Lava Rosary

 

Today Travalon and I didn't have to get up and going with any speed because we had already gone to Mass last night. Eventually we went to Immaculate Heart in Monona so I could check out this "lava rosary," and we got there while 10:30 Mass was going on. I felt like a kid in a candy store, checking out all those beautiful rosaries and chaplets. There was a young girl also looking at the rosaries, and I asked who I paid, but she had no idea. Then a guy wrote what he took on a clipboard and left a $20 bill under the clip, so I took the lava rosary, wrote that I had taken it, and left my own $20 bill under the clip. I got to choose a rosary bag, so (being a sucker for Irish stuff) I took the white one with shamrocks on it, although the Milwaukee Bucks one was very tempting. Here is the rosary made of lava rock.

The problem was that I also wanted a St. Michael chaplet, but the kit (including booklet and bag) was another $20, and I was out of cash but there was no indication of who we would make a check out to. Travalon, that prince among men, knew where there was a branch of our credit union very close by, so we got some more cash, and I got the kit. It also includes a keychain!

We drove out to Sauk as I prayed the lava rosary, and we ate brunch overlooking the river at the new restaurant where the Blue Spoon Diner used to be.

Lots of birds were singing, and we were all using the Merlin app to identify them. It was so idyllic there, but eventually we got going and walked on the mountain bike trails between the VFW Park and the dam, trying to find the small apple tree. We found it, but it's past its peak and only had a few blossoms left on it. At the dam I sat on the sand of the beach and watched pelicans bobbing in the water and flying overhead. Travalon took photos which I will post soon. Our next stop was the Nature Conservancy land with cacti on it in Spring Green, so we took scenic Highway 60 out there. The bluffs are so beautiful with the bright green fresh leaves of spring on all the trees. We took a 20-minute walk looking at all the little wildflowers in the prairie, then we went to Acadia Bookstore for iced coffee. I had a monster cookie, which is like every kind of cookie combined: oatmeal, peanut butter, chocolate chip, and M&M. It was practically a meal unto itself. Then I walked over to the crystal store and bought four crystals.

They are labradorite, I can't remember the light green one, peacock ore, and a small piece of agate that looks like a tiny, snow-covered mountain. It's so charming in real life - this photo doesn't do any of them justice. The peacock ore is iridescent blue and green and purple. 

We drove back to Madison, stopping by Marion Lake in Mazomanie on the way and then Dunn's Marsh, where we saw three egrets, a blue heron, and some geese. We went to Mercado Marimar and got some plantain chips for Anna Banana II's party at Rich's house. Rich made ravioli, Jilly Moose made cabbage salad, Kathbert made rosemary carrots, Cecil Markovitch brought garlic bread, Anna Banana II brought chocolates and cooked beets, and the guy who makes fabulous desserts brought an apple butterscotch pie and a carrot cake. His son was there too, and R Van the Terrible, and the Dairyman's Daughter brought the harp she had made at a workshop.

It was supposed to be tuned to a C major scale, and she asked if I could help her tune it, so I checked the top string and it was just a touch flat. I tried to tighten it a little bit, but it was getting flatter, and then the string came out completely. I said Kathbert could fix it, but she was busy cooking, so I don't think it ever got fixed. Argh! I didn't mean to wreck her harp! She said there is another workshop in July if I wanted to make my own harp, so that's something to consider. Of course, I need another musical instrument like I need another rosary, but I've never had a lava rosary nor a harp. It's tempting.

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Eleven Wonderful Years

 

Today Anna Banana II couldn't get together until noon, which made Travalon very happy because then he could watch the Wolverhampton game. Unfortunately they lost 2-0 to Brighton. When Anna Banana II arrived, we drove to Horicon Marsh, stopping at Schultz's Cheese Haus for the best peanut butter cups ever and free cheese samples. Yum! 

