Green Donut Day

This morning the priest said there would be "frog donuts" after Mass, so once Travalon and I had prepared the plastic for recycling, we went to the gym to find out what a frog donut was. Answer:

It's a regular old donut with green frosting and a gummy frog in the center. It wasn't even mint or lime flavored. We were in line behind a very elderly lady who was taking forever to decide which donut of all the identical ones she wanted, but I was giving her grace due to her age... until she picked a donut and then just stood there in my way yapping with someone. Finally I said, "Excuse me, can I get a donut?" and she seemed surprised and said, "Sorry - I'll get out of your way." Kids are really unaware of their surroundings, but are the elderly as well? Will I be like this someday? Am I like this now?

We didn't have a lot of time, so we just took a quick hike at Pheasant Branch, and on the way home we picked up some Mountain Dew donuts from Kwik Trip. We split one, so today I had one and a half green donuts, which is one and a half more donuts in any color than usual. The donut was lemon-lime flavored and didn't taste that much like Mountain Dew, in my opinion. Then we went back to the spot off Fair Oaks where the train cars sit, and we found some graffiti.

There was a beautiful creek behind the train cars.

And what is this sign? Is it a command to the trains?

Right by the tracks we found this red grass. 

After that we went to the East Side Club to hear a band, but Travalon got both the name of the band wrong and the start time, so we thought we were just a few minutes late and were confused when the band was on break, but it turned out they had started an hour earlier. Eventually they returned, and we listened to a few songs while eating cheeseburgers fresh off the grill, but soon it was time for me to go the Slow Irish Session. We had some issues with the group being in several tempos at the same time today. The guitarist from my band and a grad student from our department were among the people who came, besides some of the regulars, and a couple danced to the waltzes and polkas. Apparently they were there last time too, but I was sick so they were new to me. Meanwhile, Travalon went back to hear the band at the East Side Club, then he went to the arcade. After he picked me up, we sat on the dock until the sun set completely. Here is a photo.

Here are some screenshots of graffiti I got from videos on social media.

But the graffiti here cannot compare to that in LA. Travalon sent me a video of trains in Los Angeles, and I captured some screenshots. Check out this train as it is approaching you.

 

Here it is from the sides.

This is more like our graffiti, but still way more colorful.

The walls have just as much graffiti as the trains!

Wisconsin, we have to step up our graffiti game. This stuff is amazing.

Famous Hat

The McAdo and Horicon Marsh

 

Yesterday was a quiet day at work, other than a brief chat with Seabird where we mostly talked about work anyway. But in the evening I met Famie my Irish teacher for dinner at Botanist Social Club. We split a whitefish with pasta that was like orzo but called something else, and a mushroom flatbread. We each got a fancy cocktail, and mine looked like I was at a tea party.

It was a lot like a gin fizz, but it was supposed to have lavender in it, which I didn't really taste. Anyway, it was delicious. Then Famie and I went to the Bartell Theater to see The McAdo, which is the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Mikado but set in Scotland instead of Japan. One of the volunteers there is someone I played in the high school orchestra with (she played viola), and she wanted a selfie. You can see I dressed for the occasion.

Which reminds me, at Botanist Social Club there were tons of women dressed like flappers, which both delighted and puzzled me. Apparently they were all going to The Great Gatsby at the Overture Center, according to the hostess, so then it all made sense. Our play was a lot of fun, and the man who played Katisha was hilarious. I loved the costumes, especially the McAdo's bright orange tartan. It was a really fun night out, while Travalon relaxed after a taxing work week. I gave him something to cheer him up when I finally got home.

It rained almost all day yesterday, and I'd been a bit concerned that there would be terrible storms when I went out, but it was just a steady drizzle. This morning was the same thing, and Travalon and I decided to go to Horicon Marsh, since the birds are more active in drizzly weather than when the sun is blazing. Also, the Old Marsh Road has no shade on it, so it's much pleasanter on overcast days. Here are some photos of what we saw from the boardwalk. First, a tree swallow.

Various sorts of terns.

An egret.

Merlin says this is a young yellow-headed blackbird.

Merlin says this is a black tern, so maybe it is an immature one.

More of the same.

We did see a couple of mature yellow-headed blackbirds.

And some immature barn swallows.

We also took photos of flowers. My phone won't identify this, but I think it's either a cornflower or a bachelor's button.

It does say this is amphibious bistort.

The may apples have "apples" now.

These are purple coneflowers.

And these are wild snapdragons. We used to call them butter and eggs.

For some reason Blogspot loaded this next batch of photos in reverse order, so these are egrets we saw in a tree from the overlook.

Purple martins.

More egrets.

This pelican looks like an immature one.

Speaking of immature... anyway, here I am in front of a big patch of wild cucumber in bloom. It smelled so good!

We saw a big duck convention.

And a swallow convention.

And another egret.

This is a wood duck. I think it's a male with non-breeding plumage.

Here is the cormorant rookery.

We saw a swan in the distance.

We saw a couple of pied-billed grebes.

This is an immature gallinule. I saw a mature one from Old Marsh Road, but it was too quick for Travalon to get a photo of it.

Then we went to the Horicon rail yard, which Travalon tells me is the very first Wisconsin and Southern rail yard, and we saw some really cool graffiti.

I also have screenshots of graffiti from videos posted on social media, but this post is already long enough so I'll save those for another day.

Famous Hat