Daughter of Denni's Birthday Bar Crawl 2026

 

This morning Travalon and I ran a few errands, then we drove separately, heading downtown to pick up Tiffy and then driving to Monroe Street to have lunch at the new Jamaican restaurant there, Fya Side. Travalon and I had jerk chicken, and Tiffy had goat curry. The Daughter of Denni was doing her usual birthday biking bar crawl, so we caught up with the group at the Laurel Tavern, where none of the beers appealed to me so I had a chocolate martini as we had great conversation. By the time the group was ready to head to Garth's, I still felt very buzzed, so Travalon, Tiffy, and I went next door to get ice cream. I was curious about the raspberry mustard flavor, but after trying a sample, I decided to go with half a scoop of key lime cheesecake and half a scoop of Zanzibar chocolate. Wow, were they ever good together! We took a walk to Wingra Park (where they now have a Loch Ness Monster peddle boat), then Travalon left to go swimming out in Sauk, while Tiffy and I joined the group at Garth's and just drank water. Eventually we all dispersed, and Tiffy and I went to Christy's Landing, since I'd been curious about it. There was a fundraiser there last weekend that we didn't attend due to the drizzly weather (and we missed a steel pan group), and then the group we knew yesterday went there for a fish fry. As you can see, it's a very picturesque location.

Afterwards, Tiffy and I took a walk at the Nine Springs E-Way, and we saw a beautiful sunset.

We went back to the roof of her sister's apartment building, where some speakers we had never noticed before were inexplicably blasting 80's dance music. That made us feel very nostalgic, but eventually it got to a volume we couldn't bear, so we called it a night. I popped into my old church to use the bathroom and found these beautiful gladioli just sitting in the hallway.

Also, this poster about the parish festival tomorrow had both a Spanish and an English version, but I laughed because they missed one translation in English. Can you spot it?

It's on the left side, about halfway down - they didn't translate "live music." Tiffy and I were most fascinated by the concept of the mechanical bull, because when I think church picnics, the first thing I think of is a mechanical bull, am I right? 

This post just wouldn't be complete without some train graffiti, and Travalon found some today in Mazomanie.

If 2024 was my Wondrous Year of the Dragon and 2025 was the year I got into Irish fiddling and Brazilian music, then 2026 is shaping up to be the year I'm all about train art.

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Rugged Anglican Rosary

 

There was a lot going on this evening. The Daughter of Denni's band was playing in Belleville, and some people we know were going to a fish fry at a restaurant I've always wanted to go to, but both things were quite early in the evening. Travalon didn't get home from work until well after six, so it was too late to do either thing, but Tiffy came to town at seven and the three of us went to an Indian restaurant on State Street, got bubble tea, and hung out on the roof of her sister's apartment building. From there we could just barely see the fireworks after the Mallards game. It was so beautiful up there.

Last week I was praying with the Anglican rosary I got at an antiques shop some years ago, and I dropped it on the tile floor. Miraculously, none of the beautiful glass beads broke, but the two starting ones popped off. So did the cross, and that took longer to find. It seemed a bit ironic because at the time I bought it thinking it was a bracelet that I would never wear, but I'd use the cross for something else... but then it became one of my favorite chaplets to use, and now the cross is off of it, so I could use it for something else, but I don't want to. I looked online and found a place called Rugged Rosaries where I could get a really tough one, and meanwhile I prayed with the poor little chaplet without the starting beads or cross. I should be able to fix it, but maybe it's too delicate to use while walking around and should only be used while I'm safely seated. The new one does look very rugged, so no issues walking with it!

It arrived today, and I prayed with it. The cross is a bit large for my taste, but it certainly works for walking around with! I could even use this one outside! It reminds me of that cool one-decade rosary made of parachute cord that someone abandoned at my old church - I use that one outside all the time. I have lots of beautiful, delicate rosaries I wouldn't dare use while walking around outside, but that's how I'm usually praying the Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet, so that little one-decade rosary gets a ton of use. Also, the pink part on it glows under blacklight.

How cool is that?

I still haven't had time to make screenshots from Travalon's video he made yesterday, but here are a few from the train in our neighborhood that were posted on social media.

It seems like this style is unique to Wisconsin and Southern. You will see, when I get a chance to post Travalon's screenshots, that it's a style like what we see in Rochelle. The graffiti here is simple and easy to read, and I like that. I don't always know what it means, but I know what it says.

