Taigu Noodle Restaurant with Seabird

 

The map from the dream I mentioned yesterday does exist - you can buy one online - but of course for Alabama they have the Crimson Tide "A," not a Belleek castle tower. I did forget to relate my crazy conversation with our student hourly yesterday: she asked if I would be in the next day, and I said no, so she said, "Oh yeah, you always work from home on Sunday. I mean Friday! Boy, am I off by a few days!" I said on Sunday I was too busy doing Brazilian drumming to come to work, and she said, "That is not what I was expecting you to say!" So we got into a conversation about how when I was in college many moons ago, my Portuguese TA had a unit on travel in which we learned the word for hijacking, and another on signs of the zodiac. She said they had learned signs of the zodiac in Russian (did I mention that her parents are from Transdniestria?), but she couldn't remember how to say "I am a Libra" in Russian, so she googled it... and then she googled how to say "hijack" in Russian. I said, "Careful, they'll put you on a list," and then I asked if she had done the mail or if I needed to do it. She said, "I did it, but I don't know who this is," and she showed me a postcard for an emeritus professor advertising a Baroque concert. I said, "I was going to go to that concert, but it's while I'm out of town for a wedding," and she said, "Of course you were going to go to that concert." I think she thinks I know everything going on in town, which is maybe almost true. If you need to know about Baroque music, Brazilian music, or Irish music, I am your source.

Today Travalon and I walked at Jackson's Landing during our lunch break, then after work I took a long rosary walk before driving down to my old neighborhood to go to Taigu, a Chinese noodle restaurant in the building that used to house the little butcher shop/grocery store I went to back in the day. Travalon came from work and met me, and then Seabird and her husband joined us. Everyone at the restaurant knew and loved Seabird - I felt like I was out with a celebrity! The owner gave us free eggrolls before dinner and free almond cookies after dinner. I kind of know how to say thank you in Mandarin (I'm sure I really butcher it), and that seemed to delight them all. The food was really good - homemade cat ear noodles! - and I said we should come back and invite Hardingfele and her husband, since they live right nearby. Instead of a double date, it could be a triple one. Once upon a time Hardingfele's daughter (who used to go by Rockstar Taylor on this blog) was in kindergarten with Seabird's younger son. Now they are out of college.

Speaking of kids, my coworker became a grandpa today. His granddaughter is just a little peanut - she barely weighed four pounds! She wasn't early, she just wasn't getting any bigger, so they induced her mom. Seems like all the babies are induced or taken by C-section these days. Does nobody have a natural birth anymore?

Here is the poster I mentioned before that Travalon got with his gift card.

There haven't been as many videos on social media with good graffiti, but here are a few screenshots.

And here is some graffiti Travalon found on social media, which I do not think is local:

Hey hey hey! It's Fat Albert and the gang! It's heartbreaking that Bill Cosby turned out to be a bad dude, because I used to love this show so much, and his standup work. Chocolate cake for breakfast!

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Fantastic Train Day (but Not Fantastic Football Day)

 

There wasn't too much to say about my day at work, except that it was very productive, and also I walked with Hardingfele at lunch. However, on the way home from my new parking lot, I could see the train was poised to head north, so at home I took a walk to the crossing. Just as I gave up and was starting to walk home, I heard the train horn, so I hurried back to the crossing and could see the train heading north. I was all excited and made a video, but it didn't really have that great of graffiti, and later when I saw the other side of the train on social media, there wasn't much on that side either. I walked back home to find Travalon had already gotten back from work, so we went to Nar Turkish restaurant and sat on the patio overlooking the rail yard, but it got too cold so we moved inside to eat dinner. I love this neon sign they have by their ice cream stand.

Here are screenshots from my video of the train in our neighborhood:

And here are the screenshots from the other side:

Travalon had to work in Sun Prairie today, so he went up to Portage first and took some photos and videos. I will post his photos today and then will post screenshots from his videos tomorrow. The first two are from this morning, as viewed from my new parking lot.

And here are some in the Portage rail yard.

A couple of interesting doodles on the train:

More graffiti:

And a park shelter in Rio (which for some reason is pronounced RYE-oh) that looks like a train depot.

Good thing we both had such a good train day, because the Packer game is truly atrocious.

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Tiffy's Birthday with Goats and Half a Grasshopper

 

Today I left somewhat early to meet Tiffy and our college friend at a creamery on the east side of Lake Winnebago. We were meeting at 11, so I left some extra time for bathroom breaks along the way and got there at 11:02. At the creamery there were baby goats we got to pet, as well as baby chicks we could watch but couldn't touch. We had lunch there, and I had a sandwich with goat cheese, natch.

We went to our college friend's house to pick up her dog Pluto, then we all went for a hike at Ledgeview Natural Area. Shoot, for some reason Blogspot is not letting me post photos right now (although it let me post a random video that I then deleted), so I can't show you the beautiful ledge or the selfie of us in front of it. Hopefully this is a temporary issue... Pluto the Dog took us at a quicker pace than we had planned, so we got quite a workout. There are caves at the park too, but you can't go in without a guide present. 

Next we went to the Sheboygan Marsh and took a drive around it, but we were too tired to get out and hike more. We went to Elkhart Lake, hoping to go to the tiki bar there, but everything is closed this week because it's a resort area, and everyone there needs a break after the busy summer. So we took Pluto home and went to Schwartz's Supper Club, where I had the smallest Surf & Turf option available but still took half of it home, and then Tiffy and I split a grasshopper, because what's a dinner at a supper club without an ice cream drink afterwards? Or at least half of one? Since we arrived so early, we got in right away, and that way we could head home in a timely manner.

My drive home was very pleasant. I could see Lake Winnebago spread out before me, under the last glow of the sunset. As I drove home, Venus was before me in the sky. When I was near home, I could smell the tantalizing aroma of the bakery on Highway 151. Everything went so smoothly today, until I couldn't post photos. Hopefully this issue will be cleared up by tomorrow.

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Firefly Lake and Trains in Tomahawk

 

This morning we went back to Dixie's Coffee again, and I love their pillows.

They also have a statue of Dixie in the doorway.

We went down to the beach again. Here's a photo Travalon took with his cellphone.

Then we packed up and took a hike around Firefly Lake, which is small and very beautiful.

As is our tradition, we stopped for lunch at the Thirsty Whale in Minocqua. We didn't see a loon from the deck this year, but we did see a pair of bald eagles.

Next we went to Sara Park in Tomahawk, on the Wisconsin River.

We saw a tiny engine for the Tomahawk Railway go by.

Isn't it cute? Travalon remembered seeing train cars near Sara Park, and we found that there were many of them, and they had beautiful graffiti.

The rest of our trip home was fairly uneventful. There was a bit of a traffic slowdown on I90, but it didn't last too long. When we got home, my print had arrived of that painting of a train with graffiti spelling out the lyrics to "King of the Road." I don't think it would work to take a photo, since panning out to get the whole thing would make it too small, but trust me, it's very cool. Then I had a condo board meeting, while Travalon went out on the dock and took photos of the sunset.

We both are back to work tomorrow, and I also have to go to the dentist and get a cavity filled, so tomorrow will not be fun like the last three days. That's okay, if there's nothing to blog about, I can post more screenshots of train graffiti, or more photos from our trip.

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