Zeloski Marsh and Chasing the Train

 

Since Travalon had the day off of work today, I asked if I could take it off too. We had a relaxed morning and then got some lunch at Athens Grill before heading off to go birding. We'd been thinking of going to Horicon, but we also wanted to see an 80's cover band at the East Side Club at five, so I suggested going to Zeloski Marsh in Lake Mills, since it's a lot closer, and the Professor Formerly Known as Lute Player and her husband had gone there not too long ago. On the way, we stopped at a new place called Dreamy Teazy and got bubble tea, taro for me and ube for Travalon. They both looked the same (purple), but they tasted very different.

It was a cool day, but we hadn't seen rain in the forecast. However, it drizzled on and off as we drove to the marsh. Here is the sign, with a blue-winged teal and a yellow-headed blackbird, neither of which we saw today.

We did see a great blue heron.

And a blue jay that posed perfectly for us.

We also saw a green heron, but it saw us first and flew away before Travalon could get his camera ready, and I saw an egret flying in the distance. We saw some non-bird life, like this deer.

We looked at each other for a while, then Travalon and I started walking away from it, which caused it to bound away with its bright white tail bouncing behind it. We also saw this female monarch butterfly.

Red dragonflies kept landing in front of me, but we didn't get any photos of those. The wild cucumber vines were in bloom and had a lovely fragrance. They were covering these shrubs and making them look like a wild topiary garden.

There were also wild morning glories in both pale pink and white. Sorry, no photos of those, but here is an overview of the whole marsh.

As we were returning to Madison, I suddenly had the urge to stop by the Schoenstatt Shrine and pray a Divine Mercy Chaplet. By then it was raining again, and there were no other cars there, so we figured we could pray it out loud. Just as we were about to start, another couple around our age came in, but it turned out they were going to pray a Divine Mercy Chaplet too, so we all prayed it together. They said they live about a mile from there and stop in all the time.

Since the antiques mall is on the same road, we went there next. I saw interesting things like this display of Packers hats.

I kind of liked them, especially the top one, but upon further examination, none of them would have been comfortable to wear. I also loved this very expensive glassware that looks like a little girl's fantasy tea party accoutrements.

And I really loved these wall hangings of a mandolin and violin.

In fact, I liked them so much that I ended up getting them. Here is some other stuff we got.

None of these things were very expensive. The little Beanie Baby bear and the cheap green rosary were my selections, and Travalon got the blue caboose. Then as we were waiting to check out, I spotted the brass candle snuffer with red and green glass decorations, which seemed like a steal at $10. I don't use candles that often, but when I do, now I don't have to blow them out.

Our next stop was going to be the East Side Club, but the concert was canceled due to the weather. We decided to take Milwaukee Street home, and as we were driving down Commercial Avenue, Travalon spotted a train on the tracks not too far from us, so we parked where we could get a good vantage point.

It stopped us on Sherman Avenue, and I thought of that time a couple of years ago when the train stopped me on Sherman Avenue, then it went over me on Troy Drive, and then it went alongside me on Westport Road. I told Travalon to take Troy Avenue, and sure enough, the train was going over us when we drove beneath the bridge. He asked if we should stop to watch it, but I said if we kept going, it would be going alongside us on Westport Road, and that was indeed true. We knew it was the end of the train because the penultimate car had graffiti on it that said "Yal," and I said, "I see the Yal Car, so it's right at the end." We followed it to the crossing on M, and I said how happy I am to have a husband who's just as dorky about trains as I am, instead of one who would be like, "Who cares?" He said matching levels of dorkiness lead to a long marriage, and I agree!

When it gets a little later, we are going over to Mariner's for their penultimate night in business. We'll have fish fingers and ice cream drinks there, if it's not too crowded. Everyone is going now for their last chance.

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Niko at the Labor Panel

 

Today I worked on campus, and it was very quiet so I got a big spreadsheet done. At lunch Hardingfele and I walked in Allen Centennial Gardens and complained about the new system. The first Badger football game of the year was this evening at eight, and at my afternoon break I saw a plane flying around with a banner behind it advertising some seltzer. I'm annoyed with the Badgers for firing coach Paul Chryst when he lost two games in a row, even though they always had solid seasons with him, so I don't care what happens to them now. They seem to suck under the new guy, which is just karma as far as I'm concerned. My big concern was that the traffic might be bad, but maybe not that many people went to the game - Travalon said he saw that you could get tickets for $5 because nobody else cares anymore either.

