Guest Post from Travalon: Year Long Today Fest

 

I don't have too much to say; it was a quiet day of working from home, going to Adoration, and leading Night Prayer. It was so cold that Travalon and I didn't go to Governor's Island for a walk; we just took a short one in our neighborhood. I did get an email from "Andy" saying that he was at the meeting yesterday but online, not in person, which explains why I couldn't find him. I was looking in the right spot - I wonder if he knows the "Other Andy," since they sit in the same part of the hall? Since I don't have much to say today, here's a guest post by Travalon:

Year Long Today Fest

In about three weeks I’ll be celebrating my 60th birthday. Can’t believe how the years have flown by. Part of me feels kinda old but part of me still feels youthful and adventurous wanting to keep getting out and about exploring new places and just making the most out of life, although balance is the best thing, having plenty of quiet nights at home too. Starting this month and going all the way through next year I decided to celebrate just being on this earth for sixty years by partronizing all my favorite independent small businesses- shops, restaurants, coffee houses, and even bars around this great city of Madison, the area surrounding it and elsewhere in Wisconsin. It’s spread out over a period of 14 months so I’m not spending too much money on one day or getting too bloated eating and drink in too more than I can handle. I will do a lot, however; on the weekend after Thanksgiving Day and Small Business Saturday leading into my actual birthday on December 1st. This should be fun to see how many I can do. Famous Hat likes a lot of these places also, and is always welcome to join me visiting them as she chooses. 

Here is part of my list, the ones I already visited in November have an asterisk next to them: 

He also sent me some photos to post. First are some drawings he colored, and at work they hung them on the wall because they thought some kid colored them.

And here are our neighbors, the modern-day dinosaurs:

Why didn't I get the license plate with them on it?? I always wonder if people will see my Ice Age Trail license plate and then see fat old me get out of the car and wonder to themselves, "Has she even ever SEEN the Ice Age Trail??" I don't look like the fit folk you usually see hiking on it.

And here are a couple of photos of Mendota County Park, the one that was closed for months.

Travalon says he doesn't see much difference, but there does seem to be a new picnic area and a new bathroom. Of course, this time of year the bathrooms are closed, so we can't go in to see how nice they are inside. We'll have to check it out when the weather warms up again.

Famous Hat

The Other Andy

 

On weekend mornings I always seem to wake up early, but of course this morning my alarm clock woke me up. I was dreaming that Toque McToque had bought me a bunch of groceries, and I was trying to get to my office to write her a check. I was climbing up some outside stairs carrying my Hugimal cat Frankie and wondering why Toque had bought me over $100 of groceries I hadn't asked for. How random - I haven't seen Toque in years, but maybe my brain remembered that her birthday is in a few days.

I worked on campus today, and as I was going into my building, a male cardinal flew down right by me and chirped at me. He was all fluffy because it was so cold out. At lunch I walked with Hardingfele, but it was so cold out that we made it shorter than usual. Then I had a meeting, and I was trying to find a guy named Andy, who is my representative (I'm the alternate), and I found a guy who looked like his description who also seemed familiar, and I said, "Are you Andy?" Then I realized he was a guy who works in my building, so of course I already knew he was Andy. I said, "I'm your alternate," and he said, "No, here's my alternate," and he gestured at the woman sitting next to him, so I must have needed to find another Andy with a beard and brown hair. I looked around, and who should I see but Handy Woman, another former coworker (like Toque McToque) whom I hadn't seen in a long time. We sat together, and she showed me a video of her granddaughter, whose name is Latin for Willow. I've heard of plenty of girls named Willow, but this is the first Salix I've heard of. Not sure if there was a connection between seeing Handy Woman and my dream about Toque McToque, since they both involved old coworkers, but it's probably just a coincidence. Oh, and I never did find the other Andy.

In the evening Travalon and I went to the East Side Club to watch the Packers play the Eagles. At halftime neither team had scored, but then the Eagles got a field goal. In the fourth quarter the Eagles got a touchdown, so we left and went to Bong Road to see if there were any Northern Lights. We saw a little activity, but the pictures my phone took just look like clouds. I thought there was supposed to be a lot of activity tonight, but on social media I saw it's actually tomorrow night. We were listening to the Packers in the car, and they did score a touchdown, but just as we got home and turned on the TV, they missed a field goal that would have tied up the game and sent them into overtime. Still, 10-7 isn't a bad loss.

Travalon wanted me to post these images of the video game he was playing yesterday (Mike Tyson Punch Out by Nintendo) while I was at my drum lesson. The first level is Glass Joe, and he said, "Even you could punch him out!" 

Notice how he looks scared because even I could punch him out. Next is Piston Hurricane.

