Last Thursday we had the third Fools’ improv show of the year. I decided it was time to take a risk, and so I got permission to do the show in the chapel/auditorium. The chapel is a much bigger space that what I was used to in the library. The library can hold 80-90 people maximum, and we had been at that level for a few shows – I wanted to try a space that could hold more people. Another plus of the chapel is that it has a real stage. The Fools tend to hit the floor a fair amount in the course of shows, and having people on a stage means the audience can still see you even when you are on the ground. That was always a problem in the library. My biggest concern was sound – the Fools operate unmiked, and I was afraid that we would have trouble projecting in the bigger space.

Anyway, I was pleased with the results. After the show, I talked with about ten different people and they all said sound was no problem. The Fools did indeed hit the floor (in the very first scene, in fact), but everyone could still see them. The energy did not seem to suffer for being on a real stage either – I was afraid that being about 15 feet away from the audience and about 3 feet up on stage might make the audience-Fool connection be strained, but it seemed okay to me. Best of all, the place did not feel empty. The back wings of the chapel can be closed by retractable curtains, which makes a more intimate space that can still hold about 300 people. That could have felt very empty, but we had a new record attendance for a Fools’ show. One of my Fools counted the people while she was off stage, and she counted 102 people. That was very exciting.

Feedback from the show seemed largely positive. It was not just politeness – people told Meredith that it was a good show, and they volunteered the information the next day without being asked. I overheard a couple of people talking to each other about the show and they seemed to be happy with it. Mer thought it might have been our strongest show yet. I think it is safe to say we’ll be back in the chapel again for our last show of the year in May.

During the show, we had:

– A superhero called DanceMan who could not dance

– A man who had married a martian who used to have three heads and had been married to her cousin on Mars

– A dating game with Sean Connery, Jack Bauer from 24, and Jim Carrey

– An answering machine full of messages about all the leaves that were taking over the neighborhood

– A half-life game about learning to ski (including a very impressive 6-second version of the scene)

– A criminal who did not like the Godfather movies

– A taxi driver at Disneyworld who gets killed by a swordfish

– A scene about trying out different pick-up lines

– A musical chairs about a teen accidentally talking in code to a stranger, which led the FBI to investigate her home

– A genre rewind about breaking a vase that got rewound as a musical and a documentary

– A political debate about the merits of hiccups and of waffles

It was a very fun show. I’m looking forward to the next one! 

Last Wednesday was a rare mid-week treat for me and Mer. Ombusdsman was bachin’ it, so he wanted to go out for supper. So, we agreed to “do” Chinese and headed through the Valley to West Akron (actually Montrose) to go to the House of Hunan. Craig had eaten there before and proclaimed it to be quite good, and he was right.

The restaurant was about a third full, and so we got a table right away. We ordered and the food came very quickly (Mer was even still in the bathroom). Craig showed us up be eating with chop sticks in an easy manner. I ordered my Chinese staple, orange chicken (which I’m sure Jo will proclaim as the BEST chicken ever because it is ORANGE!!!). It was quite tasty, and it made Mer happy because it had snow peas and broccoli (she gets an odd satisfaction from seeing me eat vegetables).

We chatted about a bunch of things, including work of course. Since all three of us are at CVCA, it is a natural thing to discourse on. Any extended conversation with Craig tends to be very amusing, so it was a meal well spent – good food and relaxed atmosphere.

As good as Chinese food is, they do not do great (by Riordan standards) desserts, so we skipped dessert at the restaurant and instead made the trip to the Handel’s Ice Cream near our house. Mer and I swapped dessert preferences – she got the Blizzard-like “Hurricane” and I got a hot fudge sundae. Ombudsman got a raspberry-chocolate flavor which he expressed satisfaction over. After we had solved all the world’s problems by chatting in the car over ice cream, we dropped Craig at school so he could get his car, and we headed home. It was a nice way to cheat the week.

