I took My Darling B to The Mermaid Cafe this morning for a Valentine's Day breakfast.

We drive past the Mermaid every morning on the way to work, and say to each other, "We've got to stop there soon" at least once a week. This was our week.

Service at the Mermaid is excellent, and the decor is cozy.

There are three sizes of coffee offered: regular, large, and bottomless. The mug she's holding in front is regular, the bathtub behind that is large.

A selection of fizzy drinks are on offer at the Mermaid.

It was a little too early in the morning for me to pop open a bottle, though, so I settled for just snapping a photo of them.

Art At Monona Library

My Darling B had to stop by the public library to return the forty-two dozen cook books she had checked out, and pay a library fine large enough to fund half the economic stimulus package. I tagged along to help carry books, and to see what's new at the library.

There's an exhibition of art work on display at the head of the stairs that's very eye-catching. This book, its pages re-imagined and fanned open, was an unusual example of art transforming an ordinary object.

Described as a geode.

Not sure what this is. Medicine chest?

Do You Know the Author?

I can read the quote, but not the attribution.

Found in the furniture section at St. Vincent de Paul's thrift shop.

This wind-blown snow at the edge of Squaw Bay on Lake Monona has been built up into a layered crust sturdy enough to bear my weight when I cross it on a pair of skis. I could easily ride across the thinnest layers, but broke through the thickest layers, about four inches deep. Skiing across it became a tedious exercise in climbing back on top of the crust after breaking through.

The snow on Squaw Bay was much easier to break a trail through, not layered and crusted over like this at all.

A view of downtown Madison from the farthest edge of Lake Monona.

Flaking Out

New snow falling on the corner of South Hamilton Street.

Looking Down Main Street On A Snowy Evening

That's Genna's on the left with the Tornado Lounge just behind it, and Inn On The Square on the right.

New Snow

The capital under floodlight as snow falls on cap square.

Interlude

This kettle was steaming like mad when I snapped this photo. I don't know why you can't see it. The steam, not the kettle. Obviously you can see the kettle.

I was waiting for it to break into a boil so I could make the morning pot o' java, well-needed after waking up at three o'clock and staggering around the house sleepless the rest of the night. When the steam finally came, it was such a pretty sight, no doubt because of my anticipation for a piping hot cuppa, that I grabbed my camera and caught this snapshot. All for naught, it seems.

Going to be a long day ...

Infinity

I admit, this is a really weird photo. Sometimes the symmetry of an image catches my eye in a way that makes me want to snap a shot of it, though, and this was one of those images loaded with symmetry.

No, nobody else was in the room at the time.

How Cold Is It?

In the fall, the frost is on the pumpkin, but in the dead of winter, it's on all the windows and around the joints of the doors. This was our front door last night at five below zero.

Looking Up

An abstract fabric sculpture hanging in the entrance to the Monona Terrace.

And Now, For a Wine That's Completely Different

This is wine as I imagine the Python boys might have made it, a little whimsical, a little nonsensical, with just a touch of the purile, yet with a full body and rich in whatever wines should be rich in. Pull the cork and add it to the dozen already dangling from your bush hat.

Hot, Sexy Wine

This is a wine that wants you bad. Uh-huh, it's looking right at you. You know you want it, too.

Comic Book Wine

Although the label of this fine screw-top wine looks like the cover of a comic book, "The Squid's Fist" sounds like the name for a sexual technique normally discussed in the advice column of a men's magazine, or has my mind wandered to inappropriate topics once again?

I'm also left wondering why the pair of women are depicted inappropriately geared for snorkeling at what is clearly scuba depth, although they're certainly about to become after-dinner sweets, so I guess their impending death by drowning is a moot point.

Frighteningly Generic Wine

"House Wine" reminded me of that generic beer we used to drink back in the 80's that came in a white can with the word "BEER" printed on it in black, block letters. I can't believe we used to drink that stuff, and I suspect that in thirty years there will be people looking back in disbelief that they drank this stuff.