It sounds like Earth Hour last week was fairly successful. As I understand, some cities had more than double the electricity reduction as they were hoping for. As for Mary and I , we turned out the lights at 8pm sharp. We had a rechargeable battery powered fluorescent lantern, but we just sat and chatted in the dark for about 15 minutes. Eventually we cheated and went out to eat. Hopefully this event managed to raise some awareness that will start to carry over in to every day life.

On Saturday, Mary and I started the day with our usual: I played hoops and Mary went hiking. For lunch we made some chicken with Jamaican jerk marinade. It was pretty good. In the evening we went to an event called The Gospel Zone at a church in downtown San Jose. The event was a combined concert of the Hope of Glory Mass Choir (picture on left) from the Maranatha Christian Center and the Low Ding Zone from the Bay Bells (a handbell ensemble). I have seen the Hope of Glory choir before, and I enjoy them very much. They sing with such power and control. I had never seen a handbell ensemble before, though it is pretty much what you would expect, a group of people ringing bells by hand and playing music together. Low Ding Zone is interesting in that they only play the “big bells” of middle-C and lower (see the picture on the right showing Mary and one of the larger bells). They were interesting, but over-powered by the choir.

On Sunday Mary went for another hike and I did a bit of work. In the afternoon we headed towards downtown for lunch and coffee. In the evening we went to see a professional lacrosse match between the San Jose Stealth and the Portland LumberJax of the National Lacrosse League. I had heard about the Stealth a while ago, but had never been to a game (nor had I been to any lacrosse match before). This league is indoor (the Stealth play at the HP Pavilion). There is also an outdoor league called Major League Lacrosse. The game was pretty entertaining, but in the end the Stealth lost to the Jax 12-10.