Last Friday Mer and I had tickets to go to Actors’ Summit Theater (where else?). So, I dug out my Date Day reserves and took Mer to San Francisco Pizza Oven in Hudson.

San Francisco Pizza Oven is a decent enough place to eat. It is not going to win any awards on charm, but the food is usually decent and it was striking a chord last Friday. We ordered our food (Mer – ziti, me – bbq chicken panini), and I got a hot chocolate. Since the restaurant is SF-themed, they use Ghirardelli’s chocolate in their hot chocolate. I figured it had to be good. Boy, was I wrong. It was about 800 degrees hot, and completely tasteless. I do not know if they put the “small” amount of chocolate in the “large” cup, but it was pretty bad stuff. Do not get hot chocolate there!

The food was very tasty, although my modest sandwich was fairly late in coming out to the table, for whatever reason. Mer’s food was hearty and good (she let me try some). Happily, because of the delay in the food, the waitress gave us a coupon for a free sandwich for the next visit. Yes, we can be bribed with food.

We made our way the very short distance to the playhouse, where we got to see The Year of Magical Thinking. Magical Thinking is a one-woman show about the author trying to cope with the sudden death of her husband and the constant illness of her daughter, who dies a little over a year after the husband. The play was quite well written and very well acted (the poor actress had a ton of lines with no one to help). The theme of loss and grief is pretty universal, and so I should have been into this play, and yet I was not.

I’ve tried to figure out why. I think it is lots of reasons. It was a Friday and so I was tired from work. The play dealt openly with emotions and internal thoughts, which Mainers and especially Riordans do not do. My world view and the author’s are wildly different. The author feels she can fix and control everything, and I can relate to that – maybe we are too similar. Maybe I don’t like to deal head-on with death. For whatever reason (and maybe all of these and more), the play just made me feel impatient and failed to capture my attention or emotions. It should have, but it did not. There you are.

Continuing about last Saturday, it was Valentine’s Day, and we actually had a date plan! A coworker had tickets to see Lord of the Dance in Cleveland, but could not use them, so she gave them to me. They were in the nose-bleed seats, but that is actually good for a show big on spectacle and low on dialogue – you can see the entire stage at once, and that makes for a fine show.

A few days after we got these tickets, a student of Meredith’s approached her and mentioned the show. He said he thought I would like it, and wondered if we would like to double date with him and his CVCA girlfriend, who is also a student of Meredith’s and is a founding member of the Ceili Club. We were both very flattered and readily accepted. How many students think it a good and romantic time to hang out with adults, let alone teachers? Since we had tickets, Matt and Lauren (the students) would be sitting in a different area for the show, but that would give them some space on Valentine’s Day; we agreed to go out to dinner first and we would all ride in our car to Cleveland, so we would still get to spend lots of time together.

The funny thing about the evening was that it was a surprise day for Lauren – Matt planned the whole thing and Lauren knew nothing about it. Again, a risky move of surprising your girlfriend with a double date with teachers.

Mer and I called ahead to Texas Roadhouse where we had agreed to all meet. Texas Roadhouse does not take reservations, but you can put your name on the waiting list via phone. So, when we got to the restaurant, we only had about a 10 minute wait (there was about an hour wait already at 4:15!).

We walked through the door of the restaurant and Matt and Lauren were already there waiting. Lauren’s face lit up – she was really excited to see us. Again, most gratifying and flattering. We decided to wait just outside the doors of the restaurant since things were so crowded. We chatted and I took a photo. It turns out that part of Matt and Lauren’s romantic day had started with a training run with the cross country teams that morning (Matt and Lauren are both runners). Somehow, I suspect that Mer would not be too thrilled if I suggested starting out any Saturday like that, let alone Valentine’s Day.

We had a pleasant dinner. While Texas Roadhouse has a wonderful way with all things meat related, their desserts are skimpy and not appealing (I think they have three choices). Since we were doing okay on time, we decided to swing by the house to condense down to one car, and then head over to Handel’s for ice cream (and yes, it was February and butt-cold; that is what car heaters are for).

