Small Moldy Jam Jam

 

Today I worked from home, since it's Spring Break at our university and very quiet. The weather was gorgeous, so Travalon and I took a couple of walks, and he took photos of birds. I even wore shorts today! Just after he left for work, my Belleek Nenagh Castle ornament arrived. 

There is one more castle ornament I want to get, and I am going to get a $15 gift certificate for having given blood, so once that arrives, I can order it. That should do it for now for Belleek castles.

In the evening I did something new: I went to a small Moldy Jam. This is how they have done them for years, before the music club opened - they get together at people's houses and jam. This was in a cooperative housing apartment building, in the "music room," appropriately enough, and I finally bit the bullet and signed up for one because I knew the hostess and I knew the area, right near the music club. There was a parking lot behind the building, which I never knew was there. It's so close to the music club, it's tempting to park there when I'm going there. I suspected there might be a break with snacks and I shouldn't come empty-handed, so I brought the bag of Late July Street Corn-Flavored Corn Chips we had just bought yesterday. Also, I had asked the hostess if I should bring the fiddle or the mandolin, and she said the mandolin, which turned out to be a great option because then I could play either melody or chords, depending on how I felt about it. The woman next to me had an iPad, so I could cheat and look at the chords and the notes. We played and played, and then we took a break and I ate way too much, since I hadn't been hungry for dinner and there was such good stuff there. Cheese and crackers are my weakness, and I had some very un-Lenten Godiva peanut butter chocolate things. (I brought one home for Travalon to make it up to him for the chips, which were mostly devoured. We still have a few.) Then we played again, and when we left, there was quite a lightning show playing across the sky.

Here are some of the many photos Travalon has taken of birds lately. First, some ring-necked ducks near our dock.

Here is a male ring-necked duck with a female bufflehead.

And a male bufflehead flapping his wings.

A pair of mallards and a pair of northern shovelers.

I asked Travalon to take these photos of a cloud with a reddish tinge on the far lefthand side.

Here is a male northern shoveler:

We saw a whole flock of grackles fly into this tree.

Those photos were all from Wednesday evening, when we sat out on the dock because it was so pleasant out. These next photos are from yesterday at Picnic Point. We saw tons of coots.

The two at the bottom of the next photo seem to be having an argument:

We also saw buffleheads.

The male and the female bufflehead:

I'm not sure what the coot in the middle of this photo is doing:

If you look closely, you can see the male bufflehead's little pink feet trailing behind him in this next photo:

These photos are from today off our dock. Here is a male blue-winged teal.

And our old pal Tux Duck.

A male bufflehead launching into flight.

These next two photos are of a female common merganser.

So, as you can see, we still have lots of types of ducks around our dock. 

Famous Hat

 

No Kings and Mass in B Minor

 

Sorry for the long silence. Thursday I worked on campus, and Hardingfele and I walked inside because it was colder out than we'd expected, so we hadn't dressed for the weather. It's kind of annoying when your phone says it will be 60 F out and then it's barely 40... I felt fine at work, but then at home I felt too sick to blog and went to bed early. 

Friday I worked on campus and walked with Seabird, then after work I met Tiffy downtown, and she said she was in the mood for Italian. We decided to walk towards the Square, and then we saw Cento, which I had forgotten about, so we got dinner there. It was very swanky and full of beautiful people much younger than we are. We didn't have reservations, so we sat at the bar, next to a strange man in a fake leather jacket who seemed very annoyed by us. Fortunately the bartender who took care of us adored us for some reason. (I tipped him well!) Then we went back to her sister's apartment and talked for a long time.

Yesterday Travalon and I met Tiffy downtown for coffee, then we were walking towards the Square when we noticed Himal Chuli, which had closed abruptly, was open again as Himali Chulo.

