Wednesday was a pleasant evening to stay inside:  we had torrential rains. That ruled out going mini-golfing with our friends Matt and Clarice, but happily we still got together to watch a movie. Matt got pizza, and Clarice had a co-worker over to wait out the rains, and we watched After the Thin Man, the sequel to The Thin Man, an older detective film. After the Thin Man followed the lighthearted, heavy-drinking Nick and his ever-patient wife, Nora, and they solved the mystery of who shot the jerk husband of Nora’s cousin. It had a wonderful balance of humor and mystery, and I did not guess the solution to the mystery. Great film.

After the movie, we sat around and chatted for about an hour, touching on nerd-topics like the TV shows Doctor Who and Lost. Mer and I had to head home after that because I had to work the next morning, but it was a good midweek getaway.

Sine last fall, one of the history teachers has come over to watch the WW2 series Battlefield with me and Mer. Jordan likes the in-depth approach of the series, and so he came over on Sunday to watch the fourth show in the series, on the Battle for North Africa.

But Jordan is also a runner, so he brought his running stuff with him, and we drove over to Kendall Lake. We ran a loop across the street from the parking lot, then the hilly section of the trail, and finally the short section around the lake itself, for a run of about six miles total. It was not a fast run, given the hills and the heat, but it is always nice to have company when running.

We went back to the house, and we took advantage of the house’s two full bathrooms in order to get cleaned up for supper and the show. I made chicken fingers and cheeseburger bread and cookies for supper, and we settled in for the two-hour analysis of the tactics of North Africa in World War 2. It more or less boiled down to supply lines – when the Germans would make gains, they would have to stretch their supply lines to a breaking point and could not continue. The Allies had a base on the Mediterranean island of Malta, which helped them harass the Axis supply lines by sea. The Americans had their first action of the war in an amphibious landing in French-controlled Africa; none of us had realized we had actually had to fight the French during the war; granted, the resistance was only halfhearted, but I had not known we had to fight the French at all.

We wrapped up the show around 8:00, but kept talking until well after 9:00, when Jordan had to get home to help put his kids to bed.

One of my colleagues, Adam, has a wife, Allie, who has been struggling with leukemia for over a year and a half. Those sorts of medical battles come with expenses, even with insurance helping, which is why I was very pleased to hear about the “Rallie for Allie” 5k race and 2-mile walk on Saturday. In addition to helping raise some funds for the family, these events are a great way to show love and support for people who have been going through a difficult time.

The race was at 9:00 am, and was in Keyser Park, which is only a few miles from our house. Mer went with me to cheer me on, and she ended up helping out with keeping track of people at the finish line, which was very good of her. At a guess, I’d say there were about four hundred people there, runners and walkers combined. I read on Allie’s blog that it was an enormous encouragement to her and her family, and that was the point.

The atmosphere was great – I knew about twenty different people from CVCA, which included both staff and students. That made it feel like a community event for me. Zach and Londa were there to walk, and my boss Jim was there to run, and there were a bunch more people to whom I got to say hi. The race was pretty well run, especially considering it was the first time it had been put together. A police officer kindly donated his time to help with traffic. The race course went more or less around a giant “block” – four roads, with a slight detour into a housing development. It was moderately hilly on the front half, but then was flat. It was a pretty hot day, so it made for slow conditions.

I felt pretty good. I started out hard in an effort to get clear of the pack of people, and I surprised myself by finding myself in the lead pack. I was able to run at a pace I felt was fast and sustainable, and I actually finished fourth, in 21:48. I received a great compliment from the runner behind me, later in the day – he said I was a good runner, and he had expected to catch me, but could not. That meant a lot to me.

The “Rallie for Allie” was a perfect run for me – a good cause, good people, and a good time. I hope it is a blessing for Adam and Allie to look back on as they continue to fight the cancer. God bless them both and their family!

Mer and I decided later in the day to go for a short hike. We had more graduation parties to attend, so it could not be a long trail. I looked in my hiking books, and stumbled across the Deer Run Trail, down on the far side of the Valley, out toward where my friend Jason lives. It was supposed to be an hour hike with hills and a stream, so we went there.

