Last Saturday was a date day for me and Mer. We listened to a very excellent Wait Wait, although we listened separately because Mer was coming back from singing practice at church and I was at home. We did laugh about the show once Mer got home. We made some lunch, and then watched a movie (Bon Voyage) about a man in WW2-era France who was framed for murder. It had romance, intrigue, Nazis, and heavy water. What was there not to like?

After the film, we jumped in the car to go to an early supper at Olive Garden, where we had a gift certificate we could use. We were fairly surprised that when we showed up at 5:00, there was a 45-minute wait for a table! I guess restaurants on Saturdays are recession-proof. We put our names in and wandered over to Borders for 20 minutes or so. We did finally get a table and ate too much good Italian food.

When we finally left the restaurant (around 7:00 or so), we went straight to Actors’ Summit to see Nixon’s Nixon, and play about, well, Nixon. The play was a fictionalized account of the meeting between Nixon and Kissinger the night before Nixon resigned. I really liked this play. I did not know too much about either Nixon or Kissinger, and although the play was fiction, the playwright worked many real situations into the play as Kissinger and Nixon talked. There was talk about the Soviet Union, and Israel, and China. There was a fair amount of cursing going on, but we have lots of tape of Nixon swearing a lot – the director said the language was actually toned down from the White House tapes.

The actors put on just enough Nixon-esque and Kissinger-esque accents to make the roles distinctive. The actor playing Kissinger said that Kissinger is so monotone that if he had tried to play Kissinger accurately he would never be heard by the audience. The play focused on Nixon and Kissinger both trying to figure out how to protect their legacy in history books. There are many funny moments with Nixon insisting they role play some of Nixon’s greatest moments, so he has Kissinger play Mao, and the Russian premier and Golda (the president of Israel). It is a fine play, and Mer and I both like getting our history on the stage – it is most entertaining.

Last Friday, we had the joy of a half-day of school. The occasion? CVCA was once again in the Division 2 soccer state finals, and the administration wanted to give everyone a chance to go see the game.

Given the tough choice between going to see state-level soccer or staying at work, Mer and I quickly pointed the car towards Columbus. We were a little anxious when it started to sprinkle about 1/4 of the way there. We started getting worried when it started to rain 1/2 way there. We began planning contingency plans when it started pouring 3/4 of the way there.

Happily, the rain stopped as we got to Columbus. We got into the stadium and sat next to Phil and his wife, and then Dubbs and Joy came over and sat in front of us. The school had given out 500 CVCA towels as spirit and cheer things, and they came in very handy in wiping down our seats.

Things got under way around 3:30. I don’t know much about soccer, but it looked like our guys were not really sharp for most of the first half. Much of the half was played on our side of the field, and our passes were not crisp and accurate. We did score first, so that was exciting, but the other team tied it 1-1 (while I was in the bathroom, of course). End of first half – 1 to 1.

The second half opened with our guys playing much better. The field was reversed (ha!) and most of the game took place on the other team’s side of the field. They did manage to score, but then we scored about 90 seconds later. In the last three minutes, we had two balls bounce off the crossbar and out – it was really close. End of two halves – 2 to 2. (Oh – the downpour came back for much of the second half, so things were pretty wet. It seemed to take just a little speed off of the game.)

Soccer then goes into two 15-minute overtimes (if both are needed). The first overtime was played on our side of the field again (2-2 at end of 1st overtime), and then the sides switched again. A few minutes into the second overtime, we had a breakaway with an excellent pass and shot, and the ball went into the upper corner of the net. Our guys ran onto the field to celebrate the second state title in two years, and we were all going crazy. That is when people started to notice the side judge had called offsides (don’t ask me to explain what offsides is in soccer – it is a weird and complicated rule that I don’t think anyone really understands). Everyone calmed down and played the rest of the second overtime. It ended with a tie, 2-2.

Soccer then goes to perhaps the lamest way to decide a contest in all of sports – a shoot-out. 5 players from each team line up and shoot at the goal which is only defended by a goalie. The goalie basically can only guess which way the ball is going, and so jumps to the left or right when the ball is kicked. CVCA lost the shootout 4-3, so the final score was 3-2. (For those wondering, I would have the teams keep playing, but with one team missing a player for five minutes each – like a power play in hockey).

I was proud of how our students conducted themselves in the game and in receiving the runner-up medals. They never threw a fit on the field, and while downcast, they seemed gracious after the game. I heard that on one soccer discussion board, a man said that he was in a mall where the team went to eat, and he could not tell if they had won or lost because they were excited about their medals. Nice job, guys! What a great game it was.

My muse mostly knows to stay silent, but this popped into my head, based on a poem by Robert Frost.

When I see my birches bend to left and right

Across the lines of straighter higher trees,

I like to think I’ve been swinging them.

