Summer arrived in three blazing hot days. They were this weekend. We rang in the season with plenty o' work around the house with some fun-ness mixed in. Sunday that meant walking around Trexler Park with Stacie and Eric and Kaelyn. Friday that meant Pippin, as described previously. Saturday that meant our first visit to local movie house Emmaus Theater. I loved it. It's a mainstream second-run place, so it lacks the art house zest of Burns Court (see 8-02 thru 8-04) or the political punchiness of the Michigan or State (see 9-04 thru 7-07) but it has all the small-town flair you could ever want. The concession stand is in the theater so the popcorn smell is nothing short of enchanting, it's about 5 times deeper than it is wide so the seats in the back are truly not good, and the front door is not more than 50 feet from a major freight corridor. When the first train rolled past and the movie got a little fuzzy as the nearly century-old building shook the projector I was hooked.
posted at 10:01 PM - comments
Friday, April 24, 2009
RRHS drama club presentations were probably a bit painful for audience members not closely related to one of the players. This background is important because it sets the mood for our trip to WAHS for 'Pippin.' At a high school with 3800 students, though, the possibilities are endless and the show was extraordinary. There must have been close to 30 flawless musical numbers and two hours of impeccable choreography. It was fantastic.
Before the play, a week in five acts. I worked - hard - and that filled most of the time. Jenelle had a dress fitting. I played hoops with my calf wrapped on Thursday and it didn't go that badly. Now it's the weekend and 'they want the mid 80s' as Valley natives are likely to say about the forecast. Should be a good one...fire up the bike, the garden, and the grill.
Finally, thanks to Nick and Bonnie, picture time of Jenelle and I just south of the tram at JHMR over a month ago:
We had never been to an all-inclusive resort and really weren't sure what to expect, but there was a compelling reason to give it a shot and so we were off. At one point on Saturday Jenelle assured me that she was a big girl, mature enough to know when to just get off her barstool and swim away. I knew we were having fun.
Doug and Johanna and their families and friends were on hand for a beautiful wedding in a beautiful church and a wonderful celebration that was about as much fun as you can have in one day. We made a bunch of new friends and reveled into the wee morning hours. Outside of that it was a whirlwind of beach and pool and food and drinks.
Mike asked me how the long weekend was and I responded truthfully: I spent most of it in the closet. We did some planting of grasses and watering of the tree Friday, but then we dove into purging, painting, and customizing our closet. IKEA helped and by Sunday evening we had completely overhauled and upgraded and reassembled. It was kind of a dull project but the results are awesomely useful and smell like aromatic cedar.
I'm supposed to have been playing basketball but that hasn't happened due to lingering soreness in my calf. Work has also been ramping up on two projects/fronts, so it's almost a blessing that I'm not spotting two nights a week to recreation. The downside, of course, is doing without those three or four hours of run.
MSU seemed like a team of destiny and we bought in hook, line and sinker. We watched both Final Four games at a nearby sports bar and enjoyed the ride. It turns out that their destiny wasn't quite what we envisioned but that was OK, too. Can't win 'em all.
This week has been pretty odd with no hoops (calf) and no projects (???) and Jenelle only in the classroom one day (off-campus training/in-service/Spring Break). We've cooked a bit, had a scoche of spring cleaning, and are gearing up for a big inside/outside work weekend here since I have Friday off as well.
This week would probably not have been remarkable in any way except for two events: the pulling of a calf muscle Tuesday night and the arrival of a tree on Wednesday. The former meant ice and rest and elevated legs and limping all week. The latter meant digging a hole, pulling out a dead tree, rolling in a live Deborah Norway maple, and filling with dirt all while only using one leg. Otherwise, this was quite an ordinary few days.
posted at 10:20 PM - comments
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
