New Round of Blog Monsters

 

Today I worked on campus and had meetings, plus it was the birthday of the head of FART 5, so there were treats galore: she made cookies, someone brought donuts, and someone else brought chocolate truffles made by the local legend. The FART 5 buddy I went to the blood drive with and I ran all over the building getting signatures on the birthday card. At lunch I walked with Seabird, and it had warmed up quite a bit so I didn't feel so crazy for wearing a lighter coat and no gloves. 

One thing I forgot to say about Saturday night is that in the middle of Vigil Mass, as they were confirming a bunch of people, I suddenly realized it had been thirty years since I was confirmed during a Vigil Mass. Then Monday there was a rainbow on my Magnificat as I did morning prayers, which had also happened on St. Patrick's Day, which happens to be the anniversary of my baptism. Also on St. Patrick's Day, the Adoration Chapel was full of lilies and smelled amazing. I've lived in this condo for almost a dozen years, but that was the first time I'd seen a rainbow on my morning prayers.

On Monday Travalon had a blog monster contest at work - he had the kids draw blog monsters, and then he brought them home for me to judge. Here they are. The first two feel a bit phoned in:

Then they get cuter.

Behold the winner, as chosen by me:

I am a sucker for the one-eyed monsters, as Niko could assure you. The girl who drew this won some bubble gum, because they prefer that to candy. Me too.

After my hard day of hardly getting any work done, I went with Travalon to Lola's because they were playing three Steely Dan records: Can't Buy a Thrill, Aja, and Gaucho. Travalon kept ordering stuff - dessert, a soda, a taco - so we could sit and listen to all three. I got the Sichuan dumplings, since they are mentioned in the song "The Glamour Profession." Also, I like them. Lola's changes their menu every season, but those dumplings are always on there. Travalon had a really good drink that tasted like a Creamsicle, while I had an infused drink, and then we sang "Deacon Blues" to each other as it played on the sound system. Nobody else seemed to notice, and it felt like we were in our own world. What a romantic night!

On a totally different note, Richard Bonomo asked if I get frightening reminders from DuoLingo, and he sent me a screenshot of one:

Yikes! No! I get reminders, but not like that! 

Travalon got a new mug on Monday.

He's really into Flip the Frog, an old cartoon. I'm just sitting here waiting for my $15 gift card from giving blood - they said it would arrive in the next fourteen days, and it's been nine days. I'm going to use it to buy one more Belleek castle tower. There were four of them on eBay last time I checked, so hopefully one is still available by the time my gift card arrives. Then I'm done - enough with the castle towers.

Famous Hat

Pasque Flowers for Pasque

 

Saturday Travalon and I drove to Okee on Lake Wisconsin, since we had seen loons there around this time a few years ago. And did we ever see birds! Pelicans, loons, cormorants, and red-breasted mergansers.

Merlin says this next bird is a loon, but it's colored so differently. It's like it still has the winter coloring.

I love the crazy hairdos on the red-breasted mergansers!

The red-breasted mergansers were swimming in a wide circle and all diving in unison.

Notice that a male common merganser has joined them.

The pelicans are so much larger.

We had lunch at Fitz's on the Lake, and check out the hot chocolate "Red" the waitress made for Travalon!

Then we drove to Whalen Grade and saw northern shovelers, scaups, and blue-winged teals.

We stopped at the Sauk Dam, where we saw pelicans.

Then we saw pelicans right off our own dock!

Plus teals and shovelers.

Travalon headed off to watch a basketball game, while I met my old neighbor for dinner at Sultan. I had an incredible mocktail that was lemon and lavender flavored with egg white foam flavored with lime and vanilla. The naan there is amazing. Then we had an adventure because she wanted me to try the coffee shake at Kwik Trip, but we overshot the one on Commercial Avenue so we ended up at the one by Warner Park... and their shake machine was out of order, so we went all the way to the one on Highway M. She bought a shake and split it with me, and I bought some chocolate chip twists and split them with her. Then I headed home and did a crossword, so Travalon and I were late to the Vigil Mass. Maybe this was subconscious on my part, because last year they did some horrible version of the Exsultet, and we got there too late to hear it this year. They did do the klezmer version of the reading from Exodus, so that made my evening. After the Vigil Mass, we packed up the plastic for recycling.

Sunday morning Travalon ran the plastic over to Pick N Save, while I had a lazy morning. Then we drove to Walking Iron to see if the pasque flowers were blooming, and they were!

Then we went to Shovelers Sink to look at ducks. Those photos are from far away so not as impressive, and mostly of ring-necked ducks. We did see some mergansers on Stricker Pond.

And a loon! I would not have thought it was a large enough body of water for a loon, since they need so much water surface to take flight.

I went to the Slow Irish Session for the first half, while Travalon played video games, then we went over to Rich's house for Easter dinner. Four desserts this year: lemon cake with coconut, Mississippi mud pie, orange pie, and million-dollar shortbread. Lent is over!

Yesterday I worked on campus and walked with Hardingfelde at lunch. It was cold out, and she hadn't dressed warmly enough, so she wanted to go to the greenhouses instead of walking outside... and then I was hot. In the evening I went to Moldy Jam, and they all laughed at me for being so bundled up. They asked if I wasn't from around here, so I said, "I grew up in Minnesota," and that made them laugh even harder. What can I say? I hate to be cold. I brought the mandolin, thinking that there were always so many other fiddlers, but then only two people played fiddle and four of us were on mandolin. It's so hard to predict what will happen at Moldy Jam.

Not much to say about today. I worked from home and then went to Adoration. I have a lot more photos but will share them in a subsequent post.

Famous Hat