But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay.

Ice-storms do that.

Sometimes storms bend birches to where heads touch the ground,

Where I know they cannot be repaired.

I can’t will them to stand again.

But the straighter tree speaks hope and shelter,

Lifted up so high.

It whispers that these birches have been through storms before,

And more will come. The brunt is borne.

When I see my birches bend to left and right

Across the lines of straighter higher trees,

I like to think I can fix them,

But my fixing doesn’t straighten them to stay.

Grace does that.

This last weekend was a pretty good ‘un. Friday after school, I decided I was sick of cooking, so I asked Mer and Zach if they would be open to the Cheesecake Factory for supper since we still had a gift certificate for there. Zach got in touch with Londa, and the evening was a go. Zach was good enough to drive, and we left the house just as the trick-or-treaters were hitting the streets; I was glad to get away since I had forgotten to get any candy for kids. Ooops.

The drive was pleasant, and uneventful. We chatted and laughed and had a general good time. The shocking thing came when we got to the restaurant. I have been going to the Cheesecake Factory on and off for about 12 years now, and have checked out at least three different locations. The place is always mobbed unless you show up at precisely 2:37 in the afternoon. We got there right in prime time – 7:00 on on Friday evening. I was braced for an hour wait or more. Imagine how happy all of us were when we were shown right to a booth. The restaurant was only about 3/4 full – I guess Halloween keeps folks out of the restaurants. We had a great waiter – he gave great service and was really funny. He was sarcastic without being mean, and he was friendly without compromising his performance. The food was grand, as always (I checked out a chicken sandwich), and Mer and I split our usual Factory Mud Pie for dessert. Certainly much better than cooking yet again.

We slept in late on Saturday – until 10:00, getting almost 12 hours of sleep. Needless to say, I did not go running. We puttered around, and went for a quick park outing (more on that later), before getting home at 4:00 for a 5:00 rendezvous with some of our CVCA students for the evening’s festivities. We were going to drive to Grove City College in Pennsylvania (about 90 minutes away). We ended up with three of Mer’s students, two of whom I know pretty well, in the back seat of our car. It was much fun listening to them chat and laugh. Being around younger folks helps me stay young, at least in my head, and it was an easy drive to the school.

We were going to Grove to see Shakespeare’s As You Like It. It is a wonderfully funny play. In the last few years, we have seen it now three times live and once on film, and it is always a good time. It has great characters – the Fool (Touchstone) is a typically brilliant Shakespearean fool. Jaques is very funny by being hopelessly depressed and melancholy. The really wonderful character is Rosalind. Rosalind is smart, resourceful, and funny. She has more lines than any other woman in Shakespeare, and is on stage for about 2/3 of the play.

Before the play, we met up with one of Mer’s former students, Weston, who gave us a quick campus tour. Grove has many new buildings, and they went with the can’t-go-wrong approach of red brick. The 3-year-old buildings look harmonious with the 100-year-old buildings. It is a pretty campus.

We were at Grove because the play had three CVCA students in it that we know, including Kevin, the CVCA alum who has worked with me for the last four summers when I have needed help. He is very funny, and was playing a pathetic, love-sick shepherd.

Grove’s theater program is part of the English department, not its own program, but the theater and set was still extensive. There were multiple roll-away sets, several fly-away screens for backdrops, many fake trees, and a thrust orchestra pit that could be raised and lowered for different scenes.

The actual play was excellent. The sound was clear, the sight lines were good (we were in the front seats), and the energy in the room was fantastic – I’m not sure I have ever been to a show with that many young people in the auditorium. It really added to the evening.

But what stood out was the acting. The actors were flat-out great. There were one or two performances that were less strong, but all the major roles were tremendous. Kevin did a great job with what is otherwise a small role; it is a pleasant experience to know an actor on stage. Touchstone and Jaques were top notch. Rosalind was electric – she delivered her lines naturally, her body language was near-perfect, her emotions were obvious to the audience, and she had really great comedic timing. I was deeply impressed with her, and the show in general. Apparently, I am not alone. There was a reviewer at the show that night who liked the show enough that they may get to do scenes from the play for a special showing in either New York or DC (I forget which).

As an aside, it was like a CVCA reunion at Grove – we ran into at least five different current or former CVCA students (in addition to the three on stage and the three with us). My boss and running partner was there with his family to see his son, Kevin, in the play.

The drive back was also entertaining with the three teens in back (especially the two girls talking about how hot Jaques was in the play), although I was disappointed in that I did not find a Dairy Queen on the way home. I was in the mood for a little snack. That would have been how I liked it.

The only family tradition that Mer and I have that we have observed every year is the carving of pumpkins for Halloween. We even carved pumpkins for a year or two before we were married (illegitimate pumpkins!), so we have been doing this for about 12 years.

