2 out of the 3 eagles have hatched!

The Decorah Eagles are as entertaining as ever! The baby eagles are so cute and fluffy and extremely wobbly. It looks as though the third eaglet is in the process of hatching? So nice of the daddy to bring fresh food for the rest of the family. Although it doesn't look like there's much acknowledgement from the rest of the family when he arrives. At least that I can tell (from my untrained eyes).
I wish I had my own classroom right now. I have so many great ideas of how I would use this!

Macaron Day Toronto 2012

How did I miss this?
(Well, actually, I know how. It's been a particularly trying week. And I think it's going to continue to be a slog for the next month or so.)

- courtesy of www.foodpr0n.com

Things have changed

So he accessorized his Burberry trench with a McQueen skull scarf and used a PS1 as a school bag. Kiddies are really dressing differently for undergrad lectures these days.

The Sleeper Car

Genius, absolute genius.
I've had one experience in a sleeper car. It was quite the adventure. In a nutshell: Italian train system (I could stop right there), not really understanding how to get the bed to appear, snow storm, PANIC CITY!!
And then they combine it with a subway? C'mon, everyone knows I love subways.
I love improv everywhere.

Eagle cam

They're right. This can be quite addictive.
I hope I'm around this weekend to see the three little ones hatch.


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I can't believe I'm saying this...

Thank goodness I had my cell phone with me. Yesterday morning, the hotel I was staying at had a power outage. After my cell phone's alarm clock went off, I was pretty confused when the bedside lamp wouldn't turn on. Neither would any of the other lights in the room. It was early enough that it was still dark outside. I looked out the window and saw lights in neighbouring buildings still lit. I tried to call the front desk, but that wasn't possible. Jeez, everything relies on power! My cell phone has a light on it, so I was able to get ready in the pitch black. I wandered down the hallway and found the stairwell and found my way to the lobby of the hotel to check out.
I didn't have my cell phone, I would have most definitely slept in. But then again, before I brought my cell phone with me on trips, I would have my little travel, battery-powered alarm clock. So yeah. But I probably wouldn't have been able to get ready quite as well I did with my little cell phone light. Maybe I could have just fumbled around in the dark, but it probably wouldn't have been that effective. I'm not sure how much worse it could have been though, my hair did look pretty atrocious that morning.
Still, I will give credit where it is due. My cell phone did help me out yesterday.

Bye bye jury duty

Once the excitement of my summons wore off, I realized that there was no way that I was able to do jury duty at the assigned time they needed me. I have other commitments that I can't get out of which directly conflicted with jury duty. With a heavy heart (and slightly panicked that I wouldn't be able to get out of jury duty), I submitted a case outlining my hardships in attending jury duty and nervously waited to find out the outcome. Instead of a deferral, I was exempt from serving altogether. This means that my name goes back in the pot and I will have to hope that I'm lucky enough to be selected again in the future.
Oh well. I guess it just wasn't meant to be this time around.

Learning to love the foods I hate

Like most people, there are some foods that I don't really enjoy eating. Unlike most people, I will force myself to eat them...in hopes that I will grow to like them.
This tactic proved to be successful with mustard. My time in Europe forced me to face my anti-mustard stance. Anytime I had a sandwich, mustard was lurking. And now, I love the stuff. I especially like the straight-up-mustard-seeds type.
I desperately tried to grow to love olives as well. They were everywhere in Europe, so I had plenty of opportunity to face my foe. I am disappointed to report that I still have not won this battle. I will keep working on it.
Another food that I have come to enjoy (or at the very least, tolerate) is avocado. I don't think that I had actually been exposed to avocado until I was am adult, so I'm sure that had something to do with the fact that when I did try it for the first time, the unfamiliarity of the texture and taste proved to be a little off putting. Some recent persistence has paid off and I do eat avocados now. While it's not my favorite food, I am capable of eating an entire avocado au naturel.
I'm not ready to conquer papaya quite yet, but maybe in the future.