They also had a light-up sign that said: "Welcoe to Himali Chulo," but that didn't show up in the photo. We got lunch there, and I'm happy to report that they have a very similar menu to Himal Chuli. It's the guy who owns the Globe, so they have dumplings from the Globe on the menu too. Then we went up to the Square; I was wearing my red tasseled hat, and I had brought Travalon's red tasseled hat, so he wore it for a couple of blocks, but then he put his "Hamm's Bear for President" baseball cap back on, even though it was cold and the other hat was a lot warmer. When we got up to the Square, we saw a lot of people with signs, and some had red tasseled hats (and acknowledged mine with knowing nods), but not as many people as we had expected. I knew my Union peeps were gathering at Brittingham Park and then marching to the Capitol, so I said, "They must not be here yet." Then we passed the chocolate shop, and despite the Lenten season, we went in and got some. When we came out, we heard the sounds of an enormous crowd, and we saw the big group marching around the Square. Travalon and I did not take any photos, but there were lots of great signs, like, "The only orange monarch I want is a butterfly!" and "Trump is a ra_ist" with a P and a C for the hangman choices. We ended up right by the Forward Marching Band, who played a short concert, and who should we run into but the Daughter and Widow of Denni! So that was a fun surprise. I never did find my Union peeps, but later we saw a bunch of people from the Lutheran church where I used to sing, all wearing red tasseled hat pins. I said, "I have the same pin!" even made by the same lady. They also had palm branches, which I thought was a nice touch. 

After we left the protest, the three of us got bubble tea, then Travalon went off to watch basketball at the Union, State Street Brats, and Baked Wings, while Tiffy and I went to her sister's apartment, then the Chinese restaurant we always go to for dinner (but I got something different this time, noodles instead of the salt and pepper shrimp), and then we walked all the way down State Street to get to the Hamel Music Center for Bach's Mass in B Minor. Famie my Irish teacher texted to ask if I wanted to go to a concert at the music club, so I told her about the Bach concert, and she was interested but decided to go to the other concert. Our concert was spectacular, and one of our faculty members was sitting right in front of us, but a different one than last year at the St. Matthew's Passion. Who knew so many of our Slavic faculty love Bach?

Meanwhile, Hardingfele went to the protest in Middleton. When I asked her how many people were there, she sent me this photo.

As well as this photo.

She did say a Trumper in a pickup truck was yelling at them and then took photos of license plates, as if everyone parked around there was a protester. We didn't see any counterprotesters up at the Square this time, though I have seen them in the past, weakly yelling at us that Trump is the best president of all time and the new King David. Maybe they drank so much of the Kool-Aide that they finally overdosed?

This morning I had forgotten that it was Palm Sunday, so we were a little later getting together with Tiffy than we'd originally planned, but not too much. Fortunately there was only the normal amount of plastic to recycle. We picked up Tiffy and went to La Brioche for brunch, having to wait outside for a while, and a woman asked me if I'd knitted my Circus Tent hat. I had to admit that no, I'd gotten it on eBay, so I told Travalon and Tiffy that I would have to call it the Big Top Chautauqua Poseur Hat from now on. It was a gorgeous day, so we took a walk on Picnic Point and saw lots of coots, buffleheads, and people walking dogs that wanted to say hi. Travalon took photos of the birds that I will post tomorrow. 

Our band leader is in Puerto Rico right now, so I wasn't sure if it was worth going to band practice, but then Hardingfele said she was going, so we both got dropped off by our husbands (because mine went to hang out with Cecil Markovitch and the Single B-Boy), and we spent more time talking than playing. We even had leftover cupcakes from our hostess's 88th birthday on Thursday. We did play some tunes that our leader won't play, klezmer tunes with F minor chords, and I can see why she won't play that chord. It's not that hard to make, per se, but in the one tune it jumps between that and G major, and those two chords are really hard to switch between quickly like that. Guess what I need to do? Practice! So I was in the right place tonight!

Famous Hat

A Really Great Fugue

 

Today I worked on campus and walked with Seabird, who loved that I now call the plaid tam my "circus tent hat." I didn't wear that today, since the temperature was starting at 30 F when I left home this morning and ending up at almost 70 F; I wore my argyle beret, and once again someone told me how much she loved my hat. I'm almost guaranteed to get a compliment whenever I wear it. When I went for my afternoon walk, there was a crowd on Observatory Hill watching Asian dancers while a guy played a string instrument. I was curious, but it looked like the crowd was an actual class, so I wasn't sure that a casual passerby would be welcome to join.

I forgot to mention that last night in one of the choro pieces, there was an E# several times. My brain couldn't process this, since there is no such thing as an E# so it should just be an F, and instead I kept playing an Eb. Well, oops. 

