Birthday Dinner at Lola's

 

Sorry that I haven't blogged in so long. Thursday I worked from home, but Travalon had the day off of work, so he went to the zoo and Leopold's, where he got me a slice of pistachio cake. In the evening he used one of his "Free Night" coupons to go see a high school basketball game. I don't know why I didn't blog, but my leg was really bothering me, probably from eating badly on Wednesday, so I probably just didn't feel up to it. The one thing I did get done was going to campus to water my work plants, and on the way back we saw this frat house with the Delta Chi lit up.

Yesterday I turned 53. Travalon gave me a stuffy to mark the occasion.

And she glows under blacklight!

This inspired me to grab my stuffies that glow under blacklight, although I forgot at least one, the little chick that Ma Hat crocheted for me.

From left to right: Party Kitty, Jørgen the Narwhal (sounds like Yur-ghen), Black Light Bunny, Esteban the Scorpion, and Margarita the Unicorn. And once again, Atticus Sappington III.

And here he is, glowing in the dark.

Travalon and I had a very relaxed morning, then we drove out to Sauk to see eagles. We also saw common mergansers.

There was at least one goldeneye.

We went to the Mixing Bowl for my favorite shortbread, and they didn't give me anything free for my birthday, but they did write a message on my latte cup:

I only ate a bite of the shortbread, then we went to Fitz's on the Lake, where I had a half-off lunch for my birthday. They had chocolate toffee cake, so we were going to split a piece, but again we each ate a bite and had to bring the rest home. It was a very cold day, but we did take a walk in the neighborhood when we got home, and all the mail we'd had held during our trip was delivered, so we sorted that. 

I was not in the mood for a party this year, but Travalon mentioned that at Lola's Hi/Lo Lounge they were having a 90's hip hop and R&B party, and that sounded good to me. I only mentioned it to Jilly Moose and Mamastep, and to my surprise they were both free, so the four of us went there around seven. I wore the Niko shirt Travalon had given me for Christmas.

We could see the moon and Venus were really close, so we took photos. Here is my take.

Here is Jilly Moose's version.

Of course we had to wait, but now Lola's has a side lounge where the shoe repair place used to be, and it didn't take long for a table for four to open up. We had some cheese curds, and the others had cocktails, but I'd had an edible and was enjoying that buzz, so I saw no need to change things and stuck to water. On Fridays it's jazz and funk at Lola's, so I was really enjoying that and asking Siri every other song what we were listening to. Our table was ready much earlier than we had expected, so people were in the restroom or at the bar ordering popcorn for the table, and I was the only one able to go to the main part of Lola's to claim our table, but soon the others joined me, and the popcorn followed us to our new table. Three of us had the Midnight Pasta, and Travalon had the pelmeni. It was so good! The 90's music wasn't starting until 9:00, and even though we ate slowly, we were still done by 8:30, so the others ordered another round of drinks, and then we had dessert. Mamastep and I split a chocolate pot de creme type thing (they called it a "bundino") with lavender whipped cream on top. I have to say that dark chocolate and lavender are a winning combination. Of course, all my senses were a bit heightened, so the music and the mood lighting and the food all seemed incredible, as I'm sure they would have been regardless. We were having such a good time that we didn't leave until 11:00. Now that was a fabulous birthday!

Today Travalon and I had another lazy day, then we went to Picnic Point to see if the tundra swans are still around. Answer: yes! Along with Canada geese, mallards, and goldeneyes.

Then we went to Atomic Antiques, and I got a rosary, a Sacred Heart chaplet, a toy clarinet in jazzy colors, and a jar of glass squiggles. Photos soon. When we got home, I thought there might be a spectacular sunset, since there were the right kind of clouds for it, but it was not that exciting.

As always, I made Travalon take photos of the moon.

He did take some photos of a spectacular sunset on Thursday, and also animals from the zoo, that I will post soon. I wanted to post the photos from the first day of our trip before it got too far in the past. These are from the Railway Park in Rochelle, Illinois.

They had hobo symbols in the shelter.

I don't think this was an actual working gas station.

This was at a rest stop along Route 66.

Here are Christmas lights and other photos from Springfield, Illinois.

This is the Old Capitol.

Decorations in the lobby of the scary hotel we almost stayed at.

And their sad little Christmas tree outside.

You can see there are hardly any lights on in the hotel.

There was a plaza with lights overhead.

Here is a view of the new Capitol and a Christmas tree.

An Episcopal church.

This is the depot Lincoln left from when he went to DC to be inaugurated.

Another view of the scary hotel we almost stayed at.

I liked the Santa hat seat covers at Abe's Hideaway, the restaurant we had dinner at in Springfield.

Another view of the depot that Lincoln left from. It's now a law office.

A better view of the new Capitol.

I believe that I am finally caught up on photos taken during our trip. I still have to take and post photos of some of the stuff we acquired, so watch for that soon.

Famous Hat