Party and Boat Ride on Friday

 

I forgot to mention the rest of my day on Friday. I went into the office because my colleague and I were going to an open house for a department on campus that we consult a lot. We had cake and sushi and other snacks, and we saw some people we know. A retired person came in, and she has lost a ton of weight since I went to her retirement party in December, so maybe that's what it would take for me to lose weight. I got an empanada from the food cart on Library Mall, just to have some actual lunch, and then my colleague and I took a free boat ride. Here we are.

Eventually I did go back to work until Travalon picked me up. That's where the story starts with my last blog post. Anyway, it was a perfect day for a boat ride. The day before had been too windy - our captain, who reminded me so much of Tiffy's dad, said they couldn't go out that day. He said he has renamed the buoy that they all call "David Buoy" - he now calls it "Buoyonce," because the kids studying limnology today probably have no idea who David Bowie is, but they have surely heard of Beyonce. 

Today Travalon and I were a bit slow to get going, so we went to the nearby church for Mass. We met up with the usual group for brunch, then we went to visit Travalon's mom. For some reason she always thinks that he works at a men's clothing store, so this time he just went with it and told her he works at the Boston Store, but that he used to work at Marshall Fields and make the Frango Mints. She asked if he got to eat the broken ones, and he said yes. Then he got even sillier and said he used to work at K-Mart and turn on the blue light for the Blue Light Specials, and she said, "You went to college to do that?" He was trying to talk a little Croatian to her, because he's been studying it on an apps called Drops. Have you heard of this? I hadn't either, so they must not publicize themselves well. Everyone has heard of DuoLingo (they even have a joke about it in the Barbie movie), Babbel, and Rosetta Stone. Those other two don't seem to have Irish, but Drops does. I've thought about checking it out, but Travalon says it's too basic for me. It just teaches you a few words. It wouldn't be worth it for me when I even know Irish grammar, to some extent.

Then we went to the Brookfield Square Mall, which is even more dead than East Towne Mall. We walked for twenty minutes, then we checked out a few shops and got bubble "tea," which were shakes made of gelato with tapioca pearls in them. I had mine made with green apple and coconut gelato, since you could get two flavors. I asked if those two would go together, and the girl working there said, "Coconut goes well with all the fruit flavors." It was very refreshing on this hot day! Then we hurried back to Madison for dinner at Rich's place. He made fresh brownies - yum! Gelato and brownies in one day? I will never lose weight!

Famous Hat