Apologies to Noelle My Car

 

Today Travalon went back to Cherokee Marsh and took more photos of the common mergansers and the tundra swans and the flicker.

I think this puffy little bird is a chickadee.

Judging by some of his other photos, which weren't clear enough to post, he also saw red-headed ducks, canvasbacks, scaups, goldeneyes, and ring-necked ducks. I have posted his photos of all these types of ducks on this blog previously, or you can just google them if you wonder what they look like.

Meanwhile, I worked on campus, and in my building not one, not two, but three people said they liked my new plaid tam, two of our grad students and someone I didn't know in the elevator. One guy said it was very stylish. When I walked with Hardingfele at lunch, she said it is very 70's, but I think it's an older style than that. She wants us to play for some singalong at her department, on a Tuesday when I'm not usually on campus. I have to think about this one. Maybe I'll take the afternoon off and drive in - she said she could get me a parking pass. I asked if we had music, and she said no, but everything's in G, so she's right in that I don't need music for that. She wants me to play the mandolin, and she and her coworker will play violin, and a woman we don't know will play the guitar.

Speaking of playing, this evening I brought the violin to the Moldy Jam jam. I left home earlier than usual but had to park far away, and I got to the music club in time but they had already started to play. My A string is starting to unravel, but it is a gut string I've had on there since I did early music, and that was ages ago. It may be time to put new, steel strings on the violin. Heaven knows the mandolin has needed new strings for ages; Travalon bought a set for me some time ago, and now I can't find them, and Hardingfele always mocks me for it. She changes her strings every year - is that really necessary? The string didn't break during the jam session, but I didn't know the first few songs and wondered why I had even come. Then people started to call out tunes I did know, so it was more fun, and the ones I didn't know seemed easier to pick up. I called out two tunes I've known since childhood, "Rakes of Mallow" and "Blackberry Blossom," and they were happy because those are tunes they know but don't do all the time. (I was trying to do old timey tunes instead of Irish ones, since I always do Irish ones, but "Rakes of Mallow" is Irish - oops!) People were really friendly to me tonight, so I was kind of late leaving the club, and then I had the long walk to the car, plus it kept sounding like a train was coming but it never came on the track alongside the street where I parked. On the drive home I hit a median really hard (no idea why), and the plastic wheel well came off of the front driver's side wheel, so I had to stop and pick it up. I apologized to Noelle my car, but she drove fine without it. She is fifteen years old now, so we have to think how much we really want to spend on repairs for her. If she drives fine without this part, and you can't really tell there's a problem by looking at her, does it really matter? Maybe it was the full moon that caused all this weirdness tonight - it was so beautiful, with a rainbow around it, but they say it makes people crazy. There's supposed to be a lunar eclipse early this morning, around five, but I don't plan to be up to see that.

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Woodrow Wednesday

 

Today I worked on campus, and at lunch there was an early music concert, so I sat with the Former Professor Formerly Known as Lute Player, and she gave me a new instrument. It's called a woodrow, and it's strung like a mountain dulcimer but shaped like a small rebec. It's very cute, and because I had my ukulele with me, and the Snark tuner in the case pocket, I was able to tune the woodrow. It's tuned with the lowest string a D, then the next one an A above that, and the top two a D an octave above the bottom string. Seabird came down to see the new instrument, and then another colleague stopped in, so the three of us were yakking about work and other stuff, and at one point I pulled out the ukulele and strummed a few chords. That got the attention of our chair, and he stopped over and asked who was playing music, so I admitted that it was me. Oddly, while the ukulele was in tune with itself, it was a little bit flat, so that means all the strings went flat at exactly the same rate. 

