Okay, so this has nothing to do with Mozart or Vienna (except for the fact that I am leaving tomorrow at 5 am) but today Rowan graduated from 8th grade, and there she is! You can't really see the amazing dress or hear her amazing singing voice singing "You Can't Always Get What You Want" but you can imagine how great it was, or maybe you were there if you are a student or teacher at Northwest.

The main thing is that this is the first picture I took with my new camera, which is a Nikon Coolpix P2 that was given to me as a form of direct barter. Do you remember the economic element of society, from the beginning of 9th grade, and how there are two types of barter? Indirect barter is using a symbol like money, but direct barter is where I provide goods or services, like, say, helping someone with some legal papers, and they provide me with some goods or services in return, like, say, a digital camera. The best kind of direct barter is where each party feels that he or she has received the better deal. Which I definitely feel since I didn't even have to pick it out for myself. It's a much better camera than I would have chosen. It will take me five weeks just to figure out how to use it. It has every feature known to man.

Of course, I have downloaded the pictures onto my laptop. Once I get to Vienna, it may be somewhat more complicated since I don't know how I will get photos from my laptop to the other computer. Maybe I should bring a USB drive.