Always look on the bright side of life

[Monty Python whistling here]

This week has been devoted to "defragmentation." With my heart in Austria, my body in Baton Rouge, my head somewhere in between, and my possessions strewn from Hell to breakfast, I was feeling pretty fragmented. This was counterproductive to my teaching, grading, correspondence, eating and sleeping habits. So last weekend I had a couple of indoor project days (Target shelving unit with about 300 pieces), this week I've been grading like a wild woman, and I finally managed to get to the OMV and insurance office. I now have a Louisiana Brown Pelican on my license plate! And I only had to pay about half the fees I expected :-)

The insurance visit was a fiasco. After 45 minutes the agent still wasn't finished processing my information and I had to excuse myself to teach class. I was so annoyed! But on the way home, I was driving along one of those beautiful live oak-lined boulevards in the Garden District and saw what I thought was a big pigeon drinking from a rain puddle in the middle of the street. Turns out that it was no pigeon, but a sharp-shinned hawk! Luckily I had my camera with me. Ta-da!

(I love that you can see strands of old blackened Mardi Gras beads from the St. Patrick's Day parade that goes through the neighborhood! Kind of makes up for the fact that you can't see his head.)

So I think there's a reason for everything! If the insurance agent hadn't kept me so long, I never would have seen this hawk at precisely the moment he was getting a drink! Pretty cool, huh? Share your "bright sides" in the comments!

The party's over...

Another Mardi Gras season has come and gone. In Austria, they call it Fasching, but it's still a crazy time when usually sane people take the opportunity to act a little insane. Here are some Fasching highlights from this year.

I made a King Cake (from scratch, mind you!) for my colleagues on our first day back at school (January 7). A pecan nut was substituted for the baby. We had done this little ritual last year, and everyone remembered how traumatized one of my male colleagues was when he thought he had to "bake" a King Cake for the next gathering, not "bring" one. Said colleague wouldn't touch this year's cake, and strangely enough, the last piece of cake was the one with the baby (not that I'm accusing anyone of cheating...)

It seems that Austrians do not enter into the spirit of King Cake like we do. Instead, they serve Faschingskrapfen, which are big, fluffy jelly donuts filled with apricot jam and covered with powdered sugar. I've eaten about eight in the past two days, and if I never eat another one it will be too soon.

We served King Cake at a small, impromptu gathering last week. In the meantime, my parents had sent a box of Mardi Gras beads, which really helped us get into the holiday mood!

In Austria, it is traditional to dress in costume for Fasching. We had a costume ball at school on February 13, dressed in costume for dance class the next week (see below), then went Eisstockschiessen (and barhopping) the next weekend. The Usual Suspects

Finally on Fat Tuesday, most of the students and faculty went to school in costume. I went as the goddess Diana (here with my dance teacher, Heidi):