Bob Marley Birthday Party

 

Today I worked from home and went to the dentist. I saw a different hygienist this time, one who was all old-skool and used the scraper instead of the sonic thing. I actually preferred that, because there was a little pain, but it was the kind I could wrap my head around, instead of the five kinds of pain the sonic thing gives me, each unique and excruciating. The only thing that makes me not sure about this hygienist, who is older than I am, is that she had FAUX News on in the background. Come on, either watch fiction or news, not fiction pretending to be news. They were talking about some schools with bad scores were letting their kids walk out early to protest ICE. Yeah, and so what? I'm sure a lot of schools with high test scores did too, and it's not like you could blame the test scores on the walkouts since they predated them.

The kids Travalon works with made Olympic medals, like this one:

In the evening we went to a Bob Marley birthday party fundraiser for a food pantry at the Crystal Corner. They even had a cake for Bob Marley.

It was Black Forest flavored. Travalon said I could post this photo of him.

Here is a better photo of him.

He is enjoying a Commuter Kolsch. I had an infused drink. We were right by a very cute window.

At first, a DJ was playing reggae, and it was loud, so I wore earplugs. Then a live band played a short set. They were really good!

I thought, "Are they already taking a break?" and then I realized they were packing up their instruments. There was a raffle, then we had cake, and the DJ started up again and kept getting louder and louder. We headed home, and I finished the Spanish course.

Pretty optimistic of DuoLingo to think I could get a job in Spanish. Garbage collector, maybe. "¿Es su basura? Damela, por favor. Gracias!" Maybe if we move to Puerto Rico, I can get paid to collect the trash.

Famous Hat

Outdoor Theater and Titan Arum

 

Sorry for my silence the last couple of days. I was either out late or fighting with a recalcitrant hotel booking website. Saturday morning Travalon and I met Jilly Moose for coffee at Fair Trade, and we sat in the back garden. Rich joined us too, and he had a big slice of what looked like birthday cake.

We tried to figure out what occasion it could be for, and Jilly Moose said it was her coworker's birthday, and also her parents' wedding anniversary. So there you go. But do you even need a reason for chocolate cake? Then Travalon left to go fishing, Rich headed home to bake brownies, and we ladies prayed the rosary and then met up with Tiffy. We went to lunch at Dubai, and I got something with eggplant and lamb that was unbelievably good. We shopped a bit on State Street, got bubble tea, and went up to the roof of Tiffy's sister's apartment building. The view is incredible from there. This is looking out at Picnic Point.

This is looking toward campus. You can see Bascom Hall, and behind it the Killer Building where I work.

It was so lovely there, we spent quite a bit of time there. Then Tiffy and I caught a ride with Rich to the outdoor theater, where we met the Dairyman's Daughter for the annual opening day cookout. We saw The Merry Wives of Windsor, which it seems like we saw there not too many years ago, but it's still just as funny. This time they had a really interesting set.

I love the hot pink boombox. Of course we had a very late night, as one does there, so yesterday morning I didn't get up until it was too late to go to the Mass near us, and Travalon got up even later. We went to St. Patrick's downtown, which is linked with our church, but the priest gave a weird, baldly political homily about how San Francisco is a hellscape because it's so liberal. Worse, everyone around us was getting really into this homily. I was so disgusted that I didn't want to go to the parish picnic I'd been looking forward to for weeks, and it didn't help that it was a strangely cold day for mid-June. Instead, Travalon, Tiffy, and I had brunch on State Street, shopped a bit, got bubble tea, and went to the roof of her sister's building... only this time we sat inside. We skipped the steel drums at the East Side Club too, which I had also been looking forward to. I guess that homily put me in a real funk. I had a slight reprieve at band practice, which went really well, but then I had to reserve some hotel rooms, and the website Travalon recommended gave me nonstop issues. I never got a confirmation email... but then I checked another email address I never use, and they went there! Yet my usual email is the one listed on my account. Weirder still, the reservations weren't showing up on my account, but I called both hotels, and they had gotten the reservations. Still, I had trouble getting to sleep and then had weird dreams all night.