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On the Lawn at the Elks Club

 

This evening right after work I got a haircut, then Travalon and I went to the Elks Club for their monthly Irish session, only this time it was out on the lawn. They had been hoping to do this for the last few sessions, but it was always bad weather. Tonight, however, was perfect. We sat with some Shamrock Club buddies and listened to the music as the group of musicians ballooned to two dozen. Two even came on a boat! Since Travalon and I got there late, we had to sit with our backs to the lake, but we could see it reflected in the windows of the club. The red-headed flute player was there, and she came and talked to us a couple of times, and another fiddler also talked to me, someone I know from Moldy Jam. The really good mandolin player even offered to let me play his mandolin, but I'd rather play the fiddle at a session. I knew a lot of the tunes they played tonight, and the flute player said all day at work she was thinking about what tunes she would start. Just today I read an article that said those exercise programs for your brain don't actually do much to stave off senility, but what does work is playing music, learning foreign languages, walking, and learning new skills (like, say, Brazilian drumming?). So it sounds like I'm doing everything right, for once.

As we left, we saw a beautiful sunset.

Then on the way home we saw a train about to cross Commercial Avenue, so we pulled into a parking lot and watched it. I took some photos of graffiti, but it was kind of dark so not all of them turned out. Here are a few that did.

The engineer waved at me as he passed by. Then the train stopped, waited a bit, and slowly backed up. We passed it, but it was moving forward again, so we pulled into a parking lot on the other side of the tracks so we could see the graffiti on the other side. It was even darker on that side, so I didn't take any photos, but I noticed one that said "4 Adult Literature." Here I thought 4AL was "for a laugh," and then I saw one that said "4 All Locations," but apparently it can stand for all sorts of things!

Travalon had the afternoon off, so he went to Columbus and made a couple of train videos. One is an AmTrak, so no graffiti on that one. The other one went by very fast, so the screenshots will be blurry, but there are some really good examples of graffiti on it. Unfortunately some of them are partially blocked by a fence. I'll try to get screenshots soon - once again it got late, so there's no time tonight.

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Night Mares Are Champions Again

 

Today right after work, Travalon and I went to the Duck Pond to watch the women's softball team, the Night Mares.

We hadn't gotten to a Night Mares game yet this season, and this was their last one, unless they lost. They won last night against the Wausau Ignite, so if they won tonight, they would be champions. Well, guess what?

They hit quite a few home runs and had some impressive defensive work, and they won 7-1. I was glad to see it wasn't just women there to support them, although the bros sitting behind us were a bit obnoxious - at least they were just loud, not sexist or anything. For example, one of them was loudly proclaiming that a nightmare is a horse that sits on your chest while you sleep, and I was so tempted to turn around and tell him that the "mare" comes from an Old English word for goblin, so it's a goblin that sits on your chest so you can't move, i.e., sleep paralysis. The word for a female horse has a completely different etymology.

Speaking of linguistics, stand by for an important DuoLingo announcement:

And this took forever to download to my computer, but the sky was so beautiful right after the game.

As promised, here are screenshots from the second train Travalon made a video of Tuesday afternoon in Watertown. This one is all tanker cars, or as I call them, sausage cars, except for the very last car. Most of the sausage cars didn't have any graffiti, or they had a few random scribbles, and one said "Kelsey Visconti is a rat" in regular old letters, not tag letters. I don't know who Kelsey Visconti is, but I'm sure she's a lovely person, and the only hit I got on Google is someone who lives in New Jersey. Now if they'd done it artistically, I would have posted it. Here is some artistic graffiti.

There have been some good videos on social media, so I may post some screenshots from that tomorrow. One video was almost all cars I have already posted on here, so no point in making screenshots of those, but it was fun to see them again, like they were old friends. We have our own little ecosystem of train car graffiti here in Madison, and I am here for it.

So speaking of Kelsey Visconti, one thing that came up on Google was a TikTok video by someone who was watching a train with lots of sausage cars that said she was a rat and a "snitch b--ch," and I got a screenshot of some truly beautiful graffiti from this video, whatever RNO means.

Also, my neighbor sent me a video of a painting someone had done of a long freight train with graffiti, and the graffiti was actually the lyrics to "King of the Road" by Roger Miller, a favorite song of Travalon and mine. The original painting is sold, but the guy says he sells prints, which you can find in the link in his bio... but I couldn't find the link. Bummer.

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