No Pizzazzy Dazzle for the Packers

 

Yesterday Travalon and I drove to Racine, where we went downtown with Tiffy to a coffee place with really cool walls and ceiling up in the balcony.

Then we took a walk by the lake and admired the ice formations on this pier.

This may look like Siberia with a wolf, but it's just Racine with someone's pet husky.

In the evening Tiffy took me to dinner at the Hob Nob for my fiftieth birthday earlier this month. Travalon went too, because he has wanted to go to the Hob Nob longer than he has known me. Here are a couple of photos.

Travalon and I both had the duck, while Tiffy had the wiener schnitzel, and after dinner the three of us split two of their famous ice cream drinks, the banana one and the chocolate grasshopper. Tiffy noted that the big sign pointing the way to the Hob Nob didn't have its usual "pizzazzy dazzle," as in blinking lights around the edge, but little did we know we were about to be treated to a game with no pizzazzy dazzle.

We went back to Tiffy's house; the Packers playoff game against San Francisco was well underway, but she had taped it, and we knew there was a Packer touchdown in the first few minutes and then nothing else the rest of the quarter, so she fast-forwarded over the rest of it. Travalon's buddy texted something about Special Teams really messing up, and we saw where they had a field goal blocked, so I said I hoped that was all he was referring to, and she said she thought so. They did get a field goal, and so did San Francisco, so the score was low but definitely in the Packers' favor until they had a blocked punt that San Francisco ran in for a touchdown. Another Special Teams screwup! And then the offense stalled, and the defense couldn't stop San Francisco from marching down the field and getting a walk-off field goal. Man, we ALWAYS lose to the Forty-Niners in the playoffs! But this game particularly stunk.

There wasn't supposed to be snow in Racine, but as Travalon and I headed back to our hotel (where the pool was being repaired so we couldn't even use it), it was snowing very heavily on us. This morning the roads were still kind of iffy when we went to Mass, and they were advising against travel to Madison, so we hung out with Tiffy and got brunch at IHOP. Almost everything on the menu there is over a thousand calories, but I did find one healthy meal, grilled tilapia with broccoli. But then it came with a side of pancakes. I mean, what do you expect at IHOP?

Travalon went to the bookstore for about an hour while Tiffy and I chatted, then he and I headed home. We stopped for a walk in downtown Delafield, a very cute town, and they had these mystifying ice sculptures all over.

I believe those last two are a ship and an anchor. We also walked along Mill Run River.

We found an antiques shop there, and once again they had the blacklight glass display right next to the religious artifacts. Here you can see I bought what the owner said was a "Rhine glass," four rosaries, a St. Christopher necklace, and a really interesting medal. One rosary is missing a cross, but I have a cross.

The medal says: "Pontifical Association of the Holy Childhood" on one side, and then: "Holy Virgin Mary, pray for us and the poor pagan children" on the other side. The light blue rosary on the far right has a St. Benedict medal on it.

I bought these vaseline glasses at the antiques shop in Sauk a few weeks ago.

Here they are with the Rhine glass under blacklight. I couldn't decide which photo I liked better, so I'm posting them both.

I was really bummed that Buffalo was ahead with thirteen seconds left, but somehow Kansas City got into field goal range with no time outs left to send them into overtime, and then KC won the coin toss and scored a touchdown. I was pinning all my hopes on Buffalo once the Packers were out. Now the only team left to cheer for is Cincinnati - I'm sick of everyone else, although I will note with glee that Brady lost today. So it wasn't a total disappointment.

Famous Hat