Today I got to work from home, which is good because I was so groggy. As I worked on our porch, hummingbirds visited the feeder, and then a big male oriole landed on it and was mightily annoyed that he couldn't get at the nectar. He flew to a tree and glared at me for a bit. We do have an oriole feeder somewhere, but just after we got it, someone told me she had a hummingbird get stuck in the jelly in her oriole feeder and it died, so I have been too afraid to put it up. Coincidentally, just after my visit from Mr. Annoyed Oriole, I got an article in email about how you should really not use jelly in oriole feeders because hummingbirds can get stuck in it and die, and it's kind of junk food for the orioles anyway so please just use orange slices. So maybe I will try to find that oriole feeder and put it up, but only use orange slices. To me, it's less important to feed Mr. Oriole than to keep Squeaky and her friends (rivals?) safe. But it would be fun to see the bright orange and black birds hanging out at a feeder.

When Travalon got home, we went to Olbrich to see the blooming titan arum. By then it had closed up, but it's still impressive - much taller than I am! (But then again, who isn't?) 

Here are some other cool flowers in the conservatory.

And a bonus photo: Jilly Moose took a photo of the same pretty garden with reddish mulch in Port Washington as I did, but I think her photo is much better than the one I posted some days ago.

I believe Travalon also has some photos from Olbrich that he didn't send to me, so maybe tomorrow I can post those.

Famous Hat

Delicious Debris

 

Tonight Travalon and I went to the Mexican restaurant right near our house for Mexican Independence Day. Unlike Cinco de Mayo, which most Americans seem to think is Mexico's birthday, on Mexico's actual birthday you can easily get into the restaurant. They were celebrating with live musicians strolling around, and I wore red and green Mardi Gras beads to celebrate the occasion. We sat outside, since it was such a beautiful evening, and we had our usual shrimp chimichangas. As always, I only ate half of mine, so the waiter brought us two boxes, since Travalon seemed to be slowing down as well. However, he ate all of his. The waiter asked if we wanted anything else, and I said how about tres leches cake, since it was a birthday party so we should have cake. We split a slice, and of course I ate about two bites since I was already full. Conveniently enough, we had that second box so we could take the cake home too. Tres leches cake is very crumbly, so there were some crumbles left on the plate, and Travalon scooped them up with his fork and said, "I'll get the debris. Delicious debris!" and I said that was an excellent blog post title. Only thing is, it has nothing to do with Mexican Independence Day. What's Spanish for "c'est la vie"? 

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Laid Back Birthday in a Magical Winter World

 

Yesterday I had a quiet birthday, which was a lovely change of pace. (Next year is a birthday that ends in zero, and the pandemic should be under control, so I imagine I'll have to have a huge party.) Only Rich was at brunch, but Travalon and I did run into Cecil Markovitch when we went out to Sauk to look at eagles. We only saw one immature one. We went to the antiques store, and I did buy some stuff:

Two sweet little rosaries, the red one missing a bead in the starting part and the pink one with a four-way cross instead of a crucifix. Two miraculous medals and a St. Anne's medal. And a little wooden box with milagros of a heart, four hands, and four chalices on it. Here is a close-up of the box:

And here is a close-up of the medals, which are now in the box:

Someday I will figure out what to do with all these medals. After the antiques store, we came home and watched the Packers beat the Bears. They did that thing they always do, where they stall in the third quarter, so the offense can't get any points, and the defense can't stop the other team, so the Bears looked like they might catch up and even beat them. But then the Pack came roaring back and trounced them in the fourth quarter. Now they are #1 seed, so they get a bye next week and home field advantage throughout the playoffs. What a great birthday present! Then after the game, Travalon took me through the Fantasy of Lights for their last night. Here is a better picture of that kayaking elf:

And here is a peacock. This photo turned out way better than the photo I took of it with the good camera.

Today was back to work. Like yesterday, there was freezing fog, which meant there was lots of beautiful hoarfrost on all the trees. I took some photos.

Those were all with my cellphone. Travalon took some with his cellphone too.

And just to be goofy, he also texted me this photo he took of Fred Flinstone on his computer. As you can see, Fred also looks like he is in a winter landscape. Just to be goofy myself, I am putting this picture on my blog post. I hope this isn't a copyright violation or anything...