I have a parking pass for the university lot up at the old Oscar Mayer plant, and then I take Shuttle 206 to campus. There is a Shuttle 202 that goes to the university lot behind the Labor Temple, and today I took that instead. The shuttle driver looked a little familiar, and he said, "This is 202," like he was used to seeing me on the 206. I assured him that I wanted Shuttle 202. As we drove past the hospital, I could see that there were plenty of empty spaces in the parking lot there that was being used for game day parking, and there didn't seem to be an excessive amount of traffic on the road. The shuttle got me to the Labor Temple a half hour early, so I went to the bar there, but they were just closing, so the bartender gave me a cup of water and shooed me out the door. I went upstairs to the room where the panel discussing Act 10 would be going on, and a couple of people were there, setting up. I asked if they needed help, but they said no, they had it under control. One was a Union peep, and soon my Union peep who looks like a leprechaun arrived. I even talked Travalon into coming, because they were serving Mexican food from El Pastor. So many people came that they had to open the next room up, but somehow they didn't run out of food, just plates. Three organizers and a lawyer working on overturning Act 10 were on the panel, and they talked about how even if Act 10 is overturned (it has been, but it's on appeal), the unions won't just come back full-strength - we have to organize. Even Travalon found it inspiring, and Niko was along and was inspired too. Uh oh - I hope he doesn't organize his fellow stuffies to get concessions from me! Maybe they will object to only some of them being on the bed, and they will say they all deserve to be on the bed. They were at one point, but then there was no room for management - me!

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Research Jam Session

 

Yesterday I worked on campus because we had a co-working session for FART 5, and I love those. I walked with Hardingfele at lunch and tried to ask if any of my novel is salvageable, since she is the only other person who has ever read it, and she couldn't remember anything but the protagonist's name. Fair enough, it's been many years. Then I took the bus to adoration, and Travalon came to meet me so we could go to the baked wings place on State Street that he waited so patiently for. Seriously, it took that place years to open - you'd see the sign "Baked Wings," but it was empty. Always giving false hope, but now it gives real hope, or at least baked wings.

Today Travalon drove me to work again, and I had a meeting with the head of one section about what funds they have for the coming year. There was no time to walk with Seabird between that meeting and our department staff meeting at one, and Wednesday is the only day we are both on campus nowadays. However, soon she will be moving to my building, so it would be easy to see her even if we only had fifteen minutes to walk, like today.

The fun thing I did today was go to a research study on community-building using music improv. We aren't supposed to discuss the session, which I get, since it's part of the guy's thesis research, but I will say that we were supposed to improvise on a four-note repeating phrase, and I thought it sounded like flamenco. I said, "It's E Phrygian with a raised third, like they use in flamenco," and another person said, "You are really overthinking this." Maybe I do, and maybe that's because for years I did music by instinct, and then I found out there were words for all these things I noticed, so now I'm all excited to use my words. The problem is that a lot of other people don't understand them.

Afterwards Travalon and I met at the Union Terrace, as we used to do on Wednesdays in the summer. On Wednesdays the sailboats are out racing with their spinnakers up, and it's so relaxing to watch the colorful triangles gliding across the water. Wednesdays are also Open Mic Night on the Terrace, and tonight they started with the Raging Grannies, a protest choir of old ladies in crazy hats. Since I'm getting up there in age, and I love to sing, protest, and wear crazy hats, I may have to consider joining them. Art Paul Schlosser also sang some of his silly songs with the kazoo solos, and a girl with a pretty good voice sang who I swear sang last week, even the same songs. We ordered a pizza for dinner, and it was taking so long for our buzzer to go off that I went in to ask about it. First the guy told me they made the wrong pizza and they were going to remake it. I asked, "What kind of pizza did they make?" and he said, "They put every topping on it but one." While Travalon wouldn't have eaten that, it sounded good to me, so I figured he could just pick the veggies off, and I asked if we could have it anyway. The guy left and came back with a pizza, and this time he said it was the right pizza but they had burned it a little, so they were going to remake it. I was too hungry to bother with that, and only a little bit was burned, so I took it. When we took the burned part off, it wasn't even a whole slice worth, and we both had enough for dinner tonight plus some leftovers. It was much cooler at the Terrace than last week, but we had come prepared with jackets, so we had a fine time. I kept seeing people who looked familiar, even a woman from my improv just a couple of hours earlier. I guess everyone ends up at the Terrace sooner or later.

