Autumn 2018 Photos

I hope my readers are staying warm. The university is closed today, and Travalon and I have not left the house. We got exercise by dancing around to Steely Dan and Peter Tosh, and also by moving my plants around. A couple of them had damage from getting too cold - and of course the cold came up from the bottom, so they had root damage - so I put blankets under them. I think the damaged ones might survive, but it's too early to say.

Here are some autumn pictures I never posted. First is a pig made of ground pork that was in a local deli.

These are the hamburger cookies I made for our department picnic.

Here is a better photo of "Spare Time," the artwork on top of a building downtown.

This is one of the red pandas at our zoo here in town.

These next shots are from a trip we made to the Wisconsin Maritime Museum for National Museum Day. You could choose from a bunch of museums to attend for free that day, and that was what we chose. This first shot is Travalon in front of a sailboat in the museum.

This is the lighthouse in Two Rivers.

And here is a shot of the town from the lighthouse.

These next photos are from the Milwaukee Zoo. First is the springhaas, an adorable creature like a cross between a rabbit and a wallaby.

Beautiful Mandarin ducks, like the one I heard showed up in Central Park a few months ago.

This fish was so cool. I can't remember what it was called - some kind of wrasse, I think.

And of course the hornbill, who is behind some hardcore fencing.

One day there was a rainbow over the North Transfer Point!

Here are some photos from Olbrich Garden:

And a shot from inside the Cave of the Mounds:

Here is a beautiful sunrise over the North Transfer Point:

This is a shot of the autumn foliage from my old office window, when I was overlooking the lake.

On Halloween there were a bunch of people dressed as beefeaters on Bascom Hill:

And in the building next to mine, there was this gorgeous Day of the Dead altar:

It was so cold in early November that the water spraying the tree branches froze into graceful configurations.

Here are some instruments from the concert we went to put on by the group from Crete:

And finally, some Irish swag I bought at the Celtic Christmas Fair: two mugs and a pillow.

This is a video of class change time at the University, as seen from my 8th story window:

This is a video of Port Washington at night, as seen from their lighthouse:

This is the fennec fox at the Milwaukee Zoo. The lighting is red because he is in the nocturnal section.

This is a penguin at the Milwaukee Zoo swimming and then leaping out of the water:

And finally, these are a bunch of really cool birds at the Milwaukee Zoo:

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Badger Basketball and Mr. Icon's Birthday Party

I hope my readers had a good weekend. Friday night Travalon and I went to Mamastep's rescheduled birthday party; her actual birthday was Tuesday, but there was a lot of snow that night so she canceled. We went to a fish fry with her and some other very entertaining friends of hers.

Saturday Travalon and I went to the Badger men's basketball game, stopping for lunch at a ramen restaurant a block away from the Kohl Center. The game was great: Trice and Davison both got a lot of points, and Happ got a triple double. The Badgers beat Northwestern 62-46, so afterwards Travalon and I went back to the ramen restaurant to celebrate by having mochis. We were planning to have green tea-flavored ones, but they were out of those, so we had red bean-flavored ones, and they were really good. Mochi is a Japanese ice cream ball inside a sort of rice paste skin. They are so good! In the evening we went to Rich's house for a birthday party for Mr. Icon. We didn't know most of the people there, and in fact they mostly looked like Mr. Icon, with big beards. Late in the evening they started to have a deep conversation about what consciousness is, but unfortunately we had to leave partway through because it was getting so late. Why don't people have deep conversations at two in the afternoon?

Yesterday Travalon and I picked up the red panda tile we made at Fired Up, which turned out well, then we went back to Sauk and saw plenty of eagles. The colder the day, the more we see, it seems. There was supposed to be a big snowstorm, so we stayed at home and watched another episode of the baseball documentary. The snow didn't really materialize, so today I went into work, but Travalon drove me. He hung out at the Union until it started to snow, then we came home. However, the snow doesn't seem that bad. I never know what to think because all the area schools are closed, and a bunch of restaurants, and everyone seems to be expecting the Storm of the Century. I will feel like a fool if the bad weather never materializes!

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Photos from Christmas 2018

It is way past time for me to post some photos. It has been many months, I realize, so this post will just be Christmas photos, and then I will go back in time and post some autumn ones. The first Christmas picture is the famous Christmas Train.

These are the aesthetically pleasing chocolates we got for Travalon's birthday.

Luxuli gave me an Advent wreath, and Travalon and I lit it and did the O Antiphons this Advent.

This is a beautifully lit house in our neighborhood.

Check it out - Tiffy made a gingerbread house!

Here are some photos from our trip to Chicago. First the fancy chocolate shop:

Here is the inside of St. Michael's in Old Town:

The outside has a clock with different color faces in each direction:

Here is Rich with the sword he got in the white elephant gift exchange:

And here Travalon is demonstrating how the evil nun puppet will attack you with the glowing hatchet:

Travalon is captain of my heart! (We found this cap at Mariner's restaurant.)

Here are the big yellow and little red bromeliads that Travalon gave me for my birthday:

This is my office decorated for my birthday:

Our church was decorated in red and blue for Christmas this year:

When I was lighting the Advent wreath, I bumped the little snowman so that it ended up looking down at the Canada bear with great concern:

These are photos from our trip to the Twin Cities. First, photos of the Capitol Building:

This is a shot of the inside of the Como Conservatory:

And this is Tower Hill Park. We did not go into the tower.

We found this mural in the St. Paul Skyway:

Finally, some videos. These first two are trees decorated in downtown Madison.

This is a video of the ice in Lake Mendota sounding like breaking glass:

This is a funny little dancing Santa someone in our neighborhood had in their light display:

And this is a dragon that was at the Zoo Lights this year:

This house just down the road from ours goes all out with decorations every Christmas:

And finally, this is a building with a really cool light display in downtown Minneapolis. I have no idea if this is for Christmas, or if it is always this cool.

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