Friday night I went to Susan's conversion ceremony. It was very nicely done. We all then went to Rodef's Shabbat service and then across the street for a party at her in-laws' house. I met some interesting people, including Susan's children -- one of whom works at WhizBang. Small world. (Given that all of this was pretty public, I hope my mentioning this isn't considered indiscreet.) I also met an 80-year-old man who had just converted; Susan said that she had thought she was too old at 50, but he inspired her.

I then walked to Temple Sinai for *our* Shabbat service. The choir sounded great! They also did one of my favorite songs, and a newish one that I like quite a bit. Rabbi Gibson gave a very good sermon (I do wish he would publish more of these).

As I was sitting down one of my friends asked how the service at Tree of Life had gone a couple weeks ago. It turns out that the morning service that week was a special service for the local Hadassah chapter, and she had been there for that. And they only print up one "bulletin" per Shabbat, so it includes info about both Friday and Saturday services, and she saw my name there and figured there wasn't *another* Monica Cellio in town. Ok, I've been found out. :-) (Not a secret, but no reason to bring it up, either.)

(What *is* Hadassah, anyway? I gather it's some sort of national women's organizatin, but what do they *do*?)

The walk from Rodef to Sinai is about 25 minutes, so I guess it's a bit more than a mile. It was a nice night, though, and I've been known to walk up to 2 miles (each way) for services so that doesn't bother me. Wouldn't want to do 2 miles on a regular basis, but once in a while is fine.

Oddly, this morning's service had a newcomer who I know from Tree's morning minyan. She just switched from there to Sinai and this was her first time at our informal service. She seemed to enjoy it and she remarked on the strong sense of community we have, especially in comparison to other congregations.


Today Dani and I went to a local SCA event. It was a pleasant day. I came in second in the gaming tourney; I usually don't do that well at those. This one was a single game, something akin to table-top shuffleboard, kind of. It's called shove-groat (modulo spelling). You use a finger to push coins down a board and are trying to hit various scoring areas. It's a lot of fun. I should make myself a board to take to events, at least Pennsic.

The feast was *very* good, and the cook went to extra effort for the vegetarians. I should say vegetarian -- I was the only person who inquired. She had planned to make a cheese pie for us to replace the meat dishes; I was the only one, so I got the entire pie. (I can't actually eat an entire pie -- at least if I want to eat anything else -- so after taking my fill I passed it around for others.) It's pretty rare for cooks to go to extra effort, and this is the second event in a row where it's happened. Neat! The autocrats also did a great job with the event -- careful planning and enthusiasm paid off.

The local group has an acting troupe that has been around for about a decade and has, in my opinion, varied between barely competent and pretty bad during that time. (Usually toward the negative end, mostly caused by insufficient rehearsal.) This time they actually had more rehearsals than usual, and the actors learned their lines instead of reading from scripts or doing a mostly-narrated show, and it made a real difference. This show was well-done and fun to watch. I hope they keep it up!

We left the event after dinner because Dani is sick. I assume that he and I have been hit with the same cold, but I'm doing mostly fine (thoat's a bit gunked up) and he's not. That's because I take cold medicine when called for and he (apparently) thinks such things are ineffective. He's free to believe that, but I claim the evidence is on my side. :-)

I hope he's feeling better tomorrow, when we're going to see Les Mis.

I'm doing the cantorial-soloist thing again this coming Friday. This time there's no bar mitzvah, so I'll have the bima to myself. :-) (Well, except for the rabbis, but they don't lead any of the music.)

Saturday was an SCA event in Sunderoak (Slippery Rock). I think this is the first time I've gone to a Sunderoak event where the directions weren't broken in some way; I hope this is a new trend and not a fluke. The event was fun. They made a new Pelican (highest service award the SCA gives), which is part of the reason I was there. She is the first Pelican in her local group, and one of the folks who holds that group together, so in addition to being good for her, this should be good for her group.

Ensemble Rigodon (aka On the Mark) did a short performance that appeared to go over well. (It's always hard to tell what we sound like, especially with funky accoustics like we had at this event.) The choir performed immediately afterward, to take advantage of the audience, and I think it went reasonably well. I've heard some people say that it sounded very good and one person say that the blend sounded off, which may have been a function of the accoustics or may have been a real problem. Hard to tell. I'll mention it to the director tonight at practice.

The feast menu looked like it was going to be kind of a lose for a vegetarian. (Yes, I had contacted the cook in advance to ask if there would be enough vegetarian food, and she said yes.) But the printed menu didn't include the wonderful cheese pies that she had made specifically for the vegetarians, and that made a big difference. (I need to ask the cook for the recipe, or at least the source.) We also had three children at our table, so I was able to get as much of the barley, carrots, and cabbage as I wanted. Handy; I'll have to remember that trick. :-)

There was a ball after dinner. It's been a while since I've played for dancing at an event. It was kind of fun. We had more musicians than anyone expected. Even though it got started late, we were able to do all of the planned dances before getting kicked out of the space.

I spent a while during the day talking with a musician from St. Swithin's Bog (Johnstown). He says they have a group out there that has a lot of fun and includes someone who has been playing violin in symphonies for over 50 years. (She's 73.) He was enthusing about a weekned event they have in July where the musicians all hang out together and play all weekend. (Yeah, there's fighting and stuff going on, but they don't care.) So I tried to lure them to our music and dance event next April, and he sounded enthusiastic.

Sunday dinner was the usual good company and tasty food. (The mix of havarti and cheddar over the noodles worked very well. I've used mozzerella to cut cheddar before, but never havarti.) I had meant to bring the laser pointer again so Ralph and Lori could offer their kitties another dose, but I forgot. We played Zombies, which Dani and I hadn't played before. The game is cute, but too long. I think it would work better if we either reduced the size of the map or increased movement, or maybe both. We'll have to experiment with it.