Banana Cream Pie Flower

 

Today was not a particularly noteworthy day for the most part; I worked from home, went to adoration, joined a meeting for the secret club I'm in, and led Night Prayer. I also watered my plants, and Jolly Bob is getting too tall for the southern exposure window in the loft, so I moved it to under the skylight, where it has a few more feet it can reach up, and then I moved a Norfolk Island pine in front of the southern exposure window. The pine has been struggling, but Jolly Bob was very happy, so hopefully this move wasn't a mistake. If it gets any taller, it will have to come downstairs and join Greg in front of the tall windows in the living room, but then it would catch the bugs from Greg. So far Jolly Bob has not been infected with the bugs, hanging out in the loft.

I did discover this sansevieria that I got from one of the funeral baskets is blooming.

This is the one plant from the funeral baskets that is really thriving. I've heard these things are impossible to kill, but I didn't know they were easy to get to bloom. The flowers smell like banana cream pie. I'm always excited when one of my plants blooms, especially when they smell good.

Famous Hat

Steel Drums at the Rainbow Shelter

 

Today I worked on campus, and we had another meeting, this time about the ticketing system. I was surprised how few people showed up, but one guy who rarely comes to other meetings was there. Afterwards he wanted to talk to me about some funds at the Foundation that I have long thought should be combined into one, but our previous chair said we couldn't do that. This guy said we really should combine them because as one fund we would get so much more interest, and now that we have a new chair for the next three years, maybe we can get somewhere with this. I also submitted an expense report for a credit card charge, and the woman above me returned it because she said I hadn't attached the receipt. I was confused because I could clearly see the receipt, so she showed me what she was seeing, and it was so non-intuitive on her view - the receipt was there, but it wasn't clear what it was, just a weird little symbol, not an obvious PDF with a name. This new system is so weird.

After work Travalon and I went to Warner Park to hear the local steel drum band. They have these concerts on Monday evenings in the summer, but in all these years we have never been to one. However, I'm a big fan of the steel drum band, and when I saw they were playing at this concert, I said, "We have to go!" Also, one of my Brazilian drumming teachers is in the band, but I didn't see him tonight - maybe still recovering from playing Brazilian and bluegrass music last week. The steel drum band does have a lot of members, so it's entirely possible that he was there and I just didn't see him. We were way back in the crowd. We had a very light dinner beforehand, but there were food carts there, so we could have just eaten there. We did get Thai tea (Travalon's was green tea and mine was the classic orange one) and crab rangoons to top things off. It was a perfect night, not too hot and with a breeze as we sat in the shade of the Rainbow Shelter listening to the steel drums. I love summer! At least when it's not too hot. The next few days are supposed to be scorchers...

Famous Hat

Samba-Playing Axolotl at the Irish Session

 

Today after Mass Travalon and I sat outside enjoying an iced coffee and a "pizza scone" with sun-dried tomatoes and cheese (we split one), then we walked on Governor's Island. It was a lovely day, not too hot, but I had to spend a lot of it inside. When I got to my drumming lesson, the guy was there with the jerseys. He said he had one that might fit me, and I doubted it, but it fit perfectly! He wanted payment by Venmo, but I'm old and don't know how to do that, so I gave him $20 cash and he said he didn't have change. My teacher said he's lying, he always has lots of $5 bills, and that's his scam, but I think he was kidding. Anyway, it's from the $50 I unexpectedly got, so it's not like digging into my hard-earned money. Now I feel like an official member of the Brazilian drumming group! This jersey is called "Sunset Dreams."

The group is called the Handphibians, and I don't know the story behind that name yet, but I like to think of myself as a samba-playing axolotl. Travalon was at the East Side Club listening to a classic rock group so he didn't love having to leave to pick me up. We went back to hear them, but of course after two songs they went on break, and anyway it was time for me to get to the slow Irish session. I was exhausted after our grueling drum lesson, playing and walking for an hour and a half, and I can't even do the parade now because we'll be helping Ma and Pa Hat move. But the rumor is that we will be allowed to march in the Willy Street Fair Parade. 

