Halloween Candy Lapse….

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We don’t decorate  much for Halloween usually, but this year has been basically nothing. Things have been incredibly jammed with extra tasks and I haven’t even stopped to get bags of candy. I was going to yesterday, but I’d already spent more time out than intended with managing another previously unplanned errand. Now, in all fairness, had I gone directly to this one place between my errand and a luncheon, I might have had the required time. Anyway, Hubby is supposed to do grocery shopping today and although he doesn’t usually buy the Halloween candy, he might this time. For the past two years we haven’t had as many trick-or-treaters come by, but of course I figure if we cut back, this will be the year they resume. It is one of those conundrums. The standing joke about leftover Halloween candy is all fine and good, except everyone tends to have it and so if you do manage to eat it over the weeks after, there is often little time before you are now into the holidays and as soon as you get through that, it’s Girl Scout cookie time again. We do have all these odd little situations that crop up, don’t we? That is the collective we because I know we are not the only ones.

Moving on to other things – this weekend, once again, we have a lengthy commitment Saturday evening night and so naturally, Saturday afternoon is when I am now going to have to be at the museum due to another unexpected change. I keep thinking I will get a little bit of a break and perhaps it will happen. Actually, I think we are not going anywhere for Thanksgiving and while that doesn’t mean we won’t be hosting something, it does mean we won’t be traveling.

 

Gap for a Reason…..

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Okay, the gap since last posting is because I have been crashing on the first-ever fundraiser event we put on for the Homestead Town Hall Museum. I’m sure I posted previously that this event was supposed to have been prior to our Viking cruise and the major HCA event of Art and Artisan show was also supposed to have been before the cruise. My intent was to have these two things which take a huge effort would be done so I wouldn’t have them facing me upon return. Due to other factors, each had to be re-scheduled. That resulted in us getting back with only 11 days before the HCA event and the museum event following 19 days after that. Then of course, there were all the usual things to take care of. In other words, even for me, the convergence of tasks has been pretty close to exhausting. On the other hand, there were people helping and that did make a big difference. The “downside” was neither event was as successful as we had expected. Lots of work for a minimal return. As usual in these situations, there is no clear-cut was to determine to “why”, which of course gives way to speculation. Those “what-if’s” and “maybe we should haves” are tricky. Anyway, there is one more set of tasks I must deal with over the next week and then perhaps I’ll be on the usual busy, yet manageable scale.

On the family side, kids are booked with flights for the post-Christmas trip and for the next few years, their schedule allows us to fly them home Jan 2d instead of the 1st. That makes life simpler and we can enjoy a leisure day of recovery for New Year’s Day. Mother Nature wasn’t very kind last year with unseasonably cold weather for the first part of their stay. Hopefully, we’ll be normal this time.

Of Storms and More…

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We once again were fortunate – although twice is more correct. Hurricanes Helene and Milton went north and west of us with rain and wind here. While there was some flash flooding, a few tornadoes, there was no appreciable damage in the area. Our hearts go out, especially in the “perfect storm” disasters of Tennessee and North Carolina. Many within the farming community here have strong ties because even though we grow amazing things all year, summers are too hot for most produce. Traditional produce like lettuces, tomatoes, corn, etc., come here in the summer from those states. That’s why there are the connections a bit north. In addition, a lot of people who have lived here for years decide the summer heat and cost of living are too much and relocate into Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas. In Mother Nature’s way of irony, another reason for some who moved was to get away from hurricane areas.

On the municipal side, we send power people and as many first responders as can be spared. These are the times you hear heart-warming and heart-breaking stories and in the instances of those who loot or otherwise try to take advantage, we only hope they will all be caught and dealt with accordingly. We do still have the rest of October to get through and while November is still “in the season”, storms that late are really rare. Of note, that does not mean I am challenging Mother Nature to prove me wrong.

As holidays approach we have some yearly tasks to attend to. I have one of our friends who has a cleaning services and moving/storage company come clean up the exterior of the house and the hardscape in back. When we put the pool in, we took out the little grassy sections from the edge of the house to the fence. Even though we sweep periodically, enough dirt builds up to require power washing and while Hubby has done it in the past, it really is worth the money to hire someone. Plus, it helps out friend’s business.

Sort of Catching Up…….

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I have mentioned the two major events I am responsible for were both supposed to be held and over with before we went on our September trip. Both had to be delayed for various reasons and while a great deal was done for the Sept 28th one, by some people while I was gone, that can’t be said for the October one. However, I hadn’t really expected that to happen; it just would have been nice. Anyway, last Saturday’s event is over and was it was disappointing in one way, but it was okay and I certainly appreciated what everyone did. I immediately had to go full throttle this week in handling multiple things for the upcoming Oct 17th event and while next week might be a little better, it will still be busy.