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Afternoon at Olbrich

 

Today I got to have a "sick day" from work because I had to take Travalon to a medical procedure. He was supposed to have a "responsible adult" to talk to the doctor and drive him home, but I was the only one available. The procedure went smoothly, and I got some DuoLingo done while it was going on. Duo the Owl thinks I'm faster doing Spanish lessons than he is rollerblading.

Since he hadn't been able to eat before the procedure, Travalon was ravenous, so we went to Silk Road, a Tajikistani restaurant near the hospital. I had this amazing thing that was tubes of grilled eggplant stuffed with lamb, in tomato sauce and some soft cheese like ricotta, so it seemed like Italian food. Travalon had a delectable chicken wing kebab. We also had a tea that was like warm lemonade with ginger and mint in it, which may sound weird but it was delicious, and for dessert we had cheese wrapped in phyllo dough served with pistachio ice cream. I highly recommend all of it.

We took a walk in Olbrich Gardens, which is gearing up for GLEAM, their annual light sculpture show, so the Thai Pavilion was not accessible. We saw these silver globes in the Sunken Garden.

We saw three colors of hibiscus, but the pale pink one was too far away to take a photo.

In the gift shop we bought a stuffed toucan.

Then we took a second walk on Governor's Island, and then we came home. It was unseasonably cool today, like a day in autumn, and really good for walking outside.

As promised, here are some photos from Travalon's visit to Horicon Marsh. I may post more tomorrow, but this is a sampling. He saw two of the three white birds: egrets, pelicans, and swans.

As usual, the pelicans were with cormorants.

The swans had teenage offspring.

They also saw pie-billed grebes.

What is this egret looking at?

And there were lots of these sandpipers.

Some of them were hanging out with ducks.

Then they saw a beautiful sunset over the lake in Pardeeville.

I may post more photos from his trip tomorrow.

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Hookah Party and Steel Drums

 

Yesterday I met Tiffy downtown for an early lunch at the Globe, then we drove to the outdoor theater to see Fallen Angels, a play by Noel Coward. This was the play we had been most interested in when the Dairyman's Daughter gave us the list of plays we could get discounted tickets for, but I already had Mallards tickets for the night it was cheap. We decided driving home in the middle of the night on a Friday after a whole workweek was a lot anyway, so Tiffy got full-price tickets for the Saturday afternoon showing. Had we known, we could have waited for a day when tickets are half price, because wow are they expensive at full price! Meanwhile, the Dairyman's Daughter had won tickets in a silent auction, and she could choose any date, so she decided to go the date we were going. During the day there is a large awning over the stage to protect the actors from the sun, but nothing to protect us, unless we wore a hat like some very intelligent people did. (Just sayin.') The Dairyman's Daughter got a bit burned and bought some sunscreen during intermission. Wow, did we get hot out there! By the second half the sun had gone behind the trees enough so that we were in shade, and we wondered why they didn't just start the play an hour and a half later. It was a hilarious play about two women fearing they would be tempted to adultery by an old flame coming to town. Afterwards all three of us went out to dinner at the Riverside Resort, but all the outdoor seating that was actually riverside was full, so we had to sit inside and content ourselves with looking out the window.

After that Tiffy and I drove to Deerfield for an Arabian Nights Hookah Party co-hosted by Mamastep and the actual owner of the house, which had a spectacular garden he had filled with beautiful lights and tables with hookahs on them. People brought Mideastern food, and Mideastern music played in the background. The co-host and his paramour wore matching shirts. His house was full of orchids, and I loved this rug.

