Over the Stone

 

I forgot to mention that on Sunday at Pax Christi Church, the singers were unbelievably good. You would think you were listening to a professional group, not a random church choir. Apparently they expected all the congregation to be musically literate as well, because the music for everything we sang was projected onto screens at the front of the church. I didn't care for most of the music, except the psalm setting, which was minor key and had an ethereal descant.

Yesterday was extremely hot. I worked on campus, and since everyone I walk with at lunch was working remotely that day. I just walked in the shade on the third floor and prayed a rosary, until I got too hot and walked around inside. Neither view was very interesting. After work Travalon and I went swimming, and a boy of around seventeen swam under the water toward me. He had the whole width of the pool, but as I moved over, he kept coming toward me, until I was backed up against the edge of the pool. Then he started to come up between my legs, so I did what any normal woman would do - I kicked him, and when he emerged to the side of me, I said, "Jerk!" Now I hold no illusions of being sexy, but this was more of a power thing - despite my being his elder, he wanted to show that he was more important than I am because of his gender. It's an ugly trend I've noticed among young guys, especially in religious circles. This kid obviously didn't expect me to fight back; he meekly said, "Sorry," and left the pool, chastened. I will never back down and allow a man to feel superior to me just because he happened to be born male. That's ridiculous.

Today I worked from home. It was also a very warm day, so during my lunch break I went over to the nearby woods across from the bluff and took a vigorous walk, according to my FitBit. This may have been because I was attempting to avoid the mosquitos. The shade was wonderful, but it always seems to come with bugs, so pick your poison. After work Travalon drove me to Adoration, and as we were heading there, we saw a train on the bridge over Troy Drive. We kept trying to find places to pull over and watch it, but the roads are narrow there, and every place we found, someone came up behind us and we had to move. It was a very short train anyway, and we didn't get a video of it. But Travalon was very happy because he had never seen a train on that bridge.

While I was at Adoration, Travalon walked down to the Union Terrace and saw this coot very close up.

You can see that it's a cousin of the gallinule. He came back and drove me to St. Andrew's, the little Episcopal church on Regent Street that often hosts early music concerts. Tonight a local recorder ensemble played mostly folk music; I was invited by one of the recorder players, a former choir buddy who now sings in the choir at that church. Pete the Sailor Man came too, and afterwards we all went downstairs for ice cream sundaes: Pete, the choir buddy, her husband, and eventually my husband too. This was all free. The concert was enjoyable, and while they are definitely an amateur group, the pleasant sound of the recorder forgives a lot of sins. My favorite was a Welsh tune called "Tros Y Garreg," which Google Translate says means "Over the Stone," but I also enjoyed a tango called "La Paloma," which I don't need Google Translate to tell me means "the dove" in Spanish. One of the recorder players put down her recorder and played the maracas for that one. A lot of people think of the recorder as a simple instrument used to teach children music, but I am in awe of really good recorder players, who will say things to each other like, "Play this piece on a soprano but use alto fingering," and they seem to be able to read every clef. At one point I could kind of play the alto recorder, but that was years ago. I also used to be able to drive stick shift, but if I were called on to do either thing today, you probably wouldn't enjoy the results. 

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The Other Side of the Arboretum

 

Yesterday Travalon went to watch his hometown high school basketball teams play in the playoffs; his old buddy's daughter was on the girls' team, which won, and then he watched the boys' team, which won. Meanwhile, I met Tiffy at Hilldale, where we went to a sushi restaurant for an early lunch before the Madison Bach Musicians' concert at the Frank Lloyd Wrong (as Pa Hat says) Unitarian Church. They were performing A Musical Offering, and it was wonderful except for the part where some really old guy's phone alarm went off. Now that in and of itself is a forgivable offense, provided the offender quickly turns it off and looks properly chastened. However, this guy pretended nothing was happening, or as Tiffy wondered, maybe he was too deaf to hear it? But then how much enjoyment could he get from a concert?? Finally the piece ended, and they refused to start the next one until he turned it off, which he finally did, but he didn't look one bit contrite. His wife looked downright annoyed that everyone was glaring at them. As Tiffy says, the most entitled people are the really young and the really old. I didn't pay for an expensive concert ticket to hear some old dude's phone alarm.

It was a gorgeous day, so Tiffy and I took a long walk out to Picnic Point, then we went back to Hilldale and got fancy taro and pandan drinks at a fancy drink shop. The only downside to this place is that the line is very long, but that must be because it is so good. Rich had wanted us to stop by, but Tiffy wasn't staying in town overnight, so she wanted to get going. I went to Rich's house, and we added water to the silly little fake aquarium I'd gotten for him in Bimini for his birthday. Nothing happened, and we wondered if we were supposed to add hot water, but this morning he said a little fake plant had grown up in the fake aquarium. He sent a couple of photos.

I thought, from looking at the sample one in the shop in Bimini, that the fish would get bigger, but that doesn't seem to be happening.

Today Travalon and I went to the church in the gym, and the choir sang yet another piece, by Byrd, that I have sung before. I'm really tempted to join them, but I keep holding out to see if my own church comes back "online." After Mass we went to the coffee shop across the street because they had a cute sign pretending to hypnotize the reader to come in for lunch. Then we went for a walk in the Arboretum, because it was such a beautiful day. We went to the place where the skunk cabbages grow, and they were in bloom. Travalon took some photos. First are a couple of springs we passed on the way.

Here are the skunk cabbages.

