So, remember those first grader backpacks I told you about? The ones that cost more than a Ryan Air flight (taxes, luggage, credit card, and online check-in fees included)? Well, our youngest son starts school tomorrow and we had to bite the backpack bullet last week. That a backpack for a six-year-old could cost more than a flight to a foreign country, a week's worth of groceries, a tank of gas at German prices, two or more dinners out depending on where you eat, or five cases of really good beer (deposit included) blew my mind when we were confronted with the topic three years ago. Since then, I've had a while to digest the thought and still find those babies outrageously expensive, but we trudged off nonethess to invest and arm and a leg in the name of tradition (sounds so much better than fitting in, doesn't it?). So very unexpected, we hit the jackpot on our outing and had a few really good belly laughs in the process. It turns out that the big huge store we went to in the Mainaustr. was having a mechanical-tiger-duck riding contest. For all you Texans out there, imagine a mechanical bull with yellow and black stripes in the shape of a duck. Got it? Good! When my oldest son, businessman that he is, asked what the prizes were and what you had to do to win them, the young baby-faced man operating the "Tigerente" told us that a ten euro gift certificate was the day's top prize if a rider stayed on the duck for two minutes. That was all my husband needed to hear. He was on that tiger duck quicker than you could say "Janousch" and held on for dear life until the buzzer went off. Because the boys do everything their father does, they gave it a whirl too and N. won another gift certificate. I for one was in my glory and found myself hootin' and hollerin' as if I were at the rodeo. Good laughs, people, good laughs!

In celebration of the unexpected...