Corn Maze Fail

 

Yesterday morning Travalon and I went out for a boat ride into the marsh. It was quite windy out, but in the marsh it's a little more sheltered. Then we drove downtown to meet Tiffy; she and I ate at the Globe (which was mentioned in a USA Today article), sitting outside, while Travalon watched Premier League soccer at Cooper's Tavern, where the bartender's dad was from Wolverhampton. It was not a good sports day for him, because both the Wolves and Crystal Palace lost. He found us, then we walked down State Street and went to St. Paul's Catholic Student Center to go to the legendary balcony I'd heard was on the fifth floor. The young guy at the front desk asked where we were going, and I said the fifth floor with great confidence, figuring he'd assume we had business there if we knew were we were going. He said he wasn't supposed to let any non-students in, but we said we're Catholic, and alumni, and we just wanted to go to the balcony, so finally he let us go. Wow! What a view from up there! You can see the lake, and we could also see people on a balcony on the front of the Union. Check out this view of Bascom Hill.

We chillaxed for a bit on this balcony, which was shady and caressed by a lovely breeze.

Then we moved on to the Union Terrace, where Travalon spotted a table in the shade that overlooked the lake. After that relaxing afternoon, Travalon headed to a movie about the Brewers that Tiffy had recommended, while she and I went to a Madison Bach Musicians concert at Holy Wisdom Monastery. The theme was French Baroque, but they did have a piece by Bach, his French Orchestral Suite in B Minor. The second movement is one of those pieces that, if someone said, "Run for your life!" but the flute was about to do that run, I'd just stand there listening. It was amazing to hear it in person.

This morning Travalon and I went to Mass in the gym, but some of the regulars seem to have disappeared, and all these other people have appeared. I'm not sure what to think. Then we met Tiffy for brunch at Garver Mill, sitting outside. It was a very beautiful day, but a bit hot for running all over a corn maze, as we found out when we went to our usual one with Rich and another woman. Usually we find eight secret punches and get the special prize (a pen), but this year we couldn't find even one single punch. We did, however, see lots of huitlacoche, so Rich asked - and received - permission to collect it. We did finish the map, so I was hoping that we would get a Maze Master certificate with a photo of the maze, since this year it has an axolotl, a red panda, and a hedgehog, so it was like they made it for Travalon and me. (It also had a sloth.) The girl told me you only get that for finding at least four punches, but when I said, "We usually find eight and this year we couldn't find a single one!" she gave me the certificate. We never go this early, and the corn was still green, so maybe that's why we couldn't find the punches? The group ahead of us found all of them and also solved the extra maze, so I guess it's just us. 

On the way home Tiffy said she wanted a Culver's pumpkin shake, and that sounded good to us too, so we went to the drive-through, but Rich kept going in his car. Then he turned around and came back, and he and the other woman ordered dinner, so then he was surprised that we only had shakes. He said he pulled up right next to us while we were waiting for our shakes, but we didn't see him. Tiffy headed out, and Travalon made a pizza so he and I would have dinner, and then we joined Rich and the other woman on our dock to eat. They left when I had to go to band practice, where there were only three of us tonight. The others asked if I were in any other music groups these days, since in the past I have been in multiple bands and choirs, but I said no, just this band right now. They all have other music outlets, so I'm wondering if they want to pull the plug on this one and are just doing it out of pity for me. Once I retire, I can join one of the many ukulele groups that have invited me to join them, only they all meet during work time. I could join the choir at the church we go to now. Or I could just sit at home and play all my instruments here, and Travalon could play the bass. A couple times we jammed on our porch - we could make that a regular thing. And of course, there's always the shower to practice singing.

Famous Hat

Chicken Collages and Northern Lights

 

Today I worked on campus, since I'd worked from home yesterday, and at lunch I wanted to go see the chicken collages that my bandmate had made. Hardingfele was out of town, and my colleague was having lunch with her coworker, so I went by myself. Here are a couple of photos.

