New Years Eve...

For this New Years Eve I hadn't planned anything special. My boyfriend has plans to spend at least part of the evening with his parents an Lower Austria. I wasn't going to ask him if I can join him since we haven't tried how Daisy and his dog are getting along. I coulcn't go out either since I really didn't want to have to be all by herself since she is terryfied of all the fireworks. So I prepared for a quiet evening at home. We spent most of part of the evening catching up on various TV-Shows. Daisy spent most part of the evening sleeping in the bathroom. Apparently my new apartment works way better for Daisy than my old one. The bathroom is the most quiet room in the apartment. And the living room goes into a air shaft and nobody can get in there. That's why it has been very quiet and that's a way better fit for Daisy. I did make goulash soup for midnight. Daisy just came hiding between my legs for about 30 minutes with those really load fireworks going off. I opened a bottle of Austrian Champagne for midnight. And how it is with that particular night...it jsut doesn't feel any different. I had Daisy up on the couch right next to me and we continued to watch some TV. All in all it was a quite, but a very nice New Years Eve and my boyfriend and I did send text messages from time to time.

Emergency Dental Appointment...

Last night one of my teeth started acting up again badly. So this morning I decided to take advantage of the emergency dental service. That's definitely one of the benefits being back in Austria. But knowing that those appoointment fill up very qucikly it was quite important to be there as soon as they opened. I got there right at 9 am and there were already 5 people there. What pretty much meant that this was going to at least a 2 hour wait. While I waited there the secreatary told new arrivals that the waiting time will be 3+ hours. So I was quite surprised that I was done with my appointment in about 1 1/2 hours. I was prepared for the worst. If the tooth had to be pulled or if I had to have a root canal it wouldn't have surprised me. Turns out that I only had gingival inflammation of one of my teeth and that can cause you some really bad tooth ache. The reason for that is that I had lost a filling on that particualr tooth. As a reason of the infection they couldn't replace the the filling right away. But I did get the infection site cleaned and got some meds. And within a couple of days I should be done with it. I really did like that dentist and that's the reason why I got an appoointment to have taken care of that missing filling in the next few weeks.

My thoughts on the House Sale...

As you guys might have guessed the house has finally sold. While it is for most part a good thing, my feelings on that particular subject are quite devided. I did not blog about the entire process for various reasons. So here are some of my thoughts.
Seeing the money form the sale credited to my checking account was quite nice. On closer examination I really had wished for a strong Dollar and a weak Euro. That would have really benefited me. But since it is the other way around it was quite and eye opener how weak the Dollar currently is. Of course I was aware of the exchange rate. But when you get the numbers from your Ex, I found that I was still thinking in Dollar. And that after 3 years having moved back to Austria. I was expecting to take a hit in value of about 5 Grand, but it's way more than that. Dont't get me wrong, it's still a nice sum that will be put quite good use.
I'm not even going into the entire prepping for sale and the negotiations that took place during the sales process. That's over now. I haven't been there. So I can't even say I would have handled things. That was one of the reason, why I avoided that subject up till now. You can't say what you would have done in a particular situation, since I wasn't confronted with it. Therefore I can't say with certainty what I would have done. On the other hand I do have a well paying full time job and a decent savings account. So being put into that particular situation would have been an entirely differnt ball game.
With the fact that the house has been sold, well there I do have mixed feelings. On the one side it's a great thing. A burdon has been lifted and it's one thing less you have to worry about. On the other hand it also gave me the feeling of a certain loss. You bought the property togther, remodeled it togehter and spent some good times there. It's not like you ever planned on visiting there again or of getting back together. That's just something that is very unlikely to happen. But the fact that the house has been sold makes it real. It makes it a fact and it ends this particular portion of your life forever. The only thing that stay are the memories and the pix.
While the sale of the house wasn't quite emotionally easy, seeing stuff from the house, that had originally been purchased together, being sold or given away,  made it even more tough. I realy can't explain that. I neither had any particular interest in having those items for myself. Not only because of the crazy shipping expenses, but mostly for the fact that it wouldn't fit into my current life anyways. But there is even something that was harder on me. Seeing things thrown into a trasch container. Of course those things had seen so much wear and tear, that they belonged there. But you do the memories connected to thise things. Seeing them in trash dumpster is like getting those memeories thrown away as well. I know it's silly..but emmotions are just no logical.
With all that being said this process brings an almost 10 year long part of my life to a final closure. This process was emotionally almost as hard as picking myself up by my own boot straps, moving back to Austria and rebuilding my life entirely from scratch.
I will always have fond memories of living in the SoCal High Desert and especially good memories of Agua Dulce and Vasquez Rocks. But I will always remember how much of a pain in the ass living in the back country can be.

