<strong>THE SIMPSON FAMILY BLOG</strong>: December 2011

Christmas Eve and Day

Hunter picked out and purchased these lovely hats for us.

Teen humor

Abbie Lou Who

What's in your wallet?

Hackers Breach the Web Site of Stratfor Global Intelligence

On Saturday, hackers who say they are members of the collective known as Anonymous claimed responsibility for crashing the Web site of the group, Stratfor Global Intelligence Service, and pilfering its client list, e-mails and credit card information in an operation they say is intended to steal $1 million for donations to charity.

“The scary thing is that no matter what you do, every system has some level of vulnerability,” says Jerry Irvine, a member of the National Cyber Security Task Force. “The more you do from an advanced technical standpoint, the more common things go unnoticed. Getting into a system is really not that difficult.”

Merry Christmas To All

An older and slightly more demure Elizabeth reprised her role of Mary this evening in the Peapack Reformed Church Christmas pageant.

Leah and Will did yeomens work as lambs

and to all simmys a good night!

DECISION 2012

You cynics say what you want but...

An aquatic amphibian or a baseball glove... it's gonna be a bitch deciding.

Happy December

Yippe-i-o-kiyay, my very own medicare card!

Sort of ready for Christmas

Not Christmas cookies

Ms. Bossypants handles scissors very well.

Vienna

We had only one day and evening in Vienna . I would love to return there someday. Impressive buildings, some serious shopping, museums, beautiful cakes and pastries, the Lipizzaner stallions and music, music, music.

Mozart Torte

I thought one of the best things in Vienna were the many coffee houses. They were very beautiful and stylish. Upon entering you could choose your pastry selection and the salesperson would make out a slip for you. then you sat down , ordered your coffee and handed over your chit. Soon your delicious Mozart Torte arrived. You could also go in the back and stare through the plate glass windows and check out the bakery action. I loved it

We attended a great concert with Mozart and Strauss selections, some ballet and opera pieces as well.

This figure was in the window of the coffee-house we went to. Her skirt was made of chestnuts and the bodice of chocolate frosting.

Get a load of this fraulein's
hat.

Again the coffee-house

A horse-drawn fiaker which we did not get to ride in.

Budapest

As you may or may not know there were two cities Buda and Pest that were joined in 1873 to make Hungary's capital. Buda is old and rich and hilly while Pest on the other side of the river has wide boulevards and "grandiose 19th C architecture"

and the Ice Bar.

Some stuff I wanted to buy but could not possibly fit in my suitcase.

A tourist trap restaurant complete with wild music and bad goulash. The walls and ceilings were beautiful.

The chestnut man.

One of 8 bridges that link the two parts of the city together.

This was the best thing we had to eat in Budapest (and the chestnuts). The rollers you see in the background are dipped in a heavy batter and then put in that open oven to cook and puff up. The finished cylinder is rolled in cin sugar.

St Stephens.

Back on the Blog

Its been a long time since I have posted anything, mainly because I got lazy and only took pictures with my phone and then only put them on Facebook that evil sucker of Life and Time. Anyway heres a few photos from the last several months and I will put more of our trip on another post.

Heres Jimmy in our room on de ship cruising on the Danube. We started in Budapest, stopping in Vienna, Melk, then into Germany, Regensburg and Nuremburg. Pretty great, more on that later.

Jim and Maggie having a tea party. This requires several tables, many friends, dolls, stuffed animals and numerous tea pots. Maggie directs the action.