Tomorrow is the last day. I took photos of other artwork too but am not sure of the ethics of posting it here. It's a cute exhibit, if you have the time - lots of tiny artworks. Since that is what I had done over lunch instead of taking a rosary walk, I was going to pray the rosary on the shuttle home, but as it turned out, I had a private ride, so the bus driver and I chatted. He told me that in Kenosha they have trolleys, and one is from Nagasaki - it survived the detonation because it was behind a shed. That sounds amazing!

Travalon suggested we go to the Tiki Bar at the East Side Club while we still had the chance; he wanted to watch the sunset, but we got there just a bit too late. There was still some color in the sky.

We had a drink and sat gazing out at the lake until the sky was completely dark. I thought maybe I saw northern lights, and when we got home Travalon saw what I meant, so we went out on the dock and were pretty sure we saw them, but maybe they were just clouds. We went to Governor Nelson State Park and sat out on their dock, listening to the water lap against the shore and watching the northern lights. When we got home, I went back out onto our dock. This is probably the best photo I got.

I've seen much better photos on social media, but it's usually from people who live in darker areas, and they say they have their phone on a ten-second exposure. I can't seem to change mine from the default of a three-second exposure. It feels like there are northern lights, at least faint ones, every week lately. I believe there are solar storms going on right now, which is what is causing them. I've definitely seen better ones, like not this past April but the one before, but I've never seen them so frequently. Maybe there will be some really intense ones soon.

Famous Hat

Women Are Fleeing Christianity

 

Today I worked from home so that I could get to our annual condo association meeting without having to rush too much. I did join some neighbors for dinner beforehand at Mariner's Inn, and then the meeting went so well that everyone applauded our president at the end. Believe me, people weren't always so happy after our meetings.

I have been concerned for some time that the American Catholic church is getting too masculine in outlook. The leadership seems very concerned with engaging men, and it's become a bro-fest. I mean, there is a lot that is inherently sexist in Catholicism, like that women can't be priests, but that never bothered me because as a child I adored the nuns so much. However, now we have a high-profile convert running for vice president who says childless women shouldn't take part in society. While I still feel like the Church was founded by Christ, so I go to Mass, I have avoided getting more involved than that. It's hard to unsee things like how selfish a lot of people (especially men) were during the pandemic, refusing to wear a mask which is such a little ask. Think of all the things women are routinely asked to sacrifice for others! and you can't wear a piece of cloth over your face?? I thought maybe I was alone in being repulsed by this toxic masculinity in religion, but apparently not, because yesterday I read an article that said the biggest group leaving the church is women. The article noted that women are usually the ones who volunteer in religious organizations, and they have a lot of influence in how children are brought up. (Ignore those ridiculous videos that say, "If you get the father, you get the family." The ancient Jewish people knew kids are whatever their mother is.) It seems churches (not just the Catholic one) took women for granted, running after men as the more important constituents, and then women decided, "You know what? I'm done with this unpaid labor and this inherently sexist religion that insists that God and even all the angels are male." I salute my sisters who are giving Christianity the Sicilian salute. This is not the religion of Jesus, who valued women and made a huge point of engaging those who were considered morally compromised. Let the men try to run the Church without the help of women. This ought to be interesting. Religion without half the population - the more giving half, at that - is untenable.

Famous Hat

Black Uhuru

 

Sorry that I did not blog yesterday. It was a very quiet day where I worked from home, and there wasn't much to say. I thought maybe I'd write a creative post, like a poem or something, but inspiration did not arrive, so I just went to bed.

Today I worked on campus, and I almost missed the shuttle - it was there when I got to the parking lot, but it left as soon as I and one other woman who pulled in behind me and parked right next to me got on. I had to leave one meeting for another meeting, then I walked with my colleague at lunch, and our pace was slow for her but just right for me. I felt like I was running from place to place the whole day. Then I got home and changed into comfy clothes, thinking I'd have a few minutes before Travalon got home... but he got home the minute I had changed. 

