Meredith woke me up from a brief nap this evening about 6:00. She apologized and said she could hear a critter in the basement. So, I put on my critter clothes of my jean jacket and a pair of tough gloves, and headed to the basement. There was a cry coming from one corner of the basement, and I isolated it to an old basement window. Years ago, previous owners added a large sun room onto the house, so this window used to go to the outside, but was now under the foundation of the sun room. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to open the window (it could not just open out anymore), and when I gingerly cracked it open, I saw a fuzzy tail and knew I was in for it.

It was a tiny tiger kitten. He was hissing at me to let me know who I was messing with. There was a very very very tiny crack in the area around the window (which had been framed in), and the kitten must have fallen through and could not get back out. I could see daylight through the crack – it turns out there is about a two-inch opening in one corner of the sun room foundation, and a cat must have decided it was a great place to have kittens. I could not see any more kittens, but I could not see everywhere around the foundation.

I fished the kitten out and showed him to Meredith. She immediatly declared him to be a “kitten from heaven” and said we had to keep him. He is probably about four weeks old – his eyes are still blue and he is small, but he can move around on his own and knew enough to hiss at me. He is very cute.

We have decided to let the kitten’s gender (I have not checked yet) decide the name for us. If it is a male, we will name him Meredith’s name, Folio (Foley for short). If it is a girl, we’ll name it my name, Finestra (Finny for short), which is Italian for window. My gut feeling is that Folio is a boy.

My only difficulty now is I feel bad for the mother cat. I checked a few minutes ago, and I heard her calling for her kitten (I grew up with many cats and kittens, so I know the call). I heard at least one kitten reply. I could put Folio back, but his life expectancy would be 5 years instead of 15, and he would be wild. I also have no idea what to do about the other kitten(s). There is no way to get under the sun room, so there is no way to catch them. I don’t really want a colony of feral cats living under my sun room, but I don’t know what to do about it. I feel terrible about separating a kitten from its mother so soon, and I feel terrible that I can’t help the other kittens. I hate no-win situations. I will at least seal up the window crack to keep the other kitten(s) safe, and I’ll leave the foundation crack open until fall or winter and check for tracks before sealing it up.

Here are two pictures of Folio tucked away in a kitty nook where he feels safe.

Mer is out at a spa night with a friend tonight, so I am bachin’ in at home. What better time to break out one of the new Wii games that Meredith let me get a few weeks ago? Tonight’s selection was DDR, or Dance Dance Revolution, for the less-video-game savvy. I’m not really sure what led a 37-year-old awkward white guy to get DDR, but there you have it. I thought it might be fun for CVCA students that we have over, and I wanted to try to get decent at it so I could play it with students. I also think it might be fun to play with Meredith if we ever get slightly competent at it.

I started at beginner, and I sucked, big time. The Wii adds hand motions to DRR (the original games were feet-only), as well as obstacles in the dance pattern, and special effects, and so on. I quickly turned all of those extras off. Now that I have the game on feet-only, I have scored a resounding “D” in the game. Dance that funky music, white boy.

I will say that DDR is quite a workout – I was sweating up a storm!

Here, for your edification, is a small clip of me doing DDR. You have been warned (I thought an alternate title to this blog would be “Please never show us that again.”).

Ohio has an interesting custom for graduates: the graduation party. We did not have these in Maine, so Meredith had to explain the hard concept to me: a “graduation party” is a party you throw when you graduate. Go figure.

Many many many high school graduates throw grad parties. These events are usually drop-in/drop-by style, where you can show up and see fun people and eat way too much food. Since students we know normally will invite other students that Meredith and I know, as well as inviting CVCA faculty and staff, these events are a lot of fun to go to. It gives you a chance to be mellow with colleagues and students, and usually involves sitting outside in very pleasant weather. Almost all grad parties have a picture wall or table, so you can smile at pictures of your handsome/pretty student when he/she was a toddler or even those awkward middle school years.

And the food – ahhhh. While usually based around finger foods, these parties are always extravagant in quantity. It is not unusual to have two or three main dishes, three to five side dishes, and anywhere from three to ten different kinds of dessert. We eat very well this time of year.

