Scary stuff

Mark thought the scariest thing he’s heard recently is sound bites of this hour and 20 minute cabinet meeting that Trump held on Wednesday, in which Trump told lies and his cabinet members toadied up to him.

I think [one] of the scariest things I’ve heard recently is that two times, on Sunday and then again on Wednesday, two different young men I was talking to ended the conversation with “Blessed Day”. I felt like I was in Hand Maid’s Tale. The first time it was a young white guy who was one of the other volunteers I was working with at Brat Fest. I wasn’t as surprised there because there are some Christian bands at Brat Fest and it’s had a bit of a Christian bend the last few years. But it still made me feel uneasy. The second time, it was the young Black guy who scooped Jasper’s ice cream at Chocolate Shop. But maybe that shouldn’t have been so surprising either, maybe he was a church-goer, not evangelical, and it wasn’t creepy. Maybe.

It’s not only the news that’s unnerving; the weather is unnerving too. We had such a wet April and now we’ve had almost no rain in May. And it’s hot. Although today is really nice, high of 76° and plenty of cool breeze. Probably what is lulling us all into enjoying life – as much as possible, and ignoring the news.

I’m having a fairly lazy day, volunteered at the Farmers Market, came home, had breakfast, biked to the library. Tried this vegan lemon pistachio bread which is not looking promising. I think I should’ve weighed the flour. The batter seemed way too thick. Later we’re having tofu tacos for dinner, leftover BBQ tofu from last Saturday’s Memorial day gathering.  

PS, we tried a slice and it’s really pretty good. Better than OK. I think I’ll bake it again in a different pan so it won’t be so low.

Thursday and Friday we went and had a getaway to Viroqua, for a combined Mother’s & Father’s Days treat. We booked a room in a historic hotel, and drove up by way of Devil’s Lake where we hiked on a shorter trail that was nonetheless a lot of up and down on the bluffs around the lake. We had already done some walking before we left town, vacating the house and getting coffee while the cleaners were there.

We ate at Driftless Cafe, whose reputation and James Beard nominations are completely well-deserved based on the quality of the food. Everything was amazingly good, especially all the produce, like the delicious tomatoes in the salad, the mustard barbecue sauce on the pizza, more delicious tomatoes in the chicken pasta puttanesca. But the delivery was more diner-y than fine dining. Our dishes were plunked down, almost all at once, and we didn’t get our sharing plates right away. And they forgot the coffee that we ordered with dessert, and took away the rhubarb galette with ice cream while there was still at least one more bite. The galette filling and the ice cream were both really good, but I could give them a serious run for the crust. It was a little tough. I don’t hold that against them, though, I am very good at pie crust. Usually. I do have some failures like most cooks do.

The portions were also enormous. I didn’t take any pictures until we ate Driftless food for a second dinner when we got home Friday

The hotel was very comfy and spacious, especially compared to what you get for  roughly the same price in big city hotels. There was a guest lounge with Wonderstate coffee and board games and a fridge with numbered trays on the shelves for each room to put their provisions on, and a laundry room, and a water bottle filler right down the hall from us. 

In the morning we walked over to Wonderstate – they started in Viroqua, and now have cafes in Madison, Viroqua, and Bayfield. My coffee was very good, I think better than the cups I’ve gotten in Madison.

We had been thinking about going to do another walk on the way home, but Mark’s knee was bothering him, so instead we had breakfast and touristed and then drove home. His left is his bad knee and mine is my right, so I guess we balance.

We ate breakfast at a place called Maybe Latelys.

We walked over to Driftless Books and wandered around in that giant book dump. Then to Viroqua Food Co-op, busman’s holiday for me, board member at Madison’s Willy St. Co-op. Viroquas’s was pretty nice, we bought bananas and a box of strawberries and 2 cans of lemon LaCroix. Then the drive home.

Interestingly, cutely, maybe, Al and Emma took a “parents day” today and went off and got new tattoos.