We knew Black Uhuru were playing tonight at the Barrymore (where we saw another reggae band, Steel Pulse, almost exactly five years ago), but we didn't buy tickets ahead of time, not knowing how worn out we'd be this evening. After a quick dinner, we decided to do it, and it was great! We found a parking spot nearby right away, and we bought tickets at the door and found decent seats. At first it seemed like hardly anyone was going to be there, but as soon as the band started (half an hour late - on Jamaican time, apparently), a whole bunch of people appeared out of nowhere and ran to the front, where they danced for the whole concert. The lead singer danced the whole time too - I got tired just watching him! Some of the band members were older, and I loved their big hats. Some were younger, like the dancing singer and the drummer who had a very elaborate updo. We did smell a little wacky weed, as you might expect. I couldn't help bopping my head to that infectious backbeat. Here is a short little video to give you a taste.

And another one, with the older guy singing:

It was VERY loud, but fortunately I had grabbed earplugs. However, I couldn't find a matched pair, so I had one bright orange one and one bright pink one. That's okay, this is Madison - anything goes. If there was ever a town where they wouldn't expect you to having matching earplugs, this would be it.

Famous Hat 

Get Kraken with Jerry: Wolverhampton Sport Report

 

This morning I took a little longer to get out the door, since the shuttle was coming two minutes later, but it was there when I got to the parking lot. I ran out of my car to the shuttle... and then realized I didn't have my laptop, so I had to run back to the car and get it. Luckily the shuttle wasn't actually leaving for a few more minutes, so I didn't have to panic - it's just that it always seemed to be running just a bit late in the morning, so as soon as it got there before, we all piled on and then it immediately left. I also walked with my colleague at lunch, and Travalon and I went swimming, so I got a lot of active minutes today.

Duolingo seems to think that life is a party. Check it out.

Remember the young tree that was dying of the drought last summer? Almost all its leaves had fallen off, and I thought it would die, but fortunately it recovered. Now it's got plenty of leaves, but they are already changing colors.

Travalon texted me midday to say he had written another script for Get Kraken with Jerry, so here is Rodrigo the Rhinoceros complaining about Saturday's disappointing Wolverhampton game.

I think it's time for Jerry to talk about something other than sports, like say the eclipse. He could interview Tenebrae about that. It would be so cute for him to interview Aoife the little lavender giraffe, but I don't know what she could talk about. Another possible interviewee: Sir Rup, the Earl of Wafford. I will try my own hand at writing some scripts, but Travalon will have to keep voicing Jerry. I can't do a British accent to save my life.

Famous Hat

No Willy Street Parade This Year

 

Today, like yesterday, turned out to be completely different than we'd planned. We were awakened at 4 am by a huge thunderstorm, and then we couldn't get back to sleep. Finally around 7 we got up, and I did some DuoLingo. Check it out.

Apparently we are in a deep-sea submersible in Unit 4, Section 8. How did I miss that?

It was still raining and there were flood warnings, so we didn't go to our usual Mass in a gym. Right now the parking lot is unpaved, and it seemed like it would be a mess. Instead, we went to the Mass north of town at 10:30. When we got home, we debated watching the Packer game at the East Side Club, but I was too tired to make any decisions, so we watched the first half at home. And that was fabulous! So we went to the East Side Club for the second half, and it only got better. There was a pick six and EIGHT sacks!! They won decisively with their backup quarterback against the Tennessee Titans. It makes me think maybe they could have beaten the Eagles in Sao Paolo if they hadn't gotten all those penalties. They had some today too, and even the announcers were like, "I don't really see it." Someone doesn't want them to win.

The Willy Street Fair Parade was canceled this morning, as I found out because I'd been invited to play with the fiddle brigade, but the festival was starting at one, so we went to check it out. I usually get my tie-dyed hippie freak on at the Willy Street Fair, but we came straight from the game and were all decked out in Packers gear. (Then again, so were a lot of people.) The fair was still a good size despite the bad weather, and we found our favorite West African food stand with the peanut butter chicken for Travalon, the jollof rice for me, and the baobab shakes for both of us. We also saw Mr. N'Awlins there, which really surprised me, since it doesn't seem like his scene, but from things he's said he was once a hardcore counterculture type and has been repenting/missing it ever since. I also had some rose water from the new Pakistani restaurant on Willy Street. Travalon had their chai. On our walk back to the car, we saw this tiny, adorable, and alarmingly fearless baby bunny.

