Our friend Brandon was bachin’ it last week, so we invited him over on Monday. I made homemade pizza, which I had not done in a couple of months. It turned out quite well. Brandon is a Batman fan, so we watched a couple of episodes from the 90s Batman: The Animated Series cartoon, which was well received. Mer then made a dessert called “pudgy pies,” which are dessert sandwiches that are meant to be made with special campfire irons. We have a grilled sandwich maker, and so Mer used that and it worked well. The pudgy pies she made were cinnamon bread stuffed with marshmallows, graham cracker crumbs and Nutella spread; they tasted like s’mores and were very good. We then chatted with Brandon, mostly about theater, until about 9:00.

On Tuesday, Mer had organized an outing with students to go play laser-tag. Mer had won a coupon to Laser-Sport at the CVCA Auction a few months ago, and she liked the idea of getting together with students to play. We had about ten students show up. Laser-Sport has a smaller arena, so this number of people worked well. Laser-Sport also forces you to “power up” on a regular basis – you have twenty lives or eighty shots on your gun. When either of those expire, you have to go back to base and recharge.

I decided on a different strategy for this venue than my usual one of stealthy wandering. For both games we played, I stayed on the second level of my home base and sniped people. It was less exciting, but since there were snipers on the other team, I felt as if someone had to cover my team on the floor. So, that is what I did. It seemed to work – our team won both games, and I was the number-one player both rounds. It was a lot of fun, although I do prefer the version of the game where you have unlimited shots and a more maze-like arena.

After the games were over, some of the students invited us to Handel’s for ice cream, to which we happily agreed. Handel’s had slow service that night, but that was okay since we got a chance to catch up with some of our students. Mer and I got home around 10:00, just minutes before a major storm rolled though. We were happy to have missed being out in that storm, but we happier still to have been able to be sociable during the start of the week.

Last weekend we continued the graduation party circuit. We had one party each on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

The Friday party was a double party (two students hosting the party), so it was a pretty big party with lots of students and faculty there. The party was catered with make-your-own burritos, so that was very good eating. After supper, Mer was invited to play euchre, a bridge-like card game, so I wandered to the back of the property to watch some of the high school guys play volleyball. It became apparent they were playing by a modified set of rules since they continued to play after the ball hit the ground. They invited me to play, so I joined in. It is called “smashmouth volleyball” and it is very much like volleyball, except you can hit the ball as many times as you like before getting it over the net, and also the ball is allowed to hit the ground one time (if it hits twice, the point is over). It was a hoot to play. We played three games, and we laughed a lot. After the games, I rejoined Mer, who was done with her card game, and we left shortly thereafter.

Saturday’s grad party was fun as well. We ate well, as we do at these things, and then Mer and I played our first game of cornhole this season. I was leading by as much as nine points, but she came back and won by two. That was disappointing, but I comforted myself by lounging with Mer in a hammock and watching some of the students play badminton. After the party, that evening we spent a quiet time at home, and we watched the movie Moulin Rouge, which I like quite a bit. Mer finds it entertaining, but does not feel particularly sympathetic toward any of the characters, so she does not get into it so much as I do.

Sunday we finished off the weekend with a grad party in Cuyahoga Falls that took us to a park that we had never been to. The city has a large park, part of which is a water park called Waterworks. Our party was at the back of Waterworks, in a large “normal” park that was a pretty setting (the river runs through the park).

Sunday evening, we headed over to a friend and colleague’s house. Matt teachers English and Latin at CVCA, and he is married to a CVCA alumna, Lis. We like them both very much, and Matt is a very scholarly person (he has a PhD in English). Our friend Ellen (who also has a PhD – I know a ridiculous number of people with advanced degrees) loves a Catholic poet from the late 1800s named Hopkins. Hopkins’ poetry is difficult but worthwhile, and Matt likes his work but has not studied it. So, Mer and I went over to Matt and Lis’s house for dinner, and then we discussed Hopkins’ poems for about an hour and a half. Matt and Lis have a very cute daughter who is learning to talk. At one point, Matt said we should turn to the poem “O, Death, Death.” Matt and Lis’s daughter then wandered the room saying “Death…Death” over and over. It was great. We love nerdy children. The Hopkins study went well, and we covered five or six poems. We hope to meet again to go over more material once in July and once in August. That is assuming that Mer and I can still fit out our front door after grad party season.

