Animals We Saw in Florida

 

Today I worked on campus, and at lunch I walked with Hardingfele. She must have found the weather tolerable, because she didn't have any interest in going to the greenhouses today. We walked outside, and when we got back to her office, she showed me a Starbucks gift card she had found on the ground. She wondered how much was left on it, but I said probably nothing if someone had just dropped it like that. She looked up how to check the balance on it, then she checked it... and it was $0. Hey, you get what you pay for. Then in the afternoon I had a long meeting, and I ran into my former boss, but Handy Woman wasn't there this time. I have found the issues confronting academic staff less compelling than those facing university staff, who are often way underpaid and treated like crap, but today I got interested in a group that meets to decide if they will support or oppose various bills working their way through the state legislature. That sounds like my kind of group!

As promised weeks and weeks ago, here is a short movie I compiled of all the videos Travalon made of animals we encountered on our travels:

Some of these are native to Florida and some, obviously, are not. I'll give you a hint: if they are from Busch Gardens, they are not anything you would see in the wilds of Florida.

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Bad Bunny: Best Super Bowl Show Ever

 

I forgot to mention that Friday right after I got done with work, I went outside to take a rosary walk. It was very cold and I was tempted to go inside, but I stuck it out and was rewarded with seeing a train during the fifth decade. God's talking to me in Train again. Also, yesterday I went outside to take a walk and saw that all three of my packages had arrived: my Muppets hoodie, my Hawaiian Capricorn keychain (thought I was ordering a necklace just like Grandma's - oops!), and my "Minnesota Nice" basket of soap, lotion, scented oil, and lip balm. It was a fundraiser for people in Minnesota, and you could send one to a person in need in Minnesota, so I bought one for myself and one for someone being terrorized by ICE. Sorry, no photos of my loot yet - soon.

This morning there was twice as much plastic as usual, but there was a Care for Creation meeting after Mass, so I couldn't help too much with the recycling and poor Travalon had to take all the bags to the drop-off point himself. They were also selling pizzas after Mass to help people in Belize, so we bought one and had it for lunch. My Brazilian drum lesson was really short today, but like last week, my FitBit thought I got a workout from bicycling outside. Last week I was very sore after walking all around the Milwaukee Public Museum the day before, so I was happy to get "steps" by drumming and fiddling. Today I was short because it was so cold outside; Travalon and I walked around the house, but we didn't get that many steps so I cheated and put the FitBit on my right wrist when I went to band practice. Unlike the Slow Irish Session last week, where we played continuously so I got credit for a walk, this time my FitBit didn't register any workout, but it did register enough steps that I only had to walk around the house to one song when I got home to get my ten thousand steps. Not bad!

When I got home, Travalon was watching the end of the Super Bowl. The Seahawks won, which pleases me as far as I care, since neither team was the Packers. Travalon had recorded the whole game, so once it was over I rewound and watched the halftime show. And was that ever amazing! Having just been to Puerto Rico, I could recognize some of the tropes in the show, and I was happy to see Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin. Bad Bunny had so much energy, and he did have a lot of salsa flavor in his music. I haven't listened to him much in the past, but maybe now I will. He did work with a professor at our university to write his album about Puerto Rico, that I believe won a grammy. He certainly did win a Grammy at one point, because he gave it to a kid during the show. Also, a couple invited him to their wedding so he said they should have it during his show, and so they did. A real wedding! This has to be the best Super Bowl halftime show ever. It ended with Bad Bunny name-checking every country in Latin America, and ending with the USA and Canada, as people behind him carried all the flags. My regular readers know I'm a real sucker for parades of flags. But this show sucked me in from the beginning, when it depicted the sugar cane fields of Puerto Rico, and the old men playing cards at a table. Of course, that could also be Cuba. All my love to both islands.

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Balkan Singing and Croatian Wild Game Feast

 

Today Travalon and I had a very relaxed morning. I started the Portuguese course on DuoLingo and took a vigorous rosary walk in the neighborhood, and I did repot a plant. That was about as much as I accomplished this morning. Then we drove to Oakwood Village, a retirement community, to sing Balkan music in their chapel. We were very confused because we parked close to the chapel, but the doors to it were locked, so we had to go in the main entrance. Fortunately we ran into one of the people leading the singing, who led us to the chapel. We sang for an hour with about a dozen other people; it was scheduled to go for two hours, but we had to go pick up Mamastep to head to the Croatian wild game feast in Milwaukee.

Tiffy and my other college friend met us at the Foreign Legion, which was already very crowded. We couldn't find five seats together, despite having made a reservation for five - there were lots of spaces that were reserved, so we have no idea why we didn't get a reserved space. Tiffy and my other college friend found two seats together, and Travalon, Mamastep, and I found three together, so I only talked to the other two briefly now and then tonight. There were all sorts of wild game dishes, pheasant gumbo and elk goulash and venison medallions and rabbit in cream sauce and fried frog legs, which were my favorite. The gumbo was really good too. I had to eat somewhat lightly because of my diet medication, which will make my life miserable if I eat too much. There were also rolls, green salad, sauerkraut that was very different than German sauerkraut (more like boiled cabbage), and a wonderful thing like polenta. And then of course there were a ton of desserts. 