Last Sunday, Mer and I went to Weathervane Theater in the Valley to go see A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen. We were meeting several other teachers there – if there are spare tickets available (and it was likely on a Sunday matinee), then Weathervane will sell the tickets to teachers one half-hour before the show for 50% off. So, we happily picked up two tickets for $10.00 each.

Weathervane is a community playhouse, which means it uses community actors. In this particular play, the major bad guy was played by one of our CVCA colleagues (actually, he is the head of the Bible Department, which adds some fun irony when he plays bad guys). I have generally liked productions that I have seen at the theater, so I was looking forward to the outing.

Going into the play, I knew almost nothing about A Doll’s House; I knew it was vaguely about a wife who left her abusive husband. It turns out that is a very overly simple perspective of the play. The play was originally in Norwegian, and this was a relatively new translation by a playwright who did not speak Norwegian. He used several different literal translations of the play, and then updated the language and cut away extra characters that had smaller parts (like the maid and the children).

The play revolved around five characters: a husband and wife, her old school friend who is looking for work, a family friend who is a doctor dying of complications from his father’s venereal disease, and a man who works for a bank that the husband is now about to manage. As the play unfolds, it turns out the wife had borrowed money from the banker who is desperate to keep his job and tries to blackmail the wife. All the events of the play revolve around how this plays out, covering three acts and three different days over a few weeks.

The play was well acted. I liked the main character (the wife) very much. She had a desperate energy that propelled her through the play. The other actors were also very fine. Our colleague did a nice job of playing a threatening and desperate man (the banker).

The writing of the play is very nice. The plot unfolds in an unhurried way, and you do not get to see the true characters of the people involved until the third act. At that point, the two main characters are very complex. The husband who had seemed nice but overly patronizing suddenly reveals that he is a selfish and egotistical character with almost no regard for his wife when the crisis hits. The wife turns out to be stronger than we would have expected, but is equally selfish in her own way. When she explains to her husband that she is leaving him and the children until (in modern terms) she “finds herself,” it reads like a poorly written love-yourself book from the 60s and 70s. And yet you still can see why she does it. There is no one to really pull for and no one to really hate. I guess that is why Ibsen is seen as an important figure in the realist movement.

It was fun to get to see a play with three other teachers (and two other people with them), and I do enjoy seeing people I know act. It makes me feel like part of the “in” crowd. The play went almost three hours, but it did not feel like it. Sadly, Mer and I could not stay for the talk-back portion of the show since we had to get home (I had an evening meeting to get to). Still, it was a worthwhile outing.

Last Saturday was Mer’s date day, and she started off by sleeping in, which I was quite happy about. She then happily took me to breakfast at Friendly’s since we had a two-for-one coupon. Happily full, we made our way back home for a mellow and kitty-rich listening of Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me while we lounged in bed.

Once we were ready to face the day itself, we headed out and ran a few errands. Since one of the errands took us to downtown Akron, we used the excuse to swing by and check out the University of Akron’s Artspace. Artspace is a small gallery where the university displays various student work, and this collection was highlighting work by promising art students. I’m very proud to say that one of my former Fools and a friend of mine has two paintings being displayed (I’m proud even though I had absolutely nothing to do with anything artistic in her life!).

I liked Artspace. It was small, but it still held about 40 works. They were mostly paintings, but there were a few sculptures and some photographs. There were abstract and modern works and there were more traditional works, but I liked them very much. Obviously I was biased towards Michelle’s (my friend’s) work, which was a painting of her sister as a sort of dryad with her hair tangled in the branches of a tree, and a painting of a fallen native American surrounded by various animals (with just a touch of the fantastic about it). Above and beyond my bias though, there were some other works that were very good. There was a simple painting of a tree that was excellent – lots of black paint layered up to produce textures of the tree – well done. There was a thought-provoking painting of a woman sitting on the floor holding a small glass globe where inside was a woman holding what appeared to be a bloody knife. What struck me was the larger woman’s expression – it was kind of glazed over – almost bored. I also liked a paining of a winter scene where a woman was tied to the wrists of another man, and she was blindfolded. Mer was disturbed by the picture, as was I, but I liked the color and the rendering of the woman’s expression on her face (she was obviously scared). Mer and I both liked a whimsical painting of a bunch of fantastical monsters at play (with two licking ice cream). That was a fun piece. So, Artspace was a big hit! Oh – Mer and I were both able to identify Michelle’s work without reading the placard. That made us happy.

