Rock County 4H Fair and East Side Club Luau

 

Yesterday Travalon and I met Jilly Moose and OK Cap for coffee at Leopold's, then he and I drove to Brodhead and hiked on the trail with the covered bridge.

Then we went to the Rock County 4H Fair, where we saw lots of chickens and rabbits. This chicken is so fluffy!

This rabbit looks so much like Charlie, my old bunny!

This is me holding a baby pheasant that just hatched. Notice that I also have a commemorative drink container that looks like a palm tree. That's part of going to the fair, getting silly things.

Baby cows!

There were also displays of baked goods. I loved this colorful cake.

We tried to get soft pretzels, but the line was always so long, although everyone in line assured us the pretzels were worth the wait. The Lutherans (who were also making a fortune from renting spots in their parking lot) grilled delicious cheeseburgers, and the 4H Club made wonderful cream puffs.

We were there to see Charlie Behrens, and we could see the bleachers were filling up an hour before he was going onstage. About a half-hour beforehand, we got seats in the bleachers and said why isn't anyone checking our tickets, and the people around us told us it was free to sit in the bleachers - if we paid, we could sit on the lawn. If we'd only known! Not that these tickets were expensive, but I think I might have preferred to sit in the bleachers. I was wearing white shorts, but I did manage to find a plastic bag to sit on to avoid grass stains. We did see a lovely sunset from our spot on the lawn.

A guy who was mildly funny opened for Charlie Behrens, who was hilarious. Travalon and I both thought his best joke was when he said the Cowboys are so brave because they made their average Yelp rating their symbol. (Their symbol is one star.) I laughed SO HARD!! He mostly tells jokes about being from Wisconsin, because he tried to get into broadcast journalism but everyone mocked his accent and vocabulary, so then he thought, why not play it up? And that's how he found his success!!

Afterwards we thought we'd really like to try these pretzels. The sign glowed with the giant golden word "PRETZELS," seeming to summon everyone at the fair. At that late hour, the line was still very long, but Travalon got into it. I went to find a bathroom, but all the nearby ones were locked. I had to go all the way across the fairgrounds. When I came back, he hadn't seem to have moved in line. So I went to take photos of the fairway at night.

When I got back from that, he still hadn't moved forward. Then the pretzel people announced they had thirteen more pretzels, and there were twelve people ahead of us (and plenty behind us), so we weren't sure if we would get one. We were only getting one - they were so huge, and we were so full of other fair food, we couldn't handle one each. Then the woman said no wait, there were twenty-two more pretzels, so we all cheered! Pretzels for everyone in line! People kept assuring us they were worth the wait. Finally we got to the front of the line and ordered one pretzel for $7. Travalon had read it was Amish style and used "German salt," however that differs from any other salt. We each took a bite... and this really was the paragon of giant, soft pretzels. It was the Platonic ideal of a pretzel. I don't think I can ever eat any other pretzel again. It was warm and soft and buttery and yeasty with big, crunchy chunks of salt. It was definitely worth the wait!!!

We got home late last night and overslept, so we went to the nearby church for Mass, then we went to a Honduran restaurant for a fabulous brunch. We went to Olbrich Gardens for their butterfly display and got in free since we're members. The butterflies feed off these funny doughnut-shaped sponges.

Here are some cool flowers.

This one looks like it has pomegranate seeds hanging off of it.

And here are some butterflies.

And really interesting flowers.

The East Side Club had a luau this afternoon for members at the Tiki Bar.

We had a cute pig cake that was chocolate. I think I burned my piece off by bringing pieces to everyone else.

Here we are, enjoying the perfect weather. Notice that we got lei'd, which allowed us to get the free Members Only drink of blue curaçao and lemonade.

We listened to a steel drum band as a refreshing breeze blew about us. As we drove home, we passed a path off of Fair Oaks Avenue that I had always been curious about, so we parked and walked along it. It came out on the bike path around Lake Monona, and from the bridge you could see this railroad bridge.

We followed the bike path to Garver Mill, and Travalon got pizza for dinner while I had a salad, since I had been bad enough already. The path continues on the other side of the road, so we will have to explore that some other time. By then it was starting to get dark, so we just walked back to the car and came home. We had already had enough fun for one weekend.

Famous Hat

Perfect Evening on the Water

 

Last week when I had steam coming out of my ears from dealing with the shipping company, I went for a walk to cool down and heard a train coming, so I was able to get into position to watch it pass by. That really helped my mood. Today at lunch I took a long walk along the road, hoping to see the train from a closer vantage point than my usual spot, watching it across the river, but no train came by. Then I was thinking during my afternoon break that I usually don't take my whole fifteen minutes to pray a Divine Mercy chaplet, so it would be great if right when I finished it, a train came by so I got to spend more time outside, and wouldn't you know that just as I finished it, I heard a train coming? Sometimes I feel like I'm a little frog living in a terrarium someone set up just for me, only instead of water and a rock to sit on and a warming light, I have a tennis court and a boat slip and a spot where I can watch trains pass by. I even get to watch hummingbirds, but the other day there was a little drama there, when one was chasing another one away from the feeder. Why? There's plenty of nectar in there, and there are four openings for them to drink from. No need to chase each other away! In Irish they are called buzz birds, which is a great name for them. The sound their wings make is more of a buzz than a hum.