A few weeks ago I was in the music room, which looks out ground-level at our back yard. I noticed an adorable kitten just outside the window, so I called Mer down. We then looked out the window and discovered there were five kittens and the momma kitty. The momma kitty looked to be the same kitty that had kittens under our porch three summers ago, and she was back with a new family. I had no idea what to do – we certainly did not need five new kittens, but I went outside to see them, which made the momma kitty upset. The next day, I had to free a kitten from being stuck in our porch screen door, and the momma kitty saw that as well. I think she had seen enough, because the next day the kittens were gone.

Fast forward a couple of weeks to last Friday. I was walking to work, and I happened to look over at the back porch of our neighbor’s house. There was a big mound of fur in it, so I went to investigate; it turned out to be the momma kitty and four of her kittens. They all scattered as I got close. One of the kittens went inside through a basement window that was slightly open. That worried me very much. Our neighbor’s house is currently empty (no one living there for the time being), and I was afraid that the kitten might have fallen into the basement of an empty house.  Moreover, as the kitten ran in to the basement, I heard another kitten crying from the cellar. I was afraid they might both die, so I tried to find a way into the house. All the doors and windows were locked, but out of frustration, I pushed on the partially open cellar window. It moved slightly, so after a minute or two of wrangling, I had it open enough to wiggle though and let myself in the basement. It was more or less dark, and I could not find the kittens, so I let myself out through a door and went home and got a flashlight. I went back, and found the first kitten on the sill, sitting among the floor joists. I grabbed her and brought her home while she tried desperately to get away (and she had very sharp claws). I went back and searched hard for the second kitty, and I finally found him on the sill, hiding in the floor joists, but halfway around the basement. I think he had climbed all the way over there and then could not figure out how to get back. I grabbed him as well, and he did not struggle too much – I think he was scared and I’m pretty sure he had been in there for some time, so he may have been weak as well.

So, we now have two adorable kittens living in our guest bedroom. I got tired of not having names for them. I thought the male kitten was an alpha-male because he was big and he was the first to explore the room. The other kitten was clearly a runt and was scared, so I joking called her the omega-kitty. So, we have been calling them Alpha (“Alphy”) and Omega (“Megs” or “Meggie”). This has some irony since it has since become clear that Megs is the bolder of the two kittens, and Alphy is even scared of the mouse toy that Megs plays with. They still won’t let us pet them, but they do both come out while we are in the room, and we can play with Megs using the mouse toy.

I have no idea what we will do with them once they are used to people. I know I will not break them up. We may try to find a nice home for the two of them, but we may also keep them. While we never intended to have more than two cats (and this would bring us to five), they are very cute and I may not be able to give them up.

Last Tuesday, Mer and I met up with our friends Matt and Clarice. We had made plans to go play mini-golf, and we were still going to do that, but since we had made the plans, Matt had proposed to Clarice and she said yes. Matt and Clarice are a great couple, so we were pretty excited about that. Matt proposed to Clarice at the Akron Zoo, and gave her a very cool ring of white gold and a blue stone that comes from China that changes hue dramatically in the light. I am very happy for them.

Clarice and Matt directed us to Downview Golf, which is a mini-golf/driving range/skate park/batting cage complex that is actually owned by the park district of the city. We had no idea that the place even existed. It was a fun and challenging little course, with several pretty artificial water falls. We had a good time, and Mer won the day, although we were all competitive. Mer got the only hole-in-one, and Matt had the best shot of the day where his ball went into a stream hazard on a hole, but unknown to us the stream was designed to carry the ball close to the hole and then spit it back up on to the green. Matt was pretty pleased with that very accidental shot.

After the golf outing, Matt and Clarice took us out to Handel’s for ice cream. We munched on dessert and discussed the upcoming (next spring) wedding and dress options. It was really good to catch up with Matt and Clarice, even if I did not win mini-golf.

The good-time parties continued last weekend. On Saturday, we had three graduation parties, which seemed tame after last week’s five-in-one-day. We had two parties in the afternoon, and one in the evening, and in between we went to the Riverfront Irish Festival in Cuyahoga Falls. Our first party had the wonderful surprise of our being given a gift instead of our giving one away. The girl whose party it was is close to both me and Meredith, and she went on our London trip back in January. As a thank-you, her family had a picture book put together from an online book maker, and they gave us a copy. It came out really well.

