Yikes!

 A whole month with no posts. Here's a cartoon to get us started on February.

Resolution Report Card

Here we are on the cusp of 2112 and I still haven't finished cleaning out that hall closet. Then I remembered my list of resolutions for 2011 and I wondered how I did. Here's the score.

Clean the garage--yes
Re-roof the decorative well in the back yard--yes
Find Sasquatch--no
Lose a couple of pounds--yes
Inherit a diamond mine--no
Plant tomatoes--yes
Pick tomatoes--yes
Eat tomatoes--yes
Save some tomatoes for later--no
Improve my handwriting--no
IMporve my typingg--no
Learn six new jigs--yes
Learn to make a nutritious pie from grass clippings and corn starch--no
Visit the Rock Hall--yes
Get inducted into the Rock Hall--no
Finish a book--yes
Not reading, writing--okay no
Sing out of tune--yes
Have you stand up and walk out on me--yes
Find a good challah recipe--no
Eat a lot of so-so challah--yes
Keep my shoulder to the wheel and my nose to the grindstone--yes
Submit medical claims for injuries to shoulder and nose--yes
Shower the people I love with love--not nearly enough. I am, after all, a work in progress.

Have a good New Year everyone. See you on the other side.

Today we learn a new phrase

'Anticipatory grief.' In this excellent guest blog post (not my guest, not my blog, I did a lot of borrowing here), the multi-talented Dale Wisely talks about pets and worry and, well, I'll let you read the rest.

The Blogapalooza Report Card

As much as I had wanted to finish Blogapalooza with a flourish on the final day, it just didn't work out. What happened is I sort of put it off to the end, and then I sort of fell asleep. So let's give ourselves marks for the month.

Intentions: A+ (always the best of intentions)
Sticktuitivness: B-
Educational value: D
Entertainment value: A++ (I'm easily entertained)
Social value: D-
Value as a percentage of the GNP: .00000000000000000000000001
Political acuity: not observed
Carbon footprint: C (I could have turned off my computer between postings)
Spelling: A
Typos: B+
Grammar: A- (I'm sure there are things Mrs. Kirby, my 7th grade English teacher, would have corrected)
Punctuation: B (Downgrading for my inexplicable fondness for nested (like this) parentheses))
Design: C (Hey, it's a template!)
Voice: B (It sounds a lot like me (wait, maybe that's a bad thing))
Use of hyperlinks: C-
Avoidance of cliches: A- (without re-reading I bet one slipped through)
Incorporation of references to animal and/or the Aurora Kennel: B+
Incorporation of important cultural icons: D+ (I did mention National Vicheyssoise Day after all)
Meeting the requirement for embedding at least one video: A
Meeting the requirement for mentioning recently passed boxing legends: A
Meeting the requirement for mentioning the Kardashians: F
Never missing more than two days: F
Never missing more than 6 days: A
Reading other people's blogs: C
Commenting on other people's blogs: D
Liking other peoples' blogs even though I didn't read them as much as I'd hoped: A
Minimizing embarrassing posts about my family: A

Final Grade: (using the dart board protocol) B+

Thanks for reading. We promise to post more.

So you think you're already tired of Christmas music?

This is the time of year when people look forward to holiday concerts. At venues all over the area, local musical groups put on free and not so free performances of all your holiday favorites. You can hear concert bands at nursing homes, bell choirs in the gazebo on the town square, choruses in the mall, and small combos in whatever cafe nooks they can find. There is nothing like live music, which sets the tone for the season, and creates the backdrop for the memories we carry with us always.

But as you're just now starting to find your way to the live musical performances, we musicians have been rehearsing for weeks. One of the groups I play in began the holiday repertoire in early October, so we could be ready by this week, when we play the first of five concerts. Another of the groups I'm in (neither group is blog friendly, in that they do not have a web presence I can link to) started in late October. My friend's bell choir started weeks ago.

I've rehearsed Frosty the Snowman 6 times so far, The Christmas Song 5 times, Festive Sounds of Hanukkah (my personal favorite to play) 7 times and the Nightmare Before Christmas about 15 (it was new and we really needed the work on it). There was also a piece called the Eighth Candle (or something like that), with a tricky 5/8 time that we never polished up enough to present in public. Maybe next year.

You would think we're sick of it, but I can tell you we are not. I guess I cannot speak for all my band mates, but I've been playing Christmas and Hanukka music for almost 20 years now and I'm never tired of it. But I can say I don't listen to much of it on the radio until the last few days before Christmas. And since I rarely shop, I'm not subjected to the overhead music inspiring me to buy, buy, buy.

Here's what you can do to help your local musicians, Show up. Listen, Applaud. That's all we ask. It makes weeks of rehearsal completely worth it.

When Black Friday Comes I'm Going to Stake My Claim

Black Friday starts at midnight and this song won't get out of my head. All you shoppers who are heading out for the deal of the century, enjoy one of my favorite bands