Day at the Capitol 2026

This morning I thought I could get going a little later than usual to get to the Day at the Capitol, but then I wasted too much time and wasn't sure the Big Bendy B Bus would get me there on time. Two girls behind me were threatening to beat each other up, but then they both abruptly shut up. You don't get that kind of thing on private mass transit. I sat in the back and enjoyed how the B Bus feels like big-city mass transit. I got to the Concourse Hotel a few minutes late, but the presentation hadn't started yet, so I had some Second Breakfast and sat with an older gentleman and a woman from India. There was a presentation about talking points, and this year we had handy apps that gave us our schedule and all sorts of information. Here is the swanky ceiling of the room.

My first meeting was with a legislator from my district who is also practically my neighbor - he lives like a two-minute drive away. I met with his staffer last year. Another alumnus and I talked to him, but it was preaching to the choir because he's on the University Committee and is totally in favor of everything we brought up. He gave us Blue Books, and we had our photo taken with him.

Then I went to the break room they had set up this year and logged into the app to upload the photo, do a post-meeting review, and send a thank you email. There were some other people there too, and we walked back to the Concourse for lunch while the Chancellor spoke, followed by a panel discussion about nuclear fusion. 

Last year I didn't go to any flash talks (10-minute talks where faculty discussed their research), so this year I went to a number of them. They were in a room with some very odd lighting. Here is the skylight.

I thought the lighting made my beret look more yellow, but this photo doesn't really do it justice.

I went back to the break room, where they suddenly had coffee and cookies from Panera. I opened the box of cookies and took one, and suddenly a big, ugly insect flew in and landed on a cookie, so the guy in charge of the room grabbed the cookie and threw it, along with the insect, into the trash. It looked like some kind of wasp. That was certainly startling! Then I met with the staffer of my state senator, along with a bunch of other people including a guy I ate lunch with, the guy I had eaten breakfast with, his bubbly wife, and the woman from India. We had our photo taken in the Senate chamber.

The woman from India and I went back to the break room and did our post-meeting stuff in the app, then I went back to the flash talks. They had munchies there too - there was so much food today that I ate about a day and a half worth of calories, so tomorrow I'll just have to eat half a day's worth of calories. It wouldn't be such a disaster, except it followed right after that conference yesterday where they also overfed us. 

Because I still hadn't eaten enough apparently, I went over to the Madison Club with the couple from the meeting, and the woman from India joined us. This year we were in a room upstairs overlooking the Monona Terrace and the lake, and at one point there was a rainbow, but for whatever reason those photos aren't downloading to my computer from the cloud. They're on my phone... We had lots of fancy hors d'oeuvres and free wine or beer and a sundae bar. Then I took the B Bus (where a guy behind me on the phone said he was "Gangstafied") home in time for the Shamrock Club board meeting on Zoom, followed by the Rosary on Zoom, followed by Night Prayer on Zoom. Now I am Zoomed out. I also went up seven flights of stairs at the Capitol today, and even thought I got riding the Big Bendy B Bus and going to the Madison Club off my bucket list last year, it was just as fun this year. I plan to go every year if I can, but next year there will also be a similar thing in DC on St. Patrick's Day, so I'll probably skip that. I'm sure it's awesome, but St. Patrick's Day should be for Irish stuff, not politics.

I guess those photos from the Madison Club are not going to show up tonight. Instead, enjoy some more photos of wood ducks, courtesy of Travalon.

There was also a great blue heron.

It was much larger than the ducks.

I heard a little blue heron was seen in Sheboygan, which is weird because they usually stick to the East Coast, but we have seen plenty of them in Florida.

There were also photos of the green heron, and a couple of cormorants by the island, but those weren't in focus enough to post.

Stay tuned tomorrow when maybe I will have photos from the Madison Club for you...

Famous Hat