Today is the anniversary of the second Edgefest I went to, four years ago. Jeff pointed it out to me (he would know ). Makes me want to look up what the dates were for the other two.

As much as the music was terrible (barring perhaps Rammstein and Oh Ranger, and perhaps one or two others), they were always great events.

I think New Orleans would be a bad place to be a hobo. Where do you go when there's a hurricane threat? To the Superdome with the rest of the people who can't leave, you say. We all know how well that worked out. Plus, it's hard to be outside even for a few minutes several months out of the year, you'd probably fry to death if you passed out in a cheap booze induced stupor (stereotyping here). Ok, to break the stereotype: you'd probably fry to death in the street trying to play Magic: The Gathering, like Eric's friend from Gameco, outside during most of the year.

I totally wrote "die to death" and had to stare at it for a long time to figure out why that's wrong. It's the studio, I tell you. Final project due Sunday at 9:00 pm, but I'm going camping tomorrow and refuse to miss the beach for this damn thing. Thus, tis modelmaking time. Hooray!

Tracy is magical, and has found a way for me to have pets in a non-pet apartment. Yes, that was intended to be plural. Click here to find out how. 

I had a really weird dream last night.

I was at a wedding, and the bride and groom were Chinese. Their names were Li Non Mi and Wen Yoo No Stron. Those who need to speak weird words aloud to get it might understand what I'm getting at. Well, try saying the names aloud in a bad Chinese accent, in the order they're written. Yes, you guessed it, they sang "Lean on Me" ("Lean on me when you're not stroooooong...) as karaoke. Every guest had a turn, though thankfully I don't remember all of that. I think this is more appropriate to put into the really bizarre nightmare category.

In order to counter this bad music juju, I bought our Jazzfest tickets today. Look out Paul Simon, Matej and I are coming!

I have been totally outpartied by my mom and Anita and Margaret. If anyone ever thought that maybe I decided to come to school in New Orleans because I secretly had a wild partying streak that I never showed in Santa Fe, no, you're totally wrong. I was beaten by three women in their 40s and 50s. Well, maybe Anita had extra stamina because it was her birthday. But in that case, you'd think I'd have that too, since it's almost mine too. Maybe if they'd have come next weekend, it would have been different.

But, on the up side, no one IDs you if you're with a bunch of middle aged women. That, and Margaret lived here for a while, so she knew great places that I hadn't ever heard of. My tourguiding skills have been upped for The Big Easy, I have like double the amount of places to show people now.

Anyone who comes to visit, remind me about the tree. I'll know what it is. It's awesome. Trust me.

My latest food obsession is rice pudding. That, and making vegan food for the potlucks, since it's a fun challenge and makes me think about what's going into the food. But I digress. So I decided to look up rice pudding recipes. Being Austrian, I thought I'd look up German language recipes to "recreate" the kind I remember as a kid. So I came up with this, which I will generously translate:

• 125 Grams rice
  
• 1/2 Liter Milk
• 1 tbsp sugar
  

Cook rice, add milk and sugar and cook down.

Fairly standard, right? But I have no idea how much 125 grams of rice is, and I'm lazy, so I just search it in English in hopes of getting such a standard recipe like this with measurements I can use. This is what I get:

• 1 cup uncooked white rice
• 2 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 pinch salt
  
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups milk

I'll spare you the cooking details, they're simple enough. HOLY CRAP. I might not know exactly how much 125 grams of rice is, but it sure as hell isn't 1/2 of a tablespoon. That's a lot of fucking sugar. Twice as much as the main ingredient? Not to mention all the other unneccesary stuff added. I am somewhat disgusted.

So I ended up finding an Indian version of Kheer that wasn't too sugary and also had rosewater, which makes it really light and yummylicious, so it worked out.

But that doesn't mean I'm not appalled at you, you fat Americans.

P.S. I just got through making kumquat jam (there's a kumquat tree right next to the Green Club's garden plot that I worked in today), and the recipe I was sort of basing it off of called for: 24 kumquats, 2 oranges and 9 cups of sugar. I know you use a lot of sugar in making preserves, but seriously. That's like two cups worth of fruit to nine cups of sugar. Why not just skip the fruit and eat caramel?

Stolen from Julia's profile.

 

TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF - The Survey
Name:	Mara
Birthday:	April 3, 1986
Birthplace:	Korneuburg, Austria (outside Vienna)
Current Location:	Green Club office, Alcee Fortier (building) Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
Eye Color:	Blue, sometimes green, apparently with some brown
Hair Color:	Brown, gets a bit blonde in summer, but not so much anymore. I want to dye it again. For no reason.
Height:	5'2 (that's right Julia! Short people rock!)
Right Handed or Left Handed:	Right, but I can't do some things with the right hand, like when I'm eating I can't operate the knife in my right hand, it just doesn't work
Your Heritage:	Austria...apparently some north Italian, not that you could tell
The Shoes You Wore Today:	My sandal flip flop thingies. They're like flip flops, but cooler. The one strap starts on the outside of your big toe and crosses above your toes, and the other one starts on the other side of the big toe and goes back toward my (nonexistant) arch. Or something like that.
Your Weakness:	I read Jane magazine
Your Fears:	hurricanes, not having anything solid under me (like living in a giant bowl of chocolate pudding, like I do now, or the scary floor at the top of the Stephansdom in Vienna where you're at the top of the highest building and it's just mesh under you, holy crap), living in Austria, uh...I dunno, there are more, but they aren't coming to me
Your Perfect Pizza:	just tomato sauce (no chunks!!!), lots of garlic and basil.
Goal You Would Like To Achieve This Year:	not fall behind on my major, do some sewing with my machine finally, find a kitchen table
Your Most Overused Phrase On an instant messenger:	I say "indeed" instead of "lol"
Thoughts First Waking Up:	Is that my alarm or is someone calling? Whichever it is, can I ignore it and sleep more, or should I get up?
Your Best Physical Feature:	Uh...the birthmark on my hip. I guess it's more on the lower part of my stomach. Sort of.
Your Bedtime:	I've never really had one
Your Most Missed Memory:	prbably high school. All of it. And middle school, since the two just blend together in my mind as "the Academy time"
Pepsi or Coke:	Dr. Pepper
MacDonalds or Burger King:	if I have to choose, Burger King, but probably neither. At least I've never puked after Burger King
Single or Group Dates:	...
Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea:	what's the difference?
Chocolate or Vanilla:	depends
Cappuccino or Coffee:	coffee is the devil
Do you Smoke:	no
Do you Swear:	yes
Do you Sing:	sometimes
Do you Shower Daily:	not always
Have you Been in Love:	yes
Do you want to go to College:	I'm in college
Do you want to get Married:	meh
Do you belive in yourself:	yes
Do you get Motion Sickness:	not really
Do you think you are Attractive:	meh
Are you a Health Freak:	not really
Do you get along with your Parents:	yes
Do you like Thunderstorms:	in Santa Fe, yes, but here's they're kind of scary, especially when it's part of a tornado
Do you play an Instrument:	I used to play clarinet, I sort of play guitar but I'm really bad about practicing so I suck
In the past month have you Drank Alcohol:	yes, I had a few sips of cheap wine last weekend
In the past month have you Smoked:	no
In the past month have you been on Drugs:	no
In the past month have you gone on a Date:	not really, I live with my boyfriend, so we don't do "dates" that often. I guess we've gone to the movies, does that count?
In the past month have you gone to a Mall:	no
In the past month have you eaten a box of Oreos:	ew no, I don't think I've EVER eaten a whole box
In the past month have you eaten Sushi:	yes
In the past month have you been on Stage:	no
In the past month have you been Dumped:	no
In the past month have you gone Skinny Dipping:	no, we wore some clothes to swim in the swamp
In the past month have you Stolen Anything:	no
Ever been Drunk:	yes
Ever been called a Tease:	yes
Ever been Beaten up:	not really. I'm the violent one :) kidding.
Ever Shoplifted:	not intentionally. I have eaten a whole bag of chips in a store and left the empty bag on a shelf, does that count?
How do you want to Die:	relatively painlessly
What do you want to be when you Grow Up:	not grown up
What country would you most like to Visit:	I want to go on the Finland summer abroad trip, and to Australia, and lots of others
In a Boy/Girl..
Favourite Eye Color:	doesn't matter
Favourite Hair Color:	doesn't matter
Short or Long Hair:	...I need to type something other than "doesn't matter" every once in a while to keep from being bored. I guess long.
Height:	...not so tall that I have to jump to talk to them, but not so short that I have to sit down to talk to them
Weight:	not anorexic and not fat either
Best Clothing Style:	I refuse to answer this
Number of Drugs I have taken:	Wait, are we still talking about the boy/girl?
Number of CDs I own:	Lots. I still boycott Ipods.
Number of Piercings:	two in each ear and my bellybutton
Number of Tattoos:	none
Number of things in my Past I Regret:	plenty
CREATE YOUR OWN! - or - GET PAID TO TAKE SURVEYS!

I went camping last weekend with the Green Club. That would be the environmentalists on campus. It was fun. 4 of us (Luke, Cassandra, Lauren and I) went swimming. For those of you who don't know much about Tickfaw State Park, the "river" is more like a stagnant swamp, which is a redundant statement. It was really more nasty than the lakes in Austria, the bottom was twigs in slimy mud, totally awesome between the toes. We were on the constant alert for snakes and alligators though, even though I think it was too cold for snakes and too small for gators. And parts were full of sticks that tried to rip us apart, so we climbed out on fallen trees and went nature hiking in our underwear until it cleared up again.

Also, in the tiny town of Springfield right by the park, we passed by a Civil War reenactment. How can you not stop and investigate that? Holy crap, I've never seen so many Steven Austin shirts and confederate flags. Will, whom I will stereotype as a flamingly gay yankee, disappeared for a while, and we were all positive he'd been lynched when we saw the horde of kids with cap guns and confederate flag hip flasks yelling "get the yankee! Get the yankee!". Oh, and cannons make really nasty smoke and are entirely too loud.

What else exciting did we do? You mean other than eat VEGAN food like good enviromentalists and NOT leave trash around and such joyous things? That's all there is to life. Veganism and not littering. And getting eaten by mosquitos, which those of you living in the desert know NOTHING about, trust me. I'm off to go scratch my feet, which are basically just solid red from the bites.

That's right, tis that day today. The rest of the world (or at least America) seems not to notice. But here, everyone is drunk. Well, I'm not, I'm just sunburned. But that's ok, soymilk is just as good.

Went to the parades this morning, hence the lack of excitement towards trekking down to the French Quarter and downing some mysterious mix of liqueurs in a yellow handgrenade shaped bottle. I learned that the actual contents of one of those is "secret" and that the bar that sells them pays people to tip them off to people selling bogus recipes. I should make an alternate personality (or several) that makes fake handgrenades and turn myself in periodically.

I suppose it's ok that I didn't go 100% crazy today, since I don't plan on giving anything up for lent anyway. Screw the Catholics.

I don't really have anything to talk about right now. I get a rare hour free because my history teacher got sick. I should probably go do some work with the extra time, but then there's so much other stuff on the internet for me to be doing...