I should have taken a photo of the garden. Tiffy just stayed at a table on the deck and smoked the hookah with lemon cake flavored tobacco, but I went around and tried all the flavors: sweet corn, cappuccino (very disappointing), passionfruit, and banana milkshake. A woman I am friends with on social media said to her the banana milkshake was the uncanny valley of banana, which led to a discussion of the House on the Rock, the premier site of experiencing the uncanny valley. This morphed into a discussion of the problems with agriculture in this country, and Mamastep said, "I'd like to change the topic to manure," which isn't really changing it, and my social media buddy said, "By all means, let's talk sh-t." We all lost it, and her husband said, "That's why I married her!" She also brought pistachio cream tartlets in phyllo dough cups with chocolate drizzled on top in an attempt to make her own Dubai chocolate, and they were incredible. Travalon (who had been at Horicon all day with his high school buddy - photos soon) arrived and tried the different hookahs, and he loved the banana milkshake one, which was my second favorite. Almost everyone liked the lemon cake one best. When the party was winding down and I thought most people had left, I popped inside to powder my nose and discovered a small party in the living room, listening to Boismortier. When I mentioned it to the host, he said, "I changed the music to Egyptian jazz, but they must have changed it back." I said, "Egyptian jazz sounds cool," and he said, "Oh, it is!" but far be it from me to criticize anyone for listening to French Baroque composers. This was the coolest party I've been to in years, and I got home very late, so it felt a little like college again.

Today I felt a little queasy (too much hookah?), and at Mass it didn't help that a woman ahead of me had disgusting growths on her shoulders, and someone was having issues with flatulence, but I made it through. We were just going to go home and have a simple lunch there, but Travalon wanted to stop at the coffee shop on North Street, and outside of it was a truck selling lobster products. We got all distracted and forgot about the coffee; I was going to get a good, old-fashioned lobster roll, but they had a lobster grilled cheese sandwich on the menu, and I remembered those fondly from Bimini. Travalon got the lobster tail with tater tots. What an incredible find!

Travalon and I took a walk on Governor's Island, then we checked out a mysterious trail in the woods we had seen nearby, but it only went about twenty feet and then dead-ended, so we walked on the trail across from the bluff. We met Jilly Moose at the East Side Club to hear the steel drum band, and I hadn't realized that both of my Brazilian drumming teachers were in it. Toward the end of the concert it rained a tiny bit, so a bunch of people left, but we hardcore types (including a coworker from years ago) stuck it out. I saw this mysterious arch inside the East Side Club. It looks like it's for an autumn wedding, but it's not autumn yet!

And here is a gaming machine I saw at the Riverside Resort. Am I the only one who find this vaguely dirty?

And my tradescantia that is outside is blooming. This is a "bonus plant," because the pot is supposed to have a fuchsia plant in it, but that died and this plant appeared out of nowhere.

Tonight I had band practice, but I was a bit late getting there after the steel drum concert, so Hardingfele said, "You weren't trapping cats, so what's your excuse??" Apparently she was almost as late as I was. Our bassist was playing fiddle, so there were four fiddles, and I said, "Man, I almost brought my fiddle - we could have had five!" The bassist got her bass, and she let me play her fiddle on some klezmer tunes. It felt weird to go back to playing the mandolin again after all that time with my violin, but we got reacquainted with each other. She desperately needs new strings, so that is a project for sometime soon. Travalon bought me a set at one point, but I have no idea where they went. I might as well just buy new ones.

I forgot to mention that during Irish Fest I was hanging out with a pescatarian (Famie) and a hardcore vegetarian (the red-headed flute player), so I ate like them and never felt better. I came home resolved to continue this but quickly reverted to my old habits and then felt kind of sick. Today at the East Side Club the cheeseburgers grilling smelled so good, so I caved and had one... and it was incredible. Travalon agrees it was the best he'd had in a long time.

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Dane Dance 2025

 

Today I worked from home, and at lunch I drove to Governor's Island and walked there. It seems a shame to drive more than necessary, but it's a wonderful walk, and that way I don't run into that crazy neighbor who stalked me back home. There were some partiers in Three Foot Bay, but the really loud music was off the front of the island, and when I was able to get to a spot where I could see the water, the source was Midnight Splash, the big party boat in our neighborhood. People can rent Midnight Splash, and I believe it's a house boat so they could stay on it all weekend.

