Last week (and weekend), Mer and I traveled to Bridgman, Michigan, to spend Thanksgiving at my Mom’s place. Mom and her Significant Other, Marc, are wonderful people to be around on holidays. They want you to be comfortable doing whatever you want to do, and they throw in an endless supply of food to boot.

We left Ohio early afternoon on Wednesday (we slept in – why get up early on the first day of your vacation?), and started on the 5-1/2-hour trip to Michigan. We go through South Bend on the way, so we stopped off to see a friend who lives in South Bend with her husband. Our friend’s family was in town for Thanksgiving, so we all went to Ponderosa. That was my first time ever going to a Ponderosa, although I had been to Bonanzas in my youth. That was very gracious of them to let us tag along, although it was not a good thing for me to go to a buffet the day before Thanksgiving!

We got to Mom’s about 9:00, and Mom, Marc, Sonotmu and OrangeJoJo, and the Rev. were already there. We got the junk out of the car and got settled in to our room, and chatted.

On Thanksgiving, the game playing started in earnest. SoNot and JoJo both like to get interesting (and fairly unknown) games to play. We started playing various games, which was cool. SoNot and the Rev. both convincingly beat me at Abalone. Then JoJo beat me at Tyrus (by ONE point!), but I managed to win the second game (which should have been a tie, except JoJo made a mistake in the last round). I then played Mom at Yinsh, which I won. Meanwhile, Mer and the Rev. played many games of Tyrus. I lost count of who won what. SoNot and JoJo played Abalone (SoNot won), and Rev. and SoNot played Abalone (Rev. won). It was a very competitive morning and early afternoon.

It was not ALL lazing around. The weather was beautiful the entire weekend, so I took the opportunity to go for a 3-mile run Thursday morning. It was really nice. I ran along the beach along Lake Michigan and then toward the town of Bridgman. In the 3 days were were in town (not traveling), I managed to walk or run about 15 miles. It is a great place to take walks.

We had a *wonderful* Thanksgiving dinner with all the usual fixings. Mom and Marc sure can cook. We ate well all weekend. In addition to Thanksgiving diner, Mom kept pints of Ben and Jerry’s on hand, as well as chips, chocolates, and nuts. Marc made us his mouth-watering burgers and chili. They took us out to breakfast at a diner on Friday. Through it all, I only gained about 1 pound – the walking did me some good, methinks.

You can take the English teacher out of the classroom, but you can’t take the spin off the English teacher. Most of us spent the evening watching the recent version of Othello. It was well done, and beautifully shot. One warning for my readers: it is rated R for some sex and violence.

Friday morning I went for an early walk before Mer woke up. I saw a small heart made of stones on the beach, and it gave me the idea to make something for Mer. It took a little while, but it came out nice, and just in time for the sun to start to come over the dunes. I got to take Mer there after breakfast in town, and she kept wondering why I was so focused on getting a ways down the beach. She thought the walk was worth it once we got there.

SoNot, JoJo, and the Rev. had to leave for the Windy City on Friday. I took a nap and ate some more wonderful food, and then we went to the beach for a tremendous sunset. What a nice evening on the beach! On the walk home, I saw something moving at the bottom of a dune hill near Mom’s. It turned out to be a very friendly big cat. He was friendly toward me, but he took much interest in the rustling under nearby leaves. I don’t think he caught anything. Good kitty!

Once back at the house, we convinced Mom and Marc to watch “O” with us. It is the Othello story updated to a prep school and the basketball court. It was nicely done, and the plot and dialogue were easily traceable back to Shakespeare’s text. It is well done, but is very violent, has some sex, and a LOT of language use. Be warned. One of the bonus features on the DVD was a restored 1922 silent movie version of Othello. It is hard to describe. The film made up several scenes, rearranged things, switched dialogue, and generally made things pretty amusing to watch. I’m not saying I want to see it again, but it was worth seeing once.

Saturday, Mom and Marc took us to the studio of Fritz Olsen, a sculptor. He did modern stuff, which I usually only find okay. I did like several of his pieces, and it was a great afternoon to be out and about. After going home, and the inevitable food, Mom and Marc took us out to the Acorn Theater to see Spider Saloff, a jazz singer (singing mostly older jazz from the 30s-50s). It was a very nice concert, and the theater was cool – an old factory that had been converted to a theater. I do wish Spider had sung some Gershwin – I’m fond of his music. Her accompanist was a fantastic guitar player. The only odd thing was he tended to hum while playing his solos. His humming was not always in tune, and it tended to distract from the jaw-dropping things he was doing on the guitar. Still, a very fine evening.

So, that brought about Sunday. We got on the road a bit late, so we did not get home until about 4:30. I do like the Michigan escapes – lots of food, rest, and fun people.

