Sorry for my silence the last couple of days. Thursday I was on campus, frantically getting work done and going to online meetings. The only other person around was the department chair. At three I went for a walk outside, and it was quite windy. I watched a sailboat on the lake for a moment... and then the horn at the Union went off, which usually sounds an hour before sunset, but when it sounds three times in the middle of the day, that's the sign for all the boats to get off the water ASAP, because a storm is coming. I went back into the building, and an hour later the chair asked if I wanted a ride home before the bad weather hit, so she drove me to my car, and then I logged in from home and did another hour of work. In the evening I talked to Tiffy, because I was supposed to make a decision about my promotion by the next day, and I wanted her opinion. I had made a list of pros and cons, and they were exactly equal. She suggested flipping a coin, because if it came up, say, Heads I stay hourly, and I felt disappointed, then that would be a sign that I should become salaried. A great idea, but I haven't done it yet.
Friday I had more questions for my boss about the promotion. She said she would find out and get back to me, so I worked frantically and had another online meeting, then at the very end of the day my boss said my question had stumped everyone, so they were going to give me until Wednesday to decide about the promotion while they did some research to answer my questions. I would hate to go for the raise and promotion but then lose the security of twenty-plus years of seniority when I'd already be losing a week of vacation. When Travalon came home, he felt like doing something, and I was jonesin' for another lavender French soda like I'd had with Anna Banana II and Jilly Moose at the North Side Lounge, so Travalon and I went there. We had a pizza for dinner, and I had my lavender French soda. He had a delicious cappuccino martini - I might have to get one at an earlier time of day sometime.
This morning I slept in and then wasn't feeling the greatest (for example, I thought I might have pinkeye), so I was glad to hear Crystal Palace were playing for the FA Championship and so Travalon wouldn't be going anywhere before noon. I half-watched the game while doing other stuff but was excited to see them win 1-0 over Manchester City. Here are Jerry the Kraken, Roy, and Roy Jr. celebrating.
And some more photos of this momentous occasion. It's the first time they've ever won!
We thought briefly about going to Morel Day in Muscoda, but we decided it would be a lot easier to go to Syttende Mai in Stoughton, since it's much closer. Added bonus: maybe we'd get to see Hardingfele play the hardanger fiddle. I grabbed Niko, of course. As we were driving away from the house, a crane looked like it wanted to cross the road, so I advised Travalon to slow down, and then another crane flew right in front of us to join it... and then a third one hit our car. My first instinct was to jump out to see if it was okay, but then I realized a pissed-off crane wasn't going to be much fun to deal with, so we watched from safely inside the car. It seemed to be walking normally, so I guess it was okay, and in fact I think it attacked our car on purpose. I have seen it do that to other cars.
We found street parking in Stoughton not too far from the main festivities, like the feast at the Sons of Norway Lodge. Oh my goodness, that was worth the trip! That was probably my monthly allowance of sugar intake - two types of pudding, fruit soup, and other treats including a sun buckle. Plus real food like meatballs, fish chowder, and red cabbage. Travalon was disappointed that there was no lutefisk in sight, but he conceded that he probably wouldn't have eaten it anyway. One weird note was that we were right in line behind a guy that looked like someone from the past I really didn't care for. I wasn't as sure if the woman with him was what I remembered his wife looking like, but then she said something to him, and he turned to me and said, "How are you?" Better when I thought you didn't remember me! We made some awkward small talk, but fortunately the Sons of Norway decided where people should sit, and they didn't sit us anywhere near each other. Phew!
After lunch we walked up Main Street to the Stoughton Opera House. It's so beautiful inside.
Beautiful outside too, but I didn't take a picture of that. We also went to an art gallery because we loved this work in the front window.
If you are a person who doesn't mind Dear Leader's constant grifting (or only care when it offends your Islamophobia because he's taking a plane from Qatar), then disregard this. Or... look and learn. We also went to a crystal shop, and I was in love with a crystal that lit up a lovely peach color under a blacklight flashlight, but it turns out you have to have a special UV light - my basic one is the wrong wavelength. So now I have a tiny one that has a different wavelength. I bought these three crystals.
Here they are under the special UV light.
I checked my other crystals, and this one looked amazing under this special UV light.
You can also see a bit of the uranium glass rosary glowing behind it. And my orange mushroom light glows under this wavelength when it did nothing under my regular blacklight.
The green one just had little flecks that glowed, but nothing exciting enough to take a photo of.
Getting back to our day in Stoughton, we went to a museum with a very cool interactive display where you could choose your occupation, hobby, and how you got to the US, and it showed what your life would have looked like. There were also artifacts, like a hardanger fiddle, but apparently we just missed Hardingfele playing at the Stoughton Opera House - by the time we got there, the next act, a string quartet, was playing.
Our next stop was nearby Lake Kegonsa State Park, where we took a walk along the lake. Travalon took some photos.
We did spend some time just sitting and listening to a very loud oriole. We saw him briefly, but then he flew to another tree, which had a bench under it. We didn't see him again, but he kept singing very loudly right above us. That was so delightful - orioles have a very cool song.
Still to come: photos from the Arboretum and the Spring Green Nature Conservancy land, and some weird screenshots from DuoLingo. Stay tuned!
Famous Hat
