Weekend at Tiffy's Place

 

Sorry for the silence the last couple of days. Saturday morning Travalon had to get going kind of early, so I headed to Racine right away to visit Tiffy. It was very hot, even in Racine, which is usually ten degrees cooler than Madison in the summer and ten degrees warmer in the winter because of the lake. We sat in her air-conditioned condo talking until going to a farm-to-table restaurant for lunch, where we sat inside. Then I said we could walk in the mall near her house. We walked briskly for twenty minutes and then looked for rosaries (found three at a jewelry kiosk, but I didn't buy any) and astrology stuff (no luck). We did find some cool historical photos. Check out the Racine Bicycle Club from 1887 with their penny farthing bicycles!

Then we swam in her condo association's pool and hung out in the hot tub for a couple of hours. Was that ever relaxing! We planned to go to dinner at a fancy restaurant on the lake, but they wouldn't let us in without reservations, so we went to a far more affordable Thai restaurant. Right outside of it were a couple of dragons from the China Lights display in Milwaukee.

I only ate half my pad see yew, and I had a Thai green tea, which might have been a mistake because then I couldn't get to sleep. Weirder still, I woke up at 6:30 the next morning. That way I had time to eat the rest of my pad see yew with plenty of time for the hour fast before Mass. The church closest to Tiffy's place is called St. Sebastian's, but outside of it was a statue of St. Francis surrounded by animals. That is admittedly less scary to kids than a statue of St. Sebastian with all those arrows sticking out of him would be... Then we went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch, and then we went to the Milwaukee Art Museum since it was another hot day. Tiffy was most interested in the exhibit of Americans in Spain, and there were some beautiful paintings. This was my favorite.

Some of the modern art was weird, though. There was one that was a doll with a chair squishing its head, and the face was blank but the artist's face was projected onto it, and there was a recording of him saying stuff like, "Sometimes I can't feel the top of my head." I tried to make a video, but it didn't work. 

Then I headed home and turned right around to go to band practice. Here's a picture of my bandmate's granddog Bongo.

There was a gorgeous sunset, but my phone didn't take the best photo of it.

I tried another setting to get the extraordinary pink tone, but it just made a weird sepia tone.

Meanwhile, Travalon was up north with his friend who lives in Japan, who is visiting right now. These are photos of the view from their cottage in Crystal Falls, Michigan.

This is Strong Falls in Goodman County Park on the Peshtigo River.

And these are photos from Chute Pond County Park.

I was too tired to blog last night, and today I was very tired after going into the office. It's not going into the Killer Building that wears me out - it's when other people are there. They all need things from me. Travalon just got home, and he has lots of photos of waterfalls on his good camera, so I expect that's what I'll be blogging about tomorrow.

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Day at the Health Club

 

Today I took the day off of work, and Richard Bonomo came over to help Travalon and me move a free bookcase from a few blocks away. It began to rain really hard just before we started, but the rain was just a drizzle by the time we got to the place where the bookcase was, and it had ended by the time we got it home. It went very smoothly. 

After that, Travalon had to leave for work, so Rich and I went to the health club to work out. Since we didn't have a timeline, he made me do all sorts of stuff, and now I'm really sore. Then we had a late lunch outside at the Nau-Ti-Gal, facing the water, and then he looked at my computer. Boethius is very slow when he boots up, so Rich ran some sort of report, and it said that Boethius's hard drive is unusually slow. I feel like that's telling me something I already know, but Rich says it's useful information. He also got my really ancient computer running again.

Once Travalon came home from work, he and I went swimming at the health club. I thought they would be shocked to see me there again, but it seemed to be different people working at the front desk than earlier in the day. After we swam, we went to Camp Beef Butter BBQ, which is something a local restaurant does right near our house. They have a live band and a food truck. All the food was meat, and it's Friday, and I had leftover Mexican at home, but I did have some of Travalon's cornbread as we sat listening to a live band. Travalon liked it so much that he went back while I was leading Night Prayer. We will have to go back again sometime - maybe next Friday.

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Looking at Lights While Buzzed

 

Tonight Travalon and I went to the health club's outdoor pool again, and this time it was what I'd been fearing: tons of kids everywhere. Usually the kids stay in the shallow end so it's not a big issue, but tonight a dad and two school-age boys were playing some wild game in the deep end, splashing like crazy and taking over the whole space, so we ended up migrating to the shallow end. Then we spent some time in the hot tub by the lap pool, which was weirdly empty. Back when I used to swim laps in it regularly, it was always packed. I often ended up having to share a lane with someone who would do three laps for every one of mine - it was so embarrassing! I would have loved an empty pool in those days.

After that, we went to the Mexican restaurant across the street, and I had a coconut margarita and was kind of buzzed during dinner. The restaurant has really beautiful lights inside of it, and they were even more enjoyable in my buzzed state.

We both had seafood chimichangas, and they were just as good as the shrimp chimichangas at the restaurant up by us. In fact, that killer sauce was almost identical. It probably has a lot more calories than what we burned off from swimming, since my FitBit said I swam at a casual pace for seventeen minutes. I'm not sure I have a pace other than "casual" when it comes to swimming...