In the midst of this, I expect to receive the interior proof for Shades of Remorse next week. That is the last major step prior to publication. It is the page set-up and when I make any final corrections. I was careful with my final edit so there shouldn’t be many mistakes. This is a new publisher though and I don’t know how proficient they are. They did do a nice job on the cover. I thought it was too creepy, but Hubby liked it so I let it go ahead. Interestingly, I originally hadn’t planned as many deaths in this one, and as happens, there were changes in order to make the plot work logically. On the other hand, only one was a good guy and two were not completely bad guys. The rest were definitely dangerous and bad. If the schedule works out, the book will be available the end of the month or early next month.

 

 

Making Headway…..

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I am in the midst of both trying to catch up from trip and discovering the errors I made in thinking I had closed the loop on certain thing prior to our departure. So far, of the two, both have been recoverable with a dollop of embarrassment.

In reality, in setting the dates I did, I overlooked one other critical task I would need to deal with in September/early October, but back when I set the dates, I thought both the major events of Sept 28th and Oct 17th would have taken place in July and August respectively. Changing those dates due to unexpected issues are actually what jammed things up so badly. While we do intend to plan the annual Art and Artisan Show for the first weekend of October for 2025 onward, the museum fundraiser (if we have one next year) will be held in July. That separates the two enough to give me breathing room.

Hubby continues to post wonderful photographs from the trip and people are really enjoying them. As always, he has to work through the 1,500 he took to decide which ones to actually process. That’s the whole deal of digital cameras where a photographer can take hundreds of shots quickly, then use different software in post-processing. That is the extent of my knowledge of the subject. He plans to do another book of our trip like he did of the trip to Disney. I don’t remember which company he uses for it, but they do a nice job and it’s not terribly expensive.

We have the rain bands from Hurricane Helene. It’s going up the Gulf side and way up into Georgia and Tennessee. That means lots of rain, not much wind for us and at least this time, Houston may be spared. Not sure about my brother and sister-in-law in Mandeville though. Will check on them later this morning.

Final Day in Budapest….

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Still more rain and chilly. As it turned out, the “most beautiful coffeehouse in the world” was restricted to Hotel guests for breakfast with it opening to the public later in the morning. It is spectacular although I am sure other places have since created one to make the same claim.

We took Uber to the Museum of Fine arts in another of the situations where the building itself was almost as spectacular as the collection. It was quite extensive with one “ancient level” containing items from the former Mycenean and Etruscan cultures, moving into Greek and Roman and quite a collection from different Egyptian dynasties. Paintings and some architectural items from the 1400s onward were a nice mix as well.

The pub recommended by the photography guy Hubby follows was for lunch after and we did the fish and chips. Not bad, but the portion was so huge we could have split one. Interestingly, Mexican food is highly popular as are burgers and BBQ. Not sure if their definitions are the same nor exactly what the connection is. However, I’d forgotten two of the major Hollywood studios were founded by Hungarians way back and lots of movies are still shot there. In a number of areas, scenes can be done that look a lot like Paris for example and it’s considerably less expensive than actually shooting in France. So, with a long connection, that might be where the love of burgers started.

Anyway, between a 2:30 a.m. wake-up necessary for Monday and because we were staying at the Hotel we did the fancy dinner as out last meal in Budapest. Hugh went with the goulash as a starter, then I’m going blank on his main. I had a shrimp and tomatoes in what was  garlic broth – interesting and good for starter and steak with green peppercorn sauce. It was not a true “steak au poivre”, but still delicious. In trying to wean ourselves off desserts, we did only coffee after.

No issues with flights getting home. Twenty hours in transit, so have built today in with as few tasks as possible.

Stay-over Day Budapest

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Viking continues to demonstrate why their service is worth the cost. Twenty-eight of us are staying at the Ananatara New York Palace Hotel in the City Center (Pest side). It is five-star and all that comes with that. They transferred our luggage with a guide and he is on their desk here for several hours a day. Since we couldn’t check into the rooms until 3:00, he took us on a walk to orient us and the rain held off until evening. Turns out Uber works well here and we took that to the Central Market because it closes at 3:00 on Saturday and isn’t open on Sunday. Like all such places, it was in a great old building like a huge train station and had all sorts of stalls. Foods, crafts, and so forth. There was a cafeteria and we decided to go for it. We had a “layered potato” which was thin sliced potatoes, thin sliced sausage and some kind of sauce baked together. We had goulash and there was pork version that was actually a soup. That combined with a local draft beer made for what we think was authentic fare.