This is Travalon's nemesis, Bald Bull, who is apparently from Turkey.

Travalon did manage to knock him out at least once, but not yesterday. I have never even tried.

Famous Hat

Scottish Music Concert

 

This morning was very, very cold - my phone said it felt like 10 F outside, so I wore my big white coat and third eye toque. Then things at church were crazy - there were no spots in the parking lot because of a craft fair, so some of us parked along the edge of the parking lot. After that Rich came over and helped us put my new license plates on my car. He did the back one, because there was a piece missing (Travalon had just duct-taped my license plate last year, and it had held all this time), while Travalon put the front one on, and I just stood there yacking at them. Despite the cold weather, all three of us took a walk on Governor's Island. 

Last week at our drumming lesson, the teachers had said we might not have a lesson this week because reasons, so stay tuned. I never heard anything, so I asked my outdoorsy buddy, and she didn't know either, but she lives out of town and didn't want to come all the way in if there was no lesson, so she emailed one of the teachers and found out we did have a lesson. Everyone else must have known, because I swear they were all there plus some people - in fact, the teacher was concerned that we might not have enough straps. Today I found the shin guards, so I had no problem with the big drum they call the surdo, since it could bang against that shin guard all it wanted and it wouldn't bruise my leg. While I was playing that, my FitBit said I was working out on a rowing machine. Then the teacher told us all to switch to another type of drum, so all of us playing surdo went to play the smaller drum, which they call the repique (oddly, the R is pronounced as an H) but online it says it's a repinique. While I was playing that, my FitBit said I was working out on an elliptical trainer. Then we had to switch again, to a drum I have not tried before, the caixa or snare drum. I didn't get credit for a workout while playing that one.

All that drumming must have melted my brain, because this evening I went to a workshop at the music club led by a Scottish band called Cantrip, and despite their teaching us only one tune, very slowly, piece by piece, I was really struggling with it. What up, Brain? How come you can learn tunes on the fly some days, and you can't learn one given to you in baby steps on other days? But it didn't matter, because there were a lot of people with fiddles, and I sat in the back where nobody really heard me messing up. A guy from Moldy Jam and also the Care for Creation team at church was there too, and he played the bass. In fact, there were a number of people there that I knew. Afterwards Cantrip played a concert. Here are a couple of videos.

In this video, the one guy is singing in Scottish Gaelic. I sent this clip to my Irish teacher to see if she could understand any of it, but she said she can't.

Too bad Famie and the red-headed flute player didn't come, because I think they would have really enjoyed it. I also should have told my buddy from the Shamrock Club, who really loves Scottish stuff. (I told the other two, but they weren't interested in the workshop, and I guess they didn't realize you could just go to the concert and not do both.) There were some preteen girls who talked through the first half of the concert sitting right behind me, but then they left. There were also some smaller kids crawling under the chairs. One kept kicking me as he crawled by me, but I don't think he meant to, so I resisted the urge to kick him back. A person doesn't go to a concert expecting to be kicked, am I right? Except maybe at some wild heavy metal concert with a mosh pit, but that's not what this was.

Famous Hat

Gig at Bad Art

 

Yesterday I worked from home, and at lunch Travalon and I walked on Governor's Island. The water was very blue.

He had the day off of work, so he went to Watertown and took a walk on Tivoli Island.

I took a walk in our neighborhood on my afternoon break.

This is out of order, but in the morning Travalon was trying to get tickets to AC/DC, who are playing in town next summer, and while he was waiting to get into the site, this little man was walking as the green bar moved further to the right.

He said, "That little man is getting more exercise than I am today!" Then when he came home, we went on another walk after dark (I was wearing my high-vis vest), and then he went to see the Marshall Tucker band while I talked to Tiffy. I said I felt very uncharitable about not liking someone who annoyed me with little things, like saying, "Thus far" instead of "so far," but Tiffy totally understood. She said, "Do they say 'shan't' too?" Not that I've heard, but I wouldn't be surprised! And when I found out this person's politics, because they totally brought it up, then I didn't feel guilty at all about not liking them.

This morning I met my Union peep who looks like a leprechaun at the bank so we could close out our Union bank account, since we merged with another local, then Travalon and I took a walk on Governor's Island. On the way there we saw this pretty tree with a cute Little Free Library in front of it.

Here's a photo from Governor's Island itself.

Then we hung out at home for a bit. I was really doing well at DuoLingo today.

We checked out a trail not too far from our house in the afternoon.

Travalon's Premier League team the Wolves were on in the afternoon, not the morning like usual, and for the first half they held Chelsea to no score, but in the second half, as we drove to my gig at Bad Art in Oregon, Chelsea scored three goals. The poor Wolves - I don't see how they won't be relegated. But miracles can happen in sports, as we would discover later in the day...

