Happy 25th Birthday, Monona Terrace!

 

Yesterday after Mass, when we went to our usual brunch destination, it was closed with no explanation, so we went up the street to a much pricier place. Travalon and I had lattes with limoncello in them, which were sort of weird. Then he and I went back to Pheasant Branch to hike on a trail with lagoons and little foot bridges.

Then we went to Leopold's to cool off. Travalon showed me the secret downstairs room.

We ordered iced pandan lattes, and before the barista added the espresso, they were a beautiful sea foam green.

Here's the finished product! It was delicious and very refreshing!

I didn't know what a "pandan" was, so I googled it, and it's a pandanus, which is a kind of plant that Ma Hat used to have. She inherited it from her Nana. I think she got rid of it long ago, but who knew she could have just eaten it?

Then we went to the 25th Birthday Party for the Monona Terrace. As my longtime readers may remember, I gave Travalon a commemorative brick on the top of the Terrace for our anniversary one year, so now I'm officially a donor and get invited to these things. Although I think it was actually open to everyone... and it was free. It was a perfect party: the evening was beautiful, sitting up there above the lake, as we listened to a salsa band and a soul band and ate free cake and ice cream. We got dinner from a Jamaican food cart. So good! And then at the end of the night - a drone show! It's like fireworks without the loud booms. Sorry that neither of us got a photo of the first design they did, which was the State Capitol Building. Here's Bucky Badger, courtesy of Travalon.

Smiling cheese!

Pink flamingos are the city bird of Madison.

Sailboats fit with the setting.

Here's our state!

And the Monona Terrace with a 25 on it kind of looks like a birthday cake.

Then we saw this nearby municipal building all lit up - for the party?

Today was a much weirder day. All these strange little coincidences happened, like that my bus was Bus 8 (but the 28 route) just like that little horse-drawn streetcar we saw at the Illinois Railway Museum, and then when I told Travalon that I had "Sloop John B" stuck in my head, he said he did too! We went out to play some tennis (but today my FitBit thought we just walked instead of sporting), and from that vantage point Travalon could see our nuttiest neighbor put something into our recycle bin, which was out because early tomorrow morning the city will empty it. After we finished playing, we went to investigate, and she had put dozens of empty beer cans into our bin!! Worse, a lot of it was cheap beer! Some people suggested I tell her that if she's going to put all her empties into our bin, she should at least invite us to the party, but our condo board president said don't say anything to her, he's going to handle it. It isn't exactly against the bylaws, but she's like that: the board told her that she has to keep her dog on a leash, so she puts a leash on him but doesn't hold the other end. I mean, it doesn't say in the bylaws that you have to hold onto your dog's leash, just that he has to be on one. So she's that kind of person.

Famous Hat

Good Friday in Quarantine

I hope my readers had a blessed Good Friday. I worked from home until just before our church had a livestream of their Good Friday service. It was beautiful, and the homily was very powerful, and then as the few people who were able to attend (the cantor, deacon, reader, and servers) kissed the crucifix, I went and kissed the equally large crucifix Ethel gave us as a wedding present and that I had just unearthed a couple of days ago. The timing of things this Lent has been astounding to me: my Blessed Sacrament chaplet arrived yesterday, so I was able to say it for the commemoration of the institution of the Eucharist, which is fitting because it is a spiritual communion prayer, and this is the first Holy Thursday since I became Catholic that I haven't actually received communion. (Except maybe once when I was sick.) While the few people people at this Good Friday service received communion, I said the Blessed Sacrament chaplet, and it is a very short chaplet so I was finished just as they were. But all these timings can't be a coincidence, can they? I think of my mysterious chaplet, and how I only discovered during this pandemic that it is perfect for a St. Anthony chaplet, which is such a fitting prayer for this terrible situation. And the little Padre Pio chaplet that arrived in junk mail about a month ago - that was also perfect timing, because I started praying it for a holy Lent, liked it a lot, and ordered more for the Rosary Ladies... and then by the time they arrived less than a week later, the pandemic had hit, so we had something specific to pray for when I gave them the chaplets. And even something not particularly sacred, like my list of salsa songs that disappeared, and I could never find it until now, during social isolation, when it really cheered me up. I don't think these are coincidences but God-incidents.

Just now Rich and I prayed a Stations of the Cross chaplet over FaceTime. I loved the chaplet when Mo-Girl first gave it to me, but it has really come in handy this Lent, when I couldn't attend Stations of the Cross. In some ways this has been a sad Lent, because we are separated from the sacraments, but in a way I feel like it was my most holy one ever, because I had so much opportunity to pray and meditate... and see God's Will in action when all these random things happened to me at just the right moment.

Famous Hat

Three Rich Stories

Here are three true stories about Rich:

The Mystical Bond

One day Rich was walking down the street when a neighbor he didn't know very well stopped him and asked, "Are you an Aquarius?"

"Yes, I am," said Rich.

"There's a bond between us," she told him.

"That's true," said Rich, and he kept walking. When I asked if he wasn't curious what this bond was she was referring to, he said no but he was referring to the fact that they were both members of the Mystical Body of Christ.

Overhead Projector Parts

Once Rich dropped an overhead projector, and part of it broke. As he was walking down the street wondering where he could find the part he needed for the overhead projector, he saw Mr. Icon approaching him, holding a bag. Rich greeted him, and Mr. Icon held the bag out to him and asked if, by any chance, he needed some overhead projector parts.

"Why, yes, I do!" said Rich, looking into the bad. And there was the very part he needed!

The Nuclear Bomb

One night Rich was biking on a narrow, tree-lined street up a steep hill when he saw something shocking in front of him: an enormous nuclear mushroom cloud! Rich was very shocked, but instead of wondering where he should hide, he thought to himself, "They finally launched a nuclear weapon! But what could they be bombing over there? There's nothing in that direction!" And then he realized there was a car approaching behind him, and what he was seeing was its headlights lighting up the trees that hung over the street.

Famous Hat