For about a week I've had a snippet of a piece stuck in my brain, and last night I thought, "That's a Bach fugue, I think in G minor." There are two well-known fugues by him in G minor, the "Little" and the "Great," and I was thinking of the Great one. It's actually based on a popular Dutch song of the day, so my earworm was an 18th century Dutch pop song. Today I kept listening to this fugue over and over and over, and it really helped my perspective. When I was in the "between space" after having been killed by a hunter, and I didn't want to be reincarnated as a human because I thought humans were evil, God told me He would give me a deep love of music to realize that humans are also capable of amazing beauty. And indeed this piece makes me realize that, while there are people in this world who would starve an entire island on purpose, a human did create something so moving that listening to it, you can't help but be drawn to the Divine. The most amazing thing is when something I do moves another person, like I have seen people be moved when I sing, and of course there was that guy who tracked me down after reading a poem I'd written. Maybe once we get through these dark days, and long after I'm gone, someone will read a poem of mine and think, "Humans aren't all bad. One created this work of art." 

Perhaps I'm lucky in that I'm surrounded by people who care more about beauty than money or power. The faculty in my department are interested in knowledge and literature and languages, and the musicians I hang out with are, of course, interested in music. It shouldn't surprise me that a human would poach a panther that hadn't hurt him when humans will kill other humans that have never done anything to them, but we can rejoice in the fact that most people would not kill others, and in fact so many of them are pursuing beauty and truth. If only they were the ones in charge!

On a lighter note, here is a quality joke:

I'm sure this was photoshopped, since the cars are the same in both photos, but who cares? It's hilarious!

Famous Hat

Choro Jam

 

I didn't blog yesterday because there wasn't much to say. I worked on campus, and Hardingfele was wearing a bright pink top that clashed wonderfully with her newly purple hair, only she thought the top was purple too and that they matched. Then we walked in Allen Centennial Gardens with her coworker who goes to my church. Travalon took me to work and picked me up, since he is working 9-5 this week during Spring Break, and on the way home we stopped for dinner at Nar Turkish Restaurant, where we had the usual lamb and chicken combo plate and orchid lattes that were really good.

Today I'd been thinking of going into work since Travalon could take me there and back, but I decided to work from home since it's my usual day to work from home. I took a long walk at lunch and saw lots of ducks from the dock, but they were too far away for me to identify. I'm sure they are the same things that Travalon keeps taking photos of. Here are some more he has taken over the last several days. First, a pair of mallards.

Some northern shovelers with a female common merganser in the foreground.

Tux Duck (a hybrid mallard) and his mallard mate.

A pair of northern shovelers.

 

A pair of buffleheads.

A pair of sandhill cranes.

There were lots of other photos, some of ring-necked ducks and common mergansers, but most of them were kind of fuzzy. Anyway, you get the idea of what sorts of ducks are hanging around our dock.

Today I skipped Adoration to check out the Choro Jam. Choro is a kind of Brazilian jazz, and the music really reminded me of what they play at the Django Djam. I thought they started at 6:30, but when I got there, they'd already been playing for half an hour. Oops! I brought Mandy, thinking from the video I'd seen of last month's group that it would be all guitar and mandolin, but this week it was a woman playing percussion, one of my Brazilian drum teachers who had to leave not long after I came, the leader who was also playing mandolin, a guitarist, another Brazilian drum guy - the one who plays the little instrument that looks like a ukulele - and a grad student on the trumpet, and we talked the owner of the music club into joining us on cello. She had to transpose on the fly, which sounds impossible because I found it hard enough to play at their fast speed while sightreading all those sixteenth notes and accidentals. Yikes! The trumpeter was really good, so I basically followed him, and the leader seemed pleased with both of us. I really enjoyed this music and am thinking about getting a sub for Adoration every fourth Tuesday so I can keep doing this. The chords look even worse than the melodies - what is an F minor diminished? What? I feel bad that I got so lazy playing everything in G and D for years and never learned these harder chords, but back then I was doing so much choral music. I hardly played the violin at all, and I only played the mandolin in my band. Now I'm really focused on instrumental music, but I don't sing anymore except on Night Prayer, where I have my fans. There just isn't enough time to do everything. 

Famous Hat

Brazilian Party and Banjo Player at Band Practice

 

Today was cold again, after that almost summer-like day yesterday. We bundled up and went to Mass, and there was a ton of plastic to recycle afterwards. We took a brief walk outside, but the wind was biting, so we mostly hung out until heading to the Quadra for the party to watch the Brazilian drumming extravaganza. This was not as exciting for Travalon, who of course watched the whole thing in real life, but I hadn't gotten to see some of it while waiting to go on or having just gotten off the stage. The video wasn't actually that much higher quality than the one Travalon took with his phone from way up in the balcony, which surprised me, but I could still see that I was mostly out of step with everyone else. I did enjoy hearing the really good drummers and watching the dancers. Unfortunately we had to leave before the end, so we didn't get to see the acts that we left before in real life. That was today - all my hobbies stepping all over each other, because I had to miss Irish conversation for this watch party, and then I had to leave the watch party in order to get to band practice on time. I did enjoy watching the dancing girls dancing in real life in the Quadra, and a little girl of about three trying to imitate them.

