The Duke and the Dude

Slept in - again. I am truly liking that.

Eric and I went to see True Grit. Glad I saw it - I had somehow expected more. It was good - but I do not think it was the Coen brothers' best - at least it is not my favorite among their work.

Hailee Steinfeld was outstanding. Jeff Bridges is a better actor than John Wayne; but for this role I prefer the Duke to the Dude. Matt Damon was quite good. It seemed like some of the supporting players were almost trying to channel those who appeared in the original - particularly in terms of their voices and speaking patterns. There was some amazing scenery. A good way to spend part of an afternoon, but not a keeper - at least until I find it used and cheap somewhere.

Shopping followed. Eric and I went to Aldi to pick up supplies for Sunday's football game: Steelers v. Browns. The VanRoosDales and Francis and family will be coming over.

Then to dinner at Battiste & Dupree Cajun Grill. Quite good. We consumed a lot of shrimp between the three of us. I can't find a Web page to give them a shout out, but they are on Warrensville Center in South Euclid - 1992 Warrensville Center Rd.

Eric then headed to Solon to bring in 2011 with the cousins. Tricia and I are watching football. I am reading Fanny Kemble's Civil Wars. Pretty good.

Tomorrow brings lots of football - and games that I actually care about as opposed to games for the sake of watching football.

All in all, a good day. No wild critters spotted in the back yard, but a good day.

See you along the trail.

A failed, unimportant, quest

Slept in again. That is getting to be a habit. I am getting to like that habit. Of course I stay awake until two or three in the morning. This will all have to change.

Upon rising, I did some email follow-up related to EAPPI, Red Hands, and transferring my membership to the Presbytery of New York.

The animals of the day were deer. Three doe showed up in our back yard (although Tricia was awake early enough to see turkeys again. The doe stayed there a long time, settling in for what appeared to be a nice rest.

Watched a variety of football - no one game in its entirety but saw bits and pieces of Army beating SMU, North Carolina beating Tennessee, and Syracuse beating Kansas State. Now watching Washington and Nebraska. They had played once before this season. Tonight is a different story, at least so far.

Went to see Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It seemed good enough but those who know the book did not like it. I can see their point - the movie not only changed things, it watered things down quite a bit. Not sure if we will go see other movies made from the Chronicles of Narnia.

After the movie went to dinner at Tommy's - always a treat.

Scrabble again closed the evening with Tricia winning one and Eric winning one and me losing both.

The day also saw a failed quest. Of course it was a completely unimportant, inconsequential quest. I have had a yen for the last several weeks for Wedding Cake cookies by Archway. True, they are not great cookies - crunch shortbread, some nuts, a ton of powdered sugar. But I have always liked them - and I have not been able to find them this year - at least not in Louisville. I went to three different grocery stores in Cleveland Heights and South Euclid and came away empty. Oh well. Some day. Some where. I will find them again.

See you along the trail.

A potpourri day

Did several little things today:

Some work on advocacy related to child soldiers - preparing to send Red Hands to missions at the United Nations urging them to have their respective governments ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in armed conflict.

Met with Francis and Isaac on the Dougbe River Presbyterian School of Liberia project. It is heartwarming to see this come together.

Took a load of books to the Half-Price Bookstore.

Got my hairs cut - at least the few that are left on my head and the many that are part of my beard.

Watched football (bowls) and basketball (Duke).

Called a potential musician for the prayer service on Sudan.

Watched The Untouchables while working on the child soldiers project.

Wrote thank-you cards.

Sean got to Madison last night and Eric went to Solon overnight and came back today.

Tomorrow - movies? And what else the day might bring.

Whatever that may be, see you along the trail.

Games played; games watched

Today was a games day - once everyone woke up.

We played Scrabble - Sean designed an Excel spreadsheet score card. Pretty cool.

Eric continued to win - I may have picked up one.

Sean left for CLE to return to Madison. I haven't checked his schedule but I assume he is there by now. Eric went to Solon to hang with his cousins. They enjoy doing that.

This led to me watching football. NC State beat WVU - thought the Mountaineers might do better. The Vikings upset the Eagles - did not see that one coming. Iowa and Missouri are now playing - Iowa has the lead which is a surprise - but good for those who once lived in Diagonal.

Slipped some work in between Sean leaving and football beginning. During commercials and long half-time shows, I watched a fair hunk of the second and third Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Tomorrow - another day to sleep in - another day to do some work.

See you along the trail.

And Nixon wept

Played Trivial Pursuit with the family and Jeff, Carol, and Heather Phillips. It is an annual tradition. Drew had to work and missed this year.