It was really quite hot, even in the shade, and on the hilly sections on the back half of the hike, we were both sweating. The hike was pretty, especially down by Deer Run, a pretty stream that ran by a section of the trail. We had to take a small side path to get down right next to the stream, but you could still see if from the main trail.

The hilly sections were pretty with limited overlooks of the valley – it must be very pretty in the fall when the leaves change colors, and the views must be far-reaching when the leaves are down. I hope to get back there in the fall to see if I am right.

We went home and got cleaned up before heading to the two grad parties of the day. The first one was in a park in Silver Lakes, and it was a fairly new pavilion we had not even known existed. This party was for Derek, whom Mer and I both knew – Derek had been in Ceili Club as a junior high younger brother to his sister Ingrid, who loved to dance, and Derek had been in Mer’s Honors/AP program for two years. We got to visit with Derek and his older brother some, but we spent a long time visiting with Ingrid, who just graduated from college and is going to teach French at a high school in Williamsburg. It was wonderful to catch up with her again.

The second party was for Andrew, who again was known by both me and Mer. Andrew was in my Connections group and was in Honors/AP English. Andrew’s mom works part-time in the accounting department at CVCA, and Mer had taught all four of the boys over the last ten years. We had a good time visiting with Andrew, but we also got to catch up with his older brother Jonny, who recently decided to become an English teacher, largely based on being in Mer’s English classes. That was great.

As we left the party, we spied a ping pong table, and Mer handily beat me after I had a 6-0 lead. She is quite good at the game, and proved it was not a fluke by besting Andrew in the next game. I have been told by the mother that Andrew was deeply impressed.

Sometimes technology screws up. On Friday, our friends’ band, Bethesda, was playing at the Cleveland Museum of Art on the east side of Cleveland, in the University Circle area. I forgot to get the address, so I used the GPS in the car to find “Points of Interest,” and it found the museum. Off we went. After a long while, Mer questioned why we were so far along a highway going west, and we seemed to be due south of downtown Cleveland. I’m ever the optimist, so I said the GPS must be taking us some novel, but still efficient, way.

We got off the highway and were confronted with a detour. That took the better part of fifteen minutes to navigate, and the GPS led us into “The Flats.” On the west side of Cleveland. Nowhere near the Cleveland Museum of Art. But, it did bring us to two strip clubs. I guess some programmers have a different idea of art.

I used the “Points of Interest” feature on the GPS again to find Severance Hall, near the museum. This time, the GPS steered us correctly, and after parking in the well-kept secret of the Botanical Gardens parking garage, we made it to the museum with about ten minutes to spare.

This was happy, indeed. Bethesda put on a great two-hour show; they sounded really full and well-balanced – a good testimony to the sound guys, since the band was playing in an echo-filled cavern of a space. The band poured out a ton of energy and effort, which I thought was commendable, since more than half the upper-crust crowd seemed more interested in schmoozing and drinking than listening to music. To their credit, the movers and shakers were not rude or disruptive; they just did not offer back too much energy. There was a good crowd of folks near the stage who were really into the music, and a bunch of people were listening respectfully from the second-floor walkways.

The space was fun for me – it was in the new covered courtyard of the museum, which is a huge space, covered in glass and showcasing the old stone front of the museum. Mer and I had been there last fall with a friend, and the courtyard was still under construction, so it was really great to see the final product.

After the excellent concert, the GPS directed us toward home along a path that took us past the Legacy Village area. We successfully drove past the Cheesecake Factory, but I succumbed to Mitchell’s, an ice cream parlor. That worked out for social purposes, though – Mer has a current CVCA student who works there, and she was on shift, so we got to say hello. The excellent ice cream did not hurt, either.

Thursday was the Fourth of July, so I had the day off. I started the day with a 10.5-mile run with Nate, down on the Towpath Trail; it was a very hot and humid, difficult run. After getting home and showering and eating breakfast, I took a nap.

