let it snow

Today it's snowing again. This time the snowflakes are bigger. Maybe now the snow will stay for some time. At least it's a bit colder then on Sunday, so chances would be good.

first snow

Today in the morning as we woke up - at about 8 a.m. - we could see snowflakes dancing in the sky. To bad the snow didn't last on the ground. But two hours later the world outside our window was covered with a slight film of snow.



A few kids immediately started sliding on the slope from the street to the house. It's great to see the smiling faces!


But this beautiful view wasn't for long. Soon snow stopped falling and the cover on the ground soon had melt away again.
In the west of Austria in the snow kept falling - in some regions really heavy!
Hope we will have real snow here too soon. At least a white Christmas would be great!

The Heartbreak Kid

Seen yesterday.
I liked it very much. It's really great to see Jerry Stiller play Ben Stiller's father. He is as cool as in his role of Arthur Spooner in 'King of Queens'!
A lot of laughs and some weird thoughts and ideas about early marriage in the story.

Website: The Heartbreak Kid

rest in peace Nicky

Yesterday in the evening my sister's dog Nicky died. :-(
He ways sick for a long time and now he passed away.
It is a very hard strike to the whole family as Nicky was a very loved and loving member of it.

We all miss him!

Museum of Natural History

Today we visited the Museum of Natural History in Vienna.
It was my third or fourth visit already but the last one was some years (I guess about 12) ago.

The historic building itself is very impressive and has a wonderfull architecture.


We started at the geological section. The museum has a huge collection of minerals. I am not much into ‘stones’ but it’s fascinating how colorful they come. In the first halls you can see minerals, in hall IV beautiful gems and in hall V there you can see metoerites.

In hall V there is also a model of our planet resized to a diameter of two meters where different information is depicted. (for example: Earth by day and at night, sommer and winter, ozone concentration, sea temperatures,...)

Next we went to the anthropological section. Here you can see tools, potteries and jewelry from the beginning of mankind. It is interesting to see how people lived in early times.


In the following halls was the palaeontological department. I guess it’s one of the most interesting parts for the children who come to the museum. It’s just impressing how huge the dinosaurs were and what creatures roamed our planet. The Museum has a lot of skeletons and fossils.


After that we had a little lunch at the museum’s restaurant. Well, t’s a bit high priced but as the earnings are used for the preservation of the museum I would say it’s okay.

Then we went on to the zooligical section – the biggest part of the museum. Starting under the sea you see a lot of animals as you walk through the halls. First you see corals and deep sea animals,...


...then you come tho the insects and spiders followed by fish.


Afterwards come the amphibians and reptiles, birds,...


...and finally mammals and primates.


At the end we had a look at the new vivarium next to the entrance hall. A lot of living exotic animals like lionfish and colorful poisonous frogs and many other fascinating creatures can be seen there.


It was a wonderfull day!

When you go to vienna the ‘Museum of Natural History’ is really worth a visit! But you should plan a long stay inside to have enough time to see everything!

The museum also offers guided tours.

Website: Museum of Natural History

Lissi und der wilde Kaiser

Saw it yesterday.
'Lissi und der wilder Kaiser' is the latest animated movie by the Bavarian comedian Michael 'Bully' Herbig.
The movie is some sort of parody about the Austrian monarchy mixed with a ridiculous story of the kidnapping of empress Lissi (parody of Elisabeth 'Sisi') by the Yeti who has a deal with the Devil.

It's better than other movies by Bully but it really not a must see.

Some nice jokes and laughs anyway but it could have been a lot better.

Website: Lissi und der wilder Kaiser

Sony Ericsson K550i – 2nd part

On Tuesday I got a message from the shop the the new delivery had arrived. So I went there once again yesterday.
This time I tested the phone immediately at the shop and this time the speaker is ok.
I think I will stay with Sony Ericsson. :-)

cat-sitting

Last weekend Julia and I had the honor of cat-sitting for the the cats of Julia’s sister Elisabeth.

Nicky (the black one) and Amy (the tiger) are such cuties. Both were really missing Elisabeth and Gery – especially Nicky. He was all the time just sitting and looking. Amy was a bit less troubled. At least she came to us when we put the food in their bowls.
She even played a bit with us for a short time.

I love these two sweeties!

my new Sony Ericsson K550i

great phone with some troubles

On Tuesday I got my new mobile phone. A Sony Ericsson K550i.
It’s pretty cool!
The keys are a plus for the design but you have to get used to their size. After the first messages they are not a problem anyway.

The rest of the phone is like usual for Sony Ericsson good working, easy to find and just for learning by doing. The menues are really intuitive and you will get along with it very fast.

For further details just visit the SE-Website: Sony Ericsson

The only problem I had was the speaker of the phone. The voice was delivered very crackled and the crackling increased during each call. So I brought it back to the store yesterday and got immediatly a new one.
Same problem again?! That’s disapointing!
I didn’t test it at the store because I wouldn’t have thought that the new one had the same error. So I went the the shop again today.
They told me that the last piece they had was sold yesterday.
As soon as they get the new delivery the will give me a call.
Maybe that’s the best way. I guess that there is a production error within this series and maybe the phone of the next delivery will have speakers from another delivery to the factory too and so the problem could eventually be solved.

The people from the Sony Ericsson Service Center are really great and seem to understand what you are telling them. They told me at once that this goes as DoA (Dead on Arrival) and that I can just go to the shop and get a new one and the rest is up to SE.
The people from the shop were also very nice and it in deed wasn’t a problem to get the new phone.

When I told the lady from the SE Service Center about the same trouble with the new one she was a bit surprised and told me that they haven’t got a message about specific problems with the speakers but I am sure it won’t take long ‘til they get one. On the net I read some articles from people with similar problems with several models.

Now I will just put the K550i back into the packing and wait for the call from the shop.

I really hope that the next one will work fine and Sony Ericsson will be rehabilitated (for me at least). Until now I had a high opinion of them, but now it was slammed to the ground.
I don’t understand why a company that produces WalkmanPhones uses such crappy speakers for the phone.

Hang on for the update when I get the next one!

The Kingdom

Last Friday we saw 'The Kingdom' at the cinema.

The Movie is about an FBI-Team that wants to investigate in an terror attack on a Western housing compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The diplomats work slowly debating about consequences of an FBI operation until Special Agent Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx) assemble an elite team and negotiates a secret five-day trip to Riyadh to locate the man behind the bombing.
When they arrive they have to overcome a lot of problems and have to fear for their lives.

Suspense-packed and thrilling to the final scene.

First I was worried, that it would possibly be too 'American' - meaning that that FBI-Team are the good ones and all the Saudis are the bad and not trustworthy ones. That's something that often happens when a country makes a movie about problems in another country in which they are involved themselves.
But I would say they did a great job.

You see the terror the fanatic fundamentalists spread among people and you also can see that not everyone with darker skin is a terrorist. The movie even shows that friendship is possible.
I hope that all the stupid freaks out there who think that some people who belong to a certain ethnicity are automatically bad, will have their eyes opened and stop heating up the fire with attacks (verbal and/or physical) on innocent ones.
And I hope that the masterminds of the terror cells will someday stop to harm people for mistakes that have happend generations before the people now killed were born.

There must be some way for coexistence!

Website: The Kingdom