At the boardwalk we didn't see much except an abandoned nest that I assumed was a goose's, but some other people said they thought it was a swan's. There were three eggs. (Travalon took photos - I will post all the Horicon photos soon.) That couple said they had been to Horicon three times and seen a gallinule two of those times, yet I have been many times and have never seen a gallinule. Just to add to the frustration, we kept hearing one that sounded very close, but we would peer into the reeds and see nothing. I said I was glad Anna Banana II could witness this, so I would know it wasn't just my imagination that they were taunting me. Then we continued on the driving tour and saw egrets, a pair of swans fairly close to the road, and a lot of pelicans in the distance. Also, lots of little goslings. 

Our next stop was the Subway in Mayville, where we had a very late lunch, and then I brought out dessert: cookies provided by a faculty member as part of the German scholarships presentation. She always gives me a little packet of them to thank me for my help.

Anna Banana II wanted the ladybug, and Travalon took the "thank you" cookie, so I took the beautiful flower, which had a solid ball of sugar in the middle. Between that and the peanut butter cup, I had plenty of sugar today! 

We stopped briefly at the part where the white-headed goose used to hang out, but we had to watch the time to get to Mass by five. Anna Banana II has to go to Milwaukee tomorrow morning for a Mother's Day brunch with most of her family, so she was saying she'd have to go to a very early Mass, but we said, "There's a church right by the marsh that has Mass at five." It's Sacred Heart in Horicon (the town). Mass was fine, but there was a weird incident where the priest talked to a guy who had received communion but hadn't consumed the host, and the rest of us waited in the communion line, confused. The guy did consume the host, and the priest wanted to talk to him after Mass, but I saw him slip out right before it was over. That may be the oddest thing I've seen during a Mass since the time some people came into my old church and opened a black umbrella right in the middle of Mass. Of course, we didn't see it because they were in the back of church - only our priest saw it, and he talked about it at the end of the Mass, after the people had left. Just a reminder that there are some... interesting people out there.

On the way back we swung by Patrick Marsh, where we saw a lone pelican and a blue heron, then I asked Anna Banana II what she wanted to do during her trip to Madison, and she said go to Immaculate Heart in Monona because it's a Jubilee church and also has a shrine to the Green Scapular. We stopped by, but it was locked. Inside we could see a bunch of rosaries that looked like they were for sale. We saw a religious sister walking down the street, so we asked if she could open the church, but she said no. She did tell us what the Mass times are tomorrow. Of course, we don't need to go tomorrow, but maybe if we're in the area, I can find out what's going on with all those rosaries. There was one called a "lava rosary," and I can know no peace without finding out what that's all about. Since we were in Monona, we went to the Jamaican restaurant that catered our wedding, which was eleven years ago today. That seemed like a very fitting thing to do for our anniversary. I had oxtail stew, which is a very popular Jamaican dish I had never tried before. It was delicious. Here's to our next eleven years, and many years after!

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Rosary Ladies Listening to Irish Tunes

 

Today I had to work in the morning, having to attend a meeting at 10 and another one at 11, but both were online so I worked from home. Anna Banana II is in town, so she and Jilly Moose came and picked me up (no mean feat with all this road construction in our neighborhood), then we went to Banzo for lunch and sat outside because the weather was so beautiful. After lunch we took a walk at Cherokee Marsh, and we saw a Canada goose sitting on top of a muskrat lodge. Jilly Moose took a photo.

We also went to the spot from which you can see the little nameless island in the marsh. We wanted a cool beverage after all that walking, so I thought of the North Side Lounge, since it has outdoor seating. Jilly Moose got a cranberry drink, while Anna Banana II and I had lavender French sodas, and I thought the color contrast was so beautiful that I took a photo.

True fact: I have a rosary in these colors. The Hail Mary beads are a reddish-orange and the Our Father beads are lavender. 