Since Meredith teaches AP seniors, they tend to be students that like English, and so end up liking Mer. So, we get invited to many grad parties. Memorial Day weekend: three parties in two days. This weekend: three parties in two days. Last weekend: a stunning gut-stretching social extravaganza of four parties in one afternoon! These parties go on for much of the summer. While we are gone to the Dominican Republic, we are missing five parties in nine days. We have parties in July and even a few in August.

I just hope my graduation is not up to the next size of pants.

Last Friday Mer and I met up with our friends Matt and Liz. Matt had just completed his doctorate, and won the best dissertation award in the process. So, we decided to celebrate with Dr. Matt and Liz, and so we went to one of Dr. Matt’s favorite restaurants, Texas Roadhouse. Mer and I had never been before – we had figured it was mostly a steak place (which it is), and we rarely (ha!) get steak. Still, we figured it should have good burgers.

Turns out they have a lot of great food. Too much good food. While Dr. Matt and Liz both were veterans and skipped the appetizer, we decided to try the loaded chili-cheese fries. The chili was a bit bitter but was very good. We should know since we also got cups of chili as one of our two free sides with our meals. I got fries as my other side (I refrained from topping them with cheese).

I was getting quite a lot of grief from my table-mates since I ordered a strawberry drink. Normally this is not a deal for comment, but they had to make it at the bar, and it came in a large beer glass. So, at first everyone was threatening to turn me in to CVCA (we can’t drink according to our contract), and then they decided that the reddish-pink drink was not manly, and I got a hard time for that. It was pretty good though.

Mer got a country-fried steak that was the size of a small nation, and I got some really excellent “chicken critters” – Texas Roadhouse’s chicken fingers. Needless to say, neither Mer nor I finished our food, but since we live only a mile or so from the restaurant we were able to dash home and put the leftovers in the ‘fridge. Dr. Matt and Liz both managed nicely with their steaks (both rare – ugh!).

After the food drop-off (where we got to give Dr. Matt and Liz a tour of the house), we headed to Akron to go to the Coach House Theater to see a comedy called The Nerd. I really like the Coach House – it is a small theater built in an old coach house, and it can only seat about 90 people, so it is very intimate. On Friday, there was an audience of about 20. I felt a little bad for the actors for playing to such a small crowd, but at least we were a very lively crowd (in a good way – lots of laughter). The actual play was really really really funny. The actions of the nerd made my skin crawl – he was oblivious to everything going on around him, and just ran roughshod through the entire play. Since the nerd had saved the main character’s life in Vietnam, everyone had to put up with him. It was a great play; very funny.

After the play, we headed over to Mary Coyle’s ice cream parlor. It is in one of the about three blocks of Akron that could pass as a northside Chicago neighborhood. The ice cream parlor is old-fashioned, and is only about four blocks from where I lived back in 1995-96, although oddly I never made it until last Friday. Meredith and I were pleased that something in Ohio was open past 10:00 (it was about 10:15 when we got out of the play). The four of us got sundaes, and had a good time chatting. We finished the ice cream and conversation (zeugma!), and headed to our separate homes. Congrats to Dr. Matt!

Meredith was kind enough to let me go out and buy a few new Wii games to last me for the next year. One of the games that I tried tonight is called “Boom Blox.” It is a game about knocking blocks over. It is much fun. You are trying to accomplish a goal (knock over all the blocks, knock over some of the blocks, etc.), and you are usually trying to do it in the least number of throws (although sometimes the goal is maximize points). So, it is a puzzle game with a kick-butt physics engine where (and this is important) you still get to knock things down!

My game criteria has boiled down to:
– it must be easy to learn
– it must be entertaining
– it must be able to be played in 10-15 minutes (if I choose)

Boom Blox meets all these criteria nicely, and throws in the bonus of knocking things over (including the cute animal-esque things that cheer you on. Not that I tried knocking one over or anything.).

After about a year of having the Wii, I made it to “pro” level on bowling. That makes me a pro at baseball (tenuous), bowling (tenuous), tennis (solid), and golf (solid). The last sport on the system is boxing, but I rarely play that, so I really don’t expect to make it to pro level there any time soon, if ever.

