Meredith and I had another fun Saturday, and I even was a little productive. I went to bed Friday with a slightly sore throat, and I woke up feeling a little blah (a medical term) and still had the slightly sore throat. So, I did what every sensible male Riordan would do – I punished my body. The thinking is that if your body starts to get sick, then you can make it so inhospitable to viruses that they will move out. It makes perfect sense. So, I ran for 15 minutes (about 2.25 miles) and then went out and mulched leaves for 30 minutes. That would show those virii!

After a shower, I took Mer down Canton way for a $2 date. Since we still have two mortgages, we are not supposed to be spending any money, but I figured Mer would be okay with the occational outlay if it was minimal. This assumption seemed correct. So, I took Mer to the nice $1 theater in Canton (clean, and the seats recline!) to see Ratatouille, a movie both of us had wanted to see. Ratatouille was charming – it took place in Paris, and (not surprisingly) Pixar did a nice job of creating Paris for the film. Since we were recently in Paris (including the sewers), it was fun to see it again in the film. A movie featuring food is also a plus for the Riordan household. The characters were much fun as well – the rat was sympathetic as a character, but most importantly, the movie pitted an obviously American character against a short and mean and stereotypical French chef. How can you not have good comedy out of that? Ratatouille was a good film, especially for just a $1 each.

We got back home in time for me to make ham calzone. While that was rising, we listened to Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me! via the computer, a favorite pastime for us on weekends. We just mellow out and listen to the show for an hour. This weekend’s show was good, including a tear-inducing moment with trying to give comedian Paula Poundstone a clue about Santa (listen to the Nov. 17th show, Panel Round Two, if interested). We then sat down to watch a Quantum Leap episode while eating hot calzone followed by a brownie/pudding dessert. Yum!

We then drove (it was raining) the arduous .25 miles to CVCA to see the fall play, which this year was a double-bill, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever followed by It’s a Wonderful Life. If you have never read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, you should – it is a quick read, and it is really funny. The dramatized version held up well. There were a number of quick transitions in the play (scenes that were only a minute long or so), but they were handled well by the narrator. Seeing the terrible Herdmans running around live on stage was fun. I was amazed at how well one of the leads did in the play – the actress playing the mom carried herself well on stage, and she looked to be much older than 17 or 18. One of the fun things about working at CVCA is getting to see students you know up on the stage.

Mer and I missed the first few minutes of the second play – we were helping out the Diakonos service club do fundraising for the spring Habitat trip. The club sells “stargrams” where for 50 cents people can send notes to the cast or crew, and the proceeds help students defray some of their costs for the Habitat for Humanity trip in the spring (it costs about $250 to go). I  was put in charge of the table handling the cash, and Mer helped with running the stargrams backstage.

It’s a Wonderful Life is a great story – I love the film version of it (I have seen it at least 5 or 6 times). I love Jimmy Stewart – he is one of my favorite actors. So, I was very pleased when the student playing George pulled it off – he made a convincing George, and his wife, Mary, was played very well by a student as well. Both George and Mary looked great in the period clothing (the 30s and 40s had wonderful clothes that look great on people). Clarence was played by a Norwegian exchange student, and that worked well – his accent helped make his sound otherworldly (or at least different from the townspeople of Bedford Falls).

Mer had over twenty of her students involved in the play either on stage or as part of the crew, and I had at least five Fools or Ceili Club members in the productions as well. It was fun seeing the results of their hard work.

Another very fine Saturday!

Oh – the body is hanging in there. I still feel a little run down, and the throat is acting up a bit, but I feel a little better as of Sunday afternoon. More empirical evidence for Riordan medicine!