Then we drove down Seminole Highway to get to the other side of the Arboretum, across the Beltline. We parked and tried to find the tunnel that goes under the Beltline. It was very pretty over there, with majestic pines.

We had quite an adventure, trying to find the tunnel. First we hit a huge muddy patch and almost gave up, and then we heard a tree falling! Fortunately it didn't fall on us, or across the path. We did finally find the tunnel, but it was too wet to bother going through it.

How was everything over there all wet and muddy? We are still in a drought, and everything else is really dry!

Dunn's Marsh is really close by, and Travalon knew about a boardwalk there, so we went on that.

We saw some mallards and Canada geese and gulls. We also saw this little thing something in size between a puddle and a pond.

We hurried back home for me to get into my Irish class in time... and then the teacher never started the meeting. I sent her a message, and she had canceled the class but hadn't sent an email, because I suppose everyone else knew. (I missed last week's class for the Slow Irish Session, and of course before that we were out of town for three Sundays.) Travalon and I just hung out on our porch for the first time in months, enjoying the lovely weather, since we were hiked out. Yesterday I walked seven miles, and today I walked almost six. I earned some time to just sit on the porch. Eventually he left to check out a local dive bar that is supposed to have really tasty burgers (he says the rumors are true), while I went to band practice for the first time in about a month. We are definitely back to regular life.

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Singing: I'm So Out of Practice

 

Tonight at Night Prayer I reminded everyone that this might be my last time joining them for the next two weeks. From the road I might be able to join now and then, but I can't commit to leading. I'll bet the Dairyman's Daughter will not miss me telling her that every Common Meter hymn can be sung to the tune of the Gilligan's Island theme song, because she always covers her ears and says, "Stop!" It's true - just try singing "Amazing Grace" to the tune, and you will never be able to not hear it. Speaking of singing, the bride has asked Richard Bonomo and me to sing with the choir at her wedding, and we happily agreed (so relieved not to have a solo!), but the soprano parts are quite high. I haven't sung with a choir in three years, and I wonder if I can still hit those notes. One piece is "If Ye Love Me" by Tallis, and I know both women's parts fairly well but have sung the alto more times. The other is the Arcadelt "Ave Maria," which I don't really know (though it sounds familiar); I remember Anna Banana II wanted it at her wedding, but she wanted Kathbert and me to sing a duet, while that piece is a four-part one. We ended up singing a different "Ave Maria." I'm not sure why our choir couldn't have sung the Arcadelt for Anna Banana II's wedding, but sometimes our choir director (who retired during the pandemic) didn't like to do pieces he wasn't familiar with. Which I totally understand, especially since he was visually impaired so sight-reading was more challenging for him.

My big decision tomorrow is whether to go into campus. Friday is one of my regular days (along with Tuesday) to work from home, but tomorrow there are going to be Ojibwe Winter Games, and I helped a lot with the organization. My boss even said I could go for an hour or whatever and not take vacation time. The games start at three, so I could work at home in the morning and go in for the afternoon. However, the temperature is supposed to be five degrees Fahrenheit, and why would I voluntarily subject myself to that if I can stay holed up in my warm house? But the faculty have worked very hard to put on these games, and I feel bad now that they may not get a lot of student participation. There will be people there, since we have the guests from Norway and also people coming down from the Lac du Flambeau reservation. Some days I don't mind winter so much, and today was like that as I walked out in the sunshine, but it was twenty degrees warmer than what they're predicting for tomorrow. Maybe I'll wait and see what the windchill is. Stay tuned to see what I decide to do...

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Yes, We Know Each Other!

 

Totally apropos to yesterday's post, this morning a woman who looked familiar got on my bus, and she sat right behind me. Then she got off at my stop, and she walked into my building, and she got on the elevator with me. She turned to me and said, "Your name is Famous, isn't it?" I said, "So we do know each other?" and she said we used to work together in the private sector... but that was two decades ago! I asked her name, and as soon as she said it, I remembered that she had organized a choir at our company for Christmas one year. Those of us who showed up were actually pretty good singers; I sang alto, although my natural range is soprano, because I can do harmony, and we had a tenor and a bass who were unreal. They sang in barber shop quartets, and they totally kept us together and in tune. So we strolled around the building singing a cappella Christmas carols in four-part harmony, and people popped their heads out of their cubes and said, "That's you guys singing?!? I thought it was a CD!!" Anyway, my old coworker has been working in her department for about two years, but basically remotely until now, which is why I hadn't run into her until today. How crazy is that??

Here are a couple of photos. First, Travalon sent me this photo of our houseguest.

These are colorful snowmen in front of the building next to mine on campus.

I believe there is a daycare in that building, because I often see children playing around the building, accompanied by some young women, and the children were building the snowmen. The color is probably food coloring, since I remember that Hardingfele's daughter made a blue snowman that way. These are a little more colorful - pink and blue. It almost looks like some sort of deranged gender reveal party for snowpeople.

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Videos of Impressive Trains

 

I feel so lucky that I get to practice with my band again. We are playing for Make Music Madison on the 21st (the Solstice), which is always an unpaid gig, but usually we do get a few tips. This year we are playing in the same place we practice, my bandmate's driveway which is on a side street, so we probably won't get much of an audience. After all, we don't always attract much attention while practicing, although today a neighbor came out with her baby boy and listened to us a little. It hardly matters to me, I just enjoy making music with others. It would probably be just as wonderful to sing again with others, but our choir director has retired, and my OTHER choir director is now Catholic and the director of music at our parish, but his choir will be at the other church in our parish, and at the 11 am Mass. If I'm not going to go to my church of many years, then I might as well just go to the local church that Travalon prefers anyway.