My Irish teacher was not at the Irish session, but the guitarist and bass player from my band came, and so did the red-headed flute player. It was a smaller group than is sometimes there, but we had a great time. Meanwhile, Travalon was having a guys' dinner night with Cecil Markovitch, the Single B-Boy, and Richard Bonomo. He brought me Thai food to go, and then we went out to watch the sunset, me still in my Sunset Dreams jersey. Here's a photo:

Tiffy was in Boise, Idaho (which a French friend once pronounced Bwaazz Ee-DOW), and she found a Basque song on the sidewalk.

And a "Famous Potatoes" license plate. (This has to do with a George Carlin joke.)

She also saw Shoshone Falls, the "Niagara Falls of the West."

Wow, I'm jealous! That is stunningly beautiful!

And Jilly Moose created this poster.

If you have any questions about this, please address them to Jilly Moose. Thanks!

Famous Hat

Music on Blue Mound

 

Travalon and I had a very lazy morning today, then we did some adulting. First we went to Goodwill to get some knives and shorts, and we also bought some very cheap stuffies.

They were 69 cents each, but I have no idea if they charged us for one or two with the tiny bears, since they are attached at the feet. Then we had to go to the pharmacy, and then we went to Ancora Coffee to get some ground coffee, and while we were there, we enjoyed some cold brew, mint for Travalon and lavender for me. 

We drove to Kathbert's house, and she showed us her flowers. Look at her black calla lilies! Mine actually has more blooms, but they are hidden in the leaves and harder to see.

We took a walk in the Arboretum and found the eagles' nest. There was an eagle on it.

Then it flew to another branch and called out to its mate.

As we were watching it, a woman I worked with two decades ago walked by. I recognized her, but she barely remembered me. Still, she chatted with us for a bit. On the walk back to Kathbert's place, we saw this interesting sculpture.

Kathbert said a guy in her neighborhood used to make them. We bid her adieu and drove to Mount Horeb for a quick dinner before driving up Blue Mound to see the Daughter of Denni's band perform at the amphitheater. I had originally been planning to go to a Baroque concert at the music club tonight, but then I saw the notice about this concert, and Blue Mound always seems so sacred to me, so I thought what could be better than listening to music up there? Plus Travalon actually likes that music. The concert was free except for the cost of entrance to the state park, but we already have an annual state park sticker. It was such a beautiful venue.

There was a little stand selling souvenirs to benefit the park, and when I asked about the thing I am about to show you, the woman just gave it to me. I'm not sure why people give me free stuff all the time, like at the Forward game last week, but far be it from me to complain!

I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a scarf or just a wall hanging, and the woman who gave it to me had no idea either. But I like it. The second half of the concert was all Beatles music, and I sat in my very comfortable lawn chair instead of the wooden benches of the amphitheater, with this thing draped over my chest, and just enjoyed the whole vibe. The Widow of Denni and a good friend of his were there in lawn chairs too. Apparently they have music every Saturday during the summer - who knew? Not a very friendly woman who said to me, as we were leaving, "Can you believe how cool this is? We're camping here, and we had no idea they had live music! We heard it and came to listen." Then as we drove back down Blue Mound, we had a stunning view of the countryside. What a wonderful evening!

Famous Hat

From Brazilian to Bluegrass

 

I forgot to mention that on Wednesday, as Travalon drove me to work, I put on Brazilian music and then we were talking about the Alan Parsons Project having an upcoming concert nearby... and Spotify suddenly played a song that sounded like Alan Parsons in Portuguese. We continued to listen to Brazilian music... and on campus we saw a guy wearing a shirt with a map of Brazil colored like their flag. It was like someone was bending reality based on what we were doing.

Today I worked from home and had meetings all morning. In the afternoon I felt really frustrated because a simple expense report that would have taken a few minutes in the old system took me an hour, partly because I messed something up and had to figure out how to call it back. Plus I've been added to numerous chats and am constantly getting notifications of new messages, but I will say that the FART 5 chat is so helpful - I put a couple of questions in there, and people quickly answered them. Our FART 5 meeting this morning was like that too, very collegial. I never expected to feel so warmly about coworkers, but right now we all have a common enemy in the New System, so we're battle buddies.

When Travalon came home, he wanted to go sit on a lawn chair in the one shady spot in our neighborhood. I joined him, but I had no wifi out there and couldn't work, so I had to go back into the house. After work we sat out there some more, and the condo board president came over and talked to us. He had really fascinating stories of how in college he dated a girl who was a reporter for the college paper, and she could get him backstage at all the concerts. He said Willie Nelson and the Grateful Dead were a lot of fun, but David Crosby was a jerk. He also used to be quite a singer, with a four-octave range. Who'd a thunk? He used to play the banjo but hasn't done it in years. I really enjoyed his stories.