This evening my neighbor invited me over for Thirsty Thursday, and we had a margarita and snacks, then after Travalon came home, he and I took a boat ride way back into the marsh. Sometimes by this late in the season the marsh is choked off by lotuses, but this year there is a lot of open water, so we were able to go way back and could have gone even further if it weren't so late. The lotuses have lots of buds, and a few are starting to bloom. The ones closer to our dock actually look better, so we can probably just harvest seeds from them. We also saw a great blue heron who did not look the least bit interested in us. The weather had been perfect all day, and it was a beautiful boat ride, heading into the sunset as we started back home. We may not get a chance to go sailing this summer, but at least we can get on the water in our "baidean."

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Happy Birthday to Anna Banana II from the Zoom Cow

 

Sorry that I didn't blog yesterday. I didn't have much to say, and I'm sort of grumpy about all the extra stuff I have to do at work. Years ago, when I was a student, I used to get the Chicago Tribune, and there was a comic strip in there called "Mr. Boffo." There was one strip where the couple were trying to get a mortgage, and their loan officer said, "Now tomorrow I'm going to need you to bring me a six-foot thimble," which is about how I felt today. I had to go across campus twice today, once to get a new bus pass because I lost mine yesterday, when it only had a month left on it, and once to bring two forms of ID to prove I'm me to get access to payroll information. Not that I want access to payroll information, mind you, but nobody else can do it right now so it has to be me. I did mention to the chair that it would be nice to be compensated for all this extra work, but she just ignored that I said that, so that must mean a raise or bonus is off the table. She did promise to bring me chocolate.

Meanwhile I have been getting so into French on DuoLingo that I have been really neglecting Irish. Not entirely my fault, because French is so much easier for me than Irish, and also it has these cheesy stories that I love reading. Irish just has exercises, no stories. I did write one sentence in French that DuoLingo didn't like, and I couldn't figure out for a moment what the problem was until realizing that the first half of the sentence was in Irish and the second half was in French. I was supposed to translate "My sister is funny," and I wrote, "Ta mo soeur amusante,"which means nothing. In Irish it would have been "Ta mo dheirfiur greannmhar," and in French it should have been "Ma soeur est amusante." The other thing about French DuoLingo is that it makes me speak French to it, but it has trouble understanding my French R, so I have to keep repeating words like "boire" (to drink). Pretty soon I'm yelling "BWAAARRRR!" at my phone. Travalon must be so annoyed! He said he finds it sexy when people speak French, but come on, how sexy is "BWAAARRR!!"? Oddly, right after that it made me say thanks, and I was laughing so hard about "BWAARRR" while trying to say "merci," but it had no trouble understanding "merci" through my laughter. Maybe I should laugh while saying "boire" - it can't hurt.

Today is Anna Banana II's birthday, so after Night Prayer we were goofing around on Zoom. She and I had different virtual glasses on, and then she had a screen that made it look like she was in a movie, but apparently not a very popular one because all the seats in the theater were empty. I made myself into a cow wearing a hoodie, and it could blink when I blinked and even stick out its tongue when I did, but it couldn't wink when I did. When I wiggled my ears, it did too, but it didn't acknowledge my hands at all. Another guy made himself into a panda bear. The problem is that when I'm on Zoom, I'm either at a work meeting or praying, so making myself into a cow or panda bear isn't that appropriate. I used to be able to put a halo over my head, but then when Travalon poked his head into the picture, the halo jumped from my head to his. That actually makes sense - he's a lot more angelic than I am! Anyway, Happy Birthday to Anna Banana II, and I'm glad we got to celebrate with you by goofing around on Zoom. None of us celebrated as hard as Jilly Moose, who sang "Happy Birthday" to her in a hamster voice thanks to her "Happy-oke" microphone. She has a "Jolly-oke" one too, for the holidays. That lady is prepared to party!

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Happy 25th Birthday, Monona Terrace!

 

Yesterday after Mass, when we went to our usual brunch destination, it was closed with no explanation, so we went up the street to a much pricier place. Travalon and I had lattes with limoncello in them, which were sort of weird. Then he and I went back to Pheasant Branch to hike on a trail with lagoons and little foot bridges.

Then we went to Leopold's to cool off. Travalon showed me the secret downstairs room.

We ordered iced pandan lattes, and before the barista added the espresso, they were a beautiful sea foam green.

Here's the finished product! It was delicious and very refreshing!

I didn't know what a "pandan" was, so I googled it, and it's a pandanus, which is a kind of plant that Ma Hat used to have. She inherited it from her Nana. I think she got rid of it long ago, but who knew she could have just eaten it?

