Painting Night

Happy Monday! How was your weekend? I can say this for mine: I managed to stay under my calorie budget every day. Friday evening Travalon and I went to the Nitty Gritty for Mamastep’s birthday party, and I had the same thing I’d had at OK Cap’s birthday party at the same location. We were even sitting at the same table, only it was put together with some other tables because Mamastep’s group was larger. The woman who had twins at age 51 was there, and she looked so tired that I wonder if having kids at my much younger but still advanced age is, as Hardingfele would say, “inadvisable.” I showed Mamastep the video of “Doctorin’ the Tardis,” which is hilarious – a police car from the 60’s drives into cardboard Daleks in between beautiful shots of English countryside. The song (if you can call it that) is basically Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll Part Two” with these guys going, “Dr. Who, Dr. Who! Dr. Who, and the Tardis!” over and over. Not a masterpiece, but apparently a #1 hit in the UK back in the late 80’s. What that says about the British taste in music, I’m not sure.

Saturday Tiffy came to visit, and she, Travalon, and I went to Sauk City to see bald eagles. We saw two sitting in the tree on the island in the river where last week we had seen one, and we also saw beautiful black and white diving ducks. An internet search of what these ducks could be is inconclusive, but my best guess is they were common goldeneyes. We had a late lunch at Cold Fusion, since I have now talked Tiffy into doing the health app and they have delicious salads there, and then Travalon left for a steak night at the Wunderbar with the guys while Tiffy, OK Cap, and I went to a painting night at the Nau-Ti-Gal. After a drink called a "Cardinal Cocktail" (185 calories), we were supposed to paint a cardinal sitting on a branch; I said, “As a Packer Backer, I find this image of a cardinal offensive,” but the instructor didn’t realize at first that I was joking. Since I am a rebel, I painted a female cardinal. At some point I will post photos of our masterpieces, although I have already texted them to most of the regular readers of this blog. By the time we got done, all the restaurants in the immediate area had stopped serving food, so Tiffy and I had a pizza delivered. I haven’t done that in years! My mean old health app only let me eat two slices, or I would have been running all night to work off the extra calories.

Yesterday started in a dramatic fashion when our parish priest collapsed during the homily. This is now the fourth time I’ve seen him collapse during Mass, and Rich says he did it recently at another church too. Maybe it’s time he sees a doctor or something… Then Tiffy took me to Graze for a birthday brunch. After she headed home, Travalon and I went to the chocolate shop at Hilldale (225 calories for hot chocolate and two pieces of chocolate), then we saw the movie Bridge of Spies at the cheap theater, and we both highly recommend it. It is the true story of an insurance lawyer who had to negotiate a prisoner swap during the height of the Cold War. Afterwards we had a delicious dinner at Oliva, a Mediterranean restaurant, and then I ran through the entire episode of Downton Abbey to burn off all those calories. It was worth it! I’d definitely rather do more exercise than deny myself delicious food.

Famous Hat