Speaking of the banjo, there was bluegrass music on the roof of the Lone Girl (I completely forgot that I could have gone to the ukulele strum there on Wednesday once the Shamrock Club picnic was canceled), on the terrace at the Edgewater, and at State Line Distillery, a place we had never been to. I was most interested in that last option because one of my drum teachers was playing with a bluegrass band there tonight, and it was his fortieth birthday. We had dinner at the new Turkish restaurant on our side of town, then we went to the distillery. The band consisted of my drum teacher on one of those drums you sit on to play, a guy playing standup bass, a woman playing fiddle, and the guy who plays the little ukulele-like instrument in the Brazilian band on the banjo. It was kind of crazy how he was playing Brazilian music last night like he grew up in Sao Paolo, and tonight he was playing bluegrass like he grew up on the back porch somewhere in Arkansas. The band was so good, and the cocktails were delicious, and the couple sitting across from us were really friendly. At one point someone brought the birthday boy a cake, and much later I discovered there was a secret back room where the leftover cake was stashed, but I was never invited to that private birthday party. Still, I enjoyed the public birthday party/concert. What a fun thing to do for a big birthday!

We saw this cool tree as we walked from our parking spot to the distillery.

I've never seen a tree like this before! Can you see the yellow flowers in the high branches? My phone says this is a lilac; it does look a little like a Japanese lilac tree, but it's not. The plant identification app says it's a golden rain tree, which sounds more likely. I've never heard of that before.

Famous Hat

Another Brazilian Party

 

Today was very cool for July. I took a long walk at lunch and saw when returning that Lazarus is not going to produce any berries, so apparently the insects outside were not the right type to pollinate it. Compare this to the WEED in my office, which somehow is growing a berry. What is in my office that could have pollinated it?? Do cockroaches pollinate weeds?

It's amazing how, at my age, every doctor's appointment leads to another doctor's appointment. Case in point: at the end of May, I had my annual checkup, and the doctor referred me to Dermatology because she was concerned that something on my ear could be skin cancer. (Not the deadly kind.) Today I had an appointment with the dermatologist, and he said no cancer, but it's psoriasis, and he's concerned that my sore knees are not just the everyday getting-old arthritis but psoriatic arthritis, which is somehow worse (?), so now I have to visit a rheumatologist in October. It just never ends.

After work Travalon drove me to the Labor Temple for more organizing training, then we went to Working Draft Brewery to see the Brazilian band that plays bar samba again. I had gotten an email from the Brazilian list that the jerseys were in, and I didn't remember ordering a jersey, nor was my name on the spreadsheet. I emailed the guy, who said he had extras and he would be there tonight, so I tracked him down. Turns out he was there tonight, but the jerseys weren't, so I'll have to see if one fits me on Sunday at drumming class. I'm skeptical, since none are in my size, but we shall see. I will feel like an official member of the Brazilian group of nebulous size if I have my own jersey. This group reminds me of the ukulele world here in town, where there is a big, nebulous group and lots of subgroups. This Brazilian band is a subgroup. The ukulele people never have luaus, but the Brazilians seem to have parties all the time. Or maybe they are more expansive in their invitations, since they invite the whole group, and maybe the ukulele people only have parties for their subgroups, and I'm not a member. (Though I am on the email list for two subgroups.) In the short time I've been in the Brazilian group, I've been invited to four parties. The money I paid for these classes was well-spent!

As we walked back to the car, we saw this restaurant all lit up:

Right after I took this picture, a guy walking by saw Travalon's Bimini shirt and asked if he had gone fishing there. Travalon had to reply that no, he had not, but he liked the question. He said it was an intelligent one. I told the guy we had been fishing in Alaska, and he said, "That's a lot colder!" and I said, "Yeah, but salmon!" Of course, the seafood we had in Bimini was delicious, so maybe anything you would catch there would be good eating too. If we get back there, we'll have to try fishing.

