I Am Excellent! (Apparently)

 

I forgot to take a picture of the sea turtle mirror I got in the antiques mall in Oconomowoc.

It truly is a mirror - you can see my arm reflected in it. I also didn't take a picture of the T-shirt Travalon bought at Mystic Ireland, but it was a turtle carrying a Guinness on its shell. Not sure where it is now... maybe I can get a photo of Travalon actually wearing it at some point.

I forgot to mention that at the Baroque music concert on Saturday, someone near me smelled wonderful. I generally dislike perfumes and colognes, but this smelled more natural, and very familiar. Was it clove oil? Maybe frankincense or myrrh? I know I've smelled it before, and I don't associate it with either gender, so I have no clue who was wearing it. But that sure added to the experience!

Remember when I was frustrated with being bombarded by nominations for the Staff Excellence Award, and then I was feeling sorry for myself for never being nominated, but in fact I WAS nominated? This afternoon I got an email that I won!! When I told everyone about it on Night Prayer, they wondered if I would get a "major award," and most of us understood immediately that this would be a leg lamp, so I said, "The soft glow of electric sex in the window," but the Dairyman's Daughter was confused because she has never seen A Christmas Story. I can't believe there are people who still haven't seen it - they only show it for like 72 straight hours right before Christmas. While a leg lamp would be very cool, this is a monetary award, and it's pretty generous. I won't get it in time for Christmas, but it will come right before my birthday. What a birthday present from the College! The people who nominated me were my boss, the department chair, and the former chair, whom I have mentioned on here before; for example, he and I discussed psychedelic drugs being used for depression, and how they have to talk the people with no religious backgrounds through their trips. I'll bet he didn't mention that particular conversation on his nomination...

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Pro-Palestine Rally on Campus

 

I forgot to mention all the interesting instruments at the Irish Slow Jam last night. Besides fiddles, guitars, and tin whistles, there were accordions, two banjos, a mountain dulcimer (should I bring mine sometime?), and quite a few mandolins. I love seeing - and hearing - all those instruments! And there is a bodhran player who keeps the beat, and once we have the song down pretty well on the first or second time through, then he speeds it up for the third (and sometimes fourth) go-around. I was surprised how well I did this time compared to past times, but maybe I am learning the tunes, since more of them seem familiar. Even if I'm not sure I've heard them before, my fingers seem to know where to go.

Today I worked on campus, and it was very cold. As I was waiting for the bus, across the street there was a pro-Palestine rally, and I thought it was very brave of them to stand around waving flags and chanting in the bitter cold. Some people honked as they passed by, but I'm not sure if they were for or against them. I personally think you can be in favor of a Palestinian state without either being anti-Semitic or thinking that it's okay for terrorists to rape and kill Israelis. It seems like everyone wants to make it a very us-versus-them kind of debate, but to me it's simple: innocent Israelis should not be killed. Innocent Palestinians should not be killed. I don't like either of their governments, but I feel for both groups of people. We shouldn't gloss over either the evils that occurred during the founding of the State of Israel (and the ongoing suppression of the Palestinians by the Israeli government) or the terrible things Hamas did in October. Finding a way forward will not involve an eye for an eye, believe me.

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End of an Era

 

This morning we woke up too late to go to our own parish for the last Sunday Mass at our church for the foreseeable future, so we went to the Mass in the gym. Afterwards we met Rich and the brunch regulars at Tutto Pasta because it is moving, so the era of going to our church and then Tutto Pasta for brunch is definitely over. It feels surreal, since I've gone to this church more than half my life.

We met Jilly Moose at the zoo and walked all over, going into the various buildings to warm up. Not too many people were there today. Here are some photos. First, a very cute little mint green poison frog.

The lions were getting frisky today, but here they are just chilling between lovemaking sessions.

I don't know why the alpacas are shaved when it's cold out. They need their wool!

The Bactrian camel doesn't mind the cold.

The flamingos would, but they are inside right now.

The red panda doesn't mind the cold either.

The meerkats are safely inside in the warmth.

So is the African porcupine. You would think the American porcupines wouldn't mind the cold, but they didn't seem to be out today.

