Beloit Brought It Out In Me

 

Sorry for two days of silence. Friday I worked from home and almost got caught up from being on vacation, and then in the evening I talked to Tiffy. Yesterday we were very busy. The first thing we did was go visit Travalon's mom, who is not doing well. She was a bit agitated at first, but then she seemed to be singing. I couldn't tell what song, but the first word was "All."

Then we met Tiffy in Milwaukee and went to the empanada restaurant for lunch. We took a short walk in the neighborhood, and we saw this in someone's yard.

Travalon and Tiffy were both amused by my story about the French restaurant that advertised kangaroo and ostrich. Ethel and I went to it, and she ordered ostrich while I ordered kangaroo. The waiter said they were out of kangaroo, and I was disappointed, but I asked what it tasted like, and he said, "Eland." Is that a thing? Has everyone in France tried eland? All I know is that they are the largest antelope, but I've certainly never encountered one on my plate.

Then we went to a coffee place, and I was telling Tiffy how Travalon and I were once making up rap songs for the geese, and he was particularly good at it. He said, "Beloit brought it out in me," and I said that would be a great blog post title. We dropped a few goose rhymes right there, and she said we should send them to an actual rapper. She suggested a couple, so I said, "No, Drake." Then we both laughed till we couldn't breathe. I was imagining Drake in his multimillion-dollar mansion in Toronto opening this letter with rap songs from the point of view of geese, and I just couldn't stop laughing. He does have the (almost) perfect name for it. Maybe we should write some rap songs from the point of view of ducks...

Tiffy and I went to a concert of 16th century Italian music performed by a group from Switzerland, then Travalon (who had gone to a dive bar called Wolski's) met us at a nearby Irish restaurant, but they had an hourlong wait, so we went to the Irish pub in Wauwatosa, Mo's. I got my usual grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup, and Tiffy and Travalon were getting soup before their meals, so the waitress asked if I wanted my soup ahead of time too, and I said sure. Look - they wrote in my soup!

Then when my sandwich came, there was another cup of soup with it. You know how I can't waste anything, and I figured it was just liquid and mushed-up tomatoes, so I ate it... and then I felt very ill. I still don't feel so well today. It was way too much soup!!

Today Travalon and I went to Mass in the gym, then we went for a long walk at Tenney Park, all the way to the good chocolate place which was open for once today. The proprietress even gave us free tea to drink with our good chocolate. Here are some photos from our walk. First, a coot.

A pair of mallard ducks.

Railroad tracks that cross the Tenney path.

It was so warm someone was canoeing. In February!!

This is one of the bridges we walk under on the path.

Then we went for a hike at Cherokee Marsh, and there was quite a loud bird party there with the tundra swans, Canada geese, gulls, and even a crane or two. My birdsong app only recognized the geese, but it did say there were white-fronted geese too. I thought the swans wouldn't come back until March, but maybe they never left. The cranes have apparently been back for weeks, and they didn't leave until mid-January, so at some point migration becomes a ridiculous waste of time. Anyway, here are some photos of the swans and other birds. 

I love this photo of two swans kissing:

Here are the gulls.

Travalon left to visit his mother, bringing a CD of big band music to play for her, and I went to the Slow Irish Session, along with most of my bandmates. It seemed to go really well for me tonight, so maybe I have learned most of these songs. My fingers seem to know where to go. They did play some songs that I know for sure, like "Si Bheag, Si Mhor" and "Ashoken Farewell," which is not a traditional Irish tune but kind of sounds like it. Boy, Spellcheck hates both those songs! I had a mango spinach smoothie and a pink lemonade cookie at the coffeehouse that hosts the Slow Irish Session, then I stopped for actual dinner at the Subway on the way home. I brought my mandolin into the restaurant, not feeling safe about leaving it in the car, and then I sat on one side of a booth with the mandolin on the other seat so that it felt like I was having dinner with her. When I told Travalon I'd had a romantic dinner with my mandolin, he wasn't jealous at all.

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