Nordic Party with Fiddle Music

 

The photos were not syncing from my phone to my computer, and I wasn't sure if the issue was the phone, the Cloud, or the computer. They all said they were set to automatically sync, and they all seemed to have plenty of storage room left. But I turned my phone off and back on, and the missing photos appeared on Boethius, except for the ones with the rainbow. Here is the view we had yesterday from the Madison Club, pre-rainbow.

You can see the skylight of the room we were in last year below us, and the fountain and blooming crabapple trees on the Monona Terrace. You can see what a gloomy day it was.

This morning I woke up briefly at 6:35, rolled over, and woke up at 7:35, well after my alarm should have gone off. Apparently I'd forgotten to set it. I rushed to get ready and was late for work, but not too late. I figured I could make up the time this afternoon. It was just that kind of day, like I put the last of the coffee into the new mug they gave us yesterday (sorry, no photo yet), and before I could make another pot, someone came in desperately needing coffee. On my morning break I took a leisurely stroll, sniffing the lilac, the crabapple, and the currants along my path. At lunch Hardingfele and I went to Allen Centennial Gardens. Here are a couple of photos.

On the way back we ran into a person I know from the Union and a person I know from Irish circles who were walking along together - I had no idea they knew each other! Hardingfele and I had Indian food in the cafe in her building, then I ran into another person from Irish circles. 

My "working late" was kind of a joke, because I'd forgotten that there was a party for the graduating seniors, with snacks and with live music.

I told Hardingfele to come over so she could enjoy the snacks and live music too - she knew one of the fiddlers. Then I took a later shuttle back to my car, but to my surprise some of the people from my usual shuttle were on it. Were we all working late today?

Someone wrote "Mandalorian" on a blackboard in the hall at work, with a symbol that must be from the show, so you can see my response below:

Travalon went back to the pond with wood ducks.

Wow! Finally the rainbow photos have downloaded to Boethius!

I hope that they were worth the wait.

Famous Hat

Day at the Capitol 2026

This morning I thought I could get going a little later than usual to get to the Day at the Capitol, but then I wasted too much time and wasn't sure the Big Bendy B Bus would get me there on time. Two girls behind me were threatening to beat each other up, but then they both abruptly shut up. You don't get that kind of thing on private mass transit. I sat in the back and enjoyed how the B Bus feels like big-city mass transit. I got to the Concourse Hotel a few minutes late, but the presentation hadn't started yet, so I had some Second Breakfast and sat with an older gentleman and a woman from India. There was a presentation about talking points, and this year we had handy apps that gave us our schedule and all sorts of information. Here is the swanky ceiling of the room.

My first meeting was with a legislator from my district who is also practically my neighbor - he lives like a two-minute drive away. I met with his staffer last year. Another alumnus and I talked to him, but it was preaching to the choir because he's on the University Committee and is totally in favor of everything we brought up. He gave us Blue Books, and we had our photo taken with him.

Then I went to the break room they had set up this year and logged into the app to upload the photo, do a post-meeting review, and send a thank you email. There were some other people there too, and we walked back to the Concourse for lunch while the Chancellor spoke, followed by a panel discussion about nuclear fusion. 

Last year I didn't go to any flash talks (10-minute talks where faculty discussed their research), so this year I went to a number of them. They were in a room with some very odd lighting. Here is the skylight.

I thought the lighting made my beret look more yellow, but this photo doesn't really do it justice.

I went back to the break room, where they suddenly had coffee and cookies from Panera. I opened the box of cookies and took one, and suddenly a big, ugly insect flew in and landed on a cookie, so the guy in charge of the room grabbed the cookie and threw it, along with the insect, into the trash. It looked like some kind of wasp. That was certainly startling! Then I met with the staffer of my state senator, along with a bunch of other people including a guy I ate lunch with, the guy I had eaten breakfast with, his bubbly wife, and the woman from India. We had our photo taken in the Senate chamber.

The woman from India and I went back to the break room and did our post-meeting stuff in the app, then I went back to the flash talks. They had munchies there too - there was so much food today that I ate about a day and a half worth of calories, so tomorrow I'll just have to eat half a day's worth of calories. It wouldn't be such a disaster, except it followed right after that conference yesterday where they also overfed us. 

Because I still hadn't eaten enough apparently, I went over to the Madison Club with the couple from the meeting, and the woman from India joined us. This year we were in a room upstairs overlooking the Monona Terrace and the lake, and at one point there was a rainbow, but for whatever reason those photos aren't downloading to my computer from the cloud. They're on my phone... We had lots of fancy hors d'oeuvres and free wine or beer and a sundae bar. Then I took the B Bus (where a guy behind me on the phone said he was "Gangstafied") home in time for the Shamrock Club board meeting on Zoom, followed by the Rosary on Zoom, followed by Night Prayer on Zoom. Now I am Zoomed out. I also went up seven flights of stairs at the Capitol today, and even thought I got riding the Big Bendy B Bus and going to the Madison Club off my bucket list last year, it was just as fun this year. I plan to go every year if I can, but next year there will also be a similar thing in DC on St. Patrick's Day, so I'll probably skip that. I'm sure it's awesome, but St. Patrick's Day should be for Irish stuff, not politics.

