Last Sunday we took a day trip to Chicago for the opera, a cool staging of Mozart’s Magic flute, that looked very 1930s Deco with singers in silent movie white face makeup. I thought it was a remake of an actual jazz age production, but it’s 21st century, in that style. The production was designed by Barrie Kosky, an Australian director, and Suzanne Andrade and Paul Barritt, a UK production company called “1927”.
The heroes are told of the trials they must undertake to get the girl back – one is no talking, so the mouths
One of the baddies looked like Nosferatu
This slide has been displaying in the train station the last few weeks
The victories:
It had been frustrating me that I couldn’t get my third jab to show up in my Group Health Co-op healthcare app (that runs on Epic MyChart), because I’ve gotten my Covid vacines through the UW University Health Service where I work. The first two made their way in eventually, but I wasn’t sure what I needed to do to get the third one in. Turned out that the app can actually go out and get the update from the state vaccination registry, and on the train down to the opera I had time to punch enough buttons to get it to do that, so now I am showing as triple vaxed, for all the situations where I need to show proof – like going into the opera.
One of our last trips I had seen a spot where there were trucks parked in a row, and waterfowl in rows, ducks & geese lining up separately, but then when we went back I couldn’t find it. This trip I did; the trucks were there, the birds had departed.
I think I have all the Thanksgiving ingredients in the house, and have started acquiring cookie ingredients too. I went to the state library conference in Green Bay overnight on Thursday to Friday (the overleaf is the hallway to my room at the Hyatt Regency Green Bay, a little creepy, the whole hotel was kinda dark, showing the signs of Covid neglect, there was a little peeling plaster in my room and a small divot in the desktop) and stopped at the east side Costco on my way back into town, and then Saturday I think we shopped at just about every possible outlet, with the exceptions of Woodman’s and Whole Foods: indoor Farmers Market, then we drove out to Matt & Susan’s farm and picked up our turkey, then I biked to Willy Street Co-op, and finally Metcalfe’s. I predict that no additional grocery shopping will need to be done until maybe Wednesday, when someone will have to get bananas and milk.
I made some pumpkin cheesecake bars that were nice and creamy and tasty, and last Saturday I braised the $56 worth of short ribs I bought on impulse at Conscious Carnivore along with the Rosh Hashannah brisket (the brisket cost less), and we ate them with mashed potatoes and broccoli – there was absolutely beautiful broccoli at the last outdoor farmers market the 13th. I made the leftover meat into enchiladas, and those were good too. No pics, unfortunately.
The losses:
I overcooked the beautiful broccoli. My intention was to steam it then reheat it olive oil with a little nutmeg. It was still good, just a little less green than it shoulda been.
I didn’t see the lunar eclipse that everyone was talking about Thursday night when I was at conference. On Saturday night, I went out to leave the compost bucket for the pickup on Sunday morning and the moon was still full, and I tried to take a picture. Not so successful with the phone.
My tiny victories are largely personal; at the same time, I feel like there huge losses for a lot of us. Sunday morning I listened to the replay of this story on NPR over the right wing joy at Kyle Rittenhouse’s acquittal.
Pretty scary shit for an old Jewish lady & local election official. And I’m white. As the Black Lives Matter activist in this story said, the people Rittenhouse shot are white – and Black people are even easier targets.
I think I am as disappointed in my adopted home state as I am in our quarterback. Let the protests – and civil suits – begin.
Here’s a catch up set of photos, pre-opera breakfast in Chicago, apple muffins, fall foliage, desk lunch, conference food, and a beautiful picture of geese and the moon that Andy took.
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And a link to Sunday brunch.