A trip to Chicago for two nights instead of one.
Valentines Day was a Saturday this year, kicking off the weekend. The followng Tuesday was Mardi Gras, the last day of carnival, and Election Day, and Lunar New year, the start of a couple of weeks of festivities for those who celebrate. Tuesday was also the start of Lent and Ramadan, when rather than indulging many people are fasting or abstaining from things like alcohol and chocolate, and eating in the daylight in the case of Ramadan.
So a busy week of overlapping traditions, overlaid by the continual horror of the Trump administration. I feel like every picture I have has overtones too complicated to explain, but I will try.
I had Jasper Monday and Wednesday because Emma’s parents came back from their ski trip with colds.
Monday we went to look at the polling place (a church) where I’d be working on Tuesday and then went to the park.
They had some pretty good toys for him to play with in the lounge at the church, but managed to get hm out of there with nothing in his pockets.
George likes sitting on the tote of election supplies
Jasper didn’t nap but we tried playing in his room. He was the mommy (or dada) and I was the baby, and I was supposed to say, “how much longer will you be working?” and he replied, “just another minute.”
I made individual almond-filled (a mixture of almond paste and breadcrumbs with of course some butter in there, too) King Cakes to share with poll workers. Jasper helped. He seemed to like the almond filling, too. I just ate the last one for breakfast, Sunday following. The funfetti cake was more dramatic, but these little guys tasted better. To me. I like an almond filled King Cake.
Trader Schmoes tulips upstairs still holding up Monday Feb 16
Trader Schmoes tulips downstairs still holding up Monday Feb 16. I just dumped the downstairs ones into the outside compost Sunday Feb 22. The stems were starting to get droopy and hang over everything. The flowers were still pretty.
I screwed up when going through the tote of election supplies and I can’t blame it on George, I failed to notice that we only had one color of voter slip and needed two because it’s a two-ward polling place. By the time we got the 2nd color delivered Tuesday morning we’d already had 7 voters. We noted the specific slip numbers of the blue voters who’d gotten white slips, and I called the clerk and we determined that we should just subtract 7 from the white and add 7 to the blue and that kept the slip numbers and the number of voters tallied on the tabulator matching all day. Until I left at 1:30. I hope it did not make it too difficult for the afternoon Chief to close. I asked but they did not get back to me as yet.
After I left the polling place where I worked, I came home and started laundry and went to vote myself and then picked up my neighbor Tracy and we went out to visit our mentor and teacher, Jim, who had his 87th birthday on Sunday. Jim and Nancy used to live across the street from Tracy, but last year moved out to an assisted living facility on the far east side. We arrived bearing gifts and talked about the two cultural heritage fiascos dominating our lives, the former Friends of the UW-Madison Libraries getting kicked out of the UW-Libraries, that’s been brewing since 2024, and the Hamilton Wood Type Museum hostile staff and board crisis that’s been brewing since last year.
Valentines cookies for Jim Dast, whose birthday is February 15.
I can’t remember what we had for dinner Tuesday – sandwiches I think. Oh yea, sandwiches and reheated deep dish pizza that we brought home from Lucille after George Saunders. Monday was chilaquiles, because I had some crispy corn tortillas and some Un-crispy ones that I crisped, and Guajillo chile sauce, and corn dip leftover from the Super Bowl in the fridge.
Wednesday was Jasper again. I bought him a Hot Wheels toy. Don’t know why I thought I could get in and out of Target without buying something, and they didn’t have the hydrogen peroxide I wanted anyways. I should’ve gone directly to Walgreens or any where else than Target, but we got the latch piece I needed to repair the kitchen cabinet at the hardware store, and it seemed like a good idea to leave the car at the hardware store and stroller around Hilldale a bit. I will make that my last trip to Target for the foreseeable future.
It was marked down from $32.99 to $9. 99. But it’s still just more plastic crap. Metcalfe’s had the hydrogen peroxide, and we got a bag of little yellow apples for Mark. Metcalfe’s is seeming a little dingy since it’s been sold to out of state owners.
I think Wednesday was the day I made whole wheat spaghetti with a broccoli and tomato sauce for dinner. All canned tomatoes although I still do have some much tastier Tipi tomatoes from the last U-Pick in the freezer. It was perfectly OK.
Thursday I got up and bussed over to the food pantry to volunteer. Mark stayed home to wait for the cleaners and started thinking about ways to avoid the snow that was due Friday morning, when we were scheduled to drive to Chicago. He suggested leaving Thursday afternoon instead of Friday morning, so I got us another hotel night and off we went. We had a kind of an OK dinner of greasy bar food – a burger with a side of “crispy” Brussels sprouts that I think must’ve been deep-fried, fish and chips, and warm dinner rolls with fancy WI butter that were probably the best thing. Friday we had a full day of museums, the Smart for Theaster Gates and the MCA for Yoko Ono, both shows that close today my mommy’s 101st birthday, February 22, dinner at avec, and the Chicago Symphony. Got up Saturday morning, ate Do-Rite donuts and a Publican Quality Breads Kougin Aman (by way of Intelligensia), home by 3:00.
Here are the pictures.
