Now that I'm not playing piccolo with a purpose anymore, I'm at a loss as to what to practice. I'm keeping up my piccolo chops because I want to be ready anytime I'm needed. My highest notes are coming out with ease, simply because I'm working those muscles. Use 'em or lose 'em. Works for athletes, works for musicians ( Read more... )

I had the house to myself today, which was nice and weird at the same time. It would be one thing if this was a normal weekend, but I have a concert tomorrow, meaning I had to practice today. That took three hours from the day that I could've spent some other way, but oh well. I still was able to accomplish a few things, which was nice. I wrote ( Read more... )

We'd had such pleasant weekend weather up until now. It was wet and/or chilly for this one. I'd slept with my window open Friday night, which was refreshing--and I heard an owl hooting to boot--but once the rain came, the dampness meant it was uncomfortable to have the window open any longer. Ultimately I made a couple packages of ramen for dinner ( Read more... )

January hadn't been all that bad until this week. It snowed on Tuesday, then again today. Dad and I waited until 6 to shovel tonight, but we definitely wanted to do what we could today--there's likely to be more of it tomorrow, and then we get into the deep freeze again. It's supposed to be below zero come Monday night ( Read more... )

My parents had an annual party to attend last night, on the lakefront, and decided they didn't want to drive all the way home; it's probably an hour and a half all told, and given the various shootings and carjackings and stuff happening as of late, they'd rather avoid the downtown area if possible. They came up with a plan to get a hotel room near ( Read more... )

Sunday. Project day. What to work on today ( Read more... )

I am getting smart about this. The cable access channel that shows the concerts also lists the title of the concert being played in their schedule. I can see which concert has been planned, then pull out my binder o'programs to find my sheet from that week--the paper that lists what we'll play for that concert. Looks like this week's showing is ( Read more... )

The weather has been weird again. It was seasonal for much of last week, if humid, then on Friday it was barely in the 70s. It popped right back up to seasonal plus pea soup humidity; dewpoints were in the 70s today, and the air temperature 20 degrees above that. The air conditioners were cranking. When we talked with grandma today, she ( Read more... )

With the recent warm weather, it's been getting us into a spring-ish mood. I cracked open a couple windows yesterday, and even left mine open overnight. It actually wasn't that cold in my room, surprisingly enough, but I wouldn't call it warm, either. Mom spent much of the day going through her bathroom. She has a soaking tub in there that ( Read more... )

Now that I've joined a flute choir, I'm getting back into practicing. The leader sent me two more pieces last weekend, so now I have seven songs I'm working on. (Note: It's flute choir night, so this actually was written Wednesday night and postdated.) I'm finding that, while much of the music isn't too hard, there are some tricky bits. Time to ( Read more... )