The day was saved from being a total do-nothing day by a hike. The weather was calling for storms in the evening, so I wanted a shorter hike, so we headed off to see Blue Hen Falls, which is down in the Valley, near Boston Store.

Blue Hen Falls is very easy to walk to, on a well-maintained trail. It only took us ten or fifteen minutes to get there, and the falls are pretty. The are quite a bit smaller than Brandywine Falls, but it was a worthwhile hike. My hiking guide mentioned there was another set of falls called Buttermilk Falls further along the stream. It made the hike sound fairly easy, but warned we would have to ford the stream three times. That did not seem like a big deal since the stream is only a few inches deep. I wanted to go see it, and the guidebook said it would only take an hour total.

My first clue should have been the “End of Trail” sign at Blue Hen Falls. There was clearly a muddy trail past the sign, so we tromped on. The trail is not maintained at all – there were fallen trees across the trail, and there were muddy areas pretty often. Mer kept up her good humor, even through fording the stream twice. The only time she got cranky with me was when the trail split and we had two choices – a narrow and steep path overlooking the stream with a fall of several feet onto rock, or a steep muddy embankment that had no real fall. I choose the muddy embankment, and Mer did snap at me halfway up it when she was having trouble getting her footing. On the way back, we took the other path, and it was much easier – the roots provided good footholds.

Mer did recover her composure to the point where, when we crossed the last ford, she merely commented, “Oh, that’s my foot getting wet.” Happily, the falls were just beyond the last ford, and they were worth the hike. The were not particularly big, and they rode down a gentle rock face in a frothy white tumult. What was cool for me about Buttermilk Falls was how they kept changing depending on how close you were to them. They looked pretty steep and flowing hard when we stood a little ways back, but they became gentle and mesmerizing up close. They emptied into a pretty little pool, and the stream ran off over rock formations that were quite scenic. I really liked the area. Sadly, we did not stay so long as we might have liked, because it was raining lightly and I thought it might get quite heavy (it did not).

One odd thing, in the middle of the hike, in the middle of the woods – there were concrete supports on the bank of the stream, almost as if a bridge had once gone through there, but I saw no evidence of a road. Oh, and Mer got her other foot wet on the first ford on the way back, so there was symmetry at least.

I had to work on Friday, so we skipped the local fireworks, which all were around 9:30 or 10:00. Mer watched some from our front lawn, but I was driven off by some aggressive mosquitoes. I got ready for bed, and Mer joined me after the fireworks ended.

Mer and I have known our pastor and his family for a long time (me since about 1993 and Mer since the 80s). We are very fond of them, and Ken and Janet honored us by inviting us to the thirtieth birthday celebration of their daughter Christa. It was a surprise, and was being held at Texas Roadhouse in Allaince, about an hour from our house. Last Monday was the big day, so we headed back to our old stomping grounds (we lived in the next town over for six years).

Mer and I got there first, and we were followed by Joel and Lindsay, a couple from church. Christa and her family showed up soon after, and Christa was quite surprised. There were Ken and Janet, their three daughters, a son-in-law, one grandson, Joel and Lindsay, and Mer and I. That is a big enough party that we could not all interact; Mer and I were seated in talking distance from Ken, Christa and her husband, and Valerie and her baby. Valerie is quite young (around twenty-five), and she has four small ones at home. I have not had a ton of chances to interact with her, and she impressed me with her wit and levelheaded ways. Mer and I and Val talked a lot over the evening. Ken and Christa and her husband joined in some, and it was a festive evening. We were invited to go over to Joel and Lindsay’s place for games and ice cream, but it was 7:00, and we had an hour drive home. Mind you, that did not stop me from swinging by the Alliance Handel’s for ice cream on the way home (our opinion – the ice cream was good, but not as rich as that at “our” Handel’s here in Cuyahoga Falls).

