Other People's Hawaii Trips

Last night a woman from my choir and her husband had Travalon and me over for dinner. She made curry chicken with orange sauce and cream of broccoli soup. Yum! Then we watched the video of their helicopter trip over Kauai, since Travalon and I will be visiting there in March. We are also going to Maui, and of course Oahu, since that’s where the wedding is happening, but we don’t have time to hit the Big Island. This couple had been to the Big Island, and they showed us photos of a beautiful botanical garden there, as well as volcanic flows that looked like a wasteland. Hawaii looks really beautiful, and there is another botanical garden on Kauai, so hopefully we get a chance to visit that. Tiffy has been to Maui, and she recommended the Seven Sacred Pools of ‘Ohe’o. The couple we visited last night did visit that, but they couldn’t go in them because there had been too much rain. It sounds like Hawaii is a very rainy place – there’s a mountain on Kauai that is supposed to be the rainiest spot on earth! But they say Seattle is very rainy, and the whole week I was there, it was sunny and warm, so maybe I scare away rain. My big question before this trip is whether it is worth trying to get my cheap little digital camera fixed, or if I should just get a new one. I’d hate not to have one at all. Travalon needs his camera fixed too – Ireland must have really done a number on our cameras! And you know what it was, at least in my case? Rain!

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OK Cap's Pool

Last night Travalon and I were thinking of going swimming at our health club, but OK Cap invited us to swim in her pool, and since it’s about 20 feet away from us, we took her up on the offer. The pool is not quite as warm as the therapeutic pool at our health club (which is the one Travalon prefers), but it was definitely not too cold. Travalon said he felt like we were swimming in a hotel pool, and it did kind of look like one, with lots of windows around it, and poolside furniture and fake potted plants scattered along the sides of it. The pool was L-shaped and had a deeper end than the therapeutic pool, which is so shallow I can wade the entire length of it. Also, there was nobody else there, which is a little surprising since it’s such a nice pool in a large condo complex. OK Cap thinks most of the people who use it are either retired and go around 10 am while the rest of us are working, or children, who show up on the weekends. Her complex also has a really fine outdoor pool too, though of course this time of year it is closed. I am just happy to be getting back into swimming, although doing aerobics seems to have been working – I looked better in my swimsuit than I have in ages! Eating less may be helping too, but man, this constant hunger is going to drive me batty. I’d rather swim away the fat than starve it away.

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A Long Overdue Pictorial Post

It's about time to post some more photos on this blog. First is a photo Richard Bonomo took on his iPhone (at my request) of our church decorated for Christmas.

And here is a picture of Rich holding up the T-shirt Mr. Icon gave him. Think he'll ever actually wear it?

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Martinsville

Friday evening Travalon and I went to the Manna Café for dinner. We have been there several times for brunch, when it is always packed, but they only recently started serving dinner, and it hasn’t caught on yet. I suppose there is more competition for dinner than brunch, but the food is just as wonderful. Travalon was ecstatic to see chicken paprikash, a Hungarian dish his grandma used to make, on the menu, and he said it was so delicious that he would eat dinner there every night. However, you can’t eat dinner there on Sundays and Mondays.

Saturday evening Travalon and I were going to a spaghetti dinner at Immaculate Heart in Monona, but he thought I had cash and I thought he had cash, and neither of us was right, so we decided we’d better stop and get cash. Cecil Markovitch was driving, and he dropped Travalon off at a pharmacy downtown and said we’d be in the area, since right in front of it was a no-stopping zone. Travalon went inside the pharmacy, and Cecil found a parking spot right across the street, from which we could see Travalon come out of the pharmacy and approach a car stopped in the no-stopping zone. We waved at him, but he went up to the other car, opened the door, and sat right down in the passenger seat! I’m a bad wife because I laughed so hard I was crying. Travalon is a big guy, so he may have scared the other driver, but luckily the guy didn’t pull a gun or anything, he just said, “I think you have the wrong car.” So Travalon got out of that car and finally noticed us across the street, laughing at him. He said I could blog about this.

Sunday Travalon and I overslept and didn’t make it to our usual Mass, so we went to the nearby church’s later Mass after having some coffee and breakfast sandwiches. Then we were going to watch American Sniper, but it was sold out, so we stopped by his favorite place, Pooley’s, for a light lunch and then drove to a tiny township we’d been told about by some choir members. It’s a little place called Martinsville that consists of a Catholic church called St. Martin’s, a bunch of houses, and a bar called The Keg. The bartender there told us about another establishment “further up the road” that was a converted chicken coop, but we didn’t succeed in finding it. In the evening we went to Richard Bonomo’s house for a birthday party for Mr. Icon, who is visiting from Alaska. He gave Kathbert and Miss Heartsong jars of sea glass, he gave Travalon and me knit caps (but Travalon’s didn’t fit), and he gave Rich a T-shirt that says: “I can’t hear you over the sound of how epic I am.” He says it’s a lot warmer in Kodiak right now, but the social life up there is not very vibrant. So now you know, in case you were thinking of moving up there. 