As promised, here are the train videos. This first one is of the train in Dubuque, as viewed from the Dubuque Monument in the Mines of Spain State Park. It is so, so, so long, and all the cars seem to be identical. I've never seen anything like it here in Madtown. Part of the train was still running beneath us as the engines (there are at least three) pulled into downtown Dubuque.

And here is the video of the train coming from Savannah, Illinois and passing under the overlook at Mississippi Palisades State Park. It is a far more interesting train, and going a lot faster.

Compare these to the videos I have posted of the little baby trains putt-putting through our neighborhood! These are some serious trains. The one in Savannah even appeared to be carrying a lot of the back parts of semi trucks, and honestly, isn't moving goods by trains a lot more efficient than moving them by semi trucks? In my dreamworld, you could get almost anywhere by train, and all your stuff would come to you via train. Hardingfele just went to visit Rockstar Taylor (who is now well into her college career) in the Twin Cities, and she took a train and LOVED it. And who wouldn't? Trains rock!

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The Narwhal Horn as a Tool of Antiterrorism

Culture clashes are weird, and they can even happen between us Midwesterners and people from other parts of this country. For example, I come from a straightforward cultural milieu where I might say, “I really like your hat!” and the other person takes that the way it was meant, as a compliment, and says, “Thanks!” If they say anything else, like offering me the hat, they actually mean it. But apparently there are other places where people play some sort of game in which they offer you the hat you like, but they don’t mean it, and you are supposed to play along and demur, then they offer it again, and you go through this process several times, always demurring the offer of the hat you love. The problem is that I think they mean it and take them up on the offer the first or second time, and then they are grumpy and resentful. Not that you can say one culture is better than another, but I say this is hella whack – what kind of sadistic culture plays a game like, “You like this? You want it? I’ll keep offering it to you, but you CAN’T HAVE IT!!!” F that! Either just take the compliment that was originally all that was intended, or mean it when you offer someone the damn hat. Can we get these other cultures to just stop?

Maybe the craziest headline lately has been the one about the two guys in London who stopped a terrorist attack with a fire extinguisher and a narwhal horn. If you, like me, wondered, “Who has a narwhal horn on their person?” then you will be delighted to learn that this person was working in a restaurant with a narwhal horn on the wall, and he grabbed it and charged at the terrorist, and now he is getting a medal from the Polish government. He is a Polish national, and all I had heard about him is that his first name is the same as a faculty member in our department, so this faculty member says he is going to post the story on his office door after I told him about it. If you are wondering what a narwhal is, then we can’t be friends. Just kidding, read this.

Tuesday I took a long lunch because a fellow choir member’s mother had died, and the choir sang at her interment ceremony. I thought this would be outside so I wore boots, but it was in the mausoleum. Kathbert joined us and sang alto, so I sang soprano along with the daughter of the deceased, and we actually sounded really good a capella. Afterwards it was a gorgeous day, and I bemoaned missing my usual lunchtime walk, so Rich and Kathbert suggested we visit another choir member who died in 2005 and Mr. Why, whom I have mentioned many times on this blog. This was one of the few times we could easily find his grave marker, because all the snow has melted. Usually we are visiting him on the anniversary of his death on the First of March, and there is always a ton of snow in the cemetery. Hard to believe it’s been over a decade since he left us. He never met Travalon or knew Trump would be president. We miss you, Mr. Why!

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Easter Triduum 2019

Blessed Easter! I hope my readers had a good Triduum. I started mine by getting a much-needed haircut before the Holy Thursday Mass at St. Patrick's. Friday I took the day off of work, and Travalon had the morning off, so we went for a hike at Jackson's Landing before I sang at the Good Friday service at my own church. It was a beautiful day, so I took walks at Tenney Park and on Governor's Island before Travalon and I went to Common Ground to see Common Chord. (Say that five times fast!) That is the Daughter of Denni's band, and they are always great.

Holy Saturday Travalon and I started the gorgeous day by spreading hay on our community garden plot, then we met Rich and OK Cap for coffee, and then we hung out on the Union Terrace, watching a loon diving in the lake. We went to Olbrich Gardens, where a few things are blooming, and then we had dinner at Bellitalia before Travalon watched the Bucks playoff game and I went to the Easter Vigil at St. Patrick's. (The one at my own church is in Spanish.) I might have gone to the Spanish Mass, but I had to go see my OTHER choir director welcomed into the Catholic church. Such a momentous occasion! I sat with my own sponsor from twenty-three years ago and her family during the Mass, and afterwards I went to the little reception for my OTHER choir director, a baritone from the Lutheran choir, and a former Moslem who spends holidays at Rich's house. Of course, in the middle of the Vigil Mass I suddenly remembered that I have a Notre Dame de Paris rosary (of course I do - why wouldn't I?) - and why hadn't I been praying with that all week? And then I was thinking about their choir, and if their choir director is anything like ours, he couldn't let all those weeks of practice for the Triduum go to waste. So did they pull rank on another church and sing there? "Sorry, Sacre Coeur, OUR choir is singing at this liturgy!" I did find out the next morning, amid the horrifying stories about the slaughter of Christians in Sri Lanka, that in fact the Notre Dame choir had sung at Saint Sulpice, so I wasn't off-base about that.

