Weekend

Sleeping in to the decadently late time of 6:30am Saturday morning, I awoke with a start when Rick asked, "Is that the tornado siren?" I couldn't tell over the sound of the storm outside and the sound of the fan inside, so I went a window to listen. No siren. But I decided to check the weather maps since the tour bus was driving through the night to get home that morning, and I wondered if they were in the wicked weather. (Side note: they drove through the night partially in order to save money on a hotel stay, partially to get home earlier.)

Let's see, their estimated time of arrival is 10am, so they should be just east of Kansas City now ... the map shows KC is clear, so they must be on the west side of the storm ... the worst of it should be past us by the time they get here.

About 5 minutes later the phone rang. "Hey, Mom? We're passing the mall now, just to let you know. We'll need to unload stuff when we get to the church, though, so no big rush."

Apparently the tour leader likes to pad her trip estimates quite a bit (her daughter was chastising her about this, saying she does this every single time they drive home from Colorado. "But we had to change bus drivers this time, so I added more time." "Mom, it doesn't take 2 hours to change a bus driver!")

Anyway, the kids were all home safely. They had slept some on the bus overnight, so Thalia was reasonably coherent. And after she unpacked and we started laundry we took a trip to Animeggroll to get bento supplies. Thalia had been wanting to go there, and this was the only time we could go that they were actually open in about a 3 week span.

In addition to a beach towel from a favorite manga, she selected a bento set:



bento box, chopsticks, and bag. I know I've seen this one on Amazon.com because I remember the reviews commenting on the mysterious wording on the top:



Lube Sheep? Really? Boggles the mind.

And Annabeth got a new 2 tiered box that matches her old box and bag, plus we found the matching chopsticks:


which has the more sensible phrase of


on it. We also saw this one on Amazon.com, but would rather support a local merchant. Plus it was cheaper at Animeggroll, plus that instant gratification thing. So, a big win.

Then, having satisfied our bento "needs", the kids sort of hung around the rest of the day while we go usual Saturday stuff done, although no yardwork due to all the rain and storms.

That night I took Thalia, Annabeth, and a friend to the park in St. Charles to see Much Ado About Nothing.



Pretty good crowd, thousands upon thousands of mosquitoes, and, wow, it was insanely muddy -- standing water in spots. But we enjoyed the show. Dogberry and the watchmen were FANTASTIC -- definitely our favorites of the evening.

I'd forgotten how angsty the play gets in spots. Sheesh. Scene from Hero's wedding and supposed death:



The last time we saw this particular play was a high school dress rehearsal for a Shakespeare-in-a-week performance, and we were struck by the fact that 1. it's much more fun to watch when everyone remembers their lines, as they did this weekend (which I should've said more loudly in earshot of Antipholus of Syracuse, who was with us and will undoubtably forget his lines during Comedy of Errors next week), and 2. we actually thought the high school Benedick was better in the part, interestingly.

Then up the next morning for the final performance of the 2011 choir tour


which was also the final performance ever for this director, who is now moving on to other things. The performance was fantastic, reflecting that the kids had been on the road with it for a week -- it had that amazing energy you get at the end of a good run of a show. And was followed by a reception for the director.

Father's Day was spent relaxing, playing Stratego, and going to the pool. Good weekend overall, but many complaints of tiredness and sleepiness this Monday morning. Woops.