Last Friday was a fun night, even though it may not blog as anything too special. Mer and I went to Canton to Aunt Mary’s, where she made us dinner, and we watched Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! While that sounds fairly tame, it was just what I needed: a quiet evening with people I enjoy. We laughed a lot, and the food was excellent (including generous amounts of whipped potatoes, which I rarely make for myself). I felt relaxed and happy, and it was just what the nurse ordered (Aunt Mary is a nurse).

The students who graduated last May are starting to gear up to go to college. A couple of them made an effort to look me up before they went, which made me feel pretty special. On Wednesday, Ben, who worked for me this summer, came over to play the Wii version of Super Mario Brothers. I had played Super Mario Brothers when I was in college back in the early 1990s, but Mer had never played. It was much fun watching her play. She did quite well for a first-time player, but the real joy was hearing her cry out when bad guys came close. It was a sociable time, as all three of us could play at the same time. Ben clearly was the best of the three of us; I have lost any touch I might have had. It was a great time nonetheless.

On Thursday, I drove up to Hudson to meet one of my CVCA Connections guys, Nate. We met up at Cold Stone Creamery, where we munched on ice cream outside while we talked. We both wanted to keep talking after we were done eating, but I don’t like sitting around, as most restaurant seats get uncomfortable after about forty-five minutes. So, we took to our feet and walked all over Hudson, walking out of the new shopping square, past the library, back into the residential areas, into the old town square, down the main street and back to Cold Stone. It was a great visit. We said goodbye, and I dashed into Cold Stone to pick up an ice cream cake for me and Mer, since she had not had any ice cream. It turns out that the cakes are quite expensive, and while quite good, not twice as good as the bigger Dairy Queen cakes, which cost half as much. Mind you, we still enjoyed it.

Here’s to Ben and Nate! I hope and pray they have great college experiences!

Mer and I were pleased to get an invitation to a party hosted by Linda Rocha, who has worked out in the CVCA guidance department for about twenty-five years. The party was to be at her house, up in eastern Cleveland, and it took place on Saturday afternoon.

Mer and I found the house with no problems, thanks to our GPS. Linda and Bill’s house is in a middle-class neighborhood of close-set homes. The house was cute and well maintained, but it was small across the front, so I was wondering how crowded the party was going to be, especially since it was a cool and cloudy day, so eating al fresco might not be a great option.

I need not have worried. Linda’s husband, Bill, is a mason by trade and can build just about anything. Bill had added an entire wing onto the back of the house, which included a huge dining area that could have seated thirty people comfortably. Linda had some of her family there, as well as her closest CVCA friends, including my colleague Phil and his wife. In all, counting a bunch of kids, there probably were about thirty people there. Linda and Bill had laid out a huge spread of rather wonderful looking food, to which I added my chocolate chocolate chip cookies.

Phil and Laurie made room for us at the end of their table, and we had a good visit with them while eating too much food. Laurie had brought a huge Texas sheet cake, which I went back for thirds on, and Linda had provided a couple of small M and M cakes, which were quite good. We stayed for about two hours before we headed homeward. It was a good gathering.

On the way home, we went through the Valley as a change of scene from the highway. We stopped off at the covered bridge on Everett Road. I had never been there before, and in addition to the place being pretty, there were several placards giving the history of how the Cuyahoga Valley National Park was set aside as a park; the movement was spearheaded by a couple of area congressmen, and gained popular support in the late sixties and seventies. I am deeply grateful that the Valley still exists as a park; it makes living in NE Ohio special and relaxing.

Linda’s party was followed by another one on Sunday, and a party that was unique to us so far in our lives. We go to a ton of CVCA graduation parties during the summer, but this was the first one-year-later party we had ever been to. One of Mer’s former students, Sam, wanted to throw a party so he could see his CVCA friends, and he invited us. I like Sam, and I now have his bother Haydn in my CVCA Connections group, so I was excited to go.