We didn’t buy anything because our guy had suggested another place to get the few things I am looking for. We walked back in order to see more of the City and ran across some interesting parts. The guide had a sheet of restaurant recommendations and the one of KonovyBar sounded intriguing. It is a small place – seats only 32, but since we wanted to go at 7:00, they could fit us in. The room has one wall completely devoted to books; the front wall is half devoted and the half wall dividing the two sides is also a book shelf. Each night they feature a menu from a book – last night was from the French classic, The Little Prince. Hugh almost went with that and did the sea trout as a starter and the duck breast instead. I had the local ham and some sort of whipped cheese with marinated grape sauce and steak with potatoes. Their menu is limited although there was something in all the basic foods. Unfortunately, the steak was medium rare (common for Europe) and the potato presentation was lovely, but a bit underdone. The sauce for the meat helped make up for it and quite frankly I had enough food. We did pass on dessert as we have had so much of that on the ship.

More rain and cold today so we’ll Uber later to a museum.

Rain Continued…..

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Mother Nature will do what she will do and for the local people, it had been a dry summer and they need rain. The one good thing is it wasn’t torrential rain. Enough to make it uncomfortable, especially as the temperature dropped, too.

On the other hand, we were on the bus for half the tour yesterday morning and then part of it was in a magnificent church.whose name I have to look up.The architecture of Budapest is beautiful and Hubby was able to get a number of photographs. We also managed to get into a coffee house for cake and coffee with a few minutes to spare. For those who may not be familiar with the origin of Starbucks, the founder was inspired by the coffee houses of Europe and wondered why we couldn’t have something similar. I’m not certain of the name of the type of cake we shared, but it was thin layers of a yellow with milk chocolate icing in between and sort of a crunchy caramel topping.

We came back to the ship for lunch and waited a while. The rain did stop although the temperature dropped a little more. It was heavily overcast and we did go out to go up and walk across the famous Chain Bridge. It was built in the 1800s as the first permanent bridge across the Danube linking the Buda and Pest sides. Hubby got more photos as he is posting on Facebook and Instagram.

Dinner feature was chicken paprika; a very different version of what we are accustomed to. It was a thin sauce with paprika of course and diced red and yellow peppers. Budapest, somewhat like Paris, is famous for lighting up at night and Hubby braved the cold and went up top to get some wonderful photographs.

We transfer to the hotel in a few hours although we won’t be able to check in until 3:00. Hoping for a break on the weather to allow us to walk around.

Not the Best Day….

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In discussing the planned trip, we did say the weather in Europe is usually lovely this time of year, but it can turn bad. Yesterday was raining and the temperature dropped. Now in all fairness, it apparently didn’t really rain much until later although the temp was down. We decided (along with quite a few others) to tuck in with reading, and so forth. Hubby did venture out for an hour or so in the afternoon while I took a nap. He made it to the park where Europe’s oldest Ferris wheel is still in operation and only got a little light rain on his way back. I later decided to go up on the top deck for fresh air. That was in fact when rain picked up so I just stepped out onto a covered veranda for a few minutes.

We set sail a bit after five for Budapest and unfortunately today might not be much better. We’ll see. Dinner last night was extra special as chateaubriande. It wasn’t served traditionally of course as that would be really difficult for a crowd. The steak was tender and delicious and the bernaise sauce was excellent as were the potatoes dauphinoise. For a change, I didn’t care for any of the desserts and was able to pass on that.

Coffee in Vienna….

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In a city rich in history, I had not realized the Hapsburg dynasty lasted for more than 600 years, not that Austria offered to become neutral after WW II. We did a bus, then walking segment of the center. Unlike other monarchies, the Hapsburgs built new wings to their palace to end up with a sprawling, 1000+ room complex (might be more). There is a summer palace as well, although we didn’t opt for that excursion. The Saint Stephan’s Cathedral was our end point with lots of shopping, coffee houses, ticket office for music concerts and so on. While we have no shortage of coffee and desserts on-board, having a coffee in Vienna itself and the famous sacher torte is just one of those things. The dense chocolate cake is if course slightly different depending on who makes it. We did split a piece.

We came back to the ship for lunch. tried a little rest, then went strolling along the pier and up a bit. This is a major river cruising pier with a combination of local sight-seeing boats and those like us. I think the one most distant we saw was from Rotterdam. We did not book an excursion for today and unfortunately, weather has turned against us.Not surprisingly, the regional dish for last night was weiner schnitzel with warm German potato salad and a cranberry sauce. The sauce was something different and yes, dessert was sacher torte. I did choose the caramel ice cream and had two bites of Hubby’s torte.

The plan was walk/use the U-bahn (subway) to go to a couple of the many museums. Aside from rain, the temperature is supposed to reach only 55 degrees. We wouldn’t mind taking a cab, but what we’re not sure about is getting a cab back. When I was in Paris a few years back with my sister, I was surprised to learn how difficult getting a cab could be and I’m not sure I want to take that chance here. We will have leisurely breakfast and then decide.