After that we went to Alt Brew, and Travalon met us there. We had delicious gluten-free cheese pizza (and Travalon and Jilly Moose had gluten-free beer), and we listened to traditional Irish music. The red-headed flute player I went to the concert with on Wednesday was there, and she sat in with the band in the second half of the evening. I recognize so many of the tunes as ones I can play, but I rarely can remember their names. One I can remember is the Butterfly Jig, and I immediately remembered that "butterfly" in Irish is "feilicain," and in Spanish it's "mariposa," and "farfalla" in Italian, but it took my brain a solid five minutes of thinking to pull out the French word, "papillon." I even remembered there was a dog breed by that name, but I couldn't think of the word itself. Anna Banana II said she couldn't remember how to do a jig, but suddenly halfway through the evening she said she did remember... but she wouldn't demonstrate. I do remember seeing her do the Irish jig years ago, and she even tried to teach some of us, back when we were limber enough to do all that leaping into the air.

Speaking of languages, I have some fantastic DuoLingo news:

Woo hoo! Thirty! Or should I say treinta? What does this mean? I'm not sure, but just a couple of weeks ago my score was 25, so I am improving. On the other hand, my French score was like 130, so I clearly have quite a ways to go!

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Da Pope

 

Today I had to get a bunch of stuff done before my coworker leaves on vacation, but I was mightily distracted by the conclave. Mid-morning I saw that there was white smoke, and then I was horrified to learn that they had elected a Pope from the USA. What?? Isn't it crazy enough here with our Tangerine Palpatine? Did we have to extend that crazy to the worldwide church?? He took the name Leo XIV, which is funny because he's not a Leo, he's a Virgo - I immediately googled his age to see how long we'd be stuck with him, and he's not even seventy. Also, he's from Chicago. At lunch I walked with Hardingfele, who asked if he was a Cubs fan, so I googled it, and at that time it said he was. Later in the day his brother confirmed that as a Southsider, he was of course a White Sox fan. Boo! The funniest thing is that this was apparently one of the top Google searches about the Pope today.

As the day went on, I thought about how the Cardinals elected a Polish Pope while Poland was deep in the clutches of Communism, and it made me wonder if maybe they had elected an American Pope while we are deep in the clutches of whatever cluster this is, and he will help destroy it like Pope John Paul II helped destroy Communism in Eastern Europe. Also, it became apparent online that the worst people were freaking out about this new Pope, which is always a good sign. Someone had posted a poem that went something like this:

Cassocks are red,

Conclaves are dope.

Wake up, babe, we got a 

(And then a tweet from a crazy right wing woman)

WOKE MARXIST POPE!

That really made my day. Apparently this guy spent a lot of time in Peru, and most of his recent tweets have been retweets of people critical of Dear Leader's immigration policies. His older tweets were in support of people protesting police brutality against black people. Hey, if he realizes Dear Leader is the Antichrist, then I'm all for this new Pope. Viva Leo XIV!

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Team Cabillou Cleans Up

 

Today we had a party for our German graduate students, with lunch and cake and then a trivia game. Most of the team names were phrases in German like "animal lovers" and "not good with names" and "most German," but I suggested we call ourselves "Cabillou," after the little thing on top of a beret, and my coworker and the two faculty members at my table were amenable to that. We were actually winning, but halfway through the game I had to leave for a class on accrual vs. cash accounting. Frankly, I have had so many of these training classes lately that it's hard to keep up with my actual work. I got a notice that the smoke from the Papal Conclave was black, so I messaged my coworker, and he said Cabillou had fallen to second to last, and one of the faculty members had left as well, but then he and the other faculty member bet it all on "final jeopardy"... and were the only team to get it right. He said my prize would be in my mailbox.

It's a little notebook, and the pencil says: "Just one more chapter." It's a good thing today was beautiful, because the free campus bus was a little early, and he saw me but wouldn't wait for me, just shaking his head as if I had gotten there late instead of him coming early, so I had to walk all the way across campus to my accounting class.