The tamburitza group of high schoolers that the fundraiser was for played a few songs, including the US and Croatian national anthems, then there were the raffle drawings. Tiffy and my other college friend had not bought raffle tickets because they are smart, so they said goodbye and took off. Mamastep and Travalon had bought raffle tickets, because I had forgotten how interminable the raffle for items on the table was last year, and it was no better this year. Why do people buy raffle tickets and then ignore them? Or were they so drunk that they couldn't figure out if the number called was one of their tickets? (Likely.) The guy calling the numbers would call the same one over and over while the rest of us were like, "They're not here! Just draw another number!" We didn't win anything, and other people at our table had a ton more tickets and didn't win anything. They were joking that the people had forgotten to put their tickets in the basket for drawing until finally one woman did get to go up to the table, and she got a gift certificate for a hardware store. I saw people with way cooler things, like orchids and paintings, but I hadn't really looked at the table before the drawing so I had no strong opinions about what I would have chosen in the unlikely event that our number would have been drawn. Then there was a "high table" with prizes of greater value, but there were only five of those so it went a lot faster. Also, I think the people who had bought those higher-priced tickets cared more. We only had three for the "low table," one for the "high table," and one for the 50/50 raffle. The amount this year was around $500. Mamastep bought a number of 50/50 raffle tickets, but she didn't win either. So we headed home, through a light snow, talking about random things like embryonic development and jazz standards, and so we had a very Balkan day to make up for all the Celtic days that Travalon has to put up with, like Thursday night. I'm all for fair representation of our ethnic heritages - I love tamburitza music. Travalon made some videos, but it was so loud with people yakking that you can barely hear the music. They really got loud during the raffle - if someone won, a bunch of people at their table would make turkey calls. Why? Because alcohol.

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Bob Marley Birthday Party

 

Today I worked from home and went to the dentist. I saw a different hygienist this time, one who was all old-skool and used the scraper instead of the sonic thing. I actually preferred that, because there was a little pain, but it was the kind I could wrap my head around, instead of the five kinds of pain the sonic thing gives me, each unique and excruciating. The only thing that makes me not sure about this hygienist, who is older than I am, is that she had FAUX News on in the background. Come on, either watch fiction or news, not fiction pretending to be news. They were talking about some schools with bad scores were letting their kids walk out early to protest ICE. Yeah, and so what? I'm sure a lot of schools with high test scores did too, and it's not like you could blame the test scores on the walkouts since they predated them.

The kids Travalon works with made Olympic medals, like this one:

In the evening we went to a Bob Marley birthday party fundraiser for a food pantry at the Crystal Corner. They even had a cake for Bob Marley.

It was Black Forest flavored. Travalon said I could post this photo of him.

Here is a better photo of him.

He is enjoying a Commuter Kolsch. I had an infused drink. We were right by a very cute window.

At first, a DJ was playing reggae, and it was loud, so I wore earplugs. Then a live band played a short set. They were really good!

I thought, "Are they already taking a break?" and then I realized they were packing up their instruments. There was a raffle, then we had cake, and the DJ started up again and kept getting louder and louder. We headed home, and I finished the Spanish course.

Pretty optimistic of DuoLingo to think I could get a job in Spanish. Garbage collector, maybe. "¿Es su basura? Damela, por favor. Gracias!" Maybe if we move to Puerto Rico, I can get paid to collect the trash.

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Irish Session at the Elks Lodge

 

Today I worked on campus, and it was not a good day. I made mistakes, other people made mistakes, and it was generally just a crappy day. At least I made my new boss laugh, because she was having a whole crappy week. Weird... I don't usually have two bad days in a given week, but Monday was a weird day too. At lunch I walked with Hardingfele, who was not prepared for the weather - no hat, wimpy gloves, and wimpy jacket, so she wanted to go to the greenhouses again. Not that I ever have a problem with going to the greenhouses, but yesterday Seabird and I walked outside and were fine. You have to dress for the weather.

When I got home, Travalon's Valentine's Day present had arrived in the mail, and when he got home I asked if he wanted it now or on Valentine's Day. We were both curious, so he opened it. It's a Hawaiian shirt of the Mike Tyson Punch-Out game, the one with Bald Bull that Travalon often plays while I'm at my Brazilian drum lesson. Sorry, he didn't try it on, so no photo, but he was very pleased with it.

Then we went to the Elks Lodge in town, a place I have always been curious about. It's on the water just like the East Side Club, and tonight there was the Irish session there, but it was invitation only. The red-headed flute player was there, along with the mandolin player who had his fingers injured in that gruesome saw accident - he's able to play again! Yay! We saw some Shamrock Club members there, our buddy who is always flitting around talking to everyone, and the adventurous couple we see everywhere except the Burns dinner, because it turns out they were in Florida at that time. Apparently part of the reason the Elks Club hosted this session was to get people interested in joining them, so I was afraid they would be giving us the hard sell, but it was the opposite - after seeing that beautiful space, we were curious but didn't see anyone to ask about how to join. We had a light dinner and listened to the music, and we really enjoyed our time there. 

