We had snow day number three today, but while the last two were “cold days” where Mer and I still went to work, today was an honest-to-goodness stay-at-home kind of snow day. It’s hard to say how much snow we got because it has drifted, but I would say about eight inches all told (just a guess). How did I spend my romantic Valentine’s Day snowed in with my beautiful wife? I spent about 2 hours shoveling, 3 hours doing school stuff from home, and I did some dishes as well. Mer is currently napping. Somebody stop all the mushy romance! We are planning on watching a movie version of Twelfth Night as a nice Valentine’s Day movie (if you are two English/Shakespeare nerds).

I offer proof of my mighty labors:

Calling all former Fools! I’d like to have a reunion party at my house in the near future. You can bring guests, if you like, but I need to know which date works best. You can e-mail me at mriordan -at- cvca…(you know the rest).org. The possible dates:
Saturday, Feb. 24
Saturday, March 3
Saturday, March 10

The par-tay would be in the evening, and consist of food, The Princess Bride, and of course, improv. Let all of the Fools that you are in touch with know. Please let me know what dates work best, and I’ll try to firm up the date later this week (get back to me ASAP – Feb. 24th is not far off).

Yesterday,  Mer and I got to go over to the house of our friends, Matt and Liz. We know Matt and Liz from CVCA where they each held the Latin position (but separated by two years – Liz was at CVCA in ’01-02 and Matt was there in ’04-06). Liz is a lawyer and Matt is working on his PhD in English. They are both fun and interesting people.

I told Matt that he is part C.S. Lewis and part redneck. It is fascinating. While we were at the house, we talked about early church fathers and Matt’s love for “high church”; we talked Chaucer, Shakespeare, and more English stuff. We got to see beautiful pictures from Matt and Liz’s wedding (about 3 years ago).We also got to see a picture of Matt with a HUGE beard, sitting with an open shirt on his motorcycle (which I think he has since sold. Liz is also happy about Matt ditching the beard). Matt was happy to show us his gun collection. He and Liz just completed their concealed weapon course. They invited us to Liz’s dad’s farm for target practice. Matt has a huge charcoal smoker and loves to grill. Both Matt and Liz like bluegrass and country. Matt introduced me to the term “outlaw country music.” I love that Matt breaks so many stereotypes. I like wacky and interesting people. Matt and Liz make me laugh, and they are both REALLY smart.

The lunch was quite good. Matt made chili and Liz made corn bread and a maple pie (which I had never had before, but was very good). We also got to meet Charlie, a rather large and happy-go-lucky dog that Matt and Liz have. He is a pretty good dog – he is excitable at first, but he settles down, and seems to be really sweet.

We were at Matt and Liz’s house for five hours, and it seemed like two. They are interesting and fun people. I hope we can get together again soon.

I was most pleased this week – I got the final go-ahead to start a ceili club at CVCA. Ceili (“kay-lee”) is Irish social dancing – it is like American square dancing, but with Irish music and basic Irish dance steps. Last year and this year (coming up), CVCA has had square dancing at the winter social event, but this will be the first time CVCA has had a club where the primary focus is dancing. I hope there is enough interest; I probably need about 16 people who can come more often than not. The room can hold up to 30 people or so, so I’ll have to see. We have an informational meeting this Thursday with the juniors and seniors to see what the interest level is. I also have 4-5 faculty/staff who have shown interest. I hope it goes well.

I also hope to eventually get to bring in some demonstrations of Irish culture – maybe Gaelic speakers, maybe Irish musicians, maybe Irish story tellers.

I think dance (as long as it is not vulgar) is a source of joy, and Christian communities should excel at joy. I’m looking forward to Ceili Club. Wish me well!

(The picture is the picture of the “four evangelists” page from the Book of Kells, which could be Scottish in origin, but we’ll overlook that since it is in Dublin now.)

Last Saturday, Mer took me on a date. I got all dressed up in my suit, and she took me to the Triple Crown restaurant in Monroe Falls. Not surprisingly, it was a horse-race-themed restaurant. I say that Mer took me there, which is true, but she chose it because I had a $25 gift certificate for there as a “thank you” from CVCA for putting in 5 years. The food was good – Mer got a really good-looking burger that I wished I had ordered. I got some pasta alfredo, which is odd because I’m not crazy about alfredo sauce. I think I just had a brain-short. The chicken with it was quite good. For dessert, I got the chocolate thunder (I don’t know why it is called that, but it is really good), and Mer got the peanut butter thunder (good, but I liked the chocolate one better). A nice restaurant.

Mer then gave me the choice to see an action-film or a comedy. Comedy suited my mood, so we went to see Night at the Museum, which I had heard some good things about. I won’t give away the plot, but I did enjoy the film. It is not roll-in-the-aisles funny, but it is very entertaining with several laugh-out-loud moments. I had a really good time watching it, and it is a very creative story. The special effects guys had a field (museum) day.

