours cooking chicken noodle soup and this incredible roasted applesauce which I cannot recommend highly enough, reading this fascinating book, and Netflixing endless Gilmore Girls episodes. I visited friends while wearing yoga pants (this is not normal here, FYI), essentially just transferring from our couch to theirs for the evening.

Finally, on Sunday afternoon, I dragged myself out to wander through the gardens at Schönbrunn, and the Great Urge was vanquished, at least for an hour or so, as I remembered how gorgeous this city is, and how very lucky we are to be here.

The Gloriette, from my Instagram feed

Why our marriage is better in Europe

The weather's turning colder, have I mentioned? We've turned the heat on in the apartment and broken out all our sweaters. Also, it's now definitely comforter (duvet, if you like to be fancy) weather, which has reminded me of an amazing, marriage-saving element of living over here: separate comforters.

from the swanky 25Hours Hotel in Vienna

Why share a comforter when you can have your very own? Why bother with hospital corners when making the bed can be as easy as folding two comforters in half and plumping the pillows? If you're always cold but he's always hot, if either one of you is a covers hog or a covers thrower off, if his stabby toenails are always grazing your leg, if she insists on putting her ice cold feet on you to "warm" them, if you are not a snuggly sleeper and prefer to pretend you're alone in bed, there is but one solution, and the Northern Europeans figured it out a long time ago.

Not convinced? Try it for one week, and you just might become a convert.

Cat update (you were too polite to ask)

We have brought our cats with us to Europe for four months. Because we are crazy people. Because two transatlantic trips with a cat were not enough for one lifetime—we needed to add two more, this time with TWO cats, just to keep things interesting. Because I have repressed most details of the first time around. (Although I do have a hazy memory of walking the mewling Bossy Cat (in her carrier) up and down the plane aisle like I'd seen mothers of fussy babies do. Possibly that was a dream?)

You may remember the Bossy Kitten from such posts as this and this (#tbt). Man, was she adorable. And still is…in her way. But also very bad. She bites with what feels like increasingly sharp teeth, she swipes at us as we walk by, we have to cover her claws so she doesn't destroy the furniture (we figured this out too late for our own stuff, but just in time for subletting, yay), she hisses at children. Also, on a road trip this summer, and I can tell you this now because we already sold our car no questions asked to a Kia dealership, she emptied her apparently very full bladder in the way back, staring panicked into my eyes as I screamed for her to stop. That was a rough day. We have grown fond of referring to the cats as The Fat One and The Bad One. My mother tells me this is not good parenting.

One thing that helps on the plane: sedatives. For the cats, too, haha. We have now mastered the art of scruffing the cats and shoving a pill down their throats. Although one thing I don't recommend, if the pill wears off and the kitten starts crying, is teaming up with your husband to take her into the tiny airplane bathroom together, letting her out of her carrier, and trying to do the whole scruff/pill shove maneuver a second time in there. Also I don't recommend flying with your cats to Europe via Istanbul, where your second flight will probably be delayed, and which is technically not even on the way to where you're going, although it is on the way to everywhere when you fly Turkish Airlines, which is the airline where they give you Turkish delight almost the minute you come on board.

After we got through the TWENTY TWO HOURS of travel time to get here, it took the cats a while to settle into their new life in Vienna. We had to try a few different kinds of food before we found one they liked, we got them a toy that has become their obsession, we invested in this magical substance, and after about ten days all was back to normal.

But in the past week, The Bad One has transformed into a whole new cat. A BED cat. In Houston she used to sometimes sleep on CM in the mornings, but now she's in bed through the entire night, often curled up on or against CM (someone's a daddy's girl...). If I sit in bed during the day (it's the warmest place in our chilly apartment—CM calls it my "office") she sits in CM's spot and falls asleep. I've taken to sending picture messages to him at work practically every day: "Look who won't stay out of bed!" "Somebody's a sleepy bed cat...." etc. I don't know if it's because she's rarely been cold in her life (Texas girl) or whether she's just enjoying being where we are, but it is the cutest thing that has ever happened since this. Sometimes we're both in bed with a cat on each of our respective chests, and we just look at each other and laugh and say THIS.

Because we are crazy.

Here is a grainy shot of the Bossy Kitten sleeping in the crook of my knees. Couldn't you just die?

