Last year Rich's birthday was exactly on Lunar New Year (and apparently so was his actual day of birth, because if he had been born a day earlier, he would have been a Wooden Sheep instead of a Fire Monkey), but of course with the pandemic we couldn't throw him a big party. This year we made up for it, and a new guy to the group had a birthday on the 6th so we made it a joint party. Tiffy and I got there early, and I hung up the decoration I got in Chinatown in Chicago, then I went to hang up the garlands, but they were actually decals to put on the wall! Apparently I don't know how to read. I put a few up, but we have so many left that we could decorate for Lunar New Year until 2036. Then Tiffy and I chopped vegetables while another woman helped immensely by cutting up the chicken and then cooking the stir fry while I steamed the dumplings. Lots of other people brought food too: Jilly Moose brought a delicious Asian salad and the Dairyman's Daughter brought crab Rangoons, for example. The guy who always brings multiple desserts brought an Italian flag cake and a cheesecake, so this was on top of my black magic cake and the ice cream Kathbert brought, and Hockey Girl also brought treats from the Asian bakery. Nobody left hungry! Here are some photos. First is the cake I made and frosted with some help. I was going to make some sort of elaborate tiger cake for the Year of the Tiger, but Kathbert said, "Why not just make it have tiger stripes?" Indeed!
This is the Italian flag cake. Isn't it beautiful? It was also delicious - almond flavored!
Here you can see the decals on the wall that say "spring" and "lucky," and the flowers someone brought for Rich.
Jilly Moose took this photo of me bringing the Italian flag cake out to the other birthday boy as we all sing. The tiger cake is already in front of Rich, because we brought that out and sang to him first.
Yesterday morning after Mass, the usual people went to brunch along with Tiffy and a woman Rich used to work with. She mentioned that she plays the Baroque flute, so I told her that I hate equal temperament, and she did too! How often do you meet someone that you have something like that in common with? Then Tiffy, Rich, Travalon, and I went to get bubble tea. They had smiling pumpkin bread there. (We didn't get any, but I'm sure it's as delicious as it is happy.)
Tiffy and I got blue matcha lattes, and here is a photo of mine with Travalon's chocolate, coconut, and caramel concoction.
Then Tiffy, Travalon, and I shopped at a few shops on State Street, and I picked up a couple of things that I thought might glow under blacklight. And they do!
After Tiffy headed home, Travalon and I walked at the mall. I got a purse from the alpaca store, and it also glows under blacklight.
I also got a book, partly because I was interested in the subject matter, and partly because the cover looked like it would glow under blacklight. Big letdown - it doesn't. Then we had to get back for my Irish class, where we talked about past vacations, and one classmate said she thought of me when they went to Boise and there were a lot of Basques there. She went into a restaurant where people were actually speaking in Basque. So cool!
Apropos to both Irish and Lunar New Year, I got this sticker from DuoLingo this month:
Last year I didn't get stickers, but I did get badges. Here you can see them.
And now that I'm done with the Virtual Camino, I'm doing the Virtual Ring of Kerry. I am on track to get done and receive my medal in time for St. Patrick's Day. This view of where I was on the Ring was particularly beautiful. See the islands out there? They might be the Blasket Islands. I remember seeing them when we actually traveled on the Ring of Kerry.
So I have to keep walking, and today at lunch I walked with my colleague. You can see where we started out hot, then she slowed down to show me a photo of her son's dog, and we never got back up to her normal speed.
I was jogging to keep up with her during that first part, and she said, "People will think I'm so mean, that I go so fast that you have to run to keep up." I said, "They could just as easily think that I'm pathetic, having to jog to keep up with someone walking at a comfortable speed." Will I ever easily be able to keep pace with her? That remains to be seen.
Famous Hat
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