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Jer-Bear 2

 

Today I had to work on campus again, so my colleague and I went out to lunch. She had a coupon for $1 off a wrap and $1 off sushi, so she was going to get a wrap until seeing the sushi. It did look good, but I was happy to get the wrap, because it was much cheaper. I got a chicken pesto one, and it was so filling that I didn't eat any of my fruit today. Also, I drank a lot of green tea, both the stuff I brought and the stuff my colleague gave me.

When we came home, Travalon and I played tennis. Nothing notable about that, except my serves were going right into the net, and I had a home run - wrong sport! The most noteworthy thing is that there is a huge hornets' nest hanging from a tree right over the path to the tennis court, which we had never noticed. The exterminator came and sprayed it yesterday, and he said to stay away from it because the wasps that survived would be angry and vicious, but of course we forgot all about that, although I did notice a wasp buzzing around me when I first got on the court. It didn't do anything.

Our neighbor who told us about the beautiful sunset last night also took some cool photos of the mandevilla arch out to the dock. Another neighbor bought the mandevilla plants, and yet another neighbor is training them on the arch. It's so pretty - I hope someone can take it in for the winter so it doesn't die.

When we got home, a package was waiting for me. It was Jer-Bear 2!

For reference, here is Jer-Bear 1.

And here they are together.

If you are wondering why I ordered two, it's because I looked at Jer-Bear 2 on eBay before buying the first one, and then the seller sent an email saying he would lower the price. Jer-Bear 2 has a tag, which makes him more of a collector's item, and I usually take the tags off my Beanie Babies, but I might leave his on. It has a cute little poem inside of it:

        The Beanies used to follow him around

        Because Garcia traveled from town to town

        He's pretty popular as you can see

        Some even say he's legendary!

And then the bear has the same birthday as Jerry Garcia - August 1 - only in 1995, not 1942. I did want one of these bears back in the 90's, but they were impossible to get back then. So now I have two.

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Photos of Sunset and Rich and Sea Caves

 

Not too much to say today. Travalon has renamed my Garcia Bear "Jer-Bear" because the real Garcia's name was Jerome (Jerry). My neighbor across the hall texted that there was a stunning sunset, so Travalon and I ran outside, and he grabbed his good camera.

And a couple from my camera.

But our neighbor took the best one of all!

Here are some photos from Rich's recent camping trip at Copper Falls State Park. First is Rich himself, cooking a pancake for breakfast.

These are sea caves near Bayfield, Wisconsin.

Would you like your photo to be featured on Famous Hat? Feel free to send it to me! I am very open to putting other people's material on this blog for my 3.5 readers to enjoy.

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Garcia Bear

 

Today I had to work at the Killer Building, and almost all my coworkers were there too. The first thing my boss told me when she saw me was that I could work from home tomorrow. It's amazing how much more tiring it is to work on campus when there are actually other people around. You have to wear decent clothes (no ratty shorts and T-shirt), and you have to be all polite and socially adept. It's so draining!

Travalon picked me up from work, and when we got home, I found my little Garcia bear had arrived! Back in the day when people collected Beanie Babies, these tiny tie-dyed bears could go for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. They were commemorative bears for Jerry Garcia from the Grateful Dead, who had just died. But today you can get one online for $25, which is still a lot more than most of the Beanie Babies are at the antiques shops, but I guess they are still kind of a collector's item. I don't care about that, I just care that it is SO CUUUUUTE!! 

Then Travalon and I went to the outdoor pool at our health club again. It was even later than when we got there on Thursday, so we were hopeful that we would be the only people in it again, but there were several families with kids there too. At least they stuck to the shallow end, so we could (sort of) swim laps. My FitBit did say I swam for 25 minutes, so that's something. We should do this more often - I forgot how much I liked swimming in a pool, since last summer we only swam in the lake. They both have their charms, but this year so many of the beaches are closed due to cyanobacteria that the pool just feels safer.

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House Concert and Local Owl

 

This morning Travalon left for Oconomowoc about the same time as I left for Mass. He saw his mother and two of his brothers, and then he went to Milwaukee. He attended Mass in Spanish at the Cathedral and walked around by the lake. He had a picnic by the lake for lunch. He really enjoyed his day.

After Mass I went to brunch with Richard Bonomo and Tiffy, and I did succeed in making Rich laugh by saying, "On the way to Mass, they were playing different chant settings of 'Salve Regina' on the radio. Medieval Christians must have had no problem with astrology, because they kept singing about Virgo." Then Tiffy and I got bubble tea and walked down to the Union Terrace, where we sat and watched sailboats. Then we went to the Edgewater Hotel, but I didn't think we had time to get a drink at the Boathouse, their restaurant on the lake. We went to their coffee shop, but neither of us wanted coffee so we just got overpriced water with supposedly all this fancy stuff in it that was good for you. It tasted wet, and that's what I cared about. We went down and sat by the water, then we had a bit of an adventure in the elevator, since we didn't want to climb all those stairs back up to street level. The confusion was that in one tower, the street level is on the seventh floor, but in the other tower it's on the fifth floor. So we figured it out... and ended up in the spa. The woman at the spa saw how confused we looked, and she said, "Are you looking for the exit? It's that way. Are you guests in the hotel, or were you at the Boathouse?" so we quickly replied, "The Boathouse!" I mean, it's not like we weren't paying customers of the hotel in some capacity, even if it was just to buy overpriced water.

