Last Weekend for November 30-December 2: Dinner, Movie, Concert, Book, Dinner
Friday did not start auspiciously. I had long previously scheduled my regular boiler maintenance for the year at 8am. The contractor showed up on time and got right to work. Then he said "I have to get one piece of equipment from my van" and it all went to hell. Due to a serious of unfortunate events, he wasn't able to get into his fan, and by the time they got the equipment out and finished the job it was 3pm. On the down side, I burned one of my two remaining PTO days. On the plus side, I got deeply discounted boiler maintenance and everything in fine working order. Even better, I got all sorts of stuff done around the house while I was waiting. That included going through all my old cooking magazines and clipping the recipes I wanted to keep and then putting them in my binder, laundry, dishes, cleaned the microwave and a large selection of other small things, plus I went and did some of my grocery shopping after the contractor left.
In any event, I felt both accomplished and frustrated when the evening rolled around. M and I went to the Print Room for a new opening and had a nice chat with Tim, Helen and some of our other friends who were working the show. Then we had dinner at Toast near Gordon Square. We'd been here for drinks once previously, but never a full meal. I don't think we'll be back though; the menu was uninspired, the food average and the volume in the restaurant was extremely high.
On Saturday I saw the movie Free Solo both free (I had a rewards ticket) and solo (M went to do outdoors stuff). The movie follows Alex Honnold as he attempts to be the first person to climb El Capitan without ropes. This would be a suicide run for most people, but Honnold is not most people. The film follows his preparation and climb while covering his earlier life and his relationship with his girlfriend. It's a weird combination of sports movie, reality TV and a really good Werner Herzog documentary about an obsessed person. It's also one of the very best films that I have seen this year.
Saturday night M and I went to the Orchestra, covered in depth here.
I have platelets for the twelfth time this year on Sunday morning. While donating I read almost all of Ballots and Bullets: Black Power Politics and Urban Guerrilla Warfare in 1968 Cleveland and finished it up in the evening. I had grabbed this off the new shelf at my local library branch. The author did a lot of research, but his writing style left much to be desired, and he ultimately made the run up to the Glenville Shootout a lot less interesting than it should have been. If I wasn't local to the neighborhoods in question, it would have been a slog.
After I finished donating, I had a brief lunch at the University Circle Coffeehouse and used up the gift certificate I won on my birthday. Radio featured my trainee (who had just taken the test) and I alternating cuts for the first hour and then me taking the freeform alone when he went to study for finals.
Sunday night M and I met up with theferrett, zoethe, gieves and darlox for dinner in honor of darlox's birthday. We met up at the South Side and had a pleasant evening out. Unfortunately, it ended with me in some intestinal distress; M had to drive home and I passed out pretty quickly. Fortunately, I felt fine the next day.
In any event, I felt both accomplished and frustrated when the evening rolled around. M and I went to the Print Room for a new opening and had a nice chat with Tim, Helen and some of our other friends who were working the show. Then we had dinner at Toast near Gordon Square. We'd been here for drinks once previously, but never a full meal. I don't think we'll be back though; the menu was uninspired, the food average and the volume in the restaurant was extremely high.
On Saturday I saw the movie Free Solo both free (I had a rewards ticket) and solo (M went to do outdoors stuff). The movie follows Alex Honnold as he attempts to be the first person to climb El Capitan without ropes. This would be a suicide run for most people, but Honnold is not most people. The film follows his preparation and climb while covering his earlier life and his relationship with his girlfriend. It's a weird combination of sports movie, reality TV and a really good Werner Herzog documentary about an obsessed person. It's also one of the very best films that I have seen this year.
Saturday night M and I went to the Orchestra, covered in depth here.
I have platelets for the twelfth time this year on Sunday morning. While donating I read almost all of Ballots and Bullets: Black Power Politics and Urban Guerrilla Warfare in 1968 Cleveland and finished it up in the evening. I had grabbed this off the new shelf at my local library branch. The author did a lot of research, but his writing style left much to be desired, and he ultimately made the run up to the Glenville Shootout a lot less interesting than it should have been. If I wasn't local to the neighborhoods in question, it would have been a slog.
After I finished donating, I had a brief lunch at the University Circle Coffeehouse and used up the gift certificate I won on my birthday. Radio featured my trainee (who had just taken the test) and I alternating cuts for the first hour and then me taking the freeform alone when he went to study for finals.
Sunday night M and I met up with theferrett, zoethe, gieves and darlox for dinner in honor of darlox's birthday. We met up at the South Side and had a pleasant evening out. Unfortunately, it ended with me in some intestinal distress; M had to drive home and I passed out pretty quickly. Fortunately, I felt fine the next day.