I got to wear my suit to a movie theater. I have done that once before, and it is an odd but nice thing to do. It makes me feel as if I’m in a 1940s movie, where the main characters go to see movies in suits. The only pity was that it was too windy to wear my fedora.

Mer and I got to CVCA this morning to find the parking lot empty and the building closed. I was able to let us in, and the building had power, heat, and water, so we could not figure out what was going on. I checked the CVCA website, and it appears you can have a “cold day.” About 600 schools in Ohio called off today, as it was -1 F at 7:00 with wind chills in the minus-20s. Who knew to check for a snow day on a day with no snow? Mer and I got much done at school today. The temperatures are not supposed to get much higher tomorrow, so I guess I’ll check the CVCA website tonight.

I find Weird Al’s “White and Nerdy” really really funny. It also got me wondering how I stack up, on the nerd scale. So, with no further ado, here is how I score (challengers welcome). Oh – if I agree in spirit with a line, I count it. I’ll explain as I go along.

You see me mowin’ my front lawn  
I know they’re all thinkin’ I’m so        
White and nerdy                             
(neutral – I do mow, but most people do. I *do* mow a bocce court in my front yard – that must count for something)

 Think I’m just too white and nerdy
………….

 First in my class here at MIT
(nope – went to Middlebury, and was most definitely not first in the class)
Got skills, I’m a champion at D&D
(and “Traveler” and “Villains & Vigilantes” and “Runequest” and “Heroes Unlimited” and “Dr. Who” and “Gamma World” and “Dragonquest” and “James Bond” and ….)
M.C. Escher, that’s my favorite M.C.
(sing it, white boy! M.C. rocks!)
Keep your 40, I’ll just have an Earl Grey tea
(Bleh – tea. I prefer hot chocolate)
My rims never spin, to the contrary
You’ll find that they’re quite stationary
(True – my first car was missing hub caps)
All of my action figures are cherry
(Nope, but my comics are in plastic sleeves and boxes)
Stephen Hawking’s in my library
(Nope, but James Burke is)

My MySpace page is all totally pimped out
(Nope – I stick to Xanga and a little Facebook)
Got people beggin’ for my top eight spaces
Yo, I know pi to a thousand places
(I know pi to 9 places AND have a math team chant about pi and e)
 Ain’t got no grills but I still wear braces
(My teeth are crooked)
I order all of my sandwiches with mayonnaise
(Bleh. Mayo. Bleh.)
I’m a wiz at Minesweeper, I could play for days
(Nope – I have played it, but find it fairly boring)
Once you’ve see my sweet moves, you’re gonna stay amazed
My fingers movin’ so fast I’ll set the place ablaze
(I’m a mean 5-finger typist – 3 fingers on the right and 2 on the left)

There’s no killer app I haven’t run (run)
(My job lets me play with lots of programs)
At Pascal, well I’m number one (one)
(I took one semester of Pascal in college, and fiddled with BASIC in high school)
Do vector calculus just for fun
(3 semesters of college calculus)
I ain’t got a gat, but I got a soldering gun (what?)
(Nope)
Happy Days is my favorite theme song
(Nah – I like the themes from Quantum Leap and Firefly)
 I could sure kick your butt in a game of ping pong
(Nope – I like it, but I am not good at it)
I’ll ace any trivia quiz you bring on
(Bring it on!)
I’m fluent in JavaScript as well as Klingon
(Nah…)

Here’s the part I sing on…

You see me roll on my Segway
(Nope – but I’d like to try one)
I know in my heart they think I’m
White and nerdy

I been browsin’, inspectin’ X-Men comics
You know I collect ’em
(Oh YES – who did NOT collect “X-Men”?)
The pens in my pocket, I must protect them
(Nope)
My ergonomic keyboard never leaves me bored
(Nope)
Shoppin’ online for deals on some writable media
(I buy online, but I usually buy media from a store)
I edit Wikipedia
(Nope, but I use it)
I memorized Holy Grail really well
(Who hasn’t?)
I can recite it right now and have you R-O-T-F-L-O-L

 I got a business doing websites (websites)
(I maintain my church’s site, but it is very basic)
When my friends need some code, who do they call?
I do HTML for ’em all
(I don’t know HTML)
Even made a homepage for my dog, yo
I got myself a fanny pack
(no)
They were havin’ a sale down at The Gap
(no)
Spend my nights with a roll of bubble wrap
(I like bubble wrap in a platonic sort of way)
Pop, pop – hope no one sees me gettin’ freaky

I’m nerdy in the extreme
Whiter than sour cream
I was in AV club and glee club
(no)
And even the chess team
(no)
Only question I ever thought was hard
Was “Do I like Kirk or do I like Picard?”
(Kirk)
Spend every weekend at the Renaissance Faire
(I like Faires)

Got my name on my underwear
(no)
They see me strollin’, they’re laughin’
And rollin’ their eyes cause I’m so
White and nerdy

I wanna bowl with the gangstas
(I do like to bowl – I prefer candlepin)
But oh well, it’s obvious I’m
White and nerdy

Anyway, I count about 14 or so out of a possible 40 or so. So, I guess I’m cooler than I thought!