On snail mail

Our mail situation is a little bizarre at the moment. We are the proud holders of not one, but TWO post office boxes, one in Houston and one in NYC. We officially forwarded our mail to the Houston box, and a lovely generous friend of ours is checking it every week and emailing us pictures of anything that looks like it might be important. It's pretty much all bills and junk. Meanwhile, in Vienna we're mostly getting mail for other people. Sometimes it's unsettling to be a homeless nomad.

Have you guys heard of Postcrossing, a service for sending and receiving postcards from all over the world?  The concept is so cool. You register for free, and you're given the name and address of another user at random. You send a postcard to that person, writing whatever you'd like on the back, and when they receive it they register it on the site. As soon as your postcard gets registered, your address goes on the list to be given to someone else, and you start receiving postcards from other users. What an awesome way to get real mail and connect with people! Would you try it? I've just registered and will send my first postcard this week. Wishing I had all our leftover vintage Vienna postcards.

And speaking of postcards, I adore these photos by Michael Hughes. He started out photographing postcards in front of the sights they showed, and then he moved on to using cheap souvenirs from those places. So creative!

Resources for learning German

via the hilarious Itchy Feet

When we decided to move away from Houston, we knew we wanted an experimental year, testing out a couple theories we had about where we might like to live and what we wanted our life to look like. Well before CM got the opportunity to work in Vienna again we had blocked off the autumn to spend time in Europe. We wanted to see whether life over here was as attractive as we remembered (so far, yes indeed) and whether we could both find enough work to make a European home base make sense (TBD). My biggest goal was to improve/perfect my German enough to feel comfortable asking someone for a job here. We know lots of singers and pianists who start working here without being fluent in German, but my job is so language-centered that I would be at a huge disadvantage if I couldn't properly express myself.

I have been working really hard, and I've seen an enormous improvement since we arrived. I thought I'd share with you some of the resources I've used to supplement my formal classes.

Collins dictionary app: This dictionary has been a game-changer. It's amazing to have it on my phone at all times, and though it's a bit expensive, it is so worth it. It is so comprehensive, and it has verb conjugations built in as well. Plus, it saves a history of words you looked up, which is so helpful. I have used it every single day that we've been here.

Duolingo: I still can't believe this app is free! I love the interface, love the mobile capabilities, and found that it really worked. I finished all the German levels‚ though—make more, Duolingo!

Memrise: Another free app, this one for building vocabulary. It's completely amazing. First it teaches you the vocab, then quizzes you on it. It keeps track of the words you miss and brings them back more often. There are lots of levels built in, but you can also make your own lists. I've gotten into the habit of writing down any word that goes by that I don't know, looking them up later, and building a Memrise list from them. Available online and as a mobile app.

Deutsche Welle: So many resources here for German learners of all levels. You can do actual grammar training, but we particularly like the videos (they have transcripts and little quizzes to accompany them) and the news read slowly, short segments that they produce daily.

YouTube: We don't have a TV here, so we rely on YouTube to watch various shows in German. Did you know you can see what videos are trending in any country here? Gives a little insight into the local culture. I've also found lots of interesting things just by searching "doku deutsch."

I haven't tried it personally, but I have a friend who swears by My Personal Language Tutor, and the prices are very reasonable.

I'd love to hear what you use for language learning—what has worked for you?

The best way to spend a Sunday in Vienna

We are having the most gorgeous fall weather here right now. Early mornings are chilly enough for us to linger in bed drinking endless cups of coffee with our snuggly cats, but they're followed by crisp sunshiney afternoons, perfect for enjoying outdoor activities. We're so aware that our time here is short and flying by too fast, so even though CM is working lots (he's already opened AND CLOSED a show, is in final rehearsals for another, and starts a new piece in RUSSIAN tomorrow), we're trying to take advantage of the free days to really explore.

Turns out the City of Vienna maintains a series of gorgeous hiking paths (Stadtwanderwege) around the outskirts of the city. We tried out #1 last weekend, #2 yesterday, and now we're hooked and want to hike all nine of them.

Each path starts at the end station of a tram or bus line, so they're easy to access with public transportation. The paths are beautifully maintained and fairly well-signed, and there are various cafés, restaurants, and heurigen (little wine-grower taverns serving wine and snacks) along the way for refreshments. Each path is around 10km or so, making for a relaxing afternoon's walk.