Yesterday I felt hung over during morning Mass, although I had only had three sips of champagne at that reception. It was probably dehydration - I didn't have to pee once during the whole three-hour Vigil Mass! So then I drank so much water that I had to pee in the middle of the one-hour Easter morning Mass. Pathetic... Travalon and I drove to Oconomowoc to see his mother, and it was a beautiful day so we took her out to sit in the sunshine. Two little kids came up to her and gave her a tiny pink stuffed bunny for Easter. So sweet! Two of the three new Catholics were at Rich's Easter dinner, along with a lot of members of the Usual Gang. My old boss Handy Woman was texting me as we were discussing something called the Guidonean Hand, a Medieval pre-notation system for showing choirs what notes to sing, so it was like she was part of the conversation. The person who makes wonderful desserts made an amazing pistachio cake, and of course Rich made his rosemary lamb, and there were a lot of delicious vegetables. The only bad thing was that on the way to Oconomowoc we saw a scary-looking car accident, and then on the way home from Rich's we saw another one. They must have looked worse than they were, because there was nothing in the news about them.

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Another Linguistic Day

Yesterday was an eventful and fun day. Our department chair took us peon types to lunch at the building with the Mesozoic garden, and I was surprised that we walked over by cutting through another building. True, that is a shorter path, but I forget that not everyone wants to maximize their outside time. I am inside all day, so any chance I get for fresh air, I take. But of course many people do not feel the same way. After that I went to the December free Bach concert and sang in/listened to other people singing in German. Hockey Girl and I met for dinner at the French House, so then we spoke in French until I had to leave for choir practice, which was at Richard Bonomo’s house because the church was full of people celebrating the festivity of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and again we were singing in German. We are working on a Christmas piece once attributed to Bach but now generally considered not to be by him (our choir director thinks it is by his predecessor, Kunau, but I can’t find any actual musicologists who share this opinion), and our choir director hated the English translation and kept changing the words. It was so confusing that I agitated for just singing in the original German, and to my utter surprise, he agreed. So it was a very linguistic day for me once again.

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Wonderful Week Off

I hope my readers had a good weekend. I had a great week off. Tuesday Travalon and I went camping at Roche-a-Cri State Park for my half-birthday, which was an adventure. We have both camped many times before, but always with other people who knew what they were doing. This was our first time doing it ourselves, but we figured it out and finally had a roaring campfire to grill burgers over and sing around while I played the ukulele. Only a few other people were at the park, so we felt like we had it to ourselves.

On the 4^th of July we drove to Castle Rock County Park and swam in the lake. Warning: there are two Castle Rock County Parks, one in Adams County and one in Juneau County. I’ll save you the time by telling you the Juneau County one is the one you want to go to. We drove to Buckhorn State Park and grilled the rest of our burgers for lunch, then we went to Mill Bluff State Park and swam in the pond there. Back in town we joined Rich and a large crowd of other people for the Patriotic Concert on the Square. No cannons during the 1812 Overture this year. Afterwards Travalon and I went to the East Side Club to watch the Monona fireworks.

Thursday Travalon and I had a relaxing day. We had lunch outside at the Free House and then hiked on Governor’s Island. He went fishing with a buddy back in his home area while I met Light Bright for dinner and then shopping at Goodwill. Thrift store shopping is the way to go: you can buy a whole outfit for $5! Then I went to the new tavern in our neighborhood and sat outside enjoying a craft beer while watching the fireworks from the Mallards game across the street. It was a perfect view.

Friday Travalon had to work. I went to a retirement party at my old job for one of the other people who got a layoff notice. He decided to just retire a year early instead of looking for another position. It was a very quiet day over there, so I spent time talking to Handy Woman. In the evening Travalon and I took the free Middleton Trolley just for fun, but then it passed the Capital Brewery and we saw they had a live band playing, so we got off and listened to them until the trolley returned. That was a super fun and free activity, except that of course we enjoyed a couple of beers.

Saturday Travalon and I went to the Farmers’ Market, but we got there kind of late and some of the vendors were already packing up. Tons of people were still shopping there. Tiffy came to town for the Early Music Festival, and she, the Daughter of Denni, and I had dinner at Himal Chuli’s and then enjoyed the first concert, where they played some Buxtehude. The theme of the festival this year is “Journey to Lubeck,” which early music enthusiasts will probably realize refers to the trip Bach took to study with Buxtehude. Since Buxtehude is a great favorite of mine, I am very excited about this year’s theme.

Yesterday after Mass one of our choir members had brunch for all of us at her beautiful house. Her backyard is particularly wonderful. Travalon and I had promised to bring orange juice, and when we stopped for it, we were ecstatic to find these delicious smoked Gouda crackers we had discovered on our trip down south in March but hadn’t been able to find up here. Then Tiffy and I took a $5 pontoon boat ride on Lake Mendota, and then we had dinner at Roast on State Street before the Early Music concert. This one was Piffaro, the loud band, and while they didn’t do any Buxtehude, they did focus on older influences on Bach, like some old Lutheran hymns that made me very nostalgic for my OTHER choir director’s choir. However, he is retired now so there is no going back.

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Epic Tour

I hope my readers had a good weekend. Mine started on Friday evening, when a bunch of us from work went to the Union Terrace to drink beer and hang out. Hockey Girl and I were going to attend a concert at Brocach, but just like with the Chocolaterian last weekend the place was inexplicably closed that night, so we went to an Indian restaurant instead. Then we joined Travalon at the Lakeside for the twice-monthly Classical Guitar Society concert.

