Egypt Fest but No Serbian Fest

 

Today was certainly eventful. Travalon and I got up and went to the 9 am Mass at the second-closest church to us, but a couple of Nigerian nuns talked before Mass about their order, so Mass was ten minutes late, and we wondered if we would get done in time to get to Cecil Markovitch's house by 10:30. Fortunately the priest, who is from India and always starts his homily with a dad joke or two, didn't say too much beyond his two dad jokes today, so we were done by 10. Then Cecil drove us and the Single B-Boy to Milwaukee to go to Egypt Fest. 

Egypt Fest was at the St. Antonius Coptic Church.

They had a beautiful olive wood model of the Church of the Nativity.

They had camel rides.

They had an Egyptian Bazaar, and I bought a few items: yet another Anglican (?) rosary (Coptic?), a rubber band bracelet, and a necklace, all of which set me back $21.

I know you're wondering, "Famous, does that rubber band bracelet some kid talked you into buying for a dollar glow under blacklight, as well as that rosary you got at Ukrainian Fest yesterday and forgot to post a photo of?"

You know it!

And the food at Egypt Fest! Three of us had the Cairo Street Food Sampler of all vegetarian food: falafel, spanakopita (which they called something else), and the Egyptian National Dish of koshari, a casserole of noodles, rice, fried onions, tomato sauce, cheese, lentils, and chickpeas. Travalon had a custard casserole thing with meat in it and some grilled chicken. We also had Egyptian coffee, which is a lot like Turkish coffee. Then after the church tour, we had some baklava and something else with custard and pistachios, and some mint tea. We took the mint tea to go, since Cecil was eager to get to Serbian Fest... and that's where things went from wonderful to weird.

Cecil tried to make a lefthand turn onto a busy road, but he crashed into another car that we think changed lanes unexpectedly, though we're not quite sure what happened. Her car was pushed up onto the median, knocking over a sign. Cecil pulled up onto the median behind her, and we all got out and surveyed the damage. The MIRmobile was all smashed in the front, and the girl's driver side door was dented so she couldn't open it. Both cars had to be towed away. Of course everyone at the festival could see what disaster had befallen us, so we went back to the shade in the church yard, sat down, and found a Badger Bus back to Madison. The B-Boy summoned an Uber to take us to the airport to catch the bus, and he made the same left but ironically at that time there was no traffic in either direction. We had an hour before the bus got there, so we explored a museum and a bookstore at the airport, and Travalon bought a book about train posters. At first the bus was uncrowded, so we each took our own seat, but downtown a bunch of people got on, so Travalon shared a seat with me and gave his up to a delightful undergrad who I chatted with for a lot of the ride. I asked the Night Prayer group to pray for us, and Rich offered to pick us up from the bus stop and bring us back to Cecil's house. By then it was almost 8:00, so Travalon and I went to Baked Wings on State Street and sat outside, eating our late dinner, before we headed home.  Oh well, maybe next year we will make it to Serbian Fest.

Oh yeah, at the downtown stop we saw an AmTrak train stopped on the tracks, and also a very cool old car with a beautiful skylight. We don't know what it's for, but we'd like to ride on it!

Famous Hat

Locked Out of the Church Parking Lot

 

Today I worked from home and had meetings. On my breaks I went for walks and took some photos. Here are flowers that smell good in my neighborhood: jonquils and crabapples.

In this photo, you can see two crabapples, a magnolia, and a redbud.

To my surprise, as I was out sniffing the flowers and enjoying the sunlight, I came up with a eulogy for Pa Hat, in case anyone asks me to provide one. It's not even a sure thing that we'll have a funeral for him.

