This song is not biographical

I just can't resist a beagle with so much talent. And the tune is quite catchy as well. If I had a kid, I'd make her listen to They Might Be Giants all day.

The porcelin throne

Culture shock can make it hard to appreciate the good things in a new culture. When you're missing home, it can seem like everything in your new country is backwards and terrible and everything in your home country is wonderful and easy. To help combat these thoughts, I'm going to write about some of the things I like about Vienna. Hopefully, this will give you a little insight into life in Austria and will help me to appreciate my new home. I won't promise a post on this topic every week, but I hope to do at least a couple each month. Click on the "I heart Vienna" label on the sidebar to see all of the "I heart" posts.

I haven't done of these in a while. And I thought I would write a couple each month. Oh well.

Today's topic -- the bathroom. Only in Austria, it's not called the bathroom. It's called a toilet or WC (water closet). Why not call it the bathroom? I guess it's because there's not usually a bath in the room. Of course there are not baths in public restrooms (another word not used here), but often in apartments the toilet and the bath are in separate rooms.

See, here's the WC and the bathroom in my apartment. Sometimes the WC has a small sink for hand-washing, but often it's just a toilet. Fortunately, in our apartment the WC and the bathroom (where the sink is located) are side-by-side. But this isn't always the case.

I can't believe you looked at a photo of my WC and toilet.

But really, I wanted to share why I like the public WC. The WC sometimes has a bad rep in Europe because you often have to pay to use it. Coming from a land of free toilets, it seems very strange to have to pay to use the facilities. But that's not really a problem in Vienna. In fact, I've only had to pay to use the toilet twice -- at the train station and at the Opera Toilet. (The going rate, in case you're wondering was 27 cents at the train station and 60 cents at the Opera Toilet.)

So, why do I like the public WC? First, they're generally clean. Take the train station for example. Normally I would expect to find pretty dirty bathrooms at a train station. But this one (and almost all of the places where you have to pay) has an attendant that cleans the stall after every customer. She mops and everything. However, the one bad side to this is that the attendant is not always the same gender as the person using the bathroom. This is more of a problem for the guys because they don't always have a stall and the attendants are generally women. I've only run across one male attendant in the woman's bathroom.

The other two reasons would best be described by a clip from Seinfeld, but, alas, I cannot find the clip online. If you have Season 7 on DVD, pop in the first disc, and find the second scene in the second episode. Or not. That sounds like a lot of work. Basically, George complains to Susan that he doesn't understand why the door on the bathroom stall doesn't go to the ground. Susan suggests that it's a backup system in case the lock is broken -- so you can tell the stall is occupied.

So this brings me to my two favorite features of the public WC. First, most stalls are like little rooms. Walls from floor to ceiling, not just metal separators. And real doors. Like the WC at home. And the second feature is the lock. You know how the bathrooms on airplanes have a little sign that says "occupied" or "vacant" based on whether the door is locked? Well, the locks here have the same type of thing. So it's really easy to tell if the WC is occupied without having to peer under the door -- that is, if peering is even an option.

So there you have it. Most of the WCs I have visited in Europe (and believe me, I've visited a lot of them) have been pretty much the same as the ones in Vienna. So if you're ever traveling about in Europe and find yourself in need of the facilities, you know what to expect.

Hanging by a thread

Well, twine is probably more accurate.




For months now, the monitor on my laptop has slowly been losing it's... well, I don't know what it's losing. The spring in it's step. Maybe that's a good way to put it.

First, it was just the left side of the monitor. Some plastic piece broke and some metal piece that attaches the monitor to the keyboard got twisted. I have no idea how it happened. The monitor became a bit floppy. Then the same thing happened on the right side of the monitor. And now my monitor... it's fallen, and it can't get up.

But aside from the loosey-goosey monitor, the computer works pretty well. So I decided to make a splint.




I started out with this cardboard brace to help hold the monitor in place. But after about a week the cardboard started to give a little. So I added the twine to the cardboard to help it keep it's shape. That worked for a few days, but then the laptop started slumping forward. So finally I added another piece of twine that wraps around the laptop itself. (That's the one you see in the first photo.) So the splint has kind of turned into a full-body cast.

But it works. I can even adjust the slant of the monitor with this latest addition. If you're going to hold your computer together with twine and cardboard, this is the way to go.

Hopefully the computer will make it a bit longer without needing additional braces or -- I hate to even think it -- surgery. I should have a new laptop in about a month.

From the mouth of babes

The other night Brian and I were at a neighbor's house for a Bible study. We were just sitting there on the couch when the host's 3-year-old son looked at Brian and asked, "Why you mad?" Brian tried to tell him that he wasn't mad, that was just his normal expression. I assured the kid that I had often been mislead by Brian's seemingly angry countenance and that he really was not mad.

The boy seemed skeptical.

To be honest, I'm a little skeptical at times as well.

Could've fooled me

I love sweet potatoes, but they're hard to come by around here. In the fall, the Naschmarkt was overflowing with sweet potatoes, but when I went looking for them in late December the selection wasn't so great. I figured that was the only time I would get sweet potatoes until the fall. So when I heard that the Asian Shop at a nearby mall sold sweet potatoes, I was quite excited.

I had sweet potatoes on the brain for several days before I finally made the time to stop by the mall. I was disappointed by the bin of small, shriveled sweet potatoes I found there. But I decided to buy a few anyways.


By the time I finally got around to cooking them a few days later, I was really craving sweet potatoes. I just love the taste, the texture, the color...


Wait a second. These potatoes are white. I was a little skeptical, but I cooked them up anyways. And sure enough, they were sweet potatoes. It's a good thing, because I don't think regular potatoes would taste very good with a streusel topping.

Small victories

Today Brian and I went to the university to register for next semester's German course. Everyone in the registration office speaks English, but I decided that I was going to give it a go in German. After all, I'm not in an elementary class anymore.

So I did it in German. And it went off without a hitch. Well, except that I told the woman that I was born in 1918 instead of 1980.

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Remember how I told you about the university field trip last week? We got a video of some of the activities. Here are a few clips that I pulled out so you could see a little of the class and what university students do on a field trip. The first two clips are from some fun in the blue box. In the last clip, we were checking out the teleprompter on the camera. So that's why everyone is looking at the camera oddly. The girl at the end is wearing a blue sweater, but the camera still has the blue box setting turned on, so you can see a bit of a weather map on her sweater.

A disclaimer -- I didn't add the music, it was on the video.

A calm night at home

This is how you usually find Brian and Sharkdog in the evening.



But sometimes, they get a little crazy. My favorite part is right after Brian says he thinks Sharkdog is worn out.