The week in review

Chuck has all of the fun Thanksgiving pictures on HIS computer and hasn’t emailed them to me – I’ll post some here as soon as I receive them. We had a great time in Ohio with the Latshaw/Boros/Cooper family. The cabins were fun and we had campfires, roasted marshmallows, and of course went shopping. June’s birthday party was a lot of fun too, with some surprise guests showing up! Unfortunately my sister-in-law and Chuck got really sick the last few days of the break, but other than that we had a nice time. He's feeling better now.

We heard from our friend Jack and it sounds like he had a great interview at Powell Flutes. We are keeping our fingers crossed for some good news!

We didn't end up seeing Rent last week - we got to the movie theater and the power had gone out!

Lucky Lenny

Go Bucks! This is Lenny's lucky jacket that I ONLY make him wear on M*ch*g*n game days. And I didn't make him wear it the whole time. Once there was only a minute or two left, I put it back on him for good luck, and voila! Buckeye touchdown. Thanks for being a good sport, Lenny!

We are enjoying a relaxing day. I worked until noon and now we're officially on vacation. We're leaving in the morning for Ohio. Lenny is getting a b-a-t-h in a few minutes but that's just about my only obligation for the day. Later today we're going to see the movie Rent, based on the Broadway musical which I was a big fan of several years ago. The movie is supposed to be terrible but I'm dragging Chuck along to go see it anyway. Jesse Martin, of "Law & Order" fame (dunh dunh!) was in the original Broadway cast and is also in the movie.

I want to wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving, and a very happy 60th birthday to my mother-in-law June this weekend!

Good weekend

GO BUCKEYES! What a great game it was on Saturday. The Buckeyes were behind until the last 34 seconds of the game - Antonio Pittman scored, and OHIO STATE BEAT M*CH*G*N!! Jim Tressel's record against them is now 4-1. Our friend Renee came down from Indianapolis, and she and I had fun watching the game while Chuck fell asleep! We also went to the opera on Saturday night. It was Benjamin Britten's "Midsummer Night's Dream," which I performed in when I was at B.U. and both of our moms came to see. They were not big fans, but I loved the opera on Saturday! It was great to get to see it after playing it in the pit, learning the music so well, and not being able to see what was happening on stage.

A friend of ours is interviewing tomorrow at Powell Flutes, the company where I used to work. Good luck Jack!

We can't wait for Thanksgiving break. Chuck is already finished with classes and is napping already - even before eating any turkey! I have four hours left to work tomorrow morning. Most of the students are gone already so there is not too much to do.

Chuck's first youth orchestra concert was a success, and many parents gave him great comments and compliments. After Thanksgiving break he will be conducting for a lot of new music concerts, premiering works by composers here at IU. Excuse me, here at the JACOBS School of Music. (Everyone is still trying to get used to that! Someone named Kelley gave a lot of money to the School of Business - I wish that it was the Jacobs School of Business and the Kelley School of Music instead! Oh well.)

Today is St. Cecilia Day - the patron saint of music.

We can't wait for tomorrow to start a little bit of vacation!

A big day for IU School of Music

Today was a big day for the IU School of Music - it received $40.6 million from the Jacobs family (as in Jacobs Field in Cleveland) and will now be known as the IU Jacobs School of Music. There was a lot of fanfare, balloons, t-shirts, a big event and press conference. Here is the announcement from the School of Music.
This is the largest gift to a public school of music; a couple of weeks ago, Yale received $100 million from an anonymous donor, and now all of their students will attend tuition-free! I don't think they're going to start that here, unfortunately.
Chuck's first youth orchestra concert in Columbus is this Sunday! I can't go because I have a concert of my own, but I'm sure it will be wonderful. There will be another Christmas concert the first week of December as well.

It's cold!

It's so cold, in fact, that CHUCK wore a hat and coat yesterday. We even had a few flakes of snow. We briefly turned on the heat for the first time in our apartment, but it smelled bad so we turned it off after a few minutes.
I have started my new sewing project but I cannot disclose any details as it might relate to Christmas...
Lenny is at 1.0 mL today - 10 times the dosage of his first shot! He is still doing well.

Tornados!

Yesterday I went home from work early because there were tornado warnings! Around 4:30 a big storm passed through Bloomington. There was not too much damage in our town but others were hit harder. Chuck was mad that "The Simpsons" were pre-empted for storm coverage. Today it is in the 30s and still very windy.

Go Buckeyes!

I apologize for the lack of blogging in the past couple of weeks. I spent some time last week at home in NH for the funeral of a very important person to our family – Ellen George. But I am back in Indiana now with Chuck and Lenny. Chuck had a CIP concert this weekend – a performance of the Brahms Requiem. He got to rehearse the orchestra several times last week, so he was very excited about that opportunity. We are really looking forward to Thanksgiving break – we’ll be going to Ohio to visit Chuck’s family. Lenny will be staying at Canine Companions – no turkey for him!

All the leaves have fallen off of the trees here and it is finally starting to get colder. “Colder” meaning that it is still in the 50s during the day, but I actually had a little frost on my car this morning.

Lenny has started his injections and is doing great! He has not had any bad reactions at all. He has been taking a little extra Benadryl, and his skin looks the best it ever has. Keep your fingers crossed for him!

Indiana lost to M*ch*g*n this past weekend and is not going to be bowl-eligible this year. They are playing Purdue this weekend. Only 5 days left until the Buckeyes BEAT M*CH*G*N! It will be televised (from the “Big House”) on Saturday at 1 p.m. either on ABC or ESPN. Go Bucks!

Just Do It!

Congratulations to my mom for her new job at Nike-Bauer! Also, congratulations to my dad for yet another victory in the Dover Apple Harvest apple pie baking contest! (The pie tested negative for performance-enhancing drugs, in case you were wondering!)

Lenny's news

Lenny may be smiling now, but on Saturday he starts getting his allergy shots! We will meet his new vet and learn how to give him the shots at home. Yuck! He's been getting his medicated shampoo baths a few times a week and is not a happy camper. Afterwards, he and Chuck have a little "Ole!" bullfighter routine - he runs through the house while Chuck tries to get the towel around him to dry him off.

If you would like to see Lenny's page on dogster.com, click here! If you sign in, you can vote for him in the contest - we got lucky with Walter; maybe Lenny will win too! Ordinarily, I would be embarrassed to admit that my dog has his own website; however, it came with the contest entry, so why not? He's so handsome, why not show him off? :)

Speaking of being handsome, everyone has agreed that Chuck does not make the most feminine of princesses and that he should probably stick to being a maestro!

Congratulations Walter!

Well, handsome little Walter has won "Dog of the Month" for November on www.barkslope.com - congratulations! Thank you to everyone who voted (he had a good campaign manager on his side!)

So on Monday everyone in my office dressed up as a different princess for Halloween. It was really funny watching people's reactions when they walked into the office! We also went "trick or treating" to the Dean's and Admissions Offices. We had Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Belle from "Beauty and the Beast," Fiona from "Shrek," Minnie Mouse, Rapunzel, and the Purple Princess.

I made my own dress! It was difficult because the white part at the top wasn't part of the pattern, so I had to improvise a little bit. I had to learn a lot of new things in order to make it, so it was a really good project for me. It fit pretty well, but was not very flattering!
Chuck got in the Halloween spirit too, for a party after work. He decided that he made a pretty princess himself, chest hair and all!Who do you think looks most like the "real" Sleeping Beauty?