Just like how I thought during COVID Christmas I would be safe from cookies, but then my neighbor and coworkers kept dropping them off, this year I thought that with no party, I would not have to deal with birthday cake. Instead, both Rich and my neighbor made cakes for me, and they are even the same kind - black magic! My neighbor did make a killer coffee frosting that is just amazing - she said she used partially evaporated coffee instead of milk. Now there is a ton of birthday cake in my house, and just Travalon and me to eat it. I have stuck a bunch of it in the freezer for later in the month, when things are less festive and more dreary, and I will desperately need chocolate cake with coffee frosting.

Tune in tomorrow, when I will post pictures from both our good cameras of the eagle in Sauk, the bluffs covered in hoarfrost, and possibly better photos of the trees here in our neighborhood as well.

Happy birthday to Ma Hat, and thanks to Jilly Moose for the kalanchoe and Christmas cactus, and to OK Cap for the mug and the ladybug ornament.

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Pie AND Cake!

Friday night Travalon and I went to Brocach for dinner, and then we went to the Newport Jazz Festival show, where we sat next to the local harpsichordist and his wife. I asked him how to identify if a tune was in the Locrian mode, and he said there would be a lot of tritones, so now you know. I believe at least one tune we heard was in the oft-reviled Locrian mode. Our favorite was the encore, which was a hot Latin-tinged number called “Cuba/New Orleans.” However, there wasn’t really any New Orleans-style jazz that night, and more’s the pity. That’s the stuff Travalon and I really love.

Saturday morning Travalon, Light Bright, and I met with a florist who had perfect reviews on Yelp, and she understood exactly what I wanted. So far I’d give her a perfect score too, but she hasn’t sent me a quote yet, so I have no idea how painful this will be. We’re not being too extravagant, and Ma Hat has generously given me money toward this particular wedding expense, so it shouldn’t be too bad… Then Tiffy came to visit, and she, Travalon, Richard Bonomo, and I went to Inka Heritage for lunch because we just love that restaurant. Then we picked up Kathbert and looked at yet another house, as well as the second one Travalon and I had liked. Kathbert said that was a good house, and she could understand our dilemma, but she really thought the first house we liked was the best one for us. It was a lovely day out, so we walked around in the neighborhood to get some idea what it would be like. In the evening, Tiffy and I introduced Rich to the wonders of The Chocolaterian, and he enjoyed the introduction thoroughly.

Yesterday we celebrated the birthdays of Luxuli and Miss Heartsong. Luxuli requested chocolate cake while Miss Heartsong requested apple pie, so Rich was busily trying to make both desserts and dinner as well. I peeled the apples for him while Tiffy and I chatted. A three-year-old came to the party and was very cute, especially when his father said, “Let’s pray for the birthday girls,” and he said, “No, I don’t feel like it.” Cecil Markovitch brought vanilla ice cream, which goes perfectly with both chocolate cake and apple pie. We all had to try some of each! Luxuli and I said, “It's OK, we’re working out tomorrow morning,” but this morning, hmm, no Luxuli…

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The BonomOlympics

Friday night we had a birthday party for Richard Bonomo, and the theme was the BonomOlympics. The BonomOlympic Committee consisted of Kathbert, Luxuli, her husband, Catzookz, her boyfriend, and yours truly, with some input from Travalon and Miss Heartsong. We had a goodly crowd of seventeen people enjoying the international themed potluck, including Luxuli’s delicious beef stroganoff to symbolize Russia, and Catzookz made wonderful (or so I hear) sesame noodles, but I was too full to try them. There was so much food! I brought pizza from Trader Joe’s to symbolize Italy, and we ate it as an appetizer, plus there were French cheese, Canadian crackers, Caesar salad, and wings – those must symbolize the USA. Kathbert made a yummy black bean soup which could symbolize many different countries in Latin America.

After we were completely stuffed, we had the BonomOlympic Games, or maybe I should say Game: who could wear a short-sleeved shirt for the longest time in Rich's minimally heated house? Some people refused to play, and I was out within five minutes, but Kathbert and Travalon stuck it out for the rest of the party. I had found gold-wrapped chocolate coins (not easy to do this time of year; they are seasonal around Christmas and St. Patrick’s Day), and we awarded Rich the gold medal in Heavyweight Hugging, Winter Bicycling, Subaru Salt Rusting, and I have already forgotten the other category. If I remember, I’ll put it in the comments. I gave everyone a chocolate coin for participating, and Kathbert had the brilliant idea to give Rich the rest of the coins so he could give out medals in any category he liked. He proved to be really good at this, coming up with a category for each person and fortuitously having just enough coins left. My medal was for thinking of so many creative birthday party themes over the years, though I cannot take a lot of credit for this one. Travalon’s medal was for his excellent taste in women. How cute is that?

