Third time is still charming (see below) – Mer and I stayed late at school on Friday for the CVCA Open House. We have two open house programs per year, and it is a chance for the school to show prospective students (and parents) what we offer. Mer (along with another teacher)  was at the school representing the English Department, and I was in the clubs/sports section for Fools and Ceili Club.

Anyway, we got out late (around 7:15), and after a quick change of clothes, we headed back to Mustard Seed Market for dessert and music. As Mer noted, we had not been to Mustard Seed in years (over a decade), and now we had been three weeks in a row. Never too much of a good thing!  In this case, we were going to hear Celtic music, which turned out to be a woman who played recorder, whistles, and guitar, along with a man who played guitar and keyboards. As luck would have it, they took a break just as we arrived, and when they came back after 10 minutes or so they did several numbers that were covers of pop tunes. They finally came around to several Celtic tunes that were very good, and that made for a fun time. When you add in excellent desserts, all is well. I had some chocolate-and-TONS-of-whipped-cream French dessert that was good (although I would get it with no strawberry sauce next time), and Mer got a very light-tasting cheesecake with chocolate sauce. I also added a peanut butter shake for good measure, and it was okay, but I liked the chocolate shake I had tried last week better. Still, good music and good food – Mer said if you’d added the Irish drum she would’ve expected pizza (a reference to going out for pizza and Irish music at Martyr’s Bar in Chicago when we still lived there).

Saturday was a very puttery day. Mer got her hair done and I ran and then napped. We listened to Wait Wait.  We headed out in the afternoon to go meet Aunt Mary at her church for a church dinner. We got there about the same time, but the doors were locked and the parking lot was empty – turns out we were a week early! Still, we seized the moment and went looking for a restaurant. Restaurant waiting times continue to defy recession talk. Our first stop was Olive Garden and they had a two-hour wait for a table. We quickly moved on to Macaroni Grill and they had an hour wait. Cheeseburger in Paradise finally came through for us with a 20-minute wait. We had a good meal while getting caught up with Aunt Mary.

I wanted to take Mer to see a movie, so we skipped dessert (for the time being), and we headed over to the cheap theater to see The Tale of Despereaux. We had seen a preview for it and it looked fun. It was. I am a HUGE sucker for fantasy worlds, and the creative minds that came up with Mouseworld and Ratworld were really something. The story was simple and clean and engaging, and it played into my predisposition to believe that people (or mice) can do these huge things. The characters were well drawn, both literally and metaphorically. I really loved this film. Mer was very taken with Ratworld and how creepy it was, and we both liked the mouse teacher who was trying to teach the young mice how to behave like mice.

After the movie, we made a detour to get ice cream at Handel’s. Just because it was freezing cold with a nippy breeze was no reason not to get ice cream!

So, another pleasant weekend in the Riordan household. And we may have a church dinner to go to next weekend!