Saturday, April 2, 2022

The Pheasant and the Easter Bunny

 

Yesterday our alumni newsletter had some great April Fools articles, but then a terrible thing happened that wasn't an April Fools: someone had stolen my debit card number somehow and put over $100 worth of charges on it. They were all to Apple.com, so I called their number, but all I got was an automated system that eventually hung up on me. I called my credit union, and they said they would dispute the charges and credit my account. We never did figure out how anyone would have gotten my number, so just know it's a jungle out there.

This morning it was snowing, so Travalon and I cleaned, and I found the two rosaries I had been looking for: the chartreuse one I got at St. Patrick's in Mauston that glows under blacklight, and the rainbow one I got at the treasure shop on Willy Street last year. They are two of my favorites, but then all my rosaries are my favorite ones. Then the mail came, and I got a package from the secret club I am in. The secret message (which I had to decipher) was to grow a whimsy garden for Wonder Marty (the tiny penguin that is our mascot), and when I told Travalon, he said, "We'll have to go to the winkle dinkle shop!" I laughed so hard! He said that was based on a Monty Python skit. 

We were planning to walk at the mall with Jilly Moose, and when we walked out the door, we came face-to-face with what appeared to be a male ring-necked pheasant that didn't have the long tail feathers. Of course we, the Bird Paparazzi, were unprepared and didn't have a camera, so we just watched and laughed as the bird ran away from us with its head bobbing. It was very fleet-footed. Then we met Jilly Moose, and we started at Barnes and Noble, where I found an adorable stuffed cactus on the floor, so I had to get it. We also went to the alpaca store, and Jilly Moose and I got rosaries. We walked around the mall, and in one shop we saw stuffed pillows that looked like male members, so Travalon said we should get two and have a cock fight. (We didn't get any.) He was so funny today - when I was telling him about a black bear that was breaking into people's houses and eating their food, so it was hugely obese and they were calling it Hank the Tank, he said the Wank family should adopt it so it would be Hank the Tank Wank. We also saw the Easter Bunny waiting for kids to have their photos taken with him, but it was extremely expensive to have professional photos taken, so the photographer just took our photo with my phone, even though a sign said no personal photos. So that was very cool of them. If we wanted to spend a fortune, we would have to at least come prepared, instead of wearing hoodies.

Then we went to the Asian food court and grocery store, and we had bubble tea. The Asian bakery on Park Street has a section for lotus paste buns, but they never have any, so we were overjoyed to find frozen ones at the Asian grocery store. We will have to make them soon! 

Here are photos from today. First, the three of us with the Easter Bunny.


Here are the stuffed cactus and rosary I got at the mall.


Here is a picture of the female bufflehead that Travalon took off our pier.


Here is the male bufflehead.


And here is the sunset from our pier tonight.


Once we got home from the mall, I went back outside to try to find the pheasant, but there was no sign of him. Kathbert called me as soon as I stepped out the door to tell me she found a birthday card I had made for her so long ago that I signed it with my detested nickname, and it featured a bird called a slue pumper saying, "Oonka-chunk," and the kicker is that I noted that the picture would glow under blacklight. So I was into them even back then?? Neither of us remembered this, but there it was. I will try to take a picture of the card glowing under blacklight soon. I did note that we should be kind to the pheasant if we ever find him again, since he was going through a lot. Our parking lot!


Famous Hat


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