Small Business Saturday, One Week Late

 

One of Travalon's favorite days of the year is Small Business Saturday, but we were snowed in on official Small Business Saturday (the one right after Thanksgiving), so he decided we could just postpone it a week. First we headed to Olbrich Gardens to see their annual Christmas train display, and we ran into a coworker of mine there who was just leaving. Here are videos of the trains.

And here is Travalon's video of one of the trains:

Here are photos of the displays around the trains.

This is a train that wasn't running, along with the one that was.

Then we went into the conservatory. Here are some photos of that.

Our next stop was the treasure shop on Willy Street. Travalon bought a bunch of stickers (sorry, I forgot to take photos of them), and I bought a necklace. I forgot to take a photo of the necklace by itself, but here you can see me wearing it. It matches my third eye toque.

Here's a closeup:

We walked down Willy Street and went to lunch at Umami, where we split an order of dumplings, and I had ramen while Travalon had wings with Korean barbecue sauce. Our next stop was Meep Meepleton's. Check out the stuffies we found there!

The Coca-Cola Polar Bear, the Pink Panther, and Daffy Duck! (A very old version of him.) I also bought a Mystery Box that could contain one of several Sesame Street characters. I wanted the Yip Yip Martians, and since that was the only "character" with two entities, I chose the heaviest box. However, Big Bird looked like the thickest character, so I thought maybe I'd get that one instead. But I was wrong on every...

Count! It's Count von Count! The Count counts! We had a Sesame Street record when I was a child, and Keely Smith was singing and the Count was making comments: "Kiss me once (one kiss!), kiss me twice (two kisses!), kiss me once again (three kisses!), it's been a long, long time (two longs, one time!)!" For some reason, that has always stuck with me, so that now if I hear the song, my brain fills in the Count's comments. Don't you love his tiny monocle? 

Then we drove downtown and went to Anthology, where Travalon got these two posters:

He had a gift card from doing a wellness thing through my job, and he'd been saving it to spend on Small Business Saturday. I bought some Christmas cards to send out to people, so watch for those. Then we went next door to Little Luxuries and got Astra, to keep Stella company.

She's a little gingerbread cookie star stuffy! And here they are together.

Then we went up to the Square to check out the Wisconsin Veterans' Museum's gift shop. Travalon got a model airplane kit (sorry, no photo), and I got a Wisconsin hoodie. Here I am modeling it with the matching hat I got at a gas station earlier this year.

Plaid flannel forever! (I am so Gen X.) Then we went into the Capitol to see the State Christmas Tree, which also had a model train running around it.

Here are photos of the Christmas tree.

Speaking of stuffies, yesterday while I worked from home, Travalon had to go to work early to pick up Christmas toys for the kids. This bear fell out of the box, so he put it in the passenger seat to ride along with him.

Hopefully some lucky kid adores that as much as it deserves.

In the evening we went to the East Side Club Christmas Party. I had been told I was welcome to bring my ukulele, so I did, thinking the group would play after dinner. However, by the time we got there, they were already playing, so I didn't want to sneak in. They were obviously expecting me, since there was an empty chair front and center. Travalon and I sat at a table and listened to them play and sing oldies, then they finished and got to go through the buffet line first, and to my utter shock, our table was called up next! We are always last or almost last. If we sit closest to the food, they will start from the back. If we sit furthest from the food, they will start from the front. And once - true story - we sat right in the middle of the room, and they said, "Let's do something different this time - first the closest tables go up, then the furthest tables go up, and the middle ones will go last." Bunky's catered the dinner, which was beef and/or chicken, roasted potatoes, delicious pilaf, a green salad, and a roll. Another couple sat at our table, and they both play the ukulele. We had so much to talk about with them, not just about ukuleles but traveling and basketball and all sorts of things. For dessert there were four choices, in small sizes so you could try all of them: chocolate cake, carrot cake, cannoli, and baklava. (I only had the chocolate cake and the cannoli.) Then they came around with Tom & Jerry drinks, which are warm and plenty potent. They had a drawing that lasted forever because there were so many tchotchkes to give away, mostly free stuff from alcohol companies, but I did score a Wisconsin blanket when my name was called well into the drawings and the pickings were getting a bit slim. (No, sorry, I don't need a Coors Lite flag or a koozie from some seltzer company.) It seemed like it went on forever, but nobody else from our table had their number called. 

I talked to the woman who is kind of in charge of the Wauna Strummers ukulele group, because she was supposed to have a T-shirt for me, and I'd actually brought cash to pay for it. (They are pretty funny - they say: "Will play the ukulele for free. Will stop for pay.") She had forgotten to bring the T-shirt, but she said they are playing for a fish fry on Friday. However, I talked to another woman who seems more in charge, and she said since it's a performance and I don't regularly practice with them at one on Fridays, it would be best if I just stuck to the strums at the Lone Girl instead of playing with them at actual performances. I said that makes sense, and so it seems wisest that I didn't play with them tonight. The ukulele just got a bit of fresh air, that's all.

Famous Hat