First Day of Work...

Today was the first day of work for me, after having been off for 1 week. On December 24th our company is closed anyways and December 25th and 26th are public holidays in Austria. So in fact I only took 2 vacation days and was an entire week off work. This certainly doens't help with my vacation days. Currently I have 35 vacation days left and with the new year just around the corner I will be getting another 25 vacation days, what brings the total to 60. Not entirely sure how I'm supposed to gradually reduce those.
And the experience of the first day at work didn't exactly make me want to take more vacation days. I got to work at 7 am and when I looked at my desk, it just looked like a disaster area. I was off work for actually 2 business days and it looked like a bomb or maybe two had exploded at my desk.
So I sat down made some room to work and started with the cash register first. Nobody found it necessary to do the cash register work while I was away. This was the easy part. Then I started dealing with the disaster area also called my desk. And it took me 2 1/2 hours to bring some order into the katastrophe. With that being done I dealt with the most urgent cases and with those things were the deadlines were rapidly approaching. After that I dealt with the backlog of bank statements. And yes this was a very long work day. I went in at 7 am and left a little before 7 pm. And it's those days when I actually not particularly fond of being the companies main-accountant. But I guess that's what it means of working under the current ecconomic circumstances.

Heartburn...

With me having eaten way too much and way too much meat over the XMAS holidays, it didn't come exactly as a surprise that I was getting heartburn. So today I went to the pharmacy to pick up some medicine. And I was expecting to take the medicine once and that would be the end of of it. Well I couldn't have been more wrong. I was taking my heartburn medicine 3 or 4 times a day and it took me 2 days to get over the hearburn. This has been the worst heartburn episode than I can remember. Apparently eating way too much, eating too much meat, to many souces, partly eating too spicy and eating way too many XMAS cookies hasn't done me any good. It's about time that things get back to my normal diet. But New Years Eve isn't far away and that's traditionally onother day where I eat way too much and it might just become another heartburn prone day.

Activating my new LG G2...

I was aware of the fact that I wouldn't be able to use my new LG G2 right out of the box. The new phone requires a Micro-Sim card and my old phone uses a regular Sim card. Of course I could have bought a completely new prepaid sim card, but I didn't want to change my phone number again. And I wasn't going to sign up for a 2-year plan either...these things are way to restrictive as far as I'm concerned. So today I went the a local store of my carrier to arrange for the exchange of the sim card. I was fully prepared to wait a couple of days for them so sind it by mail. But turns out it only takes 5 minutes to the get the new Micro Sim card and have them transfer all your services. That's definitely a plus in my book.
As soon as I got back home I put the new Sim into my new phone. And OMG...this thing is so new and so shiny! And I was in for quite some surprise. The internet on my new phone is about 6 or 7 times faster than on my old Nexus S. It just made me go WOW!! Installing new Apps happens almost in an instant and doesn't take a couple of minutes. Opening new Apps happens right away and doesn't put a strain on your patience. Made me wonder why I put up that long with my old cell phone. Guess there is a reason why most of my friends change their phones every 18 month. And I've been having my old phone for over 4 years.
I'm still learning the tricks of my new LG G2, but so far I'm really loving it. It is very well thought through and the phone works for me and not the other way around. That are definitely 450 bucks well spent.

XMAS with Family...