It was a very calm day until I headed to Adoration. Fortunately I left a bit early in an attempt to see a train from a new vantage point, but no train came. (They used to come around five, but today Travalon saw our neighborhood train around seven.) A relative called, so I was on the phone as I turned into the driveway for our church parking lot and entered the code to open the gate... but the gate wouldn't open. Oh no, I would have to back out into rush hour traffic! And then someone else pulled in behind me, so I was trapped. It was a young priest, and he seemed a little skeptical of why I wanted to get into the parking lot, but I told him I have an adoration hour, and all the adoration spots were filled, plus the non-adoration ones right in front of the church (where you don't have to go into the gate) were taken up by some sort of crane thing. He wouldn't give me the new code, but he did enter it so I was able to get in. He said, "I can't give you the new code. You need to talk to Richard BONN-o-mo." By which I assume he meant Richard Bo-NO-mo, so I called him, and he said oops, he'd forgotten to give me the new code. He texted it to me, so now I shouldn't have this problem again... until the next time they change it. I did fantasize about quitting my adoration hour, and then I wouldn't have to get a sub for going to choro every fourth Tuesday, plus on the second Tuesday I could check out Just Folking Around, but my old church always seems so happy to see me. I can just feel the love pouring out of her. It is good to see her once a week, even if I no longer have keys and feel like a non-entity around there.

Famous Hat

Two Concerts in Episcopal Churches, a Ghost Train, and a Terrible Trivia Host

 

Travalon has provided some more photos of Tux Duck on our boat slip.

And also a wild-type mallard drake at Stricker Pond.

Yesterday we met Tiffy at the usual Park and Ride, then we drove to Wauwatosa because Just Bach was performing the same concert there as the one they did Friday night during the tornado. I always think of Wauwatosa in a rosy, golden light after my brief sojourn there last summer for Irish Fest Summer School, since I was able to walk everywhere, and we played so much music. Yesterday we went to the restaurant with the North Woods theme, and Tiffy knew it because she had gone there with her brother and his family over Christmas. The food is really good, and they play loon calls in the bathrooms. Then we walked to the chocolate shop, and this may really be why I think of Wauwatosa so fondly, because the chocolate gave me kind of a buzz. We had affogatos and truffles, but not whatever "tirimasu" is.

I am a fan of tiramisu, but we didn't get that either. Then Travalon dropped us off at Trinity Episcopal Church for the concert, which was supposed to last an hour. There were still several songs to go at four, and we had to be in downtown Milwaukee by five for our next concert, of Chinese music, so we snuck out between numbers. I felt a little awkward doing so, since I know several of the people in the group, but one of the leaders knew we were going to the Early Music Now concert, so he probably understood. It was such a good concert, and when Travalon said it would only take eighteen minutes to get to our next venue, I was so bummed: "We could have heard the whole concert!" I was all for sneaking back in, but Tiffy said, "We're out now, let's just go." 

Of course we got to the next place, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, with lots of time to spare, so we took a walk and admired these fritillaries in bloom.

Nothing like a checkerboard flower! This concert was also very enjoyable, but we were sitting way in the back, in the cheap seats, so we hoped to see the interesting instruments up close afterwards, but the performers rushed off the stage with them. Meanwhile, Travalon saw the Amtrak train and discovered a pedestrian bridge that used to be a railroad bridge.

He picked us up, and we went down by the lake and saw these cool clouds.

He told us about the pedestrian bridge, and how it has a light show called the Ghost Train after dark, so we went there and discovered it happens at 9 pm this time of year. We went to Indulgence Chocolate and got more chocolate (that we didn't eat until today), and then we had dinner at the Three Lions Pub, which was started by three actual British guys. We got done not long before the Ghost Train, so we went to see it, and while we did see the light show, we didn't hear the promised whistle and train sounds.

Today Travalon and I relaxed a bit after Mass, then I said I'd like to see birds but wondered if there was time before my first drum lesson of the new session, and he said let's check out a place nearby where there are often coots. And were there ever coots!

There were also two Tux Ducks, and one was almost black.

There was also a pied-billed grebe.

The straggling coots were rushing to catch up with the big group.

And we also saw a killdeer.