#1 and #2 are both in the wine-growing region of Vienna, the 19th district. They're pretty hilly, and both of them have a special lookout tower at the highest point of the path, in case you want to climb a spiral staircase right after you've climbed a steep hill (we did). We liked #1 better because of the breathtaking views of the city, but #2 is lovely for a more shaded, woodsy walk.

Yesterday was a bit crowded because it happened to also be Weinwandertag (Wine Hiking Day, I am not even kidding), an event with three routes through the vineyards, one of which overlapped with the trail we took. The special wine hiking routes focus less on strenuous hills and more on places to drink wine, and there was even a special path to take if you were pushing a stroller. I love this town.

We're crossing our fingers that the weather stays nice for a while, and we're planning to explore #3 on Sunday!

CM (official photographer) took some pictures, of course.

City Hiking Path #1

Everyone's drinking Sturm right now, young fermented wine that's only in season for a few weeks. We haven't developed a taste for it (yet?), so we're mostly sticking to white wine spritzers (perfect for day drinking) and beer.

Grüner Veltliner for miles!

The storm rolled in AFTER we got back home, lucky us.

View of all the Vienna sights from the Stefaniewarte on path #1.

It's just like Texas...

Another gorgeous view of the city

City Hiking Path #2

These are the old-timey signs that mark the trails. 

CM caught me taking this picture. 

We ordered the perfect weather.

Jägerwiese

Lovely shady path

The Habsburgwarte, which we climbed to see....

THIS VIEW!

Here I am surveying the landscape.

Path #2 just happened to lead us by the spot where we got married! I didn't cry this time...

Bossy List. Is that still a thing?

Way back when in 2008, inspired by Maggie Mason's Mighty Life List, I started the Bossy List, 100 things I wanted to accomplish in the next 10 years. Over time I edited it and tweaked it and slowly (oh so slowly) actually crossed some things off the list. It's long overdue for a another tune-up, but in the meantime let me tell you about an item I crossed off this month.

February 1, fresh off my first Runner's World Run Streak followed immediately by a successful Whole 30, I was as lean and fit as I've ever been and ready to take on a new challenge, so I ran my first half-marathon. At the end of it I felt highly accomplished and simultaneously wanted to die. The next day we flew to Berlin for a week, I did not pass a pastry without cramming it into my mouth, then I was working, then I got SHINGLES (true story), and eventually I fell off the running/health wagon altogether. So what did we do? We signed up for another half marathon. For motivation! In September—so far away! So much time to train!

And we did train. We ran in hot and humid Houston, we ran in chilly and hilly San Francisco, we did another Runner's World Run Streak and even ran every day on a week-long cross-country road trip. And pretty much every long run went horribly for me. Many of them ended in tears (CM is a saint, yes I know). I knew the half marathon would be a disaster. But I kept running. Why, you ask?

Because before and after the race we would be spending the night in a castle. An actual CASTLE.

So we trained. And I ran the race. It wasn't a disaster, exactly, but it was about 6 miles longer than I wanted it to be, and I'm certainly not feeling the urge to run for 2 1/2 hours again anytime soon.

But back to the castle. It was schmancy and lovely and pretty much exactly how you'd hope it would be. But ultimately, maybe not totally our thing, as we're already contemplating a return trip to the area (the Wachau) and will probably stay somewhere more simple and cozy. But first!

88. Spend a night in a castle.

Some pictures from our weekend (some by me, some by CM—you'll be able to tell the difference):

So! Many! Runners!

Atmospheric panoramic from the starting line

BEFORE: smiling, cold

AFTER: smiling, NOT cold

Reward

Our castle room

View from our room

Spa area in the basement of the hotel. Guess who forgot her bathing suit? Sad trombone.
Luckily, there was also a sauna. And we were in Europe. No suit? No problem.

Scenic Dürnstein & the Danube

View from Dürnstein at sunset

The road Google Maps sent us down in our rental car that dead-ended at the bike path, which meant we had to turn around and drive back up through the pedestrians. Haha, Google Maps, you're hilarious.

Tatsächlich…Liebe

So Netflix just came to Austria last Wednesday. This is big news for Austria and big news for us. We had been doing a tricky, potentially not completely above board thing to watch American Netflix over here, but this is so much better—everything's available auf Deutsch! We can still use our regular account, and we're getting a bargain, since we pay $7.99 a month and the Austrians are being charged €7,99 (over $10) for the same service. There's lots of American TV and English-language movies, most of which you can watch either in English or in German, with the option of German subtitles as well. So good for language study! Plus, of course, all kinds of German and Austrian titles we know nothing about. I can't wait to explore.