Tonight at band practice we had a new person, a woman who plays the banjo. She said she started as a guitar player from a young age and then lately got really into the ukulele, which is how she knows our band leader. She even knows people from the ukulele group I hang out with, although we are on the north side of town and her group is on the south side. Their group is called FUN (Fitchburg Ukulele Network), while I hang out with the Wauna Strummers and Prairie Strummers who are, of course, from Waunakee and Sun Prairie, but one group meets Mondays at two and another one meets Fridays at one, so I only ever see them at the monthly Lone Girl strum. Anyway (sorry for that ukulele tangent), the banjo player decided to learn the five-string banjo, and she is pretty good! I loved the sound she added to our band. She said she has heard us play for Make Music Madison and always wanted to join us, which amazes me since we are not that great of a band, in my opinion. Hardingfele did say she is trying to get us a gig at a retirement home. For some reason she dyed her hair purple tonight, which was her excuse for coming late this time. (Usually it's something to do with cats.)

I said I really liked the color with her turquoise top. You can see our other fiddler behind her. Our newest fiddler is incommunicado at the moment, but she is extremely pregnant and has a toddler, so she has other things going on besides our band. We could use another fiddler, but it's great to have a banjo again. We haven't had one since the Professor Formerly Known as Lute Player played banjo with us years ago.

Here is a lovely photo of flowers at my aunt and uncle's house in Colorado. They sent some others too, but for reasons I can't explain, my phone is refusing to download those.

It says the other photo has already been saved to my iCloud photo album, but I can't find it. It's not in my phone's photo library, and it's not in Boethius's regular photo library, but when I go to "recently saved," I can see that I have saved it about eight times. OK, if I search "recently saved," I can find it.

I hope that was worth the trouble. There's also one of a tree leaning over in front of a sunset.

So weird! This has never happened before. And no, my blog post title is not a secret ad for BP gas stations.

Famous Hat

A Day in the Life of a Basketball Widow

 

Today Travalon was at State Tournament for boys' basketball all day with his high school buddy and the buddy's oldest daughter, so I had big plans for myself. I was going to get a haircut and then get lunch, but I was running a bit early and was very hungry, so I went to Ian's Pizza first because the Red Cross had given me a coupon for one free slice of pizza the last time I gave blood. It was a gorgeous day, so I walked to the other side of Capitol Square for my haircut and then went back to my old church, where I had parked. There was a bit of time before my next activity, so I went into the Adoration Chapel and prayed a rosary. Usually I'm afraid to do that on Saturday afternoons because I used to get stuck in there when everyone else would leave, but now they have little curtains you can draw around the Host if you are alone and have to leave, and wouldn't you know that this time there were a number of other people in there, and they didn't leave the moment I arrived. There had been a cheap little plastic rosary on the windowsill when I was there on Tuesday for my Adoration hour, and someone had put it on the rosary hook in the chapel, so I prayed with it. I also tested it to see if it would glow in the dark, since it looked like it would. Answer: yes, it does.

My next stop was the Chazen Museum for a demonstration of rosemaling hosted by our department and some other departments. The artist painted an enormous canvas while a band of three fiddles, a mandolin, and a guitar played Norwegian music. Here is the canvas just after she had started.

Here she has added more detail.

At intermission it looked like this.

I was dying of thirst and had a yuzu iced tea because there is a little cafe in the museum now, but it only helped somewhat, so at intermission I headed home. Sorry, I cannot show you the finished painting. Usually rosemaling is done on much smaller objects, like plates or hardanger fiddles. It was very soothing to watch this woman paint, but I can only stand Norwegian music for so long, and besides, I needed some time to get ready for the fast Irish session tonight.

I got to my car right at the start of La Junta, the salsa program on the community radio every Saturday afternoon. I'd given up listening to music in the car for Lent, having to drive in contemplative silence, but since Saturday afternoon kind of counts as Sunday (at least for Mass), I figured I could listen. Usually when I'm in Travalon's car, they play all sorts of weird Latin music, but today they played straight-up salsa, and it was fantastic. Back home I went out on our porch and streamed the station on my laptop as I did Wordle and crossword puzzles. Travalon had brought some Indian food home for me, grilled lamb and spicy rice and plantains, and it was so good! I also drank a Bai and lots of water.

