Happy New Year's Eve from the Twin Cities

 

Happy New Year's Eve! We did a lot today, and I am very tired, but we are still planning to go out for the holiday. This morning we had a leisurely breakfast at our hotel, then we took another walk in some of the skyways. More were open than last night, but we could still only go so far. Here are some photos.

Travalon took lots of other photos today, but it's very slow to upload them to the blog tonight, so I'll post more later. 

The light rail is very cheap here, like $2 for a three-hour ticket, so we took it to the State Capitol and looked around. Then we took it to the winter wonderland of the frozen Minnehaha Falls and walked around there. We took the train back to Minneapolis and went to the end of the line, then we had a very late lunch (like 4:30) at the Loon Cafe, where we ate on our last trip. Again we had chicken and wild rice soup and walleye sandwiches. By then we had walked well over five miles, so we were pretty tired, but we went back to the skyways to see if we could see the whole Lutheran church with the tower that is lit up blue, wondering if the whole church were lit up. Unfortunately, that skyway was locked, so while we could see the blue tower, we couldn't see the whole church. We did see another wedding (in a hotel, not in a skyway), and the tower that was bright green yesterday is super beautiful tonight, with lots of different color lights swirling around. I promise to post more tomorrow. We watched Michigan lose to the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs, but at least Ohio State is beating Georgia right now, so the Big Ten might be represented in the college football championship game.

Famous Hat

Short Skyway Adventure

 

This morning Travalon and I hit the road fairly early and stopped in Tomah to check out an antiques mall and art gallery. I was drawn to a painting even before knowing the artist had painted it with his feet, so I got that, and Travalon got a Count Chocula figurine, a Catwoman model, and a World War I biplane tin sign, as well as a rosary for me and a small model of the Milwaukee lighthouse. We also stopped at the Norske Nook in Osseo; we have one not that far from our house that we rarely go to, but this is the original so it's iconic. I really wanted the ligonberry sour cream pie, but they were out of it, so I had pumpkin cream cheese pie, and that was really good. Travalon had chocolate mint pie with little pieces of Andes Candies on top. Travalon's phone no longer charges in the car, so to save his battery he let me play music on my phone, since mine will charge in the car. I said we could skip any song he didn't like, but he didn't ask me to skip any - he thought they were all tolerable.

When we got to our hotel in downtown Minneapolis, we found it was overrun with Christian college students, who are having some sort of convention here. We wanted to go in the skyways, but they closed at six (the internet said ten), so they were already closed. We were able to access a couple of tunnels, and Travalon got some photos.

Check it out - there's a wedding going on in this skyway! You can see the bride in white.

We came back to the hotel and explored a bit, and we passed a table with huge sizes of T-shirts that said: "Free Shirts!" so we each took one. They were for the Christian convention, I think...? but all the Christian college students were thin, so they didn't need XXL and XXXL shirts. Eventually we had a late dinner at the bar; Travalon had poutine, and I had squash gnocchi with vegetables, walnuts, and a maple reduction sauce. We also split a margarita flatbread with arugula on it, kind of like a salad pizza. There is a pool at this hotel, and after dinner we peeked in and saw a couple of people who were just leaving, so we ran upstairs and changed. I wore my new free T-shirt over my swimsuit, and Travalon took this truly awful photo of me modeling it:

I wore the sweatpants on the way down to the pool, and nobody was milling around to see how lovely I looked. We had the pool to ourselves... for a few minutes, then some young guys came into it and took over the deep end, and then even more young guys came into it and started playing a game of frisbee. I was trying to swim laps, so I gave up and swam around the shallow end of the pool while Travalon waded. (I didn't like the bottom of the pool - it was slippery. But at least the pool wasn't freezing like some hotel pools we have encountered.) I didn't want to wear my sweatpants over my wet suit, so I just carried them... and then there were a whole bunch of college kids all over everywhere, and in the elevator with me, to see me wearing no pants, just a really oversized T-shirt that I obviously stole from their group. Or maybe they thought I was a chaperone? Anyway, my FitBit says I swam twenty-two laps, so I've worked off a fraction of that pie from Osseo.

Famous Hat

Fifth Day of Christmas Dinner

 

Today was a quiet day at work again, and I saw nobody but Hardingfele when we went on a long walk at lunch. It was a beautiful day today - it got up to 50 F. She insisted on stopping by the geology building to try to find the cat again, but all she found was evidence of homeless people living by the building. We went into the Geology Museum because it has a cool room with blacklight shining on crystals. It also has tons of awesome fossils, but we didn't have time to look at those. Then right at the end of the day, our chair stopped in, which really surprised me, especially since it's her birthday today. Who goes to work on their own birthday, right? I had decorated her office door, and she appreciated that.