After work I drove to the Lone Girl for the ukulele strum. I got there a little early, so I wasn't concerned that it was only the two leaders, the woman taking our money at the door (we pay $5 to help cover the cost of the room rental), and another guy... but then nobody else came. Was it the weather? The other guy said he had seen some other ukulele regulars downstairs having beers, so we joked about sending someone down to collect them, but we finally gave up and started playing, and a few other people trickled in, then half an hour later the big group from downstairs showed up, thinking that we were starting half an hour later than we did. They even argued that the email said that, but I'm quite sure it didn't, otherwise I wouldn't have had to leave work a bit early to get there in time. I thought the theme of today's strum was going to be country music, so I was going to title this post "Western Wednesday" to keep up the alliteration theme, but it was actually "Songs that Have Been Covered a Lot." I really enjoyed this strum, and Travalon came in and listened to us toward the end, and he said he enjoyed this music too. Afterwards he and I had dinner at the Lone Girl, and he had a really good toffee-flavored beer. Apparently over the holidays they had a spicy chocolate chestnut beer - wish I'd gotten to try that! Sounds amazing.

It was snowing when we headed home, so I was hoping to go at a comfortable speed, but of course there were always people behind me in a big hurry, despite the late hour and bad weather. I went to the Kwik Trip near our house to top off my tires with air before the cold weather hits, but their machine was out of order, just like the one in Waunakee. Hopefully my tires don't get too low in the cold! Are there any working machines in town?

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Fellowship of the Hibernophiles

 

Today I worked from home, and Travalon and I walked on Governor's Island at lunchtime. I liked this little rock stacked on a big rock.

I also completed the monthly challenge on DuoLingo.

I left work a bit early to go see the rheumatologist again, since she had said to come back if I had more issues. On the way in, I passed a car with the Crane Foundation license plate, and I stopped to admire it and wish once again that I had gotten this beautiful plate. It was a personalized one that said: "Woooop." Then, as I was going into the clinic, I passed a very outdoorsy-looking young guy wearing a sweatshirt with whooping cranes on it, and I had to ask if that was his car. Of course it was. As far as my knee, the doctor said she didn't think it was that big an issue, but she could draw some liquid out of it to test, which I think was her way of saying, "This is not a flare-up! Don't come back again until you have something REAL going on!" I decided against the liquid withdrawal and said I'd just keep an eye on things. 

In the evening I went to Alt Brew to see the Currach, the Irish group that plays there once a month. They took time off in the summer, and Travalon and I were busy in September and October, so this was the first time I'd seen them in a while. I met the red-headed flute player there, and Famie my Irish teacher and her student who usually comes with her soon joined us, and then my Shamrock Club buddy joined us too. The flute player took a photo of all us Shamrock Club types with the band in the background.

Travalon joined us once he got off of work. Our Shamrock Club buddy is named Dee, and she had stopped by his work to drop off some donations, so when I said she was at Alt Brew, he said, "I guess it's Dee Day!" She is a huge supporter of the Shamrock Club and had brought little business cards to give to everyone there to encourage them to join. The local St. Andrews Club is having a ceili later this month, and she said she is going, and that she joined that club too. I am seriously thinking about doing both - that is the local Scottish interest club. 

The band had some guests, like the concertina player's two preteen sons playing the fiddle, including a tune the older one wrote when he was only six called "The Pouncing Cat," and the red-headed flute player, and an older couple who sang a Scottish drinking song. They were pretty good! The wife sang harmony. I sang a little harmony myself, on "The Wild Rover." Apparently there was a guy at the Irish bar that used to be in town who was a bit of a wild rover himself, speaking with a fake Irish accent and stealing from the till. Our Shamrock Club buddy was telling us how the local Irish restaurant said they would sponsor our ceili for $500, then changed it to $250, and they still haven't paid. She said they really haven't had much interest in working with the Shamrock Club. I wonder why? 

The Slainte Irish Dancers performed again tonight, and they asked people to join them for one dance. All the other ladies went up, but I stayed behind to keep Travalon company. The two young fiddlers danced too. What I'd really love to do is that Scottish Highland dancing so I could wear the knee-high argyle socks, but nobody would want to see my legs at my advanced age, even if they were covered in argyle. Plus there is no way I could be that energetic. I guess it's called the Highland Fling. Back when I was a teenager who bounced around all the time doing aerobics, I would have loved doing these moves, not to mention the sexy little tartan skirt. Now I'm just about the argyle socks.