I guess those photos from the Madison Club are not going to show up tonight. Instead, enjoy some more photos of wood ducks, courtesy of Travalon.

There was also a great blue heron.

It was much larger than the ducks.

I heard a little blue heron was seen in Sheboygan, which is weird because they usually stick to the East Coast, but we have seen plenty of them in Florida.

There were also photos of the green heron, and a couple of cormorants by the island, but those weren't in focus enough to post.

Stay tuned tomorrow when maybe I will have photos from the Madison Club for you...

Famous Hat

Financial Conference and Choro Session

 

Two things I forgot to mention about yesterday: the first is that Travalon and I were sitting out on the porch even though there was a storm going on, and Night Prayer was about to begin so people were joining the Zoom call and I asked them if I should go inside. Just then lightning struck right nearby, so close that there was virtually no space before the thunder, so Travalon and I ran into the house as fast as we could. Everyone on the Zoom call saw the flash of light and heard the crack of thunder, so they were as shocked as we were. "Yes, go inside!" they said.

The second thing was that earlier in the evening I was charging my phone, and I was practicing for the Brazilian choro session tonight with Mandy on the porch. (I had a whole month to practice, so when did I actually practice? The night before.) When I grabbed my phone, I saw the transcript for a voicemail from our downstairs neighbor, complaining that our music was so loud in her bedroom that we needed to turn it down. I was surprised that a half-deaf nonagenarian would have thought my gently strumming a mandolin on the far side of the condo from her was too loud, but then I listened to the voicemail, and there was music blasting in the background when she left the message. Then I was really puzzled, so I called her back, and she apologized for blasting the music. It turns out that she thought she had set a radio alarm clock for 7 am, but at 7 pm it went off and blasted music, and she couldn't figure out where it was coming from so she thought we were playing it upstairs. By the time I called back, she had found the source of the music was in her own condo. I thought that was hilarious.

Know what else I thought was hilarious? Guess what's in the mini backpack?

I don't know why, but I'm endlessly entertained by the fact that Niko fits into the backpack. I sent this video to Tiffy, and she asked if I was going to carry Niko around in it. I said I used to have a little cardboard box that fit him perfectly that Travalon called the "Niko Nook," but it eventually fell apart, and she said this could be the Niko Knapsack.

Today I had an all-day Financial Conference to attend. It was as boring as it sounds, but they had a ton of food there so I went way over my calories for the day. It was in Tripp Commons at the Memorial Union, so on our breaks we got to go out on the balcony there, and I took a walk along the lakeshore at lunch. It was fun to hang out with my FART 5 peeps - we're the Back of the Bus Kids! We literally did sit in the back because it was easier to pop out to the bathroom - guess I'm not the only one who finds this a concern, especially since they had a lot of sessions that went one right after the other instead of having ten minutes in between for bio breaks. Also, there were a lot of beverages there as well as food, so we needed to visit the bathroom a lot. (No beer or anything like that.) When it was finally over, I thought about catching the shuttle back to my car, but it has to take that long tour of west campus before heading north, so then I decided to catch the Big Bendy B Bus back to my car. That proved to be a good choice, because not only did it get back to my car well before the shuttle would have, but a FART 5 colleague caught the bus with me, so I had someone to talk to for the whole ride.

I worked for a bit from home, then I left for the choro session. I parked some blocks from the music club, and on the way I passed these very fragrant jonquils. 

In case you are wondering what the difference is between daffodils, jonquils, and narcissus, the answer seems to be that they are all part of the same family but daffodils generally have one large, showy flower per stem and no scent, narcissus are white with many small flowers on a stem and a lovely fragrance, and jonquils are yellow with several flowers on a stem and a lovely fragrance. So now you know.

The choro session went about the same as last time, since I hadn't practiced so I was basically still sightreading but they all seemed to think I was doing well. It was the leader, who used to play in a well-known choro band in Brooklyn, as I found out tonight; the guy who plays the little ukulele-like Brazilian instrument; the guitarist who is also semi-professional; the woman who co-owns the music club on her graphite cello; and a guy playing the piano, besides me. Then partway through another mandolin player showed up who was really good. I feel outclassed by the other musicians, but nobody has told me to get lost yet, and in fact they seem to want me to come back. Someday I will master all these sixteenth notes with accidentals and interesting rhythms... maybe.

I barely got home in time to lead Night Prayer tonight. Travalon helped me make that movie with Niko and the Knapsack, and now I am posting the photos he took at the Wood Duck Ponds today. He said he's going to go back every day until they stop showing up, so look for lots more photos of wood ducks here in the future. Here are some to tide you over until tomorrow.

And some photos of a green heron! I haven't seen our friendly neighborhood green heron down at our dock yet this year.

It is just me, or does this wood duck look like he's eating a lily pad? Yum?

And our friendly (or not?) neighborhood modern dinosaur! I have seen this one around, but not both of them. Hopefully that is because the other one is on the nest right now, and it's not that one died.

It could be that soon Travalon will have photos of little baby cranes for me to post. They are so cute that Tiffy couldn't believe it the first time she saw them. It really is something that such big, loud birds have such cute, fluffy, little babies. They're even cuter than baby chickens and ducks.

Famous Hat