Last weekend was a time of celebration, with Mer’s and my going to four parties in three days. We started on Friday with the first graduation party I had been to in over four weeks (because of the Italy vacation we took). It was a joint party, meaning there were two graduates at the same party – Ben and Josh. Ben is the younger brother of Tom and Laura, both of whom were members of my improv group, the Royal Fools, so I knew the family fairly well, and Ben well enough to say hi to him in the hallways of CVCA. Josh was a member of the Fools this year, and he was in my Connections group at school as well; he is a funny guy, and I was very pleased to be able to make his party. We ate too much good food (burritos), and we spent most of the party talking to the Lyons family (the father works at CVCA in the science department).

On Saturday, we started the afternoon with a grad party of a girl that was in Mer’s class, but I did not know her well. It was a pleasant party, and the backyard of her house was envy-inducing in size and trees.

The big event of the weekend was the wedding of a colleague – a teacher in the English Department, in fact. Matt got married to his fiancee, Elizabeth, late Saturday afternoon, and the reception went on for some time. The wedding was officiated by two pastors – Elizabeth’s pastor was the host pastor, and Matt’s father officiated. The ceremony was very much focused on Biblical principles for a husband and wife, and it was personable, since Matt’s dad knew both the bride and the groom pretty well. Matt is a talented musician, and he knows several good musicians, so the pre-ceremony music was excellent.

The reception was at a golf course clubhouse, and it was pretty packed. Mer and I got to sit at a table with two other CVCA couples and a couple we did not know from Matt’s church. We were also next to a table of CVCA staff members, so we had a good time visiting. The dinner was buffet-style and was quite good, and then the music started. Slightly oddly, the twenty-somethings did not hit the dance floor for some time; it was mostly the above-thirty set, including me and Mer. After about an hour, the DJ played some line dances, and that got the young folks out on the floor, where they stayed for the rest of the evening that we saw, when we left at 10:00. I’m looking forward to getting to know Matt and Elizabeth as a couple.

On Sunday, we went to the party of a girl whom both Mer and I know quite well. Audrey was in Ceili Club for two years until it shut down, and then she joined Fools, so I have known her for four years. She took Mer’s Honors English and AP English, so Mer had her in class for two full years. Audrey is a wonderful girl – funny and upbeat. Her party reflected some of that, as hers was the first grad party I had ever been to with a dunking booth, and Audrey even was the target for awhile. Mer and I are pretty close to many of Audrey’s friends, so we had a good time interacting with them as well. We stayed for about two hours, and then I felt we had to go, because I wanted to swing by the house of Matt and Lis (another Matt and Lis – not the newlyweds).

I am extremely fond of Matt and Lis. They both taught Latin at CVCA at separate times, and they are intelligent and funny people. We got to their house around 8:00, just as Matt and the kids were going out for a walk with the dog. I joined Matt, and Mer went in the house to visit with Lis. Matt is a towering intellect, and I admire him for that. We chatted about church history, as one does, before joining Mer and Lis back at the house. We visited with them until Mer reminded me of the time, at about 10:00. Time always flies with them!

It was a social weekend, and I had a rather good time.

Thursday was wonderful. Last January, for my birthday, Mer had given me tickets to go see Guys and Dolls with her at Playhouse Square, at the Hannah Theater. Guys and Dolls is my favorite musical comedy, and certainly in my top three musicals of any genre (it has a hard time unseating Man of La Mancha). Thursday was the day when we finally got to go see the play. We got dressed up and headed up to Cleveland.

They did an amazing job. The thing that jumped out at me was the choreography – there were long and elaborate and entertaining dance numbers throughout the play. The set was incredible, going from downtown New York to the inside of a club to a resort in Havana, all with good backdrops and set pieces. The buildings in the background of New York even had windows that lit up and blinking neon signs.

The acting and singing were superb. The leading man (Sky Masterson) had what may be the smoothest “musical” voice I have ever heard, AND he was a stunningly good-looking man to boot, not that I think Meredith noticed. The lead female role sang really well, and the supporting cast was much fun. I have seen Guys and Dolls done at a local theater, and they pulled it off well, but Playhouse Square knocked it out of the park. It’s a shame it closed on Sunday – I could have happily seen it again.