I had an amazing weekend, a strange combination of family, politics, football, drama, and even games.
First, I got to see my son Marty in his first ever play, Oliver! I went to the Friday night and Sunday afternoon productions, and he did a wonderful job. There’s barely a shy bone in the kid’s body, and he truly enjoyed it. I think this won’t be his last show.
Saturday, I attended the wedding of my stepsister Susie Schooff to Mark Meyer. Mark used to be the Wisconsin state senator from La Crosse, and Susie works for State Senator Jeff Plale, so you can guess how this got started. Fittingly, they were wed in the senatorial chambers in the state capitol in Madison.
I really enjoyed the ceremony, but I ditched out on the first part of the reception so I could catch the last quarter of the Michigan—Ohio State game. Even with the ghost of Bo Schembechler watching over them, my beloved Wolverines lost by a mere three points, which hurt. It was a great game, well fought though, and it could have gone either way.
Despite the loss, Michigan is still rated #2, which is giving the sports pundits fits. It’s possible the BCS championship game could be a rematch between Michigan and Ohio State, which is just the sort of thing to drive coaches and sportswriters nuts. Still, the fans, I think, would love to see it.
After the game, my dad and I walked across the street to join the reception. I got to meet all sorts of Susie and Mark’s friends and catch up with lots of relatives and old friends too. I even met Tim Kelly, who’s posted in the comments here before, and signed Tim’s copy of The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game. He’s a great guy, and he’s doing good work in Assemblyman Mike Sheridan‘s office.
On Sunday, we took the whole family to see Marty’s final performance. The quads did as well as I could have expected for handling a two-hour performance. A monster pack of crayons and pens along with plenty of drawing paper made the difference.
To cap it off, we won the big prize in the raffle to raise funds for KFAD (Kids’ Fun and Drama), the group that puts on the play. It’s a week’s vacation in any one of dozens of different resorts around the world. It doesn’t cover airfare, but the place will be paid for once we get there. Now we just have to figure out where and when to take advantage of this windfall!