After the second party, we headed to the Irish Festival, which is held annually and is free. We stopped and watched some excellent dancers, and then planted ourselves in a tent to hear some music. We started to leave to go hear some other music when we ran into a group of our former students, and so we stopped to talk with them. True to form, shortly thereafter the skies opened up and we fled back to a music tent. It seems as if it rains every time we are at the Irish Festival. The rain stopped after about fifteen minutes, and we made our slow way back to our car to head off to the last party of the evening.

The last party had a number of people we knew at it, and it had copious amounts of good food, so we had a great time. We spent about an hour in a real wood-paneled library talking to one of the owners of the house. She was a good friend of the family who was having the party, so she offered to let the party be at her house. She was fascinating to talk to – she loved theater and knew a bunch of people we know, so we had a good chat (while eating dessert). We closed the party out, leaving about 10:00.

On Sunday, we actually had a party conflict. Most of the time, graduation parties are drop-by sorts of affairs, but on Sunday we had a party that was also a senior recital for a very talented student who was going to showcase her harp skills. Because there was a performance element, the party actually started at a specific time. At the same time, we had been invited to an ex-colleague and good friend’s wedding. We compromised. Mer went to the student recital and I went to the wedding.

Rita used to teach at CVCA, but had become very ill and moved to Florida for her health about seven years ago. She got stronger and moved back to Ohio a couple of years ago, and she recently got engaged to a man who goes to her church. The small wedding was on Sunday, and I was delighted to attend.

Rita went bold, and she had an outside wedding. It was cool and overcast, but it did not rain. The wedding was on the yard of a country club, and it was very pretty. Rita looked beautiful in a simple dress and a mini-veil. The ceremony was relaxed but still formal, and the pastor exhorted the couple to try to live a biblical marriage that was based on love and respect. I was in the last row of the seats, so I had some trouble hearing everything, but I was still pleased to be at the celebration. After the wedding, there was a dessert reception, and I got to talk briefly with Rita. It was very good to see her again.

I understand from Meredith that the recital was very impressive. It’s a pity that we had to have a schedule conflict like that.

Last week was a movie-rich week. On Monday, we were excited that our friend Ami (aka Dubbs), who had recently had ear surgery, was cleared to go out of the house for the first time. We decided it would be fun to go see X-Men: First Class. Dubbs’s sister, Chris, also came along, and in a pleasant surprise, so did our colleague David. David is wry and has an understated sense of humor, so I was happy to see him. The theater had a special on Mondays where a film only cost $5.00, so that was good.

The movie was fun and entertaining. For an old comic book fan such as myself, it was a little disappointing that the movie stayed mostly clear of the original X-Men from the comic. The only original member in the movie was the Beast. Still, the focus was on Professor X and Magneto in their early days, and that was interesting to see. The movie had lots of action, and some pretty good humor. The negatives of the film were weak acting in some places (especially the actress who played Emma Frost), and the fact that the main villain in the film (played by Kevin Bacon) was very Magneto-esque in his mutant-first philosophy. That felt a little overused. Still, I found the film to be a good evening out.

On Tuesday, Mer and I broke out a DVD that I had bought a few months ago called A Midwinter’s Tale. The movie was written and directed by the Shakespearean actor Kenneth Branagh, although he did not act in it. A Midwinter’s Tale is the story of a poor out-of-work actor who decides to put on a production of Hamlet at Christmastime in a rural village. He gets together a group of eclectic actors, and they begin rehearsals. It is wonderfully funny, especially if you love theater. The actors are very British and talk super-fast, so we did not always understand them, but for the most part, the dialogue is fine. I highly recommend A Midwinter’s Tale for any theater buffs.

On Thursday, Mer and I broke out the modern-myth story Big Fish. We had seen Big Fish before, but not in a long time. I had forgotten much of the story. The film tells the life story of an old man as he recalls his life, and it is not clear where he is telling the truth, where he is exaggerating, and where he is lying. It is a brilliant movie, and I loved it again.