Then we went to the 25th Birthday Party for the Monona Terrace. As my longtime readers may remember, I gave Travalon a commemorative brick on the top of the Terrace for our anniversary one year, so now I'm officially a donor and get invited to these things. Although I think it was actually open to everyone... and it was free. It was a perfect party: the evening was beautiful, sitting up there above the lake, as we listened to a salsa band and a soul band and ate free cake and ice cream. We got dinner from a Jamaican food cart. So good! And then at the end of the night - a drone show! It's like fireworks without the loud booms. Sorry that neither of us got a photo of the first design they did, which was the State Capitol Building. Here's Bucky Badger, courtesy of Travalon.

Smiling cheese!

Pink flamingos are the city bird of Madison.

Sailboats fit with the setting.

Here's our state!

And the Monona Terrace with a 25 on it kind of looks like a birthday cake.

Then we saw this nearby municipal building all lit up - for the party?

Today was a much weirder day. All these strange little coincidences happened, like that my bus was Bus 8 (but the 28 route) just like that little horse-drawn streetcar we saw at the Illinois Railway Museum, and then when I told Travalon that I had "Sloop John B" stuck in my head, he said he did too! We went out to play some tennis (but today my FitBit thought we just walked instead of sporting), and from that vantage point Travalon could see our nuttiest neighbor put something into our recycle bin, which was out because early tomorrow morning the city will empty it. After we finished playing, we went to investigate, and she had put dozens of empty beer cans into our bin!! Worse, a lot of it was cheap beer! Some people suggested I tell her that if she's going to put all her empties into our bin, she should at least invite us to the party, but our condo board president said don't say anything to her, he's going to handle it. It isn't exactly against the bylaws, but she's like that: the board told her that she has to keep her dog on a leash, so she puts a leash on him but doesn't hold the other end. I mean, it doesn't say in the bylaws that you have to hold onto your dog's leash, just that he has to be on one. So she's that kind of person.

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Two Evenings at Breese Stevens Field

 

Sorry for not blogging last night - I was getting too into doing French on DuoLingo. Those silly little stories they have are addictive! I forgot to mention that Thursday as I prayed the rosary at lunch while walking in the one bit of shade in our neighborhood, I looked up and was suddenly three feet away from the pair of cranes that have a teenage colt. Fortunately they weren't upset at all - in fact, I think they invaded my space rather than vice versa - so I just kept walking, out into the sun. Ugh. I also saw the male black-chinned hummingbird once, and he was gorgeous, black on top with a metallic green sheen, and with a garnet-colored throat. I see the female at the feeder constantly. Maybe she has babies she needs to feed - I'd love to see them!

Yesterday Tiffy was busy, so Travalon and I went to the same seafood restaurant as last week, and then we went to the Bodega at Breese Stevens Field. It was a bunch of little local vendors with stands, and I bought a bunch of stuff I didn't need, like Ringo the Octopus. But c'mon, look at that smile!

I bought this neon painting, hoping it might glow under blacklight.

I seem to have this photo upside down. Oddly, only the pink glows under blacklight.

And I got these earrings that looked like they would glow under blacklight.

And they do!

Here you can see the colors a little more vividly.

Today Travalon and I slept until just after nine, which is very late for us, and we didn't even go to bed late. I guess a week of doing my boss's job on top of mine wore me out, and he got tired from taking the kids to the county fair yesterday. We met Jilly Moose and Richard Bonomo for coffee downtown, then we shopped on State Street with Jilly Moose. The woman at the New Age shop remembered Travalon because he had been wearing a Van Halen T-shirt last time, and her son has the same name, so when Travalon came into the New Age shop looking for us, everyone said, "Travalon's here!" like he was royalty. I got some tea which is cold brewing right now, so we'll have it tomorrow.

It was very hot, so Travalon and I were going to walk at the mall, but then we thought maybe we would take a hike at Pheasant Branch since it's so shady. By the time we got there, the sky had clouded over so it wasn't as hot. I always love going to the spot where you can gaze upon the hill as the creek seems to run toward it. Once again there was someone kayaking in the creek today. I know the hill is not really a mountain, and it should have lost all its mystique that time Rich pulled me up it as fast as I could go, but it still seems mystical somehow, especially on a cloudy day just before a storm. Days like that always feel so evocative. We hiked for over an hour, then we went to the bubble tea place on University Avenue and had bubble tea and mint s'mores cookies. (My FitBit said we had already burned the cookies off, but just now when I entered my food for the day, my calorie count was a disaster and the hike didn't do much to counteract it.) Then we went to Curd Fest, right back at Breese Stevens Field, but this year there weren't tons of vendors selling all sorts of flavors of curds. Culver's was selling poutine and giving away free T-shirts, so they had a very long line all the way across the field, and then on the far side there were four stands with weird combinations like watermelon and curds. We got in the relatively short line for Kurdish Curds, and they were delicious, deep-fried with wonderful Mideastern spices. I kept hearing thunder, so we headed home, and just after we got here, the sky unleashed a barrage of lightning, rain, and even hail. The 25th Anniversary event for the Monona Terrace was postponed until tomorrow evening, so we just had a quiet evening at home, watching my YouTube videos on the TV. It's fun to see them on a big screen.

Famous Hat