Post ice cream, the trip to Cleveland was uneventful except for a search for the directions that included going back to the house (we found them in Mer’s seat – she accidentally sat on them and could not feel them through her enormous coat). We had been joking all evening about going to see a monster truck rally to throw Lauren off the scent. It turns out that we did not have to worry – Lauren had never heard of Lord of the Dance, but she was excited to see it when she found out that it involved lots of Irish dancing.

My only sadness of the whole evening was that the gallery that houses my favorite sculpture, Melody, was actually open, but we did not have time to go in and see the statue. Next time.

We agreed upon a meeting place for after the show, and we each went to our seats. As I mentioned, our seats were way up in the third balcony. It was a little fear-inducing for me because of the height, but the view of the stage and then the show was fine. The show was great! The Lord of the Dance does have a plot – the good Lord of the Dance, aided by a guide, must fight off the evil dancer who is challenging him. It is pretty straightforward, but it does make for a tighter show (plot-wise) than Riverdance. I think I like Riverdance slightly better because it showcases more musicians, and seems as if it has more dancing. It’s pretty close. Anyway, I enjoyed the show very much. I was amused by the four lead dancers (the Lord of the Dance, the evil guy, the good girl, and the evil girl). They were excellent dancers, but since they were in charge of their squads of dancers (as part of the plot), they spent a lot of time strutting around the stage pointing and gesturing while the chorus dancers danced their hearts out. The leads all had solo dances and also took part in the big dances, but it sure seemed as if the leads danced less (or at least not more than) the chorus dancers.

We all met back up after the show, and Lauren got an usher to take some pictures. Sadly, I did not bring my camera for fear it would not be allowed in the venue, but Lauren had hers in her purse. Lauren and Matt both liked the show very much. We had to wait a bit to get out of the parking garage, but once out we made it home with no incidents. It was a very successful evening!

Saturday, as you may have noticed, was Valentine’s Day. In addition, it was “my” day where I could plan anything that I wanted to do. So, what does the master of schmooze and romance do on our national day of love? Hang out with lots of students! And it was much fun, too.

To start the student-intensive day, we headed to a birthday celebration for Zach (a.k.a. “Moops”), which was being held nearby. Moops is a Royal Fool, and so I have known him for a couple of years. His mom is also a music teacher at CVCA, and so I have known her for about 5 years. Mer pointed out that it is pretty neat that we feel comfortable hanging out with either the parents or the students. Anyway, I digress.

We first struck out for Hudson to get Moops a birthday present. It seemed natural to guess what he might like – a teenaged male could not dislike food! So, we headed to the nearest Panera and picked up a gift card. We were waited on by a CVCA student, so we got an additional student appearance in on the day.

Supplied with our gift, we headed to Kendall Hills park where the party was being held. It was supposed to be a sledding (“sliding,” in Maine) party, but the two-plus feet of snow we had two weeks ago is now gone. So, it turned into an eat-and-hike party.

It was a surprise party, so Moops was not there when we arrived. There was a warm and roaring fire in a large barrel to keep us warm, so the waiting was not a problem. There were several students that Mer and I knew, and Moops’s parents and grandparents were there, so we had a good time waiting for the birthday boy.

He showed up with his girlfriend, who was the one to dream up an excuse to come to a park on a lightly snowing day (I think she told him they were meeting her sister and then going to lunch). Moops seemed quite surprised. Food suddenly appeared in the form of chips and pizza. We ate and talked, and then we each got a cupcake with a candle on it to blow out. I guess Moops is so old he needs help with his candles! It was a fun and tasty twist on a cake.

We then took a hike of about a mile around the park. When I say “we,” I mean the students took off ahead while we cleaned things up a bit, and then we (Moops’s parents and Mer and I) followed at a distance. The snow was not heavy and was not accumulating; it just made things pretty. We tromped around for about a mile or so and made a loop back to the fire. We talked for a few minutes more, but then Mer and I had to leave for part two of the evening. I’m glad Moops was able to host us for his birthday – food and fellowship and hiking makes for a good time.

 Friday night was the first-ever off-site, non-CVCA-venue Fools show. After the first Fools show of this year, back in December, a CVCA alum (and wife of a CVCA teacher) approached me and asked if we would mind being the entertainment for their church’s Valentine’s Day get-together. I was surprised, but quickly said I would think about it and run it past the students. They were pretty excited about the idea, and so we landed an extra show for this year.