On Friday, on a whim, I called up Dubbs to see if she was up for ice cream at Handel’s. She was, so Mer and I drove over to her place to pick her up, and headed over. After we ate and chatted, we went back to Dubbs’s apartment and watched the wonderfully wacky comedy Waking Ned Devine. Waking Ned Devine is the story of a small Irish village where one of the townspeople wins a huge lottery jackpot. Although it was filmed on the Isle of Man instead of Ireland, it still has gorgeous scenery, and the soundtrack of the film is amazing (if you like Irish music, which I do). The accents of the actors are charming, and the storyline is ridiculous enough to be wonderfully funny. Great movie.

I do have to say that I like summer – since Mer does not have grading to do, she has time to do fun things in the evening, which is one reason the ol’ blog has been a bit neglected of late. I like to chronicle what is going on in my life, but I like to actually live my life more. Summer is a good time.

Last Friday, Mer and I headed north to Bainbridge, to the middle school. We had been invited there by a student to go swing dancing as part of his birthday celebration. We have been meaning to try swing dancing for a few years now, so it seemed time.

We got there about thirty minutes later than we wanted because of road construction and poor detour signs. Still, we were there in time to get about thirty minutes of basic instruction. We kept switching partners every few minutes, and they were all very helpful. Mer was a quicker study than I, since she had taken some lessons back in the day. After the lessons, they brought in a live swing band of about five members, and it was a great time. The music was fun, and even though I could only try three different steps, it was enough to have an excuse to dance. There were about six CVCA students there, and a total crowd of about a hundred people. It was quite festive, and it was fun watching all the people who could really dance. We stayed about two and a half hours, until 10:30, and went home. We really need to do that again, preferably after a few lessons.

On Saturday we had yet more graduation parties. A new record of five in one day, in fact. It is a bit odd to have to plan eating strategy for a day, but we had to. We both tried to eat small portions at each party, and it worked – we managed to be social and eat at every party. The parties were fun, and included:

– Mer beating me at a lawn game that involved trying to fling golf ball bolos onto a tube ladder.
– A grad party with a lot of people, but no one else from CVCA other than I, Mer, and the family hosting (I guess it was mostly family).
– A paddle boat trip on a tiny pond, because we could.

On Sunday, Mer and I went to church, and then we went for a walk in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Specifically, we went to the Oak Hill Trail, after we were driven away from the Horseshoe Pond Trail by aggressive deer flies. The Oak Hill walk was very pleasant, and we were both happy that we were getting back into exploring the ton of local parks we have, which was something we missed out on last summer.

Mid-afternoon, we wandered over to CVCA to celebrate the groundbreaking ceremony for the new expansion that will add new athletic offices and more classroom space. We opened with singing “I Love You, Lord.” Short speeches were then given by RT (the president of CVCA), the chair of the board, and the president of student council. Then, a group of students, teachers, staff members, and administrators shoveled some dirt, and we sang another hymn. We then mingled with folks, and munched on a few cookies.

Later in the evening, we made a quick trip to visit Dubbs. I brought her peanut butter bars, and we made arrangements to go see X-Men the next day (Monday). Dubbs was doing pretty well, and she was off most of her medications. She was to see the doctor on Monday to get cleared to go out and maybe even drive. So, with another work-week date to look forward to, Mer and I went home.

Last Monday was Memorial Day, so I had the day off. Mer and I took our time getting ready in the morning, but around noon we headed down to Aunt Mary’s place. Last Christmas we got Aunt Mary Casablanca, because she had never seen it. We set up a date to see it, and it was time to get some pizza and watch the film.

We all loved the film. It had been a long time since I had seen it, and I had forgotten how many familiar quotations have come out of Casablanca. It is a snappy, well-written film with interesting characters. No wonder it always shows up in discussions of best films of all time.

After visiting Aunt Mary, we headed over to Dubbs’s parents’ house, where Dubbs is staying while she heals up from her surgery. Dubbs was doing pretty well – she had some dizziness, double vision, and nausea, but she was mobile and alert. Mer and I took turns reading her the first book of the Prydain Chronicles, which Dubbs had never heard of. She liked what we managed to read (the first three chapters).

