Mini Kiss

I hope my readers had a good weekend. Friday Travalon and I went to Rich’s house for a small birthday party for Kathbert and the Single B-Boy, who had both had birthdays on Monday. Cecil Markovitch was there too, and he tried to convince Travalon and me to go with him to the Marian shrine outside of Green Bay the next day, but we wanted to watch the Badger Game and then go to the Mini Kiss concert in the Dells. So of course Saturday we had to suffer through that horrible Badger game, made worse by the fact that for the first quarter they were hanging in there with Ohio State. But no, in the end they were destroyed. We did take a satisfying hike at Governor Nelson State Park. But it was downhill from there.

First of all, you have to understand that the sound of casinos (which to me always sounds like hellish gamelan music) drives me crazy. Also, I had no idea that at the big Ho-Chunk casino outside of the Dells, the main entrance brings you right into the smoky part, which is in the middle of everything, since they always advertise about how they are “smoke-free” now. All that means is parts on the periphery are smoke-free. We hadn’t eaten dinner yet, and we didn’t want the snack bar stuff, so we went to the buffet, but it was $33 because it was prime rib night. We figured for that price we might as well go to the steakhouse, so we trekked back through the smoky part to get to the steakhouse, but they were booked until the “concert” started. So it was back to the snack bar for an uninspiring cheese pizza for me and dry fried chicken for Travalon. At least we figured out that we could avoid the smoky part by going outside, and there we saw a glorious sunset. (I took pictures.) Then after dinner, back outside to get to the show. Here I thought Mini Kiss was a cover band of Little People, but no, it is Little People wearing Kiss makeup and lip-syncing. What the what?? Who wants to pay for that? At least it was a short show, and not expensive to attend. They also told us we got $20 in free play with our ticket, so we had to wait in a line to get our card issued with the free play money on it, which also had your name on it, and they gave Travalon the wrong card. Once we got that sorted out, we went to the non-smoky part of the casino and sat down at two slot machines, but we couldn’t get them to work. Finally we called someone over, who explained that you had to put a dollar of your own money in before you could access the free play money. Travalon had a dollar and I had no cash, so we put the single dollar bill in my machine, but it still didn’t work. THEN the employee helpfully pointed out that our two machines, out of all the machines in the whole casino, had tiny signs on them saying they did not accept free play money. By then I was in a homicidal rage, so we left, and Travalon said, “We can use the free play money at the casino in Madison.” “Yes,” I replied, “but the free play money is only good for tonight.”

Yesterday after Mass we got coffee with Cecil and told him how we should have gone with him instead of having that fiasco of a day, and he just laughed. Then we went to Plaka for brunch, and for some reason they served a couple who came in after us long before they served us, so that they were almost done eating by the time we got our food. It was like the bad luck from the day before was still following us! It was a gorgeous day, so we took a boat ride back into Six Mile Creek, but we hadn’t gotten as far as last weekend when the motor conked. Fortunately we had not really gone six miles, maybe a little over a mile, so Travalon tried to restart the motor periodically while I paddled, then he gave up and paddled too, until we got back to the lake. Then the motor started right up. By then it was getting late in the afternoon, so I texted the Rosary Ladies about walking the length of the boardwalk along Lake Waubesa. They didn’t see the message in time, but Rich and Kathbert were free to join us, so we had a wonderful walk. Then Travalon and I watched the Packer game at home, and during the first quarter, the Packers had shown up to play and scored two touchdowns while the defense kept stopping the Chiefs. In the second quarter the Packers seemed to go home again, because the offense couldn’t get anything started while the defense allowed the Chiefs to score every time they got the ball. In the second half, the Packers were way better defensively, forcing a turnover, and Jones ran for a spectacular touchdown, and the best touchdown of all, where it looked like Rodgers had just thrown the ball away… but then Jamaal Williams came up with it in the end zone! That is what I love about watching the Packers – when they have those really amazing plays. And it’s even better when they win!

Famous Hat