The party was in Sam’s back yard, which is narrow and overlooks a steep drop down a tree-encrusted hill. It is very peaceful and beautiful. Sam was manning the grill, turning out chicken kabobs, and there were lots of chips and other finger foods. I had brought my cookies as my contribution, and Sam’s parents later unveiled a sundae bar. Dubbs showed up, and our former student Faith, and several others who were or had been Mer’s students. It was a merry little gathering, and we stayed for about three hours before heading home, well fed on yet another weekend.

John recently graduated from CVCA and is about to head off to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. For the last two years, John was in my CVCA Connections group (a small group of men who met every Thursday for thirty-five minutes). John is a fantastic young man; he is funny, and talented in music, and truly wants to follow Jesus. He is pretty remarkable in my eyes. I am honored that, for whatever reason, John looks up to me and admirs me. I am at a loss as to why, but after thinking long about it, I decided to take it as a gift, and I appreciate it.

John’s father, also named John, e-mailed me last week and asked if I would join him and John at a dinner to wish John well as he went off to college. John, Sr., was assembling many of the men who were strong influences on John, Jr., and wanted to thank them with a meal, and to have us give John parting advice and a favorite Bible verse or two. I was happy to accept.

The meal was at a local diner, Eddie’s Deli and Diner, and was held last Thursday. This was a restaurant that John and his friends and several teachers would frequent on occasional Thursdays, when it was “wing night” – when you could get unlimited wings as well as soup, rolls, potato, and dessert. It’s quite a deal, and the long meal encourages fellowship. In all, there were about twelve of us. Most of the men present were CVCA faculty, but there were a couple of non-CVCA men there as well. John’s best friend and future roommate, Ben, was also there.

We put in our orders, and then John, Sr., had us go around one at a time to encourage John. We told him something we liked or admired about him, and shared a Bible verse, and gave him some advice. John, Sr., wrote everything down for John in a book for his edification when he was at college. People talked about John’s willingness to serve, and his faithfulness to his friends, and his willingness to reach out to people. Good things were said. I told John that he was a friend, and I hated to see him go. I told him that when things get rough or I get confused, I always go back to Peter’s asking Jesus, “Lord, you have the words of life. Where else shall we go?” For advice, I reminded John that  I had given him three pages of bullet points of life lessons in our last meeting in Connections.

I think the meal was good for John, but it was also good for us. There were a lot of good men at that table, and I enjoyed being there. I will miss John, but I am excited to see what he will do as he moves ahead. He has many gifts, and he is eager to serve God. That is a magical combination.

Yesterday (Wednesday) was our fourteenth wedding anniversary. We usually save the “real” celebration for a weekend so that we can be relaxed about whatever we try to do, rather than trying to cram it all in a few hours after work. Still, I decided to take a half-day off from work so Mer and I could spend the afternoon together.

I thought it would be nice to go for a walk, and on a recent drive in the Valley, I had seen a sign for a trail I had not taken before. So, in the mid-afternoon, we drove down to the Valley; Mer saw the sign and exclaimed, jokingly, “Oh, no! Not Wetmore!” It turns out I had forgotten that the Wetmore Trail was a trail we hiked over a year ago, in the spring, and the trail had been incredibly muddy and difficult to walk. I tried to reassure Mer that it would not be muddy this time, as we had had almost no rain for two months. I also told her that the lack of mud would make the hike easy. One out of two ain’t bad.

Because of the mud that had been everywhere on our first walk, I had completely forgotten that the Wetmore Trail is very hilly. Really, really hilly. And the temperature was in the mid-eighties. We got a little sweaty in places, and the trail is four miles long, which turned out to be about a mile longer than I had wanted to go (I was pretty hot and tired by the last mile). The scenery was pretty, and there was no mud. And I was with my love, so that made for a good, albeit hot, afternoon. Mer was a good sport.

I wanted to take Mer out for supper, and figuring that we would be going out to eat “for real” later, I thought it would be fun to take Mer to Cici’s, a pizza buffet. Mer had never been before, and had expressed an interest in going. So, we drove over to Streetsboro only to find that the restaurant was out of business. Rats. So, I punted to a back-up plan: going to Steak ‘n Shake. Mer was very game for that choice as well. She had forgotten that Steak ‘n Shake was a “real” restaurant (not a fast-food restaurant). So, while it was in no way a romantic spot, we both enjoyed the food and the company; we’ll find a romantic restaurant sometime soon.