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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.

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Ash Wednesday 2025

 

I am still obsessed with "Ai No Corrida," and I wonder how many other wonderful songs are out there that I have never heard. For example, why do you always hear Post Malone on the radio but you never hear Thundercat? I wouldn't have known about his song "Dragonball Durag" if Colbert hadn't had him on his show. How do I find these great songs that don't get as much exposure?

Today: no social media reels for me! I'm addicted to these short videos. I was also trying to fast all day, and right at the end the chair offered me some cookies, but I said, "It's Ash Wednesday!" Then I apologized for being rude, but she said I wasn't rude. Guess I have to try harder...

The weather was terrible today, and I meant to take a photo out my office window of the "winter wonderland," but of course I kept forgetting. I walked outside on my morning break, but under the roof to avoid the snow, and for some reason my heart rate really spiked. Is that a bad sign? Am I about to die? I was hoping to walk in the big conference room overlooking the lake during my lunch break, and the online calendar said it was free, but someone was in there anyway. This time I know I didn't get the day wrong - it was just someone doing a video call. So I went outside again, and again in the afternoon, and by then the ground was icy. 

When I got to my car, it was covered with ice. I drove to a gas station, but the cover to my gas tank was frozen shut. My windshield wipers were also frozen (I should have put them up), but fortunately the snow had stopped by then, so I didn't need them. No idea what I would have done if I had needed them! I met Travalon at the church on the far east side for Mass, and when I told him about my gas cover, he looked online and found the liquid on the squeegees at the gas stations can help melt the ice. After Mass we went to the gas station closer to our house, and by then the gas tank cover had thawed enough for me to open it without using the squeegee, but the windshield wipers never got free even by the time I got home. Hopefully a night in the garage will thaw them out...

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Holiday Trains 2024

 

Yesterday was mostly a quiet day of working from home, but when I went to Adoration, the low tire pressure light came on, so on my way home, I had to fill up the tires. Today was another quiet day of working from home, but after work I had to stop by my office to water my work plants, and my boss asked me to bring up the mail, then Travalon and I had dinner at Banzo. 

As promised, here are a couple of videos of holiday trains. First, the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train that we saw in Columbus on the night of December 8.

These are the model trains at the Olbrich Gardens Holiday Train show.

I had to find a background sound for it and was hoping for Christmas music, but all I had access to were my own downloaded songs and some sound effects, so I chose a train. I had to do this because with the first train a little girl popped her head up while I was filming and I made a surprised sound, but worse, with the second train, a guy standing next to me loudly called someone a word that rhymes with "glass bowl," so I thought I'd better get that out of there. Enjoy!

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Poke-Along Monroe

 

Last night Travalon and I had another idea for Get Kraken with Jerry: Jerry the Kraken could ask various animals how they thought Crystal Palace's season would go, and they wouldn't realize Crystal Palace is a soccer team and would answer like it's a movie theater, or a shopping mall, or a restaurant. Then finally Jerry would ask Rodrigo, who would say Wolverhampton would kick Crystal Palace's patootie. We thought this would be hilarious.