When we got home, Travalon gave me my Valentine's Day presents: a book about the Camino that has a lot of very useful information, and a teddy bear with plaid that matches mine.

She doesn't have a name yet. Come to think of it, I'm not sure my Irish bear ever got a name either, and now she's missing a shoe. When I find it, I can take a photo of them together.

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Coventry the Dragon and the Republic of Leip

 

If you needed further proof that Travalon is a prince among men, today he went to Milwaukee to get a little Christmas dragon that we had seen on Saturday but hadn't gotten at the time. Then we thought maybe this coming Saturday we could go early to Milwaukee and get it at that time, but now Mamastep is able to go with us to the wild game dinner, so that wouldn't work. Travalon said he'd get to the Museum between 10-11, which was right when I was in a meeting, so I had my phone with me. Partway through the meeting I had to powder my nose, and his timing was so good that he texted right then, when they didn't see me on my phone. He sent me a photo of the Christmas dragon.

As you can see, it's holding what I assume is supposed to be a present, but there's no bow. A quick internet search showed there was supposed to be a bow, but some kid probably ripped it off. So it looks like he's playing the accordion instead of handing you a present, and that got me to thinking that it would make a good "Get Kraken with Jerry" episode to have him play the accordion. I sent Famie a text asking if she could send me a short audio clip of her playing the accordion - I'll see what she says. If she says no, maybe I can get the accordion player from our band to do it. Anyway, since one of my favorite Christmas carols is the Coventry carol, I'm calling this little guy Coventry. Here's another view of him:

Today I worked on campus, and Seabird sent me a message: "Come upstairs. We have treats." Usually on Wednesdays most of the FART 5 people are in the big office they all share, and when I come in, they all say, "Famous!" and we all chat. This time they all ignored me - even Seabird, who was busy talking work with another colleague. So I went to talk to another colleague, but then she said, "I have a meeting at 11:30." She didn't say, "Aren't you supposed to be in it too?" and the reminder on my calendar never went off, and I'd thought my meeting was at one, so imagine my surprise when I got back to my desk and saw the meeting was in progress. Why didn't my colleague say anything?? What happened to my reminder?? Last time it was at one, so that's where I got that idea. Later yet another colleague came down to my office because I have the power of FAX, and he needed to fax something, so we chatted awhile. Then a grad student chatted with me, and then I was showing a coworker the woodrow when my sorta-boss came by. I was wearing the outfit I'd worn to the Burns dinner, and with a little string instrument, I must have been quite a sight. Here's the woodrow:

Travalon sent me yet another flag that one of the kids drew. This is apparently for the Republic of Leip:

Is that Coventry on the flag? It's a winged dragon. But it doesn't have a star on its head.

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Talking in Train and Heart Hoya

 

Today when Travalon was at work, the kids drew more flags. I like the weak attempt at a Mexican flag.

And here is the Bahamian flag that Travalon drew yesterday:

I worked from home and thought about going to a protest. I got an email from someone I don't know inviting me to join a pickup choir, rehearsing 3-4 at the Lutheran church right by our old church for a 4:30 protest at the Capitol. I could then have gone right from there to Adoration. It was tempting to slip out of work early, but I had a lot to do and couldn't bring myself to leave for the protest, as much as I'd love to sing in a choir again. I felt a little glum about it, but then on the way to Adoration I drove down Troy Drive, and a train was going over the bridge. I wouldn't have seen that if I'd gone to the protest. Is God speaking to me with trains? This is the second time I didn't go to a protest because I felt like something was telling me not to, and then a train assured me that I was right where I was meant to be.

I forgot to mention that my rick-rack cactus bloomed when we got back from vacation, as if it was very happy to see me again. I thought they bloomed in the autumn, but I'm not complaining. This is the one plant that ever "talked" to me, when it said it wanted to go home with me. And I can't find the blog post about when I got the little heart-shaped leaf that is actually from a hoya, but it was a number of years ago. It has survived longer than a lot of my plants, and today when I watered it, I noticed it has a shoot coming out of it, so maybe it will grow into a whole plant. A few years ago I had several hoya plants (not with the heart-shaped leaves) that were thriving, and one even bloomed, so I thought maybe I should give up on everything else and only grow hoyas... and right after that thought, they all got sick and died. I hope I can keep this little hoya alive, and maybe someday it will be a big hoya and bloom. Their flowers are amazing, so fragrant and dripping with nectar. This also gives me hope that my black ZZ plant will grow again, if I'm just patient. Of course, my purple oxalis died back, then it sent up one leaf, so I was hopeful it would come back, but the leaf died and I've seen no sign of life from it in a year. Maybe it's time to give up on that one.

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