Saturday Travalon and I went to the main library downtown, and I made tie-dyed shirts for both of us (for free!) while he explored the book selection. We went to Banzo so he could have some lunch; I had eaten my curry leftovers from the night before and was going to just have iced tea, but they advertised something called a “baklava sundae,” and it really is as amazing as it sounds. Then we went for a long, tick-filled hike in the Mendota Prairie Unit for National Hiking Day before going to Mass. In the evening we met Hockey Girl at the Chocolaterian to hear the Daughter of Denni’s band play. She is the sister-in-law of our favorite guitarist from the Classical Guitar Society – yes, he is married to the other Daughter of Denni.

Yesterday I sang at the Lutheran Cathedral of the Midwest for the last time because my OTHER choir director was retiring. I forgot how disciplined he asks his choir to be! Afterwards there was a luncheon and lots of tributes to him. Then the Single B-Boy, who works at Epic, took a few of us on a tour there. Everything you have heard about their campus is probably true. Is there a slide from one floor to another? Yes! I slid down it! Is there free juice in the fridge? Yes! I drank some! The B-Boy works in the Harry Potter part of the campus, which is very cool, but the place is so large that we didn’t get to see the Fairy Tale part or the Farm part. He promised to take us on another tour sometime soon, so stay tuned to find out how that goes.

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Merry Christmas 2017!

I hope my readers had a very Merry Christmas. Thursday evening Travalon and I went to the East Side Club Christmas party, where someone bought us a drink, and someone else told me to get on stage with the other two women leading the singing of Christmas carols. Then we kept winning the music trivia questions! It got so bad that I was embarrassed to answer any more, so I told the other people at our table what to say, and then they won. Afterwards we all danced. It was so much fun!

Friday Travalon and I had to get our passports renewed, and our photos look like mug shots. You are not allowed to smile anymore. We went downtown to the Periodicals Reading Room, and then I met Hockey Girl for a champagne tasting at the Barriques in Fitchburg while Travalon drove some Uber. Hockey Girl had given me an early birthday present of a wine tasting journal, in which you are supposed to write your impressions of the wine you are tasting, and I would write them before reading the experts’ take on each champagne. Hockey Girl was duly impressed that I would always get at least one or two of the same flavors as the experts – perhaps I do have a talent for wine tasting! Now, how to parlay that into a lucrative career… After that all three of us went to the Lakeside for an Irish jam, and I found out it is an open jam, so I will try to join them sometime. Hockey Girl and I played a friendly game of Scrabble, and I wiped the floor with her, but so much of it is luck, like if you can use a double word score or triple letter score square. Also, playing against Travalon’s mom, who is a really good player, has honed my own skills.

Saturday Travalon and I met Rich downtown for coffee, then the two of us tried to take the Holiday Trolley one last time, but we waited through four stoplight cycles and it was not moving from the stop before ours. It was so cold out that we just gave up. Then my disappointment continued when we went to the grocery store for cassata supplies, but they didn’t have pound cakes! Luckily Rich said he could get me one, so I spent the whole day at his house, making the cassata and chatting with Mr. Icon, who is in town because his father passed away. Travalon drove some Uber, then he and I went to a really good Indian restaurant on Atwood, I think it’s called Dobhan, and then we went to Barley Pop to try some fancy beers. Travalon had one that smelled like a cinnamon roll.

Christmas Eve we overslept and were about to go to the church in Westport for Mass when I remembered that my choir was singing a piece with two soprano parts, and the other woman who knows it was home sick with bronchitis. We rushed to our church and got there during the homily, so I was able to sing with the choir. We joined Rich, the Single B-Boy, Mr. Icon, and Rich’s Brazilian housemate for brunch at Sofra, then we had to run all over town to find an open nursery to get Travalon’s mom a poinsettia. As long as we were there, we got ourselves one, and I got a couple of cool cacti things. Then we exchanged presents, and I gave Travalon a miniature guitar that says “The Beatles” on it and an adoption kit from the World Wildlife Fund for a red panda, which includes a very cute stuffed panda. He gave me a really cute Peruvian nativity set, a pillow that has vintage San Francisco streetcars on it, a Taco Bell keychain (that’s a gag gift), and a little kid’s book in French that I was able to translate for him with relative ease. After that we had to head back to church so I could sing in the pre-Mass concert with the choir, then we had Christmas Eve Mass, and after that we had a quiet evening at home. My days of running to the Lutheran Church, singing again, and then going to Fruit Soup in the middle of the night at my OTHER choir director’s place are over.

