So I survived my piano recital last night.  It wasn't perfect, but it wasn't terrible.  My pedaling and dynamics were not as precise as I wanted them to be, but that is largely due to playing on a piano that I've never touched before.  I hit a few wrong notes, but no rythmic mistakes.  If you really know the piece well, you would have noticed.  But ( Read more... )

Tonight I'll be playing my first piano recital in years.  I believe it's been about 14 years since I've been on stage giving a performance of any kind.  I don't really count teaching as performing even though it involves getting up and talking in front of a lot of people, hundreds at times.  While a teacher generally wants to amuse their students ( Read more... )

I overheard a great conversation at lunch today.  One of the departments was having a big potluck picnic in the outdoor seating area where I usually eat.  It looks like there were a lot of regulars as well as colleagues, family, etc. from other units.  We have a lot of non-Americans floating around since this is a research institution and we ( Read more... )

Here at work we've been operating without a budget for 6 months.  Do you have any idea what this means?  It means we can't buy anything.  When supplies run out, we have to beg and borrow to purchase anything.  We can't upgrade parts that are breaking.  And if something does break ... well that just sucks.  Nothing to be done until we have money to ( Read more... )

Anyone have a good contractor they could recommend?  We need to fix a few things that showed up on our home inspection and we've had two (yes two in a row) contractors fail to come through.  They just don't return the calls and now we have about two weeks to get things taken care of before we close.  Help!  Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Dude.  I just got a tour of the Necroscopy Lab.  They have a giant free ranging beetle colony that cleans flesh off of dead bones.  Gross, but so cool!  Some days it's totally worth coming to work!

Exodi?  What is the plural of exodus?  I've never heard it, although I suspect that an exodus is such a major thing that it generally occurs in only  one distinct event at a time.  I don't know.  Whatever ( Read more... )

We are in crazy 'getting the house ready to put on the market' mode now and we need to clear out a few items to make the house look a little less cluttered.  We have two chairs (a recliner and lounge chair) that need a temporary home to live in while we show the house for the next couple months.  We'll have plenty of space to keep them once the new ( Read more... )

This past weekend was a crazy one for us.  We put in an offer on a house and it was accepted last night.  Yikes!  We're very excited, anxious, and overwhelmed!  If all goes well with the inspection and such we'll be closing in March.  Now we just have to get our current house sold.  Wish us luck!

Tonight (Friday) 7:30 at the Old P&G Greenbelt.
Beijing Restaurant right next door for dinner at 5:45-6:00.  Let us know if we should expect you for dinner.