When we came home, I crashed and took a nap, then I took a rosary walk before band practice. I'd been planning to go to the Slow Irish session this afternoon, but by the time I woke up from my nap, it was too late for that. At band practice they asked me to play melody on some tunes and then chords on some others. Of course the instrument is more versatile, but I've always been asked to do multiple things in musical groups. In our church choir, I used to be asked to sing either soprano or alto, sometimes in the same piece, like I was routinely asked to sing alto on "For Unto Us a Child Is Born" from Handel's Messiah, except where there is no alto line, to sing soprano. Anyway, at band practice we played a cumbia I have always liked, and it made me think how I've always wanted to play in a salsa band. It's not exactly salsa, but it's very Latin, so this may be as close as I'll ever come.

Famous Hat

When Your Day Turns Completely into Plan B

 

Today did not go at all as planned for me. I thought I would spend a couple of hours canvassing with my Union peeps while Travalon watched the Wolverhampton game, but canvassing takes FOREVER and it really took it all out of me. We were only supposed to go to friendly, Union households, but in some cases the people didn't live at that address anymore, and the person I was canvassing with said not to give literature to the people who did answer the door, which seemed odd to me. We did have one Union person answer the door, and she said she would take some literature. One person wouldn't answer the door, but she talked to us through her Ring door camera and said she was registered to vote and she would be voting. Most people weren't home. Our most meaningful interactions were with a woman walking a dog and a baby who was very enthusiastic about the candidate on the shirt they made me wear - she said, "Thank you for being out here!" - and a preteen boy who greeted us warmly but then informed us his whole family would be voting for the other candidate. I will say the organizers at the Labor Temple gave us water and coffee (and donuts and breakfast sandwiches, but I had already eaten breakfast) and pizza.

Our plan had been to go to the Willy Street Fair, but here is how out of it I was after walking around for hours in the heat of the day: I decided to go home via Willy Street. Guess what? That didn't work! How could I forget the street would be blocked off for the very festival I WAS PLANNING TO GO TO?? I had to take a detour - this all could have been avoided if I had gone home via a more direct route. Then I needed to relax for a bit, so I took a lovely rosary nap using the cuddly rosary that glows under blacklight which Ma Hat had knitted for me. This was right when Travalon had wanted to see a Rolling Stones cover band at the festival, but it was also right when there was a terrific thunderstorm, so I doubt that the band played. There were three bands in a row that we were interested in, that one and then a Prince tribute act and finally V05, the local disco cover band, plus there was a free klezmer concert, but I was so sore that I just wanted to swim in the warm pool at our health club. We spent quite a bit of time there, and when we left, another storm was blowing up so I'm sure the bands weren't playing at the festival. The klezmer concert was inside, but it was on campus, so we would have had to park some distance away and walk to it, and that didn't sound like much fun in driving rain and constant lightning. Instead, we had a quiet evening at home, and I suggested that Jerry the Kraken could interview Rodrigo the Wolverhampton rhino about the disappointing game, but Travalon said maybe another day. He will likely also interview Tenebrae at some future point about her experience at the solar eclipse, and Jilly Moose has asked if he would interview one of her moose, so we have to think of moose-centric interview questions. So watch for more episodes of Get Kraken with Jerry to come. I will say that everyone seems to love the first episode. One of my Union peeps laughed so hard when I showed it to her! Travalon's dialogue is just *chef's kiss* and his accent is too. How will we ever top that?

Famous Hat

Get Kraken with Jerry: Wolverhampton Edition

 

I took this morning off of work so Travalon and I could go for a boat ride. It was a lovely, calm morning, and we didn't really see any other boats out on the water. I did see some I liked that were docked. This first photo, of "Slainte," is at a weird angle, but I love the festive flags and the Irish name.

Here is a straighter photo of it.

And I've always loved the big, yellow catamaran called "Stiletto." 

On my lunchtime walk, I saw this large fungus growth that seemed to appear overnight - and maybe did, because we finally had rain overnight, and quite a bit of it.