First, though, I might already be addicted to Modern Family dubbed in German.



Ausgezeichnet! Oder?

Hello out there

A few weeks ago, after a series of events so coincidental they could only be fated, I found myself saying five words I thought might never come out of my mouth again:

I should blog about that.

It's been ages since anything has felt particularly blog-worthy to me, but just the saying of it seems to have unlocked a door behind which every blog idea I've ever had was hiding, clamoring to be written down. They're following me around, filling my head as I'm running, or standing in line at the grocery store, or killing time playing Threes (so, all the time). It's thrown me for a bit of a loop.

I've been missing the blog, honestly. More than the act of writing itself (though I know I've gotten rusty in that respect), I've missed the lens of the blog, the parsing of my day to write about it, the surprise flashes of inspiration. There's a popular theory that our constant need to document our lives is hindering us from actually living/experiencing moments in real time, but I have found the opposite to be true. When you have a terrible memory like I do, you have two main options: 1) Surround yourself with people who have creepy total recall (as I unwittingly did during every embarrassing undergraduate adventure, as it turns out), or 2) write it down. Many of my strongest memories from the past few years are the things I blogged about—not because I re-read the posts, but because I wrote them, and through writing got to experience them twice.

So here I am, poking my head around the door, seeing if this is a room I'd like to live in again. I think it might be.

We don't have to do that thing where I catch you up on absolutely everything that's happened in the past 18 months, do we? That sounds tedious for everyone. Just the briefest of recaps to bring you into our present:

Some time ago, CM and I realized that we weren't spending nearly enough time together and that we hadn't come close to achieving any sort of healthy, sustainable work/life balance. So we set about to change that. We have moved our things into storage (AGAIN), packed up our kitties, and become homeless nomads. This season we're experimenting with being together a lot more, working a bit less, and trying to carve out a life that matches our stated priorities. For the moment the whole family's in Vienna (AGAIN!) for the fall while CM works at the Staatsoper. We'll be back in the States after Christmas while I work in Houston and New York, we'll take a springtime jaunt to Japan, and after that…TBD. It's all very exciting/terrifying.

I'm thinking about bringing you along for the ride. Care to join me?

Photo by CameraMan

Makeover!

Welcome, friends, to the new and improved Little Ms. Bossy! It was time for a new look, so of course I contacted the fabulous Carolyn to help me out. I'm so pleased with what she's made—it's exactly what I was looking for. You like?

First day of school

Today was my first day back at work after summer vacation. I felt grumpy and tired this morning, wishing I could be out in the gorgeous weather or off on a train with CM visiting friends at Wolf Trap. It can be hard to get back into the swing of things after a long time away. I haven't been here since March, and I even found myself having to think twice about which elevator to take to get where I wanted to go (yes, it's my 5th season and I still sometimes get lost in the maze).

But then…reality check. I am so damn lucky to do what I do, and in this theater of all places. Any day that starts with this walk into work can't be too bad.

I think mostly I was crabby because CM and I spent our first night apart in TWO MONTHS last night. I know, I know, we're apart all the time, but it never gets any easier. Thank goodness he gets back tonight—maybe he'll bring me back a better attitude.

Tomorrow I'll share with you my first Sunday in New York. It's a good one!

Photo by LMB

A funny thing happened in Bath

I had been in the UK for a week when CM arrived, conveniently at the same time that I had a few days off for the Queen's Jubilee, so we met up in Cardiff for performances of Tristan and Bohème and then took our time getting back to Glyndebourne, stopping in Bath for a night.

The constant rain let up for just long enough for us to see the sights of Bath. First we walked to the Royal Crescent:

Then we checked out the Roman Baths (when in Bath…):

We had just arrived at the Baths and were adjusting our audio guide thingies when… we ran into someone we knew! One of about FOUR people we know in the entire country, I should point out, a lighting designer friend that I've only ever seen in the States. It was crazy! This kind of thing happens in New York all the time, of course, particularly near Lincoln Center where I usually hang out, but in Bath, England? Amazing.

Have you ever run into someone you knew in a completely unexpected place? I love it when it happens—it feels like capital-F Fate.

Then we topped off the day with a swing by Stonehenge, which was smaller than I remembered it from my childhood, but still pretty damn cool (and isn't that sky incredible?!):

All photos by LMB