It's brassy-looking, it's about the size of a quarter (shown below for comparison), and it's about the ugliest coin minted in my lifetime. A few of the state quarters have made my face wrinkle up, but they don't come close to this new dollar for sheer ghastliness. Washington looks like he's been constipated for at least a week, and the the back looks like a cheap anodized token from a casino.

I spent five of these around town today, just to see what kind of reaction I might get. Not much. Nobody asked what I meant by trying to pass these off as money. Nobody refused to take them. Only the cashier at the bookstore gave them a second look before she dropped them in her cash drawer with the dollar bills and made change.

We got a little more snow last night. Good thing, too. We needed more of that.

A rabbit exploring the patio caught my eye as I was washing dishes, so I grabbed my camera, but too late to catch the rabbit. The back yard had that weird beige sodium light over it, though, so I tried to catch it again with a snapshot. Mixed success with that, as always.

My kids grew up mostly in Aurora, Colorado, where it snows but not very often, and the snow melts almost right away. I still remember the first time I told them that, back in Wisconsin where I grew up, snow sometimes fell on the ground in November and didn't go away until March. I think that was the first time my oldest son thought I was flat-out lying to him.

At the Orpheum

Ripped from the headlines, or some bizarre kind of accidental haiku? Or both?

Not Exactly SRO

Last night's snowfall kept an awful lot of people and vendors away from this morning's Dane County Farmer's Market at the senior center.

My Darling B tucks into her chicken-friend buffalo.

That's right: Chicken-fried buffalo. I would've never thought of it, either, but that's what they were serving for breakfast at the Dane County Farmer's Market this morning, along with fried eggs and a scoop of grits smothered in gravy, a cup of cranberry juice and a bottomless cuppa joe, all for six and a half bucks.

Prelude to the Blizzard

Snow began to fall in the evening, and the lowering clouds reflected the city light back at us.

100% Chance of Snow

The back yard appeared to be even brighter than the front.

My Darling B reviewed the forecast and found they predicted a 100% chance of snow. She seemed troubled by the certainty of the science. "How can they predict absolutely that, without a doubt, snow will fall?"

Snowmelt

The temps have jumped from below-zero to mid-forties. Everybody's out in their short jackets, or shirtsleeves, circling capital square once again.

The warm weather has melted off almost all the snow and it's running across the sidewalks in reflective sheets. The reflection of the YWCA - the old Hotel Belmont - jumped out of the water at my feet as I strolled up Mifflin Street.

Lost in the Lights

Looking up into the whalebacked ceiling of a big theater with the house lights on is sometimes so much more like staring into infinity that it makes me dizzy.

Distinguished Lecturer in Time Lapse

My nifty digital camera can snap photographs under many adverse conditions. It can't, however, take a picture of Sarah Vowell when she's standing, floodlit, on center stage at the Memorial Union. Too bad.

It's the Mad City Model Railroad Show!

The biggest part of it, anyway. There was more to see in a few other rooms, but this is the main floor with the biggest layouts. Other rooms had smaller layouts and vendors galore, but no matter where I went, the floor was packed butts-to-bellybuttons with train nerds.

Mad City Rail Show '07

There were all kinds of model trains on display, from the classic Lionel toy trains ...

Mad City Railroad Show '07

... to some of the smallest scale models. These N scale engines, most just a few inches long, loiter in a maintenance yard.

Mad City Rail Show '07

Some of the models are big enough to climb into and drive!

Mad City Rail Show '07

I'm a big fan of steam locomotives, even when they're this small.

Mad City Rail Show '07

Some of the most eye-catching models weren't even part of a model rail layout.

Round pegs in a snow fall

The picnic area at Mifflin and Main.

After the snow

Stairs at the capital blanketed with the fresh snow we got Monday morning.

The cat with the warmest seat in the house

Weekends are the only time we have the luxury of a nap.

I woke in my easy chair to find that Boo decided to take advantage of Darling B's warmth and recumbency.

Found among the shelves of a local liquor store

"Tempered over burning witches."

There's nothing that can't be made into a novelty beer these days.