After the games, we had dessert: the chocolate cake I made and the cheesecake Cecil Markovitch brought, which was made by his coworker’s husband. He put very potent brandy cherries on top. I had tried to decorate mine with the name BONOMO as sort of interlocking rings in the Olympic ring colors, but my frosting ran a bit, and I had lots of black left so I outlined the letters, and then it looked like a cartoon word or a bit of colorful graffiti. I will try to post a photo at some point so you can all enjoy the sight. I will never say a bad word about a cake decorator again! It is some HARD work! Luckily, everyone raved about how good my cake tasted. It is a recipe called Black Magic that has a touch of coffee in it, and it is our go-to recipe for birthday cakes. Probably all of the cakes I have posted pictures of on this blog, at least the ones decorated by me, were Black Magic cakes. They are so good! Everyone wanted a piece of cake, which is a first for me – usually someone turns it down – and everyone raved about it. Someone suggested I just make Black Magic cakes for my wedding cake. It’s tempting…

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Cake Tasting

Yesterday Travalon and I went to a local bakery to taste test cake. I had told them I am allergic to fake vanilla, but they said they were unable to make anything without it. Travalon and I went anyway and tried several different kinds of cake; we both liked the red velvet cake, and he liked the marble cake a lot. Amazingly, the vanillin did not seem to make me crazy, but I did have two tablespoons full of real vanilla extract immediately afterwards. After all that cake, we could barely eat dinner so we just had something light at Noodles, and then we watched Sleepless in Seattle. I found the movie very puzzling, because the main character leaves a man who seems to love and understand her for a man she doesn’t even know. Of course she doesn’t know the new guy’s flaws yet, so maybe he just seems better. I felt too sorry for the guy she left to care much about her plight.

I am still on a quest for a vanillin-free cake, so Travalon and I will be trying two more bakeries, next Wednesday and Friday. One of them I thought to call after having some (yes, more) cake today for three coworkers’ birthdays. It was way better than the cake we’d had the night before, and this place uses all natural ingredients. If they are not prohibitively expensive, they would be an excellent option, except that they cannot make large wedding cakes so we would have to have several smaller ones. I am OK with that option, if it means a tastier and less artificial cake. Guess I will really have to buckle down and work out next week, to work off all that cake from our tastings!

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Mariah Forty-Four

Last night Travalon and I stopped by a bakery to make an appointment for a tasting. People tell me this is the best part of getting married, so I said we should check out several bakeries, but Travalon would rather just get it over with than eat lots of free cake. I told the guy filling out the information slip that I am allergic to fake vanilla, which he seemed somewhat skeptical about, but he did write it down. The truth is that I do not go into anaphylaxis from vanillin, I go into some sort of manic state that can be downright dangerous. While it would make for an unforgettable wedding if I freaked out after eating a piece of my cake, I’d rather have things be memorable in a more pleasant way.

Then Travalon and I watched the movie Groundhog Day, about Bill Murray reliving the same day over and over. Travalon asked what day I would relive if I could, and honestly any day with him would be worth experiencing again, but I especially love our road trips. I said our trip to Galena, Illinois was a day I could live over and over. He chose a couple of days from our trip to New Orleans, and those would also be fantastic days to relive. This is why I keep my diary, Mariah, so I can go back and sort of relive wonderful past experiences. Also, people are forever asking me to consult Mariah about when such-and-such a thing happened, so it’s becoming a historical document. I have been keeping Mariah for twenty-four years and just started Mariah #44 this week, so that’s quite a bit of documentation. People say they do not keep diaries because they don’t want other people to read them, but if you ever saw my handwriting, you’d know there’s little danger of that in my case. My children, should I have any, would be even less likely to decode my chicken scratch because cursive is no longer taught in schools. My boss tells stories about friends’ kids who cannot read notes from Grandma. It seems sad to lose cursive – how will my hypothetical children keep their own diaries? On their hypothetical iPads?

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