Yesterday we had to go to Mass AGAIN because my choir director insists on doing big pieces with two soprano parts on Christmas morning, then we drove to Oconomowoc for Travalon’s family gathering. I mostly talked to my sisters-in-law, and one gave me a necklace she had made! I hadn’t brought anything because we had been told to only bring presents for the kids. Travalon and I found an open Japanese restaurant to grab a quick, light lunch, then we drove back to Madison and headed to Rich’s house. Mr. Icon and the Brazilian guy had cleaned and decorated, so the place looked wonderful. I made eggnog with quite a bit of help from two other ladies, and of course Cecil Markovitch brought wine, as did some other people. (I think there were twenty people there.) Rich made his famous lasagna, and a vegetarian woman made butternut squash lasagna, so they had a friendly contest to see which was better. Honestly, they were both good and so different that I don’t know how you would compare them. We ate and drank and talked, then we had to take a break before dessert, so we played “Who Am I?” Actually, I do not know the official name of this game, but one person has a Post-It note on his forehead saying who he is, and he can only ask yes-or-no questions of the rest of us to determine who he is. So kind of like Twenty Questions. Jilly Moose was really good at this game, but nobody was better than Kathbert, who took maybe four questions to figure out who she was. Granted, she knew as the Lutheran in the room that people would tease her by making her a Pope, so it didn’t take her any time to figure out that she was JPII. One woman had to test her again, so she put the label “Kathbert” on her forehead, and somehow Kathbert realized in three questions that she was herself! I am not surprised, since, as my regular readers will remember, she always wins my blog contests. You just cannot outsmart Kathbert, so why bother trying? For dessert we had my cassata and a delicious banana-chocolate chip cake made by the guy who always brings fabulous desserts. I should have gone home after that and exercised, but we got sucked into more rounds of “Who Am I?” I could not figure out that I was Mahlia Obama until Prairie Man started shouting relevant questions from another room. Of all the people I know, he might be in the best position to take on Kathbert in a Battle of the Brains. Anyway, we got home late and I did not burn away any of the extra 1200 calories I ate yesterday. My diet app helpfully told me that if I keep eating like that, in a few weeks I will weigh a ton. Thanks for that cheery Christmas thought, diet app. Today I am back to being good.

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Taco Tuesday with Trivia

Last night Travalon and I decided to go out for tacos at the Club Tavern, since they are 75 cents apiece on Taco Tuesday. It was great! We sat next to a couple of women who were playing a trivia game, and since we are trivia addicts ourselves, we naturally started helping them. I’m not saying this was all us, but they went from sixth place when we got there to third place at the end of the game. Meanwhile, Travalon and I enjoyed tacos and then couldn’t believe our bill was just over $5. What?? You can’t eat at home for that cheap! Best of all, when I entered the calories into my diet app, it said it was a really reasonable dinner. So guess what? Travalon and I are going to go to the Willows tonight for more cheap tacos! Sorry, choir peeps – I am skipping practice again because we also have band practice tonight. It’s just too hard to go to both, and we have a band gig on Saturday at one at Eplegaarden (in case any of my readers are interested, but I hear it’s going to rain) so it seemed important to make band practice.

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The Wade House

Sorry for my silence the last few days. Tuesday I was too tired to blog after walking all over campus to get to a shared governance reception (I am the representative from my district for the University Staff Congress) and of course Irish class. At the reception I was hanging out with our big boss, and the Chancellor knew him and came over to talk to him. We have the same first name, so when she saw my name tag, she said, “Great name!” She was very personable. We also talked to my fellow congress member who works at a University crop research area where the old Badger Ammo plant used to be. Think how far he had to come for this reception! So I couldn’t really complain about having to walk almost a mile to get to it.

Yesterday I took the day off and went with Travalon to the Wade House, another stop in our historical taverns book. It was an old stagecoach stop halfway between Fond du Lac and Sheboygan, a big boarding house with a tavern on the main floor, but once the railroad passed it, it lost most of its business. However, the family kept it in good shape, and it was kind of a century-old time capsule when it was donated to the State Historical Society back in the 1950’s. Unfortunately it was a rainy day, so we got a bit wet as we trudged between the Wade House and the other buildings, a forge with an actual blacksmith working, and a sawmill. Everyone working there was in a period costume. All the buildings were quite a distance from the main building that houses a very cool carriage museum, but fortunately they took us out to them and back in a covered horse-drawn carriage. At the gift shop in the main building, Travalon picked up another book of historical places to visit around the state by the same authors, this one of gas stations, and on the way back we stopped by one in Fond du Lac. Our next great pilgrimage… This has been a wonderful way to see the whole state. 

Once we got back to town, we had dinner at a roadside restaurant in DeForest we had been wondering about, and it was quite good. Then I went to confession but was going to skip choir practice, only Rich could see where my iPhone was so he knew I was there and texted me. Busted! I told Travalon I had to go, so he was going to an exhibit of Vietnam War art, but it was closed, and all the shops were too… and then he couldn’t get back up into the church because they had locked the door to the upstairs! I forgot to tell him about the unlocked side door. I was going to blog last night but had to get a bunch of steps in because we hadn’t gone hiking in the rain, so there wasn’t time. Sorry about that!

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Light Bright's Farewell Performance

I hope my readers had a good weekend. I had an enjoyable one myself. Friday at work we had a taco bar potluck and white elephant gift exchange (I got a Star Wars cup I gave to Travalon), then in the evening Travalon and I went to the fish fry at the East Side Club. Saturday morning I wanted to go to confession; the line was quite long, but I started a rosary and, to my immense joy, finished up just as I got to the head of the line. Then Travalon and I had coffee at the Crossroads Coffee House in Cross Plains. It was a sunny but cold day, so we talked about taking a hike outside but ended up staying inside until the evening, when we ventured out for pizza at Café Porta Alba and the movie Brooklyn, about a girl from Ireland who comes over to Brooklyn in the early 1950’s. It was highly recommended by my Irish teacher and one of my classmates, and it was a lovely little movie with no explosions or even bad guys, just a story of a girl trying to fit into a new place. At one point she has to go back to Ireland, and then she has to make a decision: go back to her old life there, or return to her new life in Brooklyn? I won’t give any more of it away.

