On Friday (the 19th), while Mer stayed home to grade, I went to another cold and rainy CVCA football game – it seems to be a theme this year (after the first game, which was beautiful). I stuck around for the halftime band show, and a couple of CVCA alums visited with me – Sarah and Katie (and Katie’s boyfriend, Obie). I told them to swing by the house if the light was still on and if they wanted to.
Happily, they did. They left the cold and rainy game early, and came over and visited with us. We got to talk with Obie a little, and heard about how he and Katie ran into each other at a gas station after having not seen each other since fifth grade, and that is how they started dating. Fun story. Sarah was fun and funny, as always, and explained to us the difference between an emo club and a rave club. They only stayed for about twenty minutes, but we were happy they felt comfortable enough to swing by.
Saturday (the 20th) was my day, and I confused Mer by heading down to Canton, to the McKinley Museum. We had joined as members there during the summer, mostly to get the reciprocal admission to other museums. We had covered the McKinley Museum pretty well back during summer, so Mer was confused as to why we would go back so soon (although she was game to try).
The reason we were there was to see a new exhibit on miniatures, which were essentially dollhouses. Mer loves dollhouses, so I knew she would like the exhibit. There were about twenty houses on display. They varied quite a bit, from 1970s plastic Playmobil houses to hand-built ones that took six months to construct and included hand-stained wooden floors. There was a haunted witch house that was creepy, and a library, and a Scottish castle with Queen Victoria on hand. There were several mansions and a few period houses from the United States. It was a pretty cool display, especially for free (as members).
After the museum, we headed to Mer’s old neighborhood to go to Taggart’s ice cream shop. We got ice cream as a mid-afternoon snack, and then headed across town to the second-run theater, where I wanted to see The Dark Knight Returns, the latest Batman movie. I found the scale of it a bit large to believe, but taking the premise on faith, I found it to be a very entertaining movie, and I was mad that I did not see the end coming before it happened. I should have known enough Batman lore to know what was going to happen.
Making it a movie night, we went home and I finally got around to showing Mer a borrowed copy of The Bridge on the River Kwai. Mer has had very little exposure to war films, and Bridge is one of the best. It turned out to be much longer than I’d remembered, so it was pushing midnight when we finished, but it was a great film.