February, in like a lion

Or something like that.

We finally have all of the water issues fixed, except for the piss-poor (pun intended) pressure in the bathroom sink. Apparently the secret was cleaning out the filters on the faucets (and the washer) multiple times to get rid of the gunk that the frozen pipes had produced.

Mardi Gras season is fully underway. We went to our first parade on Saturday: Krewe du Vieux. It's the closest to the original parades: satirical, political, raunchy, of the people, and with small mule-drawn floats. It was a good, but cold, time. We started out at party at a sort of friend's apartment (we met via scootering, but she's a library school student) and then went together to watch the parade. We got separated at one point, and Kevin and I moseyed on our own for a while. Then, in another instance reminding me that New Orleans is just a big small town, we ran into our neighbors and hung out with them for a while. We went home around 9, mainly because there was a house of angry dogs awaiting us. In other news, no word about the position I applied for, which is rather disheartening. In an interesting coincidence, a librarian on the search committee was at the party before KdV. She didn't indicate that she remembered I had applied (of course, she was drinking a gigantoid daiquiri, so who knows), and I didn't either. I'm not sure it would have been appropriate.
Oh, and I've decided to kick my butt in gear and try to get in better shape before my 20th (EGADS!) high school reunion this summer. I've joined SparkPeople, which provides free food tracking, fitness plans, nutrition advice, etc. After a week, the scale hasn't moved (but since I'm bloated to hell and back, I'd be really surprised if it did), but I have more energy. And that's huge.

Off to work on my German, which I have been neglecting since the new year, which is making me wonder whether I should take German 2 or not.

Happy New Year

I've had a hell of a January so far. The week after New Year's, Kevin was sick. Then I left for WV on the 6th. That was fun but cold and snowy, and my dad was in the hospital (he's OK now, but will have to deal with some long-term issues related to black lung). I made it back Sunday night on my way to getting sick. (My immune system, which had been successfully fighting Kevin's germs, finally crapped out after 6 hours of airport air.) After barely making it through Monday, I burned up every bit of my vacation as well as my personal holiday being off sick for a day and a half. Now, I'm getting sick again.

In the midst of all this, every faucet in the house is misbehaving because the pipes froze while I was in WV. (I would have been paying enough attention to the weather to know to keep the water running overnight.) We had to replace an internal part of the bathtub fixture, which wouldn't turn off for 3 days. Then the valve in the toilet needed replacing, and the kitchen has almost no water pressure. Now, it looks like we're going to have to replace the toilet seal underneath again. Meanwhile, outside in the laundry shed, the washer is having load balancing issues. Oh, and Kevin hurt his back checking out the frozen pipes and has been barely able to move for 2 weeks, causing him to have to cancel the physical therapy appointment about the shoulder pain that keeps him from sleeping more than 5 hours at a time.

Please tell me February will be better.

2010 Reading Plan

After once again not reaching my goal of reading 50 books in the year (I think I got to about 40), I've decided to take a somewhat different approach. I'm going to focus on about 30-35 books I've been meaning to read, many of which I actually own. It's a mix of genres, lengths, subjects, ranging from nonfiction works on war to mass market paperbacks about dog detectives. On the list so far are:

• After the Reich
• Fatherland
• Castle in the Forest
• Alternative Alcott
• Louisa May
• Freethinkers
• Bright-Sided
• Good Omens (a reread)
• The Afternoon Wmen
• Bienville's Dilemma
• The 900 Days
• What to Eat
• Sandman (reread)
• Promethea
• Away With All Gods
• Jesus, Interrupted
• Something by Sarah Vowell
• Thereby Hangs a Tail
• Anna Karenina
  
• Villette
• Agnes Grey
• Tenant of Wildfell Hall
  
• Wide Sargasso Sea
• Under the Dome
• The Geography of Nowhere
• A Dog at Sea
• The Secret Speech
• Monongah
• The Canon
  

Freiburg

After spending about 25 minutes trying to get out of Tubingen, we got back on the highway headed toward Freiburg im Bresgau, where we were to spend the night. This was the one place where we stayed in a large hotel. We arrived to find tour buses full of Italian senior citizens and, again, Japanese tourists. Freiburg is another college town, home to one of the country's oldest universities, and the hotel was right next to the city's performing arts center.

