Lavish Ohio continued on Tuesday, but in a slightly unusual way. Ellen, who was on spring break, came with us to CVCA for the day to visit Meredith’s classes. If that were not enough, Meredith even had Ellen speak in her two AP classes on how the AP exam is graded, since Ellen has spent some time grading AP exams.

We did try to make it up to Ellen, at least in part. My running partner Jason knew that Ellen was in town, and as the Vice President of CVCA, he wanted to take her to lunch to pick her brain on how Ellen sees teaching English. CVCA is an excellent school, but we still don’t get (essentially) PhDs coming though every day. As an unexpected bonus, Jason took me and Mer along for lunch as well. We had some excellent Mexican food at Mariachi’s restaurant nearby, and we had about an hour-long conversation about teaching and English and the like. It was a nice time, and productive.

After school, I ran with Jason, and we both had pretty bad runs. We both blamed the late lunch, but it may also have been the 20-mile run on the previous Saturday. At any rate, we ran 8 difficult miles, and then I took a shower.

Mer came home, and so we ate supper and watched more Bleak House. But, since Ellen likes ice cream and has a fondness for custard (rich soft serve), we had arranged to meet Nate and Rachel at their house, and head over for custard at Strickland’s. Strickland’s is a local chain that makes custard; they always have chocolate and vanilla, plus two special flavors that rotate every few days. We drove down to Nate’s, and then followed Nate and Rachel to Strickland’s. While we were reading the menu, some firemen invited Nate’s young son to check out the fire truck, so Nate and his son wandered over. Since I had a decent excuse, I followed along. I like trucks too.

After the truck pulled away, we ordered custard, and Ellen proclaimed hers to be quite good. We all ended up sitting in our car to visit, as the evening was quite cool. The windows fogged up pretty seriously, but the company  was fine. Once we finished eating, we said goodbye to Nate and Rachel, and we headed home.

Wednesday was another dissertation-writing day for Ellen. Mer and I went to work, and Ellen stayed home and worked. I had to stay late to coach my improv group, but then Mer and I were able to go home together and collect Ellen (and rescue her from her computer and books). We drove about 15 miles to the Furnace Run metro park, and we hiked along the Daffodil Trail. Ellen likes flowers, so I thought she should see this trail that has lots of daffodils planted along it. The trail itself is easy, and only 0.6 miles long. The daffodils were all up out of the ground, but only about 10% were in bloom – we were about a week early to see them in full bloom. Still, Ellen seemed to like it, and Mer and I are fond of the metro parks, so we had a pleasant walk.

After the tromp through the flowers, we headed into the Valley to the town of Peninsula. Peninsula is a very cute town on a river, in a valley, and so it seems as close to a New England town as I have seen in Ohio. In Peninsula, we parked at the entrance to the Towpath Trail, and then we walked the short distance back into town to the Winking Lizard restaurant. The Winking Lizard is a beer-and-ribs place, but they have lots of good and hearty food. Ellen did tackle some ribs, but we left the brews on tap.

Thursday was the exciting day of Lavish Ohio. A few months ago, I had received an e-mail newsletter from Heather Dale, who is a Canadian folk artist I am very fond of. In the newsletter, she announced she was making up a Midwest U.S. tour, and she was looking for locations to have a house concert. On a whim, I sent in an e-mail saying I was interested, and after a few e-mails back and forth, Heather Dale was coming to my house on April 1st to do a house concert! Amazing.

I took the day off to tidy the house and to cook a ton of food. One of the things I was encouraged to do as a house concert host was to provide snacks, and to provide food for Heather and her partner/guitar player Ben. So, I spent the day making four loaves of bread, a huge pan of chocolate-peanut-butter bars, two pans of brownies, and two pizzas. I also had Mer buy sodas and fruit drinks, and chips and Oreos, and our friend Lesa was bringing stuffed grape leaves. Long after the concert was over, I realized I had forgotten to set out the chips and Oreos. Ooops.