After work I met the red-headed flute player and a couple of her friends at Olin-Turville Park to hear Slipjig, one of the local Irish bands in town. I brought dinner, and we were sitting at tables so it was kind of a picnic. So much fun! Meanwhile, Travalon was watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail on the big screen. His Wolverhampton dragon, which he is calling Hee-Chan after the Wolves' star player, had arrived. This was a big deal because I had bought it for his anniversary present, and I knew shipping would cost more than the dragon itself, but I kept getting emails saying I owed even more than the dragon and shipping combined in fees. I thought they were a scam, but when UPS tried to deliver the dragon on Monday and nobody was home, they left a note saying I owed money. Yesterday I was home when they tried to deliver again, but the guy said I couldn't pay by credit card, only by cashier's check, so he had to take the dragon back. He said if I paid online, they could leave the package today, and they did. So behold the $90 dragon:

He is very cute. I was eager to see him after all that, and he is very soft and cuddly. Travalon said let's just exchange anniversary presents, even if the date isn't until Saturday, and here is what he gave me: a jewelry holder for my rosaries, a T-shirt, and a Drogheda Drogues scarf.

The shirt made me laugh because it sounds like I've been eating egrets. The Drogues are an Irish soccer team. Apparently they are first place in their league right now, which surprises me because last year they didn't do very well. Bonus photo: a shirt I bought to use up my gift card, from the same website where I got my Third Eye beanie.

I think I'll wear this tomorrow. Today I dressed up for work, but tomorrow nobody will be around because classes are done. I think it's supposed to be even warmer than today.

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Visit from My Relatives

 

Sorry for the long silence - I had relatives visiting from out of state, the same ones we visited in Colorado back in December. Friday I worked from home, then when Travalon got home, we went over to my aunt and uncle's hotel room with the mandolin, and we all went to the nearby Japanese restaurant we remembered liking so much (and it's still really good!) before jamming. My uncle plays the flute back in Colorado with a neighbor who plays guitar, and he has a playlist the two of them use. He had a small playlist for him and me, called "Denise" because I'm Da Niece (my idea, so direct all rotten tomatoes at me), but he accidentally started playing the neighbor one, and I loved all the songs because they have three chords and are in G or E minor or A minor. Guitarists must like the same things as mandolinists. My aunt joined us on the tongue drum, and she really added to the sound. Travalon sang the songs he knew, so it was really a family affair.

Saturday my aunt and uncle wanted to go to brunch at the place where another aunt had gotten a rhubarb pie, so we picked them up and went there, and it was really good. (Unfortunately, nine days until rhubarb, though.) Then we went to Horicon Marsh and saw lots of egrets and pelicans - photos soon! It just got too late once again to deal with them. On the way there, we introduced them to the wonders of Schultz's Cheese Haus - lots of free samples, and we got chocolate and cheese and liqueurs. Sadly, the naturalists told me neither the white-headed goose nor Grasshopper the Whooping Crane has returned this spring. The white-headed goose was getting on in years, but Grasshopper is relatively young, so what a bummer. The male of the pair of whoopers who lived over by the boardwalk died of a disease, so his mate has left for the Necedah marsh. With so few whooping cranes in the world, it's a tragedy to lose even one. Of course, Grasshopper had paired with a sandhill crane, so the Crane Foundation kept taking their "whoop hill" offspring to raise in captivity, to keep them from polluting the bloodline further. I'm not sure how I feel about that, since this hybridization happened in nature and wasn't like some guy going, "I want a lion with stripes!" (Ligers are sterile anyway, so they can't pollute any bloodlines.) When we got back from Horicon, we had dinner at the Tibetan restaurant, and then we jammed some more.

Sunday Travalon and I went to the earlier Mass at the church closer to us, and we saw the couple we have hung out with on occasion. Then we picked up my aunt and uncle and went to the Venezuelan restaurant near their hotel. Breakfast arepas - yum! We went to the Arboretum, where the lilacs are just starting to open and the magnolias are mostly past their peak, and it's a mixed bag with the crabapples. My aunt and uncle wanted to rest and do some stuff back at the hotel while I had my Brazilian drumming lesson, but of course Travalon had just dropped me off and driven away when I discovered a sign that said the instructor was sick so the class was canceled. Fortunately he answered the phone right away and came back to get me, and we hung out at the Tiki Bar at the East Side Club until going back to pick up my relatives. We all had dinner at Bierock, then my aunt and uncle came to band practice with me while Travalon hung out at Leopold's. My uncle doesn't read music too quickly, so he prefers to play by ear. I advocated for slow waltzes and possibly familiar polkas (Beer Barrel, Pennsylvania), but we did play some Ukrainian music which had him really lost. At least we didn't play the stuff that changes meter in the middle of the song! He said he enjoyed it but that it was very hard, and maybe he would have had an easier time if our bass player had been able to make it. Our accordion player was back for the first time in months after recovering from a broken leg, so I think that made everyone feel like we were starting from scratch again.