Last Wednesday was Day Two of bachin’ it, and it was a very busy day. Fortunately, I still managed to find a way to have an outlet for an outlay. I had a normal school/work day, then I ran after school, showered, ate a quick meal that Meredith had been kind enough to leave for me, then dashed off to my music (dobro) lesson, then sprinted back to CVCA for a meeting about the Dominican Republic trip. By the time the meeting let out it was almost 9:00. After a busy day, your average husband-bachelor would go home and get some shut-eye, but I am not average! I pushed through the fog of fatigue, and decided that I should go to Rico Latte and try their new gelato. On the way (mind you, it is about a one-mile trip), I decided to swing by Zach and Londa’s apartment to see if they wanted to join me. It turns out that they were game, so the three of us headed over to Rico Latte. Zach and Londa got gelato, and I got gelato and a chocolate shake.

The gelato was the real thing; too often places advertise that they serve “gelato,” by which they mean “ice cream.” Gelato has a very rich flavor and is very dense and smooth. Rico Latte’s was the real thing, but in my opinion, it was average for gelato. The shake was interesting – it was milk and ice mixed with chocolate. I have never had a shake like that before. It had a good flavor, and the consistency was a bit thin. I liked it, but I suspect I’ll stick to Rico’s hot chocolate from now on.

Day two cost for Meredith: $7.

Day three was another normal day at work. After work, I had Ceili Club, so I got my exercise in dancing. I went home and showered and ate a quick meal (rice), then I headed to Cleveland to the Cleveland Clinic to visit one of my students who had a foot infection. I managed to get to the Clinic okay this time (when I went there in the fall, I got quite lost), and found my student, Mark, in good spirits. His infection was under control (there had been talk of amputation), so that was great. Mark’s sister, mom, and grandmother were there, and I visited with them for a little over an hour. I started back home about 8:30 or so, and on the way home I decided that my cup of rice was not cutting it, so I decided I wanted some Handel’s ice cream. Handel’s is a local ice cream chain that has some of the best ice cream around, and I decided I wanted a Hurricane, Handel’s version of a Blizzard. Mine was vanilla with Oreo and peanut butter cups. Yum.

After I ate my rather-restrained-of-me medium Hurricane, I decided I needed some hot food, and that fries sounded really good. On the way home, I stopped at Arby’s for their spicy curly fries, and in a moment of panic at the drive-through ordering area, I ordered two large fries. They were really hot and hit the spot, and then spilled over the spot. By the time I finished the second container, I was feeling a little queasy.

I ended the evening by chatting with Shannon for about 30 minutes, and then went to bed, happy in the knowledge that Meredith would be home the next day.

Day three cost to Meredith:  about $10.

Total cost for Meredith’s going on Senior Trip: about $80.

It is good to have Meredith home!

This last week Meredith went with the seniors to a state park for three days for the annual Senior Trip. That left me alone Tuesday night through Friday around noon. This is never a very good thing, especially for our pocketbook.

Tuesday afternoon I mentioned to my friend and colleague Zach that I was bachin’ it. Zach got married in December, so I did not expect a guys’ night out, but Zach’s wife (Londa) was out that evening with some of her friends, so we decided to go out.

I ran after school while Zach took care of some school things. Zach met me at my house (after I had showered) about 5:30 or so, and we headed off to Zach’s old stomping  grounds in the southeast suburbs of Cleveland. He took me to a Mexican (or possibly Tex-Mex) restaurant that I cannot remember the name of, and it was fantastic. That may have been the best Mexican food I have ever had. My restraint at only ordering two burritos was offset by the one-and-a-half baskets of chips and salsa that I ate. We had a leisurely meal, during which we talked a lot about CVCA and the challenges it faces and some possible ideas of how to do some things better.

Zach then took me to an outside mall that had a Barnes and Noble bookstore, where I was forced to buy Meredith a DVD and a CD. We then settled down to two games of chess at the outdoor chess tables. We split the games; I won the first and Zach humiliated me in the second. We took a break and wandered the (mostly closed) mall, and then I decided to get dessert to refresh myself for the rubber match in chess. The Barnes and Noble had Cheesecake Factory cakes, so I got a piece of chocolate cake that was good, but also got a triple-chocolate-chunk cookie that was phenomenal. Wow, that was good. Armed with my brain food, I managed to win the third game.

Zach and I got back home about 9:30 or so, and I went to bed. It was a very fun evening, but Meredith’s trip had cost us about $60 the first evening, with two more evenings to go….