The Kissers at the Malt House

 

Sorry that I haven't blogged in several days. Wednesday toward the end of the work day I started to feel sick, and then Thursday it was clear I had a cold, so I worked from home. In the afternoon I took some sick time and just watched Colbert, then Travalon had hoped to go to the Packer watch party at the East Side Club, so I dragged myself there. They did have some pretty decorations for Christmas.

It was very crowded there, and they had the volume so loud that I had to plug my ears, so we left and went to Murphy's. That was a fine place to watch the game, but by the end of the first half I felt lousy, so we went home and watched the second half there. It was a very close game, and honestly I don't feel so bad because it's the Lions, and this is their year. I hope they win the Super Bowl - they are the only team that has never even been in it. They sure had some good clock management at the end of the game, so that time ran out as they kicked their winning field goal, but that's also on the Packer's defense, who couldn't seem to stop them from getting first downs. Or if they did, they got a penalty to give the Lions a fresh set of downs. The Packers even got a touchdown called back because of a penalty. So disappointing!

Today I would have worked from home anyway, even if I weren't maybe possibly contagious. I did make it through the whole work day, and then Travalon and I went to the Malt House to see the Kissers. I had never seen them before, although they've been around for years, like so long that I remember my boss in the private sector raving about how good they are. It felt like a true Irish pub in there, with the band sitting at a table facing each other, the low light, and everyone crowded around the bar. We managed to get one bar stool, so we took turns sitting on it. I wasn't sure what beer I wanted, but then it turned out they had mulled wine, and that was perfect - warm and spicy, mmm! The band played lots of trad jigs and reels and songs, and several Johnny Cash tunes, and even "Baba O'Reilly" by the Who, which toward the end morphed into Christmas carols. One song was particularly beautiful, and someone near me said it was called "If I Should Fall from Grace with God" by the Pogues. The mandolin and the pipes were so haunting on the minor-key tune. However, when I looked it up later at home, the Pogues' version is a raucous, major-key bar song. What?? The Kissers were allegedly playing until 9:00, but at 9:30 they were still going strong. We headed home, since we were getting tired, and this guy who looked like Stalin had parked illegally in the spot next to us that was marked off for the handicapped parking space on the other side of him, so we had to wait for him to move. The Malt House does not have a very large parking lot, I'll say that, and we were lucky to get the last space. 

Here are a Union bear and a riverboat pencil sharpener we got at the Grant Museum in Galena, and a little bear with a tartan scarf that we got at one of the crystal shops there.

DuoLingo just today (for St. Nicholas Day?) started giving me really strange images when I completed my lessons. For example, here is a unicorn with Duo the Owl's face.

That's not disturbing at all. But wait, it gets worse - what if Duo shed his skin and became an angel? And called me Beyonce just because I had a perfect lesson?

And then I apparently literally blew Duo's mind.

Maybe this is because I no longer get the avatar of myself during my lessons, which kind of freaked me out. I'm not sure these are an improvement. DuoLingo: giving people nightmares since 2012, for no obvious reason. As if learning a foreign language isn't enough of a nightmare...

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