After Artspace, Mer took me to an early supper at the ubiquitous Olive Garden. We had a nice supper on our gift card, and even took home food for lunch on Sunday.

We went home and quickly got ready for the main event of Saturday. I had been happily given 12 free tickets to take some CVCA students (mostly members of the Irish Dance club) to go see Summit Choral Society’s “Parade of Irish Music” at the Akron Civic Theater. I love the Civic Theater. It is a wonderful 1920s theater that is pretty much garish in its over-the-top ornamentation of the entire space. For some reason it works. There is gold leaf and fancy woodwork and all sorts of classical statues everywhere, and I just love it. The best part of the theater’s decor is the ceiling – it is a sky, with lights as stars and clouds that really move across the sky. I have never come up with a good explanation of how the clouds work. What a wonderful theater.

We had good seats – our group was on the right-hand side of the theater, about 12-14 rows back. That put us over by the small but excellent band the Choral Society brought in. They had a keyboard, pipes, whistles, a hammer dulcimer, a bodhran (Irish drum), normal drums, guitar, and fiddle. The director said these musicians do not normally play together, but they had a great sound.

The Choral Society did a bunch of songs. The started with three pieces from the Irish church, and followed that with a drinking song (and probably said much about Ireland right there!). They sang dance songs and ballads, and even had a sing-along in the second half. They had a smaller group that performed several songs from Riverdance during the second half as well, including a song that we do not have on our CD of Riverdance (a song about freedom from poverty, where the lead was sung by a powerful tenor who was black – nicely done). It was great.

They also invited along a school of Irish dance, in full costume. I think that is what my students liked best. They were very good. They were mostly girls (there were two guys out of about 30 dancers), and they looked to range in age from about 4 to about 18. They did probably five different numbers or so, and even danced a Ceili (social) dance with some of the members of the Choral Society.

I am not always a shy person, and so I talked to the pipes player during intermission. He was very nice and took the time to show me his pipes. He was playing the Highland small pipes, which are played like the traditional Scottish bagpipes, but are smaller and are played with a bellows driven by the elbow (as opposed to breathing into a bag as one would with the traditional pipes). He also gave me the name of a man in Cuyahoga Falls who builds the very cool Irish bagpipes (the Uilleann pipes). I love talking with musicians.

The kids seemed to enjoy the evening, and they were very well behaved. It was, once again, a very fine day.

Last Saturday was “my” Saturday – a Saturday where I was in charge. Mer and had a leisurely morning; I blogged and Mer slept in, and then we listened to Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me from bed. Recently, our public radio station moved Wait Wait from 1:00 back to 11:00, and so it makes it possible on very lazy mornings to listen from the comfort of a cat-laden bed.

After Wait Wait, Mer wanted to get her hair cut, and since it was a beautiful day I went running. I ran about 4.7 miles at a fairly slow pace. I was tired (it was my sixth day in a row for running), but I enjoyed the sun and I listened to part of Sense and Sensibility on my iPod (from the *free* website Lit2go, from the University of South Florida!).

After we both got back (and I showered), I took Mer to lunch at a local hole-in-the-wall, Hamburger Station. It is a small diner that mostly serves burgers and fries, and they are pretty cheap. The burgers are “sliders” – small hamburgers that are only 99 cents. I had two and a pretty good bunch of fries, while Mer got one burger and some chili cheese fries.

Since we had both recently had the ice cream bug, I took Mer to Handel’s ice cream for dessert. I really do love Handel’s – I think they have the best ice cream stand going (although Ben and Jerry’s is pretty fantastic in the store-bought variety). I bought a couple of Thin Mint Girl Scout Handel pops to take home, in addition to our eat-there ice cream. It was quite satisfying.