These gibbons have a choice of being in or out, and they were in.

The seal was having a great time swimming around in the bubbly water.

In the aviary, we saw this white-faced duck.

We also saw these loud blue macaws.

Afterwards we walked over to the ZuZu Cafe for a warm drink, then Travalon and I stopped at Meep Meepleton's because he was bummed that we didn't get there yesterday. He got a Dr. Bunsen Honeydew figurine with a robot rabbit.

I chose a mystery unicorn figurine; it could be one of eight designs that were different desserts. They all looked good, and some looked beautiful, but of course I got Carrot Cake. I don't particularly like carrot cake.

In the evening Travalon and Jilly Moose listened to our Slow Irish Jam, and one of my bandmates came too. She took a photo of me, but it's pretty grainy.

Travalon made a video of us playing the Kesh Jig, so maybe someday I'll try to post that somehow. 

Here are photos of our various Small Business Saturday purchases. First is the poster Travalon got of local bookstores in Wisconsin.

Soap is fun AND practical!

Here's the T-shirt Travalon got at Sunshine Daydream.

Here is the journal he got at the University Bookstore. It's the Yellow Submarine, so a Beatles theme.

This is the squishy Bucky Badger I got at the University Bookstore. I didn't need it, but we had a coupon for 20% off.

I got this tapestry at Sunshine Daydream. It was hard to photograph. Maybe I'll try to take a picture of it once I get it hung up.

And here are the things I got on Friday. First, the rosaries from the Oconomowoc antiques mall.

This is the necklace I got at the Mystic Ireland shop. I was wearing it in the photo my bandmate took.

And we got some stuff at the zoo today. Here's a cute little red panda in a hat that Travalon named Moe.

Just what I needed - another hoodie. But it's for a good cause.

At the zoo, a young bison was butting a hanging toy, and Travalon made a video. It's pretty funny. He made a couple of other videos there too. Someday I really need to post some of these videos.

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Small Business Saturday 2023

 

This morning Travalon and I went downtown for Small Business Saturday. We got on the free Holiday Trolley right away to get the bag with coupons in it, but the coupons weren't for places we were planning to visit today. However, they were to places we will go to soon. We took the trolley to the campus end of State Street and went to Paul's Books, where Travalon bought a book about railroads and I bought the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and a book about Tibetan Buddhism by the teacher of the guy who wrote the other book about Tibetan Buddhism that I recently read. Then we went to the University Bookstore because we had gotten a coupon on the trolley, and Travalon got a journal and I got a squishy Bucky Badger. We went to Sunshine Daydream, and Travalon got a Woodstock T-shirt and I got a tapestry. Then we went to B-Side Records, and he got the new records by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. (Didn't know they were still putting out records, did you?) We caught the other trolley and went around the Square, and then Travalon got a map of local Wisconsin bookshops at Anthology.

We had to head home, because I had a gig at a retirement community in Verona. Travalon kindly drove me there, and he checked out a new bookstore in town, but it was too feminist for his taste. He went to the Hop Haus and had a beer while we led a Thanksgiving singalong. When he came back, we weren't quite done because they had requested an encore. Eventually we will get paid for this gig; they are mailing the check to one bandmate, and then she will pay the rest of us. The residents and their visiting family members seemed appreciative, and I have to say that they sang with great gusto. I was afraid they were just going to sit and listen to us sing.

On the way back, we listened to the Badger game in the car a bit, and the announcers said you had to love the quarterback Tanner Mordecai, so we were joking that you had to love him and hug him and squeeze him and name him George, after that Bugs Bunny cartoon mocking Of Mice and Men. When we got home, Travalon turned on the game, and to our surprise the Badgers killed the Golden Gophers, so the Paul Bunyan Axe is back in Madison. Is this the same team we watched getting slaughtered by Northwestern?? Might I point out that they were on the road today, which makes it that much more surprising when they couldn't beat Northwestern - NORTHWESTERN!! - at home.