This year Meredith once again outdid me. My pumpkin concept was cool, but exceeded my artistic grasp (that of a small child). Mer decided she wanted to carve a scary pumpkin, and she succeeded.

My pumpkin, for those needing help, is supposed to be the constellation of Orion.
Mer’s is two houses in a falling market. The eyes are two houses, the nose is falling (a “down” arrow), and the mouth is a sideways dollar sign. Kudos to Mer for being clever AND for being able to actually make it happen.

Jim and I ran really long runs on the 4th and again on the 11th. Our goal was 20 miles, and to try something different, Jim wanted to park at the train station on the towpath, which is usually my southern terminus for my runs. I was game to see new parts of the towpath. The only downside was we had to run past the sewage-treatment plant that is just a half-mile south of the station. Jim calls the place the “poo-plant” and I have been referring to it that way as well. The first Saturday was cool and foggy, and the poo-plant was in gag-worthy form. We pressed past the stench, and settled into new (for me) territory.

The trail going south becomes fairly wide, easily accommodating three and even four abreast. About 3 miles or so into the run we came out suddenly near Weathervane Theater, which is a theater Mer and I like that is located in the Valley. That was a fun surprise. We crossed under the road, and ran back into the woods.

There are happily three water stops on this section of the trail. The trail itself is very pretty, with a golf course and a few long bridges, and with the Cuyahoga River plunging down out of sight from the trail. Jim and I got to an old Towpath general store that now houses exhibits on the history of Akron and the Towpath. Jim had thought about turning around here (and we did on the 11th), but I wanted to run to a full hour in that direction, and we were only at 55 minutes, so we pressed on. And up. The trail became paved and went up a fairly long 5% grade. We turned a corner, and there it was. Akron. The actual city of Akron. Not in the distance to the south of us, but right there next to us. We had actually run all the way to Akron. We finished up this segment of the run by crossing over the MLK freeway, which put us right at the edge of downtown. It was amazing how quickly you could go from woods and trails on the Towpath to being in downtown Akron. 

We finished the runs both weeks, but they were very difficult. 20 miles is running for 2:40, and everything after 2:00 is hard, and everything past 2:20 is trying.

Last weekend we had to run on our own, and without Jim watching our pace (usually 8-minute miles), I ran 6.5 miles at a 7:25 pace and that is all I could do.

Usually I take Sundays pretty easy, but a couple of weeks ago (Sunday the 5th), we hooked up with our friends Zach and Londa. Oddly, we have built up a tradition of going to see the singer David Wilcox whenever he comes to town. He was in town in Westlake, a western suburb of Cleveland, about 45 minutes away. Zach was kind enough to drive, so we piled into Zach’s car, and away we went.

It was a pleasant enough trip – lots of talk about CVCA (not surprisingly with three CVCA employees in the car), and we got caught up on Londa’s job as well (she is a proofreader for a Christian publishing company). We made it to Westlake Methodist Church (where the concert was being held) with time to spare. We grabbed a pew in the second row, and we waited the half hour or so for the concert to start.

I love folk music. David Wilcox wandered around the church briefly before the concert. He appeared to have guests there, which makes sense since he is from Ohio, so they could have been family. Once the concert started, we were only about 20 feet from David. I have to give LOTS of credit to Westlake Methodist – I don’t know if I have ever been in a better acoustic space. Both the guitar and lyrics came through richly and fully – it was great. David did a number of his more spiritual songs, but he also sprinkled in a few others as well (including “Captain Wanker” and “Rusty Old American Dream.”). It was a very good concert, and I believe it is the third David Wilcox concert that I have seen with Zach.

After the concert, the audience was invited to the church basement for snacks. David was there, selling CDs and signing them. I had some cookies, and then waited around to tell David thank you for his music. I had to wait a fair while, as the man in front of me was a guitar nerd and was asking David a lot of questions about his guitar and his tunings. That was okay. I thanked David, and the man next to David (whom I took to be David’s engineer) offered me some of his sushi. Did I mention I love folk music (but not sushi)? The man even later offered sushi to everyone that was still around in the basement. It was a fine evening.

Using my spiffy new Nike+/iPod combo, I have been logging my running. I like being in shape, and I hope to be in training for a marathon sometime, but the major driving force of my running is trying to lose some weight that I put on last spring and summer. I have had the iPod working for 16 days (11 workouts) now, including my run today. Let’s review the results! How fun!

12 hours of actual running time
About 88-90 miles of distance covered
About 12,000 calories burned

Wow! That is spectacular, I hear you say. I’m pretty proud of it. Net result: 2 pounds lost. Sigh. Back to the pavement (or the Towpath, which is more likely).