We went home and I took my usual weekend nap. That got me well rested for the evening’s main event. We got in the car and drove the 90 minutes to Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania. We had two former students with roles in Grove City’s production of My Fair Lady, and the tickets were free, so we went to see it.

I really like My Fair Lady. I think it is an interesting and funny musical. I love the characters; Higgins is wonderfully rude, and Mr. Doolittle is just plain funny, and Eliza is a great character that you pull for. I enjoy the songs very much, and the dialogue is fun.

Grove City did a great job with this play. They had a huge cast (probably upwards of 40 students) and a full pit orchestra. The pit at Grove can be raised and lowered, so the orchestra was just slightly below the stage, which forced the sound up rather than out, which made the lyrics easier to hear. The stage crew had built a 3-foot-wide “U”-shaped thrust around the pit, which led to some breath-holding dance numbers where I was afraid the actors were going to fall. Off to one side was an impressive opera house facade and on the other was a pub facade. The great bulk of the main stage was taken by a three-level set, that was mostly used for the interior of Higgins’s house. It was a tremendous set.

My friend Kevin is a junior at Grove, and he got to play the old English bachelor, Colonel Pickering. He did a great job at it – he even grew a beard (which was colored grey); I have never seen Kevin unshaven, let alone hirsute. Mer’s former student Austin (a freshman) played a drunken friend of Mr. Doolittle. That looked to be a fun role – lots of revelry. The other actors were very fine, and the sound was excellent. It was a good time, and since Mer gave extra credit to students to go see it (since it is based on a Shaw play that she teaches), we got to see a number of CVCA students, and even a few alumni were at the show as well.

My Fair Lady is a long play, coming in at just under three hours. It was a tribute to the show that the evening did not drag at all, and I only got antsy just before intermission. It was worth the price of admission (and even the three hours of driving).

Sometimes, it is good to spread out holiday cheer. To this end, we went to Aunt Mary’s last week to celebrate our Riordan-Aunt Mary Christmas in March. For many reasons, the actual holiday season is very busy for us, and we tend to put it off for awhile. Last year, I think we celebrated in May or June. Christmas came earlier this year.

Mer and I went to New Baltimore first to go to church, and it happened to be the first Sunday on which the church expansion was officially open (it had passed inspection). Since we had broken ground on the building almost five years ago, this was not a trivial thing. After the service, we all went to the new building to celebrate by chatting and visiting and eating tasty desserts (cookies, cakes, cinnamon rolls, and so on). Church and food was a good start to the day and put us in a festive mood.

We met Aunt Mary at her house, ad then she took us out to Macaroni Grill, where we feasted on their wonderful fresh, warm bread and ate good Italian food. Mer was the more temperate this time, and brought some food home. After our second repast of the day, we headed back to Aunt Mary’s home for the gift exchange. It was a cold day, so Aunt Mary added to the festive nature by lighting a fire. Mer quickly ensconced herself on the hearth for the rest of the visit.

We chatted and exchanged gifts. Aunt Mary has a touch of Riordan in her – she gave me a Red Hat Society cookbook, and put on a red hat (not related to the group) while doing so. She is well aware that I find the Red Hat Society vaguely creepy, and she smiled the whole time while I opened that gift. Mer and I got some chocolate and a beautiful picture book on the Cuyahoga Valley and a framed picture of a photo taken in the valley and some other things. Aunt Mary seemed genuinely pleased at her amber earrings that Mer had picked up while we were in the DR last summer. We also gave her a CD of old-time gospel music and a DVD of Casablanca which somehow Aunt Mary had never seen.

One of the wonderful things about delaying a holiday is that it gives us a great excuse to get together. Christmas in March was a fine afternoon.