Some people have wondered if your humble bloggist has a brain. That has been the source of much scientific controversy. Well, as a public service, I have decided to settle the matter by having an MRI done on my head. Unfortunately, I will not have a definite answer until next Tuesday or so, but there should be an answer. I’m hoping to get a copy of the MRI – I do not know if that is possible, but how cool would it be to have a picture of your own (still theoretical) brain?

I learned a few things about MRIs:
1) The magnetic field is so strong, they took an x-ray of my eyes to make sure there were no metal shavings in them from my days of working in a garage. Apparently if you have metal in your eyes, you can be blinded.
2) I was allowed to keep my gold wedding band on, since gold is not magnetic.
3) The MRI tech was very nice, and she was quite possibly younger than me (how did THAT happen?).
4) MRI machines are REALLY loud inside (they give you earplugs).
5) It is VERY important not to move your head (for the image quality, I assume).
6) You are asked to keep your eyes closed the whole time. I presume this is to prevent claustrophobia for imitating a torpedo about to be launched.
7) It takes quite awhile to image – it was about 10 minutes without dye and about 5 minutes with dye. That is a long time not to move your head.
8) The dye they inject you with will NOT turn you into a raging green super-powered being. What good is medicine nowadays, anyway?

The MRI is a precautionary diagnostic to make sure the headaches I have been having for the last few months are just headaches (caused by lousy eating and bad sleep habits?).

If I get a copy of pictures of my brain (or pictures showing an “out to lunch” sign), I’ll post them here.

Emma decided to help Mer with grading papers. Or, maybe she heard that Auntie Jo might be coming to town and hid.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST finally came to the $1 theater. It’s even showing on two screens. I hope to finally get to see it. For ONE dollar.

On Saturday, I met up with nine guys from church, and we raked leaves in the yard of a house-bound man. I am not a big fan of raking, and I rarely do it, but it was a good cause and with ten of us, we knocked the yard out in about two hours, in spite of two rain breaks. I had to leave after an hour-and-a-half so I could get home in time to go to Kent for the free music workshops, which turned out to be next Saturday (good thing I checked online before we went up to Kent).

To show how sad I am about physical labor, 1) my arms are sore today, and 2) I got blisters on both hands through work gloves. THAT is when you know you have a soft-hand kind of job.

Saturday evening, Mer and I went to Actors’ Summit Theater (where we have season tickets) to see Shaw’s Arms and the Man. For those who remember, Mer and I saw Too True to be Good  (by Shaw) last summer, which we did not like. This was a chance for me to like Shaw again. I was not disappointed. Arms and the Man was funny and thoughtful. Shaw managed to poke fun at love, class, and war without beating you over the head, and he created an interesting plot and interesting characters to boot. Actors’ Summit did a great job staging the play (as they always do). Mer said she saw a review where the critic preferred the Actors’ Summit production over the Shaw Festival’s own version of the play. I thought the acting was great all around, but the main male lead had a great stage presence – he stumbled on a line or two, but was a compelling character. The play runs for another week, so if you are local to NE Ohio, I recommend getting out and seeing it (and those in Mrs. Riordan’s classes get extra credit for doing so!).

On Wednesday, Mer and I got to go out with our friends Zach and Londa. We were going to see David Wilcox on the opening night of the Kent State Folk Festival. We decided to grab some food before the concert, so Zach suggested going to Chipotle. I had heard of Chipotle before, but had never been. A friend of mine described it as “the Subway of Mexican food,” which was pretty accurate. They take the same idea as Subway (you tell them how to assemble it), and apply it to burritos. It was quite good. I suspect a quick-burrito place across the street from Kent State does very well.

After Chipotle, we went to Starbucks, where I remembered I was boycotting them (because they sure seem to be violating labor law to me), so I watched Zach and Londa get various coffee-related drinks, which we took to the Kent Stage. At the Kent Stage, I was able to get a hot chocolate, so I was quite happy.

The show for the evening was David Wilcox, but there was an opening act of two women playing guitars. Not only could they play well, but they had great harmony. Mer will remember their names for me – I’ll have her add it later [will do:  VA Dare, I think].

David had a great show. He sang for over two hours without taking a break. His storytelling was both funny and meaningful, and he appeared to be having a great time on stage (he laughed a lot). He did many of his more spiritual songs (like “Farthest Shore” and “That’s What the Lonely is For“) while still throwing in some funny stuff (like “The Waffle House Tango“). It was a very fun evening, AND it was on a Wednesday. Talk about being wild – out past 11:00 on a school night!

It is currently 38 degrees and cloudy and a Sunday. The cats very much have the right idea…

The only slight problem is now there is no room for ME on the couch.