Saturday night, Anne and I attended Don’s 70th birthday party. This would be Captain Don of Team Kaldi’s fame, but before that he worked with me at Control Data. His guest list had the same dichotomy; half the attendees were bikers, while the other half was former co-workers. I was fortunate to be like Don and span both groups. It was good to see all our former co-workers again. Although, I did miss out on attending this year’s Naked Bicycling Ride, but how often is Don going to turn seventy anyway? Thanks for inviting us, Don and thanks for organizing such a great party, Dorothy.
I forgot to mention that Anne and I cycled together on Friday morning, before I went to work. We got 16 miles. We were out on our bikes before six. Saturday morning, what with the Komen race, was also an early launch. So, by Sunday morning we were both a bit tired. We slept in, but fatigue still hung about us. My lethargy and Anne’s determination to train for our big Michigan bicycling vacation led to a disagreement that foreshadowed our Sunday evening’s entertainment. I counseled that a long bike ride would lead to sleeping in the second half of that evening’s Shakespeare Festival. Anne eventually relented, but not before she had picked up the moniker, bossy pants. 🙄
We ended up riding from home to Tower Grove Park and then to the botanical gardens. In Tower Grove, the kickball league was going great guns. One of the many games going on had both teams wearing matching orange jerseys. Orange on orange must have made keeping the player’s straight fun. When you spend your Sunday afternoon itinerantly pedaling around town, you often run into the strangest things, like the Pagan Picnic. “The Picnic” as its denizens refer to it, is really just your basic Renaissance Fair, only a bit more edgy than most. No sooner had we decided to check it out, when Anne spied one of her students. At first the student didn’t recognize her, but when Anne removed her sunglasses, recognition dawned with the remark, “I never expected to see a teacher at the picnic.” The student wanted to show Anne off to her mother, so she traipsed us through the picnic. Apparently, pagans like to eat, sing, dance and shop too. We found the mother, who said, “I never expected to see a teacher at the picnic.”
Our next stop was the Missouri Botanical Gardens, for some blog fodder collecting. The lilies were in fine form there. The photo was taken by Anne. There were two special exhibits at the gardens. The first was a photography show that featured photos of unique views of buildings and architectural features about town. It was a nice show that gave me ideas for taking my own future photos. The other show is more kid oriented. It is all about tree houses. The show comprised about a half-dozen designer tree houses, none of which were up in trees. We also saw Bill and Mary with their grand-kids. We got 20 miles.
Sunday night Joanie, Anne and I went to see Shakespeare in the Park. This year’s production is The Taming of the Shrew. This is Shakespeare’s most misogynistic play and I must admit that some of this misogyny has leaked into my own prose. For this I apologize. Shrew was given a ’50 setting in this production. This choice and extra attention to the play’s humor really helped to lighten what would have otherwise been a very dark comedy. In this production, Petruchio’s castle is a tiny mobile home that could be the kissing cousin to Bill’s “Little Princess”. A pair of pink flamingos really accentuates this part of the set. The opening sequence included a Cadillac driving on to the set and unscripted, a pair of ducks on final approach across the set, landing in the main aisle and then waddling up past us. A Red-Tailed Hawk usher dispatched this impertinence.