After refreshing ourselves a bit, we decided to chase down something to eat. Walking up the main street from the hotel, there were tons of people out that night, including those coming out of or going into a multiplex. After taking in our immediate options, we ended getting falafel and gyros to go from a kebap shop. (Germany has an increasing number of Muslim immigrants, which has caused some problems over the years. But nonetheless you'll find a kebap shop in most city neighborhoods.) The sandwich was great, and the addition of cabbage added a very German spirit to it.
We sat and people-watched for a while, and I saw the first homeless people I'd seen in all of Europe. (Of course, they may have just been very grimy college students.)
The next day, I spent some time playing sea lion in the hotel pool (one of the reasons we had stayed there) before a noisy toddler drove me off, and then we did a walking tour of the town. We visited a bookstore and took advantage of some sales, and I almost came home with a great pair of shoes, but then felt guilty about the expense, and then regretted not getting them. It had these medieval-era open drainage gutters that were used to fight fires and water livestock, but now make a nice foot cooler on a hot summer day. (Incidentally, Freiburg is the sunniest and warmest city in Germany.)

The highlight of the old town was the Munster, the building of which began in the 1200s. Yeah, you read that right.
Even though this was about the 10th cathedral I'd been in, I was still blown away by it.

One of the more interesting parts of the city was its honesty about the destruction of the Jewish community during the 1930s and 1940s. Every building with a Jewish business or a Jewish home had been marked with a plaque indicating who or what had been located there and when they had been expelled.

The Alps and Tubingen

So, after breakfast in Innsbruck from a bakery (wonderful bread with meat and cheese, as well as some pastries to give us a sugar rush), a quick stop in a bookstore to buy a cool messenger back with a map of Europe in vinyl, and mailing all of the postcards we'd written the day before, we started out for the Western side of Germany. Actually, we were headed to Strasbourg, France, where Kevin was supposed to get a tour of the International Criminal Court there from one of his professors in Vienna. Between here and there, however, stood the Alps. Because Kevin's coffee was still kicking in, I ended up driving that first section of the trip. This was a really whimsical rest stop I made Kevin take a picture of:
Also visible from the rest area was this:
The mountains were utterly magnificent, and the road was lined with small villages that looked like they'd fallen off the pages of "Heidi" (that part of Austria is next to that part of Switzerland), with chalets in the valley where the fronts were covered with windowboxes filled with flowers. Next spring, I want to get more flowerboxes for the front of the house.
Unfortunately, after a point I had to let Kevin take over (about 10 years ago, I nearly slid off a mountain on US50 in WV, so I'm a little twitchy about driving in mountains) and just close my eyes a bit.
Unfortunately, shortly after we made it across the mountains into and had hit more traffic (as I mentioned before, almost all roadwork happened during the day) on the two-lane road we were on, it was apparent that we would not be making it to Strasbourg by the appointed time. So, when we got to the college town of Tubingen, we decided to stop for lunch and a visit.
This was in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, in the Swabian region, along the Neckar river. I was rather excited to see it, because the narratives in my old German book took place in Tubingen. After Kev sent an email to his professor making his apologies, we had a small lunch and then took in the town. Among the sights, a wonderful old town square with medieval buildings, a gorgeous town park and botanic garden.
We had more ice cream as well. Oh, and I left my wallet in the bathroom in the Marktplatz, where it was found by a middle-aged woman who apparently was one of the few in the country to speak almost no English. But as we were coming out of the bathroom smiling and nodding at one another, we ran into Kevin, who served as translator. We thanked her profusely, and she told us how she was sitting on the toilet and looked up, saw my wallet, and thought "that doesn't belong there." Crisis averted, we took in the historic town square, where one of the shops proudly advertised that Herman Hesse had worked there as a bookseller's apprentice, and walked up to the top of the town hill, where there was an incredible view of the city below.As all of the places we wanted to see in that region were fairly close together, we drove on in the late afternoon to Freiburg, where we were spending the night.

Innsbruck

Ok, so I suck at being motivated (hopefully, that will be changing), but I thought I'd at least wrap up the European vacation stuff. I'll add pictures when my computer is not being a jerk

After Salzburg, we drove 3/4 of the way back to Munich, and then drove into the far western corner of Austria, to Innsbruck. We passed an inland sea along the way, where this was taken. This was probably my favorite place on the trip: It's in the Alps and is amazingly beautiful. (I am by birth and spirit, and will always be, a mountain girl.) The city is split by the River Inn, which was roiling from all of the rain they'd been having.
We had some amazing Greek food before heading into the old city (as well as a great sangria-like wine cocktail). Many of the buildings dated back to the 1500s. The Altstadt is full of narrow alleys lined with shops and cafes. While we were doing our gift shopping for family and friends back home, we had more of that European gelato (by this point, I had narrowed my favorite combination down to chocolate and raspberry).