Famous Hat

Do Not Steal the Tarot Cards

 

Today I worked on campus, and at lunch I walked with both Seabird and Hardingfele. They are both faster than I am, so they were happily chatting as I was racing to keep up. We heard the warning whistle by the Union go off multiple times, so we knew a storm was coming. I was wearing an Irish Fest shirt, my plaid scarf, a Celtic design necklace, Celtic design earrings, and Celtic design rings because I was going to the Shamrock Club picnic right after work, but the weather made me wonder about that.

After the walk, Seabird and I went up to a room in her building overlooking the lake, where members of FART 5 could gather to work and bounce ideas off of each other. There was a gathering like this yesterday, but I was working from home, and there will be another one tomorrow, but I'll be working from home. While I was there, my quasi-boss emailed me to ask if I was the work tag manager, or something like that. I've had a lot of new titles with the new system, like "initiator," but this was one I hadn't heard before. Still, I said yeah, that's me. Then the woman next to me, who is one level higher than I am and approves all my requests, said no, it was her, so I emailed my quasi-boss. Then she asked if this was for salary budget, and I said it was for a grant, so she said, "It's Luke," so I emailed my quasi-boss that it was Luke Hand, who is a person who doesn't even exist, and then she said, "That's not his last name!" so I had to email my boss for the fourth time, with Luke's correct last name. He said, "Maybe you should take a minute to figure out if this is the right person," since I had given him four names in maybe two minutes, and one of them was a nonexistent person. I'm just making up people now! My actual boss was there too, and she is very cool so far. She is an extremely reasonable person. Another colleague and I were going to head back to our building, but it started to rain really hard, so we hung out in Seabird's office until the rain let up.

Of course the picnic was canceled, so I dressed hyper-Hibernian for nothing. I did have to laugh about a bulletin board outside of Seabird's office that had tarot cards around the edges and then this sign right in the middle:

You know, the thought hadn't even crossed my mind. Not sure why I found this so hilarious. Are tarot cards really that tempting? It's not like you can't buy them at a dozen new-age shops in town if you really need some.

Famous Hat

A Key Moment in My Life

 

Today I worked from home and got more frustrated with the new system. To my surprise, when Travalon came home, he wanted to take me downtown to adoration. He hung out on the Union Terrace while I adored, then we went to the new Indian restaurant on State Street owned by the same people who own the Globe. It was so delicious! Postmodern Jukebox were playing at the Orpheum, and there were tickets available, but the line was very long, we had leftovers, and I had already promised to lead Night Prayer tonight, so we just went home.

The big excitement today was that I found a set of keys while walking in the shady, grassy area in our neighborhood. They had a last name and apartment number written on them, but we have several condo associations in the neighborhood, so I wasn't sure which one it was. The other side of the keychain had a phone number for a realtor, who remembered selling the condo to the couple last year, and he said which building they were in. I went over to the building and found the guest entrance; they didn't answer the phone, but I left a message. Quite a bit later a woman called me back and said it was her birthday and this was the best present I could have given her, since she had been looking for those keys for days. She asked where I'd found them and was puzzled: "I looked there several times!" They were coming back from Milwaukee, so she said she'd call me when they had arrived. I went out to meet her and give her the keys, and she pressed a $50 bill into my hand. I said, "That's too generous!" but she insisted. "It's my birthday!" she said. "And this is the best present you could have given me!" I suppose that's true, since I didn't know her before this and would have no idea what else she would have wanted.

Here is the Rose of Sharon in Rich's yard.

Isn't it beautiful? I think Kathbert planted it. Now if only the lovely white rose would recover and bloom...

Famous Hat

Mondayest of Mondays

 

Today was such a Monday. The guy came from the copier place to help me print envelopes, but it took over an hour because when they updated Windows it messed with the drivers for the printer, so he had to do a bunch of stuff I didn't understand. We printed all the envelopes as he told me a very entertaining story about trying to get home from Jamaica, then we printed the donor letters while we were at it. I gave them to the chair to sign, but we both agreed the font and the spacing were unappealing, and she didn't like the wording, so she's going to talk to my quasi-boss about it, since he wrote them. I used to write them, and I'll note that nobody complained about them when I did it.

I have heard from more than one source that if one entry in payroll is wrong with this new system, nobody will get paid, not just here but in the whole system, so Green Bay and Whitewater and Eau Claire, etc. People are losing sleep over this. I made the mistake of mentioning it to Hardingfele on our lunchtime walk, so now she's freaked out too. Also, when they brought over the funds into the new system, some of the coding wasn't right, so I have to use one with the code for research for payroll, but now it can only be used with the coding for instruction. I notified the grants guy, who told me I had to fix it, so I asked other people, who said the grants guy has to fix it. We're going around in circles, and it's not even a fund in my department, so I don't even think I can ask anyone to correct it. What a cluster munch this has all become.

