Homecoming Block Party

I hope my readers had a good weekend. Mine started Thursday night, when Travalon and I went to the Co-op for their Community Meal. We didn’t really notice the community, since everyone sat in their own little groups, but you could hardly beat the meal: pasta fagioli, salad, garlic bread, and a cookie for $5.

Friday I did something really fun and took a day off of work to tag along with Travalon while he went to work. He drives a van for the Boys and Girls Club, so I rode shotgun. When he had a break in the middle of the day, we went to the Lakeside Café for some coffee and then to the seafood place in the same mall as Crema Café for their fish boil, and we even got to use the $5 off two brunches coupon because it was before two. In the early morning Travalon takes teens to school, then in the afternoon he picks up these cute little kids from school and brings them to the club. Sometimes he gets to hang out at the club, but that day we had to take a teen to the other club building, and then we came back and had a taco with the kids. After that we drove some more little kids home, then we went downtown for the Homecoming Block Party. We watched the parade and went to the fish fry, where a band played popular music as polkas. You have not lived until you have heard Devo’s “Whip It” as a polka! We went out on the balcony to watch the fireworks being shot from a boat in the lake, and then we went to the Alumni Association’s silent disco. That was really fun – you got headphones, and they lit up red, blue, or green depending on what station you were listening to. So all these people appeared to be dancing to silence at the rooftop disco, but if you had headphones on yourself, you knew exactly what they were listening to by what color their headphones were. After that we went to Camp Tripalindee on the top of the Graduate Hotel because I had a coupon for a free beer, and we had a drink and watched part of the Brewers game. We watched the rest at home. They tied up the series and forced a seventh game.

Saturday Travalon and I debated about going to the Homecoming game, but the weather forecast was iffy so we had coffee at Mother Fool’s and watched the snow falling from the comfort of inside. The game wasn't very exciting anyway, since the Badgers beat up on Illinois. We picked up Rich and went to Cave of the Mounds for a tour, then we had dinner with him at El Pastor. We went home and watched the final Brewers game, which wasn’t even close – they lost 5-1. So no World Series this year for the Brew Crew, but maybe they can keep the momentum up next season.

Yesterday Travalon and I went to Plaka for brunch with Rich and another bass from our choir, then we took a windy boat ride back into the creek where the School Road pier is currently submerged. It was so windy that Travalon’s hat blew off; we weren’t too concerned at first, since baseball caps generally float, but we circled back and couldn’t find it anywhere. Had it sunk that quickly? Had it already blown downstream that fast? We gave up and docked… and then Travalon found the hat had fallen right behind him and was in the boat! What a lucky break! It was wet, but he just threw it in the washer and then the dryer, and now it’s as good as new. Then we went for a walk along the river in Sauk, where we saw four bald eagles. In the evening Rich had a very small birthday party for Kathbert, who does not like big parties. It was low-key; we just had some dinner and cake, and we blatted, as Kathbert calls it. That is her word for chatting.

Famous Hat