On the way home, we stopped in Hudson to get separate bags of chocolates. One of the secrets to fourteen years of marriage is to get your own dessert. We took those home, and wrapped the evening up eating chocolates and watching The Big Bang Theory, followed by the Olympics.

Fourteen years of wedded happiness. I love you, Meredith!

Last Friday, our former students Ben and John came over to the house. Not only do I find it amazing that eighteen-year-olds want to hang out with a forty-one-year-old, but they were coming over to teach me and Mer how to play the video game Super Smash Brothers: Brawl. Brawl is pretty much a self-descriptive name for the game – Nintendo took many of the characters from its video game series, and made it so you could use them to have a four-player free-for-all. It is pretty entertaining to watch, but Ben and John wanted us to play it.

I made pizza for the occasion, and Ben got to the house first. He spent the fifteen minutes or so before John got there playing the game, trying to “unlock” new characters. He also tried to explain what he was doing as he was playing. We munched on some pizza, and Ben and John had some food they brought with them as well. Then, we got down to playing.

It was amusing. Ben and John let me and Mer beat on their characters in an attempt to learn the game, which worked pretty well. But every once in awhile, John could not stand it and wiped the floor with me or Mer. He did that not out of spite so much as habit. Mer turned out to be a pretty good player, better than I was. She was particularly good with the old-school video game character Donkey Kong. We had some fun mayhem for about an hour and a half, and then Ben and John had to leave. I’m not saying Mer and I could hold our own with anyone under the age of thirty, but we had a good time with it.

On Wednesday, Mer and I finally caught up with Mike Murray, the former student of ours who had gone on a several-month mission trip to South Africa. We agreed to meet at a Cold Stone Creamery in Montrose (western Akron). Mer and I wanted to see Mike, and with ice cream thrown in, it was a good prospect.

We visited with Mike for about an hour. Sadly, my ice cream was pretty bland; I think they forgot some of the toppings I requested. Mike had a lot of good things to say about South Africa, but I had trouble hearing Mike. He is soft-spoken, and the “background” music at Cold Stone was pretty loud. It sounds as if Mike had ups and downs, but that his training for the trip had prepared him as much as possible for the downs (like homesickness toward the end of the trip). Mike got to serve both in a large and modern city, where most of his ministry took place, as well as on some visits to very remote villages. He worked mostly with kids by putting on church camps focused on kids.

Mer and I had to leave after about an hour because we had a lecture to attend. Years ago, I got some lectures on the author C.S. Lewis that were published by The Teaching Company. The lecturer’s name was Dr. Louis Markos, and they were excellent talks. Two local churches and a local ministry teamed up to bring Dr. Markos to the area for two lectures over two evenings: one on C.S. Lewis and modern thought, and one on C.S. Lewis and postmodern thought. We were very excited to go, and we had the added bonus that Mer’s parents wanted to go as well. When we got to the church, we saw our friend Dubbs, so it was a merry little company for the evening.

Wednesday’s lecture was on C.S. Lewis and modern thought. Modern thought, in a simplified nutshell, focuses on logic and reason. Lewis, as the 20th century’s most well-known Christian author, wanted to show modern thinkers that Christianity is a logical faith. Lewis maintained that the “leap of faith” that many people feel Christianity requires is actually more of a small step of faith. Faith is still required, but there are logical and reasonable underpinnings of the faith.

Markos explained that Lewis first tried to establish that morals must come from outside human experience since basic morals cross cultures. He also pointed out that even hardened atheists will demand what is “fair,” but if there is no outside morality, there is no “fair” to which one can appeal. Lewis answers that the outside morality must come from a supernatural (outside of nature) source, and develops that argument to point toward God (theism – belief in God, even if not necessarily Christianity). Markos then talked us through Lewis’ reasoning that based on the claims that Jesus made, specifically that he was equal with God, Jesus must be the world’s foremost liar, a complete lunatic, or he must be what he claims – the Lord. Lewis pointed out that Jesus’ teachings were too consistent and rational for Jesus to be insane. He also argued that Jesus would not have suffered all he did for a lie. So, according to Markos and Lewis, that leaves Jesus as Lord. It was a well-done lecture.