Craig likes to use the term “Jesus Economics” quite a bit. Jesus Economics can probably include many meanings, but I understand it to be two-fold: 1) blessings that come unexpectedly and often in unusual ways, and 2) any economic transaction that makes no sense to the world, especially in light of U.S. materialism.

I have been the happily surprised recipient of Jesus Economics several times in the last year. A few months back, Shannon and James teamed up to give me a camera to replace one that I dropped and broke. That was wonderful, and unexpected.

We recently found out that we have season tickets to Actors’ Summit theater again, but I have no credit card or check book record of having paid for the tickets (and it is unlikely we paid in cash). Again, a wonderful surprise.

Then, Jo gave Shannon a new iPod Nano, so Shannon shipped me his old one (which is not that old – it is a second-generation Nano). Not only did he pay to ship it, but he sent me the Nike+ system that keeps track of your running for you, and he sent along a shoe pouch to hold the part that goes on the shoe. Amazing, and it has been useful and welcome.

Most recently (as in yesterday), our friend Dubbs got an iPhone, and in a very selfless act she gave her “old” iPod Touch to me and Meredith. I’m sure she could have sold it on eBay for $75-100, but she choose to give it to us instead.

I am very grateful to people who love to put other people ahead of themselves. I hope to go all Jesus on some of you in the future, too. 🙂

Ahhhh, the backblog has reached new heights of silly, with this post being about two weeks ago (Saturday, October 4th). For someone with very little social life, I seem to have very little time. I’ll blame my running addiction.

I started this Saturday off in the same fashion that I have been doing for a couple of months – Jim and I went to the Towpath and ran. I may blog about the run soon because I found it interesting, but I’ll spare you for now. After I got home and got cleaned up, Mer and I headed off to Streetsboro to got to an apple-butter making that one of the CVCA folks was hosting.

We found the house with only a little trouble, and found our way around back to where everything was set up. Dennis and his family take apple-butter making seriously! I had no idea. There were a slew of people, and there was tons of food, and a roofed-in shelter where the food was set up, and a cider press, and the most enormous fire spit of chicken and beef I have ever seen. And all of this was set up in front of the ever-present Cuyahoga River, which flowed through the back yard. It was an amazing sight of hospitality.

Mer and I spent a little time watching Dennis operate the cider press. The previous night, Dennis and his family  had peeled and cored 15 bushels of apples, and they used the peels and cores in the press (as well as new apples). They were not wasting anything. Mer and I then helped ourselves to intemperate amounts of food (I was fond of the spicy rice and sausage jambalaya). We were entertained by watching the popular Ohio game of cornhole (where you try to throw beanbags through a hole in a target). It was a pretty day, and this was all most pleasant.

After we were fortified, we wandered over to the huge cauldron where the apple-butter was being made. I had no idea how apple-butter was made, but now I know. You throw peeled and cored apples into a copper cauldron that is over a fire. You add just a little water (or cider – I forget), and start stirring. The apples will boil down to a butter-like consistency, and then you add more apples. You must keep stirring at all times so the mixture does not burn. After about eight hours of this, the cauldron will be full. Then you add sugar and spices, and stir for about another hour, and then you can everything. It was interesting. Oh – and you can only use wooden implements when stirring or tasting – any metal (other than the copper pot) will contaminate the mixture and it will end up tasting metallic.

Both Mer and I had a go at stirring the apple butter, which is more work than you might think. We had a good time chatting with people around the fire, and yes, “Double, double, toil and trouble” did come up more than once. We stayed for about an hour and a half, and then went home, since I clearly needed a nap and Mer had another social outing to go to with some friends of hers.

Ahhh, but our very busy Saturday did not end there – after Mer got home (and I got up), we headed off again, this time to another CVCA-related party at Nate and Rachel’s house in Akron. They had invited us over, so we expected a small to mid-sized gathering of maybe 20 people. Ha! We were told to park next door at a baseball field, and I was quite surprised when I had trouble finding a parking spot. There must have been over 100 people at the party. Turns out that Nate and Rachel invited people from CVCA as well as three different churches that they have relationships with. It was quite the gathering. Craig, his wife, and his youngest child were there, which was much fun. Craig and his family make me laugh. Nate had broken out his deep fryer, and although I had missed the deep fried turkey, I got there in time for the deep fried chicken tenders. Yum! There was also pizza, and salads, and chips, and waayyyyy too much dessert. Meredith and I again ate rather intemperately.

Nate had a projector and (20-foot) screen set up outside, so once it got dark, we all settled back in the now-nippy air to watch National Treasure. The film was totally ridiculous and improbable and ignored common sense everywhere, and I had a great time watching it. It was a foolish movie, but it was still highly entertaining – I really did enjoy it. Combine the movie and the atmosphere and a huge plate of dessert, and you have a great evening. We moseyed home sometime around 10:00. What a grand day.