Como Park Japanese Lantern Lighting Festival

Went to Obon at Como Park with my friend Katie today. It was fun, but I didn't get to do as much as I wanted to do, partly because Katie got pretty pooped and we went home at about 6:45. One of the coolest things was visiting the tea house, but we didn't actually get to go in. Of course, I'm not sure I would have been entirely satisfied unless I actually got to experience a ceremony in there. The other thing that was disappointing was that I never got to do kingyo sukui (scooping up goldfish), since the first time I stopped by I couldn't figure out where the line was, and I thought I'd come back when it was less busy, and the second time all the goldfish were gone and they were doing beanbag toss. I also really would have loved to buy and wear a yukata, but, well, after my trip to Half-Price books to raise some funds (got $28), I really didn't have enough. I did get iced mugicha (which tasted a bit sweet, which I didn't like) from the Tea Source stand for $2; zaru soba, anman, and bottled ocha for $10, and then later some matcha and chocolate roll cake for $2. (Admission to the event was $5.) I was kind of sad to miss the lantern lighting, but, you know, I got to attend Obon in Nagasaki last year, so I'm not really going to complain. I did run into that guy I met when I saw the Bleach movie with aikachi, one student from the Mori no Ike village weekend, and akaneko and cendalire (although I was pretty confident I'd run into those two at some point).
What really has me happy is that I might be on a lead for Urasenke lessons in the Twin Cities. Apparently the Chado Urasenke Tankokai Minnesota Dokokai (Yukimakai), which when reading the pamphlet I thought only consisted of "four meetings/activities per year", also has some members who do bi-weekly practice. Needless to say I'll be looking into that.

[EDIT: I just called the person who runs the lessons, and they're once a month with the next lesson on September 20th. Beginner lessons are $15/session, and later on $20/session. I'll be going in on the 20th to observe. Whee!]

[EDIT 2: I really need to get around to finishing the summer MAS shows.]

Ouran OP dub

Not bad at all! I mean, it seems like they got someone who can actually sing, and they seem to have strayed just enough from the original lyrics to not make things sound forced. This is actually making me really excited. ^____^ I wish Funi would post this online somewhere.
(Actually, turns out this particular clip is the audio recorded from AX '08 mixed with a video rip. Not that that makes much of a difference.)