A couple of things stood out:

Early on there was a question that essentially asked "Who said, 'Henry, don't ever tell them that I was weak and that I cried?'" It wasn't my team's question but for some reason, I knew the answer. From that point on, whenever an absurd statement was needed, the obvious response was "And Nixon wept."

At one point in the 90s edition, Heather went on an absolute tear. She must have answered a dozen or more questions in a row. It was pretty awesome. The performance of the night.

Too much food was consumed, but there was great fun and much laughter. Until next year!

See you along the trail.

Lazy day

Slept in today. I knew I would after last night's marathon Scrabble playing with the family. Two games. Four players. Eric won one. I won one. But they were both close (my win was even closer) and they were tautly played - keeping us awake until about 2:00 a.m. It's a Wonderful Life was on in the background as we played.

I had promised some folks that I would see them after church, but I simply knew there was no way I would get up. And I did not. I will try to call tomorrow and see about making it up to them.

I had a fairly significant (and nice) gift to return - because I had already purchased the item. Our conversation over the Scrabble board focused on what we should do with the return. The decision was made to purchase an HDTV for downstairs in Cleveland. Conspicuous consumption in anticipation of football watching. We would cobble together the return plus a couple of gift cards to come up with the needed funds.

Eric made it up for church at Noble Road. I got up about 11:15 or so. Sean was already up and we decided to visit Best Buy and get a TV, hoping to accomplish the task before the Browns game. Traffic proved surprisingly light and the crowd at the store quite manageable. The desired TV was sold out, but we found an alternative. It was purchased - some work needs to be done to activate one of the gift cards - the return trip was uneventful. Sean and I got the TV put up and attached to the cable in time for the second or third play of the Browns game. I rooted for the Browns as their winning would have been in the Steelers' best interest. Their losing, which is what happened, was not.

Sean headed off for a party with friends; Tricia took a nap. Eric and I watched the Packers crush the Giants and the Cavaliers lose a tough one. Bummer.

The TV should get quite a workout this week with all the football. Then, probably not so much until Sean, Eric, or I return.

See you along the trail.

Christmas Day 2010

After we opened presents at our home, we made our usual trek was made to Solon to celebrate with much of my family. A great deal of overeating and laughing was done.

Fun to watch the cousins interact. They have always gotten along well -but they seem to be getting even closer as they grow.

Gifts this year included pictures of our dog Charley created by Tricia's brother - Woody Dykers. They are wonderful!

Christmas Eve Services 2010

A bit behind here.

On Christmas Eve, we went to the 7:00 p.m. service at Noble Road Presbyterian Church - a laid-back service of readings and carols.

At 11:00 p.m. we went to the service at Forest Hill Church, Presbyterian - a service of good music that included a sermon.

In between we watched A Christmas Carol starring George C. Scott. There are many good versions of that story - lots of folk prefer the Reginald Owens version - there is also one with Mr. Magoo. Discussions were held about the pudding made by Mrs. Cratchit. No decisions were reached.

Hope you had a blessed Christmas eve.

See you along the trail.

Christmas Eve 2010 Cleveland Heights

Seen in our back yard around 11:00 a.m., December 24, 2010.

Is Santa using new transportation this year?

One of my favorite Christmas songs

Christmas carols come in a variety of forms.

John McCutcheon has written one of my favorites.

Check out the lyrics to Christmas in the Trenches.

Preparations

Along with the usual preparations to celebrate Christmas, today brings preparations for viewing theatrical movies.

A Harry Potter marathon will come to a close with HP 6 up for viewing shortly. At the moment, the original True Grit is on. I remember seeing it on a Boy Scout trip to Philmont - think it was on a military base. We drove from Grove City on a bus and stayed at a couple bases on the way. Interesting trip.

This afternoon - Harry Potter 7.1 or 7A or 6.5 or whatever the right numbering is.

Tonight - the Steelers at the Winking Lizard - several steps up in terms of food from Buffalo Wild Wings.

Toward the end of an era

It has been almost two months since my last post. Numerous trips between the Shire East and the Shire West have occurred.

I have been at the Shire West since December 8. There were meetings - a wonderful celebration (including a fair imitation of lembas) led by my colleagues in the Peacemaking Program (Tricia and I made the run to Costco to buy many of the other supplies) - a great dinner at Havana Rumba with good friends - a football game won and a football game lost.

Mostly there has been transition - pretty relentless transition - working to prepare the Shire West to go on the market. Home repair is no where near the top of my list of either things I enjoy or things I do well - even when my primary role (well, pretty much my only role) is writing checks or making runs to Home Depot.

It is made more than a tad bittersweet because this marks the end of an era.

Tonight's movie - 3 Godfathers - John Wayne does Christmas.

Tomorrow - Cleveland.