In addition to wandering around the historic areas and visiting yet more ancient cathedrals (I haven't been into that many churches over the past decade), we also checked out a German version of a Target, where back-to-school sales were in full swing and we were looking for a CD and some other mundane items. Not a discount store, this shop made our mouths water.
I was impressed by the European tendency toward minimal transportation. If you can't get there on foot or by public transport, you take a bike. If you can't take a bike, you take a scooter. (Kev was lusting after a scoot that isn't available in the U.S., trying to figure out how we could get it home.) If that won't work, you take a small car. We also spent some time at an outdoor cafe, writing out postcards to friends and family. After days of rain, the weather was finally sunny and bright, which made the Golden Roof shine all the more.
For dinner, we went to a biergarten, where we had lots of starchy food with sausages and the local brew, which got me tipsy in about 10 minutes. After a nice stroll back to the hotel (just outside the historic district), Kevin went to play with night photography and I went back to the hotel to read and see how much German I could understand on the TV.

The Thanksgiving List

In an attempt to get back to blogging again (some day I'll finish the Europe travelogue), here's the annual list of some of the things I'm thankful for this year:

• A husband who puts up with my crazy, my leaving cabinet and closet doors open, and my dislike of fungi and onions.
  
• The furkids: thumpy tails, waggy butts, nose kisses, and kitty cuddles.
  
• Our new household member, Mischa, who has fit right in and who doesn't chase the cat.
  
• My WV family and their continued pretty-good health (except for the broken knee) and fortune, and that I'm finally starting to get them down here to visit my world.
  
• My Gulf Coast family, who have welcomed me into the fold.
  
• An evacuation-free hurricane season.
  
• The wonderful people and groups I've been introduced to over the past year.
• That New Orleans is finally starting to become home.
  
• In this economy, having a full-time job that almost supports two people and four animals.
  
• Student loans that fill in the gaps, generally.
• That in 2 weeks, law school will be half over
  
• Facebook, for reintroducing me to long-lost friends and connecting me to new ones.
  
• The lovely New Orleans weather that keeps my world green and my temperament less dark.
  
• The five tangerines and multiple Myer lemons grown from our very own trees.
• For finally getting to see Europe.
• The Chatties for their friendship and support, even though I've only met a few of you in person.
  

The hills are alive . . . with the sound of Salzburg

After a lovely breakfast in Munchen, we hopped on the Autobahn and headed into Austria, going to Salzburg, former home of the Von Trapp family and one W.A. Mozart. Was still raining when we arrived, after a rather confusing detour caused by minor street flooding and some weird traffic plan that wants people to park at a municipal garage and take a shuttle on rainy days. En route to the hotel, near the city's old town, we got befuddled and ended up driving down a pedestrian zone. Luckily, we weren't the only ones.

After a quick lunch at a health food shop (where Kevin was complimented on his fabulous German), we went walking around town. Our first stop was the Mirabell Palace, whose gardens were made famous in The Sound of Music (we didn't do any of the multitude of Von Trapp tours around the region). Even in the rain, the gardens were absolutely stunning.






Kevin and the fountain seen in Do-Re-Mi.
In one area of the garden were all of these great little medieval troll people. Here's one.

After sloshing around the gardens, we headed into the old city for ice cream (there's gonna be a whole separate post on our food experiences) and to just walk around and soak it all up (quite literally, unfortunately). Here's one of the fabulous alleyways in the Altstadt.

I can't remember if this was the Rathaus or the Residenz (yes, another one).

The spouse again, ready to molest an artichoke at the outdoor market. You just can't keep that man away from produce.

Mozart's home during most of his life, now home to the Mozarteum. When we were in Salzburg, the museum was filled with Japanese tourists. One of Salzburg's big tourist products is Mozartkugeln, a sort of truffle filled with pistachio paste and covered in a chocolate layer or two. We got ours at the grocery store, which Kevin (of course) turned into an educational experience. The Mozart house was surprisingly large to me, but apparently the family was well-off when they purchased it and the space included a piano sales showroom.


Because of the weather, we stayed in for the evening rather than heading to one of the nightly classical concerts held at Mirabell during the summer months. Dinner was Indian food, continuing our tradition of eating Indian food across the globe. One of the highlights involved the fact that German restaurants are much less strict about allowing well-behaved dogs inside. A friendly golden retriever owned by the Russians next to us came over and said hello several times during our meal (particularly after he realized we had 5 pounds of chocolate stashed under the table). Since we were both missing the pooches something awful, it was a welcome visit.