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| Not exactly how we saw it, but here is what a photographer took on Heldenplatz in Vienna |
For solar fanatics it was a big week. On March the 20th we had a solar
eclipse that could be viewed throughout most of Europe. All the kids in Dyllan’s grade spent the week
preparing special eclipse viewing boxes and were not allowed outside during the
event unless they had a welder’s mask or their special viewing box. Dyllan even made a second box for Mom and Dad
so that we could see what she was going to see.
In true Viennese style we assumed that the sun, which rarely seems to
show itself this time of year, would not make an appearance through the
clouds. Much to our surprise, it turned
out to be a perfectly clear day and the eclipse was completely visible. Dyllan got to see it at school and Allynn got
to use the second viewing box to watch it at home with Danyon. Dan spent the eclipse in a conference room,
but was promised it was really cool.
Dane had a pretty normal week (he said), but was a big help
on Saturday with babysitting his siblings while the adults attended our spring
conference for the local congregations of the church. Dan was in meetings for about 4 hours on
Saturday for training and even the visiting authority who was originally from
the US, but now lives in Germany, gave all his talks and instruction in German. There was translation available, although Dan
opted not to use it this time, and figures he got about 70 percent of it (hopefully
the important parts). Allynn even opted
not to use translation for a few of the talks and did pretty well with
understanding. Allynn says that she
mainly chose not to use the translation because it was hurting her ears, the
headphones that is, not the talks. Her
German is really improving and the new tutor is making a big difference. She wouldn’t have gotten any of the
conference a year ago without translation.
The kids all opted to get the headphones during the Sunday morning
meetings that they were invited to, but didn’t wear them for more than a few
minutes and got as much out of it as they would have in English. Mostly because they were fighting over
crayons and seating arrangements for the majority of the meeting, I think.
Danyon had the most fun of anyone at the meeting and gave us
a big scare. With all of the members of
the church being invited from Vienna and the other cities in Eastern Austria we
could not fit in our regular church building, so the meetings on Sunday morning
were held in the Vienna International Center (the United Nations Campus in
Austria). Danyon’s attention span was
only good for about 30 minutes and Dan took him out in the hallway to quiet him
down. After trying to keep him from
running around with other kids that were in the hallways for about 15 minutes
Dan finally just turned him loose and followed from a safe distance to try and
let him burn off some energy. When Dan
stopped to talk to someone in the hallway he turned his back on Danyon and
about 15 seconds later, when he tried to spot him again, he was nowhere to be
found. Dan searched all over the place
(it was a big convention area full of meeting rooms) for about 5-10 minutes and
then started to get a little panicky as he still couldn’t find Danyon. At this point he started employing other
wandering fathers and children and had a handful of people looking in all the
corners and rooms. When Dan went to get
Allynn to get her help in the search (which meant that panic had really set in)
he found Danyon coloring on Allynn’s lap.
Apparently he slipped past Dan went through a different door than the
one they had come out of and found his way through the huge conference center
and right back to where he was supposed to be.
Allynn was getting very upset after 20 minutes of having to wrangle all 4 kids in the meeting while Dan was off in the hallway chatting. She was also surprised and confused by
the fact that Danyon kept asking “where Daddy”.
Little did she know what was going on in the hallway.
Danyon had another big moment this week. Allynn put him down for a nap and was a
little surprised when he still wasn’t awake after 3-1/2 hours, so she peeked
into his bedroom to find his entire room, including Dyllan’s half completely
torn apart. She eventually found Danyon
curled up in the corner, shirt off, covered in chocolate and fast asleep. Further investigation revealed that he had
managed to find Dyllan’s stash of American candy, that Dan had brought back
from his last trip. He had eaten an
entire 12oz. box of Junior Mints and an entire box of Reese’s Pieces before
falling into a sugar coma. Danyon has
become a real treat monster and anything that is not locked up quickly disappears;
even the items on the top shelves in the kitchen cabinets. He is either a very good climber or is paying
Dane to help out.
We did get a nice surprise on Friday evening as a result of
all this. When one of Dan’s colleagues
from work (Mihovil) found out about the loss of the candy he had his wife, who
works at the UN, stop by the commissary and pick up two containers of Breyers Reese’s
Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream and then delivered it to the our place on Friday
evening. 
On Saturday morning we did a little yard work, basically
just raking out the winter debris and spreading some grass seed. To our very pleasant surprise, without being
asked, Deagan was the first and only one out in the yard and was a huge help all morning
long. This was a very nice turn-around
from the recent yard work experiences with Deagan, so he got to come shopping
with us after the work was done and purchased a new Bey-Blade stadium, some
Hubba Bubba and a new flavor of Fanta soda that made great floats when we got
home.
The last major event of the week was the cleaning of the
cat. For some reason Marco has had
really bad gas lately and can clear the room with his silent cat stench. While I was typing the blog however, he
walked by and I could swear the stench was now lingering with him in general, so
I suggested that we should give the cat a bath. Much to my surprise a soaking wet cat just
got dropped next to me on the couch.
Dyllan has informed me that he didn’t like it very much, but at least he
smells better. My guess is that he will
never cross the threshold of the kid’s bathroom doors ever again. 
We did get to finish off or Sunday with a fresh rhubarb pie. We saw rhubarb in the store for the first time since we moved here and were sure to take advantage of it. YUMMY!!!!
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