Friday I took the afternoon off of work to go to my Irish teacher's funeral. At first I hardly saw anyone there that I knew, but some arrived right before the brief service. I talked the dance teacher into going to the party afterwards at the East Side Club, and we hung out for the whole party. I knew a lot of the musicians, who played Irish tunes for two hours. It was great! After the musicians packed up and we all got ready to leave, one musician said we had to have another gathering for all the people who were out of town, and she mentioned all the people I'd been expecting to see there. The dance teacher told me more details about the Irish teacher's illness: she found out in August that she had 12-18 months to live, but it moved so quickly that she actually had less than two months. I'm somewhat out of the loop, so I hadn't known she was sick, but everyone else was just shocked that it happened so quickly.
Saturday Travalon and I went to Hartland to have coffee at one of the Trail Businesses, and they gave me 10% off my pumpkin latte because we mentioned that we were there because of the Mammoth Hike Challenge. Then we took a hike on the Hartland section of the Ice Age Trail, which is right in town. I have photos, but for some reason they are taking forever to load, so I'll post them tomorrow.
We met Travalon's old school buddy and his girlfriend for lunch at the Delafield Brewhaus, which is another Trail Business. His buddy asked me why I prefer minor-key music, so I tried to briefly explain about equal temperament, and it turns out his girlfriend knows a lot about music. Cool! Then Travalon and I hiked on the Lapham Peak segment of the Ice Age Trail, and there were candelabras and all sorts of gravestones with punny names like Manny Bones and Myra Maines, we assume in preparation for a Fright Hike later this month that we saw advertised. Travalon took photos, so look for those tomorrow.
We had some time before the concert in Milwaukee, so we drove down to Vernon Marsh. To our surprise, the marsh was technically closed September through November, but we sat on a bench overlooking it, and I spotted an egret, so at least we saw one marsh bird. The colors were more intense in the eastern part of the state than back in Madison, maybe because the drought wasn't as bad there.
We tried to grab a bite to eat at Subway before the concert, but their bathroom was out of order, so we went across the street to Potbelly, which had a working bathroom and slightly fancier sandwiches. Then we went to the beautiful Pabst Theater to see the Little River Band. At this point none of the original members are left, and in fact none of the current members are even Australian, so it feels a little like they're a cover band, but they were really good and could nail the harmonies in all those hit songs.
Since we got back from Milwaukee pretty late last night, we didn't wake up until about two minutes before our usual Mass started, so off we went to the one at 10:30 north of us again. Today was actually sunny, so after having pandan lattes at Leopold's, we went out to Cross Plains to a pizza place that is a Trail Business, and then we walked on the boardwalks there that are part of the Ice Age Trail. I hated to go inside for Irish class, but it got overcast and cool anyway, plus we did something really fun. We broke into two teams, and each one had to give a place, a character, a weather condition, a food, and an animal for the other team to create a story. So the other team took our words to create a story about a pelican with a cucumber stuck in its pouch, wandering through the snow, so it went into a church to warm up, and a cowboy helped pull the cucumber out of its pouch. We took their words to create a story about a teacher who caught a mouse in her house, but the mouse said it would grant her one wish if she let it go. She wanted to go to the moon, so suddenly there she was on the moon, and there was fog that smelled like chocolate so she realized the moon was made of chocolate, not cheese.
I had even more fun at band practice. The bandmate who hosts practice lent me her grandson's violin, and our bass player also brought her violin, so the three of us played Irish jigs and reels while the guitarist played rhythm. I was surprised at how well I was doing. Maybe it's time to bring the fiddle to the slow Irish jam instead of the mandolin. I had brought the mandolin with me to practice today, and at first I did use it to play a harmony on "Amazing Grace." It's hardly neglected, so don't feel sorry for it. We don't have any upcoming gigs, so we might as well do whatever we want during practice.
Famous Hat
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