Happy Halloween! (Post Is Unrelated)

Tuesday I asked could I have the next day off of work, and my boss said no problem. So yesterday Travalon and I drove up to Fond du Lac and took a walk by the lakefront, then we went to Chilton, a small town with a sadly empty Catholic church called St. Augustine. (They consolidated all the Catholic churches into one parish, Good Shepherd.) We grabbed some lunch and took Rodney the dog for a walk, then Rowland’s Calumet Brewery opened up, which is yet another stop from the book. They brew their own beer, so I tried their pumpkin brew while talking with the friendly proprietress. (That must be a word, since Spell Check likes it.) Then we drove to High Cliff State Park for a hike, but unfortunately the day was overcast so we couldn’t really see the breathtaking view of the lake below us. Travalon says we will have to return on a sunny day. Then we drove to Appleton to see not one but two taverns from the book, just a block away from each other. The first one was called Jim’s Place, and it had a very beautiful old bar and a delicious local brew called Stone Arch Scotch Ale. The second one was called Dr. Jeckyll’s, and it had a lovely patio and a very cool P-shaped bar, though I didn’t much care for their background music. (Travalon knows how I hate power ballads!) I wondered what CD they were torturing us with, but then an announcement revealed we were listening to a Pandora station. Must have been the Pandora Power Ballad station. I will not be listening to that Pandora station any time soon! I never bothered to turn my cell phone on, since usually the only one who texts me is Travalon, and he was with me. Of course that meant a couple of coworkers were texting me, not about work, but about Slow Food next Monday. They filled up before I could register – c’est la vie. Then when I got in this morning, I had a phone message at work from someone else wondering if I could register him for Slow Food. Who knew everyone would need to contact me the one time I was gone?

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Everyone's Running Late Today

The last couple of weeks it has seemed harder to crawl out of bed in the morning. Part of it is how cold it has gotten, and I refuse to turn the heat on in my bedroom so I’m under a pile of blankets from which it is very difficult to emerge. A big part of it is how dark it is in the mornings, and since we are still on Daylight Savings Time I am really getting up at 5:30 – no wonder I sometimes fall back asleep for an hour! Because there is free parking at my current job, I have gotten lazier about getting up, since I can just drive if I’m running really late. This is especially easy to justify on Tuesdays, when I can then go to Mass and Adoration downtown straight from work. So this morning I woke up at 6:30 (which is really 5:30) as usual and then fell back asleep until 7:30. So I had to drive, and to my surprise I saw A-Joz walking along. Since she has to start work at 8:00 and is still working in a place with no free parking so she has to take the bus, I realized she was running really late too. I offered her a ride so she would just be a little bit late, and she was extremely grateful. I was a few minutes late myself but figure I can make up the time this afternoon before leaving for Mass downtown. Then we got an email from the boss: he was running a little bit late. It must be contagious!

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Watching Football While Wired

Hopefully all my readers had a good weekend. Friday we had a birthday party for Kathbert, whose birthday was actually last Monday. Luxuli and her husband, Catzooks and her boyfriend, and I converged upon Richard Bonomo’s house for ravioli, red wine, salad, chocolate cake, and apple pie bread. Catzooks and her boyfriend gave Kathbert a six-pack of Fatty Boombalatty beer, which is becoming a tradition for them. Luxuli had found an abandoned and severely trimmed hibiscus on the curb, but we couldn’t find a pot large enough for it, so right now the root ball is wrapped in a garbage bag and then set in a cardboard box. Not the most ideal of situations…

Saturday Travalon had to work, so I hung out with the Rosary Ladies. Jilly Moose, Luxuli, and I met for coffee with some other people, then we helped plant tulip bulbs up at the Stations of the Cross where the cathedral used to be, and then Jilly Moose and I had a light lunch because in the evening we all got together with OK Cap for dinner. I had a 20% off coupon for the whole table, so I kind of splurged and had a petite steak with lobster on it. (Sorry to my vegetarian readership! I do like a medium rare steak now and then.) Then I had a chocolate Guinness shake for dessert. Luxuli was so impressed with it that she tried her hand at making some the next day, and they were even better than the restaurant’s!

