Enjoy a house party
Overcast skies have you down? Host a “cabin fever” bash.
There likely are folks in your life who you haven’t seen in a few years, friends you’ve always promised to spend more time with when, well, you had more time. But there’s no better time than now to rekindle relationships.
Invite your favorite people from today and yesterday to the party. Buy paper plates and napkins with a spring theme, place fresh-cut flowers all over the house and put on tunes that remind you of sun and fun.
Use your noodle
Monday is the last day to make a reservation for Dinner in the Valley: Noodles of Asia, a lecture and meal at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
The event is 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Lipscomb Dining Hall, 3675 Oak Hill Road, Peninsula.
Chef Larkin Rogers will offer a primer on Asian noodles and how they are used. The meal will consist of noodle dishes from many cuisines of the Far East.
Call 330-657-2796, ext. 121, for reservations. Cost is $30 for nonmembers, $28 members, and $7 for children ages 5 to 12.
Think spring
Escape the cold and set your sights on spring at the HBA Akron Home and Flower Show, which opens Friday and continues through next weekend at the John S. Knight Center, 77 E. Mill St.
Highlights of this year’s show are free antique evaluations by Lori Verderame, known as Dr. Lori, and onstage appearances by Matt Fox and Shari Hiller of the TV series Around the House With Matt and Shari. Meet Mary Beth Breckenridge of the Beacon Journal, Betsy Kling of WKYC (Channel 3) and Jeff Tanchak of WOIO (Channel 19) from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday.
Details are at www.akronhomeandflowershow.com.
Get funky at Tangier
Do you have a deep, yearning need to be Confunkshunized? Well, don’t get yourself wrapped Too Tight. Instead put on your Happy Face, and get ready for an evening of funky Ffun when R&B hitmakers Confunkshun play two shows at 7 and 9 tonight at Tangier, 532 W. Market St., Akron. 330-376-7171.
Ease on Downton road
Downton Abbey, the British series that has become an American sensation, ends its third season with a two-hour finale at 9 tonight. Since the telecast has already aired in England (and is on DVD and Blu-ray), fans are bracing for at least one big development. No spoilers here, just a simple promo line from PBS: “The Crawleys head to a Scottish hunting lodge, while the downstairs staff stays behind at Downton Abbey. New romances flare up, and a fresh crisis unfolds.”
A fourth season is in the works. And there is merchandise to get you through the hiatus, from Julian Fellowes’ excellent, annotated collection of scripts for Downton’s first season to the April 2 release of Wendy Wax’s book While We Were Watching “Downton Abbey,” a novel about women who get together to watch the series and find themselves connecting with the addictive drama, and even more unexpectedly, with each other.”
Do the ‘Time Warp’
To really get the full Rocky Horror Picture Show experience, one must see it in a movie theater with a good (often lubricated) crowd and energetic cast. The Kent Stage, 174 E. Main St.. Kent, will offer such an opportunity at 11:45 p.m. Saturday with its “Anti-Valentine’s Day Production” featuring the 69th Floor Show Shadow Cast. Survival Bags (you simply must have toast, rice and suitable rain gear) will be available for $4.