Anyway, Heather and Ben showed up around 5:00, and are wonderfully friendly people. Heather is very gracious, and Ben looked at my instrument collection and offered to make some minor adjustments to my guitar. It turns out that Ben has advanced degrees in English with a focus on medieval studies. So, Ben and Ellen hit it off wonderfully. In an amusing/depressing moment, Ben joked that he left academia for the steady income of a folk singer. Anyway, Mer and Ellen and Ben and Heather and I all had pizza and chatted.

The guests for the concert started arriving at around 7:00 (for a 7:30 concert start). We ultimately had about 27 guests, about 2/3s of which were CVCA folks, and about 1/3 were Heather fans who had seen the concert listed on her website. I was touched that my friends would come out and support me, and I was very pleased to see Craig come at intermission from a service project, with 4 students in tow. The house concert was fairly packed.

Heather and Ben gave a magnificent concert. The music was lyrical, and Heather has a great voice. It turns out that she is also a great storyteller, and she used body language and gestures to act out the song she was singing. She always had a smile on her face, and just glowed with the joy of making music. I was also impressed that as Heather started the concert, she said hi to everyone and then proceeded to rattle off everyone’s name; she had not only made an effort to meet everyone, she had learned everyone’s name as well.

Anyway, the evening was a huge success. Mer and I bought two CDs we did not have, and I also bought a song book so we can play and sing Heather’s music at home. Heather and Ben stayed the night with us (it helps cut their costs), and Heather was gracious enough to sing a duet with Meredith at the table after everyone had gone. It was simply beautiful – Heather and Mer have similar ranges, so they blended beautifully. They sang the Christmas song “Coventry Carol,” which is one of Mer’s favorites and which Heather had recorded on a Christmas CD. After they were done, Heather got out of her chair and gave Mer a big hug and Ben expressed how they should have put that in the show. We talked and laughed (and Ben fixed my guitar) until after 12:00. What a great evening, and I hope that Heather and Ben can come back through Ohio soon.

Lavish Ohio was being lavish indeed.

This last week was spring break vacation four our friend Ellen. Ellen lives in Michigan, and is trying to finish up her doctoral dissertation in English. I can only assume that the stress of writing a large document like that is leading her to make bad decisions, because, with our invitation, she decided to spend her spring break with us. In Ohio.

Since I am always selfish and want all of my friends to live near me, I decided to create Lavish Ohio ™, and show off what NE Ohio has to offer. I had good success at showing off Ohio two years ago when Shannon, Jolene, and James came out, so I was pretty confident that I could help Ohio make a favorable impression.

Ohio helped me out a lot on its own. Ellen was here from Friday evening (the 26th) through today (the 4th), so she was here part or all of 10 days. For most of those 10 days, the weather was amazing – we actually had sun, and temperatures in the latter part of the week were in the 70s (and one day in the 80s). Of course, I told Ellen this was poor weather for Ohio, and it is usually much better. I don’t think she bought it.

Ellen got to our place around 5:00 on Friday. Meredith had made a casserole (very yummy, but with a consistency of a thick stew), so we ate and caught up with Ellen. I had mulled over taking Meredith and Ellen to see a play in Cuyahoga Falls, but by the time we were done eating, we would have been hard pressed to make it on time. Plus, Ellen and Meredith were both fairly tired, so I modified my Lavish Ohio ™ plan on the fly. I had made my chocolate-peanut-butter bars for dessert, so I grabbed those and we headed over to the Churchills’ place.

Yes, I invited myself over unannounced, but the Churchills are very gracious people, and I was bearing a copious amount of dessert. I was hoping that would make up for any shock at seeing us on their doorstep. Zach and Londa took it in stride and seemed very pleased to see us. They took warmly to Ellen, and we sat around and ate, talked, and laughed for a little over an hour. It was a friendly and mellow introduction to Ohio for Ellen, and I was pleased that Zach and Londa got to meet Ellen.

Saturday was a mellow day with a big evening planned. I went running with Nate and Jason in the very early morning, and by the time we got back, Meredith and Ellen were awake. I introduced Nate and Jason to Ellen, who determined that three very tired and sore men were not the best advertisement for running as a fun hobby. Nate and Jason headed home, and I showered. Once I was ready, I took Mer and Ellen to a new local restaurant, Off the Wall. They use local Kent State artists to decorate the restaurant, and we had a very good brunch there.