On Wednesday, Markos was having a questions and answers session at The Root Cafe, a coffeehouse in the basement of a nearby church. I took off from work early so Mer and I could go together. The talk was very informal, mostly about Lewis growing up, with a little bit of Tolkien’s life thrown in for good measure. Mer had a Root gift certificate, so we had some good munchies as well.

In the evening, Dale and Carlene joined us again, and we met Dubbs again, for the second lecture: Markos explaining Lewis’ ideas as related to postmodern thought. My take on postmodern thought is that it is more emotional and puts more emphasis on story and the experience of individuals. For this, Markos explained, Lewis appealed to myth. Lewis was a great scholar, and knew many myths of gods who died and came back to life, and for a long time Lewis though that the story of Jesus was just another myth. Then, one day, when Lewis and Tolkien were walking and talking, Tolkien asked Lewis if he had ever considered that Jesus might be “the myths made fact” – that is, that all the myths were types or examples preparing the way for the myth that became a fact in history. That clicked for Lewis, and persuaded him to embrace Christianity. Lewis used the same argument with the miracles of Jesus – all prior stories of miracles pointed ahead to Jesus. Lewis pointed out that Jesus’ miracles tended to be within nature. For instance, Jesus made water into wine; Lewis points out that this happens all the time in grapes, but it takes much longer. So, for Lewis, older stories of mythological miracles in which nature is violated, such as when men are turned into animals, lack a ring of possibility and truth, whereas Jesus’ miracles take place within a natural scheme of things, and so carry weight.

It was a very interesting lecture, and Mer and I were very pleased to have gotten to meet one of our literary heroes.

Sunday was a fairly mellow day, with much eating involved. Ellen, Mer, and I went to church at New Baltimore, and then onto the Sheraton Hotel in Cuyahoga Falls. They have a restaurant that serves a great brunch buffet, so we wanted to take Ellen there. It also served a second purpose. Mer was the class advisor to the Class of 2007, and so this year was their fifth reunion, and they were holding it at the Sheraton. So we were able to have a huge breakfast, and Mer was still able to put in a fifteen-minute appearance at the party. I was a little disappointed at how thinly attended it was – there were probably not even thirty students out of a class of about 160. I expect the tenth will do better, once people get more distance from high school and college.

After brunch, we wandered over to the walking area of downtown Cuyahoga Falls. The three-block pedestrian area is where the city hold festivals, and this weekend it was the Italian Festival. I wanted Ellen to see a festival, so we walked one full block of it and back. It was mostly food vendors, and we had already eaten, so we did not stay long (plus, it was really hot in the sun).

We went back home, where I took a nap and Mer watched Olympics. I think Ellen did both. In the evening, Ellen gamely tagged along to another grad party, this time for two of Mer’s students. The girl whose family was hosting was the youngest of five students, all of whom Mer had in class. The mom graciously let us bring Ellen along, and we had a great seat in the back yard, where we munched on various grad party foods (tacos and cake).

Sadly, my vacation was over. Not a bad little vacation. I went back to work on Monday, and when I got home, I found that Ellen had left earlier in the day.  I don’t blame her – once I make up my mind to head home, I generally like to get home as efficiently as possible.

On Friday, Ellen, Mer, and I decided to head over to Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens. Stan Hywet was the mansion owned by the Seiberlings, who made a fortune in rubber. The city of Akron now owns and maintains the site. Ellen has been to Stan Hywet before with us, but we wanted to go back because they had a butterfly exhibit (with live butterflies) and an in-house display of late Victorian jewelry. Even better, Mer and I could get into the grounds for free since we are members of the Holden Arboretum, and Stan Hywet honors that.

