Improv with a Robot

 

Today I did another "interacting with robots" research study that felt like an improv lesson, because we had to make up conversations on the fly. It was kind of fun! I do enjoy these research studies, and they usually pay a small amount of cash on top of it, so that's a bonus. I just use the cash to pay tips. Then this evening the train went by right at the start of our Union meeting, so I couldn't go out and watch it. I checked the video that guy always makes of it, and it had NO graffiti on it, not even the half-hearted stuff that I generally don't bother posting. But hey, Blogspot is letting me post photos again. Here's the ledge at Ledge View, the place where we hiked yesterday.

And here we are in front of it! 

Here's that print of the painting of train cars with graffiti spelling out the lyrics to "King of the Road," along with a couple of paintings I've done of Niko over the last few years.

Speaking of Niko and his beloved Nenagh, I found that bringing her on adventures was making her grungy, so she was no longer the bright orange she had originally been. Worse, because she is crocheted, she was starting to come apart - she's more delicate than Niko. So she is now a homebody, and he goes out on adventures without her and then comes home to tell her about them.

I forgot to post this on Tuesday, when Travalon and I went out for a walk and found they seem to be building a pyramid where Mariner's Inn used to be:

Travalon went to the Portage rail yard again today and brought back some photos of graffiti.

And here is some really colorful graffiti from a train that went through Madison. I grabbed these screenshots at work and put them on the blog using my work computer during lunch, just to see if it would work. Now I seem to be able to load photos on Boethius my home computer as well. 

There was a lot more interesting graffiti on the train in this video, which I will post tomorrow since this post already has so many graffiti photos. This train also had a lot of graffiti that I've already posted. I love seeing them again - it's like seeing old friends.

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Tiffy's Birthday with Goats and Half a Grasshopper

 

Today I left somewhat early to meet Tiffy and our college friend at a creamery on the east side of Lake Winnebago. We were meeting at 11, so I left some extra time for bathroom breaks along the way and got there at 11:02. At the creamery there were baby goats we got to pet, as well as baby chicks we could watch but couldn't touch. We had lunch there, and I had a sandwich with goat cheese, natch.

We went to our college friend's house to pick up her dog Pluto, then we all went for a hike at Ledgeview Natural Area. Shoot, for some reason Blogspot is not letting me post photos right now (although it let me post a random video that I then deleted), so I can't show you the beautiful ledge or the selfie of us in front of it. Hopefully this is a temporary issue... Pluto the Dog took us at a quicker pace than we had planned, so we got quite a workout. There are caves at the park too, but you can't go in without a guide present. 

Next we went to the Sheboygan Marsh and took a drive around it, but we were too tired to get out and hike more. We went to Elkhart Lake, hoping to go to the tiki bar there, but everything is closed this week because it's a resort area, and everyone there needs a break after the busy summer. So we took Pluto home and went to Schwartz's Supper Club, where I had the smallest Surf & Turf option available but still took half of it home, and then Tiffy and I split a grasshopper, because what's a dinner at a supper club without an ice cream drink afterwards? Or at least half of one? Since we arrived so early, we got in right away, and that way we could head home in a timely manner.

My drive home was very pleasant. I could see Lake Winnebago spread out before me, under the last glow of the sunset. As I drove home, Venus was before me in the sky. When I was near home, I could smell the tantalizing aroma of the bakery on Highway 151. Everything went so smoothly today, until I couldn't post photos. Hopefully this issue will be cleared up by tomorrow.

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Getting a Filling and Putting Up Posters

Today I worked from home, then I left work a bit early to go to the dentist to have a cavity filled. That was not a lot of fun, especially since I need more anesthesia than the average person, so they kept having to pump more Novocaine into me when I kept saying, "I can feel it!" My mouth is still sore. Then I went to Adoration, and then Travalon and I ran around to the three Kwik Trips and the co-op up here on the north side of town, hanging posters to advertise the Shamrock Club's upcoming ceili next month. Will anyone even notice them? That's another question.

Here are screenshots from a local train that went by while we were up North that had lots of fun graffiti: 

And this, from another train that had no other interesting graffiti:

The train in our neighborhood went north just after I left for Adoration, so I missed it, but the guy who always makes a video of it got it.

Is this the same as the one from the train with only one good piece of graffiti? I think maybe it is.

Just now, as I was blogging, our neighborhood train came back south. Our line just runs up to Reedsburg, but Wisconsin and Southern has plenty of other lines. That little Tomahawk railroad just has one line. I just keep thinking about how cute that engine is, and I wonder what it was going to pull, because the cars in the rail yard there were way bigger than it was. They were for Fox Valley & Lake Superior Railroad. I'd love to see the little Tomahawk engine pulling some teeny cars - how cute would that be?

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