Recently...

the good

played a wedding last weekend where the bride (sister of a student of mine) wanted all Beatles songs for ceremony music. took a "romantic trio walk on the beach" {or so we called it} afterwards with Melissa and Matt. then had Thai food and wine. then sight-read trios at my house until 1:00 am.

sang in church choir for the wedding of a choir member. anthem was C.H.H. Parry's "I Was Glad" (minus the vivat regina of course). yes, just like the royal wedding. had about 45 voices in the choir and we sounded pretty good, if I do say so myself. oh that piece is fun to sing.

{my favorite part starts at 5:30}

went to the neighborhood block party and met our new neighbors. when I arrived, our neighbor glenn put on bob dylan's "sara" in my honor and serenaded me: "sara, oh sara... so easy to look at, so hard to define."

{that song even has violin in it. so perfect... if only bob had spelled my name correctly.}

made my father-in-law's salsa recipe last night and it is yummy.

have been using my spare time {hah! that means from 11 pm to 1 am} to paint the entryway at House #2. the color is so relaxing and I feel happy every time I look at it.

we're having carpet installed in the upstairs bedroom at House #1 tomorrow morning as yet another step towards getting it ready for tenants. I am hopeful that the end is finally in sight. we may be able to pull this whole thing off.

the bad

totally fell down the stairs at House #1 while working on the walls in the stairway last week. why yes, I am very graceful, thank you for noticing.

a regular old bic pen exploded {okay, leaked without explanation} all over my hand yesterday as I was writing in my day planner. oh, and got a spot on the new upholstered chair we just bought. excellent. good thing it came with a warranty that even covers stains. {the chair, not the pen. I don't have any warrantied pens.}

seating auditions for school ensembles are in like two weeks. have I practiced? of course not, but I have done other things, like unpacked five million boxes {literally of course}, spackled and sanded and painted a lot of walls, lugged toilets and vanities around, torn down drywall, and gone to home depot about five million times {again, literally}.

I need to practice my violin and get in the swing of things for my second year of grad school. all I need to do to have a space to practice in is finish tearing down the drywall in my soon-to-be music room, rip out the closet that takes up too much space in there, get new wallboard up, paint the whole thing, and help Nathan select and put in new light fixtures. no big deal.