The one crazy thing that happened was that a package came in the mail for an emerita professor. I emailed her to ask what she wanted me to do with it, and to my surprise she replied right away and said she had no idea who that sender was, could I open it? So I did, and it was part of a play for children. The professor said she had no interest in that, so I took it. The package had some cool stamps, so I took those too.

Travalon picked me up, and we went to the Great Dane so he could get another stamp in his beer passport. Now he has four of the twenty-five, and that's probably as good as it's going to get. The bartender gave Travalon his beer right away, but I was having trouble deciding between a hot pepper pilsner and a mango weissbier, and then I decided on the mango beer, but the bartender ignored me. Finally the guy next to us got me the beer, and then when we tried to pay for it, he said it was on him. He was the brewer, and we had a good conversation with him.

Then we went to Rich's house for a Fifth Day of Christmas dinner. There was a Third Day of Christmas dinner too, but Travalon and I couldn't make it to that one. This was a bigger crowd than the Christmas dinner, because almost everyone came back, plus Cecil Markovitch, the Single B-Boy, and the son of the guy who makes fabulous desserts. We had all the same food, and I have to say that the apple cider reduction caramel sauce on the cheesecake was amazing. Cecil was cutting up my cassata in really weird ways, but everyone raved about it anyway. After dinner a bunch of us did Night Prayer, then Rich and I gave a dramatic reading of the play I had brought, which was not a whole play but just one scene where a zebra wanted to go rescue some rhinos and was arguing with a little bird about why this was a good idea. Kathbert thought it sounded like a typical conversation between her and Rich. She also was laughing about a text he sent her on Christmas Eve, and he said I could post it on this blog, so here it is:

To be fair to Siri, Rich is sometimes kind of hard to understand. Years ago I had a roommate from Indonesia, and I asked her if I spoke too quickly for her to understand. She said no, the only one she had trouble understanding was Rich, and I replied, "Honestly, even we native English speakers don't always understand him." And then sometimes he just says the wrong thing, like when people were leaving he asked if they wanted any leftover "stressed leche" cake. What would Siri have done with that?

Famous Hat

Chickpea Socks

 

I forgot to mention that yesterday we stopped by Banzo to get some falafel, and they now have socks. I asked how much the socks were, and it turns out we had enough points in our rewards account to cover most of the cost, so I got these socks for $2. They have chickpeas on them since falafel is kind of Banzo's thing.

Today a few people popped into work, not my coworkers but some grad students and academic staff. I did take a long walk at lunch with Hardingfele, who was looking for a cat near the geology building. During our walk, a big chunk of ice fell off of a building and almost landed on Hardingfele's head - that was shocking! We didn't find any sign of the cat. When we got back to her office, she gave me some Russian chocolates for my birthday. 

After work, Travalon and I went to another brewery on the Bar Passport, One Barrel. On Wednesday they have chicken wings, and oh were they good! We also split a big, soft pretzel. I had a raspberry sour. Our neighbor asked if we could pick up some dog food for her on the way home, and I thought she wanted me to buy it for her, but she said it would be up at the counter, and the guy said it was already paid for. Then we went to meet her new puppy Lucy. She's so cute!!

Happy birthday to OK Cap today, and happy late birthday to Hardingfele, whose birthday is on the Solstice. Last night when we were downtown for my adoration hour, Travalon and I ran into an old coworker of mine from the Press, and he and his wife were getting a gyro because it was her birthday, and that's what she always does on her birthday. I'm surprised so many people have birthdays in late December, since it's the rarest time of year to be born. The day you are statistically least likely to be born is Christmas Day. The day you are statistically most likely to be born? Tiffy's birthday.

Apparently I was on fire tonight while doing French on Duolingo:

I have finally gone back to doing Irish half the time, but man oh man, French is just so much easier! It said I was doing Irish with 80% accuracy, so that gives you some idea how much harder it is for me. Mostly it's the spelling. I don't get it, I'm a good speller in English, a language that makes no sense, and Irish does have some internal consistency in its spelling rules, but I guess I'm too old to learn them. French may not be the easiest language either, with all its silent letters, but I learned it long ago when my brain was fresh and could absorb these spelling rules.

