I hope my readers had a good weekend. I had a really
enjoyable one. It didn’t actually start on Thursday, but I felt like a real
activist because I went to a protest up at the Capitol after our president
fired his attorney general, and then I went to a labor union meeting. Then
Travalon and I had dinner at the restaurant at the Discovery Center, the place
with the Mesozoic Garden and the tiles on the floor that activate chimes next
to the waterfalls.
I have been helping some graduate students with funding for
their conference, so on Friday after work they invited me to the keynote talk,
which was on linguistics. Right up my alley! They invited both Travalon and me
to the dinner afterwards at the Great Dane, so I got to talk to the keynote
speaker, and she was delightful. From the questions she was asking me, I think
my biography kind of blew her mind. Like, who goes to graduate school for
linguistics, gets kicked out because they’re taking pre-veterinary school
classes instead, and then becomes a financial person? How does any of that make
sense? Of course, my experiences on Thursday, and with shared governance at
work, make me think I really want to get into politics, but that’s a lost
cause. I’m too conservative for Democrats and too leftist for Republicans, and
I’d never get elected for my good looks.
Saturday Travalon and I went to Sauk and watched some bald
eagles, then we drove to Mineral Point and went shopping. We had pasties and
figgy hobbin for lunch. Yum! Then we tried different beers at their local
brewery. We came back to Madison and went to the Rathskeller at the Union for
the closing reception of the graduate student conference, and we ended up
talking to graduate students from other institutions about the issues with
reunification in Germany and the rise in nationalist all over the world. Then I
went to a concert at 7:30 (that had actually started at 7) of Medieval music
loosely based on the Decameron. The
music was just okay, but the stories were so fun. The Decameron is like Canterbury
Tales, only older and Italian. Now I want to read it. One of the musicians
is someone I used to play with in a Renaissance band years ago, and she
remembered me.
Yesterday Travalon and I went back to Sauk to watch eagles
again, and since the weather was a lot warmer, we also took a hike on the
riverside trail. Then we came home and watched that wonderful Packers game. I
guess McCarthy finally listened to me (and everyone else in the state), because he put
Jones in the game, who ran for about a bazillion yards. Rodgers didn’t throw much
to my favorite, Davante Adams, but he did hit him twice for touchdowns.
Speaking of touchdowns – the defense kept the Dolphins from scoring any,
holding them to just field goals so the final score was 31-12. I still feel
like Special Teams are a mess, but they did have a great fourth down sneak: “We’re
going to punt – psych!” Of course, in that they were just copying the Dolphins,
who had done it earlier in the game. Still, it’s hard to argue with success,
and not only did they convert, they got lots of yardage out of it. So a deeply
satisfying game, and a great ending to a wonderful weekend.
If you get a chance, check out today’s Google Doodle for
Veterans’ Day. It is perfect.
Famous Hat
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