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Mamastep's Birthday Party

Wednesday night Travalon and I went swimming for the first time in ages. It felt so wonderful! I have mostly been getting my exercise by dancing around to my iPod in the loft, and I’m not sure which actually burns more calories. We agreed we have to get to the health club more often; after all, we are paying for membership there. Plus, there are weights at the health club. I have a couple of ten-pound free weights at the condo and do use them now and then, but it would be preferable to get back into a weightlifting routine. Richard Bonomo still goes regularly, but he goes at 6:00 am, and it’s not Lent right now, so I’m not going to mortify myself like that.

Yesterday we had a guy interviewing to be the top dog at work, and we were all encouraged to go to his presentation on campus. My coworkers said they were going to walk over, since it was such a nice day. I left a bit early, since I walk so slowly, and still got there a few minutes into the presentation. Of course my coworkers were all there on time, and I thought, “Man, they must be a lot faster than I am! And why didn’t I see them pass me?” Later I found out it was because they all drove over. Oh well, I needed the exercise.

Last night was Mamastep’s birthday party, at the Nitty Gritty as always. Travalon and I sat at opposite ends of the table so we could mingle more, and I happened to be next to a woman who had twins at the age of 51. Wow, does that ever give me hope! As it turned out, both my end of the table and Travalon’s end talked about travel, since we all love to do it. The woman next to me had also been to Ireland, and she said it was her favorite place apart from Iceland, which she loved because it was so wild and weird. Tiffy has been to Iceland, and what I remember her saying about it is that they ate puffins, and the sun was still shining at 3 am. I’m more of a tropics kind of girl – not that I’d turn up my nose at a chance to visit Iceland, but I’m so looking forward to our trip to Hawaii in March. Travalon’s old college buddy is getting married there, and we are going to spend almost two weeks there. Yay!

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More Badger Basketball

Last night after Irish class, I met up with Travalon and we went to the Badger basketball game. They were playing the Iowa Hawkeyes, and we figured it would be a good game, playing against another Big 10 team. However, the Badgers pulled ahead early and were soon 30 points ahead of Iowa, so they really shellacked them. There was an Iowa player named Uthoff or something like that who was booed every time he came out on the floor. Travalon asked the guy next to us why the fans hated him particularly, and he told us Uthoff came here as a freshman and was red-shirted, but then the next year he went to play for Iowa because our academic standards were too hard, or something like that. I was not as caught up in this game as the Duke one, since I am once again dieting and have little energy. I’m always hungry, and my brain is in a fog – during Irish class I had no clue what was going on. However, this is necessary because I gained a lot of weight after getting married (which everyone says is normal) and some more during the holidays (which everyone says is normal), and I wasn’t exactly thin to begin with. All the women at work have given up sugar for their New Year’s resolution, so I have too, except for special occasions. Of course, this month is a bad one because of birthdays, but now there shouldn’t be anything until Richard Bonomo’s birthday. I’ll eat some cake then. Anyway, I am down a few pounds, so maybe it is working.

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Martin Luther King Day

Friday night the Rosary Ladies had a fish fry at Nick’s restaurant, then we went out dancing at the Monona Terrace. The band played funk and disco, and when they played ABBA, I was a little thrown by the less syncopated beat. I said, “This music is too white! I don’t know how to dance to it!” and Luxuli advised, “Reach down into that 99% of yourself and feel it!” We danced for way over an hour and then were kind of sore limping back to Luxuli’s condo. That’s what happens when you’re middle-aged and try to dance like a twentysomething.

Saturday Tiffy came up, and she and Richard Bonomo took me to Liliana’s for a late birthday dinner. (Travalon went to watch high school basketball.) I got a free order of beignets for my birth month, and there were three, but Tiffy is taking her New Year’s resolution to not eat dessert seriously, so Rich and I split hers. There was a live jazz duo playing, so it really felt like a night on the town for a second night in a row. Don’t worry, I didn’t neglect my husband – we had spent the rest of the day together.

Sunday Tiffy, Travalon, and I joined the choir for brunch at the Come Back In, then we went to the dog park for a little bit before the game. Oh, that game! We couldn’t believe how well the Packers were doing… and then they just fell apart at the end. So sad, they would have been in the Super Bowl. I heard today that tickets to the Super Bowl are cheaper this year because everyone’s sick of New England and Seattle being in it. In the evening, Rich, Cecil Markovitch, OK Cap, Travalon, and I joined Trinidad Cap for his birthday at Bellitalia. This was planned very last minute, and the birthday boy was late because he thought we were meeting at Cecil’s house but Cecil had said let’s meet at Trinidad Cap’s house. It all worked out in the end, and he got a free tira misu with a candle in it for his birthday.

Yesterday I had the day off for Martin Luther King Day, so after my adoration hour I met Rich at the Capitol for the commemoration. Lots of music, like a gospel choir and a junior mariachi band, and several speakers we couldn’t hear clearly, but one little boy who looked about nine read Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech very clearly. We could understand every word. He should give lessons to the other speakers! I also went shopping for pants and spent a lot of time working on Christmas cards, getting a batch in the mail today, so some of you may get one as early as tomorrow.

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