The gig was to celebrate our fearless leader having an art show. Her thing is making chickens out of return address labels, and there were some cool ones (I particularly liked "Rainbow Rooster"), but did I think to take a photo of any of them? No. Travalon did take a couple of photos of Bad Art.

We were supposed to play for an hour, but our leader spent the first twelve or so minutes talking about her art, some of it interesting like how her whole family were artists and they were featured in Life magazine, and some of it maybe not so interesting. Then we were supposed to finish at five, but she wanted to keep playing because she had talked so much, and she thought we should play for a full hour. My regular readers will be stunned to learn that I had to recycle some water fiercely, so I said, "I'm done!" and ran to the back room where my mandolin case was. As I was putting the mandolin away, some older guy said, "Before you put that away, can I see it?" I said, "Let me go pee, and then we can talk." As promised, I showed him Mandy, but he grabbed her away and I kind of thought he wasn't going to give her back. I am pretty generous about letting fellow musicians try her out, but I didn't know this guy. He was saying he had checked out another round-back mandolin, but it was only fit for hanging on the wall for decoration, and it was surprising to see one as old as mine in playable condition. Then he asked me a million questions about what kind of pick I used. Meanwhile, Travalon was waiting for me to get ready to leave. This was supposed to be an unpaid gig, but we did get one drink at the bar, so I let Travalon have it. He got a delicious pumpkin concoction, and when I had a couple sips just before the gig, our leader's partner wondered if it was a good idea to drink before playing, as if many of the most famous musicians weren't three sheets to the wind most of the time they were onstage. Our leader gave Hardingfele $2.50 from the tips when they had played there the previous weekend, so Hardingfele gave it to me, since I wasn't getting paid (they were paid $25 each last weekend), but then we each made $8 in tips, plus the venue did decide to give us each $10, so I actually made $20.50 at an "unpaid" gig. Not bad. My big disappointment is that I put my FitBit on my right wrist to get my steps for the hour, and by the second song I'd gotten them, but my playing didn't register as a workout. I was curious to see what FitBit would have thought I was doing.

Travalon and I went to a newish Mexican restaurant not far from home that we'd been meaning to check out, and I got a huitlacoche quesadilla and a thing I thought would be a sweet corn cake, but it was a strange yet aesthetically pleasing crust with salsa and cheese on it.

(I should have thought to take this picture before taking the first bite.) I know what you are wondering: "So Sombrero Famoso, which salsa is the hot one, the green or the red? La verde o la roja?" and I would say, "Yes. Si." Notice how it's the colors of the Mexican flag. Then I had to use the bathroom, and when I passed the bar, there were these sad balloons spelling out: "Viva Mexic."

I asked the bartender, "Donde está el O?" and she said, "El explotó." I feel like there's a story there, but my Spanish isn't good enough to find out que pasó. Meanwhile, Travalon was looking at his phone, as he is wont to do when I go to the restroom, and he was stunned to see that the Badgers were beating the Washington Huskies. What?? They can barely score, never mind win!! We came home and watched the final minutes of the game, and they won!!! Everyone was so excited that they rushed the field!

I was excited for a completely different reason too - my new license plates finally arrived!

I did get my first choice of personalized license plate! Travalon says he will get the Crane Foundation one next May, when he needs to get new stickers, so maybe he can get a clever personalized one at that time. Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments. I'm thinking TRVLON. Or TRAVLN.

Famous Hat

Missing My Mandolin Earring

 

This morning Travalon dropped me off at a research study, and then he went for a walk on Picnic Point. He took some photos with his phone.

I made the study person laugh a lot, but I also lost one of my mandolin earrings. Travalon took me to work, and I was double-checking a shadow budget and realized a lot of salaries hadn't been accounted for. Yikes! I took a walk by myself, since Seabird was working from home and Hardingfele was busy, and I took some photos. Some of them aren't as great as they looked in real life, but these two are okay.

Travalon also took a photo where he works.

There was a Brazilian music concert tonight, but when Travalon got home from work, we went back to the research place and looked for my earring. However, we weren't as lucky as a couple of weeks ago, and there was no sign of it. So sad! The thing is that this time I have no idea what action I'd taken that might have knocked the earring out of my ear, unlike last time when I realized what must have happened and was able to look right where it had happened. I said maybe I should get a pair of violin earrings, and then I could wear one violin one and one mandolin one. And this isn't even my only pair of mandolin earrings, so it's not like I can't wear mandolin earrings if I so desire. I just can't wear this particular pair.

Update: I clicked on the link above for mandolin earrings and found the exact pair that I just lost one, and also matching violin earrings. So guess what's coming to my house in a few days?

Famous Hat