In the evening I went to an early music concert that was just wonderful. I sat with a bandmate and the former bandmate formerly known as Banjo (then Lute) Player, and her husband. I loved the two Monteverdi madrigals sung by a soprano and a mezzo-soprano. The soprano also sang a fun piece by Barbara Strozzi about how all love songs suck, and the mezzo sang a haunting aria by Telemann, accompanied by recorders. There was a flute concerto by Telemann too, and Corelli done on a viola da gamba, and I'm pretty sure it was the same guy I saw at the free noon concert a couple of weeks ago doing the same Bach harpsichord pieces, and also a very interesting piece for just two violas da gamba. I think there were also a couple of pieces in there by composers I'd never heard of, which is typical for this group. They really find the obscure composers... and most of the time I think there's a reason they're obscure. Some music still sounds amazing hundreds of years later... and some might as well be forgotten.

Here are some photos to tide you over, because I forgot to take photos of the stuff I've bought in the last two days. First, Ma and Pa Hat really decorated for the season. I think most of these fruits and vegetables are plastic, but the pumpkin outside of the cornucopia looks like it is possibly real.

And here are a couple photos Travalon took from our short walk by Mill Creek in Delafield yesterday.

Photos of the stuff we got coming soon, I promise!

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Weed Music and Air Quotes Confetti Reprise

 

This morning Travalon and I visited his mother, brother, and sister-in-law. His brother brought cheesecake, which is definitely a thing I didn't need, but I took a piece anyway. Travalon and I had lunch at an Indian restaurant in Oconomowoc called Mantra, then we participated in the Black Friday nonsense by going across the street to the antiques mall, and I found a bunch of rosaries and a sea turtle mirror. Photos soon. We drove to Greenfield and went to Mystic Ireland, a shop that sells - you guessed it - Celtic stuff, and Travalon got a T-shirt while I got a necklace. Then we hiked at Lapham Peak again, since it was right on the way home. It was much colder today, but still okay if you really bundled up. We stopped to get coffee to brew at Blue Collar Coffee in Delafield, and I had a small eggnog latte at that inadvisably late hour, so we'll see if I can ever sleep tonight. Then we took a very short walk to the bridge behind it over Mill Creek, and when I turned around, there were such interesting contrails around the moon.

While we were hiking at Lapham Peak, I heard a weird, loud squeak, and I cried, "Omigawd, what was THAT?" It was just Travalon sliding his gloved hand along the stalk of a weed by the side of the trail, so he said it was just "weed music." Now if you, like me, thought "weed music" was Bob Marley, the possibility of an actual weed producing actual music might strike you as hilarious, and so I was laughing like crazy when an actual crazy person (i.e., jogger) ran by wearing shorts and probably wondered what my problem was when he was clearly the one with the problem. 

I forgot to mention that on our walk at Jackson's Landing, a second person recognized Travalon's Wolverhampton hat. Who knew there were so many Premier League fans in Madtown?

Not long after we got home, Cali came over, and the three of us walked over to Mariner's for a fish fry. She told us about a bunch of documentaries she thought we would enjoy, so we'll have to see if we can find them, either at the library or on one of the services Travalon subscribes to. It was an early evening, since she was tired, so then I joined Night Prayer. The others were surprised to see me, since usually on Fridays I'm talking to Tiffy, but she's doing family stuff tonight. During the chat after the prayer, I said something about "Captain Andy" who took us fishing in Alaska, how I'd expected him to be a grizzled old sailor but he was young enough to be my son, and I made the air quotes again... and once again Zoom made confetti fall in my square! So it must be the air quotes motion and not the phrase "Quiet Quitting" that triggers the confetti. So we were all trying to do air quotes, but it didn't work for anyone else. I said "Captain Andy" again with air quotes, and I got balloons in my Zoom square, but then it didn't do anything any other time I made air quotes. The others said it must be a setting I have in Zoom, but what setting would trigger a celebration when someone makes air quotes? Is it a "celebration"?