Famie my Irish teacher and I said we would try to get to the Irish session at Lakeside early to get chairs, but of course we were both running late and had to drag chairs in from the back room. It was so crowded! Not just with musicians but also with people listening. It was very hot in there, so I was glad to be wearing a tie-dyed T-shirt because it had been so warm out. We sat beside a very friendly woman, and the three of us tried to remember the names of the tunes we were playing. Sometimes you hear a tune and find you can play it, but you can't remember what it's called for anything. That's what's handy about the Ballydesmond Polkas - they say their own name. I didn't claim my free drink tonight, since I was still feeling a bit dehydrated, but they have free water there so I drank plenty of that. People also gave us pistachio fudge that was amazing and chocolate chip cookies that were just meh - I think they were store-bought, not homemade. Since Saturday night is basically Sunday, I indulged in both even though I have given up sweets for Lent. We played Irish tunes well into the night, but I still beat Travalon home. This is one of his favorite weekends of the year, and he had a fabulous time... and so did I!

Famous Hat

Tax Day with Tux Duck

 

Guess what? I found the small Belleek Castle! It's a replica of Blarney Castle.

It's also a Christmas tree ornament and a bell. As far as I know, the vase that is a castle tower is not based on any real castle. Here they are together; don't ask why they are leaning away from each other like they can't stand one another, because I don't know.

I got another sticker from DuoLingo:

"O meu nome e Chapeu Famoso." Back in college, I had a Portuguese TA who had us do a unit on travel where for some reason we learned the word for "hijack," and another unit on signs of the zodiac. It has always been a great comfort to me that I can still vaguely remember how to say in Portuguese, "Hello, my name is Famous Hat, I am a Capricorn, and I am hijacking this airplane." You just never know when that might come in handy.

Travalon suggested today's blog post title. We had our taxes done this morning, and our accountant is so cool that I wish I could hang out with her more often than just 45 minutes once a year. Then we stopped to get some bubble tea at Dreamy Teazy. They have a cool setup that seems to be for taking photos.

It's probably supposed to be for the couple, but Travalon took the photo because at the moment there was nobody else there to do it. Then I went back to work at home until lunchtime, when we took a walk down to the dock. It was so beautiful outside. For some reason I found it very moving to see large flocks of waterfowl flying north, maybe to Horicon Marsh. Spring is finally here! Travalon took some photos of our old friend Tux Duck (he has been hanging around our dock for years) and some other birds.

These are sandhill cranes, just like the first bird picture above.

There were northern shovelers in the distance.

Here is Tux Duck coming toward us.

And this is a mourning dove on the roof.

The couple we were sitting with at the Elks Club on Tuesday were telling us about a talk they went to on the strange ways animals die, and the one that shocked them most was a bald eagle that attacked a loon, and the loon pierced its chest with its sharp bill. I was not surprised; I said, "There's a lot of bird-on-bird violence. Keep in mind that they're just modern dinosaurs." Sometimes it does feel like birds live in their own world where they fight with other birds and eat other birds and really only interact with other birds, but then I remember the mink stealing an egg from the goose's nest last year, and I realize they do have to put up with us mammals quite a bit. When I went for a walk in the afternoon, the pair of cranes who always hang around our neighborhood were walking down the street, and we cautiously gave each other a wide berth. I have never had any issues with them, but I'm respectful. People have told me the cranes chased them back into their house, but what did they do to get that kind of response? It makes you wonder.

I get done with work at 5:00, and at 4:59 I heard the train coming so I logged out less than a minute early and hurried to the spot where I could see it, and it was just coming into view. If God is still speaking to me in Train, maybe He was saying that it was good we chose to stay home tonight. We were invited to a fish fry down in Verona, but Travalon wanted to watch March Madness games, and I wanted to talk to Tiffy, so we turned down the invitation. I felt slightly antisocial for doing so, but because we did, I saw the train. It does seem like lately whenever I make a decision and then wonder if it's the right one, I see a train because I'm in the right place at the right time. Of course, last night there were so many other things going on besides the ukulele strum - the Brazilian band was playing, an antiwar group was having a meeting, there was a Quebecois jam, and there was a free concert on campus of Israeli pop music - and while there are train tracks running by the Lone Girl, I never saw a train. So did I make the wrong choice? Or am I just putting too much importance on seeing a train?

Famous Hat