Rich's Cleveland-Themed Birthday Party

I hope my readers had a good weekend. I certainly did, although on Friday I had to work. In the evening Travalon and I went to the East Side Club for their Southern-style fish fry, and they had live blues music as well. We really enjoyed that. Travalon agreed to go with me to Fired Up, because I was curious about my little mandolin magnet. When I had gone in to pick it up, they showed me that one of the strings had slipped off and made a black line beside the mandolin. They said I could redo it for free, and they would fire it again, and the girl working that day even suggested I make the black line into a musical note. So I put another string on the mandolin (hopefully this one doesn’t slip off during firing!) and made some musical notes on either side of it. That was earlier in the week. Friday I expected the place to be dead, but there were a ton of people there, and there was even live music! A guy was playing the guitar, and when we walked in, he said, “I know you – you go to the ukulele jams at the Lakeside Coffee House!” I said, “No, we went to high school together.” It turns out both were true, but I still find it funny that I didn’t remember him from something that happened a few months ago, but I did from something that happened decades ago. Travalon wanted me to make a scene with cacti, and wouldn’t you know they had a sample cacti scene, so we sort of copied it but put in our own touches, like a jackrabbit sitting on the barrel cactus, and we didn’t have room for the prickly pear so we just had the barrel cactus and the saguaro. The girl working there that day even showed me how to cut the glass if I couldn’t find a piece in the shape I needed. So much fun! However, I have no news on my poor mandolin magnet.

Saturday Travalon and I cleaned for an hour, then we went to the chocolate shop on Sherman, and then we went to Mother Fool’s because they have the best latte in town. We got to Rich’s house well before his birthday party, and I put up Cleveland decorations and frosted his cake. We had a little Satchel Paige figurine that was in a box that was never opened, so it was probably considered a collector’s item, but it wasn’t that expensive at the antiques shop. I used it as a cake decoration, so now it is probably worth nothing. I took lots of pictures of everything in case anyone is curious about what a Cleveland-themed birthday party entails. It was very low-key; people just sat around and talked. Tiffy, Jilly Moose, and Prairie Man were among the attendees. Rich really enjoyed it – he said it made him very nostalgic, because Cleveland is where he went to college. I think that is a time of life most people look back on fondly; I know I get nostalgic when I hear the music from my college years. Of course, I live where I went to college, so I am constantly bathed in nostalgia, but Tiffy took a trip down Memory Lane this weekend when she came to visit. After the party, she and I ate at her favorite restaurant, Himal Chuli, and then we went to a Baroque music concert. One of the musicians gave a shout-out to my OTHER choir director in the program notes, and the woman sitting behind us was someone I knew a little from work so that was fun. Her dad was a coach for the Vikings back when they were really good!

Yesterday after Mass Tiffy, Travalon, and I went to the Peruvian restaurant for brunch, then we walked to the Union and ran into my OTHER choir director, so we told him about the shout-out in the concert program notes. At the Union we watched some of that sad Badger Basketball game. They really are not good this year and probably won’t even make the playoffs – quite a letdown from being in the Sweet Sixteen the last few years! After Tiffy left, Travalon and I went to look at eagles again, since we forgot about the winter train running in North Freedom. (One weekend only – bummer!) We wanted to invite ourselves to Rich’s house for leftover cake, but he wasn’t home. He said just go there and help ourselves, so we did, thinking he would be home soon. His Brazilian housemate came home, and he and Travalon both love the same kinds of music, so we sat around playing heavy metal and blues videos on YouTube. That was so much fun! It was getting late and there was no sign of Rich, so Travalon and I went to Grampa’s Pizza for a late dinner. Was that ever delicious! Of course Rich got home just after we left. Anyway, if he is reading this, today is his birthday, so Happy Birthday, Rich!

Famous Hat