Mer and I just got back from our pastor’s house, where we played the card game Gang of Four. I won’t go into the rules, but it is a game where winners get more powerful and losers get weaker. You play until someone gets to 75, and then the person with the lowest score wins. Our pastor and his wife are very good, and one of them usually wins it. I have a strategy of  “dumping” cards – getting rid of cards as fast as possible to get low scores. It works well, but it usually means I don’t win hands, and so I don’t win games (I usually don’t come in last either). Last time we played (before Christmas), Mer won for the entire evening – rare, if not unique. Then, tonight, I won in the first hand. For that to happen, I had to play all of my cards while someone (our pastor) did not play any cards, and scored the worst score for one hand – 80 points. To my knowledge, that has never happened before (winning in one hand).

Then, to make the evening complete, we played a long game – 13 hands (most games are only 5-8 hands). I won that game as well – 23 to 69 (Mer) to 74 (our pastor) to 78 (our pastor’s wife). It was a tense game for me because I was convinced I was going to get stuck with a 30+ point round and lose the game (or at least the lead) after having a big lead after 9 rounds. Happily, I kept getting weird hands that worked out okay. In the game that I won in one turn (the first game), I thought I had one of the worst hands I had ever seen, but it worked out great. Strange how that happened.

Anyway, the Riordans are on a 3-0 Gang of Four winning streak. We’d better enjoy it while we can – it won’t last long.

A few years ago, we were given “Shakespeare in a Box” – a party “game” where a play of Shakespeare has been cut down so that a few people can do it in about an hour total. The players never have to be actors, and you get the edited script to read from. Although the play has been edited for length, the story stays the same (it has the same basic story as the original play), and all of the words used are the original Shakespearean language. There were only two sets made – King Lear and Taming of the Shrew, and it looks as if both are now out of print (which is a real shame).

Every year or so, we throw a “Lear” or “Shrew” party – we’ll invite 6-10 people over to eat and socialize, and then we randomly draw roles and do one of the plays. Yesterday (Saturday), we had several CVCA folks over to do “Shrew.” We started eating around 6 o’clock and had finished the play by around 9:00, so it really is easy to do in an evening. We only had three people who had any acting experience  (Ombudsman, Ami and Mer), but we still had a great time – and a moving play. Since it was a comedy, it was only natural that we laughed all evening.

(In this photo, Ombudsman and Ami are supposed to be hiding on stage, so they are hiding behind their scripts).

Oddly, we have never had a male Kate – this is at least the third time we have done the play (and maybe the fourth), and we usually have at least 3 guys, but have never had a male Kate. We were all pulling for Ombudsman to be Kate, but it was not to be.

I was the director – someone needs to keep track of the 8 or so props that are used in the production, and try to keep track of who should be on stage (not easy – the edited scripts do not tell you who is needed for a particular scene). I did get a little stage time though – as a servant (about 3 lines) and as the Lusty Widow who marries Hortensio (Ombudsman) at the end of the play. I got to wear a wig AND have three more lines.

In this photo, Hortensio is in disguise as a music teacher to court Kate’s younger sister, Bianca. Hortensio’s flute playing was inspired. We were fairly glad when the “lesson” was over.

I like “Shrew” as a play – the two main characters, Kate and Petruccio, are some of the wittiest characters that Shakespeare wrote. The edited version we did cut many lines, but still kept one of the best scenes intact – where Petruccio and Kate meet for the first time and have a magnificent verbal fencing match. The play is funny, and so it lends itself to an evening of controlled chaos like we had last night. Although “Lear-in-a-box” is very good, it is a little weird to be laughing so hard at a tragedy (here I am thinking of a rather inspired Fool character played by Caribbeaner last year). Since “Shrew” is funny to start with, it does not have this problem.

Some highlights of the evening:
– Kate stealing Bianca’s lines, and getting a “Hey! You stole my lines!” rebuke.
– Hortensio sneezing his Groucho glasses off
– Ombudsman having to play two characters on stage at the same time, which involved him giving orders to himself
– My getting to wear a wig
– Petruccio getting to hurl meat (an empty chili container) across the room and getting to tear a robe (an old shirt) in half
– Hortensio playing on his flute while Bianca had to sing to it
– Our CVCA Latin teacher having to teach an (apparently bogus) Latin lesson to Bianca as part of trying to court her

A very fine evening. Mer and I work with good people, and they are a hoot to hang out with. Word of warning – keep Ami and Ombudsman away from excessive quantities of fruit punch. “Sugar high” seems insufficient to describe the results.

One plus one = too cute