I took the day off of work yesterday, and I took my aunt and uncle to brunch at Crema Cafe, since they remembered it fondly. It's very close to Olbrich Gardens, so we went there afterwards, and then we grabbed the mandolin and headed back to their hotel room. There was a Mexican restaurant right across the street, so that was convenient for Cinco de Mayo. My uncle and I ran over and got us shrimp enchiladas with green sauce (shrimp fajitas for him), and then we actually got to enjoy the patio, since it had been cooler most of their visit and not conducive to sitting outside. When Travalon got off of work, he joined us with some Leinie's Lime, which went perfectly with the zingy green sauce on the enchiladas. We never did get around to jamming, because the guys were having one conversation and we ladies were having our own, and we just talked until it had gotten kind of late to jam. Besides, I had to work today.

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Mushroom Light Day

 

May did not start out fortuitously. I was so slow getting going in the morning that I couldn't finish my breakfast and had to take my coffee in a travel mug... which leaked all over me. I forgot to grab an umbrella, and it was raining so hard that I got absolutely soaked on my half a block walk to work from the shuttle stop. My shoes were especially wet, so I took them off and put them over the vent in my office. Nobody said anything about me walking around in my socks, and by lunchtime the shoes were dry enough to put back on. I walked with Hardingfele in her building, and we didn't walk steadily enough for me to get credit for a workout. Both she and Seabird complain that they are walking more slowly now that they walk with me, and other people are leaving them in the dust. I don't know what to say about this. I have never been a fast walker, even in my prime, and now I'm like a little old lady. I keep reading articles that say this means I'm going to die an early death, and to try to speed up. Yet they also say people who slow down and smell the roses live longer, so who are you gonna believe?

The mushroom light in Hardingfele's office isn't so much iridescent purple as it is purple on one side and dark blue on the other, as I realized when I inspected it today. Here are photos.

There was a Nordic party this afternoon for the graduating seniors, so I chatted with some faculty and grad students and had a couple of Nordic treats. Then a grad student gave me two pieces of cake she had made for her class, one a citrus cake and one some sort of typical German cake with custard and almonds. The citrus cake was falling apart, so I just ate it, and then I didn't feel so great after all that sugar. Travalon and I can split the other one tomorrow morning over coffee.

This evening I joined a Zoom "grief circle" for climate change, and we were supposed to have a pen, a journal, and a candle. I had Travalon grab the green mushroom light for my "candle," and then we were supposed to use five prompts to write about our grief, but when I got put into a breakout group with three other women, we all realized we had less grief and more anger. However, we do grieve the fact that honesty and integrity aren't valued anymore. When people at the highest level of government are corrupt, greedy liars, and people - Christians! - admire them, it feels like honesty and integrity have no worth in our society. The craziest thing about this group, though, is that the facilitator is someone I beat years ago in an election for Staff Congress. What are the odds of that? One of the newer regulars from Night Prayer was there too, and one guy from the Care for Creation group at the church we are going to now - he's the one who sent me the invitation.

While today was a rainy day, and the flowers have already been blooming for a week, I did feel like this DuoLingo lesson I got today was fitting for May Day:

You just never know when the flowers will bloom around here. The year Travalon and I got married, I had chosen May 10 because I thought that's when the crabapples should be in bloom, but they were barely budding, and we had to have our photos taken in front of the magnolias. This year the crabapples started blooming in late April, so they'll be done by May 10, I would suppose. 

Here is a photo of a crane that Travalon took yesterday.

And a red-winged blackbird.

Anna Banana II is coming to town in two weeks, and she wants to go to Horicon, so watch this space for more bird photos.

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