Famous Hat

My Advent Calendar Necklace

 

I forgot to mention that not only did my Advent calendar include a dig kit (which I used to retrieve the real crystal from the plaster "crystal"), it also included implements to make a necklace, a keychain, and other things. So I made a necklace out of the rose quartz crystal that I had to work for, since it was the perfect size and shape.

I wore it all day yesterday and today, and I'll probably wear it all week.

It was a very quiet day on campus. I saw nobody in my building, but I did have a videoconference with a faculty member. There are some travel planning emergencies going on, which makes me wonder what they would have done if I had taken this week off like I'd originally planned. I took a long walk at lunch, since it was finally bearable out, and as I walked along the Lakeshore Path, I heard a train whistle to the west. It was getting closer, so I broke into a run but couldn't keep that up too long. Still, I did manage to get to the spot where I was very close to the train just before it arrived. It was a very small train, just the engine and one car, but whoa was the whistle LOUD when I was standing right there! I didn't bother to make a video since it was too cold to take my gloves off. Then I went up a whole bunch of stairs, and that felt great! It almost felt like I worked off all the food from this weekend.

The one thing that went wrong (this isn't even a First World Problem but a Me Problem) is that I couldn't find the key to my coworker's office, because she has all the master keys. My office window faces east, so I could see from the reflection off the other buildings that there was a spectacular winter sunset going on. I wanted to go into a TA office that faces west, but I finally just went down to a lower floor with a window that faced west. Here's a photo I took:

It was probably even better while I was frantically searching for the key instead of just going downstairs right away. 

The Badgers are in some meaningless bowl (as a guy from Night Prayer said, "One of the top fifty bowls in the country!"), so I'm half-watching it. Travalon went with a buddy to watch it at a bar, which I'm glad about because he should watch it with someone who cares more than I do. I consider this bowl a participation trophy, because the Badgers weren't really good enough this season to actually deserve to play in a bowl, but now there are so many that practically every team with a mediocre record can be in one. It's just an excuse for rich alums to fly to Arizona and party.

Famous Hat

Boxing Day with the Eagles

 

Yesterday morning we ended up not getting to Mass - not that we needed to, since we'd gone Christmas Eve - because Travalon's brother and sister-in-law said they were going to be visiting his mom at ten with a cheesecake, so we had to hit the road right away. We got back home in time to watch the Packers game, and their improbable march towards the playoffs continues because they kept intercepting the Dolphins. Now that was a Christmas present to the whole state of Wisconsin!! 

Richard Bonomo had a small group at Christmas this year; besides us and Kathbert, it was the guy who makes fabulous desserts, the woman who has a fabulous porch, the guy Travalon likes to talk about classic rock with, and another woman who stopped in briefly but brought ratatouille. Rich made lasagna for twenty and I made cassata for thirty, so we have lots of leftovers. Kathbert and I both brought cranberry sauce; her secret ingredient was orange juice, while mine was blueberries. The guy who makes fabulous desserts also brought a quiche Lorraine, and the classic rock guy brought a green bean casserole. For dessert, besides my cassata, we also had tres leches cake and Basque cheesecake, courtesy of the dessert guru. It was truly a Christmas feast. Rich lit a menorah, but none of us knew the prayers to say, including the Jewish guy, so we just sat watching him do it. We also had plenty of wine thanks to the woman with the fabulous porch, but I didn't bother making my eggnog this year, since my recipe serves thirty. Though I will say it stores beautifully and just keeps tasting better as the days go by, but it's really labor-intensive, and we definitely had enough calories with all the other stuff. 

It had been so cold for days that Travalon and I were only getting exercise by walking around the house, but yesterday I had bad shin splints, which surprised me - I don't usually get those unless I attempt jogging. I did my stretching exercises (spelling the alphabet with my feet), and after we got home from Rich's, I was fine to walk again, so I got my 10,000 steps for the day just before midnight.

Today we had a leisurely morning, enjoying the biscotti my coworker had made with our coffee, then I dug into the plaster crystal. And there was a real one inside of it!

Here are all my crystals from the Advent calendar. Notice there are twenty-one when there should be twenty-four.

I had left a message on their customer service line, and to my surprise someone called me right back and asked me to send a photo of the crystals I had received. Since I had just taken the one above, that wasn't too hard. It seems that I was cheated of the most valuable crystals: the green aventurine, the jade, the amethyst, and possibly the carnelian if I got two that were the same. Not sure? I'll let them sort it out. They promised to send me the missing ones. Also good news: I received my settlement from that huge data breach a few years back. Guess what? It's a whopping $5.80.