This morning we were going to take a boat ride, but I had gotten new license plates, so Travalon tried to help me put them on my car. The front one was no problem, but the back one turned into a real issue, and currently my license plate is duct-taped to my car. Since this isn't an ideal solution, Travalon agreed to drive me downtown to meet Tiffy, then she and I had lunch sitting outside at the Globe while he went to Sauk to go fishing. Eventually Tiffy and I moseyed down State Street to the Union, then after hanging out there awhile we thought we would walk down Monroe Street to an Indian restaurant for dinner, but just as we started out, we heard thunder and then saw lightning, so we went right back to the Union. There is a Sunset Lounge that didn't exist when we were students, so we went there to watch the storm over the lake. It was full of students studying, so we felt like we had to whisper, even if there was no indication that we had to be quiet. Meanwhile, Travalon had only gotten to fish for ten minutes before the storm hit where he was, so he went antiquing and then came and picked us up. We ate at the Indian restaurant, then I said maybe we should get going since we'd have to poke along Monroe. Tiffy seemed confused, so Travalon repeated that we'd have to poke along Monroe, and finally we said we'd have to make our poky way down Monroe Street, since "poke along Monroe" was not registering with her. It did make me realize that Poke-Along Monroe would be a great name for a cowboy-type character, and maybe Jerry could interview him. I immediately thought of the bull we had gotten at the Christmas market in Chicago last year, which might have had a name but we couldn't remember it. Tiffy hadn't been too impressed with our idea to have Jerry ask the other critters about Crystal Palace's season (I still think it's a funny idea), but maybe she will like the interview with Poke-Along Monroe, once we think of what that will be. She did say we sounded like we were saying Polk along Monroe, like they were two streets crossing, but I don't know of any Polk Street in Madison. He was a terrible president - he stole half of Mexico! She said her high school history teacher said Polk was the most effective president because he said he would do four things, and he did accomplish them. I said, "If three of them were 'stealing half of Mexico,' then he could be right."

Travalon dropped Tiffy and me off at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church for an early music concert, and the first thing was three madrigals by Monteverdi, so that really set the mood. There was a really great countertenor. I was spellbound, but as everyone was applauding, Tiffy pointed out that the next piece was by Haydn, so I hove a big sigh, and she laughed. I mean, it's the Wisconsin BAROQUE Ensemble! What the bleep is Haydn doing on the program? It wasn't the worst thing, but it sure wasn't Baroque. Then there was a very eerie piece by Buxtehude which I had heard before but hadn't realized was for his father's funeral, which may explain the eeriness. There were also two pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach's much older cousin Johann Michael Bach, and they were wonderful, a Telemann piece, and some stuff by composers who are not household names, and generally I can see why not. When I came home, I listened to the Buxtehude again because it's so haunting. In this spookiest of months, a spooky Baroque piece seems appropriate.

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Noelle the Honda Civic Gets Repaired

 

This morning Travalon drove me to work in my suddenly very loud car Noelle, then he took her to the dealership to get fixed, and they gave him a free ride to work. Usually he works right near the dealership, but of course today was the day they were in a building nowhere near that. However, he discovered that Tiffy's sister and brother-in-law were big donors to this building. It's some sort of community arts center. Noelle's exhaust pipe had rusted out, so $500 later she is all better. We had won $40 worth of taxi coupons seven and a half years ago, so Travalon finally used them for getting from work all the way back to the dealership, and he came and picked me up from work in a newly quiet Noelle.

I had two meetings at work today, and this is when being perimenopausal comes in handy, because one meeting that usually lasts about twenty minutes was running way over an hour, and I was going to miss my move hours, but nobody questioned why a lady of my age would pick up some paper and fan herself vigorously. And it worked! I got my move hours! There was a fan running behind me, so people must have thought, "That must really be a bad hot flash!" but I was more concerned that my funk was getting blown at them, since my colleague and I had walked at lunch, and I'd gotten kind of sweaty. I was so thirsty after that, I wanted something more than water. I never drink soda, but there had been some leftover cans of Sprite and Coke after our grad student welcome lunch on Friday, so I hoped something would still be left. I really wanted a Sprite, but I would have even settled for a Coke. When I got back to our building and looked in the fridge in the break room - what joy! There was a single can of soda left, and it was a Sprite! Just for me!

The really annoying thing is that I am still using the loaner laptop. I thought my new computer was supposed to get set up today, but nobody ever contacted me about it. I was also supposed to learn if I'd gotten parking at the new university parking lot here on the North Side, complete with shuttle service, but again... crickets. If this doesn't pan out, I'll either have to get up really early to take the bus, or else Travalon will have to drive me to work every day. I'm afraid that the option wasn't popular enough so that they might have decided to scrap it. Hopefully I'm wrong. It was perfect for me!