Yesterday I overslept and missed my usual Mass but ironically did go to the Lutheran church for Reformation, although I got there late and missed two of the three pieces the choir sang. Since I was having so much trouble getting going, I had not one but two cups of Reformation Roast there. Then Travalon came up and said he would like to see the bubbling springs at Pheasant Branch which I had posted a video of on YouTube, so we went for a hike there. It was such a beautiful day; I wouldn’t mind autumn so much if it were always like yesterday afternoon. Then we went to a newish bar on State Street called 608 because they advertised banana Nutella wontons, which really are just as good as they sound. We went to 5 pm Mass and then had some coffee at our usual coffee place, Espresso Royale, so then I was really wired. We went to Rich’s house to watch the Packers demolish the Vikings, and everyone was much amused by me since I was so animated. I even got exercise during the game, because I kept jumping up and down while hollering at the TV. Travalon said he liked seeing me so wired, but it wasn’t such good news when I tried to go to sleep! Yet somehow today I am not too tired – maybe I am still a little wired? I did have my usual two cups of coffee this morning.

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A Rabbit's Life

Sometimes I think the life of a pet must be an ideal one: you don’t have to work, you don’t have to search for your next meal, and you don’t have to worry about predators. Then I wonder: is it boring to sit around all day with nothing to do? And think of the things you never get to try! For example, the three beverages I drink most are water, coffee, and beer. Guess which one of those my rabbits get to drink? They are missing out on all the fun of a caffeine jolt or a beer buzz. They never get to go outside, which doesn’t seem to bother Charlie at all, but Cashmere often gazes wistfully out the window. And if I give them a yummy treat (like chocolate – shh! I am such a bad bunny mama!), they have no way to request it again if they like it, though usually I can tell which things they really like. They can’t tell me to turn off my salsa music when I am working out, but for all I know, they hate salsa. I guess being a pet is a little like being a kid, when you aren’t in control of your own life. I sure don’t miss those days! And you know who else has a life like that, no work and no meal preparation and no freedom? Old people! Maybe I should rethink my goal of living to be over 100. Watching my rabbits get old has been enlightening. Charlie has gotten to the point where he just walks in circles most of the time, and he can’t clean himself very well anymore. Still, he seems very happy, but then he always was a happy rabbit. Now he’s just an old happy rabbit.

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Punny Wedding Reception

Sorry for my lack of blogging yesterday. I took the afternoon off and went to see The Matrix with Travalon, then I had our annual condo association meeting (at least the woman who usually argues with every item on the budget said nothing this time), and then Travalon and I met some of my fellow choristers for a beer at the Essen Haus (“Immediate Seatnig!” per their sign). What I was going to blog about was how Light Bright and I got together on Tuesday evening to go shoe shopping and then grab a bite to eat (and a sip to drink) at Cheeseburger in Paradise, where the background music is almost always Jimmy Buffett. We successfully found a pair of wedge sandals for me to wear during the wedding – comfortable enough to stand for an hour! Then over dinner we were talking about the reception, and Light Bright had the really good idea of incorporating visual puns into my decorative scheme. We can’t reveal any of the ones we thought of that night, but if you can think of any clever puns I could use during the reception, feel free to mention them in the comments. 

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Last Chance Mass

Sunday I woke up late (since Travalon and I got back to town quite late the night before) and missed the usual Mass I sing at. (I had already told them it was unlikely I would be there.) Then we were watching the Packer game during the 5:00 pm Mass, so we had to go to the Last Chance Mass at St. Paul’s. This Mass starts at 9:00 pm, and there was a visiting priest who gave a very long homily about why we should give money to a particular charitable organization, so we didn’t get out of there until well after ten. Most of the other people were college students, so the priest was talking about how we had the rest of our lives ahead of us. (I’m guessing at this point I’ve only got about half my life ahead of me, maybe sixty percent if the palm reader was right and I live to be 105.) Anyway, we felt like the oldsters there and hid way up in the balcony. St. Paul’s is a weird-looking cement building with balconies on both sides and the altar in the middle, not an attractive church though quite a few people get married and have their wedding pictures taken there. As Travalon noted, there were no windows at all. You kind of feel like you’re in an underground bunker that could withstand a nuclear attack. The rumor is that they are going to redo the church and make it look more like a place of worship, which would be lovely. Meanwhile, I am eternally grateful to them for having the Last Chance Mass.

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