New Washing Machine

I hope my readers had a good weekend. Friday I went to the grocery co-op to buy the salmon that was on sale that day only, and the place was packed because a huge storm was predicted. Travalon cooked the salmon to perfection, and then we holed up for the evening, doing a jigsaw puzzle in our loft. (I am definitely Ma Hat’s daughter – she is a jigsaw puzzle addict!) We figured that was the safest place for it, but we are doing it on the carpet, so it’s getting kind of janky about lining up right. Travalon bought it at the Sinclair Travel Station gift shop; it’s a painting of a bunch of old gas pumps, including at least eight Dino the Dinosaurs of varying sizes. It’s a fun puzzle, because no two pieces are the same.

Saturday the weather was bad, and I felt a little like I was coming down with a cold, so we didn’t go to Oconomowoc for Travalon’s mother’s 94^th birthday. We thought we were going to just hang out at home, but then someone said on social media that she was giving away a washing machine, and ours died a few months back, so I rounded up Rich and Kathbert, and we rented a truck from U-Haul. Of course as soon as we signed the truck contract, the snow began to fall, but then we were committed. It actually all went pretty smoothly, and Travalon successfully did a load of laundry in it today. We tried to treat Rich and Kathbert to dinner to thank them for their help, but they took a rain check so Travalon and I went over to the Naughtigal ourselves. We were the only ones there, and I felt sorry for our waiter, so I said to Travalon that we should tip him $20.20, since I saw online that people are doing that for the New Year. So we did it – we left our server a tip almost as big as our bill. I had been wanting to do it, and it was the perfect opportunity.

Yesterday I didn’t feel well enough to sing, so we went to Mass at the church near our house. Then Travalon went to see his mother for her birthday, but we figured I shouldn’t come along. I just read and worked on the puzzle. When Travalon came back, we went out to Sauk to do some eagle-watching, and we saw one on the island and possibly some by the dam – some birds were flying around, but we couldn’t tell what they were. We did look at the one on the island through the telescope they have set up for that purpose, and we could see her scratching her head and then turning to look at us. What do the eagles think of us? Probably not much. We came home and watched the Packer playoff game, and at first we were way ahead of the Seahawks, but then their quarterback Russell Wilson (who used to be a Badger) decided to take apart our defense single-handedly, while our offense stalled. But then the Pack got back on track, and when they needed a big third-down conversion, Jimmy Graham (“the slow white man”) came through. I am going to have to rethink my opinion of him. I know Tiffy will too, and judging by the comments on social media, a lot of people thought he was useless until his three big catches last night. Hey, if you’re finally going to come to life, the playoffs is the time to do it. Also, Tiffy tells me he is not totally white, so for all these reasons I am going to have to retire my nickname for him.

Famous Hat