It was a hot day, but quite bearable in the shade. The butterfly exhibit was in a specially constructed structure that resembled a mesh tent. It was over next to the conservatory (greenhouses). We went in and caused a small flurry of butterflies to wing around. They were very beautiful. I’m guessing there were six or eight different kinds. There was even an exhibit with sugar water that encouraged you to feed a butterfly with a Q-tip. I could not get a butterfly to eat from my Q-tip, but I did get one to land on it. I learned (from a sign) that butterflies taste with their feet, so you wanted to try to get them to touch the sugar water.

After the butterflies, we checked out the greenhouses. They were okay, but the gardens are what are really spectacular. The grounds of Stan Hywet are expansive and well maintained, and include reflecting pools, a quarry, huge expanses of lawns, and several gardens. The formal gardens near the house were largely in bloom, and were spectacular. We wandered along a birch-lined path to a tea house, and then back, and went around to the back of the house. There, as I looked at my map, I saw a garden path I had never seen before, despite having been to Stan Hywet half a dozen times. We had to take it, of course, and I’m glad we did. It led to a recessed, walled garden, with a reflecting pool. It was very cool. It led to a small wooded path that led to the far side of the house. We took that as an opportunity to check out the house and the jewelry exhibit.

We have been on guided tours of the house before, but our free admission only covered a self-guided tour. That was okay, since we could go at our own pace. The jewelry exhibit was in the ballroom, which may be my favorite room in the house. After we checked out the baubles, we wandered around the house on our own. It was a great way to see the house again (though I recommend a guided tour for first-time visitors).

By this time, it was early afternoon, so I thought we could go to West Point Market. West Point Market is a high-end grocery store, and I thought Ellen could get some tea, which she likes very much. They also serve lunches there, so it made for a good stop for a meal as well. We ate in a very private-feeling booth that was enclosed on three sides, and then wandered the store. I got some kettle-style chips, Ellen got some tea, and we all got some dessert items for later consumption.

Back at the house, we watched TV and ate desserts. We showed Ellen a couple more Big Bang Theory episodes, and since Ellen had heard of it, but not seen it, we broke into season one of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Ellen seemed to enjoy it, both finding it tense in places and enjoying the tongue-in-cheek campiness of the show.

On Saturday, I woke up early to go run fifteen miles on the Towpath Trail. Ellen and Mer slept in. Once I had gotten back and showered and we all were ready, we headed south to Canton. We were meeting up with the Hubele family (except for Don, who was occupied). The destination of the day was the McKinley Museum and Library, a fun and bizarre place commemorating William McKinley. It is located at the foot of the impressive McKinley Monument, and the museum has dinosaurs, mock habitats, a planetarium, exhibits on local manufacturing, and a small but very complete late-19th-century town, including a working fire pole. I loved it.

I also worked the long-term angle. Mer and I joined as members, which costs fifty dollars a year. But the membership allows for free admission to over 250 museums around the country, including ones in Cleveland, Columbus, and Chicago. I figure it will easily pay for itself.

We met up with Donna and her two sons at the museum, and we explored it all, albeit at a rapid pace.  The boys seemed to have a good time. After we’d exhausted the museum, we climbed up to the monument, which the boys ran up. We looked around and went back to the museum for a planetarium show.

The show was okay. It was narrated live by the operator, and he did a good job of showing the effect of “light noise” on sky gazing. He pointed out some major stars and planets, and ended the show with a small presentation on the space race of the 1960s.

We all left after the planetarium show, and Ellen, Mer, and I went to Cuyahoga Falls, to a grad party. This was a party for Ben and John, two students whom I know very well. Mer had Ben in class as well, and both Ben and John were in my improv group. We had cleared bringing Ellen with Ben’s mom, so that was okay. Ben and John are very popular students, so there were a lot of fellow teachers there. We ate too much food and had a great time chatting with folks, and we were able to get under a pavilion roof when a brief rainstorm blew through. Ben and John’s party was Avenger-themed, so it was fun to see kids running around in superhero masks.

After the party, and after some time back at the house, Ellen went back to visit the Hubes. That was okay; Mer and I used the time to watch Olympic coverage for the rest of the evening. We both like the Olympics, and Mer is a veritable junkie. It was certainly a preview of coming attractions for the next two weeks.