Yesterday did not start auspiciously, because first I did the morning prayers for the wrong day and didn’t have enough time to do the right ones, then during Mass my carol book was missing the German words for “Lo, How a Rose e’er Blooming,” and I could maybe sing the English ones from memory, but the German ones? Forget it! As soon as the choir finished singing the song, I realized that page was put into the book backwards, and the German words were just on the other side. D’oh! The rest of the day did improve. First Travalon and I took Rodney for a hike by the river, then we drove with OK Cap to Roxbury to see Light Bright’s farewell performance with her band, and Jilly Moose met us there. Travalon and I were kind of bummed about missing the Packer game, but wouldn’t you know we found seats where we could watch the band AND the game! And the Packers won! This was at the Dorf Haus, so the four of us stayed for dinner. I asked Light Bright if it was OK to put a picture of her baby on this blog, and she said sure, everyone else is plastering his photos all over MyFace, so here is Corban:

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Water Heater Issues

Yesterday the water at our condo was turned off around eight in the morning while they installed new water heaters. I didn’t really care, since that is when I left for work, where of course they had running water. Travalon had the day off of work, but he was out and about, fishing with Rodney most of the day, so it didn’t really affect him either. After work I met with Jilly Moose and OK Cap for dinner at Pasqual’s, then I went to choir practice and had to sing soprano on a number of songs, which was surprisingly easy. Either I’m a really good sight reader, or I’ve sung soprano on these songs before. Of course, it helps that I’ve heard the soprano part next to me while singing the alto part for nearly two decades. When I finally got home around nine, Travalon told me the water still wasn’t turned back on, but I tried it and it worked. Just then he got an email from the condo association president saying there would be no hot water until this morning. Since I take showers before bed, this was bad news for me. I had to go to bed unshowered.

This morning I got up early enough to run for a mile and a half, then I had to decide: head to the health club for a warm shower, or brave a cold one at home? I erred on the side of laziness and figured I’d just offer up the frigid shower for the poor souls in Purgatory or something. However, the shower didn’t seem that unbearably cold, and it actually warmed up to a downright pleasant temperature within a few minutes. Either the guys working on the water heater started very early this morning, or I could have taken a bearable shower last night, after all. Then I couldn’t find a hair dryer (since I always let my hair air dry overnight), but my hair actually looks pretty good after air drying on the way to work. Maybe I should always shower in the mornings!

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Holy Hill

Sorry for my silence the last few days. On Wednesday we all got to leave work a little early to go see our boss’s boss on Jeopardy! He came in third out of three, but just getting on the show is huge. He won a grand, but he says California takes a lot of taxes out of it, so he imagines his check will just be for a few hundred dollars when he finally gets it. Plus he had to pay his own way out there. Afterwards Travalon and I met for dinner at Brasserie V, and then I went to choir practice for the first time in ages. I did get asked to sing soprano on some songs I only know the alto part to, so it wasn’t all stuff I’ve sung for almost two decades.

Yesterday I took the day off of work, and in the morning Travalon and I ran errands and then went on a walk along a path by the Yahara River. We saw lots of wooly bear caterpillars along the way, and they all seem to be predicting an average winter, so that’s a relief. Then Rich came with us to take Travalon’s mother to Holy Hill. If you have never been there, it is a beautiful shrine in the middle of nowhere, up on a hill so you can see it for miles as you approach. Travalon’s mom likes to go there once a year and pray for the soul of his dad, and she ran into someone she knows in the chapel. We also ran into someone we know outside the beautiful main church. We hit the gift shop as well, and I’m sure my regular readers will be shocked to learn that I added to my rosary collection. Rich climbed the bell tower, which I did years ago, and he said it was really windy up there, just as I’d remembered it. Afterwards we went to a nearby restaurant called Fox and Hounds, which had two-for-one Surf and Turf on Thursday evenings. The place was beautiful, very rustic inside, and the food was good but there was no way I could eat all of it. We got a lobster tail, a steak, tons of vegetables, soup, potatoes, and bread. I brought some home and will eat it tonight, since today my coworkers and I went to lunch today to celebrate Handy Woman’s promotion.   

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Black Calla Lilies

Last night I got highlights put into my hair. I asked my hairdresser to make them subtle, and did she ever comply – hardly anyone has noticed them! Then I went to choir practice, and my OTHER choir director showed up with Kathbert toward the end to run through the music for my wedding. He is playing the organ while my non-other choir director directs the choir. It mostly went well, so here’s hoping for no great musical disasters.

This morning I went to Trader Joe’s to get some calla lilies for the reception hall. I was planning to get nine in various colors like pink and yellow (there were no white ones), but I was astounded to see a black one. I’ve never seen a black calla lily before! I grabbed that one too, for me – would black calla lilies seem weird at a wedding? The woman ahead of me in line asked what I was going to do with so many calla lilies, and I explained they were for my wedding. Then the cashier gave me the black one for free! And another Trader Joe’s employee carried one box of them all the way to my office for me!

I showed Handy Woman the black calla lily and she said, “I’ve always wanted one, but I don’t know where to put it in my garden.” Then I texted a photo of it to Ma Hat, who loved it. I said I would get one for her for Mother’s Day, so back to Trader Joe’s I went and got some more black calla lilies, one for Ma Hat, and one each for Kathbert and Miss Heartsong for singing at my wedding. I even got one for Handy Woman to thank her in advance for taking care of my plants here at work. Now Trader Joe’s is almost out of black calla lilies, so if you want any, you’ll have to hurry over there.

Here is a picture of my black calla lily.

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Random Observations

How can one really be certain a possum is dead? Yesterday I saw one that appeared dead, but then it occurred to me – the thing could have just been “playing possum.” I wasn’t about to touch it, because if it was dead, then ewww, and if it was still alive, what if it bit me? I wasn’t about to hold a mirror in front of its nose to check for breath, either. There were no bugs on it, and it didn’t smell, but ultimately I really cannot answer the question of whether it was alive or dead. Put it in a box and call it Schroedinger’s Possum.