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Thanksgiving 2023

 

This is going to be a very music-oriented week for me, because Tuesday we had an "emergency" band practice before our gig on Saturday, and Sunday is the Slow Irish Jam, and of course last night was the classic rock jam at the East Side Club. As usual, they made me get up there and play "Norwegian Wood" with way too many sharps, "Lucky Man" (a song I find incredibly boring), and "Maggie May," but if that's the price of getting to hear all these fabulous musicians for free, so be it. Travalon recorded my songs, so I can see that I am improving but am still not at the level of these other musicians. Guess I'm a lazy musician; I only know how to play in about four keys. Last night a bunch of guys got up, including a bass player who was dressed like a sexy woman, and they killed it with "Man in the Box" by Alice in Chains. Later the man in the sexy black dress sat down at the keyboard, and he led the others (including a guy who'd been playing guitar earlier but then grabbed a trumpet) in "So What" by Miles Davis, "Green Onions" by Booker T and the MGs, and "Take Five" by Dave Brubeck. The guy who leads the jam, who usually plays guitar but can also play keyboard and drums, pulled out a flute for "So What." I am in awe of the talent! That's why I LOVE this jam - you never know what's going to happen! But it will usually be amazing! It was also Game Night, so there were a lot of people there, sometimes randomly shouting "Uno!" Because today is a holiday, instead of ending at ten, the jam went until after eleven, and late in the evening the guy who does Billy Joel songs showed up and did some, and also "Fantasy" by my favorite band of all time: Earth, Wind, and Fire. I had wanted to try to sing "Jolene," but I forgot my phone at home and so couldn't look up the words, so forget that. Maybe next week. They did a couple of Rush songs too, "Limelight" and "YYZ," and while I have never enjoyed listening to Rush, hearing the songs live made me realize how intricate they are, with lots of time changes and stuff. Is this the next step to my becoming a Rush fan??

Today we had a lot to be thankful for, like Jordan Love and Rashan Gary. They led the offense and the defense to an amazing victory over the 8-2 (now 8-3) Lions in Detroit. Such hot offense! Love was lobbing them in the air! Such vicious defense! Gary got three and a half sacks and two strips, and the whole defense put so much pressure on the Lions' quarterback, Goff, that he was off-balance for most of the game. Right at the end he looked like he might pull it off, but it was too little, too late. It was a relatively nice day out if you bundled up, and very sunny, so before the game I took a rosary walk, and afterwards we took a hike at Jackson's Landing.

As usual, we went to Rich's house for Thanksgiving dinner, and as usual we provided the turkey (but he cooked it). As usual, the dessert guy brought three desserts (key lime pie, butterscotch pie, and an apple pecan cake), and also a couple of sides, like a custard noodle dish. Cecil Markovitch brought his famous spinach salad, and Rich made peas and stuffing and rolls, but nobody thought to bring cranberries because Kathbert went somewhere else for dinner today. I totally could have made some cranberry sauce - I learned a couple of years ago how ridiculously easy it is to make. The family with the three boys brought pumpkin bread pudding and scalloped potatoes. The two older boys are memorizing famous speeches, and the four-year-old is learning just from watching them. He recited the Gettysburg Address for us! And then he laughed and grabbed something he wasn't supposed to, and later he threw up on his plate because he's four, and that's what they do. He was also obsessed with the pink hippo Jilly Moose once gave Rich for his birthday that raps about how she likes! big! hugs! on a takeoff of "Baby Got Back," so we heard that in the background for a lot of the dinner. El Vegetariano was there too, and he and Travalon could talk about nerdy stuff I don't know about, like comic books. Travalon also talked to Dessert Guy a lot, and I talked to his son. Their daughter and sister, who is about to give birth in a week, won a whole bunch on Jeopardy! She was amazing to watch! So I know someone who's almost kind of famous! If you google her name, it calls her "Fan Favorite Lady Harriet Whimsy" (not her real name, her blog name), so she may not have won the tournament, but she won the hearts of the viewers!

Here is a beautiful sunset I saw from work yesterday:

And here's what it looked like from my office window, which faces east:

Now that I have a master key to every office on our floor, I can go into offices facing west to see the winter sunsets. Last winter I could see how beautiful one must have looked from the reflections off the buildings I can see facing east, but I couldn't find the one master key we had at the time to get into an office facing west. So glad that problem is solved!

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My Brain on Irish: A Dialogue

 

Typical conversation between me and my tired, old brain during Irish class:

Me: Quick, what's the word for "old"?

Brain: Vieux.

