FRIDAY
Long Friday for me, saving up hours for Good Friday next weekend. Still, got home in time for Margie to head over to sundry doctors’ offices to be told, among other things, that her arm is looking great. Which it is.
She beat me to the punch, by the way, by going out and trimming the grasses in the pots, so that I didn’t have to. She rocks. Still have some ground-planted ones that need trimming, but the weather (and schedule) did not permit.
Margie was off to D&D in the evening. Kitten and I went downtown to an art gallery near the bit REI HQ. An old college friend of mine, Keith Howard, was having an opening there, and it had been a few years since we’d gotten together with him. He’s currently still doing much house painting, but clearly selling enough of the “real” art to have shows and such. Lots of big, pretty abstract oil paintings, bright primary colors, etc.
Keith was seriously jazzed to meet Katherine, and the two of them got into a laughing contest, which I wish I’d had a video camera to record.
That got us home pretty late — especially since the heavens opened up with rain, which is not the best of conditions to drive the ever-under-construction I-25 in. Not that I was complaining — we are heartily in need of precipitation. It was probably 9:30 or so before Kitten got to bed, and she went down pretty quickly, and I …
… well, I finished sorting stuff on the breakfast table. It’s not clean yet, but it’s a lot more clear, and better organized. Now I need to do something about it.
Not the most footloose and fancy-free of bachelor evenings, but better than some, certainly.
SATURDAY
Up earlyish to deal with Kitten needs and haul her off to dance class. Good fun, watching flocking behavior by little girls in dance outfits, running about the dance instructor like larks on the wing.
The afternoon was a playtest of a new Pulp module. Good fun around the table. Due to the Very Occasional actual play of Pulp, I’ve never really gotten into my character, Burt Richards, but not a bad way to spend the afternoon.
The evening, in turn, was taken up going to see Hellboy. Which I probably need to do again.
SUNDAY
We were extra-diligent the night before to set our bedside clocks ahead an hour. Which was about the cleverest thing that we did.
Palm Sunday, and time for the annual Passion-reading-as-script rendition. Margie got tapped as the narrator, which meant she had the most lines by far, much to her delight (not). She did quite well.
I got to do Jesus, who always has the oddest selection of written part. There’s always pressure in that particular role, as one might imagine. Inflection becomes critical. You don’t want to be melodramatic, but you don’t want to drone the lines out, either. Plus you can imagine everyone in the congregation hanging on the particular performance, ready to critique a particular way you say things. Well, I can, at least.
The church expansion continues apace. We had paved parking lot, but no parking in it (that will be for next Sunday, weather permitting).The walled areas around the parish hall and narthex are finally taking shape. Things are progressing well.
After church, it was off to brunch, thence to errands. As we headed over to Costco, we saw signs for the Lord & Taylor at Park Meadows closing, everything 40% off, so we took a side jaunt there.
Well, at 40% off, it’s still a not-unpricey store, but I found a couple of good deals — some short-sleeved dress shirts, a tie bar or two — and Margie found some stuff, and a couple of cute outfits for Kitten, and a Mothers Day gift from her for Mommy. Then over to Costco …
… where we got a call from Jackie on my cell. Margie took it, and it sounded like a query about the timing for my Spycraft game that afternoon. Ah, I thought. Someone thought it was at 1 again, but it’s clearly on the Game Calendar as 2. And at the moment, it’s just 1:20 …
Well, um, no. See, we’d done a decent job of changing most of the clocks in the house … except my wristwatch. Clever. So it was really 2:20, and everyone was at the house, except us.
Which made the rest of the trip — and the unpacking, and pre-game prep — a bit more hectic than usual.
As it was, the module finished unfolding, the players manage to converge when and where they needed to, and if the boat chase took place later than planned, and with our not being familiar yet with the chase rules, that was compensated for by a well-placed auto-fire salvo that sunk the fleeing Zodiac.
By the time folks had left, though, and Kitten was down, it was going on 9:30. And we needed some unwinding time, so it was about 11:30 by the time we were lights out.
Which is probably not the way to wrap a hectic week ahead — the wrap-up of 40 Days tonight (thank heavens), another meeting for me Wednesday night, our anniversary on Thursday (huzzah!), and the whole Easter Weekend after that. But at least it’s dark again when I’m driving into the office.
How is driving to work in the dark a good thing?
It sort of makes it feel like it’s still part of the timeless night, as opposed to, say, dawn. Plus it’s easier on the eyes.
I played Jesus in a play the kid’s choir did last night, but it was not a speakng part. The play was called Nic at Night and was about Nicodemus. Nicodemus was talking with me and the kids were giving a running synopsys of our conversation. The actor who played Nicodemus improved John 3 under his breath with me so we could get our gestures right. I also played Joseph of Arimethea after the resurrection, telling Nicodemus that Jesus is risen. I got to speak then. After the play, a mom brought her four-year-old up to me at the reception. I took the curtain call as Joseph. The girl wondered where Jesus went. (Kids can be real perceptive!)