Mardi Gras 1-2-3

I should totally be grading all day today. I got about 15 done Wednesday, about 7 done yesterday, and only 6 this morning. These numbers aren't anywhere near to my goal, which was to have been done yesterday. Why? I could blame it on the five house guests, or on blogging, but the truth is that one bad sentence wrecks any grading momentum I may have established.

For example, did you know that Shakespeare wrote in Victorian English? Or that Romeo and Juliet was written over 500 years ago?

Anyhoo.

In the midst of incoming and outgoing Mardi Gras swap packages, I got an unexpected bonus package from my best friend from college.

Years ago, I had asked her to make me some Mardi Gras tags. She sent some beautiful ones, which I hang up every year. Somehow though, they didn't feel Mardi Gras enough for her, since she had improvised the designs.

All these years, she has been on a quest for the perfect Mardi Gras stamp set, which she finally found.

Look how beautiful!


There were three tags (yes, I know I only took a close-up of two)


plus a bookmark and blank note card.


She even included a journal, a fan, and some delicious comestibles, which the house guests promptly ate.


Yay for Mardi Gras lagniappes!