Durian Bars

Did all my readers have a good weekend? I ended up having a very nostalgic one. First I have to say that Travalon is a prince among men, and he went to the music store for me and got a music stand and a tuner before my ukulele jam on Friday. The Snark brand tuner even came with a free Snark pick! The jam was a lot of fun, and Luxuli and my old friend (Rich says I should call her Hockey Girl) came and sang along, then we went to the Parched Eagle and Travalon joined us before he and I watched that heartbreaking Sweet Sixteen game. At least the Badgers went down fighting – losing by one point in overtime is definitely nothing to be ashamed of!

Saturday morning Travalon had to work, so I ran some errands downtown and took the opportunity to see an art exhibit that was closing the next day. It was icons and carved crucifixes from Mount Athos in Greece, as well as beautiful photos of some of the monasteries. As a woman, I am not allowed to go to Mount Athos, so this was the closest I would ever come. They even had a sample of the incense they use. I did miss the annual bead show that Jilly Moose and OK Cap went to, but maybe that’s just as well – I probably would have bought way too many beads! How many rosaries can one person make, right? Once Travalon got off of work, we were going to see a movie, but the theaters were packed. We did go by the old place I used to work at; I hadn’t been there in fifteen years, so that was a real trip down Memory Lane. Then we drove out to Sauk to see eagles, since it was a cold, wet day and they seem to like that weather, but we didn’t see a single one. Lots of gulls, though. In the evening we went to the Parched Eagle again to hear members of the Madison Classical Guitar Society play. Readers, if you have never heard them, it is such beautiful music! They play two Fridays a month at the Lakeside Café, if anyone is interested in catching them sometime with us. Even Travalon likes classical music when it is played on the guitar, and they played a lot of flamenco too. The brother-in-law of the Daughter of Denni was one of the players, but her sister (the other Daughter of Denni) was home with the little kids. He is taking her and the kids with him for a vacation in Spain so that he can study with a flamenco master. How cool does that sound? Can I go to Hawaii to study with a ukulele master?

Yesterday after brunch Travalon and I went to hear a jazz concert, but they wanted $25 to let us in, and the place was packed. There was nowhere to sit. I noticed they were all old white folks, so that’s who can afford to hear a genre invented by poor black folks. Interesting, isn’t it? A black guy was coming to the concert, but when he heard me tell Travalon the price, he said, "That's all I need to know," and he turned around and left. It was great jazz, so we stood in the hall listening until we thought they might come yell at us, then we walked to my old place on Pirate Island. That made me even more nostalgic than seeing my old office building! I just loved living there and only moved because I found a free living situation, so I could pay off my student loans faster. (Which worked, by the way.) Then we went to Rich’s house and Travalon watched some Elite Eight games while Rich, Kathbert, and I took a long walk in the neighborhood. We went to the Asian grocery store owned by the people who sold Rich his house, and I mentioned that I was curious about durian fruit. It is supposed to smell vile but taste wonderful. The fruit is enormous and looks like a medieval weapon, with giant spikes coming off of it. One fruit was $20, and even cut up chunks of it were about $12 for a package, so Kathbert suggested we try the $3 for four ice cream bars, in case we didn’t like it. By the time we got back to Rich’s, Catzookz was there, but she wasn’t disappointed that we didn’t have an ice cream bar for her when she googled durian. They are ugly inside and out. Kathbert and I thought the flavor was like rotted onions, garlic, and eggs mixed together, and Travalon said it was like sour pineapple, but Rich (who has no sense of smell) said, “It tastes like vanilla to me.” We did finish our bars, and then we skyped with A-Fooze, who had tried durian and also said it tastes like a bad onion. On the way home Travalon and I stopped to get Thai iced teas to get the flavor out of our mouths. Can you believe this? My diet app not only had durian ice cream bars listed, it even had that brand (Sweety)! They are 100 calories each, in case you would like to indulge in one. I personally cannot recommend it.

Famous Hat