On the second XMAS holiday in Austria I was invited to spend time with my Sis and her family. This is definitely going to be a very memorable XMAS and one that will be hard to beat. I won't go into the details here, since a blog is not the appropriate place for that. For those of you guys who absolutely have to know DM or inbox me and we can talk about the reasons.
I was supposed to be there by 6 pm. My brother-in-law called me around 5.30 and was goign to  pick me up from the Tram station. I didn't know that my brother was also going to be there. But it's not really a problem. We haven't really talked to each other in about 12 years or so and I don't see that changing. But that's completely fine with me. My brother's-in-law sister and the Great Grandma of my 2 nephews were there as well. We had a little chat at first and than started setting things up. After that we sang a few XMAS carols before exchanging gifts. After that it was time for XMAS dinner. My Sis was having Raclette. It is just a fun part of eating during XMAS and chatting at the same time. But since I have had Fondue the day before...this is something very similar and definitely quite on the meaty side. On the other hand it's XMAS and of course I was completly stuffed.
By about 10.30 we said our good bye's and I headed out since it was going to take me about 45 minutes to get back to my appartment. For this XMAS celebration I didn't bring Daisy with me, since I really didn't want a re-do of the staring contest between Daisy and my Sis' 2 cats.
But all in all it was definitely a great way to celebrat the second XMAS holiday. And every year again I am so thankful that I'm gay and don't have to put up with screaming kids. That would be something that would drive me mad!

Merry XMAS, everyone!!!

A new Phone...

The only XMAS present I bought for myself this year was a new phone. As good as my old Nexsus S was when I bought it. Right now it just belongs in a museum. The battery doesn't hold a charge for longer than 5 hours. I need the restart the phone at least 2 or 3 times per week. Sometimes even more often. For some reason it keeps on crashing. The internet is way too slow for my taste and the Apps I use on a ruglar basis have really become terrible. So in the past couple of month I have been looking into buying a new phone. I narrowed it down to 3: The Galaxsy S4, the LG G2 and the Nexus 5.
I got rid of the Galaxy S4 fairly quickly, since the reviews about that particular phone are just anything but good.
The reviews about the LG G2 and Nexus 5 are pretty much even. Although the LG G2 is the better handset. There was one question that needed to be answered. How much do I care about having KitKat on phone. So I looked into the details of the new Android OS. Turns out there are some nice and interesting changes, but they really don't make that much of an impact for my personal usage of my phone. So in the end I went with the better handset the LG G2.
Here are some of the highlights:

• 5.2-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display
• 1920 x 1080 pixels screen resolution
• 424 ppi pixel density
• Corning Gorilla Glass 2 protection
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset
• 2.3 GHz quad-core processor
• Adreno 330 GPU
• 2 GB of RAM
• 16 / 32 GB of internal storage
• NO MicroSD card support
• 13 MP primary camera
• Auto focus and LED flash
• Optical Image Stabilization
• 2.1 MP secondary camera
• 3000 mAh non-removable Li-Po battery
• Up to 800 hours of stand by time
• Up to 17 hours of talk time
• Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean

XMAS Eve...

This XMAS Eve is the first one that I'm once again in a relationship shince moving back from the States to Austria. So my BF and I met up in Vienna's 1st district to have an extended XMAS Brunch. Was quite a nice thing to do and something I rarely ever do. If I'm having brunch I'm the one who prepares it. We wouldn't be spending XMAS Eve together since he was going to see his folks. But that really didn't bother me. I had already gotten the meat for the Fondue on the Saturday and marinated it right away. So that saved me some time. And the fact is if you let the meat sit in the marinade for a couple of days it makes it way better. Once I got back from brunch I spent parts of the afternoon preparing a couple of different sauces und even pre-cooked the soup, while listening to American XMAS music on my phone. That way I would only have to deal with the sides onces evening came around.

Well it turned 8 pm...the time I had planned to start with the fun. But tasting from all the different sauces meant as well, that I just didn't feel hungry at all. So I waited till about 10 pm. But that time I really was in the mood for my XMAS-Eve dinner. Prepared the table, heated up the soup and got things started while watching various Sex and the City and MASH episodes. Even Daisy got her XMAS treat...a Knackwurst, that she had devoured in no time. By the time I was done with my XMAS dinner it was about 11.30 pm and Iwas so stuffed that I didn't even want to move from the couch to put away all the leftovers. Continued to watch TV. By 3 am I felt finally rested enough to put away the leftovers. All in all it was a very comfy XMAS Evening.

Merry XMAS, everyone!!

Punsch at Schloss Belevedere...