Then we went to a house concert put on by the local harpsichord player. I was a bit surprised that he didn't forewarn us that he had two cats, since some of us are allergic, and then when one cat leapt into my lap, I discovered they also have their claws. Yipe! The concert was as much telling amusing stories about Handel, Scarlatti, and Bach as playing their music, but it did make me realize that as much as I enjoy all Baroque music, there is something special about Bach's music for me. It feels like he's speaking directly to me. Afterwards there were drinks in the garden, but Tiffy wanted to get going since she had a long drive home. We did go to a Thai restaurant for a quick dinner, and I brought an order of red curry duck home for Travalon, who really enjoyed it. It's a lot of food - neither he nor I could finish our order, so maybe we could have split one...? Ah well, now we have leftovers.

As Travalon was eating his Thai food and I was eating some grapes, I noticed a very large bird in the tree outside our window. We tried to take a picture of it, but it didn't really turn out, so after dinner we went outside. The first thing we saw was the sunset reflecting beautifully off the tennis court.

We went around the side of the garage, and we could see the large bird was a great horned owl! I think it is the young one that screeches all evening because it can't hoot yet. While Travalon took pictures, I flapped my hands and talked to it to try to get it to look at us. Those photos didn't turn out as well, but these two where the owl is looking away from us aren't too bad.

I also thought the sunset shining through the fake lighthouse at Mariner's was beautiful, so I asked Travalon to take a picture of that too.

Then we went out on the dock, and he took a picture of the sunset.

Here you can see the patch of lotuses to the left in the river channel.

On the dock we ran into a neighbor, and I told her we were being bird paparazzi, and that somehow led to a conversation about what a great method for learning music the Suzuki method is - I give it all the credit for how musically adept I am today. Then Travalon went inside, and I stayed outside to both pray a rosary and get five miles of walking in, and I could hear the owl screeching as it seemed to follow me around. I can still hear it screeching out there. It's an annoying sound, but not as creepy as the hooting from the full-grown owls. For some reason that sound really frightens me. Good thing there are no owls big enough to carry me away!

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The Man from Mazomanie

 

Today they had said it might thunderstorm all day, and it was certainly raining when we got up. Travalon got up before me and then was falling asleep in front of his computer because he said he was "snoozy." I said, "Why not just sleep in longer?" We were going to do some work at the community garden, but it was postponed until next week, so we took the Merrimac ferry and hiked on the Merrimac section of the Ice Age Trail. Astute readers may remember that we did part of this section back in December, but this time we went further and found some amazing vistas, and some cute mushrooms. Travalon brought his good camera.

Then we drove to Sauk, stopping at the Cistercian monastery right under a bluff to donate some money and get a rosary.

We had lunch at Culver's for almost nothing, because we had a free coupon for a value basket (which Travalon used) and he had gotten a $5 gift card at work, which we used toward my salad, so it was like $4 for both of us to eat... until I decided I really wanted pretzel bites too.

After lunch we went to the antiques shop in Sauk, where as always they were super happy to see us come in. I got two rosaries and two crosses, as seen here. One rosary came with a pouch. They tell me I now have competition from a man from Mazomanie who comes in and buys rosaries as well. He was the one who bought that one with a relic in the crucifix.

I also saw these two glass pieces at a ridiculous price, so I almost just bought them without checking to make sure they were uranium glass, since they sure looked like it. But wouldn't you know, the woman at the antiques shop had a blacklight, so we could check to see that they glowed.

And they did! This is under my blacklight. Aren't they beautiful?

The other woman who worked there asked if I was going to drink champagne out of the smaller glass (the larger one is a sherbet bowl), and I asked, "Is that safe? It's slightly radioactive," so the first woman said, "I wouldn't drink water out of it if it's been sitting in it for a decade." It would be kind of fun to have a blacklight party and drink out of glowing glasses! I wondered if there were ever rosaries made of uranium glass, and the first woman said they did sell one about six years ago, so I gave them my name and phone number to call if they ever got another one. I don't want that man from Mazomanie getting it first!

Tiffy came up, and we went to Mariner's, where Travalon joined us. We sat outside, and a band played. They mostly played soft rock from the 70's, so not my thing too much, but I do love "Summer Breeze" by Seals and Croft because it is minor key. I love how the drummer is lit up.

Then Tiffy came over, and we played with my blacklight. They are so much fun! Why aren't they still popular like they were in the 70's? After all, the Eagles still are, and I find my blacklight much more entertaining than I find the Eagles.

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