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Vaguely Annoying Day

 

Today was sort of an annoying day. First thing in the morning I had to get an eye exam, and I forgot about all the annoying things they do, like blow air in your eyes and dilate your pupils. I couldn't read, but they told me I'd be safe to drive home. So I carefully headed down the road and wondered who around me had such a loud car... and then I realized it was MY car! It hadn't been that loud on the way to the appointment. Tomorrow we will get it checked out.

Work was annoying, because besides having dilated pupils, I was using a loaner laptop that took three times as long to do anything on as my old work computer, which is being replaced. It seemed fine to me, but they are supposed to be replaced every five years, and it has been six years. There seemed to be complications with everything I tried to do, but somehow it was a very productive day anyway. Then Travalon came home and drove me to adoration, so that I wouldn't have to use my loud little car. On the way home we ordered take-out Chinese, and the ice cream place is right next door, so Travalon got his beloved scotcharoo. I wasn't sure I'd have anything, but they had a new flavor, rhubarb crumble, which was wonderfully tangy and full of little pie crust pieces. So good! 

We could see a beautiful sunset on our drive home, but by the time we got there and Travalon could grab his camera, it was mostly over. He did get a few lovely photos.

Another thing I am vaguely annoyed about is that my sponsor child Nicolas, who lives in Bolivia, just moved out of the area so he is out of the program. This keeps happening to me: I had a girl in India, two different boys in Haiti, and a girl in Uganda, and they kept getting kicked out of the program for various reasons, like parental noncompliance or not progressing in school. (Are they calling my sponsor child stupid?) Nicolas has been around for a number of years, so I thought I'd finally have one age out of the program, but no. I have until September 12 to pick a new sponsor child, or they'll assign one to me. I'm wondering if I should just quit the program. It's disheartening to keep losing your kids. And Nicolas seemed so happy where he was, playing soccer and joining a band, that I can't understand why his family would move him away from all that. And there's no way to stay in touch once they leave the program - they just disappear into the world. Do they ever think of me? Who knows?

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Pensacola and Driving Through the Deep South

 

This morning it was cold and rainy. Travalon had to get his oil changed because it was at 15% life left, so he looked up a nearby oil change place and went there... but it was closed. He went to another one... but there was a forty-minute wait. So he went to a third place, getting lost on the Florida State campus, where there was a race going on so a bunch of roads were closed. Finally he found the place and got his oil changed. Meanwhile, I was happily doing DuoLingo and writing in my diary Mariah. Travalon got back just before checkout time, and we headed out... and then he saw there was an oil change place practically across from our hotel in the opposite direction from the one he'd been directed to. Why didn't that one come up first? Who can understand Google searches?

We somehow went south a bit but then found our way to Highway 10, which I really liked because it had a rest area every time I needed one. One had a sign that the toilets were out of order, but they had pretty decent port-a-potties. We stopped for lunch at Beef O'Brady's, a Florida chain, in Defuniak Springs. I had a surprisingly healthy lunch of blackened grilled shrimp, rice, and broccoli. 

The beach we usually go to, Grayton Beach State Park, had flood warnings for the roads leading into it, and besides the weather was miserable, so we just headed straight for Pensacola. Once there, we took a walk around the Palafox Pier and the Plaza de Luna Memorial Monument, featuring a statue of Spanish conquistador Don Tristan de Luna. Here are some photos.

We saw pelicans and a cattle egret.

Then we drove to Mobile, Alabama in time for 5:30 Mass. The church was an unattractive modern one, and I forgot to take a photo of it, but the music was surprisingly wonderful. The opening hymn was another of my Lenten favorites, "Forty Days and Forty Nights," and the closing hymn was that one with the chorus that goes, "Praise the Holy Trinity, Undivided Unity..." but we only did two verses and skipped the one about the Holy Spirit. Even the communion hymn by Marty Haugen wasn't horrible; it was his setting of Psalm 23. I was a bit confused at communion time because a guy came down our aisle, so I thought he would be distributing communion from the back, like they sometimes do at these huge, modern churches. He saw me looking at him and held up a host, so I received it... and then I realized he was going around giving them to people who had mobility issues. So Travalon went up with everyone else to receive from the young priest, and I sat in my pew and sang Marty Haugen.