I also now have an assistant coach. One of the Founding Fools asked if she could come back and help coach. Since the Fools group is now 10 members, I accepted the offer – it will allow me to split the group in half and get the individual students more stage time in practice. Mer and I gave the new coach, Clarice, a ride to the show. We chatted about coaching things and got to the church about 6:00, with the doors opening at 7:00 and the show starting about 7:15 or so.

Our friends had done a great job – the basement fellowship hall of the church was looking pretty classy. There was black fabric hung around with white lights draped behind them. There were about 10-12 tables in the hall covered with black tablecloths and candles. At the front of the hall there was a small stage that was in the shape of a T – a broad back portion with a small thrust stage sticking out. The stage was about six inches off of the floor and was made of bouncy plywood. There was a small office on one side of the stage that we were allowed to use as a hang-out room (a green room), as well as for an isolation chamber for the various guessing-game improv skits. Finally, and amazingly for us, there were two small red-tinted spotlights illuminating the stage. It was a nice set-up.

The various Fools showed up by 6:15 (except for one who was stuck in traffic), so we went over stage notes. People started trickling in about 6:45, and so we found a room in the upstairs of the church where we could warm up. We headed back down to the fellowship hall around 7:00, and we ensconced ourselves in the “green room” until we were given the thumbs-up at about 6:15.

The room was pretty full – probably about 60-70 people. It appears the Fools have a bit of a cult following – we did not advertise this show at all at CVCA, but there were still about 25 CVCA people in the audience, including a fair number of students. The crowd was very enthusiastic and was much fun to play to. They needed some extra prompting to give us suggestions to get scenes going, but I think that is due to not being familiar with improv shows and how they work.

The show itself went pretty well. There were only a couple of games that either lagged or went long. Since we played a total of 14 games, that is a pretty good percentage! We had several crowd-roaring moments, and most of the show was laugh-worthy (in a good way). Some highlights:

– a “new choice” where a basement was infested with a dinosaur
– a super-fast “interrogation” where the criminal nailed that she had stolen paper clips with Rapunzel in the White House
– a “genre rewind” where the character had a sore tooth and a crazy dentist and had to perform the scene as opera
– a “good, bad, and ugly advice” where one character was a nasally geek/nerd
– a “musical chairs” where a man forgot to get his girlfriend a diamond ring for Valentine’s Day, and settled on getting glass rings instead, and they ended up in a zoo in China
– a “political debate” that got my friend Nate on stage (since he goes to the church and works at CVCA), where we debated belly button lint and number two pencils

The show did have a half-hour intermission, so I don’t think it felt too long. We went about an hour and fifteen minutes (I think).

After the show, we headed over to the house of one of the Fools – she lived only a few blocks away and invited us back for pizza. 7 of the 10 Fools could make it, and so we caravaned the short distance over. Clarice, Mer and I ate pizza and chatted with a couple of parents and grandparents upstairs while the Fools headed to the basement. After we finished eating, Mer and I and Clarice headed downstairs to see what was up. The various Fools were chatting while a couple played Halo on an X-Box. We joined in the small talk, and then I was forced to play Halo for the first time ever, happily against another Halo newbie. I lost 3-2, and it was universally agreed that we were pretty sad players. I then played another Fool at Rock’em Sock’em Robots. I lost that too, so I lost both new school and old school games. I must be getting older.

We’ll have another Fools show back home at CVCA in March. I hope it goes as well as our Friday gig.

Last Sunday was a fairly nice winter day. We had recently gotten another foot of snow, and although some of it had melted, we still had well over a foot of snow. I had called Jim on Saturday to see if he wanted to go trompin’ in the woods. He was game, but had to wait for Sunday. So, Sunday afternoon, Jim and I headed down to the Towpath in the Valley to tromp out to the beaver dam area.

I love the beaver dam walk – it is about a mile to the pond, and I had seen it in spring, summer, and fall, but I had never seen it in winter. It seemed like a good quest to wade through a foot of snow to go see a frozen pond.

I was quite surprised to find that the Towpath had a well-worn path already. It was only four days after the major storm, and the walking was not difficult at all. I guess nature nuts like the beaver pond!