I was sort of interested in going to a klezmer ballet tonight, but while I love klezmer, I don't love ballet. Travalon wasn't at all enthused about it, and I had sort of lost interest by the time he got home, so we went swimming instead. After we got out of the pool and were hanging out in the hot tub, some old guy was swimming laps and spitting into the pool. Gross! And I thought kids were bad, but at least they don't know any better. What was this guy's excuse?

Jerry the Kraken has a new talk show, Get Kraken with Jerry. Here is the first episode:

He hopes to interview more stuffed animals in the future, like Tenebrae the Rabbit Dragon about her experience at the solar eclipse. I don't know if he can interview Niko, since Niko has no mouth, so how could he speak? This is something to ponder for a future episode. Thanks to Travalon for providing both the script and the voices for this episode.

Famous Hat

Art Exhibit Blocked by Secret Convention! Also, Meet Rodrigo

 

This morning the Wolverhampton rhinoceros that I had ordered for Travalon's birthday in December arrived. Since I had already opened my Christmas present of the Crystal Palace Jerry the Kraken, I told him go ahead and open the package. Isn't he cute?

Travalon named him Rodrigo, after one of the players.

Meanwhile, I had an eventful day. We were all standing around waiting for the shuttle this morning, and it was already late, but then it parked in another part of the vast Oscar Mayer plant parking lot and just sat there, as if it were early. We were all like, what?? I waved frantically at him, and then he came. Someone said maybe he got confused about where he was supposed to pick us up. Then midday we all got an email that the shuttle will be coming slightly less frequently, like every 20 minutes during peak time and every 30 minutes during non-peak time. This shouldn't affect me too much, since it will just come two minutes later in the morning and in theory four minutes later in the evening, when it already comes at whatever random time. 

The guitarist in our band creates artwork with return address labels (mostly chickens), and there was supposed to be a public exhibit of her art at the Pyle Center. Hardingfele, her coworker, and I walked as fast as I could go (so probably slightly slower than normal for them) about a mile to the Pyle Center, just to be told a big secret convention was taking up the whole third floor, so we couldn't see the art. Don't think I'm not dying of curiosity about the convention, and we were very disappointed, but we settled for looking at the art on the first floor, and we found two pieces by our guitarist.

Later on Night Prayer, when I was relating this story, one of the regulars said, "It was probably a meeting between the Big 10 and the SEC so they can become one REALLY BIG conference!" So we were joking that every college team would just be in one giant conference, but then they'd break into little regional subconferences.... you know, like the Pac 12 and SEC and the original Big 10. Ha! The thing is that it probably will go down just like that, because the current system is unsustainable. How are student athletes going to constantly go back and forth across the country? It's nucking futs.

Famous Hat

Conference on Aging

 

Today I went to a conference on aging, where professors at our university were presenting their research. The first talk was a very practical (and entertaining) one on preventing osteoporosis and muscle decline. The second one was on caregivers who take care of their elderly parents who were abusive, and the third one was on higher education availability over the last sixty years. My colleague and I skipped out before the fourth one, on caregivers who take care of adult disabled children - an important topic, but not relevant to either childless me or her with her two college-educated sons. We did get a lot of swag - check it out! I got this squeezy thing.

And when you squeeze him, his eyes pop out!

I also got this piggy bank, which as you can see I have already started filling up with random coins that were around the house. This was my ten minutes of cleaning tonight.

I worked the rest of the day, but most of the afternoon I was in a meeting. Then the shuttle to take me back to my parking lot was really, really late so I called Travalon, who said he could pick me up if need be.... and right after I talked to him, it finally came. This was the latest it's ever been, but what I can't figure out is if traffic and trains are holding up the shuttle I'm expecting, why are they not holding up the shuttle ahead of mine so that it arrives late too? Apparently that one is always on time.

The happiest of birthdays to Jilly Moose today.

Famous Hat

Halfway to St. Patrick's Day 2024

 

Today I worked from home, and just as I was about to leave for my lunchtime walk, someone buzzed our door. It was the postman, with Jerry the Kraken.