Saturday the seventh was a busy day in Riordan household. Actually, it was much busier than anyone who has households (in the plural) has a right to, but we keep being blessed with social outings anyway. Mer came up with a scheme that gives us a little spending money (basically, any money left over from buying groceries can be used for fun things), and she took me out all day.

We started with a gift-certificate-funded lunch at the Olive Garden. Mer likes the Olive Garden because she can get the unlimited soup, and she likes the hearty soups and breadsticks that they serve. I got soup and a pizza, which I was restrained with and only hate half of (Mer and I split the rest a few days later).

We then headed to Akron, to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, to see a musical called The Law of Love. It was a musical version of The Good Samaritan story form the Gospel of Luke, and they did a pretty nice job. There was a CVCA student in the production (playing Jesus!) whom Mer and I both know and are fond of, so that was a treat. I approved of the musical. The music was good, and they told the story in an interesting but not preachy way. Too often (in my opinion) when stories from the Bible get retold they come across as stiff on one end or patronizing on the other. The Law of Love managed to avoid either of these extremes. While I do not think it was world-class theater, it was very good amateur-level theater, and I enjoyed the entire production. There were several magnificent singers: our student who played Jesus, a baritone playing a lawyer, and a wonderful black woman playing the Good Samaritan were all excellent. As a nice bonus, the play was a benefit for a community help organization that helps the home-bound, and the event was made up of actors of many Protestant denominations and Catholic churches. It was nice to see churches coming together like that to help the needy.

We went back home briefly for supper, and then we headed to Woodridge High School, which is one of the public schools in our area (only about 5 miles away). We hooked up with our friends Dubbs and Nate to see the school’s production of Into the Woods, which I had never seen. Mer had seen the musical years ago in New York, but was really looking forward to seeing it again. Dubbs had taught as a long-term sub at Woodridge for two years before coming to CVCA, so that was how Mer found out about the production.

The actors/singers and the pit were both excellent. I think they did a really fine job. Sadly, there were some things working against them. The play was put on in the “auditeria” – a combination cafeteria and auditorium. This means the tables were pushed out of the way and we were left sitting on either hard chairs or folding chairs (we were early enough to get hard chairs). Into the Woods is almost three hours long, so sitting on a hard chair like that starts to get to you after awhile. Another issue the kids faced was that the pit orchestra was typically too loud for some of the singers; sometimes you could not hear the vocals. This tied into the last problem: the sound system was flaky. The microphones cut out on all the students at some point, and there were several characters whose microphones never worked at all. Even when the mikes worked, they were not always adjusted well – the lead singer playing the Witch overpowered her microphone several times so that her amplified voice got distorted. It was a shame – the kids were really trying their best and doing fairly well, but it is hard to follow along when the sound keeps cutting in and out. Still, I am glad to have seen the play, if only for cultural literacy purposes.

We all filed out fairly late, and so Mer and I went home and went to bed. After all, we had had a very busy day.

My friend Nate has made the mistake of wanting to run with me when his schedule allows. On this particular Friday (about a week ago), Nate was pretty whupped but still was game to go out and run 4.5 miles with me. As usual, we chatted while running and he mentioned he was going hiking with his wife, Rachel, and their toddler son after we ran. They were then going out to dinner; they had been going to meet up with friends, but the friends had to cancel. So, once we got home, I checked with Meredith, then went to school and found Nate in the locker room. I basically invited myself and Mer along for their hike and supper, and Nate was good-humored enough to agree. So, I ran home and showered; Mer got home and got ready and Nate and Rachel pulled in to the driveway soon after I finished getting dressed. We all piled into Nate’s car and headed over to the Ledges park.

Mer and I have been to the Ledges park before, and this time I remembered to bring a flashlight so we could check out the cave. Nate and Rachel had a cool back-carrier-thing to put their son in, and we all tromped off to find the Icebox Cave. The day was cool, but not cold, and some parts of the park were muddy, but on the whole the ground was still frozen enough to prevent lots of mud.