We spent the rest of the early afternoon being mellow. Ellen had brought a DVD collection of the BBC’s version of Charles Dickens’s Bleak House. We watched the first hour of the eight-hour series, and Mer and I were quickly hooked – good plot with very good characters.

I (sort of) had to work Saturday night – it was the CVCA Auction, which is CVCA’s biggest fundraiser of the year. I needed to be on hand to make sure the technology worked well – the auction uses computers to process credit cards and to keep track of bids and the like. The organizers of the auction always let me bring Meredith along, and that makes for a fun evening. We bought Ellen a ticket, so she was able to come as well. I had to be there at 4:00 to make sure things were ready for training the volunteers on the computers, and Meredith and Ellen showed up shortly after the doors opened at 5:00.

The theme for this year was “Under the Sea,” and the decorating people did a great job. It is remarkable when you can turn school hallways and gyms into pleasant dining areas, but the auction folks manage to do this every year, and this year they really did a great job. I was very impressed. The food was heavily seafood-based, but I managed to find chicken and potatoes that were very good (I am picky and am not overly fond of seafood).

Mer, Ellen, and I were seated at a table made up of auction referees – if two people want a silent auction item, the refs can step in and have a mini auction for those people. The refs were all CVCA people, and fun ones to have at a table. We had Dubbs and her sister, Nate and Rachel Gurnish, and Jay Tyree (the Athletic Director). There were students waiting on the tables, so we had a good time talking with them, and there were a lot of CVCA teachers and staff about to chat with as well.

The evening went smoothly from my perspective – only a few minor glitches that were easily taken care of. Mer had a good time bidding on a few items – she always tries to pick up a few gift cards to restaurants and/or to theaters, since we can make good use of those. She picked up $220 worth of gift certificates for $100, so she had a good evening. I think Ellen had a good time – there was good food, and Meredith kept her company for much of the evening when I was needed for computer things. Ellen managed to resist buying anything, but I still think it was a decent Day 2 of Lavish Ohio ™. Mer and Ellen left a little after 9:00, and I was able to get home at 10:00 or so myself.

Sunday was the most mellow day of the Lavish Ohio ™ week. We went to the second service at our church. Normally, we go to the first service, but we had been out late the might before with the CVCA Auction, so we slept in. Also, there was a short practice for the upcoming Good Friday service, which Mer and I were a part of, getting to read some Scripture passages. Ellen got to meet our pastor, Ken, and had a good talk with him while we practiced. We got home about 1:00, and the rest of the day was devoted to rest, puttering, eating, and Bleak House.

Mer and I still had to work, so Monday we went off to CVCA and left Ellen to work on her dissertation. One of the ways Mer and I were able to get Ellen to come out to Ohio was the promise of several uninterrupted days to work on the dissertation. So, our having to leave for work was not a bad thing. I got home about 3:30, but then went running, so Ellen was able to work until almost 5:00. By them, Mer was home, and we ate more casserole (that was now behaving itself and had firmed up) and watched more Bleak House. Mer wanted me to help her grade a few projects at CVCA (she likes a second opinion on visual projects), so the three of us headed over to CVCA. Lavish Ohio indeed. Mer was able to show Ellen her room while I looked over the projects. It only took about 20 minutes, so then we took Ellen around CVCA and gave her the tour of the school Ellen liked the technology resources we have and decided she would apply for a computer projector and Smart board for her classroom when she got back.

To make up for dragging her to school, we drove over to Handel’s Ice Cream. Ellen is very fond of ice cream, and Mer and I think Handel’s has the best ice cream around, so it seemed like a good fit. Ellen did say it was excellent ice cream, although I am suspicious that anyone could make an educated judgment based off a small cone. Just sayin’.

Anyway, it was a fine, albeit slow, start to Lavish Ohio ™. Happily, the rest of the week was pretty packed, and coincided with the really spectacular weather as well.