I didn't name him that - if you look online, that's what he's called. He's one of the "plush toys" on the website of another Premier League team that Travalon likes, Crystal Palace. Their mascot is an eagle, as is on Jerry's hat, so I can't explain why they offer a kraken wearing a toque, but I thought he was adorable, and I love the colors, so Travalon ordered him for me a few days ago... and he's here already! He can join Travalon's Crystal Palace bear Roy (which was named by Travalon for a legendary Crystal Palace coach):

Crystal Palace the team is named after a neighborhood in London which was named after the Victorian-era conservatory that is sadly no longer in existence. I remember fondly going to visit the "crystal palace" at Como Park, and this one was far more elaborate. 

After work I drove to Erin's Snug Irish Pub to meet members of the Shamrock Club, and Travalon soon joined us. We had a great conversation about Ireland and Scotland, especially since a couple had just gotten back from there and one of my buddies from going to the Irish play is going next May. I got the loaded colcannon with my bluegill, and I would go back just for that. I have to go back for the Guinness chocolate cake too, which I was too full to try tonight.

There is a very partial lunar eclipse tonight, and I talked a reluctant Travalon into going outside to take pictures of the moon... and then he got really into it and took a whole bunch. It looks like there's a bite out of the top.

I thought I saw faint Northern Lights too, but it was hard to tell with all the light around here. Someone did post gorgeous photos of the Northern Lights on Sunday night, from right around the same time that I was trying to take photos of them, but she lives further north and in a darker area. Maybe she'll post some from tonight too. Travalon also went down to the dock, but he didn't see any himself, so maybe I was imagining it. Maybe someday I'll take a good photo of the aurora borealis.

Famous Hat

Remembering Random Things

 

Today was not a very exciting day. I was the only staff person in the office, and this afternoon the president of the whole university system was coming to talk, so I had some coffee in order not to fall asleep. It didn't even work, because I was fighting to stay awake, and then I really had to pee. I held out through his talk but had to pop out during the Q&A. However, I did make an important discovery on the way home: the shuttle ride is one rosary long.

Jilly Moose sent me a photo of the moose Travalon got her for her birthday during his trip up North. At my suggestion, she named him Chambord after the raspberry liqueur, since her moose are all named after coffee drinks or alcohol. I wish I could show you, but my computer just updated, and now I cannot get it to add a photo using Safari. No problem, I thought, I'll just do it in Chrome... and it refuses to even open Chrome. This is going to be a huge issue, since photos are a big part of my blog. I hope to have a resolution soon. Apparently this new operating system doesn't play nicely with Google, which is going to be an enormous issue.

Hold on - I just reinstalled Chrome and now I can add the photo!

The other day as I rode the shuttle to work, I saw a car with a license plate that said: "Zymurgy," and somehow I knew that meant fermentation, so the person was probably a home brewer. Then I was walking on the Lakeshore Path at lunchtime, and I heard a boat behind me and thought, "That's the Betty Lou!" and sure enough, it was. Why does my brain retain useless information like obscure words and the sounds of particular boat motors, but it couldn't remember the difference between a ketone, an ester, and an ether when I was taking Organic Chemistry? Maybe if I'd been able to retain that, I'd have a high-powered career as a chemical engineer or something. Instead, my brain only retains trivia, and probably not even the right trivia to win at Jeopardy or anything practical like that. Though our neighbor who took us out sailing said identifying the sound of the Betty Lou was extremely important on our lake, because you'd want to know if a huge boat was bearing down on you!

Famous Hat

Second Sail of the Summer

 

This morning we went to Mass at the gym, but there were tons of cars in the parking lot so we wondered what was up. This parish has always been a friendly neighborhood one, but today was a big deal because they made it the official cathedral of the diocese. We'll have to see if that totally changes the vibe; we do have other options. Then we tried the brunch at Garver Mill, and that was great. It's very convenient from where we've been going to Mass. This church did send us mail the other day, and we wondered if they actually knew who we were and were going to ask us to formally join the parish, but it was just an appeal from the bishop asking for money for the cathedral. I was both relieved and disappointed.

We watched a bit of the Packer game, but Jordan Love is injured so they were playing with the backup quarterback. They were doing pretty well, and they had quite a running game and some defense going on, although the Colts have the former Badger Jonathan Taylor playing for them, and he can run right through our defenses too. The Packers were up 13-0, but they seemed to stall, and our neighbor had invited us to go sailing, so we taped the game. Here I am manning the tiller.