I guess it's good to have things like this to remind a person that they aren't all that and a bag of chips, since the guy who was emailing me about my poetry said I had an astounding talent and am a genius, so it would be easy to get a big head except that the new system shrank my head right back to normal proportions. When Travalon picked me up from work with an iced pandan latte, it felt like someone putting a gold medal around my neck after a marathon. Oh, but I do have some exciting news!

I think that's supposed to be a shark's tooth necklace, but it looks like pearls, like he's Ruth Surfin' Ginsburg or something. Also, maybe it's just me, but it makes me think of Fred Flinstone for some reason. Is he a surfer or a caveman? The world may never know. Will it ever care?

Famous Hat

The Day of Unexpected Twists

 

Today was the Day of the Unexpected. It started when we arrived at Mass, and the woman who leads the Care for Creation team reminded me that we had a meeting I had forgotten all about. Whoops! Then our drumming lesson was short today because the teacher had to play at Fete de Marquette. Travalon had gone to the East Side Club to see a band playing classic rock, so I felt bad telling him he had to leave early to pick me up. We went back there so he could watch more of the band, who were pretty good - I don't love most of that kind of music, but I did know all the songs. I suppose most of my classmates from drumming class went to watch our teacher's band perform. Then Travalon went to Fete de Marquette himself to watch Marcia Ball with Cecil Markovitch and the Single B-Boy. Ever since we went on that Serbo-Croatian day with them, Travalon has been on a Croatian kick, listening to tamburitza music in the car (which I really enjoy) and even dancing around the house to it. He said I should mention on here how he was doing some Croatian steps he's seen in videos, and I was loving it.

Our bandmate who always hosts band practice is out of town right now, so the leader said she could host it at her house. Hardingfele said, "That won't work. Famous is deathly allergic to cats," because she has two cats. (Hardingfele has four.) I said, "I'll take some drugs and stick it out as long as I can," but Hardingfele kept insisting this wouldn't work, so I assumed she just didn't want to come. Oddly, the bass player, who was the one that suggested we have practice at our leader's house, never made an appearance. I took both the violin and the mandolin, got a bit lost and arrived late, but was still the first one there. I pulled out the violin, and the leader and I were playing along when Hardingfele arrived, so then we could play pieces for two violins. Not long after that, the leader's partner arrived with her eleven-year-old grandson who also plays the violin, so we had THREE fiddles. He only started playing the violin last year, but he's not too bad. He seemed to be keeping up. Then he asked to see the mandolin, so I put away the violin and took out the mandolin. I let him try it, but he had no idea what to do with it, so we all played "Metsakukkia" and the leader's partner recorded us and put it on social media. Considering that the kid was sightreading, I don't think we sound half bad. 

I needed exercise and to pray the rosary, so late at night I went out in my high vis gear.

There was a rumor that there could be northern lights visible tonight, but I saw nothing. That's okay, the ones I saw last October were so spectacular that they will sustain me for quite a while.

I did get an interesting email yesterday, about that piece "The Mystical Rose" that was set to the poem (or actually part of a poem) that I wrote. Some Lutheran (it's always Lutherans) wanted to perform it, and he wanted to know more about the poem, or me, or something. Like, he seemed confused that it had one last name on it, but now I have two last names. Maybe he has never heard of the institution of marriage? He asked what name I wanted on it, and I don't really care, but I did mention my pen name that in an ideal world I would use for all my writing. Just to confuse matters more. I'll be curious to see which name he uses, if he tells me.

Famous Hat

Horicon Marsh and Highland Night

 

I'd been looking forward to Pipes in the Glen for weeks, and today was the big day! Only one problem: I had thought the festivities started at one, so when Travalon mentioned that the Forward were having a Highlands-themed game tonight, it sounded perfect - a very Scottish day all around. However, the Pipes in the Glen didn't start until three, so we would barely have any time there before having to head back to Madison for a little footy. Also, you could get a tartan Forward scarf with your ticket, but supplies were limited, and they seemed to have sold out by the time we got our tickets, which was before I realized the timing conflict. So we went with Plan B: Horicon Marsh.