Mer and I headed home and had supper, then we headed over to CVCA. I had teamed up with Craig McSparran to organize a Connections group activity. My group and our sister group teamed up to take on Craig’s group and sister group in a Nerf war. We had the whole school to ourselves, and we set up base camps and distributed identical Nerf guns, and then we went at it. Mer watched on the security cameras from my office while she did some other work as well. I put on action-movie music over the PA system, and we had a great time. Our groups lost both games, but we had fun playing. The whole event lasted about two hours, and Mer and I got home at about 10:30. And, yes, I was aware of the irony of having a Nerf war on Memorial Day; it worked out that way because the building was empty.

On Wednesday, we had our monthly Ceili Club dancing event at the Hibernian Club in Akron. We try to get together once a month to dance to the live music they have. This time, the group consisted of me and Mer and five students, which was a decent turnout. It may end up being the last time we do that for some time, since I graduated the entire club (except for two or three students who show up sporadically).

On Thursday, Mer and I had the ever-exciting midweek date. We went to the Akron Art Museum to catch their special exhibit on MC Escher, whose art I am fond of. We saw a thirty-minute film on Escher’s life, and then we spent a little over an hour looking at his actual works. It was really interesting to see so many of his prints, and it is amazing how good he was at creating prints. Fascinating stuff.

After the art show, we headed over to Barley House for supper, where we had a good meal, but surprisingly slow service considering that the place was only a third full. I almost got up and left when it took almost twenty minutes just to put our order in. Still, at least the food was good. The waitress did not even offer dessert, which suited me fine, since I wanted to take Mer to get ice cream at Handel’s. The service there was fine, and the sundaes hit the spot.

Last Friday was the last day of school for Meredith and the other teachers. To celebrate, we went out to Cheesecake Factory with Zach and Londa. We had not seen them in awhile, so it was good to catch up with them. The meal was excellent, as usual. I had a breakfast sandwich, and in a rare moment of sanity, Mer and I split a piece of cheesecake. We both managed to leave feeling full but not sick.

It was a nice evening, and we had a graduation party to go to, but we had a few minutes we could spare. We said goodbye to Zach and Londa, and then Mer and I went into the Apple Store. Mer quickly fled before the mass of geeks and nerds, but I managed to stick it out and got a new iPod Nano. My old one was acting weird; sometimes the battery would lose its charge, and the Nike Plus system stopped spontaneously during my longer runs.

After we got clear of the Apple Store, we wandered over to a sculpture art gallery that specializes in a couple of artists whom Mer and I like very much. I fell in love with another woman musician (a flautist this time) for a mere $85,000. Meredith fell in love with a Frederick Hart bronze of the creation for a mere $135,000. Ahhh, the joys of having high-class tastes on teacher incomes.

We then headed off to the graduation party. The party was nice; we saw a bunch of students we know and another faculty member. The food looked very good, but since I was full, I “only” nibbled on two cookies. We hung out for about an hour, and then headed home.

Saturday was spent mostly at graduation parties. We had three that day. We did manage to get a very quick visit in to University Hospitals, where our friend Ami (“Dubbs”) was recovering from ear surgery to remove a non-cancerous tumor. We did not stay long, as we did not want to tire her, and we had the grad parties to go to. The parties were fine, and culminated in a party that featured two of my kids in Fools (Faith and Steve). We spent about an hour and a half at that party chatting with folks. It was a good time.

Sunday was CVCA’s graduation ceremony at The Chapel in Green. We have had graduation there for a few years now, and it is a good facility. It can hold everyone comfortably, and the graduates get to sit in the front rows instead of being up on stage as they were in the older Chapel in Akron. The graduation ceremony has a drop-by gathering beforehand with some munchies (mint brownies! Yum!). We also go to hang out with some of our students before the actual ceremony.

The ceremony went off well; the only slight hitch is that the orchestra playing “Pomp and Circumstance” stopped slightly early, so the last ten or so girls quickly slid into their seats as opposed to marching in. The president of CVCA smiled and welcomed them to graduation, and everyone chuckled. The rest of the ceremony went well, and Mer and I took off pretty quickly afterwards – the picture-taking in the lobby is a bit of a zoo. We ran into our friend Eric Ling out by our car, and we talked for a bit. We were joined by Matt Akers, and we laughed a lot. That helped break the weirdness that happens for me every year when the students I know graduate. I will certainly miss this class – if they are not the closest class I have known, they are certainly in the top two.