In the evening Travalon and I went to the Monona Terrace for our first (and probably only) Dane Dance this year. We had some soul food (catfish, hush puppies, cole slaw, cheesy hash browns, and street corn) for dinner and a cornbread muffin for dessert. The first band was a Latin band, but the leader spent entirely too much time talking for my taste. Travalon said the colors of my hat and shirt went well together, so I asked him to take a photo.

It was a gorgeous night. Here we both are enjoying it. Travalon took this selfie.

The second band was a Motown cover band. The sun set, and the sky was pink.

Here's the same scene after darkness fell.

Here are the lights of the Monona Terrace.

Sitting on a roof under the lights, listening to music, made me think of a novel I never finished, one where the characters lived in St. Louis and Kansas City. It was my adolescent fever dream of what life as a sophisticated adult would be like, but I still wouldn't know, since I have yet to become a sophisticated adult. However, I do get to listen to music under lights on a rooftop, and I do get to go to St. Louis and Kansas City. I also thought of the novel I did finish, because Kathbert was able to salvage a couple of files of my poetry that Rich had, and so I asked if she could work her magic on the files from the novel. (Each chapter is its own file, and I shuddered at how pretentious their names were.) I remembered this novel as being atrocious, but I read a chapter in the middle of it and had some trouble remembering who was who in the cast of thousands, but I found it hilarious. Then I read the first chapter and found some of the cringier stuff. It's quite dated in some ways. Kathbert said maybe I could salvage the good stuff and write a leaner, better novel. What I need is an editor who could help me do that. Is any of it worth saving? That chapter in the middle is, but it can't stand alone. Also, the pace was frenetic. Reading this novel always puts me in a weird headspace, so I haven't done it in years. The only other person who ever read it was Hardingfele, and she said it was so weird that she couldn't put it down. Is that a positive review?

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Thirsty Thursday and Brazilian Music

 

Today I worked on campus, and I was hoping to walk with Hardingfele to ask her how the Ukrainian gig I couldn't attend went, but she had meetings all day. I did tell my one coworker the knock-knock joke I heard last night, and then we were talking to a third coworker, and when I told them about the play Anna in the Tropics, she said her grandpa was one of those readers in a cigar factory in Cuba. He came to this country, but when he went back to visit his family, Castro wanted to meet him and was sending a car around for him the next day, so that night he got on a plane back to the US and never went back again. I said there was hardly anything I loved more than Cuban music, except maybe Brazilian music... and then I got an email that tonight the bar samba band would be playing at Working Draft Brewery again. Yay!

Our condo association in the past would do Thirsty Thursday out on the dock, where people would bring their own drinks and maybe an appetizer or treat to share. Of course this happened more before the pandemic, when I had to work on campus every Thursday so never got home in time, since most people were retired early so they would start well before the end of my workday. The practice died off a bit after the pandemic, but they would try to do one or two a summer. This summer I was working from home every Thursday because of Travalon's work schedule, and I could have popped right over there just after five, but ironically we didn't have one until today, my first Thursday back on campus in months. By the time I got home, it had been going for an hour and a half, so I wasn't sure anyone would still be out there. However, I spotted this car parked at Mariner's and had to go take a photo:

So then I went out on the dock and found a few people left out there, and one had brought freshly made brownies. Somehow politics came up, and we were relieved to find out we all agreed on the subject. One woman also works on campus, and she said one day her husband took her to work in the boat. If we could do that too, it would cut so much time off my commute, but our little boat isn't fast enough to go across the lake like that.

When Travalon came home, we went to hear the Brazilian music. We ordered a sour beer, and look how beautiful it is!

It's based on a Blue Hawaiian, which is a drink Tiffy once got sick on in college so now she won't drink anything blue. However, this is green, a lovely Kelly green. And it is delicious!

There were tons of people at Working Draft, and I saw a few of my classmates from drum lessons, and also one of my teachers performing with this band. He doesn't usually perform with them, but after they finished the set, I was going to go talk to them but the equipment suddenly made terrible, loud, squealing feedback, so Travalon said, "Let's get out of here!" I may never know why that teacher was sitting in with this band, but it's all part of the greater Handphibian universe, so I'm not surprised there's crossover.

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