We found the cave and wandered into it. It was cool to be able to see more of it this time, but I refrained from going in all the way since I could hear sqeaking noises from the far back, and I really did not want to be trapped in a cave that was really a big crack in the rock with a bunch of angry bats. Nate’s son, Jack, was a little disturbed by the cool and dark, but he did pretty well. Coming out of the cave was amazing – it felt like a hot and humid day outside the cave; there was an almost perceptible wall of temperature change just a few feet from the mouth of the cave.

We wandered down the trail more, which was new territory to me and Mer. Rachel knew this area pretty well,  and she showed us a hole in the rock that allows you to crawl to another part of the trail. We passed on that experience since it was damp and we had Jack. She also showed us a small hole that we did try (except Nate, who had Jack) that led to a pretty cool small canyon. Neat-o. We ended the hike by climbing Conservation-Corps-era steps that wound up through the rock. I really like the Ledges park, I must say.

We then piled back into the car and headed to Macedonia to get some supper. We ended up at Outback since Mer and I and Nate and Rachel all had gift cards to the restaurant. Jack was hungry and a little fussy, but cheered up when we procured him some bread. We got a table after about a 20-minute wait, and had some pretty good  food. Jack seemed most interested in eating ice (maybe he has a tooth coming in), and he was really very good until the last 3-4 minutes. Nate took him outside while we paid our bills, and he calmed right down. I guess he really wanted to be outdoors. After the Ledges, who can blame him?

On the first Wednesday of the month, Mer and I and members of the CVCA Ceili Club went to Akron’s branch of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. The AOoH is a group in the U.S. that promotes Irish culture, and yes, this means that there is usually a pub or bar in the building. In the case of the Akron branch, there is a small bar in one room and a large general room next to it. We headed to the large general room, although most of the kids (who came in their own cars) had to be buzzed in through a locked door in the bar, like in Prohibition days. Since the club is supposed to be members-only, all the doors are locked. They let us come since we were going to dance.

That is why we were there, and hope to be there on the first Wednesday of each month. It turns out that the Akron Hibernians have an informal but very excellent ceili band. I have been wanting the kids to dance to live music for some time now, and it turns out we had a band just 15 miles away. The band has been very much wanting to play for dancers, but could not find any. I found them on the internet, and we got in touch. Mer and I checked the place out in February, and I got clearance from the president of CVCA, so I sent information home with the ceili students, which included an invitation to the parents. So, on this Wednesday, we had nine dancers and about eight parents, and various spectators kept drifting in from the bar from time to time.

It was tremendous fun. The band was probably 18 strong and included whistles, fiddles, guitars, an upright bass, mandolins, a ukulele banjo (a new instrument to me), accordions and Irish drums. They had a really great sound. The would play for us while we would dance, and then we would rest and they would play while we took a breather. The kids (and Mer and I) had a wonderful time. There is something different about dancing to live music, and it had been almost 14 years since I had last danced at a live session myself. Everyone was very friendly and hospitable, and we are looking forward to going back. Next time we have even arranged with the band to allow anyone to join us, especially on the easier dances, so maybe we can spread the joy of Irish dancing.

There were a few funny moments from the event – I had a man from the bar wander in and ask me if he could stay and watch. I told him he was most welcome, and he said, “Good! The music in here is much better than the crap they’re playing in the bar!” (They were playing 80s rock in the bar.)

Some of the kids updated their Facebook statuses:

“Mary just went ceili clubbin’.”

“Sarah just talked to a stranger in a bar.” (This occurred when Sarah went for some water in the bar and a lady complimented her on her dancing.)

It was a fun time. If you are in the NE Ohio region and want to dance, come and join us – the first Wednesday of each month (at least during the school year).

So, it has happened once again; I am WAY behind on my blog. I’ll start to correct that with this entry.

Shannon and Jo were kind enough to come out the last weekend in February with the primary purpose of doing me the favor of coaching the Fools. Shannon and Jo both have over 10 years of improv experience (that makes them old), and this was the third time in five years that they agreed to come out and run a special practice for my group.