It was a pretty walk, and Jim and I chatted about work and about running (of course). We did come around a corner and see another couple of people ahead on the trail, and when we got to the pond there was a dad with two little girls (who were having a great time throwing snow balls into the mushy top layer of the ice). I was fairly surprised to come across people, especially where it was only a few hours to the Super Bowl, but for much of the outing we had the trail to ourselves.

Jim decided he had to test the ice, so he climbed over the rail on the walkway and held on while he lowered more and more of his weight on to the ice. It did hold, but it had “bad idea” written all over it.

I took a bunch of pictures, and we sat on a bench for a bit and watched the ice. We then headed back to the car. As we drove off, Jim had asked me if I had ever been to the Ledges park, and I said I had. He asked if I had seen the Ice Box Cave, which I had never found, so off we went to see the cave as a bonus.

The Ledges trails were far less packed down. I like the Ledges in that it has  rock outcroppings and a pretty decent forest. I was delighted to see someone had built a snowman on a ledge.

We wound our way down the trail, and Jim guided us to the cave. It was a good-sized crack, and it went back a far amount. Sadly, it was also really dark. Once you got in about 15 feet, you could not continue for the dark. Jim said that it went back another 40 or 50 feet. Next time, I’ll need to bring a flashlight.

We went back to the car and were treated to a pretty sunset. It was a good outing, especially given the immediate couch camping I was going to do to watch the Super Bowl.

Third time is still charming (see below) – Mer and I stayed late at school on Friday for the CVCA Open House. We have two open house programs per year, and it is a chance for the school to show prospective students (and parents) what we offer. Mer (along with another teacher)  was at the school representing the English Department, and I was in the clubs/sports section for Fools and Ceili Club.

Anyway, we got out late (around 7:15), and after a quick change of clothes, we headed back to Mustard Seed Market for dessert and music. As Mer noted, we had not been to Mustard Seed in years (over a decade), and now we had been three weeks in a row. Never too much of a good thing!  In this case, we were going to hear Celtic music, which turned out to be a woman who played recorder, whistles, and guitar, along with a man who played guitar and keyboards. As luck would have it, they took a break just as we arrived, and when they came back after 10 minutes or so they did several numbers that were covers of pop tunes. They finally came around to several Celtic tunes that were very good, and that made for a fun time. When you add in excellent desserts, all is well. I had some chocolate-and-TONS-of-whipped-cream French dessert that was good (although I would get it with no strawberry sauce next time), and Mer got a very light-tasting cheesecake with chocolate sauce. I also added a peanut butter shake for good measure, and it was okay, but I liked the chocolate shake I had tried last week better. Still, good music and good food – Mer said if you’d added the Irish drum she would’ve expected pizza (a reference to going out for pizza and Irish music at Martyr’s Bar in Chicago when we still lived there).

Saturday was a very puttery day. Mer got her hair done and I ran and then napped. We listened to Wait Wait.  We headed out in the afternoon to go meet Aunt Mary at her church for a church dinner. We got there about the same time, but the doors were locked and the parking lot was empty – turns out we were a week early! Still, we seized the moment and went looking for a restaurant. Restaurant waiting times continue to defy recession talk. Our first stop was Olive Garden and they had a two-hour wait for a table. We quickly moved on to Macaroni Grill and they had an hour wait. Cheeseburger in Paradise finally came through for us with a 20-minute wait. We had a good meal while getting caught up with Aunt Mary.

I wanted to take Mer to see a movie, so we skipped dessert (for the time being), and we headed over to the cheap theater to see The Tale of Despereaux. We had seen a preview for it and it looked fun. It was. I am a HUGE sucker for fantasy worlds, and the creative minds that came up with Mouseworld and Ratworld were really something. The story was simple and clean and engaging, and it played into my predisposition to believe that people (or mice) can do these huge things. The characters were well drawn, both literally and metaphorically. I really loved this film. Mer was very taken with Ratworld and how creepy it was, and we both liked the mouse teacher who was trying to teach the young mice how to behave like mice.

After the movie, we made a detour to get ice cream at Handel’s. Just because it was freezing cold with a nippy breeze was no reason not to get ice cream!

So, another pleasant weekend in the Riordan household. And we may have a church dinner to go to next weekend!