Me: No, that's French. I need Irish.

Brain: I got... nothing.

Me: Come on, eight years of studying Irish and you don't know this word?

Brain: Maybe stop doing hours of French on DuoLingo. You pushed all the Irish out of me.

(Time passes.)

Brain: It's "sean."

Me: What? Oh, the word for "old" in Irish? I don't need it now. Is there an accent on the A?

Brain: An accent? You assume I care about accents.

Me: But they're two different words. When it's pronounced "shawn," it's Irish for "John." When it's pronounced "shan," then it's Irish for "old." But which one has the accent? The fada?

Brain: I don't do accents. We don't have them in English, and I refuse to acknowledge their existence. I don't do them in French either, remember? DuoLingo just reminds us to put them in, but it doesn't actually mark it wrong if we don't. So why should I care?

Me: Indeed.

And... scene.

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The View from Blue Mound

 

I am on a committee at work that, among other things, chooses the awards among the nominees in our college. Usually I get a link to a folder containing all the nominees in the various categories, but last week I was being bombarded with links to each individual nomination... and then when I clicked on them, they didn't work. I was annoyed and started having a pity party of one, thinking, "Nobody ever nominates ME for this award!" but what I should have realized was that of course the reason things were so bizarre this year is because I WAS nominated, but they didn't want me to see my nomination, and then they realized they didn't want me ranking anyone else in my category either. This morning we had the meeting to decide the winners, and I had to recuse myself when they talked about my category. I don't expect to win, since the committee rarely awards people who are on the committee, probably figuring it looks really bad, but it was an honor just to be nominated.

I also had a Staff Congress meeting this afternoon. Years ago when I was first elected, I didn't know anyone there and was a bit jealous of the people who knew each other and sat together. Now I get there and everyone's like, "Famous! Sit here! I'll hold your cookie while you get settled." They had cookies and warm apple cider for us today. I probably shouldn't have had that snickerdoodle, but I just found out my numbers are good, I don't have diabetes, and the doctor said keep doing whatever I'm doing. Which I figure means one snickerdoodle now and then can't hurt.

In the evening I went to an ecumenical Thanksgiving service at a nondenominational church. The parking lot was enormous, and I walked half a mile to get to the church. Inside, it was bigger than some concert halls I've been to, and I had to sit up in the balcony because the main floor was already full. So now that I've given you an idea about the size of this church, guess how many stalls were in the women's bathroom? Two! Apparently Protestants don't have to pee. To be fair, there were two more toilets in the basement, but if you're sitting in the balcony, would you really want to run down that many flights of stairs? People cheered after each church's musical performance, so it felt more like a talent show than a religious service, and I felt the sermon was a bit on the "convert so Jesus will give you everything you want" side. It annoyed me a bit, and later I found out the Orthodox walked out because they were so offended by it. Perhaps I'm Orthodox?

I forgot to mention that Saturday Travalon and I went to the co-op for some groceries, and a guy there recognized his Wolverhampton hat! He was so stoked!! (Today a kid thought it meant he was a wolf catcher.) The guy was an Everton fan - he likes the Toffees! Then I ran into someone I knew years ago when I used to play with the early music group. Who knew we'd have so much social interaction at the grocery store?

As promised, here are some of the photos Travalon took from the Tower at Blue Mound State Park. We didn't go up the West Tower because a) we were tired after our hike, and b) if we could barely see the State Capitol 23 miles away, then how would we see Dubuque, which is about 65 miles from there?

Here's a photo from the lower level of the tower.

These are rock formations along the Indian Marker Tree Trail.

And here are views of the Driftless Area from Blue Mound.

I did find this view of the Madison State Capitol Building from Blue Mound, just to prove you can see it from up there. Maybe on Friday we will try tackling the West Tower. Travalon thought we might be able to see the House on the Rock from up there. I just like looking at the hills you can see towards Madison, because those must be the same hills we were on while hiking the Ice Age Trail, when we could see Blue Mound. Sometime I want to go to a tall building in Milwaukee to see if Holy Hill is visible from there, since downtown Milwaukee is visible from Holy Hill. If we do that, we'll take photos for sure.

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