On the way to the boardwalk, we saw a little woodcock doing its boogie step across the road, but Travalon took those photos through the car window, so they didn't turn out. At the parking lot for the boardwalk, we saw a bunch of people, and then they all got word that a whooping crane was near the exit, so they left. One way to know you have spent too much time in the marsh is when you are blasé about a rare bird; I was like, "Oh well, we've seen plenty of whooping cranes," and we continued with our plans to go on the boardwalk. On the boardwalk, we saw lots of egrets and black terns and barn swallows.

Some people came onto the boardwalk with two large dogs, which is really rude because dogs are not allowed on the boardwalk. At least they were leashed... On our walk back to the car, we saw these purple coneflowers.

As we continued on the auto tour, we saw the big group looking at the whooping crane.

A little further down the road, we saw an egret posing beautifully.

Then a bunch of geese sauntered slowly in front of us.

Then we went to Old Marsh Road and met a woman who had been part of the big group, a birding club from Madison. It started to rain, so the three of us took shelter in the blind, and from there we had a great view of pied-billed grebes with babies. Here's a picture.

Travalon took a lot more, but that one shows the mama and babies perfectly. Notice how the young ones have striped heads. Okay, one more where they look like tiny Loch Ness monsters.

And here are three babies.

We saw lots of little blue butterflies, but my one photo didn't turn out, and I forgot to take a photo of the pretty wild snapdragons in bloom. We didn't see any baby gallinules, but we did see two adults.

It's weird how I tried to see them for years, and now I've seen them three times in a row. One was briefly joined by some sort of sandpiper.

We saw a bittern flying, and a number of pelicans, but there are no photos of that. Our new buddy said they had seen a swan and some baby gallinules at the other end of Old Marsh Road. She gave up on seeing the black-necked stilts and headed back just before we got to the spot where they were.

Everyone is posting photos of baby black-necked stilts online, but we didn't see any babies. We saw another sandpiper, or possibly the same one.

The gallinules were still there when we headed back.

Pretty sure their name is Latin for "little chicken," and they really do look like little marsh chickens with candy-red beaks. We also saw the grebe families again.

Here's a close-up of a young one.

On the drive home I was praying the rosary while falling asleep, and I could hear that my words were getting more slurred, but I woke myself up by saying. "When we walked into the store..." during the Our Father at the start of the Fifth Joyous Mystery, and I thought, "Wait, those aren't the words!" but Travalon hadn't even noticed. That woke me up completely, but I kept giggling during the rest of the rosary. After finishing, I said, "You wouldn't even notice if I slipped some other words in there, like, 'Hail Mary, Loch Ness Monster, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among tubas,'" and he conceded that he probably wouldn't notice.

When we got home, we got dressed and went to the Forward Game. I checked at Guest Services to see if there were any extra tartan scarves, and they said to check back toward the end of the game. I had worn my African Forward scarf and was all prepared to talk about my West African heritage if anyone questioned me, but nobody said a word, and I didn't see anyone of any color wearing that scarf. Honestly, we only saw maybe two other people wearing the tartan scarf. Before the game and during halftime some bagpipes played, and right after that during halftime some girls did highland dancing. Also, this has nothing to do with Scotland, but some people had giant balloon animals.

They always have farm animals in the kiddie area, and today they had a "heeland coo."

Seventy minutes into the game I ventured over to Guest Services, all the way on the other side of the field, to see if there were any extra scarves. By then the highland cow was gone, but guess what? They had one scarf left, and they gave it to me! It probably helped that I was dressed like a "Superfan" with my Forward shirt, Forward earrings, Forward hat, and Forward scarf. Here I am with the tartan scarf.

At that point I had given the other scarf to Travalon to wear, because you can reverse it so instead of being African print, it's just a Forward scarf. Guess what? The Forward beat Greenville 3-1! But for some reason they didn't release a big puff of pink smoke like they always used to do after winning. Even stranger, they announced that they would be playing a team from Colorado immediately afterwards. Now I have heard of double-headers in baseball, but soccer seems way too taxing for a double-header, and besides, it would not have ended before eleven at night. We did run into the Night Prayer regular who always wears six hats, and he seemed disappointed that we weren't staying, but I had to get home and blog. And even skipping the second game, I am still doing this way too late at night.

Famous Hat