After that, we drove out to Sauk to look for eagles, and we saw seven on the island, several at the VFW Park, and a whole bunch flying around at the dam or standing on the ice. 

On the way home, we drove through the tunnel outside of Lodi.

As we were heading home, Travalon got a call that his brother (a different one than the one we saw yesterday) is in the hospital with a blood infection, so if you can spare a prayer or a good thought for him, we would be most grateful. It seemed warmer than it had in days, so after Travalon left to visit his brother, I went for a long walk in our neighborhood and enjoyed this winter sunset.

Tomorrow it's back to work, but I'm rolling in late, when Travalon drops me off before he has to head into work. This time of year, it doesn't really matter. I was going to take the whole week off, but of course I have a meeting on Thursday, so I might as well work since Travalon has to.

Famous Hat

Advent Calendar Letdown

 

Travalon and I have been listening to a seasonal station called "Cool Jazz Christmas." There's one called "Christmas Traditions" that's pretty good and plays 40's classics, but when I tried to find it, we got some countrified Christmas station. Then we found the cool jazz one, and I would straight up listen to this station any time of the year. It makes the trite songs like "Let It Snow" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" actually sound good, and the really old carols like "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" and "We Three Kings" are sublime. Too bad that it will vanish the day after tomorrow.

Today we didn't do much of anything because it's so cold out, so we just walked around the house again. I have partly made the cassata and also made some cranberry sauce. We watched a bunch of Peppa Pig cartoons. Also, all the NFL teams that had to lose for the Packers to have a shot at the playoffs actually did, so now all the Packers have to do is win in Miami, ha ha. Plus win their two games after that. This seems like a very long shot to me, but the true believers on social media think it will happen. That would be a true Christmas miracle! 

We went to Mass this evening, and the music was heavenly. A quartet sang that included Kathbert and my OTHER choir director. This time of year is when I realize how much I miss singing, and I sang the carols with great gusto - maybe too much gusto, because several people around me afterwards said what a beautiful voice I had. You aren't really supposed to be singing solos in the congregation. I did enjoy singing harmony on some verses of the carols. One of the communion pieces was the "Ave Maria" that our former choir sang at our wedding, and I thought it was by Victoria, but the program tonight said it was by Handl, not the guy who wrote The Messiah but the guy sometimes called Gallus. I guess either way, I'm a huge fan of both Victoria and Handl/Gallus, but it seems odd that a piece by one of them could get misattributed to the other one. They lived around the same time, but come on, one was in Spain and the other was in Slovenia. 

After Mass we went with Richard Bonomo to Amber Indian Restaurant, which has been our tradition for some years now. They always give us a free small dessert on Christmas Eve; other years it has been a small bowl of mango ice cream or pistachio ice cream, but this year it was a piece of yogurt cake. I had shrimp tikki masala because some cultures traditionally avoid meat on Christmas Eve, although I wasn't aware that was a thing until reading it on social media today. I guess I had heard of the Italian Seven Feasts fish thing. Then Travalon and I went to the house with the over-the-top light display set to music, and then we drove around looking at other decorated houses. When we got home, we exchanged gifts. I gave him a Hamm's Bear T-shirt, a red panda bobblehead, and a coffee table book of the Graduate Hotels, since he's really into college sports stuff. He gave me an Aran cable knit blanket in Kelly green, a pillow that says "Merry Christmas to you" in Irish, and a book about the making of the show The Office. Here are some photos. The first couple are from my Advent calendar, which started out so well but then became a disappointment. The last few days there was nothing in the windows, and you can see that I only have four crystals when I should have seven.

This is what was in today's window: a plaster crystal. Since there was a dig kit included with the calendar, and this was so crumbly that it was coming apart in my hands, I assume I'm supposed to dig into it to find a crystal...? I will attempt that at some point. I made a half-hearted stab at it this morning but then went on to other pursuits.

Travalon got this little Red Owl store online.

Here is our church decorated for Christmas.

And this was a house we saw while out driving around.

Here are the Aran cable knit blanket and the pillow that says "Nollaig shona duit," or "Merry Christmas to you" in Irish.

This is the red panda bobblehead.

And here's the Hamm's Bear T-shirt, along with the Hamm's Bear hat I gave Travalon for his birthday.

Merry Christmas to all my readers! I hope you have an excellent holiday season.

Famous Hat