We had a ton of people at the drum lesson today, many of them new. My buddy from the other sessions was there, just back from Costa Rica. It was new for all of us, because we played a different kind of drum today, a big bass drum as we stepped back and forth. The guy who plays the little instrument like a ukulele never seems that impressed with me, but today he asked if I would be at the next Brazilian jazz session, and he said, "I heard you were killing it over there!" Oh, but I desperately need to practice! It's one thing to be a great sightreader at your first session, but there's no excuse for not having looked at the music since then. I definitely want to learn this music!

After my drum lesson, Travalon and I went to the East Side Club for a member event consisting of a pasta dinner and a trivia game. I should have taken a picture of the setup - it was a colorful stand with four spots for contestants. Travalon and I were a team against another couple, and we were pretty closely matched, but this wasn't the trivia I'm used to, it was identifying clips from movies, TV shows, and songs. Travalon was much better at it than I was. A couple of ladies who sat with us at dinner went before us, and they beat the team they played against, but the one lady was laughing about how terrible the host was - he was always playing the wrong clip, like he'd say, "Identify this TV show by its theme song," and then he'd play a clip of someone saying. "I am your father," or whatever, and then he'd go, "Oops, wrong clip!" The ladies told us we would have won our game if the host had been consistent about deducting points for wrong answers, since he did it to us and not the other team we played, but we lost by one question. It was hard to care, since it was so hilarious how bad the host was. Travalon went over to the prize table after we played, and I had to remind him that we didn't get to choose a prize since we'd lost, but he was coveting a Bucks baseball cap, so toward the end of the game I said since there were tons of prizes left, and nobody was paying attention, he should just take it. All the prizes were booze swag the club gets since they buy so much alcohol for the bar, and his cap said Jagermeister on it. During the game Hardingfele texted me to say they were all at band practice, and was I coming? but you will be shocked to learn I never made it to band practice. Next week.

Famous Hat
 

Photos from Travalon's Good Camera: Half Moon Cay

 

Today I worked on campus again, and at lunchtime I walked with Hardingfele in her building. There were some faculty and grad students around, so life is coming back to the place. I went up to another floor and saw this cool Christmas card someone had hand-drawn, but there was nothing written inside:

I forgot to post this, which I actually got a couple of days ago, but it's never too late for some DuoLingo bragging:

Yesterday Travalon had to work at the front desk, but he had company:

Today some athletes from the university visited his work to play with the kids, and he got Blackwell's autograph for me. Then he went to see a Beach Boys tribute band while I came home and crashed. Still not feeling the best after the dose of diet medication...

As promised, here are photos from Travalon's good camera from our day on Half Moon Cay. First, though, are a couple more photos of a masked booby and some sunset photos from our day at sea.

Here are photos from Half Moon Cay. First, there was another cruise ship already there.

And lots of smaller boats going back and forth to bring people from the two ships.

There was a "town square" area with souvenir shops and this guy playing music:

Here are some photos from our eco-lagoon tour. This is fan coral.

What kind of fruit is on this shrub?

Mangroves have such cool roots.

We saw lots of these fish.

And lots of cacti! In the Bahamas?

We saw birds we know from back home: a great blue heron and a snowy egret.

This is the little chapel on the island.

You can see the coral reefs just under the shallow water.

Here is what the coral looked like through the glass-bottomed boat:

A heron and an egret together.

Ever wonder what Travalon would look like holding a sea cucumber? Wonder no more!

He looks like he's about to take a bite out of it. And here are the coral all collected together.

I don't know why they have this fake shark in the water of the lagoon.

More mangroves with their cool roots.

A conch shell lying on the bottom of the lagoon.

Here are photos from the beach on Half Moon Cay.

Back on the ship, we went to the Ocean View Bar and watched the coastline of Eleuthera. 

No sunset photos from the Third Day of Christmas, because we were at Mass, and someone closed the drapes in the room on the windows facing the ocean. They left the drapes on the interior windows open, so people could gawk at us as they walked by. I would have preferred that the people in charge do the opposite and let us gaze at the sunset but not have others gazing at us. I don't consider Mass a spectator sport.

Famous Hat