The actually even came out early to help coach our school’s acting class. The theater guy is a friend of mine, and when he found out that Shannon and Jo were coming out, he asked if they would be willing to teach a class for his students. They agreed, and although the acting class is not about improv, there is enough common ground that Shannon and Jo were able to easily fill 45 minutes. They made the kids think about body language through a series of exercises using different styles of walking; they made them interact in a created space (like an elevator), and they made them think about line delivery through having the students say the same exact line in several different ways. I think they did a pretty good job.

They had more time to work with the Fools – we went from 3:30 to about 5:00, and we had 8 of the 10 Fools in attendance. Shannon and Jo did a really amazing job with the kids, especially with making them work with heightening. Heightening is a concept in improv where you make what is going on “more.” You make the relationship more intense, or you make the location more extreme, or you make the something done or said on stage of immense importance. It is a central concept of improv, and it makes scenes/skits more interesting.

Most of the exercises that Shannon and Jolene worked on were focused on heightening in some way. They made the kids do lots of physical action, which carries energy with it. They made the students start a small action and make it grow bigger, and the student had to remember all the small movements that were going on along with the main motion – it was a great exercise for body control and awareness. They ran the Fools through several games where the goal was to heighten “to the grotesque” (as Shannon put it). This included one-on-one showdowns where the students were trying to make the action of a solo scene more intense each round, and exercises where a particular object or something said was THE most important thing to a character for that scene. It worked really well, and I was impressed; I really wish Shannon and Jo could coach monthly – we would be a tremendous improv group.

After the festivities wrapped up around 5:00, we let Meredith take care of her classroom stuff and then headed out to Akron for supper. I thought it would be fun to take Jo and Shannon to Mustard Seed Market for supper. The Mustard Seed is an all-natural grocery store that also has a cafe, and they occasionally have live music as well. This night (Friday), they did have a solo guitar player/singer who provided nice ambiance music for the dinner. Shannon and Jo both seemed to enjoy their meal, and Jo bought a pound of Fair Trade coffee to go home with. Mer and I bought some cookies, and Shannon had none (he gave up junk food for Lent).

After we got home, Shannon and I took on Jo and Meredith in “It Was a Dark and Stormy Night” – a game about guessing the title of a book or the name of an author based on hearing just the first line of a book. Shannon and I took an early lead, and we were even up by 5-2 at one point (you need to get to 8 books). Sadly, Jo and Mer got 3 lines that actually had the title of the book in the first line, and they ended up winning 8-7. It was sad. On that note, we all went to bed.

Saturday was a nice day, so we headed up to Peninsula,which is the most New-Englandish town in the area. It is a small town in the Valley, and is built around the Cuyahoga River, and the buildings are largely tasteful (in my opinion). We had too much food at a local restaurant, The Winking Lizard. We poked around the small bike shop next door for a little while, and then went home, where Shannon and I napped while Mer graded and Jo read.

Once we were all conscious again, Shannon and Jo and Mer got ready to be all cultured. They were going to Cleveland to hear the Cleveland Orchestra perform several works, including Beethoven’s 7th Symphony. I am not a big fan of classical music, so I decided to stay home and try to download a Superman animated movie from iTunes. That took my whole evening because of various updates and software downloads and the like, and then it turned out that my laptop is too old to show iTunes videos. It was a rather frustrating evening. Shannon and Jo and Mer had a wonderful time. Severance Hall, where the orchestra plays, turned out to be beautiful and a wonderful venue (it was the first time there for all three). The music was excellent, and Shannon was pleased with the Beethoven (apparently the Cleveland Orchestra is known for its performances of Beethoven works). They had a good time, with the exception that Severance Hall is in an area that is thin on restaurants, and so they had no supper.

All in all, it was a good, if quick, visit. This summer I’ll have to work on them coming out for a four- or five-day weekend so we can hit Amish country and other sights (in the never-ending excitement that is touring NE Ohio).