Isn’t it ironic that church choir members sing the word “Alleluia” the most during Lent? That is when we are preparing for Easter, after all. My OTHER choir director said he had some kids protest working on Easter songs during Lent for that very reason, and Richard Bonomo said he heard of a choir director who made his choir members sing “watermelon” or something like that instead of “Alleluia” during Lent. We all wondered if you always practice a song with “watermelon,” would you really remember to sing “Alleluia” instead when you finally perform it? And how awesome would Handel’s “Watermelon Chorus” be? “For he’ll spit seeds forever and ever! Juice of juice! And rind of rinds! Watermelon! Watermelon! Wa-Ter-Me-Lon!"

This morning after UGGH Club, Luxuli and I went to a coffee house for a quick bite of breakfast. I don’t have any random observations about that, but it was a most enjoyable start to the day. Soon Travalon and I will go to our new condo’s inspection, so here’s hoping everything works out well!

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A Famous Hat Easter

Sorry for my silence on Friday, but most of the day I was either in church or sitting by Kettle Pond, listening to the frogs sing. That may not be the most religious activity, but it is certainly meditative and so seems appropriate for Good Friday. After singing with the OTHER choir at the Lutheran church, Kathbert and I stopped by Richard Bonomo’s house, where Catzookz and Twins Fan were hanging out, so we had nerdy conversation – the best kind!

Saturday morning I had an appointment for yet another fitting for my wedding dress. As I may have mentioned, they did find it in a smaller size, but now I’ve gained girth in my shoulders and back – from working out? – so they have to let it out a little bit. Here I thought going to UGGH Club every morning would make me slimmer! Will I ever fit perfectly into this dress?? Then Travalon came up, and we had seafood for lunch since it was sort of still Lent. I’m never sure what category Holy Saturday fits into – it’s kind of like a liturgical No Man’s Land. It was a beautiful day, so we went for a long walk on the Lakeshore Path, and then we had dinner at Mia Za on State Street. We ran out of time for me to go home and change before the Vigil Mass, so I went to it in blue jeans. People really dressed up at St. Patrick’s, and just when I thought nobody else would be that tacky, I saw another woman in blue jeans, so then I didn’t feel so bad. We were at the end of the crowd going into the church after the lighting of the fire out front, so we missed part of the Exultet. Oh well, it is the same every year. The Mass was almost three hours long, including a number of baptisms and confirmations, then afterwards we stopped by the Essen Haus for a quick beer and then joined Rich in our annual tradition of having a gyro to celebrate Easter.

Rich had put in a call with my guardian angel, so yesterday I was yanked out of a deep sleep in time to get to church for choir warm-up, but then I started sneezing like crazy and waited to see if it were allergies and would abate with an antihistamine, or if it were the start of a virus. I did start to feel a little better, so I went to Easter morning Mass but did skip the OTHER church this year. Then I helped Rich with some cleaning chores before he had a bunch of people over for Easter dinner. Travalon came to have lamb for dinner, after having duck for lunch with his mother. Now that’s the way to celebrate the end of Lent! There were fifteen people at Rich’s house, including the usual suspects like Kathbert, Luxuli, and Prairie Man, and a graduate student in music education who told Rich as she was leaving that she liked our crowd because she didn’t have to pretend to be normal around us. We also had four desserts: Lent is officially over! Ma and Pa Hat called and told us about their dinner, including the tablecloth Grandma Hat crocheted just after she had Ma Hat. I said I didn’t remember that tablecloth, and Ma Hat said they rarely use it, only for special occasions. Guess I’ve never been around for a special enough occasion. I left just after nine – had to get enough rest to go to UGGH Club in the morning! Unfortunately, that did not end with Lent.

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My OTHER Choir Director's Party

Friday night, if you can believe it, Travalon and I had dinner with the president of the entire state university system. We went to a Celtic Studies dinner and another couple sat at our table and started chatting with us, and that’s who the man was! His wife was an environmental consultant. After dinner we listened to a fabulous flautist and fiddler play Celtic tunes.

Saturday morning I met the Rosary Ladies for coffee and the rosary, then I drove to Travalon’s place and we went to the new brew pub in his town, Sweet Mullets. Really great beer! I highly recommend them. Travalon has started his own blog, where he reviews restaurants and taverns around the state, so check it out. Then we went to a water park with the usual slides and Lazy River, as well as an indoor/outdoor hot tub that was very enjoyable. As Travalon said, we could pretend we were at a resort in Aspen. We finished the evening at a pizza place called Dry Docs, which was his old hangout since high school.  Delicious pizza!

Yesterday Travalon was going to come my way, but the weather was supposed to be bad, so he stayed home. Richard Bonomo, Kathbert, and I went to a party for my OTHER choir director, who has been at his current job for 35 years. Since this was a Lutheran party, there were plenty of bars and brownies for dessert after the family-style dinner. Then lots of people said really nice things about my OTHER choir director, and we gave him a trip to Leipzig, to the Bach Fest in June. He was embarrassed, since he hates being the center of attention, but I think he was touched. He did laugh really hard when we sang a song about him to the tune of “Rubber Ducky,” holding up pictures of him in front of our faces. “Every day when he plays some tunes with his fingers/He directs bells and orchestras, recorders and lots of singers,” or something like that. I failed to keep a copy so you’ll just have to imagine it.

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