Today I finally get around to meeting up with my BF and head over to Schloss Belevdere to have Punsch. We agreed to meet at what will be some day Vienna's new Central Railway Station. But this thing is quite confusing. If you really don't want to meet someone...just meet them there and you're almost sure to miss each other. But with a couple of text messages I figured out where my BF was waiting for me. We then headed over to Schloss Belvedere for some Punsch. The weather wasn't actually perfect for that. It would have been till 4 pm, but then suddenly the fog moved in and it was some thick fog. Made Vienna feel more like London. And that experience also served as explanation why the shot the Third Man in Vienna. But on the upside the fog made for some interesting ambience. OK, it didn't quite feel like XMAS..therefore it was a little too warm, but it got pretty close. We had 2 Punsch each chatted a little, then took a slow stroll through the entire Weihnachtsmarkt. And no, the pic is a stock pik and not a pic of the actual event. Reason therefore is that my phone barely can hold it's charge for 2 hours. So looking forward when I'll be getting my new phone!
Around 8 pm we called in the night and headed both home, since we both had separte plans for this evening.

Health Issues...

Well I haven't been feeling well the past weekend. So I stayed mostly home. But on Monday it was even worse. 2 or 3 trips to the bathroom is no big deal but 6 is rather excessive. So I decided to see my doctor und not only the the new prescriptions for my meds as I had planned. See my doctor is always fun. I get along with him great and he's definitely one piece of eye-candy. He gave me something for my stomach bug and told me to come back in 1 or 2 days if things shouldn't improve. I also got the resuls of my latest blood work. And everything is in the clear. Virus-Load is still undetecable and the T4 count with being at 800 is not bad at all.
My doctor even asked me if I wanted to call in sick with my stomach bug. But I didn't feel that sick so I went to work. My stomach bug got a little better but it took almost till today, until I felt being back to normal

Changes ahead...

Life is funny sometimes...When you get too comfy you actually get a bit lacy and complacent and don't push the agenda aheat that you actually wanted to. With my job being a stressful one at times I just didn't find the right motivation to take classes. Working 50 hours a week and than having to spend your Saturday taking classes...well isn't quite fun. On the other hand with the move to a new apartment and doing some remodeling, taking classes got just put on the back burner. But there is a similarity between not taking classes and not finishing up the remodel. After a certain amount of time you're just a little burned out and you're fine the way things are. Apparently there is always need for a bigger event for to make you change things.
Recently it has come to my attention that the company I'm working for was looking for an accountant. It is true that things haven't been perfect lately, especially with the year-end tax work. And it is also true, that my co-worker is just not really suited for the job. And I guess my boss knows that. That he was going to hire a 3rd accountant is just unreasonable, since 2 accountants are more than enough for the workload. So that tells me that someones head basically is on the chopinb block. While there are quite a number of sings that point ot my co-worker, there is always the possibility that my job is on the line. I really didn't spend much time worrying about that. There are enough accounting jobs out there and I do know that I'm a good accountant. But of course to get the better paid accounting jobs especially in larger companies you have to have taken advanced classes. That was the point when I got mad about myself for not having used the past 12 month to take those classes. So I checked when the next classes are scheduled to start. And they all start in January. The second thing I checked was what my unemployment benefits would be, incase I should be let go. Turns out that the unempolyment benefits cover all my monthly espenses except groceries. That's not really a biggy since I have about 10 Grand in my current savings account. So that's something that gives you a little peace of mind.
With that all being checked I sat down and needed to come up with a game plan for Corporate Tax Exam. I knew that this is going be a quite lengthy and difficult exam. And it usually takes people working fulltime about 1 year. I really didn't want't to wait that long. So I planned my classes that way that I will be taking advanced payroll classes and Corporate Tax Law 1 at the same time. And after I've completed those 2 classes I will be taking Corporate Tax Law 2. This means that from Mid Jannuary to Mid-May I will be taking a 5 hour class on Friday afternoon and a 5 hour class on Saturday. It also means that I won't be having a single Saturday off till Mid-July. Not exactly what I consider fun. But you gotta do, what you gotta do. That will leave me about 6 weeks before taking my Corporate Tax Exam. I know it's quite an ambitous plan, but I do think it is doable.

Season Finale Amazing Race 23...