As we drove on US Highway 45 through Alabama, it was very eerie. It has a weird vibe even in the daytime, but at night it's really eerie with the trees close on either side. We listened to Delta Blues, which is some eerie music, to add to the feeling. I'm not one to like scary movies, but being slightly scared like that was thrilling, so now I get it. In Mississippi the highway widened to four lanes, but we saw some deer that almost ran in front of us. I have always gotten an eerie feeling from Alabama and especially Mississippi, like I can feel the ghosts of angry, murdered black men watching me. The sign for Mississippi, with the S's that look like nooses, did not help. This is the first time I've stayed overnight in this state - I feel like those people who pay a lot of money in Savannah to get locked in a basement overnight with supposedly thousands of ghosts of Confederate soldiers. 

It was after eight when we stopped in Waynesboro for dinner. There were a bunch of chain restaurants, but not even Southern chains like Waffle House, just McDonald's and Burger King and Hardees, like that. We drove around a little and found this place.

The smokehouse was closed, but next door there was a bar and grill that was very lively. We were ignored by the waitresses until the bartender walked by and I caught her attention, so she waited on us. I was happy to go somewhere local, and Travalon had a barbecue burger so at least he got his barbecue. I had chicken with sides of broccoli and macaroni and cheese.

We got to Meridian about a quarter after ten, but the pool was open until midnight (said the front desk lady; in the pool itself, it said it closed at ten) so we hurried down there. It was a lovely, warm pool, but weirdly you had to go outside to get to it in its own building, and we swam for about twenty minutes. Three young guys came in and toked up in the corner by the hot tub, so we weren't sure about using it, but we did go over... and it was cold. This is not the first time I've encountered a pool warmer than the hot tub. Then we couldn't get the key card to open the door to the hotel, so I asked one of the three young gentlemen, figuring they would be highly motivated to get us to leave so they could smoke their wacky weed in peace. One guy came and opened another door just to the left of the one with the key card reader that we hadn't even noticed, so then we felt a bit stupid. Of course, it's like 40 degrees out there, so we weren't inclined to spend a lot of time looking around while dressed only in wet swimsuits.

Travalon wanted me to include this photo.

These are the panthers he was hoping to see yesterday at Homosassa Springs. I guess they are really good at hiding, even in a small enclosure. No wonder they're so hard to spot in the wild!

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Autumn Colors at Devil's Lake

 

Today after my adoration hour, I went to the Globe for dinner. Rich was around because he'd gone to the Vigil Mass for All Saints' Day, so I texted and asked if he wanted to join me. (I didn't want to eat at home because poor Travalon was fasting, so it seemed mean to eat in front of him.) Rich said he'd be there in a few minutes, but between when I got there (and there were two other people in the restaurant) and when he got there, tons and tons of undergrads poured into the place. I'm glad to see the Globe doing well. I once wrote a review about pairing their different curries with their different lassis, and the owner told me that it intrigued people so much that they came in because of it. How cool is that? Maybe that's why he gave me a free mango lassi tonight. 

I keep forgetting to mention that Rich's car is in the shop, and the loaner car they gave him screams: "Pull me over, please!!" Not only is it a red sports car, but it has Illinois license plates!! What were they thinking?? He told me that tomorrow he gets his car back, and so far he hasn't been pulled over in the red car with Illinois plates...

As promised, here are photos from Travalon's trip to Devil's Lake on Saturday. These first few are actually from Sauk, by the dam.

And if you think those are beautiful, wait until you see the ones from Devil's Lake!

I have been to Devil's Lake in October, but never when it was like this! The colors just seem so much more vivid this year. I'll have to make it a point to go right during the peak next year.

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