And here is a tern on a buoy. We passed closer by it on the way out, and it didn't fly away.

Travalon got to man the tiller quite a bit too, and we both helped a bit with the sail, but without our neighbor there, we'd have no idea what to do. It was a hot day with very little wind, but out on the water we did have a bit of a breeze and got some sailing in. Then we came back and watched the rest of the Packer game - they won 16-10. Travalon watched the Wolverhampton game that he had taped, since it was right during Mass, while I went out for a rosary walk in the shade. It is so hot for mid September! The woman who hosts band practice doesn't have air conditioning, or at least she never uses it, so after an hour and a half I had to call it quits. I just can't take the heat anymore.

I forgot to mention that yesterday at the Arboretum, we saw a mother deer with two young, older than the tiny, spotted stage but still quite small. They were very close to us and didn't seem afraid of five people. Jilly Moose got some photos. 

I also forgot that we were talking about weird movies that other people had talked us into watching, and I said once Antoshka talked Cecil Markovitch, the Single B-Boy, and I into watching an Icelandic movie called Noi Albinoi that was very depressing. He was always fantasizing about moving to Hawaii, and at the end everyone but him died in a volcano eruption. I said we had been making fun of the movie (much to Antoshka's annoyance), saying we should make a sequel called Noi 2: Noi in Paradise or something like that, where he goes to Hawaii. Then Rich had the brilliant idea that all his friends in Hawaii could die in a volcano eruption. Why did we never think of that all those years ago? Of course!

Tonight there are faint Northern Lights, but neither Travalon nor I could get good photos. Mine look like clouds, not those cool Northern Light photos people always post online. Someone told me to use the delayed exposure on your phone, so I tried that, and I got some cool cloud photos. Check this one out.

That was more interesting than what I could see with my bare eyes, but it's not Northern Lights.

Famous Hat

Day in New Glarus and the Arboretum

 

Yesterday I worked from home, which was a relief after my crazy day on Thursday. The package I'd been expecting did arrive. Meet Luna.

She is the same as Tenebrae (a dragon rabbit), only white. Apparently they got a lot of requests for this. Here are the two of them together.

In the evening, Travalon and I went to the Monona Terrace for an astronomy event. There were supposed to be all sorts of stations with telescopes pointing at various heavenly bodies, and the people at the entrance gave me a map that showed Station 16 would be pointing at Saturn. I found Station 14, 15, and 17, but not 16, and when I asked a volunteer, he said, "Oh, that was my station. I didn't bring my telescope because it's kind of cloudy tonight." Indeed it was, but the moon looked beautiful.

We did look through a telescope pointed at a big crater on the moon, so that was cool. 

Today we had a very relaxed morning, and I did a lot of DuoLingo.

Travalon watched some Premier League game, then he started to watch the Badger game against Alabama, before we met Jilly Moose at Richard Bonomo's house to drive down to New Glarus. The four of us met Tiffy down there, since she'd been dog sitting in Monroe, and we went to a Swiss restaurant for lunch. Afterwards we walked around New Glarus, which is a very cute little town. A lot of the buildings look like this:

We saw lots of flowers there, like this passionflower. 

We went to a number of shops, and I got a necklace. (Sorry, no photo yet.) In one shop, they must have had problems with people walking into the mirror.

After Tiffy bid us adieu and the rest of us returned to Madison, we picked up Kathbert and went hiking at the Arboretum. Here are some photos. First, my phone won't identify these berries.

It was so beautiful and peaceful on that path.

In the garden area, we saw interesting snapdragons.

Weirdly, a lot of spring flowers were in bloom, like these crocuses.

And this magnolia, and a lot of lilacs.

This magnolia had such interesting seed pods.

There were interesting oak trees with very interesting acorns.

Look at this magnolia covered with seed pods.

This cedar looks like a UFO. Is it really just one shrub?

By the way, the Badgers lost 42-10, which is about what I'd expected. I guess in that game, we were the cupcake team! 

Famous Hat