That the season finale was going to start off with another equalizer was pretty much a given. Why anone would think that 15 minutes head start at the beginning of a leg is that much of a benefit just doesn't really meet with reality. That 3 teams are trying to force Leo and Jamal out is a smart move.
Tim and Marie not giving away their leverage was definitely a smart move. Why they didn't take the challenge at the park...well I really didn't get the benefit of it. The other 2 teams doing the challange in the park was pretty much a given, and hafter having seen the challange it really didn't look that difficult.
I really didn't care for the japanese Gameshow challange at all. As far as I'm concerened that was just a redo of season 20 and preety much a let down.
The Roadblock challange was pretty much a laughing joke as far as I'm concerned. And we're back at the topic that they should either get rid of non-elimination legs all together or return to people having give up all their stuff.
The puzzle-type challange was not that easy and it did belong at this stage of the race. The one thing I found a little odd is that Tim and Marie didn't comment on the fact that Leo and Jamal were doing already the Speed Bump. Cudos to Marie for catching up that quickly with everyone else and finishing the Roadblock ahead of everyone else. Going from last to first during a single challange is quite an accomplishment.
The fact that Leo and Jamal got eliminated was just fucking AWESOME!!!
The equalizer at the beginning of the 2nd hour of the season finale was pretty much a given. The race to the Taxi's in Alaska was something fresh. The Plane Challange would have been quite fun. And aparently it looks much easier than it actually is. Waiting for a suppy drop from Nicoe and Marie in real life might turn out to be quite long wait...LOL
The Galcier Challenge just looked awesome and is definitely something right up my alley. Having to axe your clue out and searching among quite a number of invalid clues was definitely something fresh. And the fact that they had to take a trip by kayak and didn't get their final destination revealed right there was a good move.
When it comes to the Nicole I haven't seen anyone act that downright inept at the Glacier Challange. Holding onto your ice axe should be a given. Of course the challange can be completed with one axe, but it makes it so much harder and so much more time consuming.
Jason and Amy on the other hand seemed to be quite it sync today. They didn't seem to have an problems at all so far. The final challenge was a tough one. As soon as I hear about it I was pretty much sure that most wouldn't have paid too much attention to the local currency. And I got proven right. But I'm also quite sure that for future seasons teams will pay way more close attention to curencies. And the producers will have to come up with something fresh. Jason and Amy did win this season fair and square. They ran their race and especially at the last leg they worked together like a well oiled machine.
With all that being said, when it comes to the entire season and compared to other seasons, TAR 23 was without any doubt the worst season of the entire franchise. It started disappointing and they really kept that thing going all season long. A return to the way earlier seasons were would be an awesome change.

Amazing Race episode "Cobra in my Teeth"...

That this episode was starting up with a food challange wasn't actually a big surprise. We have it in every single season. Not sure how much of the entire "snake drama" is real and how much is played up. It's definitely not the nastiest food challange we've seen so far. It would have been something different if Marie had taken the penalty, but that didn't happen. But you have to hand it to hear dealing with the challange and being able to cope with it for being an vegeterian.
The Roadblock was an OK challange. There's really much to that challange than patience. From the difficuly level it really didn't have any place in that stage of the race. Boiling eggs sounds like the producers are so running out of ideas. I was happy that they made all 3 teams go back and redo at least some of their eggs...otehrwise I would have had to call Foul.
The Beauty pageant challange was fun to watch. Nothing super exciting, but it definitely looked easier than the alternative. With the beauty challange it definitely comes in handy to have a eye for detail and a little bit about make up.  But all things considered...the guys certainly looked pretty...LOL...
Leo and Jamal ditching the Tea challange, going to the beauty challange and then going back to the tea challenge again...has to be one of the worst tactical errors I've seen in a very long time. I did feel sorry for Travis and Nicole, that they jsut couldn't figure out that they have to clean up their faces before seeing the judge.
There was a little bit excitement with the race to the Pit Stop. But that was pretty much it. That seems to be the theme of this season: as little excitement as possible.
That this was going to be a non elimination leg was pretty much a given. They didn't even attempt to hide that face, since they kept playing that up way too much.
If I had to find a term to describe that episode...it probably would be something like "Yawn City".