Weekend Round-Up

Another big weekend. Where to start . .

- "Spamalot". Keith and I went to see it Friday night at the aforementioned beautiful Orpheum Theater. The national tour, so a few people were from the Broadway production, including the guy who played Arthur right after Tim Curry. Keith and I saw the show on Broadway (with Curry and David Hyde Pierce -- oh, my goodness, was he fantastic!). This wasn't up to that quality, but it was still great. SUCH a funny show! The big surprise for us, though, was the crowd -- the crowd that wasn't there. The place was maybe three-quarters empty! Keith's friend who went to Wednesday night's show said the place was packed. What gives? Such a shame . .

- The girls' sleepover. We couldn't find a babysitter for Spamalot, so the girls slept over with Lexi next door. First sleepover since we moved here. Pizza, chocolate chip cookies, nail polish, Hannah Montana on the big screen -- a good time was had by all.

- Art Center workshops. Leslie's pottery class is done (I just remembered that we forgot to pick up her final projects yesterday). But they had free holiday craft workshops for the kids. The girls painted glass plates and bowls and built "gingerbread" houses out of graham crackers. Hmph. Kept them occupied while I got Christmas shopping done anyway.

- Christmas lights. Keith spent the day out in the cold and wind trying to put lights up on the house -- his Christmas gift to me this year. But the cold and the wind and the messed up ladder and a variety of other factors figured in to foil his good plans and intentions. Turns out, he couldn't do what he wanted to do, and some of the lights he got up yesterday were laying on the ground this morning. Another shame. But I appreciate the effort. I told him to forget about it -- there's always next year.

- Volleyball. The NAIA Women's Volleyball Tournament was in Sioux City this week. Since Blue Bunny was a sponsor, we got four passes. We went last night, for the championship game between Fresno Pacific and Concordia. Fresno won in the first championship match in the tournament's history ever to go to five sets. Yeah . . we didn't care that much either. But it was a night out, and it was fun to watch. It's always enjoyable to watch people who excel at and enjoy their sport playing at the top of their game, whatever the game.

- Church. Sunnybrook Community, again. I realized something this morning -- this pastor is a pretty good speaker. I've been relatively unimpressed with all the pastors we've heard since we've been here. But I think now that I've been unfair. They weren't all that bad (well, no, some of them were). They just weren't Jeff Bills. But who else is? This guy (another Pastor Jeff, believe it or not) is good -- he speaks truth, he connects with the seeker, he communicates clearly, he keeps your attention, he cracks a good self-deprecating joke on a regular basis . . he's a good preacher. And Keith met him at men's basketball there last Wednesday. He plays basketball; he's real. I'm satisfied.

- Golden Corral. Newly opened nearby, and we had lunch there today. There seems to be a lot of all-you-can-eat buffets around here (or maybe we're just hitting them all). I'm getting to a point, though, where I can't eat at these places without feeling guilty. Not only do I eat way too much, but all the food that gets wasted there is downright sinful. Another guilt by-product of reading Robin's blog everyday . . .

- The Hope Christmas program. Tonight. In New Jersey. The event I'm missing this weekend. Sigh. It makes me very sad that I'm not in this this year. I really miss Hope Players right now. By next year, I suppose I'll be involved in some kind of program around here (we're going to Sunnybrook's this Friday night to check out what they do), but this year, I'm a spectator. And that's kind of sad.

I suppose I should enjoy it while it lasts. Next year, I'll probably be whining about being so busy with the church Christmas program . . the glass is always half-empty, you know. Further sanctification still required . . :)